Highly oriented native cellulose fibres (flax) and softwood (pine) have been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction. Local structural information was obtained by using X-ray microbeams. Tensile tests were performed in situ, revealing a change of orientation of cellulose microfibrils in materials with tensile strain. In flax fibres, the microfibrils rotate during the first percent of stretch...

After a selective unilateral lesion of the corticospinal tract (CST) at the level of the brainstem (pyramidotomy) and neutralization of the myelin associated neurite growth inhibitors NI-35/250 with the monoclonal antibody (mAb) IN-1, we had previously observed a strong behavioural recovery in parallel with an enhanced structural plasticity of the lesioned as well as the unlesioned CST. The pre...

Asbestos causes progressive pulmonary fibrosis (asbestosis), pleural disease (eVusion and pleural plaques), and malignancies such as bronchogenic carcinoma and malignant mesothelioma. Asbestos is a generic term for a group of naturally occurring hydrated silicate fibres whose tensile strength and resilient structural and chemical properties are ideally suited for various construction and insula...

The objective was to study fibre orientation in the cerebral white matter of a patient with a brain tumour using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). A patient with a mild left hemiparesis and a tumour in the right frontal lobe and 20 healthy volunteers were scanned with a DTI sequence. The scans were spatially normalised and the fibre orientation in the patient compared with the fibre orientation i...

We hypothesised that elevated oxygen concentration during exercise on rats exhibits smaller muscle structural and metabolic adaptations of skeletal muscles than rats under the same training protocol in normoxia. Changes in m. tibialis anterior after 6-week training by swimming under hyperoxic condition (SO) were compared with those trained in normoxia (SN) and sedentary control rats (C). Capill...

In respiratory muscles, force generation and shortening depend on the cyclical interaction of actin and myosin (cross-bridge cycling). During cross-bridge cycling, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is hydrolysed. The globular head region of the myosin heavy chain (MyHC) possesses both the binding site to actin and the site for ATP hydrolysis. Therefore, the MyHC is both a structural and enzymatic pr...

Asbestos causes progressive pulmonary fibrosis (asbestosis), pleural disease (eVusion and pleural plaques), and malignancies such as bronchogenic carcinoma and malignant mesothelioma. Asbestos is a generic term for a group of naturally occurring hydrated silicate fibres whose tensile strength and resilient structural and chemical properties are ideally suited for various construction and insula...

Nacre-like composites have been investigated typically in the form of coatings or free-standing sheets. They demonstrated remarkable mechanical properties and are used as ultrastrong materials but macroscale fibres with nacre-like organization can improve mechanical properties even further. The fiber form or nacre can, simplify manufacturing and offer new functional properties unknown yet for o...

Fibres of ultralong and aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT) have axial properties above reference engineering materials, proving to be exceptional materials for application in structural composites, energy storage other devices. For CNT fibres produced by direct spinning from floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD), a scaled-up method, the challenge is simultaneously achieve high process...