485 research outputs found
Lubrication of soft viscoelastic solids
Lubrication flows appear in many applications in engineering, biophysics, and in nature. Separation of surfaces and minimisation of friction and wear is achieved when the lubrication fluid builds up a lift force. In this paper we analyse soft lubricated contacts by treating the solid walls as viscoelastic: soft materials are typically not purely elastic, but dissipate energy under dynamical loading conditions. We present a method for viscoelastic lubrication and focus on three canonical examples, namely Kelvin-Voigt-, Standard Linear-, and Power Law-rheology. It is shown how the solid viscoelasticity affects the lubrication process when the timescale of loading becomes comparable to the rheological timescale. We derive asymptotic relations between lift force and sliding velocity, which give scaling laws that inherit a signature of the rheology. In all cases the lift is found to decrease with respect to purely elastic systems
Determining the instar of a weevil larva (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) using a parsimonious method
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Senile Systemic Amyloidosis: Clinical Features at Presentation and Outcome
Background Cardiac amyloidosis is a fatal disease whose prognosis and treatment rely on identification of the amyloid type. In our aging population transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRwt) is common and must be differentiated from other amyloid types. We report the clinical presentation, natural history, and prognostic features of ATTRwt compared with cardiacâisolated AL amyloidosis and calculate the probability of disease diagnosis of ATTRwt from baseline factors.
Methods and Results All patients with biopsyâproven ATTRwt (102 cases) and isolated cardiac AL (36 cases) seen from 2002 to 2011 at the UK National Amyloidosis Center were included. Median survival from the onset of symptoms was 6.07 years in the ATTRwt group and 1.7 years in the AL group. Positive troponin, a pacemaker, and increasing New York Heart Association (NYHA) class were associated with worse survival in ATTRwt patients on univariate analysis. All patients with isolated cardiac AL and 24.1% of patients with ATTRwt had evidence of a plasma cell dyscrasia. Older age and lower Nâterminal proâBâtype natriuretic peptide (NT proâBNP) were factors significantly associated with ATTRwt. Patients aged 70 years and younger with an NT proâBNP <183 pmol/L were more likely to have ATTRwt, as were patients older than 70 years with an NT proâBNP <1420 pmol/L.
Conclusions Factors at baseline associated with a worse outcome in ATTRwt are positive troponin T, a pacemaker, and NYHA class IV symptoms. The age of the patient at diagnosis and NT proâBNP level can aid in distinguishing ATTRwt from AL amyloidosis
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