Determination of the Elasticity Tensor of Non-Orthotropic Cellular Sandwich Cores

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Revision 1 Size and position of the healthy meniscus, and its Correlation with sex, height, weight, and bone area- a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Meniscus extrusion or hypertrophy may occur in knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, currently no data are available on the position and size of the meniscus in asymptomatic men and women with normal meniscus integrity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three-dimensional coronal DESSwe MRIs were used to segment and quantitatively measure the size and position of the medial and lateral menisci, and their correlation with sex, height, weight, and tibial plateau area. 102 knees (40 male and 62 female) were drawn from the Osteoarthritis Initiative "non-exposed" reference cohort, including subjects without symptoms, radiographic signs, or risk factors for knee OA. Knees with MRI signs of meniscus lesions were excluded.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The tibial plateau area was significantly larger (p < 0.001) in male knees than in female ones (+23% medially; +28% laterally), as was total meniscus surface area (p < 0.001, +20% medially; +26% laterally). Ipsi-compartimental tibial plateau area was more strongly correlated with total meniscus surface area in men (r = .72 medially; r = .62 laterally) and women (r = .67; r = .75) than contra-compartimental or total tibial plateau area, body height or weight. The ratio of meniscus versus tibial plateau area was similar between men and women (p = 0.22 medially; p = 0.72 laterally). Tibial coverage by the meniscus was similar between men and women (50% medially; 58% laterally), but "physiological" medial meniscal extrusion was greater in women (1.83 ± 1.06mm) than in men (1.24mm ± 1.18mm; p = 0.011).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that meniscus surface area strongly scales with (ipsilateral) tibial plateau area across both sexes, and that tibial coverage by the meniscus is similar between men and women.</p

Glutamate receptor-like channels are essential for chemotaxis and reproduction in mosses

The deposited article version is a "Accelerated Article Preview" provided by Nature Publishing Group, and it contains attached the supplementary materials within the pdf.». This publication hasn't any creative commons license associated.Glutamate receptors are well characterized channels that mediate cell-to-cell communication during neurotransmission in animals. Nevertheless, information regarding their functional role in organisms without nervous systems is still limited. In plants, Glutamate Receptor-like (GLR) genes have been implicated in defence against pathogens, reproduction, control of stomata aperture and light signal transduction(1-5). However, the numerous GLR genes present in angiosperm genomes (20 to 70)(6) has prevented the observation of strong phenotypes in loss-of-function mutants. Here, we show that in the moss Physcomitrella patens, a basal land plant, mutation of GLR genes cause sperm failure in targeting the female reproductive organs. In addition, we show that GLR genes encode non-selective Ca(2+) permeable channels that can regulate cytoplasmic Ca(2+) and are needed to induce the expression of a BELL1-like transcription factor essential for zygote development. Our work reveals novel functions for GLRs in sperm chemotaxis and transcriptional regulation. Sperm chemotaxis is essential for fertilization in both animals and early land plants like bryophytes and pteridophytes. Therefore, our results are suggestive that ionotropic glutamate receptors may have been conserved throughout plant evolution to mediate cell-to-cell communication during sexual reproduction.Phillips University; Oxford University; University of Marburg; University of Muenster; MarieCurie ITN-Plant Origins grant: (FP7-PEOPLE-ITN-2008); FCT grants: (BEX-BCM/0376/2012; PTDC/BIA-PLA/4018/2012); NSF-US grant: (MCB 1616437/2016).info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Homogenized stiffness matrices for mineralized collagen fibrils and lamellar bone using unit cell finite element models

Mineralized collagen fibrils have been usually analyzed like a two phase composite material where crystals are considered as platelets that constitute the reinforcement phase. Different models have been used to describe the elastic behavior of the material. In this work, it is shown that, when Halpin-Tsai equations are applied to estimate elastic constants from typical constituent properties, not all crystal dimensions yield a model that satisfy thermodynamic restrictions. We provide the ranges of platelet dimensions that lead to positive definite stiffness matrices. On the other hand, a finite element model of a mineralized collagen fibril unit cell under periodic boundary conditions is analyzed. By applying six canonical load cases, homogenized stiffness matrices are numerically calculated. Results show a monoclinic behavior of the mineralized collagen fibril. In addition, a 5-layer lamellar structure is also considered where crystals rotate in adjacent layers of a lamella. The stiffness matrix of each layer is calculated applying Lekhnitskii transformations and a new finite lement model under periodic boundary conditions is analyzed to calculate the homogenized 3D anisotropic stiffness matrix of a unit cell of lamellar bone. Results are compared with the rule-of-mixtures showing in general good agreement.The authors acknowledge the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad the financial support given through the project DPI2010-20990 and the Generalitat Valenciana through the Programme Prometeo 2012/023. The authors thank Ms. Carla Gonzalez Carrillo by her help in the development of some of the numerical models.Vercher Martínez, A.; Giner Maravilla, E.; Arango Villegas, C.; Tarancón Caro, JE.; Fuenmayor Fernández, FJ. (2014). Homogenized stiffness matrices for mineralized collagen fibrils and lamellar bone using unit cell finite element models. 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Arch Entwickl Mech Org 20:187–322Gibson RF (1994) Principles of composite material mechanics. McGraw-Hill, New YorkGiraud-Guille M (1988) Twisted plywood architecture of collagen fibrils in human compact bone osteons. Calcif Tissue Int 42:167–180Gurtin ME (1972) The linear theory of elasticity. Handbuch der Physik VIa/ 2:1–296Halpin JC (1992) Primer on composite materials: analysis, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FloridaHassenkam T, Fantner GE, Cutroni JA, Weaver JC, Morse DE, Hanma PK (2004) High-resolution AFM imaging of intact and fractured trabecular bone. Bone 35:4–10Hohe J (2003) A direct homogenization approach for determination of the stiffness matrix for microheterogeneous plates with application to sandwich panels. Composites Part B 34:615–626Hulmes DJS, Wess TJ, Prockop DJ, Fratzl P (1995) Radial packing, order, and disorder in collagen fibrils. Biophys J 68:1661–1670Jäger I, Fratzl P (2000) Mineralized collagen fibrils: a mechanical model with a staggered arrangement of mineral particles. Biophys J 79:1737–1746Ji B, Gao H (2004) Mechanical properties of nanostructure of biological materials. J Mech Phy Sol 52:1963–1990Landis WJ, Hodgens KJ, Aerna J, Song MJ, McEwen BF (1996) Structural relations between collagen and mineral in bone as determined by high voltage electron microscopic tomography. Microsc Res Tech 33:192–202Lekhnitskii SG (1963) Theory of elasticity of an anisotropic elastic body. Holden-Day, San FranciscoLempriere BM (1968) Poisson’s ratio in orthotropic materials. Am Inst Aeronaut Astronaut J J6:2226–2227Lowenstam HA, Weiner S (1989) On biomineralization. Oxford University, New YorkLusis J, Woodhams RT, Xhantos M (1973) The effect of flake aspect ratio on flexural properties of mica reinforced plastics. Polym Eng Sci 13:139–145Martínez-Reina J, Domínguez J, García-Aznar JM (2011) Effect of porosity and mineral content on the elastic constants of cortical bone: a multiscale approach. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 10:309–322Orgel JPRO, Miller A, Irving TC, Fischetti RF, Hammersley AP, Wess TJ (2001) The in situ supermolecular structure of type I collagen. Structure 9:1061–1069Padawer GE, Beecher N (1970) On the strength and stiffness of planar reinforced plastic resins. Polym Eng Sci 10:185–192Pahr DH, Rammerstofer FG (2006) Buckling of honeycomb sandwiches: periodic finite element considerations. Comput Model Eng Sci 12:229–242Reisinger AG, Pahr DH, Zysset PK (2010) Sensitivity analysis and parametric study of elastic properties of an unidirectional mineralized bone fibril-array using mean field methods. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 9:499–510Reisinger AG, Pahr DH, Zysset PK (2011) Elastic anisotropy of bone lamellae as a function of fibril orientation pattern. 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Origin and function of stomata in the moss Physcomitrella patens.

Stomata are microscopic valves on plant surfaces that originated over 400 million years (Myr) ago and facilitated the greening of Earth's continents by permitting efficient shoot-atmosphere gas exchange and plant hydration(1). However, the core genetic machinery regulating stomatal development in non-vascular land plants is poorly understood(2-4) and their function has remained a matter of debate for a century(5). Here, we show that genes encoding the two basic helix-loop-helix proteins PpSMF1 (SPEECH, MUTE and FAMA-like) and PpSCREAM1 (SCRM1) in the moss Physcomitrella patens are orthologous to transcriptional regulators of stomatal development in the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana and essential for stomata formation in moss. Targeted P. patens knockout mutants lacking either PpSMF1 or PpSCRM1 develop gametophytes indistinguishable from wild-type plants but mutant sporophytes lack stomata. Protein-protein interaction assays reveal heterodimerization between PpSMF1 and PpSCRM1, which, together with moss-angiosperm gene complementations(6), suggests deep functional conservation of the heterodimeric SMF1 and SCRM1 unit is required to activate transcription for moss stomatal development, as in A. thaliana(7). Moreover, stomata-less sporophytes of ΔPpSMF1 and ΔPpSCRM1 mutants exhibited delayed dehiscence, implying stomata might have promoted dehiscence in the first complex land-plant sporophytes

Assessment of interface stress concentrations in layered composites with application to sandwich panels

Layered composites where one or more layers consist of an inhomogeneous material are subject to an increased delamination hazard compared to laminae consisting solely of homogeneous materials. This effect is caused by an incompatibility of the microscopic modes of deformation associated with the individual layers. In the present paper, two concepts for analysis and assessment of the delamination hazard induced by the deformation mode incompatibility are presented. The first concept is a microscale approach based on the analysis of local stress singularities. The second concept is defined on the mesoscale using the average energy release rate as a fracture parameter. Both concepts are derived and illustrated for the example of a structural sandwich panel with hexagonal honeycomb core. The study is closed with a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches

A triangular finite element for sandwich plates accounting for transverse core compressibility

The present study is concerned with a triangular higher-order finite element for sandwich plates with transversely compressible core. The element formulation utilizes a v.~Kármán type multilayer theory, adopting the discrete Kirchhoff approach for the contribution of the face sheets and a simplified three-dimensional formulation for the core. The discretized nonlinear problem is solved by the Newton-Raphson method