An Oscillatory Contractile Pole-Force Component Dominates the Traction Forces Exerted by Migrating Amoeboid Cells

We used principal component analysis to dissect the mechanics of chemotaxis of amoeboid cells into a reduced set of dominant components of cellular traction forces and shape changes. The dominant traction force component in wild-type cells accounted for ~40% of the mechanical work performed by these cells, and consisted of the cell attaching at front and back contracting the substrate towards its centroid (pole-force). The time evolution of this pole-force component was responsible for the periodic variations of cell length and strain energy that the cells underwent during migration. We identified four additional canonical components, reproducible from cell to cell, overall accounting for an additional ~20% of mechanical work, and associated with events such as lateral protrusion of pseudopodia. We analyzed mutant strains with contractility defects to quantify the role that non-muscle Myosin II (MyoII) plays in amoeboid motility. In MyoII essential light chain null cells the polar-force component remained dominant. On the other hand, MyoII heavy chain null cells exhibited a different dominant traction force component, with a marked increase in lateral contractile forces, suggesting that cortical contractility and/or enhanced lateral adhesions are important for motility in this cell line. By compressing the mechanics of chemotaxing cells into a reduced set of temporally-resolved degrees of freedom, the present study may contribute to refined models of cell migration that incorporate cell-substrate interactions

Heat Extraction from a Hydraulically Fractured Penny-Shaped Crack in Hot Dry Rock

Heat extraction from a penny-shaped crack having both inlet and outlet holes is investigated analytically by considering the hydraulic and thermal growth of the crack when fluid is injected at a constant flow rate. The rock mass is assumed to be infinitely extended, homogeneous, and isotropic. The equations for fluid flow are derived and solved to determine the flow pattern in the crack. Temperature distributions in both rock and fluid are also determined. The crack width change due to thermal contraction and the corresponding flow rate increase are discussed. Some numerical calculations of outlet temperature, thermal power extraction, and crack opening displacement due to thermal contraction of rocks are presented for cracks after they attain stationary states for given inlet flow rate and outlet suction pressure. The present paper is a further development of the previous works of Bodvarsson (1969), Gringarten et al. (1975), Lowell (1976), Harlow and Pracht (1972), McFarland (1975), among others, and considers the two-dimensional rather than the one-dimensional crack. Furthermore, the crack radius and width are quantities to be determined rather than given a priori. 11 refs., 1 tab., 5 figs

Contact analyses for bodies with frictional heating and plastic behavior

International audienc

Characteristics of stress relaxation kinetics of La<inf>60</inf>Ni<inf>15</inf>Al<inf>25</inf> bulk metallic glass

cited By 30International audienceAbstract The β relaxation typically plays an important role in the plastic deformation of glassy materials. Compared with amorphous polymers, most of the metallic glasses do not show evident β relaxation based on mechanical spectroscopy. However, La60Ni15Al25 bulk metallic glass (BMG) exhibits a prominent β relaxation process, which could be an ideal model alloy to investigate the correlation between the β relaxation and mechanical behavior of metallic glasses. In this work, compressive properties and stress relaxation at high temperature (below glass transition temperature Tg) were studied. Stress relaxation of La60Ni15Al25 BMG was measured by uniaxial compressive tests and mechanical spectroscopy around both α and β relaxation temperature domain. At higher temperatures and sufficiently low strain rate, the flow behavior of the La60Ni15Al25 BMG could be simulated by a master curve, showing that the behavior is independent of temperature, especially on the proximity of the β relaxation process. Because the existence of the β relaxation, a high value of the activation volume for the plastic deformation could be ascribed to the existence of a specific atomic arrangement in the La60Ni15Al25 BMG. It is found that compressive stress relaxation kinetics parameter remains temperature independent below Tg. © 2015 Acta Materialia Inc