scholarly journals Influence of Fibrosis Amount and Patterns on Ventricular Arrythmogenesis and Pumping Efficacy:  Computational Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abrha Abebe Tekle ◽  
Ki Moo Lim
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Stroke Volume ◽  
Mechanical Response ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Cardiac Response ◽  
Diffuse Fibrosis ◽  
Conduction Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Simulation Results

Abstract Background and aims: Clinical and computational studies have reported that spatial fibrosis pattern and fibrosis amount play a significant role in ventricular arrhythmogenicity. Nonetheless, the underlying mechanisms of arrhythmogenicity of fibrosis are not known accurately. In addition, we believe that the effect of different fibrosis types and fibrosis amount on the cardiac mechanical performance requires a further investigation. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of spatial distribution of fibrosis and fibrosis amount on the electrical and mechanical performance of the left ventricle (LV). Methods: We employed a human ventricular model that simulates both the electrophysiological and the mechanical contraction characteristics of the ventricle. The electrophysiological conduction model mimics the exchange of ions through the plasma membrane of myocardial cells whereas the mechanical contraction model simulates the mechanical cardiac response. Seventy-five fibrosis distributions comprising diffuse, patchy, and compact fibrosis types that contain 10%–50% fibrosis amount were generated to cover a wide range of fibrosis cases. The spatial fibrosis distribution in the human ventricular model was quantified using fibrosis entropy (FE) metric. Then, electrophysiological simulations under reentry conditions induced using the S1-S2 protocol were conducted to investigate the correlation between different patterns of fibrosis and ventricular arrhythmogenicity. Finally, we compared the mechanical response by conducting mechanical simulations to examine the influence of the fibrosis amount and spatial distribution of fibrosis on the pumping efficacy of the LV by extracting the calcium information from the electrophysiological simulation. Results: We observed that the spatial patchy fibrosis distribution was more chaotic (higher mean FE) than those of the compact and diffuse types. The electrical simulation results revealed that the ventricular arrhythmogenicity of diffuse fibrosis depends on the fibrosis amount and marginally on the spatial distribution of fibrosis. Meanwhile, the ventricular arrhythmogenicity of the compact and patchy fibrosis types is reliant on the spatial distribution of fibrosis than on the fibrosis amount. The average number of phase singularities in the electrical simulations with compact fibrosis was higher than those with patchy and diffuse fibrosis. As a result, compact fibrosis resulted a lower stroke volume (SV) of the LV, whereas the diffuse fibrosis resulted in a higher SV of the LV. The reduction in the stroke volume (SV) of the LV was linearly correlated to the electrical instabilities induced by the fibrosis amount and spatial distribution of fibrosis. Conclusion: The increase in the amount of diffuse, patchy and compact fibrosis in the myocardium increased the electrical instability and likely decreased the pumping efficacy of LV. Moreover, the effect fibrosis pattern on ventricular arrhythmogenesis was more significant in compact and patchy fibrosis types than in diffuse fibrosis.

scholarly journals Influence of Fibrosis Amount and Patterns on Ventricular Arrhythmogenesis and Pumping Efficacy: Computational Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aulia Khamas Heikhmakhtiar ◽  
Abrha Abebe Tekle ◽  
Ki Moo Lim
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Diffuse Fibrosis ◽  
Computational Studies ◽  
Diffuse Type ◽  
Compact Type ◽  
Phase Singularities ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Ventricular Arrhythmogenesis

Myocardial fibrosis is an integral component of most forms of heart failure. Clinical and computational studies have reported that spatial fibrosis pattern and fibrosis amount play a significant role in ventricular arrhythmogenicity. This study investigated the effect of the spatial distribution of fibrosis and fibrosis amount on the electrophysiology and mechanical performance of the human ventricles. Seventy-five fibrosis distributions comprising diffuse, patchy, and compact fibrosis types that contain 10–50% fibrosis amount were generated. The spatial fibrosis distribution was quantified using the fibrosis entropy (FE) metric. Electrical simulations under reentry conditions induced using the S1–S2 protocol were conducted to investigate the fibrosis arrhythmogenicity. We also performed mechanical simulations to examine the influence of the fibrosis amount and the spatial distribution of fibrosis on the pumping efficacy of the LV. We observed that the mean FE of the compact type is the largest among the three types. The electrical simulation results revealed that the ventricular arrhythmogenicity of diffuse fibrosis depends on the fibrosis amount and marginally on the spatial distribution of fibrosis. Meanwhile, the ventricular arrhythmogenicity of the compact and patchy fibrosis pattern is more reliant on the spatial distribution of fibrosis than on the fibrosis amount. The average number of phase singularities (PSs) in the compact fibrosis pattern was the highest among the three patterns of fibrosis. The diffuse type of fibrosis has the lowest average number of PSs than that in the patchy and compact fibrosis. The reduction in the stroke volume (SV) showed high influence from the electrical instabilities induced by the fibrosis amount and pattern. The compact fibrosis exhibited the lowest SV among the three patterns except in the 40% fibrosis amount. In conclusion, the fibrosis pattern is as crucial as the fibrosis amount for sustaining and aggravating ventricular arrhythmogenesis.

scholarly journals Effects of a Twin-Screw Extruder Equipped with a Molten Resin Reservoir on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Recycled Waste Plastic Polyethylene Pellet Moldings

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1058
Author(s):  
Hikaru Okubo ◽  
Haruka Kaneyasu ◽  
Tetsuya Kimura ◽  
Patchiya Phanthong ◽  
Shigeru Yao
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Twin Screw Extruder ◽  
Screw Extruder ◽  
Polymer Properties ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Twin Screw ◽  
Recycled Plastics

Each year, increasing amounts of plastic waste are generated, causing environmental pollution and resource loss. Recycling is a solution, but recycled plastics often have inferior mechanical properties to virgin plastics. However, studies have shown that holding polymers in the melt state before extrusion can restore the mechanical properties; thus, we propose a twin-screw extruder with a molten resin reservoir (MSR), a cavity between the screw zone and twin-screw extruder discharge, which retains molten polymer after mixing in the twin-screw zone, thus influencing the polymer properties. Re-extruded recycled polyethylene (RPE) pellets were produced, and the tensile properties and microstructure of virgin polyethylene (PE), unextruded RPE, and re-extruded RPE moldings prepared with and without the MSR were evaluated. Crucially, the elongation at break of the MSR-extruded RPE molding was seven times higher than that of the original RPE molding, and the Young’s modulus of the MSR-extruded RPE molding was comparable to that of the virgin PE molding. Both the MSR-extruded RPE and virgin PE moldings contained similar striped lamellae. Thus, MSR re-extrusion improved the mechanical performance of recycled polymers by optimizing the microstructure. The use of MSRs will facilitate the reuse of waste plastics as value-added materials having a wide range of industrial applications.

scholarly journals A Computational Study on the Role of Parameters for Identification of Thyroid Nodules by Infrared Images (and Comparison with Real Data)

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4459
Author(s):  
José R. González ◽  
Charbel Damião ◽  
Maira Moran ◽  
Cristina A. Pantaleão ◽  
Rubens A. Cruz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thyroid Nodules ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Internal Heat ◽  
Heat Transfer Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Infrared Sensors ◽  
Wide Range

According to experts and medical literature, healthy thyroids and thyroids containing benign nodules tend to be less inflamed and less active than those with malignant nodules. It seems to be a consensus that malignant nodules have more blood veins and more blood circulation. This may be related to the maintenance of the nodule’s heat at a higher level compared with neighboring tissues. If the internal heat modifies the skin radiation, then it could be detected by infrared sensors. The goal of this work is the investigation of the factors that allow this detection, and the possible relation with any pattern referent to nodule malignancy. We aim to consider a wide range of factors, so a great number of numerical simulations of the heat transfer in the region under analysis, based on the Finite Element method, are performed to study the influence of each nodule and patient characteristics on the infrared sensor acquisition. To do so, the protocol for infrared thyroid examination used in our university’s hospital is simulated in the numerical study. This protocol presents two phases. In the first one, the body under observation is in steady state. In the second one, it is submitted to thermal stress (transient state). Both are simulated in order to verify if it is possible (by infrared sensors) to identify different behavior referent to malignant nodules. Moreover, when the simulation indicates possible important aspects, patients with and without similar characteristics are examined to confirm such influences. The results show that the tissues between skin and thyroid, as well as the nodule size, have an influence on superficial temperatures. Other thermal parameters of thyroid nodules show little influence on surface infrared emissions, for instance, those related to the vascularization of the nodule. All details of the physical parameters used in the simulations, characteristics of the real nodules and thermal examinations are publicly available, allowing these simulations to be compared with other types of heat transfer solutions and infrared examination protocols. Among the main contributions of this work, we highlight the simulation of the possible range of parameters, and definition of the simulation approach for mapping the used infrared protocol, promoting the investigation of a possible relation between the heat transfer process and the data obtained by infrared acquisitions.

scholarly journals Modelling the elastic mechanical properties of bioactive glass-derived scaffolds

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-56
Author(s):  
Francesco Baino ◽  
Elisa Fiume
Keyword(s):  
Elastic Properties ◽  
Poisson’S Ratio ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Solid Material ◽  
Poisson's Ratio ◽  
Predictive Capability ◽  
Shear Moduli ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Constitutive Parameters ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPorosity is known to play a pivotal role in dictating the functional properties of biomedical scaffolds, with special reference to mechanical performance. While compressive strength is relatively easy to be experimentally assessed even for brittle ceramic and glass foams, elastic properties are much more difficult to be reliably estimated. Therefore, describing and, hence, predicting the relationship between porosity and elastic properties based only on the constitutive parameters of the solid material is still a challenge. In this work, we quantitatively compare the predictive capability of a set of different models in describing, over a wide range of porosity, the elastic modulus (7 models), shear modulus (3 models) and Poisson’s ratio (7 models) of bioactive silicate glass-derived scaffolds produced by foam replication. For these types of biomedical materials, the porosity dependence of elastic and shear moduli follows a second-order power-law approximation, whereas the relationship between porosity and Poisson’s ratio is well fitted by a linear equation.

scholarly journals Design and Evaluation of Large-Scale IoT-Enabled Healthcare Architecture

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3623
Author(s):  
Omar Said ◽  
Amr Tolba
Keyword(s):  
Packet Loss ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Medical System ◽  
Healthcare Data ◽  
High Altitude Platforms ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Healthcare Architecture ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Employment of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in the healthcare field can contribute to recruiting heterogeneous medical devices and creating smart cooperation between them. This cooperation leads to an increase in the efficiency of the entire medical system, thus accelerating the diagnosis and curing of patients, in general, and rescuing critical cases in particular. In this paper, a large-scale IoT-enabled healthcare architecture is proposed. To achieve a wide range of communication between healthcare devices, not only are Internet coverage tools utilized but also satellites and high-altitude platforms (HAPs). In addition, the clustering idea is applied in the proposed architecture to facilitate its management. Moreover, healthcare data are prioritized into several levels of importance. Finally, NS3 is used to measure the performance of the proposed IoT-enabled healthcare architecture. The performance metrics are delay, energy consumption, packet loss, coverage tool usage, throughput, percentage of served users, and percentage of each exchanged data type. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed IoT-enabled healthcare architecture outperforms the traditional healthcare architecture.

scholarly journals High strength and conductive hydrogel with fully interpenetrated structure from alginate and acrylamide

e-Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 391-397
Author(s):  
Tao Liu ◽  
Ripeng Zhang ◽  
Jianzhi Liu ◽  
Ling Zhao ◽  
Yueqin Yu
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
High Strength ◽  
Extreme Environment ◽  
Natural Polymers ◽  
Conductive Hydrogel ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Interpenetrated Structure ◽  
Conductive Hydrogels ◽  
Conductive Properties

Abstract Highly stretched and conductive hydrogels, especially synthetized from natural polymers, are beneficial for highly stretched electronic equipment which is applied in extreme environment. We designed and prepared robust and tough alginate hydrogels (GMA-SA-PAM) using the ingenious strategy of fully interpenetrating cross-linking, in which the glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) was used to modify sodium alginate (SA) and then copolymerized with acrylamide (AM) and methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) as cross-linkers. The complete cross-linked structures can averagely dissipate energy and the polymer structures can maintain hydrogels that are three-dimensional to greatly improve the mechanical performance of hydrogels. The GMA-SA-PAM hydrogels display ultra-stretchable (strain up to ∼407% of tensile strain) and highly compressible (∼57% of compression strain) properties. In addition, soaking the GMA-SA-PAM hydrogel in 5 wt% NaCl solution also endows the conductivity of the hydrogel (this hydrogel was named as GSP-Na) with excellent conductive properties (5.26 S m−1). The GSP-Na hydrogel with high stability, durability, as well as wide range extent sensor is also demonstrated by researching the electrochemical signals and showing the potential for applications in wearable and quickly responded electronics.

scholarly journals 3 per cent-accurate predictions for the clustering of dark matter, haloes, and subhaloes, over a wide range of cosmologies and scales

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (4) ◽  
pp. 4905-4917
Author(s):  
S Contreras ◽  
R E Angulo ◽  
M Zennaro ◽  
G Aricò ◽  
M Pellejero-Ibañez
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Cosmological Parameters ◽  
Galaxy Surveys ◽  
Circular Velocity ◽  
Initial Application ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Massive Neutrinos ◽  
Dynamical Dark Energy ◽  
Better Than

ABSTRACT Predicting the spatial distribution of objects as a function of cosmology is an essential ingredient for the exploitation of future galaxy surveys. In this paper, we show that a specially designed suite of gravity-only simulations together with cosmology-rescaling algorithms can provide the clustering of dark matter, haloes, and subhaloes with high precision. Specifically, with only three N-body simulations, we obtain the power spectrum of dark matter at z = 0 and 1 to better than 3 per cent precision for essentially all currently viable values of eight cosmological parameters, including massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy, and over the whole range of scales explored, 0.03 < $k/{h}^{-1}\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ < 5. This precision holds at the same level for mass-selected haloes and for subhaloes selected according to their peak maximum circular velocity. As an initial application of these predictions, we successfully constrain Ωm, σ8, and the scatter in subhalo-abundance-matching employing the projected correlation function of mock SDSS galaxies.

Metamaterials with enhanced mechanical properties and tuneable Poisson’s ratio

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amer Alomarah ◽  
Syed Masood ◽  
Dong Ruan
Keyword(s):  
Poisson’S Ratio ◽  
Structural Modification ◽  
Mechanical Response ◽  
Good Alternative ◽  
Poisson's Ratio ◽  
Polyamide 12 ◽  
Loading Direction ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Parametric Studies

Abstract This paper reports a structural modification of an auxetic metamaterial with a combination of representative re-entrant and chiral topologies, namely, a re-entrant chiral auxetic (RCA). The main driving force for the structural modification was to overcome the undesirable properties of the RCA metamaterial such as anisotropic mechanical response under uniaxial compression. Additively manufactured polyamide 12 specimens via Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) were quasi-statically compressed along the two in-plane directions. The experimental results confirmed that the modified structure was less sensitive to the loading direction and the deformation was more uniform. Moreover, similar energy absorptions were obtained when the modified metamaterial was crushed along the two in-plane directions. The energy absorptions were improved from 390 to 950 kJ/m³ and from 500 to 1000 kJ/m³ compared with the RCA when they were crushed along the X and Y directions, respectively. The absorbed energy per unit mass (SEA) also improved from 1.4 to 2.9 J/g and from 1.78 to 3.1 J/g compared with that of the RCA under the axial compression along the X and Y directions. Furthermore, parametric studies were performed and the effects of geometric parameters of the modified metamaterial were numerically investigated. Tuneable auxetic feature was obtained. The energy absorption and Poisson’s ratio of the modified metamaterial offer it a good alternative for a wide range of potential applications in the areas such as aerospace, automotive, and human protective equipment.

A Proof of Concept Study of the Mechanical Behavior of Lattice Structures Used to Design a Shoulder Hemi-Prosthesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinela Peto ◽  
Oscar Aguilar-Rosas ◽  
Erick Erick Ramirez-Cedillo ◽  
Moises Jimenez ◽  
Adriana Hernandez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Behavior ◽  
Mechanical Response ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Cell Attachment ◽  
Lattice Structure ◽  
Material Model ◽  
Patient Specific ◽  
Hexagonal Prism ◽  
Lattice Structures ◽  
Proof Of Concept

Abstract Lattice structures offer great benefits when employed in medical implants for cell attachment and growth (osseointegration), minimization of stress shielding phenomena, and weight reduction. This study is focused on a proof of concept for developing a generic shoulder hemi-prosthesis, from a patient-specific case of a 46 years old male with a tumor on the upper part of his humerus. A personalized biomodel was designed and a lattice structure was integrated in its middle portion, to lighten weight without affecting humerus’ mechanical response. To select the most appropriate lattice structure, three different configurations were initially tested: Tetrahedral Vertex Centroid (TVC), Hexagonal Prism Vertex Centroid (HPVC), and Cubic Diamond (CD). They were fabricated in resin by digital light processing and its mechanical behavior was studied via compression testing and finite element modeling (FEM). The selected structure according to the results was the HPVC, which was integrated in a digital twin of the biomodel to validate its mechanical performance through FEM but substituting the bone material model with a biocompatible titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) suitable for prostheses fabrication. Results of the simulation showed acceptable levels of Von Mises stresses (325 MPa max.), below the elastic limit of the titanium alloys, and a better response (52 MPa max.) in a model with equivalent elastic properties, with stress performance in the same order of magnitude than the showed in bone’s material model.

Aerodynamic Similarity Principles and Scaling Laws for Windmilling Fans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilip Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Rotational Speed ◽  
Pressure Loss ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Dynamic Pressure ◽  
Stagnation Pressure ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Similarity Parameter ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Good Agreement

Windmilling requirements for aircraft engines often define propulsion and airframe design parameters. The present study is focused is on two key quantities of interest during windmill operation: fan rotational speed and stage losses. A model for the rotor exit flow is developed, that serves to bring out a similarity parameter for the fan rotational speed. Furthermore, the model shows that the spanwise flow profiles are independent of the throughflow, being determined solely by the configuration geometry. Interrogation of previous numerical simulations verifies the self-similar nature of the flow. The analysis also demonstrates that the vane inlet dynamic pressure is the appropriate scale for the stagnation pressure loss across the rotor and splitter. Examination of the simulation results for the stator reveals that the flow blockage resulting from the severely negative incidence that occurs at windmill remains constant across a wide range of mass flow rates. For a given throughflow rate, the velocity scale is then shown to be that associated with the unblocked vane exit area, leading naturally to the definition of a dynamic pressure scale for the stator stagnation pressure loss. The proposed scaling procedures for the component losses are applied to the flow configuration of Prasad and Lord (2010). Comparison of simulation results for the rotor-splitter and stator losses determined using these procedures indicates very good agreement. Analogous to the loss scaling, a procedure based on the fan speed similarity parameter is developed to determine the windmill rotational speed and is also found to be in good agreement with engine data. Thus, despite their simplicity, the methods developed here possess sufficient fidelity to be employed in design prediction models for aircraft propulsion systems.

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