Nooshin Haghighipour^∗, Mohammad Tafazzoli-Shadpour^∗, Mohammad Ali Shokrgozar^†, Samira Amini^∗, Amir Amanzadeh^†, Mohammad Taghi Khorasani^‡

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.4, pp. 189-200, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.189

Abstract Evaluation of mechanical environment on cellular function is a major field of study in cellular engineering. Endothelial cells lining the entire vascular lumen are subjected to pulsatile blood pressure and flow. Mechanical stresses caused by such forces determine function of arteries and their remodeling. Critical values of mechanical stresses contribute to endothelial damage, plaque formation and atherosclerosis. A device to impose cyclic strain on cultured cells inside an incubator was designed and manufactured operating with different load amplitudes, frequencies, numbers of cycles and ratios of extension to relaxation. Endothelial cells cultured on collagen coated silicon… More >

Dalin Tang^*, Chun Yang^†, Tal Geva^‡,§, Pedro J. del Nido^¶

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 159-176, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.159

Abstract A single-layer isotropic patient-specific right/left ventricle and patch (RV/LV/Patch) combination model with fluid-structure interactions (FSI) was introduced in our previous papers to evaluate and optimize human pulmonary valve replacement/insertion (PVR) surgical procedure and patch design. In this paper, an active anisotropic model with two-layer structure for ventricle wall and tissue fiber orientation was introduced to improve previous isotropic model for more accurate assessment of RV function and potential application in PVR surgery and patch design. A material-stiffening approach was used to model active heart contraction. The computational models were used to conduct ``virtual (computational)'' surgeries More >

Anat Ratnovsky^∗,†, Matthew Mellema^*, Steven S. An^∗,‡, Jeffrey J. Fredberg^*, Stephanie A. Shore^*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 143-158, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.143

Abstract Obesity is a risk factor for asthma. The purpose of this study was to determine whether metformin, an agent used in the treatment of an obesity-related condition (type II diabetes), might have therapeutic potential for modifying the effects of obesity on airway smooth muscle (ASM) function. Metformin acts via activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a cellular sensor of energy status. In cultured murine ASM cells, metformin (0.2--2 mM) caused a dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation induced by PDGF (10^-8 M) and serotonin (10^-4 M). Another AMPK activator, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-ß-D-riboruranoside (AICAR), also inhibited PDGF-induced proliferation. Furthermore, cells More >

G.V. Norton^*, J.C. Novarini^†

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 75-86, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.075

Abstract Ultrasonic imaging in medical applications involves propagation and scattering of acoustic waves within and by biological tissues that are intrinsically dispersive. Analytical approaches for modeling propagation and scattering in inhomogeneous media are difficult and often require extremely simplifying approximations in order to achieve a solution. To avoid such approximations, the direct numerical solution of the wave equation via the method of finite differences offers the most direct tool, which takes into account diffraction and refraction. It also allows for detailed modeling of the real anatomic structure and combination/layering of tissues. In all cases the correct… More >

Ya Yan Lu¹, Jianxin Zhu²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.22, No.3, pp. 235-248, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.022.235

Abstract The perfectly matched layer (PML) is a widely used technique for truncating unbounded domains in numerical simulations of wave propagation problems. In this paper, the PML technique is used with a standard one-way model to solve a benchmark problem for underwater acoustics modeling. Accurate solutions are obtained with a PML layer with a thickness of only a quarter of the wavelength. The effect of a PML is analyzed in a perturbation analysis for waveguides. More >

Shamsh Tabrez, Mira Mitra, S. Gopalakrishnan¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.22, No.1, pp. 77-90, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.022.077

Abstract In this paper, wave propagation is studied in degraded composite beam due to moisture absorption. The obtained wave responses are then used for diagnosis of the degraded zone. Moisture absorption causes an irreversible hygrothermal deterioration of the material. The change in temperature and moisture absorption changes the mechanical properties. Thus this affects the structure in dimensional stability as well as material degradation due to reduction in mechanical properties. Here, the composite beam is modeled as Timoshenko beam using wavelet based spectral finite element (WSFE) method. The WSFE technique is especially tailored for simulation of wave More >

L.N. Gergidis, D. Kourounis, S. Mavratzas, A. Charalambopoulos¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.21, No.2, pp. 157-176, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.021.157

Abstract A new complete set of scattering eigensolutions of Helmholtz equation in spheroidal geometry is constructed in this paper. It is based on the extension to exterior boundary value problems of the well known Vekua transformation pair, which connects the kernels of Laplace and Helmholtz operators. The derivation of this set is purely analytic. It avoids the implication of the spheroidal wave functions along with their accompanying numerical deficiencies. Using this novel set of eigensolutions, we solve the acoustic scattering problem from a soft acoustic spheroidal scatterer, by expanding the scattered field in terms of it. More >

Anuj Pratap Singh, V. Mani, Ranjan Ganguli¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.21, No.2, pp. 133-148, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.021.133

Abstract This paper investigates the use of Genetic Programming (GP) to create an approximate model for the non-linear relationship between flexural stiffness, length, mass per unit length and rotation speed associated with rotating beams and their natural frequencies. GP, a relatively new form of artificial intelligence, is derived from the Darwinian concept of evolution and genetics and it creates computer programs to solve problems by manipulating their tree structures. GP predicts the size and structural complexity of the empirical model by minimizing the mean square error at the specified points of input-output relationship dataset. This dataset… More >

S. Sabchevski¹, I. Zhelyazkov², M. Thumm³, S. Illy⁴, B. Piosczyk⁵, T.-M. Tran^6,7, J. Gr. Pagonakis⁸

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.20, No.3, pp. 203-220, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.020.203

Abstract Computer aided design of powerful gyrotrons for electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive of fusion plasmas requires adequate physical models and efficient software packages for analysis, comparison and optimization of their electron-optical systems through numerical experiments. In this paper, we present and discuss the current status of the simulation tools available to the researchers involved in the development of multi-megawatt gyrotrons for the ITER project, review some of their recent upgrades and formulate directions for further modifications and improvements. Illustrative examples used represent results from recent numerical investigations of real constructions. Some physical problems More >

T.C. Theodosiou¹, D.A. Saravanos²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.19, No.2, pp. 121-134, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.019.121

Abstract In this paper a new method is introduced for carbon nanotube modeling combining features of Molecular Mechanics and Finite Element Analysis. Repetitive atomic cells are treated as finite elements, whose internal energy is determined by the semi-empirical Brenner molecular potential model; internal forces and linearized stiffness matrices are formulated analytically in order to gain in speed and accuracy, and the resultant discrete system is formulated and solved using the Newton-Raphson method. The presented method is validated through comparisons to numerical and experimental results provided by other researchers. The bending and shearing of CNTs is also More >