Nicole M. Stark

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.4, No.5, pp. 313-326, 2016, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2016.634115

Abstract Performance requirements for packaging films may include barrier properties, transparency, flexibility, and tensile strength. Conventional packaging materials, such as plastic films and laminates, are typically made from petroleum-based polymers. Currently, there is a drive to develop sustainable packaging materials. These alternative materials must be able to be manufactured economically and on a commercial scale, exhibit barrier properties and transparency, and provide adequate mechanical performance. As a biobased, renewable material, cellulose nanomaterials (CNs) are ideally suited to be used in sustainable packaging applications. CNs include cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and each can provide benefit to packaging films. Manufactured… More >

Jiaqi Zhang¹, Kehai Liu^2,*, Chang Gao¹, Zhanjun Wu¹, Yuebin Zheng¹, Dongyue Gao³

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 41-59, 2019, DOI:10.32604/sdhm.2019.05142

Abstract Probability-based diagnostic imaging (PDI) is one of the most well-known damage identification methods using guided waves. It is usually applied to diagnose damage in plates. The previous studies were dependent on the certain damage index (DI) which is always calculated from the guided wave signals. In conventional methods, DI is simply defined by comparing the real-time data with the baseline data as reference. However, the baseline signal is easily affected by varying environmental conditions of structures. In this paper, a reference-free diagnostic imaging method is developed to avoid the influence of environmental factors, such as temperature and load conditions. The… More >

Shaoxiong Yang¹, Yingxin Qi², Zonglai Jiang², Xiaobo Gong^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, No.1, pp. 13-26, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.06096

Abstract Vascular diseases during aging process are closely correlated to the age-related changes of mechanical stimuli for resident cells. Characterizing the variations of mechanical environments in vessel walls with advancing age is crucial for a better understanding of vascular remodeling and pathological changes. In this study, the mechanical stress, strain, and wall stiffness of the femoropopliteal arteries (FPAs) were compared among four different age groups from adolescent to young, middle-aged, and aged subjects. The material parameters and geometries adopted in the FPA models were obtained from published experimental results. It is found that high mechanical stress appears at different layers in… More >

Qingyu Wang¹, Dalin Tang^1,2,*, Gador Canton³, Zheyang Wu², Thomas S. Hatsukami⁴, Kristen L. Billiar⁵, Chun Yuan⁶

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.15, No.4, pp. 189-201, 2018, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2018.04572

Abstract Cardiovascular diseases are closely linked to atherosclerotic plaque development and rupture. Assessment of plaque vulnerability is of fundamental significance to cardiovascular research and disease diagnosis, prevention, treatment and management. Magnetic resonance image (MRI) data of carotid atherosclerotic plaques from 8 patients (5 male, 3 female; age: 62-83, mean=71) were acquired at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle by the Vascular Imaging Laboratory (VIL) with written informed consent obtained. Patient-specific vessel material properties were quantified using Cine MRI data for modeling use. 3D thin-layer models were used to obtain plaque stress and strain for plaque assessment. A stress-based plaque vulnerability index… More >

Chunliu He¹, Jiaqiu Wang², Yuxiang Huang¹, Tongjing Zhu¹, Yuehong Miao¹, Zhiyong Li^1,2*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 23-36, 2016, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2016.013.027

Abstract Fibrous cap thickness (FCT) is seen as critical to plaque vulnerability. Therefore, the development of automatic algorithms for the quantification of FCT is for estimating cardiovascular risk of patients. Intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) is currently the only in vivo imaging modality with which FCT, the critical component of plaque vulnerability, can be assessed accurately. This study was aimed to discussion the correlation between the texture features of OCT images and the FCT in lipid-rich atheroma. Methods: Firstly, a full automatic segmentation algorithm based on unsupervised fuzzy c means (FCM) clustering with geometric constrains was developed to segment the ROIs… More >

Benjamin Castaneda^∗, Juvenal Ormachea^†, Paul Rodríguez^‡, Kevin J. Parker^§

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.10, No.1, pp. 43-65, 2013, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2013.010.043

Abstract Elasticity imaging can be understood as the intersection of the study of biomechanical properties, imaging sciences, and physics. It was mainly motivated by the fact that pathological tissue presents an increased stiffness when compared to surrounding normal tissue. In the last two decades, research on elasticity imaging has been an international and interdisciplinary pursuit aiming to map the viscoelastic properties of tissue in order to provide clinically useful information. As a result, several modalities of elasticity imaging, mostly based on ultrasound but also on magnetic resonance imaging and optical coherence tomography, have been proposed and applied to a number of… More >

Leo KK Leung^∗, Match WL Ko^∗, David CC Lam^†

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.9, No.2, pp. 157-174, 2012, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2012.009.157

Abstract Age-stiffening of ocular tissues is statistically linked to glaucoma in the elderly. In this study, the effects of age-stiffening on the lamina cribrosa, the primary site of glaucomatous nerve damages, were modeled using computational finite element analysis. We showed that glaucomatous nerve damages and peripheral vision loss behavior can be phenomenologically modeled by shear-based damage criterion. Using this damage criterion, the potential vision loss for 30 years old with mild hypertension of 25mmHg intraocular pressure (IOP) was estimated to be 4%. When the IOP was elevated to 35mmHg, the potential vision loss rose to 45%; and age-stiffening from 35 to… More >

Nikolai Steklov^*, Ajay Srivastava^*, K.L.P. Sung^†, Peter C. Chen^†, Martin K. Lotz^*, Darryl D. D’Lima^‡

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.6, No.2, pp. 113-119, 2009, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2009.006.113

Abstract The biomechanical properties of articular cartilage change profoundly with aging. These changes have been linked with increased potential for cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis. However, less is known about the change in biomechanical properties of chondrocytes with increasing age. Cell stiffness can affect mechanotransduction pathways and may alter cell function. We measured aging-related changes in the biomechanical properties of chondrocytes. Human chondrocytes were isolated from knee articular cartilage within 48 hours after death or from osteochondral specimens obtained from knee arthroplasty. Cells were divided into two age groups: between 18 and 35 years (18 -- 35); and greater than 55 years… More >

Sultan Noman Qasem^1,2, Amar Nazar³, Attia Qamar⁴, Shahaboddin Shamshirband^5,6,*, Ahmad Karim⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.59, No.3, pp. 713-727, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2019.05617

Abstract Brain tumor is one of the most dangerous disease that causes due to uncontrollable and abnormal cell partition. In this paper, we have used MRI brain scan in comparison with CT brain scan as it is less harmful to detect brain tumor. We considered watershed segmentation technique for brain tumor detection. The proposed methodology is divided as follows: pre-processing, computing foreground applying watershed, extract and supply features to machine learning algorithms. Consequently, this study is tested on big data set of images and we achieved acceptable accuracy from K-NN classification algorithm in detection of brain tumor. More >

Wen-Hwa Chen^1,2, Shu-Ru Lin², Kuo-Ning Chiang^2,3

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.2, No.3, pp. 151-162, 2005, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2005.002.151

Abstract As ultra-fine-pitch technologies are adopted to enhance the performance of electronic packaging, solder bridging becomes an urgently serious defect. This work presents a computational model using the Surface Evolver program to analyze the stability of solder bridging for area array type packaging. Several factors that affect the stability of solder bridging spanning two identical circular pads are considered herein, including the pad size, the total volume of solder bumps, the pitch between adjacent pads, the contact angle between the molten solder alloy and the pad, the contact angle between the molten solder alloy and the solder mask and the surface… More >