Search Results (34)

This study evaluates low-strength concrete incorporating recycled rubber aggregates from waste tires and polymer fiber for use as “forgiving” safety barriers that enhance road safety while promoting environmental sustainability. Incorporating the rubber and fiber enables recycling the tires close to the source where they were originally used—the road. These barriers are designed to absorb collision energy, reduce vehicle deceleration, and minimize the severity of accidents. The key requirements for such concrete are low strength, low elastic modulus, high ductility, high toughness, and minimal dispersion of large fragments upon failure. The study investigated various concretes containing different percentages of recycled rubber (0–20% by volume) and polymer fibers (0–1.2% by volume). We conducted compression, flexural, and dynamic impact tests to assess the effects of these additions on the properties of the concrete. Dynamic tests were carried out in a cantilever loading scheme with strain rates of 2.5–3 s⁻¹, to emulate barrier loading during car crush. Key findings include indications that recycled rubber decreases concrete strength, while its contribution to energy absorption is limited. In contrast, polymer fibers enhance the concrete’s elongation and toughness, increasing energy absorption. The quantity of fibers present in the fracture area is critical for energy absorption. Notably, energy absorption under dynamic loads is more significant than that under quasi-static loads; however, the difference between these results diminishes as the fiber percentage increases. Furthermore, quasi-static tests on fiber-reinforced concrete can effectively evaluate its response to impact loads. In conclusion, the combined use of recycled rubber and polymer fibers in low-strength concrete offers a sustainable solution for developing safer and more environmentally responsible roadside infrastructure by repurposing waste materials and reducing the ecological footprint of construction. Careful attention should be paid to the distribution of fibers within the concrete, as this significantly influences energy absorption. Full article

Aerogels combine ultralow density with high surface area, yet their brittle, open networks preclude tensile deformation and hinder integration into wearable electronics. Here we introduce a prestrain-enabled coaxial architecture that converts a brittle conductive aerogel into a highly stretchable fiber. A porous thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) hollow sheath is wet-spun using a sacrificial lignin template to ensure solvent exchange and robust encapsulation. Conductive polymer-based precursor dispersions are infused into prestretched TPE tubes, frozen, and lyophilized; releasing the prestretch then programs a buckled aerogel core that unfolds during elongation without catastrophic fracture. The resulting TPE-wrapped aerogel fibers exhibit reversible elongation up to 250% while retaining electrical function. At low strains (<60%), resistance changes are small and stable (ΔR/R₀ < 0.04); at larger strains the response remains monotonic and fully recoverable, enabling broad-range sensing. The mechanism is captured by a strain-dependent percolation model in which elastic decompression, contact sliding, and controlled fragmentation/reconnection of the aerogel network govern the signal. This generalizable strategy decouples elasticity from conductivity, establishing a scalable route to ultralight, encapsulated, and skin-compatible aerogel fibers for smart textiles and deformable electronics. Full article

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are progressive, life-threatening vascular disorders characterized by focal dilation of the abdominal aorta due to chronic weakening of the arterial wall. The condition often remains asymptomatic until rupture, which carries mortality rates exceeding 70–85%. Among the various etiological theories of AAA development, degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) has emerged as the most widely accepted paradigm, with the breakdown of elastin representing a central and irreversible hallmark event. Elastin, a highly cross-linked and durable structural protein, provides elasticity and recoil to the aortic wall. In human AAA specimens, reduced elastin content, impaired cross-linking, and extensive fiber fragmentation are consistently observed, while experimental studies across multiple animal models confirm that elastin degradation directly correlates with aneurysm initiation, expansion, and rupture risk. Elastin loss is driven by a complex interplay of proteolytic enzymes coupled with inflammatory cell infiltration and oxidative stress. Furthermore, elastin-derived peptides perpetuate immune cell recruitment and matrix degradation, creating a vicious cycle of wall injury. Genetic and epigenetic factors, including variants in ECM regulators and dysregulation of non-coding RNAs, further modulate elastin homeostasis in AAA pathobiology. Clinically, biomarkers of elastin turnover and elastin-targeted molecular imaging techniques are emerging as tools for risk stratification. Therapeutically, novel strategies aimed at stabilizing elastin fibers, enhancing cross-linking, or delivering drugs directly to sites of elastin damage have shown promise in preclinical models and early translational studies. In parallel, regenerative approaches employing stem cells, exosomes, and bioengineered elastin scaffolds are under development to restore structural integrity. Collectively, these advances underscore the pivotal roles of elastin not only as a structural determinant of aneurysm development but also as a diagnostic and therapeutic target. This review summarizes and integrates recent discoveries on elastin biology in AAA, with a particular emphasis on molecular mechanisms of elastin degradation and the translational potential of elastin-centered interventions for the prevention and treatment of AAA. Full article

Biomarkers are important for the diagnosis and follow-up of neuromuscular diseases. Creatine kinase (CK) is a widely used marker of active muscle damage; however, it is not suitable for assessing muscle mass loss. Therefore, additional biomarkers are required to monitor skeletal muscle damage and loss. Titin plays an essential role in the structure and function of muscle fibers. It provides stability and elasticity to the sarcomeres. During sarcomere damage, fragments of titin and other proteins are released from muscle fibers and can be detected in blood and urine. Urinary titin-N fragment (UTN) detection is a noninvasive method for assessing and monitoring the extent of muscle damage. In addition to muscular dystrophies, elevated UTN levels have been observed in patients with sarcopenia. The UTN level increased significantly during eccentric muscle strain, indicating muscle damage, whereas the concentric load was associated with only a minimal increase in UTN. As titin is also present in the heart muscle, UTN can help diagnose cardiomyopathies and predict disease prognosis. In summary, the detection of urinary titin fragments is a promising tool for diagnosing and monitoring neuromuscular and cardiac diseases. While both CK and UTN rise and are related in acute conditions, their relationship is less clear in chronic diseases where muscle tissue damage and muscle mass loss are combined. Full article

In this paper, we propose a grouping-based dynamic routing, core, and spectrum allocation (RCSA) method for preventing spectrum fragmentation and inter-core crosstalk in elastic optical path networks based on multi-core fiber environments. Multi-core fibers enable us to considerably enhance the transmission capacity of optical links; however, this induces inter-core crosstalk, which degrades the quality of optical signals. We should thus avoid using the same frequency bands in adjacent cores in order to ensure high-quality communications. However, this simple strategy leads to inefficient use of frequency-spectrum resources, resulting in spectrum fragmentation and a high blocking probability for lightpath establishment. The proposed method allows one to overcome this difficulty by grouping lightpath-setup requests according to their required number of frequency slots. By assigning lightpath-setup requests belonging to the same group to cores according to their priority, the proposed method aims to suppress inter-core crosstalk. Furthermore, the proposed method is designed to mitigate spectrum fragmentation by determining the prioritized frequency bandwidth for lightpath-setup requests according to their required number of frequency slots. We show that the proposed method reduces the blocking of lightpath establishment while suppressing inter-core crosstalk through simulation experiments. Full article

Desmosine and isodesmosine (DID) are elastin-specific crosslinking amino acids that play a critical role in maintaining the structural integrity of elastic fibers, and their levels in body fluids may serve as biomarkers for alveolar wall injury. To support this concept, we present studies demonstrating the use of DID to detect elastic fiber damage that reflects distention and the rupture of airspaces. The emergence of airspace enlargement may be modeled by a percolation network describing the effect of changing proportions of intact and weak elastic fibers on the transmission of mechanical forces in the lung. Following the unraveling and fragmentation of weakened elastic fibers, the release of DID may correlate with an increasing alveolar diameter and provide an endpoint for clinical trials of novel agents designed to treat pulmonary emphysema. The limitations of the DID measurements related to specificity and reproducibility are also addressed, particularly regarding sample source and analytical techniques. Standardizing protocols to isolate and quantify DID may increase the use of this biomarker for the early detection of alveolar wall injury, which permits timely therapeutic intervention. Full article

Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs) are rare but serious conditions characterized by dilation of the aorta characterized by remodeling of the vessel wall, with changes in the elastin and collagen content. Individuals with Marfan syndrome have a genetic predisposition for elastic fiber fragmentation and elastin degradation and are prone to early aneurysm formation and progression. Our objective was to analyze the medial collagen characteristics through histological, polarized light microscopy, and electron microscopy methods across the thoracic and abdominal aorta in twenty-five patients undergoing open surgical repair, including nine with Marfan syndrome. While age at surgery differed significantly between the groups, maximum aortic diameter and aneurysm extent did not. Collagen content increased from thoracic to infrarenal segments in both cohorts, with non-Marfan patients exhibiting higher collagen percentages, notably in the infrarenal aorta (729.3 nm vs. 1068.3 nm, p = 0.02). Both groups predominantly displayed mature collagen fibers, with the suprarenal segment containing the highest proportion of less mature fibers. Electron microscopy revealed comparable collagen fibril diameters across segments irrespective of Marfan status. Our findings underscore non-uniform histological patterns in TAAAs and suggest that ECM remodeling involves mature collagen deposition, albeit with lower collagen content observed in the infrarenal aorta of Marfan patients. Full article

In this study, the formulation of doughs was investigated using varying percentages of Agaricus bisporus flour, with the aim of utilizing mushroom stem fragments, typically considered production waste. The stem residues were collected from a mushroom cultivation facility, cleaned, and washed to remove impurities. The material was then subjected to two different drying methods: conventional dehydration and freeze-drying. After drying, the material was ground to produce mushroom flour. Doughs were formulated with different proportions of this flour and analyzed for texture profile, color, nutritional value, phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and sensory characteristics. The inclusion of mushroom flour resulted in darker doughs, particularly when the flour was obtained through conventional dehydration due to oxidation processes. This substitution also affected texture parameters, leading to increased hardness and reduced elasticity in most treatments compared to the control sample. In addition, cohesiveness progressively decreased from 0.35 in the control to 0.14 in the sample made with 100% dehydrated flour and 0.20 in the sample made with 100% freeze-dried flour, resulting in brittle doughs. The most significant impact on nutritional value was an increase in protein, fat, and dietary fiber levels, reaching values over 5% of crude fiber in the sample to which 50% of dehydrated mushroom flour was added. Additionally, mushroom flours exhibited a high proportion of phenolic compounds, reaching values near 700 mg gallic acid/100 g in the flour from freeze-dried samples and 320 mg gallic acid/100 g in the flour from dehydrated samples. These values reflect a higher content of phenolic compounds in products made with mushroom flours and an increased antioxidant capacity compared to the control sample. Sensory evaluation showed that the texture remained unaffected; however, flavor perception was altered at a 50% mushroom flour substitution. In terms of external appearance, only the 25% freeze-dried mushroom flour formulation was statistically similar to the control, while all other treatments were rated lower. Full article

The C+L band elastic optical networks (C+L-EONs) increase the network capacity significantly. However, the introduction of an L band enhances the inter-channel stimulated Raman scattering effect (ISRS), consequently deteriorating the quality of transmission (QoT) of the signal. Furthermore, spectrum allocation leads to spectrum fragmentation inevitably, which escalates the bandwidth blocking rate. In addition, in C+L-EONs, a single fiber carries more services, and once one of the links fails, a huge number of requests will be interrupted, resulting in huge economic losses. Therefore, this paper proposes a survivability routing, band, modulation, and spectrum allocation (RBMSA) algorithm that effectively guarantees service survivability and reduces the impact of ISRS and spectrum fragmentation. The algorithm employs shared backup path protection and a band partitioning method, whereby the spectrum resource of the primary path is assigned in the L band and the backup path is assigned in the C band in order to minimize the impact of ISRS on the QoT of the request while ensuring the survivability of the network. Furthermore, a fragmentation metric accounting for both the free and shared spectrum resource is proposed to mitigate both free and shared spectrum fragmentation. The simulation results reveal that the proposed RBMSA algorithm reduces the bandwidth blocking probability (BBP) and the fragmentation rate (FR) by 47.7% and 21.3%, respectively, and improves the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) by 4.17 dB in NSFNET. In COST239, the BBP, FR, and OSNR are 22.1%, 21.5%, and 4.71 dB, respectively. Full article

This paper proposes a core and spectrum allocation algorithm for elastic optical networks based on multi-core fibers. In this context, the fragmentation and crosstalk mitigation algorithm (FraCA) is proposed. FraCA implements mechanisms to reduce spectral fragmentation and inter-core crosstalk in the network, proving efficient when compared with six other algorithms reported in the literature. The numerical results show that when compared with the most competitive of the six algorithms, FraCA achieves a gain of request blocking probability of at least 16.87%, a gain of bandwidth blocking probability of at least 43.95%, and a mean increase in spectral utilization of at least 4.36%. Full article

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a multifactorial cardiovascular disease with a high risk of death, and it occurs in the infrarenal aorta with vascular dilatation. High blood pressure acts on the aortic wall, resulting in rupture and causing life-threatening intra-abdominal hemorrhage. Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dysregulation and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, especially elastin breaks, contribute to structural changes in the aortic wall. The pathogenesis of AAA includes the occurrence of oxidative stress, inflammatory cell infiltration, elastic fiber fragmentation, VSMC apoptosis, and phenotypic transformation. Tributyrin (TB) is decomposed by intestinal lipase and has a function similar to that of butyrate. Whether TB has a protective effect against AAA remains uncertain. In the present study, we established an AAA murine model by angiotensin II (AngII) induction in low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout (LDLR^-/-) mice and investigated the effects of orally administered TB on the AAA size, ratio of macrophage infiltration, levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression, and epigenetic regulation. TB attenuates AngII-induced AAA size and decreases elastin fragmentation, macrophage infiltration, and MMP expression in the medial layer of the aorta and reduces the levels of SBP (systolic blood pressure, p < 0.001) and MMP-2 (p < 0.02) in the serum. TB reduces the AngII-stimulated expression levels of MMP2 (p < 0.05), MMP9 (p < 0.05), MMP12, and MMP14 in human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs). Moreover, TB and valproic acid (VPA), a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, suppress AngII receptor type 1 (AT1R, p < 0.05) activation and increase the expression of acetyl histone H3 by HDAC activity inhibition (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that TB exerts its protective effect by suppressing the activation of HDAC to attenuate the AngII-induced AT1R signaling cascade. Full article

Space division multiplexing elastic optical networks (SDM-EONs) based on multi-core fiber (MCF) technologies have attracted widespread attention as a potential means of enhancing large capacity and high flexibility. However, inter-core crosstalk (XT) degrades the quality of transmission. The algorithm for minimizing XT leads to an increase in spectrum fragmentation in the lightpath, which influences the spectrum utilization. Therefore, the question of how to comprehensively consider the two factors and improve the network performance is an issue worthy of study. This paper focuses on maximizing spectrum resource utilization while satisfying the XT constraints. Firstly, we optimize a three-dimensional metric model to evaluate XT and fragmentation more exactly in SDM-EONs. Furthermore, a crosstalk classification (CC) algorithm, which can adjust the XT constraints according to the actual situation of the network, is proposed. Moreover, to match the CC algorithm, we describe the crosstalk and fragmentation in the network and propose a synthetically consider crosstalk and fragmentation (SCCF) algorithm. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed CC-SCCF routing, modulation, core, and spectrum allocation algorithm reduces the XT on existing lightpaths, and also provides a lower probability of blocking and greater spectrum utilization. Full article

Medin, a small 50-amino acid peptide, is an internal cleaved product from the second discoidin domain of milk fat globule epidermal growth factor VIII (MFG-E8) protein. Medin has been reported as the most common amylogenic protein in the upper part of the arterial system, including aortic, temporal, and cerebral arterial walls in the elderly. Medin has a high affinity to elastic fibers and is closely associated with arterial degenerative inflammation, elastic fiber fragmentation, calcification, and amyloidosis. In vitro, treating with the medin peptide promotes the inflammatory phenotypic shift of both endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells. In vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo studies demonstrate that medin enhances the abundance of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species produced by both endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells and promotes vascular endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffening. Immunostaining and immunoblotting analyses of human samples indicate that the levels of medin are increased in the pathogenesis of aortic aneurysm/dissection, temporal arteritis, and cerebrovascular dementia. Thus, medin peptide could be targeted as a biomarker diagnostic tool or as a potential molecular approach to curbing the arterial degenerative inflammatory remodeling that accompanies aging and disease. Full article

As with human species, recent studies also suggest a photoinduced etiopathology for non-epithelial cutaneous tumors in feline species. We report a recent case of a ten-year-old male cat with a white-hair coat and mesenchymal neoplasms of both auricles. Cytology, complete blood count (CBC), serum biochemistry and imaging examinations were performed. After surgery, the samples underwent routinary histopathology and were additionally stained with orcein. A routine analysis yielded values within a normal range and the imaging examination showed no abnormalities, suggesting that the bilateral presentation of neoplasms was primary rather than metastatic. The cytology was inconclusive, but, through histopathology, two well-differentiated fibrosarcomas were diagnosed and histopathological changes related to chronic UV exposure (such as epidermal hyperplasia, stratification disorders, keratinocyte dysplasia and an accumulation of elastotic material) were documented in the skin adjacent to the lesions. An orcein stain succeeded in highlighting elastosis. The elastic fibers lost their regular structure and orientation and appeared to be fragmented, wavy to branched and knotted. A morphometric analysis showed that the amount of elastotic material in the dermis close to the tumors was more than double compared with the more distant areas. Elastosis is considered to be a hallmark of photodamage; thus, an involvement of UV rays in the carcinogenic process of the tumors may be suspected. Full article

Fiber-reinforced materials or 3D printed parts feature transversely isotropic elasticity. Although its influence on pressures, shapes, and sizes has been studied extensively for dry contacts, the transferability to lubricated contacts is fragmented. This numerical study investigates how the content and orientation of short fibers in fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) affect elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of point contacts. Material properties are modeled with Tandon-Weng homogenization. For EHL modeling, a fully-coupled approach based on finite element discretization is used. Results on hydrodynamic pressure and film thickness as well as material stress distribution are analyzed and compared to common approximations using the effective contact moduli. It is shown that the combination of fiber content and orientation defines the effective contact stiffness that determines the contact shape, size, and film thickness. Furthermore, the contact regime can change if a contact-specific stiffness threshold is reached. Full article