These proteins form structures known as beaded filaments that change their localization from membrane bound to more cytoplasmic following organelle degradation; Bfsp2 synergizes with tropomodulin 1 (tood1) to control lens mechanical stiffness through synergism between the spectrin-actin membrane skeleton and the beaded filament cytoskeleton (Gokhin et al., 2012).
The electrothermal actuators can be configurred in various ways to adjust as desired the mechanical stiffness of the structures; thereby controlling their deformation stroke as actuators and their operating resonance frequency as resonators.
In contrast, 0.5 ng/mL IL-1α preconditioning provided even greater protection against degradation, with mechanical stiffness and GAG content higher than positive control samples (p < 0.05), and more importantly, similar to negative control constructs (p > 0.05, Fig. 2b).
This plate was used to present walkers with vibration feedback and to present a specified mechanical stiffness to the walker, via a servo controlled mechanism (see Experiment 2).
Yet, stiffness control of such rigid mechanical structures remains a largely unexplored area.
Resulting fibrosis with excessive accumulation of ECM proteins in the heart causes increased mechanical stiffness and disruption to electrical impulses that control the contraction of the heart and leads to an increased chance of arrhythmias.
CNT arrays were fabricated using a chemical vapor deposition system allowing for control over surface roughness and mechanical stiffness.
There is a limit to the observed protection afforded by preconditioning; when constructs were exposed to the highest preconditioning dose of IL-1α (1.0 ng/mL), they showed a similar degradation profile as that seen with positive control samples, exhibiting comparable decreased mechanical stiffness (p = 0.99) or GAG content (p > 0.99).
Following cytokine insult (10 ng/mL IL-1β), positive control samples exhibited significant decreases in mechanical stiffness (p < 0.0001, Fig. 6b) and GAG content (p < 0.0001, Fig. 6b).
In contrast, constructs preconditioned with 0.5 ng/mL IL-1α continued to exhibit partial protection from catabolic degradation, retaining 76%% of their mechanical stiffness and comparable GAG content (p = 0.98) compared to control samples.
