In order to model the hearing capabilities of marine mammals (cetaceans), it is necessary to understand the mechanical properties, such as elastic modulus, of the middle ear bones in these species. Biologically realistic models can be used to investigate the biomechanics of hearing in cetaceans, much of which is currently unknown. In the present study, the elastic moduli of the auditory ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes) of eight species of cetacean, two baleen whales (mysticete) and six toothed whales (odontocete), were measured using nanoindentation. The two groups of mysticete ossicles overall had lower average elastic moduli (35.2 ± 13.3 GPa and 31.6 ± 6.5 GPa) than the groups of odontocete ossicles (53.3 ± 7.2 GPa to 62.3 ± 4.7 GPa). Interior bone generally had a higher modulus than cortical bone by up to 36%. The effects of freezing and formalin-fixation on elastic modulus were also investigated, although samples were few and no clear trend could be discerned. The high elastic modulus of the ossicles and the differences in the elastic moduli between mysticetes and odontocetes are likely specializations in the bone for underwater hearing.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ar.22896 | DOI Listing |
Ultrasound Med Biol
January 2025
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. Electronic address:
Objective: Measurement of thenar muscle elasticity by ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) may be useful for the diagnosis and evaluation of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), but there is a paucity of information on SWE of the thenar muscles in patients with CTS. The purpose of this study was to investigate the elasticity of the thenar muscles in patients with CTS.
Methods: Twenty-two adult patients with a referral diagnosis of CTS (27 hands) and 20 healthy volunteers as a control (20 dominant hands) participated in this study.
Sci Adv
January 2025
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Particle elasticity has widely been established to substantially influence immune cell clearance and circulation time of vascular-targeted carriers (VTCs). However, prior studies have primarily investigated interactions with macrophages, monocytic cell lines, and in vivo murine models. Interactions between particles and human neutrophils remain largely unexplored, although they represent a critical aspect of VTC performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft Matter
January 2025
Department of Materials Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
This study presents a novel approach to control "linked property changes" in hydrogels. Specifically, we controlled the swelling behaviour without altering the bulk elastic modulus by grafting polymers selectively into the surface region of the gels, while varying the graft amount.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft Matter
January 2025
Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
The impact of animal-based food production on climate change drives the development of plant-based alternatives. We demonstrate the use of colloidal thermogelation on a real nanoemulsion system to create structured gels that could be of interest for thermo-mechanical processing of next-generation plant-based food applications. We use a commercial pea protein isolate (PPI) without further purification to stabilize a 20 vol% peanut oil-in-water nanoemulsion at pH = 7 by high-pressure homogenization (HPH) and demonstrate the temperature induced gelation behavior of the nanoemulsion as a function of the HPH processing parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLangmuir
January 2025
Anhui Key Laboratory of Sewage Purification and Eco-restoration Materials, School of Biology, Food and Environment, Hefei University, Hefei City 230601 China.
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) offer a convenient means to convert mechanical energy from human movement into electricity, exhibiting the application prospects in human behavior monitoring. Nevertheless, the present methods to improve the device monitoring effect are limited to the design of a triboelectric material level (control of electron gain and loss ability). As compared with reported work, we improve the monitoring effect of TENG-based tactile sensors by optimizing the structure of the electrode/triboelectric material interface by means of a multiple strains mechanism.
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