Human umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells and brain-derived neurotrophic factor protect injured optic nerve:viscoelasticity characterization

The optic nerve is a viscoelastic solid-like biomaterial.Its normal stress relaxation and creep properties enable the nerve to resist constant strain and protect it from injury.We hypothesized that stress relaxation and creep properties of the optic nerve change after injury.Moreover,human brain-derived neurotrophic factor or umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells may restore these changes to normal.To validate this hypothesis,a rabbit model of optic nerve injury was established using a clamp approach.At 7 days after injury,the vitreous body received a one-time injection of 50 μg human brain-derived neurotrophic factor or 1 × 106 human umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells.At 30 days after injury,stress relaxation and creep properties of the optic nerve that received treatment had recovered greatly,with pathological changes in the injured optic nerve also noticeably improved.These results suggest that human brain-derived neurotrophic factor or umbilical cord blood-derived stem cell intervention promotes viscoelasticity recovery of injured optic nerves,and thereby contributes to nerve recovery.

Effects of irregularity and initial stresses on the dynamic response of viscoelastic half-space due to a moving load

The present article deals with the stresses developed in an initially stressed irregular viscoelastic half-space clue to a load moving with a constant velocity at a rough free surface. Expressions for normal and shear stresses are obtained in closed form. The substantial effects of influence parameters, viz., depth （from the free surface）, irregularity factor, maximum depth of irregularity, viscoelastic parameter, horizontal and vertical initial stresses, and frictional coefficient, on normal and shear stresses are investigated. Moreover, comparative study is carried out for three different cases of irregularity, viz., rectangular irregularity, parabolic irregulariW and no irregularity, which is manifested through graphs.

Strong earthquake clustering around the eastern Tibetan Plateau after the 2008 MW7.9 Wenchuan earthquake

After the 2008 M_W7.9 Wenchuan earthquake,the eastern Tibetan Plateau experienced a series of M_W>6.0 earthquakes,including the 2013 M_W6.6 Lushan,2014 M_W6.1 Kangding and 2017 M_W6.5 Jiuzhaigou events.Based on available constraints,we build a three-dimensional viscoelastic finite element model to calculate Coulomb failure stress caused by these strong earthquakes.In this model,the geometry and slip vector of the initial rupture zone of each earthquake are used to better evaluate the earthquake-related stress projection.Considering reasonable ranges of viscosities for the crust and upper mantle in different tectonic units,numerical results show that after the Wenchuan earthquake,the coseismic Coulomb failure stress change at the hypocenters of the subsequent earthquakes increased to approximately+0.012–+0.040,+0.01–+0.03,and+0.008–+0.015 MPa,respectively.With viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle,the Coulomb failure stress change at the hypocenters of these earthquakes accumulated to about+0.014–+0.042,+0.016–+0.036,and+0.003–+0.007 MPa just before their occurrence.This suggests that the Wenchuan earthquake indeed triggered or hastened the occurrence of the Lushan,Kangding and Jiuzhaigou events,supporting that strong earthquake clustering around the eastern Tibetan Plateau could be related to stress interaction between the seismogenic faults.Besides,~94%and^6%of the stress increase around(and before the occurrence of)the Kangding earthquake were contributed by the Wenchuan event and the Lushan event,respectively;the positive Coulomb failure stress change at the Jiuzhaigou earthquake hypocenter was related to coseismic slip partitioning of the Wenchuan earthquake.This means that stress interaction among the earthquakes could be controlled by the combined effect of stress of the previous events and by the complexity of earthquake ruptures.Thus,in researches on the earthquake-triggering mechanism,special attentions should be paid on both details of the rupture model and multiple factors of previous earthquakes.

Non-linear Constitutive Model for the Oligocarbonate Polyurethane Material

The polyurethane, which was the subject of the constitutive research presented in the paper, was based on oligocarbonate diols Desmophen C2100 produced by Bayer？. The constitutive modelling was performed with a view to applying the material as the inlay of intervertebral disc prostheses. The polyurethane was assumed to be non-linearly viscohyperelastic, isotropic and incompressible. The constitutive equation was derived from the postulated strain energy function. The elastic and rheological constants were identified on the basis of experimental tests, i.e. relaxation tests and monotonic uniaxial tests at two different strain rates, i.e. λ= 0.1 min-1 and λ= 1.0 min-1. The stiffness tensor was derived and introduced to Abaqus？finite element（FE） software in order to numerically validate the constitutive model. The results of the constants identification and numerical implementation show that the derived constitutive equation is fully adequate to model stress-strain behavior of the polyurethane material.