Quantification of Dendritic Spines Remodeling under Physiological Stimuli and in Pathological Conditions

Numerous brain diseases are associated with abnormalities in morphology and density of dendritic spines, small membranous protrusions whose structural geometry correlates with the strength of synaptic connections. Thus, the quantitative analysis of dendritic spines remodeling in microscopic images is one of the key elements towards understanding mechanisms of structural neuronal plasticity and bases of brain pathology. In the following article, we review experimental approaches designed to assess quantitative features of dendritic spines under physiological stimuli and in pathological conditions. We compare various methodological pipelines of biological models, sample preparation, data analysis, image acquisition, sample size, and statistical analysis. The methodology and results of relevant experiments are systematically summarized in a tabular form. In particular, we focus on quantitative data regarding the number of animals, cells, dendritic spines, types of studied parameters, size of observed changes, and their statistical significance.     

Solvent-Free Plasticity and Programmable Mechanical Behaviors of Engineered Proteins

Biopolymeric networks with plasticity show great competences in diverse fields owing to the combined biocompatible and mechanical characteristics. However, to realize such plasticity external complicated treatments, e.g., UV or organic solvent have to be applied, which in turn impair the biological nature and even mechanical properties of those systems. To address this challenge, one new type of anhydrous protein liquid crystalline (LC) gels, which exhibit flexible morphological plasticity and mechanical programmability is demonstrated. Supramolecular interactions in the smectic biogels play an important role for their high plasticity. Remarkably, the samples exhibit outstanding mechanical behaviors. The tensile strength and Young's modulus at MPa levels are comparable or even higher than chemically cross-linked hydrogels and LC elastomers. More importantly, mechanical programmability of the LC gels is achieved by genetically tuning the charge density of protein backbones. Consequently, the mechanical performance is manipulated in the range of one order of magnitude. Thus, this type of anhydrous protein LC gels offers great opportunities for load-bearing high-tech applications.     

Environmental Enrichment Enhances Cav 2.1 Channel-Mediated Presynaptic Plasticity in Hypoxic–Ischemic Encephalopathy

Hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a devastating neonatal brain condition caused by lack of oxygen and limited blood flow. Environmental enrichment (EE) is a classic paradigm with a complex stimulation of physical, cognitive, and social components. EE can exert neuroplasticity and neuroprotective effects in immature brains. However, the exact mechanism of EE on the chronic condition of HIE remains unclear. HIE was induced by a permanent ligation of the right carotid artery, followed by an 8% O₂ hypoxic condition for 1 h. At 6 weeks of age, HIE mice were randomly assigned to either standard cages or EE cages. In the behavioral assessments, EE mice showed significantly improved motor performances in rotarod tests, ladder walking tests, and hanging wire tests, compared with HIE control mice. EE mice also significantly enhanced cognitive performances in Y-maze tests. Particularly, EE mice showed a significant increase in Ca_v 2.1 (P/Q type) and presynaptic proteins by molecular assessments, and a significant increase of Ca_v 2.1 in histological assessments of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. These results indicate that EE can upregulate the expression of the Ca_v 2.1 channel and presynaptic proteins related to the synaptic vesicle cycle and neurotransmitter release, which may be responsible for motor and cognitive improvements in HIE.     

Strain rate and orientation-dependent strain hardening of Mg–9Li–Al using crystal plasticity

A crystal plasticity finite element model was proposed considering slip and twinning interactions. The grain morphology and crystallographic orientations were introduced into the model to describe the microstructure of duplex polycrystalline Mg–9Li–Al. The activation of the slip systems and the strain localisation with respect to initial grain orientations were investigated. In addition, the effects of phase distributions and volume fractions on the macroscopic responses and on strain hardening rates were analysed. The results show that the strain hardening is rate-dependent but the texture is less sensitive to strain rate. The distribution of a phase and its volume fraction play primary roles in governing the mechanical response.     

Deformation-softening behaviors of high-strength and high-toughness steels used for rock bolts

In deep ground engineering, the use of high-strength and high-toughness steels for rock bolt can significantly improve its energy absorption capacity. However, the mechanisms and effects of rock loading conditions on this kind of high energy-absorbing steel for rock bolt remain immature. In this study, taking Muzhailing highway tunnel as the background, physically based crystal plasticity simulations were performed to understand the effect of rock loading rate and pretension on the deformation behaviors of twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel used for rock bolt. The material physical connecting to the underlying microscopic mechanisms of dislocation glide and deformation twinning were incorporated in numerical modeling. The rock loading conditions were mimicked by the real-time field monitoring data of the NPR bolt/cable equipment installed on the tunnel surrounding rock surface. The results indicate that the bolt rod exhibits pronounced deformation-softening behavior with decrease of the loading rate. There is also a sound deformation-relaxation phenomenon induced by the dramatic decrease of loading rate after pre-tensioning. The high pretension (>600 MPa or 224 kN) can help bolt rod steel resist deformation-softening behavior, especially at low loading rate (<10^?1 MPa/s or 10^?2 kN/s). The loading rate was found to be a significant factor affecting deformation-softening behavior while the pretension was found to be the major parameter accounting for the deformation-relaxation scenario. The results provide the theoretical basis and technical support for practical applications.     

Solution for the general integral‐type nonlocal plasticity model with Tikhonov regularization

A new solution approach, based on Tikhonov regularization on the Fredholm integral equations of the first kind, is proposed to find the approximate solutions of the strain softening problems. In this approach, the consistency condition is regularized with the Tikhonov stabilizers along with a regularization parameter, and the internal variable increments are solved from the resulting Euler's equations. It is shown that, as the regularization parameter is increased, the solutions converge to a unique one. A nonlocal yield condition and a nonlocal return mapping algorithm are proposed to carry out the integration of constitutive equations in the time and spatial domains. A global plastic dissipation principle is proposed to relax the classical local plastic dissipation postulate. Numerical examples show that the proposed approach leads to objective, mesh‐independent solutions of the softening‐induced localization problems. A comparison of the results from the proposed approach with those from the gradient‐dependent plasticity model shows that the two models give close solutions.     

5CrNiMoV钢马氏体相变塑性和应力对其相变动力学的影响

利用DIL-805ADT动态相变膨胀仪测定了5CrNiMoV钢在低于奥氏体屈服强度的应力下的马氏体相变膨胀曲线,根据膨胀曲线分析并计算出了不同应力下Greenwood-Johnson相变塑性机制中的相变塑性系数k值和Koistinen-Marburger马氏体相变动力学模型中α和Ms的值,并且将Greenwood-Johnson模型和Leblond模型计算结果与实际试验值对比。结果显示:k值随应力的变化有所波动,但趋近于一个定值;通过对比,Leblond模型更符合试验结果;Ms点随着应力的增大呈现微小的上升趋势,说明小于或等于80 MPa 的应力对Ms点的影响不显著;拉应力下α值普遍大于无应力下的α值,压应力下α值普遍小于无应力下的α值,说明拉应力对相变有一定的促进作用,压应力对相变有一定的阻碍作用。