Related papers: Functionality of disorder in muscle mechanics
When viewed at a certain coarse grain, the brain seems a relatively small dynamical system composed by a few dozen interacting areas, performing a number of stereotypical behaviors. It is known that, even relatively small dynamical systems…
The properties of crystals consisting of several components can be widely tuned. Often solid solutions are produced, where substitutional or interstitional disorder determines the crystal thermodynamic and mechanical properties. The…
Recent experimental results based on multi-electrode and imaging techniques have reinvigorated the idea that large neural networks operate near a critical point, between order and disorder. However, evidence for criticality has relied on…
Bone is a multiscale heterogeneous materiel of which principal function is to support the body structure and to resist mechanical loading and fractures. Bone strength does not depend only on the quantity and quality of bone which is…
Fluid-structure interactions between active and passive components are important for many biological systems to function. A particular example is chromatin in the cell nucleus, where ATP-powered processes drive coherent motions of the…
What can cells gain by using disordered, rather than folded, proteins in the architecture of their skeleton? Disordered proteins take multiple co-existing conformations, and often contain segments which act as random-walk-shaped polymers.…
Many biological materials consist of sparse networks of disordered fibres, embedded in a soft elastic matrix. The interplay between rigid and soft elements in such composite networks leads to mechanical properties that can go far beyond the…
In the presence of ATP, molecular motors generate active force dipoles that drive suspensions of protein filaments far from thermodynamic equilibrium, leading to exotic dynamics and pattern formation. Microscopic modelling can help to…
The actin cytoskeleton in living cells has many types of crosslinkers. The mechanical interplay between these different crosslinker types is an open issue in cytoskeletal mechanics. We develop a framework to study the cooperativity and…
A functional electrical stimulation (FES)-based tracking controller is developed to enable cycling based on a strategy to yield force direction efficiency by exploiting antagonistic bi-articular muscles. Given the input redundancy naturally…
Cytoskeletal networks are the main actuators of cellular mechanics, and a foundational example for active matter physics. In cytoskeletal networks, motion is generated on small scales by filaments that push and pull on each other via…
Actomyosin networks are major structural components of the cell. They provide mechanical integrity and allow dynamic remodeling of eukaryotic cells, self-organizing into the diverse patterns essential for development. We provide a…
We revisit a simple dynamical model of rupture in random media with long-range elasticity to test whether rupture can be seen as a first-order or a critical transition. We find a clear scaling of the macroscopic modulus as a function of…
The paper develops the stiffness relationship between the movements and forces among a system of discrete interacting grains. The approach is similar to that used in structural analysis, but the stiffness matrix of granular material is…
The hysteretic behavior exhibited by collagen fibrils, when subjected to cyclic loading, is known to result in both dissipation as well as accumulation of residual strain. On subsequent relaxation, partial recovery has also been reported.…
The paper addresses the underlying source of two forms of induced anisotropy in granular materials: contact orientation anisotropy and contact force anisotropy. A rational, mathematical structure is reviewed for the manner in which fabric…
The mechanical integrity of arteries is of prime importance, for a proper oxygen and nutrients delivery to all organs. To optimize their mechanical properties, healthy arteries exhibit a complex hierarchical microstructure which ensures a…
This paper discusses the stability of an equilibrium point of an ordinary differential equation (ODE) arising from a feed-forward position control for a musculoskeletal system. The studied system has a link, a joint and two muscles with…
The Dynamic Template is applied to muscle cells, and is shown to provide a feedback mechanism that can co-ordinate the rearrangements of cytoskeletal proteins that accompany contraction
Bundles of filaments and motors are central to contractility in cells. The classic example is striated muscle, where actomyosin contractility is mediated by highly organized sarcomeres which act as fundamental contractile units. However,…