Related papers: Investigation of the cellular response to bone fra…
We identify a class of composite membranes: fluid bilayers coupled to an elastic meshwork, that are such that the meshwork's energy is a function $F_\mathrm{el}[A_\xi]$ \textit{not} of the real microscopic membrane area $A$, but of a…
Using Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory, we considered the impact of the flexoelectro-chemical coupling on the size effects inpolar properties and phase transitions of thin ferroelectric films with a layer of elastic defects. We…
Building on recent developments in electronic-structure methods, we define and calculate the flexoelectric response of two-dimensional (2D) materials fully from first principles. In particular, we show that the open-circuit voltage response…
It is well known that lipid membranes respond to a threshold transmembrane electric field through a reversible mechanism called electroporation, where hydrophilic water pores form across the membrane, an effect widely used in biological…
In healthy hearts myocytes are typically coupled to nearest neighbours through gap junctions. Under pathological conditions such as fibrosis, or in scar tissue, or across ablation lines myocytes can uncouple from their neighbours.…
Until recently many studies of bone remodeling at the cellular level have focused on the behavior of mature osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and their respective precursor cells, with the role of osteocytes and bone lining cells left largely…
We predict a large in-plane polarization response to bending in a broad class of trigonal two-dimensional crystals. We define and compute the relevant flexoelectric coefficients from first principles as linear-response properties of the…
We propose a multiscale mechanobiological model of bone remodelling to investigate the site-specific evolution of bone volume fraction across the midshaft of a femur. The model includes hormonal regulation and biochemical coupling of bone…
Advanced-Glycation-Endproducts (AGEs) are known to be a major cause of impaired tissue material properties. In collagen fibrils, the main building component of human tissue, these AGEs appear as fibrillar cross-links. When AGEs accumulate…
The charges in live cells interact with or produce electric fields, which results in enormous dielectric responses, flexoelectricity, and related phenomena. Here we report on a contraction of schizosacchraoymces pombe (fission yeast) cells…
Cooperative action of molecular motors is essential for many cellular processes. One possible regulator of motor coordination is the elasticity-mediated crosstalk (EMC) coupling between myosin II motors whose origin is the tensile stress…
This paper develops the equilibrium equations describing the flexoelectric effect in soft dielectrics under large deformations. Previous works have developed related theories using a flexoelectric coupling tensor of mixed material-spatial…
Various phenomena related to inhomogeneous magnetoelectric interaction are considered. The interrelation between spatial modulation of order parameter and electric polarization, known as flexoelectric effect in liquid crystals, in the case…
There is a profound analogy between inhomogeneous magnetoelectric effect in multiferroics and flexoelectric effect in liquid crystals. This similarity gives rise to the flexomagnetoelectric polarization induced by spin modulation. The…
Theoretical descriptions of the spectrum of electronic excitations in real metals have not yet reached a fully predictive, "first-principles" stage. In this paper we begin by presenting brief highlights of recent progress made in the…
The mineralized collagen fibril is the main building block of hard tissues and it directly affects the macroscopic mechanics of biological tissues such as bone. The mechanical behavior of the fibril itself is determined by its structure:…
Ferroelectric polarization switching, achieved by mechanical forces, enables the storage of stress information in ferroelectrics, and holds promise for human-interfacing applications. The prevailing mechanical approach is locally induced…
Using the dynamical matrix of a crystal obtained from ab initio calculations, we have evaluated for the first time the strength of the dynamic flexoelectric effect and found it comparable to that of the static bulk flexoelectric effect, in…
Animal cells in tissues are supported by biopolymer matrices, which typically exhibit highly nonlinear mechanical properties. While the linear elasticity of the matrix can significantly impact cell mechanics and functionality, it remains…
A mechanism for relationship of solvent viscosity with reaction rate constant at enzyme action is suggested. It is based on fluctuations of electric field in enzyme active site produced by thermally equilibrium rocking (cranckshaft motion)…