Apoptotic Bodies of Cardiomyocytes and Fibroblasts - Regulators of Directed Differentiation of Heart Stem Cells.

We studied the effects of apoptotic bodies of cardiomyocytes (ApBc) and fibroblasts (ApBf) on myocardial regeneration and contractility in rats and the dynamics of RNA concentrations in cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts at different stages of apoptosis. ApBc increase the contractility of rat myocardium, while ApBf reduce it. ApBc stimulate the development of clones of cardiomyocyte precursors in the myocardium, while ApBf stimulate the formation of endothelial precursor clones. In doxorubicin cardiomyopathy, ApBc, similar to the reference drug (ACE inhibitor) improve animal survival, while ApBf produce no such effect. RNA concentrations in cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts before apoptosis and at the beginning of cell death significantly differed, while in apoptotic bodies of these cells, it was practically the same. It has been hypothesized that RNA complex present in ApBc and ApBf represents an "epigenetic code" of directed differentiation of cardiac stem cells.

Asymptotic evaluation of the pulse train radiated by an angled beam and fluid coupled rectangular ultrasonic transducer.

The near field underneath the ultrasonic probe fluid coupled to an isotropic solid is approximated in the frequency domain by a closed form asymptotic solution. The approximation is based on the problem decomposition and uses the stationary phase method evaluating the response to an equivalent surface source. This results in a sum of contributions, each dominating in a specific geometrical region, the main beam or a side lobe. The transitional zones are also described. The pulse trains are computed using the harmonic synthesis and compared with the results obtained by direct calculation of Fourier integrals. It is shown that the asymptotic approach permits us to elucidate the physics of problem and leads to a numerical algorithm which is about 10(4) times faster than the direct computations.

High order approximate low frequency theory of elastic anisotropic lining and coating.

A problem of the dynamic behavior of an elastic layer coupled to one or two thick elastic solids is considered. All the materials may possess a general anisotropy and the layer is assumed to be thin enough with respect to the characteristic wavelength. Introducing the asymptotic power series with respect to the thickness-over-wavelength ratio for the main quantities and using the asymptotic integration method the displacements and stresses on the layer surfaces are related. Thus, the so-called impedance boundary conditions (IBC) are deduced for three cases--for a coated substrate with given displacements or with given stresses on the surface and for two substrates with a layer in between. In contrast to previous papers these IBC are obtained for the most general situation with the asymptotic accuracy up to the sixth order, uniform with respect to the representation of the displacements and stresses. Presented theory can be used for studying the surface and interface phenomena as well as for calculating fields and spectra of layered solids. The results are validated numerically and compared with those of other authors.

Propagation of acoustic waves in nematic elastomers.

We develop a theory of elastic waves in oriented monodomain nematic elastomers. The effect of soft elasticity, combined with the Leslie-Ericksen version of dissipation function, results in an unusual dispersion and anomalous anisotropy of shear acoustic waves. A characteristic time scale of nematic rotation determines the crossover frequency, below which waves of some polarizations have a very strong attenuation while others experience no dissipation at all. We study the anisotropy of low-frequency Poynting vectors and wave fronts, and discuss a "squeeze" effect of energy transfer nonparallel to the wave vector. Based on these theoretical results, an application, the acoustic polarizer, is proposed.