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It has become widely accepted that ventricular fibrillation, the most dangerous cardiac arrhythmias, is a major cause of death in the industrialized world. Alternans and conduction block have recently been related to the progression from ventricular tachycardia to ventricular fibrillation. From the point of view in cellular electrophysiology, ventricular tachycardia is the formation of reentrant wave in cardiac tissue. And ventricular fibrillation arises from subsequent breakdown of reentrant wave into multiple drifting and meandering spiral waves. In this paper, we numerically study pulse and vortex dynamics in cardiac tissue. Our numerical results include 1:1 normal sinus rhythm, 2:1 conduction block, complete conduction block, spiral wave, and spiral breakup. All of our numerical findings can be corresponding to clinical measurements in electrocardiogram. Various electrical activities in cardiac tissue will be discussed in detail in the present manuscript.

During cardiac arrhythmia, functional reentries may take the form of spiral waves. The purpose of this study was to induce spiral waves by an electrical stimulation of cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes using a microelectrode arrays technology. In basal conditions, cardiac muscle cells in monolayer culture displayed a planar wavefront propagation. External electrical impulse trains induced severe arrhythmia and spiral waves appeared. This in vitro generation of spiral wave opens a new way to test the anti-arrhythmic drugs and for strategies at microscopically scale.

Fibrous cellulose made from wood pulp was mechanically milled into flake-shaped cellulose particles(FS-CPs) using a planetary ball mill with additives under several conditions. The average particle diameter of the FS-CPs was ca. 15μm, and the particles were available in a variety of thicknesses by changing the kind of the additives used in the milling process. FS-CPs-reinforced olefinic thermoplastic elastomer composites were prepared under melt mixing and passed through an open roll to orient the particles. The tensile modulus of the composites with a compatibilizer increased with increasing the particle content. The damping properties of the composites improved, compared to the neat elastomer. On the other hand, the fibrous cellulose was suspended in water, followed by wet disk-milled to prepare cellulose nanofibers(CNFs). The wet ground products showed nanoscopic fine morphology. CNFs-reinforced natural rubber(NR) composites were prepared by mixing the water suspension of CNFs with NR latex using a homogenizer. Then, it was dried in an oven and mixed again with vulcanizing ingredients of rubber using an open roll. The tensile properties of the composites improved remarkably by the addition of small amount of CNFs.

Polymer blends of a copolyester liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) and ABS were prepared by melt blending with a twin-screw extruder and the extrudate were obtained at different draw ratio. The morphology and mechanical properties of the extrudate were studied as functions of LCP content and draw ratio.

The mechanical properties (ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus) of the LCP blends increased with both LCP content and the draw ratio, whereas those of the ABS extrudate was not influenced by draw ratio. It indicated that the mechanical property enhancement in the blends was due to the change of LCP structure. The morphology study revealed that at a given LCP concentration, the L/D ratio of the LCP fibrils increased with draw ratio. At higher LCP concentrations, the LCP fibril diameter increased at a given draw ratio, due to coalescence of LCP fibrils.

This study showed that hot drawing was an effective way to promote the LCP fibrillation in LCP-based polymer blends and extensional stress was responsible for the fibril formation.