In-situ spectroscopic investigation of ultrasonic assisted unfolding and aggregation of insulin.

It is well-known that fibrillogenesis of proteins can be influenced by diverse external parameters, such as temperature, pressure, agitation or chemical agents. The present preliminary study suggests that ultrasonic excitation at moderate intensities has a significant influence on the unfolding and aggregation behaviour of insulin. Irradiation with an average sound intensity of even as low as 70mW/cm(2) leads to a lowering of the unfolding and aggregation temperature up to 7K. The effect could be explained by an increase of the aggregation kinetics due to ultrasonically induced acoustic micro-streaming in the insulin solution that most probably enhances the aggregation rate. The clear and remarkable effect at relatively low sound intensities offers interesting options for further applications of ultrasound in biophysics and biochemistry. On the other hand, a process that causes a change of kinetics equivalent to 7K also gives a warning signal concerning the safety of those medical ultrasonic devices that work in this intensity range.

Investigation of contact acoustic nonlinearity in delaminations by shearographic imaging, laser doppler vibrometric scanning and finite difference modeling.

Full-field dynamic shearography and laser Doppler vibrometric scanning are used to investigate the local contact acoustic nonlinear generation of delamination-induced effects on the vibration of a harmonically excited composite plate containing an artificial defect. Nonlinear elastic behavior caused by the stress-dependent boundary conditions at the delamination interfaces of a circular defect is also simulated by a 3-D second-order, finite-difference, staggered-grid model (displacement-stress formulation). Both the experimental and simulated data reveal an asymmetric motion of the layer above the delamination, which acts as a membrane vibrating with enhanced displacement amplitude around a finite offset displacement. The spectrum of the membrane motion is enriched with clapping-induced harmonics of the excitation frequency. In case of a sufficiently thin and soft membrane, the simulations reveal clear modal behavior at sub-harmonic frequencies caused by inelastic clapping.