SUMMARYThis paper presents and exercises a general structure for an object-oriented enriched finite element code. The programming environment provides a robust tool for extended finite element (XFEM) computations and a modular and extensible system. The program structure has been designed to meet all natural requirements for modularity, extensibility, and robustness. To facilitate meshgeometry interactions with hundreds of enrichment items, a mesh generator and mesh database are included. The salient features of the program are: flexibility in the integration schemes (subtriangles, subquadrilaterals, independent near-tip and discontinuous quadrature rules); domain integral methods for homogeneous and bi-material interface cracks arbitrarily oriented with respect to the mesh; geometry is described and updated by level sets, vector level sets or a standard method; standard and enriched approximations are independent; enrichment detection schemes: topological, geometrical, narrow-band, etc.; multi-material problem with an arbitrary number of interfaces and slip-interfaces; non-linear material models such as J2 plasticity with linear, isotropic and kinematic hardening. To illustrate the possible applications of our paradigm, we present two-dimensional linear elastic fracture mechanics for hundreds of cracks with local near-tip refinement, and crack propagation in two dimensions as well as complex three-dimensional industrial problems.

Background: This paper presents a simple and effective formulation based on a rotation-free isogeometric approach for the assessment of collapse limit loads of plastic thin plates in bending. Methods:The formulation relies on the kinematic (or upper bound) theorem and namely B-splines or non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS), resulting in both exactly geometric representation and high-order approximations. Only one deflection variable (without rotational degrees of freedom) is used for each control point. This allows us to design the resulting optimization problem with a minimum size that is very useful to solve large-scale plate problems. The optimization formulation of limit analysis is transformed into the form of a second-order cone programming problem so that it can be solved using highly efficient interior-point solvers. Results and conclusions: Several numerical examples are given to demonstrate reliability and effectiveness of the present method in comparison with other published methods.

Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) is a rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder. It is the most fatal among all types of EDS. In addition to typical EDS characteristics, vEDS patients are at risk of blood vessel rupture due to possession of pathogenic variants of the COL3A1 gene, which encodes type III collagen. Type III collagen is a major component of humans' vascular walls. The management of this disease is possible; however, there is no cure as of present. Recently, discoveries with potential impact on the management of vEDS have been elucidated. Mice with vEDS traits treated with a beta-blocker celiprolol showed significant improvements in their thoracic aorta biomechanical strength. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the specifically designed small interference RNAs (siRNA) can effectively silence the pathogenic variant allele. To enhance the normal allele expression, an intracellularly expressed lysyl oxidase is shown to regulate the transcription rate of the COL3A1 promoter. Similarly, an embryonic homeobox transcription factor Nanog upregulates the wild-type COL3A1 expression through activation of the transforming growth factor-beta pathway, which increases type III collagen synthesis. Despite numerous advancements, more studies are to be performed to incorporate these discoveries into clinical settings, and eventually, more personalized treatments can be created.