The intense focus in the clinical literature on the mental and neurocognitive sequelae of explosive blast-wave exposure, especially when comorbid with post-traumatic stress-related disorders (PTSD) is justified, and warrants the design of translationally valid animal studies to provide valid complementary basic data. We employed a controlled experimental blast-wave paradigm in which unanesthetized animals were exposed to visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile effects of an explosive blast-wave produced by exploding a thin copper wire. By combining cognitive-behavioral paradigms and ex vivo brain MRI to assess mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) phenotype with a validated behavioral model for PTSD, complemented by morphological assessments, this study sought to examine our ability to evaluate the biobehavioral effects of low-intensity blast overpressure on rats, in a translationally valid manner. There were no significant differences between blast- and sham-exposed rats on motor coordination and strength, or sensory function. Whereas most male rats exposed to the blast-wave displayed normal behavioral and cognitive responses, 23.6% of the rats displayed a significant retardation of spatial learning acquisition, fulfilling criteria for mTBI-like responses. In addition, 5.4% of the blast-exposed animals displayed an extreme response in the behavioral tasks used to define PTSD-like criteria, whereas 10.9% of the rats developed both long-lasting and progressively worsening behavioral and cognitive "symptoms," suggesting comorbid PTSD-mTBI-like behavioral and cognitive response patterns. Neither group displayed changes on MRI. Exposure to experimental blast-wave elicited distinct behavioral and morphological responses modelling mTBI-like, PTSD-like, and comorbid mTBI-PTSD-like responses. This experimental animal model can be a useful tool for elucidating neurobiological mechanisms underlying the effects of blast-wave-induced mTBI and PTSD and comorbid mTBI-PTSD.

This study investigated the benefit of β-alanine (BA) supplementation on behavioral and cognitive responses relating to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in rats exposed to a low-pressure blast wave. Animals were fed a normal diet with or without (PL) BA supplementation (100 mg kg−1) for 30-day, prior to being exposed to a low-pressure blast wave. A third group of animals served as a control (CTL). These animals were fed a normal diet, but were not exposed to the blast. Validated cognitive-behavioral paradigms were used to assess both mTBI and PTSD-like behavior on days 7–14 following the blast. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neuropeptide Y, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and tau protein expressions were analyzed a day later. In addition, brain carnosine and histidine content was assessed as well. The prevalence of animals exhibiting mTBI-like behavior was significantly lower (p = 0.044) in BA than PL (26.5 and 46%, respectively), but no difference (p = 0.930) was noted in PTSD-like behavior between the groups (10.2 and 12.0%, respectively). Carnosine content in the cerebral cortex was higher (p = 0.048) for BA compared to PL, while a trend towards a difference was seen in the hippocampus (p = 0.058) and amygdala (p = 0.061). BDNF expression in the CA1 subregion of PL was lower than BA (p = 0.009) and CTL (p < 0.001), while GFAP expression in CA1 (p = 0.003) and CA3 (p = 0.040) subregions were higher in PL than other groups. Results indicated that BA supplementation for 30-day increased resiliency to mTBI in animals exposed to a low-pressure blast wave.

Shock wave attenuation by means of rigid porous media is often applied when protective structures are dealt with. The passage of a shock wave through a layer of porous medium is accompanied by diffractions and viscous effects that attenuate and weaken the transmitted shock, thus reducing the load that develops on the target wall that is placed behind the protective layer. In the present study, the parameters governing the pressure build-up on the target wall are experimentally investigated using a shock tube facility. Different porous samples are impinged by normal shock waves of various strengths and the subsequent pressure histories that are developed on the target wall are recorded. In addition, different standoff distances from the target wall are investigated. Assuming that the flow through the porous medium is close to being isentropic enabled us to develop a general constitutive model for predicting the pressure history developed on the target wall. This model can be applied to predict the pressure build-up on the target wall for any pressure history that is imposed on the front face of the porous sample without the need to conduct numerous experiments. Results obtained by other investigators are found to be in very good agreement with the predictions of the presently developed constitutive model.

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Studying the nature of transient reflections of shock waves from surfaces is important in many engineering fields, e.g. blast protection, supersonic flights, shock focusing, medical and industrial applications and more. The recent advancements in this field reveal that the major obstacle in better understanding this phenomenon by means of experimental investigations is the limited temporal and spatial resolution. An alternative approach to commonly used high-speed photography is based on the use of a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera that captures only one image per experiment. Using this method to study a transient reflection process necessitates repeating each experiment many times while retaining extremely high repeatability. In the present study, we present a solution to this obstacle by means of a fully automated shock tube facility, which has been developed in the course of this study. A typical experiment can be executed a few hundred times with a repeatability of less than 0.01 in the incident-shock-wave Mach number at moderate shock strengths (M = 1.2-1.4). The system offers a very high spatial and temporal resolution description of the transient reflection process of a shock wave over a coupled convex-concave surface. The study of this complex configuration using a fully automated shock tube enables one to observe, in greater detail than ever before, both the transient transition from regular reflection, RR, to Mach reflection, MR, and the reverse transient transition from MR to RR. The geometry studied can also be found in blunt leading-edge reflectors in which higher pressures were recorded, and the results presented also describe in detail the shock reflection process inside such a reflector. The results highlight and strengthen the recent understanding of the importance of high spatial and temporal resolution in determining the transition process from RR to MR over a coupled concave-convex surface. However, despite achieving very high statistical certainty in the experimental measurements, the question of the difference between the pseudo-steady transition criterion and the experimental results remains unresolved.