The mechanical properties of liver can sensitively indicate the progression of hepatic fibrosis. Mechanical tissue characterization involves the analysis of the complex shear modulus measured either by oscillatory rheometry or by in vivo elastography. In this study, bovine liver specimens were investigated by oscillatory rheometry and multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in a co...

Prediction of the mechanical behavior of thin foils (~25 µm) requires special characterization techniques. The current work is focused on the mechanical and microstructural characterization of 25 µm HAVAR alloy foils following annealing, cold rolling, and subsequent heat treatments, using small punch testing (SPT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission-scanning electron microscopy (TEM). Th...

This study involves the preparation, microstructural, physical, mechanical and biological characterization of novel gelatine and gelatine/elastin gels for their use in the tissue engineering of vascular grafts. Gelatine and gelatin/elastin nanocomposite gels were prepared via a sol-gel process, using soluble gelatine. Gelatine was subsequently crosslinked by leaving the gels in 1% glutaraldehyd...

This study outlines the quantitation and characterization of element oxide nanoparticles (Al2O3, and CeO2) commonly used in the nanoelectronics and semiconductor fabrication industry for the chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) of semiconductor surfaces. CMP is a process of smoothing surfaces with the combination of chemical and mechanical forces in preparation for photolithography. The proc...

Quantitative understanding of the mechanical behavior of biological liquid crystals such as proteins is essential for gaining insight into their biological functions, since some proteins perform notable mechanical functions. Recently, single-molecule experiments have allowed not only the quantitative characterization of the mechanical behavior of proteins such as protein unfolding mechanics, bu...

Mechanical characterization of a two-dimensional Thermal Energy Storage (TES) composite structure that combines the heat storage capability with structural functionality was carried out experimentally. Static and fatigue experiments were conducted for the composite structure under three-point bending at both room temperature and elevated temperature. An energy method model was developed to pred...

Allison M. Beese , Dimitry Papkov , Shuyou Li , Yuris Dzenis *, Horacio D. Espinosa a,* a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208, USA b Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, W315 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA c Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experime...

In the study of full bubble model graphs of bounded clique-width and bounded linear clique-width, we determined complete sets of forbidden induced subgraphs, that are minimal in the class of full bubble model graphs. In this note, we show that (almost all of) these graphs are minimal in the class of all graphs. As a corollary, we can give sets of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for graphs o...

Forbidden minors and subdivisions for toroidal graphs are numerous. In contrast, the toroidal graphs with no K3,3’s have a nice explicit structure and short lists of obstructions. For these graphs, we provide the complete lists of four forbidden minors and eleven forbidden subdivisions.

A graph is 1-extendible if every edge has a 1-factor containing it. A 1-extendible non-bipartite graph G is said to be near bipartite if there exist edges e1 and e2 such that G − {e1, e2} is 1-extendible and bipartite. We characterise the Pfaffian near bipartite graphs in terms of forbidden subgraphs. The theorem extends an earlier characterisation of Pfaffian bipartite graphs.