S U M M A R Y The forces that cause deformation of western North America have been debated for decades. Recent studies, primarily based on analysis of crustal stresses in the western United States, have suggested that the deformation of the region ismainly controlled by gravitational potential energy (GPE) variations and boundary loads, with basal tractions due to mantle flow playing a relative...

The ability of living cells to exert physical forces upon their surrounding is a necessary prerequisite for diverse biological processes, such as local cellular migrations in wound healing to metastatic-invasion of cancer. How forces are coopted in metastasis has remained unclear, however, because the mechanical interplay between cancer cells and the various stromal components has not been expe...

The lens capsule of the eye functions, in part, as a deformable support through which the ciliary body applies tractions that can alter lens curvature and corresponding refractive power during the process of accommodation. Although it has long been recognized that characterization of the mechanical properties of the lens capsule is fundamental to understanding this physiologic process as well a...

We employ the Airy stress function to derive analytical solutions for plane strain static deformations of a functionally graded (FG) hollow circular cylinder with Young’s modulus E and Poisson’s ratio v taken to be functions of the radius r . For E1 and v1 power law functions of r , and for E1 an exponential but v1 an affine function of r , we derive explicit expressions for stresses and displa...