An upright body posture cannot be maintained passively for reasons including a high location of the centre of gravity (COG) and a small support area. Proper alignment of body parts is maintained automatically, tending towards a pattern encoded in the CNS. A particularly important role in posture regulation is played by the short muscles of the back, which respond to being stretched with a contr...

We study elasticity-mediated alignment of anisotropic gold colloids in liquid crystals. Colloidal gold particles of controlled shapes (spheres, rods, and polygonal platelets) and sizes are prepared using well-established biosynthesis techniques with varying solvent conditions. When introduced into liquid crystalline structured solvents, these gold particles impose tangential or vertical surface...

A novel self-assembled, surface-micromachined micro-XYZ stage with large displacements and fine positioning accuracy has been demonstrated on Si microoptical bench for optical scanning/alignment applications. Continuous lateral scanning up to 120 pm and vertical scanning up to 250 pm have been achieved with integrated scratch drive actuators (SDA), which have step resolutions of 27 nm. The X Y ...

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multiple linear regression model that describes the pavement’s friction behaviour using a degradation evolution law that also considers the effects of weather, vertical alignment and traffic factors. This study is based on real data obtained from two different highways with an approximate total length of 43 km. These sections present different alignment...

A mixture of two polyamic acids, one having an alkyl side chain and ordinarily used for vertical liquid crystal alignment, and the other without a side chanin and ordinarily used for planar alignment, is deposited on two substrates and baked at high temperatures. When the resulting cell is filled with the liquid crystal pentyl cyanobiphenyl, it is found that the pretilt angle θ0 is a function o...

Singapore Airlines has consistently outperformed its competitors throughout its history, in the context of an unforgiving industry environment. We examine how Singapore Airlines has achieved its outstanding performance and sustained its competitive advantage, through effectively implementing a dual strategy: differentiation through service excellence and innovation, together with simultaneous c...

IF A prosthetic device is to give optimum service to the amputee, it must always be properly fitted, regardless of its mechanical excellence. This is especially true in the case of the lower extremity, where the prosthesis must function continually and where poor fit or alignment will lead quickly to rejection of the device by the wearer. Among prosthetists there seems to be general agreement t...

Shield metal arc welding on the high strength low alloy steels in pipelines to transport natural gas from Iran is of great importance. In this article the effects of annealing heat treatment on properties of multi pass welding in different situations (6-4:30 , 4:30-3 , 3-1:30 , 1:30-12) with 36 in outside diameter is evaluated by chemical,  metallography, tensile, toughness and hardness. Tensil...

In chromatographic profiling applications, peak alignment is often essential as most chromatographic systems exhibit small peak shifts over time. When using currently available alignment algorithms, there are several parameters that determine the outcome of the alignment process. Selecting the optimum set of parameters, however, is not straightforward, and the quality of an alignment result is ...

A novel microactuated micro-XYZ stage with large travel distance and fine positioning capability has been demonstrated using the surface-micromachming technology. The micro-XYZ stage consists of three inplane translation stages driven by integrated scratch drive actuators. Two vertically stacked 45" micromirrors in orthogonal directions are employed to achieve vertical beam adjustment without u...