Applying prestress is the key technique of the cable dome. However, it is difficult to ensure that designed prestress of cables have been exactly applied to the structure in the site due to the fact that various kinds of errors will be introduced during construction. Thus it is necessary to present an effective method to guide construction to avoid construction team regulate the real prestress ...

Mechanical stresses on the myocyte nucleus have been associated with several diseases and potentially transduce mechanical stimuli into cellular responses. Although a number of physical links between the nuclear envelope and cytoplasmic filaments have been identified, previous studies have focused on the mechanical properties of individual components of the nucleus, such as the nuclear envelope...

A protein at equilibrium is commonly thought of as a fully relaxed structure, with the intra-molecular interactions showing fluctuations around their energy minimum. In contrast, here we find direct evidence for a protein as a molecular tensegrity structure, comprising a balance of tensed and compressed interactions, a concept that has been put forward for macroscopic structures. We quantified ...

Mechanical properties of living cells are commonly described in terms of the laws of continuum mechanics. The purpose of this report is to consider the implications of an alternative approach that emphasizes the discrete nature of stress bearing elements in the cell and is based on the known structural properties of the cytoskeleton. We have noted previously that tensegrity architecture seems t...

In this paper, the linear vibrations of thermally prestressed beams are studied, including the prebending effects. General equations governing structural vibrations superimposed on an initial static state are first given. They are applied to a planar Euler-Bernoulli beam under the assumption of small prestrain and large predisplacement. Initial imperfections are included in the whole analysis. ...

Recent advances in abrasive waterjet (AWJ) technology have resulted in new processes for surface treatment that are capable of introducing compressive residual stresses with simultaneous changes in the surface texture. While the surface residual stress resulting from AWJ peening has been examined, the subsurface residual stress field resulting from this process has not been evaluated. In the pr...

The functions of gamma-sarcoglycan (gammaSG) in normal myotubes are largely unknown, however gammaSG is known to assemble into a key membrane complex with dystroglycan and its deficiency is one known cause of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Previous findings of apoptosis from gammaSG-deficient mice are extended here to cell culture where apoptosis is seen to increase more than tenfold in gammaS...

Measuring the viscoelastic behavior of highly hydrated biological materials is challenging because of their intrinsic softness and labile nature. In these materials, it is difficult to avoid prestress and therefore to establish precise initial stress and strain conditions for lumped parameter estimation using creep or stress-relaxation (SR) tests. We describe a method ( ɛ˙M or epsilon dot metho...

Explanation of the excessive deflections of the Koror-Babeldaob (KB) Bridge in Palau is presented. This bridge was built in 1977 by the cantilever method and collapsed 3 months after remedial prestressing in 1996. It was a segmental prestressed concrete girder having the worldrecord span of 241 m (790 ft.) and maximum girder depth of 14.17 m (46.5 ft). The final mid-span deflection was in desig...