Quantum spin Hall system can exhibit exotic spin transport phenomena, mediated by its topological edge states. Here the concept of bending strain engineering to tune the spin transport properties of a quantum spin Hall system is demonstrated. We show that bending strain can be used to control the spin orientation of counter-propagating edge states of a quantum spin system to generate a non-zero...

Shearing stress of wheat stalk was measured for four moisture content levels (15, 25, 35 and 45%, w.b.), three cutting heights (100, 200 and 300 mm), two types of cutting knives, smooth and serrated edge and three blades oblique angle (0, 15 and 30 deg.). The results of data analysis showed that the shearing stress of wheat stems decreased as the moisture content decreased. The shearing force o...

At various points in my career I’ve been taught time-management skills. Despite this, time seems as slippery as ever, and rarely does what it’s told. When I was a junior doctor, my time was managed by my pager. Now, the appointment book is in charge. Each name in the list stares back at me with a perfect rectangle surrounding it. There’s a gap in the names that corresponds with lunchtime. There...

Photomechanical nanocomposites embedded with light-absorbing nanoparticles show promising applications in photoresponsive actuations. Near infrared (nIR)-responsive nanocomposites based photomechanical soft actuators can offer lightweight functional and underexploited entry into soft robotics, active optics, drug delivery, etc. A novel graphene-based photomechanical soft actuators, constituted ...

The present work is an experimental account of the way in which several machine settings, particularly cylinder knock-over and dial-height, influence fabric dimensions, course length, bending behavior and load extension of fabrics produced on a circular knitting machine. The results show that there are certain optimum settings for such variables as knock-over depth and dial-height for producing...

An analysis of the electronic properties of amorphous semiconductor–electrolyte junction is reported for thin (Dox < 20 nm) passive film grown on Nb in acidic electrolyte. It will be shown that the theory of amorphous semiconductor–electrolyte junction (a-SC/El) both in the low band-bending and high band-bending regime is able to explain the admittance data of a-Nb2O5/El interface in a large ra...

The unique bending and shape-preserving properties of optical Airy beams offer a large range of applications in for example beam routing, optical waveguiding, particle manipulation and plasmonics. In these applications and others, the Airy beam may experience nonlinear light-matter interactions which in turn modify the Airy beam properties and propagation. A well-known example is light self-foc...

Research in bone diseases like osteoporosis is motivated by its immense social impact and health care costs. While there are numerous studies about the influence of bone mineral density and microarchitectural properties on the mechanical properties of trabecular bone, little is known about the influence of bone matrix material properties. In this communication, we present novel ways for combini...

The main design criteria of ballasted railway tracks include rail deflections, rail bending stresses, rail wheel contact stresses, sleeper bending moments and ballast sleeper contact pressures. Numerous criteria have been defined for the design of ballasted railway tracks owing to the various mechanical properties of track components and their complex interaction. Therefore, railway track desig...

This paper presents a new framework for recovering superquadrics with global deformations from multi-view real range data. The framework aims at improving confidence and accuracy of recovered models by utilizing multiview information, and consists of the initial superquadric model recovery, view registration, view integration, and final model recovery from integrated data. A quadrant analysis t...