We consider a soft elastic matrix that contains particulate inclusions and is bounded by a rigid wall, e.g., the substrate. Such a situation arises in elastic composite materials. They may serve as soft actuators when forces are imposed on or induced between the embedded particles. We investigate how the presence of the rigid wall affects the interactions between the inclusions. First, for no-s...

We modeled the source rupture process of the 20 September 1999 ChiChi, Taiwan, earthquake (Mw 7.6) using an integrated dataset of near-field strong ground motion and Global Positioning System observations. This large inland thrust earthquake produced a surface break more than 80 km long along the Chelungpu fault. The event triggered over 700 strong-motion instruments on the island of Taiwan. Th...

Mechanical drift is a long-standing problem in optical microscopy that occurs in all three dimensions. This drift increasingly limits the resolution of advanced surface-coupled, single-molecule experiments. We overcame this drift and achieved atomic-scale stabilization (0.1 nm) of an optical microscope in 3D. This was accomplished by measuring the position of a fiducial mark coupled to the micr...

We address the problem of distinguishing between two sources of disagreement in annotations: genuine subjectivity and slip of attention. The latter is especially likely when the classification task has a default class, as in tasks where annotators need to find instances of the phenomenon of interest, such as in a metaphor detection task discussed here. We apply and extend a data analysis techni...

Microstructural evolutions of twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel during tensile straining were investigated by in situ SEM observations. The results indicated that slip lines and mechanical twins as well as surface relief were increased with increasing strain, resulting in a stepped surface. Additionally, these deformation mechanisms could change the shape of each grain via shear and rota...

When we manipulate small objects, our fingertips are generally subjected to tangential torques about the axis normal to the grasp surface in addition to linear forces tangential to the grasp surface. Tangential torques can arise because the normal force is distributed across the contact area rather than focused at a point. We investigated the effects of tangential torques and tangential forces ...

Determination of co-seismic slip resistance in earth faults is critical for understanding the magnitude of shear-stress reduction and hence the near-fault acceleration that can occur during earthquakes. Also, knowledge of shear resistance dependency on slip velocity, slip distance, normal stress, and surface roughness is fundamental information for understanding earthquake physics and the energ...

Near-field co-seismic GPS data were used to derive the slip distribution of the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Based on field measurements and geological observations, the earthquake is represented by ruptures on the Beichuan fault and a neighboring fault from Pengxian to Guanxian, both dipping with a decreasing angle with depth. Using a layered elastic crust model, we obtained a slip model t...