Spider silk is a fascinating natural composite material. Its combination of strength and toughness is unrivalled in nature, and as a result, it has gained considerable interest from the medical, physics, and materials communities. Most of this attention has focused on the one to tens of nanometer scale: predominantly the primary (peptide sequences) and secondary (β sheets, helices, and amorphou...

The ability of staining slurries containing silver and/or potassium compounds to enhance the mechanical properties of a leucite-reinforced glass ceramic (IPS Empress CAD) was investigated by measuring the Vickers hardness, median crack length, toughness, and compressive residual stress of specimens. A staining slurry containing potassium ions was found to increase the toughness of IPS specimens...

Modern processing techniques for turkey involve rapid chilling to slow microbial growth and early deboning of the economically important breast meat. This paper shows that these 2 processes lead to significantly tougher meat with higher cooking losses. The toughening appears to be due to less extensive proteolysis and shortening of the sarcomeres. Calpains I and II and their inhibitor, calpasta...

We have revealed the fundamental embryonic structure of deformation twins using in situ mechanical testing of magnesium single crystals in a transmission electron microscope. This structure consists of an array of twin-related laths on the scale of several nanometers. A computational model demonstrates that this structure should be a generic feature at the incipient stage of deformation twinnin...

Experimental studies on basalt fiber have been performed in China and abroad. Specifically, the compressive properties, flexural properties, splitting tensile properties and impact test behavior of chopped basalt fiber-reinforced concrete have been investigated. In addition, the effects of the mixing amount of fibers on the mechanical properties of C30 concrete were scrutinized, and the best mi...

We have conducted a study of toughening mechanisms in rubber modified polycarbonate systems in order to evaluate the sequence of deformation events which improve fracture toughness. We conclude that cavitation of the rubber particles occurs first, followed by massive shear yielding of the matrix material. The size and shape of the deformation zone created in front of the crack is governed by th...