We have previously shown that abduction angular perturbations applied to the knee consistently elicit reflex responses in knee joint musculature. Although a stabilizing role for such reflexes is widely proposed, there are as of yet no studies quantifying the contribution of these reflex responses to joint stiffness. In this study, we estimate the mechanical contributions of muscle contractions ...

Theropod dinosaurs show striking morphological and functional tail variation; e.g., a long, robust, basal theropod tail used for counterbalance, or a short, modern avian tail used as an aerodynamic surface. We used a quantitative morphological and functional analysis to reconstruct intervertebral joint stiffness in the tail along the theropod lineage to extant birds. This provides new details o...

We study the influence of the contact stiffness and the ration between cantilever and tip lengths on the resonance frequencies and sensitivities of lateral cantilever modes. We derive expressions to determine both the effective resonance frequency and the mode sensitivity of an atomic force microscope (AFM) rectangular cantilever. Once the contact stiffness is given, the resonance frequency and...

Open arthrolysis is an effective way to treat elbow stiffness. However, previous approaches led to significant surgical trauma. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the outcome of open arthrolysis with limited medial and lateral approaches combined with hinged external fixation to treat elbow stiffness. A total of 18 patients (18 elbows) with elbow stiffness were retrospectively review...

The outrigger truss system is one of the most frequently used lateral load resisting structural systems. However, little research has been reported on the effect of installation of outrigger trusses on improvement of lateral stiffness of a high-rise building through full-scale measurements. In this paper, stiffness changes of a high-rise building due to installation of outrigger trusses have be...

This paper proposes a simple mathematical tyre model that estimates tyre cornering stiffness. The model is derived by considering the tyre to be a combination of two independent systems. The sidewalls are assumed to be negligibly stiff in the lateral direction, and hence their influence on the lateral dynamics of the tyre will be ignored. The belt and tread area of the tyre will be considered t...

The outer hair cell (OHC) lateral wall is a unique trilaminate structure consisting of the plasma membrane, the cortical lattice, and subsurface cisternae. OHCs are capable of altering their length in response to transmembrane voltage change. This so-called electromotile response is presumed to result from conformational changes of membrane-bound protein molecules, named prestin. OHC motility i...

The race towards new heights and architecture has not been without challenges. Tall structures have continued to climb higher and higher facing strange loading effects and very high loading values due to dominating lateral loads. The design criteria for tall buildings are strength, serviceability, stability and human comfort. But the factors govern the design of tall and slender buildings all t...

BACKGROUND Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries often occur during landing, with female athletes at higher injury risk than male athletes. Interestingly, female dancers have lower ACL injury rates than do female athletes in general. HYPOTHESIS Female dancers will have earlier and greater lower extremity muscle activity and higher sagittal knee joint and leg stiffness than will female bas...