The effect of aspect ratio on the pull-off stress and stiffness of soft elastic fibres is studied using elasticity and numerical analysis. The adhesive interface between a soft fibre and a smooth rigid surface is modelled using the Dugdale-Barenblatt model. Numerical simulations show that, while pull-off stress increases with decreasing aspect ratio, fibres get stiffer. Also, for sufficiently l...

The incidence of hyper-contracted giant fibres in pig postmortem skeletal muscle is closely related to poor meat quality in terms of pale, soft, and exudative pork. Detection of a predisposition to develop giant fibres in live pigs could help to predict pork quality and to exclude affected pigs from genetic selection. The abundance and proportion of giant fibres in longissimus muscle were highe...

ODC-844.2 The ability o f the soft rot fungus Humicola alopallonella Meyers & Moore to form cavities in various cellulose fibres has been studied. The following fibre materials were tested: wood of aspen, beech, birch, pine and spruce, three sulphate pulps with different lignin content, spruce holocellulose, Avicel, Sigmacell T38, flax, jute, ramie, sisal, cotton, kapok, seed hairs o f Salix pe...

Oral submucous fibrosis is a chronic debilitating disease of oral mucosa and is characterized by generalized fibrosis of the oral soft tissues which tends to present itself clinically as palpable vertical fibrous bands. Traditionally, stains such as vanGeison and various forms of trichrome have been used to detect collagen fibres in tissues. Thick and thin collagen fibres play a vital role in m...

We have compared the density of nerve fibres in the synovium in club foot with that of specimens obtained from the synovium of the hip at operations for developmental dysplasia. The study focused on the sensory neuropeptides substance P; calcitonin gene-related peptide; protein gene product 9.5, a general marker for mature peripheral nerve fibres; and growth associated protein 43, a neuronal ma...

This study investigates the relative effect of soft tissue properties on the overall response of a human spinal motion segment using an osseo-ligamentous FE model of the Visible Man L3-L4 intervertebral joint. Model geometry was obtained from the Visible Man CT dataset using custom built image processing software. Non-linear soft tissue properties were obtained from the literature. Displacement...

The cylindrical shape of soft-bodied invertebrates is well suited to functions in skeletal support and locomotion, but may result in a previously unrecognized cost-large non-uniformities in muscle strain and strain rate among the circular muscle fibres of the body wall. We investigated such gradients of strain and strain rate in the mantle of eight long-finned squid Doryteuthis pealeii and two ...

In 2007, research was carried out to determine the type and amount of asbestos fibers in a Croatian factory with a long history of making asbestos-containing products.Since the 1970s, asbestos fibres have been considered carcinogenic in humans i.e as a known cancer-causing agent. In the environment, asbestos fibres are inactive and naturally resist biodegradation. In time, fibres can only be gr...

Nanotips are used as electron point sources in the Fresnel projection microscope (FPM). The FPM allows imaging in direct space of free standing nanometric fibres at working voltages around 200 V with observation of details of less than one nanometer. These observations are made without irradiation damage, particularly useful for soft materials such as organic or biological molecules (polymers a...

Understanding the compatibility between spider silk and conducting materials is essential to advance the use of spider silk in electronic applications. Spider silk is tough, but becomes soft when exposed to water. Here we report a strong affinity of amine-functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes for spider silk, with coating assisted by a water and mechanical shear method. The nanotubes adh...