Metamaterial architecture from a self-shaping carnivorous plant.

As meticulously observed and recorded by Darwin, the leaves of the carnivorous plant L. slowly fold around insects trapped on their sticky surface in order to ensure their digestion. While the biochemical signaling driving leaf closure has been associated with plant growth hormones, how mechanical forces actuate the process is still unknown.

Crack growth and energy dissipation in paper.

Here, we follow the stable propagation of a roughening crack using simultaneously Digital Image Correlation and Infra-Red imaging. In a quasi-two-dimensional paper sample, the crack tip and ahead of that the fracture process zone follow the slowly, diffusively moving "hot spot" ahead of the tip. This also holds when the crack starts to roughen during propagation.

Vitamin D-fortified milk did not affect glycemic control, lipid profile, and anthropometric measures in patients with type 2 diabetes, a triple-blind randomized clinical trial.

Background/objectives: The effect of vitamin D on glycemic status of diabetes patients is controversial. The objective was to assess the effect of vitamin D-fortified milk on cardiometabolic markers of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Subjects/methods: In this randomized triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 102 patients (34 males and 68 females) aged 31-74 years with type 2 diabetes were randomized to receive either 250 ml unfortified or 250 ml 1000 IU vitamin D-fortified milk daily for 9 weeks.

Structural and mechanical features of the order-disorder transition in experimental hard-sphere packings.

Here we present an experimental and numerical investigation on the grain-scale geometrical and mechanical properties of partially crystallized structures made of macroscopic frictional grains. Crystallization is inevitable in arrangements of monosized hard spheres with packing densities exceeding Bernal's limiting density ϕ(Bernal)≈0.64.

Mechanical characterization of partially crystallized sphere packings.

We study grain-scale mechanical and geometrical features of partially crystallized packings of frictional spheres, produced experimentally by a vibrational protocol. By combining x-ray computed tomography, 3D image analysis, and discrete element method simulations, we have access to the 3D structure of internal forces. We investigate how the network of mechanical contacts and intergranular forces change when the packing structure evolves from amorphous to near perfect crystalline arrangements.