We demonstrate that a soft substrate of a stiffness that matches the embryonic stem cell stiffness can promote homogenous self-renewal and pluripotency of these cells, even in the absence of the growth factor-Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF). These findings open the field of stem cell biology for long term culture of embryonic stem cells without generating a heterogeneous population of cells with varying degrees of differentiation and highlight the importance of mechanics in dictating embryonic stem cell pluripotency.

Postdoctoral Fellowship at the CRANN Nanotechnology Institute, Dublin, Ireland

- Available immediately:  A postdoctoral position in the area of nanoscale polymer mechanics for mechanical nanostructure forming and nanoimprint of soft condensed matter and glass forming systems.

I have just volunteered to teach engineering thermodynamics to undergraduates in the Fall semester of 2011.  The students will be from all fields of engineering, primarily mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, and bioengineering.  I have never taught this course before, and would love to hear from you about your experience, either as a student or as a teacher. 

Here is what I have found from the website about the course.

Engineering Science 181 Engineering Thermodynamics

Minisymposium on Multiscale Computation and Modeling of Microstructural Defects in Materials (symposium 9.2)

I would appreciate it if you could tell me the analytical soluton of strain energy of infinite plate with an inclined central crack under tension.

Thanks so much.

Dear Research Comminity,

Please upload a few problems in non-linear buckling problems and solving procedure using ABACUS which helps me to understand the procedure and ABACUS.

Advance Thanks

The latest issue of the WW-EAP Newsletter is now available.  I’m pleased that the issue includes my submission on a recently completed review on the Theory of Dielectric Elastomers.  As usual, the Newsletter contains lots of extremely valuable information, such as new books in the field, and new products.

You are welcome to follow my updates on Twitter:

 http://twitter.com/LeeMargetts

I have funding for software development to provide a UMAT interface in the parallel versions of the code from Smith I.M. and Griffiths D.V. "Programming the Finite Element Method", 4th Edition, Wiley, 2004.



I would be interested to hear about any open source UMATs available for download. I'd also like to hear from anyone who might like to use their closed source UMATs in a parallel environment.



The funding has been awarded by the UK National HPC Service HECToR to encourage the greater use of HECToR for Structural Engineering.

My PhD student Peter Falkingham (who graduated 15 December 2010) has published some interesting papers on Dinosaur Trackways. These might be of interest to those teaching Soil Mechanics, to give some examples that might be more stimulating than foundation design or traditional geotechnical engineering.

References below: