The paper compares and discusses displacement ductility ratios of reinforced concrete walls typically used in one- and two-story houses. Ductility is investigated by assessing response measured on 39 walls tested under shaking table excitations and quasi-static lateral loads. Variables studied were the height-to-length ratio and walls with openings, type of concrete and, steel ratio and type of web reinforcement. An equation to estimate the available ductility of a wall is proposed. Based on statistical analysis of data, values of displacement ductility capacity are recommended. Displacement ductility ratios can be used to compute both strength modification and displacement amplification factors for code-based seismic design.

Nowadays, the development or improvement of soft actuation mechanisms is a crucial topic for the achievement of dexterous manipulation using. Then, a primary target of research is the design of actuation and driving devices. Consequently, in this paper, we introduce a soft driving epicyclical mechanism that mimics human muscle behavior and fulfills motion requirements to achieve grasping gestures using a robotic finger. The prototype is experimentally assessed, and results show that our approach has enough performance for the implementation in grasping tasks. Furthermore, we introduce the basis for a new soft epicyclical mechanism merger with shape memory alloys to allow active stiffness control of the mechanism.

This study reviews and analyzes the different auxetic materials that have been developed in recent years. The search for research articles was carried out through one of the largest databases such as ScienceDirect, where 845 articles were collected, of which several filters were carried out to have a base of 386 articles. There are a variety of materials depending on their structure, composition, and industrial application, highlighting biomedical applications from tissue engineering, cell proliferation, skeletal muscle regeneration, transportation, bio-prosthesis to biomaterial. The present paper provides an overview of auxetic materials and its applications, providing a guide for designers and manufacturers of devices and accessories in any industry.