The murine tibia compression model, is the gold standard for studying bone adaptation due to mechanical loading in vivo. Currently, a key limitation of the experimental protocol and associated finite element (FE) models is that the exact load transfer, and consequently the loading conditions on the tibial plateau, is unknown. Often in FE models, load is applied to the tibial plateau based on inferences from micro-computed tomography (μCT). Experimental models often use a single strain gauge to assess the three-dimensional (3D) loading state. However, a single strain gauge is insufficient to validate such FE models. To address this challenge, we develop an experimentally calibrated method for identifying the load application region on the tibial plateau based upon measurements from three strain gauges. To achieve this, axial compression was conducted on mouse tibiae (n=3), with strains gauges on three surfaces. FE simulations were performed to compute the strains at the gauge locations as a function of a variable load location. By minimising the error between experimental and FE strains, the precise load location was identified; this was found to vary between tibia specimens. It was further shown that commonly used FE loading conditions, found in literature, did not replicate the experimental strain distribution, highlighting the importance of load calibration. This work provides critical insights into how load is transferred to the tibial plateau. Importantly, this work develops an experimentally informed technique for loading the tibial plateau in FE models.

Layered graphitic materials exhibit new intriguing electronic structure and the search for new types of two-dimensional (2D) monolayer is of importance for the fabrication of next generation miniature electronic and optoelectronic devices. By means of density functional theory (DFT) computations, we investigated in detail the structural, electronic, mechanical and optical properties of the single-layer bismuth iodide (BiI3) nanosheet. Monolayer BiI3 is dynamically stable as confirmed by the computed phonon spectrum. The cleavage energy (Ecl) and interlayer coupling strength of bulk BiI3 are comparable to the experimental values of graphite, which indicates that the exfoliation of BiI3 is highly feasible. The obtained stress-strain curve shows that the BiI3 nanosheet is a brittle material with a breaking strain of 13%. The BiI3 monolayer has an indirect band gap of 1.57 eV with spin orbit coupling (SOC), indicating its potential application for solar cells. Furthermore, the band gap of BiI3 monolayer can be modulated by biaxial strain. Most interestingly, interfacing electrically active graphene with monolayer BiI3 nanosheet leads to enhanced light absorption compared to that in pure monolayer BiI3 nanosheet, highlighting its great potential applications in photonics and photovoltaic solar cells.