If the floor is considered as a collection of slabs, the edge and corner stresses may be reduced in each slab by transferring some of the load to the adjacent slabs. Childs and Kapernick found that, if load transfer was provided between slabs, by means of dowel-bars for example, the corner stress in curled slabs was reduced by approximately 30% and the edge stress by approximately 15%, making the edge stresses critical in some cases. Load-transfer devices between slabs also reduce differential settlement, resulting in greatly reduced damage at joint arrises. Childs and Kapernick also found that corner deflections of curled free slabs were reduced by 30-40% when dowel-bars were used for load transfer.