19,559 research outputs found
Bursts of activity in collective cell migration
Dense monolayers of living cells display intriguing relaxation dynamics,
reminiscent of soft and glassy materials close to the jamming transition, and
migrate collectively when space is available, as in wound healing or in cancer
invasion. Here we show that collective cell migration occurs in bursts that are
similar to those recorded in the propagation of cracks, fluid fronts in porous
media and ferromagnetic domain walls. In analogy with these systems, the
distribution of activity bursts displays scaling laws that are universal in
different cell types and for cells moving on different substrates. The main
features of the invasion dynamics are quantitatively captured by a model of
interacting active particles moving in a disordered landscape. Our results
illustrate that collective motion of living cells is analogous to the
corresponding dynamics in driven, but inanimate, systems
Development of static system procedures to study aquatic biofilms and their responses to disinfection and invading species
The microbial ecology facility in the Analytical and Physical Chemistry Branch at Marshall Space Flight Center is tasked with anticipation of potential microbial problems (and opportunities to exploit microorganisms) which may occur in partially closed systems such as space station/vehicles habitats and in water reclamation systems therein, with particular emphasis on the degradation of materials. Within this context, procedures for microbial biofilm research are being developed. Reported here is the development of static system procedures to study aquatic biofilms and their responses to disinfection and invading species. Preliminary investigations have been completed. As procedures are refined, it will be possible to focus more closely on the elucidation of biofilm phenomena
Large-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations of complex fluids: advances through the advent of computational grids
During the last two years the RealityGrid project has allowed us to be one of
the few scientific groups involved in the development of computational grids.
Since smoothly working production grids are not yet available, we have been
able to substantially influence the direction of software development and grid
deployment within the project. In this paper we review our results from large
scale three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulations performed over the last
two years. We describe how the proactive use of computational steering and
advanced job migration and visualization techniques enabled us to do our
scientific work more efficiently. The projects reported on in this paper are
studies of complex fluid flows under shear or in porous media, as well as
large-scale parameter searches, and studies of the self-organisation of liquid
cubic mesophases.
Movies are available at
http://www.ica1.uni-stuttgart.de/~jens/pub/05/05-PhilTransReview.htmlComment: 18 pages, 9 figures, 4 movies available, accepted for publication in
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London Series
Statistics of precursors to fingering processes
We present an analysis of the statistical properties of hydrodynamic field
fluctuations which reveal the existence of precursors to fingering processes.
These precursors are found to exhibit power law distributions, and these power
laws are shown to follow from spatial -Gaussian structures which are
solutions to the generalized non-linear diffusion equation.Comment: 7 pages incl. 5 figs; tp appear in Europhysics Letter
Two-dimensional hydrodynamic lattice-gas simulations of binary immiscible and ternary amphiphilic fluid flow through porous media
The behaviour of two dimensional binary and ternary amphiphilic fluids under
flow conditions is investigated using a hydrodynamic lattice gas model. After
the validation of the model in simple cases (Poiseuille flow, Darcy's law for
single component fluids), attention is focussed on the properties of binary
immiscible fluids in porous media. An extension of Darcy's law which explicitly
admits a viscous coupling between the fluids is verified, and evidence of
capillary effects are described. The influence of a third component, namely
surfactant, is studied in the same context. Invasion simulations have also been
performed. The effect of the applied force on the invasion process is reported.
As the forcing level increases, the invasion process becomes faster and the
residual oil saturation decreases. The introduction of surfactant in the
invading phase during imbibition produces new phenomena, including
emulsification and micellisation. At very low fluid forcing levels, this leads
to the production of a low-resistance gel, which then slows down the progress
of the invading fluid. At long times (beyond the water percolation threshold),
the concentration of remaining oil within the porous medium is lowered by the
action of surfactant, thus enhancing oil recovery. On the other hand, the
introduction of surfactant in the invading phase during drainage simulations
slows down the invasion process -- the invading fluid takes a more tortuous
path to invade the porous medium -- and reduces the oil recovery (the residual
oil saturation increases).Comment: 48 pages, 26 figures. Phys. Rev. E (in press
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