Dynamics of Droplets Moving on Lubricated Polymer Brushes

Understanding the dynamics of drops on polymer-coated surfaces is crucial for optimizing applications such as self-cleaning materials or microfluidic devices. While the static and dynamic properties of deposited drops have been well characterised, a microscopic understanding of the underlying dynamics is missing. In particular, it is unclear how drop dynamics depends on the amount of uncrosslinked chains in the brush, because experimental techniques fail to quantify those. Here we use coarse-grained simulations to study droplets moving on a lubricated polymer brush substrate under the influence of an external body force. The simulation model is based on the many body dissipative particle dynamics (mDPD) method and designed to mimic a system of water droplets on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) brushes with chemically identical PDMS lubricant. In agreement with experiments, we find a sublinear power law dependence between the external force $F$ and the droplet velocity $v$, $F \propto v^\alpha$ with $\alpha <1$; however, the exponents differ ($\alpha \sim 0.6-0.7$ in simulations versus $\alpha \sim 0.25$ in experiments). With increasing velocity, the droplets elongate and the receding contact angle decreases, whereas the advancing contact angle remains roughly constant. Analyzing the flow profiles inside the droplet reveals that the droplets do not slide, but roll, with vanishing slip at the substrate surface. Surprisingly, adding lubricant has very little effect on the effective friction force between the droplet and the substrate, even though it has a pronounced effect on the size and structure of the wetting ridge, especially above the cloaking transition

Ramanovi i fotoluminescentni spektri čistih i kositrom obogaćenih tankih slojeva CdS pripremljenih prskanjem i pirolizom

Thin films of CdS, pure and enriched with different concentrations of tin up to 6%, were prepared by the spray pyrolysis technique. All samples were prepared at the deposition temperature of 420 ◦C. The XRD diagnostic data of the investigated samples revealed the polycrystalline nature of the as-deposited samples. The main characteristic peaks of CdS appeared in both pure and enriched films prepared by all used methods. The enrichment of Sn has no effect on positions of the characteristic peaks. The observed effect of Sn enrichment is the change in peak broadening which increases with the increase of Sn concentration. The thickness values ranged from 0.65 up to 1.15 µm. The samples of pure CdS show a sharp absorption edge at about 2.43 eV. The absorption coefficient α of the investigated samples was calculated from transmission and reflection spectra. Photoluminescence measurements show red emission band of the as-deposited samples, which was quenched by Sn incorporation. This band is ascribed to the excess of Cd which was checked by the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometry. Raman spectra of samples with different concentrations of Sn were studied. They show remarkable increase of intensity when increasing the film thickness and decreasing the Sn concentration.Metodom prskanja i pirolize pripremali smo čiste i do 6% kositrom obogaćene tanke slojeve CdS. Sve uzorke smo pripremali na temperaturi polaganja od 420 ◦C. XRD spektri ispitivanih uzoraka pokazuju polikristaliničnu strukturu. Glavni karakteristični vrhovi CdS vide se i u čistim i u obogaćenim uzorcima pripremljenim primijenjenim metodama. Obogaćenje kositrom nema utjecaja na položaje karakterističnih vrhova. Međutim, javlja se proširenje vrhova koje se povećava pri povećanim koncentracijama kositra. Izmjerene i izračunate debljine slojeva su u skladu. Debljine slojeva bile su između 0.65 i 1.15 µm. Uzorci CdS pokazuju oštar apsorpcijski rub na oko 2.43 eV. Apsorpcijske koeficijente α ispitivanih uzoraka smo izveli iz transmisijskih i refleksijskih spektara. Mjerenja fotoluminescencije pokazuju crvenu emisijsku vrpcu koja trne dodavanjem kositra. Ta se vrpca tumači viškom Cd što smo potvrdili disperzivnom rendgenskom spektrometrijom (EDX). Proučavali smo i Ramanove spektre uzoraka s raznim koncentracijama kositra. Oni pokazuju snažan porast intenziteta za slojeve veće debljine i manje koncentracije kositra

Hepatocellular proliferation in response to agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha: a role for kupffer cells?

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that PPARα agonists stimulate Kupffer cells in rodents which in turn, release mitogenic factors leading to hepatic hyperplasia, and eventually cancer. However, Kupffer cells do not express PPARα receptors, and PPARα agonists stimulate hepatocellular proliferation in both TNFα- and TNFα receptor-null mice, casting doubt on the involvement of Kupffer cells in the mitogenic response to PPARα agonists. This study was therefore designed to investigate whether the PPARα agonist PFOA and the Kupffer cell inhibitor methylpalmitate produce opposing effects on hepatocellular proliferation and Kupffer cell activity in vivo, in a manner that would implicate these cells in the mitogenic effects of PPARα agonists. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated intravenously via the tail vein with methylpalmitate 24 hrs prior to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and were sacrificed 24 hrs later, one hr after an intraperitoneal injection of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). Sera were analyzed for TNFα and IL-1β. Liver sections were stained immunohistochemically and quantified for BrdU incorporated into DNA. RESULTS: Data show that PFOA remarkably stimulated hepatocellular proliferation in the absence of significant changes in the serum levels of either TNFα or IL-1β. In addition, methylpalmitate did not alter the levels of these mitogens in PFOA-treated animals, despite the fact that it significantly blocked the hepatocellular proliferative effect of PFOA. Correlation between hepatocellular proliferation and serum levels of TNFα or IL-1β was extremely poor. CONCLUSION: It is unlikely that mechanisms involving Kupffer cells play an eminent role in the hepatic hyperplasia, and consequently hepatocarcinogenicity attributed to PPARα agonists. This conclusion is based on the above mentioned published data and the current findings showing animals treated with PFOA alone or in combination with methylpalmitate to have similar levels of serum TNFα and IL-1β, which are reliable indicators of Kupffer cell activity, despite a remarkable difference in hepatocellular proliferation

Draft Genome Sequence of Photorhabdus luminescens Strain BA1, an Entomopathogenic Bacterium Isolated from Nematodes Found in Egypt

Photorhabdus luminescens strain BA1 is an entomopathogenic bacterium that forms a symbiotic association with Heterorhabditis nematodes. We report here a 5.0-Mbp draft genome sequence for P. luminscens strain BA1, with a G+C content of 42.46% and 4,250 candidate protein-coding genes

Electrowinning of Nonnoble Metals with Simultaneous Hydrogen Evolution at Flow-Through Porous Electrodes III. Time Effects

The electrowinning of zinc from a recirculating alkaline zincate solution at a flow-through porous electrode was investigated. Experimental results were obtained to test the predictions of a mathematical model. The effects of electrolyte flow rate, cell current, and electrode thickness on the concentration-time relations and coulombic efficiency-time relations were studied. The experimental results show that the highest recovery rate was obtained at both high flow rates and cell currents. There is, however, a practical limit for increasing both the cell current and the electrolyte flow rate. Reasonable agreement between the model predictions and experimental results was obtained. A case study is presented to show how the model equations are used to predict the relationship between time, cell current, flow rate, and coulombs passed which are required to recover 95% of the zinc content of the electrolyte

Draft Genome Sequence of Photorhabdus temperata Strain Meg1, an Entomopathogenic Bacterium Isolated from Heterorhabditis megidis Nematodes

Photorhabdus temperata strain Meg1 is an entomopathogenic bacterium that forms a symbiotic association with Heterorhabditis nematodes. We report here a 4.9-Mbp draft genome sequence for P. temperata strain Meg1, with a G+C content of 43.18% and containing 4,340 candidate protein-coding genes

Temperature and Field Dependence of the Energy Gap of MgB2/Pb planar junction

We have constructed MgB2/Pb planar junctions for both temperature and field dependence studies. Our results show that the small gap is a true bulk property of MgB2 superconductor, not due to surface effects. The temperature dependence of the energy gap manifests a nearly BCS-like behavior. Analysis of the effect of magnetic field on junctions suggests that the energy gap of MgB2 depends non-linearly on the magnetic field. Moreover, MgB2 has an upper critical field of 15 T, in agreement with some reported Hc2 from transport measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.