506 research outputs found
Environmental risk assessment of poorly soluble substances: Improved tools for assessing biodegradation, (de)sorption, and modeling (project RABIT)
Environmental risk assessment of poorly soluble substances: Improved tools for assessing biodegradation, (de)sorption, and modeling (project RABIT)
Dissipation in Dynamics of a Moving Contact Line
The dynamics of the deformations of a moving contact line is studied assuming
two different dissipation mechanisms. It is shown that the characteristic
relaxation time for a deformation of wavelength of a contact line
moving with velocity is given as . The velocity
dependence of is shown to drastically depend on the dissipation
mechanism: we find for the case when the dynamics is governed
by microscopic jumps of single molecules at the tip (Blake mechanism), and
when viscous hydrodynamic losses inside the moving
liquid wedge dominate (de Gennes mechanism). We thus suggest that the debated
dominant dissipation mechanism can be experimentally determined using
relaxation measurements similar to the Ondarcuhu-Veyssie experiment [T.
Ondarcuhu and M. Veyssie, Nature {\bf 352}, 418 (1991)].Comment: REVTEX 8 pages, 9 PS figure
Roughening Transition in a Moving Contact Line
The dynamics of the deformations of a moving contact line on a disordered
substrate is formulated, taking into account both local and hydrodynamic
dissipation mechanisms. It is shown that both the coating transition in contact
lines receding at relatively high velocities, and the pinning transition for
slowly moving contact lines, can be understood in a unified framework as
roughening transitions in the contact line. We propose a phase diagram for the
system in which the phase boundaries corresponding to the coating transition
and the pinning transition meet at a junction point, and suggest that for
sufficiently strong disorder a receding contact line will leave a
Landau--Levich film immediately after depinning. This effect may be relevant to
a recent experimental observation in a liquid Helium contact line on a Cesium
substrate [C. Guthmann, R. Gombrowicz, V. Repain, and E. Rolley, Phys. Rev.
Lett. {\bf 80}, 2865 (1998)].Comment: 16 pages, 6 encapsulated figure
Targeted genomic analysis reveals widespread autoimmune disease association with regulatory variants in the TNF superfamily cytokine signalling network.
BACKGROUND: Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily cytokines and their receptors regulate diverse immune system functions through a common set of signalling pathways. Genetic variants in and expression of individual TNF superfamily cytokines, receptors and signalling proteins have been associated with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, but their interconnected biology has been largely unexplored. METHODS: We took a hypothesis-driven approach using available genome-wide datasets to identify genetic variants regulating gene expression in the TNF superfamily cytokine signalling network and the association of these variants with autoimmune and autoinflammatory disease. Using paired gene expression and genetic data, we identified genetic variants associated with gene expression, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), in four peripheral blood cell subsets. We then examined whether eQTLs were dependent on gene expression level or the presence of active enhancer chromatin marks. Using these eQTLs as genetic markers of the TNF superfamily signalling network, we performed targeted gene set association analysis in eight autoimmune and autoinflammatory disease genome-wide association studies. RESULTS: Comparison of TNF superfamily network gene expression and regulatory variants across four leucocyte subsets revealed patterns that differed between cell types. eQTLs for genes in this network were not dependent on absolute gene expression levels and were not enriched for chromatin marks of active enhancers. By examining autoimmune disease risk variants among our eQTLs, we found that risk alleles can be associated with either increased or decreased expression of co-stimulatory TNF superfamily cytokines, receptors or downstream signalling molecules. Gene set disease association analysis revealed that eQTLs for genes in the TNF superfamily pathway were associated with six of the eight autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases examined, demonstrating associations beyond single genome-wide significant hits. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic analysis of the influence of regulatory genetic variants in the TNF superfamily network reveals widespread and diverse roles for these cytokines in susceptibility to a number of immune-mediated diseases.The Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Library of Medicine of the US National Institutes of Health (Intramural Research Program) , Wellcome Trust (080327/Z/06/Z, 087007/Z/08/Z, 094227/Z/10/Z, Clinical PhD Programme, 079895, 076113 and 085475) , Medical Research Council (G0400929) , National Institute for Health Research , National Institutes of Health (Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program) , Istanbul University Research Fund and UK Behcet’s Syndrome Society.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BioMed Central via http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13073-016-0329-
Oscillatory Microrheology, Creep Compliance and Stress Relaxation of Biological Cells Reveal Strong Correlations as Probed by Atomic Force Microscopy
The mechanical properties of cells are important for many biological processes, including wound healing, cancers, and embryogenesis. Currently, our understanding of cell mechanical properties remains incomplete. Different techniques have been used to probe different aspects of the mechanical properties of cells, among them microplate rheology, optical tweezers, micropipette aspiration, and magnetic twisting cytometry. These techniques have given rise to different theoretical descriptions, reaching from simple Kelvin-Voigt or Maxwell models to fractional such as power law models, and their combinations. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a flexible technique that enables global and local probing of adherent cells. Here, using an AFM, we indented single retinal pigmented epithelium cells adhering to the bottom of a culture dish. The indentation was performed at two locations: above the nucleus, and towards the periphery of the cell. We applied creep compliance, stress relaxation, and oscillatory rheological tests to wild type and drug modified cells. Considering known fractional and semi-fractional descriptions, we found the extracted parameters to correlate. Moreover, the Young’s modulus as obtained from the initial indentation strongly correlated with all of the parameters from the applied power-law descriptions. Our study shows that the results from different rheological tests are directly comparable. This can be used in the future, for example, to reduce the number of measurements in planned experiments. Apparently, under these experimental conditions, the cells possess a limited number of degrees of freedom as their rheological properties change
Phase separation transition in liquids and polymers induced by electric field gradients
Spatially uniform electric fields have been used to induce instabilities in
liquids and polymers, and to orient and deform ordered phases of
block-copolymers. Here we discuss the demixing phase transition occurring in
liquid mixtures when they are subject to spatially nonuniform fields. Above the
critical value of potential, a phase-separation transition occurs, and two
coexisting phases appear separated by a sharp interface. Analytical and
numerical composition profiles are given, and the interface location as a
function of charge or voltage is found. The possible influence of demixing on
the stability of suspensions and on inter-colloid interaction is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Special issue of the J. Phys. Soc. Ja
Voltage-programmable liquid optical interface
Recently, there has been intense interest in photonic devices based on microfluidics, including displays and refractive tunable microlenses and optical beamsteerers, that work using the principle of electrowetting. Here, we report a novel approach to optical devices in which static wrinkles are produced at the surface of a thin film of oil as a result of dielectrophoretic forces. We have demonstrated this voltage-programmable surface wrinkling effect in periodic devices with pitch lengths of between 20 and 240 µm and with response times of less than 40 µs. By a careful choice of oils, it is possible to optimize either for high-amplitude sinusoidal wrinkles at micrometre-scale pitches or more complex non-sinusoidal profiles with higher Fourier components at longer pitches. This opens up the possibility of developing rapidly responsive voltage-programmable, polarization-insensitive transmission and reflection diffraction devices and arbitrary surface profile optical devices
Chaos and Complexity of quantum motion
The problem of characterizing complexity of quantum dynamics - in particular
of locally interacting chains of quantum particles - will be reviewed and
discussed from several different perspectives: (i) stability of motion against
external perturbations and decoherence, (ii) efficiency of quantum simulation
in terms of classical computation and entanglement production in operator
spaces, (iii) quantum transport, relaxation to equilibrium and quantum mixing,
and (iv) computation of quantum dynamical entropies. Discussions of all these
criteria will be confronted with the established criteria of integrability or
quantum chaos, and sometimes quite surprising conclusions are found. Some
conjectures and interesting open problems in ergodic theory of the quantum many
problem are suggested.Comment: 45 pages, 22 figures, final version, at press in J. Phys. A, special
issue on Quantum Informatio
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