102 research outputs found
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Deck the Walls with Anisotropic Colloids in Nematic Liquid Crystals.
Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) offer remarkable opportunities to direct colloids to form complex structures. The elastic energy field that dictates colloid interactions is determined by the NLC director field, which is sensitive to and can be controlled by boundaries including vessel walls and colloid surfaces. By molding the director field via liquid-crystal alignment on these surfaces, elastic energy landscapes can be defined to drive structure formation. We focus on colloids in otherwise defect-free director fields formed near undulating walls. Colloids can be driven along prescribed paths and directed to well-defined docking sites on such wavy boundaries. Colloids that impose strong alignment generate topologically required companion defects. Configurations for homeotropic colloids include a dipolar structure formed by the colloid and its companion hedgehog defect or a quadrupolar structure formed by the colloid and its companion Saturn ring. Adjacent to wavy walls with wavelengths larger than the colloid diameter, spherical particles are attracted to locations along the wall with distortions in the nematic director field that complement those from the colloid. This is the basis of lock-and-key interactions. Here, we study ellipsoidal colloids with homeotropic anchoring near complex undulating walls. The walls impose distortions that decay with distance from the wall to a uniform director in the far field. Ellipsoids form dipolar defect configurations with the colloid's major axis aligned with the far field director. Two distinct quadrupolar defect structures also form, stabilized by confinement; these include the Saturn I configuration with the ellipsoid's major axis aligned with the far field director and the Saturn II configuration with the major axis perpendicular to the far field director. The ellipsoid orientation varies only weakly in bulk and near undulating walls. All configurations are attracted to walls with long, shallow waves. However, for walls with wavelengths that are small compared to the colloid length, Saturn II is repelled, allowing selective docking of aligned objects. Deep, narrow wells prompt the insertion of a vertical ellipsoid. By introducing an opening at the bottom of such a deep well, we study colloids within pores that connect two domains. Ellipsoids with different aspect ratios find different equilibrium positions. An ellipsoid of the right dimension and aspect ratio can plug the pore, creating a class of 2D selective membranes
Evolution of populations expanding on curved surfaces
The expansion of a population into new habitat is a transient process that
leaves its footprints in the genetic composition of the expanding population.
How the structure of the environment shapes the population front and the
evolutionary dynamics during such a range expansion is little understood. Here,
we investigate the evolutionary dynamics of populations consisting of many
selectively neutral genotypes expanding on curved surfaces. Using a combination
of individual-based off-lattice simulations, geometrical arguments, and
lattice-based stepping-stone simulations, we characterise the effect of
individual bumps on an otherwise flat surface. Compared to the case of a range
expansion on a flat surface, we observe a transient relative increase, followed
by a decrease, in neutral genetic diversity at the population front. In
addition, we find that individuals at the sides of the bump have a dramatically
increased expected number of descendants, while their neighbours closer to the
bump's centre are far less lucky. Both observations can be explained using an
analytical description of straight paths (geodesics) on the curved surface.
Complementing previous studies of heterogeneous flat environments, the findings
here build our understanding of how complex environments shape the evolutionary
dynamics of expanding populations.Comment: This preprint has also been posted to http://www.biorxiv.org with
doi: 10.1101/406280. Seven pages with 5 figures, plus an appendix containing
3 pages with 1 figur
Lassoing saddle splay and the geometrical control of topological defects
Systems with holes, such as colloidal handlebodies and toroidal droplets,
have been studied in the nematic liquid crystal (NLC) 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl
(5CB): both point and ring topological defects can occur within each hole and
around the system, while conserving the system's overall topological charge.
However, what has not been fully appreciated is the ability to manipulate the
hole geometry with homeotropic (perpendicular) anchoring conditions to induce
complex, saddle-like deformations. We exploit this by creating an array of
holes suspended in an NLC cell with oriented planar (parallel) anchoring at the
cell boundaries. We study both 5CB and a binary mixture of bicyclohexane
derivatives (CCN-47 and CCN-55). Through simulations and experiments, we study
how the bulk saddle deformations of each hole interact to create novel defect
structures, including an array of disclination lines, reminiscent of those
found in liquid crystal blue phases. The line locations are tunable via the NLC
elastic constants, the cell geometry, and the size and spacing of holes in the
array. This research lays the groundwork for the control of complex elastic
deformations of varying length scales via geometrical cues in materials that
are renowned in the display industry for their stability and easy
manipulability.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 supplementary figur
Biceps Femoris Long Head Muscle Fascicles Actively Lengthen During the Nordic Hamstring Exercise
Current debate exists around whether a presumed eccentric exercise, the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE), actually causes active hamstring muscle lengthening. This is because of the decoupling that can occur between the muscle fascicle and muscle-tendon unit (MTU) length changes in relatively compliant human lower-limb MTUs, which results in MTU lengthening not necessarily causing muscle fascicle lengthening. This missing knowledge complicates the interpretation of why the NHE is effective at reducing running-related hamstring muscle injury risk in athletes previously unfamiliar with performing this exercise. The purpose of the study was therefore to investigate if the most-commonly injured hamstring muscle, the biceps femoris long head (BF), exhibits active muscle lengthening (i.e. an eccentric muscle action) during the NHE up until peak force in Nordic novices. External reaction force at the ankle, knee flexion angle, and BF and semitendinosus muscle activities were recorded from the left leg of 14 participants during the NHE. Simultaneously, BF muscle architecture was imaged using B-mode ultrasound imaging, and muscle architecture changes were tracked using two different tracking algorithms. From ~85 to 100% of peak NHE force, both tracking algorithms detected that BF muscle fascicles (n = 10) significantly lengthened (p < 0.01) and had a mean positive lengthening velocity (p ≤ 0.02), while knee extension velocity remained positive (17°·s−1) over knee flexion angles from 53 to 37° and a duration of 1.6 s. Despite some individual cases of brief isometric fascicle behavior and brief fascicle shortening during BF MTU lengthening, the predominant muscle action was eccentric under a relatively high muscle activity level (59% of maximum). Eccentric hamstring muscle action therefore does occur during the NHE in relatively strong (429 N) Nordic novices, which might contribute to the increase in resting BF muscle fascicle length and reduction in running-related injury risk, which have previously been reported following NHE training. Whether an eccentric BF muscle action occurs in individuals accustomed to the NHE remains to be tested
Elasticity-Dependent Self-assembly of Micro-Templated Chromonic Liquid Crystal Films
We explore micropatterned director structures of aqueous lyotropic chromonic
liquid crystal (LCLC) films created on square lattice cylindrical-micropost
substrates. The structures are manipulated by modulating the LCLC mesophases
and their elastic properties via concentration through drying. Nematic LCLC
films exhibit preferred bistable alignment along the diagonals of the micropost
lattice. Columnar LCLC films, dried from nematics, form two distinct director
and defect configurations: a diagonally aligned director pattern with local
squares of defects, and an off-diagonal configuration with zig-zag defects. The
formation of these states appears to be tied to the relative splay and bend
free energy costs of the initial nematic films. The observed nematic and
columnar configurations are understood numerically using a Landau-de Gennes
free energy model. Among other attributes, the work provide first examples of
quasi-2D micropatterning of LC films in the columnar phase and lyotropic LC
films in general, and it demonstrates alignment and configuration switching of
typically difficult-to-align LCLC films via bulk elastic properties.Comment: 9 pages; 9 figures; accepted for publication in Soft Matte
Elastocapillary driven assembly of particles at free-standing smectic-A films
Colloidal particles at complex fluid interfaces and within films assemble to
form ordered structures with high degrees of symmetry via interactions that
include capillarity, elasticity, and other fields like electrostatic charge.
Here we study microparticle interactions within free-standing smectic-A films,
in which the elasticity arising from the director field distortion and
capillary interactions arising from interface deformation compete to direct the
assembly of motile particles. New colloidal assemblies and patterns, ranging
from 1D chains to 2D aggregates, sensitive to the initial wetting conditions of
particles at the smectic film, are reported. This work paves the way to
exploiting LC interfaces as a means to direct spontaneously formed,
reconfigurable, and optically active materials.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary Materials: 3 pages, 3 figure
Tunable colloid trajectories in nematic liquid crystals near wavy walls
The ability to dictate colloid motion is an important challenge in fields
ranging from materials science to living systems. Here, by embedding energy
landscapes in confined nematic liquid crystals, we design a versatile platform
to define colloidal migration. This is achieved by placing a wavy wall, with
alternating hills and wells, in nematic liquid crystals, to impose a smooth
elastic energy field with alternating splay and bend distortions. This domain
generates (meta) stable loci that act as attractors and unstable loci that
repel colloids over distances large compared to the colloid radius. Energy
gradients in the vicinity of these loci are exploited to dictate colloid
trajectories. We demonstrate several aspects of this control, by studying
transitions between defect configurations, propelling particles along well
defined paths and exploiting multistable systems to send particles to
particular sites within the domain. Such tailored landscapes have promise in
reconfigurable systems and in microrobotics applicationsComment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Templated self-assembly of gold nanoparticles in smectic liquid crystals confined at 3D printed curved surfaces
The fabrication of assembled structures of topological defects in liquid
crystals (LCs) has attracted much attention during the last decade, stemming
from the potential application of these defects in modern technologies. A range
of techniques can be employed to create large areas of engineered defects in
LCs, including mechanical shearing, chemical surface treatment, external
fields, or geometric confinement. The technology of 3D printing has recently
emerged as a powerful method to fabricate novel patterning topographies
inaccessible by other microfabrication techniques, especially confining
geometries with curved topographies. In this work, we show the advantages of
using 3D-printed curved surfaces and controlled anchoring properties to confine
LCs and engineer new structures of topological defects, whose structure we
elucidate by comparison with a novel application of Landau-de Gennes free
energy minimization to the smectic A-nematic phase transition. We also
demonstrate the ability of these defects to act as a scaffold for assembling
gold (Au) nanoparticles (NPs) into reconfigurable 3D structures. We discuss the
characteristics of this templated self-assembly (TSA) approach and explain the
relationship between NP concentrations and defect structures with insights
gained from numerical modeling. This work paves the way for a versatile
platform of LC defect-templated assembly of a range of functional nanomaterials
useful in the field of energy technology.Comment: Main text: 30 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary Information: 5 pages, 4
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