Artificial Rheotaxis

Motility is a basic feature of living microorganisms, and how it works is often determined by environmental cues. Recent efforts have focused on develop- ing artificial systems that can mimic microorganisms, and in particular their self-propulsion. Here, we report on the design and characterization of syn- thetic self-propelled particles that migrate upstream, known as positive rheo- taxis. This phenomenon results from a purely physical mechanism involving the interplay between the polarity of the particles and their alignment by a viscous torque. We show quantitative agreement between experimental data and a simple model of an overdamped Brownian pendulum. The model no- tably predicts the existence of a stagnation point in a diverging flow. We take advantage of this property to demonstrate that our active particles can sense and predictably organize in an imposed flow. Our colloidal system represents an important step towards the realization of biomimetic micro-systems withthe ability to sense and respond to environmental changesComment: Published in Science Advances [Open access journal of Science Magazine

Hopping and crawling DNA-coated colloids

Understanding the motion of particles with ligand-receptors is important for biomedical applications and material design. Yet, even among a single design, the prototypical DNA-coated colloids, seemingly similar micrometric particles hop or roll, depending on the study. We shed light on this problem by observing DNA-coated colloids diffusing near surfaces coated with complementary strands for a wide array of coating designs. We find colloids rapidly switch between 2 modes: they hop - with long and fast steps - and crawl - with short and slow steps. Both modes occur at all temperatures around the melting point and over a wide array of designs. The particles become increasingly subdiffusive as temperature decreases, in line with subsequent velocity steps becoming increasingly anti-correlated. Overall, crawling (or hopping) phases are more predominant at low (or high) temperatures; crawling is also more efficient at low temperatures than hopping to cover large distances. We rationalize this behavior within a simple model: at lower temperatures, the number of bound strands increases, and detachment of all bonds is unlikely, hence, hopping is prevented and crawling favored. We thus reveal the mechanism behind a common design rule relying on increased strand density for long-range self-assembly: dense strands on surfaces are required to enable crawling, possibly facilitating particle rearrangements

Self Assembled Particles

A self-assembling structure using non-equilibrium driving forces leading to 'living crystals' and other maniputable particles with a complex dynamics. The dynamic self-assembly assembly results from a competition between self-propulsion of particles and an attractive interaction between the particles. As a result of non-equilibrium driving forces, the crystals form, grow, collide, anneal, repair themselves and spontaneously self-destruct, thereby enabling reconfiguration and assembly to achieve a desired property

Human relaxometry and MRI using fast field-cycling

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In vivo human brain imaging at 0.2 T using a whole-body fast field-cycling MRI system

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Соматоформная вегетативная дисфункция у лиц молодого возраста в свете современньїх представлений об этиопатогенезе, диагностике и методах восстановительного лечения

Guiding the self-assembly of materials by controlling the shape of the individual particle constituents is a powerful approach to material design. We show that colloidal silica superballs crystallize into canted phases in the presence of depletants. Some of these phases are consistent with the so-called "Λ1" lattice that was recently predicted as the densest packing of superdisks. As the size of the depletant is reduced, however, we observe a transition to a square phase. The differences in these entropically stabilized phases result from an interplay between the size of the depletants and the fine structure of the superball shape. We find qualitative agreement of our experimental results both with a phase diagram computed on the basis of the volume accessible to the depletants and with simulations. By using a mixture of depletants, one of which is thermosensitive, we induce solid-to-solid phase transitions between square and canted structures. The use of depletant size to leverage fine features of the shape of particles in driving their self-assembly demonstrates a general and powerful mechanism for engineering novel materials

Understanding value creation and word-of-mouth behaviour at cultural events

Cultural value is a highly contested concept, despite its undoubted importance to practitioners and policy makers. Reseach into cultural value has, meanwhile, tended to employ a unidimensional value framework. This has hamprered the understanding of behaviour related to the word-of-mouth (WOM) communication behaviour of cultural values. This paper presents a cultural value segmentation based on a multidimensional value framework, allowing a profile of WOM behaviour (both online and offline) of each segment to be developed. The segmentation has four distinct segments of cultural consumer, each with different combinations of cultural values and WOM communication preferences. In this way, the study challenges current understandings of value creation and transfer in cultural settings. By way of practical recommendations, the study favours the use of market segmentation based on multi-dimensional value ‘constellations’, which can not only achieve better audience development but also to encourage wider WOM communication of the values in question