Evaporation of a thin film: diffusion of the vapour and Marangoni instabilities

The stability of an evaporating thin liquid film on a solid substrate is investigated within lubrication theory. The heat flux due to evaporation induces thermal gradients; the generated Marangoni stresses are accounted for. Assuming the gas phase at rest, the dynamics of the vapour reduces to diffusion. The boundary condition at the interface couples transfer from the liquid to its vapour and diffusion flux. A non-local lubrication equation is obtained; this non-local nature comes from the Laplace equation associated with quasi-static diffusion. The linear stability of a flat film is studied in this general framework. The subsequent analysis is restricted to moderately thick films for which it is shown that evaporation is diffusion limited and that the gas phase is saturated in vapour in the vicinity of the interface. The stability depends only on two control parameters, the capillary and Marangoni numbers. The Marangoni effect is destabilising whereas capillarity and evaporation are stabilising processes. The results of the linear stability analysis are compared with the experiments of Poulard et al (2003) performed in a different geometry. In order to study the resulting patterns, the amplitude equation is obtained through a systematic multiple-scale expansion. The evaporation rate is needed and is computed perturbatively by solving the Laplace problem for the diffusion of vapour. The bifurcation from the flat state is found to be a supercritical transition. Moreover, it appears that the non-local nature of the diffusion problem unusually affects the amplitude equation

A generalized preimage for the digital analytical hyperplane recognition

International audienceA new digital hyperplane recognition method is presented. This algorithm allows the recognition of digital analytical hyperplanes, such as Naive, Standard and Supercover ones. The principle is to incrementally compute in a dual space the generalized preimage of the ball set corresponding to a given hypervoxel set according to the chosen digitization model. Each point in this preimage corresponds to a Euclidean hyperplane the digitization of which contains all given hypervoxels. An advantage of the generalized preimage is that it does not depend on the hypervoxel locations. Moreover, the proposed recognition algorithm does not require the hypervoxels to be connected or ordered in any way

Detection of minority variants within bovine respiratory syncytial virus populations using oligonucleotide-based microarrays

Microarray technology, originally developed for highly parallel examination of gene expression is regarded as a potential tool in prognosis and diagnosis. With respect to a discrimination analysis, difference as small as one nucleotide base can be distinguished using oligonucleotide-basedmicroarrays. However, this degree of specificity is dependent on several parameters, including the size of the oligoprobes and the sequence context of the probes (e.g. local melting temperature), hybridization conditions and to some extent the chemistry of the glass slides onto which the probes are deposited. Using bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) as a model study, an oligonucleotide-based microarray approach was developed to measure the relative abundance of a particular single nucleotide variant within mixed BRSV populations. Using this technology, we show that it is possible to discriminate at a rate of 1%, minority variants in a BRSV population

The yeast expression system for recombinant glycosyltransferases

Glycosyltransferases are increasingly being used for in vitro synthesis of oligosaccharides. Since these enzymes are difficult to purify from natural sources, expression systems for soluble forms of the recombinant enzymes have been developed. This review focuses on the current state of development of yeast expression systems. Two yeast species have mainly been used, i.e. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris. Safety and ease of fermentation are well recognized for S. cerevisiae as a biotechnological expression system; however, even soluble forms of recombinant glycosyltransferases are not secreted. In some cases, hyperglycosylation may occur, P. pastoris, by contrast, secrete soluble orthoglycosylated forms to the supernatant where they can be recovered in a highly purified form. The review also covers some basic features of yeast fermentation and describes in some detail those glycosyltransferases that have successfully been expressed in yeasts. These include β1,4galactosyltransferase, α2,6sialyltransferase, α2,3sialyltransferase, α1,3fucosyltransferase III and VI and α1,2mannosyltransferase. Current efforts in introducing glycosylation systems of higher eukaryotes into yeasts are briefly addresse

Finite size effects in the Verwey transition of magnetite thin films

We report on the finite size effects in the Verwey transition of stress-free magnetite Fe3O4 thin films. A limit thickness of 20 nm is evidenced, above which the transition temperature TV is constant and close to 120 K (bulk value) and below which no genuine transition is observed. Field Cooled and Zero Field Cooled measurements evidence irreversibilities for all thicknesses. This irreversible behavior abruptly disappears around TV for the thicker films, when the magnetic anisotropy vanishes. These behaviors are interpreted in terms of assemblies of interacting magnetic Fe3O4 clusters, which are smaller than the antiphase domains present in the films

Improving transient gene expression in CHO-EBNA1 cells

For pre-clinical evaluation of biotherapeutic candidates, protein production by transient gene expression (TGE) in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells offers important advantages, including the capability of rapidly generating recombinant proteins that are highly similar to those produced in stable CHO clones used for biomanufacturing. The higher cost of reagents necessary for TGE, specifically the requirement for large amounts of purified DNA and transfection agent for each production, means that improving the performance of CHO TGE could substantially augment the method’s utility. In the current study, we have established a novel CHO clone (CHO-3E7) expressing a form of the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1). Transfection of EBNA-1-expressing cells with plasmid vectors encoding the Epstein-Barr virus OriP sequence boosted TGE productivity relative to parental CHO cells. Taking advantage of a new transfection-compatible media formulation that permits prolonged, high-density culture in shake flasks, we optimized transfection parameters (plasmid vector and polyethylenimine concentrations) and post-transfection culture conditions to establish a new, high-performing process for rapid protein production. The growth media is chemically defined, and a single hydrolysate feed is added at 24 h post-transfection, followed by periodic glucose supplementation. This method gave a maximum yield of 900 mg/L (for the chimeric IgG4 B72-3 mAb), with an average of 570 mg/L (standard deviation: 250 mg/L) for a panel of six mAbs and 320 mg/L (standard deviation: 140 mg/L) for five His-tagged recombinant proteins at 14 days post-transfection. Compared to our current low-density TGE process using CHO-3E7 cells and different culture medium, the new procedure gave on average 3-fold higher yields; purified mAbs produced using the two methods had distinct glycosylation profiles (by HILIC analysis) but showed identical target binding kinetics by SPR. Key advantages of the improved CHO-3E7-based protein production platform include the cost-effectiveness of the transfection reagent, the commercial availability of the culture media and the ability to perform high-cell-density transfection without media change

Simulation of a Clustering Scheme for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks Using a DEVS-based Virtual Laboratory Environment

ANT 2018, The 9th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies, Porto, PORTUGAL, 08-/05/2018 - 11/05/2018Protocol design is usually based on the functional models developed according to the needs of the system. In Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), the features studied regarding Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET) include self-organizing, routing, reliability, quality of service, and security. Simulation studies on ITS-dedicated routing protocols usually focus on their performance in specific scenarios. However, the evolution of transportation systems towards autonomous vehicles requires robust protocols with proven or at least guaranteed properties. Though formal approaches provide powerful tools for system design, they cannot be used for every types of ITS components. Our goal is to develop new tools combining formal tools such as Event-B with DEVS-based (Discrete Event System Specification) virtual laboratories in order to design the models of ITS components which simulation would allow proving and verifying their properties in large-scale scenarios. This paper presents the models of the different components of a VANET realized with the Virtual Laboratory Environment (VLE). We point out the component models fitting to formal modeling, and proceed to the validation of all designed models through a simulation scenario based on real-world road traffic data