Depinning of three-dimensional drops from wettability defects

Substrate defects crucially influence the onset of sliding drop motion under lateral driving. A finite force is necessary to overcome the pinning influence even of microscale heterogeneities. The depinning dynamics of three-dimensional drops is studied for hydrophilic and hydrophobic wettability defects using a long-wave evolution equation for the film thickness profile. It is found that the nature of the depinning transition explains the experimentally observed stick-slip motion.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ep

A review on the eco-epidemiology and clinical management of human granulocytic anaplasmosis and its agent in Europe

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is the agent of tick-borne fever, equine, canine and human granulocytic anaplasmosis. The common route of A. phagocytophilum transmission is through a tick bite, the main vector in Europe being Ixodes ricinus. Despite the apparently ubiquitous presence of the pathogen A. phagocytophilum in ticks and various wild and domestic animals from Europe, up to date published clinical cases of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) remain rare compared to the worldwide status. It is unclear if this reflects the epidemiological dynamics of the human infection in Europe or if the disease is underdiagnosed or underreported. Epidemiologic studies in Europe have suggested an increased occupational risk of infection for forestry workers, hunters, veterinarians, and farmers with a tick-bite history and living in endemic areas. Although the overall genetic diversity of A. phagocytophilum in Europe is higher than in the USA, the strains responsible for the human infections are related on both continents. However, the study of the genetic variability and assessment of the difference of pathogenicity and infectivity between strains to various hosts has been insufficiently explored to date. Most of the European HGA cases presented as a mild infection, common clinical signs being pyrexia, headache, myalgia and arthralgia. The diagnosis of HGA in the USA was recommended to be based on clinical signs and the patient’s history and later confirmed using specialized laboratory tests. However, in Europe since the majority of cases are presenting as mild infection, laboratory tests may be performed before the treatment in order to avoid antibiotic overuse. The drug of choice for HGA is doxycycline and because of potential for serious complication the treatment should be instituted on clinical suspicion alone

Nitrate therapy in acute myocardial infarction: Potion or poison? Editorial to "Long-term nitrate use in acute myocardial infarction" by Yamauchi et al.

John F. Beltram

Tuning Drop Motion by Chemical Patterning of Surfaces

We report the results of extensive experimental studies of the sliding of water drops on chemically heterogeneous surfaces formed by square and triangular hydrophobic domains printed on glass surfaces and arranged in various symmetric patterns. Overall, the critical Bond number, that is, the critical dimensionless force needed to depin the drop, is found to be strongly affected by the shape and the spatial arrangement of the domains. Soon after the droplet begins to move, stick–slip motion is observed on all surfaces, although it is less pronounced than that on striped surfaces. On the triangular patterns, anisotropic behavior is found with drops sliding down faster when the tips of the glass hydrophilic triangles are pointing in the down-plane direction. Away from the critical Bond number, the dynamic regime depends mainly on the static contact angle and weakly on the actual surface pattern. Lattice Boltzmann numerical simulations are performed to validate the experimental results and test the importance of the viscous ratio between the droplet phase and the outer phase