14,100 research outputs found
Criterion for purely elastic Taylor-Couette instability in the flows of shear-banding fluids
In the past twenty years, shear-banding flows have been probed by various
techniques, such as rheometry, velocimetry and flow birefringence. In micellar
solutions, many of the data collected exhibit unexplained spatio-temporal
fluctuations. Recently, it has been suggested that those fluctuations originate
from a purely elastic instability of the flow. In cylindrical Couette geometry,
the instability is reminiscent of the Taylor-like instability observed in
viscoelastic polymer solutions. In this letter, we describe how the criterion
for purely elastic Taylor-Couette instability should be adapted to
shear-banding flows. We derive three categories of shear-banding flows with
curved streamlines, depending on their stability.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Potential "ways of thinking" about the shear-banding phenomenon
Shear-banding is a curious but ubiquitous phenomenon occurring in soft
matter. The phenomenological similarities between the shear-banding transition
and phase transitions has pushed some researchers to adopt a 'thermodynamical'
approach, in opposition to the more classical 'mechanical' approach to fluid
flows. In this heuristic review, we describe why the apparent dichotomy between
those approaches has slowly faded away over the years. To support our
discussion, we give an overview of different interpretations of a single
equation, the diffusive Johnson-Segalman (dJS) equation, in the context of
shear-banding. We restrict ourselves to dJS, but we show that the equation can
be written in various equivalent forms usually associated with opposite
approaches. We first review briefly the origin of the dJS model and its initial
rheological interpretation in the context of shear-banding. Then we describe
the analogy between dJS and reaction-diffusion equations. In the case of
anisotropic diffusion, we show how the dJS governing equations for steady shear
flow are analogous to the equations of the dynamics of a particle in a quartic
potential. Going beyond the existing literature, we then draw on the Lagrangian
formalism to describe how the boundary conditions can have a key impact on the
banding state. Finally, we reinterpret the dJS equation again and we show that
a rigorous effective free energy can be constructed, in the spirit of early
thermodynamic interpretations or in terms of more recent approaches exploiting
the language of irreversible thermodynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, tutorial revie
Molekulare Signalwege der aseptischen Endoprothesenlockerung (Molecular pathways in aseptic loosening of orthopaedic endoprosthesis)
Abstract Operative joint replacement to treat disabling joint conditions secondary to degenerative and inflammatory arthritides has become one of the most efficacious and cost-effective procedures to relieve pain and restore joint function. However, prosthetic implants are not built to last forever and osteolysis and aseptic loosening has been associated with prosthetic arthroplasties since their introduction. The functional life of a synthetic joint is influenced by many factors including the material of the implant, operation procedures and the surgeon involved, as well as patient-related factors. Although promising developments have been achieved in this field, more than 10% of all implants still have to undergo operative revision within 15 years after the initial operation. Failure due to sepsis, fractures and dislocations has become rare; premature loosening of implants on the other hand is becoming much more important. Prosthetic loosening without concurrent infection or trauma is called aseptic loosening. It is generally accepted that small particles ("wear debris") and activated macrophages play a key role in aseptic loosening. The pathophysiology of this condition, however, is still not very well characterized. In this article, we review the molecular mechanisms and signal pathways that were unravelled as responsible factors for loosening orthopaedic implants. Finally, we discuss possible novel strategies for future therapeutic approaches
Infection levels and species diversity of ascaridoid nematodes in Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, are correlated with geographic area and fish size
Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is among the most important commercial fish species on the world market. Its
infection by ascaridoid nematodes has long been known, Pseudoterranova even being named cod worm. In the
present study, 755 individuals were sampled in the Barents, Baltic and North Seas during 2012–2014.
Prevalences for Anisakis in whole fish and in fillets in the different fishing areas varied from 16 to 100% and
from 12 to 90% respectively. Abundance was also greatly influenced by the sampling area. Generalized additive
model results indicate higher numbers of Anisakis in the North Sea, even after the larger body size was accounted
for. Numbers and prevalence of Anisakis were positively related to fish length or weight. The prevalence of
parasites in whole fish and in fillets was also influenced by the season, with the spring displaying a peak for the
prevalence in whole fish and, at the same time, a drop for the prevalence in fillets. Whereas 46% of cod had
Anisakis larvae in their fillets, the majority (39%) had parasites mainly in the ventral part of the fillet and only
12% had parasites in their dorsal part. This observation is of importance for the processing of the fish. Indeed,
the trimming of the ventral part of the cod fillet would allow the almost total elimination of ascaridoids except
for cod from the Baltic Sea where there was no difference between the dorsal and the ventral part.
The presence of other ascaridoid genera was also noticeable in some areas. For Pseudoterranova, the highest
prevalence (45%) in whole fish was observed in the Northern North Sea, whereas the other areas had prevalences between 3 and 16%. Contracaecum was present in every commercial size cod sampled in the Baltic Sea
with an intensity of up to 96 worms but no Contracaecum was isolated from the Central North Sea. Non-zoonotic
Hysterothylacium was absent from the Baltic Sea but with a prevalence of 83% in the Barents and the Northern
North Sea.
A subsample of worms was identified with genetic-molecular tools and assigned to the species A. simplex (s.s.),
A. pegreffii, P. decipiens (s.s.), P. krabbei, C. osculatum and H. aduncum. In addition to high prevalence and
abundance values, the cod sampled in this study presented a diversity of ascaridoid nematodes with a majority of
fish displaying a co-infection. Out of 295 whole infected fish, 269 were co-infected by at least 2 genera
Vlasov moment flows and geodesics on the Jacobi group
By using the moment algebra of the Vlasov kinetic equation, we characterize
the integrable Bloch-Iserles system on symmetric matrices
(arXiv:math-ph/0512093) as a geodesic flow on the Jacobi group. We analyze the
corresponding Lie-Poisson structure by presenting a momentum map, which both
untangles the bracket structure and produces particle-type solutions that are
inherited from the Vlasov-like interpretation. Moreover, we show how the Vlasov
moments associated to Bloch-Iserles dynamics correspond to particular subgroup
inclusions into a group central extension (first discovered in
arXiv:math/0410100), which in turn underlies Vlasov kinetic theory. In the most
general case of Bloch-Iserles dynamics, a generalization of the Jacobi group
also emerges naturally.Comment: 45 page
Arresting bubble coarsening: A two-bubble experiment to investigate grain growth in presence of surface elasticity
Many two-phase materials suffer from grain-growth due to the energy cost
which is associated with the interface that separates both phases. While our
understanding of the driving forces and the dynamics of grain growth in
different materials is well advanced by now, current research efforts address
the question of how this process may be slowed down, or, ideally, arrested. We
use a model system of two bubbles to explore how the presence of a finite
surface elasticity may interfere with the coarsening process and the final
grain size distribution. Combining experiments and modelling in the analysis of
the evolution of two bubbles, we show that clear relationships can be predicted
between the surface tension, the surface elasticity and the initial/final size
ratio of the bubbles. We rationalise these relationships by the introduction of
a modified Gibbs criterion. Besides their general interest, the present results
have direct implications for our understanding of foam stability
Unitarity Corrections to the Proton Structure Functions through the Dipole Picture
We study the dipole picture for the description of the deep inelastic
scattering, focusing on the structure functions which are driven directly by
the gluon distribution. One performs estimates using the effective dipole cross
section given by the Glauber-Mueller approach in QCD, which encodes the
corrections due to the unitarity effects associated with the saturation
phenomenon. We also address issues about frame invariance of the calculations
when analysing the observables.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Version to be published in Phys. Rev.
Linux kernel compaction through cold code swapping
There is a growing trend to use general-purpose operating systems like Linux in embedded systems. Previous research focused on using compaction and specialization techniques to adapt a general-purpose OS to the memory-constrained environment, presented by most, embedded systems. However, there is still room for improvement: it has been shown that even after application of the aforementioned techniques more than 50% of the kernel code remains unexecuted under normal system operation. We introduce a new technique that reduces the Linux kernel code memory footprint, through on-demand code loading of infrequently executed code, for systems that support virtual memory. In this paper, we describe our general approach, and we study code placement algorithms to minimize the performance impact of the code loading. A code, size reduction of 68% is achieved, with a 2.2% execution speedup of the system-mode execution time, for a case study based on the MediaBench II benchmark suite
Extensive collection of femtoliter pad secretion droplets in beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata allows nanoliter microrheology
Pads of beetles are covered with long, deformable setae, each ending in a
micrometric terminal plate coated with secretory fluid. It was recently shown
that the layer of the pad secretion covering the terminal plates is responsible
for the generation of strong attractive forces. However, less is known about
the fluid itself because it is produced in extremely small quantity. We here
present a first experimental investigation of the rheological properties of the
pad secretion in the Colorado potato beetle {\it Leptinotarsa decemlineata}.
Because the secretion is produced in an extremely small amount at the level of
the terminal plate, we first develop a procedure based on capillary effects to
collect the secretion. We then manage to incorporate micrometric beads,
initially in the form of a dry powder, and record their thermal motion to
determine the mechanical properties of the surrounding medium. We achieve such
a quantitative measurement within the collected volume, much smaller than the
l sample volume usually required for this technique. Surprisingly,
the beetle secretion was found to behave as a purely viscous liquid, of high
viscosity. This suggests that no specific complex fluid behaviour is needed
during beetle locomotion. We build a scenario for the contact formation between
the spatula at the setal tip and a substrate, during the insect walk. We show
that the attachment dynamics of the insect pad computed from the high measured
viscosity is in good agreement with observed insect pace. We finally discuss
the consequences of the secretion viscosity on the insect adhesion
Hydrodynamic modes in a trapped Bose gas above the Bose-Einstein transition
We discuss the collective modes of a trapped Bose gas in the hydrodynamic
regime where atomic collisions ensure local thermal equilibrium for the
distribution function. Starting from the conservation laws, in the linearized
limit we derive a closed equation for the velocity fluctuations in a trapped
Bose gas above the Bose-Einstein transition temperature. Explicit solutions for
a parabolic trap are given. We find that the surface modes have the same
dispersion relation as the one recently obtained by Stringari for the
oscillations of the condensate at within the Thomas-Fermi approximation.
Results are also given for the monopole ``breathing'' mode as well as for the
excitations which result from the coupling of the monopole and quadrupole
modes in an anisotropic parabolic well.Comment: 4 pages, no figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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