Fluidization and wall slip of soft glassy materials by controlled surface roughness

We present a comprehensive study of concentrated emulsions flowing in microfluidic channels, one wall of which is patterned with micron-size equally spaced grooves oriented perpendicularly to the flow direction. We find a scaling law describing the roughness-induced fluidization as a function of the density of the grooves, thus fluidization can be predicted and quantitatively regulated. This suggests common scenarios for droplet trapping and release, potentially applicable for other jammed systems as well.

The action of Volterra integral operators with highly singular kernels on Holder continuous, Lebesgue and Sobolev functions

For kernels zi which are positive and integrable we show that the operator g bar right arrow J(v)g = integral(x)(0) v(x-s)g(s)ds on a finite time interval enjoys a regularizing effect when applied to Holder continuous and Lebesgue functions and a "contractive" effect when applied to Sobolev functions. For Holder continuous functions, we establish that the improvement of the regularity of the modulus of continuity is given by the integral of the kernel, namely by the factor N(x) = integral(x)(0) v(s)ds.

Heterogeneous catalysis in pulsed-flow reactors with nanoporous gold hollow spheres

We present a novel application of the Lattice Boltzmann Method to the study of pulsed reactive flows in transitional Knudsen number regimes, namely 0.1 < Kn < 1. We characterize the conversion efficiency of catalytic particles for different geometries and configurations, including single catalytic particle and nanoporous gold (npAu) spheres, within pulsed-flow reactors.

Effect of nanoscale flows on the surface structure of nanoporous catalysts

The surface structure and composition of a multi-component catalyst are critical factors in determining its catalytic performance. The surface composition can depend on the local pressure of the reacting species, leading to the possibility that the flow through a nanoporous catalyst can affect its structure and reactivity. Here, we explore this possibility for oxidation reactions on nanoporous gold, an AgAu bimetallic catalyst. We use microscopy and digital reconstruction to obtain the morphology of a two-dimensional slice of a nanoporous gold sample.

A system model of the effects of exercise on plasma Interleukin-6 dynamics in healthy individuals: Role of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been recently shown to play a central role in glucose homeostasis, since it stimulates the production and secretion of Glucagon-like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) from intestinal L-cells and pancreas, leading to an enhanced insulin response. In resting conditions, IL-6 is mainly produced by the adipose tissue whereas, during exercise, skeletal muscle contractions stimulate a marked IL-6 secretion as well. Available mathematical models describing the effects of exercise on glucose homeostasis, however, do not account for this IL-6 contribution.

Computational modeling of immune system of the fish for a more effective vaccination in aquaculture

Motivation: A computational model equipped with the main immunological features of the sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) immune system was used to predict more effective vaccination in fish. The performance of the model was evaluated by using the results of two in vivo vaccinations trials against L. anguillarum and P. damselae.

On the dynamics of a nonlinear reaction-diffusion duopoly model

The self and cross diffusion action on the dynamic of the nonlinear continu- ous duopoly model introduced in [22], is investigated. Under Robin boundary conditions the longtime behavior and the linear and nonlinear stability of the steady states, are studied. The self and cross diffusion parameters guaran- teeing the spreading of the firms outputs, are characterized.

Validation of community robustness

The large amount of work on community detection and its applications leaves unaddressed one important question: the statistical validation of the results. A methodology is presented that is able to clearly detect if the community structure found by some algorithms is statistically significant or is a result of chance, merely due to edge positions in the network. Given a community detection method and a network of interest, the proposal examines the stability of the partition recovered against random perturbations of the original graph structure.