Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of dividing cell populations

We present and study a model for the nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of protein distributions in a proliferating cell population. Our model describes how the total protein variation is shaped by two processes: variation in protein production internal to the cells and variation in division and inheritance at the population level. It enables us to assess the contribution of each of these components separately. We find that, even if production is deterministic, cell division can generate a large variation in protein distribution. In this limit we solve exactly a special case and draw an analogy between protein distribution along cell generations and stress distribution in layers of granular material. At the other limit of extremely noisy protein production, we find that the population structure restrains variation and that the details of division do not affect the tail of the distribution.     

Carbon Nanostructures

An overview of the various carbon structures with characteristic sizes in the nanoscale region is presented, with special attention devoted to the structures and properties of ‘nanodiamond’ and carbon nanotubes. The term ‘nanodiamond’ is used broadly for a variety of diamond-based materials at the nanoscale ranging from single diamond clusters to bulk nanocrystalline films. Only selected properties of carbon nanotubes are discussed, with an aim to summarize the most recent discoveries. Current and potential applications of carbon nanostructures are critically analyzed.     

Optimization of the collocation inversion method for the linear viscoelastic homogenization

The effective behaviour of linear viscoelastic heterogeneous material can be derived from the correspondence principle and the inversion of the obtained symbolic homogenized behavior. Various numerical methods were proposed to carry out this inversion. The collocation method, widely used, within this framework rests on a discretization of the characteristic spectrum in a sum of discrete lines for which it is necessary to determine the intensities and the positions by the minimization of the difference between the exact temporal function and its approximation. The classical method is based on a priori choice of the lines positions and on the optimization of their intensities. It is shown here that the combined optimization of the positions and the (positive) intensities lead to a minimization problem under constraints. In the simple case of an incompressible isotropic two-phase material, the assessment of the effective relaxation function with a continuum spectra or made up of discrete lines proves that the proposed method improves the predictions of the classical approach.     

The motion of a closely-fitting sphere in a fluid-filled tube

Singular perturbation techniques are used to investigate the slow, asymmetric flow around a sphere positioned eccentrically within a long, circular, cylindrical tube filled with viscous fluid. The results apply to situations in which the sphere occupies virtually the entire cross section of the cylinder, so that the clearance between the particle and tube wall is everywhere small compared with both the sphere and tube radii. The technique is an improvement over conventional “lubrication-theory” analyses.Asymptotic expansions, valid for small dimensionless clearances, are obtained for the hydrodynamic force, torque and pressure drop for flow past a stationary sphere, as well as for the case of a sphere translating or rotating in an otherwise quiescent fluid. These expansions are employed to predict the macroscopic behavior of both a neutrally-buoyant sphere suspended in a Poiseuille flow, and a sedimenting sphere in a vertical tube.The results find application in capillary blood flow, pipeline transport of encapsulated materials, and falling-ball viscometers.     

Korrosion und Schutzanstriche

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Korrosionsuntersuchung

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