Enhanced diffusion due to active swimmers at a solid surface

We consider two systems of active swimmers moving close to a solid surface, one being a living population of wild-type E.?coli and the other being an assembly of self-propelled Au-Pt rods. In both situations, we have identified two different types of motion at the surface and evaluated the fraction of the population that displayed ballistic trajectories (active swimmers) with respect to those showing randomlike behavior. We studied the effect of this complex swimming activity on the diffusivity of passive tracers also present at the surface. We found that the tracer diffusivity is enhanced with respect to standard Brownian motion and increases linearly with the activity of the fluid, defined as the product of the fraction of active swimmers and their mean velocity. This result can be understood in terms of series of elementary encounters between the active swimmers and the tracers.     

Synthesis of Glycodendrimers with Antiviral and Antibacterial Activity

Glycodendrimers are an important class of synthetic macromolecules that can be used to mimic many structural and functional features of cell-surface glycoconjugates. Their carbohydrate moieties perform key important functions in bacterial and viral infections, often regulated by carbohydrate–protein interactions. Several studies have shown that the molecular structure, valency and spatial organisation of carbohydrate epitopes in glycoconjugates are key factors in the specificity and avidity of carbohydrate–protein interactions. Choosing the right glycodendrimers almost always helps to interfere with such interactions and blocks bacterial or viral adhesion and entry into host cells as an effective strategy to inhibit bacterial or viral infections. Herein, the state of the art in the design and synthesis of glycodendrimers employed for the development of anti-adhesion therapy against bacterial and viral infections is described.     

Emergent SU(N) symmetry in disordered SO(N) spin chains

The European Physical Journal B - We report the first observation of the low-frequency Raman spectra of 2-propanol from ambient to supercritical condition. Phenomenological analysis is applied to...     

Comparing the effect of nanofillers as thermal stabilizers in low density polyethylene

A study of the thermal degradation under inert and oxidative conditions of LDPE and three 5-wt% nanocomposites has been performed. The bases of comparison were the geometries of the nanofillers (spherical, fibrous and laminar) and the sample thickness. Homogeneous and well-dispersed materials were obtained with the three nanoparticles, ensuring a relevant comparative analysis.The thermal degradation curves obtained from TGA under nitrogen flow did not show significant differences in behaviour within the nanocomposites and the reference LDPE. However, the results for the thermo-oxidation study showed a strong stabilization effect for both fibrous and laminar silicates, but not for the spherical silica nanoparticles. A kinetic study of the degradation under isothermal conditions showed that the nanocomposites made from fibrous and laminar silicates degraded following the mechanisms observed for thin films independent of the sample thickness. These results suggested the occurrence of a protective layer against thermo-oxidation on the film surface. Chemical analysis of the degraded surfaces by IR and EDX measurements gave data to explain these differences in behaviour.     

Production of polycaprolactone nanoparticles with low polydispersity index in a tubular recirculating system by using a multifactorial design of experiments

Encapsulation and controlled release of substances using polymeric nanoparticles require that these have a high reproducibility, homogeneity, and control over their properties (diameter and polydispersity), especially when they are to be used in medical, pharmaceutical, or nutritional applications among others. In conventional production systems, it is tough to ensure these characteristics; hence, the cost increases when we try to control these properties. This paper shows a comparison between a recirculating system and the standard nanoprecipitation technique for producing polymeric nanoparticles. In previous investigations, we evaluate the effect of recirculating flow and the ratio between the organic and aqueous phase. For this paper, we evaluated the effect of polymer and surfactant concentrations using a multifactorial design of experiments on the recirculating system and on the standard nanoprecipitation system. The response of the design was the average diameter of the nanoparticles and polydispersity index. Finally, we found that the polymer and surfactant concentrations could change the average diameter and polydispersity index of the nanoparticles obtained. On the other hand, it was found that the effect of the polymer concentration was stronger than the surfactant concentration to reduce the average diameter of the nanoparticles. The results of the present study show that the proposed recirculation system presents a high potential to produce polymer nanoparticles with good morphological characteristics, particle size distributions in the nano range, and with a low polydispersity. The average mean size of nanoparticles of polycaprolactone for the design using the recirculating system was of 61 to 140 nm and the values of polydispersity index PDI for this design were between 0.097 and 0.22, while for the design using the standard nanoprecipitation technique, the obtained diameters were 74 to 176 nm and the polydispersity was between 0.26 and 0.41.     

Effects of dissipation on a quantum critical point with disorder

We study the effects of dissipation on a disordered quantum phase transition with O(N) order-parameter symmetry by applying a strong-disorder renormalization group to the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson field theory of the problem. We find that Ohmic dissipation results in a nonperturbative infinite-randomness critical point with unconventional activated dynamical scaling while super-Ohmic damping leads to conventional behavior. We discuss applications to the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires and to the Hertz theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition.