Phenotypic and proteomic differences in biofilm formation of two Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains in static and dynamic flow environments.

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum is a Gram-positive non-motile bacterium capable of producing biofilms that contribute to the colonization of surfaces in a range of different environments. In this study, we compared two strains, WCFS1 and CIP104448, in their ability to produce biofilms in static and dynamic (flow) environments using an in-house designed flow setup. This flow setup enables us to impose a non-uniform flow velocity profile across the well. Biofilm formation occurred at the bottom of the well for both strains, under static and flow conditions, where in the latter condition, CIP104448 also showed increased biofilm formation at the walls of the well in line with the higher hydrophobicity of the cells and the increased initial attachment efficacy compared to WCFS1. Fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy showed open 3D structured biofilms formed under flow conditions, containing live cells and ∼30 % damaged/dead cells for CIP104448, whereas the WCFS1 biofilm showed live cells closely packed together. Comparative proteome analysis revealed minimal changes between planktonic and static biofilm cells of the respective strains suggesting that biofilm formation within 24 h is merely a passive process. Notably, observed proteome changes in WCFS1 and CIP104448 flow biofilm cells indicated similar and unique responses including changes in metabolic activity, redox/electron transfer and cell division proteins for both strains, and myo-inositol production for WCFS1 and oxidative stress response and DNA damage repair for CIP104448 uniquely. Exposure to DNase and protease treatments as well as lethal concentrations of peracetic acid showed highest resistance of flow biofilms. For the latter, CIP104448 flow biofilm even maintained its high disinfectant resistance after dispersal from the bottom and from the walls of the well. Combining all results highlights that L. plantarum biofilm structure and matrix, and physiological state and stress resistance of cells is strain dependent and strongly affected under flow conditions. It is concluded that consideration of effects of flow on biofilm formation is essential to better understand biofilm formation in different settings, including food processing environments.

Colonization and spreading dynamics of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum spoilage isolates on wet surfaces.

The role of lactic acid bacteria, including Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, in food spoilage is well recognized, while the behavior of these non-motile bacteria on wet surfaces, such as those encountered in food processing environments has gained relatively little attention. Here, we observed a fast colony spreading of non-motile L. plantarum spoilage isolates on wet surfaces via passive sliding using solid BHI agar media as a model. We investigated the effect of physical properties of agar hydrogel substrate on the surface spreading of six L. plantarum food isolates FBR1-6 and a model strain WCFS1, using increasing concentrations of agar from 0.25 up to 1.5% (w/v). Our results revealed that L. plantarum strain FBR2 spreads significantly on low agar concentration plates compared to the other strains studied here (with a factor of 50-60 folds higher surface coverage), due to the formation of very soft biofilms with high water content that can float on the surface. The fast-spreading of FBR2 colonies is accompanied by an increased number of cells, elongated cell morphology, and a higher amount of extracellular components. Our finding highlights colonization dynamics and the spreading capacity of non-motile bacteria on surfaces that are relatively wet, thereby revealing an additional hitherto unnoticed parameter for non-motile bacteria that may contribute to contamination of foods by fast surface spreading of these bacteria in food processing environments.

Capillary Forces Lead to Pendant Crystals at the Liquid-Air Interface of Evaporating Salt Solutions.

We investigated the nucleation and growth processes of individual NaCl crystals from an evaporating salt solution that is supersaturated. We find that crystals nucleate at the liquid/vapor interface, resulting in distinct "pendant" crystals, which reach millimeter dimensions. The substantial size of the crystals induces deformation of the interface. This process and the evaporation rate, in turn, determine the final crystal shape, which features a deep central cavity. Our findings reveal that a delicate balance exists between gravity, buoyancy, and the surface tension of the liquid/vapor interface that allows the crystal to remain pendant. When the contact angle of the crystal with the meniscus reaches 90°, the crystal disconnects from the interface and falls into the solution. We quantitatively predict the critical mass at which this occurs.

Molecular rotors to probe the local viscosity of a polymer glass.

We investigate the local viscosity of a polymer glass around its glass transition temperature by using environment-sensitive fluorescent molecular rotors embedded in the polymer matrix. The fluorescence of the rotors depends on the local viscosity, and measuring the fluorescence intensity and lifetime of the probe therefore allows us to measure the local free volume in the polymer glass when going through the glass transition. This also allows us to study the local viscosity and free volume when the polymer film is put under an external stress. We find that the film does not flow homogeneously but undergoes shear banding that is visible as a spatially varying free volume and viscosity.

Interfacial instabilities in Marangoni-driven spreading of polymer solutions on soap films.

HYPOTHESIS: Tuning and controlling the flow behavior of multi-component liquids has been a long-lasting struggle in various technological applications. Here, we studied Marangoni spreading of a polymer-surfactant ternary solution when deposited on a soap film with higher surface tension. The spreading front becomes unstable into a fingering pattern above the entanglement concentration of the polymer solution, indicating that the interplay between the elastic and interfacial properties drives the instability. Balancing these terms results in a critical length scale for the onset of the instability. EXPERIMENTS: To investigate the connection between the rheological characteristics of the samples and the origins of the instabilities, various rheological tests were performed. Elastic and loss modulus of the samples were measured within the linear viscoelastic regime. The spreading behavior of the solutions was studied using high-speed imaging techniques. FINDINGS: At low concentrations of polymers, spreading dynamics are governed by surface tension gradient and viscous dissipation leading to a stable front growing linearly in time. However, above the entanglement concentration of polymers spreading front destabilizes into a daisy shape pattern suggesting the elastic forces dominating the spreading dynamics. We introduced a length scale that precisely predicts the onset of the instability.

Protein microparticles visualize the contact network and rigidity onset in the gelation of model proteins.

Protein aggregation into gel networks is of immense importance in diverse areas from food science to medical research; however, it remains a grand challenge as the underlying molecular interactions are complex, difficult to access experimentally, and to model computationally. Early stages of gelation often involve protein aggregation into protein clusters that later on aggregate into a gel network. Recently synthesized protein microparticles allow direct control of these early stages of aggregation, decoupling them from the subsequent gelation stages. Here, by following the gelation of protein microparticles directly at the particle scale, we elucidate in detail the emergence of a percolating structure and the onset of rigidity as measured by microrheology. We find that the largest particle cluster, correlation length, and degree of polymerization all diverge with power laws, while the particles bind irreversibly indicating a nonequilibrium percolation process, in agreement with recent results on weakly attractive colloids. Concomitantly, the elastic modulus increases in a power-law fashion as determined by microrheology. These results give a consistent microscopic picture of the emergence of rigidity in a nonequilibrium percolation process that likely underlies the gelation in many more systems such as proteins, and other strongly interacting structures originating from (bio)molecules.

Inverted and Programmable Poynting Effects in Metamaterials.

The Poynting effect generically manifests itself as the extension of the material in the direction perpendicular to an applied shear deformation (torsion) and is a material parameter hard to design. Unlike isotropic solids, in designed structures, peculiar couplings between shear and normal deformations can be achieved and exploited for practical applications. Here, a metamaterial is engineered that can be programmed to contract or extend under torsion and undergo nonlinear twist under compression. First, it is shown that the system exhibits a novel type of inverted Poynting effect, where axial compression induces a nonlinear torsion. Then the Poynting modulus of the structure is programmed from initial negative values to zero and positive values via a pre-compression applied prior to torsion. The work opens avenues for programming nonlinear elastic moduli of materials and tuning the couplings between shear and normal responses by rational design. Obtaining inverted and programmable Poynting effects in metamaterials inspires diverse applications from designing machine materials, soft robots, and actuators to engineering biological tissues, implants, and prosthetic devices functioning under compression and torsion.

Curvature Induced by Deflection in Thick Meta-Plates.

The design of advanced functional devices often requires the use of intrinsically curved geometries that belong to the realm of non-Euclidean geometry and remain a challenge for traditional engineering approaches. Here, it is shown how the simple deflection of thick meta-plates based on hexagonal cellular mesostructures can be used to achieve a wide range of intrinsic (i.e., Gaussian) curvatures, including dome-like and saddle-like shapes. Depending on the unit cell structure, non-auxetic (i.e., positive Poisson ratio) or auxetic (i.e., negative Poisson ratio) plates can be obtained, leading to a negative or positive value of the Gaussian curvature upon bending, respectively. It is found that bending such meta-plates along their longitudinal direction induces a curvature along their transverse direction. Experimentally and numerically, it is shown how the amplitude of this induced curvature is related to the longitudinal bending and the geometry of the meta-plate. The approach proposed here constitutes a general route for the rational design of advanced functional devices with intrinsically curved geometries. To demonstrate the merits of this approach, a scaling relationship is presented, and its validity is demonstrated by applying it to 3D-printed microscale meta-plates. Several applications for adaptive optical devices with adjustable focal length and soft wearable robotics are presented.

Real-time contamination zoning in water distribution networks for contamination emergencies: a case study.

Contamination of urban water distribution systems (WDS) is a critical issue due to the number of victims that might be impacted in a short period of time. Any effective rapid emergency response plan for reducing the number of sick people or deaths among those drinking the polluted water requires a reliable forecast of the water contamination zoning map (CZM). The water CZM is a visual representation of the spread of contamination at the time of contamination detection. This study presents a novel methodology based on the rough set theory (RST) for real-time forecasting of the CZM caused by simultaneous multi-point contamination injection in WDS. Our proposed methodology consists of (i) a Monte Carlo simulation model to capture the uncertainties in a multi-point deliberate contamination, (ii) a numerical simulation model for simulating pipe flow, and (iii) a rough set-based technique for real-time CZM for a WDS equipped with a set of monitoring stations. The proposed methodology can be used for any type of random contamination of WDSs as well as emergencies in deliberate contamination of water distribution networks.

LCST polymers with UCST behavior.

In this study, temperature dependent behavior of dense dispersions of core crosslinked flower-like micelles is investigated. Micelles were prepared by mixing aqueous solutions of two ABA block copolymers with PEG B-blocks and thermosensitive A-blocks containing PNIPAM and crosslinkable moieties. At a temperature above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), self-assembly of the polymers resulted in the formation of flower-like micelles with a hydrophilic PEG shell and a hydrophobic core. The micellar core was stabilized by native chemical ligation (NCL). Above the LCST, micelles displayed a radius of ∼35 nm, while a radius of ∼48 nm was found below the LCST due to hydration of the PNIPAM core. Concentrated dispersions of these micelles (≥7.5 wt%) showed glassy state behavior below a critical temperature (Tc: 28 °C) which is close to the LCST of the polymers. Below this Tc, the increase in the micelle volume resulted in compression of micelles together above a certain concentration and formation of a glass. We quantified and compared micelle packing at different concentrations and temperatures. The storage moduli (G') of the dispersions showed a universal dependence on the effective volume fraction, which increased substantially above a certain effective volume fraction of φ = 1.2. Furthermore, a disordered lattice model describing this behavior fitted the experimental data and revealed a critical volume fraction of φc = 1.31 close to the experimental value of φ = 1.2. The findings reported provide insights for the molecular design of novel thermosensitive PNIPAM nanoparticles with tunable structural and mechanical properties.

Serum Concentrations of Vitamin D, Calcium, Phosphorus and Trace Minerals in Adults and Children with Haemophilia A: Association with Disease Severity, Quality of Life, Joint Health and Functional Status.

Background : To investigate the serum levels of 25(OH)D and minerals in adults and children with haemophilia A, and the possible association of these factors with Pediatric Haemophilia/Haemophilia Activities List (PedHAL/HAL), Haemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS) and Haemophilia-specific quality of life (QoL) index this case-control study was conducted. Materials and Methods: Eighty five haemophilia A patients (HP) registered in Hemophilia Society of Lorestan province were recruited. Along with HP, sex and age matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Linear regression was used to evaluate the possible relation between biochemical factors and other variables. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the biochemical factors between three or more independent groups. Results: Results indicated that serum zinc, phosphorus and magnesium were significantly lower, whereas, serum level of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was statistically higher in HP compared with HCs. Other biochemical factors including calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were not different between groups. Serum 25(OH) D was lower only in children with haemophilia and not in adults. Percentage of subjects who were vitamin D deficient was higher in HP vs. HCs (57.6% vs. 35.3%), and also this rate was higher in children with haemophilia vs. adults (77.8% vs. 48.3%). Lower serum concentrations of assessed minerals and vitamin D were associated with lower physical activity, poor QoL and worst joint health, and these associations were stronger in children. Conclusion: Present study indicated that serum levels of vitamin D and minerals were low in HP, and these low levels were associated with poor QoL, lower physical activity and worst joint health.

Interfacial rheology and relaxation behavior of adsorption layers of the triterpenoid saponin Escin.

HYPOTHESIS: Escin, a monodesmosidic triterpenoid saponin, was shown previously to form viscoelastic interfaces with a very high dilatational and surface shear storage modulus. This is expected to be due to the arrangement of Escin into 2D disordered soft viscoelastic solid interfacial structures, which results in turn in a distribution of relaxation times. EXPERIMENTS: The responses to dilatational and surface shear deformations of Escin-stabilized air-water interfaces were studied, both in the linear viscoelastic (LVE) and non-linear (NLVE) regime. Step relaxation and amplitude sweeps were performed in dilatation experiments. For surface shear, amplitude sweeps and creep recovery experiments were performed. FINDINGS: Escin stabilized-interfaces displayed a highly non-linear behavior in dilatation as seen in the Lissajous plots. In large oscillatory shear the Lissajous curves had a rhomboidal shape, indicating intracycle yielding and recovery, typical of glassy systems. The relaxation of the interface showed stretched exponential behavior, with stretched exponents typical of disordered solids with dynamic heterogeneity. The use of surface rheological measurements beyond the commonly measured LVE regime clearly has provided new insights into the behavior of these interfaces and their microstructure. These results highlight the need to reconsider other complex interfaces as disordered solids and not as 2D homogenous viscoelastic fluids.

Rapid Spreading of a Droplet on a Thin Soap Film.

We study the spreading of a droplet of surfactant solution on a thin suspended soap film as a function of dynamic surface tension and volume of the droplet. Radial growth of the leading edge (R) shows power-law dependence on time with exponents ranging roughly from 0.1 to 1 for different surface tension differences (Δσ) between the film and the droplet. When the surface tension of the droplet is lower than the surface tension of the film (Δσ > 0), we observe rapid spreading of the droplet with R ≈ tα, where α (0.4 < α < 1) is highly dependent on Δσ. Balance arguments assuming the spreading process is driven by Marangoni stresses versus inertial stresses yield α = 2/3. When the surface tension difference does not favor spreading (Δσ < 0), spreading still occurs but is slow with 0.1 < α < 0.2. This phenomenon could be used for stretching droplets in 2D and modifying thin suspended films.

Cohesion-driven mixing and segregation of dry granular media.

Granular segregation is a common, yet still puzzling, phenomenon encountered in many natural and engineering processes. Here, we experimentally investigate the effect of particles cohesion on segregation in dry monodisperse and bidisperse systems using a rotating drum mixer. Chemical silanization, glass surface functionalization via a Silane coupling agent, is used to produce cohesive dry glass particles. The cohesive force between the particles is controlled by varying the reaction duration of the silanization process, and is measured using an in-house device specifically designed for this study. The effects of the cohesive force on flow and segregation are then explored and discussed. For monosized particulate systems, while cohesionless particles perfectly mix when tumbled, highly cohesive particles segregate. For bidisperse mixtures of particles, an adequate cohesion-tuning reduces segregation and enhances mixing. Based on these results, a simple scheme is proposed to describe the system's mixing behaviour with important implications for the control of segregation or mixing in particulate industrial processes.

Speckle pattern analysis of crumpled papers.

In this paper, we show that laser speckle analysis (LSA) can provide valuable information about the structure of crumpled thin sheets. Crumpling and folding of slender objects are present in several phenomena and in various ranges of size, e.g., paper compaction, cortical folding in brains, DNA packing in viral capsids, and flower buds, to name a few. The analysis of laser speckles, both numerical and graphical, is a source of information about the activity of biological or non-biological materials, and the development of digital electronics, which brought the ease of image processing, has opened new perspectives for a spectrum of LSA applications. LSA is applied on randomly crumpled and one-, two-, and three-times folded papers, and appreciable differences in LSA parameters are observed. The methodology can be applied for easy-to-implement quantitative assessment of similar phenomena and samples.

Tailoring relaxation dynamics and mechanical memory of crumpled materials by friction and ductility.

Crumpled sheets show slow mechanical relaxation and long lasting memory of previous mechanical states. By using uniaxial compression tests, the role of friction and ductility on the stress relaxation dynamics of crumpled systems is investigated. We find a material dependent relaxation constant that can be tuned by changing ductility and adhesive properties of the sheet. After a two-step compression protocol, nonmonotonic aging is reported for polymeric, elastomeric and metal sheets, with relaxation dynamics that are dependent on the material's properties. These findings can contribute to tailoring and programming of crumpled materials to get desirable mechanical properties.

Granular chain escape from a pore in a wall in the presence of particles on one side: a comparison to polymer translocation.

Escape of a granular chain from a pore in a wall in the presence of diffusing granular particles on one side of the wall is studied experimentally. The escape time shows power-law behavior as a function of the chain length (τ ∝ Nα). A Langevin dynamics simulation of a polymer chain in a similar geometry is also performed and similar results to those for a granular system are obtained. A simple scaling argument and an energetic argument (based on the Onsager principle) are introduced which explain our results very well. Experiments (simulations) show that by increasing the number of particles on one side of the wall from zero, the exponent α decreases from 2.6 ± 0.1 (3.1 ± 0.1) to about 2. Both scaling and the Onsager principle argument predict α = 2 at high particle concentration, in agreement with the experiments and simulations. In the absence of particles, the scaling predicts τ = N2.5 (in agreement with the experimental result for the granular chain) and the Onsager principle predictsτ = N3 ln N, supporting the simulation result for the polymer chain. Experiments, simulations, scaling, and the Onsager principle confirm an inverse relation between τ and the density of particles on one side of the wall.

Segregation of a binary granular mixture in a vibrating sawtooth base container.

A granular mixture of identical particles of different densities can be segregated when the system is shaken. We present an efficient method of continuously segregating a flow of randomly mixed identical spherical particles of different densities by shaking them in a quasi-two-dimensional container with a sawtooth-shaped base. Using numerical simulation we study the effect of direction of shaking (horizontal/vertical), geometry of the sawtooth, and the friction coefficient between the grains and the container walls on the segregation quality. Finally by performing experiments on the same system we compare our simulation results with the experimental results. The good agreement between our simulation and experiment indicates the validity of our simulation approach and will provide a practical way for granular segregation in industrial applications.

Compaction of quasi-one-dimensional elastoplastic materials.

Insight into crumpling or compaction of one-dimensional objects is important for understanding biopolymer packaging and designing innovative technological devices. By compacting various types of wires in rigid confinements and characterizing the morphology of the resulting crumpled structures, here, we report how friction, plasticity and torsion enhance disorder, leading to a transition from coiled to folded morphologies. In the latter case, where folding dominates the crumpling process, we find that reducing the relative wire thickness counter-intuitively causes the maximum packing density to decrease. The segment size distribution gradually becomes more asymmetric during compaction, reflecting an increase of spatial correlations. We introduce a self-avoiding random walk model and verify that the cumulative injected wire length follows a universal dependence on segment size, allowing for the prediction of the efficiency of compaction as a function of material properties, container size and injection force.

Normal stresses in shear thickening granular suspensions.

When subjected to shear, granular suspensions exhibit normal stresses perpendicular to the shear plane but the magnitude and sign of the different components of the normal stresses are still under debate. By performing both oscillatory and rotational rheology measurements on shear thickening granular suspensions and systematically varying the particle diameters and the gap sizes between two parallel-plates, we show that a transition from a positive to a negative normal stress can be observed. We find that frictional interactions which determine the shear thickening behavior of suspensions contribute to the positive normal stresses. Increasing the particle diameters or decreasing the gap sizes leads to a growing importance of hydrodynamic interactions, which results in negative normal stresses. We determine a relaxation time for the system, set by both the pore and the gap sizes, that governs the fluid flow through the inter-particle space. Finally, using a two-fluid model we determine the relative contributions from the particle phase and the liquid phase.