Open-source low-cost design of a buoy for remote water quality monitoring in fish farming.

In this paper we present the design of an open-source and low-cost buoy prototype for remote monitoring of water quality variables in fish farming. The designed battery-powered system periodically measures temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen, transmitting the information locally through a low-power wide-area network protocol to a gateway connected to a cloud service for data storage and visualization. We provide a novel buoy design that can be easily constructed with off-the-shelf materials, delivering a stable anchored float for the IoT device and the probes immersed in the water pond. The prototype was tested at an operating fish farm, showing promising results for a low-cost remote monitoring tool that enables automatic data acquisition and storage in fish farming scenarios. All the elements of this design, including hardware and software designs, are freely available under permissive licenses as an open-source project.

Effects of fabrication on the mechanics, microstructure and micromechanical environment of small intestinal submucosa scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering.

In small intestinal submucosa scaffolds for functional tissue engineering, the impact of scaffold fabrication parameters on success rate may be related to the mechanotransductory properties of the final microstructural organization of collagen fibers. We hypothesized that two fabrication parameters, 1) preservation (P) or removal (R) of a dense collagen layer present in SIS and 2) SIS in a final dehydrated (D) or hydrated (H) state, have an effect on scaffold void area, microstructural anisotropy (fiber alignment) and mechanical anisotropy (global mechanical compliance). We further integrated our experimental measurements in a constitutive model to explore final effects on the micromechanical environment inside the scaffold volume. Our results indicated that PH scaffolds might exhibit recurrent and large force fluctuations between layers (up to 195 pN), while fluctuations in RH scaffolds might be larger (up to 256 pN) but not as recurrent. In contrast, both PD and RD groups were estimated to produce scarcer and smaller fluctuations (not larger than 50 pN). We concluded that the hydration parameter strongly affects the micromechanics of SIS and that an adequate choice of fabrication parameters, assisted by the herein developed method, might leverage the use of SIS for functional tissue engineering applications, where forces at the cellular level are of concern in the guidance of new tissue formation.

Slow sedimentation and deformability of charged lipid vesicles.

The study of vesicles in suspension is important to understand the complicated dynamics exhibited by cells in in vivo and in vitro. We developed a computer simulation based on the boundary-integral method to model the three dimensional gravity-driven sedimentation of charged vesicles towards a flat surface. The membrane mechanical behavior was modeled using the Helfrich Hamiltonian and near incompressibility of the membrane was enforced via a model which accounts for the thermal fluctuations of the membrane. The simulations were verified and compared to experimental data obtained using suspended vesicles labelled with a fluorescent probe, which allows visualization using fluorescence microscopy and confers the membrane with a negative surface charge. The electrostatic interaction between the vesicle and the surface was modeled using the linear Derjaguin approximation for a low ionic concentration solution. The sedimentation rate as a function of the distance of the vesicle to the surface was determined both experimentally and from the computer simulations. The gap between the vesicle and the surface, as well as the shape of the vesicle at equilibrium were also studied. It was determined that inclusion of the electrostatic interaction is fundamental to accurately predict the sedimentation rate as the vesicle approaches the surface and the size of the gap at equilibrium, we also observed that the presence of charge in the membrane increases its rigidity.

Observation of bacterial type I pili extension and contraction under fluid flow.

Type I pili are proteinaceous tethers that mediate bacterial adhesion of uropathogenic Escherichia coli to surfaces and are thought to help bacteria resist drag forces imparted by fluid flow via uncoiling of their quaternary structure. Uncoiling and recoiling have been observed in force spectroscopy experiments, but it is not clear if and how this process occurs under fluid flow. Here we developed an assay to study the mechanical properties of pili in a parallel plate flow chamber. We show that pili extend when attached E. coli bacteria are exposed to increasing shear stresses, that pili can help bacteria move against moderate fluid flows, and characterize two dynamic regimes of this displacement. The first regime is consistent with entropic contraction as modeled by a freely jointed chain, and the second with coiling of the quaternary structure of pili. These results confirm that coiling and uncoiling happen under flow but the observed dynamics are different from those reported previously. Using these results and those from previous studies, we review the mechanical properties of pili in the context of other elastic proteins such as the byssal threads of mussels. It has been proposed that the high extensibility of pili may help recruit more pili into tension and lower the force acting on each one by damping changes in force due to fluid flow. Our analysis of the mechanical properties suggests additional functions of pili; in particular, their extensibility may reduce tension by aligning pili with the direction of flow, and the uncoiled state of pili may complement uncoiling in regulating the force of the terminal adhesin.

Effects of a surfactant monolayer on the measurement of equilibrium interfacial tension of a drop in extensional flow.

The effect of surfactant monolayer concentration on the measurement of interfacial surface tension using transient drop deformation methods is studied using the Boundary Integral Method. Emulsion droplets with a surfactant monolayer modeled with the Langmuir equation of state initially in equilibrium are suddenly subjected to axisymmetric extensional flows until a steady state deformation is reached. The external flow is then removed and the retraction of the drops to a spherical equilibrium shape in a quiescent state is simulated. The transient response of the drop to the imposed flow is analyzed to obtain a characteristic response time, tau(s)( *). Neglecting the initial and final stages, the retraction process can be closely approximated by an exponential decay with a characteristic time, tau(r)( *). The strength of the external flow on each model drop is increased in order to investigate the coupled effect of deformation and surfactant distribution on the characteristic relaxation time. Different model drops are considered by varying the internal viscosity and the equilibrium surfactant concentrations from a surfactant free state (clean) to high concentrations approaching the maximum packing limit. The characteristic times obtained from the simulated drop dynamics both in extension and retraction are used to determine an apparent surface tension employing linear theory. In extension the apparent surface tension under predicts the prescribed equilibrium surface tension. The error increases monotonically with the equilibrium surfactant concentration and diverges as the maximum packing limit is approached. In retraction the apparent surface tension under predicts the prescribed equilibrium surface tension depends non-monotonically on the equilibrium surfactant concentration. The error is highest for moderate surfactant concentrations and decreases as the maximum packing limit is approached. It was found that the difference between the prescribed surface tension and the apparent surface tension increased as the viscosity ratio decreased. Differences as large as 40% were seen between the prescribed surface tension and the apparent surface tension predicted by the linear theory.