| 项目编号: | 1437195
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| 项目名称: | Locomotion and Transport in a Liquid Crystal |
| 作者: | Thomas Powers
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| 承担单位: | Brown University
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| 批准年: | 2013
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| 开始日期: | 2014-09-01
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| 结束日期: | 2018-08-31
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| 资助金额: | USD269998
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| 资助来源: | US-NSF
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| 项目类别: | Standard Grant
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| 国家: | US
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| 语种: | 英语
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| 特色学科分类: | Engineering - Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
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| 英文关键词: | liquid crystal solution
; swimming
; microorganism
; bacterium
; liquid crystal
; liquid crystal environment
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| 英文摘要: | The goal of the proposed study is to investigate the fundamentals of swimming of microorganisms in liquid crystal environments. Swimming and swarming of microorganisms is a topic of considerable current interest, with a lot of research left to be done in the case of swimming in fluids that are more complex than water. Results of this work will deepen our understanding of the behavior of microorganisms in complex yet very relevant systems, such as mucus and biofilms. The PI will continue to participate in the Research Experiences for Teachers program, which invites K-12 teachers from local schools to the Brown campus to participate in laboratory research and course development projects during the summer, and in the Brown University Summer High School program , giving lectures and demonstrations on the physics of locomotion and liquid crystals. The PI will also contribute lectures and discussions to the Providence After School Alliance (PASA), a local organization that provides expanded learning opportunities to high school students.
The goal of the proposed research is to provide the theoretical framework for understanding the swimming of microorganisms in liquid crystal solutions. These liquid crystal solutions are model systems for the study of more complicated anisotropic biological systems, but are also interesting in their own right as a means for manipulating active colloidal particles. While the hydrodynamic interactions between microscopic swimmers in Newtonian fluids, such as water, have received a lot of attention, bacteria commonly colonize environments laden with polymers. Since these polymers are typically rod-like and aligned, these environments are often anisotropic. For example, extracellular DNA forms parallel bundles in biofilms, and bacteria have been observed to swim preferentially along the direction of alignment. Furthermore, several experimental groups have recently begun to study swimming bacteria in nontoxic synthetic liquid crystal solutions. The proposal is addressing this issue exactly, the development of a theory that would describe phenomena that are experimentally observed. |
| 资源类型: | 项目
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| 标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/95822
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| Appears in Collections: | 影响、适应和脆弱性
气候减缓与适应
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| Recommended Citation: | |
Thomas Powers. Locomotion and Transport in a Liquid Crystal. 2013-01-01.
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