Experimental and theoretical studies of the self-propelled motional dynamics of a new genre of catalytic sphere dimer, which comprises a non-catalytic silica sphere connected to a catalytic platinum sphere, are reported for the first time. Using aqueous hydrogen peroxide as the fuel to effect catalytic propulsion of the sphere dimers, both quasi-linear and quasi-circular trajectories are observ...

We present a three-part approach for diagnosing bugs and performance problems in production distributed environments. First, we introduce a novel execution monitoring technique that dynamically injects a fragment of code, the agent, into an application process on demand. The agent inserts instrumentation ahead of the control flow within the process and propagates into other processes, following...

A meander is observed in collective motion of some kinds of organisms, for exmaple, a school of fishes and a flight of bats. It is interesting problem to explore why such a motion emerges. In order to investigate the dynamics of organisms, we adopt a two dimensional optimal velocity model, which has been proposed as a dynamical model for the pedestrian flow. Some features in the pedestrian flow...

We examine the persistent random motion of self-propelled rods (SPR) as a function of the area fraction phi and study the effect of steric interactions on their diffusion properties. SPR of length l and width w are fabricated with a spherocylindrical head attached to a beaded chain tail, and show directed motion on a vibrated substrate. The mean square displacement (MSD) on the substrate grows ...

Herein we report the chemotactic behaviour of self-propelled droplets composed solely of the ionic liquid trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride ([P(6,6,6,14)][Cl]). These droplets spontaneously move along an aqueous-air boundary in the direction of chloride gradients to specific destinations due to asymmetric release of [P(6,6,6,14)](+) cationic surfactant from the droplet into the aqueous p...

The motion of self-propelled tubular micro- and nanojets has so far been achieved by bubble propulsion, e.g., O2 bubbles formed by catalytic decomposition of H2O2, which renders future biomedical applications inviable. An alternative self-propulsion mechanism for tubular engines on the nanometer scale is still missing. Here, we report the fabrication and characterization of bubble-free propelle...