The forced rupture of single chemical bonds in biomolecular compounds (e.g. ligand-receptor systems) as observed in dynamic force spectroscopy experiments is addressed. Under the assumption that the probability of bond rupture depends only on the instantaneously acting force, a data collapse onto a single master curve is predicted. For rupture data obtained experimentally by dynamic AFM force s...

We monitor the relaxation of internal stresses in a fractal colloidal gel on cessation of flow and find a weak power-law decay, sigmai approximately t(-alpha) over five decades of time where alpha approximately 0.07. The system exhibits physical aging of the elastic modulus, G' approximately tbeta, with beta approximately alpha . Imposition of zero stress after waiting time tw results in strain...

We study the electrophoretic mobility of spherical charged colloids in a low-salt suspension as a function of the colloidal concentration. Using an effective particle charge and a reduced screening parameter, we map the data for systems with different particle charges and sizes, including numerical simulation data with full electrostatics and hydrodynamics and experimental data for latex disper...

The Master Curve brittle fracture toughness estimation method described in the ASTM E1921-11 test standard is based on a theoretical scatter and size effect assumption and makes use of a maximum likelihood estimation method to determine the fracture toughness transition temperature T0. The estimation method in E1921-11 is valid only for macroscopically homogeneous steels. If the steel is inhomo...

The ad-hoc querying process is slow and error prone due to inability of business experts of accessing data directly without involving IT experts. The problem lies in complexity of means used to query data. We propose a new natural languageand semistar ontology-based ad-hoc querying approach which lowers the steep learning curve required to be able to query data. The proposed approach would sign...

Relaxation times tau(T,upsilon) for different temperatures, T, and specific volumes, upsilon, collapse to a master curve vs Tupsilon(gamma), with gamma a material constant. The isochoric fragility, mV, is also a material constant, inversely correlated with gamma. From these experimental facts, we obtain a three-parameter function that accurately fits tau(T,upsilon) data for several glass-former...

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) support a variety of real-time health monitoring and consumer electronics applications. The latest international standard for WBAN is the IEEE 802.15.6. The security association in this standard includes four elliptic curve-based key agreement protocols that are used for generating a master key. In this paper, we challenge the security of the IEEE 802.15.6 sta...

In order to enhance mechanical dewatering, conditioning polymers are used to flocculate sewage sludge. These polymers modify floc structure, which has an impact on dewatering efficiency. However, fundamental aspects of those processes are incompletely understood, particularly the way that flocs are structurally organized and how this may relate to their mechanical and dewatering properties. Thu...

We investigate experimentally the influence of suspended particles on the transition to turbulence. The particles are monodisperse and neutrally buoyant with the liquid. The role of the particles on the transition depends upon both the pipe to particle diameter ratios and the concentration. For large pipe-to-particle diameter ratios the transition is delayed while it is lowered for small ratios...

Using Monte Carlo simulations of a touching-bead model of double-stranded DNA, we show that DNA extension is enhanced in isosceles triangular nanochannels (relative to a circular nanochannel of the same effective size) due to entropic depletion in the channel corners. The extent of the enhanced extension depends non-monotonically on both the accessible area of the nanochannel and the apex angle...