In this paper, direct measurement by atomic force microscopy (AFM) of the cell surface softness of a fibrillated oral streptococcal strain Streptococcus salivarius HB and of a nonfibrillated strain S. salivarius HBC12 is presented, and the data interpretation is validated by comparison with results from independent techniques. Upon approach of the fibrillated strain in water, the AFM tip experi...

Within the pattern mining area, skypatterns enable to express a userpreference point of view according to a dominance relation. In this paper, we deal with the introduction of softness in the skypattern mining problem. First, we show how softness can provide convenient patterns that would be missed otherwise. Then, thanks to Dynamic CSP, we propose a generic and efficient method to mine skypatt...

A novel haptic sensor probe, consists of 64 piezoelectric devices, PZT, is capable of clearly sensing the differences in degrees of hardness and/or softness of different objects. The haptic sensor probe is designed to detect and quantify the real time physical characteristic, for example, the hardness and/or softness of an object, in a simple way, like the human hand. To date, conventional tact...

The new dynamic phase diagram for driven vortices with varying lattice softness we present here indicates that, at high driving currents, at least two distinct dynamic phases of flux flow appear depending on the vortex-vortex interaction strength. When the flux lattice is soft, the vortices flow in independently moving channels with smectic structure. For stiff flux lattices, adjacent channels ...

Most haptic peripheral displays provide active feedback. We present BubbleWrap, which simulates different degrees of softness to display low notification levels as dynamic passive haptic feedback. When combined with active feedback, interface designers can easily control the level of notification to users. BubbleWrap consists of a matrix of electro-magnetic actuators, enclosed in fabric, with i...

Within the pattern mining area, skypatterns enable to express a userpreference point of view according to a dominance relation. In this paper, we deal with the introduction of softness in the skypattern mining problem. First, we show how softness can provide convenient patterns that would be missed otherwise. Then, thanks to Constraint Programming, we propose a generic and efficient method to m...

We report a thermosensitive microgel suspension that can be tuned reversibly between the glass state at low temperature and the liquid state at high temperature. Unlike hard spheres, we find that the glass transition for these suspensions is governed by both the volume fraction and the softness of the particles, where softer suspensions form a glass at higher effective volume fractions. In the ...