Non-Invasive, Continuous, Quantitative Detection of Solvent Content in Vacuum Tray Drying.

A non-invasive capacitance instrument was embedded in the base of a vacuum-drying tray to monitor continuously the residual amount of solvent left in a pharmaceutical powder. Proof of concept was validated with Microcrystalline Cellulose laced with water, as well as water/acetone mixtures absorbed in a spray-dried Copovidone powder. To illustrate the role of impermeability of the base, we derive a model of vapor sorption that reveals the existence of a kinetic limit when solids are thinly spread, and a diffusion limit with greatly diminished effective diffusivity at large powder thickness.

Statistical Mechanics of Electrowetting.

We derive the ab initio equilibrium statistical mechanics of the gas-liquid-solid contact angle on planar periodic, monodisperse, textured surfaces subject to electrowetting. To that end, we extend an earlier theory that predicts the advance or recession of the contact line amount to distinct first-order phase transitions of the filling state in the ensemble of nearby surface cavities. Upon calculating the individual capacitance of a cavity subject to the influence of its near neighbors, we show how hysteresis, which is manifested by different advancing and receding contact angles, is affected by electrowetting.

Statistical mechanics of the triple contact line.

We outline a statistical mechanics of the triple gas-solid-liquid contact line on a rough plane. The analysis regards the neighborhood of the line as a solid dotted with cavities. It adopts the simplest mean-field statistical mechanics, in which each cavity is either full or empty, while being connected to near neighbors by thin necks.

Microbial Characterization of Qatari Barchan Sand Dunes.

This study represents the first characterization of sand microbiota in migrating barchan sand dunes. Bacterial communities were studied through direct counts and cultivation, as well as 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequence analysis to gain an understanding of microbial abundance, diversity, and potential metabolic capabilities. Direct on-grain cell counts gave an average of 5.

Statistical mechanics of unsaturated porous media.

We explore a mean-field theory of fluid imbibition and drainage through permeable porous solids. In the limit of vanishing inertial and viscous forces, the theory predicts the hysteretic "retention curves" relating the capillary pressure applied across a connected domain to its degree of saturation in wetting fluid in terms of known surface energies and void space geometry. To avoid complicated calculations, we adopt the simplest statistical mechanics, in which a pore interacts with its neighbors through narrow openings called "necks," while being either full or empty of wetting fluid.