Ameboid cell migration through regular arrays of micropillars under confinement.

Migrating cells often encounter a wide variety of topographic features-including the presence of obstacles-when navigating through crowded biological environments. Unraveling the impact of topography and crowding on the dynamics of cells is key to better understand many essential physiological processes such as the immune response. We study the impact of geometrical cues on ameboid migration of HL-60 cells differentiated into neutrophils.

Kinematics of persistent random walkers with two distinct modes of motion.

We study the stochastic motion of active particles that undergo spontaneous transitions between two distinct modes of motion. Each mode is characterized by a velocity distribution and an arbitrary (anti)persistence. We present an analytical formalism to provide a quantitative link between these two microscopic statistical properties of the trajectory and macroscopically observable transport quantities of interest.

Orientational memory of active particles in multistate non-Markovian processes.

The orientational memory of particles can serve as an effective measure of diffusivity, spreading, and search efficiency in complex stochastic processes. We develop a theoretical framework to describe the decay of directional correlations in a generic class of stochastic active processes consisting of distinct states of motion characterized by their persistence and switching probabilities between the states. For exponentially distributed sojourn times, the orientation autocorrelation is analytically derived and the characteristic times of its crossovers are obtained in terms of the persistence of each state and the switching probabilities.

Migration of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in 3D Collagen Matrices.

CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and natural killer cells are the main cytotoxic killer cells of the human body to eliminate pathogen-infected or tumorigenic cells (also known as target cells). To find their targets, they have to navigate and migrate through complex biological microenvironments, a key component of which is the extracellular matrix (ECM). The mechanisms underlying killer cell's navigation are not well understood.

Persistent-random-walk approach to anomalous transport of self-propelled particles.

The motion of self-propelled particles is modeled as a persistent random walk. An analytical framework is developed that allows the derivation of exact expressions for the time evolution of arbitrary moments of the persistent walk's displacement. It is shown that the interplay of step length and turning angle distributions and self-propulsion produces various signs of anomalous diffusion at short time scales and asymptotically a normal diffusion behavior with a broad range of diffusion coefficients.

Meniscus arrest during capillary rise in asymmetric microfluidic pore junctions.

The capillary rise of liquid in asymmetric channel junctions with branches of different radii can lead to long-lasting meniscus arrests in the wider channel, which has important implications for the morphology and dynamical broadening of imbibition fronts in porous materials with elongated pores. Using a microfluidic setup, we experimentally demonstrate the existence of arrest events in Y-shaped junctions, and measure their duration and compare them with theoretical predictions. For various ratios of the channel width and liquid viscosities and for different values of the feeding channel length, we find that the meniscus within the wider branch is arrested for a time that is proportional to the time that the meniscus needed to reach the junction, in very good quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions.

Anomalous diffusion of self-propelled particles in directed random environments.

We theoretically study the transport properties of self-propelled particles on complex structures, such as motor proteins on filament networks. A general master equation formalism is developed to investigate the persistent motion of individual random walkers, which enables us to identify the contributions of key parameters: the motor processivity, and the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the underlying network. We prove the existence of different dynamical regimes of anomalous motion, and that the crossover times between these regimes as well as the asymptotic diffusion coefficient can be increased by several orders of magnitude within biologically relevant control parameter ranges.

Lattice model for spontaneous imbibition in porous media: the role of effective tension and universality class.

Recently, anomalous scaling properties of front broadening during spontaneous imbibition of water in Vycor glass, a nanoporous medium, were reported: the mean height and the width of the propagating front increase with time t both proportional to t(1/2). Here, we propose a simple lattice imbibition model and elucidate quantitatively how the correlation range of the hydrostatic pressure and the disorder strength of the pore radii affect the scaling properties of the imbibition front. We introduce an effective tension of liquid across neighboring pores, which depends on the aspect ratio of each pore, and show that it leads to a dynamical crossover: both the mean height and the roughness grow faster in the presence of tension in the intermediate-time regime but eventually saturate in the long-time regime.

Scaling theory for spontaneous imbibition in random networks of elongated pores.

We present a scaling theory for the long time behavior of spontaneous imbibition in porous media consisting of interconnected pores with a large length-to-width ratio. At pore junctions, the meniscus propagation in one or more branches can come to a halt when the Laplace pressure of the meniscus exceeds the hydrostatic pressure within the junction. We derive the scaling relations for the emerging arrest time distribution and show that the average front width is proportional to the height, yielding a roughness exponent of exactly β = 1/2 and explaining recent experimental results for nanoporous Vycor glass.

Anomalous front broadening during spontaneous imbibition in a matrix with elongated pores.

During spontaneous imbibition, a wetting liquid is drawn into a porous medium by capillary forces. In systems with comparable pore length and diameter, such as paper and sand, the front of the propagating liquid forms a continuous interface. Sections of this interface advance in a highly correlated manner due to an effective surface tension, which restricts front broadening.

Diffusive transport of light in two-dimensional granular materials.

We study photon diffusion in a two-dimensional random packing of monodisperse disks as a simple model of granular material. We apply ray optics approximation to set up a persistent random walk for the photons. We employ Fresnel's intensity reflectance with its rich dependence on the incidence angle and polarization state of the light.

Persistent random walk on a one-dimensional lattice with random asymmetric transmittances.

We study the persistent random walk of photons on a one-dimensional lattice of random asymmetric transmittances. Each site is characterized by its intensity transmittance t (t;{'} not equalt) for photons moving to the right (left) direction. Transmittances at different sites are assumed independent, distributed according to a given probability density F(t,t;{'}) .

Diffusive transport of light in a two-dimensional disordered packing of disks: analytical approach to transport mean free path.

We study photon diffusion in a two-dimensional random packing of monodisperse disks as a simple model of granular media and wet foams. We assume that the intensity reflectance of disks is a constant r . We present an analytic expression for the transport mean free path l;{*} in terms of the velocity of light in the disks and host medium, radius R and packing fraction of the disks, and the intensity reflectance.

Diffusive transport of light in three-dimensional disordered Voronoi structures.

The origin of diffusive transport of light in dry foams is still under debate. In this paper, we consider the random walks of photons as they are reflected or transmitted by liquid films according to the rules of ray optics. The foams are approximately modeled by three-dimensional Voronoi tessellations with varying degree of disorder.

Persistent random walk on a site-disordered one-dimensional lattice: photon subdiffusion.

We study the persistent random walk of photons on a one-dimensional lattice of random transmittances. Transmittances at different sites are assumed independent, distributed according to a given probability density f(t). Depending on the behavior of f(t) near t=0, diffusive and subdiffusive transports are predicted by the disorder expansion of the mean square-displacement and the effective medium approximation.

Characteristics of vehicular traffic flow at a roundabout.

We construct a stochastic cellular automata model for the description of vehicular traffic at a roundabout designed at the intersection of two perpendicular streets. The vehicular traffic is controlled by a self-organized scheme in which traffic lights are absent. This controlling method incorporates a yield-at-entry strategy for the approaching vehicles to the circulating traffic flow in the roundabout.