<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <rss version="2.0">
      <channel xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">
        <title>Frontiers in Physics | Soft Matter Physics section | New and Recent Articles</title>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/sections/soft-matter-physics</link>
        <description>RSS Feed for Soft Matter Physics section in the Frontiers in Physics journal | New and Recent Articles</description>
        <language>en-us</language>
        <generator>Frontiers Feed Generator,version:1</generator>
        <pubDate>2026-05-04T19:45:02.296+00:00</pubDate>
        <ttl>60</ttl>
        <item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1795202</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1795202</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Editorial: Bridging IT and soft matter: challenges in scientific software development]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-03-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Editorial</category>
        <author>Nikolaos Cheimarios</author><author>Jörg-Rüdiger Hill</author><author>Antreas Afantitis</author><author>Alexander Lyubartsev</author><author>Vladimir Lobaskin</author><author>Yannis Dimakopoulos</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1711356</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1711356</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Scientific software development in the AI era: reproducibility, MLOps, and applications in soft matter physics]]></title>
        <pubdate>2025-11-28T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Review</category>
        <author>Nikolaos Cheimarios</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the foundations of scientific software development by turning once-static codes into dynamic, data-dependent systems that require continuous retraining, monitoring, and governance. This article offers a practitioner-oriented synthesis for building reproducible, sustainable, and trustworthy scientific software in the AI era, with a focus on soft matter physics as a demanding yet fertile proving ground. We examine advances in machine-learned interatomic and coarse-grained potentials, differentiable simulation engines, and closed-loop inverse design strategies, emphasizing how these methods transform modeling workflows from exploratory simulations into adaptive, end-to-end pipelines. Drawing from software engineering and MLOps, we outline lifecycle-oriented practices for reproducibility, including containerized environments, declarative workflows, dataset versioning, and model registries with FAIR-compliant metadata. Governance frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and the EU AI Act are discussed as critical scaffolding for risk assessment, transparency, and auditability. By integrating these engineering and scientific perspectives, we propose a structured blueprint for AI-driven modeling stacks that can deliver scalable, verifiable, and regulatory-ready scientific results. This work positions soft matter physics not just as a beneficiary of AI but as a key testbed for shaping robust, reproducible, and accountable computational science.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1734944</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1734944</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Correction: Simulating microswimmers under confinement with dissipative particle (hydro) dynamics]]></title>
        <pubdate>2025-11-07T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Correction</category>
        <author>C. Miguel Barriuso Gutiérrez</author><author>José Martín-Roca</author><author>Valentino Bianco</author><author>Ignacio Pagonabarraga</author><author>Chantal Valeriani</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1623258</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1623258</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Study on the evolution mechanism of concrete properties under the coupled effects of freeze-thaw cycle, chloride salt and fatigue loading]]></title>
        <pubdate>2025-06-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Siqi Yang</author><author>Jiawen Zhang</author><author>Weijie Zhang</author><author>Qi Dong</author><author>Li Xiang</author><author>Guoxing Sun</author><author>Jinyang Jiang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The long-term durability performance of ballastless track systems exhibits significant dependence on their in-service environmental conditions. In addition to cyclic fatigue loading from train operations, critical durability challenges arise from the coupled effects of freeze-thaw cycling and chloride ion penetration, particularly in coastal regions or cold climate zones. Conventional experimental studies predominantly focus on single or dual-factor acceleration tests and confined to macroscopic performance characterization. In this study, the coupling effect of freeze-thaw, chloride salt and loading on the microstructure evolution was systematically and quantitively investigated, with the role of each kind of environmental action analyzed, experimentally and quantitively evaluating the significantly greater damage by freeze-thaw and chloride salt erosion to concrete than that of fatigue load.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1557999</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1557999</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Research on the optimization of mortar mix proportion based on neural network models and genetic algorithm]]></title>
        <pubdate>2025-03-05T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Chunyu Jiang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Strength and durability of concrete are critical performance indicators for the safety and service life of building structures. These properties are significantly influenced by the material proportions and their microstructure. Traditional methods for designing concrete mix ratios have certain limitations when dealing with complex multivariable relationships. Therefore, intelligent mix optimization techniques have become a key focus of current research. This paper presents an optimization approach for mortar mix design based on a multi-output neural network model with a multi-head attention mechanism, combined with the genetic algorithm. Firstly, a neural network model based on the multi-head attention mechanism is developed to establish a nonlinear mapping relationship between material proportions and performance. The genetic algorithm is then applied to optimize the model’s predictions, yielding the optimal mix design. Finally, by converting the optimized mix design data into element ion ratios parameters, the correlation between these microscopic factors and cementitious materials durability is analyzed. Results show that the neural network model effectively captures complex nonlinear relationships, with the predicted strength and durability closely aligning with experimental data. The mix ratio optimized by the genetic algorithm significantly improves the strength and durability of the mortar. Furthermore, the study of ion content provides new theoretical support for enhancing concrete durability. This research not only offers an innovative solution for the intelligent optimization of concrete mix design but also lays a theoretical foundation for concrete material design and performance enhancement.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1463988</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1463988</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Editorial: Rheology and complex fluids in biomedical applications]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-08-15T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Editorial</category>
        <author>Antonio Perazzo</author><author>Simon A. Rogers</author><author>Kelly M. Schultz</author><author>Stefano Guido</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1420138</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1420138</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Impact of carboxylic acid structure on α-hemihydrate gypsum crystal morphology and mechanical strength]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-07-18T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Guo-gang Li</author><author>Jin-e Liu</author><author>Liang Ma</author><author>Hao-lei Gong</author><author>Su-hong Yin</author>
        <description><![CDATA[This study investigated the synthesis of α-hemihydrate gypsum (α-HH) through semi-liquid autoclaving of phosphogypsum (PG) using various carboxylic acids as modifying agents. The impact of carboxyl group spatial location, auxiliary functional group type, and the number of carboxyl groups within the carboxylic acid modifiers on the mechanical strength and crystal morphology of α-HH was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), strength testing, and molecular dynamics simulations. The results revealed a significant influence of the carboxylic acid molecular structure on the α-HH crystal morphology. Monocarboxylic acids and dicarboxylic acids with a long carbon chain length between carboxyl groups exhibited preferential adsorption on the (200), (110), and (−110) crystal planes, promoting crystal growth along the c-axis. In contrast, hydroxyl groups and cis double bonds in the modifier structure induced selective adsorption on the (001) plane, hindering growth along the c-axis. Conversely, trans double bonds favored adsorption on the (200), (110), and (−110) planes, enhancing growth along the c-axis. Based on these observations, screening principles for carboxylic acid modifiers were established, suggesting that: 1) the number of carboxyl groups should exceed 2; 2) the optimal carbon atom spacing between carboxyl groups is 3; and 3) auxiliary functional groups such as hydroxyl groups and cis double bonds should be introduced. Modifiers like citric acid, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), and pyromellitic acid, within concentration ranges of 0.05%–0.1%, 0.1%–0.15%, and 0.05%–0.1%, respectively, yielded α-HH with flexural strengths exceeding 4 MPa and compressive strengths greater than 35 MPa, demonstrating the validity of these principles.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1347934</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1347934</link>
        <title><![CDATA[The morphology of cell spheroids in simple shear flow]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-06-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Rosalia Ferraro</author><author>Jasmin Di Franco</author><author>Sergio Caserta</author><author>Stefano Guido</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Cell spheroids are a widely used model to investigate cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in a 3D microenvironment in vitro. Most research on cell spheroids has been focused on their response to various stimuli under static conditions. Recently, the effect of flow on cell spheroids has been investigated in the context of tumor invasion in interstitial space. In particular, microfluidic perfusion of cell spheroids embedded in a collagen matrix has been shown to modulate cell-cell adhesion and to represent a possible mechanism promoting tumor invasion by interstitial flow. However, studies on the effects of well-defined flow fields on cell spheroids are lacking in the literature. Here, we apply simple shear flow to cell spheroids in a parallel plate apparatus while observing their morphology by optical microscopy. By using image analysis techniques, we show that cell spheroids rotate under flow as rigid prolate ellipsoids. As time goes on, cells from the outer layer detach from the sheared cell spheroids and are carried away by the flow. Hence, the size of cell spheroids declines with time at a rate increasing with the external shear stress, which can be used to estimate cell-cell adhesion. The technique proposed in this work allows one to correlate flow-induced effects with microscopy imaging of cell spheroids in a well-established shear flow field, thus providing a method to obtain quantitative results which are relevant in the general field of mechanobiology.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1388370</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1388370</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Editorial: Reviews in soft matter physics]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-03-26T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Editorial</category>
        <author>Ramón Castañeda-Priego</author><author>Massimo Pica Ciamarra</author><author>Silvia Corezzi</author><author>Surya K. Ghosh</author><author>Yun Liu</author>
        <description></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1334325</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1334325</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Viscoelastic material properties determine the contact mechanics of hydrogel spheres]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-03-25T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Chandan Shakya</author><author>Jasper van der Gucht</author><author>Joshua A. Dijksman</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and industry; their mechanical behavior has been a subject of academic and engineering interest for centuries. One of the reasons for their rather complex mechanical behavior is that stresses exerted on a granular material propagate only through contacts between the grains. These contacts can change as the packing evolves. This makes any deformation and mechanical response from a granular packing a function of the nature of contacts between the grains and the material response of the material the grains are made of. We present a study in which we isolate the role of the grain material in the contact forces acting between two particles sliding past each other. By using hydrogel particles, we find that a viscoelastic material model, in which the shear modulus decays with time, coupled with a simple Coulomb friction model, captures the experimental results. The results suggest that particle material evolution itself may play a role in the collective behavior of granular materials.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1331047</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1331047</link>
        <title><![CDATA[A framework of computer vision-enhanced microfluidic approach for automated assessment of the transient sickling kinetics in sickle red blood cells]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-03-14T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Yuhao Qiang</author><author>Mengjia Xu</author><author>Mira Patel Pochron</author><author>Madhulika Jupelli</author><author>Ming Dao</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The occurrence of vaso-occlusive crisis greatly depends on the competition between the sickling delay time and the transit time of individual sickle cells, i.e., red blood cells from sickle cell disease (SCD) patients, while they are traversing the circulatory system. Many drugs for treating SCD work by inhibiting the polymerization of sickle hemoglobin (HbS), effectively delaying the sickling process in sickle cells (SS RBCs). Most previous studies on screening anti-sickling drugs, such as voxelotor, rely on in vitro testing of sickling characteristics, often conducted under prolonged deoxygenation for up to 1 hour. However, since the microcirculation of RBCs typically takes less than 1 minute, the results of these studies may be less accurate and less relevant for in vitro-in vivo correlation. In our current study, we introduce a computer vision-enhanced microfluidic framework designed to automatically capture the transient sickling kinetics of SS RBCs within a 1-min timeframe. Our study has successfully detected differences in the transient sickling kinetics between vehicle control and voxelotor-treated SS RBCs. This approach has the potential for broader applications in screening anti-sickling therapies.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1345966</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1345966</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Numerical study of the effects of hydrodynamic interactions among cells for microfluidic holographic cyto-tomography]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-03-08T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Angela Vitolo</author><author>Massimiliano M. Villone</author><author>Pier Luca Maffettone</author>
        <description><![CDATA[When cells in a suspension flow through a microfluidic channel and rotate within the field of view (FOV) of a holographic microscope, they become accessible to a light beam from various angles. This allows the retrieval of a three-dimensional refractive index map for each flowing cell, essentially a 3D phase-contrast tomogram. Understanding the effects of hydrodynamic interactions among cells on their rotational behaviour during flow is crucial for designing microfluidic devices for holographic imaging. In this study, we employ direct numerical simulations to investigate the dynamics of cell clusters suspended in a Newtonian liquid under pressure-driven flow within a microfluidic channel, with the aim of clarifying the influence of hydrodynamic interactions on cell rotation.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1372204</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1372204</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Probing the nanomechanics of interfacial interactions between hydrophobic surfaces]]></title>
        <pubdate>2024-02-20T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Liqun Lu</author><author>Fengjuan Wang</author><author>Yuncheng Wang</author><author>Jiawen Zhang</author><author>Li Xiang</author><author>Zhiyong Liu</author><author>Jinyang Jiang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Hydrophobic interactions are widely applied in diverse fields, yet the effect of the degree of hydrophobicity on the interactions between hydrophobic surfaces is still unaddressed, limiting the development of functional hydrophobic surfaces. In this study, the interfacial interactions and configuration of hydrophobic chains on surfaces with ranging hydrophobicity are surveyed by surface forces apparatus. Our findings revealed that with partial hydrophobicity, a long-range electrical double-layer repulsive force pertains between surfaces, while between fully hydrophobized surfaces, only steric hindrance is observed, and the hydrophobic chains maintain configuration even after long time compression. Our findings provide useful implications for understanding hydrophobic interactions.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1283684</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1283684</link>
        <title><![CDATA[DriveLEDs: software for synchronous control and video acquisition of fluorescent signals]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-12-21T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Andrey Zakharov</author><author>Daria Ponomareva</author><author>Elena Petukhova</author><author>Piotr Bregestovski</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Current research uses various fluorescent biosensors to measure ion concentrations, neuronal activity, or cellular components in biological preparations. Several free solutions are available to researchers for recording or analysing fluorescent signals. However, when using different software packages, there are great difficulties in converting data between them. Problems also arise with linking and coordination of individual hardware devices into a single measurement system. Our paper presents useful software that allows to avoid most of these problems. It enables the recording, online visualization and preliminary analysis of fluorescent signals in brain cells and other experimental models. We describe and test software optimized for ratiometric measurements. The program selects device operating modes that allow reliable changes in illumination wavelength, camera image capture, and online graphical visualization of fluorescent signal amplitudes or ratiometric data. The performance of the software was successfully tested on mouse brain using two experimental models; i) simultaneous monitoring of intracellular chloride and hydrogen in transgenic mice expressing genetically encoded biosensor; ii) recording changes in reactive oxygen species during synaptic stimulation of neurons in mouse hippocampal slices. This software allows to overcome the incompatibility of the devices used and reduce the cost of experimental measurements. The software is completely original, easy to use and may be of interest to many scientists involved in the analysis of light-controlled signals in a variety of experimental models, including drug screening, epilepsy models, and other applications. The software is open-source product and can be obtained via GitHub: https://github.com/AndreyZakharovExp/DriveLEDs.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1251146</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1251146</link>
        <title><![CDATA[The effects of molecular and nanoscopic additives on phospholipid membranes]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-11-20T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Review</category>
        <author>Teshani Kumarage</author><author>Nicholas B. Morris</author><author>Rana Ashkar</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Lipid bilayers—the main matrix of cell membranes—are a paradigm of soft molecular assemblies whose properties have been evolutionarily optimized to satisfy the functional requirements of cells. For instance, lipid bilayers must be rigid enough to serve as the protective barrier between cells and their environment, yet fluid enough to enable the diffusion of proteins and molecular clusters necessary for biological functions. Inspired by their biological multifunctionality, lipid membranes have also been used as a central design element in many practical applications including artificial cells, drug nanocarriers, and biosensors. Whether biological or synthetic, lipid membranes often involve molecular or nanoscopic additives that modulate the membrane properties through various mechanisms. Hence, how lipid membranes respond to additives has justifiably drawn much attention in recent years. This review summarizes findings and observations on different classes of additives and their effects on structural, thermodynamic, elastic, and dynamical membrane properties that are central to biological function or synthetic membrane performance. The review primarily focuses on phospholipids as a major component of cell membranes and a widely used lipid type in synthetic membrane designs.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1279007</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1279007</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Applications of neutron spin echo in soft matter]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-11-15T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Review</category>
        <author>Xiang Luo</author><author>Tengfei Cui</author><author>Xiangqiang Chu</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Soft matter systems exhibit diversity and intricacy in their structures and properties, with their dynamic behaviors and structural changes spanning wide time and length scales. Gaining insight into the internal structures and dynamics behaviors of soft matter systems, as well as the interactions among molecules and particles, contributes to a deeper comprehension of the microscopic behaviors of matter. Moreover, this endeavor has significant biomedical and materials engineering implications. This review focuses on the applications of spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering (SESANS) and high-resolution neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy in soft matter science, particularly complex fluids and biomolecular systems. NSE spectroscopy has remarkable temporal resolution and sensitivity towards molecular-scale dynamic behaviors. Therefore, it provides comprehensive insights into microscale dynamic phenomena to soft matter systems, such as the rheological behaviors, stability, and aggregation dynamics of colloids; the domain dynamics and conformational changes of proteins; the collective dynamics of lipid membranes and interactions with other molecules, as well as the dynamic behaviors and interactions of surfactants within microemulsions. NSE technique helps reveal the complex nature of these systems, providing valuable insights into advances in materials science, biomedicine, and chemistry.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1204751</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1204751</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Covariant description of the colloidal dynamics on curved manifolds]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-11-15T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Pavel Castro-Villarreal</author><author>César O. Solano-Cabrera</author><author>Ramón Castañeda-Priego</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Brownian motion is a universal characteristic of colloidal particles embedded in a host medium, and it is the fingerprint of molecular transport or diffusion, a generic feature of relevance not only in physics but also in several branches of science and engineering. Since its discovery, Brownian motion, also known as colloidal dynamics, has been important in elucidating the connection between the molecular details of the diffusing macromolecule and the macroscopic information on the host medium. However, colloidal dynamics is far from being completely understood. For instance, the diffusion of non-spherical colloids and the effects of the underlying geometry of the host medium on the dynamics of either passive or active particles are a few representative cases that are part of the current challenges in soft matter physics. In this contribution, we take a step forward to introduce a covariant description of the colloidal dynamics in curved spaces. Without the loss of generality, we consider the case where hydrodynamic interactions are neglected. This formalism will allow us to understand several phenomena, for instance, the curvature effects on the kinetics during spinodal decomposition and the thermodynamic properties of colloidal dispersion, to mention a few examples. This theoretical framework will also serve as the starting point to highlight the role of geometry on colloidal dynamics, an aspect that is of paramount importance to understanding more complex transport phenomena, such as the diffusive mechanisms of proteins embedded in cell membranes.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1271842</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1271842</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Harmonising knowledge for safer materials via the “NanoCommons” Knowledge Base]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-11-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Dieter Maier</author><author>Thomas E. Exner</author><author>Anastasios G. Papadiamantis</author><author>Ammar Ammar</author><author>Andreas Tsoumanis</author><author>Philip Doganis</author><author>Ian Rouse</author><author>Luke T. Slater</author><author>Georgios V. Gkoutos</author><author>Nina Jeliazkova</author><author>Hilmar Ilgenfritz</author><author>Martin Ziegler</author><author>Beatrix Gerhard</author><author>Sebastian Kopetsky</author><author>Deven Joshi</author><author>Lee Walker</author><author>Claus Svendsen</author><author>Haralambos Sarimveis</author><author>Vladimir Lobaskin</author><author>Martin Himly</author><author>Jeaphianne van Rijn</author><author>Laurent Winckers</author><author>Javier Millán Acosta</author><author>Egon Willighagen</author><author>Georgia Melagraki</author><author>Antreas Afantitis</author><author>Iseult Lynch</author>
        <description><![CDATA[In mediaeval Europe, the term “commons” described the way that communities managed land that was held “in common” and provided a clear set of rules for how this “common land” was used and developed by, and for, the community. Similarly, as we move towards an increasingly knowledge-based society where data is the new oil, new approaches to sharing and jointly owning publicly funded research data are needed to maximise its added value. Such common management approaches will extend the data’s useful life and facilitate its reuse for a range of additional purposes, from modelling, to meta-analysis to regulatory risk assessment as examples relevant to nanosafety data. This “commons” approach to nanosafety data and nanoinformatics infrastructure provision, co-development, and maintenance is at the heart of the “NanoCommons” project and underpins its post-funding transition to providing a basis on which other initiatives and projects can build. The present paper summarises part of the NanoCommons infrastructure called the NanoCommons Knowledge Base. It provides interoperability for nanosafety data sources and tools, on both semantic and technical levels. The NanoCommons Knowledge Base connects knowledge and provides both programmatic (via an Application Programming Interface) and a user-friendly graphical interface to enable (and democratise) access to state of the art tools for nanomaterials safety prediction, NMs design for safety and sustainability, and NMs risk assessment, as well. In addition, the standards and interfaces for interoperability, e.g., file templates to contribute data to the NanoCommons, are described, and a snapshot of the range and breadth of nanoinformatics tools and models that have already been integrated are presented Finally, we demonstrate how the NanoCommons Knowledge Base can support users in the FAIRification of their experimental workflows and how the NanoCommons Knowledge Base itself has progressed towards richer compliance with the FAIR principles.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1211394</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1211394</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Elastic–plastic intermittent re-arrangements of frictionless, soft granular matter under very slow isotropic deformations]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-10-25T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Brief Research Report</category>
        <author>Stefan Luding</author>
        <description><![CDATA[How do soft granular materials (or dense amorphous systems) respond to externally applied deformations at different rates and for different system sizes? This long-standing question was intensively studied for shear deformations but only more recently for isotropic deformations, like compression–decompression cycles. For moderate strain rates, in the solid-like state, above jamming, the system appears to evolve more or less smoothly in time/strain, whereas for slow enough deformations, the material flips intermittently between the elastic, reversible base state and plastic, dynamic “events.” Only during the latter events, the microstructure re-arranges irreversibly. The reversible base state involves both affine and non-affine deformations, while the events are purely non-affine. The system size and rate dependence of the events are studied, providing reference data for comparison in future studies evaluating materials like hydrogel particles.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1282099</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1282099</link>
        <title><![CDATA[The effect of fatty acids, ionic strength, and electric fields on the microscopic dynamics of BSA aggregates]]></title>
        <pubdate>2023-10-20T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Kyongok Kang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[This paper presents the microscopic dynamics of the concentrated suspensions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) proteins and their aggregates by dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments. The effects of fatty acids binding to BSA, as well as the ionic strength and weak electric field, are discussed for affecting the stability of BSA suspensions against calcium-induced aggregation. By variation of the ionic strength, in the absence of an external electric field, DLS experiments show that monomer–BSA interactions (in the essentially fatty acid-free case) are overall repulsive but that, nevertheless, aggregation occurs to some extent. Also, the diffusive properties of different types of BSA are explored under an applied low-AC electric field by means of in situ electric small-angle depolarized DLS experiments, which reveal a significant decrease of the translational BSA–monomer diffusion coefficient with increasing frequency, while the aggregates indicate orientational motion via rotation on applying an electric field. These observations are interpreted in terms of (localized) orientation interactions obtained as oscillations in the intermediate scattering correlation function, as well as the anomalous slower relaxations as resulting in effective (collective) dynamics between monomeric BSA and their protein aggregates.]]></description>
      </item>
      </channel>
    </rss>