The mucociliary function of the bronchial epithelium ensures the continuous clearance of the respiratory system. This function relies on two main elements: mucus properties and cilia beating coordination. We work on high speed optical microscopy videos of Human bronchial epithelium from ALI (Air-liquid interface) cultures. We present here a technique based on the tracking of each cilium and on the spatiotemporal analysis of the obtained trajectories. To relate each cilium to its corresponding cell, a clustering method is used. The spatiotemporal coordination can than be quantified both, inside and in-between ciliated cells. In addition the physical parameters can be mapped to observe the heterogeneity of the cilia activity and compare different pathologies.

The vibrational properties of three sodosilicate glasses have been investigated in the framework of density functional theory. The pure vibrational density of states has been calculated for all systems and the different vibrational modes have been assigned to specific atoms or structuralunits. It is shown that the Na content affects several vibrational features as the position and intensity of the R band or the mixing of the rocking and bending atomic motions of the Si-O-Si bridges. The calculated Raman spectra have been found to agree with experimental observations and their decomposition indicated the dominant character of the non-bridging oxygen contribution on the spectra, in particular for the high-frequency band, above 800 cm −1 . The decomposition of the high-frequency Raman feature into vibrations of the depolymerized tetrahedra (i.e. Q n -units) has revealed spectral shapes of the partial contributions that cannot be accounted for by simple Gaussians as frequently assumed in the treatment of experimentally obtained Raman spectra.

We describe an original method to measure mucus microrheology on human bronchial epithelium culture using optical tweezers. We probed rheology on the whole thickness of mucus above the epithelium and showed that mucus gradually varies in rheological response, from an elastic behavior close to the epithelium to a viscous one far away. Microrheology was also performed on mucus collected on the culture, on ex vivo mucus collected by bronchoscopy, and on another epithelium model. Differences are discussed and are related to mucus heterogeneity, adhesiveness and collection method.

Hypothesis: Rotational Brownian diffusions of colloidal particles at a fluid interface play important roles in particle self-assembly and in surface microrheology. Recent experiments on translational Brownian motion of spherical particles at the air-water interface show a significant slowing down of the translational diffusion with respect to the hydrodynamic predictions (Boniello et al., 2015). For the rotational diffusions of partially wetted colloids, slowing down of the particle dynamics can be also expected.Experiments: Here, the rotational dynamics of Janus colloids at the air-water interface have been experimentally investigated using optical microscopy. Bright field and fluorescent microscopies have been used to measure the in-plane and out-of-plane particle rotational diffusions exploiting the Janus geometry of the colloids we fabricated.Findings: Our results show a severe slowing down of the rotational diffusion Dr,⊥ connected to the contact line motion and wetting-dewetting dynamics occurring on particle regions located at opposite liquid wedges. A slowing down of the particle rotational diffusion about an axis parallel to the interfacial normal Dr,|| was also observed. Contact line fluctuations due to partial wetting dynamics lead to a rotational line friction that we have modelled in order to describe our results.

Ordered mesoporous silica materials were prepared under different pH conditions by using a silicon alkoxide as a silica source and polyion complex (PIC) micelles as the structure-directing agents. PIC micelles were formed by complexation between a weak poly-acid-containing double-hydrophilic block copolymer, poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PEO-b-PAA), and a weak poly-base, oligochitosan-type polyamine. As both the micellization process and the rate of silica condensation are highly dependent on pH, the properties of silica mesostructures can be modulated by changing the pH of the reaction medium. Varying the materials synthesis pH from 4.5 to 7.9 led to 2D-hexagonal, wormlike or lamellar mesostructures, with a varying degree of order. The chemical composition of the as-synthesized hybrid organic/inorganic materials was also found to vary with pH. The structure variations were discussed based on the extent of electrostatic complexing bonds between acrylate and amino functions and on the silica condensation rate as a function of pH.

Stimuli-responsive microgels are colloidal particles and promising candidates for applications such as targeted drug delivery, matrices for catalysts, nanoactuators and smart surface coatings. To tailor the response, the architecture of microgels is of paramount importance with respect to these applications. Statistical copolymer microgels based on N-isopropylmethacrylamide (NiPMAM) and N-n-propylacrylamide (NnPAM) show a cooperative phase transition leading to a collapse at a specific temperature. Interestingly, some core-shell microgel particles reveal a linear response of the hydrodynamic radius with temperature. Such observations were made by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), which is limited to the diffusion properties dominated by the particle shell. In this work we investigate the molecular hydration within the network of microgels in H2O by temperature-dependent FTIR spectroscopy. The phase transition temperature wasdetermined by the shift in frequency of the NH bending vibration in homopolymer and statistical copolymer microgels and the results are in accordance with those from PCS. In contrast, experiments on core-shell particles show a broadening and shift of the respective phase transition temperatures of core and shell indicating an interaction of core and shell polymers on a molecular level that extends far into the core. In conclusion, temperature-dependent FTIR spectroscopy is a convenient approach to elucidate the internal architecture of complex microgel particles in H2O.

Understanding the microscopic origin of the rheological behavior of soft matter is a long-lastingendeavour. While early efforts concentrated mainly on the relationship between rheology and structure,current research focuses on the role of microscopic dynamics. We present in two companion papers athorough discussion of how Fourier space-based methods may be coupled to rheology to shed light onthe relationship between the microscopic dynamics and the mechanical response of soft systems. In thisfirst companion paper, we report a theoretical, numerical and experimental investigation of dynamiclight scattering coupled to rheology. While in ideal solids and simple viscous fluids the displacement fieldunder a shear deformation is purely affine, additional non-affine displacements arise in many situationsof great interest, for example in elastically heterogeneous materials or due to plastic rearrangements.We show how affine and non-affine displacements can be separately resolved by dynamic lightscattering, and discuss in detail the effect of several non-idealities in typical experiments.