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The hydrodynamics of a flagellated microswimmer moving in thin films is discussed. The fully resolved hydrodynamics is exploited by solving the Stokes equations for the actual geometry of the swimmer. Two different interfaces are used to confine the swimmer: a bottom solid wall and a top air-liquid interface, as appropriate for a thin film. The swimmer follows curved clockwise trajectories that can converge towards an asymptotically stable circular path or can result in a collision with one of the two interfaces. A bias towards the air-liquid interface emerges. Slight changes in the swimmer geometry and film thickness strongly affect the resulting dynamics suggesting that a very reach phenomenology occurs in the presence of confinement. Under specific conditions, the swimmer follows a "crown-like" path. Implications for the motion of bacteria close to an air bubble moving in a microchannel are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enabling Technologies have the potential to transform both the physical flow of materials and resources (production and construction methods), and the intangible organisational and managerial relationships (exchange and monitoring of data and relationships along the entire chain of value). They should, therefore, be considered important in supporting change processes aimed at the circular use of resources. This paper presents some research and experiments, at European and Italian level, aimed at developing and applying Enabling Technologies for circular economy, and at aligning them with the needs and challenges of society, by directly involving actors of the building sector ecosystem in moments of discussion and co-creation to define potential strategies and operational actions for innovation in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the effect of confinement on the effective diffusion of a run-and-tumble E. coli-like flagellated microswimmer. We used a simulation protocol where the run phases are obtained via a fully resolved swimming problem, i.e., Stokes equations for the fluid coupled with rigid-body dynamics for the microorganism, while tumbles and collisions with the walls are modeled as random reorientation of the microswimmer. For weak confinement, the swimmer is trapped in circular orbits close to the solid walls. In this case, optimal diffusivity is observed when the tumbling frequency is comparable with the angular velocity of the stable orbits. For strong confinement, stable circular orbits disappear and the diffusion coefficient monotonically decreases with the tumbling rate. Our findings are generic and can be potentially applied to other natural or artificial chiral microswimmers that follow circular trajectories close to an interface or in confined geometries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]