Ricerc@Sapienza

The presence of obstacles modifies the way in which particles diffuse. In cells, for instance, it is observed that, due to the presence of macromolecules playing the role of obstacles, the mean-square displacement of biomolecules scales as a power law with exponent smaller than one. On the other hand, different situations in grain and pedestrian dynamics in which the presence of an obstacle accelerates the dynamics are known.

Particle diffusion is modified by the presence of barriers. In cells macromolecules, behaving as obstacles, slow down the dynamics so that the meansquare displacement of molecules grows with time as a power law with exponent smaller than one. In different situations, such as grain and pedestrian dynamics, it can happen that an obstacle can accelerate the dynamics. In the framework of very basic models, we study the time needed by particles to cross a strip for different bulk dynamics and discuss the effect of obstacles.

A pure culture of the filamentous bacterium Thiothrix, strain CT3, was aerobically cultured in a chemostat under continuous acetate feeding at three different culture residence times (RT 6, 12 or 22 d) and the same volumetric organic load rate (OLR 0.12 gCOD/L/d).