34th annual general meeting of the french group of ...10.3933/applrheol-10... · the 34th annual...

The 34th annual general meeting of the FrenchGroup of Rheology (GFR) has been held in Parison October 18-20, 1999 (Conservatoire Nationaldes Arts et Metiers, 292 rue Saint Martin, Paris).Its main scientific subjects were related to theRheology in life sciences and technologies(Rhéologie des Matériaux du Vivant) . The Scien-tific Committee chaired by P. G. de Gennes includ-ed M. Baquet, L. Dubertret, G. Couarraze, B. Lau-nay, J.-L. Morancais, C. Oddou, D. Quemada andJ.-F. Stoltz.

Bringing together 168 academic and indus-trial scientists this meeting included 47 commu-nications and four plenary sessions devoted tothe following topics: Biorheology (fluids and softtissues), Rheology of biopolymers, Rheology ofbiocompatible materials, Rheology of powdersand Rheology of controlled release systems.

It is really difficult to select some papersamong the various quite interesting one whichillustrate both the diversity and the quality of thepresentations. The first inaugural conferencegiven by Professor P. G. DeGennes (Collége deFrance, Paris) was devoted to molecular biologyand unsolved fundamental problems encoun-tered in genetics. Considering the way a DNAmacromolecule enters within the cell through anopen pore by the passive process of diffusion andelectroporation, he clearly showed that theinvolved time constants gave sufficient ”opti-mistic“ order of magnitude to foresee futureapplications in the genetic therapy and drugdelivery.

Numerous papers were devoted to the studyof polymers or biopolymers. The associationmechanism of natural associative polymers was

presented by Desbrieres et al., and.C. Charnay etal. and the dynamic mechanical property of poly-meric network by G. Gallego-Ferrer. Differentkind of gels, polymers blends, polymers networksor biopolymers such as hyalouronane or chi-tosane were also presented (L. Choplin et al., C.Michon et al., V. Normand et al., El Ghzaoui et al.,I. Roure et al., M. Khalid et al.) Others food indus-trials products (alginates, pectins, cross linkedstarches or amylaced milk products) were stud-ied (M Audebrand et al., I. Dubois et al., A.G. Gle-varec or C. Loisel et al.)

The second invited lecture was given by Pro-fessor P. Bongrand (INSERM, Marseilles) and con-cerned another fundamental question in cellphysiology related to the process of mecano-transduction. Such phenomena have a crucialrole in motility, division and signalling of the cellsas well as in all the interactions with the extra-cellular matrix. The adhesion mechanisms werefully reviewed and clearly analysed from anengineering viewpoint: The associated theoreti-cal concepts and experimental techniques areallowing nowadays the understanding of thekinetics and thermodynamics of this cell adhe-sion and spreading on its substrate.

In the following session, the rheologicalbehaviour of rheological materials was studiedboth on a microscopic (cellular) scale and amacroscopic one. The cell adhesivity was studiedby using acoustical microrheological techniques(H. Darbeida et al.). V. Laurent et al. presented apaper dealing with the role of the intern stress inthe cell skeleton. Blood rheology effects in rela-tion with diabetes was discussed ( M. Barraco-Serra et al.) as well as the determination of the

34th Annual General Meeting of the French Group of Rheology (GFR)

Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, ParisOctober 18-20, 1999

38 Applied RheologyJanuary/February 2000

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39Applied RheologyJanuary/February 2000

blood yield stress (C. Picard et al.). Some papersconsidered biological system as a whole, forinstance the heart (J. Ohayon et al.) or the wood(P. Perre et al.). Others works gave an insight tothe interaction between the cell and the sur-rounding matrix (E. Fernandez et al.) or the tis-sues deformation (C. Montserra et al.). The use ofsome polymers in muscle pathology was dis-cussed by D. Barritauld et al. Some presentationswere related to pharmacological (N. Hudson etal., C. Cros et al.) or prosthetic applications in thecase of small diameter arteries (M. Zidi et al.). Theinfluence of genetic factors on wheat albumenrheological behaviour was presented by Y. Had-dad et al.

In the third invited lecture, D. P. de Rossi(University of Pisa, Italy) gave a talk about theresearch in biomimetics, and examined someanalogues of living matter in term of actuatorsand sensors. He clearly showed that there is alarge amount of evidence that polyelectrolyticgels and conducting polymers are good candi-dates for properties such as mechanotransduc-tion, pseudo muscular actuators, and even ana-logue computation.

In the field of biomiometism, a particularattention has to be paid to the conference pre-sented by G. Jeronimidis (University of Reading,U.K.) as the fourth invited lecture which focusedon plant physiology, recent and potentially inter-esting field for biorheologists. It was shown whyand how the plant adapts its structure and com-position in response to biomechanical and phys-ical external constraints. The way by which theplant biology presents original answers to thechange in its environmental stresses has to be

considered as of prime importance in engineer-ing.

The following sessions were devoted to thefield of rheology of powders and dispersed sys-tems and of rheology of controlled release sys-tems. The rheological studies of powders wereillustrated by the work of P. Coussot, P. Marechalet al., A. Boudoukha et al., or in the alimentaryfield by M. Tixier et al., K. Bottin et al.. Othersmultiphasic materials were presented in thisfield (J. Scher et al., C. Renault et al., B. Launay,N. Bornes et al., C. Derail et al., N. Bornes et al.).Some pharmacological applications were illus-trated by P. Carmona et al., A. Djedour et al.,A. Hadj-Sadok et al., or C. Postel et al.). Originalstudies on dispersed systems (emulsions, sus-pensions, etc.) were presented by N. Fourati et al.,V. Muguet et al., D. Lerche et al., A. Desrumaux etal. and D. Quemada. The properties of other com-plex systems such as foam (N. Antonova et al.) orgels (P. Greismar et al.) were also presented. Therole of the rheology in controlled release systemswas illustrated by different works (B. Petitalot etal., A. Ponton et al., V. Ratsimbazafy et al.,A. Bochot et al.).

In the field of biofluid rheology, the fifthinvited conference given by P. Snabre was veryexciting from an experimental viewpoint; theemphasis has been put on rheo optical and rheoacoustical techniques. The theoretical expertiseof the author in this field has allowed to have asynthetic and well documented overview thatput emphasis on the physical processes enteringat the microscopical level.

During the three days of this conference, theparticipants had also the opportunity to get




information of the latest developments of theinstrumentation by the majors rheometer com-panies who had booths just in front of the con-ference rooms. Some time was also left for spe-cial social events like the visit of the Senat Palaceor the CNAM museum which houses very inter-esting pieces which belong to the history ofFrench sciences and techniques.

After the annual general meeting of the GFR,Patrice Flaud who was coordinating the organ-ization commitee has been elected as the newpresident of the GFR and all participants had achance to do some practical work on fluid trans-portation since the traditional Banquet was holdon a boat cruising on the river Seine. The next GFRannual conference is already planned. It will beheld in Grenoble at 23-15 October 2000.

Patrice FlaudLBHP Université Paris 72 Place JussieuCase 705675251 Paris Cedex 05Tel: x33.1.44274333Fax: x33.1.44274335E-mail : [email protected]

Jacques BoutonRheo S.A.99 Route de versailles91160 [email protected]

40 Applied RheologyJanuary/February 2000

GFR newsGFR - 2000 Activities to comeIn year 2000 our 35th Annual General Meeting willbe held in Grenoble from 23 to 25 October in concertwith the greek an italian societies of rheology. NadiaEl Kissi (Laboratoire de Rhéologie) is coordinatingthe organization. The topic is ”Rhéologie et innova-tion“.The deadline for submitting abstracts is March31, 2000. More information can be found on the con-ference website at the following address http://rhe-ologie.ujf-grenoble.fr additional inquiries can beobtained through [email protected]

The third edition of the ”Meeting of Young Rhe-ologists“ will take place in La Colle sur Loup, close tothe mediterranean sea, from May 22nd to 24th ,2000. It will be organized by Bruno Vergnes (CEMEF,Ecole des Mines de Paris). All young rheologistsfamiliar with french are welcome to attend thismeeting. For more information contact:[email protected] deadline for inscripo-tion is February 15, 2000.

The GFR and the Canadian Rheology Group areorganizing Symposia on Rheology within the 50thCanadian Chemical Engineering Conference to beheld in Montreal, October 15-18, 2000. Sessions on

News II Fundamental and Applied Rheology, Polymer Solu-tions, Polymer Blends and Composites, Emulsions,Suspensions, Instrumentation, Numerical Simula-tions, etc.will be organised. Abstracts, in English orFrench, should have a minimum of 200 and a max-imum of 500 words and should include the title, thenames of the authors and the authors affiliation(s).The abstracts can be submitted by e-mail to [email protected] before February 15, 2000. Acceptanceof papers will be based on the submitted abstracts.Notifications of acceptance will be mailed toauthors by May, 2000. More information on theCSChE-48 meeting can be found on the conferencewebsite at the following addresshttp://csche2000.ca

Chief officers of the GFR in 2000President :FLAUD, Patrice ([email protected])Secretary : DOUBLIER, Jean-Louis([email protected])Treasurer : CHEVALIER, Jean-Louis ([email protected])International Delegate : BOUTON, Jacques ([email protected])




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