Analyses of images of the cell-to-substratum region of contact have been carried out by the means of total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy during both the formation and the dissolution of cellular contacts. The evolutions of the cellular contacts are visualized during the adhesion process under normal and virus-infected intracellular conditions, and during the lift-off process under various toxicities of the extracellular medium fluid. Then, propositions are developed for quantifying the cell viabilities by estimating the increase in the area of contact for the adhesion process and by specifying the maximum intensity of the TIRF image for the lift-off process.

This work experimentally investigates the evaporation rates of water drops on surfaces of various wettability. By measuring the temporal evolutions of the drop radius and contact angle, we find the qualitative difference between the evaporation behavior on hydrophilic surfaces where the contact radius remains constant initially and that on the superhydrophobic surfaces where the contact angle remains constant. Also, the evaporation rate is observed to depend on the surface material although the currently available models assume that the rate is solely determined by the drop geometry. Although the theory to explain this dependence on the surface remains to be pursued by the future work, we give the empirical relations that can be used to predict the drop volume evolution for each surface.