We review a variety of control methods which are capable of enhancing the chaoticity and mixing properties of chaotic flows and also methods which work towards promoting the coherence properties of such flows. We discuss a parameter control method which can enhance the chaoticity and the rate of mixing of dissipative as well as conservative flows and outline methods which promote global mixing by the addition of noise and by preventing island formation. As the inverse side of this problem, we summarize methods which can create coherent structures in chaotic dynamical flows. We also discuss the utility of these methods from the point of view of applications as well as for understanding phenomena which occur in natural systems.

We present a mini-review of our recent work on spontaneous, self-organized creation of mesostructures in soft materials like thin films of polymeric liquids and elastic solids. These very small scale, highly confined systems are inherently unstable and thus self-organize into ordered structures which can be exploited for MEMS, sensors, opto-electronic devices and a host of other nanotechnology applications. In particular, mesomechanics requires incorporation of intermolecular interactions and surface tension forces, which are usually inconsequential in classical macroscale mechanics. We point to some experiments and quasi-continuum simulations of self-organized structures in thin soft films which are germane not only to nanotechnology, but also to a spectrum of classical issues such as adhesion/debonding, wetting, coatings, tribology and membranes.