Experimental investigation of the stochastic early flame propagation after ignition by a low-energy electrical discharge

In the context of explosion protection, very conservative safety factors need to be considered, e.g. in the design of electrical devices. This is due to standards which are mainly based on empirical data as opposed to a detailed knowledge of the underlying physiochemical processes. In this work, the early phase of ignition of burnable gas mixtures close to their respective minimum ignition energy is investigated experimentally by means of high-speed schlieren imaging. Our data quantifies how the ignition process at such low energies becomes less repeatable which is evidenced by a high scattering of the flame propagation. It was found that, depending on the mixture, the flow field induced by the electrical discharge may exhibit a considerable effect on the ignition process. This effect is more pronounced for mixtures which are characterized by a large Lewis number, thus, leading to a more random flame propagation

Parametrical investigation for the optimization of spherical jet-stirred reactors design using large eddy simulations

Abstract Due to the importance of gas-phase chemical reaction kinetics in low-emission combustion, stirred tank reactors have been used for decades as an experimental tool to study high- and low-temperature oxidation. A Jet-Stirred Reactor (JSR) setup is valuable to determine the evolution of species mole fractions. For the accuracy of the experimental results, it is important that a JSR is designed such that the concentration field is as homogeneous as possible in order to avoid disturbance of the chemical kinetics. In this work, numerical simulations were performed to investigate the mixing in a JSR chamber. The turbulent structures inside the JSR and the nozzles are captured using Large Eddy Simulations. We conducted numerically a parametric study to evaluate the effects of thermodynamic conditions and geometrical parameters on the mixing characteristics. More specifically, the diameter of the spherical chamber is modified together with the diameter of the nozzles through which fresh gases are fed. The characterization of the gas flow inside a typical spherical JSR layout and results derived by the normalized standard deviation of a tracer mass fraction show that a reduction of the JSR diameter at high pressures improves the homogeneity. Further, we propose a new optimized configuration consisting of six nozzles pointing to the center of the reactor which provides a more uniform composition compared to the standard JSR design

Analyse von Stoffwechselprozessen mit der Fermentationskalorimetrie

Biologische Aktivität ist mit der Freisetzung von Wärmeenergie verbunden. Die Wärmeproduktion ist dabei proportional zur gesamten Stoffwechselaktivität. Da Wärme kontinuierlich entsteht, eignet sie sich zur Nutzung als On-Iine-Signal. Kalorimetrische Methoden werden in den Biowissenschaften bereits seit Jahrzehnten verwendet. Fermentationskalorimetrie ist eine neu entwickelte Meßtechnik, die insbesondere für die kalorimetrische Vermessung biotechnisch relevanter Fermentationen im Labormaßstab gedacht ist

Ignition by Capacitance Sparks and Non-Thermal Plasmas

Für die Optimierung von Verbrennungsmotoren ist das Verständnis der Zündung von brennbaren Gemischen durch elektrische Entladungen von entscheidender Bedeutung. Ein kombinierter experimentell-numerischer Ansatz wird verwendet, um tiefere Einblicke in die physikalisch-chemischen Prozesse während der Zündung durch thermische und nicht-thermische Plasmen zu erhalten. Bei beiden Anwendungsbeispielen wurden Energien im Bereich der mindestens zur Zündung notwendigen Energie untersucht. Die zeitliche Entwicklung des Plasmakerns und der Stoßwelle mittels einer Schlieren-Methode zusammen mit numerischen Simulationen wurde verwendet, um die Effizienz einer Funkenzündung zu quantifizieren. Radiale Profile von OHRadikalen, die durch laserinduzierte Fluoreszenz (LIF) gemessen wurden, werden mit numerischen Ergebnissen verglichen, um die numerischen Werkzeuge zu validieren, die nun zur Modellierung der Zündung nachhaltig erzeugter Biokraftstoffe verwendet werden können. Eine volumetrische Zündung kann mit nichtthermischen Plasmen erreicht werden. Hier wurden numerische Simulationen verwendet, um die zeitliche Entwicklung von Temperatur und Radikalen im Plasmakanal im Detail zu untersuchen

NF-κB and Snail1a coordinate the cell cycle with gastrulation

The cell cycle needs to strictly coordinate with developmental processes to ensure correct generation of the body plan and different tissues. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the coordination remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigate how the cell cycle coordinates gastrulation cell movements in zebrafish. We present a system to modulate the cell cycle in early zebrafish embryos by manipulating the geminin-Cdt1 balance. Alterations of the cell cycle change the apoptotic level during gastrulation, which correlates with the nuclear level of antiapoptotic nuclear factor κB (NF-κB). NF-κB associates with the Snail1a promoter region on the chromatin and directly activates Snail1a, an important factor controlling cell delamination, which is the initial step of mesendodermal cell movements during gastrulation. In effect, the cell cycle coordinates the delamination of mesendodermal cells through the transcription of Snail1a. Our results suggest a molecular mechanism by which NF-κB and Snail1a coordinate the cell cycle through gastrulation

Roadmap: helium ion therapy

Helium ion beam therapy for the treatment of cancer was one of several developed and studied particle treatments in the 1950s, leading to clinical trials beginning in 1975 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The trial shutdown was followed by decades of research and clinical silence on the topic while proton and carbon ion therapy made debuts at research facilities and academic hospitals worldwide. The lack of progression in understanding the principle facets of helium ion beam therapy in terms of physics, biological and clinical findings persists today, mainly attributable to its highly limited availability. Despite this major setback, there is an increasing focus on evaluating and establishing clinical and research programs using helium ion beams, with both therapy and imaging initiatives to supplement the clinical palette of radiotherapy in the treatment of aggressive disease and sensitive clinical cases. Moreover, due its intermediate physical and radio-biological properties between proton and carbon ion beams, helium ions may provide a streamlined economic steppingstone towards an era of widespread use of different particle species in light and heavy ion therapy. With respect to the clinical proton beams, helium ions exhibit superior physical properties such as reduced lateral scattering and range straggling with higher relative biological effectiveness (RBE) and dose-weighted linear energy transfer (LETd) ranging from ∼4 keV μm⁻¹ to ∼40 keV μm⁻¹. In the frame of heavy ion therapy using carbon, oxygen or neon ions, where LETd increases beyond 100 keV μm⁻¹, helium ions exhibit similar physical attributes such as a sharp lateral penumbra, however, with reduced radio-biological uncertainties and without potentially spoiling dose distributions due to excess fragmentation of heavier ion beams, particularly for higher penetration depths. This roadmap presents an overview of the current state-of-the-art and future directions of helium ion therapy: understanding physics and improving modeling, understanding biology and improving modeling, imaging techniques using helium ions and refining and establishing clinical approaches and aims from learned experience with protons. These topics are organized and presented into three main sections, outlining current and future tasks in establishing clinical and research programs using helium ion beams—A. Physics B. Biological and C. Clinical Perspectives