946 research outputs found
Towards passive station holding of autonomous underwater vehicles inspired by fish behaviour in unsteady flows
Some species of fish are able to alter their mode of swimming to interact with naturally produced vortices; the use of these gaits reduces the energy expended by the fish. To analyse the feasibility of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) replicating these gaits, a series of experiments are performed with unpowered rigid and flexible bodies positioned in the KĂĄrmĂĄn wake of a rigid cylinder. Simple motion capture techniques are used to capture the bodiesâ lateral and upstream motion in the flow. The results demonstrate that manufactured bodies are capable of passively mimicking fish behaviours, to a limited extent. More importantly, it was concluded that while significant upstream movement was possible for a manufactured object, it was achievable irrespective of the stiffness of the material. For AUVs operating in unsteady flow regimes an ability to utilise energy saving gaits may improve the range or operational time
Drug delivery in a tumour cord model: a computational simulation
YesThe tumour vasculature and microenvironment is complex and heterogeneous, contributing to reduced delivery of cancer drugs to the tumour. We have developed an in silico model of drug transport in a tumour cord to explore the effect of different drug regimes over a 72âh period and how changes in pharmacokinetic parameters affect tumour exposure to the cytotoxic drug doxorubicin. We used the model to describe the radial and axial distribution of drug in the tumour cord as a function of changes in the transport rate across the cell membrane, blood vessel and intercellular permeability, flow rate, and the binding and unbinding ratio of drug within the cancer cells. We explored how changes in these parameters may affect cellular exposure to drug. The model demonstrates the extent to which distance from the supplying vessel influences drug levels and the effect of dosing schedule in relation to saturation of drug-binding sites. It also shows the likely impact on drug distribution of the aberrant vasculature seen within tumours. The model can be adapted for other drugs and extended to include other parameters. The analysis confirms that computational models can play a role in understanding novel cancer therapies to optimize drug administration and delivery
Modeling the biomechanics of fetal movements
Fetal movements in the uterus are a natural part of development and are known to play an important role in normal musculoskeletal development. However, very little is known about the biomechanical stimuli that arise during movements in utero, despite these stimuli being crucial to normal bone and joint formation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to create a series of computational steps by which the forces generated during a kick in utero could be predicted from clinically observed fetal movements using novel cine-MRI data of three fetuses, aged 20â22 weeks. A custom tracking software was designed to characterize the movements of joints in utero, and average uterus deflection of 6.95±0.41 mm due to kicking was calculated. These observed displacements provided boundary conditions for a finite element model of the uterine environment, predicting an average reaction force of 0.52±0.15 N generated by a kick against the uterine wall. Finally, these data were applied as inputs for a musculoskeletal model of a fetal kick, resulting in predicted maximum forces in the muscles surrounding the hip joint of approximately 8 N, while higher maximum forces of approximately 21 N were predicted for the muscles surrounding the knee joint. This study provides a novel insight into the closed mechanical environment of the uterus, with an innovative method allowing elucidation of the biomechanical interaction of the developing fetus with its surroundings
European Society of Biomechanics S.M. Perren Award 2018: Altered biomechanical stimulation of the developing hip joint in presence of hip dysplasia risk factors
Fetal kicking and movements generate biomechanical stimulation in the fetal skeleton, which is important for prenatal musculoskeletal development, particularly joint shape. Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is the most common joint shape abnormality at birth, with many risk factors for the condition being associated with restricted fetal movement. In this study, we investigate the biomechanics of fetal movements in such situations, namely fetal breech position, oligohydramnios and primiparity (firstborn pregnancy). We also investigate twin pregnancies, which are not at greater risk of DDH incidence, despite the more restricted intra-uterine environment. We track fetal movements for each of these situations using cine-MRI technology, quantify the kick and muscle forces, and characterise the resulting stress and strain in the hip joint, testing the hypothesis that altered biomechanical stimuli may explain the link between certain intra-uterine conditions and risk of DDH. Kick force, stress and strain were found to be significantly lower in cases of breech position and oligohydramnios. Similarly, firstborn fetuses were found to generate significantly lower kick forces than non-firstborns. Interestingly, no significant difference was observed in twins compared to singletons. This research represents the first evidence of a link between the biomechanics of fetal movements and the risk of DDH, potentially informing the development of future preventative measures and enhanced diagnosis. Our results emphasise the importance of ultrasound screening for breech position and oligohydramnios, particularly later in pregnancy, and suggest that earlier intervention to correct breech position through external cephalic version could reduce the risk of hip dysplasia
Focusing Vacuum Fluctuations
The focusing of the vacuum modes of a quantized field by a parabolic mirror
is investigated. We use a geometric optics approximation to calculate the
energy density and mean squared field averages for scalar and electromagnetic
fields near the focus. We find that these quantities grow as an inverse power
of the distance to the focus. There is an attractive Casimir-Polder force on an
atom which will draw it into the focus. Some estimates of the magnitude of the
effects of this focusing indicate that it may be observable.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures; typos corrected, two refs and some comments
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Mathematical and computational models of drug transport in tumours
The ability to predict how far a drug will penetrate into the tumour microenvironment within its pharmacokinetic (PK) lifespan would provide valuable information about therapeutic response. As the PK profile is directly related to the route and schedule of drug administration, an in silico tool that can predict the drug administration schedule that results in optimal drug delivery to tumours would streamline clinical trial design. This paper investigates the application of mathematical and computational modelling techniques to help improve our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying drug delivery, and compares the performance of a simple model with more complex approaches. Three models of drug transport are developed, all based on the same drug binding model and parametrized by bespoke in vitro experiments. Their predictions, compared for a âtumour cordâ geometry, are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. We assess the effect of varying the PK profile of the supplied drug, and the binding affinity of the drug to tumour cells, on the concentration of drug reaching cells and the accumulated exposure of cells to drug at arbitrary distances from a supplying blood vessel. This is a contribution towards developing a useful drug transport modelling tool for informing strategies for the treatment of tumour cells which are âpharmacokinetically resistantâ to chemotherapeutic strategies
An e-VLBI image of SN1987A from Australian radio telescopes and the JIVE correlator
We present an image of the expanding shell of the remnant associated with supernova1987A at the highest resolution to date at radio wavelengths, 85 milliarcseconds, using the e-VLBI technique, from 2007 October. This is comparable to the angular resolution obtainedwith the Hubble Space Telescope and is approximately 3 times higher than has been possiblewith the Australia Telescope Compact Array or 5 times higher than with the Chandra X-rayObservatory. The e-VLBI data at 1.4 GHz show good agreement with the ATCA data at 9GHz, resolving the substructure in the equatorial brightness enhancements of the remnant(allowing for the fact that the e-VLBI observations are sensitive to structure on angular scales<0.4?). We place a 3s upper limit on the time-averaged pulsar emission or a compact pulsarpowerednebula at this frequency of 1 mJy/beam. These observations were made usingtelescopes in Australia, with the data transferred in real-time to the European VLBI Networkcorrelator at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, in The Netherlands, via high-speednetworks, as part of the EXPReS project, demonstrating the feasibility of a real-time global e-VLBI network at 512 Mbps per antenna
Rings and rigidity transitions in network glasses
Three elastic phases of covalent networks, (I) floppy, (II) isostatically
rigid and (III) stressed-rigid have now been identified in glasses at specific
degrees of cross-linking (or chemical composition) both in theory and
experiments. Here we use size-increasing cluster combinatorics and constraint
counting algorithms to study analytically possible consequences of
self-organization. In the presence of small rings that can be locally I, II or
III, we obtain two transitions instead of the previously reported single
percolative transition at the mean coordination number , one from a
floppy to an isostatic rigid phase, and a second one from an isostatic to a
stressed rigid phase. The width of the intermediate phase and the
order of the phase transitions depend on the nature of medium range order
(relative ring fractions). We compare the results to the Group IV
chalcogenides, such as Ge-Se and Si-Se, for which evidence of an intermediate
phase has been obtained, and for which estimates of ring fractions can be made
from structures of high T crystalline phases.Comment: 29 pages, revtex, 7 eps figure
On optical black holes in moving dielectrics
We study the optical paths of the light rays propagating inside a nonlinear
moving dielectric media. For the rapidly moving dielectrics we show the
existence of a distinguished surface which resembles, as far as the light
propagation is concerned, the event horizon of a black hole. Our analysis
clarifies the physical conditions under which electromagnetic analogues of the
gravitational black holes can eventually be obtained in laboratory.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, revtex
Fluctuations of an evaporating black hole from back reaction of its Hawking radiation: Questioning a premise in earlier work
This paper delineates the first steps in a systematic quantitative study of
the spacetime fluctuations induced by quantum fields in an evaporating black
hole. We explain how the stochastic gravity formalism can be a useful tool for
that purpose within a low-energy effective field theory approach to quantum
gravity. As an explicit example we apply it to the study of the
spherically-symmetric sector of metric perturbations around an evaporating
black hole background geometry. For macroscopic black holes we find that those
fluctuations grow and eventually become important when considering sufficiently
long periods of time (of the order of the evaporation time), but well before
the Planckian regime is reached. In addition, the assumption of a simple
correlation between the fluctuations of the energy flux crossing the horizon
and far from it, which was made in earlier work on spherically-symmetric
induced fluctuations, is carefully analyzed and found to be invalid. Our
analysis suggests the existence of an infinite amplitude for the fluctuations
of the horizon as a three-dimensional hypersurface. We emphasize the need for
understanding and designing operational ways of probing quantum metric
fluctuations near the horizon and extracting physically meaningful information.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX; minor changes, a few references added and a brief
discussion of their relevance included. To appear in the proceedings of the
10th Peyresq meeting. Dedicated to Rafael Sorkin on the occasion of his 60th
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