3,142 research outputs found
Heat Transfer Analysis in a Flow Over Concave Wall With Primary and Secondary Instabilities
AbstractThe centrifugal instability mechanism in boundary layers over concave surfaces is responsible for the development of counter- rotating vortices, aligned in the streamwise direction, known as Görtler vortices. These vortices create two regions in the spanwise direction, the upwash and downwash regions. The downwash region is responsible for compressing the boundary layer towards the wall, increasing the drag coefficient and the heat transfer rate. The upwash region does the opposite. The Görtler vortices distort the streamwise velocity profile in the spanwise and the wall-normal directions. These distortions generate inflections in the distribution of streamwise velocity that are unstable to unsteady disturbances giving rise to secondary instabilities. In these flows the secondary instabilities can be of varicose or sinuous mode. The present paper analyses the heat transfer in a flow over a concave wall subjected to primary and secondary instabilities. The research is carried out by a Spatial Direct Numerical Simulation. The adopted parameters mimic the experimental parameters of Winoto and collaborators 17,18 and the Prandtl number adopted was Pr = 0.72. The results show that the varicose mode is the dominant secondary instability for the adopted parameters and that the spanwise average heat transfer rates can reach higher values than the turbulent ones. The higher heat transfer is caused by the mean flow distortion induced by the vortices, and this is present before high–frequency secondary instability sets in. Hence there is no direct connection to secondary instability. Possibly low–frequency modes undergo instability earlier
Comparison of monophasic with single and dual capacitor biphasic waveforms for nonthoracotomy canine internal defibrillation
AbstractMonophasic and single capacitor and dual capacitor biphasic truncated exponential shocks were tested in pentobarbital-anesthetized dogs with use of a nonthoracotomy internal defibrillation pathway consisting of a right ventricular catheter electrode and a subcutaneous chest wall patch electrode. Seven dogs weighing 20.2 ± 0.5 kg were utilized. Monophasic pulses of 10 ms duration were compared with three biphasic pulses. All biphasic waveforms had an initial positive phase (PI) followed by a terminal negative phase (P2) and the total duration of Pt Plus P2 was 10 ms. The dual capacitor biphasic waveform (PI 9 ms, P2 1 ms) had equal initial voltages of Pt and P2. Two simulated single capacitor biphasic waveforms were also tested, the first designed to minimize the magnitude of P2 (P19 ms, P21 ms with initial voltage of P2 equal to 0.3 of the initial voltage of P1) and the second to maximize P2 (PI 5 ms, P2 5 ms with initial voltage of P2 = 0.5 PI).Alternating current was used to induce ventricular fibrillation and four trials of eight initial voltages from 100 to 800 V were performed for each of the four waveforms. Stepwise logistic regression was utilized to construct curves relating probability of successful defibrillation and energy.In the logistic model, the dual capacitor biphasic and single capacitor biphasic waveforms that maximized P2 were associated with significantly (p < 0.001) lower energy requirements for defibrillation than those of the monophasic waveform. The single capacitor biphasic waveform that minimized P2 was not significantly better than the monophasic waveform. The biphasic waveforms associated with the lowest energy requirements for defibrillation were characterized by a higher P2/PI energy ratio.These results demonstrate that single capacitor biphasic waveforms can be constructed that are superior to similar duration monophasic waveforms and comparable with some dual capacitor biphasic waveforms. The relative magnitude of PI and P2 appears to be an important determinant of defibrillation efficacy
Changes in Motoric, Exploratory, and Emotional Behaviours and Neuronal Acetylcholine Content and 5-HT Turnover in Histidine Decarboxylase-KO Mice
Histamine has been implicated, inter alia, in mechanisms underlying arousal, exploratory behaviour and emotionality. Here, we investigated behavioural and neurochemical parameters related to these concepts, including open-field activity, rotarod performance and anxiety, as well as brain acetylcholine and 5-HT concentrations of mice deficient for the histidine decarboxylase (HDC) gene. These mice are unable to synthesize histamine from its precursor histidine. The HDC-knockout mice showed reduced exploratory activity in an open-field, but normal habituation to a novel environment. They behaved more anxious than the controls, as assessed by the height–fear task and the graded anxiety test, a modified elevated plus-maze. Furthermore, motor coordination on the rotarod was superior to controls. Biochemical assessments revealed that the HDC-knockout mice had higher acetylcholine concentrations and a significantly higher 5-HT turnover in the frontal cortex, but reduced acetylcholine levels in the neostriatum. These results are suggestive of important interactions between neuronal histamine and these site-specific neurotransmitters, which may be related to the behavioural changes found in the HDC-deficient animals
A Prospective Evaluation of Two Defibrillation Safety Margin Techniques in Patients with Low Defibrillation Energy Requirements
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75077/1/j.1540-8167.1998.tb00865.x.pd
Differential Effect of Adenosine on Anterograde and Retrograde Fast Pathway Conduction in Patients with Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72925/1/j.1540-8167.1998.tb00121.x.pd
Effect of Ventricular Shock Strength on Cardiac Hemodynamics
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75115/1/j.1540-8167.1998.tb00118.x.pd
Long-Term Evaluation of the Ventricular Defibrillation Energy Requirement
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74692/1/j.1540-8167.1998.tb00132.x.pd
Tuning cell behavior with nanoparticle shape
We investigated how the shape of polymeric vesicles, made by the exact same material, impacts the replication activity and metabolic state of both cancer and non-cancer cell types. First, we isolated discrete geometrical structures (spheres and tubes) from a heterogeneous sample using density-gradient centrifugation. Then, we characterized the cellular internalization and the kinetics of uptake of both types of polymersomes in different cell types (either cancer or non-cancer cells). We also investigated the cellular metabolic response as a function of the shape of the structures internalized and discovered that tubular vesicles induce a significant decrease in the replication activity of cancer cells compared to spherical vesicles. We related this effect to the significant up-regulation of the tumor suppressor genes p21 and p53 with a concomitant activation of caspase 3/7. Finally, we demonstrated that combining the intrinsic shape-dependent effects of tubes with the delivery of doxorubicin significantly increases the cytotoxicity of the system. Our results illustrate how the geometrical conformation of nanoparticles could impact cell behavior and how this could be tuned to create novel drug delivery systems tailored to specific biomedical application
Health-related quality of life during chemoradiation in locally advanced rectal cancer : impacts and ethnic disparities
Aims: There is limited data on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in locally advanced rectal cancer. We assessed HRQoL before, during and after neoadjuvant chemoradiation, correlated this to corresponding clinician-reported adverse events (CR-AEs) and explored disparities between patients of Asian ethnicity versus Caucasians. Correlation between HRQoL and treatment response was also assessed. Methods: A consecutive sample of patients was recruited. HRQoL was assessed with the EORTC QLQ-C30 before chemoradiation, week three of chemoradiation and one-week pre-surgery. Clinical variables including CR-AEs were recorded at these time-points. Patients self-reported socio-demographic variables. Treatment response was assessed by the tumour regression grade. HRQoL data were analysed with multilevel models. Results: Fifty-one patients were recruited. HRQoL completion rates were ≥86%. Cognitive and role functioning worsened significantly during treatment. Emotional, role and social functioning improved significantly at pre-surgery. Fatigue and nausea/vomiting worsened during treatment while fatigue, appetite loss, diarrhoea and financial difficulties improved from treatment to pre-surgery. Almost 30% of the cohort were Asian ethnicity. Differences were found in multiple HRQoL domains between Asians and Caucasians, with Asians faring worse. Significant differences were evident in physical, role and cognitive functioning, and in seven out of the 8 symptom scales. The correlation between patient-reported outcomes and clinician-reported outcomes was weak, with diarrhoea having the strongest correlation (r = 0.58). Vomiting during treatment correlated with poor response, whilst baseline constipation correlated with good response. Conclusion: Chemoradiation for locally advanced rectal cancer affects multiple HRQoL domains. Our findings highlight the importance of psychological aspects of treatment. Significant differences were identified between the Asian and Caucasian populations, with Asians consistently performing worse. Poor correlations between patient and clinician reporting strongly support the inclusion of patient-reported outcomes in clinical studies. HRQoL domains of vomiting and constipation are potential biomarkers of treatment response
Equivalence between non-bilinear spin- Ising model and Wajnflasz model
We propose the mapping of polynomial of degree 2S constructed as a linear
combination of powers of spin- (for simplicity, we called as spin-
polynomial) onto spin-crossover state. The spin- polynomial in general can
be projected onto non-symmetric degenerated spin up (high-spin) and spin down
(low-spin) momenta. The total number of mapping for each general spin- is
given by . As an application of this mapping, we consider a
general non-bilinear spin- Ising model which can be transformed onto
spin-crossover described by Wajnflasz model. Using a further transformation we
obtain the partition function of the effective spin-1/2 Ising model, making a
suitable mapping the non-symmetric contribution leads us to a spin-1/2 Ising
model with a fixed external magnetic field, which in general cannot be solved
exactly. However, for a particular case of non-bilinear spin- Ising model
could become equivalent to an exactly solvable Ising model. The transformed
Ising model exhibits a residual entropy, then it should be understood also as a
frustrated spin model, due to competing parameters coupling of the non-bilinear
spin- Ising model
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