Direct numerical simulation of particulate flows with an overset grid method

We evaluate an efficient overset grid method for two-dimensional and three-dimensional particulate flows for small numbers of particles at finite Reynolds number. The rigid particles are discretised using moving overset grids overlaid on a Cartesian background grid. This allows for strongly-enforced boundary conditions and local grid refinement at particle surfaces, thereby accurately capturing the viscous boundary layer at modest computational cost. The incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved with a fractional-step scheme which is second-order-accurate in space and time, while the fluid–solid coupling is achieved with a partitioned approach including multiple sub-iterations to increase stability for light, rigid bodies. Through a series of benchmark studies we demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of this approach compared to other boundary conformal and static grid methods in the literature. In particular, we find that fully resolving boundary layers at particle surfaces is crucial to obtain accurate solutions to many common test cases. With our approach we are able to compute accurate solutions using as little as one third the number of grid points as uniform grid computations in the literature. A detailed convergence study shows a 13-fold decrease in CPU time over a uniform grid test case whilst maintaining comparable solution accuracy.This work was supported by contracts from the U.S. Department of Energy ASCR Applied Math Program under grant AC52-07NA27344; the National Science Foundation under grant DMS-1519934; the Schlumberger Gould Research Centre under grant RG78221; the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Computational Methods for Materials Science under grant EP/L015552/1

Factors associated with crisis pregnancies in Ireland: Findings from three nationally representative sexual health surveys

Background: Findings on the demographic and sexual health characteristics associated with the experience of a crisis pregnancy is important to inform the public health policy of a country, including Ireland. Findings from other jurisdictions have suggested that certain demographic groups are at risk for unintended pregnancies and the disparity between the groups have been growing in recent years. Ireland is a country which experienced much economic and societal change in the first decade of the 21st century, changes which are likely to have affected demographic variables pertaining to sexual health. The current study had two aims: to investigate changes in the socioeconomic characteristics associated with crisis pregnancies over a seven year period [2003 to 2010], and to investigate the recent [2010] socioeconomic risk factors associated with crisis pregnancies in Ireland. Methods: The study compared the results from 18-45 year old women using data from three broadly similar nationally representative Irish sexual health surveys carried out in 2003, 2004-2006 and 2010. Chi square analysis compared of the socioeconomic characteristics across the seven year period and found that a higher proportion of women with two or more children and women for whom religion was not important reported a crisis pregnancy in 2010 compared with earlier years. A logistic regression then investigated the sexual health history and socioeconomic factors associated with the experience of a recent crisis pregnancy using the most recent 2010 data. Results: Receipt of sex education and contraception use at first sex significantly predicted the experiencing of a recent crisis pregnancy. Younger women and those with a lower level of education were more likely to report having experienced a recent crisis pregnancy. Conclusion: Similar demographic groups are at risk for experiencing a crisis pregnancy in Ireland compared with international research, yet the disparities between demographic groups who have experienced a crisis pregnancy appear to be decreasing rather than increasing over a seven year period. Recommendations are made with regard to the provision of continued sex education throughout the lifespan, particularly for those women who are at an increased risk of experiencing a crisis pregnancy

Decreased Neutrophil Apoptosis in Quiescent ANCA-Associated Systemic Vasculitis

Background: ANCA-Associated Systemic Vasculitis (AASV) is characterized by leukocytoclasis, accumulation of unscavenged apoptotic and necrotic neutrophils in perivascular tissues. Dysregulation of neutrophil cell death may contribute directly to the pathogenesis of AASV. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMethods: Neutrophils from Healthy Blood Donors (HBD), patients with AASV most in complete remission, Polycythemia Vera (PV), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and renal transplant recipients (TP) were incubated in vitro, and the rate of spontaneous apoptosis was measured by FACS. Plasma levels of cytokines and sFAS were measured with cytometric bead array and ELISA. Expression of pro/anti-apoptotic factors, transcription factors C/EBP-alpha, C/EBP-beta and PU.1 and inhibitors of survival/JAK2-pathway were measured by real-time-PCR. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanResults: AASV, PV and RA neutrophils had a significantly lower rate of apoptosis compared to HBD neutrophils (AASV 50 +/- 14% vs. HBD 64 +/- 11%, p andlt; 0.0001). In RA but not in AASV and PV, low apoptosis rate correlated with increased plasma levels of GM-CSF and high mRNA levels of anti-apoptotic factors Bcl-2A1 and Mcl-1. AASV patients had normal levels of G-CSF, GM-CSF and IL-3. Both C/EBP-alpha, C/EBP-beta were significantly higher in neutrophils from AASV patients than HBD. Levels of sFAS were significantly higher in AASV compared to HBD. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanConclusion: Neutrophil apoptosis rates in vitro are decreased in AASV, RA and PV but mechanisms seem to differ. Increased mRNA levels of granulopoiesis-associated transcription factors and increased levels of sFAS in plasma were observed in AASV. Additional studies are required to define the mechanisms behind the decreased apoptosis rates, and possible connections with accumulation of dying neutrophils in regions of vascular lesions in AASV patients.Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council|71X-15152|Crafoord Foundation||</p

Assessment of the MUSTA approach for numerical relativistic hydrodynamics

Aims. We evaluate some approximations for solving the equations of special relativistic hydrodynamics within complex geometries. In particular, we assess the following schemes: the Generalized FORCE (GFORCE) and MUlti STAge (MUSTA) approaches which are used as the basis for a second-order-accurate Slope-LImited-Centred (SLIC) method. These do not require detailed knowledge of the characteristic structure of the system, but have the potential to be nearly as accurate as more expensive schemes which do require this knowledge. Methods. In order to treat complex geometries, we use multiple overlapping grids which allow the capturing of complex geometries while retaining the efficiencies associated with structured grids. Results. The schemes are evaluated using a suite of one dimensional problems some of which have known exact solutions, and it is shown that the schemes can be used at CFL numbers close to the theoretical stability limit. We compare the effects of the MUSTA approach when applied to two different schemes. The scheme is further validated on a number of problems involving complex geometries with overlapping grids.This work was funded by an EPSRC Doctoral Training Grant.This is the final version. It was first published by EDP Sciences at http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2015/03/aa25182-14/aa25182-14.html

On the convergence rate of the dirichlet-neumann iteration for coupled poisson problems on unstructured grids

We consider thermal fluid structure interaction with a partitioned approach, where typically, a finite volume and a finite element code would be coupled. As a model problem, we consider two coupled Poisson problems with heat conductivities $$\lambda _1$$, $$\lambda _2$$ in one dimension on intervals of length $$l:1$$ and $$l:2$$. Hereby, we consider linear discretizations on arbitrary meshes, such as finite volumes, finite differences, finite elements. For these, we prove that the convergence rate of the Dirichlet-Neumann iteration is given by $$\lambda _1l_2/\lambda _2l_1$$ and is thus independent of discretization and mesh