Review of: Sharon M. Friedman et al. eds., Communicating Uncertainty

A review of the book Communicating Uncertainty: Media Coverage of New and Controversial Science (Sharon M. Friedman, Sharon Dunwoody & Carol L. Rogers, eds.; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 1999). Preface, introduction. ISBN 0-8058-2728-5 [261 pp. $32.50. Paperback, 10 Industrial Avenue, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262]

Stability of a Core-Annular Flow in a Rotating Pipe

The linear stability of core-annular flow in rotating pipes is analyzed. Attention is focused on the effects of rotating the pipe and the difference in density of the two fluids. Both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric disturbances are considered. Major effects of the viscosity ratio, interfacial tension, radius ratio, and Reynolds number are included. It is found that for two fluids of equal density the rotation of the pipe stabilizes the axisymmetric (n= 0) modes of disturbances and destabilizes the nonaxisymmetric modes. Except for small script R sign, where the axisymmetric capillary instability is dominant, the first azimuthal mode of disturbance |n| = 1 is the most unstable. When the heavier fluid is outside centripetal acceleration of the fluid in the rotating pipe is stabilizing; there exists a critical rotating speed above which the flow is stabilized against capillary instability for certain range of small script R sign. When the lighter fluid is outside the flow is always unstable

Lubricated Pipelining: Stability of Core-Annular Flow. Part 2

In this paper, we study the linearized stability of three symmetric arrangements of two liquids in core-annular Poiseuille flow in round pipes. Deferring to one important application, we say oil and water when we mean more viscous and less viscous liquids. The three arrangements are (i) oil is in the core and water on the wall, (ii) water is in the core and oil is outside and (iii) three layers, oil inside and outside with water in between. The arrangement in (iii) is our model for lubricated pipelining when the pipe walls are hydrophobic and i t has not been studied before. The arrangement in (ii) was studied by Hickox (1971) who treated the problem as a perturbation of long waves, effectively suppressing surface tension and other essential effects which are necessary to explain the flows observed, say, in recent experiments of W. L. Olbricht and R. W. Aul. The arrangement in (i) was studied in Part 1 of this paper (Preziosi, Chen & Joseph 1987). We have confirmed and extended their pseudo-spectral calculation by introducing a more efficient finite-element code. We have calculated neutral curves, growth rates, maximum growth rate, wavenumbers for maximum growth and the various terms which enter into the analysis of the equation for the evolution of the energy of a small disturbance. The energy analysis allows us to identify the three competing mechanisms underway : interfacial tension, interfacial friction and Reynolds stress. Many results are presented

Direct Simulation of Initial Value Problems for the Motion of Solid Bodies in a Newtonian Fluid Part 1. Sedimentation

This paper reports the result of direct simulations of fluid-particle motions in two dimensions. We solve the initial value problem for the sedimentation of circular and elliptical particles in a vertical channel. The fluid motion is computed from the Navier-Stokes equations for moderate Reynolds numbers in the hundreds. The particles are moved according to the equations of motion of a rigid body under the action of gravity and hydrodynamic forces arising from the motion of the fluid. The solutions are as exact as our finite-element calculations will allow. As the Reynolds number is increased to 600, a circular particle can be said to experience five different regimes of motion: steady motion with and without overshoot and weak, strong and irregular oscillations. An elliptic particle always turn its long axis perpendicular to the fall, and drifts to the centreline of the channel during sedimentation. Steady drift, damped oscillation and periodic oscillation of the particle are observed for different ranges of the Reynolds number. For two particles which interact while settling, a steady staggered structure, a periodic wake-action regime and an active drafting- kissing-tumbling scenario are realized at increasing Reynolds numbers. The nonlinear effects of particle-fluid, particle-wall and interparticle interactions are analysed, and the mechanisms controlling the simulated flows are shown to be lubrication, turning couples on long bodies, steady and unsteady wakes and wake interactions. The results are compared to experimental and theoretical results previously published

Direct Simulation of Initial Value Problems for the Motion of Solid Bodies in a Newtonian Fluid. Part 2. Couette adn Poiseuille Flows.

This paper reports the results of a two-dimensional finite element simulation of the motion of a circular particle in a Couette and a Poiseuille flow. The size of the particle and the Reynolds number are large enough to include fully nonlinear inertial effects and wall effects. Both neutrally buoyant and non-neutrally buoyant particles are studied, and the results are compared with pertinent experimental data and perturbation theories. A neutrally buoyant particle is shown to migrate to the centreline in a Couette flow, and exhibits the Segré-Silberberg effect in a Poiseuille flow. Non-neutrally buoyant particles have more complicated patterns of migration, depending upon the density difference between the fluid and the particle. The driving forces of the migration have been identified as a wall repulsion due to lubrication, an inertial lift related to shear slip, a lift due to particle rotation and, in the case of Poiseuille flow, a lift caused by the velocity profile curvature. These forces are analysed by examining the distributions of pressure and shear stress on the particle. The stagnation pressure on the particle surface are particularly important in determining the direction of migration

Direct Simulation of the Sedimentation of Elliptic Particles in Oldroyd-B Fluids

Cross stream migration and stable orientations of elliptic particles falling in an Oldroyd-B fluid in a channel are studied. We show that the normal component of the extra stress on a rigid body vanishes; lateral forces and torques are determined by the pressure. Inertia turns the longside of the ellipse across the stream and elasticity turns it along the stream; tilted off-center falling is unstable. There are two critical numbers; elasticity and Mach numbers. When the elasticity number is smaller than critical the fluid is essentially Newtonian with broadside-on falling at the centerline of the channel. For larger elasticity numbers the settling turns the longside of the particle along the stream in the channel center for all velocities below a critical one, identified with a critical Mach number of order one. For larger Mach numbers the ellipse flips into broadside-on falling again. The critical numbers are functions of the channel blockage ratio, the particle aspect ratio and the retardation/relaxation time ratio of the fluid. Two ellipses falling nearby, attract, line-up and straighten-out in a long chain of ellipses with longside vertical, all in a row. Stable, off-center tilting is found for ellipses falling in shear thinning fluids and for cylinders with flat ends in which particles tend align their longest diameter with gravity

Stability of Core-Annular Flow with Very Small Viscosity Ratio

It is known that the stability problem for core-annular flow of very viscous crude oil and water is singular, the water annulus appears to be inviscid with boundary layers at the pipe wall and at the interface. In the present paper, this singular problem is treated by the method of matched asymptotic expansions using ∈ = m/ℝα as a small parameter. There are two cases of instability corresponding to different positions of the critical point in the annulus. One case is when the critical point is far away from the interface, the other is when the critical point is close to the interface within a distance of order ∈1/3. In both cases, the equations for the eigenvalues are derived, and the explicit forms for the neutral curves are given. The stability problem is also treated by the modified finite element code used by Hu and Joseph [J. Fluid Mech. 205, 359 ( 1989); Phys. Fluids A 1, 1659 ( 1989)], taking into account the boundary layers at the pipe wall and at the interface. The results of the two methods agree where they overlap, but the finite element technique goes further

Sequencing of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis-related genes reveals independent single gene associations

BACKGROUND: Previous studies investigating a genetic basis for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have focused on resequencing single genes in IPF kindreds or cohorts to determine the genetic contributions to IPF. None has investigated interactions among the candidate genes. OBJECTIVE: To compare the frequencies and interactions of mutations in six IPF-associated genes in a cohort of 132 individuals with IPF with those of a disease-control cohort of 192 individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the population represented in the Exome Variant Server. METHODS: We resequenced the genes encoding surfactant proteins A2 (SFTPA2), and C (SFTPC), the ATP binding cassette member A3 (ABCA3), telomerase (TERT), thyroid transcription factor (NKX2-1) and mucin 5B (MUC5B) and compared the collapsed frequencies of rare (minor allele frequency <1%), computationally predicted deleterious variants in each cohort. We also genotyped a common MUC5B promoter variant that is over-represented in individuals with IPF. RESULTS: We found 15 mutations in 14 individuals (11%) in the IPF cohort: (SFTPA2 (n=1), SFTPC (n=5), ABCA3 (n=4) and TERT (n=5)). No individual with IPF had two different mutations, but one individual with IPF was homozygous for p.E292V, the most common ABCA3 disease-causing variant. We did not detect an interaction between any of the mutations and the MUC5B promoter variant. CONCLUSIONS: Rare mutations in SFTPA2, SFTPC and TERT are collectively over-represented in individuals with IPF. Genetic analysis and counselling should be considered as part of the IPF evaluation

Fresh shallow valleys in the Martian midlatitudes as features formed by meltwater flow beneath ice

Significant numbers of valleys have been identified in the Martian midlatitudes (30–60°N/S), spatially associated with extant or recent ice accumulations. Many of these valleys date to the Amazonian, but their formation during these cold, dry epochs is problematic. In this study, we look in detail at the form, distribution, and quantitative geomorphology of two suites of these valleys and their associated landforms in order to better constrain the processes of their formation. Since the valleys themselves are so young and thus well preserved, uniquely, we can constrain valley widths and courses and link these to the topography from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter and High-Resolution Stereo Camera data. We show that the valleys are both qualitatively and quantitatively very similar, despite their being >5000 km apart in different hemispheres and around 7 km apart in elevation. Buffered crater counting indicates that the ages of these networks are statistically identical, probably forming during the Late Amazonian, ~100 Ma. In both localities, at least tens of valleys cross local drainage divides, apparently flowing uphill. We interpret these uphill reaches to be characteristic of flow occurring beneath a now absent, relatively thin (order 101–102 m), regionally extensive ice cover. Ridges and mounds occasionally found at the foot of these valley systems are analogous to eskers and aufeis-like refreezing features. On the basis of their interaction with these aufeis-like mounds, we suggest that this suite of landforms may have formed in a single, short episode (perhaps order of days), probably forced by global climate change

Mathematical modelling of tissue-engineering angiogenesis

We present a mathematical model for the vascularisation of a porous scaffold following implantation in vivo. The model is given as a set of coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) which describe the evolution in time of the amounts of the different tissue constituents inside the scaffold. Bifurcation analyses reveal how the extent of scaffold vascularisation changes as a function of the parameter values. For example, it is shown how the loss of seeded cells arising from slow infiltration of vascular tissue can be overcome using a prevascularisation strategy consisting of seeding the scaffold with vascular cells. Using certain assumptions it is shown how the system can be simplified to one which is partially tractable and for which some analysis is given. Limited comparison is also given of the model solutions with experimental data from the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay