Chaos break and synchrony enrichment within Hindmarsh–Rose-type memristive neural models

Nonlinear Dynamics - The fluctuation of ions concentration across the cell membrane of neuron can generate a time varying electromagnetic field. Thus, memristors are used to realize the coupling...     

Hybrid continuum–coarse-grained modeling of erythrocytes

The red blood cell (RBC) membrane is a composite structure, consisting of a phospholipid bilayer and an underlying membrane-associated cytoskeleton. Both continuum and particle-based coarse-grained RBC models make use of a set of vertices connected by edges to represent the RBC membrane, which can be seen as a triangular surface mesh for the former and a spring network for the latter. Here, we present a modeling approach combining an existing continuum vesicle model with a coarse-grained model for the cytoskeleton. Compared to other two-component approaches, our method relies on only one mesh, representing the cytoskeleton, whose velocity in the tangential direction of the membrane may be different from that of the lipid bilayer. The finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) spring force law in combination with a repulsive force defined as a power function (POW), called FENE–POW, is used to describe the elastic properties of the RBC membrane. The mechanical interaction between the lipid bilayer and the cytoskeleton is explicitly computed and incorporated into the vesicle model. Our model includes the fundamental mechanical properties of the RBC membrane, namely fluidity and bending rigidity of the lipid bilayer, and shear elasticity of the cytoskeleton while maintaining surface-area and volume conservation constraint. We present three simulation examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of this hybrid continuum–coarse-grained model for the study of RBCs in fluid flows.     

Electroosmosis modulated peristaltic biorheological flow through an asymmetric microchannel: mathematical model

A theoretical study is presented of peristaltic hydrodynamics of an aqueous electrolytic non-Newtonian Jeffrey bio-rheological fluid through an asymmetric microchannel under an applied axial electric field. An analytical approach is adopted to obtain the closed form solution for velocity, volumetric flow, pressure difference and stream function. The analysis is also restricted under the low Reynolds number assumption (Stokes flow) and lubrication theory approximations (large wavelength). Small ionic Peclét number and Debye–Hückel linearization (i.e. wall zeta potential ≤ 25 mV) are also considered to simplify the Nernst–Planck and Poisson–Boltzmann equations. Streamline plots are also presented for the different electro-osmotic parameter, varying magnitudes of the electric field (both aiding and opposing cases) and for different values of the ratio of relaxation to retardation time parameter. Comparisons are also included between the Newtonian and general non-Newtonian Jeffrey fluid cases. The results presented here may be of fundamental interest towards designing lab-on-a-chip devices for flow mixing, cell manipulation, micro-scale pumps etc. Trapping is shown to be more sensitive to an electric field (aiding, opposing and neutral) rather than the electro-osmotic parameter and viscoelastic relaxation to retardation ratio parameter. The results may also help towards the design of organ-on-a-chip like devices for better drug design.     

Large eddy simulation of serration effects on an ultra-high-bypass-ratio engine exhaust jet

Serrated jet nozzles are considered to be an efficient and practical passive control approach for jet noise. However, some fundamental mechanisms of serration effects on jet noise are not fully understood, especially in terms of the sound source. In this paper, a high-fidelity simulation framework using large-eddy simulation (LES) is demonstrated to predict near-field turbulence and far-field acoustics from an ultra-high-bypass-ratio engine with round and serrated nozzles. Far-field sound is predicted using Ffowcs Willams–Hawkings (FWH) integration. The results show that the serrated nozzle increases mixing near the nozzle and hence the turbulence decay rate, reducing the turbulence level downstream. The serrations shift the energy from the low frequencies to the high frequencies and decrease overall sound pressure levels by about 3 dB over the low-frequency range. Sound sources are analysed based on fourth-order space–time correlations. There are six major source components ($R_{1111}$, $R_{2222}$, $R_{3333}$, $R_{1313}$, $R_{1212}$, and $R_{2323}$) inside the jet shear layers. The serrations are able to reduce the amplitude of these source terms, causing them to decay rapidly to a level below the round nozzle jet within 2D downstream of the nozzle.     

Cellulose as recyclable organocatalyst for ipso-hydroxylation of arylboronic acids

Cellulose catalyzed oxidative hydroxylation of aryl and hetero-arylboronic acids to the corresponding phenols under metal and base free strategy has been demonstrated. The sustainable ipso-hydroxylation takes place using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant in water under mild condition in shorter period of time. Interestingly, easy recovery and reusability of heterogeneous catalyst without significant loss in catalytic yield makes the protocol environmentally benign.     

On‐chip technology for single‐cell arraying,electrorotation‐based analysis and selective release

This paper reports a method for label‐free single‐cell biophysical analysis of multiple cells trapped in suspension by electrokinetic forces. Tri‐dimensional pillar electrodes arranged along the width of a microfluidic chamber define actuators for single cell trapping and selective release by electrokinetic force. Moreover, a rotation can be induced on the cell in combination with a negative DEP force to retain the cell against the flow. The measurement of the rotation speed of the cell as a function of the electric field frequency define an electrorotation spectrum that allows to study the dielectric properties of the cell. The system presented here shows for the first time the simultaneous electrorotation analysis of multiple single cells in separate micro cages that can be selectively addressed to trap and/or release the cells. Chips with 39 micro‐actuators of different interelectrode distance were fabricated to study cells with different sizes. The extracted dielectric properties of Henrietta Lacks, human embryonic kidney 293, and human immortalized T lymphocytes cells were found in agreements with previous findings. Moreover, the membrane capacitance of M17 neuroblastoma cells was investigated and found to fall in in the range of 7.49 ± 0.39 mF/m².     

An infeasible-start framework for convex quadratic optimization,with application to constraint-reduced interior-point and other methods

Mathematical Programming - A framework is proposed for solving general convex quadratic programs (CQPs) from an infeasible starting point by invoking an existing feasible-start algorithm tailored...