Predict the thermal conductivity of SiO2/water–ethylene glycol (50:50) hybrid nanofluid using artificial neural network

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In the current work, after generating experimental data points for different volume fraction of nanoparticles ( $$\phi$$ ) and different temperatures,...     

Vortex Shedding: A Review on Flat Plate

Flat plates, both single and in tandem or side by side arrangement, are widely used in many engineering applications. Despite vast investigations of the flow structures and wakes downstream of these bluff bodies, this unsteady phenomenon yet remains a fundamental issue in many industrial applications. This paper reviews the state of the art concerning the flow over flat plates in different arrangements focusing on plates normal to the flow. Turbulent wake regions are discussed for the flat plates in side by side or tandem arrangement. Numerical studies are reviewed with emphasis on the realized turbulent models. The effect of the chosen turbulence model on the prediction of the wake region is discussed.     

Effect of polymer and ion concentration on mechanical and drug release behavior of gellan hydrogels using factorial design

Developing optimized hydrogel products requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms that drive hydrogel tunability. Here, we performed a full 4 × 4 factorial design study investigating the impact of gellan, a naturally derived polysaccharide (1%, 2%, 3%, or 4% w/v) and CaCl₂ concentration (1, 3, 7, or 10 mM) on the viscoelastic, swelling, and drug release behavior of gellan hydrogels containing a model drug, vancomycin. These concentrations were chosen to specifically provide insight into gellan hydrogel behavior for formulations utilizing polymer and salt concentrations expanding beyond those commonly reported by previous studies exploring gellan. With increasing gellan and CaCl₂ concentration, the hydrogel storage moduli (0.1–100 kPa) followed a power-law relationship and on average these hydrogels had higher liquid absorption capability and greater total drug release over 6 days. We suggest that the effects of gellan and CaCl₂ concentration and their interactions on hydrogel properties can be explained by various phenomena that lead to increased swelling and increased resistance to network expansion.     

Structural response of different Lewis number premixed flames interacting with a toroidal vortex

Simultaneous measurements of temperature, CH* and OH* chemiluminescent species are carried out to explore the impact of stretch rate and curvature on the structure of premixed flames. The configuration of an initially flat premixed flame interacting with a toroidal vortex is selected for the present study and reasons for this choice are discussed. Lewis number effects are assessed by comparing methane and propane flames. It is emphasized that the flame structure experiences very strong variations. In particular, the flame is shrunk (broadened) in the initial (final) period of the interaction with the vortex where strain rate (curvature) contribution of the stretch rate is predominant. By further analysing independently the thickness of the preheat and reaction zones, it is shown that for propane flames, not only the former but also the latter is significantly altered in zones where the flame curvature is negative. Changes in the reaction zone properties are further emphasized using CH* and OH* radicals. It is demonstrated that higher thermal diffusivity plays a significant role around curved regions, in which the enhanced diffusion of heat leads to a strong increase of CH* compared to OH* intensity. As an overall conclusion, this study suggests that it would be interesting to reassess the internal flame structure at lower and moderate Karlovitz numbers since changes might appear for a moderate vortex intensity with typical size much larger than the flame thickness.     

Multiobjective Optimal Control Methods for the Navier-Stokes Equations Using Reduced Order Modeling

In a wide range of applications it is desirable to optimally control a dynamical system with respect to concurrent, potentially competing goals. This gives rise to a multiobjective optimal control problem where, instead of computing a single optimal solution, the set of optimal compromises, the so-called Pareto set, has to be approximated. When the problem under consideration is described by a partial differential equation (PDE), as is the case for fluid flow, the computational cost rapidly increases and makes its direct treatment infeasible. Reduced order modeling is a very popular method to reduce the computational cost, in particular in a multi query context such as uncertainty quantification, parameter estimation or optimization. In this article, we show how to combine reduced order modeling and multiobjective optimal control techniques in order to efficiently solve multiobjective optimal control problems constrained by PDEs. We consider a global, derivative free optimization method as well as a local, gradient-based approach for which the optimality system is derived in two different ways. The methods are compared with regard to the solution quality as well as the computational effort and they are illustrated using the example of the flow around a cylinder and a backward-facing-step channel flow.

     

Engineering Multifunctional Gold Decorated Dendritic Mesoporous Silica/Tantalum Oxide Nanoparticles for Intraperitoneal Tumor‐Specific Delivery

Nonspecific high‐energy radiation for treatment of metastatic ovarian cancer is limited by damage to healthy organs, which can be mitigated by the use of radiosensitizers and image‐guided radiotherapy. Gold (Au) and tantalum oxide (TaO_x) nanoparticles (NPs), by virtue of their high atomic numbers, find utility in the design of bimetallic NP systems capable of high‐contrast computed tomography (CT) imaging as well as a potential radiosensitizing effect. These two radio‐dense metals are integrated into dendritic mesoporous silica NPs (dMSNs) with radial porous channels for high surface‐area loading of therapeutic agents. This approach results in stable, monodispersed dMSNs with a uniform distribution of Au on the surface and TaO_x in the core that exhibits CT attenuation up to seven times greater than iodine or monometallic dMSNs without either TaO_x or Au. Tumor targeting is assessed in a metastatic ovarian cancer mouse model. Ex vivo micro‐CT imaging of collected tumors shows that these NPs not only accumulate at tumor sites but also penetrate inside tumor tissues. This study demonstrates that after intraperitoneal administration, rationally designed bimetallic NPs can simultaneously serve as targeted contrast agents for imaging tumors and to enhance radiation therapy in metastatic ovarian cancer.     

Decomposition of ideals into pseudo-irreducible ideals

A proper ideal of a commutative ring is called pseudo-irreducible if it cannot be written as a product of two comaximal proper ideals. In this paper, we give a necessary and su?cient condition for every proper ideal of a commutative ring to be a product of pairwise comaximal pseudo-irreducible ideals. Examples of such rings include Laskerian rings, or more generally J-Noetherian rings and ZD-rings. We study when certain classes of rings satisfy this condition.     

A Lock-and-Kill Anticancer Photoactivated Chemotherapy Agent†

Photosubstitutionally active ruthenium complexes show high potential as prodrugs for the photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) treatment of tumors. One of the problems in PACT is that the localization of the ruthenium compound is hard to trace. Here, a ruthenium PACT prodrug, [Ru(3)(biq)(STF-31)](PF₆)₂ (where 3 = 3-(([2,2′:6′,2″-ter- pyridin]-4′-yloxy)propyl-4-(pyren-1-yl)butanoate) and biq = 2,2′-biquinoline), has been prepared, in which a pyrene tracker is attached via an ester bond. The proximity between the fluorophore and the ruthenium center leads to fluorescence quenching. Upon intracellular hydrolysis of the ester linkage, however, the fluorescence of the pyrene moiety is recovered, thus demonstrating prodrug cellular uptake. Further light irradiation of this molecule liberates by photosubstitution STF-31, a known cytotoxic nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) inhibitor, as well as singlet oxygen via excitation of the free pyrene chromophore. The dark and light cytotoxicity of the prodrug, embedded in liposomes, as well as the appearance of blue emission upon uptake, were evaluated in A375 human skin melanoma cells. The cytotoxicity of the liposome-embedded prodrug was indeed increased by light irradiation. This work realizes an in vitro proof-of-concept of the lock-and-kill principle, which may ultimately be used to design strategies aimed at knowing where and when light irradiation should be realized in vivo.     

Kinetic Behavior of Quaternary Ammonium Hydroxides in Mixed Methane and Carbon Dioxide Hydrates

This study evaluates the kinetic hydrate inhibition (KHI) performance of four quaternary ammonium hydroxides (QAH) on mixed CH₄ + CO₂ hydrate systems. The studied QAHs are; tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH), tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH), tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH), and tetrapropylammonium hydroxide (TPrAOH). The test was performed in a high-pressure hydrate reactor at temperatures of 274.0 K and 277.0 K, and a concentration of 1 wt.% using the isochoric cooling method. The kinetics results suggest that all the QAHs potentially delayed mixed CH₄ + CO₂ hydrates formation due to their steric hindrance abilities. The presence of QAHs reduced hydrate formation risk than the conventional hydrate inhibitor, PVP, at higher subcooling conditions. The findings indicate that increasing QAHs alkyl chain lengths increase their kinetic hydrate inhibition efficacies due to better surface adsorption abilities. QAHs with longer chain lengths have lesser amounts of solute particles to prevent hydrate formation. The outcomes of this study contribute significantly to current efforts to control gas hydrate formation in offshore petroleum pipelines.