Santrauka Darbo apimtis 53 puslapiai, įskaitant 51 paveikslėlį, 5 lenteles. Informacijos šaltinių sąraše 26 šaltiniai. Darbo pradžia 2007 09 01, pabaiga 2009 05 19. Darbo objektas – skirtingos konstrukcijos purkštukai (skylinis kūgiško srauto, plyšinis plokščiasrautis ir inžektorinis (pneumohidraulinis)). Darbo tikslas – ištirti vėjo greičio įtaką skirtingos konstrukcijos purkštukais išpurškiamų skysčio lašelių sklaidai. Darbo metodai. Taikytas literatūros šaltinių loginės analizės metodas. Tyrimo stende buvo panaudoti 3 skirtingos konstrukcijos purkštukai. Jais išpurkštas skystis buvo apipučiamas ašinio ventiliatoriaus sukuriamu skirtingo stiprumo (greičio) oro srautu. Gauti tyrimų duomenys įvertinti dispersinės ir koreliacinės-regresinės analizės metodais. Darbo rezultatai. Išanalizavus purkštukų gamintojų pateiktą informaciją ir remiantis mokslininkų atliktų tyrimų rezultatais galima teigti, kad vėjo greitis yra svarbiausias meteorologinis veiksnys, nuo kurio labai priklauso išpurkšto skysčio lašelių nunešimas pavėjui. Be to, nustatyta, kad, išpurkšto skysčio lašelių nunešimas pavėjui ženkliai priklauso ir nuo purkštukų konstrukcijos. Apibendrinus visų trijų purkštukų tyrimų rezultatus, nustatyta, kad vidutiniškai, plote nutolusiame nuo purkštuko pastatymo vietos vėjo kryptimi nuo 0,5 m iki 2,0 m, pasklinda 30%, o nuo 2,0 m iki 4,5 m – dar apie 7% lašelių, kai šoninio vėjo greitis siekia 8,2±0,1 m•s-1. Inžektorinio (pneumohidraulinio) purkštuko tyrimų rezultatus lyginant... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Summary Scope of work page 53, including 51 picture, 5 tables. The information sources listed 26 sources. Beginning in 2007 09 01, the end of 2009 05 29. Work item – the construction of the nozzles (conical flow skyline, Slit flat flow and injector nozzles (pneumohydraulic)). The aim – to explore the wind velocity influence on the design of different nozzles spray liquid dispersion of droplets. Working methods. Literature sources used for logic analysis method. The study as were used for construction of 3 different nozzles. They sprayed the liquid was mutual axial fan creates a difference in the strength (speed) of air flow. To obtain data to assess the dispersed and the correlation-regression analysis. Results of the work. The analysis of the information submitted by the nozzles and on the basis of research carried out by the results of research can be said that the wind speed is the most important meteorological factor, which relies heavily on sprayed liquid droplets leeway tailwind. In addition, the sprayed liquid droplets leeway tailwind significantly depends on the injector design. The synthesis of all three nozzles studies found that, on average, an area remote from the nozzles built of local wind direction from 0.5 m to 2.0 m, at the 30% and from 2.0 m to 4.5 m – still about 7 % droplets, when the lateral wind speed is 8.2 ± 0.1 m • s-1. Injector nozzles (pneumohydraulic) nozzles test results compared with Slit flat flow results can be said that the tailwind of... [to full text]

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) is the main protein of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL). As apoB is translated and moves through the secretory pathway, lipids from cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) are added to form VLDL particles. Without adequate lipid availability, apoB is misfolded and undergoes proteasomal degradation; however, evidence now shows that apoB can be degraded through autophagy. Inhibiting autophagy decreased apoB localization to autophagosomes in HepG2 cells, but also decreased apoB recovered from cells and media. Inducing autophagy increased apoB localization to autophagosomes and decreased apoB recovery. LDs are also degraded through autophagy however LDs were not affected by autophagy modulation in HepG2 cells. In primary hamster hepatocytes, inhibiting autophagy reduced apoB-autophagosome co-localization and increased LD numbers. These data suggest that autophagy may play a complex role in VLDL assembly by regulating degradation of both apoB and LDs. This dual role is more evident in primary hepatocytes indicating a potential physiological role.

This dissertation describes two independent studies related to charged aerosols. The first study examines the role of electrical conductivity on the amounts of charge and mass emitted during the break-up of charged droplets via Coulombic fission. The second study examines the hygroscopic behavior of mixed particles. The results from both studies are presented here in detail along with an in-depth discussion of pertinent literature and applications in modern technologies. Charged droplets break-up via a process termed Coulombic fission when their charge density reaches a certain level during which they emit a portion of their charge and mass in the form of progeny microdroplets. Although Rayleigh theory can be used to predict the charge level at which break-ups occur, no equivocal theory exists to predict the amounts of charge or mass emitted or the characteristics of the progenies. Previous investigations have indicated that the electrical conductivity of a charged droplet may determine how much charge and mass are emitted during its break-up via Coulombic fission. To further examine this supposition, charged droplets having known electrical conductivities were observed through multiple break-ups while individually levitated in an electrodynamic balance. The amounts of charge and mass emitted during break-ups were determined using a light scattering technique and changes in the DC null point levitation potentials of the charged droplets. Here, electrical conductivity was found to increase and decrease the amounts of charge and mass emitted, respectively, while having no effect on the charge level at which break-ups occurred. The findings of this investigation have significant bearing in nanoparticle generation and electrospray applications. The hygroscopic behavior of atmospherically relevant inorganic salts is essential to the chemical and radiative processes that occur in Earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, studies have shown that an immense variety of chemical species exist in the atmosphere which inherently mix to form complex heterogeneous particles with differing morphologies. However, how such materials and particle morphologies affect the hygroscopic behavior of atmospherically relevant inorganic salts remains mostly unknown. Therefore, the effects of water insoluble materials, such as black carbon, on the hygroscopic behavior of inorganic salts were examined. Here, water insoluble solids were found to increase the crystallization relative humidities of atmospherically relevant inorganic salts when internally mixed. Water insoluble liquids however, were found to have no effect on the hygroscopic behavior of atmospherically relevant inorganic salts. The findings of this investigation have significant bearing in atmospheric modeling.

Drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet print-head has a major share of the market due to simplicity and feasibility of miniature system. The efficiency of droplet generation from DOD print-head is a result of several factors, include viscosity, surface tension, nozzle size, density, driving waveform (wave shape, frequency, and amplitude), etc. Key roles in the formation and behavior of liquid jets and drops combine three dimensionless groups: Reynolds number, Weber number and Ohnesorge number. These dimensionless groups provide some bounds to the “printability” of the liquid. Adequate understanding of these parameters is essential to improve the quality of droplets and provide guidelines for the process optimization. This thesis research describes the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the creation and evolution process of droplet generation and transport of a highly viscous Newtonian fluid. The flow field is governed by unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. Volume of Fluid (VOF) model is used to solve this multi-phase (liquid-gas) problem.

Microbubble contrast agents for ultrasound are widely used in numerous medical applications, both diagnostic and therapeutic. Due to their size, similar to that of red blood cells, microbubbles are able to traverse the entire vascular bed, enabling their utilization for applications such as tumour diagnosis. Vaporizable submicron droplets of liquid perfluoro- carbon potentially represent a new generation of extravascular contrast agents for ultrasound. Droplets of a few hundred nanometers in diameter have the ability to extravasate selectively in regions of tumour growth while staying intravascular in healthy tissues. Upon extravasation, these droplets may be vaporized with ultrasound and converted into gas bubbles. In this thesis we argue that vaporized submicron perfluorocarbon droplets possess the necessary stability and acoustic characteristics to be potentially applicable as a new gener- ation of extravascular ultrasound contrast agents. We examine, separately, the ultrasound conditions necessary for vaporization of the droplets into microbubbles, the size and stability of these bubbles following vaporization, on timescales ranging from nanoseconds to minutes, and the bubbles’ acoustic response to incident diagnostic ultrasound. We show that submicron droplets may be vaporized into bubbles of a few microns in diameter using single ultrasound pulse within the diagnostic range. The efficiency of conversion is shown to be on the order of at least 10% of the exposed droplets converting into stable microbubbles. The bubbles are shown to be stabilized by the original coating material encapsulating the droplet precursors, and be stable for at least minutes following vaporization. Finally, vaporized droplets are shown to be echogenic, with acoustic characteristics comparable to these of the commercially available ultrasound contrast agents. The results presented here show that vaporized droplets possess the necessary stability properties and echogenicity required for successful application as contrast agents, suggesting potential for their future translation into clinical practice.

Microbubble contrast agents for ultrasound are widely used in numerous medical applications, both diagnostic and therapeutic. Due to their size, similar to that of red blood cells, microbubbles are able to traverse the entire vascular bed, enabling their utilization for applications such as tumour diagnosis. Vaporizable submicron droplets of liquid perfluoro- carbon potentially represent a new generation of extravascular contrast agents for ultrasound. Droplets of a few hundred nanometers in diameter have the ability to extravasate selectively in regions of tumour growth while staying intravascular in healthy tissues. Upon extravasation, these droplets may be vaporized with ultrasound and converted into gas bubbles. In this thesis we argue that vaporized submicron perfluorocarbon droplets possess the necessary stability and acoustic characteristics to be potentially applicable as a new gener- ation of extravascular ultrasound contrast agents. We examine, separately, the ultrasound conditions necessary for vaporization of the droplets into microbubbles, the size and stability of these bubbles following vaporization, on timescales ranging from nanoseconds to minutes, and the bubbles’ acoustic response to incident diagnostic ultrasound. We show that submicron droplets may be vaporized into bubbles of a few microns in diameter using single ultrasound pulse within the diagnostic range. The efficiency of conversion is shown to be on the order of at least 10% of the exposed droplets converting into stable microbubbles. The bubbles are shown to be stabilized by the original coating material encapsulating the droplet precursors, and be stable for at least minutes following vaporization. Finally, vaporized droplets are shown to be echogenic, with acoustic characteristics comparable to these of the commercially available ultrasound contrast agents. The results presented here show that vaporized droplets possess the necessary stability properties and echogenicity required for successful application as contrast agents, suggesting potential for their future translation into clinical practice.

Produced water presents economical and environmental challenges to oil producers. Downhole separation technology is able to separate oil or gas from produced fluid in downhole environment and injects waste water into deeper formations, thus saving energy and reducing waste emission. More than 120 downhole separation systems have been installed worldwide, but only about 60% of the installations achieved success. Most of the failures were due to the injectivity decline under the invasion of impurities in the injected water, such as suspended particles and oil droplets. A reliable model is needed to predict the reaction of reservoir permeability under the invasion of such impurities and serves as a tool to screen appropriate formations for downhole separator installations. / Previous experimental studies on particle-induced permeability damage reveal that high particle concentration, low fluid velocity, large particle size lead to more severe damage. The damage mechanisms are attributed to surface interception, bridging and size exclusion of particles in porous media. While for droplets, the resultant permeability decline is mostly due to surface interception. Empirical correlations with key parameters determined by core flooding data are widely applied to the simulation of permeability decline under invasion of particles and droplets. These correlations are developed based on characteristics of certain rocks and fluids, thus their applications are very restricted. / A more scientific method is to model the flow and capture of particulates at pore level. Reservoir rocks are porous media composed of pores of various sizes. Pore network models employ certain assumptions to imitate real porous media, and have been proved realistic in simulating fluid flow in porous media. In this study, a 2-dimensional square network model is used to simulate capture of particles and droplets in porous media. Pore bodies are represented by globes and pore throats are imitated with capillary tubes. The flow rates in the network are obtained by simultaneously solving mass balance equations at each pore body. The network model is tuned to match the porosity and permeability of a certain rock and serves as the infrastructure where the capture process takes place. / Particles are categorized as Brownian and non-Brownian particles according to size. For Brownian particles, diffusion is dominant and Fick’s law is applied to each pore inside the network to obtain deposition rate. For non-Brownian particles, their trajectories are mainly governed by gravity and drag force acting on them. Besides, the size of each particle is compared with the size of the pore where it is captured to determine the damage mechanism. For particles much smaller than the pore size, surface deposition is dominant and the permeability decline is gradual. For particles with sizes comparable to pore size, bridging and clogging are dominant and the permeability decline is much more severe. / Unlike particles, droplets can not be captured on top of each other. Accordingly, a captureequilibrium theory is proposed. Once the pore surface is covered by droplets, equilibrium is reached and droplets flow freely through porous media without being captured. The simulation on capture of oil droplets reveals that the surface wettability has significant influence on the resultant permeability damage. Most natural reservoirs are neutrally or oil wet. It is thus recommended to apply these surface conditions to future simulations. / The proposed model is validated with test data and reasonably good agreements are obtained. This new mechanistic model provides more insights into the capture process and greatly reduces the dependence on core flooding data.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: suppression; drop size; high flash point pool fire. Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-218).

Ce manuscrit présente des études expérimentales sur l'évaporation de gouttes et la chimiotaxie de la mite.Une première partie s'intéresse à l'évaporation de spray dense au moyen d'une nouvelle approche, par analogie avec le mélange scalaire. Dans cette limite de forte densité en gouttes, où il y a saturation en vapeur au sein des structures constituantes, l'évaporation est principalement fonction de l'étirement auxquelles ces structures sont soumises. C'est en effet celui-ci qui conditionne le taux d'évacuation de cette vapeur interstitielle, ce qui permet de mettre les gouttes en contact avec un environnement plus sec, déclenchant ainsi leurs évaporations.Une deuxième partie s'intéresse à une application de la compréhension de cette dynamique d'évaporation de spray dense à un contexte d'entomologie: la chimiotaxie de la mite. Il s'agit du processus par lequel l'animal va se repérer dans un champ de concentration, pour localiser la source d'une substance attractive par exemple (ici de la phéromone sexuelle). Cette partie a tendu vers l'obtention d'une visualisation conjointe de la trajectoire de l'animal et du champ de concentration sous-jacent par la visualisation des gouttes. / This thesis present some experiments on droplets evaporation and moth chemotaxis.In a first part, dense spray evaporation is explained through a new approach, drawing an analogy with scalar mixing. In this high density droplets limit, where vapor saturation is reached within the structures, evaporation is mainly controlled by the intensity at which these structures are stretch. It is indeed the stretching that controls the rate at witch interstitial vapor is evacuated: droplets are thus in contact with a dryer environment, so they can start to evaporate.A second part take an interest in applying dense spray evaporation dynamic understanding to an entomologist situation: moth chemotaxis. This is the process by which animals find their way in a concentration field, such at finding a chemoattractant source for instance (sexual pheromone in our case). This part tended towards visualizing animal trajectory and concentration field underlying through droplets visualization simultaneously.

La phagocytose par les macrophages est un processus biologique essentiel au système immunitaire et joue un rôle clé dans le maintien de l’homéostasie cellulaire. Les cibles à éliminer varient en terme de tailles, des bactéries (µm) aux cellules cancéreuses ou senescentes (10 – 20 µm). La plupart des études quantitatives sur la phagocytose reposent sur l'utilisation de microparticules de polymère rigides en tant que cibles modèles pour la compréhension des paramètres qui régissent ce processus. Cependant, ces particules ne rendent pas compte de la mobilité latérale des ligands à leur surface malgré la pertinence de ce paramètre dans le contexte immunologique. Cette étude a pour but de synthétiser un matériau biomimétique qui constitue un nouveau système modèle pour l’étude de la phagocytose. Il s’agit de gouttes d’émulsions monodisperses fonctionnalisées avec des IgGs libres de diffuser sur toute la surface. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous avons obtenu différentes densités contrôlées de fonctionnalisation, caractérisées de façon quantitative. Ainsi, il nous a été possible de déterminer une densité minimale d’IgGs nécessaire à induire une internalisation efficace des gouttes. Pour des densités supérieures d’IgGs, ces gouttes sont efficacement et spécifiquement internalisées par phagocytose induite par les récepteurs FcR in vitro. Nous avons plus précisément cherché à approfondir la compréhension de certains aspects mécaniques. Nous montrons que, contrairement à des billes de polymères solides, l’internalisation des gouttes est efficace même pour de faibles densités d’IgGs. La phagocytose s’accompagne, pendant la phase d’adhésion à la surface du macrophage, d’une mobilité latérale des ligands en zone de contact. Il apparaît donc que la mobilité latérale des protéines à l'interface d'une cible améliore considérablement sa phagocytose par les macrophages. Ainsi, ces gouttes permettrons d’aborder de nouvelles questions biologiques pour approfondir certaines mécanismes moléculaires et/ou mécaniques. / Phagocytosis by macrophages represents a fundamental process essential for both immunity and tissue homeostasis. The size of targets to be eliminated ranges from small particles as bacteria to large objects as cancerous or senescent cells. Most of our current quantitative knowledge on phagocytosis is based on the use of solid polymer microparticles as model targets that are well adapted to the study of phagocytosis mechanisms that do not involve any lateral mobility of the ligands, despite the relevance of this parameter in the immunological context. The aim of this study is to synthesize a biomimetic material that constitutes a new model system for the study of phagocytosis. We designed monodisperse, lateraly mobile IgG-coated emulsion droplets, with different controlled densities of IgGs, that are efficiently and specifically internalized by macrophages through in-vitro FcγR-mediated phagocytosis. The excellent control of the opsonization density allowed us to measure the minimal IgGs density required to induce an efficient internalization. We also attempted to deepen the understanding of certain mechanical aspects. We show that, contrary to solid polymeric beads, droplet uptake is high even for low IgG densities and is accompagnied by the clustering of the opsonins in the zone of contact with the macrophage during the adhesion step. Beyond the sole interest in the design of the material, our results suggest that lateral mobility of proteins at the interface of a target greatly enhances the phagocytic uptake. Thus, emulsion droplets constitute a new interesting target to investigate different biological issues and understand molecular and/or mechanical mechansims.