Atherosclerosis, the leading cause of mortality in Western societies, affects large elastic arteries, causing focal deposition of proliferative inflammatory and lipid-laden cells within the artery. Several risk factors have been causally implicated in the ???reaction to injury??? hypothesis first described by Ross in 1969. The ???injury??? sustained by endothelial cells may be either mechanical or chemical. Environmental factors have a role in the production of chemical agents that are injurious to the endothelium. Mechanical stresses such as wall tensile stress are proportional to systemic blood pressure and pulse pressure. Essentially, these systemic pressures are fairly evenly distributed throughout the circulation. However, atherosclerotic lesions characteristically occur at focal sites within the human vasculature; at or near bifurcations, within the ostia of branch arteries and at regions of marked or complex curvature, where local haemodynamic abnormalities occur. The most discussed haemodynamic factor seems to be low or highly oscillating wall shear stress which exists on the outer wall of bifurcations and on the inner aspect of curving vessels. The magnitude of these haemodynamic forces may not be great but the subtleties of their variable spatial distribution may help to explain the multifocal distribution of atherosclerotic plaques. With the altered haemodynamics there is endothelial injury and phenotypic changes in the endothelium result, which in turn lead to endothelial cell dysfunction. These haemodynamic variables are difficult to measure directly in vivo. In this work a novel model is developed utilising human autologous vein bypass grafts as a surrogate vessel for the observation of pathological structural changes in response to altered haemodynamics. The influence of haemodynamic factors (such as wall shear stress) in the remodeling of the vein graft wall and the pathogenesis of Myointimal Hyperplasia (MIH) and resultant wall thickening in femoral bypass grafts is analysed. The haemodynamic determinants of MIH (which have been established in many animal models) are similar to those implicated in atherosclerosis. The accelerated responses of the vein (Intimal hyperplasia develops much more rapidly than atherosclerotic lesions in native vessels) make it an ideal model to expediently examine the hypothesised relationships prospectively in an in vivo setting. Furthermore, the utilisation of in vivo data acquired from non-invasive diagnostic methods (such as Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) and Duplex ultrasound) combined with the application of state-of-the-art Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) techniques makes the model essentially non-invasive. The following hypotheses are examined: 1) regions of Low shear and High tensile stress should develop disproportionately greater wall thickening, 2) regions of greater oscillatory blood flow should develop greater wall thickening, and 3) regions of lower wall shear should undergo inward (or negative) remodelling and result in a reduction in vessel calibre. The conclusions reached are that abnormal haemodynamic forces, namely low Time-averaged Wall Shear Stress, are associated with subsequent wall thickening. These positive findings have great relevance to the understanding of vein graft MIH and atherosclerosis. It was also evident that with non-invasive data and CFD techniques, some of the important haemodynamic factors are realistically quantifiable (albeit indirectly). The detection of parameters known to be causal in the development of graft intimal hyperplasia or other vascular pathology may improve ability to predict clinical problems. From a surgical perspective this might be employed to facilitate selection of at-risk grafts for more focused postoperative surveillance and reintervention. On a broader stage the utilisation of such analyses may be useful in predicting individuals at greater risk of developing atherosclerotic deposits, disease progression, and the likelihood of clinical events such as heart attack, stroke and threat of limb loss.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Zhu, Cheng; Committee Member: Harvey, Stephen; Committee Member: Hud, Nicholas; Committee Member: Zamir, Evan; Committee Member: Zhu, Ting.

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No description available.

The work presented in this thesis centres on the development of a work-flow in which coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a planar phospholipid bilayer, containing membrane proteins, is used to parameterize a larger-scale simplified bilayer model. Using this work-flow, repeat simulations and simulations of larger systems are possible, better enabling the calculation of bulk statistics for the system. The larger-scale simulations can be run on commercial hardware, once the initial parameterization has been performed. In the simplified representation, each protein was initially only represented by the position of its centre of mass and later with the inclusion of its orientation. The membrane protein used throughout most of this work was the bacterial outer membrane protein NanC, a member of the KdgM family of proteins. To parameterize the motion and interaction of proteins using MD, the potential of mean force (PMF) for the pairwise association of two proteins in a bilayer was calculated for a variety of orientational combinations, using a modified umbrella sampling procedure. The relative orientations chosen represented extreme examples of the contact regimes between the two proteins: they approximately corresponded to maxima and minima of the solvent inaccessible surface area, calculated when the proteins were in contact. These PMFs showed that there was a correlation between the buried surface area and the depth of the potential well in the PMF; this is something that, to date, has only been observed in these relatively-'featureless' membrane proteins (but is seen in globular proteins), where the effect of the interactions with lipids in the bilayer plays a larger role. Features in the PMF were observed that resulted from the preferential organization of lipids in the region between the two proteins. These features were small wells in the PMF, which occurred at protein separations that corresponded to the intervening lipids being optimally packed between the proteins. This result further highlighted the role that the lipids in the bilayer played in the interaction between the NanC proteins. The simplified bilayer model was parameterized using the PMFs and the relationship between buried surface area and potential well depth. The initial model included only the proteins' positions. A series of Monte Carlo simulations were performed in order to compare the system behaviour to that of an equivalent MD simulation. Initially, the MD simulation and our parameterized model did not show a good agreement, so a Monte Carlo scheme that incorporated cluster-based movements was implemented. The agreement between the MD simulation and the simulations of our model using the cluster-based scheme, when comparing diffusive and clustering behaviour, was good. Including the orientation-dependent features of the parameterization resulted in the emergence of behaviour that was not clearly detectable in the MD simulation. Finally, attempts were made to parameterize the model using PMFs for the association of rhodopsin from the literature. Rhodopsin was a much more complicated protein to represent: there was not a clear correlation between surface area and the features of the PMF, and the geometry of the interaction between two rhodopsins was more complicated. Simulations of the 'rows-of-dimers' system of rhodopsin, observed in disc membranes, was not entirely well represented by the model; for such a closely packed system, where the number of lipids is much closer to the number of proteins, the use of an implicit-lipid model meant that the effect of the reduced lipid mobility was not adequately captured. However, the model accurately captures the orientational composition of the system. Future work should be focussed on incorporating explicit representations of the lipid in the system so that the behaviour of close-packed systems are better represented.

It is standard practice in one-dimensional gasdynamic simulations of high performance two-stroke engines to model the exhaust tail pipe entry as an area change using an algorithm similar to the area change of the reverse cone. In the reverse cone the area continually steps down while at the tail pipe entry it changes from stepping down to constant area. At this point a vena contracta can form that effects the flow resistance of the tail pipe. In an effort to improve the accuracy of the gasdynamic simulations the area change algorithm at the tail pipe entry was replaced with a restriction algorithm that incorporates a coefficient of discharge and allows an increase in entropy on the expansion side. The coefficient of discharge is defined as the actual measured mass flow divided by the mass flow predicted by the restriction algorithm. An experimental set up was designed and constructed to measure mass flows for a variety of tail pipe entry geometries at a range of pressures covering the pressure ratios encountered in a real engine. From the mass flow results the coefficients of discharge for a range of pressure and area ratios and reverse cone angles could be calculated and arranged into matrix form to define Cd-maps. The Cd-maps were incorporated into the simulation software and tested to ensure that it functioned correctly. <p<Finally, the simulation results with and without the Cd-maps were compared to measured results and it was shown that incorporating this refinement improves the accuracy of the simulation results on the “over run” part of the power curve. This is the part of the power curve after maximum power and very important in the development of high performance two-stroke engines. These maps can be used for all future simulations on any engine size that uses the same tail pipe geometry. / Dissertation (MEng (Mechanical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

The principle of sustainability in the built environment has become much more significant in the past decade, resulting in a push to develop building systems that are more energy efficient, durable, and use fewer natural resources. For residential and light commercial buildings, insulated concrete forms (ICF) have enjoyed increasing popularity for their ability to meet these new demands. ICFs are a stay-in-place concrete formwork system for building structural walls that are also highly insulated, among other benefits. Screen-grid ICFs (SGICF) are a small subset of ICFs that tend to use less concrete than standard ICFs and are sometimes made of recycled materials. These traits make SGICFs attractive, but there is a lack of understanding of their structural characteristics due to their irregular internal concrete structure. Because of this, structures using SGICFs are limited to heights no higher than two stories. Further study should show whether SGICFs structures can safely built to greater heights. This investigation studied two types of SGICFs at a component level in order to gain understanding of their lateral force and drift ratio capacities under cyclic loading. Several variables, including steel reinforcement details, the type of concrete, and the presence of the forms, were altered to measure their impact on the performance of the systems. Test results suggested that the ICF formwork increased lateral strength by up to 100% and lateral deformation capacity by up 60% when compared to identical specimens tested with the formwork removed. Results also showed that confinement of the cement, either by mesh hoops, spiral wire, or fiber-reinforced concrete improved the drift ratio at failure up to 500% when compared to specimens with no confinement material. Computer models were created to gauge their ability to replicate the behavior of the experimental test results. The models typically overestimated the lateral load resistance of the samples by 50-100%, and even more in some cases, depending on the reinforcement. The models were not reliable in determining the drift ratio at which the sample was considered to have failed. In some cases the model failed at 50% lower lateral deformations than the test specimen, while in others the model did not fail at all. Future studies should explore refinements of the models to increase their accuracy and usefulness, as well as accounting for the contributions do to the form material. Future studies should also include using spiral wires, mesh hoops, or fiber reinforced concrete in full-scale walls to verify their efficacy in improving overall wall performance.

Due to the remote and dispersed nature of Alberta’s oil wells, it is not economical for the energy industry to capture all of the solution gas produced and as a result, the gas is being flared and vented in significant amounts. The objective of this research is to aid in the conversion of solution gas into dimethyl ether (DME) in a remote location by designing a distillation column that purifies DME and its reaction by-products, carbon dioxide, methanol and water. In order to develop an implementable solution, the distillation equipment must fit inside of a 40-foot shipping container to be transported to remote locations. Given the size constraint of the system, process intensification is the best strategy to efficiently separate the mixture. Several process intensification distillation techniques are explored, including semicontinuous distillation, the dividing wall column (DWC) and a novel semicontinuous dividing wall column (S-DWC). The traditional semicontinuous distillation column purifies DME to fuel grade purity, however the other components are not separated to a high enough grade given the height constrain of the system. The DWC and S-DWC both purify DME to its desired purity along with producing high purity waste streams. The S-DWC purifies the reaction intermediate methanol to a grade slightly higher than the DWC and is pure enough to recycle back to the reactor. An economic comparison is made between the three systems. While the DWC is a cheaper method of producing DME, the trade-off is the purity of the methanol produced. Overall, this research shows that it is possible to purify DME and its reaction by-products in a 40-foot distillation column at a cost that is competitive with Diesel. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Chain conformations and the presence of chain overlaps and entanglements in dilute polymer solutions have been analyzed. The fundamental problem of existence of chain overlaps in dilute solutions is related to the drag reduction phenomenon (DR). Even though DR occurs in solutions with the concentration of only few parts per million (ppm), some theories suggest that entanglements may play an important role in DR mechanism. Brownian dynamics technique have been used to perform simulations of dilute polymer solutions at rest and under shear flow. A measure of interchain contacts and two different measures of entanglements have been devised to evaluate the structure of polymer chains in solution. Simulation results have shown that overlaps and entanglements do exist in static dilute solutions as well as in solutions under shear flow. The effect of solution concentration, shear rate and molecular mass have been examined. In agreement with the solvation theory of DR mechanism, simulation results have demonstrated the importance of polymer + polymer interactions in dilute solutions.

A transition model (MOSAIC) is used to describe forest dynamics at the landscape scale. The model uses a semi-Markov framework by considering transition probabilities and Erlang distributed holding times in each transition. Parameters for the transition model are derived from a gap model (ZELIG). This procedure ensures conceptual consistency of the landscape model with the fine scale ecological detail represented by the forest gap model. Spatial heterogeneity in the transition model is driven by maps of terrain with characteristics contained in a Geographic Information System (GIS) database. The results of the transition model simulations, percent cover forest type maps, are exported to grid-maps in the GIS. These cover type maps can be classified and used to describe forest dynamics using landscape statistics metrics. The linkage model-GIS enhances the transition model spatial analytical capabilities. A parameterization algorithm was developed that takes as input gap model tracer files which contain the percent occupation of each cover type through time. As output, the algorithm produces a file that contains the parameter values needed for MOSAIC for each one of the possible transitions. Parameters for the holding time distribution were found by calculating an empirical estimate of the cumulative probability function and using a non-linear least squares method to fit this estimate to an Erlang distribution. The algorithm provided good initial estimates of the transitions parameters that can be refined with few additional simulations. A method for deriving classification criteria to designate cover types is presented. The method uses cluster analysis to detect the number and type of forest classes and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis to explain the forest classes in term of stand attributes. This method provided a precise and objective approach for forest cover type definition and classification. The H. J. Andrews forest in Oregon was used to demonstrate the methods and procedures developed in this study.