The single-scattering properties of six non-spherical ice crystals, droxtals, plates, solid columns, hollow columns, aggregates and 6-branch bullet rosettes are simulated. The anomalous diffraction theory (ADT) is applied to the simulation of the extinction efficiency and the absorption efficiency. Because the first order reflection is considered, the accuracy of the absorption efficiency increases with the increasing of the size parameter. Compared with the reference single-scattering properties from an improved geometric optics method (IGOM), the errors in the extinction and absorption efficiencies are small. In addition, the asymmetry factor is formulated within the framework of diffraction and external reflection. The asymmetry factor based on the ADT matches very well with the IGOM counterpart when the absorption is strong, but needs an improvement in the solar region. The errors in conjunction with the application of the ADT-based optical properties to the computation of atmospheric fluxes and heating rates, based on the Fu-Liou model also are investigated. Two cases, one for tropical cirrus clouds and the other for mid-latitude cirrus clouds, are designed. It is found that the errors of bulk asymmetry factor between ADT-based and IGOM-based result in an overestimation of downward infrared (IR) fluxes and upward solar fluxes, and an underestimation of upward IR fluxes and downward solar fluxes. The errors of the fluxes and heating rates based on two sets of single-scattering properties are caused mainly by the underestimation of the bulk absorption efficiency based on ADT. It is also shown that ADT-based optical properties generate more accurate radiative properties for tropical cirrus clouds than for the mid-latitude cirrus clouds. In conclusion, the ADT-based method can generate reasonably accurate single-scattering properties of ice crystals, and can result in reasonable upward IR and solar fluxes at top of atmosphere (TOA), downward IR fluxes at the surface, and net heating rates.

This thesis is made up of three parts on the computation of scattering properties of nonspherical particles in the atmosphere. In the first part, a new crystal type-droxtal-is introduced to make a better representation of the shape of small ice crystals in the uppermost portions of midlatitude and tropical cirrus clouds. Scattering properties of droxtal ice crystals are investigated by using the Improved-Geometric Optic (IGO) method. At the visible wavelength, due to the presence of the hexagonal structure, all elements of the phase matrix of droxtal ice crystals share some common features with hexagonal ice crystals, such as 220 and 460 halos. In the second part of this thesis, the possibility of enhancing the performance of current Anomalous Diffraction Theory (ADT) is investigated. In conventional ADT models, integrations are usually carried out in the domain of the particle projection. By transforming the integration domain to the domain of scaled projectile length, the algorithm of conventional ADT models is enhanced. Because the distribution of scaled projectile length is independent of the particle's physical size as long as the shape remains the same, the new algorithm is especially efficient for the calculation of a large number of particles with the same shape but different sizes. Finally, in the third part, the backscattering properties of nonspherical ice crystals at the 94GHz frequency are studied by employing the Finite-Difference Time- Domain (FDTD) method. The most important factor that controls the backscattering cross section is found to be the ratio of the volume-equal radius to the maximum dimension of the ice crystal. Substantial differences in backscattering cross sections are found between horizontal orientated and randomly oriented ice crystals. An analytical formula is derived for the relationship between the ice water (IWC) content and the radar reflectivity ( e Z ). It is shown that a change to the concentration of ice crystals without any changes on the size distribution or particle habits leads only to a linear e Z IWC - relationship. The famous power law e Z IWC - relationship is the result of the shift of the peak of particle size distribution.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "August, 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-115). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. S.)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Karlsson, Jens; Committee Co-Chair: Nerem, Robert; Committee Member: Meda, Paolo; Committee Member: Prausnitz, Mark; Committee Member: Sands, Jeff; Committee Member: Zhu, Cheng.

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Ce travail s’inscrit dans le cadre duprojet européen FREEZEWAVE (ERA-NetSUSFOOD) et porte sur l’étude et lamodélisation d’un procédé de congélationassistée par micro-ondes. Il a pour objectif unemeilleure compréhension des phénomènesphysiques associés à ce procédé. Un modèlecouplant thermique, changement de phase etélectromagnétisme a été développé. Une étudenumérique préliminaire a permis d’appréhenderles interactions complexes entre micro-ondes etmatière durant le changement de phase,notamment l’importance de la diminution despropriétés diélectriques sur la modification desphénomènes de résonance entrainant ledéplacement des « points chauds » et sur laquantité de chaleur générée.Un gel modèle a été caractérisé puis utilisé pourvalider le modèle sur un pilote développé pourl’étude. La micro-tomographie à rayon X apermis la mesure de la taille des cristaux et amis en évidence, lors d’une congélationconventionnelle, l’impact du tempscaractéristique de congélation et du gradient detempérature sur la taille des cristaux de glace.Cette étude a permis de constater une nettediminution de la taille des cristaux de glace lorsd’une congélation assistée par micro-ondes parrapport à une congélation conventionnelle. EnfinIl a été montré que la réduction de taille descristaux n’était pas due aux oscillations detempérature provoquées par des créneaux depuissance micro-ondes mais à la quantitéd’énergie apportée / This work was performed in thecontext of the European project FREEZEWAVE(ERA-net SUSFOOD) and focuses on studyingand modelling the microwave assisted freezingprocess. The main objective was to acquire abetter understanding of the correspondingphysical phenomena. A model coupling thermal,phase change and electromagnetism wasdeveloped. A preliminary numerical studypermitted to grasp the complex interactionsbetween microwaves and matter, especially theimportance of the dielectric properties reductionon resonance phenomena, leading to the movingof “hot spots”, and on the generated heat.A methylcellulose gel was characterised andused for the model validation on a prototype pilotspecially designed for this study. A protocolbased on X ray tomography was developed todetermine the ice crystal size. It highlighted, fora conventional freezing process, that thethermal gradient and characteristic freezing timeimpacts the ice crystals sizes.In the case of microwave assisted freezing, thestudy permitted to show a clear decrease in icecrystal size compared to conventional freezing.Finally, it has been shown that the ice crystalsize reduction was not a consequence oftemperature oscillations due to microwavespulses but the consequence of the energyquantity brought to the system by microwaves.

<p>Atmospheric particles are ubiquitous in the Earth’s atmosphere and have potential to influence atmospheric chemistry, visibility, global climate and human health, particularly downwind from major pollution sources. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate questions pertaining to the microphysical, chemical and optical properties of aerosol particles by using in situ data collected during four experiments carried out in different regions of the Northern Hemisphere.</p><p>The first two papers of this thesis reports on airborne measurements of the aerosol optical properties performed over the North Atlantic and the Los Angeles basin. Airmasses from Europe and North Africa are usually advected in over the North Atlantic, alternating with the background marine conditions. The results showed that the aerosols are not uniformly distributed in the area and variability in the aerosol fields occurs at sub-synoptic scales. It was also observed that the single scattering coefficient varied as the polluted plumes aged, suggesting a relationship between this quantity and transport time. The measurements performed around the Los Angeles basin showed that the area’s complex topography and local meteorological circulations exert a strong control on the distribution of the aerosol in the basin. Large spatio-temporal gradients in the aerosol optical properties were observed along a transect flown from the shore towards the mountains. Profiles flown over sites located on the mountains displayed a stratified configuration with elevated aerosol layers.</p><p>Airborne data of residual particles collected in orographic wave clouds over Scandinavia were analyzed using a single particle analysis technique. Mineral dust, organic aerosols and sea salt were the main group of particles identified. Residuals composed predominantly of mineral dust were found in glaciated clouds while organic residuals were found in liquid clouds. The results suggest that organic material may inhibit freezing and have considerable influence on supercooled clouds that form through heterogeneous pathways.</p><p>The partitioning of the aerosol particles between cloud droplets and interstitial air has been addressed in terms of their microphysical properties using data obtained at a mountain-top site in Sweden during a stratocumulus event. The results showed that the scavenging efficiency varied during the cloud event, and Aitken-mode particles were also efficiently scavenged in addition to accumulation-mode particles. It is hypothesized that alterations of the aerosol chemical composition occurred during the measurement period, modifying the hygroscopic nature of the particles and decreasing their activation diameter.</p>

Atmospheric particles are ubiquitous in the Earth’s atmosphere and have potential to influence atmospheric chemistry, visibility, global climate and human health, particularly downwind from major pollution sources. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate questions pertaining to the microphysical, chemical and optical properties of aerosol particles by using in situ data collected during four experiments carried out in different regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The first two papers of this thesis reports on airborne measurements of the aerosol optical properties performed over the North Atlantic and the Los Angeles basin. Airmasses from Europe and North Africa are usually advected in over the North Atlantic, alternating with the background marine conditions. The results showed that the aerosols are not uniformly distributed in the area and variability in the aerosol fields occurs at sub-synoptic scales. It was also observed that the single scattering coefficient varied as the polluted plumes aged, suggesting a relationship between this quantity and transport time. The measurements performed around the Los Angeles basin showed that the area’s complex topography and local meteorological circulations exert a strong control on the distribution of the aerosol in the basin. Large spatio-temporal gradients in the aerosol optical properties were observed along a transect flown from the shore towards the mountains. Profiles flown over sites located on the mountains displayed a stratified configuration with elevated aerosol layers. Airborne data of residual particles collected in orographic wave clouds over Scandinavia were analyzed using a single particle analysis technique. Mineral dust, organic aerosols and sea salt were the main group of particles identified. Residuals composed predominantly of mineral dust were found in glaciated clouds while organic residuals were found in liquid clouds. The results suggest that organic material may inhibit freezing and have considerable influence on supercooled clouds that form through heterogeneous pathways. The partitioning of the aerosol particles between cloud droplets and interstitial air has been addressed in terms of their microphysical properties using data obtained at a mountain-top site in Sweden during a stratocumulus event. The results showed that the scavenging efficiency varied during the cloud event, and Aitken-mode particles were also efficiently scavenged in addition to accumulation-mode particles. It is hypothesized that alterations of the aerosol chemical composition occurred during the measurement period, modifying the hygroscopic nature of the particles and decreasing their activation diameter.

Modeling the single-scattering properties of nonspherical particles in the atmo¬sphere (in particular, ice crystals and dust aerosols) has important applications to climate and remote sensing studies. The first part of the dissertation (Chapters II¬V) reports a combination of exact numerical methods, including the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), the discrete-dipole-approximation (DDA), and the T-matrix methods, and an approximate method-the physical-geometric optics hybrid (PGOH) method-in the computation of the optical properties of the non-spherical particles in a complete range of size parameters. The major advancements are made on the modeling capabilities of the PGOH method, and the knowledge of the electromag¬netic tunneling effect – a semi-classical scattering effect. This research is important to obtain reliable optical properties of nonspherical particles in a complete range of size parameters with satisfactory accuracy and computational efficiency. The second part (Chapters VI-VII) of the dissertation is to investigate the de¬pendence of the optical properties of ice crystals and mineral dust aerosols in the atmosphere on the spectrum, the particle size and the morphology based on compu¬tational models. Ice crystals in the atmosphere can be classified to be simple regular faceted particles (such as hexagon columns, plates, etc.) and imperfect ice crystals. Modeling of the scattering by regular ice crystals is straightforward, as their morphologies can be easily defined. For imperfect ice crystals, the morphology is quite diverse, which complicates the modeling process. We present an effective approach of using irregular faceted particle to characterize the imperfectness of ice crystals. As an example of application, less-than-unity backscattering color ratio of cirrus clouds is demonstrated and explained theoretically, which provides guidance in the calibra¬tion algorithm for 1.064-µm channel on the Calipso lidar. Dust aerosols have no particular morphology. To develop an approach to modeling the optical properties of realistic dust particles, the principle of using simple shapes (triaxial ellipsoids and nonsymmetric hexahedra) to represent irregular dust particles is explored. Simulated results have been compared with those measured in laboratory for several realistic aerosol samples. Agreement between simulated results and measurement suggests the potential applicability of the two aforementioned aerosol models. We also show the potential impact of the present study to passive and active atmospheric remote sensing and future research works.

Long-term storage of tissue by cryopreservation is necessary for the efficient mass production of tissue engineered products, and for reducing the urgency and cost of organ transplantation procedures. The goal of this work was to investigate the physical processes thought result in damage during tissue cryopreservation towards development of tissue cryopreservation strategies. Although mathematical models of cell dehydration and intracellular ice formation (IIF) have been successfully used to optimize cryopreservation procedures for cell suspensions, it is not currently possible to use this approach with tissue because of the lack of tissue-specific permeability parameters for predicting cell dehydration during tissue freezing, and because of the increased complexity of the IIF process in tissue. We have measured the membrane permeability properties of tissue comprising a cell monolayer using a fluorescence quenching technique, and compared the results to the corresponding cell suspensions, revealing significant differences in the membrane transport kinetics between monolayers and suspensions. These data enabled the prediction cell dehydration during freezing of cell monolayers. Whereas the mechanisms of IIF are relatively well understood in cell suspensions, tissue is susceptible to new IIF mechanisms. In particular, cell-cell interactions have been shown to increase the IIF probability by enabling the propagation of ice between neighboring cells. We investigated the effect of cell-cell interactions on IIF using genetically modified cells expressing different levels of intercellular junction proteins. A new IIF mechanism was observed in these cells associated with penetration of extracellular ice into the cell-cell interface, and the incidence of this IIF mechanism was reduced in cells expressing the tight junction protein occludin. In addition, we investigated the effect of the cytoplasm supercooling and viscosity on the kinetics of IIF in tissue. We found that increasing the viscosity or decreasing the supercooling significantly decreased the kinetics of IIF, suggesting that IIF protocols for tissue can be optimized by modulating the cytoplasm supercooling and viscosity. Together, these data represent an important step towards developing cryopreservation strategies for tissue.