- Award ID(s):
- 1755779
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10085628
- Journal Name:
- Soft Matter
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 36
- Page Range or eLocation-ID:
- 7401 to 7419
- ISSN:
- 1744-683X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
The margination and adhesion of micro-particles (MPs) have been extensively investigated separately, due to their important applications in the biomedical field. However, the cascade process from margination to adhesion should play an important role in the transport of MPs in blood flow. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been explored in the past. Here we numerically study the margination behaviour of elastic MPs to blood vessel walls under the interplay of their deformability and adhesion to the vessel wall. We use the lattice Boltzmann method and molecular dynamics to solve the fluid dynamics and particle dynamics (including red blood cells (RBCs) and elastic MPs) in blood flow, respectively. Additionally, a stochastic ligand–receptor binding model is employed to capture the adhesion behaviours of elastic MPs on the vessel wall. Margination probability is used to quantify the localization of elastic MPs at the wall. Two dimensionless numbers are considered to govern the whole process: the capillary number $Ca$ , denoting the ratio of viscous force of fluid flow to elastic interfacial force of MP, and the adhesion number $Ad$ , representing the ratio of adhesion strength to viscous force of fluid flow. We systematically vary them numerically and amore »
-
The motion of cells orthogonal to the direction of main flow is of importance in natural and engineered systems. The lateral movement of red blood cells (RBCs) distal to sudden expansion is considered to influence the formation and progression of thrombosis in venous valves, aortic aneurysms, and blood-circulating devices and is also a determining parameter for cell separation applications in flow-focusing microfluidic devices. Although it is known that the unique geometry of venous valves alters the blood flow patterns and cell distribution in venous valve sinuses, the interactions between fluid flow and RBCs have not been elucidated. Here, using a dilute cell suspension in an in vitro microfluidic model of a venous valve, we quantified the spatial distribution of RBCs by microscopy and image analysis, and using micro-particle image velocimetry and 3D computational fluid dynamics simulations, we analyzed the complex flow patterns. The results show that the local hematocrit in the valve pockets is spatially heterogeneous and is significantly different from the feed hematocrit. Above a threshold shear rate, the inertial separation of streamlines and lift forces contribute to an uneven distribution of RBCs in the vortices, the entrapment of RBCs in the vortices, and non-monotonic wall shear stresses inmore »
-
The coat proteins (CPs) of single-stranded RNA bacteriophages (ssRNA phages) directly assemble around the genomic RNA (gRNA) to form a near-icosahedral capsid with a single maturation protein (Mat) that binds the gRNA and interacts with the retractile pilus during infection of the host. Understanding the assembly of ssRNA phages is essential for their use in biotechnology, such as RNA protection and delivery. Here, we present the complete gRNA model of the ssRNA phage Qβ, revealing that the 3′ untranslated region binds to the Mat and the 4127 nucleotides fold domain-by-domain, and is connected through long-range RNA–RNA interactions, such as kissing loops. Thirty-three operator-like RNA stem-loops are located and primarily interact with the asymmetric A/B CP-dimers, suggesting a pathway for the assembly of the virions. Additionally, we have discovered various forms of the virus-like particles (VLPs), including the canonical T = 3 icosahedral, larger T = 4 icosahedral, prolate, oblate forms, and a small prolate form elongated along the 3-fold axis. These particles are all produced during a normal infection, as well as when overexpressing the CPs. When overexpressing the shorter RNA fragments encoding only the CPs, we observed an increased percentage of the smaller VLPs, which may be sufficient tomore »
-
Using a numerical model, we analyse the effects of shape on both the orientation and transport of anisotropic particles in wavy flows. The particles are idealized as prolate and oblate spheroids, and we consider the regime of small Stokes and particle Reynolds numbers. We find that the particles preferentially align into the shear plane with a mean orientation that is solely a function of their aspect ratio. This alignment, however, differs from the Jeffery orbits that occur in the residual shear flow (that is, the Stokes drift velocity field) in the absence of waves. Since the drag on an anisotropic particle depends on its alignment with the flow, this preferred orientation determines the effective drag on the particles, which in turn impacts their net downstream transport. We also find that the rate of alignment of the particles is not constant and depends strongly on their initial orientation; thus, variations in initial particle orientation result in dispersion of anisotropic-particle plumes. We show that this dispersion is a function of the particle’s eccentricity and the ratio of the settling and wave time scales. Due to this preferential alignment, we find that a plume of anisotropic particles in waves is on average transportedmore »
-
Abstract We consider topological configurations of the magnetically coupled spinning stellar binaries (e.g., merging neutron stars or interacting star–planet systems). We discuss conditions when the stellar spins and the orbital motion nearly “compensate” each other, leading to very slow overall winding of the coupled magnetic fields; slowly winding configurations allow gradual accumulation of magnetic energy, which is eventually released in a flare when the instability threshold is reached. We find that this slow winding can be global and/or local. We describe the topology of the relevant space F = T 1 S 2 as the unit tangent bundle of the two-sphere and find conditions for slowly winding configurations in terms of magnetic moments, spins, and orbital momentum. These conditions become ambiguous near the topological bifurcation points; in certain cases, they also depend on the relative phases of the spin and orbital motions. In the case of merging magnetized neutron stars, if one of the stars is a millisecond pulsar, spinning at ∼10 ms, the global resonance ω 1 + ω 2 = 2Ω (spin-plus beat is two times the orbital period) occurs approximately one second before the merger; the total energy of the flare can be as large as 10%more »