Viscous Core Liposomes Increase siRNA Encapsulation and Provides Gene Inhibition When Slightly Positively Charged

Since its discovery, evidence that siRNA was able to act as an RNA interference effector, led to its acceptation as a novel medicine. The siRNA approach is very effective, due to its catalytic mechanism, but still the limitations of its cellular delivery should be addressed. One promising form of non-viral gene delivery system is liposomes. The variable and versatile nature of the lipids keeps the possibility to upgrade the liposomal structure, which makes them suitable for encapsulation and delivery of drugs. However, to avoid the limitation of fast release for the hydrophilic drug, we previously designed viscous core liposomes. We aimed in this work to evaluate if these viscous core liposomes (NvcLs) could be of interest for siRNA encapsulation. Then, we sought to add a limited amount of positive charges to provide cell interaction and transfection. Cationic lipid dimyristoylaminopropylaminopropyl or the polymer poly(ethylenimine) were incorporated in NvcL to produce positively charged viscous core liposomes (PvcL) by a customized microfluidic device. We found that NvcLs increased the encapsulation efficiency and loading content with regards to the neutral liposome. Both PvcLPEI and PvcLDMAPAP exhibited transfection and GFP knock-down (≈40%) in both 2D and 3D cell cultures. Finally, the addition of slight positive charges did not induce cell toxicity.

LIQUID ASPHALT BINDERS IN CYLINDRICAL TUBE IN TERMS OF THE OSTWALD-DE WAELE MODEL

The liquid asphalt binder in a cylindrical tube is described in terms of the Ostwald-de Waele model. The dependence of the liquid flow rate on the pressure drop; dependencies are obtained for radial distribution of the flow rate and viscosity. The medium structuring, which is most noticeable at low values of nonlinearity leads to the almost uniform profile of the core flow rate, which is typical to the plastic flow. The liquid pseudoplastic media with a law nonlinearity is characterized by the presence of a highly viscous core and a narrow region of the near-wall flow with low values of effective viscosity. With increasing in medium consistency, the average viscosity increases. This effect is most pronounced for flow motions at a small pressure drop. For low values of the pressure drop, the non-Newtonian properties of the medium lead to a significant hydraulic resistance due to the presence of the inner structure. With increasing pressure drop, hydraulic resistance decreases due to the medium destruction.

Suction Vortices in a Pump Sump—Their Origin, Formation, and Dynamics

The origin, formation mechanism, and dynamics of suction vortices in a pump sump have been clarified by large eddy simulation (LES) applied to two different computational models. The first one is a pump-sump model with uniform flow entering a water channel of rectangular cross section and a vertical suction (outlet) pipe installed at its downstream end. LES with different wall boundary conditions have revealed that the origin of a submerged vortex is the mean shear of the approaching boundary layers that develop on the bottom and side walls of the sump. Detailed investigations have revealed that deviation of the mean flow triggers conversion of the vorticity axis to the vertical direction. The local acceleration of the vertical flow stretches the aforementioned vertical vortex, which results in the formation of a submerged vortex. The second one is a simplified computational model composed of a paraboloid of revolution and aims to accurately simulate the stretch of the viscous core of a submerged vortex that has appeared under the suction pipe of the pump-sump model. The differences between the models, especially predictions of the minimum pressure, imply that cavitation could have been initiated in the viscous core, if it had been taken into account, as is observed in the pump-sump experiment at the same condition. Parametric studies with different initial swirl numbers from 0.12 to 16.3 have clarified the behavior of the submerged vortex. It was found that a strong submerged vortex appears only at a relatively small range of the swirl numbers from 1.25 to 3.

Centre modes in pipe flow

In two previous papers, Ozcakir, Tanveer, Hall, & Overman (2016, Travelling waves in pipe flow, J. Fluid Mech., 791, 284–328) and Ozcakir, Hall & Tanveer (2019, Nonlinear exact coherent structures in pipe flow and their instabilities, J. Fluid Mech., 868, 341–368) investigated numerically and asymptotically high Reynolds number exact coherent structures in pipe flow. It was found that, in addition to the structures described by the vortex–wave interaction theory by Hall & Smith (1991, On strongly nonlinear vortex/wave interactions in boundary layer transition. J. Fluid Mech., 227, 641–666), there exists vortical structures localized near the centre of the pipe with a core of size $O(Re^{-1/4})$ convected downstream at a speed that deviates from the pipe centreline speed by $O(Re^{-1/2})$, where $Re$ is the Reynolds number. In the finite Reynolds number calculations by Ozcakir, Tanveer, Hall & Overman (2016, Travelling waves in pipe flow, J. Fluid Mech., 791, 284–328), asymptotic state was referred to as a nonlinear viscous core state (NVC). However the reduced asymptotic equations were not solved and only limited confirmation of the theory was found numerically. Here, in order to conclusively confirm the existence of the NVC state we first describe direct numerical calculations on the asymptotically reduced $Re>>1$ equations for such state states. The results are then compared in detail to the finite $Re$ calculations up-to $Re=10^6$; the latter regime is at much higher values of the Reynolds number than those reported in Ozcakir, Tanveer, Hall & Overman (2016, Travelling waves in pipe flow, J. Fluid Mech., 791, 284–328). The results are found to be in excellent agreement with the finite $Re$ calculations in a region between $Re=10^5$ and $10^6$, thereby confirming that the structure observed by Ozcakir, Tanveer, Hall & Overman (2016, Travelling waves in pipe flow, J. Fluid Mech., 791, 284–328) is indeed a finite Reynolds number realization of an asymptotic NVC state.

A vortex-based tip/smearing correction for the actuator line

The actuator line (AL) was intended as a lifting line (LL) technique for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. In this paper we prove – theoretically and practically – that smearing the forces of the actuator line in the flow domain forms a viscous core in the bound and shed vorticity of the line. By combining a near-wake representation of the trailed vorticity with a viscous vortex core model, the missing induction from the smeared velocity is recovered. This novel dynamic smearing correction is verified for basic wing test cases and rotor simulations of a multimegawatt turbine. The latter cover the entire operational wind speed range as well as yaw, strong turbulence and pitch step cases. The correction is validated with lifting line simulations with and without viscous core, which are representative of an actuator line without and with smearing correction, respectively. The dynamic smearing correction makes the actuator line effectively act as a lifting line, as it was originally intended.

Nonlinear exact coherent structures in pipe flow and their instabilities

In this paper, we present computational results of some two-fold azimuthally symmetric travelling waves and their stability. Calculations over a range of Reynolds numbers ($Re$) reveal connections between a class of solutions computed by Wedin & Kerswell (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 508, 2004, pp. 333–371) (henceforth called the WK solution) and the $Re\rightarrow \infty$ vortex–wave interaction theory of Hall & Smith (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 227, 1991, pp. 641–666) and Hall & Sherwin (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 661, 2010, pp. 178–205). In particular, the continuation of the WK solutions to larger values of $Re$ shows that the WK solution bifurcates from a shift-and-rotate symmetric solution, which we call the WK2 state. The WK2 solution computed for $Re\leqslant 1.19\times 10^{6}$ shows excellent agreement with the theoretical $Re^{-5/6}$, $Re^{-1}$ and $O(1)$ scalings of the waves, rolls and streaks respectively. Furthermore, these states are found to have only two unstable modes in the large $Re$ regime, with growth rates estimated to be $O(Re^{-0.42})$ and $O(Re^{-0.92})$, close to the theoretical $O(Re^{-1/2})$ and $O(Re^{-1})$ asymptotic results for edge and sinuous instability modes of vortex–wave interaction states (Deguchi & Hall, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 802, 2016, pp. 634–666) in plane Couette flow. For the nonlinear viscous core states (Ozcakir et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 791, 2016, pp. 284–328), characterized by spatial a shrinking of the wave and roll structure towards the pipe centre with increasing $Re$, we continued the solution to $Re\leqslant 8\times 10^{6}$ and we find only one unstable mode in the large Reynolds number regime, with growth rate scaling as $Re^{-0.46}$ within the class of symmetry-preserving disturbances.

A vortex-based tip/smearing correction for the actuator line

The actuator line was intended as a lifting line technique for CFD applications. In this paper we proof – theoretically and practically – that smearing the forces of the actuator line in the flow domain necessarily leads to smeared velocity fields. By combining a near-wake representation of the trailed vorticity with a viscous vortex core model, the missing induction from the smeared velocity is recovered. This novel dynamic smearing correction is verified for basic wing test cases and rotor simulations of a multi-MW turbine. The latter cover the entire operational wind speed range as well as yaw, strong turbulence and pitch step cases. The correction is validated with lifting line simulations with and without viscous core, that are representative of an actuator line without and with smearing correction, respectively. The dynamic smearing correction makes the actuator line effectively act as a lifting line, as it was originally intended.

Travelling wave states in pipe flow

In this paper, we have found two new nonlinear travelling wave solutions in pipe flows. We investigate possible asymptotic structures at large Reynolds number $R$ when wavenumber is independent of $R$ and identify numerically calculated solutions as finite $R$ realizations of a nonlinear viscous core (NVC) state that collapses towards the pipe centre with increasing $R$ at a rate $R^{-1/4}$. We also identify previous numerically calculated states as finite $R$ realizations of a vortex wave interacting (VWI) state with an asymptotic structure similar to the ones in channel flows studied earlier by Hall & Sherwin (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 661, 2010, pp. 178–205). In addition, asymptotics suggests the possibility of a VWI state that collapses towards the pipe centre like $R^{-1/6}$, though this remains to be confirmed numerically.