ALBERT

Notizen: The objective of this review is to critically assess the different approaches developed in recent years to understand the dynamics of open flows such as mixing layers, jets, wakes, separation bubbles, boundary layers, and so on. These complex flows develop in extended domains in which fluid particles are continuously advected downstream. They behave either as noise amplifiers or as oscillators, both of which exhibit strong nonlinearities ( Huerre & Monkewitz 1990 ). The local approach is inherently weakly nonparallel and it assumes that the basic flow varies on a long length scale compared to the wavelength of the instability waves. The dynamics of the flow is then considered as a superposition of linear or nonlinear instability waves that, at leading order, behave at each streamwise station as if the flow were homogeneous in the streamwise direction. In the fully global context, the basic flow and the instabilities do not have to be characterized by widely separated length scales, and the dynamics is then viewed as the result of the interactions between Global modes living in the entire physical domain with the streamwise direction as an eigendirection. This second approach is more and more resorted to as a result of increased computational capability. The earlier review of Huerre & Monkewitz (1990) emphasized how local linear theory can account for the noise amplifier behavior as well as for the onset of a Global mode. The present survey first adopts the opposite point of view by demonstrating how fully global theory accounts for the noise amplifier behavior of open flows. From such a perspective, there is strong emphasis on the very peculiar nonorthogonality of linear Global modes, which in turn allows a novel interpretation of recent numerical simulations and experimental observations. The nonorthogonality of linear Global modes also imposes severe constraints on the extension of linear global theory to the fully nonlinear re??gime. When the flow is weakly nonparallel, this limitation is so severe that the linear Global mode theory is of little help. It is then much more appropriate to develop a fully nonlinear formulation involving the presence of a front separating the base state region from the bifurcated state region.

Notizen: We review the fluid mechanics and rheology of dense suspensions, emphasizing investigations of microstructure and total stress. "Dense" or "highly concentrated" suspensions are those in which the average particle separation distance is less than the particle radius. For these suspensions, multiple-body interactions as well as two-body lubrication play a significant role and the rheology is non-Newtonian. We include investigations of multimodal suspensions, but not those of suspensions with dominant nonhydrodynamic interactions. We consider results from both physical experiments and computer simulations and explore scaling theories and the development of constitutive equations.

Notizen: George Gabriel Stokes died just over 100 years ago, and it has been more than 150 years since he published his great 1847 paper on water waves. The work of Stokes' precursors, which informed his early publications of 1842Đ??50, is described in the previous volume of the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics ( Craik 2004 ). Here I examine Stokes' papers and letters concerning water waves.

Notizen: Chaotic advection and, more generally, ideas from dynamical systems, have been fruitfully applied to a diverse, and varied, collection of mixing and transport problems arising in engineering applications over the past 20 years. Indeed, the "dynamical systems approach" was developed, and tested, to the point where it can now be considered a standard tool for understanding mixing and transport issues in many disciplines. This success for engineering-type flows motivated an effort to apply this approach to transport and mixing problems in geophysical flows. However, there are fundamental difficulties arising in this endeavor that must be properly understood and overcome. Central to this approach is that the starting point for analysis is a velocity field (i.e., the "dynamical system"). In many engineering applications this can be obtained sufficiently accurately, either analytically or computationally, so that it describes particle trajectories for the actual flow. However, in geophysical flows (and we concentrate here almost exclusively on oceanographic flows), the wide range of dynamically significant time and length scales makes the justification of any velocity field, in the sense of reproducing particle trajectories for the actual flow, a much more difficult matter. Nevertheless, the case for this approach is compelling due to the advances in observational capabilities in oceanography (e.g., drifter deployments, remote sensing capabilities, satellite imagery, etc.), which reveal space-time structures that are highly suggestive of the structures one visualizes in the global, geometrical study of dynamical systems theory. This has been pursued in recent years through a combination of laboratory studies, kinematic models, and dynamically consistent models that have all been compared with observational data. During the course of these studies it has become apparent that a new type of dynamical system is necessary to consider in these studies (i.e., a finite time, aperiodically time-dependent velocity field defined as a data set), which requires the development of new analytical and computational tools, as well as the necessity to discard some of the standard ideas and results from dynamical systems theory. In this article we review a number of the key developments to date in this young, but rapidly developing, area at the interface between geophysical fluid dynamics and applied and computational mathematics. We also describe the wealth of new directions for research that this approach unlocks.

Notizen: The gas-lift technique comprises the injection of gas bubbles in vertical oil wells to increase production. It is based on a reduction of the tubing gravitational pressure gradient. Several fluid-flow phenomena influencing such vertical gas-liquid flows are discussed. These effects include the radial distribution of void fraction and of gas and liquid velocity, flow regime changes, and system stability problems. Associated consequences for gas-lift performance and related optimization approaches are also discussed.

Notizen: What mechanisms of flow control do animals use to enhance hydrodynamic performance? Animals are capable of manipulating flow around the body and appendages both passively and actively. Passive mechanisms rely on structural and morphological components of the body (i.e., humpback whale tubercles, riblets). Active flow control mechanisms use appendage or body musculature to directly generate wake flow structures or stiffen fins against external hydrodynamic loads. Fish can actively control fin curvature, displacement, and area. The vortex wake shed by the tail differs between eel-like fishes and fishes with a discrete narrowing of the body in front of the tail, and three-dimensional effects may play a major role in determining wake structure in most fishes.

Notizen: Over the past four decades, the combination of in situ and remote sensing observations has demonstrated that long nonlinear internal solitary-like waves are ubiquitous features of coastal oceans. The following provides an overview of the properties of steady internal solitary waves and the transient processes of wave generation and evolution, primarily from the point of view of weakly nonlinear theory, of which the Korteweg-de Vries equation is the most frequently used example. However, the oceanographically important processes of wave instability and breaking, generally inaccessible with these models, are also discussed. Furthermore, observations often show strongly nonlinear waves whose properties can only be explained with fully nonlinear models.

Notizen: Electrophoretic separation of a mixture of chemical species is a fundamental technique of great usefulness in biology, health care, and forensics. In capillary electrophoresis (which has evolved from its predecessor, slab-gel electrophoresis), the sample migrates through a single microcapillary instead of through the network of pores in a gel. A fundamental design problem is to minimize dispersion in the separation direction. Molecular diffusion is inevitable and sets a theoretical limit on the best separation that can be achieved. But in practice, there are a number of effects arising out of the interplay between fluid flow, chemistry, thermal effects, and electric fields that result in enhanced dispersion. This paper reviews the subject of fluid flow in such capillary microchannels and examines the various causes of enhanced dispersion that limit the efficiency of separation.

Notizen: Race car performance depends on elements such as the engine, tires, suspension, road, aerodynamics, and of course the driver. In recent years, however, vehicle aerodynamics gained increased attention, mainly due to the utilization of the negative lift (downforce) principle, yielding several important performance improvements. This review briefly explains the significance of the aerodynamic downforce and how it improves race car performance. After this short introduction various methods to generate downforce such as inverted wings, diffusers, and vortex generators are discussed. Due to the complex geometry of these vehicles, the aerodynamic interaction between the various body components is significant, resulting in vortex flows and lifting surface shapes unlike traditional airplane wings. Typical design tools such as wind tunnel testing, computational fluid dynamics, and track testing, and their relevance to race car development, are discussed as well. In spite of the tremendous progress of these design tools (due to better instrumentation, communication, and computational power), the fluid dynamic phenomenon is still highly nonlinear, and predicting the effect of a particular modification is not always trouble free. Several examples covering a wide range of vehicle shapes (e.g., from stock cars to open-wheel race cars) are presented to demonstrate this nonlinear nature of the flow field.

Notizen: Large-eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent combustion is a relatively new research field. Much research has been carried out over the past years, but to realize the full predictive potential of combustion LES, many fundamental questions still have to be addressed, and common practices of LES of nonreacting flows revisited. The focus of the present review is to highlight the fundamental differences between Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and LES combustion models for nonpremixed and premixed turbulent combustion, to identify some of the open questions and modeling issues for LES, and to provide future perspectives.

Notizen: Life is the interplay between structure and energy, yet the role of energy deficiency in human disease has been poorly explored by modern medicine. Since the mitochondria use oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to convert dietary calories into usable energy, generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a toxic by-product, I hypothesize that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a central role in a wide range of age-related disorders and various forms of cancer. Because mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is present in thousands of copies per cell and encodes essential genes for energy production, I propose that the delayed-onset and progressive course of the age-related diseases results from the accumulation of somatic mutations in the mtDNAs of post-mitotic tissues. The tissue-specific manifestations of these diseases may result from the varying energetic roles and needs of the different tissues. The variation in the individual and regional predisposition to degenerative diseases and cancer may result from the interaction of modern dietary caloric intake and ancient mitochondrial genetic polymorphisms. Therefore the mitochondria provide a direct link between our environment and our genes and the mtDNA variants that permitted our forbears to energetically adapt to their ancestral homes are influencing our health today.

Notizen: Cell-cycle control of transcription seems to be a universal feature of proliferating cells, although relatively little is known about its biological significance and conservation between organisms. The two distantly related yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe have provided valuable complementary insight into the regulation of periodic transcription as a function of the cell cycle. More recently, genome-wide studies of proliferating cells have identified hundreds of periodically expressed genes and underlying mechanisms of transcriptional control. This review discusses the regulation of three major transcriptional waves, which roughly coincide with three main cell-cycle transitions (initiation of DNA replication, entry into mitosis, and exit from mitosis). I also compare and contrast the transcriptional regulatory networks between the two yeasts and discuss the evolutionary conservation and possible roles for cell cycle-regulated transcription.

Notizen: Three processes alter genomic sequence and structure at the immunoglobulin genes of B lymphocytes: gene conversion, somatic hypermutation, and class switch recombination. Though the molecular signatures of these processes differ, they occur by a shared pathway which is induced by targeted DNA deamination by a B cellĐ??specific factor, activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Ubiquitous factors critical for DNA repair carry out all downstream steps, creating mutations and deletions in genomic DNA. This review focuses on the genetic and biochemical mechanisms of diversification of immunoglobulin genes.

Notizen: The basic vertebrate body plan of the zebrafish embryo is established in the first 10 hours of development. This period is characterized by the formation of the anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes, the development of the three germ layers, the specification of organ progenitors, and the complex morphogenetic movements of cells. During the past 10 years a combination of genetic, embryological, and molecular analyses has provided detailed insights into the mechanisms underlying this process. Maternal determinants control the expression of transcription factors and the location of signaling centers that pattern the blastula and gastrula. Bmp, Nodal, FGF, canonical Wnt, and retinoic acid signals generate positional information that leads to the restricted expression of transcription factors that control cell type specification. Noncanonical Wnt signaling is required for the morphogenetic movements during gastrulation. We review how the coordinated interplay of these molecules determines the fate and movement of embryonic cells.

Notizen: The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as an ideal organism for the study of hematopoiesis, the process by which all the cellular elements of the blood are formed. These elements, including erythrocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, lymphocytes, and thrombocytes, are formed through complex genetic signaling pathways that are highly conserved throughout phylogeny. Large-scale forward genetic screens have identified numerous blood mutants in zebrafish, helping to elucidate specific signaling pathways important for hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and the various committed blood cell lineages. Here we review both primitive and definitive hematopoiesis in zebrafish, discuss various genetic methods available in the zebrafish model for studying hematopoiesis, and describe some of the zebrafish blood mutants identified to date, many of which have known human disease counterparts.

Notizen: The moss Physcomitrella patens, like seed plants, shows alternation of generations, but its gametophyte, the haploid phase of the life cycle, is dominant, making it ideal for genetic studies. Crosses show direct segregations, so F2 or test crosses are unnecessary. Mutagenesis yields mutants, the phenotype of which is directly evident. Haploid tissue can be propagated vegetatively, allowing the maintenance of mutants blocked early in development. Protoplasts, isolated from filamentous gametophytic tissue, regenerate directly into filamentous tissue, providing an abundant supply of single haploid cells for transformation. Recombination occurs at a high frequency between genomic sequences in transforming DNA and the corresponding chromosomal sequences, allowing precise inactivation or modification of genes. RNAi technology allows the inactivation of the expression of gene families and the partial knockdown of essential genes. Over 100,000 ESTs have been sequenced and annotated, and sequencing of the genome should be completed by the end of 2005.