Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Flow cell”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 343 records · Page 19

An Improved Flow Cytometry Method For Precise Quantitation Of Natural-Killer Cell Activity

The ability to assess NK cell cytotoxicity using flow cytometry has been previously described and can serve as a powerful tool to evaluate effector immune function in the clinical setting. Previous methods used membrane permeable dyes to identify target cells. The use of these dyes requires great care to achieve optimal staining and results in a broad spectral emission that can make multicolor cytometry difficult. Previous methods have also used negative staining (the elimination of target cells) to identify effector cells. This makes a precise quantitation of effector NK cells impossible due to the interfering presence of T and B lymphocytes, and the data highly subjective to the variable levels of NK cells normally found in human peripheral blood. In this study an improved version of the standard flow cytometry assay for NK activity is described that has several advantages of previous methods. Fluorescent antibody staining (CD45FITC) is used to positively identify target cells in place of membranepermeable dyes. Fluorescent antibody staining of target cells is less labor intensive and more easily reproducible than membrane dyes. NK cells (true effector lymphocytes) are also positively identified by fluorescent antibody staining (CD56PE) allowing a simultaneous absolute count assessment of both NK cells and target cells. Dead cells are identified by membrane disruption using the DNA intercalating dye PI. Using this method, an exact NK:target ratio may be determined for each assessment, including quantitation of NK target complexes. Backimmunoscatter gating may be used to track live vs. dead Target cells via scatter properties. If desired, NK activity may then be normalized to standardized ratios for clinical comparisons between patients, making the determination of PBMC counts or NK cell percentages prior to testing unnecessary. This method provides an exact cytometric determination of NK activity that highly reproducible and may be suitable for routine use in the clinical setting.

Crucian, Brian↗

Shear stress induced stimulation of mammalian cell metabolism

A flow apparatus was developed for the study of the metabolic response of anchorage dependent cells to a wide range of steady and pulsatile shear stresses under well controlled conditions. Human umbilical vein endothelial cell monolayers were subjected to steady shear stresses of up to 24 dynes/sq cm, and the production of prostacyclin was determined. The onset of flow led to a burst in prostacyclin production which decayed to a long term steady state rate (SSR). The SSR of cells exposed to flow was greater than the basal release level, and increased linearly with increasing shear stress. It is demonstrated that shear stresses in certain ranges may not be detrimental to mammalian cell metabolism. In fact, throughout the range of shear stresses studied, metabolite production is maximized by maximizing shear stress.

Mcintire, L. V.↗

Rapid flow-induced responses in endothelial cells

Endothelial cells alter their morphology, growth rate, and metabolism in response to fluid shear stress. To study rapid flow-induced responses in the 3D endothelial cell morphology and calcium distribution, coupled fluorescence microscopy with optical sectioning, digital imaging, and numerical deconvolution techniques have been utilized. Results demonstrate that within the first minutes of flow application nuclear calcium is increasing. In the same time frame whole cell height and nuclear height are reduced by about 1 microm. Whole cell height changes may facilitate reduction of shear stress gradients on the luminal surface, whereas nuclear structural changes may be important for modulating endothelial growth rate and metabolism. To study the role of the cytoskeleton in these responses, endothelial cells have been treated with specific disrupters (acrylamide, cytochalasin D, and colchicine) of each of the cytoskeleton elements (intermediate filaments, microfilaments, and microtubules, respectively). None of these compounds had any effect on the shear-induced calcium response. Cytochalasin D and acrylamide did not affect the shear-induced nuclear morphology changes. Colchicine, however, completely abrogated the response, indicating that microtubules may be implicated in force transmission from the plasma membrane to the nucleus. A pedagogical model based on tensegrity theory principles is presented that is consistent with the results on the 3D endothelial morphology.

Non-NASA Center↗

Continuous flow electrophoretic separation of proteins and cells from mammalian tissues

This paper describes an apparatus for continuous flow electrophoresis (CFE), designed to separate macromolecules and cells at conditions of microgravity. In this CFE, buffer flows upward in a 120-cm long flow chamber, which is 16-cm wide x 3.0-mm thick in the microgravity version (and 6-cm wide x 1.5-mm thick in the unit-gravity laboratory version). Ovalbumin and rat serum albumin were separated in space (flight STS-4) with the same resolution of the two proteins achieved at 25 percent total w/v concentration that was obtained in the laboratory at 0.2 percent w/v concentration. Rat anterior pituitary cells, cultured human embryonic kidney cells, and canine Langerhans cells were separated into subpopulations (flight STS-8) more effectively than in unit gravity, with comparable resolution having been achieved at 100 times the concentration possible on earth.

Hymer, W. C.↗

An embedded mesh procedure for leading-edge vortex flows

A cell-vertex scheme is outlined for solving the flow about a delta wing with M (sub infinity) is greater than 1. Embedded regions of mesh refinement allow solutions to be obtained which have much higher resolution than those achieved to date. Effects of mesh refinement and artificial viscosity on the solutions are studied, to determine at what point leading-edge vortex solutions are grid-converged. A macroscale and a microscale for the size of the vortex are defined, and it is shown that the macroscale (which includes the wing surface properties) is converged on a moderately refined grid, while the microscale is very sensitive to grid spacing. The level of numerical diffusion in the core of the vortex is found to be substantial. Comparisons with the experiment are made for two cases which have transonic cross-flow velocities.

Powell, Kenneth G.↗

Ultrafast two-photon fluorescence imaging of cerebral blood circulation in the mouse brain in vivo

Characterizing blood flow dynamics in vivo is critical to understanding the function of the vascular network under physiological and pathological conditions. Existing methods for hemodynamic imaging have insufficient spatial and temporal resolution to monitor blood flow at the cellular level in large blood vessels. By using an ultrafast line-scanning module based on free-space angular chirped enhanced delay, we achieved two-photon fluorescence imaging of cortical blood flow at 1,000 two-dimensional (2D) frames and 1,000,000 one-dimensional line scans per second in the awake mouse. This orders-of-magnitude increase in temporal resolution allowed us to measure cerebral blood flow at up to 49 mm/s and observe pulsatile blood flow at harmonics of heart rate. Directly visualizing red blood cell (RBC) flow through vessels down to >800 µm in depth, we characterized cortical layer–dependent flow velocity distributions of capillaries, obtained radial velocity profiles and kilohertz 2D velocity mapping of multifile blood flow, and performed RBC flux measurements from penetrating blood vessels.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

A computer program for determining the electrophoretic mobility of cells in a rectangular chamber during asymmetric electroosmotic flow

In the field of cell electrophoresis, computer programs have been used for the estimation of zeta potential and surface charge density of specific charged chemical species from electrophoretic mobility data. The union of computer and microscope cell electrophoresis in the laboratory has yielded several satisfying results. The method organizes and error checks these data and stores them on permanent file for future reference or reanalysis. This computer analysis, accomplished in two steps by two main programs and a major subroutine, provides a quick, useful and realistic presentation of mobility data in histogram form, and is appropriate for any microelectrophoretic work using rectangular chambers. Computer program 1 is the first step of two in the analysis of mobility data. Program 2 consists of the main program, POLY2, which fits a least squares parabola to the apparent mobility data generated by Program 1, and the subroutine EXTRA which determines actual cell mobilities using the regression curve equation.

Source record↗

Unstructured CFD Aerodynamic Analysis of a Generic UCAV Configuration

Three independent studies from the United States (NASA), Sweden (FOI), and Australia (DSTO) are analyzed to assess the state of current unstructured-grid computational fluid dynamic tools and practices for predicting the complex static and dynamic aerodynamic and stability characteristics of a generic 53-degree swept, round-leading-edge uninhabited combat air vehicle configuration, called SACCON. NASA exercised the USM3D tetrahedral cell-centered flow solver, while FOI and DSTO applied the FOI/EDGE general-cell vertex-based solver. The authors primarily employ the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) assumption, with a limited assessment of the EDGE Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) extension, to explore sensitivities to grids and turbulence models. Correlations with experimental data are provided for force and moments, surface pressure, and off-body flow measurements. The vortical flow field over SACCON proved extremely difficult to model adequately. As a general rule, the prospect of obtaining reasonable correlations of SACCON pitching moment characteristics with the RANS formulation is not promising, even for static cases. Yet, dynamic pitch oscillation results seem to produce a promising characterization of shapes for the lift and pitching moment hysteresis curves. Future studies of this configuration should include more investigation with higher-fidelity turbulence models, such as DES.

Frink, Neal T.↗

An experimental database of cell performance for vanadium redox flow battery

The continual growth in energy demand has resulted in the deployment of renewable energy generators to reduce the impact of fossil fuel dependence. However, these generators often suffer from intermittency and require energy storage when there is over-generation and the subsequent release of this stored energy at high demand. One promising energy storage technology which can provide a solution to improve energy management and grid stability, is the redox flow battery. Among the numerous flow battery systems, vanadium redox flow battery is the most iconic solution to large scale energy storage, giving a more efficient link between energy production, especially from renewables, and energy demand. The aim of the current database is to characterize the performance of the cell design and to provide training/validation data for physical model or data-driven model. The database includes hundreds of experimental cell performance data of vanadium redox flow battery with various current densities for multiple charge-discharge cycles. All the cell parameters, chemical parameters, material parameters, operation parameters and thermodynamic parameters of the cell system are listed. Coulomb, voltaic and energy efficiencies are also provided. The database will be helpful for researchers in the field of redox flow batteries.

Gao, Peiyuan↗

A pipeline for targeted metagenomics of environmental bacteria

Background:Metagenomics and single cell genomics provide a window into the genetic repertoire of yet uncultivated microorganisms, but both methods are usually taxonomically untargeted. The combination of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) has the potential to enrich taxonomically well-defined clades for genomic analyses. Methods:Cells hybridized with a taxon-specific FISH probe are enriched based on their fluorescence signal via flow cytometric cell sorting. A recently developed FISH procedure, the hybridization chain reaction (HCR)-FISH, provides the high signal intensities required for flow cytometric sorting while maintaining the integrity of the cellular DNA for subsequent genome sequencing. Sorted cells are subjected to shotgun sequencing, resulting in targeted metagenomes of low diversity. Results: Pure cultures of different taxonomic groups were used to (1) adapt and optimize the HCR-FISH protocol and (2) assess the effects of various cell fixation methods on both the signal intensity for cell sorting and the quality of subsequent genome amplification and sequencing. Best results were obtained for ethanol-fixed cells in terms of both HCR-FISH signal intensity and genome assembly quality. Our newly developed pipeline was successfully applied to a marine plankton sample from the North Sea yielding good quality metagenome assembled genomes from a yet uncultivated flavobacterial clade. Conclusions: With the developed pipeline, targeted metagenomes at various taxonomic levels can be efficiently retrieved from environmental samples. The resulting metagenome assembled genomes allow for the description of yet uncharacterized microbial clades.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Enabling New Approaches to Low-Cost Dopant Patterning for Interdigitated Back Contact Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: Cooperative Research and Development, CRADA Number CRD-17-00665 (Final Report)

NREL is sub to the Department of Energy (DOE) Photovoltaic Research & Development (PVRD) project, titled "New Approaches to Low-Cost Scalable Doping for Interdigitated Back Contact Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells", awarded to Colorado School of Mines. The goal of this project was to develop an industrially relevant dopant patterning technique that enable high performing, cost efficient Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) solar cells based on n-Cz silicon wafer. Several possibilities were explored at the beginning of the project and the masked plasma deposition was deselected as the most promising and industrially relevant. This method was thoroughly explored ion the course of the project, its limitations revealed and mitigated. NREL successfully the masked deposition integrated into the cell's process flow and produced the cells, alongside with numerous process development steps and application of in-house advanced characterization techniques. The report describes these developments by the task and in detail.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

SwinCell: a 3D transformer and flow-based framework for improved cell segmentation

Segmentation of three-dimensional (3D) cellular images is fundamental for studying and understanding cell structure and function. However, 3D cellular segmentation is challenging, particularly for dense cells and tissues. This challenge arises mainly from the complex contextual information within 3D images, anisotropic properties, and the sensitivity to internal cellular structures, which often lead to incorrect segmentation. In this work, we introduce SwinCell, a 3D transformer-based framework that leverages Swin-transformer to predict flow and differentiate individual cell instances. We demonstrate SwinCell’s utility in the segmentation of nuclei, colon tissue cells, and densely cultured cells. SwinCell strikes a balance between maintaining detailed local feature recognition and understanding broader contextual information. Through extensive testing with both public and in-house 3D cell imaging datasets, SwinCell shows utility in segmenting dense cells, making it a valuable tool for 3D segmentation in cellular analysis that could expedite research in cell biology and tissue engineering.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Bubble Experiments on the Hydrodynamic Focusing Bioreactor-Space (HFB-S)

The Hydrodynamic Focusing Bioreactor-Space (HFB-S) is being developed as a drop-in replacement for the Rotating Wall Perfused Vessel (RWPV) bioreactor currently planned for use on the International Space Station (ISS). Only the vessel itself is proposed for change, the supporting hardware will remain the same. These bioreactors are used for the growth of three-dimensional tissue culture that cannot be done in normal gravity labs. The bioreactors provide a continual supply of oxygen for cell growth, as well as periodic replacement of cell culture media with nutrients. The RWPV has had many successful flights on the space shuttle, but longer duration missions onboard the Mir Space Station resulted in bubbles inside the vessel that were detrimental to the science. It is believed that procedural changes can prevent bubble formation, but the HFB-S must not only provide a mechanism of bubble removal, but must also meet strict requirements for a low-shear environment and uniform oxygen concentration distribution for optimum cell tissue growth. A detailed technical objective (DTO) flight on the space shuttle to fully evaluate the HFB-S is currently in the planning stages. Ground-based activities are also underway to quanitify the characteristics of the HFB-S. Computational studies are being used to predict the internal fluid flow and cell trajectories. These computations will be compared to ground-based flow visualization experiments. Comparative studies of ground-based cell growth between the RWPV and the HFB-S are also in progress. These studies have shown that the HFB-S functions well as a bioreactor in normal gravity. Bubble motion and bubble removal are being studied using computational predictions as well as experimental validation.

Charles Niederhaus↗

Online Machine Learning for Accelerating Molecular Dynamics Modeling of Cells

We developed a biomechanics-informed online learning framework to learn the dynamics with ground truth generated with multiscale modeling simulation. It was built on Summit-like supercomputers, which were also used to benchmark and validate our framework on one physiologically significant modeling of deformable biological cells. We generalized the century-old equation of Jeffery orbits to a new equation of motion with additional parameters to account for the flow conditions and the cell deformability. Using simulation data at particle-based resolutions for flowing cells and the learned parameters from our framework, we validated the new equation by the motions, mostly rotations, of a human platelet in shear blood flow at various shear stresses and platelet deformability. Our online framework, which surrogates redundant computations in the conventional multiscale modeling by solutions of our learned equation, accelerates the conventional modeling by three orders of magnitude without visible loss of accuracy.

multiscale modeling↗