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Valvular heart diseases (such as stenosis and regurgitation) are recognized as a rapidly growing cause of global deaths and major contributors to disability. The most effective treatment for these pathologies is the replacement of the natural valve with a prosthetic one. Our work considers an innovative design for prosthetic aortic valves that combines the reliability and durability of artificial valves with the flexibility of tissue valves. It consists of a rigid support and three polymer leaflets which can be cut from an extruded flat sheet, and is referred to hereafter as the Wheatley aortic valve (WAV). As a first step towards the understanding of the mechanical behavior of the WAV, we report here on the implementation of a numerical model built with the ICFD multi‐physics solver of the LS‐DYNA software. The model is calibrated and validated using data from a basic pulsatile‐flow experiment in a water‐filled straight tube. Sensitivity to model parameters (contact parameters, mesh size, etc.) and to design parameters (height, material constants) is studied. The numerical data allow us to describe the leaflet motion and the liquid flow in great detail, and to investigate the possible failure modes in cases of unfavorable operational conditions (in particular, if the leaflet height is inadequate). In future work the numerical model developed here will be used to assess the thrombogenic properties of the valve under physiological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A traditional method of in vitro cell culture involves a monolayer of cells at the base of a petri dish filled with culture medium. While the primary role of the culture medium is to supply nutrients to the cells, drug or other solutes may be added, depending on the purpose of the experiment. Metabolism by cells of oxygen, nutrients and drug is typically governed by Michaelis–Menten (M-M) kinetics. In this paper, a mathematical model of solute transport with M-M kinetics is developed. Upon non-dimensionalization, the reaction/diffusion system is re-characterized in terms of Volterra integral equations, where a parameter $\beta $ , the ratio of the initial solute concentration to the M-M constant, proves important: $\beta \ll 1$ is relevant to drug metabolism for the liver, whereas $\beta \gg 1$ is more appropriate in the case of oxygen metabolism. Regular perturbation expansions for both cases are obtained. A small-time expansion and steady-state solution are also presented. All results are compared against the numerical solution of the Volterra integral equations, and excellent agreement is found. The utility of the model and analytical solutions are discussed in the context of assisting experimental researchers to better understand the environment within in vitro cell culture experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is concerned with a semi-implicit modification of the GENSMAC method for solving the two-dimensional time-dependent incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in primitive variables formulation with a free surface. A projection method is employed to uncouple the velocity components and pressure, thus allowing the solution of each variable separately (a segregated approach). The viscous terms are treated by the implicit backward method in time and a centered second order method in space, and the nonlinear convection terms are explicitly approximated by the high order upwind variable-order nonoscillatory scheme method in space. The boundary conditions at the free surface couple the otherwise segregated velocity and pressure fields. The present work proposes a method that allows the segregated solution of free surface flow problems to be computed by semi-implicit schemes that preserve the stability conditions of the related coupled semi-implicit scheme. The numerical method is applied to both the simulation of free surface and to confined flows. The numerical results demonstrate that the present technique eliminates the parabolic stability restriction required by the original explicit GENSMAC method, and also found in segregated semi-implicit methods with time-lagged boundary conditions. For low Reynolds number flows, the method is robust and very efficient when compared to the original GENSMAC method. [DOI: 10.1115/1.2173672]

The synthesis of a differentially protected dipeptide mimic provides an enantiomerically pure intermediate for potent HIV-1 protease inhibitors. The synthetic process involves the C-2 epimerization of a (3R)-benzoyl lactone, followed by hydrolysis, protection of the hydroxy acid and installation of a urethane function by Curtius rearrangement. Corollary synthesis of two alcohols from the same isotere establishes the source of the inhibition potency as the 3S-hydroxyl configuration.