Lipid droplets in the nervous system:involvement in cell metabolic homeostasis

Lipid droplets serve as primary storage organelles for neutral lipids in neurons,glial cells,and other cells in the nervous system.Lipid droplet formation begins with the synthesis of neutral lipids in the endoplasmic reticulum.Previously,lipid droplets were recognized for their role in maintaining lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis;however,recent research has shown that lipid droplets are highly adaptive organelles with diverse functions in the nervous system.In addition to their role in regulating cell metabolism,lipid droplets play a protective role in various cellular stress responses.Furthermore,lipid droplets exhibit specific functions in neurons and glial cells.Dysregulation of lipid droplet formation leads to cellular dysfunction,metabolic abnormalities,and nervous system diseases.This review aims to provide an overview of the role of lipid droplets in the nervous system,covering topics such as biogenesis,cellular specificity,and functions.Additionally,it will explore the association between lipid droplets and neurodegenerative disorders.Understanding the involvement of lipid droplets in cell metabolic homeostasis related to the nervous system is crucial to determine the underlying causes and in exploring potential therapeutic approaches for these diseases.

Triboelectric‘electrostatic tweezers'for manipulating droplets on lubricated slippery surfaces prepared by femtosecond laser processing

The use of‘Electrostatic tweezers'is a promising tool for droplet manipulation,but it faces many limitations in manipulating droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces.Here,we achieve noncontact and multifunctional droplet manipulation on Nepenthes-inspired lubricated slippery surfaces via triboelectric electrostatic tweezers(TETs).The TET manipulation of droplets on a slippery surface has many advantages over electrostatic droplet manipulation on a superhydrophobic surface.The electrostatic field induces the redistribution of the charges inside the neutral droplet,which causes the triboelectric charged rod to drive the droplet to move forward under the electrostatic force.Positively or negatively charged droplets can also be driven by TET based on electrostatic attraction and repulsion.TET enables us to manipulate droplets under diverse conditions,including anti-gravity climb,suspended droplets,corrosive liquids,low-surface-tension liquids(e.g.ethanol with a surface tension of 22.3 mN·m^(-1)),different droplet volumes(from 100 nl to 0.5 ml),passing through narrow slits,sliding over damaged areas,on various solid substrates,and even droplets in an enclosed system.Various droplet-related applications,such as motion guidance,motion switching,droplet-based microreactions,surface cleaning,surface defogging,liquid sorting,and cell labeling,can be easily achieved with TETs.

Synergistically biomimetic platform that enables droplets to be self-propelled

Droplet transport still faces numerous challenges,such as a limited transport distance,large volume loss,and liquid contamination.Inspired by the principle of‘synergistic biomimetics’,we propose a design for a platform that enables droplets to be self-propelled.The orchid leaf-like three-dimensional driving structure provides driving forces for the liquid droplets,whereas the lotus leaf-like superhydrophobic surface prevents liquid adhesion,and the bamboo-like nodes enable long-distance transport.During droplet transport,no external energy input is required,no fluid adhesion or residue is induced,and no contamination or mass loss of the fluid is caused.We explore the influence of various types and parameters of wedge structures on droplet transportation,the deceleration of droplet speed at nodal points,and the distribution of internal pressure.The results indicate that the transport platform exhibits insensitivity to pH value and temperature.It allows droplets to be transported with varying curvatures in a spatial environment,making it applicable in tasks like target collection,as well as load,fused,anti-gravity,and long-distance transport.The maximum droplet transport speed reached(58±5)mm·s^(−1),whereas the transport distance extended to(136±4)mm.The developed platform holds significant application prospects in the fields of biomedicine and chemistry,such as high-throughput screening of drugs,genomic bioanalysis,microfluidic chip technology for drug delivery,and analysis of biological samples.

Liquid crystal droplets formation and stabilization during phase transition process

The study of phase transition processes in liquid crystals(LCs)remains challenging.Most thermotropic LCs exhibit a narrow temperature range and a rapid phase transition from the isotropic(ISO)to the nematic(N)phase,which make it difficult to capture and manipulate the phase transition process.In this study,we observed the evolution of small droplets during the ISO–N phase transition in ferroelectric nematic(NF)LC RM734.After doping with metal nanoparticles(NPs),the temperature range of the phase transition broadened,and the droplets formed during the phase transition remained stable,with their diameter increasing linearly with temperature.In addition,droplets doped with NPs can be well controlled by an external electric field.This discovery not only aids in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of LC phase transitions but also provides a simple alternative method for preparing droplets,which is potentially valuable for applications in optoelectronic devices and sensors.

Self-propelled Leidenfrost droplets on femtosecond-laser-induced surface with periodic hydrophobicity gradient

The controllable transfer of droplets on the surface of objects has a wide application prospect in the fields of microfluidic devices,fog collection and so on.The Leidenfrost effect can be utilized to significantly reduce motion resistance.However,the use of 3D structures limits the widespread application of self-propulsion based on Leidenfrost droplets in microelectromechanical system.To manipulate Leidenfrost droplets,it is necessary to create 2D or quasi-2D geometries.In this study,femtosecond laser is applied to fabricate a surface with periodic hydrophobicity gradient(SPHG),enabling directional self-propulsion of Leidenfrost droplets.Flow field analysis within the Leidenfrost droplets reveals that the vapor layer between the droplets and the hot surface can be modulated by the SPHG,resulting in directional propulsion of the inner gas.The viscous force between the gas and liquid then drives the droplet to move.

Production of Artificial Fog in the PAVIN Fog and Rain Platform: In Search of Big Droplets Fog

In fog, visibility is reduced. This reduction in visibility is measured by the meteorological optical range (MOR), which is important for studying human perception and various sensors in foggy conditions. The Cerema PAVIN Fog & Rain platform is capable of producing calibrated fog in order to better analyses it and understand its consequences. The problem is that the droplets produced by the platform are not large enough to resemble real fog. This can have a major impact on measurements since the interaction between electromagnetic waves and fog depends on the wavelength and diameter of the droplets. To remedy this, Cerema is building a new platform with new equipment capable of generating fog. This study analyses different nozzles and associated usage parameters such as the type of water used and the pressure used. The aim is to select the best nozzle with the associated parameters for producing large-diameter droplets and therefore more realistic fog.

Measurement of Concentration of Sorbent Particles and Water Droplets in Hydration Desulfurization Reactor with PIV

Vortexing limestone injection into furnace combined with calcium lime hydration in the downstream is the most promising technology for controlling SO 2 emission. Particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) is used to measure the gas liquid solid three phase flow field in a reactor. By image processing based on newly developed software, the number concentrations of sorbent particles and water droplets are presented. The measuring results are very helpful for better understanding the desulfurization mechanism and optimizing configurational and operational parameters in the hydration reactor.

Simulation on deposition and solidification processes of 7075 Al alloy droplets in 3D printing technology

In order to study the successive deposition and solidification processes of uniform alloy droplets during the drop-on-demand three dimensional（3D） printing method,based on the volume of fluid（VOF） method,a 3D numerical model was employed.In this model,the 7075 alloy with larger temperature range for phase change was used.The simulation results show that the successive deposition and solidification processes of uniform 7075 alloy droplets can be well characterized by this model.Simulated droplets shapes agree well with SEM images under the same condition.The effects of deposition and solidification of droplets result in vertical and L-shaped ridges on the surface of droplets,and tips of dendrites appear near the overlap of droplets due to rapid solidification.

A study of different fluid droplets impacting on a liquid film

Knowledge of droplet dynamics provides the basis of predicting pressure drops, holdups and corrosion inhibitor distribution in multiphase flow. Droplet size and its distribution also determine the separation efficiency between different phases. Experimental observations were conducted for droplet impingements with different fluids, droplet sizes and velocities, and film thicknesses. The observed transition boundaries were compared with the models developed by different authors. For impingement on a deep pool surface, the Marengo and Tropea correlation for splashing does not agree with the experimental results in this study. The Bai and Gosman critical Weber number for bouncing agrees with the water results but not the oil results. Three new correlations for transition boundaries between bouncing, coalescence, jetting and splashing were proposed and compared with the experimental observations.

Numerical simulation on the mechanism of the normal impact of two droplets onto a thin film

The normal impingement process of two water droplets upon a thin film on the solid surface was numerically investigated. The numerical treatment was based on the finite volume solution of the Navier-Stokes （N-S） equations combined with the volume of fluid method （VOF）. Physically reasonable results for the process of two droplets impacting on the thin film were obtained. The effects of the droplet velocity, the fihn thickness and the spacing between the two droplets on the splash and spread process of the impact were examined.

Dynamics of Micelle Formation from Mixed Lipid Droplets

Amphiphilic lipid molecules can form various micelles depending on not only their molecular composition but also their self-assembly pathway. In this work, coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations have been applied to study the micellization behaviors of mixed dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine （DPPC）/hexadecylphosphocholine （HPC） droplets. By vary- ing DPPC/HPC composition and the size of lipid droplets, various micelles such as spherical and nonspherical （oblate or prolate） vesicles, disk-like micelles, double or single ring-like and worm-like micelles were observed. It is found that the lipid droplet as an initial state favors forming vesicles and ring-like micelles due to in situ micellization. Our simulation results demonstrate that using special initial conditions combined with various molecular compositions is an effective way to tune lipid micellar structure.

Helium Droplets： An Apparatus to Study Ultra Cold Chemistry

A new pulsed helium nano droplets machine has been constructed. The droplets were gener- ated by expansion of the pure helium through the cryogenic valve attached to a closed-cycle cryostat. The mean size of helium droplets can be controlled between 103 and 105 helium atoms by tuning the backing pressure （10-40 bar） and temperature （10-30 K）. Compared with the continuous-flow beam source, the density of droplet is at least one order of magni- tude higher, which offers the opportunity to combine the system with the commercial pulsed laser to study chemical reactions inside of the superfluid helium at ultra-low temperature. The performance for the system has been checked by studying the photodissociation of CH3I doped droplets at 252 nm with the velocity map imaging technique. The photofragments, CH3, were detected by （2＋1） resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization. The speed and angular distributions derived from resulting images show clear evidence of the relaxation effect by the surrounding helium atoms. The pulsed helium droplets depletion spectroscopy was also demonstrated. The depletion spectrum of benzene doped helium droplets indicates that less than 3% depletion can be observed with the newly constructed apparatus.

SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF DROPLETS ABOVE A ROTATING STREAM TRAY AND MODEL OF DROPLET MOTION THEREIN

Droplet size distributions have been investigated with a two-probe system above a rotatingstream tray of 300 mm diameter.The measured distributions are found to follow the upper limitedlognormal distribution with three parameters dependent primarily on gas hole F-factor.A probabilitymethod is used to describe the initial state of the droplet population above the tray,and a model fordroplet motion is presented.The results computed with model agree well with experimental data.

Ultrafast quasi-three-dimensional imaging

Understanding laser induced ultrafast processes with complex three-dimensional(3D)geometries and extreme property evolution offers a unique opportunity to explore novel physical phenomena and to overcome the manufacturing limitations.Ultrafast imaging offers exceptional spatiotemporal resolution and thus has been considered an effective tool.However,in conventional single-view imaging techniques,3D information is projected on a two-dimensional plane,which leads to significant information loss that is detrimental to understanding the full ultrafast process.Here,we propose a quasi-3D imaging method to describe the ultrafast process and further analyze spatial asymmetries of laser induced plasma.Orthogonally polarized laser pulses are adopted to illuminate reflection-transmission views,and binarization techniques are employed to extract contours,forming the corresponding two-dimensional matrix.By rotating and multiplying the two-dimensional contour matrices obtained from the dual views,a quasi-3D image can be reconstructed.This successfully reveals dual-phase transition mechanisms and elucidates the diffraction phenomena occurring outside the plasma.Furthermore,the quasi-3D image confirms the spatial asymmetries of the picosecond plasma,which is difficult to achieve with two-dimensional images.Our findings demonstrate that quasi-3D imaging not only offers a more comprehensive understanding of plasma dynamics than previous imaging methods,but also has wide potential in revealing various complex ultrafast phenomena in related fields including strong-field physics,fluid dynamics,and cutting-edge manufacturing.

Undercooling and Solidification of Sn-Pb Alloy Droplets Prepared by Uniform Droplet Spray

The undercooling and solidification of 150 μm and 185 μm droplets of Sn 5%Pb alloy prepared by the uniform droplet spray (UDS) process have been investigated. The enthalpy of the droplet has been measured by non adiabatic calorimetric method as a function of the flight distance. A droplet solidification simulation model has been used to compare with the experimental data. The results show that the enthalpy released by the droplets in the calorimeter is 11.88 J/g and 22.29 J/g less than the simulated values up to a certain flight distance at 0.485 m and 0.460 m for 150 μm and 185 μm droplets respectively, but agrees with the expected values at larger distance. The nucleation of the droplets takes place at the distance where the experimental and simulated enthalpy values agree. The droplets quenched before nucleation solidify into metastable supersaturated solid solution and have large undercooling. The formation of the metastable structure in the droplets has been verified metallographically and by calculations based on a thermodynamic model.

Hydrodynamic binary coalescence of droplets under air flow in a hydrophobic microchannel

Based on the volume of fluid(VOF) method, we conduct a numerical simulation to study the hydrodynamic binary coalescence of droplets under air flow in a hydrophobic rectangular microchannel. Two distinct regimes, coalescence followed by sliding motion and that followed by detaching motion, are identified and discussed. Additionally, the detailed hydrodynamic information behind the binary coalescence is provided, based on which a dynamic mechanical analysis is conducted to reveal the hydrodynamic mechanisms underlying these two regimes. The simulation results indicate that the sliding motion of droplets is driven by the drag force and restrained by the adhesion force induced by the interfacial tension along the main flow direction. The detachment(i.e., upward motion) of the droplet is driven by the lift force associated with an aerodynamic lifting pressure difference imposed on the coalescent droplet, and also restrained by the adhesion force perpendicular to the main flow direction. Especially, the lift force is mainly induced by an aerodynamic lifting pressure difference imposed on the coalescent droplet. Two typical regimes can be quantitatively recognized by a regime diagram depending on Re and We. The higher Re and We respectively lead to relatively larger lift forces and smaller adhesion forces acting on the droplet, both of which are helpful to detachment of the coalesced droplet.

Numerical Simulation of Water Droplets Deposition on the Last-Stage Stationary Blade of Steam Turbine

Based on the method of discrete phase, the law of droplets’ deposition in the last stage stationary blade of a supercritical 600 MW Steam Turbine is simulated in the first place of this paper by using the Wet-steam model in commercial software FLUENT, where the influence of inlet angle of water droplets of the stationary blades is also considered. Through the calculation, the relationship between the deposition and the diameter of water droplets is revealed. Then, the amount of droplets deposition in the suction and pressure surface is derived. The result is compared with experimental data and it proves that the numerical simulation result obtained in this paper is reasonable. Finally, a formula of the relationship between the diameter of water droplets and the inlet angle is fit, which could be used for approximate calculation in the engineering applications.

Mesoscale Simulation of Vesiculation of Lipid Droplets

An implicit solvent coarse-grained （CG） lipid model using three beads to reflect the basically molecular structure of two-tailed lipid is developed. In this model, the nonbonded interaction employs a variant MIE potential and the bonded interaction utilizes a Harmonic potential form. The CG force field parameters are achieved by matching the structural and mechan-ical properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine （DPPC） bilayers. The model successfully reproduces the formation of lipid bilayer from a random initial state and the spontaneous vesiculation of lipid bilayer from a disk-like structure. After that, the model is used to sys-tematically study the vesiculation processes of spherical and cylindrical lipid droplets. The results show that the present CG model can effectively simulate the formation and evolution of mesoscale complex vesicles.

Effect of testicular capsulotomy on lipid droplets in the seminiferous tubules of rats

Aim: In order to reveal the histochemical alteration that might occur during the processes of the spermatogenic dis-ruption induced by testicular capsulotomy, the location and alteration of lipid droplets in the seminiferous tubules wereobserved in the present study. Methods: Osmium tetroxide was used to demonstrate the lipid droplets in the semi-niferous tubules of capsulotomized and sham-operated control testes. Results: In the seminiferous tubules of thesham-operated rat testes, many small lipid droplets were located close to the basement membrane of the seminiferoustubules. But for the capsulotomized testes, the lipid droplets in the seminiferous tubules had increased in size and num-ber, with many lipid droplets migrated towards the lumen of the tubules. Conclusion: The results indicated that aprogressive fatty degeneration occurred in the seminiferous tubules after testicular capsulotomy.

Investigation of spherical and concentric mechanism of compound droplets

Polymer shells with high sphericity and uniform wall thickness are always needed in the inertial confined fusion(ICF)experiments.Driven by the need to control the shape of water-in-oil(W1/O)compound droplets,the effects of the density matching level,the interfacial tension and the rotation speed of the continuing fluid field on the sphericity and wall thickness uniformity of the resulting polymer shells were investigated and the spherical and concentric mechanisms were also discussed.The centering of W1/O compound droplets,the location and movement of W1/O compound droplets in the external phase(W2)were significantly affected by the density matching level of the key stage and the rotation speed of the continuing fluid field.Therefore,by optimizing the density matching level and rotation speed,the batch yield of polystyrene(PS)shells with high sphericity and uniform wall thickness increased.Moreover,the sphericity also increased by raising the oil/water(O/W2)interfacial tension,which drove a droplet to be spherical.The experimental results show that the spherical driving force is from the interfacial tension affected by the two relative phases,while the concentric driving force,as a resultant force,is not only affected by the three phases,but also by the continuing fluid field.The understanding of spherical and concentric mechanism can provide some guidance for preparing polymer shells with high sphericity and uniform wall thickness.