Biomedical subjects

B Partoens

Publications and source records attributed to B Partoens.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Correlation between severity of sleep apnea and upper airway morphology based on advanced anatomical and functional imaging.

Determination of the apnea hypopnea index (AHI) as a measure of the severity of obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is a widely accepted methodology. However, the outcome of such a determination depends on the method used, is time consuming and insufficient for prediction of the effect of all treatment modalities. For these reasons more methods for evaluating the severity of OSAHS, based on different imaging modalities, have been looked into and recent studies have shown that anatomical properties determined from three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) images are good markers for the severity of the OSAHS. Therefore, we correlated anatomical measurements of a 3D reconstruction of the upper airway together with flow simulation results with the severity of OSAHS in order to find a combination of variables to indicate the severity of OSAHS in patients. The AHI of 20 non-selected, consecutive patients has been determined during a polysomnography. All patients also underwent a CT scan from which a 3D model of the upper airway geometry was reconstructed. This 3D model was used to evaluate the anatomical properties of the upper airway in OSAHS patients as well as to perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computations to evaluate the airflow and resistance of this upper airway. It has been shown that a combination of the smallest cross-sectional area and the resistance together with the body mass index (BMI) form a set of markers that predict very well the severity of OSAHS in patients within this study. We believe that these markers can be used to evaluate the outcome of an OSAHS treatment.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2006

Inhomogeneous melting in anisotropically confined two-dimensional clusters.

Molecular dynamic simulations are performed to investigate the melting process of two-dimensional clusters of classical charged particles trapped in an anisotropic parabolic potential. The confined particles interact through a repulsive potential. We find that the eccentricity of the confinement potential strongly affects the melting pattern of such clusters. Increasing the eccentricity of the confinement potential drives the system through three different melting regimes. Inhomogeneous melting is the typical melting process for anisotropically confined clusters and its appearance in small systems occurs in a distinct form called here internal intershell melting. The latter involves only particles in the center of the cluster while particles on the far left and right of the cluster are still ordered having a much higher melting temperature. Using the Lindemann's criterion the melting temperatures are determined as a function of the different parameters. The internal intershell melting process is found for both long-range (i.e., logarithmic) and short-range (i.e., screened Coulomb) interparticle interaction. Decreasing the range of the interparticle interaction increases the eccentricity of the confinement potential for which internal intershell melting can occur.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

Spectrum of classical two-dimensional Coulomb clusters.

The frequency spectrum of a system of classical charged particles interacting through a Coulomb repulsive potential and which are confined in a two-dimensional parabolic trap is studied. It is shown that, apart from the well-known center-of-mass and breathing modes, which are independent of the number of particles in the cluster, there are more "universal" modes whose frequencies depend only slightly on the number of particles. To understand these modes the spectrum of excitations as a function of the number of particles is compared with the spectrum obtained in the hydrodynamic approach. The modes are classified according to their averaged vorticity and it is shown that these "universal" modes have the smallest vorticity and follow the hydrodynamic behavior.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Structure and spectrum of anisotropically confined two-dimensional clusters with logarithmic interaction.

We studied the structural and spectral properties of a classical system consisting of a finite number of particles, moving in two dimensions, and interacting through a repulsive logarithmic potential and held together by an anisotropic harmonic potential. Increasing the anisotropy of the confinement potential can drive the system from a two-dimensional (2D) to a one-dimensional (1D) configuration. This change occurs through a sequence of structural transitions of first and second order which are reflected in the normal mode frequencies. Our results of the ground state configurations are compared with recent experiments and we obtained a satisfactory agreement. The transition from the 1D line structure to the 2D structure occurs through a zigzag transition which is of second order. We found analytical expressions for the eigenfrequencies before the zigzag transition, which allowed us to obtain an analytical expression for the anisotropy parameter at which the zigzag transition occurs as a function of the number of particles in the system.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Multistep radial melting in small two-dimensional classical clusters.

We report on a molecular dynamics study of small classical two-dimensional clusters with ringlike configurations. We focus on the particles motion at low temperatures before the radial and angular melting sets in. It is shown that in magic number configurations a local radial melting of subshells occur, which is related to the intershell rotation.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Bubble, stripe, and ring phases in a two-dimensional cluster with competing interactions.

A system of classical charged particles confined in a two-dimensional trap and interacting through a competing short-range attraction and long-range repulsion potential is studied. The structure of the system strongly depends on the interaction range of the short-range attraction potential and the total number of particles. Depending on the appropriate choice of parameters for the attractive potential, the particles organize themselves in bubbles, stripe phases, and ringlike configurations, or combinations of both of them. Detailed phase diagrams are presented for systems consisting of N=2 up to N=6 particles. General rules are derived for the different subsequent transitions between those configurations and how the ground state configuration of a large system can be deduced from the one of a small number of particles.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Structural phase transitions and unusual melting behavior in a classical two-dimensional Coulomb bound cluster.

The melting properties of a cluster with N equally charged particles confined by a Coulomb potential are studied. The system exhibits a structural phase transition before it melts. The melting process is not dominated by the usual thermal hops between stable states. We also show that the symmetry of the ground state configuration is a dominant factor in determining the melting temperature and that more confined particles in the cluster do not necessarily have a higher melting temperature.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Nonlinear screening in large two-dimensional Coulomb clusters.

The distortion due to a fixed point impurity with variable charge placed in the center of a classical harmonically confined two-dimensional (2D) large Coulomb cluster is studied. We find that the net topological charge (N(-)-N+ ) of the system is always equal to six independent of the position and charge of the impurity. In comparison with a 2D cluster without impurity charge, only the breathing mode remains unchanged. The screening length is found to be a highly nonlinear function of the impurity charge. For values of the impurity charge smaller than the charge of the other particles, the system has almost the same screening strength. When the impurity charge is larger, the screening length is strongly enhanced. This result can be explained by the competition between the different forces active in the system.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Influence of a defect particle on the structure of a classical two-dimensional cluster.

A system of classical charged particles interacting through a Coulomb repulsive potential which are confined in a two-dimensional parabolic trap is studied. We allow one or two particles, called defect particles, to have a different mass and/or charge than the other particles. The structure of the whole system depends on the mass and the charge of the defects and the total number of particles in the system. The ground state configurations are investigated and phase diagrams are constructed, which explain the recent experimental results of Phys. Rev. E 64, 11 603 (2001)]]. We found that several of the experimental configurations are metastable and that replacing the Coulomb interparticle potential by an inversely quadratic one has only a minor effect on the results.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Structure and spectrum of two-dimensional clusters confined in a hard wall potential.

The structural and dynamical properties of two-dimensional (2D) clusters of equally charged classical particles, which are confined in an external hard wall potential, are investigated through the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The ground-state configuration is investigated as a function of the interparticle interaction (Coulomb, dipole, logarithmic, and screened Coulomb). The excitation spectrum corresponding to the ground-state configuration of the system is discussed. The eigenmodes are investigated and the corresponding divergence and rotor are calculated, which indicates the "shearlike" and "compressionlike" aspects of the different modes. Both small and large clusters are considered.

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PubMed2003

Topological defects and nonhomogeneous melting of large two-dimensional Coulomb clusters.

The configurational and melting properties of large two-dimensional (2D) clusters of charged classical particles interacting with each other via the Coulomb potential are investigated through the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The particles are confined by a harmonic potential. For a large number of particles in the cluster (N>150), the configuration is determined by two competing effects, namely, the fact that in the center a hexagonal lattice is formed, which is the groundstate for an infinite 2D system, and the confinement that imposes its circular symmetry on the outer edge. As a result, a hexagonal Wigner lattice is formed in the central area while at the border of the cluster the particles are arranged in rings. In the transition region defects appear as dislocations and disclinations at the six corners of the hexagonal-shaped inner domain. Many different arrangements and types of defects are possible as metastable configurations with a slightly higher energy. The particle motion is found to be strongly related to the topological structure. Our results clearly show that the melting of the clusters starts near the geometry induced defects, and that three different melting temperatures can be defined corresponding to the melting of different regions in the cluster.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Transition between ground state and metastable states in classical two-dimensional atoms.

Structural and static properties of a classical two-dimensional system consisting of a finite number of charged particles that are laterally confined by a parabolic potential are investigated by Monte Carlo simulations and the Newton optimization technique. This system is the classical analog of the well-known quantum dot problem. The energies and configurations of the ground and all metastable states are obtained. In order to investigate the barriers and the transitions between the ground and all metastable states we first locate the saddle points between them, then by walking downhill from the saddle point to the different minima, we find the path in configurational space from the ground state to the metastable states, from which the geometric properties of the energy landscape are obtained. The sensitivity of the ground-state configuration on the functional form of the interparticle interaction and on the confinement potential is also investigated.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Molecule-type phases and Hund's rule in vertically coupled quantum dots

We study the ground state of two vertically coupled quantum dots as a function of the interdot distance within the spin density functional theory. The tunneling between the dots is included. For small and large interdot distances the atomic phases are recovered. For intermediate distances new molecule-type phases are predicted which can be observed experimentally in the addition energies. The results are interpreted in terms of an effective single particle picture and we find that Hund's rule breaks down for 11 and 12 electrons. The results are summarized in a phase diagram in which spin and isospin blockade regions are also found.

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