Progress on mapping the inter-organ connectivity and intra-organ neural networks of the autonomic nervous system in several mammalian species is described. This project is one part of the NIH-funded SPARC project which is aimed at providing a quantitative description of the human autonomic nervous system to assist in the development of clinical neuromodulation devices.

The Data and Resource Center (DRC) of the NIH-funded SPARC program is developing databases, connectivity maps, and simulation tools for the mammalian autonomic nervous system. The experimental data and mathematical models supplied to the DRC by the SPARC consortium are curated, annotated and semantically linked via a single knowledgebase. A data portal has been developed that allows discovery of data and models both via semantic search and via an interface that includes Google Map-like 2D flatmaps for displaying connectivity, and 3D anatomical organ scaffolds that provide a common coordinate framework for cross-species comparisons. We discuss examples that illustrate the data pipeline, which includes data upload, curation, segmentation (for image data), registration against the flatmaps and scaffolds, and finally display via the web portal, including the link to freely available online computational facilities that will enable neuromodulation hypotheses to be investigated by the autonomic neuroscience community and device manufacturers.

This paper deals with the mixed convective heat transfer of nanofluids through a concentric vertical annulus. Because of the non-adherence of the fluid–solid interface in the presence of nanoparticle migrations, known as slip condition, the Navier’s slip boundary condition was considered at the pipe walls. The employed model for nanofluid includes the modified two-component four-equation non-homogeneous equilibrium model that fully accounts for the effects of nanoparticles volume fraction distribution. Assuming the fully developed flow and heat transfer, the basic partial differential equations including continuity, momentum, and energy equations have been reduced to two-point ordinary boundary value differential equations and solved numerically. Two cases including constant heat flux at the outer wall and insulated inner wall (Case A) and constant heat flux at the inner wall with insulated outer wall (Case B) have been considered. Results indicate that the buoyancy has negative effects on the efficiency of the system; however, slip velocity at the surface enhances both the heat transfer rate and the efficiency.