Acute coalescent mastoiditis in a 16-month-old child due to Streptococcus pneumoniae infection

Rationale:Acute otitis media is a common disease in early childhood,and is usually caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae(S.pneumoniae).Acute mastoiditis is a complication of acute otitis media and can involve not only the mucoperiosteum of the middle ear but can also spread to the periosteum by destroying the mastoid bone(acute coalescent mastoiditis).In addition,the infection can extend through the surrounding bones or the emissary veins beyond the mastoid’s air cells,leading to subperiosteal abscesses.Patient’s Concern:A 16-month-old female patient was hospitalized due to the purulent discharge of the left ear and the symptoms of right mastoiditis(swelling and redness of the skin).Diagnosis:Bilateral acute coalescent mastoiditis caused by S.pneumoniae infection.The computer tomography revealed bilateral bone destruction of the mastoid and abscesses found behind the auricle on both sides.Interventions:The patient underwent intravenous antibiotic therapy and surgical treatment.Outcomes:The patient was discharged 14 days after hospitalization with an improved condition.Lessons:Improperly treated acute coalescent mastoiditis can lead to extracranial and intracranial complications,sometimes serious and even life-threatening.Complications are prevalent in children under 2 years,in whom the disease progresses more rapidly and severely.The vaccination with a 13-valent vaccine may not result in sufficient immunity against S.pneumoniae,a predominant pathogen in children affected by acute coalescent mastoiditis.

Transact-SQL中的对空值的处理函数COALESCE

在数据库查询中，经常会遇到对空值的处理，如何处理不当可能会带来意想不到的结果。COALESCE函数能返回其参数中第一个非空表达式，在处理空值时常有非常好的效果。

Mechanisms of rectangular groove-induced multiple-microdroplet coalescences

The mechanism of microdroplet coalescence is a fundamental issue for droplet-based microfluidics. We developed an asymmetric expansion (a rectangular groove) along one side of a microchannel to achieve multiple-microdroplet trapping, collision, and coalescence. Compared with reported symmetric expansions, this asymmetric groove could easily trap microdroplets and control two or three microdroplet coalescences precisely without a requirement for temporal and spatial synchronization. To reveal the mechanisms of multiple-droplet coalescences in a groove, we observed five different coalescence patterns under different flow conditions. Moreover, we characterized the flow behavior quantitatively by simulating the velocity vector fields in both the microdroplets and continuous phase, finding good agreement with experiments. Finally, a map of coalescence forms with different capillary numbers () and flow ratios () was obtained. The results could provide a useful guidance for the design and application of droplet-based microfluidic devices.

Bubble coalescence efficiency near multi-orifice plate

Bubble coalescence reduces specific area and weakens the work performance of bubble column. The bubble coalescence near gas sparger which is caused mainly by bubble growing is different from the ones occurring in major liquid. Bubble coalescence efficiency near gas sparger is influenced by many factors including sparger configuration, gas flow rate, bubble deformation, solution composition, etc. This work has conducted a set of visual experiments to study the coalescence characteristics near multi-orifice plate. The experiment parameters cover a wide range of conditions including large scope of gas flow rate,different kinds of solution and orifice configurations. The experimental results suggest that coalescence time is applicable to reflect the influence of the pitch of orifices and gas flow rate on bubble coalescence efficiency. As the number of orifices increases, bubble coalescence efficiency is reduced by the disturbance from the bubbles at adjacent orifices. A hindering coefficient is used to consider the hindering effect of additives on bubble coalescence efficiency. Finally a new calculation expression is established to predict bubble coalescence efficiency near multi-orifice plate whose fundamental form is based on the logistic curve of binary response. The calculated values that refer to this calculation expression are well consistent with the experimental results.

A novel approach to prevent bubble coalescence during measurement of bubble size in flotation

Effect of frothers in preventing bubble coalescence during flotation of minerals has long been investigated.To evaluate the performance of a frother,an apparatus to measure the bubble size is a basic necessity.McGill Bubble Size Analyzer(MBSA) or bubble viewer that has been developed and completed by McGill University's Mineral Processing Group during the last decade is a unique instrument to serve this purpose.Two parameters which are thought to influence the bubble size measurements by McGill bubble viewer include water quality and frother concentration in the chamber.Results show that there is no difference in Sauter mean(D32) when tap or de-ionized water was used instead of process water.However,the frother concentration,in this research DowFroth 250(DF250),inside the chamber exhibited a pronounced effect on bubble size.Frother concentration below a certain point can not prevent coalescence inside the chamber and therefore caution must be taken in plant applications.It was also noted that the frother concentration which has been so far practiced in plant measurements(CCC75-CCC95) is high enough to prevent coalescence with the bubble viewer.

Cracks coalescence mechanism and cracks propagation paths in rock-like specimens containing pre-existing random cracks under compression

The mechanism of cracks propagation and cracks coalescence due to compressive loading of the brittle substances containing pre-existing cracks （flaws） was modeled experimentally using specially made rock-like specimens from Portland Pozzolana Cement （PPC）. The breakage process of the specimens was studied by inserting single and double flaws with different inclination angles at the center and applying uniaxial compressive stress at both ends of the specimen. The first crack was oriented at 50＆#176; from the horizontal direction and kept constant throughout the analysis while the orientation of the second crack was changed. It is experimentally observed that the wing cracks are produced at the first stage of loading and start their propagation toward the direction of uniaxial compressive loading. The secondary cracks may also be produced in form of quasi-coplanar and/or oblique cracks in a stable manner. The secondary cracks may eventually continue their propagation in the direction of maximum principle stress. These experimental works were also simulated numerically by a modified higher order displacement discontinuity method and the cracks propagation and cracks coalescence were studied based on Mode I and Mode II stress intensity factors （SIFs）. It is concluded that the wing cracks initiation stresses for the specimens change from 11.3 to 14.1 MPain the case of numerical simulations and from 7.3 to 13.8 MPa in the case of experimental works. It is observed that cracks coalescence stresses change from 21.8 to 25.3 MPa and from 19.5 to 21.8 MPa in the numerical and experimental analyses, respectively. Comparing some of the numerical and experimental results with those recently cited in the literature validates the results obtained by the proposed study. Finally, a numerical simulation was accomplished to study the effect of confining pressure on the crack propagation process, showing that the SIFs increase and the crack initiation angles change in this case.

Simulation of lattice orientation effects on void growth and coalescence by crystal plasticity

A three dimensional rate-dependent crystal plasticity model is applied to study the influence of crystal orientation and grain boundary on the void growth and coalescence. The 3D computational model is a unit cell including one sphere void or two sphere voids. The results of three different orientations for single crystal and bicrystals are compared. It is found that crystallographic orientation has noticeable influences on the void growth directionvoid shape, and void coalescence of single crystal. The void growth rate of bicrystals depends on the crystallographic orientations and grain boundary direction.

A continuous-discontinuous cellular automaton method for cracks growth and coalescence in brittle material

A method of continuous-discontinuous cellular automaton for modeling the growth and coalescence of multiple cracks in brittle material is presented. The method uses the level set to track arbitrary discontinuities, and calculation grids are independent of the discontinuities and no remeshing are required with the crack growing. Based on Grif- fith fracture theory and Mohr-Coulumb criterion, a mixed fracture criterion for multiple cracks growth in brittle mate- rial is proposed. The method treats the junction and coales- cence of multiple cracks, and junction criterion and coales- cence criterion for brittle material are given, too. Besides, in order to overcome the tracking error in the level set ap- proximation for crack junction and coalescence, a dichotomy searching algorithm is proposed. Introduced the above the- ories into continuous-discontinuous cellular automaton, the present method can be applied to solving multiple crack growth in brittle material, and only cell stiffness is needed and no assembled global stiffness is needed. Some numerical examples are given to shown that the present method is efficient and accurate for crack junction, coalescence and percolation problems.

Mechanism and simulation of droplet coalescence in molten steel

Droplet coalescence in liquid steel was carefully investigated through observations of the distribution pattern of inclusions in solidified steel samples. The process of droplet coalescence was slow, and the critical Weber number(We) was used to evaluate the coalescence or separation of droplets. The relationship between the collision parameter and the critical We indicated whether slow coalescence or bouncing of droplets occurred. The critical We was 5.5, which means that the droplets gradually coalesce when We ≤ 5.5, whereas they bounce when We > 5.5. For the carbonate wire feeding into liquid steel, a mathematical model implementing a combined computational fluid dynamics(CFD)–discrete element method(DEM) approach was developed to simulate the movement and coalescence of variably sized droplets in a bottom-argon-blowing ladle. In the CFD model, the flow field was solved on the premise that the fluid was a continuous medium. Meanwhile, the droplets were dispersed in the DEM model, and the coalescence criterion of the particles was added to simulate the collision-coalescence process of the particles. The numerical simulation results and observations of inclusion coalescence in steel samples are consistent.

Coalescence Behaviors of Drop Swarms on Liquid-Liquid Interface

The trajectory model of dispersed phase drops and distribution model of drop diameters were derived.By numerical simulation,the analytical results indicate that a large number of dispersed phase drops accumulate on the upper plate in different directions and form a hydrodynamic area with the stream-wise location in the range of 0—0.4m,where the flow of trickling film obtains kinetic drive from flowing field.The flowing field of trickling film exhibits an unstable state if the stream-wise location is less than 0.02m,and a stable state otherwise.Moreover,different velocity vectors of drops in the x-y plane result in different interactions between the trickling film and drops.For the non-uniform distribution of drop diameters,there is a stronger interaction between the trickling film and drop if the stream-wise location is less than 0.02m,because the amplitudes of velocity vectors are higher than those in the range of 0.02—1.0m.The result reveals a complexity and diversity of stratified two-phase flowing field.On the other hand,both the basic flowing field and distributions of drop diameters have a great influence on the distributions of comparable kinetic energy of drops.The complicated motions of larger drops are helpful to coalescence because they will consume much more kinetic energy on the trickling film than those of smaller drops.The change of comparable kinetic energy of smaller drops is continuous and steady.The smaller drops are easily entrained by the liquid-liquid flowing field.

Characteristic of Drop Coalescence Resting on Liquid-Liquid Interface

The trajectory model of dispersed phase drops and the model of basic flow for drop motion between two inclined parallel plates are derived with the optimized calculation. The analytical results of direct numerical simulation indicate that the basic flow plays an important role in the drop coalescence on liquid-liquid interface. In the stratified two-phase flow field, the smaller droplets are difficult to drain the thin continuous film between the approaching droplets and bulk interfaces and eventually immerse into the trickling film to yield coalescence. They almost attain the velocity of their local surroundings. Moreover, the basic flow exerts a dominant influence on the motion of smaller droplet. The smaller droplets are easily entrained by the basic flow. On the contrary, the larger drop presents advantageous characteristics of coalescence due to its high velocity. The range of 0.3 mm < δR≤ 0.75 mm is the advantageous drop coalescence condition since the rapidly varied velocity and its first derivative theoretically cause the forces acting on a drop to become imbalanced. On the other hand, the thin layer of the continuous phase drained from the interval between the drops and trickling film should not be neglected in the calculation of shearing force since it is important for drop rotation. The drop rotation is an indispensable factor in coalescence.

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.

An investigation into the deformation, movement and coalescence characteristics of water-in-oil droplets in an AC electric field

Drop-drop coalescence is important in electric dehydrators used for oil-water separation in the oil industry.The deformation degree,angle between the electric field and the center line of two drops,effects of intensities and frequencies of the electric field have been studied by analyzing droplet images.However,seldom have people investigated the movement and the relative velocity in the process of dropdrop coalescence.In this paper forces acting on a single droplet and horizontal water droplets in an AC electric field were analyzed,and experiments were carried out to investigate the deformation,movement and coalescence characteristics of droplets with white oil and water.With a micro high-speed camera system and image processing technology,the droplet images were collected and analyzed.The results indicate that the deformation is mainly affected by the electric field intensity,frequency,droplet diameter and the oil viscosity.High field strength and large diameter facilitate deformation of drops in the electric field.The effect of frequency and oil viscosity is not obvious.Higher frequency and higher oil viscosity will lead to smaller oscillation amplitude.The effect of electric field intensity and droplet diameter on oscillation amplitude is not obvious.When the center-to-center distance between droplets is large,the forces acting on droplets in the horizontal direction are mainly dipole-dipole attraction and drag forces.There is also the film-thinning force when droplets get closer.The forces are simplified and derived.Based on force analysis and Newton＇s second law,the relative movement is analyzed in different parts,and the relationship of center-to-center distance and time is in accordance with an explinear function at different stages.According to experimental data,the movement of 145 μm double droplets before coalescence can be fitted well with an explinear function at two stages.In addition,the whole movement process is investigated and can be estimated with a fourth order polynomial curve,from which the relative velocity of droplet movement can also be obtained.With an increases in electric field intensity and droplet diameter and a decrease in oil viscosity,the relative velocity increases.Only when the oil-water interfacial tension is obviously high,can it influence the relative movement significantly.The coalescence is mainly dipole coalescence and chain coalescence under influence of the AC electric field.

Coalescence of pore columns by domain switching

The present paper studies the coalescence of pore columns in ferroelectric ceramics driven by back and forth domain switching under cyclic electric field. A finite element method that incorporates mass transfer capacity is formulated to simulate the evolution of point defects subjected to the kinetics of pore surface diffusion and domain wall migration. The merge of point defects provides a mechanism for the vacancy agglomeration that leads to the formation of large pores or microcracks.

Coalescence separation of oil water emulsion on amphiphobic fluorocarbon polymer and silica nanoparticles coated fiber-bed coalescer

Discharging untreated oily wastewater into the environment disrupts the ecological balance,which is a global problem that requires urgent solutions.Superhydrophilic and superoleophilic fibrous medium(FM)effectively separated oil–water emulsion as it was hydrophobic underwater.But its separation efficiencies(SEs)first increased to 98.9%,then dropped to 97.6%in 10 min because of oil-fouling.To tackle this problem,FM deposited with 0%–10%silica nanoparticle(NPsFMs),then coated by fluorocarbon polymer(X-[CH_(2)CH_(2)O]nCH_(2)CH_(2)O-Y-NH-COOCH_(2)C4F9)(FCNPs FMs),was used to enhance its roughness and regulate its initial wettability to improve the anti-fouling property.FCFM and FCNPs FMs were hydrophobic and oleophobic in air and oleophobic underwater.Their water contact angles,oil contact angles and oil contact angles were 115.3°–121.1°,128.8°–136.5°,and 131.6°–136.7°,respectively,meeting the requirement of 90°–140°for coalescence separation.FCNPs FM-5 had the best separation performance with a constant value of 99.8%in 10 min,while that of FCNPs FM-10 slightly decreased to 99.5%.Theoretical released droplet(TRD)diameter,calculated by the square root of the product of pore radius and fiber diameter,was used for the evaluation of coalescence performance.Analyzed by two ideal models,TRD diameter and fiber diameter showed a parabola type relationship,proving that the separation efficiency was a collaborative work of wettability,pore size and fiber diameter.Also,it explained the SEs reduction from FCNPs FM-5 to FCNPs FM-10 was revelent to the three parameters.Moreover,FCNPsFMs effectively separated emulsions stabilized by cationic surfactant CTAB(SEs:97.3%–98.4%)and anionic surfactant SDBS(SEs:91.3%–93.4%).But they had an adverse effect on nonionic surfactant Tween-80 emulsion separation(SEs:94.0%–71.76%).Emulsions made by diverse oils can be effectively separated:octane(SEs:99.4%–100%),rapeseed oil(SEs:97.3%–98.8%),and diesel(SEs:95.2%–97.0%).These findings provide new insights for designing novel materials for oil–water separation by coalescence mechanism.

Upstream Operations in the Oil Industry： Rigorous Modeling ofan Electrostatic Coalescer

This paper deals with a first-principle mathematical model that describes the electrostatic coalescer unitsdevoted to the separation of water from oil in water-in-oil emulsions, which are typical of the upstreamoperations in oil fields. The main phenomena governing the behavior of the electrostatic coalescer are denscribed, starting from fundamental laws. In addition, the gradual coalescence of the emulsion droplets isconsidered in the mathematical modeling in a dynamic fashion, as the phenomenon is identified as a keystep in the overall yield of the unit operation. The resulting differential system with boundary conditionsis then integrated via performing numerical libraries, and the simulation results confirm the available lit-erature and the industrial data. A sensitivity analysis is provided with respect to the main parameters. Themathematical model results in a flexible tool that is useful for the purposes of design, unit behavior predic-tion. performance rnoniroring, and ontimization.

Terminal Effect of Drop Coalescence on Single Drop Mass Transfer Measurements and Its Minimization

For the mass transfer to single drops during the stage of steady buoyancy-driven motion, experimental measurement is complicated with the terminal effect of additional mass transfer during drop formation and coalescence at the drop collector. Analysis reveals that consistent operating conditions and experimental procedure are of critical significance for minimizing the terminal effect of drop coalescence on the accuracy of mass transfer measurements. The novel design of a totally-closed extraction column is proposed for this purpose, which guarantees that the volumetric rate of drop phase injection is exactly equal to that of withdrawal of drops. Tests in two extraction systems demonstrate that the experimental repeatability is improved greatly and the terminal effect of mass transfer during drop coalescence is brought well under control.

Enhanced coalescence separation of oil-in-water emulsions using electrospun PVDF nanofibers

A novel and high-efficiency coalescence membrane enhanced by nano-sized polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF)nanofibers based on polyester(PET)substrate was fabricated using electrospinning method.The properties of the electrospun nanofibers such as roughness and surface morphology greatly affected the oil droplet interception efficiency and surface wettability of the membrane.A series of coalescence units were prepared with different layers of nanofibrous membrane and the separation efficiencies at different initial concentrations,flow rates,and oil types were tested.It is very interesting that the obtained nanofibrous membrane exhibited superoleophilicity in air but poor oleophilicity under water,which was beneficial to the coalescence process.The coalescence unit with four membrane layers had excellent performances under different initial concentrations and flow rates.The separation efficiency of the 4-layers unit remained above 98.2%when the initial concentration reached up to 2000 mg·L-1.Furthermore,the unit also exhibited good performance with the increasing oil density and viscosity,which is promising for large-scale oil wastewater treatment.

CFD aided investigation of single droplet coalescence

This article describes the development of a coalescence model using various CFD work packages,and is validated using as toluene water model system.Numerical studies were performed to describe droplet interactions in liquid–liquid test systems.Current models use adjustable parameters to describe these phenomena.The research in the past decades led to different correlations to model coalescence and breakage depending on the chemical system and the apparatus geometry.Especially the complexity of droplet coalescence requires a detailed investigation of local phenomena during the droplet interaction.Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) studies of single droplet interactions were performed and validated with experimental results to improve the understanding of the local hydrodynamics and film drainage during coalescence.The CFD simulations were performed for the interaction of two differently sized droplets at industrial relevant impact velocities.The experimental verification and validation of the numerical results were done with standardized high-speed imaging studies by using a special test cell with a pendant and a free rising droplet.An experimental based algorithm was implemented in the open source code OpenF OAM to account for the contact time and the dimple formation.The standard European Federation of Chemical Engineering(EFCE) test system toluene/water was used for the numerical studies and the experimental investigations as well.The results of the CFD simulations are in good accordance with the observed coalescence behavior in the experimental studies.In addition,a detailed description of local phenomena,like film rupture,velocity gradients,pressures and micro-droplet entrainment could be obtained.

On cubic Hermite coalescence hidden variable fractal interpolation functions

Hermite interpolation is a very important tool in approximation theory and nu- merical analysis, and provides a popular method for modeling in the area of computer aided geometric design. However, the classical Hermite interpolant is unique for a prescribed data set, and hence lacks freedom for the choice of an interpolating curve, which is a crucial requirement in design environment. Even though there is a rather well developed fractal theory for Hermite interpolation that offers a large flexibility in the choice of interpolants, it also has the short- coming that the functions that can be well approximated are highly restricted to the class of self-affine functions. The primary objective of this paper is to suggest a gl-cubic Hermite in- terpolation scheme using a fractal methodology, namely, the coalescence hidden variable fractal interpolation, which works equally well for the approximation of a self-affine and non-self-affine data generating functions. The uniform error bound for the proposed fractal interpolant is established to demonstrate that the convergence properties are similar to that of the classical Hermite interpolant. For the Hermite interpolation problem, if the derivative values are not actually prescribed at the knots, then we assign these values so that the interpolant gains global G2-continuity. Consequently, the procedure culminates with the construction of cubic spline coalescence hidden variable fractal interpolants. Thus, the present article also provides an al- ternative to the construction of cubic spline coalescence hidden variable fractal interpolation functions through moments proposed by Chand and Kapoor [Fractals, 15（1） （2007）, pp. 41-53].