Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for the treatment of obstructive shock caused by venous air embolism:A case report

BACKGROUND Venous air embolism(VAE)is a potentially lethal condition,with a reported incidence rate of about 0.13%,and the true incidence may be higher since many VAE are asymptomatic.The current treatments for VAE include Durant's maneuver,aspiration and removal of air through venous catheters,and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.For critically ill patients,use of cardiotonic drugs and chest compressions remain useful strategies.The wider availability of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation(ECMO)has brought a new option for VAE patients.CASE SUMMARY A 53-year-old female patient with VAE presented to the emergency clinic due to abdominal pain with fever for 1 d and unconsciousness for 2 h.One day ago,the patient suffered from abdominal pain,fever,and diarrhea.She suddenly became unconscious after going to the toilet during the intravenous infusion of ciprofloxacin 2 h ago,accompanied by nausea and vomiting,during which a small amount of gastric contents were discharged.She was immediately sent to a local hospital,where cranial and chest computed tomography showed bilateral pneumonia as well as accumulated air visible in the right ventricle and pulmonary artery.The condition deteriorated despite endotracheal intubation,rehydration,and other treatments,and the patient was then transferred to our hospital.Veno-arterial ECMO was applied in our hospital,and the patient's condition gradually improved.The patient was successfully weaned from ECMO and extubated after two days.CONCLUSION ECMO may be an important treatment for patients with VAE in critical condition.

Fabrication of High-Efficiency Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofiber Membranes for Air Filtration Based on Principle of Stable Electrospinning

A mass flow matching model(MFMM)was established for studying the stable status of solution electrospinning.The study of the solution droplet status at the needle tip focused on various combinations of applied voltages and injection rates to figure out their influence on steadily fabricating polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)nanofibers prepared from PVA spinning solutions with two different mass fractions(10%and 16%).The results revealed that during the stable electrospinning,the influence resulted from the change of the injection rate approximately canceled out the impact brought by adjusting the applied voltage,leading to almost the same morphology as that of the PVA nanofibers.And the mass fraction of PVA in the spinning solution dominated the structure and the diameter distribution of the electrospun nanofibers.Under stable electrospinning conditions,the composite membrane was produced by depositing PVA nanofibers on the polyethylene terephthalate(PET)nonwoven substrate for an air filtration test.Furthermore,the prepared composite membrane exhibited a high air filtration efficiency(99.97%)and a low pressure drop(120 Pa)for 300-500 nm neutralized polystyrene latex(PSL)aerosol particles,demonstrating its potential as an alternative for a variety of commercial applications in air filtration.

Enhanced air filtration performance under high-humidity condition through electrospun membranes with optimized structure

The separation stability under high-humidity is significant in practical applications for air filters.Herein,hydrophobic polyvinyl chloride(PVC)nanofiber filters with bead-on-string structure are designed to steadily remove particle matter under high relative humidity of 90%-95%.The developed hydrophobic filters possess comparable separation performance with the hydrophilic one,but greatly enhanced stability.After the introduction of beadon-string structure,the filtration performance can be furtherly improved due to the formed large cavities and hydrophobicity.Such hydrophobic PVC filters can be promising candidates for air purification in practical applications especially in wet seasons.

Adaptive inverse control of air supply flow for proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems

To prevent the oxygen starvation and improve the system output performance, an adaptive inverse control （AIC） strategy is developed to regulate the air supply flow of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell （PEMFC） system in this paper. The PEMFC stack and the air supply system including a compressor and a supply manifold are modeled for the purpose of performance analysis and controller design. A recurrent fuzzy neural network （RFNN） is utilized to identify the inverse model of the controlled system and generates a suitable control input during the abrupt step change of external disturbances. Compared with the PI controller, numerical simulations are performed to validate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed AIC strategy.

A novel approach to regulate cell membrane permeability for ATP and NADH formation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae induced by air cold plasma

Air cold plasma has been used as a novel method for enhancing microbial fermentation. The aim of this work was to explore the effect of plasma on membrane permeability and the formation of ATP and NADH in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, so as to provide valuable information for largescale application of plasma in the fermentation industry. Suspensions of S. cerevisiae cells were exposed to air cold plasma for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 min, and then subjected to various analyses prior to fermentation （Oh） and at the 9 and 21 h stages of fermentation. Compared with nonexposed cells, cells exposed to plasma for 1 min exhibited a marked increase in cytoplasmic free Ca2＋ concentration as a result of the significant increase in membrane potential prior to fermentation. At the same time, the ATP level in the cell suspension decreased by about 40%, resulting in a reduction of about 60% in NADH prior to culturing. However, the levels of ATP and NADH in the culture at the 9 and 21 h fermentation stages were different from the level at 0 h. Taken together, the results indicated that exposure of S. cerevisiae to air cold plasma could increase its cytoplasmic free Ca2＋ concentration by improving the cell membrane potential, consequently leading to changes in ATP and NADH levels.

MATHEMATICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF AIR SEPARATION BY HOLLOW FIBER MEMBRANES

Approximate solutions for gas separation by hollow fiber membranes have been developedby several investigators.However,there are few reports of experimental verification of the models forhigh stage cut separations.In this work,an approximate mathematical model was developed and wasexperimentally verified for high stage cut air separation.Both countercurrent and cocurrent now pat-terns were used.In addition,the applicability of feed-inside mode for low stage cut air separation byhollow fiber membrane was examined.It was found that feed-inside mods was more advantageousthan feed-outside mode when used for the generation of oxygen-enriched air.

Dissolved Air Flotation in Combination with Ultrafiltration Membrane Modules in Surface Water Treatment

The primary purpose of this research is to evaluate the feasibility of dissolved air flotation(DAF) as pretreatment process for membrane modules in river water treatment.The performances of DAF in combination with an up-flow membrane biofilter(MBF) and a hollow-fiber ultrafiltration membrane(UFM) were investigated respectively.Removal efficiency of ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm(UV254),ammonia nitrogen(NH3-N),particle counts and microbial index were measured for both systems.Results showed that DAF was a robust pretreatment process for floc particles separation despite of raw water quality fluctuations.For DAFUFM system,the monitoring data indicated bacteria breeding,nitrite accumulation in membrane vessel and the ammonia concentration of permeate water even exceeded regulatory limits.By contrast,DAF-MBF system was established via the introduction of multilayer filter media between DAF and curtain type ultrafiltration membrane.In MBF,the matured biological activated carbon(BAC) and zeolite particles guaranteed the efficient removal of both organic matters and ammonia.Moreover,the high dissolved oxygen levels in DAF effluent significantly improved bio-adsorption and degradation of pollutants in MBF.The retention of microorganisms by the membrane not only ensured a high concentration of biomass,but also eliminated the risk of microbes leaking out from MBF.In addition,compared with UFM,the curtain membrane exhibited obviously slower fouling development.These results suggested that the DAF-MBF system was more suitable for purifying raw waters seriously polluted by dissolved contaminants.

Unexpected complication during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support: Ventilator associated systemic air embolism

Systemic air embolism through a bronchovenous fistu-la(BVF) has been described in patients undergoing positive-pressure ventilation. However, no report has mentioned the potential risks of systemic air embolism through a BVF in patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation(ECMO). Positive-pressure ventilation and ECMO support in patients with lung injury can increase the risk of systemic air embolism through a BVF. Increased alveolar pressure, decreased pulmonary venous pressure, and anticoagulation are thought to be the factors that contribute to this complication. Here, we present a case of systemic air embolism in a patient with ECMO and mechanical ventilator support.

TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF AIR SEPARATION OF LIQUID CRYSTALLINE TRIHEPTYL CELLULOSE/ETHYL CELLULOSE MEMBRANES

Triheptyl cellulose/ethyl cellulose(3/97)binary blend membranes were prepared from tetrahydrofuran,chloroform and dichloromethane solutions and their air separation capabit- ities were studied at different temperatures.With increasing temperature from 25 to 85℃,the flux QOEA of O_2-enriched air(OEA),O_2 permselectivity and the O_2 concentration Yo_2 in the OEA all increase.The membranes show a unique trend in their Yo_2～QOEA relationship,that is,the air separation capability increases simultaneously with the OEA permeation capability.The magnitudes of QOEA and Yo_2 for 17μm-thick membrane after the testg time of 36hours at 70℃ are 5×10^(-4)cm^3 (STP)/s·cm^2 and 37.6%,respectively.The air separation capability depends slightly on membrane forming solvents.

Laminar Diffusion Flames of Methane in a Co-annular Jet of Oxygen-Enriched Air

Oxygen rich combustion is a mean to increase the energy efficiency and to contribute to CO2 capture. Influence of oxygen enriched air on the stability of methane flames from non premixed laminar jets has been investigated experimentally. The burner consists of two coaxial jets： methane flowing out of the inner, oxidizer from the outer. The flame behavior is studied according to the proportion of oxygen in the oxidizer jet, the oxidizer and the methane jets velocities. The flame is either anchored to the burner, lifted, stationary or not or blown-out. The addition of oxygen produces a decrease of the lift height, a reduction of the length of the reaction zone and an increase in the soot emission. These results have been reported into diagrams of stability where the flame configurations are connected to the competition between the dynamic effect of the injection velocity and the chemical effect of oxygen addition.

Preparation of hydrophobic flat sheet membranes from PVDF-HFP copolymer for enhancing the oxygen permeance in nitrogen/oxygen gas mixture

In this study, poly(vinilydene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene)(PVDF-HFP) was used for preparation of hydrophobic membranes using non-solvent induced phase inversion(NIPS) technique. PVDF-HFP copolymer with concentrations of 10 wt% and 12 wt% was prepared to investigate the effect of polymer concentration on pore structure,morphology, hydrophobicity and performance of prepared membranes. Besides, the use of two coagulation baths with the effects of parameters such as coagulant time, polymer type and concentration, and the amount of nonsolvent were studied. The performance of prepared membranes was evaluated based on the permeability and selectivity of oxygen and nitrogen from a gas mixture of nitrogen/oxygen under operating conditions of feed flow rate(1–5 L·min-1), inlet pressure to membrane module(0.1–0.5 MPa) and temperatures between 25 and 45 °C. The results showed that the use of two coagulation baths with different compositions of distillated water and isopropanol,coagulant time, polymer type and concentration, and the amount of non-solvent additive have the most effect on pore structure, morphology, thickness, roughness and crystallinity of fabricated membranes. Porosity ranges for the three fabricated membranes were determined, where the maximum porosity was 73.889% and the minimum value was 56.837%. Also, the maximum and minimum average thicknesses of membrane were 320.85 μm and115 μm. Besides, the values of 4.7504 × 10-7 mol· m-2· s-1· Pa-1, 0.525 and 902.126 nm were achieved for maximum oxygen permeance, O2/N2 selectivity and roughness, respectively.

Experimental study on interaction between membrane structures and wind environment

The interaction between membrane structures and their environment can be either static or dynamic. Static interaction refers to interaction with static air, while dynamic interaction refers to wind and its effects. They can be evaluated by two parameters, added mass and radiation/aerodynamic damping, which are experimentally investigated in this study. The study includes the effects of both the static and dynamic interaction on structural dynamic characteristics, and the relationship between the interaction parameters and the covered area of a membrane structure for the static interaction and the relationship between the interaction parameters and wind direction and speed for the dynamic interaction. Experimental data show that the dynamic interaction is strongly correlated with the structural modes, i.e., the interaction of the symmetric modes is much larger than the anti-synmletric modes; and the influence of the dynamic interaction is significant in wind-induced response analysis and cannot be ignored. In addition, it is concluded that the structural natural frequency is remarkably decreased by this interaction, and the frequency band is significantly broadened.

Experimental Study on Characteristics of Cathode Fan Systems of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

对自制的阴极开放式自增湿型质子交换膜燃料电池阴极风扇系统不同工作模式下电池的空气流量分布及温度分布开展了实验研究。采用testo435多功能测量仪测量不同工作模式下电池阴极的空气流速；采用FLUKETi25红外温度成像仪测量不同操作模式下电池的表面温度分布。实验结果表明：阴极风扇系统不同的工作模式（“吸”和“吹”）会造成空气流量分布及温度分布不同。风扇工作在“吸．”模式下，燃料电池的表面工作温度分布和空气流量分布更均匀，性能更好；电池表面工作温度分布与流过电池阴极的空气流量具有一致性。该研究对于阴极开放式燃料电池性能研究及寻求电池系统效率、性能、温湿度等整体最优具有一定的指导和参考价值。

Examination of Whey Degreasing by Modified Membrane Filtration

The largest amount of dairy by-products, especially the whey, comes from the manufacture of cheese. The whey proteins are used in several different industry technologies. The forage production is used for animal feeding in the forms of various flours mixed in feeds, and the food industry uses whey proteins as human nutrition, such as different dry soups, infant formulas and supplements. The fat components of whey may inhibit the efficient processing and might impair the use of whey in these technologies. Thus, the aim of the experiment was to investigate a cheap and economical separation of the lipid fraction of whey. This separation method was made by microfiltration, which is an inexpensive, effective and energy efficient method for this task. During the measurements, 0.2 μm and 0.45 μm microfiltration membranes were used in a laboratory tubular membrane filtration module, and the membrane separation method was combined and modified by using astatic mixer and/or air insufflation. The same pore size membranes were used in a vibrating membrane filtration equipment （VSEP）, too. The two different membrane filtration devices allowed the comparison of the effect of vibration and the effect of the static mixer and/or air insufflation. The flux values above 0.2 MPa transmembrane pressures strongly decreased on using the tubular membrane. Therefore, it can be determined that the use of the lower transmembrane pressures gave better flux combined with air insufflation and the use of static mixer. The flux values increased three times higher with using vibration during the microfiltration process than that without vibration. Comparing these methods, it can be concluded that the separation made on tubular membrane （0.2 μm） combined with statics mixer gave sufficient result according to the degreasing, retentions and flux values of the other components.

A Research on the Air Permeability of High Polymer Materials Used to Produce Sports Clothing Fabrics

Composite fabrics based on Polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)polymer displays several notable properties.They are waterproof,windproof,permeable to moisture and thermally insulating at the same time.In the present study,PTFE fibers are used as raw material to make fiber membranes.The film is formed by crisscrossing interconnected fiber filaments and the related air permeability:tensile creep characteristics and other properties are tested.The results show that the pore size,thickness,and porosity of the film itself can affect the moisture permeability of the film.The water pressure resistance of the selected fabric is 8.5 kPa,and the moisture permeability is 7038 g/(m^(2)·24 h).

超低阻呼吸防护用聚乳酸纳米纤维膜制备及长效过滤性能

长期暴露于大气环境中高浓度的细颗粒物(PM_(2.5))会对人类的长期健康效应产生消极影响,传统空气过滤材料难以兼顾高效、低阻的防护效果,且不可降解,不仅加剧全球塑料污染,还易产生更强的微塑料危害。为此,制备了一种具有空气滑移效应、自供能且可生物降解的纳米纤维膜,以保障长效、低阻呼吸防护。提出两步水热法制备平均粒径49.6 nm、易分散的BaTiO_(3)电介质,同时利用“静电纺丝-静电喷雾”法将BTO纳米颗粒(BTO NPs)原位嵌入PLA纤维膜,利用BTO NPs的摩擦电效应和尺寸效应同步调控纤维膜的过滤效率和空气阻力。通过控制喷雾悬浮液中BTO NPs的浓度,探讨其与PLA/BTO纤维膜电活性、过滤性能和力学性能之间的关系。微观表征和性能测试结果表明:PLA/BTO纤维膜具有优异的电活性、过滤性能及力学性能。PLA/BTO纤维膜表面电势可高达5.9 kV,介电常数达1.20 F/m,平均输出电压高达12.4 V;得益于增强的空气分子滑移效应和电活性,PLA/BTO10纤维膜在显著降低空气阻力(低至20 Pa)的同时,对PM_(0.3)过滤效率提升了7.78%~9.05%,对PM_(2.5)过滤效率提升了2.90%~13.19%,即使在85 L/min高测试流量下仍能保证高达97.25%的PM_(2.5)过滤效率;同时,PLA/BTO纤维膜拉伸强度增幅高达60%(拉伸强度22.5 MPa),断裂伸长率增幅高达68%(断裂伸长率25%),而断裂韧性最高可提升1.3倍(断裂韧性3.6 MJ/m^(3))。因此,提出的兼具长效、低阻过滤且可降解纤维膜在呼吸防护领域具有广阔的应用前景,也为缓解废弃口罩加剧的塑料污染现状提供了一种新思路。

空气过滤用聚氨酯纳米纤维膜的制备及其性能

为拓展静电纺纳米纤维在空气过滤领域中的应用,以聚氨酯(PU)为原料,加入不同种类的盐,采用静电纺丝法制备树枝状PU纳米纤维膜。利用扫描电镜(SEM)、接触角测试仪、红外光谱仪、自动滤料测试仪测试纳米纤维膜的微观结构、亲疏水性、化学结构和过滤性能。结果表明:在PU质量分数14%条件下,添加有机盐TBAC,纺丝电压35 kV时,制备的纳米纤维膜的树枝状分叉结构明显;TBAC的加入使纤维膜的接触角由99.1°减小到82.8°;分叉结构使纳米纤维膜的过滤性能显著提高,与纯PU纳米纤维膜相比,过滤效率从50.8%提高到93.6%,品质因子从0.009提高到0.073,可满足高效低阻空气过滤材料的需求。

PEMFC空气系统流量和压力协同控制策略设计

为提高质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)空气系统的动态响应性能,避免局部缺气而导致其输出性能降低等问题的出现,针对空气系统存在流量和压力耦合的问题,分别采用PID、前馈解耦控制和模型预测控制(MPC)对空气系统进行控制,通过仿真和台架测试,验证控制算法的有效性。结果表明,两种控制算法相比较PID均具有较好的控制效果,空气流量和空气压力均能快速跟随设定值,PEMFC发动机的输出性能平稳。

油田采出水处理技术的研究进展

在油田开采中,采出水的直接排放会对环境造成影响,通常需要经过深度处理后再排放或者回用。而油田采出水含油量高且含有高浓度有机物和悬浮物,处理难度大。水质特性、处理技术以及处理设备等都会对处理效果产生直接影响,因此,有必要对上述问题进行深入研究。本文对现有研究中油田采出水的水质特性、新型的膜分离技术以及气浮工艺进行了总结,分析了各类处理技术研究现状,并对今后发展趋势进行了展望。

空气净化技术研究(1):纤维过滤

纤维过滤是目前使用最广泛的空气净化技术,主要滤材有无纺布、玻璃纤维、驻极体静电纤维、聚四氟乙烯(PTFE)膜和纳米纤维。本文比较了国内外主要空气过滤器标准中的效率规格,介绍了这5种纤维过滤器的特点,分析了国内外文献报道的这些过滤器的主要性能和优缺点。对3种空气过滤器,即用驻极体静电纤维、PTFE纤维和静电纺丝纳米纤维制造的空气过滤器进行了测试,其中静电纺丝纳米纤维和PTFE纤维空气过滤器虽然仍存在不足,但是已实现了高效低阻的目标。面对全球肆虐不断的各种流行性疾病,空气过滤器不但需要实现高效率、低阻力,更应具备杀灭细菌和灭活病毒的功能,新的、性能更优的纤维过滤材料和空气过滤器有待开发和应用。