Membrane Length Research Articles

Distribution of melanocytes in the skin of psoriasis patients

Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease with predominant damage to the skin and joints. Despite fundamental studies of its pathogenesis, the cause of the development of the T-cell response has not been determined. More recently, a new concept has been proposed for the formation of psoriatic inflammation, where a significant role in the pathogenesis is assigned to melanocytes. Evaluation of the content of these cells and their relationship with other participants of inflammation will allow expanding the understanding of the pathogenesis of psoriasis and the targets of targeted therapy.Aim:study of the quantity, distribution and proliferative activity of melanocytes.Materials and methods.The study included 20 patients with plaque psoriasis: men — 18 (90 %), women — 2 (10 %). The severity of the disease was assessed by the index of the area and severity of PASI psoriatic lesions. In the histological specimens, the thickness of the epidermis, the length of the basement membrane in the visual field, and pathological changes in the epidermis and dermis were determined. For immunohistochemical detection of melanocytes, the MelanA marker was used, the cell proliferative activity was Ki67, and the cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, CD8. Used a dual visualization system. Differences were considered significant at p < 0.05.Results.The number of MelanA+ cells in the affected skin of patients with psoriasis — 54 (44–64)/1.4 mm2 was 2.4 times higher than in unaffected skin — 24 (22–30)/1.4 mm2(p < 0.05), and 2 times higher than in the skin of healthy individuals — 27 (25–32)/1.4 mm2(p < 0.05). The content of MelanA+cells per 1 mm of the basement membrane in patients with psoriasis in the affected skin is 11 [7–13] cells/mm, unaffected — 12 [11–14] cells/mm and in healthy individuals — 12 [9–13] cells/mm did not significantly differ (p > 0.05). In the affected skin of patients with psoriasis, multiple contacts of CD8+and MelanA+cells were detected — 10 [8–13]/1.4 mm2.Conclusions. In the affected skin of patients with psoriasis, the absolute number of melanocytes is significantly higher than in unaffected skin and the skin of healthy individuals, while the ratio of melanocytes to basal keratinocytes did not differ. In the skin of all the studied groups, no melanocytes in the proliferation stage were detected. Multiple contacts of MelanA+and CD8+cells are observed in the affected skin of patients with psoriasis.Conflict of interest: the authors state that there is no potential conflict of interest requiring disclosure in this article.

Implant stability in patients treated with platelet-rich fibrin and bovine bone substitute for alveolar ridge preservation is associated with peripheral blood cells and coagulation factors.

AimsThe aim of the present study was to assess the association between dental implant stability and peripheral blood cell composition and levels of coagulation factors in patients treated with alveolar ridge preservation with platelet‐rich fibrin (PRF) and bovine bone substitute.Materials and methodsFifty patients were included between 2015 and 2017. PRF was prepared from autologous blood, in which blood cells and coagulation factor levels were measured. PRF and bovine bone were placed in the socket, followed by closure with PRF membrane. Implants were placed 14 (±2.5) weeks postextraction. The implant stability quotient was measured at t = 0, t = 10 days, t = 7 weeks, and t = 17 weeks by resonance frequency analysis.ResultsErythrocyte count was inversely associated with PRF membrane length, but not with implant stability. Conversely, platelet count did not correlate with membrane size but inversely correlated with implant stability at 7 and 17 weeks. In addition, implant stability was directly correlated with levels FXIII (t = 0, p < .01), active von Willebrand factor (VWF; t = 0 and 7 weeks, p < .05), and total VWF (t = 7 weeks, p = .012).ConclusionImplant stability following alveolar ridge preservation with PRF and bovine bone substitute is associated with circulating blood cells and coagulation factors. In particular, fibrin structure, VWF, and FXIII may be important modulators of implant stability.

Fractional CO2 laser micropatterning of cell-seeded electrospun collagen scaffolds enables rete ridge formation in 3D engineered skin

Rete ridges are interdigitations of the epidermis and dermis of the skin that play multiple roles in homeostasis, including enhancing adhesion via increased contact area and acting as niches for epidermal stem cells. These structures, however, are generally absent from engineered skin (ES). To develop ES with rete ridges, human fibroblast-seeded dermal templates were treated with a fractional CO2 laser, creating consistently spaced wells at the surface. Constructs with and without laser treatment were seeded with keratinocytes, cultured for 10 days, and grafted onto athymic mice for four weeks. Rete-ridge like structures were observed in the laser-patterned (ridged) samples at the time of grafting and were maintained in vivo. Ridged grafts displayed improved barrier function over non-lasered (flat) grafts at the time of grafting and 4 weeks post-grafting. Presence of ridges in vivo corresponded with increased keratinocyte proliferation, epidermal area, and basement membrane length. These results suggest that this method can be utilized to develop engineered skin grafts with rete ridges, that the ridge pattern is stable for at least 4 weeks post-grafting, and that the presence of these ridges enhances epidermal proliferation and establishment of barrier function. Statement of significanceRete ridges play a role in epidermal homeostasis, enhance epidermal-dermal adhesion and act as niches for epidermal stem cells. Despite their role in skin function, these structures are not directly engineered into synthetic skin. A new method to rapidly and reproducibly generate rete ridges in engineered skin was developed using fractional CO2 laser ablation. The resulting engineered rete ridges aided in the establishment of epidermal barrier function, basement membrane protein deposition and epidermal regeneration. This new model of engineered skin with rete ridges could be utilized as an in vitro system to study epidermal stem cells, a testbed for pharmaceutical evaluation or translated for clinical use in full-thickness wound repair.

Anisotropic Conductive Membrane with Superparamagnetism and Color-Tunable Luminescence

A new nanostructure of luminescent-magnetic-electrical trifunctionality Janus nanofibers with [Fe3O4/polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP)]@[Dy(BA)3phen/Eu(BA)3phen/PVP] coaxial nanocable as one half and polyaniline (PANI)/PVP as the other half has been successfully fabricated by a specially designed co-axis//single-axis spinneret electrospinning device. Moreover, all Janus nanofibers are aligned in the same direction to generate a two-dimensional (2D) array membrane by using an aluminum drum collection device. The electrical conductivity along the length direction is much stronger than the electrical conductivity in the diameter direction (two perpendicular directions). Therefore, the array membrane has excellent anisotropic electrical conduction. The conduction ratio reaches 106 times between length and diameter direction of the Janus nanofibers array membrane, which presents the highest conduction ratio between the two perpendicular directions for nanofibers materials reported internationally. Furthermore, we can modulate degree of electrically conducting anisotropism of the samples by varying the amount of PANI. In addition, the Janus nanofibers array membrane is concurrently endowed by superior and adjustable superparamagnetism and color-tunable fluorescence. What is more important, the construction technique for the novel Janus nanofibers array membrane is of universal significance for the fabrication of other multifunctional nanomaterials-formed membranes.

Effects of heat transfer and the membrane thermal conductivity on the thermally nanofluidic salinity gradient energy conversion

Originating from advances in nanofabrication, functional materials have been developed to construct bioinspired or mimic nanochannels for efficient nanofluidic energy conversion. In previous studies regarding nanofluidic energy conversion, the material thermal conductivity has been never taken into consideration, however, which shall be addressed with transmembrane temperature difference applied. Thermal conductivities of widely used bulk materials for fabricating nanopores vary from 0 to 120 W/(m·K). Heat transfer occurs both in the liquid solution and solid membrane, impacting trans-channel solution temperature distribution and ion transportation, and yielding counterintuitive phenomena. Under positive temperature differences, the electric power shifts from inhibition to promotion as the membrane thermal conductivity increases. Larger membrane thermal conductivity evens temperature distribution in the nanochannel, weakening ion aggregations or depletions, which result in degraded electric power improvement under a negative temperature difference and upgraded power enhancement under a positive one. At a temperature difference of 30 K, the electric power is enhanced by 56.22% for a thin PET membrane (length = 50 nm) under the negative temperature difference. If the membrane thermal conductivity can be well tuned to nearly thermal insulation, the electric power can be enhanced by 120.07%. To step further, we proposed a criterion for membrane selection based on thermal conductivities in the thermally nanofluidic energy conversion: For thick membranes, materials of large thermal conductivity with a positive temperature difference are preferred for obvious power and energy efficiency enhancement. For thin membranes, materials of small thermal conductivity with a negative temperature difference are appealing. These findings reveal the importance of a long-overlooked factor, membrane thermal conductivity, in nanofluidic energy harvesting and can serve as a guidance for selecting appropriate membrane materials and developing high-performance nanofluidic power devices.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЦИТОМОРФОЛОГІЧНОГО МЕТОДУ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ АТИПОВИХ ЗАЛОЗИСТИХ КЛІТИН НЕЯСНОГО ЗНАЧЕННЯ ЕНДОЦЕРВІКСУ ТА ЕНДОМЕТРІЯ У ЖІНОК З БЕЗПЛІДДЯМ

Goal of the study: To determine the effectiveness of the cytomorphological study of nuclei of atypical glandular cells not otherwise specified in women with infertility. Materials and methods: A total of 240 women with infertility and pathological processes of epithelium of the genitals with atypia of cells not otherwise specified (main group) were examined. The control group consisted of 100 women with infertility and no pathological processes of the glandular epithelium of the genitals with atypia of cells not otherwise specified.All patients underwent special research methods, which included cytological, bacterioscopic and bacteriological examination and АCR (accelerated chain reaction) diagnosis of urogenital tract infections. After the etiopathogenetic treatment, women of the main group were cytomorphologically investigated nuclei of atypical glandular cells of unclear significance, as well as cervicogistroscopy in order to visualize the mucous membrane of the entire length of the mucous membrane of the cervical canal.Results. In 35.0 % of patients with infertility and the presence of pathological processes of the genital epithelium of the genitals with atypia of cells not otherwise specified by АCR, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were detected against 13.0 % in the comparison group (p &lt; 0.05). 40.0 % of women in the main group were diagnosed with HIV infection with STIs against 5.0 % in the comparison group, and the presence of HPV mono- infection in 25.0 % of patients versus 8.0 %, respectively (p &lt; 0.05). Following etiopathogenetic treatment, a control cytological examination of AGC-NOS revealed 72.1 % of the patient. Atypical glandular cells not otherwise specified were identified in 63.1 % of those with previously diagnosed STIs, in 87.5 % of women with HPV mixed HIV infection and in 60.0 % with HPV mono-infection.As a result of cytomorphological study of atypical glandular cell not otherwise specified, 59.5 % of the investigated revealed the presence of glandular cells with an atypical nucleus of small size and one or two single polymorphic nucleus, indicating endometrial pathology and 40.5 % of women with atypical nuclei up to five polymorphic macronuclei in cells, which is a sign of endocervical pathology. According to histological data (endometrial pathology was determined in 58.4 % of cases in the main group versus 7.0 % in the comparison group. Pathological processes of the glandular epithelium of the cervical canal were detected in 38.2 % of the studied main group against 4.0 %, respectively.Conclusions. In women with infertility and the presence of pathological processes of epithelium of the genitals with atypical glandular cells not otherwise specified, compared with patients of the comparison group, STIs and HPV are more likely to be more frequent, both mono-infection and in association. In 96.5% of cases, the coincidence of the results of cytomorphological examination of nuclei of atypical glandular cells not otherwise specified with histological examination of biopsy pathological areas revealed during cervical hysteroscopy.

Simulation and experiment on direct contact membrane distillation regenerator in the liquid dehumidification air-conditioning system

Liquid dehumidification air-conditioning (LDAC) systems are a promising dehumidification technology that reduce energy consumption. However, in hot and humid climates, liquid regeneration deteriorates the performance of regenerators and limits their applications. Therefore, developing methods to ensure regeneration performance in harsh climates as well as to reduce the droplet splatter is a challenging task that must be undertaken to advance the technology and make it viable. In this study, a novel regeneration method using the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) regenerator was applied to the LDAC system. The mathematical model of the DCMD solution regeneration process was developed and verified through PTFE hollow fiber membrane liquid regeneration experiments. The impacts of membrane length, temperature, concentration, and solution volume flow on the temperature and concentration of the resultant solution at the outlet, regeneration capacity mass transfer coefficient, membrane water flux, and heat flow were analyzed. The results indicate that the concentration of the solution at the outlet linearly increases from 34.9% to 35.9% when the solution is heated from 40 to 85 °C. However, when the temperature of the solution is less than 45 °C, the solution concentration at the outlet is lower than that at the inlet, which indicates that the regeneration capacity is negative. Thus, the solution temperature at the DCMD regenerator inlet should be maintained at >65 °C to provide a higher and stable regeneration efficiency. Finally, it was established that a flow rate that is either extremely high or low would impair the DCMD regeneration, whilst a volume flow of 1800 ml min−1 is still most appropriate for the regenerator to regenerate high-concentration solutions. Research on the cold side indicates that when the temperature of the water does not exceed 30 °C, the regenerator still has the ability to regenerate, and increasing the volume flow of water can enhance the regeneration effect.

Prediction model to analyze the performance of VMD desalination process

The performance of vacuum membrane distillation process (VMD) including permeate flux and specific heat energy consumption (SHEC) under different feed inlet temperature, feed flow rate and membrane length was modeled by Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based on 36 different experimental VMD tests. It was found that the ANN model could obtain reliable data to forecast the behavior of the hollow membrane module for the whole range of input variables. The binary interaction impacts of the variables on the performance index were discussed and the objective was significantly affected by the interaction impacts of the variables. In this study, ANN model showed the potential to evaluate VMD performance successfully.

Effect of extrusion temperature on PP hollow fiber membrane properties and its CO2 degassing performance

It is challenging to remove low concentration CO2 from water. Membrane degassing has potential advantages in degassing from water. In this paper, PP hollow fiber membrane (HFM) was prepared via TIPS method using carnauba wax (Cwax) and soybean oil (SO) as binary green diluents. The effects of extrusion temperature on the membrane properties were studied. The results showed that when the extrusion temperature increased from 155 °C to 170 °C, the membrane pore size first increased and then decreased, and the maximum value was obtained at 165 °C. The extrusion temperature had little effect on morphology and liquid entry pressure (LEP) of the membrane. Considering the pore size and LEP synthetically, the optimized PP HFM was prepared at the extrusion temperature of 170 °C, and fabricated into the membrane module. The CO2 degassing performance from the water in RO system was studied. The results showed that the degassing efficiency (η) decreased as the water flow rate increased, which was mainly due to the decreasing water residence time in the membrane module. When the effective membrane length increased to 4.41 m, the η was almost stable at 80%.

Ultrasound for diagnosing new difficult laryngoscopy indicator

Background:Unpredictable difficult laryngoscopy (DL) remains a challenge for anesthesiologists, especially when difficult ventilation occurs during standard laryngoscopy. Accurate airway assessment should always be performed, but the common airway assessment methods only perform superficial screening. Thus, the deep laryngopharyngeal anatomy may not be evaluated. Ultrasound-based airway assessment has been recently proposed as a useful, simple, and non-invasive bedside tool as an adjunct to clinical methods, which may facilitate identification of DL. The present study aimed to determine the correlation between ultrasound-measured indicators and DL.Methods:Patients undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia with tracheal intubation were enrolled. Ultrasonic airway assessments were performed before anesthesia induction. Ultrasound diagnostic indicators included the thickness and width of the base of the tongue, the angle between the epiglottis and glottis, the length of the thyrohyoid membrane, and the thickness of the lateral pharyngeal wall. A score of ≥3 in the Modified Cormack-Lehane Scoring System was used as a standard of DL and was also applied to divide patients into DL and non-DL groups. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic ability of various diagnostic indicators.Results:A total of 499 patients were enrolled into non-DL and DL groups comprising 452 (452/499, 90.6%) and 47 (47/499, 9.4%) patients, respectively. One ultrasonic diagnoses indicator correlated with DL, namely, the angle between the epiglottis and glottis. When the angle between the epiglottis and glottis was 50°, the area under the ROC curve was maximum (0.902), and the best sensitivity (81%) and specificity (89%) were achieved.Conclusions:Airway ultrasounds should be considered to identify DL. The ultrasonic angle measured between the epiglottis and glottis is highly associated with DL, which may occur when the angle is less than 50°.Clinical trial registration:ChiCTR-DDT-13004102, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=5465

Efficacy and safety of lower versus higher CO2 extraction devices to allow ultraprotective ventilation: secondary analysis of the SUPERNOVA study

Retrospective analysis of the SUPERNOVA trial exploring the hypothesis that efficacy and safety of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) to facilitate reduction of tidal volume (VT) to 4 mL/kg in...

Effects of structural and concentration polarization on the efficiency of Pd membrane permeator

For the processes of extracting hydrogen from the mixed gas of fusion reactors, it is of benefit to find an efficient method for hydrogen isotopes recovery and cyclic utilization. To enhance the hydrogen extraction efficiency, the properties of hydrogen permeation under various operating conditions in the tubular Pd membrane reactor system have been first investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and material diffusion model. The results show that the predominated factor for the hydrogen extraction efficiency of tubular Pd membrane reactor is the fluid field of permeation pipe, further the effects of flux velocity, membrane length and thickness on the extraction efficiency at different pressures, as well as the concentration polarization effect at different conditions have been evaluated. The results could be significant for improving the engineering design of a highly efficient extraction Pd reactor by greater aspect ratio reactor. In addition, this method can also be used to simulate isotope separation process in Pd membrane reactor.

Slurry loop tubular membrane reactor for the catalysed aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol

A novel reactor that combines a catalyst slurry flowing inside a loop configuration, incorporating a tubular membrane (Teflon AF-2400) for controlled oxygen delivery was designed and employed for the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol using a 1 wt% Au-Pd/TiO2 powdered catalyst. This reactor keeps the liquid phase saturated with oxygen, while avoiding the creation of bubbles in it, thus enhancing operation safety. Experimental results in batch mode compared with those of a conventional autoclave demonstrated that the slurry loop membrane reactor reached a similar oxidation turnover frequency (20,000–25,000 h−1) with comparable values of benzaldehyde selectivity (∼70%). Continuous operation was achieved by using a crossflow filter connected to the loop to keep the catalyst from exiting the reactor. Using a 60 cm long tubular membrane, with the slurry flow circulating at 10 mL/min, continuous reaction was performed at 100–120 °C, 0–5 bar oxygen pressure and 1.2–5.0 g/L catalyst loading. Selectivity to benzaldehyde increased by either decreasing the reaction temperature or increasing the external oxygen pressure. The oxygen consumption rate decreased linearly with the catalyst loading, suggesting negligible gas-liquid mass transfer resistance. This was further evidenced by doubling the length of the tubular membrane, which had no effect on the oxidation turnover frequency. The slurry loop membrane reactor showed significantly better performance than packed-bed membrane microchannel reactors, and similar performance as that of a trickle-bed capillary reactor. This reactor can be implemented for a wide range of applications, which rely on the use of powder catalyst, are limited by gaseous reactant availability and require safe operation.

Experimental study on VMD and its performance comparison with AGMD for treating copper-containing solution

This study investigated the performance of VMD and AGMD system for separating water from copper-containing solution. The impacts of various operating parameters and module parameters on VMD performance were studied in terms of permeate flux, rejection rate, total water production, specific thermal (electric) energy consumption, pressure drop and thermal efficiency. A relatively stable VMD performance with high rejection rate was achieved due to the chemical stability and the sponge-like structure of membrane. It was found that enhancing membrane length would increase thermal consumption and pressure drop simultaneously. Moreover, the membrane module with high packing density performed better in utilizing lower thermal energy. The maximum permeate flux and the minimum specific thermal energy consumption of VMD was 21.82 kg/m2-h and 674.5 kWh/m3 respectively. Meanwhile, AGMD was superior for energy saving compared with VMD. In this study, VMD and AGMD process have shown the potential to treat copper-containing solution.

The influence of distributed source regions in the formation of the nonlinear distortion component of cubic distortion-product otoacoustic emissions.

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) are evoked by two stimulus tones with frequency f1 and f2 of ratio f2/f1 in the range between approximately 1.05 and 1.4. This study theoretically and experimentally analyzes the cubic 2f1-f2 DPOAE for different stimulus levels of one of the tones while the other is constant. Simulations for f2/f1 of 1.2 and moderate stimulus levels (30-70 dB sound pressure level) indicate that cubic distortion products are generated along a relatively large length of the basilar membrane, the extent of which increases with stimulus level. However, apical from the place of maximum nonlinear force, the wavelets generated by these distributed sources mutually cancel. Therefore, although the spatial extent of the primary DPOAE sources broadens with increasing stimulus level (up to 1.5 oct), the basilar-membrane region contributing to the DPOAE signal is relatively narrow (0.6 oct) and level independent. The observed dependence of DPOAE amplitude on stimulus level can be well-approximated by a point source at the basilar-membrane place where the largest distortion product (maximum of the nonlinear force) is generated. Onset and offset of the DPOAE signal may contain amplitude overshoots (complexities), which are in most cases asymmetrical. Two-tone suppression was identified as the main cause of these onset and offset complexities. DPOAE measurements in two normal-hearing subjects support the level dependence of the steady-state DPOAE amplitude and the asymmetry in the onset and offset responses predicted by the theoretical analysis.

Hydrodynamical Study of Micropolar Fluid in a Porous-Walled Channel: Application to Flat Plate Dialyzer

This article investigates the two-dimensional creeping flow of a non-Newtonian micropolar fluid in a small width permeable channel. Fluid is absorbed through permeable walls at a variable rate. This situation arises in filtration and mass transfer phenomena in industrial and engineering processes. The exact solution of the equations of motion is obtained. Graphs of the velocity profiles and pressure drop reveal the significant impact of the non-Newtonian nature of the micropolar fluid on the flow. The obtained solutions are used to discuss the hydrodynamical aspects of the physiological phenomenon of blood filtration in an artificial kidney, the flat plate dialyzer (FPD). Expressions for finding the ultrafiltration rate and mean pressure drop in an FPD are derived. Ultrafiltration rate and the mean pressure difference in an FPD are computed using derived expressions. A comparison of these with the existing empirical and experimental results shows a good agreement. For certain values of parameters, the derived form of the flow rate reveals that the axial flow rate in an FPD decays exponentially along the membrane length. This is a well-established and admitted result used by several researchers for studying the hydrodynamics of blood flow in renal tubules of kidneys. It is concluded that the presented model can be used to study the hydrodynamical aspects of blood flow in an FPD.

Moisture and latent heat recovery from flue gas by nonporous organic membranes

The porous ceramic membranes have been widely used to make the transport membrane condenser for extracting water and heat from exhaust. In this paper, the nonporous organic membranes named polyether sulfone-sulfonated polyether ether ketone (PES-SPEEK) hollow fiber composite membranes are used for moisture and latent heat recovery from flue gas. The recovery performance is evaluated by the permeability, water recovery efficiency and recovered latent heat flux. To optimize physicochemical parameters of membrane module, experimental platform is established to analyze the effect of coating, sulfonation degree, filling ratio and membrane length on recovery performance. According to the results, hydrophilic coating can accelerate the penetration rate of water vapor and improve the recovery performance; the membranes with a higher sulfonation degree demonstrate better performance than those with a lower sulfonation degree; increasing the filling ratio and membrane length can improve the water and heat recovery performance of membrane module as a whole, but the recovery performance of the per unit membrane area is reduced. Furthermore, this paper also investigates the influences of flue gas flowrate, temperature, water vapor activity coefficient on recovery performance, and the technical economics of the membrane module are evaluated based on the experimental results.

Development of Hybrid ANFIS–CFD Model for Design and Optimization of Membrane Separation of Benzoic Acid

Abstract In this work, a novel hybrid model was developed in order to study the membrane-based liquid separation process. The membrane system was a continuous hollow-fiber membrane module for contacting two aqueous and organic phases for reactive extraction of benzoic acid (BA) from aqueous solution. Two simulation approaches were utilized in order to build a robust hybrid model. The hybrid model is composed of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) elements. First, the CFD approach was used in order to capture the mass transfer of the system, whereas ANFIS was trained using the obtained CFD results. The hybrid model was used to predict the concentration distribution of solute in the membrane contactor. The combined simulation methodology can reduce the computational costs and time significantly, while it predicts the process with high accuracy. The ANFIS was trained based on the extracted data of concentration distribution from the CFD simulations, and the training and test analyses indicated great agreement. Different membership functions were evaluated, and it was revealed that using three functions, an R 2 {R^{2}} of 0.996 was obtained. The simulation results reveal that the BA concentration was changed along the membrane length and diffusional mass transfer is more significant in order to improve the separation efficiency of BA using membrane contactors. The developed hybrid simulation methodology is capable of design and optimization of membrane-based separation at low computational expenses and provides a predictive tool for process intensification.

Modelling ultrafiltration performance by integrating local (critical) fluxes along the membrane length

Despite the vast number of studies on the understanding and estimation of the permeate flux in ultrafiltration, most of them base their estimations on either one or another mechanism, without pointing out a clear ‘bridge’ between them. The aim of this paper is to assess these mechanisms on the determination of the permeate flux, using as feed a multicomponent mixture of BSA, NaCl and H2O.Maxwell-Stefan Equations expressed as function of the components' volume fractions were used for an easier consideration of the non-idealities of the system. These non-idealities (hydration, adsorption, electrical interactions and volume exclusion) were critical in the local fluxes calculation, for which an increase in the thickness of the boundary layer along the filtration channel was considered.The developed model proved to be suitable for the estimation of fluxes lower than the limiting flux. Since the non-idealities of the system can be calculated along the concentration polarization layer, no extra information on the protein diffusivity was needed. Additionally, the fact that the model includes all the components from the solution offers the possibility of including the rejection of the accompanying ions in the calculations.

Mobile extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for children: single-center 10 years' experience.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation has become a gold standard in treatment of severe refractory circulatory and/or pulmonary failure. Those procedures require gathering of competences and material. Therefore, they are conducted in a limited number of reference centers. Emergent need for such treatments induces either hazardous transfers or a mobile pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation team able to remote implantation and transportation. The aim of this work is not to focus on pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation outcomes or indications, which have been extensively discussed in the literature. This study would like to detail the implementation, safety, and feasibility, even in a middle-size pediatric cardiac surgery reference center. This is a retrospective analysis of a series of patients initiated on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in a peripheral center and transferred to a reference center. The data were collected from 10 consecutive years: from 2006 to 2016. A total of 57 pediatric patients with a median weight of 6.00 (3.2-14.5) kg and median age of 2.89 (0.11-37.63) months were cannulated in peripheral center and transported on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. We did not experience any adverse event during transport. The outcomes were comparable to our literature-reported on-site extracorporeal membrane oxygenation series with 42 patients (74%) weaned from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and a 30-day survival of 60%. Neither patient's age nor weight, indication for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or length of transport, was statistically significant in terms of outcomes. Offsite extracorporeal membrane oxygenation implantation and ground or air transport for pediatric patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation appeared to be safe when performed by a dedicated and experienced team, even within a mid-size center.