Influence of staff number and internal constellation on surgical site infection in an operating room

Prediction of bacteria-carrying particle (BCP) dispersion and particle distribution released from staff members in an operating room (OR) is very important for creating and sustaining a safe indoor environment. Postoperative wound infections cause significant morbidity and mortality, and contribute to increased hospitalization time. Increasing the number of personnel within the OR disrupts the ventilation airflow pattern and causes enhanced contamination risk in the area of an open wound. Whether the amount of staff within the OR influences the BCP distribution in the surgical zone has rarely been investigated. This study was conducted to explore the influence of the number of personnel in the OR on the airflow field and the BCP distribution. This was performed by applying a numerical calculation to map the airflow field and Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) for the BCP phase. The results are reported both for active sampling and passive monitoring approaches. Not surprisingly, a growing trend in the BCP concentration (cfu/m³) was observed as the amount of staff in the OR increased. Passive sampling shows unpredictable results due to the sedimentation rate, especially for small particles (5–10 μm). Risk factors for surgical site infections (SSIs) must be well understood to develop more effective prevention programs.     

Equilibrium analysis for a mass-conserving model in presence of cavitation

We study the existence of equilibrium positions for the load problem in Lubrication Theory. The problem consists of two surfaces in relative motion separated by a small distance filled by a lubricant. The system is described by the modified Reynolds equation (Elrod–Adams model) which describes the behavior of the lubricant and an extra integral equation given the balance of forces. The balance of forces allows to obtain the unknown position of the surfaces, defined with one degree of freedom.     

SPH方法研究空气在平板入水中的影响

飞机水上迫降以及船体在高速行驶时,均会发生结构物砰击水面的现象,当结构物底面较为平坦,砰击水面时会捕获空气,在板底形成空气垫。研究空气垫的形成及影响,有助于对结构物进行更准确的载荷分析。该问题的研究涉及到气固液三相的相互作用,在数值模拟中仍是一个挑战,本文使用光滑粒子流体动力学(SPH)方法对该问题进行模拟。首先,与实验结果进行对比;其次,系统地研究了平板形成空气垫以及砰击水面的过程,考查了空气、水和平板的动能变化。对比了在SPH模拟中考虑空气与不考虑空气得到的水压力场和平板所受压力,说明了空气对结果的影响;最后,研究了平板宽度对空气垫形成的影响,从而进一步影响加速度。     

A moving particle semi‐implicit method for free surface flow: Improvement in inter‐particle force stabilization and consistency restoring

The moving particle semi‐implicit (MPS) method has been widely applied in free surface flows. However, the implementation of MPS remains limited because of compressive instability occurred when the particles are under compressive stress states. This study proposed an inter‐particle force stabilization and consistency restoring MPS (IFS‐CR‐MPS) method to overcome this numerical instability. For inter‐particle force stabilization, a hyperbolic‐shaped quintic kernel function is developed with a non‐negative and smooth second order derivative to satisfy the stability criterion under compressive stress state. Then, a contrastive study is conducted on the contradiction between the common understanding of the conventional MPS hyperbolic‐shaped kernel function and its performance. The result shows that the conventional MPS hyperbolic‐shaped kernel function can easily cause violent repulsive inter‐particle force and then lead to the compressive instability. Therefore, the first order derivative of the modified hyperbolic‐shaped quintic kernel function is recommended as the form of the contribution of the neighbor particles to achieve a more stable inter‐particle repulsive force. For consistency restoring, the Taylor series expansion and the hyperbolic‐shaped quintic kernel are combined to improve the accuracy of the viscosity and pressure calculation. The IFS‐CR‐MPS algorithm is subsequently verified by the inviscid hydrostatic pressure, jet impacting, and viscous droplet impacting problems. These results can be used for choosing kernel function and the contribution of neighbor particles in particle methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

冷冻电镜技术——2017年诺贝尔化学奖介绍

介绍了2017年诺贝尔化学奖的3位获得者在冷冻电镜领域的主要贡献，同时介绍了冷冻电镜技术的用途、一般工作流程和其局限性，以及中国学者在冷冻电镜技术应用研究中的贡献。     

托卡马克中局域磁扰动引起的高能量离子损失研究

基于单粒子导心运动代码ORBIT，采用测试粒子模拟方法，研究了托卡马克等离子体内部不同径向位置处局域磁场扰动对高能量离子的损失的影响。研究表明，在局域磁扰动主要分布在某磁面附近、其环向具有类似纹波场形式下，可造成一些靠近等离子体中心区域的高能量离子损失，但对靠近等离子边界的离子损失影响相对不大。这些损失的高能量离子均为捕获离子，离子的投掷角越大就越容易损失。此外，造成高能量离子最大损失率的局域场径向位置与这些损失离子的初始径向位置通常存在一定的偏移，而且这个偏移与这些离子的能量密切相关。当局域场出现在某些位置时，能量较低的离子会有一定的损失，能量较高的离子反而不会损失。     

Application of the finite point method to high‐Reynolds number compressible flow problems

In this work, the finite point method is applied to the solution of high‐Reynolds compressible viscous flows. The aim is to explore this important field of applications focusing on two main aspects: the easiness and automation of the meshless discretization of viscous layers and the construction of a robust numerical approximation in the highly stretched clouds of points resulting in such domain areas. The flow solution scheme adopts an upwind‐biased scheme to solve the averaged Navier–Stokes equations in conjunction with an algebraic turbulence model. The numerical applications presented involve different attached boundary layer flows and are intended to show the performance of the numerical technique. The results obtained are satisfactory and indicative of the possibilities to extend the present meshless technique to more complex flow problems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis and optical nondestructive evaluation of GaN nanorods on silicon surfaces with gold catalyst

Nanometric gallium-nitride rods were grown on a silicon (1 1 1) substrate through a chemical vapor deposition process with gold particles as the catalyst. Randomly distributed gallium-nitride rods of 20–200 nm in diameter and of various densities and lengths were formed under different deposition conditions. Characterization analyses, such as scanning electron microscopy and optical reflection spectroscopy, have been carried out on samples containing gallium-nitride rods different in size, shape, length and density. While the scanning electron microscopy shows directly the images of the sample surfaces, the optical spectroscopy provides a nondestructive evaluation of the sample surfaces, especially helpful for checking the uniformity of the samples.