The combination of Moebius and Poland anomalies is rarely described in the literature. While some authors believe this association is an independent syndrome, others think that Poland, Moebius and Poland-Moebius syndromes are variations of the same condition. We report a case of Poland-Moebius syndrome in a 6-year-old girl who presented with bilateral convergent strabismus, the inability to abduct her eyes beyond the midline and brachydactyly of her right hand. Oral manifestations included incompetent lips and an abnormal tongue. Other facial features included hypoplasia of her mandible and her left ear at a slightly lower level than her right ear. Panoramic and lateral skull radiographs confirmed the absence of certain teeth and the hypoplastic mandible. The diagnosis of Poland-Moebius syndrome was made on the basis of cranial nerve involvement and oro-facial manifestations.

This article reports the preparation and characterization of orange oil/water nanoemulsions stabilized by commercial nonionic surfactants based on ethoxylated lauryl ether (Ultrol line), by the phase inversion temperature (PIT) method. The orange oil/surfactant/water dispersions were prepared at different HLB values, by varying the concentrations of the surfactants as well as the concentration of the oil phase. The stability of the o/w nanoemulsions and the size distribution of the dispersed particles in these systems in general depended on the concentration of the oil phase used: the emulsions prepared with an oil phase of 14 wt% had smaller droplet size in the dispersed phase than the emulsions prepared in the presence of oil phases of 20 and 30 wt%. The nanoemulsions prepared with pure surfactants were more stable in the presence of Ultrol L60, but the surfactants' cloud point had a strong influence on the stability of the emulsions formed when this was very near room temperature. Because of this, we prepared systems containing mixtures of surfactants. Among these systems, the most stable nanoemulsions were those prepared with a Ultrol L100/Ultrol L20 mixture with HLB of 12.40. This behavior can be attributed to the complete solubilization in mixed micelles of the more hydrophobic surfactant.

During extraction of crude oil, water is generally present in the oil. This water-in-oil (w/o) mixture undergoes turbulent flow that promotes sheer forces, resulting in the appearance of emulsions. These emulsions can be highly stable due to the presence of compounds with polar characteristics such as asphaltenes, which act as natural emulsifiers and form resistant films at the oil-water interface. Nonionic surfactants based on polyoxides are widely used to prevent the formation or to break down w/o emulsions. To shed more light on the destabilization mechanism of w/o emulsions promoted by these surfactants, in this study the techniques of tensiometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) were applied to study the interface formed by poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide) (PEO-PPO) block copolymers and asphaltenic petroleum fractions. Initially, the critical micelle concentration of the copolymers in aqueous solution was determined. The results agreed with those found by tensiometry. The bottle test was used to evaluate the break-down of the w/o emulsions in the presence of the PEO-PPO block copolymers, and the results presented good agreement with those obtained by tensiometry and FTIR-ATR.

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