ObjectiveTo investigate condylar bone density (BD) in children with craniofacial microsomia (CFM) and identify factors that contribute to early stage condylar resorption (CR) after mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO).DesignRetrospective study.SettingCraniofacial department of a plastic surgery hospital.PatientsFifty-one children with CFM classified as Pruzansky IIa based on complete pre-(T0) and post-MDO (T1) computed tomography (CT) data.Intervention and Main outcome measurementsMimic 21.0 (Materialise Inc., Belgium) was used to measure bilateral BD and condylar height (CH) and volume (CV) of...

ObjectivesWhile surgeries to correct the anatomical malformations that cause nasal airway obstruction (NAO) are generally successful, the outcomes of such procedures are often unsatisfactory. The aim of the present study was to assess the value of opening the middle meatus in patients with NAO.MethodsThirty-four patients with nasal obstruction due to nasal septal deviation were included in this study. After randomization, the middle meatus was either opened or not opened during septoplasty. The patients were evaluated...

The purpose of this study was to explore the sex difference and effects of blood pressure (BP) on the relationship between serum uric acid (SUA) and carotid plaque in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). This large multicenter retrospective study included 12099 patients with CHD (aged 35–75 years) between January 1, 2014 and September 30, 2020. Patients were divided into three groups according to systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), and the SUA levels...

According to the statistical results of the reciprocating compressor maintenance in chemical enterprises, the probability of faults caused by wear or damage of vulnerable parts inside the cylinder is close to 80%. Now, fault diagnosis of vulnerable parts inside the cylinder is relied on vibration signal, acoustic emission signal, or thermal parameters. However, it is difficult to extract eigenvalues from vibration signals and acoustic emission signals, which can be disturbed by noise easily. Thermal parameters...

In this study, cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet was adopted to glass fibers surface modification with tetraethyl orthosilicate as a precursor. To enhance the interfacial bonding forces of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GFRP) composites, SiOx nanoparticles were polymerized on the fiber surfaces. The effect of two factors (the distance between nozzle and fiber (D) and the treatment time (T)) on the interfacial bonding behavior of GFRP composites was studied. The modified fibers and composites properties,...

Post-stroke depression exacerbates neurologic deficits and quality of life. Depression after ischemic stroke is known to some extent. However, depression after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is relatively unknown. Increasing evidence shows that exposure to an enriched environment (EE) after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury has neuroprotective effects in animal models, but its impact after ICH is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of EE on long-term functional outcomes in mice subjected to collagenase-induced striatal ICH. Mice...

Tunable ring resonators are essential devices in integrated circuits. Compared to conventional ring resonators, valley photonic crystal (VPC) ring resonators have a compact design and high quality factor (Q-factor), attracting broad attention. However, tunable VPC ring resonators haven't been demonstrated. Here we theoretically demonstrate the first tunable VPC ring resonator, the resonance peaks of which are tuned by controlling the temperature based on the thermal-optic effect of silicon. The design is ultracompact (12.05 µm by...

Although structural colors based on nanostructures have attracted many researchers’ attentions due to their superior durability and high resolution, most previous reports focused on the static and dynamic structural colors in reflection mode and few researchers focus on the static and dynamic transmission colors for high-saturation RGB models. Here, the hybrid Al-Si3N4 nanogratings with the top SiO2 capping layer and the bottom MgF2 layer that can switch full-hue and high-saturation transmitted structural colors on and...

Here, we experimentally demonstrate quantum coherent superposition of two different birthplaces of a four-photon state, where multi-photon frustrated interference emerges from the quantum indistinguishability by path identity. The quantum state is created in four probabilistic photon-pair sources on one integrated silicon photonic chip, two combinations of which can create photon quadruplets. Coherent elimination and revival of distributed four-photons are fully controlled by tuning phases. The experiment gives rise to peculiar quantum interference of two possible...

This article focus on derive the process-structure-property relationship of Poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) fibers prepared by two-step melt spinning process. The spinning temperature, spinning rate, drawing temperature as well as draw ratio were studied to analyze the influence of process variables on the structure and properties of PLLA fibers. It suggests that the crystallinity, lamellar orientation structure and mechanical properties of fibers are dependent on the spinning conditions, including melt-spinning and hot-drawing process. An approximate linear correlation...

This article focus on derive the process-structure-property relationship of Poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) fibers prepared by two-step melt spinning process. The spinning temperature, spinning rate, drawing temperature as well as draw ratio were studied to analyze the influence of process variables on the structure and properties of PLLA fibers. It suggests that the crystallinity, lamellar orientation structure and mechanical properties of fibers are dependent on the spinning conditions, including melt-spinning and hot-drawing process. An approximate linear correlation...

We aim to evaluate the marginal effects of covariates on time-to-disability in the elderly under the semi-competing risks framework, as death dependently censors disability, not vice versa. It becomes particularly challenging when time-to-disability is subject to interval censoring due to intermittent assessments. A left truncation issue arises when the age time scale is applied. We develop a flexible two-parameter copula-based semiparametric transformation model for semi-competing risks data subject to interval censoring and left truncation. The...

The biotoxicity caused by focus releasing of Ag, which associated with the Ag loading mode, is a problematic issue that need to be solved for practical utilization of the keratin based wound dressing. In this study, keratin/AgNPs blend scaffolds (Ker/Ag) and keratin scaffolds with AgNPs attached on the scaffold’s wall surface (Ag@Ker) were prepared. Structure and physical properties of the scaffolds were tested and investigated. In comparison to the Ag@Ker scaffolds, the Ker/Ag scaffolds with...

Here, we experimentally demonstrate quantum coherent superposition of two different birthplaces of a four-photon state, where multi-photon frustrated interference emerges from the quantum indistinguishability by path identity. The quantum state is created in four probabilistic photon-pair sources on one integrated silicon photonic chip, two combinations of which can create photon quadruplets. Coherent elimination and revival of distributed four-photons are fully controlled by tuning phases. The experiment gives rise to peculiar quantum interference of two possible...

The authors develop an attribute-based mixed-membership model of consumers’ preference for stockkeeping units in store assortments. The model represents the underlying “topics of interest” that drive shopping behaviors as probability distributions over product attributes. It overcomes several limitations of latent Dirichlet allocation topic models and is particularly useful for making preference predictions in large and frequently changing store assortments. The authors apply the proposed model to investigate topics driving browsing and purchase activities in an...

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are the 4th plant supplemental lighting source. Pulsed lighting is benefit to increase energy utilization efficiency in greenhouse production. A pulsed-lighting LED luminaire with geometrical optical solution is proposed to overcome the shortcoming with pulse width modulation (PWM) solution. In addition, this luminaire also achieves uniform lighting by designing freeform surfaces. In the illumination area, the lighting frequency is 117.6 Hz and the illuminance uniformity is 0.789, which is better than 0.75...

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are the 4th plant supplemental lighting source. Pulsed lighting is benefit to increase energy utilization efficiency in greenhouse production. A pulsed-lighting LED luminaire with geometrical optical solution is proposed to overcome the shortcoming with pulse width modulation (PWM) solution. In addition, this luminaire also achieves uniform lighting by designing freeform surfaces. In the illumination area, the lighting frequency is 117.6 Hz and the illuminance uniformity is 0.789, which is better than 0.75...

Non-reciprocal optical components such as isolators and circulators are crucial for preventing catastrophic back-reflection and controlling optical crosstalk in photonic systems. While non-reciprocal devices based on Brillouin intermodal transitions have been experimentally demonstrated in chip-scale platforms, harnessing such interactions has required a suspended waveguide structure, which is challenging to fabricate and is potentially less robust than a non-suspended structure, thereby limiting the design flexibility. In this paper, we numerically investigate the performance of a Brillouin-based...

Objective quantification of photoreceptor cell morphology, such as cell diameter and outer segment length, is crucial for early, accurate, and sensitive diagnosis and prognosis of retinal neurodegenerative diseases. Adaptive optics optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) provides three-dimensional (3-D) visualization of photoreceptor cells in the living human eye. The current gold standard for extracting cell morphology from AO-OCT images involves the tedious process of 2-D manual marking. To automate this process and extend to 3-D analysis of...

Optical temperature sensing of the non-thermally coupled energy levels (N-TCLs) based on fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technologies has excellent temperature sensitivity and signal recognition properties. In this study, a novel strategy is established to enhance the low-temperature sensing properties by controlling photochromic reaction process in Na0.5Bi2.5Ta2O9: Er/Yb samples. The maximum relative sensitivity reaches up to 5.99% K-1 at cryogenic temperature of 153 K. After irradiation with commercial laser of 405 nm for 30 s, the...

BackgroundWe aimed to investigate the determinant factors of anti-PD-1 therapy outcome in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).MethodsIn this retrospective study, we included 64 patients with recurrent/metastatic NPC. The association of patients’ characteristics, C-reactive protein (CRP), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) with survival benefit of anti-PD-1 therapy were analyzed using Cox regression models and Kaplan-Meier analyses. Patients were divided based on the median value of CRP, NLR or LDH into different subgroups.ResultsAt a median...

ObjectiveOsteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent joint disease characterized by the degeneration of articular cartilage and the remodeling of its underlying bones, resulting in pain and loss of function in the knees and hips. As far as we know, no curative treatments are available except for the joint replacement. The precise molecular mechanisms which are involved in the degradation of cartilage matrix and development of osteoarthritis are still unclear.DesignBy analyzing RNA-seq data, we found the...

Background:Current studies on the role of sex in the prognosis of acute vertebrobasilar artery occlusion (VBAO) are limited. We aimed to explore whether there are sex differences on outcomes in patients treated with endovascular therapy (EVT) for VBAO.Methods:Patients from December 2015 to December 2018 with acute VBAO within 24 h of the estimated occlusion time in 21 stroke centers in China were retrospectively analyzed. Baseline data between sexes were compared in the total population cohort...

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a fatal malignancy in the human abdominal cavity that prefers to invade the surrounding nerve/nerve plexus and even the spine, causing devastating and unbearable pain. The limitation of available in vitro models restricts revealing the molecular mechanism of pain and screening pain-relieving strategies to improve the quality of life of end-stage PC patients. Here, we report a PC nerve invasion model that merged human brain organoids (hBrO) with mouse PC organoids...

BackgroundThe anatomical positioning of the graft during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is of great significance for restoring normal knee kinematics and preventing early joint degeneration. Therefore, the adjustment of the mispositioned guide pin becomes extremely important. Our research aims to test the time-zero biomechanical properties in adjusting inaccurate guide pins to the center of the tibial footprint in anatomical anterior cruciate ligament single-bundle reconstruction.MethodsPorcine tibias and bovine extensor tendons were used to simulate a...