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ABSTRACTObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between upper airway morphology and the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with anatomically small retruded mandibles.MethodsFifty-two patients with small retruded mandibles underwent polysomnography and airway computed tomography. The airway morphology parameters and sleep assessment were compared between the patients with or without OSA.ResultsTwenty-eight patients diagnosed with OSA, according to polysomnography, had a higher distance between the hyoid bone and mandibular plane (HMP), lateral dimension (LAT)/anteroposterior dimension (AP), but lower minimum cross-sectional area (mCSA), AP, surface area, volume, avgCSA, and airway uniformity (U). The apnea-hypopnea index had negative correlations with mCSA, AP, surface area, volume, avgCSA, and U, and had a positive correlation with HMP and LAT/AP.ConclusionOSA is common among patients with small retruded mandibles and is associated with a more compressed upper airway shape and longer HMP.

This systematic review and meta‐analysis investigated the accuracy of prenatal fetal ultrasound (US) to detect cleft palate during the second and third trimester (12–36 weeks) of pregnancy in high‐risk fetuses. Pubmed and Embase databases were searched for studies that performed prenatal fetal US (comparator) and postnatal examination (reference standard) in fetuses at high risk for orofacial clefts. Risk of bias among included studies was assessed using the QUADAS‐2. Area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve and pooled sensitivity and specificity were calculated. This meta‐analysis included 7 studies involving 663 high‐risk fetuses. The individual studies showed that prenatal fetal US accurately predicted the possibility of cleft palate in these fetuses. Pooled sensitivity was 87% (95% CI 71%–95%), pooled specificity was 98% (95%CI 90%–100%), and the area under the SROC curve was 0.98 (95% CI 0.97–0.99). Second and third trimester fetal US has excellent sensitivity and specificity for the detection of cleft palate in high‐risk pregnancies. Access the CME test hereand search by article title.

Flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates are very promising to meet the needs for real-time and on-field detection in practical applications. However, high-performance flexible SERS substrates often suffer from complexity and high cost in fabrication, limiting their widespread applications. Herein, we developed a facile method to fabricate a flexible multicavity SERS substrate composed of a silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-decorated aluminum hydrous oxide nanoflake array (NFA) grown on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. Strong plasmon couplings promoted by multiple nanocavities afford high-density hotspots within such a flexible AgNPs@NFA/PDMS film, boosting high SERS sensitivity with an enhancement factor (EF) of ∼1.54 × 109, and a limit of detection (LOD) of ∼7.4 × 10–13M for rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules. Furthermore, benefiting from the high sensitivity, high mechanical stability, and transparency of this substrate, in situSERS detections of trace thiram and crystal violet (CV) molecules on the surface of cherry tomatoes and fish have been realized, with LODs much lower than the maximum allowable limit in food, demonstrating the great potential of such a flexible substrate in food safety monitoring. More importantly, the preparation processes are very simple and environmentally friendly, and the techniques involved are completely compatible with well-established silicon device technologies. Therefore, large-area fabrication with low cost can be readily realized, enabling the extensive applications of SERS sensors in daily life.

A 13.3‐in. 8K Oxide TFT‐LCD with Smart View driving was reported in this paper. Based on the high performance of Oxide TFT and advanced design rule, the transmittance could be improved 8% compared to traditional type. By Smart View driving, the logical power could be saved 20% on the 4K resolution compared with the 8K mode. The total power of 13.3‐in. 8K TFT‐LCD could be lower to 2.3W by Oxide technology. Meanwhile, the panel border could be reduced to 2.5mm because of the small TFT design.

We report a simple electrospinning method to fabricate polymer bottle microresonators, which are doped with a lasing gain material and supported by electrospun polymer micro/nanofibers on a flexible grooved polymer substrate. The fabricated bottle microresonators have smooth outer surfaces and high quality. By using an interference light pump approach, single whispering gallery mode lasing is obtained, with a side-mode suppression factor over 20 dB. By mechanically stretching the grooved substrate, tunability of the lasing peaks is demonstrated. Our method has the advantages of saving time and being low in cost and may have promising applications in stretchable lasing and sensing devices.

Charging compensation needs to be verified in 75inch oxide 8K4K 120Hz TV panel because pixel charging time is only 1.85us. To faster and cost less, a new method using 3.42inch panel to simulation 5 key positions is proposed. The charging ratio uniformity increases from 85% to 99% along data line direction.

Cell-derived exosomes (EXs) can modulate target cell differentiation via microRNAs (miRs) that they carried. Previous studies have shown that miR126 is highly expressed in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and plays a role in hematopoiesis via modulating the Notch pathway that participates in progenitors' cell fate decisions. In this study we investigated whether HSC-derived EXs (HSC-EXs) could affect the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into HSCs. We prepared HSC-EXscon, HSC-EXsscand HSC-EXsmiR126from control HSCs and the HSCs transfected with scramble control or miR126 mimics, respectively. HSC-EXs were isolated by ultracentrifugation and analyzed using nanoparticle tracking analysis. We incubated the collected EXs with mouse ESCs over a 10-d differentiation induction period, during which HSC-EXs and a Notch pathway activator (Jagged1, 100 ng/mL) were added to the cultures every 3 d. After the 10-d differentiation period, the expression levels of miR126, SSEA1, CD117, Sca1, Notch1 and Hes1 in ESCs were assessed. The generated HSCs were validated by flow cytometry using antibodies against HSC markers (CD117, CD34 and Sca1). Our results revealed that: (1) transfection with miR126 mimics significantly increased miR126 levels in HSC-EXsmiR126. (2) HSC-EX co-culture promoted mouse ESCs differentiation into HSCs with the most prominent effect found in the HSC-EXsmiR126co-culture. (3) HSC differentiation was verified by reduced SSEA1 expression and increased CD117 and Sca1 expression. (4) All the effects caused by HSC-EXs were accompanied by significant reduction of Notch1 and Hes1 expression, thus inhibition of the Notch1/Hes1 pathway, whereas activation of Notch by Jagged1 abolished the effects of HSC-EXsmiR126. In conclusion, HSC-EXs promote hematopoietic differentiation of mouse ESCs in vitro by inhibiting the miR126/Notch1 pathway.

In this article, we formulate an efficient and accurate numerical method for approximations of the coupled Schrödinger–Boussinesq (SBq) system. The main features of our method are based on: (i) the applications of a time-splitting Fourier spectral method for Schrödinger-like equation in SBq system, (ii) the utilizations of exponential wave integrator Fourier pseudospectral for spatial derivatives in the Boussinesq-like equation. The scheme is fully explicit and efficient due to fast Fourier transform. The numerical examples are presented to show the efficiency and accuracy of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open-circuit voltage (VOC) in a generic TCO/buffer/absorber/back-contact thin-film solar cell device is a key parameter in the recombination analysis. In particular, VOC is sensitively influenced by the interface recombination at the buffer/absorber front interface and at the absorber/back-contact interface. This paper reports the temperature, excitation light intensity, and wavelength-dependent open-circuit voltage analysis to separate and quantify recombination rates in solar cells at the front and back interfaces, in the depletion regions, and in the quasi-neutral region. The wavelength-dependent VOC analysis is exploited to extract the absorber/back-contact recombination coefficient. The experimentally observed results are verified using SCAPS-1D (one dimensional-a solar cell capacitance simulator) simulation.

Enhancing coal permeability by adopting chemical solvents treatment is one of the most effective methods to improve coalbed methane production efficiency in deep coal reservoirs with low permeability. However, coal pores and permeability variation characteristics affected by chemical solvents is not quantitatively determined. In this study, after being treated with carbon disulfide (CS2), acetone (C3H6O) and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP), changes in coal ultrasonic characteristics were investigated. Relationship between ultrasonic parameter variations and coal fracture development was revealed. Meanwhile, through adopting nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and permeability testing equipment, coal pore structure, porosity and permeability changes were studied. Results show that after treated by three chemical solvents, ultrasonic velocity in coal reduces by 7.7%–51.2%, while ultrasonic attenuation coefficient increases by 4.22dB/m-123.8 dB/m, indicating that coal fractures experience good development. Moreover, NMR signal quantity of treated coal under saturated state rises significantly, with big growth in mesopore and macropore peaks. Compared with NMP and acetone, CS2-treated coal porosity experiences the maximum increase of 7.71%, while the corresponding permeability growth is also the largest of 69.565 × 10−15m2. Permeability changes obtained from NMP calculation model is basically consistent with that acquired by lab measurement. Furthermore, changes in extraction rate, ultrasonic parameters, pore fracture characteristics and permeability results of solvent-treated coal are mutually consistent. This verifies that chemical solvents could dissolve molecular substances in coal, effectively increase primary fractures and change small pores to mesopores and macropores, as well as improving pore connectivity. As a result, coalbed methane extraction performance is expected to be enhanced due to increased coal permeability.

In this paper, we introduce a novel photo spacer (PS) structure to address the PS scratching mura on FFS mode. By precise adjustment of relative position of Sub PS and metal Stage in array glass, the PS mura is completely prevented. We put forward prediction model and conducted experiments to test the effectiveness of the scheme.

A new high-precision method to orient the ultrasonic linear array signals was proposed in this paper. First, the FastICA algorithm was used to de-noise the ultrasonic linear array signals; then the TCT algorithm is used to focus the ultrasonic linear array signals to greatest extent to cumulate the position information of broadband signals, the FastDOA is used to estimate the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of focused narrowband signals to speed up the calculation after focusing; Then, the application of partial discharge detection using this method was studied, the estimated accuracy of the method was simulated with different SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio) at first, the results show that the errors of DOA were about 2°;At last, the results from some experiments show that the errors were about 3.5°, which indicates that this estimation method is with a good accuracy.

Large power transformers as the the hub of power system equipment, its operation reliability directly related to the security and stability of the power system. When we have to make a more comprehensive and accurate judgment for running health status of the power transformer,we must get the characteristics of the transformer state. In this paper, we can pick out representative indicators from the existing power transformers deterioration state elements. Thereby, we can study more systematic and targeted the deteriorated state of the power transformer. Keywords: power transformers; deterioration state ;evaluation

The independency between two attribute subsets can be verified based on Chi square statistic to reduce candidate sets. Based on this measure, heuristic algorithm employing information entropy for reduction of decision systems is presented by combining rough sets and statistics. And the validity of this algorithm is analyzed.

UV curable 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate MPTMS modified silica hybrid coating was prepared through sol-gel process from TEOS and MPTMS in acid medium for different ratios between TEOS and MPTMS. The structure of the hybrid coating and the formation of inorganic-organic hybrid networks were studied by FT-IR. It was found that the organic networks were formed by the polymerization of C=C bonds at 1638 cm-1. The influences of the photoinitiator content and the curing time on the curing degree of the mixture system were investigated. The results showed that the optimal photoinitiator content was 3%, and curing time was 180 s. The thermal stability of the UV cured coating was investigated by TG-DTA. The results showed that the contents of low-molecular compounds such as H2O, CH3OH, etc. were decreased in cured coatings with the increasing of the MPTMS concentration, thus significantly decreasing of the thermal weight-loss at temperature lower than 400℃.

The phenol-melamine-urea-formaldehyde (PMUF) cocondensed resin adhesive was prepared by using phenol, urea, melamine and formaldehyde as reactants. It was characterized by 13C NMR and the results indicated that the PMUF could reduce the content of free formaldehyde, and it could make wood-based panel with high water resistance and weatherability. Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) was able to shorten the curing time by 40% when applied to the plywood process. The addition of Na2CO3 as the curing accelerator of a PMUF had little influence on the bonding strength of waterproof layer and could shorten the hot-press time.

A molecular beam mass spectrometry system for in situmeasurement of the concentration of gas phase species including radicals impinging on a substrate during thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition (TPCVD) has been designed and constructed. Dynamically controlled substrate temperature was achieved using a variable thermal contact resistance method via a backside flow of an argon/helium mixture. A high quality molecular beam with beam‐to‐background signal greater than 20 was obtained under film growth conditions by sampling through a small nozzle (75 μm) in the center of the substrate. Mass discrimination effects were accounted for in order to quantify the species measurements. We demonstrate that this system has a minimum detection limit of under 100 ppb. Quantitative measurements of hydrocarbon species (H, H2, C, CH3, CH4, C2H2, C2H4) using Ar/H2/CH4mixtures and silicon species (Si, SiH, SiH2, SiCl, SiCl2, Cl, HCl) using Ar/H2/SiCl4mixtures were obtained under thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition conditions.

The crystal structures of diamagnetic (methanol)(N-p-nitrobenzoylimido-meso-tetraphenylporphyrinato)zinc(ii) methanol solvate Zn(N-p-NCOC₆H₄NO₂-tpp)(MeOH)·MeOH [or 4(MeOH)·MeOH] and paramagnetic chloro(N-p-nitrobenzoylimido-meso-tetraphenylporphyrinato)iron(iii) Fe(N-p-NCOC₆H₄NO₂-tpp)Cl (5), were determined. Both are pentacoordinate complexes where the p-nitrobenzoylimido (NNB) moiety is inserted into a zinc–pyrrole (or iron–pyrrole) bond. The coordination geometry of the zinc (or iron) center is best described as a distorted trigonal bipyramid with the N(2), N(5), and O(4) [or N(2), N(5), and Cl(1)] atoms lying in the equatorial plane. The plane of the three pyrrole nitrogen atoms [i.e., N(1), N(2) and N(3)] strongly bonded to Zn2+ in 4(MeOH)·MeOH (or Fe3+ in 5) is adopted as a reference plane, 3N. The porphyrin ring is severely distorted and the pyrrole ring N(4) is bonded to the NNB ligand making a dihedral angle of 30.0° (or 27.8°) with the 3N plane for 4(MeOH)·MeOH (or 5). Solid state magnetic susceptibility and the effective magnetic moment data were measured for 5 from 300 to 5 K. In the higher temperature range (T > 50 K), the effective magnetic moment is constant and is equal to 5.87 μ_B. This μ_eff value confirms that there is a high-spin ferric (S = 5/2) state for the iron atom in 5. The g values of 9.5 ± 0.4, 4.2 and 1.1 measured from X-band EPR spectra were also consistent with a high-spin ferric iron in 5. The magnitude of zero field splitting, D, and the rhombicity parameter, λ (= E/D), in 5 were determined approximately as 0.79 cm−1 and 0.29, respectively, by EPR spectroscopy and paramagnetic susceptibility measurements.

Statement of problem.When inexperienced clinicians perform class II composite restorations, improper placement techniques can lead to problems, including marginal adaptation and void formation. Purpose.The aim of this study was to determine the influence of flowable composite linings on marginal microleakage and internal voids in class II composite restorations performed by practitioners with different levels of experience. Material and methods.Eighty extracted molars were prepared with mesial and distal class II cavity preparations and divided into 4 groups. Each group was restored separately with the following materials: Prodigy/Revolution lining (group I), Prodigy (group II), Tetric Ceram/Tetric Flow lining (group III), and Tetric Ceram (group IV). Each group was equally divided and restored by 2 practitioners, one experienced and another untrained in composite restorations. After restoration, all teeth were stored for 24 hours, thermocycled (at 5°C to 60°C) 1500 times, and soaked in 2% basic Fuchsin dye for 24 hours. After soaking, the teeth were sectioned, and gingival marginal microleakage and internal voids (at the gingival wall interface and in the cervical and the occlusal parts) were recorded. Data were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results.There was no significant reduction in microleakage for either practitioner. There were fewer interface voids within pairs with or without flowable composite linings made by the experienced practitioner (P<.05). Conclusion.When flowable composite lining was placed at the gingival floor of a class II composite restoration by an experienced practitioner, voids in the restored interface were reduced. Gingival marginal sealing was not improved by the same technique. (J Prosthet Dent 2001;85:177-83.)

In this work, we determine the crystal structure of dimethoxo(meso-tetra(4-methoxyphenylporphyrinato))tin(IV), Sn(tmpp)(OMe)2(1). Experimental results indicate that the tin atom has an octahedral geometry. The geometry around the tin center has Sn(1)–O(5) = 2.020(6), Sn(1)–O(6) = 2.003(7) Å and an average Sn(1)–N = 2.10(1) Å. The two methoxo groups are unidentately coordinated to the tin(IV) atom. Two-stage hydrolysis of Sn(tmpp)(OMe)2in CDCl3was observed by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Compound (1) crystallizes in the space group P21/nwith a= 14.7492(1), b= 19.2022(3), c= 16.0806(2) Å, β = 94.104(1)°, and Z= 4.

The new compound benzoato meso-tetra(4-methoxyphenylporphyrinato)thallium(III), Tl(tmpp)(C6H5CO2), has been synthesized and its molecular structure determined by X-ray analysis. The coordination sphere of the Tl3+ ion is an approximate square-based pyramid in which the apical site is occupied by an asymmetric-bidentate C6H5CO2− group. The average Tl-N bond distance is 2.24(1)A˚and the Tl atom is displaced 0.811A˚from porphyrin plane. The Tl(1)-O(5) and Tl(1)-O(6) distances are 2.57(2) and 2.27(2)A˚, respectively. Variable temperature 13C NMR measurements show that the benzoato group of Tl(tmpp)(C6H5CO2) in CD2Cl2 solvent undergoes intramolecular exchange. In the slow exchange region, the carbonyl and C1″ carbons of the benzoato group are separately located at 167.8 ppm [with 2J (Tl-13C) coupling constant 212 Hz] and 128.3 ppm [with 3J (Tl-13C) coupling constant 282 Hz] for T1 (tmpp)(C6H5CO2) in CD2Cl2 at −90°C. In the fast exchange region, the C*OO and C1″ carbons of the C6H5CO2− ligand in CD2Cl2 at 21°C are singlets at 168.4 and 130.3 ppm, respectively. The comparison of the ring current effect (Δδ) for the benzoate ligand of Tl(tmpp)(C6H5CO2) and benzoato meso-tetra(4-methoxyphenylporphyrinto)tin(IV), Sn(tmpp)(C6H5CO2)2, is also reported.

We present a new ADS pixel design base on BPS (Black Post Spacer) on array technology to improve transmittance and save to cost. By putting BPS above data line, light leakage caused by data electric field was prevented, leading to higher transmittance in 8k application. In this paper, we studied key parameter and the optical performance of the new pixel design.

We demonstrate an effective approach of mode suppression by simply using a tungsten probe to destroy the external neck surface of polymer microbottle resonators. The higher-order bottle modes with large axial orders, spatially located around the neck surface of the microresonator, will suffer large optical losses. Thus, excitation just with an ordinary free-space light beam will ensure direct generation of single fundamental bottle mode lasers. This method is with very low cost and convenient and can obtain high side-mode suppression factors. Our work demonstrated here may have promising applications such as in lasing and sensing devices.

In this paper, we present a new differential multiple-time-programmable (MTP) memory cell with a novel slot contact coupling structure in the fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) CMOS process. This MTP cell contains a pair of floating metal gates to store differential data on a single cell. Through differential read operations, the cells are less susceptible to read error caused by cell-to-cell variations. In a nano-scaled FinFET process, the gate dielectric layer becomes too thin to retain charge in the floating gates for long periods of time. Differential cell design further extends the data lifetime, even with the serious charge-loss problem, and reduces the overall intellectual property (IP) area.

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