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Objective: The study addresses whether the growth of the nasal dorsum is disturbed by cleft treatments, for cleft lip only (CL) and cleft lip with cleft palate (CLP). Design: A total of 576 patients with cleft (278 CL, 298 CLP) and 333 individuals without orofacial clefts were retrospectively enrolled. Cleft lip only group was treated with a modified Millard technique combined with Tajima incision for rhinoplasty at 3 to 6 months. The CLP group underwent the same lip repair technique and then underwent a Sommerlad palatoplasty at 9 to 12 months. Lateral cephalometric radiographs of all individuals were taken to evaluate the nasal length and nasal dorsum height. Dunn test was used to analyze the difference ( P < .001). Results: Compared with control, in CL, nasal bone angle and nasal dorsum angle increase by age similarly (5-18 years, P > .05); the total dorsum is significantly shorter (5-18 years, P < .001), while the upper nasal dorsum length is similar (except in 5-6 years), and the lower nasal dorsum is shorter (5-18 years, P < .001). In CLP, nasal bone angle develops insufficiently as children grow (8-18 years, P < .001); the nasal dorsum angle is notably smaller (5-18 years, P < .001); nasal bone length is not significantly different except 11 to 13 years ( P < .05); nasal dorsal length is similar at skeletal maturity (17-18 years, P > .05), although it is shorter during 8 to 16 years ( P < .05); the upper nasal dorsum is overdeveloped (14-18 years, P < .05), whereas the lower nasal dorsum is underdeveloped (5-18 years, P < .001). Conclusion: Treatments in both CL and CLP could be the important factors in disturbing the growth of cartilaginous portion of the nasal dorsum (including nasal tip) and the nasal dorsum height.

Due to their designable properties, microstructural materials have emerged as an important class of materials that have the potential for used in a variety of applications. The design of such materials is challenged by the multifunctionality requirements and various constraints stemmed from manufacturing limitations and other practical considerations. Traditional design methods such as those based on topological optimization techniques rely heavily on high-dimensional physical simulations and can be inefficient. In addition, it is difficult to impose geometrical constraints in those methods. In this work, we propose a deep learning model based on deep convolutional generative adversarial network (DCGAN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) for the design of microstructural materials. The DCGAN is used to generate design candidates that satisfy geometrical constraints and the CNN is used as a surrogate model to link the microstructure to its properties. Once trained, the two networks are combined to form the design network which is utilized to for the inverse design. The advantages of the method include its high efficiency and the simplicity in handling geometrical constraints. In addition, no high-dimensional sensitivity simulations are required. The performance of the method is demonstrated on the design of microstructural materials with desired compliance tensor, subject to specified geometrical constraints.

Purpose The precise segmentation of brain tumors is the most important and crucial step in their diagnosis and treatment. Due to the presence of noise, uneven gray levels, blurred boundaries and edema around the brain tumor region, the brain tumor image has indistinct features in the tumor region, which pose a problem for diagnostics. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors propose an original solution for segmentation using Tamura Texture and ensemble Support Vector Machine (SVM) structure. In the proposed technique, 124 features of each voxel are extracted, including Tamura texture features and grayscale features. Then, these features are ranked using the SVM-Recursive Feature Elimination method, which is also adopted to optimize the parameters of the Radial Basis Function kernel of SVMs. Finally, the bagging random sampling method is utilized to construct the ensemble SVM classifier based on a weighted voting mechanism to classify the types of voxel. Findings The experiments are conducted over a sample data set to be called BraTS2015. The experiments demonstrate that Tamura texture is very useful in the segmentation of brain tumors, especially the feature of line-likeness. The superior performance of the proposed ensemble SVM classifier is demonstrated by comparison with single SVM classifiers as well as other methods. Originality/value The authors propose an original solution for segmentation using Tamura Texture and ensemble SVM structure.

components of input current, 1 U is effective value of fundamental component of input AC voltage, is deformation factor of input current, 1  is the angel between the input AC voltage and fundamental component of the input current. It is clear that the power factor PF is determined by  and 1  . The bigger the 1  , the bigger the reactive power is, the bigger the wastage of conductive line wire and transformer is. The smaller the  , the bigger the input current harmonics of is, which will cause current distortion, produce pollution to electric grid, and even damage the electric equipments if condition is serious.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of postoperative fistula formation from a hybrid cleft palate repair compared to that from two well-established techniques. We performed a modified technique, Sommerlad-Furlow (SF), which combined the repositioning of the levator veli palatini muscles as described by Sommerlad with the double opposing Z-plasty of Furlow to lengthen the soft palate. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate patients who underwent cleft palate repair utilizing SF, Sommerlad, or Furlow techniques with the incidence of palatal fistula as the target endpoint. A total of 1,164 patients were included in the present study and underwent the following techniques: 603 cases with SF, 244 cases with Furlow, and 317 cases with Sommerlad. In addition to not requiring relaxing incisions, SF advantages included a consistently lower fistula rate compared to that of the Sommerlad technique, as well as the lowest fistula rate in patients with both hard and soft palate clefts without a cleft lip (OR:2.62 95% CI: 1.35, 5.09). However, the differences among the three techniques did not reach statistical significance in terms of a bilateral or unilateral cleft lip/palate, or in patients with a soft palate only or a submucosal cleft palate(OR: 2.22,95% CI:0.77, 6.37). Based on the results of our study, the Somerlad-Furlow technique should be preferred whenever possible.

Traditional approaches to each image simply depend on detectors of the classification network and the bounding box regression network. These approaches are, although working well, fail to exploit the satisfied accuracy for specific object detection or many methods sacrifice the accuracy for the speed of real-time detection. The reason for the unsatisfied results is that the relationship between the various objects is not effectively considered. In this paper, we propose a decisive fusion network for object detection. After the network extracts the features from the backbone first, the last five layers are treated as the feature pyramid structure. Each layer is responsible for the bounding box by the border regression algorithm, and the Deep Q-Learning (DQN) algorithm is responsible for the classification of the target. The fusion function connects the DQN algorithm with the object detection network, and considers the selection relationship between objects through the DQN algorithm to improve the overall accuracy. Through a lot of experiments, the parameters of DQN are better adjusted. The experiments show our method is better than tradition approaches.

PurposeThe study was designed to evaluate whether intrinsic morphological characteristics of the nasal dorsum are affected by cleft type, specifically cleft lip only (CL) and cleft lip with cleft palate(CL/P).Methods576 cleft patients (278 CL only, 298 CL/P), and 333 individuals without orofacial clefts were retrospectively enrolled. Lateral cephalometric radiographs of all individuals were taken to evaluate the nasal length and nasal dorsum height. Dunn’s test was used to analyze the difference (p< 0.001).ResultsIn CL and control, the angulation of the nasal bone and nasal dorsum increase by age similarly (5y-18y, p>0.05). In CL, the total dorsal length is significantly shorter (5y-18y,ppIn CLP, there is no significant difference in the nasal bone angle compared with controls between 5y-7y. However, it develops insufficiently as children grow (8y-18y,p, ppp>0.05), although it is shorter during 8y to 16y (pppConclusionCL inhibits the growth of nasal dorsum length, leading to short nose deformity. CL/P patients are prone to saddle-nose deformity because of the diminished nasal height (decreased nasal angle).

Tubes with various cross-sectional shapes are widely used in automotive and bicycle manufacture for lightweight considerations. This study proposes a compound forming process for hydroforming a rectangular cross-sectional tube of aluminum alloys AA6061-O. The compound forming process is divided into crushing, hydroforming, and calibration. The finite element simulation software DEFORM was used to analyze the plastic deformation pattern of the tube during the compound forming processes and determine feasible loading paths that can generate a uniform thickness distribution, a lower internal pressure, and a smaller clamping force. The effects of varied internal pressures on the product shapes, thickness distributions, and forming loads are discussed. A self-designed hydroforming test machine with an internal pressure capacity of 30 MPa and axial feeding force of 40 tons was used to conduct hydroforming experiments. The experimental results of the product thickness distributions and dimensions were compared with simulation results, and the validity of the FE modeling is confirmed. Sound products with the required shape and dimensions can be obtained using the proposed hydraulic compound forming process with a low internal pressure of 8 MPa.

In this paper, the research of life bench test and fatigue probability reliability of the buffer block used in the damper of car(Chery in China) was carried out. In the work of life investigation, the constitutive model of stress and strain for the material of the buffer block was revised and fitted, fatigue damage properties of the buffer block was calculated with finite element simulation method and then the bench test was conducted to verify the life of buffer block and the constitutive model. In the work of reliability study, based on the constitutive model revised by experiment, the dispersion characteristics of composite fatigue stress at dangerous part and composite fatigue strength of buffer block were calculated, the fatigue probability reliability of buffer blocks was theoretically analyzed. Finally, the life bench test was also carried out to validate the reliability of buffer block.

Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) is a rare disease caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Part of skin lesions at the exposed site would become malignant, but few cases with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) transformation at unexposed sites have been reported. In December 2016, one EV patient with squamous cell carcinoma transformation at unexposed sites (perianal region) were admitted and treated at our hospital. Here we reported the clinicopathological characteristics and our surgical management of the SCC skin lesion of this EV patient. We deem that once local malignant transformation occurs, early surgical resection should be performed, and skin without lesions at the unexposed sites should be selected as the donor site for skin graft or skin flap transplantation.

Adropin is a secreted protein that regulates endothelial function. However, adropin levels in obese adolescent patients are currently uncertain. Therefore, we evaluated the association between plasma adropin levels and vascular endothelial function and investigated the effect of aerobic exercise in obese adolescents. A total of 45 obese adolescents and 20 controls (age 16–19 years) were included in our study. The obese adolescents received 12 weeks of aerobic exercise training. Serum adropin was detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Vascular reactive hyperemia indexes (RHIs) were obtained using Endo-PAT2000. Adropin levels and RHI were significantly lower in obese adolescents than in normal-weight adolescents. Adropin levels and RHI increased significantly independently of changes in body weight after an exercise intervention (P

A traditional zoom system is composed of several elements moving relatively toward other components to achieve zooming. Unlike tradition system, an electrically control zoom system with liquid crystal (LC) lenses is demonstrated in this paper. To achieve zooming, we apply two LC lenses whose optical power is controlled by voltage to replace two moving lenses in traditional zoom system. The mechanism of zoom system is to use two LC lenses to form a simple zoom system. We found that with such spherical electrodes, we could operate LC lens at voltage range from 31V to 53 V for 3X tunability in optical power. For each LC lens, we use concave spherical electrode which provide lower operating voltage and great tunability in optical power, respectively. For such operating voltage and compact size, this zoom system with zoom ratio approximate 3:1 could be applied to mobile phone, camera and other applications.

Many methods to reconstruct the corneal topography are based on the Placido disk system. The skew rays can contribute errors to the system when using the reflection image with these methods. To overcome this limitation, a backward ray tracing technique is developed. By performing this technique, a continuous surface representation of the cornea is obtained. The error analysis shows an enhanced accuracy in reconstructing the corneal topography. The colormaps of corneal surface powers are also drawn for graphic representations of corneal topography.

We have theoretically studied the absorption performances of microwave absorbers made of ferromagnetic films. For films with different frequency dispersive types of permeability, we have found that only the films with relaxation type of permeability can be used to realize broadband microwave absorbers with thin thickness. The condition for optimal absorption has also been derived. As the demonstrations, we have designed the magnetic film absorbers using Ni–Zn–Co ferrite film and iron nanofilm, respectively. Deploying periodic multilayer structure, the absorbers work at the optimal absorption condition. The numerical results show our absorbers have good absorption performances in broadband microwave frequency range.

Three radiation models are discussed in the present paper. The heat fluxes vary considerably between different methods. In all models, fluxes vary highly on the position of nearing the flame and are almost identical on the far away position. Heat fluxes calculated from point source model is less than other two models, and Shokri-Beyler model is highest. Shokri-Beyler method is most applicable at heat fluxes greater than 5 KW/m2 and recommended in engineering design, and Mudan model is not applicable for calculating the heat flux nearing the flame.

Considering the two-wheel auto-balance vehicle system is complex and difficult to control, study on control system and assembly way of the vehicle have been made. The control system can be divided into balance control, speed control and steering control, and solutions to key issues of control system are proposed. Based on rollover prevention, a two-wheel vehicle is designed with low center of gravity. The results indicate that the solutions have increased speed and stability of the vehicle.

This paper presents the design of a bilateral tracing intelligent car based on photoelectric sensors. The control system selects the 16-bit MC9S12XS128 microprocessor as the core controller; employs laser tube and receiving tube to detect the location and movement direction; applies fuzzy self-adaptive PD controller to control the servos; makes use of photoelectric encoder to examine the cars speed. Experimental results indicate that the intelligent car can run along the track steadily and rapidly.

The heat feedback of flame plumes is a main form of energy transfer and a significant contributor to fire growth and spread. The paper introduces the case of heptane pool fires in open spaces. A corresponding formula is proposed along with the simplified model of plume heat feedback based on the analysis of heat balance equations of pool fires. A hybrid CFD model of heptane pool fire simulation methodology is used to study the fire characteristic parameters and plume heat feedback effects in the combustion process of pool fires. The results suggest that plume heat radiation and convection effects cause about 53% and 37% of the total mass loss rate in the combustion process of 1m 2 heptane pool fire and thus that they play an important role on the occurrence and development of liquid fires.

Complete denture CAD/CAM technology offers the prospects of drastically reducing the time to provide service to patients. The tooth arrangement and adjustment of the occlusal surface are key steps of complete denture CAD/CAM. This work presents an effective method of tooth arrangement and virtual adjustment of the occlusal surface for complete denture. After teeth features and oral features were extracted, auto tooth arrangement for complete denture based on feature-driven method was performed. Then, interference area Detection based on seed filling algorithm was taken. Finally, Laplacian local deformation was performed to minimize the over-interference on the occlusal surface. Some examples were tested in this work and the results demonstrated that the proposed method is effective and feasible.

This letter proposes a dual-band divide-by-2 transformer-coupled quadrature injection-locked frequency divider (QILFD).The QILFD is composed of a transformer-coupled quadrature voltage controlled oscillator and two injection MOSFETs. The CMOS QILFD has been implemented with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company (TSMC) 0.18 μm CMOS technology, and the core power consumption is 3.997 mW at the supply voltage of 0.7 V. The tank impedance of the QILFD shows a dual resonance behavior, which leads to a dual-band locking range at a fixed bias condition. At the injection input power of 3 dBm, the low-band and high-band divide-by-2 locking ranges are from 6.90 to 8.56 GHz and 9.52 to 12.10 GHz, respectively. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26074

An LC-tank oscillator-based divide-by-3 injection locked frequency divider (ILFD) is proposed and the series-tuned Armstrong ILFD were implemented in the 0.35 μm SiGe 3P3M BiCMOS technology. Measurement results show that when the supply voltage Vdd is biased at 1.2 V, the free-running oscillation frequency of the ILFD is tunable from 1.19 GHz to 1.0 GHz, and at the incident power of 0 dBm, the operation locking range is about 0.65 GHz, from the incident frequency 3.03–3.68 GHz. The core power consumption is 2.05 mW at Vdd = 1.2 V. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 2239–2242, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24517

Thomson scattering X-ray sources are compact and affordable facilities that produce short duration, high brightness X-ray pulses enabling new experimental capacities in ultra-fast science studies, and also medical and industrial applications. Such a facility has been built at the Accelerator Laboratory of Tsinghua University, and upgrade is in progress. In this paper, we present a proposed layout of the upgrade with design parameters by simulation, aiming at high X-ray pulses flux and brightness, and also enabling advanced dynamics studies and applications of the electron beam. Design and construction status of main subsystems are also presented.

Measurement of emittance for a space-charge dominated electron beam from a photocathode rf gun is performed by employing the multislit-based method at Accelerator Laboratory of Tsinghua University. We present the design considerations on the multislit system and the experimental results, with special attention to the study of space charge induced emittance growth. The experimental results are in reasonable agreement with the PARMELA simulations.

In this paper, a liquid crystal microlens array with a curved electrode is designed and fabricated. The fabrication process consists of two parts: fabricating the microlens array and assembling the liquid crystal cell. The first process utilizes the hydrophilic confinement effect, an inkjet printer, and the replication process to fabricate a microlens array on a glass substrate. A transparent, organic, conductive poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is spin-coated on the microlens array as a curved electrode, and the microlens array is further flattened by SU-8 photoresist. It is then assembled with indium tin oxide glass. Interference patterns for the liquid crystal microlens array are measured and agree well with theoretical calculations. From interference patterns, the focusing power range is measured to be from −47.28 to −331 diopters under 10 V, which corresponds to focal length from −2.12 cm to −0.3 cm at 532 nm wavelength. This technology could be useful for optical zoom systems or focus-tunable lens applications.

Efficiency optimization algorithm of asynchronous machine based on minimum input power searching works well in energy saving. It can achieve the overall efficiency optimization without motor parameters. But long searching time and torque ripple are two problems. This paper proposes an improved algorithm based on the minimum input power searching, which can improve the system response speed and reduce torque ripple.

A TW (Tera Watt) laser system based on Ti:sapphire mainly for the Tsinghua Thomson scattering X-ray light source (TTX) is being built. Both UV (ultraviolet) laser pulse for driving the photocathode radio-frequency (RF) gun and the IR (infrared) laser pulse as the electron-beam-scattered-light are provided by the system. Efforts have also been made in laser pulse shaping and laser beam transport to optimize the high-brightness electron beam production by the photocathode RF gun.

We present two types of optics for the lattice of a compact storage ring for a Compton X-ray source. The optics design for different operation modes of the storage ring are discussed in detail. For the pulse mode optics, an IBS-suppression scheme is applied to optimize the optics for lower IBS emittance growth rate; as for the steady mode, the method to control momentum compact factor is adopted [Gladkikh P, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 8, 050702] to obtain stability of the electron beam.

A new wide-locking range multi-modulus LC-tank injection locked frequency divider (ILFD) is proposed and was fabricated in a 0.18 mum CMOS process. The ILFD circuit is realized with a complementary MOS LC-tank oscillator and an injection composite composed of an inductor in series with an injection MOS. The two output terminals of the injection composite are connected to the resonator outputs. The ILFD can be used as a first-harmonic oscillator (ILO), even-modulo or odd-modulo oscillator depending upon the incident frequency of injection signal. At the supply voltage of 1.5 V, the free-running frequency is from 4.85 to 5.13 GHz, the current and power consumption of the divider without buffers are 2.78 and 4.17 mW, respectively. At the incident power of 0 dBm, the locking range in the divide-by-1(2, 3, 4) mode is from the incident frequency 3.72 to 8.69 (8.42 to 10.95, 13.66 to 16.03, 19.13 to 20.5) GHz.

Linearity of VCO directly impacts on the range resolution of LFMCW radar. So, linearity correction is usually adoptted in practical applications. Because VCO's linearity correction is a highly nonlinearity controlled object, which modern control method is effective with difficulty. Therefor, a system of linearity correction based on fuzzy control is proposed in this paper. The simulation results show that fuzzy controller performed well in linearity correction of VCO.

Uses the traditional circuit of Buck to the process of super electric capacity charge, the efficiency is lowly. To solve this problem, this paper makes the improvement base on the Buck circuit, proposes the topological structure of charge base on the synchronized DC/DC technology, uses double closed-loop control current and voltage base on the DSP, realizes charge many super electric capacities through the auto-adapted algorithm. The result indicated the topological structure of charge raises the efficiency; simultaneously the digitization and the intellectualized level are high.

A new wide locking range injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) using a standard 0.18 µm CMOS process is presented. The ILFD is based on a differential VCO with one injection MOSFET for coupling the external signal to the resonator. The locking range of the ILFD is increased by using a new LC resonator. Measurement results show that at the supply voltage of 0.75 V, the divider's free-running frequency is tunable from 3.91 to 3.956 GHz, and at the incident power of 0 dBm the locking range is about 7.07 GHz (91 %), from the incident frequency 4.23 to 11.3 GHz. The ILFD has a record locking range percentage among published divide-by-2 LC-tank cross-coupled ILFDs.

According to the requirement of the warship damage control training, a damage control command training environment was built based on LAN with VR technique. A damage control command flow was plotted and system composes and frame was presented. Considered the key techniques to the system, the entity data structure and multi-entity capture determination method were supplied, and the mode of system information transition was brought out. System was design with Modularization ideas, virtual environment could be constructed easily with the map designed software provided. The system simulated the operating position of the warship, and offered a vivid environment to implement the damage control drill, Proposed a new method to the damage control command training.

With high-determinacy and no subsurface damage, Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF) has become an important tool in fabricating high-precision optics. But for large mirrors, the application of MRF is restricted by its small removal function and low material removal rate. In order to improve the material removal rate, shorten the processing cycle, we proposed a new MRF concept, named Belt-MRF to expand the application of MRF to large mirrors and made a prototype with a large remove function, using a belt instead of a very large polishing wheel to expand the polishing length. A series of experimental results on Silicon carbide (SiC) and BK 7 specimens and fabrication simulation verified that the Belt-MRF has high material removal rates, stable removal function and high convergence efficiency which makes it a promising technology for processing large aperture optical elements.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive respiratory disorder characterized by irreversible chronic inflammation and airflow obstruction. It affects more than 64 million patients worldwide and it is predicted to become the third cause of death in the industrialized world by 2030. Currently available therapies are not able to block disease progression and to reduce mortality, underlying the need for a better understanding of COPD pathophysiological mechanisms to identify new molecular therapeutic targets. Recent studies demonstrated that phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling is prominently activated in COPD and correlates with an increased susceptibility of patients to lung infections. PI3Ks have thus emerged as promising alternative drug targets for COPD and a wide array of pan-isoform and isoform-selective inhibitors have been tested in preclinical models and are currently being evaluated in clinical studies. Here, we summarize the recent knowledge on the involvement of PI3K enzymes in the pathophysiology of COPD, and we discuss the most recent results arising from the preclinical as well as the clinical testing of PI3K inhibitors as novel therapeutics for COPD.