Left Corner Research Articles

Reconstruction of 2-Convex Polyominoes with Non-Empty Corners

This paper uses the theoretical material developed in a previous study by the authors in order to reconstruct a subclass of 2-convex polyominoes called where the upper left corner and the lower right corner of the polyomino contain each only one cell. The main idea is to control the shape of these polyominoes by using 32 types of geometries. Some modifications are made in the reconstruction algorithm of Chrobak and Dürr for HV-convex polyominoes in order to impose these geometries.

Richard III by the Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviewed by: Richard IIIby the Shakespeare Theatre Company Michael J. Collins Richard IIIPresented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company at Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, DC., 02 5- 03 10, 2019. Directed by David Muse. Scenic Design by Debra Booth. Costumes by Murell Horton. Lighting by Lap Chi Chu. Sound Design and Original Music by Lindsay Jones. Movement by Steph Paul. Fight Choreography by Robb Hunter. With David Bishins (Edward IV/Richard Ratcliffe), Matthew Rauch (Richard III), Cody Nickell (Duke of Clarence/James Tyrrel), Lizan Mitchell (Margaret of Anjou), Cara Ricketts (Lady Anne), Robynn Rodriguez (Queen Elizabeth), Todd Scofield (Earl of Rivers), Jonathan Feuer (Lord Gray), Christopher Michael McFarland (Duke of Buckingham), Derrick Lee Weeden (Lord Hastings), John Keabler (William Catesby), Evelyn Spahr (Earl of Richmond), and others. The stage of the Sidney Harman Hall had been transformed into a single room with gray, concrete walls resembling those of an underground parking garage. A utility sink stood just to the left of center stage, and a large operating room light, which would be swung around to various positions during the performance, was fixed overhead. The set included a large double door, for exits and entrances, upstage center, and a concrete walkway extended above and around the entire room with a door toward its left end to create a balcony. A stairway at the left corner of the stage connected the two levels. The set never changed: the entire play was set in a mortuary. While Shakespeare's Richard IIIonly stages one of its many murders in front of the audience, this production chose to portray them all, graphically and gruesomely. As blaring, pounding music filled the theatre, Clarence was stabbed and thrown into a stainless steel vat. He bobbed up and down three or four times as his murders struggled to keep him underwater. Rivers and Grey (Vaughan was cut from the production) were thrown through the double doors upstage and strapped onto gurneys. Tubes connected to a large bottle of red fluid were inserted into their arms, and they were poisoned intravenously. Hastings too was strapped to a gurney and rolled to center stage under the operating room light. An actor brandishing a hacksaw moved across the front of the stage and then, with some actors encircling the gurney and others spread out across the apron, marching loudly in place and clapping rhythmically, Hastings was decapitated. As the "operation" was carried out, Richard and the rest of the company appeared along the walkway above, blood rolled down the stage, and the first act came to an end. [End Page 417] The Princes were drowned with funnels inserted into their mouths and water forced into them. Lady Anne, as Cara Ricketts put it in a post-performance discussion, underwent "death by corset." When Richard became king, he changed the brown brace he had worn on his chest to a gold one. Anne wore a matching gold vest when she stood next to him in 4.2. Her murderers pulled the straps on either side of the vest to crush her and then strangled her as well. Buckingham got off easy: he was simply hooded and shot in the back of the head. The setting of the play in a mortuary and the graphic staging of the murders turned England into a killing field and allowed the production to shift the focus from the War of the Roses to the tyranny and violence that disfigure our own world. The company created a kind of music to punctuate the action of the play. During Richard's soliloquy at 1.1.144ff ("He cannot live"), two actors stood on stage sharpening knives, creating a slow, rhythmic twang. At the end of 2.2, Catesby and another actor entered, snapping belts ominously as Richard and Buckingham spoke. The murder of Hastings, with the actors spread across the apron, marching in place and clapping, introduced a new form of music. As the Princes were murdered, actors gathered on stage, stamping their feet and rhythmically striking their chests with their hands. Later, in 5.2, as they stood on the walkway, they again stamped their feet and slapped wooden sticks together as Richmond spoke to...

2-Convex Polyominoes: Non-Empty Corners

A polyomino P is called 2-convex if for every two cells there exists a monotone path included in P with at most two changes of direction. This paper studies the geometrical properties of a sub-class of 2-convex polyominoes called where the upper left corner and the lower right corner of the polyomino each contains only one cell.

A Novel Chaos-Based Symmetric Image Encryption Using Bit-Pair Level Process

Nowadays, chaos-based image encryption is recognized as an effective choice in secure communications. This paper proposes a novel approach, which uses bit-pair level XOR, add, and rotation from top to bottom and enhances diffusion with pixel level XOR operator from the lower right corner to the upper left corner. Due to the bit-pair level encryption, the proposed scheme has ensured great security and high encryption speed. The chaotic series employed for encryption are obtained from the modified pulse-coupled spiking neurons circuit map. It is suitable for use encryption because of its abundant parameters: wide chaotic range, ergodicity, complexity, and high sensitivity. Furthermore, the results show the superiority of this scheme compared to the other four methods in terms of robustness to differential attack.

Effective drying time and body moisture content for retention of frame using branch material Cornus sericea ‘Flaviamea’

When a frame was made using Cornus sericea ‘Flaviamea’, this study was carried out to investigate the body moisture content, which is the physiological change that causes frame deformation and drying time that can be preserved for a long time. Ten experimental groups were divided into two groups A and B with five groups each, and dried for 48, 96, 144 and 192 h, respectively. During the drying time, the weight change was measured with a load cell and observed at one minute interval in a data history recorder. In the results of being recorded at intervals of 10 min, the weight of both groups A and B showed the same tendency by a certain amount of decrease over time. In the results of deriving cubic polynomial and correlation coefficient for weight change, the value of the correlation coefficient R2 was found to be equal to 1 or about 0.99. This suggests that the cubic polynomial is highly correlated with a small amount of hourly weight of Cornus sericea ‘Flaviamea’. Although studies on cubic polynomials will be needed in the future, this study proved that it could predict the amount of weight loss. In terms of the weight loss and moisture reduction rate of the two groups by four different drying periods, 48 h decreased by 32.5 g on average, 16.4%, 96 h decreased by 52.9 g on average, 25.7%, 144 h decreased by 66.5 g on average, 32.3% and 192 h decreased by 82.6 g and 38.2% on an average. In the results of observing drying time effective for retention by fabricating a rectangular frame, immediately after drying experiment by the non-dry treatment experimental group, and the four dry treatment experimental groups, the frame of the 192 h dry experimental group was 0.2° in the left front corner, 0.2° in the right corner up to 1, 440 h, with the three-dimensional space travel distance S=0, showing that no deformation was measured. When Cornus sericea ‘Flaviamea’ is dried for about 192 h in a typical living environment and used as a frame design work, it is believed that it makes it possible to display for a long time.

A Case of Inconspicuous Recurrent Herpes Labialis Mimicking Unilateral Angular Cheilitis Unilateral Angular Cheilitis

Recurrent herpes labialis (RHL) is a common manifestation of herpes simplex virus (HSV) reactivation in immunocompetent individuals, whereas angular cheilitis is an inflammatory lesion occurring on one or both lip commissures and is induced by local and/or systemic conditions. We describe a case of RHL eruption on the corner of the mouth, easily mistaken as angular cheilitis. Case Report: A 21-year-old male presented to our dental hospital with a 3 day history of a painful, unilateral lesion on the left corner of his mouth. The lesion featured an erythematous base with a yellowish crust that extended outward. We diagnosed the lesion as RHL. We prescribed chlorhexidine solution and topical acyclovir to be applied onto the lesion. At 2 weeks follow-up, the lesion was resolved. An RHL lesion that erupts on the corner of the mouth may initially resemble angular cheilitis. However, the typical clinical presentation, history of recurrence, and the absence of predisposing factors for other lesions suggested an infection caused by HSV. Conclusion: RHL which occurred at one side of the mouth corner can be similar with unilateral AC. But, detailed history taking and clinical observation led to correct diagnosis and management.

Machine Learning for Visual Risk Analysis and Hedge Fund Selection

One of the main principles to build portfolios of financial assets is to achieve stable long-term performance and avoid large drawdowns. This article describes how a method of Machine Learning, Kohonen’s Self-Organising Maps (SOM), can be applied to visualise risk and to build robust portfolios of hedge fund managers. Essentially, it documents a feasibility study that was conducted to gauge whether Machine Learning can add any value to the investment process of an investor in hedge funds. We suggest a simple method to exploit the SOM feature of identifying similarities in high-dimensional data: managers are selected from the 4 most remote parts of the SOM, i.e., the units in the lower left, lower right, upper left and upper right corners. Hedge Fund portfolios based on this method achieve more favourable risk/return ratios and lower drawdowns than benchmarks. In discussions with clients it has turned out that the way SOMs work as well as the method to pick managers from remote areas of the SOM can be intuitively explained and understood, which increases acceptance by practitioners.

Combination of CD19 and CD70 Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells Achieves Long-Term Disease-Free Survival in Relapsed and Refractory Primary Central Nervous System Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma

Background: Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells (CARTs) targeting CD19 has illustrated therapeutic efficacy in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). However, severe cytokine release syndrome (sCRS) reaction and CAR-T-cell-related encephalopathy syndrome (CRES) are the main adverse reactions of CART therapy. Because of the concern of severe CRES which is associated with potential mortality, patients with primary central nervous system Lymphoma(PCNSL) are excluded in most of CART clinical trials. CD70 is a promising therapeutic target due to the restricted expression pattern in normal tissues and overexpression in some lymphoma tissues, so CD70 specific CARTs maybe avoid CD19-negative relapse .Here we report a case with refractory and relapsed PCNSL who achieved long-term disease-free survival by combination therapy of CD19 and CD70 specific CARTs without inducing CRS or CRES.Methods: CD3+ cells were selected from the apheresis PBMC and activated before lentiviral 4SCAR infection. The cells were transduced with a caspase 9-inducible, safety-engineered lentivector CAR containing anti-CD19 or -CD70 scFv fused with multiple intracellular signaling domains: CD28/CD27/CD3z-iCasp9 (4SCAR19 or 4SCAR70). The quality of apheresis cells, gene transfer and T cell proliferation efficiencies, and effective CAR T infusion dose were quantitatively scored and documented. Tumor sections were immunohistochemically stained with different antibodies including anti-CD19 and anti-CD70 antibodies to confirm antigen expression. The patient received cyclophosphamide and fludarabine conditioning regimen before the dual CARTs cell infusions.Case presentation: A 67-year-old male who was diagnosed as PCNSL of DLBCL in 2011.The patient received 6 cycles of temozolomide and high does methotrexate, and achieved CR. In December 2016 he relapsed and was treated with right frontal lobe space-occupying resection and multi-course chemotherapy including 2 course of rituximab, high dose methotrexate and temozolomide ,and 6 courses of rituximab, high dose methotrexate and ibrutinib,and he achieved remission again.However, He relapsed again in August 2017, with the clinical symptoms of dizziness , fatigue, left corners of the mouth askew and occlusal difficulties.MRI presented a residual mass on the right side of the postoperative cavity of 26mm*35mm*30mm and stale hemorrhage in left basal ganglia. After confirmation for CD19 and CD70 expression in his tumor specimens, the pt enrolled in the clinicaltrail :“Combination CART cell therapy targeting hematological malignancies”(clinicaltrail.gov registry NCT03125577).He received 4SCAR19 and 4SCAR70 T cells targeting CD19 and CD70 following lymphodepletion chemotherapy with FC regimen conditioning (FLU 30mg/m2, d1-3; CTX 300mg/m2, d1-3) in October 2017. Brain MRI 1 month later showed complete remission and the pt had symptomatic improvement. To date, after more than 8 months of follow-up, the pt remains in CR (figure1) and CART cells still can be detected . There was no CRS or CRES during the treatment and in follow-up period.Conclusions: The study results demonstrate that CARTs are able to pass through the blood-brain barrier without inducing CRS or CRES, suggesting that CNS tumor is not an absolute contraindication to 4sCART therapy. In addition, the combination of CD19 and CD70 specific 4sCARTs could effectively target PCNSL and achieves long-term disease-free survival without sCRS or CRES. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Hydropower system operation stability considering the coupling effect of water potential energy in surge tank and power grid

This paper aims to study the hydropower system operation stability considering the coupling effect of water potential energy in surge tank and power grid. Firstly, the mathematical formulation for hydropower system with surge tank that connected to power grid is established. Then, the hydropower system operation stability is investigated. The coupling effect mechanism of surge tank and power grid on stability is revealed. Finally, the formula for critical stable sectional area (CSSA) of surge tank considering power grid is derived and analyzed. The results indicate that the free vibration equation for hydropower system with surge tank that connected to power grid under step load disturbance is a ninth order linear homogeneous differential equation. The domain at the bottom left corner of the critical line on the Proportional-Integral plane is the stable domain. The proposed novel analytic solution of stable domain has a high precision and is feasible for practical applications. The formula for CSSA of surge tank considering power grid realizes the unity of the coupling effect of water potential energy in surge tank and power grid. The CSSA contains four terms, i.e. headrace tunnel term, penstock term, governor term and power grid term.

The role of Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System score in Gleason 3 + 3 active surveillance candidates enrollment: a diagnostic meta-analysis

The contemporary active surveillance (AS) criteria may result in an unsatisfactory misclassification rate, which may delay curative treatment for prostate cancer patients. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), not included in any AS criteria, provides useful information for prostate cancer diagnosis. Our goal is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (PI-RADS) score, a standardized MRI reporting system, in AS candidates enrollment. We searched Cochrane CENTRAL, PubMed, and Embase for pertinent studies through June 2018. The standard methods recommended for meta-analyses of diagnostic evaluation were employed. We draw the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. Meta-regression analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of confounding factors. From the resulting 168 studies, 5 provided the diagnostic data on PI-RADS score and pathological results; 834 patients were included. All AS candidates in these studies were defined by Prostate Cancer Research International: Active Surveillance (PRIAS) criterion. The pooled estimates of PI-RADS 4 or 5 on adverse pathological features at radical prostatectomy (RP) among AS candidates were: sensitivity, 0.77 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.71-0.82); specificity, 0.63 (95% CI, 0.55-0.71); positive predictive value, 0.72 (95% CI, 0.64-0.79); negative predictive value, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.63-0.73); and diagnostic odds ratio, 6 (95% CI, 4-8). The SROC curve was positioned toward the desired upper left corner of the curve, the area under the curve was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.73-0.80). The P-value for heterogeneity was <0.01. The pathological outcomes and endorectal coils contributed to the heterogeneity of sensitivity. The evidences supporting the advantage of PI-RADS v2 over v1 were not sufficient yet. AS candidates with PI-RADS 4 or 5 may be unsuitable for AS even though they fulfill current AS criteria. Those with PI-RADS 3 or less indicated relative safety for AS enrollment.

Enterococcus Bacteremia

Enterococcus Bacteremia

Influences of ethane on the flammable limits and explosive oxygen concentration of methane with nitrogen dilution

To comprehensively investigate the impact of ethane (C2H6) on methane (CH4) explosions, a standard test device for the flammable limits of combustible gases was used to examine the influence of C2H6 on the CH4 explosion parameters with nitrogen dilution. The flammable limits for CH4 in air and under a nitrogen atmosphere in the presence of C2H6 were obtained. Additionally, the critical index behaviors were analyzed, and the CH4 explosive triangles at different operating modes were drawn. Using the explosive diagrams, the effects of C2H6 on the location and area of the CH4 explosive triangle were analyzed. Both the lower and upper flammable limits were reduced by the addition of C2H6. Simultaneously, the explosive hazard degree (F value) increased. Furthermore, the inerting nitrogen concentration at the converging point for the CH4 explosion linearly increased with the increase in C2H6, whereas the explosive oxygen concentration decreased. The CH4 explosive triangle expanded and shifted to the left bottom corner in the presence of C2H6. The area of the explosible zone increased, while that of the no explosion zone decreased. Meanwhile, the ratio of the inert gas and combustible gas required to depress the explosion significantly increased, and more inert gas was required to maintain CH4 in a completely inert state.

Effects of Non-Homogeneous Nanofluid Model on Natural Convection in a Square Cavity in the Presence of Conducting Solid Block and Corner Heater

This study investigates numerically the effect of the two-phase nanofluid model due to natural convection within a square cavity along with the existence of a conducting solid block, and a corner heater using the finite difference method (FDM). The top horizontal wall is retained at a cold temperature that is fixed as constant, while the isothermal heater is positioned at the bottom left corner within the square cavity. The remaining fractions of the right vertical wall and the heated wall are set to be adiabatic. The water-based nanofluid, together with Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles, have been evaluated by determining the following parameters: the volume fraction of nanoparticles, thickness of solid block, Rayleigh number, and the solid block thermal conductivity. As a result, the comparative evaluation with outputs reported in publications and prior experimental works has pointed out exceptional agreement with the findings retrieved in this study. The experimental outcomes are graphically illustrated in terms of the average and local Nusselt numbers, isotherms, distribution of nanoparticles, and the streamlines. The findings indicate that an elevation of the thermal conductivity in blocks with a similar size successfully increases the transfer rate of heat, wherein the dominance of conduction has been observed.

DSMC investigation on flow characteristics of rarefied hypersonic flow over a cavity with different geometric shapes

As one of the most fundamental configurations, the cavities with different geometric shapes are frequently encountered on various aerodynamic surfaces. In this paper, the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) which is one of the most successful particle simulation methods in treating rarefied gas dynamics is employed to investigate the flow characteristics of the cavity with a length-to-depth ratio of 1–8, a rearwall-to-frontwall height ratio of 0.5–2, and an inclined frontwall ranging from 20° to 70° for the free stream at a Mach number of 8 and an altitude of 60 km. The simulation results indicate that the shear layer and recirculation region within the cavity are changed greatly by varying length-to-depth ratio and the cavity is transformed into a closed type at the length-to-depth ratio of 6. For the cavity with a fixed length-to-depth ratio, the increase in rearwall height would push the shear layer away from cavity floor and hence increases the area of recirculation region. Conversely, the decrease in rearwall height would draw the shear layer into the interior of the cavity and finally the recirculation region would be split into two smaller and separated ones located at the left and right corners of the cavity respectively. A significant finding is that the criterion (i.e., length-to-depth ratio) for classifying the cavity type is not a constant but changes with freestream conditions. In addition, recirculation region(s) within the cavity can be eliminated completely by simultaneously inclining the frontwall and rearwall with an appropriate angle and meanwhile the shear layer is affected slightly.

On sequences of Toeplitz matrices over finite fields

For each non-negative integer n let An be an n+1 by n+1 Toeplitz matrix over a finite field, F, and suppose for each n that An is embedded in the upper left corner of An+1. We study the structure of the sequence ν={νn:n∈Z+}, where νn=null(An) is the nullity of An. For each n∈Z+ and each nullity pattern ν0,ν1,…,νn, we count the number of strings of Toeplitz matrices A0,A1,…,An with this pattern. As an application we present an elementary proof of a result of D. E. Daykin on the number of n×n Toeplitz matrices over GF(2) of any specified rank.

Numerical investigation of Rayleigh-wave propagation on canyon topography using finite-difference method

High-frequency Rayleigh-wave method plays an important role in the near-surface seismic investigation. Rayleigh wave propagates along the free surface, and its propagation is seriously affected by the topographic surface. Rayleigh-wave propagation is more affected by canyon topography than by hill topography. Hence, it is critical to analyze effects of complex canyon topography on high-frequency Rayleigh waves. To further study effects of topography on Rayleigh-wave dispersion images and Rayleigh-wave conversion, we synthesized near-surface seismograms on 2D Gaussian shape canyon topography model through finite-difference modeling scheme. We compared the seismograms and their dispersion images of Rayleigh waves by using the horizontal offset along the horizontal direction and the real offset along the topographic free surface. These dispersion images were compared with the corresponding theoretical dispersion curves that were obtained by models with a flat free surface. Our numerical results indicated that using the real offset can obtain a better quality of Rayleigh-wave dispersion imaging and then obtain a higher precision of dispersion curves than those using the horizontal offset. Our numerical results also showed that errors of the picked Rayleigh-wave phase velocities can be constrained within 8% if the ratio of canyon depth to the predominant wavelength (λm) of Rayleigh waves is <0.5 with canyon width being greater than the λm. Modeling results of horizontal and slope free surface half-space models demonstrated that wavefield separation technique can be used to model Rayleigh-wave propagation on topography with high accuracy. Wavefield separation results indicated that the energy of S waves converted from Rayleigh waves is greater than that of P waves converted from Rayleigh waves in the left corner of the canyon. The analysis suggested that using this technique can distinguish complex waveforms and study the converted energy of Rayleigh waves on arbitrary topography.

Description and prediction of even-A nuclear masses based on residual proton–neutron interactions

The odd–even staggering of neighboring nuclear masses is very useful in calculating local mass relations and nucleon-pair correlations. During the past decades, there has been an increasing interest in the odd–even features of the mass relations and related quantities exhibited in masses of neighboring nuclei. In this work, after choosing a nucleus, we made an analysis of its neighboring nuclei on the upper left corner and the lower right corner, respectively. We empirically obtained a new residual interaction formula of even-A (A is the mass number) nuclei, and it is a revision based on the existing empirical local formula of the proton–neutron interactions between the last proton and the last neutron [Formula: see text]. We then calculated the even-A nuclear masses. The differences between our calculated values and the AME2012 database show that the root-mean-squared deviations (RMSD) are small (for even-A nuclei: A[Formula: see text]42, RMSD[Formula: see text]161 keV; A[Formula: see text]100, RMSD[Formula: see text]125 keV), while for heavy nuclei, some of our calculated values can reach an accuracy of a few tens of keV. With our residual interaction formula including one parameter, we have successfully predicted some unknown masses. Some of our predicted values are compared well with the experimental values (AME2016). In addition, the accuracy and simplicity of our predicted masses for medium and heavy nuclei are comparable to those of the AME2012 (AME2016) extrapolations.

The Anatomy Lesson of Willem Röell, painted in 1728

Abstract The Anatomy Lesson of Willem Röell, painted by Cornelis Troost in 1728, should be considered a group portrait of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons. Professor Röell, praelector anatomiae (lecturer in anatomy) of the Surgeons' Guild, was portrayed while performing an anatomical dissection of the knee joint in the corpse of an elderly man. The three surgeons in the painting, dressed in fashionable suits, held important positions as governors of the Guild. The Guild assistant, holding a box containing surgical instruments, is standing in the background (left corner). This painting did not record a real anatomical demonstration, as held in the Guild's anatomy theatre, but served as a group portrait. Every person in the painting had to pay a fee to the artist for the privilege of posing in this masterpiece. In the 18th century, the painting was on display on the wall of the boardroom of the Surgeons' Guild in the Waag (weigh house) at the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam, among other group portraits that had been painted for the Guild in the 17th and 18th centuries. These works of art were painted to commemorate the praelector anatomiae, governors and surgeons of the Guild. Today, this painting is on display in the Amsterdam Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Read more about the stories behind this masterpiece in an essay online.

Assessing the Correlation between Skeletal and Corresponding Soft-Tissue Equivalents to Determine the Relationship between CBCT Skeletal/Dental Dimensions and 3D Radiographic Soft-Tissue Equivalents.

Objective Compare measurements of skeletal and dental areas on the CBCT to the corresponding soft-tissue measures taken from a 3D Facial Scanner. Methods 30 patients with CBCT and 3D Facial scanner photos were selected from the orthodontic program database. 30 different distance measurements were obtained from CBCT and facial scan. OrthoInsight software was used to obtain the measurements from the facial scan images, and AVIZO software was used for corresponding CBCT landmarks. The Euclidean distance formula was used to determine the distances for the corresponding x, y, and z coordinates of the CBCT. Reliability for CBCT and Facial Scanner was completed by calculating 30 distances for 10 patients, 3 times. Once reliability was determined, all 30 distances were calculated once for CBCT and facial scanner on each patient and descriptive statistics and paired t-test were applied. Results All distances measured presented excellent reliability, the lowest one being the left eye width for the facial scanner (ICC 0.847). The landmark with the highest mean error on the CBCT was 2.0 ± 1.6 mm on the z-axis for the spinal level landmark. The Facial Scanner's largest mean measurement error was 1.5 ± 0.9 mm for the distance of the left corner of the mouth to gonion. All data except width between outer eye corners were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The average differences between facial scan and CBCT measurements ranged between 0.77 mm (left canine to cheekbone) to 26.94 mm (left subnasale to gonion) and are thus comparable. All measurements show a reasonable standard deviation between 2.57 mm (left eye width) to 9.91 mm (left gnathion to EAM). Conclusion Distances obtained from CBCT and facial scan present mild differences giving the perspective of a relationship between them. Understanding this difference and relationship can make it plausible to expect certain underlying skeletal distances under soft-tissue structures.

Using small triangular baffles to facilitate upstream fish passage in standard box culverts

A culvert is a covered channel to pass streams and floodwaters through an embankment. The ecological impact of culverts has been recognised, in particular in terms of stream connectivity, but existing guidelines lead often to un-economical culvert design. Herein, a small triangular corner baffle system was tested physically in a near-full-scale fish-friendly facility of a box culvert barrel. Experiments were repeated with several configurations to characterise the flow properties for a range of less-than-design flows, baffle sizes and spacings. In presence of triangular corner baffles, the flow was asymmetrical, owing to the wake behind each baffle. The presence of triangular corner baffles had a moderate effect on the flow resistance and discharge capacity, albeit the data indicated the combined effect of relative baffle height and spacing on the friction factor. With triangular baffles, the surface area of slow velocity regions increased by a factor of two to three. Such low velocity regions are preferential swimming zones for fish, beneficial to small-bodied fish passage. Testing with small-bodied fish showed that fish preferred to swim upstream in slow-velocity regions, typically next to the sidewalls and in the left corner where the triangular baffles were located. The presence of small triangular baffles facilitated substantially the upstream passage of small fish, including in terms of endurance, compared to a smooth un-baffled box culvert barrel, when the baffle size was comparable to the fish length. The present findings highlighted the importance of physical modelling at near full-scale for the development of fish-friendly culvert designs.