Technique Precision Research Articles

Intra-articular and intraosseous approach to temporomandibular joint-targeted injections: a cadaveric investigation.

Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) management is complex, and several conservative and minimally invasive protocols have been proposed. Intra-articular injections of medications directed at OA have been performed, but in some cases, these medications do not directly contact the tissue lesion sites. Here, we propose a new real-time ultrasound-guided technique to inject medications directly into the subchondral bone. Ultrasound image screening was carried out with the point-of-care Clarius L15 device. Then, with the patient's mouth closed, a stainless-steel cannula with a concentric trocar was US-guided using an in-plane approach until the perforating tip of the internal trocar touched the lateral pole of the mandibular condyle. Then, the trocar was inserted through the medullary bone, where a posterior injection was made. The technique's precision was confirmed by capturing an iodine contrast solution that imaged the medullary condyle of fresh anatomical specimens processed by computed tomography. The proposed technique was effective in accessing the mandibular condyle subchondral bone in the inferior TMJ space for the simultaneously intra-articular (IA) and intra-osseous (IO) in-plane US-guided injections. Thus, its implementation may represent an important advance in early TMJ-OA treatment. This may be a promising approach, especially in OA cases in which the cortical bone is still preserved.

Achieving Bratz Doll Look with Lip Fillers: A Prospective Observational Study on Blunt Cannula Techniques.

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a blunt cannula technique using hyaluronic acid fillers for achieving the Bratz doll lip aesthetic, characterized by enhanced volume and sharp definition. Thirty volunteers, 22-40 years of age, were selected based on specific inclusion criteria at Albany Cosmetic and Laser Center for 6 months. The technique involved precise filler injections using a Steriglide blunt cannula. Pre- and postprocedure measurements of lip dimensions and angular changes were meticulously documented and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software. The procedure significantly increased the average height of both the upper and lower vermilion zones, with notable changes in angular measurements and the distance between the midline and oral commissure, aligning with the Bratz doll aesthetic. Importantly, none of the participants experienced bruising, a common side effect in traditional needle-based methods. The overall satisfaction rate was high, with an average score of 8.5 out of 10, reflecting the procedure's success in meeting aesthetic goals and ensuring participant comfort. The blunt cannula technique for lip augmentation presents a safe and effective alternative to traditional needle-based methods. The absence of bruising and high satisfaction rates underscore the technique's precision and alignment with patient safety and comfort. This study contributes to the field of cosmetic lip enhancement, offering a novel approach that balances aesthetic aspirations with health considerations, potentially influencing future practices in cosmetic procedures.

Experimental and Computational Investigation of Layer-Dependent Thermal Conductivities and Interfacial Thermal Conductance of One- to Three-Layer WSe2.

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have received extensive research interest and investigations in the past decade. In this research, we used a refined opto-thermal Raman technique to explore the thermal transport properties of one popular TMDC material WSe2, in the single-layer (1L), bilayer (2L), and trilayer (3L) forms. This measurement technique is direct without additional processing to the material, and the absorption coefficient of WSe2 is discovered during the measurement process to further increase this technique's precision. By comparing the sample's Raman spectroscopy spectra through two different laser spot sizes, we are able to obtain two parameters-lateral thermal conductivities of 1L-3L WSe2 and the interfacial thermal conductance between 1L-3L WSe2 and the substrate. We also implemented full-atom nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (NEMD) to computationally investigate the thermal conductivities of 1L-3L WSe2 to provide comprehensive evidence and confirm the experimental results. The trend of the layer-dependent lateral thermal conductivities and interfacial thermal conductance of 1L-3L WSe2 is discovered. The room-temperature thermal conductivities for 1L-3L WSe2 are 37 ± 12, 24 ± 12, and 20 ± 6 W/(m·K), respectively. The suspended 1L WSe2 possesses a thermal conductivity of 49 ± 14 W/(m·K). Crucially, the interfacial thermal conductance values between 1L-3L WSe2 and the substrate are found to be 2.95 ± 0.46, 3.45 ± 0.50, and 3.46 ± 0.45 MW/(m2·K), respectively, with a flattened trend starting the 2L, a finding that provides the key information for thermal management and thermoelectric designs.

Automatically identifying valid API versions for software development tutorials on the Web

AbstractOnline tutorials are a valuable source of community‐created information used by numerous developers to learn new APIs and techniques. Once written, tutorials are rarely actively curated and can become dated over time. Tutorials often reference APIs that change rapidly, and deprecated classes, methods, and fields can render tutorials inapplicable to newer releases of the API. Newer tutorials may not be compatible with older APIs that are still in use.In this paper, we first empirically study the tutorial versioning problem, confirming its presence in popular tutorials on the Web. We subsequently propose a technique, based on similar techniques in the literature, for automatically detecting the applicable API version ranges of tutorials, given access to the official API documentation they reference. The proposed technique identifies each API mention in a tutorial and maps the mention to the corresponding API element in the official documentation. The version of the tutorial is determined by combining the version ranges of all of the constituent API mentions. Our technique's precision varies from 61% to 89% and recall varies from 42% to 84% based on different levels of granularity of API mentions and different problem constraints. We observe API methods are the most challenging to accurately disambiguate due to method overloading. As the API mentions in tutorials are often redundant, and each mention of a specific API element commonly occurs several times in a tutorial, the distance of the predicted version range from the true version range is low: 3.61 on average for the tutorials in our sample.

In situ measurement of light polarization with ellipticity-induced nonlinear magneto-optical rotation

A precise, accurate, and relatively straightforward in-situ method to measure and control the ellipticity of light resonantly interacting with an atomic vapor is described. The technique can be used to minimize vector light shifts. The method involves measurement of ellipticity-induced resonances in the magnetic-field dependence of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation of frequency-modulated light. The light propagation direction is orthogonal to the applied magnetic field $\textbf{B}$ and the major axis of the light polarization ellipse is along $\textbf{B}$. When the light modulation frequency matches the Larmor frequency, elliptically polarized light produces precessing atomic spin orientation transverse to $\textbf{B}$ via synchronous optical pumping. The precessing spin orientation causes optical rotation oscillating at the Larmor frequency by modulating the atomic vapor's circular birefringence. Based on this technique's precision, in-situ nature (which avoids systematic errors arising from optical interfaces), and independent control of the most important systematic errors, it is shown that the accuracy of light ellipticity measurements achievable with this technique can exceed that of existing methods by orders of magnitude.

An assessment of the applicability of luminescence dating to developing an absolute chronology for the production and use of sand-tempered plain ceramics in south Florida

The human occupation of the southern Florida peninsula has, at least since the formation of the Everglades, focused on the raised land surfaces and ecological diversity provided by tree islands. Although survey work is far from comprehensive, thousands of such sites are thought to exist. The archaeological record of tree islands is complex as both island formation and site formation processes are likely intertwined and as yet poorly understood. Most sites are typically shallowly buried, with limited potential for the recovery of artifacts or materials suitable for absolute dating. The frequent occurrence of fragments of an undecorated utilitarian ceramic type referred to as sand-tempered plain is a common marker for occupations at such sites throughout the southern Florida Peninsula. Contextual evidence suggests that this ceramic type has a very broad temporal range and its earliest use is vigorously debated. The results of a preliminary program designed to obtain dates directly on sand-tempered plain ceramics are reported. The results suggest that luminescence dating can yield absolute dates on this ubiquitous material type but the technique's precision has limited the ability to build fine-grained regional chronologies which could help refine our understanding of human groups operating in the unique Everglades environment.

Precision determination of invisible-particle masses at the CERN LHC

We develop techniques to determine the mass scale of invisible particles pair-produced at hadron colliders. We employ the constrained mass variable ${m}_{2C}$, which provides an event-by-event lower bound to the mass scale given a mass difference. We complement this variable with a new variable ${m}_{2C,UB}$ which provides an additional upper bound to the mass scale and demonstrate its utility with a realistic case study of a supersymmetry model. These variables together effectively quantify the ``kink'' in the function $\mathtt{m}\mathtt{a}\mathtt{x}$ ${m}_{T2}$ which has been proposed as a mass-determination technique for collider-produced dark matter. An important advantage of the ${m}_{2C}$ method is that it does not rely simply on the position at the end point, but it uses the additional information contained in events which lie far from the end point. We found the mass by comparing the $\mathtt{H}\mathtt{E}\mathtt{R}\mathtt{W}\mathtt{I}\mathtt{G}$ generated ${m}_{2C}$ distribution to ideal distributions for different masses. We find that for the case studied, with $100\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of integrated luminosity (about 400 signal events), the invisible particle's mass can be measured to a precision of 4.1 GeV. We conclude that this technique's precision and accuracy is as good as, if not better than, the best known techniques for invisible-particle mass determination at hadron colliders.

Micro-channels machined in microstructured optical fibers by femtosecond laser

Micro-channels were fabricated in hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (HC-PBGF) and suspended-core holey fiber (SC-HF) by femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser irradiation. Gaseous access was demonstrated via these engineered ports to the core of HC-PBGF and the hollow cladding of SC-HF. Femtosecond laser micro-machining caused no additional transmission loss in HC-PBGFs. This allowed a novel gas cell to be produced, in which gaseous access was provided solely through two micro-channels. Acetylene diffusion was also confirmed through a micro-channel leading to a single cladding airhole in SC-HF. This further highlighted the fabrication technique's precision, selectivity, and potential for developing fiber-based micro-fluidic devices.

Determination of Carbohydrates in Soluble (Instant) Coffee by Anion-Exchange Chromatography with Pulsed Amperometric Detection: Summary of Collaborative Study

Abstract A collaborative study was conducted to validate a liquid chromatographic (LC) method for determining free and total (after acid hydrolysis) carbohydrate profile of soluble (instant) coffee. Carbohydrates were separated on a pellicular anion-exchange column with pure water as mobile phase and detected by pulsed amperometry. Precisions in determining free and total carbohydrates were very similar. Average RSDr and RSDR values were 4.5 and 14.3%, respectively, for carbohydrate levels >0.3%, with individual values ranging, respectively, from 2.2 to 4.6% and 9.9 to 24.2% for mannitol, 1.6 to 7.3% and 4.9 to 21.1 % for arabinose, 1.7 to 8.1 % and 4.1 to 12.9% for galactose, 2.4 to 8.7% and 6.1 to 24.3% for glucose, 1.8 to 6.8% and 10.0 to 11.6% for sucrose, 3.7 to 7.4% and 22.5 to 27.8% for xylose, 2.0 to 7.0% and 10.6 to 24.4% for mannose, and 2.9 to 5.2% and 15.5 to 18.4% for fructose (free form only). The technique's precision was considered good, taking into account the usual peak integration problems always encountered in LC procedures, the low levels of free carbohydrates, the hydrolysis step, and the relative lack of experience of most participating laboratories. Except for the pair rhamnose/arabinose, the method allows good and reproducible separation of carbohydrates found in soluble coffee and, therefore, is suitable for routine analysis. The anion-exchange chromatographic method with pulsed amperometry for determining carbohydrates in soluble (instant) coffee has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL.