Vertical Angle Research Articles

360-degree mixed reality volumetric display using an asymmetric diffusive holographic optical element.

Volumetric display technique has a great advantage of displaying realistic three-dimensional contents with a 360-degree viewing angle. However, most volumetric displays cannot provide mixed reality because their screens inside the displays obstruct the external scene. We design a 360-degree mixed-reality volumetric display using an asymmetric diffusive holographic optical element (ADHOE). The ADHOE has wavelength selectivity, and it diffuses the light with the only specific wavelength for the virtual object, so it is possible to optically combine the virtual object and the real scene. Also, the ADHOE has different vertical and horizontal diffusing angles, and it is suitable for a horizontal-parallax-only application. In our system, the parallax images are generated by the DMD, and they are projected sequentially on the ADHOE. The ADHOE is shaped as a slanted curved surface with respect to the optical axis, and some annoying color dispersion is observed due to the mismatch between the diffraction peak points of two different wavelengths. In order to solve this problem, the carrier frequency is applied to green elemental images and the proper Fourier filter cuts off the unwanted diffraction peak points. The Fourier transform with 2f optics is built to record the ADHOE where the angular spectral bandwidth is determined by adjusting the width of the incident object light. A 360-degree see-through display with ADHOE is implemented and the feasibility of mixed reality is verified successfully.

Study on the influence of sun glare on driving safety

Sun glare affects the drivers' vision of the road traffic environment ahead, thereby introducing risks to driving safety. The angle between the sun's position and the driver's line of sight is one of the essential factors that affects the driver's perception of sun glare. Based on an analysis of the formation mechanism of sun glare, this paper proposes a subjective visual recognition scale and test method for sun glare. According to subjective experience, sun glare can be divided into disability, disturbing, and acceptable glare. Through the outdoor visual recognition test, the vertical and horizontal visual recognition angle of 24 drivers were recorded from June 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 when the driver's glare perception was in the critical state between disturbing glare and acceptable glare on sunny days. The results revealed that as the winter solstice approached, the maximum vertical visual recognition angle decreased in the critical state between disturbing glare and acceptable glare. However, the minimum vertical visual recognition angle tended to increase. In the same month, with the increase in the vertical visual recognition angle, the horizontal visual recognition angle in the critical state between disturbing glare and acceptable glare gradually decreased. Based on the most unfavourable principle of driving vision, the angular range of sun glare that affects driving safety was identified, and it constituted a vertical visual recognition angle of γ∈[5.6°,29.0°] and horizontal visual recognition angle of φ∈[−57.7°,57.7°]. The results can provide a reference for road alignment selection and the development of anti-glare measures.

A method for calculating strand tension in the anchor span of a suspension bridge considering the rotation of a splay saddle

This paper reports a method for strand tension in anchor spans considering rotation. A kind of co-moved coordinate system, a saddle local coordinate system, was set up. This system implemented the rotation of the splay saddle through the rotation of the coordinate system, and all calculations proceeded in this coordinate system. Considering the rotation of the anchoring surface by the rotation of the local coordinate system of the anchoring surface, the anchorage point coordinates of strands were transformed to the local saddle coordinate system. There was a two-layer iteration adopted in the calculation. In the inner iteration, the cable force at the end of the vertical bend was taken as the variable, and the ordinate of the anchorage point was taken as the target value. In the outer iteration, the vertical tangential angle at the end of the vertical bend was taken as the variable, and the ordinate of the anchorage point was taken as the target value. The method carried out the rotation of the splay saddle and anchor surface and was simple, convenient and without approximation. The effect of rotation was considered precisely; it showed stability during the process of two-layer iteration, powerful adaptation and higher efficiency and had been successfully applied in the construction control of the Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge, the world's first kilometer-level combined highway and railway suspension bridge.

1.3 μm InGaAlAs/InP DFB Laser Integrated With SSC Having Reverse Mesa Ridge Waveguide

We report the fabrication of a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.3~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> InGaAlAs/InP multi-quantum well (MQW) distributed feedback (DFB) laser integrated with a laterally tapered spot size converter (SSC) having a reverse mesa ridge waveguide. Because the top waveguide width of the reverse mesa waveguide is notably larger than the bottom width, a narrow SSC tip width, which is key for high quality SSC, can be fabricated by using conventional photolithography easily, helping to lower the device cost. At 25 °C, the emission wavelength is around 1314 nm and side mode suppression ratio larger than 45 dB can be obtained when the current is larger than 100 mA. The lateral and vertical divergence angles measured from the SSC facet of the laser are 11.8 and 13.2, respectively, which helps to ease the outcoupling of the light power.

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SKELETAL ANGULAR INDICATORS OF THE JAWS, CHARACTERISTICS OF INCISAL POSITION AND PROFILE OF SOFT FACIAL TISSUES IN ORTHODONTIC PATIENTS

Assessment of a face in profile is an integral part of a complete orthodontic diagnosis. The degree of labial inclination of the axes of the incisal crowns in relation to cephalometric and facial indicators are particularly important elements in orthodontic treatment in order to achieve an aesthetic and natural appearance of the face. The purpose of this study is to establish the peculiarities of the correlations between the skeletal angular parameters of the jaws, the characteristics of the incisal position, and the profile of the soft facial tissues of orthodontic patients. Participants and methods. Using the Veraviewepocs 3D device, Morita (Japan), 60 patients (29 men (48.3%) and 31 women (51.7%) with various occlusal pathologies aged from 11 to 39 years underwent teleradiograms. Using the licensed program for cephalometric analysis "Audax Ceph 6.0", the following indicators were analyzed: skeletal sagittal angles SNA, SNB, ANB. Skeletal vertical angles: NL-NSL, ML-NSL, NL-ML. Dento-alveolar parameters: +1/NL, +1/NA, -1/ML, -1/NB, +1/-1. Cephalometric indicators of soft tissues and facial profile: Gl'Sn'Pog', Nasolabial angle, Ls'-E-line, Li'-E-line. Correlations were evaluated in the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 license package using Spearman's non-parametric statistics. Results and discussion. Both men and women show that the ANB angle has the largest number of correlations with dental and profilometric indicators. In both cases, the angle ANB has the highest degree of correlation with the face profile angle Gl'Sn'Pog'. In men, the level of significance of ANB to Gl'Sn'Pog' is (r=-0.796, p=0.000), for women this index is r=-0.771, p=0.000. This indicates a significant influence of skeletal pathology on the type of the profile and facial aesthetics.

Electric field-driven microscale 3D printing of flexible thin-walled tubular mesh structures of molten polymers

Thin-walled tubular mesh structures are the basic form of tubular scaffolds, such as vascular and nerve conduit stents, in tissue engineering. A novel electric field-driven microscale three-dimensional printing (EFD μ-3D printing) was proposed for manufacturing these structures of molten polymers with high resolution. For printing on curved substrates, the distributions of electric field force on substrates with different curvature radii in the self-excited electrostatic field were revealed via numerical simulations. The optimal process parameters for EFD μ-3D printing on curved substrates were determined. To improve printing accuracy, a micro-area preset eccentricity strategy was proposed by reducing the vertical angle of printing jets. A number of printing cases have been carried out. It is shown that the proposed method is effective for the micro-nano scale printing of 3D structures. The printed structures have good flexibility; they can be restored to their original state after 8.9 % axial compression, with an original length of 67 mm. Moreover, a conformal printing variable stiffness thin-wall tubular mesh structure has been achieved with a length of 28 mm, a line diameter of 80 μm, a big end diameter of 8 mm, and a small end diameter of 4 mm.

Vertical head rotation as major source of differences between time-separated digital cephalometric radiographs of patients acquired in one cephalostat X-ray device

BackgroundThe purpose of the retrospective study was to analyze the reliability and repeatability of specific landmark-positions used in cephalometry to determine the major sources of absolute landmark position differences for repeated, time-separated (time-point I and II) digital cephalometric radiographs (CEPH) of the same patients.Methods100 pairs of CPEHs from the database of a sample of adult patients (18 to 28 years) were analyzed by one calibrated observer and three landmark points (Sella: S, Nasion: N, Subspinale: A) were digitally marked using ImageJ-software. The coordinates of these points entered the evaluation using displacement vectors as primary endpoints between the coordinates of the landmarks in the two images as well as SNA-angles and the angle ω of SN relative to the floor.ResultsDisplacement vectors between CEPHI and CEPHII were rather large (N: 7.95 ± 4.85 mm, S: 5.34 ± 3.50 mm, A: 4.81 ± 3.95 mm. SNA was rather stable between the two sequential radiographs (mean difference: 0.002° ± 1.85°). and did not correlate with age of the patient (SNAI: spearman-Rho: 0.0239, p = 0.8134; SNAII : spearman-Rho: 0.0244, p = 0.8096). Although the vertical angle ω did not differ between CEPHI and CEPHII (mean difference: 0.4° ± 4.7°, pwilcoxon = 0.8155), it showed a quadratic relationship (pF−statistic: < 2.2e−16) with the length of the displacement vector N.ConclusionThe significantly varying location of the reference points S, N and A between time-separated CEPHs of one patient can largely be explained by different angulation (head rotation within the sagittal plane) of the Frankfurt plane to the floor (horizontal plane).

High-accuracy tennis players linearly adjust racket impact kinematics according to impact height during a two-handed backhand stroke

ABSTRACT We hypothesised that high-accuracy players more linearly coordinate racket kinematics with impact heights under random height conditions than low-accuracy players. We compared the adjustments of racket kinematics according to impact height between high- and low-accuracy players. Fourteen male tennis players hit the incoming balls with a two-handed backhand at different impact heights (21–108% of body height) to a target area. The cluster analysis on accuracy divided participants into high- (n = 7, 48.6 ± 2.4%) and low- (n = 7, 32.4 ± 4.8%) accuracy groups. Most of the high-accuracy players linearly decreased the horizontal velocity, increased the vertical velocity, and increased the face angle of racket (R 2 = 0.42, 0.36, 0.66) as impact heights increased, while the low-accuracy group only linearly increased face angle (R 2 = 0.46) but not linearly adjusted horizontal and vertical velocities (R 2 = 0.02, 0.14). The linearities between horizontal velocity and face angle and between vertical velocity and face angle in high-accuracy group (R 2 = 0.40, 0.26) were significantly stronger than those in low-accuracy group (R 2 = 0.07, 0.08). We found that the high-accuracy players coordinate more racket kinematics and adopt a set of consistent solutions of adjustment according to impact heights. We suggest that players linearly adjust the velocities and the face angles of rackets according to impact heights when prioritising the accuracy.

Quantitative Comparative Analysis of the Endoscope-Assisted Expanded Retrosigmoid Approach and the Far-Lateral Approach to the Inframeatal Area: An Anatomic Study With Surgical Implications.

The inframeatal area (IFMA) is a complex anatomic region of the posterior cranial fossa. Given its deep-seated location, tumors involving the IFMA represent a surgical challenge. To objectively compare the endoscope-assisted expanded retrosigmoid approach (ERSA) and the far-lateral supracondylar transtubercular approach (FLTA) to address the IFMA. Anatomic dissections were performed on 5 cadaveric heads (10 sides). The ERSAs were performed before and after the FLTAs. The surgical exposure, surgical freedom, and angles of attack to the IFMA were measured and compared for each approach. In addition, 2 illustrative clinical cases are reported. Compared with FLTA, ERSA yielded a nonsignificantly smaller mean area of exposure, whereas FLTA provided a significantly larger mean area of surgical freedom, compared with ERSA ( P = .002). The mean horizontal and vertical angles of attack were significantly different between the approaches. In the vertical plane, FLTA yielded the broadest angle of attack at the root entry zone of the lower cranial nerves (CN; P < .004), whereas ERSA did so at the dural entry zone of CN VII/VIII ( P = .006). In the horizontal plane, FLTA achieved its broadest angle of attack at the root entry zone of the lower CNs ( P = 1.83) while ERSA at the dural entry zone of CN VII/VIII ( P = .37). ERSA and FLTA granted a comparable exposure with the IFMA. Although FLTA may afford a larger area of surgical freedom, ERSA may be a suitable alternative to approach the IFMA, particularly to reach the most medial and superior aspects of this region. Conversely, FLTA may facilitate access to more caudally targets.

Once in a summer: Fall history of the JaH 073 strewn field, Sultanate of Oman

AbstractModeling of a prehistoric fall can be successful if a strewn field is very well documented and coordinates, masses, and shapes of all individual stones are recorded. In combination with meteoroid mass and wind model constraints, a detailed scenario of the atmospheric passage is obtained for the ~20 × 6 km‐sized JaH 073 L6 strewn field in Oman. The wide mass ranges from 52.2 kg to &lt;1 g together with the large number of ~3500 stones offer the statistical basis to reconstruct the trajectory and the fragmentation sequence. The size of the meteoroid, constrained by noble gas analyses, corresponds to an initial mass of about 12 t at atmospheric entry using an L‐chondrite bulk density of 3400–3500 kg m−3. Assuming typical ablation behavior, these data are compatible with an entry velocity of 20 ± 3 km s−1. The best model fit is achieved for a serial fragmentation scenario starting at an altitude of ~34 km and showing a main fragmentation at 26 km. A resolved event seems to have occurred at 22 km, followed by a more diffuse fragmentation at 19 km. The vertical trajectory angle is calculated at 43 ± 2° and the azimuth at 329 ± 1°. The position of numerous outlying meteorites in the strewn field can only be reproduced by repeated fragmentation with cumulated transverse velocities from explosive events. The wind model adopted from modern data fits surprisingly well and indicates summer monsoon with strong easterly winds during the fall event, consistent with paleoclimatic data.

Restoration of thoracic kyphosis in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis with patient-specific rods: did the preoperative plan match postoperative sagittal alignment?

To determine if the planned sagittal profile for thoracic kyphosis (TK) restoration was achieved after adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) surgery using a novel hybrid construct with apical double bands and precontoured patient-specific rods (PSR) made according to the detailed surgical plan for the desired sagittal plane. AIS patients with a Lenke type 1-4 primary right thoracic curve who underwent corrective surgery by a single surgeon and had minimum 24-month follow-up were analyzed retrospectively from a prospective database. All patients underwent simultaneous translation on two rods with apical double bands and PSR. Clinical outcomes in terms of sagittal 2D TK (T4-T12), lumbar lordosis (LL), sagittal vertical axis (SVA), pelvic incidence (PI), pelvic tilt (PT), sacral slope (SS), PI-LL mismatch, rod angle, and rod deflection were compared between preoperative, planned, and 24-month data, while 3D apical rotation, 3D TK (T5-T12), sagittal thoracolumbar angle, degree of curvature at L1-L4 and L4-S1, proximal junctional angle, and distal junctional angle were compared at baseline and at 6 and 24months postoperatively. SRS-22 questionnaire scores were obtained at baseline and 24months postoperatively. Forty-eight patients were included. Study patients had a median coronal thoracic curve of 62.7° preoperatively and 22.4° at 24-month follow-up (p < 0.001). Median TK gain was 6.5° for the entire cohort (n = 48) and 19.1° in the Lenke type 1 and 2 hypokyphotic subgroup (n = 14). Both groups had no significant changes between planned and 24-month TK (p = 0.068 and p = 0.943, respectively), rod angle (p = 0.776 and p = 0.548, respectively), or rod deflection (p = 0.661 and p = 0.850, respectively). For the overall study cohort, median LL gain was 7.0° (p < 0.001), 3D apical derotation was 10.7° (p < 0.001), and change in 3D TK was 36° (p < 0.001). No instance of proximal junctional kyphosis was observed. SRS-22 scores for pain, self-image, and satisfaction differed significantly between the preoperative and 24-month follow-up time-points. With sagittal plane planning, desired TK, improved reciprocal changes in LL, and minimal changes in rod shape can be achieved in patients with AIS.

Steering rigidified nonplanar conjugation based perylene diimide supramolecular for enhancing photocatalytic activity

π-Conjugated supramolecular with higher delocalization of electrons has attracted considerable attention in enhancing the charge transfer in photocatalysis. However, those conjugated macromolecules often possess varied rotational geometries, which will significantly deteriorate charge mobility but still inexplicitly. Herein, we reported diversified PDI polymers with intramolecular angles of 94.7°, 149.7° and 176.3° to explore the role of π-conjugated non-planar molecules. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experimental results show that vertical structural PDIMH has antibonding in anisotropic polarizable monomer to generate a macro-dipole, which greatly expands the built-in electric field and facilitates charge transfer and exciton dissociation. On the other hand, the vertical angle is favorable for the face-to-face overlap of the homogeneous molecules, which will create a carrier migration channel and promote carrier separation. Notably, PDIMH exhibited highly effective photocatalytic sterilization (near 100% in 2 h) and benzylamine oxidation (conversion rate up to 300 mmol g−1h−1), which is superior to other ever reported catalysts. This work provides a new interpretation for regulating molecular geometry in developing highly efficient photocatalyst to solve future sustainable issues.

Impact of lumbar fusion on spinopelvic sagittal alignment from standing to sitting position: which factor is associated with postoperative functional limitations due to lumbar stiffness?

To investigate the impact of lumbar fusion on spinopelvic sagittal alignment from standing to sitting position and the influencing factors of postoperative functional limitations due to lumbar stiffness. A total of 107 patients who undertook posterior lumbar interbody fusion were included. Patients were divided into two groups: Group A (lumbosacral fusion; n = 43) and Group B (floating fusion; n = 64). Spinopelvic parameters in standing and sitting position including pelvic incidence (PI), pelvic tilt (PT), sacral slope (SS), lumbar lordosis (LL), fusion segment lordosis (FSL), upper residual lordosis (URL), lower residual lordosis (LRL), thoracic kyphosis (TK), thoracolumbar kyphosis (TLK), sagittal vertical axis (SVA) and T1 pelvic angle (TPA) were measured before and after lumbar fusion. The Lumbar Stiffness Disability Index (LSDI) was used to assess functional limitations due to lumbar stiffness. Accompanied by increased postoperative LSDI, the values of changes from standing to sitting (∆) were reduced in some parameters compared with the preoperative values. ∆PT and ∆SS significantly decreased in both two groups. In Group A, ∆LL significantly decreased with increased ∆URL. In Group B, ∆LL, ∆URL and ∆LRL showed no significant difference before and after surgery. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that age and ∆PT independently influenced the postoperative LSDI in Group A. After lumbar fusion, changes of lumbopelvic sagittal parameters from standing to sitting would be restricted. Adjacent segment lordosis could partially compensate for this restriction. For patients with lumbosacral fusion, postoperative functional limitations due to lumbar stiffness were related to age and the postoperative ∆PT from standing to sitting.

Fall Detection System Using Millimeter-Wave Radar Based on Neural Network and Information Fusion

Falls are fatal for the elderly, and timely detection after falls is crucial. As a contactless device, the radar sensor can monitor users’ falls with the advantage of not revealing their privacy. Today, the use of radar for fall detection has made a significant progress. However, most current methods cannot be used in real complex scenes. They usually collect fewer types of actions, and the ratio of the number of nonfall samples to the number of fall samples is small, which is not consistent with the real-life scene. In addition, the classifiers are usually trained and tested on the same environments and the same people, which cannot be easily extended to new environments and new people. We designed a robust fall detection system based on the frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar to solve these issues. The system detects the moment of human movement and calculates the range–velocity map, range–horizontal angle map, and range–vertical angle map of the radar signals, and creates three neural networks for these three signal maps. The stacking method of ensemble learning is used to fuse the time–space–velocity features extracted by the three neural networks to identify falls. The method was trained and tested on a data set consisting of ten scenes, 21 subjects, 52 nonfall action types, and 12 fall action types. The results show that on the test set containing only new environments and new subjects, the recall is 0.983 and the precision is 0.975.

Jet Impingement Boiling on Monocrystalline Silicon Surfaces with Open Microchannels

Thermal management of electronic devices with great critical heat flux (CHF) and lower wall temperature is critical issues. To address it, the cooling method based on jet impingement boiling is experimentally explored. The effects of heat surface modification, vertical expansion angle of flow microchannels, and negative back pressure are emphasized. The vertical expansion angle, flow rate and average pressure are 0°–30°, 10–30 L/h, and 0.04–0.1 MPa, respectively. It is found that the CHF changes non-monotonically with the increase of the vertical expansion angle of the open flow microchannel since both flow resistance and bubble detachment performance. A maximum CHF reaches at 381 W/cm2 for the jet impingement boiling on a modified monocrystalline silicon surface with microcolumns under the condition of open microchannels with the vertical expansion angle of 20° and the pressure of 0.1 MPa. Moreover, compared with 0.04 MPa, a greater pressure of 0.1 MPa increases the boiling temperature, thus inhibiting explosive boiling and enhancing the CHF.

Analysis of Facial Features of Patients With Sagging Eye Syndrome and Intermittent Exotropia Compared to Controls

To compare the facial features of patients with sagging eye syndrome (SES) and other ophthalmic diseases, and to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of facial features for SES. Retrospective cross-section study. We evaluated frontal facial photographs of patients >60 years of age with SES and intermittent exotropia (IXT), and control patients who visited the ophthalmology outpatient clinics of 2 institutions between June 2020 and December 2021. Three ophthalmologists evaluated each eye for sunken upper eyelid, blepharoptosis, and baggy lower eyelid, using a scoring scale. The average scores for each parameter among the 3 groups were analyzed. Patients with glaucoma, visual acuity <16/20, SES with a vertical strabismus angle of ≥6 Δ, IXT that could not be maintained in the phoria position during photography, a history of previous oculoplastic or ophthalmic surgery, and use prostaglandin analogs for cosmetic purposes were excluded. A total of 86 patients were included: 23 with SES, 28 with IXT, and 35 in the control group. All were Japanese. In all, 45 patients were male and 41 were female. The mean age was 72.7 ± 7.4 years. The sunken upper eyelid scores were significantly higher in the SES group than in the control and IXT groups (P < .001), whereas the baggy lower eyelid scores were significantly higher in the IXT group than in the control group (P < .05). Age-related orbital connective tissue degeneration may manifest as SES in the upper eyelid and as IXT in the lower eyelid.

Progressive collapse performance of beam-column joint with WUF-B-RW connection after high temperature

This paper studied the progressive collapse resistance of 10 beam-column joints with post-high-temperature through static tests. The size of the ten specimens is the same, and the connection form is bolt-welded connection. Among them, one specimen was at room temperature, and the other nine specimens were treated at 400 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C and held at the temperature for 30, 60, and 90 min, respectively. The load-displacement curve, deflection curves, and strain development of the critical section of the specimen were studied, and the axial force, bending moment, bending resistance, and catenary mechanism of the specimen were calculated according to the test results. Before and after high temperatures, the failure of specimens is beam-end damage. Temperature only affects the initial position of failure of beam-column joints. The duration time has no noticeable effect on the properties of the steel. Based on the test results, it is found that at the same duration time and different high temperatures, the higher the temperature, the smaller the maximum vertical load and joint rotation angle at failure, and their axial force and bending moment are also weaker. However, there is no difference between the plastic limit rotation angles of the specimens. At the same temperature and different duration, the load-displacement curves of the specimens are very similar. It can be seen that at the same temperature, the duration time has little effect on the mechanical properties of the specimen. At the same time, although the mechanical properties of the specimens were weakened after high temperatures, they still maintained an excellent ability to resist progressive collapse. Even the beam angle of the member with the smallest failure angle was 0.15 rad, more significant than 0.06 rad. The finite element model established by ABAQUS is mutually verified with the test results to prove the accuracy and effectiveness of the finite element model. Based on this model, the expanded parametric analysis is carried out to analyze the influence of hole spacing and hole diameter on the progressive collapse resistance of the specimen after high temperature.

Investigation and process control of the grating fill-factor and sidewall angle impacts on 2-D metamaterial infrared mirrors

We report the first study of the effects of grating fill-factor variation and sidewall angle on 2-D subwavelength grating shortwave infrared mirrors, and the first development of a geometry compensation approach to correct for the grating fill-factor patterning error caused by EBL proximity effect and a plasma etching process based on CHF3 passivation to control grating sidewall angle. Mirrors with a large grating air-hole diameter-to-pitch ratio of 0.954 and vertical sidewall angle of 89.8° are demonstrated with an average reflectivity of 99% over an ultrabroad wavelength range of 560 nm (1.92-2.48 µm), which represents an unprecedented fractional bandwidth of 26%.

The use of lyophilized bovine pericardium (Tutopatch®) in the management of third nerve palsy following prior conventional strabismus surgery – a case series

ABSTRACT To study the secondary management of strabismus due to third nerve palsy using bovine pericardium (Tutopatch®) when previous conventional surgical therapy had failed. Review of our clinic records of selected patients with third nerve palsy, in whom residual deviation had been managed using Tutopatch® after previous surgical correction. The squint angle was measured preoperatively, and at 1 day, 3 months, and if possible 6 months postoperatively. Nine patients were enrolled in this study. One patient had mainly residual vertical deviation and was corrected with tendon elongation of the contralateral superior rectus. Three patients were operated on with tendon elongation of the lateral rectus muscle with or without medial rectus muscle resection and/or advancement (Group 1). Lateral rectus splitting after tendon elongation in addition to the resection and/or advancement of the medial rectus was performed in five patients with complete third nerve palsy (Group 2). In Group 1, the preoperative median squint angle was −20° (range −17° to −25°), which improved postoperatively to −4.5° (range −12° to +3°). In Group 2, the preoperative horizontal and vertical median squint angles were −27° (range −20° to −40°) and 0.5° (range 0° and 20°), respectively. Postoperatively, they had improved to −12.5° (range–2° to −25°), and 1.5° (range 0° to 7°), respectively. Two patients of Group 2 were re-operated due to residual exotropia. No postoperative complications were observed in any patient. In this small series several complex re-do situations of patients with third nerve palsy were evaluated in which Tutopatch® markedly improved outcomes after an initially ineffective surgical management. For better evaluation of its usefulness a study with more patients is recommended.

Bending Assessment and On-body Investigation of a Textile Antenna for Body-Centric Wireless Communication Applications

This article presents the design and investigation of a textile-based antenna for body wireless communication applications. The Christmas tree structure inspired the antenna design, and a staircase-like defective ground element supported it. The antenna is tiny with a footprint of 30×20×1 mm3 and is developed on polyester fabric. This material has good grades of flexibility and has the most negligible affinity to moisture, so it was chosen as a suitable substrate for the developed wearable antenna. The radiating elements and grounds conductivity is actualised using the adhesive conductive copper tape. The propounded antenna operates in a treble band of Telemetry, Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM), and X-band at 4.5, 5.8, and 8 GHz frequencies. The developed textile antenna is intended for body applications, so it was methodically examined by bending it at various vertical and horizontal bending angles. This analysis shows that the antenna’s resonating frequencies are not substantially varied in the vertical and horizontal bending aspects. The antennas on body performance were also examined by placing the prototype directly on the subject’s skin. These results confirm the developed antennas’ applicability for body wireless communication applications.