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Objective: To investigate the impact of cleft width and cleft type on the need for secondary surgery and velopharyngeal competence from a longitudinal perspective.Design: Retrospective, longitudinal study.Setting: A single multidisciplinary craniofacial team at a university hospital.Patients: Consecutive patients with unilateral or bilateral cleft lip and palate and cleft palate only (n = 313) born from 1984 to 2002, treated with 2-stage palatal surgery, were reviewed. A total of 213 patients were included.Main Outcome Measures: The impact of initial cleft width and cleft type on secondary surgery. Assessment of hypernasality, audible nasal emission, and glottal articulation from routine follow-ups from 3 to 16 years of age. The assessments were compared with reassessments of 10% of the recordings.Results: Cleft width, but not cleft type, predicted the need for secondary surgery, either due to palatal dehiscence or velopharyngeal insufficiency. The distribution of cleft width between the scale steps on a 4-point scale for hypernasality and audible nasal emission differed significantly at 5 years of age but not at any other age. Presence of glottal articulation differed significantly at 3 and 5 years of age. No differences between cleft types were seen at any age for any speech variable.Conclusions: Cleft width emerged as a predictor of the need for secondary surgery as well as more deviance in speech variables related to velopharyngeal competence during the preschool years. Cleft type was not related to the need for secondary surgery nor speech outcome at any age.

We report here the synthesis and characteristics of a new C84 adduct ([84]PCBM), realized via a diazoalkane addition reaction. [84]PCBM was obtained as a mixture containing three major isomers. [84]PCBM was tested in a fullerene/poly(2-methoxy-5-(3‘,7‘-dimethyloctyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene) (MDMO-PPV) bulk heterojunction solar cell as the first C84 derivative to be applied in device fabrication. Spin coating the active layer blend from 1-chloronaphthalene (the very best fullerene solvent) instead of ortho-dichlorobenzene was necessary to obtain the more efficient photovoltaic device. The PV results indicate that the hole mobility of MDMO-PPV may not be increased upon blending with [84]PCBM. This explains the relatively low ISC of the device as due to the buildup of space charge. The VOC of the device is ∼500 mV lower than that of the one with [60]PCBM, while [84]PCBM has a 350 mV higher electron affinity than [60]PCBM. This loss surpasses the linear relation between the donorHOMO−acceptorLUMO energy gap and the VOC in this type of device. A maximum power conversion efficiency of 0.25% was reached for the MDMO-PPV:[84]PCBM cells.