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Upper eyelid aging with lateral hooding is common among Asian women older than 40 years. Since Asians tend to develop more visible scars than White people, we used an extended upper blepharoplasty technique to correct lateral hooding and conceal the scar, combined with the removal of the thick subbrow skin for women over 60 years of age, to achieve a stable, improved outcome. An extended cutaneous scalpel-shaped excision was designed and hid the extended part of the excision in the patient’s upward crow’s feet to address the redundant skin of lateral hooding. For patients older than 60 years, we used a crescent-shaped excision and simultaneously removed the thick skin under the eyebrow to reduce the likelihood of long-term postoperative pseudoexcess. A retrospective study was conducted on 40 Asian women who underwent upper eyelid rejuvenation surgery with the above methods from July 2020 to March 2021 (follow-up, 12–15 mo). Extended blepharoplasty notably corrected the lateral hooding and achieved a natural double eyelid. The postoperative scar was inconspicuous. For patients older than 60 years, the long-term rejuvenation outcome was stable when associated with subbrow skin removal. However, two patients older than 60 years in whom the subbrow skin was not removed developed pseudoexcess of the upper eyelid 1 year postoperatively. Extended blepharoplasty is a simple and effective technique for improving periorbital aging in Asian women, and the postoperative scarring was inconspicuous. For patients older than 60 years, we recommend removal of the thick subbrow skin to avoid long-term postoperative pseudoexcess.

Since almost all patients with an alveolar cleft have a deviated and thickened vomer bone, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the vomer shape and the size of the alveolar cleft in patients with unilateral cleft lip and alveolus (CLA). A total of 40 adult patients with unilateral CLA were enrolled, and 40 normal adults without CLA were enrolled as controls. All patients underwent preoperative computed tomography scans and analysis by computer-aided engineering software to obtain the vomer volume (VV), deviated septal angle (DSA), and alveolar cleft volume (ACV). An independent-sample ttest or nonparametric test was used to compare the VV and DSA between the unilateral CLA and control groups. The correlation between ACV, VV, and DSA in the unilateral CLA group was assessed using Pearson correlation analysis or Spearman correlation analysis. Vomer volume was significantly higher in patients with CLA (1595.35±48.45 mm3) than in the control group (1043.2±164.976 mm3) (P<0.001), as was DSA (13.099±7.0 versus 3.4398±1.74 degrees) (P<0.001). In the CLA group, VV and DSA were significantly associated with ACV (VV and ACV: r=0.886, P<0.001; DSA and ACV: r=0.543, P<0.001), and VV was significantly correlated with DSA (VV and DSA: r=0.582, P<0.001). In conclusion, the vomer is thicker and more convex in patients with unilateral CLA than in people without, and the vomer angle and degree of volume deviation correlate with alveolar cleft severity.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text

An integrated model for line planning and train scheduling based on the circulation of trains is proposed to reduce passenger dissatisfaction and operation costs for an urban rail transit line. The turnaround operations of trains and their departures from and arrivals at the depot were included in this model. Furthermore, binary variables were introduced to indicate whether train service existed, and a discrete event model was used to determine the order of the train services. In addition, a bi-level optimization approach is proposed to solve the integrated line-planning and train-scheduling problem, in which the number of required train services, the headways between train services, the departure times, and the arrival times were optimized simultaneously on the basis of passenger demand. The performance of the proposed integrated model and bi-level approach is illustrated with a case study of the Beijing Yizhuang line.

An integrated model for line planning and train scheduling based on the circulation of trains is proposed to reduce passenger dissatisfaction and operation costs for an urban rail transit line. The turnaround operations of trains and their departures from and arrivals at the depot were included in this model. Furthermore, binary variables were introduced to indicate whether train service existed, and a discrete event model was used to determine the order of the train services. In addition, a bi-level optimization approach is proposed to solve the integrated line-planning and train-scheduling problem, in which the number of required train services, the headways between train services, the departure times, and the arrival times were optimized simultaneously on the basis of passenger demand. The performance of the proposed integrated model and bi-level approach is illustrated with a case study of the Beijing Yizhuang line.

On main line railways, sections with junctions are usually heavily used because of the converging flows of trains from different origins. In the event of disturbances, even a minor delay to one train can cause long consequential delays for following trains, because of conflicts in the junction areas and because, normally, less recovery time and margin time are allocated where trains travel through bottleneck sections. Depending on the performance regime, train rescheduling can be an effective method to decrease the overall delay and any penalty payment. The authors of this article propose a decision support methodology for real-time train rescheduling in junction areas, based on a mathematical approach that optimizes an objective function. Their Junction Rescheduling Model (JRM) solves certain types of junction rescheduling problems by using an improved differential evolution algorithm for JRM that achieves near optimal solutions. They also present a statistical evaluation of the algorithm performance compared with the first-come-first-served strategy, based on the Monte-Carlo simulation methodology.

Upper atmospheric winds have been measured at heights from 80 to 100 km overWuhan (30°40N, 114°30'E), China with a meteor radar from 2002 to 2005. The variations of lunar semidiurnal tidal amplitudes and phases with both seasons and heights are studied in detail to reveal the properties of the lunar semidiurnal tide. It is shown that the lunar semidiurnal tide is stronger in January than other months, and its second peak appears near August. For most months the eastward maximum is 3 ± 1 lunar hours later than the northward maximum, as classical theory predicts for a northern hemisphere tide. The observed seasonal and height variations are also compared with the Global Scale Wave Model (GSWM). The phases do not agree well with those of the GSWM model. The maximum amplitude occurs in a different month in the model. There are about 5 lunar hours phase difference between the observed and the model at 90 and 96 km in eastward and northward components. A comparison of the lunar and solar semidiurnal tides is also shown in this paper. The behavior of these two tides in season is different, especially for the month of appearance of maximum amplitude.

Numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified in the human genome, yet the functional significance of most is unknown. CYP3A4 is a key enzyme in the metabolism of numerous compounds. An A→G substitution 290 bp upstream of the CYP3A4transcription start site (CYP3A4*1B) has been associated with cancer phenotypes, but its phenotypic effects are unclear. To investigate the functional significance of CYP3A4*1B, we generated two luciferase reporter constructs: 1‐kb (denoted L, long) and 0.5‐kb (denoted S, short) promoter fragments containing either the variant (VL,VS) or the wild‐type (WL, WS) sequences. We evaluated the effect of the variant sequence in the HepG2 and MCF‐7 cell lines, and in primary human hepatocytes from three donors. Reporter constructs with the variant sequence had 1.2‐ to 1.9‐fold higher luciferase activity than constructs with wild‐type sequence in the cell lines (P< 0.0001) and hepatocytes (P= 0.021, P= 0.027, P= 0.061). The ratio of transcriptional activity for VS:WSwas similar to the VL:WLratio in HepG2 cells, but the VS:WSratio was consistently less than the VL:WLratio in MCF‐7 cells. This suggests that CYP3A4expression is higher from the variant promoter and that a repressor sequence may exist in the longer constructs. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated specific binding of a component of HepG2 nuclear extract to both wild‐type and variant promoters with consistently higher binding affinities to the wild‐type sequence. This suggests the existence of a transcriptional repressor responsible for the lower CYP3A4*1Aactivity. Therefore, the phenotypic effects of the variant CYP3A4*1Bmay be associated with enhanced CYP3A4 expression due to reduced binding of a transcriptional repressor. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 42:299–305, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified in the human genome, yet the functional significance of most is unknown. CYP3A4 is a key enzyme in the metabolism of numerous compounds. An A→G substitution 290 bp upstream of the CYP3A4 transcription start site (CYP3A4^*1B) has been associated with cancer phenotypes, but its phenotypic effects are unclear. To investigate the functional significance of CYP3A4^*1B, we generated two luciferase reporter constructs: 1-kb (denoted L, long) and 0.5-kb (denoted S, short) promoter fragments containing either the variant (V^L,V^S) or the wild-type (W^L, W^S) sequences. We evaluated the effect of the variant sequence in the HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines, and in primary human hepatocytes from three donors. Reporter constructs with the variant sequence had 1.2- to 1.9-fold higher luciferase activity than constructs with wild-type sequence in the cell lines (P &lt; 0.0001) and hepatocytes (P = 0.021, P = 0.027, P = 0.061). The ratio of transcriptional activity for V^S:W^S was similar to the V^L:W^L ratio in HepG2 cells, but the V^S:W^S ratio was consistently less than the V^L:W^L ratio in MCF-7 cells. This suggests that CYP3A4 expression is higher from the variant promoter and that a repressor sequence may exist in the longer constructs. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated specific binding of a component of HepG2 nuclear extract to both wild-type and variant promoters with consistently higher binding affinities to the wild-type sequence. This suggests the existence of a transcriptional repressor responsible for the lower CYP3A4^*1A activity. Therefore, the phenotypic effects of the variant CYP3A4^*1B may be associated with enhanced CYP3A4 expression due to reduced binding of a transcriptional repressor. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 42:299–305, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The enzyme that catalyzes the formation of GDP-d-mannose from GTP and α-d-mannose-1-P was purified about 2300-fold to near homogeneity from the soluble fraction ofMycobacterium smegmatis.At the final stage of purification, a major protein band of 37 kDa was observed and this band was specifically labeled, and in a concentration-dependent manner, by the photoaffinity probe 8-N3-GDP[32P]-d-mannose. The purified enzyme was stable for several months when kept in the frozen state. The 37-kDa band was subjected to protein sequencing and one peptide sequence of 25 amino acids showed over 80% identity to GDP–mannose pyrophosphorylases of pig liver andSaccharomyces cerevesiae.In contrast to some other bacterial GDP–mannose pyrophosphorylases, the mycobacterial enzyme was not multifunctional and did not have phosphomannose isomerase or phosphoglucose isomerase activity. Also, in contrast to the pig liver enzyme which uses mannose-1-P or glucose-1-P plus GTP to synthesize either GDP–mannose or GDP–glucose, the mycobacterial enzyme was specific for mannose-1-P as the sugar phosphate substrate. The enzyme was also relatively specific for GTP as the nucleoside triphosphate substrate. ITP was about 18% as effective as GTP, but ATP, CTP, and UTP were inactive. The activity of the enzyme was inhibited by GDP–glucose and glucose-1-P, although neither was a substrate for this enzyme. The pH optimum for the enzyme was 8.0, and Mg2+was the best cation with optimum activity at about 5 mM. This enzyme is important for producing the activated form of mannose for formation of cell wall lipoarabinomannan and various mannose-containing glycolipids and polysaccharides.