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Background This study aimed to determine the morphological changes in Asian lower eyelid epiblepharon patients after surgery. Methods The medical records of 59 patients who underwent lower eyelid epiblepharon repair were reviewed retrospectively. Eighty-nine patients who underwent strabismus surgery were set as the control group. The photographs for each group were analyzed based on the following factors: inferior half area (IHA) of the eye, eyelash angular direction (EAD), angle between the eyelashes and the cornea, marginal reflex distance 1 (MRD1) and marginal reflex distance 2 (MRD2). Results After surgery, the medial EAD changed from 92.45° ± 20.21° (mean ± SD) to 79.43° ± 23.31°, while the central and lateral EADs were unchanged. IHA increased from 36.33 ± 9.78 mm3 to 43.06 ± 10.57 mm3, and MRD1 increased from 1.92 ± 0.99 mm to 2.50 ± 0.93 mm, whereas MRD2 did not change. The mean angle between the eyelashes and the cornea increased from 39.64° to 72.19° immediately postoperatively, but had reduced to 58.75° 3 months later, followed by no further significant change at the 6-month and 9-month postoperative follow-ups. Conclusions There is morphological changes of the eyelid after lower eyelid epiblepharon surgery, with increases in the IHA and MRD1. In addition, contact between the eyelashes and the cornea occurred mainly in the medial portion of the eyelid the position, which everted and stabilized over 3 months. Thus, follow-up observations are required for at least 3 months to properly evaluate the surgical outcome.

A structural model consists of many types of finite elements, such as truss, beam, plate, shell and solid element, and so on. With the aid of commercial computer programs, field engineers comfortably use these finite elements at the same time for the modelling and analysis of real structure in their new projects. However, it is still difficult to model the connections and interfaces between different types of finite elements because of mutually ill-matched node numbers and degrees of freedom(d.o.f). To settle these problems, Many researchers studied and proposed various solution methods in literatures on FEA(Finite Element Analysis) and the use of transition elements is considered as one of the solutions. This pater presents an isoparametric formulation for three dimensional transition finite element, especially the solid-flat shell transition element. The proposed solid-flat shell transition element is composed of the solid element with 8 nodes, 3 d.o.f and the flat shell element with 4 nodes, 6 d.o.f for the simple formula derivation and the usefulness of practical applications. Basic theories for solid element and flat shell element are studied at first and a possible method for realizing the solid-flat shell transition element is suggested. On the basis of these theoretical backgrounds, the formula which calculates the stiffness matrix of the solid-flat shell transition element is derived in detail and an algorithm available for computer programming is investigated lastly.

In automotive engineering, the brand sound is one of the important advantage strategies in a car company. For the design of brand sound, the selection of descriptive word for a car sound is one of major works in automotive sound quality research. In this paper, booming and rumbling sound, which are professional words used by sound and vibration engineers are used for the design of brand sound. We employed sound quality metrics, which are used in the psychoacoustics. By most research results, the relationship between subjective evaluations and sound quality metrics has nonlinear characteristics. In order to correlate these subjective evaluations with sound quality metrics, the artificial neural network technology has been applied to two-dimensional sound quality index for a passenger car. These indexes are used for 46 passenger cars, which are samples of the famous cars around the world. Also a preference evaluation for car sound was carried out by sound and vibration engineers. We coupled this preference with booming and rumbling sounds by using artificial neural network. In future, the two dimensional sound and preference index will be very useful to develop brand sound in passenger cars.

This paper presents a new CIPOS™ (Control Integrated POwer System) in DIL (Dual-in-line) package with transfer molded type, which combines with the features of Infineon SiC (silicon carbide diode), Infineon trench field stop technology IGBT and optimized Infineon SOI (Silicon On Insulator) gate driver to achieve the excellent solution for up to 3kW motor drives. By using SiC solution, better efficiency is realized for fast switching application. Especially, this module offers the smallest package size with high power density. This paper provides an overall description of the new CIPOS™ module as well as adopted SiC electrical characteristics, thermal performance, trench field stop technology IGBT and SOI gate driver.

The crystal structure of the l -rhamnose-binding lectin CSL3 was determined to 1.8 A resolution. This protein is a component of the germline-encoded pattern recognition proteins in innate immunity. CSL3 is a homodimer of two 20 kDa subunits with a dumbbell-like shape overall, in which the N- and C-terminal domains of different subunits form lobe structures connected with flexible linker peptides. The complex structures of the protein with specific carbohydrates demonstrated the importance of the most variable loop region among homologues for the specificity toward oligosaccharides. CSL3 and Shiga-like toxin both use Gb3 as a cellular receptor to evoke apoptosis. They have very different overall architecture but share the separation distance between carbohydrate-binding sites. An inspection of the structure database suggested that the pseudo-tetrameric structure of CSL3 was unique among the known lectins. This architecture implies this protein might provide a unique tool for further investigations into the relationships between architecture and function of pattern recognition proteins.