Longitudinal outcomes of trismus release with free-flap reconstruction in primary and secondary oral submucous fibrosis-related trismus.

BACKGROUND: Oral submucous fibrosis is a global health concern associated with betel quid use and results in trismus, which can be either primary or secondary in origin. Severe cases often require trismus release with free-flap reconstruction. This study examined longitudinal outcome trends following trismus release and compared the outcomes of patients with primary and secondary oral submucous fibrosis-related trismus. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study by including patients who underwent trismus release between 2013 and 2022. All procedures were performed by a single surgical team to ensure technique standardisation. We measured the maximum mouth opening, the interincisal distance, perioperatively and 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 months post-operatively. Data were analysed using generalised estimating equations. RESULTS: A total of 35 patients were included in the study, 17 with primary and 18 with secondary oral submucous fibrosis-related trismus. Initially, patients with primary oral submucous fibrosis-related trismus had greater interincisal distance gains than those with secondary oral submucous fibrosis-related trismus (p = 0.015 and p = 0.025 at 3 and 4 months post-operatively, respectively). However, after 12 months, this initial advantage faded, with comparable interincisal distance improvements in patients with primary and secondary disease, despite the more complex surgical procedures required in secondary cases. CONCLUSION: Surgeons should carefully consider the benefits of trismus release procedures for patients with secondary oral submucous fibrosis-related trismus by recognising the changes in post-operative outcomes.

Lie group study of Raman spectra of the Gurken gradient in Drosophila oogenesis.

We carried out a Lie group study of the micro-Raman tissue spectra of the Gurken gradients of Drosophila oogenesis. Matrix representations (2 × 2) resulting from the polarized Raman scattering were employed to assess the roles of the ligand-receptor complexes in follicle cell. It was found that the Gurken expansion caused by overexpressing Dally-like protein (Dlp) revealed an X(1) Lie point symmetry, while the Gurken distribution in the wild-type egg showed an X(23) Lie point symmetry. The correlation between the corresponding continuous symmetry operations and the observed Gurken localization were a corroboration of the significance of the Lie group analysis by means of the reaction-diffusion equation in a prolate spheroidal coordinate system. These investigations suggested that the group-theoretical approach can be applied to characterize the fluctuating asymmetry and the developmental stability in a wide variety of organisms.

Thermophysical Characterization of Efficiency Droop in GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes.

An efficiency droop in GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LED) was characterized by examining its general thermophysical parameters. An effective suppression of emission degradation afforded by the introduction of InGaN/GaN heterobarrier structures in the active region was attributable to an increase in the capture cross-section ratios. The Debye temperatures and the electron-phonon interaction coupling coefficients were obtained from temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well LEDs over a temperature range from 20 to 300 K. It was found that the Debye temperature of the LEDs was modulated by the InN molar fraction in the heterobarriers. As far as the phonons involved in the electron-phonon scattering process are concerned, the average number of phonons decreases with the Debye temperature, and the electron-phonon interaction coupling coefficients phenomenologically reflect the nonradiative transition rates. We can use the characteristic ratio of the Debye temperature to the coupling coefficient (DCR) to assess the efficiency droop phenomenon. Our investigation showed that DCR is correlated to quantum efficiency (QE). The light emission results exhibited the high and low QEs to be represented by the high and low DCRs associated with low and high injection currents, respectively. The DCR can be envisioned as a thermophysical marker of LED performance, not only for efficiency droop characterization but also for heterodevice structure optimization.

Lie symmetry analysis of the effects of urban infrastructures on residential property values.

Due to the complexity of socio-economic-related issues, people thought of housing market as a chaotic nucleus situated at the intersection of neighboring sciences. It has been known that the dependence of house features on the residential property value can be estimated employing the well-established hedonic regression analysis method in teams of location characteristic, neighborhood characteristic and structure characteristic. However, to further assess the roles of urban infrastructures in housing markets, we proposed a new kind of volatility measure for house prices utilizing the Lie symmetry analysis of quantum theory based on Schrödinger equation, mainly focusing on the effects of transportation systems and public parks on residential property values. Based on the municipal open government data regularly collected for four cities, including Boston, Milwaukee, Taipei and Tokyo, and all spatial sampling sites were featured by United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map, transportation and park were modelled as perturbations to the quantum states generated by the feature space in response to the environmental amenities with different spatial extents. In an attempt to ascertain the intrinsic impact of the location-dependent price information obtained, the similarity functions associated with the Schrödinger equation were considered to facilitate revealing the city amenities capitalizing into house prices. By examining the spatial spillover phenomena of house prices in the four cities investigated, it was found that the mass transit systems and the public green lands possessed the infinitesimal generators of Lie point symmetries Y2 and Y5, respectively. Compared statistically with the common performance criteria, including mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE) and, root mean squared error (RMSE) obtained by hedonic pricing model, the Lie symmetry analysis of the Schrödinger equation approach developed herein was successfully carried out. The invariant-theoretical characterizations of economics-related phenomena are consonant with the observed residential property values of the cities internationally, ultimately leading to develop a new perspective in the global financial architecture.

Intensive measures of luminescence in GaN/InGaN heterostructures.

The intensive measures of luminescence in a GaN/InGaN multiple quantum well system are used to examine the thermodynamics and phenomenological structure. The radiative /nonradiative transitions along with absorbed or emitted phonons that occur between the different quantum states of the electrons and holes associated with these processes make the quantum efficiency of a semiconductor nanosystem in an equilibrium state an extensive property. It has long been recognized that tuning of the indium (In) composition in InGaN interlayers gives the potential to obtain a spectrum in the near-infrared to near-ultraviolet spectral range. The thermodynamic intensive properties, including the Debye temperature, carrier temperature, and junction temperature, are the most appropriate metrics to describe the optical-related interactions inherent in a given heterostructure and so can be used as the state variables for understanding the quantum exchange behaviors. The energetic features of the quantum processes are characterized based on analysis of the intensive parameters as determined by means of electroluminescence (EL) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and current-voltage measurement and then correlated with the designed InGaN/GaN microstructures. According to the McCumber-Sturge theory, the EL and PL Debye temperatures obtained experimentally signal the strength of the electron-phonon and photon-phonon interaction, respectively, while the EL and PL carrier/junction temperatures correspond to the carrier localization. Higher EL Debye temperatures and lower EL carrier/junction temperatures reflect significantly higher luminescence quantum yields, indicative of electron-phonon coupling in the transfer of thermal energy between the confined electrons and the enhancement by excited phonons of heat-assisted emissions. On the other hand, the observation of low luminescence efficiency, corresponding to the lower PL Debye temperatures and higher PL carrier/junction temperatures, is attributed to photon-phonon coupling. These findings are in good accordance to the dependence of the EL and PL quantum efficiency on the In-content of the InGaN/GaN barriers, suggesting that the characteristic Debye and carrier/junction temperatures are intensive parameters useful for assessing the optical properties of a nano-engineered semiconductor heterostructure.

Aligned Er-doped ZnO nanorod arrays with enhanced 1.54 microm infrared emission.

Vertically aligned Er-doped ZnO nanorod arrays with sharp and intense 1.54 microm infrared emission have been fabricated on Si substrates through a well controlled spin-coating and annealing process. The synthesis method is advantageous for synthesizing ZnO nanostructures free from structural defects, capability for large-scale production, minimum equipment requirement and product homogeneity. Er atoms were found to incorporate into ZnO lattice from XRD, ESCA, TEM, STEM/EDS and PL measurements. The single-crystal Er-doped nanorods maintained their high microstructural quality after annealing for 4 hr at 800 degreesC. The intensity of 1.54 microm infrared emission was found to be correlated with the deep level green emission. The enhanced luminescence intensity and best ever narrow wavelength distribution of Er-doped ZnO nanorod arrays at 1.54 microm emission will be conductive to applications in optoelectronic devices and optical communications.

Lie Group Analysis of the Photo-Induced Fluorescence of Drosophila Oogenesis with the Asymmetrically Localized Gurken Protein.

Lie group analysis of the photo-induced fluorescence of Drosophila oogenesis with the asymmetrically localized Gurken protein has been performed systematically to assess the roles of ligand-receptor complexes in follicle cells. The (2×2) matrix representations resulting from the polarized tissue spectra were employed to characterize the asymmetrical Gurken distributions. It was found that the fluorescence of the wild-type egg shows the Lie point symmetry X 23 at early stages of oogenesis. However, due to the morphogen regulation by intracellular proteins and extracellular proteins, the fluorescence of the embryogenesis with asymmetrically localized Gurken expansions exhibits specific symmetry features: Lie point symmetry Z 1 and Lie point symmetry X 1. The novel approach developed herein was successfully used to validate that the invariant-theoretical characterizations are consonant with the observed asymmetric fluctuations during early embryological development.

Anomalous luminescence phenomena of indium-doped ZnO nanostructures grown on Si substrates by the hydrothermal method.

In recent years, zinc oxide (ZnO) has become one of the most popular research materials due to its unique properties and various applications. ZnO is an intrinsic semiconductor, with a wide bandgap (3.37 eV) and large exciton binding energy (60 meV) making it suitable for many optical applications. In this experiment, the simple hydrothermal method is used to grow indium-doped ZnO nanostructures on a silicon wafer, which are then annealed at different temperatures (400°C to 1,000°C) in an abundant oxygen atmosphere. This study discusses the surface structure and optical characteristic of ZnO nanomaterials. The structure of the ZnO nanostructures is analyzed by X-ray diffraction, the superficial state by scanning electron microscopy, and the optical measurements which are carried out using the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectra. In this study, we discuss the broad peak energy of the yellow-orange emission which shows tendency towards a blueshift with the temperature increase in the PL spectra. This differs from other common semiconductors which have an increase in their peak energy of deep-level emission along with measurement temperature.