Evaluation of Anatomoradiological Findings on Trigeminal Neuralgia Patients Using Computed Tomography and Cone-Beam Computed Tomography

The study aimed to establish and evaluate anatomoradiological landmarks in trigeminal neuralgia patients using computed tomography (CT) and cone-beam CT. CT images of 40 trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and 40 healthy individuals were retrospectively analyzed and enrolled in the study. The width and length of the foramen rotundum (FR), foramen ovale (FO), foramen supraorbitale, and infraorbitale were measured. The distances between these foramen, between these foramen to the median plane, and between the superior orbital fissure, FO, and FR to clinoid processes were also measured bilaterally. Variations were evaluated according to groups. Significant differences were found for width and length of the foramen ovale, length of the foramen supraorbitale, and infraorbitale between TN and control subjects (p < 0.05). On both sides, FO gets narrower and the length of the infraorbital and supraorbital foramen shortens in the TN group. In most of the control patients, the plane which passes through the infraorbital and supraorbital foramen intersects with impression trigeminale; 70% on the right-side, and 67% in the left-side TN groups. This plane does not intersect with impression trigeminale and deviates in certain degrees. The determination of specific landmarks allows customization to individual patient anatomy and may help the surgeon achieve a more selective effect with a variety of percutaneous procedures in trigeminal neuralgia patients.

Binaural Synthetic Aperture Imaging of the Field of Audition as the Head Rotates and Localisation Perception of Monophonic Sound Listened to through Headphones

A human listening to monophonic sound through headphones perceives the sound to emanate from a point inside the head at the auditory centre at effectively zero range. The extent to which this is predicted by synthetic-aperture calculation performed in response to head rotation is explored. The instantaneous angle between the auditory axis and the acoustic source, lambda, for the zero inter-aural time delay imposed by headphones is 90°. The lambda hyperbolic cone simplifies to the auditory median plane, which intersects a spherical surface centred on the auditory centre, along a prime meridian lambda circle. In a two-dimensional (2-D) synthetic-aperture computation, points of intersection of all lambda circles as the head rotates constitute solutions to the directions to acoustic sources. Geometrically, lambda circles cannot intersect at a point representing the auditory centre; nevertheless, 2-D synthetic aperture images for a pure turn of the head and for a pure lateral tilt yield solutions as pairs of points on opposite sides of the head. These can reasonably be interpreted to be perceived at the sums of the position vectors of the pairs of points on the acoustic image, i.e., at the auditory centre. But, a turn of the head on which a fixed lateral tilt of the auditory axis is concomitant (as in species of owl) yields a 2-D synthetic-aperture image without solution. However, extending a 2-D synthetic aperture calculation to a three-dimensional (3-D) calculation will generate a 3-D acoustic image of the field of audition that robustly yields the expected solution.

Experimental study of a natural convection flow in a cubic enclosure with a partially heated inner block

In many industrial contexts, buoyancy driven flows are the only cooling strategy in case of breakdown of the forced convection cooling system. In order to study those flows in a simplified configuration, a buoyancy-driven flow is generated inside a cubic enclosure by a partially heated block (Ra = 1.4 × 109). The flow is studied experimentally in the vertical median plane, in the part of the enclosure where the flow is generated i.e. close to the heated side of the block. Velocity fields, mean profiles and RMS statistics are analyzed. The results show the presence of boundary layer flows with a central zone nearly at rest and stratified. RMS velocities are intensified with elevation.

Construction of mathematical models of the stressed-strained state of a material with a porous water-saturated base under dynamic load

Materials of beams, plates, slabs, strips have been commonly applied in various fields of industry and agriculture as flat elements in the structures for machinery and construction. They are associated with the design of numerous engineering structures and facilities, such as the foundations of various buildings, airfield and road surfaces, floodgates, including underground structures. This paper reports a study into the interaction of the material (of beams, plates, slabs, strips) with the deformable base as a three-dimensional body and in the exact statement of a three-dimensional problem of mathematical physics under dynamic loads. The tasks of studying the interaction of a material (beams, plates, slabs, strips) with a deformable base have been set. A material lying on a porous water-saturated viscoelastic base is considered as a viscoelastic layer of the same geometry. It is assumed that the lower surface of the layer is flat while the upper surface, in a general case, is not flat and is given by some equation. Classical approximate theories of the interaction of a layer with a deformable base, based on the Kirchhoff hypothesis, have been considered. Using the well-known hypothesis by Timoshenko and others, the general three-dimensional problem is reduced to a two-dimensional one relative to the displacement of points of the median plane of the layer, which imposes restrictions on external efforts. In the examined problem, there is no median plane. Therefore, as the desired values, displacements and deformations of the points in the plane have been considered, which, under certain conditions, pass into the median plane of the layer. It is not possible to find a closed analytical solution for most problems while experimental studies often turn out to be time-consuming and dangerous processes

High Capacity Reversible Steganography on CMY and HSI Color Images Using Image Interpolation

Steganography using image interpolation has created a new research area in multimedia communication. A reversible data concealing in HSI and CMY color models using image interpolation is proposed in this paper. The HSI and CMY image models are interpolated using High Capacity Reversible Steganography (CRS) technique. The median plane of both HSI and CMY color models are selected for secret message bit concealing. The secret message bits are concealed in the cover plane by Exclusive OR (XOR) operation. Since the cover image is recovered after secret message bit retrieval, this finds application in military and medical imaging applications. The experimental results of proposed scheme showed very high embedding capacity of about 16 bits in each pixel location of calculated pixel value, good image quality with a surface similarity index measure (SSIM) value 1 and high PSNR. Also, high robustness is achieved on comparing with the existing works.

Evaluation of Mandibular Growth and Symmetry in Child with Congenital Zygomatic-Coronoid Ankylosis

Ankyloses in the area of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) are mentioned as a potential etiological factor of mandibular growth disorders and facial asymmetry. The aim of this case study was to evaluate the changes in the mandible of a child with zygomatic-coronoid ankylosis during the first five years of life, in which two adhesion release procedures were performed. The adopted symmetrical approach is based on the assumption of symmetry of the structure of the stomatognathic system in relation to the sagittal median plane. However, the assessment of pathological changes in the structure of the skeletal system was performed using an asymmetrical approach. Computed tomography techniques and a system of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) were used in the case study. During the child’s growth, linear and angular measurements were made thrice (at the age of 16, 25 and 54 months). The degree of asymmetry was estimated in the measurements made on the right and left sides of the three-dimensional mandible. Unilateral congenital hypoplasia of the articular process and zygomatic-coronoid adhesion caused asymmetrical growth of the mandible in the child along with shortening of the mandibular branch and body on the damaged side and a visible difference in the size of the mandibular angles. Removal of the adhesions during surgical procedures made it possible to reduce the asymmetry of the mandible and catch-up growth, although at the age of five, the mandible was still smaller than the mandible in healthy peers. It was shown that the early adhesion release procedures supported by the CAD analysis enabled the restoration of mandibular symmetry.

Quantitative Asymmetry Assessment between Virtual and Mixed Reality Planning for Orthognathic Surgery—A Retrospective Study

Orthognathic surgical planning compromises three clinical needs: occlusal balancing, symmetry, and harmony, which may result in multiple outcomes. Facial symmetry is the ultimate goal for patients and practitioners. Pure virtual planning and mixed reality planning were two innovative technologies in clinical practices compared to conventional model surgery used for decades. We proposed quantitative asymmetry assessment methods in both mandibular contour (in 2D) and a midface and mandible relationship in 3D. A computerized optimal symmetry plane, being the median plane, was applied in both planning methods. In the 3D asymmetry assessment between two planning methods, the deviation angle and deviation distance between midface and mandible were within 2° and 1.5 mm, respectively. There was no significant difference, except the symmetry index of the anterior deviation angle between the virtual and mixed reality planning in the 3D asymmetry assessment. In the mandible contour assessment, there was no significant difference between the virtual and mixed reality planning in asymmetry assessment in the frontal and frontal downward inclined views. Quantitative outcomes in 3D asymmetry indices showed that mixed reality planning was slightly more symmetric than virtual planning, with the opposite in 2D contouring.

Upper hemisphere sound image control with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers based on parametric head-related transfer functions

The 22.2 multichannel sound system has been developed for an ultra high-definition television system. This system consists of twenty two loudspeakers and two sub-woofers called low frequency effects, and can reproduce three-dimensional sound image appropriate to the ultra high-definition television system. However, this system has a problem of high cost to install. On the other hand, the multichannel sound system with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers has lower cost to install than full scale one. However, this system cannot reproduce an upper sound image. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the upper sound image control with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers based on the parametric head-related transfer functions. The proposed method generates binaural signals to control the sound image elevationally based on the parametric head-related transfer functions in the median plane. Also, the proposed system uses the interaural level difference to control the sound image of binaural signals azimuthally. Finally, the proposed method generates output signals for horizontal-arranged loudspeakers from binaural signals by designing a multichannel inverse system based on multi-input / output inverse theorem. The experimental results show that the proposed method can control the sound image to elevation angle with the same accuracy as binaural lreproduction. The 22.2 multichannel sound system has been developed for an ultra high-definition television system. This system consists of twenty loudspeakers and two sub-woofers called low frequency effects, and can reproduce three-dimensional sound image appropriate to the ultra high-definition television system. However, this system has a problem of high cost to install. On the other hand, the multichannel sound system with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers has lower cost to install than full scale one. However, this system cannot reproduce an upper sound image. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the upper sound image control with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers based on the parametric head-related transfer functions. The proposed method generates binaural signals to control the sound image elevationally based on the parametric head-related transfer functions in the median plane. Also, the proposed system uses the interaural level difference to control the sound image of binaural signals azimuthally. Finally, the proposed method generates output signals for horizontal-arranged loudspeakers from binaural signals by designing a multichannel inverse system based on multi-input / output inverse theorem. The experimental results show that the proposed method can control the sound image to elevation angle with the same accuracy as binaural reproduction.

COMPARISON OF SOLUTIONS TO THE BENDING PROBLEMS OF THREE-LAYER PLATES ON THE WINKLER AND PASTERNAK FOUNDATIONS

Solutions of problems on axisymmetric bending of an elastic three-layer circular plate on the Winkler and Pasternak foundations are given. The bearing layers are taken as isotropic, for which Kirchhoff’s hypotheses are fulfilled. In a sufficiently thick lightweight, incompressible in thickness aggregate, the Timoshenko model is valid. The cylindrical coordinate system, in which the statements and solutions of boundary value problems are carried out, is connected with the median plane of the filler. On the plate contour, it is assumed that there is a rigid diaphragm that prevents the relative shear of the layers. The system of differential equations of equilibrium is obtained by the variational method. Three types of boundary conditions are formulated. One- and two-parameter Winkler and Pasternak models are used to describe the reaction of an elastic foundation. The solution to the boundary value problem is reduced to finding three desired functions, plate deflection, shear, and radial displacement in the filler. The general analytical solution to the boundary value problem is written out in the case of the Pasternak model in Bessel functions. At the Winkler foundation, the known solution is given in Kelvin functions. A numerical comparison of the displacements and stresses obtained by both models with a uniformly distributed load and rigid sealing of the plate contour is carried out.