Clinical significance of contact lens related changes of ocular surface tissue observed on optical coherence images

PurposeTo investigate the relationship between the real contact lens imprint into the conjunctival tissue, observed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and conjunctival staining and contact lens wearing comfort.Methods17 participants (mean age = 26.6 SD ± 3.6 years; 7 females) were fitted with three different contact lenses base curves of the same silicone hydrogel custom lens type (Visell 50; Hecht Contactlinsen, Au, Germany) in a randomised order. One lens was optimally fitted according to the manufacturer's recommendation, one fitted 0.4 mm flatter and one fitted 0.4 mm steeper. After 4 h of lens wear the contact lens edge in the area of the conjunctiva was imaged nasally and temporally using OCT (Optovue iVue SD-OCT). To correct the artefact due to optical distortion with OCT, the imprint of all worn lenses was measured on a glass plate afterwards. Conjunctival staining in the limbal region after 4 h of lens wear was classified using the CCLRU Grading Scale. Comfort scoring was based on visual analog scales from 0 (very poor) to 100 (excellent).ResultsThe mean conjunctival imprint of all contact lens edges was 32.0 ± 8.1 μm before and 7.3 ± 6.5 μm after distortion correction of the OCT images. The distortion corrected conjunctival imprint with the 0.4 mm steeper lens (11.5 ± 6.2 μm) was statistically significantly greater compared to the optimally fitted lens (6.5 ± 5.9 μm) (One-way ANOVA followed Tukey-test; p = 0.017) and greater compared to the 0.4 mm flatter lens (3.9 ± 5.3 μm) (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between the optimally fitted lens and the 0.4 mm flatter lens (p = 0.209). The nasally measured imprint (11.4 ± 9.0 μm) was significantly greater than the temporally measured (3.3 ± 7.6 μm) (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant correlation between the amount of conjunctival imprint and the graded conjunctival staining (p = 0.346) or the wearer’s comfort (p = 0.735).ConclusionsContact lens edges imaged by OCT exhibited displacement artefacts. The observed conjunctival imprints are a combination of real conjunctival compression and artefacts. A deeper imprint of the contact lens into the conjunctiva caused by a steeper base curve was not related to clinically significant staining or changes in comfort after 4 h of lens wear. The observed differences between nasal and temporal imprint are likely to be caused by variations of conjunctival thickness and the shape of the underlying sclera.     

A miniature triaxial apparatus for investigating the micromechanics of granular soils with in situ X-ray micro-tomography scanning

The development of a miniature triaxial apparatus is presented. In conjunction with an X-ray micro-tomography (termed as X-ray μCT hereafter) facility and advanced image processing techniques, this apparatus can be used for in situ investigation of the micro-scale mechanical behavior of granular soils under shear. The apparatus allows for triaxial testing of a miniature dry sample with a size of \mathrm{8}\hspace{0.17em}\mathrm{mm}\times \mathrm{16}\hspace{0.17em}\mathrm{mm} (diameter \times height). In situ triaxial testing of a 0.4–0.8 mm Leighton Buzzard sand (LBS) under a constant confining pressure of 500 kPa is presented. The evolutions of local porosities (i.e., the porosities of regions associated with individual particles), particle kinematics (i.e., particle translation and particle rotation) of the sample during the shear are quantitatively studied using image processing and analysis techniques. Meanwhile, a novel method is presented to quantify the volumetric strain distribution of the sample based on the results of local porosities and particle tracking. It is found that the sample, with nearly homogenous initial local porosities, starts to exhibit obvious inhomogeneity of local porosities and localization of particle kinematics and volumetric strain around the peak of deviatoric stress. In the post-peak shear stage, large local porosities and volumetric dilation mainly occur in a localized band. The developed triaxial apparatus, in its combined use of X-ray μCT imaging techniques, is a powerful tool to investigate the micro-scale mechanical behavior of granular soils.     

Theoretical study of a thermoelectric-assisted vapor compression cycle for air-source heat pump applications

This paper proposes a thermoelectric-assisted vapor compression cycle (TVCC) for applications in air-source heat pump systems which could enhance the heating capacity of the system. Performances of TVCC are calculated and then compared with that of basic vapor compression cycle (BVCC). The simulation results show that when coefficients of performance (COPs) of the two cycles are almost equal, the TVCC under maximum COP condition of the thermoelectric modules still performs better than BVCC by 13.0% in heating capacity through selecting the appropriate intermediate temperature. In addition, the TVCC can also achieve an improvement of 16.4%–21.7% in both the heating COP and capacity when compared with the BVCC with an assistant electric heater that is provided with the equivalent power input of thermoelectric heat exchanger. Thus, the TVCC could be beneficial to the applications in small heat pumps if there is always need for auxiliary electric heat.     

饱和尾粉砂动孔隙水压力发展特性试验研究

采用动三轴仪对内蒙古某尾矿库尾粉砂进行了动强度试验,研究了围压、相对密实度及固结比对动荷载作用下尾粉砂中孔隙水压力发展特性的影响。研究结果表明,随着固结比、相对密实度、围压的增大,动荷载作用下饱和尾粉砂孔压增长曲线形状由陡峭转变为平缓。随着围压及固结比增大,试样动力破坏形式从以孔压值为主要表征指标的液化破坏,转化为以动剪应变为主要破坏形式的软化破坏。动荷载作用下发生液化破坏的饱和尾粉砂孔压增长过程分可为初始增长阶段、稳定增长阶段和快速增长至破坏阶段,孔压增长曲线表现为明显的反S型,本文采用双对数函数对该试验孔压增长曲线进行拟合,结果表明该模型可以较好地模拟尾粉砂在动荷载作用下的孔压发展规律。     

Optimal weighed Holoentropy for video compression: an advanced HEVC

ABSTRACT

In recent times, the applications of multimedia are rising in a greedy mode and hence the amount of video transactions is also increasing exponentially. This has shouted great demands on effective models on video encoding and also for reducing the transmission channel congestion. This research work introduces a managing technique termed weighted encoding for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). HEVC, also termed as MPEG-H Part 2 and H.265 is a video compression standard that is widely utilized AVC (H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10). When compared to AVC, HEVC grants double the ratio of data compression at a similar level of quality of the video or considerably enhanced video quality at a similar bit rate. This work intends to optimize the weight that adopted in HEVC for encoding. For this, this paper proposes a new Iterative based propagation update in the water wave Optimization Algorithm (IPU-WWO), which is the improved form of Water wave Optimization (WWO). The performance of proposed IPU-WWO is compared over other conventional methods like Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Firefly (FF), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) with respect to Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). By doing the encoding process, it minimizes the video size with perceptually better quality video or PSNR.     

嵌入式GPS车载系统定位数据压缩算法的实现

根据嵌入式系统的特征，分析数据压缩模型工作原理，结合GPS定位数据的格式和特点，创造性地提出了嵌入式GPS定位数据的实时压缩的新算法，并通过模拟仿真得到验证，效果显著。     

WCDMA系统接口信令消息的描述与实现

WCDMA作为第三代移动通信系统的主流标准，能够提供多种类型的多媒体服务。为了实现各种用户平面数据的传输，系统会提前通过控制平面对所需的无线资源进行分配。由于配置过程是通过接口之间发送控制平面应用协议消息来实现的，因此能否正确有效地对信令消息进行编解码成为保证系统稳定工作的关键因素。3GPP标准中，ASN．1语言被用来描述接口信令消息。首先简要介绍了WCDMA系统结构以及主要接口协议，重点描述了ASN．1存在的意义及其编解码规则，最后给出了基于ASN．1的开发环境下应用层网络协议的开发流程。     

气田集输工艺的选择

近几年我国加快天然气工业的发展，开发了几个大型气田，在与外国石油公司的合作开发中，引进了一些先进的技术及设计理念，集气管道从传统的气液分输工艺发展到气液混输工艺。介绍了气田集输采用的新工艺，分析、总结了各种集输工艺的适用场所。     

煤层气利用新方案

在介绍煤层气的常规利用方案的基础上，提出了两种利用煤层气的新方案：一是采用变压吸附技术，纯化瓦斯气，将低浓度瓦斯气浓缩为高浓度瓦斯气，加压后成为CNG，用作CNG气源或较远距离城市的天然气气源；二是在第一种方案的基础上，将高浓度瓦斯气全部采用深冷法加以液化，生产LNG，并将LNG运送至更远距离用作LNG加气站、CNG加气站气源。最后还以松藻煤电公司为例，作了新方案的工程预算