Analysis of Inner Ear Anomalies in Unilateral Congenital Aural Atresia Combined With Microtia

Objectives The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of inner ear anomalies in patients with unilateral congenital aural atresia (CAA) combined with microtia. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 61 patients with unilateral CAA combined with microtia who underwent high-resolution temporal bone computed tomography (TBCT) and hearing examination. Inner ear anomalies were analyzed using TBCT and evaluated according to the Jahrsdoerfer grading system, Marx classification, and extent of inferior displacement of the mastoid tegmen. Results Inner ear anomalies were observed in 14 patients (23.0%). Lateral semicircular canal (LSCC) dysplasia was the most common inner ear anomaly, with an incidence of 16.4%. The incidence was significantly higher on the pathologic side than on the unaffected side (P=0.002). All vascular anomalies were observed in the high-riding jugular bulb, with an incidence of 24.6%. The incidence was significantly higher on the pathologic side than on the unaffected side (P<0.001). LSCC dysplasia was significantly more common in patients with a lower Jahrsdoerfer score (odds ratio, 0.66; P=0.004). Conclusion The incidence of inner ear anomalies was relatively high in patients with unilateral CAA combined with microtia; LSCC dysplasia was the most common anomaly and the probability of coexistence was higher in patients with a lower Jahrsdoerfer score

Redescription of Two Urostylid Ciliates (Ciliophora: Urostylida), Anteholosticha pulchra and Metaurostylopsis struederkypkeae from Korea

Two urostylid ciliates, Anteholosticha pulchra (Kahl, 1932) Berger, 2003 and Metaurostylopsis struederkypkeae Shao et al., 2008, new to Korea, were collected from the Yellow Sea and the East Sea, Korea, respectively. They were identified based on live observation and protargol impregnation. Taxonomical characters of A. pulchra are as follows: 190-300×30-55 μm size in vivo; contractile vacuole located on the left side of the posterior 1/4 of the cell; spherical-reddish granules at cirral bases and around dorsal bristles, somewhat sparsely distributed throughout the cell surface; four frontal and two frontoterminal cirri; four dorsal kineties; caudal cirri absent. Metaurostylopsis struederkypkeae is characterized as follows: 80-110×40-50 μm size in vivo; caudal cirri absent; two types of cortical granules: type 1, yellow-green arranged along the ventral cirral rows and dorsal kineties; type 2, small and reddish, with an irregular arrangement; four frontal, four to eight frontoterminal, and two to six transverse cirri; five to seven left and three to five right marginal rows. Sequences of small subunit ribosomal DNA were determined from both species, and pairwise distances with their relatives were analyzed

Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Pseudouroleptus jejuensis nov. spec., a New Soil Ciliate (Ciliophora, Spirotrichea) from South Korea

A new soil ciliate, Pseudouroleptus jejuensis, was discovered from Jeju Island, South Korea and described based on live observation, protargol impregnation, and SSU rRNA gene sequence analyses. Pseudouroleptus jejuensis differs from other congeneric species mainly by number of dorsal kineties (5 vs. 4). Based on our observation of late dividers, we confirm that the dorsal kinety anlage 3 forms 3 kineties (i.e., dorsal kineties 3–5), and the dorsal kinety anlagen 1–3 form 3–5/1–2/0 caudal cirri, respectively. Our gene trees support the assignment of this new species in Pseudouroleptus to full supporting values

Achieving Both Ultrahigh Electrical Conductivity and Mechanical Modulus of Carbon Films: Templating-Coalescing Behavior of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube in Polyacrylonitrile

Promoting the feasibility of carbon films as electrode applications requires sufficient performances in view of both electrical and mechanical properties. Herein, carbon films with ultrahigh electrical conductivity and mechanical modulus are prepared by high temperature carbonization of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) nanocomposites. Achieving both performances is ascribed to remarkable graphitic crystallinity, resulting from the sequential templating???coalescing behavior of concentrated SWNT bundles (B-CNTs). While well-dispersed SWNTs (WD-CNTs) facilitate radial templating according to their tubular geometry, flattened B-CNTs sandwiched between carbonized PAN matrices induce vertical templating, where the former and latter produce concentric and planar crystallizations of the graphitic structure, respectively. After carbonization at 2500 ??C with the remaining WD-CNTs as microstructural defects, the flattened B-CNTs coalesce into graphitic crystals by zipping the surrounding matrix, resulting in high crystallinity with the crystal thicknesses of 27.4 and 39.4 nm for the (002) and (10) planes, respectively. For comparison, the graphene oxide (GO) containing carbon films produce a less-ordered graphitic phase owing to irregular templating, despite the geometrical consistency. Consequently, PAN/B-CNT carbon films exhibit exceptional electrical conductivity (40.7 ?? 104 S m???1) and mechanical modulus (38.2 ?? 6.4 GPa). Thus, controlling the templating???coalescing behavior of SWNTs is the key for improving final performances of carbon films

Triple Band Internal Antenna Using Matching Circuits

In this paper, a triple-band internal antenna for mobile handsets is present. Dual band operation is generated by using a band reject filter as a matching circuit and without any transformations on its radiator. Moreover, the antenna gives a wide impedance bandwidth in high band by using an additional chip capacitor so that the antenna can operate in triple-band with only one radiator. Details of the proposed antenna are presented

Ultrastrong and stress corrosion cracking-resistant martensitic steels

This study aims to reveal the atomic-scale effects of tempering on the complex substructures and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistance of high-strength martensitic steels. The SCC resistance and strength of boron-doped Fe-0.3C-0.3Si-1.0Mn-1.0Ni-0.5Cr (wt%) martensitic steel increase concurrently without low-temperature tempering. Notably, the degradation of SCC resistance caused by tempering is in con-trast with the known effect. To explore this unexpected result, subboundaries inside the martensitic mi-crostructure are investigated via atomic-nano-micro-scale analyses. The strongly segregated carbon at the lath boundaries during tempering is a precursor to the harmful cementite, which acts as severe SCC ini-tiation sites. Eventually, intensive crack grew along the lath boundaries, deteriorating the SCC resistance of the material. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Solution-processed CdS transistors with high electron mobility

Solution-processed CdS field effect transistors (FETs) and solar cells are demonstrated via spin-coating and thermal annealing of soluble cadmium thiolate compounds. The synthesis is carried out in one simple step using cadmium oxide and tertiary alkane thiols. The cadmium thiolates are soluble in organic solvents such as chloroform and may be spin-coated, like organic semiconductors, to form thin films. The cadmium thiolate films decompose rapidly at 300 ??C to yield semiconducting cadmium sulfide films. FETs are easily fabricated using these films and exhibit electron mobilities of up to 61 cm2 V -1 s-1, which compare favourably to FETs prepared from other solution-processed materials such as organic semiconductors, inorganic nanoparticles or chalcogenide films. Initial attempts to prepare hybrid bilayer solar cells were successfully realized by spin-coating a p-type semiconducting polymer layer on top of the n-type CdS film. These devices show significant photocurrent response from both the CdS and polymer layers, indicating that the CdS films are able to participate in photo-induced electron transfer from the polymer to the CdS layer as well as photo-induced hole transfer from CdS to the polymer layer.close2