Morphological variation of carotid artery bifurcation level in digital angiography

Knowing of the level of carotid artery bifurcation (CB) is important for vascular surgery in the neck, radical neck dissections, carotid sinus baroreceptor stimulation, catheterisations, and aneurysms. The aim of this study was to determine the CB level in relation with the cervical vertebral levels, compare them on the right and the left sides, and investigate the relation of CB level with the length of neck. In this study, 100 conventional carotid angiographies were performed. The CB level was determined in relation with 10 different levels which were the levels of the cervical vertebrae and intervertebral disks, and the relation of CB level with the length of neck was investigated. The right and left CB levels of the patients were also determined, and compared. The highest level of CB was at the level of C2 vertebra, and the lowest level of CB was at the level of C6–C7 intervertebral disk in both male and female. When all patients were taken into consideration, CB level was most frequently seen at the level of C4–C5 (29%) on the right side, and at the level of C4 (26%) on the left side. The CB levels were not symmetrical in 10 female and 23 male. Knowing of the anatomical variations of CB level is important in surgical procedures. The anatomical differences must be taken into consideration since the neighbouring structures of CB change in case of variations. We believe that the results of this study will shed light to planning of all interventional methods concerning common carotid artery and its branches as well as surgery in the neck, and will help to minimise the complications

All-fiber-integrated soliton-similariton laser with in-line fiber filter

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We demonstrate an all-fiber-integrated Er-doped fiber laser operating in the soliton–similariton mode-locking regime. In the similariton part of the cavity, a self-similarly evolving parabolic pulse with highly linear chirp propagates in the presence of normal dispersion. Following an in-line fiber-based birefringent filter, the pulse evolves into a soliton in the part of the cavity with anomalous dispersion. The similariton and the soliton pulses are dechirped to 75.5 and 167.2 fs, respectively, outside of the cavity. Mode-locked operation is very robust, owing to the influence of the two similariton and soliton attractors that predominate each half of the laser cavity. The experimental results are supported with numerical simulations, which provide good agreement

Degrees of freedom of optical systems and signals with applications to sampling and system simulation

We study the degrees of freedom of optical systems and signals based on space-frequency (phase space) analysis. At the heart of this study is the relationship of the linear canonical transform domains to the space-frequency plane. Based on this relationship, we discuss how to explicitly quantify the degrees of freedom of first-order optical systems with multiple apertures, and give conditions for lossless transfer. Moreover, we focus on the degrees of freedom of signals in relation to the space-frequency support and provide a sub-Nyquist sampling approach to represent signals with arbitrary space-frequency support. Implications for simulating optical systems are also discussed. © 2013 Optical Society of America

Femtosecond laser-induced TiO2 nano structures on titanium

We report formation of polarization-dependent nanostructures (nanolines, nanocircles) by high repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses on titanium surface through a novel mechanism, converting Ti to TiO2. Arbitrarily large-area patterns are created by self-stitching of these patterns. © 2010 Optical Society of America

All-fiber high-energy yb-doped fiber amplifier

We report a robust, all-fiber amplifier seeded by a fiber oscillator. Seed pulses at 1 MHz repetition rate are amplified up to 3 μJ, delivering 1 μJ-energy, 170 fs-long pulses. Duration reduces to 120 fs at 1 μJ amplifier output. These are the highest peak powers from an integrated fiber source. © 2009 IEEE

Doping management for high-power fiber lasers: 100 W, few-picosecond pulse generation from an all-fiber-integrated amplifier

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Thermal effects, which limit the average power, can be minimized by using low-doped, longer gain fibers, whereas the presence of nonlinear effects requires use of high-doped, shorter fibers to maximize the peak power. We propose the use of varying doping levels along the gain fiber to circumvent these opposing requirements. By analogy to dispersion management and nonlinearity management, we refer to this scheme as doping management. As a practical first implementation, we report on the development of a fiber laser-amplifier system, the last stage of which has a hybrid gain fiber composed of high-doped and low-doped Yb fibers. The amplifier generates 100 W at 100 MHz with pulse energy of 1 mu J. The seed source is a passively mode-locked fiber oscillator operating in the all-normal-dispersion regime. The amplifier comprises three stages, which are all-fiber-integrated, delivering 13 ps pulses at full power. By optionally placing a grating compressor after the first stage amplifier, chirp of the seed pulses can be controlled, which allows an extra degree of freedom in the interplay between dispersion and self-phase modulation. This way, the laser delivers 4.5 ps pulses with similar to 200 kW peak power directly from fiber, without using external pulse compression. (C) 2012 Optical Society of Americ

Texturing of titanium (Ti6Al4V) medical implant surfaces with MHz-repetition-rate femtosecond and picosecond Yb-doped fiber lasers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We propose and demonstrate the use of short pulsed fiber lasers in surface texturing using MHz-repetition-rate, microjoule- and sub-microjoule-energy pulses. Texturing of titanium-based (Ti6Al4V) dental implant surfaces is achieved using femtosecond, picosecond and (for comparison) nanosecond pulses with the aim of controlling attachment of human cells onto the surface. Femtosecond and picosecond pulses yield similar results in the creation of micron-scale textures with greatly reduced or no thermal heat effects, whereas nanosecond pulses result in strong thermal effects. Various surface textures are created with excellent uniformity and repeatability on a desired portion of the surface. The effects of the surface texturing on the attachment and proliferation of cells are characterized under cell culture conditions. Our data indicate that picosecond-pulsed laser modification can be utilized effectively in low-cost laser surface engineering of medical implants, where different areas on the surface can be made cell-attachment friendly or hostile through the use of different patterns. (C) 2011 Optical Society of Americ

The influence of Depth of Cut, Feed Rate, and Step-over on Surface Roughness of Polycarbonate Material in Subtractive Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is fast and automatic three dimensions physical modeling that uses computer aided design model as the input. One of the important requirements in various products is the surface quality. Therefore, the aim of this research is to study and then develop a model that shows the influence of depth of cut, feed rate, and step-over on the vertical and horizontal surface roughness of polycarbonate material in subtractive rapid prototyping. The subtractive rapid prototyping process is performed by using Roland MDX 40 machine assisted by CAM Modela Player 4.0 software. This research implements response surface methodology to develop the model and then followed by the residual tests. The result shows that the increase of the depth of cut and the interaction between the step-over and the depth of cut will increase the horizontal surface roughness. Meanwhile, the vertical surface roughness will be affected mostly by the step-over. This research provides an insight on how to rapid prototype the polycarbonate material in order to achieve the surface requirement. The result of this research is the basis for achieving the main purpose of subtractive rapid prototyping which are maximum material rate removal and the minimum surface roughness

Massive retroperitoneal tubercular abscess mimicking a leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm: a case report

In spite of being a common diagnosis in the patients of Asian origin, atypical presentations of tuberculosis may pose diagnostic challenges. We report a huge prevertebral abscess in a 30-year-old female, mimicking a leaking aortic aneurysm. The patient was managed successfully by emergency decompression and stabilization. The issues related to poor patient compliance to chemotherapy and management of atypical presentations of spinal tuberculosis are discussed here

On the European Union – Turkey Customs Union

The purpose of the paper is to study the European Union - Turkey customs union (CU) of 1995 covering trade in industrial goods. The customs union decision of 1995 extending to rules and disciplines on various regulatory border and behind-the-border policies covers in particular customs reform, technical barriers to trade, competition policy, intellectual property rights, and administrative procedures. The paper after assessing in each case the status quo at the time of the entry of the CU into force evaluates the commitments undertaken under the CU, and assesses the degree of implementation of the CU requirements as well as the administrative costs of implementation of the CU. Finally, the paper shows how the CU has successfully moved the Turkish economy from a government-controlled regime to a market based one