Association of Corneal Biomechanics Properties with Myopia in a Child and a Parent Cohort: Hong Kong Children Eye Study

Associations between corneal biomechanics, axial elongation and myopia are important but previous results are conflicting. Our population-based study aimed to investigate factors associated with corneal biomechanics, and their relationships with myopia in children and adults. Data from 3643 children and 1994 parents showed that children had smaller deformation amplitudes (DA) than parents (p < 0.001). A larger DA was significantly associated with elongated axial length (AL; children: ß = 0.011; adults: ß = 0.0013), higher corneal curvature (children: ß = 0.0086; adults: ß = 0.0096), older age (children: ß = 0.010; adults: ß = 0.0013), and lower intraocular pressure (IOP; children: ß = −0.029; adults: ß = −0.031) in both cohorts. The coefficient of age for DA in children was larger than in adults (p < 0.001), indicating that the DA change with age in children is faster than in adults. DA was significantly associated with spherical equivalent (p < 0.001) resulting from its correlation with AL and corneal curvature. In conclusion, the cornea is more deformable in adults than in children, whereas corneal deformation amplitude increases faster with age in children than that in adults, along with AL elongation. Longer AL, steeper corneal curvature, older age and smaller IOP correspond to a more deformable cornea. The association between corneal deformation amplitude and refraction was mediated via AL and corneal curvature.

Numerical Study on Aerodynamic Performance of Different Forms of Adaptive Blades for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

The wind energy exploitation technique has been developed very quickly in recent years. The vertical axis wind turbine is a hot research domain due to several advantages: low noise, flexible for installation, ease of maintenance, great safety and credibility, etc. The aerodynamic performances of different forms of airfoils including an active deformation airfoil and a fluid-solid coupling passive airfoil with two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cases have been investigated numerically in this paper. Firstly, the aerodynamic performances of the airfoils with the maximum deformation amplitudes of their cambers which are 3%, 5% and 7% of the chord length have been discussed, respectively, with the angles of attack in the range of 0° and 20°. Secondly, for the angle of attack set at 18°, the two-way fluid-solid coupling simulations with the Young’s Modulus of 1 Mpa and 2 Mpa have also been investigated. Results show that: (1) for the pseudo 3D and real 3D single active deformation airfoil cases, the lift coefficients increase as the maximum deformation amplitudes augment from 3% to 7% of the chord length at the same angle of attack. With the same maximum deformation amplitude, when the angles of attack increase from 0° to 20°, the lift coefficients which increase firstly and then decrease are bigger than that of the original NACA0012 airfoil. When the maximum deformation amplitude of the pseudo 3D airfoil reaches 5% of the chord length, a relatively good aerodynamic performance with better inhibition effect of vortex generation can be obtained. The 3D vortex distribution demonstrates that the deformable airfoil has a better vortex generation controlling effect at the middle cross-section along the spanwise direction than the non-deformable airfoil. (2) From the aspect of fluid-solid coupling, the lift increases and the drag decreases so that the lift to drag ratio has a big improvement when the Young’s Modulus is equal to 1 Mpa and 2 Mpa. The deformable airfoil can inhibit the generation and the shedding of the surface vortex when the fluid-solid coupling effect is considered.

Keratokonusdetektion und Ableitung des Ausprägungsgrades aus den Parametern des Corvis®ST

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund und Zielsetzung In den vergangenen Jahren wurden zunehmend Systeme der künstlichen Intelligenz in der Medizin etabliert, die Pathologien oder Erkrankungen erkennen oder von komplementären Erkrankungen abgrenzen. Bisher liefert das Corvis®ST (Corneal Visualization Scheimpflug Technology, Oculus, Wetzlar, Deutschland) einen Index-CBI, der quasi binär Keratokonus klassifiziert, aber kein Staging zulässt. Ziel der Studie ist es, anhand von Messgrößen des Corvis®ST ein Vorhersagemodell zu entwerfen, das den Topographic Keratoconus Classification Index (TKC) der Pentacam high resolution (HR, Oculus) nachbildet. Patienten und Methoden Es wurden 60 Messungen an Normalprobanden (TKC 0) und 379 Augen mit Keratokonus (TKC 1 bis 4) in die Studie mit einbezogen. Nach der Messung mit der Pentacam HR (Zielgröße TKC) wurde eine Untersuchung mit dem Corvis®ST durchgeführt, aus der 6 Messparameter extrahiert wurden, die in den Corvis Biomechanical Index CBI eingehen (ARTh, SP-A1, DA-Ratio 1 mm, DA-Ratio 2 mm, A1 velocity, max. Deformation Amplitude). Neben dem TKC als Zielgröße wurde der binarisierte TKC (1: TKC 1 bis 4, 0: TKC 0) modelliert. Als Gütemaß wurde die Genauigkeit des Modells als Anteil der korrekten Klassifizierungen herangezogen. Fehlklassifizierungen wurden in der Modellierung so bestraft, dass die Abweichung des modellierten TKC-Wertes vom gemessenen Wert bewertet wurde. Ergebnisse Es wurden 24 verschiedene Modelle des überwachten maschinellen Lernens aus 6 Familien getestet. Für die Modellierung des TKC in Stufen von 0–4 zeigte das Modell, basierend auf einer Support Vector Machine (SVM) mit linearem Kernel, die beste Performance mit einem Anteil an richtigen Klassifizierungen von 65,1 %. Für den binarisierten Wert des TKC zeigte ein Decision Tree mit grober Auflösung die beste Performance mit einem Anteil an richtigen Klassifizierungen von 95,2 %, direkt gefolgt von der SVM mit linearem oder quadratischem Kernel und dem Nearest Neighborhood Classifier mit kubischem Kernel (jeweils 94,5 %). Schlussfolgerungen In der Arbeit soll das Prinzip des überwachten Maschinenlernens in der Anwendung auf die modellierte Klassifizierung von Messbefunden gezeigt werden. So wurden Messdaten des Corvis®ST dazu verwendet, die Einteilung in den Schweregrad eines Keratokonus mittels Pentacam (TKC) mit einer ganzen Reihe von Algorithmen des maschinellen Lernens nachzubilden.

Corneal Parameters in Healthy Subjects Assessed by Corvis ST

Purpose: To evaluate corneal biomechanics using Corvis ST in healthy eyes from Iranian keratorefractive surgery candidates. Methods: In this prospective consecutive observational case series, the intraocular pressure (IOP), central corneal thickness (CCT), and biomechanical properties of 1,304 eyes from 652 patients were evaluated using Corvis ST. Keratometric readings and manifest refraction were also recorded. Results: The mean (±SD) age of participants was 28 ± 5 years, and 31.7% were male. The mean spherical equivalent refraction was –3.50 ± 1.57 diopters (D), the mean IOP was 16.8 ± 2.9 mmHg, and the mean CCT was 531 ± 31 μm for the right eye. The respective means (±SD) corneal biomechanical parameters of the right eye were as follows: first applanation time: 7.36 ± 0.39 milliseconds (ms); first applanation length: 1.82 ± 0.22 mm; velocity in: 0.12 ± 0.04 m/s; second applanation time: 20.13 ± 0.48 ms; second applanation length: 1.34 ± 0.55 mm; velocity out: –0.67 ± 0.17 m/s; total time: 16.84 ± 0.64 ms; deformation amplitude: 1.05 ± 0.10 mm; peak distance: 4.60 ± 1.01 mm; and concave radius of curvature: 7.35 ± 1.39 mm. In the linear regression analysis, IOP exhibited a statistically significant association with the first and second applanation times, total time, velocity in, peak distance, deformation amplitude, and concave radius of curvature. Conclusion: Our study results can be used as a reference for the interpretation of Corvis ST parameters in healthy refractive surgery candidates in the Iranian population. Our results confirmed that IOP is a major determinant of Corvis parameters.

Study on the Preparation of Ionic Liquid Doped Chitosan/Cellulose-Based Electroactive Composites

Electro-actuated polymer (EAP) can change its shape or volume under the action of an external electric field and shows similar behavioral characteristics with those of biological muscles, and so it has good application prospects in aerospace, bionic robots, and other fields. The properties of cellulose-based electroactive materials are similar to ionic EAP materials, although they have higher Young’s modulus and lower energy consumption. However, cellulose-based electroactive materials have a more obvious deficiency—their actuation performance is often more significantly affected by ambient humidity due to the hygroscopicity caused by the strong hydrophilic structure of cellulose itself. Compared with cellulose, chitosan has good film-forming and water retention properties, and its compatibility with cellulose is very excellent. In this study, a chitosan/cellulose composite film doped with ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM]Ac), was prepared by co-dissolution and regeneration process using [EMIM]Ac as the solvent. After that, a conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS), was deposited on the surface of the resulted composite, and then a kind of cellulose-based electroactive composites were obtained. The results showed that the end bending deformation amplitude of the resulted material was increased by 2.3 times higher than that of the pure cellulose film under the same conditions, and the maximum deformation amplitude reached 7.3 mm. The tensile strength of the chitosan/cellulose composite film was 53.68% higher than that of the cellulose film, and the Young’s modulus was increased by 72.52%. Furthermore, in comparison with the pure cellulose film, the water retention of the composite film increased and the water absorption rate decreased obviously, which meant that the resistance of the material to changes in environmental humidity was greatly improved.

Numerical Simulation of Unsteady Aerodynamic Performance of Novel Adaptive Airfoil for Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

The aerodynamic performance of the blade determines the power and load characteristics of a wind turbine. In this paper, numerical research of the active deformation of an airfoil with equal thickness camber line was carried out, which shows the great potential of this active flow control method to improve the flow field. The NACA0012 is taken as the reference airfoil, and the inflow wind speed is 9 m/s, the chord length of the airfoil is 0.4 m, and the Reynolds number is 2.5 × 105. The influence factors, such as deformation amplitude and deformation frequency on the aerodynamic performance, were studied at different attack angles before and after stall. Studies have shown that: firstly, at different angles of attack, different deformation amplitudes and frequencies have great influence on the aerodynamic performance of the active deformed airfoil. The active deformation can improve the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil in different degrees in deep stall and light stall regions. Secondly, a suitable deformation amplitude and deformation frequency can improve the aerodynamic performance of airfoil stably and effectively in light stall, which occurs when the deformation amplitude equals to 0.02c and the deformation frequency is lower than 2 Hz, and the maximum lift-drag ratio can be increased by about 25%. Before stall, when the deformation frequency is 2 Hz and amplitude is 0.10c, the airfoil will have a negative drag coefficient in the process of deformation, and the airfoil will produce a thrust which is similar to the energy capture of the flapping foil. This is an unexpected discovery in our research.