Rationale for white skin roll flap in unilateral cleft lip repair: A retrospective anthropometric measurement analysis.

Background: Although the "white skin roll" of the lip is often considered a line, it is better defined as the subunit between the vermilion border and the upper lip horizontal groove. In many unilateral cleft lip repair techniques, this structure is approximated between both sides of the cleft without restoration. This study aimed to analyze the white skin roll height in patients with unilateral cleft lip.

Risk factors for complications following immediate tissue expander based breast reconstruction in Taiwanese population.

Background/purpose: Breast cancer patients in Asia show considerable disparities from Caucasian patients, such as younger age of onset and lower rates of smoking, obesity, and diabetes. Findings of prior studies regarding risk factors associated with complications in tissue expander may not hold for Asian populations, since most of these studies involved Caucasian patients. In this study, we surveyed risk factors in the Taiwanese population, providing additional evidence about the important differences and discuss the implications for clinical practice.

Treatment and long-term follow-up of oral cancer postoperative sialorrhea with dermal sling operation.

Introduction: Reconstruction of a full-thickness defect that includes oral commissure presents a considerable challenge to maxillofacial and plastic surgeons. The goals of reconstruction are both functional and cosmetic. Sialorrhea, or drooling, is a major problem after flap reconstruction and influences the quality of life of the patient.

Regional identification, partition, and integral phase unwrapping method for processing moiré interferometry images.

We present a new method of regional identification, partition, and integral (RIPI) phase unwrapping for processing images, especially those with low quality, obtained from moiré interferometry experiments. By introducing the principle of preorder traversal of a general tree in data structures and then by applying the idea of a regional integral, the proposed method makes regional partition and phase evaluation much easier and more accurate, and it also overcomes the common faults that can occur when conventional approaches, such as line defects, are used. Examples are given to demonstrate the advantage and applicability of the proposed RIPI method when processing experimental images.

Deposition and characterization of silica-based films by helicon-activated reactive evaporation applied to optical waveguide fabrication.

Planar silicon dioxide optical waveguides were deposited by use of a plasma-activated reactive evaporation system, at a low deposition temperature and with reduced hydrogen contamination, on thermally oxidized silicon wafers. The deposited films show a refractive-index inhomogeneity of less than 0.1%, a thickness nonuniformity of less than 5%, and a material birefringence of approximately 5 x 10(-4).