A Cross-cultural Examination of the Noise-sensitivity Scale-short Form:Measurement Invariance Testing between the US and Chinese Samples

Unwanted sound that is unpleasant or disruptive to hear, often interpreted as noise, is a widespread environmental pollutant. Similar to other environmental pollutants, this noise incurs a variety of costs to society. Numerous negative health impacts are linked to increases in noise exposure,such as increased cardiovascular risk;and sleep

Diameters and form of skull base foramen ovale measured by three-dimensional spiral CT thin-slice scan in healthy adults

BACKGROUND： The accurate measurements of various data of the bone diameters of foramen ovale of living person can change the methods of puncturing trigeminal gasserian ganglion via foramen ovale for treating trifacial neuralgia from the experience of puncture operator only to puncture by taking the objective data of measurement as the evidence, which is good for improving the accuracy of puncturing trigeminal ganglion and reducing side effects. OBJECTIVE ： To observe the forms of foramen ovales in healthy adults displayed by volume rendering and multi-planar reconstruction after three-dimensional spiral CT thin-slice scan of skull base, and measure the longitudinal diameter and transverse diameter. DESIGN ： A repetitive observation and measurement SETTINGS ： Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Medical Imaging, Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. PARTICIPANTS： Fifty healthy adults （100 sides）, who were examined with three-dimensional spiral CT scan, were randomly selected from the Department of Medical Imaging, Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2005 to January 2006, including 26 males and 24 females, aged 25-68 years with an average of 48 years old. They were all informed and agreed with the examination. METHODS ： The subjects were examined with the Philips 16-slice spiral CT-Mx 8000 IDT CT apparatus （Philips Company, Holland）, the scanning ranged from 2 cm below the canthomeatal line to the level of suprasellar cistem. The width of collimator was 0.75 mm, pitch was 0.663; tube current was 350 mA, voltage was 120 kV, resolution was 512×512 matrix; slice thickness of reconstruction was 1 mm, and interval was 0.5 mm. After the three-dimensional spiral CT thin-slice scan of skull base, the image post-processing techniques including volume rendering and multi-planar reconstruction were applied to observe the forms of foramen ovales, and measure the size, longitudinal diameter and transverse diameter of the foramen ovales. The figures of the foramen ovales were drawn with mouse along the boundary of bone porous margin and soft tissue. According to the indications, the diameters were measured with computer to observe the forms of foramen ovales. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES ： The longitudinal diameter, transverse diameter and form of foramen ovales were observed. RESULTS： All the 50 healthy adults （100 sides） were involved in the analysis of results. （1） It was observed in the volume rendering images that foramen ovales had four forms of oval shape （77 sides）, kidney shape （12 sides）, round shape （7 sides）, ribbon shape （4 sides）. （2） The longitudinal diameters of left and right foramen ovales were （7.67±1.32） and （7.98±1.45） mm, and the transverse diameters were （4.04±0.83）, （4.09±1.07） mm; There was no obvious difference between left and right longitudinal diameters （t = 1.63, P = 0.11 ）, and left and right transverse diameters were close （t = 0.45, P= 0.65）. CONCLUSION ： The non-invasive techniques of volume rendering and multi-planar reconstruction after three-dimensional spiral CT thin-slice scan can clearly display the formand size of foramen ovale in healthy adults.

Absolute surface form measurement of flat optics based on oblique incidence method

In this Letter, a test method based on oblique incidence is practically implemented in the interferometric measurement process. Three sets of wavefront data are achieved through cavity interference measurement with a Fizeau interferometer and one oblique incidence measurement. An iterative algorithm is applied to retrieve the absolute surface shape of the test flat. By adding two sets of measurements, the absolute surface error of the interferometer＇s reference flat can be obtained. The new method can not only calibrate the reference flat error of interferometer, but also provide the absolute measurement method for high precision optical components applied in high power laser systems.

Design and Development of Oblique-Incident Interferometer for Form Measurement of Hand-Scraped Surfaces

Precision flat surfaces finished by hand-scraping are extensively used in the sliding parts of precision positioning systems or the surface plates of precision measuring instruments.These hand-scraped surfaces are employed to improve the flatness of the machined surfaces and the motion accuracy of the instruments.The numerous depressions of micrometer-scale depth on a scraped surface are thought to prevent wringing and improve the lubrication properties by forming oil pockets.Form measurement of the micrometer-scale features of a hand-scraped surface is one of the reasonable methods for investigating its effect on the motion accuracy of the positioning systems or the lubrication properties of the sliding parts.Because a hand-scraped surface is a rough surface composed of micrometric complex features,it is difficult to conduct precision measurement of the three-dimensional surface form using conventional measurement instruments,such as vertical-incident interferometers or stylus-type profilometers.In this study,an oblique-incident interferometer based on Abramson interferometry is introduced to measure the form of a rough surface produced by hand-scraping.Because this technique can detect high-intensity reflected light on a rough surface,it allows the measurement of the form of the hand-scraped surface in noncontact condition.In order to shorten the measurement time,the form calculation based on a five-step phase shifting method was introduced.