Comparability of radiographic and 3D-ultrasound measurements of facial midline tissue depths

As a second step in our three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound research on facial tissues, orthodontic patients with available lateral cephalographs (radiographs) allowing measurements of tissues along the midline of the face were recruited for ultrasound scanning. Comparison of three points on the upper lip (A-point), chin (B-point), and nose (nasion) produced differences of varying magnitude between radiographic and ultrasound measurements, with the B-point measurement being clearly affected by head orientation. Concordance was better for A-point and best for nasion. Although extension of two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound scanning of facial tissues to 3D scanning for forensic and surgical reconstructive purposes remains a worthy goal, it must be recognized that because of the differences in technique, measurements obtained from the different visualization modalities at present vary in their comparability.     

咳喘速平颗粒剂对慢性支气管炎大鼠支气管和肺形态学的影响

目的:观察咳喘速平颗粒剂对慢性支气管炎大鼠的气管、肺组织形态学变化的影响.方法:采用气管内注入脂多糖复制大鼠慢性支气管炎模型,分模型组、阳性对照组、咳喘速平(小)组、咳喘速平(大)组.结果:模型组可见支气管上皮大面积坏死、脱落,细支气管管腔扩大,管壁及其周围见大量淋巴细胞浸润,部分肺泡间隔断离呈肺气肿改变.阳性对照组可见支气管上皮细胞少量坏死脱落,管壁与周围淋巴细胞浸润,管腔无明显扩张,肺泡上皮完整,无明显病理改变.咳喘速平(小)组可见支气管上皮细胞片状坏死、脱落,伴上皮细胞灶性增生,管壁增厚伴大量淋巴细胞浸润.咳喘速平(大)组可见支气管上皮细胞基本完好,无明显的坏死和增生,伴少量的淋巴细胞浸润.5组之间支气管黏膜坏死(炎性浸润)存在显著性差异(P<0.01).结论:咳喘速平颗粒剂可减轻大鼠慢性支气管炎的临床表现,形态学检查显示用药后受损的支气管黏膜上皮和肺组织趋向好转,表明咳喘速平颗粒剂对大鼠慢性支气管炎具有较好的治疗作用.     

Anthropological facial ‘reconstruction’ – recognizing the fallacies, ‘unembracing’ the errors, and realizing method limits

Despite being practiced for over the last 200 years, facial approximation methods remain in their infancy as the soft tissue prediction methods employed have not been tested and justified. Scientific testing is the only way forward and much of it is needed. The lack of systematic scientific tests in the past has enabled many misleading notions to become established. Many of these notions appear to have arisen and been sustained as a result of practitioner biases--this is clearly evident even in the name commonly used to describe the method of building faces from skulls, for "facial reconstruction" implies everything the method is not, e.g., technical/scientific, exact, and credible. Although facial approximation methods are useful for forensic investigation (even if they do not generate identifications through true positive recognitions of the faces), the public should beware of the marketing and political ploys employed within the profession. These ploys give rise to some impressive, but unjustifiable claims--but do not just take my word for it; evaluate the evidence for yourself with disregard to the indoctrination waged by the facial "reconstruction" field in general, including that promoted by what I have had to say here. Use your own reason and intellect and see which conclusions you reach.     

中国15个少数民族面部形态标志点的差异

通过对15个少数民族3182例（男女各半）成年人的头面部27个标志点进行测量及形态特征观察,以汉族男女成年人的标准为基准,同各受试民族进行研究和比较,结果表明：各民族的面部形态特征、标志点测量值均有程度不同的差异存在。与汉族差异较大的是哈萨克族、维吾尔族和蒙古族。     

Winning Faces Vary by Ideology: How Nonverbal Source Cues Influence Election and Communication Success in Politics

Not just the content of a communication but also the source of the communication shapes its persuasiveness. Recent research in political communication suggests that important source cues are nonverbal and relate to the physical traits of the source such that attractive- and competent-looking sources have better success in attracting votes and policy support. Yet, are all nonverbal source cues similarly received irrespective of audience, or does their reception vary across audiences? Specifically, we ask whether some physical traits are received positively by some audiences but backfire for others. Utilizing research on ideological stereotypes and the determinants of facial preferences, we focus on the relationship between the facial dominance of the source and the ideology of the receiver. Across five studies, we demonstrate that a dominant face is a winning face when the audience is conservative but backfires and decreases success when the audience is liberal. On the other hand, a non-dominant face constitutes a winning face among liberal audiences but backfires among conservatives. These effects seemingly stem from deep-seated psychological responses and shape both the election and communication success of real-world politicians. If the faces of politicians do not match the ideology of their constituency, they are more likely to lose in the competition for votes and policy support.     

Facial Soft Tissue Depth Measurement: Validation of the 75‐Shormax

The shorth and 75‐shormax were recently posited as an improved alternative to the arithmetic mean for describing facial soft tissue thicknesses in craniofacial identification. The shorth better estimates the data peak, while the 75‐shormax provides improved provisions for a long right tail. When first proposed, the 75‐shormax was subjectively gauged. Herein, shormax errors are calculated at every whole percentile to quantitatively determine zones of error minimization in two large samples: (a) CT data of French adults, n‐range = 211–469 individuals; and (b) all C‐Table data, n‐range = 60–1065 individuals [including part but not all of sample (a)]. The smallest residuals were found at the 79th percentile (mean of raw residuals) and the 74th percentile (mean of absolute residuals). The 75‐shormax is subsequently verified as good error minimizer since the absolute differences carry the greatest weight and the 74th percentile closely approximates the 75th percentile.     

Form follows function: Applying photographic content analysis to forensic firearm identification

Drawing forensic conclusions from an image or a video is known as “photographic content analysis.” It involves the analysis of an image, as well as objects, actions, and events depicted in images or video. In recent years, photographic depictions of objects suspected as illegal firearms have substantially increased, appearing on CCTV surveillance footage, captured by mobile phones and shared on social media. However, the law in Israel states that a person can be charged with illegally possessing a firearm only if it can be proven that the object is capable of shooting with lethal bullet energy. This becomes more challenging in cases where the firearm was not physically seized, and the evidence exclusively consists of images and video. In this study, photographic content analysis was applied to images and video where objects suspected as commercial or improvised firearms had been depicted. An image and event sequence reconstruction video databases of both firearms and replicas were created in order to better define firearm-specific functional morphological features. We demonstrate that it is possible to classify an object as a firearm by analyzing the functional, and not only the esthetic, morphology in images and video. It is also shown that event sequence reconstruction in video may be used to infer that an object suspected as a firearm has the capacity to shoot by confirming the occurrence of a shooting act or shooting process. Thus, photographic content analysis may be used to forensically establish that an object depicted in an image or a video is a firearm by ruling out other known scenarios, and without physically seizing it.     

Eyeball Position in Facial Approximation: Accuracy of Methods for Predicting Globe Positioning in Lateral View

This study measured the accuracy of traditional and validated newly proposed methods for globe positioning in lateral view. Eighty lateral head cephalograms of adult subjects from Central Europe were taken, and the actual and predicted dimensions were compared. The anteroposterior eyeball position was estimated as the most accurate method based on the proportion of the orbital height (SEE = 1.9 mm) and was followed by the “tangent to the iris method” showing SEE = 2.4 mm. The traditional “tangent to the cornea method” underestimated the eyeball projection by SEE = 5.8 mm. Concerning the superoinferior eyeball position, the results showed a deviation from a central to a more superior position by 0.3 mm, on average, and the traditional method of central positioning of the globe could not be rejected as inaccurate (SEE = 0.3 mm). Based on regression analyzes or proportionality of the orbital height, the SEE = 2.1 mm.