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Background and Objectives: Genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) is a common condition affecting of most postmenopausal women, which greatly impacks the quality of life,and need to treat. This prospective multicenter cohort study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of the fractional carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) laser with that of topical estrogen for vaginal treatment and relieving symptoms of genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). Study Design/Materials and Methods: This study included 162 postmenopausal patients who received vaginal laser or topical Estriol cream therapy between January 2017 and May 2019 at eight study centers in China. The degree of GSM-related symptoms (vaginal burning, dryness, and dyspareunia) was evaluated using the Vaginal Health Index score (VHIS) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at baseline, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months posttreatment. The primary endpoint was the improvement in vaginal burning, dryness, and dyspareunia at 6 months after treatment. Multivariate logistic regression was used to compare the rate of improvement in the two groups. Results: At baseline, the laser and control groups showed no significant difference in the mean age, time after menopause, and the VHIS (all P > 0.05). In the laser group, compared with baseline, significant differences were seen in the VHIS after the first or second treatment session and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months posttreatment (P < 0.01). In the control group, compared with baseline, the VHIS showed significant differences after 1, 3, and 6 months of treatment (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference after 3 and 6 months of follow-up between the two groups (P > 0.05). The VHIS scores were significantly higher after 1 month (16.63 ± 2.79 vs. 15.57 ± 2.43) and 12 months (15.72 ± 2.59 vs. 12.12 ± 4.08) of treatment in both the groups (P < 0.05). At 6 months after treatment, both groups showed improvement in vaginal burning, vaginal dryness, and dyspareunia (P > 0.05). The VAS findings at 6 months posttreatment were significantly different when compared with the pretreatment findings (P < 0.001). There were no significant adverse effects in the two groups. Conclusions: Fractional CO 2 laser vaginal treatment could be a safe and effective option for treating symptoms of GSM, including vaginal burning, dryness, and dyspareunia. The improvement in symptoms was comparable

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A quantitative understanding of thermal field evolution is vital for quality control in additive manufacturing (AM). Because of the unknown material parameters, high computational costs, and imperfect understanding of the underlying science, physically-based approaches alone are insufficient for component-scale thermal field prediction. Here, I present a new framework that integrates physically-based and data-driven approaches with quasi in situ thermal imaging to address this problem. The framework consists of (i) thermal modeling using 3D finite element analysis (FEA), (ii) surrogate modeling using functional Gaussian process, and (iii) Bayesian calibration using the thermal imaging data. Based on heat transfer laws, I first investigate the transient thermal behavior during AM using 3D FEA. A functional Gaussian process-based surrogate model is then constructed to reduce the computational costs from the high-fidelity, physically-based model. I finally employ a Bayesian calibration method, which incorporates the surrogate model and thermal measurements, to enable layer-to-layer thermal field prediction across the whole component. A case study on fused deposition modeling is conducted for components with 7 to 16 layers. The cross-validation results show that the proposed framework allows for accurate and fast thermal field prediction for components with different process settings and geometric designs. Integration of Physically-based and Data-driven Approaches for Thermal Field Prediction in Additive ManufacturingJingran Li GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT This paper aims to achieve the layer to layer temperature monitoring and consequently predict the temperature distribution for any new freeform geometry. An engineering statistical synergistic model is proposed to integrate the pure statistical methods and finite element modeling (FEM), which is physically meaningful as well as accurate for temperature prediction. Besides, this proposed synergistic model contains geometry information, which can be applied to any freeform geometry. This paper serves to enable a holistic cyber physical systems-based approach for the additive manufacturing (AM) not only restricted in fused deposition modeling (FDM) process but also can be extended to powder-based process like laser engineered net shaping (LENS) and selective laser sintering (SLS). This paper as well as the scheduled future works will make it affordable for customized AM including customized geometries and materials, which will greatly accelerate the transition from rapid prototyping to rapid manufacturing. This article demonstrates a first evaluation of engineering statistical synergistic model in AM technology, which gives a perspective on future researches about online quality monitoring and control of AM based data fusion principles. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS