Goal is to investigate how delivery nozzle design influences the cooling rate of cryogen spray as used in skin laser treatments. Cryogen was sprayed through nozzles that consist of metal tubes with either a narrow or wide diameter and two different lengths. Fast-flashlamp photography showed that the wide nozzles, in particular the long wide one, produced a cryogen jet (very small spray cone angle) rather than a spray '(cone angles of about 1 5°orhigher) and appeared to atomize the cryogen less finely than the narrow nozzles. We measured the cooling rate by spraying some cryogen on an epoxy-block with thermocouples embedded. The heat extraction rate of the wide nozzles was higher than that of the narrow nozzles. The results suggest that finely atomized droplets produced by the narrow nozzles do not have enough kinetic energy to break through a layer of liquid cryogen accumulated on the object, which may act as a thermal barrier and, thus, slow down heat extraction. Presumably, larger droplets or non-broken jets ensure a more violent impact on this layer and therefore ensure an enhanced thermal contact. The margin of error for the heat extraction estimate is analyzed when using the epoxy-block. We introduce a complementary method for estimating heat extraction rate ofcryogen sprays.

Maximum likelihood difference scaling (MLDS) is a method for the estimation of perceptual scales based on the judgment of differences in stimulus appearance (Maloney & Yang, 2003). MLDS has recently also been used to estimate near-threshold discrimination performance (Devinck & Knoblauch, 2012). Using MLDS as a psychophysical method for sensitivity estimation is potentially appealing, because MLDS has been reported to need less data than forced-choice procedures, and particularly naive observers report to prefer suprathreshold comparisons to JND-style threshold tasks. Here we compare two methods, MLDS and two-interval forced-choice (2-IFC), regarding their capability to estimate sensitivity assuming an underlying signal-detection model. We first examined the theoretical equivalence between both methods using simulations. We found that they disagreed in their estimation only when sensitivity was low, or when one of the assumptions on which MLDS is based was violated. Furthermore, we found that the confidence intervals derived from MLDS had a low coverage; i.e., they were too narrow, underestimating the true variability. Subsequently we compared MLDS and 2-IFC empirically using a slant-from-texture task. The amount of agreement between sensitivity estimates from the two methods varied substantially across observers. We discuss possible reasons for the observed disagreements, most notably violations of the MLDS model assumptions. We conclude that in the present example MLDS and 2-IFC could equally be used to estimate sensitivity to differences in slant, with MLDS having the benefit of being more efficient and more pleasant, but having the disadvantage of unsatisfying coverage.

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One central problem in perception research is to understand how internal experiences are linked to physical variables. Most commonly, this relationship is measured using the method of adjustment, but this has two shortcomings: The perceptual scales that relate physical and perceptual variables are not measured directly, and the method often requires perceptual comparisons between viewing conditions. To overcome these problems, we measured perceptual scales of surface lightness using maximum likelihood difference scaling, asking observers only to compare the lightness of surfaces presented in the same context. Observers were lightness constant, and the perceptual scales qualitatively and quantitatively predicted perceptual matches obtained in a conventional adjustment experiment. Additionally, we show that a contrast-based model of lightness perception predicted 98% of the variance in the scaling and 88% in the matching data. We suggest that the predictive power was higher for scales because they are closer to the true variables of interest.

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Cryogenic sprays are used for cooling of human skin during laser treatments of hypervascular lesions, such as Port Wine Stain birthmarks. In this work, six straight-tube nozzles, including two commercial nozzles, are characterized by obtaining photographs of cryogenic spray shapes, as well as measurements of the average droplet diameter, velocity and temperature. An evaporation model is used to predict the evolutions of average droplet diameter and temperature. The results show two distinct spray patterns—jet-like sprays for wide nozzle diameters, and cone-like sprays for narrow nozzle diameters. The wide nozzles show significantly larger droplet diameters, larger velocities and higher temperatures, as all these variables are measured as a function of distance from the nozzle. These results complement and support previously reported results, where it was shown that wide nozzles are capable of producing larger heat transfer coefficients than those obtained with narrow nozzles.

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