Bond Strength of an Amorphous Calcium Phosphate–Containing Orthodontic Adhesive

Objective: To determine whether an amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP)-containing adhesive has an acceptable level of shear bond strength to be used as an orthodontic adhesive. Materials and Methods: Sixty extracted premolars were randomly divided into three groups for orthodontic bonding. Group 1 used a composite resin adhesive (Transbond XT), group 2 was bonded with an ACP-containing adhesive (Aegis Ortho), and group 3 used a resin-modified glass ionomer (Fuji Ortho LC). All bonded teeth were stored in distilled water at 37°C for 40 ± 2 hours prior to debonding. Shear bond strength and adhesive remnant index (ARI) were recorded for each specimen. Results: The mean shear bond strengths for the three test groups were: group 1 (15.2 ± 3.6 MPa), group 2 (6.6 ± 1.5 MPa), and group 3 (8.3 ± 2.8 MPa). A one-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference in bond strengths between the groups. A post hoc Tukey test showed group 1 to be significantly (P \u3c .001) greater than groups 2 and 3. A Kruskal-Wallis test and a Mann-Whitney U-test showed groups 1 and 3 exhibited lower ARI scores than group 2, but a majority of specimens in each group had greater than 50% of the cement removed along with the bracket during debonding. Conclusions: The ACP-containing adhesive demonstrated a low, but satisfactory bond strength needed to function as an orthodontic adhesive

Mesoscopic dynamical differences from quantum state preparation in a Bose-Hubbard trimer

Conventional wisdom is that quantum effects will tend to disappear as the number of quanta in a system increases, and the evolution of a system will become closer to that described by mean field classical equations. In this letter we combine newly developed experimental techniques to propose and analyse an experiment using a Bose-Hubbard trimer where the opposite is the case. We find that differences in the preparation of a centrally evacuated trimer can lead to readily observable differences in the subsequent dynamics which increase with system size. Importantly, these differences can be detected by the simple measurements of atomic number.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, theor

Moving an incisor across the midline: A treatment alternative in an adolescent patient

A 13-year-old sought treatment for a severely compromised maxillary left central incisor and an impacted fully developed left canine. Extraction of both teeth became necessary. As the key component of the revised comprehensive treatment plan, the right maxillary central incisor was moved into the position of the left central incisor. All other maxillary teeth were moved mesially to close any gaps. Active orthodontic treatment was completed after 34 months. Frenectomy, minor periodontal surgeries, and bonded lingual retainers were used to improve aesthetics and stabilize the tooth positions. The patient was pleased with the treatment outcome. Cone-beam computed tomography provided evidence that the tooth movement was accompanied by a deviation of the most anterior portion of the median palatine suture. This observation may make relapse more likely if long-term retention cannot be ensured. Root resorption was not observed as a consequence of the major tooth movement. (Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2011;139:533-43

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) Analyses Of Superelastic And Nonsuperelastic Nickel-Titanium Orthodontic Wires

The purpose of this study was to determine the transformation temperatures for the austenitic, martensitic, and rhombohedral (R) structure phases in representative as-received commercial nitinol (NiTi) orthodontic wire alloys, to reconcile discrepancies among recent publications. Specimens were examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) over a temperature range from approximately −170° C to 100° C, with a scanning rate of 10° C per minute. Two different pathways, with the intermediate R structure either absent or present, were observed for the transformation from martensitic to austenitic NiTi, whereas the reverse transformation from austenitic to martensitic NiTi always included the R structure. The enthalpy (ΔH) for the transformation from martensite to austenite ranged from 0.3 to 35 calories per gram. The lowest ΔH value for the nonsuperelastic Nitinol wire is consistent with a largely work-hardened, stable, martensitic microstructure in this product. The DSC results indicate that the transformation processes are broadly similar in superelastic, body-temperature shape-memory, and nonsuperelastic NiTi wires. Differences in bending properties for the NiTi orthodontic wires at room temperature and 37° C are due to the relative proportions of the metallurgical phases in the microstructures

Measuring the Regional Economic Response to Hurricane Katrina

Naturkatastrophe; Sturm; Makroökonomischer Einfluss; USA

Player Tracking and Stroke Recognition in Tennis Video

In this paper we present an investigation into the computer vision problem of tracking humans in digital video. The investigation domain is digital tennis footage and the aim is to track the tennis player and recognise the strokes played. The motivation behind this investigation is to eventually automate the task of digital tennis footage annotation so that metadata, such as the time codes and a description of the strokes played, are automatically appended to the video. This then enables a number of compelling applications, from simple search facilities for the home viewer, to more complex analysis tools suitable for a tennis coach. The system developed solves the problem of tennis player tracking and stroke recognition using relatively simple, and well known, image processing operations constrained by an a priori knowledge of the image capture conditions, the background scene, and the application domain

A Stellar Model-fitting Pipeline for Solar-like Oscillations

Over the past two decades, helioseismology has revolutionized our understanding of the interior structure and dynamics of the Sun. Asteroseismology will soon place this knowledge into a broader context by providing structural data for hundreds of Sun-like stars. Solar-like oscillations have already been detected from the ground in several stars, and NASA's Kepler mission is poised to unleash a flood of stellar pulsation data. Deriving reliable asteroseismic information from these observations demands a significant improvement in our analysis methods. We report the initial results of our efforts to develop an objective stellar model-fitting pipeline for asteroseismic data. The cornerstone of our automated approach is an optimization method using a parallel genetic algorithm. We describe the details of the pipeline and we present the initial application to Sun-as-a-star data, yielding an optimal model that accurately reproduces the known solar properties.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figs, Stellar Pulsation: Challenges for Theory and Observation (proceedings to be published by AIP