1,179 research outputs found
Immediate performance of self-etching versus system adhesives with multiple light-activated restoratives
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of both single and double applications of (Adper Prompt L-Pop) self-etching dental adhesive, when used with three classes of light-activated restorative materials, in comparison to the performance of each restorative system adhesive. Evaluation parameters to be considered for the adhesive systems were (a) immediate marginal adaptation (or gap formation) in tooth cavities, (b) free setting shrinkage-strain determined by the immediate marginal gap-width in a non-bonding Teflon cavity, and (c) their immediate shear bond-strengths to enamel and to dentin.
Methods: The maximum marginal gap-width and the opposing-width (if any) in the tooth cavities and in the Teflon cavities were measured immediately (3 min) after light-activation. The shear bond-strengths to enamel and to dentin were also measured at 3 min.
Results: For light-activated restorative materials during early setting (<3 min), application of Adper Prompt L-Pop exhibited generally superior marginal adaptation to most system adhesives. But there was no additional benefit from double application. The marginal-gaps in tooth cavities and the marginal-gaps in Teflon cavities were highly correlated (r=0.86–0.89, p<0.02–0.01). For enamel and dentin shear bond-strengths, there were no significant differences between single and double applications, for all materials tested except Toughwell and Z 250 with enamel.
Significance: Single application of a self-etch adhesive was a feasible and beneficial alternative to system adhesives for several classes of restorative. Marginal gap-widths in tooth cavities correlated more strongly with free shrinkage-strain magnitudes than with bond-strengths to tooth structure.</p
On the infimum attained by a reflected L\'evy process
This paper considers a L\'evy-driven queue (i.e., a L\'evy process reflected
at 0), and focuses on the distribution of , that is, the minimal value
attained in an interval of length (where it is assumed that the queue is in
stationarity at the beginning of the interval). The first contribution is an
explicit characterization of this distribution, in terms of Laplace transforms,
for spectrally one-sided L\'evy processes (i.e., either only positive jumps or
only negative jumps). The second contribution concerns the asymptotics of
\prob{M(T_u)> u} (for different classes of functions and large);
here we have to distinguish between heavy-tailed and light-tailed scenarios
Decentralised Learning MACs for Collision-free Access in WLANs
By combining the features of CSMA and TDMA, fully decentralised WLAN MAC
schemes have recently been proposed that converge to collision-free schedules.
In this paper we describe a MAC with optimal long-run throughput that is almost
decentralised. We then design two \changed{schemes} that are practically
realisable, decentralised approximations of this optimal scheme and operate
with different amounts of sensing information. We achieve this by (1)
introducing learning algorithms that can substantially speed up convergence to
collision free operation; (2) developing a decentralised schedule length
adaptation scheme that provides long-run fair (uniform) access to the medium
while maintaining collision-free access for arbitrary numbers of stations
'I like money, I like many things'. The relationship between drugs and crime from the perspective of young people in contact with criminal justice systems
Based on research undertaken as part of the EU funded EPPIC project, this paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems. Adopting a trajectory-based approach, interviews were undertaken with 198 young people aged 15–25 in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and UK). Data were analysed by applying the Bennett and Holloway categorization of the drugs-crime link, with a focus on the concept of social exclusion as developed by Seddon. Three main types of mechanisms (economic, pharmaceutical, and lifestyles) are used to interpret the data, showing how the relationship between drugs and offending can vary according to type of substances and over time. Furthermore, it can be associated with very different degrees of social exclusion and needs. The results suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in ‘bulimic societies’ that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for self-realisation and social recognition
Large deviations for a damped telegraph process
In this paper we consider a slight generalization of the damped telegraph
process in Di Crescenzo and Martinucci (2010). We prove a large deviation
principle for this process and an asymptotic result for its level crossing
probabilities (as the level goes to infinity). Finally we compare our results
with the analogous well-known results for the standard telegraph process
A L\'evy input fluid queue with input and workload regulation
We consider a queuing model with the workload evolving between consecutive
i.i.d.\ exponential timers according to a
spectrally positive L\'evy process that is reflected at zero, and
where the environment equals 0 or 1. When the exponential clock
ends, the workload, as well as the L\'evy input process, are modified; this
modification may depend on the current value of the workload, the maximum and
the minimum workload observed during the previous cycle, and the environment
of the L\'evy input process itself during the previous cycle. We analyse
the steady-state workload distribution for this model. The main theme of the
analysis is the systematic application of non-trivial functionals, derived
within the framework of fluctuation theory of L\'evy processes, to workload and
queuing models
Convergence of the all-time supremum of a L\'evy process in the heavy-traffic regime
In this paper we derive a technique of obtaining limit theorems for suprema
of L\'evy processes from their random walk counterparts. For each , let
be a sequence of independent and identically distributed
random variables and be a L\'evy processes such that
, and as . Let .
Then, under some mild assumptions, , for some random variable and some function
. We utilize this result to present a number of limit theorems
for suprema of L\'evy processes in the heavy-traffic regime
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