Short-Term Analysis of Human Dental Pulps After Direct Capping with Portland Cement

This study evaluated the short-term response of human pulp tissue when directly capped with Portland cement. In this series of cases, twenty human third molars that were scheduled for extraction were used. After cavity preparation, pulp exposure was achieved and Portland cement pulp capping was performed. Teeth were extracted after 1, 7, 14 and 21 days following treatment and prepared for histological examination and bacterial detection. Each group had 5 teeth. The results were descriptively analysed. Dentin bridge formation was seen in two teeth with some distance from the material interface (14 and 21 days). Soft inflammatory responses were observed in most of the cases. Bacteria were not disclosed in any specimen. PC exhibited some features of biocompatibility and capability of inducing mineral pulp response in short-term evaluation. The results suggested that PC has a potential to be used as a less expensive pulp capping material in comparison to other pulp capping materials

Clues from joint inversion of tsunami and geodetic data of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake

The 2011 Tohoku-oki (Mw 9.1) earthquake is so far the best-observed megathrust rupture, which allowed the collection of unprecedented offshore data. The joint inversion of tsunami waveforms (DART buoys, bottom pressure sensors, coastal wave gauges, and GPS-buoys) and static geodetic data (onshore GPS, seafloor displacements obtained by a GPS/acoustic combination technique), allows us to retrieve the slip distribution on a non-planar fault. We show that the inclusion of near-source data is necessary to image the details of slip pattern (maximum slip ~48 m, up to ~35 m close to the Japan trench), which generated the large and shallow seafloor coseismic deformations and the devastating inundation of the Japanese coast. We investigate the relation between the spatial distribution of previously inferred interseismic coupling and coseismic slip and we highlight the importance of seafloor geodetic measurements to constrain the interseismic coupling, which is one of the key-elements for long-term earthquake and tsunami hazard assessment