Comparison of apical sealing ability of resected mineral trioxide aggregate, gutta-percha and a resin-based root canal filling material (resilon)

In the case of limited access in endodontic surgery, an alternative approach includes obturation of the canal with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) prior to surgery. Following the setting of MTA, endodontic surgery is carried out by resecting the root-end and exposing the set MTA without cavity preparation. This may also be performed with other retrofilling materials. This study was designed to compare the sealing ability of resected resilon, MTA and gutta-percha. 84 maxillary anterior teeth were instrumented and randomly assigned into three experimental groups (n = 20), each having a positive and negative control (n = 4). The canals were filled with resilon, MTA or gutta-percha. Following the root-end resection and submergence in India ink, the maximum dye penetration was measured. Welch and Brown-Forsythe test was used to analyze the data. The resected gutta-percha showed significantly more leakage than MTA (p = 0.041). The leakage in resected resilon was more than MTA and slightly lesser than gutta-percha. However, the differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Based on this study, MTA is the most appropriate choice in this approach.Key words: Gutta-percha, microleakage, mineral trioxide aggregate, resilon, root-end resection

Association between lumbar modic changes and MRI finding of degenerative disc in patients with low back pain

Background: Recent studies have indicated the relation of vertebral endplate lesions (Modic changes) to low back pain (LBP). The aim of this study was to investigate the Modic changes in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with low back pain, and its correlation with age, sex, type of changes, number of involved segments and location of changes. Additionally, association of degenerative disc changes and disc herniation was assessed. Methods: In this retrospective study, MRI records of 229 patients with LBP referring to Medical Center of Hazrat-e-Rasoul Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from August to February 2014, were assessed and Modic changes and degenerative and herniated disc changes were recorded. Results: Based on our observations, a significant association between Modic type and age (P= 0.003) existed in patients with LBP. The highest prevalence in Modic location were observed in anterior part of vertebral endplate (48.8, P= 0.001). Although, observation of the Modic changes in superior vertebral endplate was higher than inferior parts, but this differences was not statistically significant. The highest prevalence in degenerative disc disease was disc dehydration which was observed in 18.1 of patients (P= 0.04). The relationship between the degenerative changes and Modic type was significant (P= 0.04), while the most prevalent change of disc contour was disc bulging which occurred in 23.7 of patients (P= 0.01). The highest frequency of abnormal disc contour were observed in Modic type 2 which was statistically significant (P= 0.01). Modic surface involvement above 25 was significantly associated with disc herniation (P= 0.04). There was no significant association between Modic height involvement above 25 and disc herniation. Conclusion: Considering significant association between Modic changes and degenerative and herniated disc changes, reporting of Modic changes is necessary. © 2016, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Atmospheric Pollutant Flow and Precipitation: Modeling Effects on the Vegetation Ecosystem

Because of their fixed life and wide distribution, plants are the first victims of air pollution. The atmosphere is considered polluted when the increase of the rate of certain components causes harmful effects on the different constituents of the ecosystems. The study of the flow of air near a polluting source (cement plant in our case), allows to predict its impact on the surrounding plant ecosystem. Different factors are to be considered. The chemical composition of the air, the climatic conditions, and the impacted plant species are complex parameters to be analyzed using conventional mathematical methods. In this study, we propose a system based on artificial neural networks. Since artificial neural networks have the capacity to treat different complex parameters, their application in this domain is adequate. The proposed system makes it possible to match the input and output spaces. The variables that constitute the input space are the chemical composition, the concentration of the latter in the rainwater, their duration of deposition on the leaves and stems, the climatic conditions characterizing the environment, as well as the species of plant studied. The output variable expresses the rate of degradation of this species under the effect of pollution. Learning the system makes it possible to establish the transfer function and thus predict the impact of pollutants on the vegetation

Discrete time robust control of robot manipulators in the task space using adaptive fuzzy estimator

This paper presents a discrete-time robust control for electrically driven robot manipulators in the task space. A novel discrete-time model-free control law is proposed by employing an adaptive fuzzy estimator for the compensation of the uncertainty including model uncertainty, external disturbances and discretization error. Parameters of the fuzzy estimator are adapted to minimize the estimation error using a gradient descent algorithm. The proposed discrete control is robust against all uncertainties as verified by stability analysis. The proposed robust control law is simulated on a SCARA robot driven by permanent magnet dc motors. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the control approach

CT SCAN IMAGES ANALYSIS OF MAXILLARY SINUS DIMENSIONS AS A FORENSIC TOOL FOR SEXUAL AND RACIAL DETECTION IN A SAMPLE OF KURDISH POPULATION

Despite the fact that the skull and other bones may be badly disfigured in victims who are incinerated, it became an urgent necessity to gender determination using maxillary sinuses as a useful tool of human skeletons in forensic medicine. The aim of the study: to determine the reliability and accuracy of maxillary sinus dimension measurement as a method for gender and racial identification through the use of reconstructed helical CT images. Material and Methods: This prospective study included cranial computerized tomography images (CT) of 119 (M: 57 and F: 62) of the Kurdish population of Sulaimani city of Iraq with an age range (20 - 75) years. All patients were examined on Spiral Computed Tomography Scanner from October 2014 to March 2015.The greatest measurements were taken from the width, length, and height of the maxillary sinuses. The descriptive and discriminate analyzes were performed by using the SPSS package program. Results The mean of the length, the width, and the height of maxillary sinus in males on both right and left sides were (35.90± 4.71, 36.63 ± 5.34) (25.74 ± 5.69 , 25.36 ± 6.03) and (32.86 ± 7.00 , 33.13± 6.87) mm, respectively but in females were (34.58 ± 4.21, 35.60 ± 3.94 ), (22.54 ± 4.74 and 21.53 ± 4.47) and (29.16 ± 7.20,29.25 ± 6.17 )mm respectively. The present study showed that the left maxillary sinus width was the best discrimination parameter, that could be used to study sex dimorphism with Prediction of 69.4% for female and 52.6% for male (overall accuracy = 61. 3%). The discriminative analysis showed that the accuracy of maxillary sinus measurements-i.e the ability of the maxillary sinus size to identify gender-was 71% in females and 56.1% of males (overall accuracy = 63.9%). Conclusion The study showed that the diameters of the maxillary sinus can be used as a guide and a useful tool for racial and sex determination

The Enginering Important Components of Jatibarang Dam, Semarang, Indonesia

Semarang City suffers from inundation caused by storm rainfall and high tide due to its low-lying topography along the coastal area. The Jatibarang Dam purpose is to develop a new source of water for Semarang City and to control the flood discharge of West Floodway as the biggest river in Semarang. Also, it has been recognized that the combination of the Jatibarang Dam and the rivers improvement is the most feasible flood control measure. The flood control scheme will be established to protect Semarang City from the 50-year return period flood and the water resources development scheme is planned to assure the water to the 10-year draught. The design flooding will be controlled by the Jatibarang Dam. About 270 m3/s of 50-year return period flood at Jatibarang dam will be controlled by the dam and the discharge from dam will be reduced to 100 m3/s. The Engineering important components of the Dam are diversion tunnel, dam structure, spillway and conduit of power works.Each component will be elaborated in this article

CT SCAN IMAGES ANALYSIS OF MAXILLARY SINUS DIMENSIONS AS A FORENSIC TOOL FOR SEXUAL AND RACIAL DETECTION IN A SAMPLE OF KURDISH POPULATION

Despite the fact that the skull and other bones may be badly disfigured in victims who are incinerated, it became an urgent necessity to gender determination using maxillary sinuses as a useful tool of human skeletons in forensic medicine. The aim of the study: to determine the reliability and accuracy of maxillary sinus dimension measurement as a method for gender and racial identification through the use of reconstructed helical CT images. Material and Methods: This prospective study included cranial computerized tomography images (CT) of 119 (M: 57 and F: 62) of the Kurdish population of Sulaimani city of Iraq with an age range (20 - 75) years. All patients were examined on Spiral Computed Tomography Scanner from October 2014 to March 2015.The greatest measurements were taken from the width, length, and height of the maxillary sinuses. The descriptive and discriminate analyzes were performed by using the SPSS package program. Results The mean of the length, the width, and the height of maxillary sinus in males on both right and left sides were (35.90± 4.71, 36.63 ± 5.34) (25.74 ± 5.69 , 25.36 ± 6.03) and (32.86 ± 7.00 , 33.13± 6.87) mm, respectively but in females were (34.58 ± 4.21, 35.60 ± 3.94 ), (22.54 ± 4.74 and 21.53 ± 4.47) and (29.16 ± 7.20,29.25 ± 6.17 )mm respectively. The present study showed that the left maxillary sinus width was the best discrimination parameter, that could be used to study sex dimorphism with Prediction of 69.4% for female and 52.6% for male (overall accuracy = 61. 3%). The discriminative analysis showed that the accuracy of maxillary sinus measurements-i.e the ability of the maxillary sinus size to identify gender-was 71% in females and 56.1% of males (overall accuracy = 63.9%). Conclusion The study showed that the diameters of the maxillary sinus can be used as a guide and a useful tool for racial and sex determination

Investigation of fractured carbonate reservoirs by applying shear-wave splitting concept

In this study, fracture orientations in carbonate reservoirs were determined using a multicomponent velocity analysis based on shear wave splitting. The analysis is based on the estimated velocities of large seismic events with different polarizations. In a fractured zone with a dominant orientation, weak amplitude split shear events, including shear noise, result in shear waves that are polarized toward the symmetry and anisotropy axes and propagate with a common fast and slow velocity, respectively. Thus, a velocity stack should show high coherency anomalies in directions parallel and orthogonal to the fracture strike. Furthermore, because the analysis is applied locally at a specific depth range, it is less susceptible to the effects of overburden anisotropy and noise. The dominant fracture orientations from carbonate reservoirs of four oilfields were compared to those interpreted from fullbore microimager and core data. Fractures in two offshore reservoirs strike NNE-SSW and NW-SE, which are related to Zagros stress. Fractures in two onshore reservoir strikes NE-SW, while in deeper onshore reservoir fractures are aligned with N-S direction. The findings of this study are promising, particularly for the fractured reservoirs especially those located in Abu Dhabi, which are characterized by high heterogeneity and complex fracture network related to complex tectonic history. In order to obtain geometrical parameters of fractures at seismic scale, it is recommended to implement the analysis adapted in this study after acquiring three component zero-offset vertical seismic profiling.Cited as: Diaz-Acosta, A., Bouchaala, F., Kishida, T., Jouini, M. S., Ali, M. Y. Investigation of fractured carbonate reservoirs by applying shear-wave splitting concept. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 7(2): 99-110. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.02.0

Some subordination and superordination results for the generalized hypergeometric functions associated with Ruscheweyh derivative

Our purpose in this paper is to define a linear operator  F_{p,q,s}[\alpha_{1},m], then applying it to obtain some results on subordination and superordination preserving properties of holomorphic multivalent functions in the  open unit disc. And sandwich-type result for these holomorphic multivalent functions is also considered