27 research outputs found
Clinical evaluation of near-infrared light transillumination (NIRT) as an interproximal caries detection tool in a large sample of patients in a private practice
No full textBackground: A study has been carried out in order to evaluate in vivo the diagnostic performance of near-infrared light transillumination (NIRT) compared to digital radiographic examination (RE) in the detection of class II carious lesions. Methods: A total of 114 patients were included, and 2957 proximal surfaces were considered. Surfaces were imaged by means of NIRT and radiographed with a photostimulable phosphor system. NIRT and radiographic images were observed by two blinded operators. Their diagnoses were compared with those made while visiting the patients, when visual-tactile, radiographic and NIRT data were matched by expert operators to obtain the reference diagnoses. Sensitivity, specificity and inter-observer consistency were calculated. Results: Throughout the visits, 395 caries were detected. When investigating without clinical information and in a blind manner, RE performed significantly better than NIRT regarding sensitivity analysis (0.591 vs. 0.456, p<0.001), and NIRT performed significantly better than RE regarding specificity analysis (0.980 vs 0.933, p<0.001). However, NIRT showed sensitivity similar to RE when only enamel caries were concerned. With regard to the agreement between the two observers, NIRT performed significantly better than RE (0.901 for RE analysis, 0.989 for NIRT analysis, P<0.001). A high probability of false positives for enamel caries (95% from 0.699 to 0.791) was observed in RE. NIRT was very likely to detect and correct the erroneous positive diagnosis of enamel carious lesions obtained using RE (95% CI for probability from 0.938 to 0.979). Conclusions: NIRT should be used in caries diagnosis in combination with radiographic images. In fact, NIRT can help to correct a false positive diagnosis of enamel caries. Furthermore, NIRT could be used to detect caries in patients for whom non-urgent radiographic exposition is contraindicated and to monitor enamel caries in medically treated patients. Finally, thanks to its three-dimensional images, NIRT can aid in detecting small caries when performing minorly invasive restorative procedures
Spatial rainfall distirbution and hydrological controls of flash-flooding
No full textThe objectives of this action are: i) identification of the critical controlling processes (related to soil properties, topography and precipitation variability) for extreme flood response in humid, mountainous basins in the central-eastern Italian Alps ii) identification of dependencies between control processes and space-time scales of rainfall forcing. Flooding from the August 29, 2003, storm on the upper Tagliamento river basin is examined as a prototype for eastern Italian Alps flash flood events that dominate the regional upper tail of flood peak distributions for basin scales up to 500 km2. The availability of high-resolution rainfall estimates from radar observations and raingauge networks, together with flood response observations derived from streamgauge data and post-event surveys, provides the opportunity to study the hydrologic and hydrometeorological controls associated with this extreme flood. The flood occurred at the end of a climatic anomaly of prolonged drought and warm conditions over Europe and the Mediterranean region. A characteristic of the event is its organization in well defined banded structures, some of which persisted in the same locations for the duration of the event. The steadiness of these rainbands led to highly variable precipitation accumulations and, associated with orographic enhancement, played a central role in the space-time organization of the storm. Two dominant controls on extreme flood response are recognised an analysed: steadiness of convective bands, and dry antecedent soil moisture conditions.Floodsit
REALTIME GUIDANCE FOR FLASH FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT
No full textTwo approaches are currently available for flash flood forecast: i)distributed or semidistributed rainfall-runoff model, able to use distributed rainfall input and to exploit information about basin morphometry ii)simple procedures based on the concept of Flash Flood Guidance, i.e. the approximate threshold basin-average rainfall depth over a given duration that would cause a small stream to begin flooding.This Task provides guidelines on: i) effectiveness of use either rainfall-runoff model or simple threshold procedure for flash flood forecasting ii) worth of use rainfall-runoff model to further specify the flood potential.Floodsit
Pilot Study
No full textThe structure of the report is articulated into three major Parts. The first Part is focused on the structure of the flash flood observational system, which includes the Hydrometeorological observatories and the methodology for post event survey. A subsection is devoted to the analysis of the resolution requirements for flash flood modelling. The second Part is focused on the use of the observations gathered by means of the observational system to investigate the strengths and limitations of the flash flood forecasting and warning platform developed in Tasks 15 and 16, both off line and on line. A final Part is devoted to the analysis of catchment dynamics under flash flood forcing and to the examination of the response social time.Floodsit
Face-to-face knowledge transfer
No full textThe Face-to-Face Knowledge Transfer Task focuses on under and post-graduate training and education of (future) experts, and on production of materials (course-ware) for knowledge transfer and dissemination of the information to the general public and professional involved into the flood risk assessment and mitigation process. In this task the experiences and knowledge generated in FLOODsite will be selected and integrated into existing educational schemes (Master) already existing in Europe. This uses an educational platform, with the aim to classify and relate various knowledge items, including the best practices, and making knowledge generated by FLOODsite accessible, searchable, and transferable.Floodsit
Using Gate Leakage Conduction to Understand Positive Gate Bias Induced Threshold Voltage Shift in p-GaN Gate HEMTs
No full textThis work was supported in part by the "Center for the Semiconductor Technology Research" from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan, in part by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan, under Grant 111-2634-F-A49-008 and Grant 111-2622-8-A49-018-SB, and in part by the Young Scholar Fellowship Program under Grant 111-2636-E-A49-012. The review of this article was arranged by Editor M. Meneghini. (Corresponding author: Tian-Li Wu.
Effect of Potassium Aluminum Sulfate Application on the Viability of Fibroblasts on a CAD-CAM Feldspathic Ceramic before and after Thermocycling.
No full textPotassium aluminum sulfate (alum) is a known adjuvant, which has been used as a mordant in textile industry for color fixation. This material has potential to be incorporated into dentistry for color stability, yet its toxicity first needs to be evaluated. The present study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of potassium aluminum sulfate (alum) on fibroblasts when applied onto feldspathic ceramic before and after thermocycling. Forty-eight feldspathic ceramic specimens were divided into four groups (FC: no alum application or thermocycling; FCT: thermocycling without alum application; FA: alum application without thermocycling; FAT: alum application and thermocycling) (n = 12). Cell viability was assessed by using a tetrazolium salt 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphnyltetrazolium bromide assay at 24 and 72 h, and cell cultures without any ceramic specimens served as control (C). One sample from each material group was further analyzed with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Cell viability at different time intervals within each group was analyzed with Friedman tests, while Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the test groups within each time interval. Pairwise comparisons were further resolved by using Wilcoxon tests (a = 0.05). C had lower (p = 0.01) and FA had higher (p = 0.019) cell viability after 72 h. After 24 h, the highest cell viability was observed in C (p ≤ 0.036). After 72 h, the differences between C and FA, C and FAT, FC and FA, and FCT and FAT were nonsignificant (p > 0.05). Cell viability was not affected by alum application or thermocycling at any time interval (p ≥ 0.631). EDX analysis showed an increase in potassium concentration in FA and FAT when compared with FC and FCT. Regardless of the time interval, alum application onto feldspathic ceramic and thermocycling did not influence the cell viability
Creatinine clearance versus serum creatinine as a risk factor in cardiac surgery
No full textWalter JA, Mortasawi A, Arnrich B, et al. Creatinine clearance versus serum creatinine as a risk factor in cardiac surgery. BMC Surgery. 2003;3(1): 4.BACKGROUND: Renal impairment is one of the predictors of mortality in cardiac surgery. Usually a binarized value of serum creatinine is used to assess the renal function in risk models. Creatinine clearance can be easily estimated by the Cockcroft and Gault equation from serum creatinine, gender, age and body weight. In this work we examine whether this estimation of the glomerular filtration rate can advantageously replace the serum creatinine in the EuroSCORE preoperative risk assessment. METHODS: In a group of 8138 patients out of a total of 11878 patients, who underwent cardiac surgery in our hospital between January 1996 and July 2002, the 18 standard EuroSCORE parameters could retrospectively be determined and logistic regression analysis performed. In all patients scored, creatinine clearance was calculated according to Cockcroft and Gault. The relationship between the predicted and observed 30-days mortality was evaluated in systematically selected intervals of creatinine clearance and significance values computed by employing Monte Carlo methods. Afterwards, risk scoring was performed using a continuous or a categorical value of creatinine clearance instead of serum creatinine. The predictive ability of several risk score models and the individual contribution of their predictor variables were studied using ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: The comparison between the expected and observed 30-days mortalities, which were determined in different intervals of creatinine clearance, revealed the best threshold value of 55 ml/min. A significantly higher 30-days mortality was observed below this threshold and vice versa (both with p < 0.001). The local adaptation of the EuroSCORE is better than the standard EuroSCORE and was further improved by replacing serum creatinine (SC) by creatinine clearance (CC). Differential ROC analysis revealed that CC is superior to SC in providing predictive power within the logistic regression. Variable rank comparison identified CC as the best single variable predictor, even better than the variable age, former number 1, and SC, previously number 9 in the standard set of EuroSCORE variables. CONCLUSION: The renal function is an important determinant of mortality in heart surgery. This risk factor is not well captured in the standard EuroSCORE risk evaluation system. Our study shows that creatinine clearance, calculated according to the Cockcroft and Gault equation, should be applied to estimate the preoperative renal function instead of serum creatinine. This predictor variable replacement gains a significant improvement in the predictive accuracy of the scoring model
Stainability and translucency of potassium aluminum sulfate applied computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing materials after coffee thermocycling.
No full textOBJECTIVE
The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of potassium aluminum sulfate (alum) application on the stainability and translucency of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) materials after coffee thermocycling (CTC).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Disk-shaped specimens (Ø10 × 1 mm; N = 200) were fabricated by using additively (Crowntec [CT] and Varseo Smile Crown Plus [VS]) and subtractively manufactured (Brilliant Crios [RCR], CEREC Block [FC], and Vita Enamic [VE]) CAD-CAM materials and polished. All specimens were randomly divided into two groups as alum applied and control (n = 10). All specimens were then subjected to CTC (10,000 cycles at 5-55°C) and color coordinates were measured at each time interval. Color differences (ΔE00 ) and relative translucency parameters (RTPs) were calculated and the data were statistically analyzed (a = 0.05).
RESULTS
Among tested time intervals, alum applied specimens had their lowest ΔE00 after alum application (p ≤ 0.006), except for FC (p = 0.177). In addition, alum applied RCR had lower ΔE00 values than its control specimens (p = 0.029). Alum applied specimens had their lowest RTP after CTC (p < 0.001) and alum application decreased the RTP of CT (p = 0.010). CTC reduced the RTP of all materials in control groups (p < 0.001). Alum applied CT had higher RTP than its control specimens (p = 0.049).
CONCLUSIONS
Alum application's effect on color change varied depending on the material and alum mostly resulted in clinically acceptable changes in translucency. CTC led to unacceptable color and translucency changes based on previously reported threshold values.
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Optical properties of CAD-CAM materials and the sustainability of these properties over time is critical for longevity. Alum may improve the color stability of reinforced composite resin when subjected to long-term coffee consumption
Italian-argentinian's relations
No full textLa Conferencia del Embajador Italiano en la Argentina refiere a la situación por la que atraviesa Italia a partir de los acontecimientos generados por la encuesta judicial "mani pulite" y a las promisorias perspectivas en las relaciones entre ambos países a raíz de tal proceso y los cambios estructurales que se están llevando a cabo en la Argentina.The Conference of the Italian Ambassador in Argentina refers to the current situation in Italy specially to the developments which occurred in relation to the judicial enquiry "mani pulite". Likewise, the author presents his view on a promising future for the relations between both countries after the Italian process and the structural changes which are taking place in Argentina.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionale
