Background: This in vitro study compares a novel calcium-phosphate etchant paste to conventional 37% phosphoric acid gel for bonding metal and ceramic brackets by evaluating the shear bond strength, remnant adhesive and enamel damage following water storage, acid challenge and fatigue loading. Material and Methods: Metal and ceramic brackets were bonded to 240 extracted human premolars using two enamel conditioning protocols: conventional 37% phosphoric acid (PA) gel (control), and an acidic calcium-phosphate (CaP) paste. The CaP paste was prepared from β-tricalcium phosphate and monocalcium phosphate monohydrate powders mixed with 37% phosphoric acid solution, and the resulting phase was confirmed using FTIR. The bonded premolars were exposed to four artificial ageing models to examine the shear bond strength (SBS), adhesive remnant index (ARI score), with stereomicroscopic evaluation of enamel damage. Results: Metal and ceramic control subgroups yielded significantly higher (p ˂ 0.05) SBS (17.1-31.8 MPa) than the CaP subgroups (11.4-23.8 MPa) post all artificial ageing protocols, coupled with higher ARI scores and evidence of enamel damage. In contrast, the CaP subgroups survived all artificial ageing tests by maintaining adequate SBS for clinical performance, with the advantages of leaving unblemished enamel surface and bracket failures at the enamel-adhesive interface. Conclusions: Enamel conditioning with acidic CaP pastes attained adequate bond strengths with no or minimal adhesive residue and enamel damage, suggesting a suitable alternative to the conventional PA gel for orthodontic bonding.
This paper presents experimental results regarding the behaviours of eight simply supported partially prestressed concrete beams with internally unbonded tendons, focusing particularly on the effect of three different variables: concrete compressive strength,
The main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope
... Show MoreThe performance of composite prestressed concrete beam topped with reinforced concrete flange structures in fire depends upon several factors, including the change in properties of the two different materials due to fire exposure and temperature distribution within the composition of the composite members of the structure. The present experimental work included casting of 12 identical simply supported prestressed concrete beams grouped into 3 categories, depending on the strength of the top reinforced concrete deck slab (20, 30, and 40 MPa). They were connected together by using shear connector reinforcements. To simulate the real practical fire disasters, 3 composite prestressed concrete beams from each group were exposed to high t
... Show MoreMachine learning models have recently provided great promise in diagnosis of several ophthalmic disorders, including keratoconus (KCN). Keratoconus, a noninflammatory ectatic corneal disorder characterized by progressive cornea thinning, is challenging to detect as signs may be subtle. Several machine learning models have been proposed to detect KCN, however most of the models are supervised and thus require large well-annotated data. This paper proposes a new unsupervised model to detect KCN, based on adapted flower pollination algorithm (FPA) and the k-means algorithm. We will evaluate the proposed models using corneal data collected from 5430 eyes at different stages of KCN severity (1520 healthy, 331 KCN1, 1319 KCN2, 1699 KCN3 a
... Show MoreThe use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly expanding in nursing and society. However, its use in healthcare comes with a number of challenges and concerns. The authors of this article use the sociotechnical model to consider the expanding use of AI in nursing and healthcare from a global perspective. Select references from the literature are used to support this important discussion for nurses and other healthcare professionals. Artificial intelligence is a major innovation that, if used properly, can reduce errors and improve efficiency and healthcare quality. It has also been shown to increase patient support, healthcare access and patient care. Here the authors address some of the limitations and challenges of
... Show MoreA variety of single-engine driven files and inematics have been introduced to improve the clinical performance of NiTi rotary files. The purpose of this in vitro study was to measure and compare the incidence of dentinal defects after root canal preparation with different single file systems.
Used in the study especially calibrated Erwa to determine the number of neighborhood or the Alayoshi number of bacteria in the count modeling and casting method dishes in addition to using the drop method yielded significant results for a match between the methods used ..