Joaquim Teixeira de Assis

Tridimensional quantitative porosity characterization of three set calcium silicate‐based repair cements for endodontic use

The aim of the this study was to quantitatively evaluate in three‐dimensional (3D), the porosity degree of three improved silicate‐based endodontic repair cements (iRoot BP Plus®, Biodentine®, and Ceramicrete) compared to a gold‐standard calcium silicate bioactive cement (Pro Root® MTA). From each tested cement, four samples were prepared by a single operator following the manufacturers instructions in terms of proportion, time, and mixing method, using cylindrical plastic split‐ring moulds. The moulds were lubricated and the mixed cements were inserted with the aid of a cement spatula. The samples were scanned using a compact micro‐CT device (Skyscan 1174, Bruker micro‐CT, Kontich, Belgium) and the projection images were reconstructed into cross‐sectional slices (NRecon v.1.6.9, Bruker micro‐CT). From the stack of images, 3D models were rendered and the porosity parameters of each tested material were obtained after threshold definition by comparison with standard porosity values of Biodentine®. No statistically significant differences in the porosity parameters among the different materials were seen. Regarding total porosity, iRoot BP Plus® showed a higher percentage of total porosity (9.58%), followed by Biodentine® (7.09%), Pro Root® MTA (6.63%), and Ceramicrete (5.91%). Regarding closed porosity, Biodentine® presented a slight increase in these numbers compared to the other sealers. No significant difference in porosity between iRoot BP Plus®, Biodentine®, and Ceramicrete were seen. In addition, no significant difference in porosity between the new calcium silicate‐containing repair cements and the gold‐standard MTA were found. Microsc. Res. Tech., 76:1093–1098, 2013.

Sub-pixel accuracy edge fitting by means of B-spline

Local perturbations around contours strongly disturb the final result of computer vision tasks. It is common to introduce a priori information in the estimation process. Improvement can be achieved via a deformable model such as the snake model. In recent works, the deformable contour is modeled by means of B-spline snakes which allows local control, concise representation, and the use of fewer parameters. The estimation of the sub-pixel edges using a global B-spline model relies on the contour global determination according to a Maximum Likelihood framework and using the observed data likelihood. This procedure guarantees that the noisiest data will be filtered out. The data likelihood is computed as a consequence of the observation model which includes both orientation and position information. Comparative experiments of this algorithm and the classical spline interpolation have shown that the proposed algorithm outperforms the classical approach for Gaussian and Salt & Pepper noise.

X-Ray diffraction technique applied to study of residual stresses after welding of duplex stainless steel plates

Duplex stainless steel is an example of composite material with approximately equal amounts of austenite and ferrite phases. Difference of physical and mechanical properties of component is additional factor that contributes appearance of residual stresses after welding of duplex steel plates. Measurements of stress distributions in weld region were made by X-ray diffraction method both in ferrite and austenite phases. Duplex Steel plates were joined by GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) technology. There were studied longitudinal and transverse stress components in welded butt joint, in heat affected zone (HAZ) and in points of base metal 10 mm from the weld. Residual stresses measured in duplex steel plates jointed by welding are caused by temperature gradients between weld zone and base metal and by difference of thermal expansion coefficients of ferrite and austenite phases. Proposed analytical model allows evaluating of residual stress distribution over the cross section in the weld region.

Error concealment by means of clustered blockwise PCA

This paper analyzes two variants of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for error-concealment: blockwise PCA and clustered blockwise PCA. Realistic communication channels are not error free. Since the signals transmitted on real-world channels are highly compressed, regardless of cause, the quality of images reconstructed from any corrupted data can be very unsatisfactory. Error concealment is intended to ameliorate the impact of channel impairments by utilizing a priori information about typical images in conjunction with available picture redundancy to provide subjectively acceptable renditions of affected picture regions. Some experiments have been performed with the two proposed algorithms and they are shown.

GEANT4 simulations for low energy proton computerized tomography

This work presents the recent results of computer simulations for the low energy proton beam tomographic scanner installed at the cyclotron CV-28 of IEN/CNEN. New computer simulations were performed in order to adjust the parameters of previous simulation within the first experimental results and to understand some specific effects that affected the form of the final proton energy spectra. To do this, the energy and angular spread of the initial proton beam were added, and the virtual phantom geometry was specified more accurately in relation to the real one. As a result, a more realistic view on the measurements was achieved.

Determination of Nickel and Manganese Contaminants in Pharmaceutical Iron Supplements using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence

In this study, we investigate the capability of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXF) spectrometry in a triaxial geometry apparatus as a fast and nondestructive determination method of both dominant and contaminant elements in pharmaceutical iron supplements. The following iron supplements brands with their respective active ingredients were analyzed: Neutrofer fólico (iron gylcinate), Anemifer (iron(II) sulfate monohydrate), Noripurum (iron(III)-hydroxide polymaltose complex), Sulferbel (iron(II) sulfate monohydrate), and Combiron Fólico (carbonyl iron). Although we observe a good agreement between the iron content obtained by the present method and that indicated in the supplements prescribed dose, we observe contamination by manganese and nickel of up to 180 μg and 36 μg, respectively. These contents correspond to 7.2% and 14.4% of the permitted daily exposure of manganese and nickel, respectively, for an average adult individual as determined by the European Medicine Agency (EMEA). The method was successfully validated against the concentrations of several certified reference materials of biological light matrices with similar concentrations of contaminants. Moreover, we also validated our method by comparing the concentrations with those obtained with the inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission technique.

Stress and strain distribution in demineralized enamel: A micro‐CT based finite element study

Physiological oral mechanical forces may play a role on the progression of enamel carious lesions to cavitation. Thus, the aim of this study was to describe, by 3D finite element analysis, stress, and strain patterns in sound and carious enamel after a simulated occlusal load. Micro‐CT based models were created and meshed with tetrahedral elements (based on an extracted third molar), namely: a sound (ST) and a carious tooth (CT). For the CT, enamel material properties were assigned according to the micro‐CT gray values. Below the threshold corresponding to the enamel lesion (2.5 g/cm3) lower and isotropic elastic modulus was assigned (E = 18 GPa against E1 = 80 GPa, E2 = E3 = 20 GPa for sound enamel). Both models were imported into a FE solver where boundary conditions were assigned and a pressure load (500 MPa) was applied at the occlusal surface. A linear static analysis was performed, considering anisotropy in sound enamel. ST showed a more efficient transfer of maximum principal stress from enamel to the dentin layer, while for the CT, enamel layer was subjected to higher and concentrated loads. Maximum principal strain distributions were seen at the carious enamel surface, especially at the central fossa, correlating to the enamel cavity seen at the original micro‐CT model. It is possible to conclude that demineralized enamel compromises appropriate stress transfer from enamel to dentin, contributing to the odds of fracture and cavitation. Enamel fracture over a dentin lesion may happen as one of the normal pathways to caries progression and may act as a confounding factor during clinical diagnostic decisions. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:865–872, 2015.

Speeding up the FDK algorithm for tomographic image reconstruction in multi-core processors with hyper-threading technology

At present work we propose the use of multi-core processors to parallelize and speed up the Feldkamp, David e Kress (FDK) algorithm for tomography image reconstruction. Are commented the bases of computed tomography and the image reconstruction process. Proposes a computational implementation of the algorithm and its parallelization. The serial and parallel versions of the algorithm are compared; and measured the speedup achieved by the parallel version to be tested with different amounts of cores. The parallel version got a speedup of 10.62 to be executed in a computer with two processors INTEL with 6 physical cores each one. When using multi-core processors from INTEL beyond the physical cores we have logical cores that can be used by the operating system, when analyzing the speed gains achieved by the use of logical cores we note that the gain is around 0.15 per logic core while the speedup achieved by physical cores is around 0.7 per core.

Caracterização da Microestrutura de Caulinitas pela Difração de Raios X

In this work, the modified Thompson-Cox-Hastings function (TCHZ) was used in the analisys of the integral breadths obtained from the broadned X ray diffraction line profiles. These set of X ray diffraction results were calculated from the “Le Bail” fitting method, which does not require any structural information, except unit cell and resolution instrumental parameters. The refinement used here is called ‘Profile Matching’ in the FullProf, a program for Rietveld analysis. The method was applied in two case size-strain broadening of kaolinites from Brazilian deposits that after the treatment chemical and physical still had a content ranging between 1,55 % w/w (intermediate) to amount of 3,04% w/w (high) of structural and total iron. The Rietveld refinement was first performed by using the set of data from standard reference material LaB6 to obtain all the instrumental parameters, simultaneously. This result has been used as an independent method to validate the results obtained by the ‘Profile Matching’ method. It has been shown that the crystallite size decreasing and the strain increasing with Fe2O3 (% w/w) contents. The Lorentzian shape of the inherent widths of the lines diffraction is a strong indication that are the small crystallite size the main cause of the analysed kaolinites samples.

The density measurements in pCT imaging

In existing proton treatment centers, dose calculations are performed based on x-ray computerized tomography (CT). Alternatively, the therapeutic proton beam could be used to collect the data for treatment planning via proton CT (pCT). With the development of medical proton gantries, first at Loma Linda University Medical Center and now in several other proton treatment centers, it is of interest to continue the early pCT investigations of the 1970s and the early 1980s. From that time, the basic idea of the pCT method has advanced from average energy loss measurements to an individual proton tracking technique. This reduces the image degradation due to multiple Coulomb scattering. Thereby, the central pCT problem shifts to the fidelity of the physical information obtained about the scanned patient, which will be used for proton treatment planning. The accuracy of relative electron density distributions extracted from pCT images was investigated in this work using continuous slowing down approximation (CSDA) and water-equivalent-thickness (WET) concepts. Analytical results were checked against Monte Carlo simulations, which were obtained with SRIM2003 and GEANT4 Monte Carlo software packages. The range of applications and the sources of absolute errors are discussed.