BACKGROUND Several methods that are currently used for contouring analysis have problems providing reliable and/or meaningful results. In this paper a solution to these problems is proposed in a form of a novel measure, which was developed based on requirements defined for contouring studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS The proposed distance deviation measure can be understood as an extension of th...

The aim of this study was to investigate the adhesive property of palladium-silver alloy (Pd-Ag) and the simulated clinical performance of Pd-Ag porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM), resin-bonded, fixed partial dentures (RBFPDs). A total of 40 Pd-Ag discs (diameter=5 mm) were prepared and divided into the following four groups (n=10): a) No sandblasting, used as a control; and b, 50 µm; c, 110 µm; an...

The bond strength by three point bending strength of two metal substrates (commercially pure titanium or grade II, and Ti-6Al-4V alloy or grade V) combined to three distinct low-fusing ceramic systems (LFC) and the nature of porcelain-metal fracture by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were evaluated. The results were compared to a combination of palladium-silver (Pd-Ag) alloy and conventional...

We introduce a strategy for the verification of relational specifications based on the analysis of monotonicity of variables within formulas. By comparing with the Alloy Analyzer, we show that for a relevant class of problems this technique outperforms analysis of the same problems using SAT-solvers, while consuming a fraction of the memory SAT-solvers require.

in this paper, a novel method of producing bi-metallic alloy nanoparticles at low temperatures using hydrogen bombardment of thin films, deposited on glass substrates, is introduced. optical and morphological characteristics of the nanoparticles were extensively studied for various conditions of plasma treatment, such as plasma power density, temperature, duration of hydrogen bombardment, thick...

Uncontrolled morphological evolution of lithium metal anodes during cycling can lead to inactive formation and excessive solid electrolyte interphase growth, causing capacity decay. Here, we investigate how interfacial alloy layers affect the growth electrodeposition stripping from stainless steel current collectors by combining electrochemical methods with operando optical microscopy. We find ...

Alloy is a formal modeling language based on first-order relational logic, with no native support for specifying reactive systems. We propose an extension of Alloy to allow the specification of temporal formulas using LTL, and show how they can be verified by bounded model checking with the Alloy Analyzer.