We report preliminary findings on drill population ecology, feeding ecology, primate associations and conservation status in Korup National Park, Cameroon, based on analysis of data collected during 1,346 km (620 field hours) of trail patrols from February to June 2006. We encountered drills on 25 occasions and collected 304 fecal samples. Group size was estimated on four occasions (> or =25, >...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to compare the dentine removing efficacy of Gates-Glidden drills with hand files, ProTaper and OneShape single-instrument system using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). METHODS AND MATERIALS A total of 39 extracted bifurcated maxillary first premolars were divided into 3 groups (n=13) and were prepared using either Gates-Glidden drills and hand instr...

BACKGROUND There currently exist several training modules to improve performance during video-assisted surgery. The unique characteristics of robotic surgery make these platforms an inadequate environment for the development and assessment of robotic surgical performance. METHODS Expert surgeons (n=4) (>50 clinical robotic procedures and >2 years of clinical robotic experience) were compared ...

PURPOSE Zirconia is a good candidate material in the dental field. In this study, we evaluated biological responses against a zirconia drill using a bone cavity healing model. MATERIALS AND METHODS Zirconia drills, stainless steel drills, and the drilled bone surface were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), before and after cavity preparation. For the bone cavity healing model, th...

This paper presents on-line tool breakage detection of small diameter drills by monitoring the AC servo motor current. The continuous wavelet transform was used to decompose the spindle AC servo motor current signal and the discrete wavelet transform was used to decompose the feed AC servo motor current signal in time–frequency domain. The tool breakage features were extracted from the decompos...

Intraosseous anesthesia is an effective and increasingly used technique with few reported complications. The technique uses a specialized drill to perforate the osseous cortex where local anesthetic can then be deposited to anesthetize teeth. It has been reported that separation of the perforation drills from their plastic bases can occur because of the friction generated during osseous perfora...

The manufacturing of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond coated shaft type cutting tools is demanding due to the complex design of the cutting edges and the cobalt content of the cemented carbide. The influencing parameters of substrate, pre-treatment and diamond film on the tool cutting performance are discussed. The optimised manufacturing route of CVD diamond coated thread milling drill...