PURPOSE Two of the 4 fluoride varnishes available on the American market today are sold in 10-mL tubes of 5% NaF varnish (Duraphat and Duraflor). Pilot studies have shown that a separation of contents within these tubes exists. The purpose of the current study was 4-fold: (1) to measure the fluoride concentration gradient in 10-mL tubes of fluoride varnish, based on resting position of the tube...

Loss functions play a fundamental role in every quality engineering method. A new set of loss functions is proposed based on Taguchi’s societal loss concept. Its applications to robust parameter design are discussed in detail. The loss functions are shown to posses some interesting properties and lead to theoretical results that cannot be handled with other loss functions.

This paper describes a 'Logical Form' target language for representing the literal meaning of English sentences, and an intermediate level of representation ('Quasi Logical Form') which engenders a natural separation between the compositional semantics and the processes of scoping and reference resolution. The approach has been implemented in the SRI Core Language Engine which handles the Engli...

This study aimed to clarify the ability of the buffer systems of saliva to inhibit enamel demineralization after intake of an acid beverage. In the first experiment, titrable acidity tests were carried out. Ten milliliters of saliva stimulated by chewing gum base was obtained from 10 healthy adult subjects and the pH of each saliva sample was measured. The beverages used for the experiment were...

We aimed to investigate the performance of fluorescence-based methods (FBMs), compared to visual inspection after histological validation, in detecting and assessing the activity status of occlusal carious lesions in primary teeth. One examiner evaluated 50 primary molars close to exfoliation in 24 children. Teeth were assessed using quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) and pen-type la...

The aims of this study were to compare the effectiveness of fluoride varnish and chlorhexidine gel in controlling white spot lesions (WSLs) adjacent to orthodontic brackets and to compare the ability of Quantitative Light-Induced Fluorescence (QLF) to measure mineral uptake with that of transverse microradiography (TMR). Thirty premolars with artificially induced WSLs were randomly assigned to ...

This paper studies robust local synchronization in multi-agent systems with time-varying parametric uncertainties constrained in a polytope. In contrast to existing methods with non-convex conditions via using quadratic Lyapunov function (QLF), a new criteria is proposed based on using homogeneous polynomial Lyapunov functions (HPLFs) where the original system is suitably approximated by an unc...

Region of interest (RoI) alignment in medical images plays a crucial role in diagnostics, procedure planning, treatment, and follow-up. Frequently, a model is represented as triangulated mesh while the patient data is provided from computed axial tomography scanners as pixel or voxel data. Previously, we presented a 2-D method for curve-to-pixel registration. This paper contributes (i) a genera...

Modeling the evolution of number density distribution quasars through Quasar Luminosity Function (QLF) is critical to improve our understanding connection between black holes, galaxies and their halos. Here we present a novel semi-empirical model for QLF that fully defined after specification free parameter, internal duty cycle, $\varepsilon_{DC}$ along with minimal other assumptions. All remai...