CONTEXT AND AIMS The purpose of this study was to compare and evaluate the shaping ability of ProTaper (PT) and Self-Adjusting File (SAF) system using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) to assess their performance in oval-shaped root canals. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-two mandibular premolars with single oval canals were divided into two experimental groups (n = 31) according to the system...

This paper presents a quantitative modeling of referential coherence by which conversation systems measure the smoothness of discourse. Investigations of the corpora show that referential coherence depends on languages or genres of discourse. Our goal is to establish a quantitative model that can be statistically adapted to various languages. Centering theory explains referential coherence by u...

Conventional concentrically-braced frame (CBF) systems have limited drift capacity before brace buckling and related damage leads to deterioration in strength and stiffness. Self-centering concentrically-braced frame (SC-CBF) systems have been developed to increase drift capacity prior to initiation of damage and minimize residual drift. SC-CBFs differ from conventional CBFs in that the SC-CBF ...

Being able to effectively explore our visual world is of fundamental importance, and it has been suggested that the straight-ahead gaze (primary position) might play a special role in this context. We employed fMRI in humans to investigate how neural activity might be modulated for saccades relative to this putative default position. Using an endogenous cueing paradigm, saccade direction and or...

OBJECTIVE To assess the influence of operator experience on: shaping and centering ability, mean preparation time and presence of canal aberrations of ProTaper Universal and WaveOne systems on simulated root canals. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty S-shaped canals in resin blocks were assigned to four groups (n=15 for each group). Group1 (Experienced operator, ProTaper), Group2 (Experienced operat...

This paper discusses Japanese discourse in the Centering framework, by analyzing what we call the ‘forwardlooking centers’ in Japanese complex sentences containing an adverbial clause of reason. Naturally occurring discourse was collected for this research, and a hypothesis is made that, at least in headfinal languages, the forward-looking centers in the matrix clause are ranked higher, by usin...