UNLABELLED   INTRODUCTION Rotary nickel-titanium (NiTi) instruments are thought to allow shaping of narrow, curved root canals more efficiently and more effectively than stainless steel hand instruments. However, the continued search for even more effective and safer instruments has resulted in new rotary systems being introduced on a regular basis. The aim of this study was to compare shapin...

When the method of constant stimuli is used to measure heterochromatic brightness matches, the resulting matches can be strongly biased toward the center of the range of test luminances used. In the present paper, we investigate the source of this centering bias. The stimuli were 2 degrees red squares presented in a gray surround. In the main experiments, two ranges of stimulus luminance were p...

This article describes an implemented system which uses centering theory for planning of coherent texts and choice of referring expressions. We argue that text and sentence planning need to be driven in part by the goal of maintaining referential continuity and thereby facilitating pronoun resolution: Obtaining a favorable ordering of clauses, and of arguments within clauses, is likely to incre...

Existing software systems for automated essay scoring can provide NLP researchers with opportunities to test certain theoretical hypotheses, including some derived from Centering Theory. In this study we employ the Educational Testing Service’s e-rater essay scoring system to examine whether local discourse coherence, as defined by a measure of Centering Theory’s Rough-Shift transitions, might ...

AIM One Shape Apical 1 (OSA 1) is a new file for preparing the apical aspect of the root canal after One Shape (OS, Micro Mega, Besançon, France). This study compared apical transportation and centering ratios in curved root canals, which were instrumented with ProTaper Next (PTN, Dentsply Tulsa Dental Specialties, Tulsa, OK) up to size X3 and with OS up to OSA 1. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-...

In this study, curved maxillary molar root canals were instrumented with RaCe rotary system to evaluate: 1. the occurrence of canal transportation using a radiographic platform; 2. the action of the instruments on the dentin walls, centering ability and canal enlargement by analysis of digital images; and the percentage of regular dentin surfaces and debris within the canal by histological anal...

This paper presents a family of methods for data translation in feature space, to be used in conjunction with kernel machines. The translations are performed using only kernel evaluations in input space. We use the methods to improve the numerical properties of kernel machines. Experiments with synthetic and real data demonstrate the effectiveness of data centering and highlight other interesti...