Immunization of Wistar female rats with 255-Gy-irradiated Toxoplasma gondii: Preventing parasite load and maternofoetal transmission

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Predictive maintenance of a worm reducer with an unbalanced load

Among all predictive maintenance techniques the oil analysis and vibration analysis are the most important for monitoring some mechanical systems. The integration of these techniques has potential to improve industrial maintenance practices and provide a better economic gain for industries. To study the integration of these two techniques, a test rig was set up to obtain an extreme working condition for the worm reducer used in this paper. The test rig was composed by a motor connected to a reducer through a flexible coupling and with an unbalanced load. The analysis of the results carried out by using a sample of the oil recommended by the manufacturer in extreme conditions, and using liquid contaminant is presented. From the results it was observed that if there is an abnormal instantaneous load in a system, the subsequent vibration analysis may not perceive what occurred if there was no permanent damage, which is not the case with the lubricant analysis.

Resistance training with excessive training load and insufficient recovery alters skeletal muscle mass-related protein expression

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Survival rate, load to fracture, and finite element analysis of incisors and canines restored with ceramic veneers having varied preparation design

Purpose: To evaluate the survival rate, success rate, load to fracture, and finite element analysis (FEA) of maxillary central incisors and canines restored using ceramic veneers and varying preparation designs.Methods and Materials: Thirty human maxillary central incisors and 30 canines were allocated to the following four groups (n=15) based on the preparation design and type of tooth: Gr1 = central incisor with a conservative preparation; Gr2 = central incisor with a conventional preparation with palatal chamfer; Gr3 = canine with a conservative preparation; Gr4 = canine with a conventional preparation with palatal chamfer. Ceramic veneers (lithium disilicate) were fabricated and adhesively cemented (Variolink Veneer). The specimens were subjected to 4 x 106 mechanical cycles and evaluated at every 500,000 cycles to detect failures. Specimens that survived were subjected to a load to fracture test. Bidimensional models were modeled (Rhinoceros 4.0) and evaluated (MSC.Patrans 2005r2 and MSC.Marc 2005r2) on the basis of their maximum principal stress (MPS) values. Survival rate values were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier test (alpha = 0.05) and load to fracture values were analyzed using the Student t-test (alpha = 0.05).Results: All groups showed 100% survival rates. The Student t-test did not show any difference between the groups for load to fracture. FEA showed higher MPS values in the specimens restored using veneers with conventional preparation design with palatal chamfer.Conclusion: Preparation design did not affect the fracture load of canines and central incisors, but the veneers with conventional preparation design with palatal chamfer exhibited a tendency to generate higher MPS values.

Effect of thermo-mechanical load cycling on silorane-based composite restorations

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Influence of standard load micro and nanopatterned in surface roughness of bleached teeth and submitted to different surface treatments?

The aim of this study was evaluate the dental enamel after whitening treatment with Opalescence Boost PF® 38%, correlating the structural alterations in the surface of the enamel with its respective pH and verify if whitened teeth submitted to different finishing and polishing techniques show similar surface texture to healthy teeth (control group). Sixty premolars were divided in 6 groups (n = 10), which had been immersed in artificial saliva during all the experiment. Protocol whitening was performed according to the manufacturer recommendations, and then the specimens were submitted to different polishing technique with Sof-Lex Pop On® disks, Flex Diamond® felt disks using two different micrometric polishing pastes (Enamelize® and Diamond Polish®) and two nanometric polishing pastes (Lummina-E Diamond and Lummina-E Alumina), according to the groups. Representative specimens were analyzed in scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Whitening gel used in this experiment had modified the morphologic aspect of the enamel surface. It was found that two nanometric polishing pastes (G5 and G6) promoted a less rough surface compared to control group even after the whitening process.

Load-application devices: a comparative strain gauge analysis

In view of the low loading values commonly employed in dentistry, a load-application device (LAD) was developed as option to the universal testing machine (UTM), using strain gauge analysis. The aim of this study was to develop a load-application device (LAD) and compare the LAD with the UTM apparatus under axial and non-axial loads. An external hexagonal implant was inserted into a polyurethane block and one EsthetiCone abutment was connected to the implant. A plastic prosthetic cylinder was screwed onto the abutment and a conical pattern crown was fabricated using acrylic resin. An impression was made and ten identical standard acrylic resin patterns were obtained from the crown impression, which were cast in nickel-chromium alloy (n=10). Four strain gauges were bonded diametrically around the implant. The specimens were subjected to central (C) and lateral (L) axial loads of 30 kgf, on both devices: G1: LAD/C; G2: LAD/L; G3: UTM/C; G4: UTM/L. The data (με) were statistically analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey's test (p<0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between the UTM and LAD devices, regardless of the type of load. It was concluded that the LAD is a reliable alternative, which induces microstrains to implants similar to those obtained with the UTM.

Immunization of Wistar female rats with 255-Gy-irradiated Toxoplasma gondii: Tissue parasitic load and lactogenic quantification

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Influence of CAD-CAM diamond bur deterioration on surface roughness and maximum failure load of Y-TZP-based restorations

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estimation of a preference map of new consumers for spatial load forecasting simulation methods using a spatial analysis of points

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Rotor Failure Diagnosis of Induction Motors by Wavelet Transform and Fourier Transform in Function of the Load

This paper presents two diagnostic methods for the online detection of broken bars in induction motors with squirrel-cage type rotors. The wavelet representation of a function is a new technique. Wavelet transform of a function is the improved version of Fourier transform. Fourier transform is a powerful tool for analyzing the components of a stationary signal. But it is failed for analyzing the non-stationary signal whereas wavelet transform allows the components of a non-stationary signal to be analyzed. In this paper, our main goal is to find out the advantages of wavelet transform compared to Fourier transform in rotor failure diagnosis of induction motors.

Volt-VAR multiobjective optimization to peak-load relief and energy efficiency in distribution networks

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Removal of clay by stingless bees: load size and moisture selection

Some organisms disperse energy, associated with the transportation of resource, which is not necessarily food. Stingless bees of Central Amazonia (Melipona flavolineata and M. lateralis) collect clay in banks along streams for nest building. The moisture of the clay varies along the bank, and bees collect clay from specific location, indicating that there is some sort of preference regarding their selection. This study aims at identifying: if larger bees carry more clay; if there is a preference for moisture of substrates; and if bees are less efficient accumulating and transporting clay when it is wet. In order to do so, I measured the size of the bees and of the pellets of clay found in the corbicula. I set up a field experiment to test substrate preferences. The amount of clay transported, increased exponentially in accordance to the size of the bee, and the preferred substrate was the driest clay. The amount and the efficiency of removal of clay were not affected by the moisture of the substrate. Despite the wet clay being denser, it does not reduce the efficiency of exploitation of the resource, but suggests that bees spend more energy to carry the same quantity of wet clay, which may be the underlying mechanism explaining their preference for removing drier clay.

Modeling field load tests in lateritic unsaturated soil

Many models for unsaturated soil have been developed in the last years, accompanying the development of experimental techniques to deal with such soils. The benchmark of the models for unsaturated soil can be assigned to the Barcelona Basic Model (BBM) now incorporated in some codes such as the CODE_BRIGHT. Most of those models were validated considering limited laboratory test results and not much validation is available considering real field problems. This paper presents modeling results of field plate load tests performed under known suction on a lateritic unsaturated soil. The required input data were taken from laboratory tests performed under suction control. The modeling nicely reproduces field tests allowing appreciating the influence of soil suction on the stress-settlement curve. In addition, wetting induced or collapse settlements were calculated from field tests and were nicely duplicated by the numerical analysis performed.