The Perception of Smile Attractiveness Variations from Esthetic Norms, Photographic Framing and Order of Presentation

Objectives: To evaluate the attractiveness of a smile according to variations from esthetic norms, photographic framing, and the order of the presentation of photographs.Materials and Methods: A photograph of an individual was selected and digitally manipulated to create the following smiles: an ideal control smile (I), a smile with diastema (D1), a smile with midline deviation (LM3), a smile with deviation from the long axes of the lateral incisors (10D), and a smile with an inverted smile arc (LSRV). The manipulated photographs were developed in framings of the face and of the mouth and evaluated by 20 laypeople. For half the evaluators, the presentation started with facial photographs and, for the other half, the presentation began with the mouth shots. Evaluators were asked to rank the photographs from the least to the most attractive; then, each photograph was awarded a mark (scale of 0.0 to 10.0).Results: In both presentations, the smiles I, LM3, 10D, and LSRV received favorable ratings, whereas the D1 smile got poor ratings. The photographic framings used (face vs mouth) and the order of presentation of the photographs did not influence the rankings.Conclusion: The absence of variations from beauty norms of a smile has a positive impact on its esthetic perception, but variations from the norms do not necessarily result in reduced attractiveness. (Angle Orthod. 2009;79:634-639.)

NUMERICAL DETERMINATION OF THE ORDER OF PHASE-TRANSITIONS IN ISING SYSTEMS WITH MULTISPIN INTERACTIONS

The method of the fourth-order cumulant of Challa, Landau, and Binder is used together with the Monte Carlo histogram technique of Ferrenberg and Swendsen to study the order of the phase transitions of two-dimensional Ising systems with multispin interactions in the horizontal direction and two-body interactions in the vertical direction.

Proposal of convergence of e-Learning systems for t-Learning

This article presents considerations about viability on reutilize existing web based e-Learning systems on Interactive Digital TV environment according to Digital TV standard adopted in Brazil. Considering the popularity of Moodle system in academic and corporative area, such system was chosen as a foundation for a survey into its properties to create a specification of an Application Programming Interface (API) for convergence to t-Learning characteristics that demands efforts in interface design area due the fact that computer and TV concepts are totally different. This work aims to present studies concerning user interface design during two stages: survey and detail of functionalities from an e-Learning system and how to adapt them for the Interactive TV regarding usability context and Information Architecture concepts.

Influence of convergence angle of tooth preparation on the fracture resistance of Y-TZP-based all-ceramic restorations

Objective: To investigate the influence of the convergence angle of tooth preparation on the fracture load of Y-TZP-based ceramic (YZ-Vita YZ) substructure (SB) veneered with a feldspathic porcelain (VM9-Vita VM9). Methods: Finite element stress analysis (FEA) was performed to examine the stress distribution of the system. Eighty YZ SB were fabricated using a CAD-CAM system and divided into four groups (n = 20), according to the total occlusal convergence (TOC) angle: G6-6° TOC; G12-12° TOC; G20-20° TOC; and G20MOD-20° TOC with modified SB. All SB were veneered with VM9, cemented in a fiber reinforced epoxy resin die, and loaded to failure. Half of the specimens from each group (n = 10) were cyclic fatigued (106 cycles) before testing. Failure analysis was performed to determine the fracture origin. Data were statistically analyzed using Anova and Tukey's tests (α = 0.05). Results: The greatest mean load to fracture value was found for the G20MOD, which was predicted by the FEA. Cyclic fatigue did not significantly affect the load of fracture. Catastrophic failure originating from the internal occlusal surface of the SB was the predominant failure mode, except for G20MOD. Significance: The YZ-VM9 restorations resisted greater compression load than the usual physiological occlusal load, regardless of the TOC angle of preparations. Yet, the G20MOD design produced the best performance among the experimental conditions evaluated. © 2013 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Local order of Pb1-xLaxZr0.40Ti 0.60O3 ferroelectric ceramic materials probed by X-ray absorption and Raman spectroscopies

This paper reports on the structural characterization of Pb 1-xLaxZr0.40Ti0.60O3 (PLZT) ferroelectric ceramic compositions prepared by the conventional solid state reaction method. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and Raman spectroscopy were used to probe the local structure of PLZT samples that exhibits a normal and relaxor ferroelectric behavior. From the Zr K-edge and Pb LIII-edge EXAFS spectra, a considerable dissymmetry of Zr and Pb sites was observed in all samples, including those showing a long-range order cubic symmetry and a relaxor behavior. The Raman spectroscopy results confirmed the existence of a local disorder in all PLZT samples through the observation of Raman active vibrational modes. The variation in the intensity of the E(TO 3) mode in the PLZT relaxor samples indicates that the process of correlation between nanodomains stabilizes at temperatures lower than T m. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differences in larval nutritional requirements and female oviposition preference reflect the order of fruit colonization of Zaprionus indianus and Drosophila simulans

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Word sense disambiguation via high order of learning in complex networks

Complex networks have been employed to model many real systems and as a modeling tool in a myriad of applications. In this paper, we use the framework of complex networks to the problem of supervised classification in the word disambiguation task, which consists in deriving a function from the supervised (or labeled) training data of ambiguous words. Traditional supervised data classification takes into account only topological or physical features of the input data. On the other hand, the human (animal) brain performs both low- and high-level orders of learning and it has facility to identify patterns according to the semantic meaning of the input data. In this paper, we apply a hybrid technique which encompasses both types of learning in the field of word sense disambiguation and show that the high-level order of learning can really improve the accuracy rate of the model. This evidence serves to demonstrate that the internal structures formed by the words do present patterns that, generally, cannot be correctly unveiled by only traditional techniques. Finally, we exhibit the behavior of the model for different weights of the low- and high-level classifiers by plotting decision boundaries. This study helps one to better understand the effectiveness of the model. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2012