Radiopacity evaluation of new root canal filling materials by digitalization of images

The aim of this study was to evaluate the radiopacity of five root canal filling materials (AH Plus, Intrafill, Roeko Seal, Epiphany, and EndoRez). Following the International Organization of Standardization 687612001, five circular specimens (10 X 1 mm) were made from each material. After the material set, radiographs were made using occlusal film and a graduated aluminum step-wedge varying in thickness from 2 to 16 mm. The dental X-ray unit (GE1000) was set at 50 Kvp, 10 mA, 18 pulses/second, and distance of 33.5 cm. The radiographs were digitized, and the radiopacity was compared with the aluminum step-wedge, using WIXWIN-2000 software (Gendex). Data (mm Al) were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey tests. AH Plus and Epiphany were the most radiopaque materials (9.8 and 8.8 mm Al, respectively), followed by EndoRez (7.2 mm Al). Roeko Seal and Intrafill presented the lowest radiopacity values (5.7 and 6.1 mm Al, respectively). Although the materials evaluated demonstrated different radiopacities, all had values above the minimum recommended by the international Organization of Standardization.

Graled (Grapevine leaf digitalization) Software for the Detection and Graphic Reconstruction of Ampelometric Differences Between Vitis Leaves

Raster graphic ampelometric software was not exclusively developed for the estimation of leaf area, but also for the characterization of grapevine (Viti vinifera L.) leaves. The software was written in C-Hprogramming language, using the C-1-1- Builder 2007 for Windows 95-XP and Linux operation systems. It handles desktop-scanned images. On the image analysed with the GRA.LE.D., the user has to determine 11 points. These points are then connected and the distances between them calculated. The GRA.LE.D. software supports standard ampelometric measurements such as leaf area, angles between the veins and lengths of the veins. These measurements are recorded by the software and exported into plain ASCII text files for single or multiple samples. Twenty-two biometric data points of each leaf are identified by the GRA.LE.D. It presents the opportunity to statistically analyse experimental data, allows comparison of cultivars and enables graphic reconstruction of leaves using the Microsoft Excel Chart Wizard. The GRA. LE.D. was thoroughly calibrated and compared to other widely used instruments and methods such as photo-gravimetry, LiCor L0100, WinDIAS2.0 and ImageTool. By comparison, the GRA.LE.D. presented the most accurate measurements of leaf area, but the LiCor L0100 and the WinDIAS2.0 were faster, while the photo-gravimetric method proved to be the most time-consuming. The WinDIAS2.0 instrument was the least reliable. The GRA.LE.D. is uncomplicated, user-friendly, accurate, consistent, reliable and has wide practical application.

Pornography as creative industry

Much academic writing on pornography focuses on the genre’s exceptionalism (the ways in which it is different from other forms of culture). This paper rather focuses on its typicality as a Creative Industry. As with other Creative Industries, in the production and distribution of pornography it is producers who make most money. While a small number of on-camera performers become wealthy and powerful the majority lack creative control and are poorly paid. The careers of performers are typically short examples of “nomadic labour”. Many creative workers are involved in the production of pornography apart those in front of the camera, and the skills of these behind-the-camera creatives can be transferable across sectors. Like other Creative Industries, the pornography business is facing challenges from increased digitalization and globalization; and like other Creative Industries the solutions to these challenges lie in branding, niche marketing, and exploiting new technological possibilities.

Book Review: "Engin Isin and Evelyn Ruppert, Being Digital Citizens. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015"

The concept of digital citizenship has become increasingly important to our understanding of the relationship between media and political action, and the possibilities for democratization, decentralization, and diversification of power offered by the Internet. In the era of the digitalization of just about everything, citizenship and its related concepts are in processes of technology-driven transformation, with important implications for the global future of democratic culture. Isin and Ruppert’s book is a timely engagement with these questions, and with the emerging notion of the “digital subject.”

A semantic middleware to enhance current multimedia retrieval systems with content-based functionalities

210 p. : graf.

Polidimensionalidade da narrativa fílmica contemporânea: não-linearidade, transnacionalização e transmídia

A digitalização das mídias e a influência da tecnologia ocasionaram a difusão de um novo modelo de cinema, conjunto complexo de mudanças pautadas na lógica econômica e em um processo de cognição específico. Nesse contexto, na nova disposição do cinema, observa-se uma transformação no processo narrativo fílmico para além de novos formatos e conteúdos audiovisuais. Para investigar o fenômeno da polidimensionalidade do conceito da narrativa no cinema contemporâneo, a presente dissertação realiza uma análise qualitativa de exemplos significativos do cinema comercial, considerando a não-linearidade, a transnacionalização, a transmídia, além de destacar a vertente da multiplicidade narrativa, da polidimensionalidade, no cinema experimental e nas instalações artísticas. Como recorte do objeto de pesquisa, optou-se pela análise do filme Slumdog Millionaire (2008), nos itens transnacionalização e não-linearidade; dos filmes Watchmen (2009) e Batman (The Dark Knight, 2008), como franquias de transmídia; além da multiplicidade do cinema experimental What we will e instalações. O critério de seleção dos filmes foi o destaque que obtiveram nas respectivas categorias nos últimos dois anos, nas grandes bilheterias do cinema comercial pelos sites Filme B e The Internet Movie Database

Consumo de Cultura Digital y Piratería

[ES] En este trabajo se analiza la relevancia de las características individuales y del hogar en la toma de decisiones sobre la compra y la descarga ilegal de archivos musicales de Internet. Para este estudio, se utilizan los datos de la Encuesta de Hábitos y Prácticas Culturales (de 2010-2011), llevada a cabo por el Ministerio de Cultura en España. Esta cuestión se convierte en un tema interesante a tratar, ya que la revolución digital ha conseguido aumentar los medios disponibles para escuchar música, creando así un amplio abanico de oportunidades para los consumidores, tanto legales como ilegales. Comenzamos con un repaso a las consecuencias de la digitalización en el mercado de la música grabada, poniendo especial interés en los aspectos que se refieren a la demanda y motivamos el interés por estudiarla. Estimamos dos modelos de elección binaria en los que se analiza cuál es el efecto que tiene cada una de las variables sobre la compra y la descarga de música.

Cibercultura, Juventude e Alteridade: aprendendo-ensinando com o outro no Facebook

As dinâmicas comunicacionais da cibercultura em sua fase atual são possíveis devido à revolução do processo de digitalização, que fez com que imagem, vídeo e som pudessem ser produzidos e compartilhados em/na rede, e pela possibilidade de todo e qualquer internauta ser emissor e receptor em potencial de informação. Diante disso, a pesquisa se dedicou a investigar a relação de jovens usuários do software social Facebook com os saberes que circulam na referida interface. Para interpretar os dados construídos com os sujeitos da pesquisa busquei auxílio nas contribuições de autores de diversas áreas do conhecimento, principalmente do campo da comunicação. A abordagem da etnografia virtual (ou netnografia) também forneceu aporte teórico-metodológico imprescindível ao estudo. As considerações finais sistematizam os achados do estudo que ressaltam a relevância da dinâmica cibercultural do Facebook na constituição de processos de ensino-aprendizagem interativos e co-autorais que colocam em xeque as práticas educativas individuais e autorais próprias da cultura tipográfica. Isso proporcionou refletir sobre a criação de metodologias de ensino baseadas numa perspectiva alteritária, considerando as dinâmicas da interação e da colaboração, próprias da cibercultura.

High dimensional imagery geometry and it's applications

Because of information digitalization and the correspondence of digits and the coordinates, Information Science and high-dimensional space have consanguineous relations. With the transforming from the information issues to the point analysis in high-dimensional space, we proposed a novel computational theory, named High dimensional imagery geometry (HDIG). Some computational algorithms of HDIG have been realized using software, and how to combine with groups of simple operators in some 2D planes to implement the geometrical computations in high-dimensional space is demonstrated in this paper. As the applications, two kinds of experiments of HDIG, which are blurred image restoration and pattern recognition ones, are given, and the results are satisfying.

电离层胶片频高图数字化转换与分析研究

The ionogram acquired with the ionospheric vertical sounding method is the oldest data in the history of ionospheric research. Using of modern microelectronics and computer technology to digitalize, analyse and preserve the huge amount of historical film ionogram has become more and more important and urgent. This paper introduced the progress of the film ionogram digitalization by using digital image processing technologies to correct and repair film ionogram and convert them in an exchangeable format. An analysis and conversion software, basing on this method, has been developed for the film ionogram analysis, and then it introduces the application of this software by combining the SAO Explorer program for Wuhan film ionogram and pseudo-color ionogram in Yamagawa in Japan. It shows that our method is reliable，and the developed software is used friendly and provides a positive solution in digitalization and analysis of huge amount of historical film ionogram. Firstly, we briefly introduce the film ionogram and the process of its digitalization. By observing a amount of film ionogram, we obtain some common characteristics of the digitalized film ionogram following as: (1) the image rotation are caused by scanning; (2) the vertical axis of a large number of film ionogram exist more or less tilt and bending ; (3) coordinates of the film ionogram appear the non-uniformity phenomena result from the instability of driving motor rotation and the error of altitudinal cursor orientation. Moreover, based on the characteristics of the film ionogram and the SAO Explorer software which is widely used for the digital ionogram analysis in the world, a new method has been developed for film ionogram procession. The method contains the image geometric correction and film ionogram format conversion. The image geometric correction includes such as image rotation correction, vertical correction and coordinates scale correction. After geometric correction, the BMP file format images will be converted to the SBF file format images. Then, we also discuss the data format converting methods, which include two methods of the image data mapping basing on the normalization and logarithm, and the method of the preprocessing of the noise filtering and the threshold setting. Combining with SAO Explorer software, we successfully obtain ionospheric parameters and electron profile from the converted SBF file format digital ionograms. Based on the above method, we developed the software for the film ionogram to realize its correction analysis and conversion of the image format, and then give a introduction for its function and operation. Subsequently, the software are applied into the Wuhan film ionogram which separately observed in the high solar activity year and the low in 1980s last century. The results reveal the converted SBF digital ionogram almost preserve the all echo information of the film ionogram. Furthermore, we expressly discuss the application to the Wuhan film ionogram in 1958 in order to validate the applicability and credibility of the software. And it is showed that the important information of the film ionogram are maintained into the SBF digital ionogram. It is represented that there is credibility for conversion of the software when it applied in the older film ionogram. In sum, this software could apply to the digitalization and analysis of huge amount of historical film ionogram. Last, we extended the function of the software by bring some new conversion method and used it to apply to the pseudo-color ionogram of yamagawa in Japan. The results show that the converted ionogram information basically maintain the importantly ionogram information and the error of scaling of converted SBF file format image is almost acceptable, though there is no preprocessing for the original ionogram. Hence, we could extend the applicable range of the software and apply it to all kinds of simulative ionogram imaging by improving the method and software.

天然地震转换波偏移成像方法研究

Butovskaya, a scholar of Former Soviet Union, first determined the depth of basalt layer in Tashkent Zone by using converted waves on seismogram in 1952. From then on, more and more scholars developed the comprehensive research that imaged the earth interior structures by applying converted waves information. With the digitalization of earthquake observation, The inversion imaging of complete or partial waveform record can efficiently improve inversion quality and widen its usage scope, therefore great progress is made in converted wave imaging. This paper makes a certain study in converted wave imaging on that basis. Transmitted PP waves and converted PS waves are generated when a P-wave propagates through an interface separating two media with large impedance contracts. A PS converted wave is a seismic body wave, which result from the conversion of an incident parent P wave at a boundary within the crust to a refracted S wave. The thickness of a single crustal layer can theoretically be determined by observing, with three-componented seismometer at a single station, the difference in time of the arrival of the parent P wave and the arrival of the PS converted wave. For a multilayered media, PS converted wave arrivals corresponding to each of the layers can theoretically be observed, provided the station is sufficiently from the source of the parent P wave to allow initial penetration of the P wave beneath the deepest layer considered. To avoid the difficulty of picking up transmitted P-wave and converted wave phases, this paper proposed a converted wave migration method by estimating the travel time difference between PS converted wave and PP transmitted wave. To verify its validity, we apply the converted wave PS migration algorithm to synthetic data generated by three forward modeling. The migration results indicate that PS converted wave may be migrated to reconstruct the transmitting interface. This technique is helpful to investigate the deep earth structures by using earthquake data.

Edukacyjne implikacje technologii cyfrowych

W ciągu minionych trzech dekad świat radykalnie się zmienił. Jesteśmy świadkami transformacji od społeczeństwa przemysłowego do społeczeństwa informacyjnego. Jeśli chcielibyśmy określić tą zmianę jednym słowem byłoby nim: cyfryzacja. Początkiem było wynalezienie cyfrowego komputera, a później wszystkie stare analogowe formy medialne (tekst, dźwięk, obraz, film) reprezentowane poprzez ciągłe (analogowe) sygnały zostały zastąpione przez nowe postaci cyfrowe. Pojęcie cyfrowy oznacza, że dowolne informacje mogą być reprezentowana w formie ciągów liczb zapisanych w dwójkowym systemie liczbowym (jako ciąg znaków: 0 i 1). W artykule pokazujemy funkcjonalne ograniczenia mediów analogowych oraz rozważamy korzyści wynikające z cyfrowych reprezentacji różnych form informacji wskazując równocześnie zmiany jakie implikuje to dla procesu uczenia się i edukacji.

Medicina Dentária Digital – Presente e Futuro

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Medicina Dentária