Two-step Research Articles

Credit Card Fraud Detection Using Face Recognition System for E- Commerce

Abstract:Online commerce has now become the most used way of financial transactions. Privacy can be compromised during ele ctronic purchases. That's why we introduced a new way to prevent theft in online commerce to protect information through a tw ostep verification mechanism. The main step of authentication is OTP verification. If OTP is checked, the face must be recognize d.Enter the details and send the authorization of real and fake work to the bank. The new credit card scanner has some health, p roductivity and other useful features. The purpose of the app is to reduce credit card fraud through facial recognition. Customer s can get the most convenient and efficient electronic business process. Customers get the highly accessible and most efficient electronic banking program.

Feasibility and Short-Term Outcomes of One-Step and Two-Step Sleeve Gastrectomy as Revision Procedures for Failed Adjustable Gastric Banding Compared With Those After Primary Sleeve Gastrectomy.

Background: The practice of bariatric surgery was studied using the German Bariatric Surgery Registry (GBSR). The focus of the study was to evaluate whether revision surgery One-Step (OS) or Two-Step (TS) sleeve gastrectomy (SG) has a large benefit in terms of perioperative risk in patients after failed Adjustable Gastric Banding (AGB).Methods: The data collection includes patients who underwent One-Step SG (OS-SG) or Two-Step SG (TS-SG) as revision surgery after AGB and primary SG (P-SG) between 2005 and 2019. Outcome criteria were perioperative complications, comorbidities, 30-day mortality, and operating time.Results: The study analyzed data from 27,346 patients after P-SG, 320 after OS-SG, and 168 after TS-SG. Regarding the intraoperative complication, there was a significant difference in favor of P-SG and TS-SG compared to OS-SG (p < 0.001). The incidence of pulmonary complications was significantly higher in the OS-SG (p < 0.001). There was also a significant difference in occurrence of staple line stenosis in favor of TS-SG (p = 0.005) and the occurrence of sepsis (p = 0.008). The mean operating time was statistically longer in the TS-SG group than in the OS-SG group (p < 0.001). The 30-day mortality was not significantly different between the three groups (p = 0.727).Conclusion: In general, our study shows that converting a gastric band to a SG is safe and feasible. However, lower complications were obtained with TS-SG compared to OS-SG. Despite acceptable complication and mortality rates of both procedures, we cannot recommend any surgical method as a standard procedure. Proper patient selection is crucial to avoid possible adverse effects.

On mean field homogenization schemes for short fiber reinforced composites: Unified formulation, application and benchmark

This paper revisits the topic of mean field homogenization for short fiber reinforced composite materials. A short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyamide 6.6 with a fiber mass fraction of 35 % is used as an example material for which microstructural analyses and experimental tests were performed. We cover a set of common models: the Self-Consistent (SC), Mori–Tanaka (MT), Ponte Castañeda-Willis (PCW), Interaction Direct Derivative (IDD) and Two-Step (TS) schemes. We first recast them into a unified formulation that permits a thorough theoretical comparison, including the topics of loss of major symmetry as well as connections between the models. We are able to show that the MT, PCW and IDD schemes can be expressed in a surprisingly similar form. This extends to the equations for prediction of effective stiffness and compliance tensors as well as the strain and stress localization tensors. Secondly, we address the resolution of the material microstructure within mean field homogenization schemes, comparing classical and more recent and efficient methods. Last, we benchmark the different mean field schemes and modeling approaches, including comparisons to numerical homogenization by Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) and experimental data from tensile tests. These show that the MT and TS schemes are both capable of accurately modeling the composite material for complex orientations and homogeneous fiber phases. For possibly inhomogeneous fiber phases only the TS scheme yields both accurate and physically reasonable results. Other models such as the IDD or PCW are of great theoretical importance, but cannot be generally applied for the given material class.

Effects of synthesis methods and different concentrations of Eu3+ ions on the emission properties of Sr2 SiO4 phosphors.

Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu (x = 0.01, 0.02, 0.035, and 0.05) phosphors were synthesized at 1000-1,300°C for 2 h in two different processes, the solid-state reaction (SSR) method and a two-step (TS) method, and these results revealed three important findings. The secondary Sr3 SiO5 phase was observed in 1,300° C-TS-synthesized Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu powder, but no raw materials or secondary phases were observed in the SSR-prepared Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu powders. The concentration quenching effect of Eu3+ ions was really observed in TS-prepared Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu phosphors, which was not observed in SSR-prepared Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu phosphors. High emission intensity of charge transition state (CT) band was observed in the photoluminescence excitation spectra, for that the 265 and 393 nm were used as the excitation wavelengths of Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu phosphors. Sr2-x SiO4 -xEu phosphors under different synthesis processes and excitation wavelengths would have different main emission peaks in the photoluminescence emission spectra. In this study, we also well discussed and explored the relationships of photoluminescence properties with the dipole transitions (electric or magnetic) of Eu3+ ions and the different coordination structures of Sr+2 ions.

Manufacturing Polypropylene (PP)/Waste EPDM Thermoplastic Elastomers Using Ultrasonically Aided Twin-Screw Extrusion.

The compounding of waste EPDM from postindustrial scrap with polypropylene (PP) is a possible way to manufacture thermoplastic elastomers to solve a significant environmental problem. Accordingly, the present study considers the one-step (OS), two-step (TS), and dynamic revulcanization (DR) compounding methods for the manufacturing of PP/EPDM blends at different ratios of components with the aid of an ultrasonic twin-screw extruder (TSE) at various ultrasonic amplitudes. In the OS method, PP and waste EPDM particles were directly compounded using TSE with and without ultrasonic treatment. In the TS and DR methods, the waste EPDM particles were fed into the TSE and devulcanized without and with ultrasonic treatment. Then, in the TS method the devulcanized EPDM was compounded with PP using TSE without the imposition of ultrasound. In the DR method, the devulcanized EPDM after compounding with curatives was mixed with PP and dynamically revulcanized without the imposition of ultrasound in TSE. The die pressure during compounding was recorded and correlated with the rheological properties of compounds. The mechanical properties of the PP/EPDM blends obtained in the OS and TS methods did not show any improvement with ultrasonic treatment. In the DR method, all the PP/EPDM blends showed a significant increase in the tensile strength and elongation with ultrasonic amplitude and a slight decrease in the Young’s modulus. In particular, a tensile strength of 30 MPa and an elongation at break of 400% were achieved at an ultrasonic amplitude of 13 μm for the PP/EPDM blend at a ratio of 75/25. The complex viscosity, storage, and loss moduli of dynamically revulcanized PP/EPDM blends increased with the ultrasonic amplitude while the loss tangent decreased. At the same time, the results for the blends obtained by the OS and TS methods showed an opposite trend in the dynamic property behavior with the ultrasonic amplitude. Optical micrographs indicated that the blends obtained by the DR method at an ultrasonic treatment at 13 μm showed the lowest sizes of dispersed revulcanized EPDM particles in the PP matrix, leading to the excellent performance of these thermoplastic elastomers.

Frequency domain identification using adaptive Fourier decomposition method with polynomials

The adaptive Fourier decomposition method is an approximation technique of generalised Fourier series, it leads to fast approximations by selecting basis functions in a maximal selection criterion. In recent research studies, it has been efficiently applied in the identification of linear time-invariant systems and a new algorithm is named two-step (T-S) algorithm. In this work, some further modification is made for the T-S algorithm. The improvement is made at the first step, where polynomials are used instead of cauchy integral formula. By doing this, the algorithm becomes simpler and easier to realise. The approximation errors are analysed. Owing to the analysed results, this new T-S algorithm is only to get poles for the finite rational orthogonal basis functions but not the approximation to the systems, the coefficients are estimated by using least-squares methods. The effectiveness is examined through numerical examples that show it takes much less running times and can get comparable approximating results. Besides, the case that errors are included in the frequencies is also studied, the obtained results imply that minor errors in the frequencies would not affect the estimation.

High in vitro survival rate of sheep in vitro produced blastocysts vitrified with a new method and device

BackgroundTo advance the use of embryo vitrification in veterinary practice, we developed a system in which embryo vitrification, warming and dilution can be performed within a straw. Ovine in vitro produced embryos (IVEP) were vitrified at either early (EBs: n = 74) or fully expanded blastocyst stage (FEBs: n = 195), using a new device named “E.Vit”, composed by a 0.25-mL straw with a 50-μm pore polycarbonate grid at one end. Embryos at each stage (EBs and FEBs) were vitrified by either Two-step (TS) or Multi-step (MS; 6 different concentrations of vitrification solutions) protocol. Non-vitrified embryos (n = 102) were maintained in in vitro culture as a control. Warming consisted of placing the straws directly into 1.5 mL tubes containing a TCM-199 solution with three decreasing concentrations of sucrose. Blastocyst re-expansion, embryo survival and hatching rate were evaluated at 2, 24 and 48 h post warming. The number of apoptotic cells was determined by TUNEL assay.ResultsBlastocyst re-expansion (2 h) after warming was higher (P < 0.05) in FEBs group, vitrified with the MS and TS methods (77.90% and 71.25%, respectively) compared with the EBs group (MS: 59.38% and TS: 48.50%, respectively). Survival rates of vitrified FEBs after 24 h IVC were higher (P < 0.001) in both methods (MS and TS) than vitrified EBs (MS: 56.25%; TS: 42.42%) and was higher (P < 0.05) in the MS method (94.19%) compared with those in TS (83.75%). After 48 h of culture the hatching rate for FEBs vitrified in MS system (91.86%) was similar to control (91.89%), but higher than FEB TS (77.5%) and EBs vitrified in MS (37.5%) and TS (33.33%). Number of apoptotic cells were higher in EBs, irrespective of the system used, compared to FEBs. The number of apoptotic cells in FEBs vitrified with MS was comparable to the control.ConclusionsA high survival rate of IVP embryos can be achieved by the new “E.Vit” device with hatching rates in vitro comparable with control fresh embryos. This method has the potential for use in direct embryo transfer in field conditions.

Microstructural analysis of ZrO2/Al2O3 composite: Flash and conventional sintering

In this study, the flash sintering of a ZrO2/25 vol% Al2O3 (ZrO2/Al2O3) composite was analysed by varying the electric field and current density. The best sample obtained with flash sintering (FS) was compared with samples conventionally sintered via single-step (SS) and two-step (TS) techniques. The results showed that an electric field of 200 Vcm−1 with a current density of 106 mAmm−2 produced the optimal results for FS. These conditions resulted in a high relative density with a grain size comparable to that obtained with SS while utilizing a much lower furnace temperature than that for SS of this composite.

Noncoherent Decision Fusion over Fading Hybrid MACs in Wireless Sensor Networks.

In this paper, we consider the problem of decision fusion for noncoherent detection in a wireless sensor network. Novel to the current work is the integration of the hybrid multi-access channel (MAC) in the fusion rule design. We assume that sensors transmit their local binary decisions over a hybrid MAC which is a composite of conventional orthogonal and nonorthogonal MACs. Under Rayleigh fading scenario, we present a likelihood ratio (LR)-based fusion rule, which has been shown to be optimal through theoretical analysis and simulation. However, it requires a large amount of computation, which is not easily implemented in resource-constrained sensor networks. Therefore, three sub-optimal alternatives with low-complexity are proposed, namely the weighed energy detector (WED), the deflection-coefficient-maximization (DCM), and the two-step (TS) rules. We show that when the channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is low, the LR-based fusion rule reduces to the WED rule; at high-channel SNR, it is equivalent to the TS rule; and at moderate-channel SNR, it can be approached closely by the DCM rule. Compared with the conventional orthogonal and nonorthogonal MACs, numerical results show that the hybrid MAC with the proposed fusion rules can improve the detection performance when the channel SNR is medium.

A 16-bit 2.0-ps Resolution Two-Step TDC in 0.18-&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\mu$ &lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;m CMOS Utilizing Pulse-Shrinking Fine Stage With Built-In Coarse Gain Calibration

This paper proposes a time-to-digital converter (TDC) that achieves wide input range and fine time resolution at the same time. The proposed TDC utilizes pulse-shrinking (PS) scheme in the second stage for a fine resolution and two-step (TS) architecture for a wide range. The proposed PS TDC prevents an undesirable nonuniform shrinking rate issue in the conventional PS TDCs by utilizing a built-in offset pulse and an offset pulsewidth detection schemes. With several techniques, including a built-in coarse gain calibration mechanism, the proposed TS architecture overcomes a nonlinearity due to the signal propagation and gain mismatch between coarse and fine stages. The simulation results of the TDC implemented in a 0.18-μm standard CMOS technology demonstrate 2.0-ps resolution and 16-bit range that corresponds to ~130-ns input time interval with 0.08-mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> area. It operates at 3.3 MS/s with 18.0 mW from 1.8-V supply and achieves 1.44-ps single-shot precision.

Diagnosis of Rolling Bearing Based on Classification for High Dimensional Unbalanced Data

Motor systems are becoming more and more vital in modern manufacturing and bearings play an important role in the performance of a motor system. Many problems that arise in motor operation are related to bearing faults. In many cases, the accuracy of the devices for monitoring or controlling a motor system highly depends on the dynamic properties of motor bearings. Thus, fault diagnosis of a motor system is inseparably related to the diagnosis of the bearing assembly. The fault diagnosis of rolling bearings is substantially a classification problem. The traditional application of random forest (RF) to fault diagnosis methods is based on balanced data. However, in a practical situation, it is difficult to collect the fault data that are usually unbalanced. In order to solve this problem, in the first step, we propose a two-step (TS) clustering algorithm to enhance the original synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) algorithm for the unbalanced data classification. Then, based on the improvement of the SMOTE algorithm, we propose the principal component analysis (PCA) and apply it in the field of high-dimensional unbalanced fault diagnosis data. In this paper, we apply this new method to the fault diagnosis of rolling bearings, and the experiments conducted in the end show that the improved algorithm has a better classification performance.

Numerical Studies of Coal Devolatilization Characteristics with Gas Temperature Fluctuation

In the present work, coal devolatilization characteristics in a hot gaseous environment with gas temperature fluctuation are investigated numerically with the chemical percolation devolatilization (CPD) model and the two-step (TS) model in a zero-dimensional configuration. The numerical results are first validated against the experimental data, showing that the CPD model can reproduce the coal devolatilization process well. The effects of mean gas temperature, gas temperature fluctuation amplitude, and coal particle size on coal devolatilization are then explored. The particle temperature is found to fluctuate with the gas temperature fluctuation at the same frequency. However, the particle temperature shows a delay in responding to the gas temperature fluctuation, with smaller particles having a shorter delay time. It is also found that the gas temperature fluctuation facilitates coal devolatilization. In particular, higher mean gas temperature and fluctuation amplitude values reduce the start time of th...

Development and Evaluation of Novel Statistical Methods in Urine Biomarker-Based Hepatocellular Carcinoma Screening

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the fastest growing cancers in the US and has a low survival rate, partly due to difficulties in early detection. Because of HCC’s high heterogeneity, it has been suggested that multiple biomarkers would be needed to develop a sensitive HCC screening test. This study applied random forest (RF), a machine learning technique, and proposed two novel models, fixed sequential (FS) and two-step (TS), for comparison with two commonly used statistical techniques, logistic regression (LR) and classification and regression trees (CART), in combining multiple urine DNA biomarkers for HCC screening using biomarker values obtained from 137 HCC and 431 non-HCC (224 hepatitis and 207 cirrhosis) subjects. The sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating curve, and variability were estimated through repeated 10-fold cross-validation to compare the models’ performances in accuracy and robustness. We show that RF and TS have higher accuracy and stability; specifically, they reach 90% specificity and 86%/87% sensitivity respectively along with 15% higher sensitivity and 10% higher specificity than LR in cross-validation. The potential of RF and TS to develop a panel of multiple biomarkers and the possibility for self-training, cloud-based models for HCC screening are discussed.

47 A New Device and Method for Successful Vitrification of In Vitro-Produced Ovine Embryos

To advance the use of embryo vitrification technology in veterinary practice, we developed a system in which embryo vitrification, warming, and dilution can be performed within a straw. An in-straw embryo cryopreservation method reduces the need for equipment and technical skills and can facilitate direct embryo transfer to the uterus. This study proposes the use of a new device named “Sarah” that is designed to permit all in-straw embryo cryopreservation procedures. Ovine in vitro-produced (IVP) embryos were vitrified at either early blastocyst stage (EB, n = 65, 6 days post-IVF) or fully expanded blastocyst stage (FB, n = 168, 7 days post-IVF). The vitrification procedure using Sarah constituted a 0.25-mL straw with a capsule having 50-µm pores inserted at one end. Embryos at each stage (EB and FB) were divided into 2 subgroups and vitrified by 1 of 2 methods: (1) multi-step (MS) group-a straw containing 2 embryos was sequentially loaded vertically into 1.5-mL tubes containing 6 different vitrification solutions: 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100% ES (with 100% ES being 7.5% DMSO +7.5% EG + 20% FCS in TCM-199; 90 s each step) followed by 30 s each in 75 and 100% VS (100% VS being 18% DMSO +18% EG + 0.5 M trehalose + BSA in TCM-199); and (2) two-step (TS) group-the straw (2 embryos/straw) was loaded with 100% of ES (5 min), followed by 100% VS solution for 30 s. For both methods, at the end of the preparation steps, the straws were plunged directly into liquid N2. Non-vitrified embryos were maintained in in vitro culture as a control group (n = 102). The warming procedure consisted of placing the straws directly into 5-mL tubes containing 100, 50, 25% WS (WS = 1 M sucrose in TCM-199+ 20% FCS) at 38.6°C (for first solution) and at room temperature for all the rest (5 min each), before being placed into the holding medium. Embryos were recovered from the straws, incubated at 38.6 C in 5% CO2 in air in TCM 199 + 5% FCS, and evaluated for blastocoel re-expansion, embryo survival, and hatching rate at 2, 14, 48 h post-warming. Blastocyst re-expansion (2 h) after warming increased as the developmental stage progressed and was not affected by the vitrification method. In fact, it was significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher for FB vitrified in the MS and TS methods (77.90% and 71.25%, respectively) compared with the EB method (62.5% and 48.50%, respectively). At 24 h, survival rate of vitrified FB was significantly higher (P &lt; 0.05) in the MS system (95.35%) compared with those in TS (86.25%). Survival rates of FB embryos for both methods (MS and TS) were significantly higher (P &lt; 0.001) than EB embryos vitrified in MS (56.25%) and TS (56.55) methods. After 48 h of culture, the hatching rate for FB vitrified in the MS system (87.21%) was comparable with TS (77.5%) and control (85.3%) groups but significantly higher (P &lt; 0.001) than vitrified EB in MS (43.75%) and TS (36.36%). In conclusion, we showed that a high survival rate of IVP embryos can be achieved by this new in-straw vitrification and warming device (“Sarah”), with hatching rates in vitro comparable with that of control fresh embryos. This method has the potential for use in direct embryo transfer in field conditions.

Extending multi‐level STT‐MRAM cell lifetime by minimising two‐step and hard state transitions in hot bits

Shifting market trends towards mobile, Internet of things, and data-centric applications create opportunities for emerging low-power non-volatile memories. The attractive features of spin-torque-transfer magnetic-RAM (STT-MRAM) make it a promising candidate for future on-chip cache memory. Two-bit multiple-level cell (MLC) STT-MRAMs suffer from higher write energy, performance overhead, and lower cell endurance when compared with single-level counterpart. These unwanted effects are mainly due to write operations known as two-step (TT) and hard transitions (HT). Here, the authors offer a solution to tackle write energy problem in MLC STT-MRAM by minimising the number of TT and HT transitions. By analysing real applications, it was observed that specific locations within a cache block undergo much more TT and HT transitions resulting in hot locations when compared with other ones (cold locations). These hot locations are more detrimental to the lifetime and reliability of MRAM device. In this work, the authors propose a simple and intuitive dynamic encoding scheme that eliminates all TT and HT at hot locations, hence reducing energy consumption and improving MLC STT-MRAM lifetime. Results on PARSEC benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed approach to potentially prolong MLC STT-MRAM lifetime.

Elastic Versus WDM Networks With Dedicated Multicast Protection

We consider the routing and spectrum allocation (RSA) problem of protecting all-optical multicast sessions against a single link failure in elastic optical networks (EONs). A tree is derived to support a multicast session and can be considered as a set of paths originating from a common source. We use a scheme to protect each of the paths by an arc-disjoint backup path in the case of any link failure. For this problem, we provide a node-arc integer linear programming (ILP) formulation and propose a heuristic algorithm for this protection scheme. We evaluate the improvement achieved by the flexible grids adopted in EONs over the fixed-grid wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks. The evaluation is done by considering static modeling based on ILP and heuristics as well as dynamic simulations. We consider two approaches for heuristic algorithms: one is a two-step (TS) approach that computes the routing trees then allocates spectrum. The other uses the spectrum window plane (SWP) and constructs auxiliary graphs for the relevant range of spectrum to jointly solve the RSA problem. We evaluate the performances of the proposed algorithms under static and dynamic traffic models. Based on the studied scenarios, we observe consistent improvement in efficiency of flexible grid EONs over fixed-grid WDM networks. Moreover, we demonstrate that the network size (likely because of the availability of more alternative routes) can significantly affect the benefit in efficiency achieved by the SWP-based approaches over the TS approaches.

A Low-Power CMOS Image Sensor With Area-Efficient 14-bit Two-Step SA ADCs Using Pseudomultiple Sampling Method

This brief presents a low-power CMOS image sensor with 14-bit column-parallel two-step (TS) successive approximation (SA) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The proposed TS SA ADC adopts a pseudomultiple sampling method to reduce the power consumption and the area. For implementing the 14-bit ADC, it only uses a capacitor digital-to-analog converter of 6 bits rather than 14 bits. The multiple sampling also suppresses the noise of a pixel and a column-parallel ADC. The image sensor is fabricated by using the 0.13-μm CMOS process. The measurement results show that the temporal noise is 82.7 μVrms, and the power consumption is 55.1 μW for one column ADC with a programmable gain amplifier. With the digital correlated double sampling and the TS calibration method, the proposed ADC achieves the column fixed-pattern noise of 0.98 LSB and a differential nonlinearity of +0.99/-0.90 LSB.

Effect of Er:YAG laser and diamond drill on hybrid layer morphology obtained with self-etch adhesive – analysis by SEM and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM)

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Er:YAG (L) and diamond drills (DD) on: 1) the microshear bond strength (MPa); 2) the adhesive interface of two-step (TS) – Adper Scotchbond Multipurpose and one-step (OS) adhesives – Adper EasyOne, both from 3M ESPE. Material and methods:According to the preparation condition and adhesives, the samples were divided into four groups: DD_TS (control); DD_OS; L_TS and L_OS. 60 bovine incisors were randomly divided into experimental and groups: 40 for microshear bond strength (n = 10) and 20 for the adhesive interface morphology [6 to measure the thickness of the hybrid layer (HL) and length of tags (t) by CLSM (n = 3); 12 to the adhesive interface morphology by SEM (n = 3) and 2 to illustrate the effect of the instruments on dentine by SEM (n = 1)].To conduct the microshear bond strength test, four cylinders (0.7 mm in diameter and 1 mm in height with area of adhesion of 0.38 mm) were constructed with resin composite (Filtek Z350 XT – 3M ESPE) on each dentin surface treated by either L or DD and after adhesives application. Microshear bond strength was performed in universal testing machine (EMIC 2000) with load cell of 500 kgf and a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm / min. Adhesive interface was characterized by thickness of hybrid layer (HL) and length of tags (t) in nm, with the aid of UTHSCSA ImageTool software. Results: Microshear bond strength values were: L_TS 34.10 ± 19.07, DD_TS 24.26 ± 9.35, L_OS 33.18 ± 12.46, DD_OS 21.24 ± 13.96. Two-way ANOVA resulted in statistically significant differences only for instruments (p = 0.047). Mann-Whitney identified the instruments which determined significant differences for HL thickness and tag length (t). Concerning to the adhesive types, these differences were only observed for (t). Conclusion: It can be concluded that 1) laser Er:YAG results in higher microshear bond strength values regardless of the adhesive system (TS and OS); 2) the tags did not significant affect the microshear bond strength; 3) the adhesive interface was affected by both the instruments for cavity preparation and the type of adhesive system used.

THU0360 Interferon-gamma release assays in rheumatic patients: Baseline study and in the course of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha agents

BackgroundIFN-γ release assays are useful methods for diagnosing LTBI (latent tuberculosis infection). It allow us to detect: a) false negative TST in anergic subjects, b) false positives in BCG-vaccinated patients...

Synthetic aperture ladar imaging with one-way far-field diffraction

A laboratory SAL setup produced well-focused SAL images using laser illumination with one-way far-field diffraction.Using 1550 nm fiber laser,the SAL can focus images from target distance of about 2.4 m w ith azimuth resolution of about 560 μm and range resolution of about 170 μm.High-resolution SAL images are generated by straightforw ardly follow ing standard SAL image formation theory,w ithout the aid of phase gradient autofocus(PGA) technique.Detailed results show a typical tw o-step SAL focusing process and a high resolution image.