Comparison between Early Loaded Single Implants with Internal Conical Connection or Implants with Transmucosal Neck Design: A Non-Randomized Controlled Trial with 1-Year Clinical, Aesthetics, and Radiographic Evaluation

To evaluate the implant and prosthetic of two implants with different surfaces and neck design. Enrolled patients received bone level, 12° conical connection implants (Nobel Parallel, Nobel Biocare; NOBEL group) with anodized surface (TiUnite) and roughness of 1.35 μm, or transmucosal implant system (Prama, Sweden and Martina; PRAMA group) with convergent collar, ZIrTi surface, and roughness 1.4–1.7 μm. Both implants were made of pure grade IV titanium, with similar diameter and length, chosen according to the dentistry department availability and patient’s request. After early prosthesis delivery, patients were filled for at least one year. Outcome measures were: implant and prosthetic survival and success rates, physiological marginal bone remodeling, periodontal parameters and pink esthetic score (PES). Results: Fifteen patients were allocated and treated in each group. At the one-year follow-up, three patients dropped out, one in the NOBEL group and two in the PRAMA group. During the entire time of investigation, all implants survived and the prostheses were successful. No statistically significant differences were found in term of marginal bone loss, periodontal parameters, and aesthetics (p > 0.05). Conclusion: With the limitations of the present study, both implant systems showed successful clinical results. Finally, many other clinical and surgical variables may influenced marginal bone levels, implant survival, and periodontal parameters. More homogenous clinical trials with larger samples are needed to confirm these preliminary conclusions.

Mechanical Properties and Residual Stress Measurements of Grade IV Titanium and Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-13Nb-13Zr Titanium Alloys after Laser Treatment

Nowadays, surface engineering focuses on research into materials for medical applications. Titanium and its alloys are prominent, especially Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-13Nb-13Zr. Samples made of pure grade IV titanium and the titanium alloys Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-13Nb-13Zr were modified via laser treatment with laser beam frequency f = 25 Hz and laser beam power P = 1000 W during a laser pulse with duration t = 1 ms. Subsequently, to analyze the properties of the obtained surface layers, the following tests were performed: scanning electron microscopy, chemical and phase composition analysis, wetting angle tests and roughness tests. The assessment of the impact of the laser modification on the internal stresses of the investigated materials was carried out by comparing the values of the stresses of the laser-modified samples to those of the reference samples. The obtained results showed increased values of tensile stresses after laser modification: the highest value was found for the Ti-6Al-4V alloy at 6.7434 GPa and the lowest for pure grade IV titanium at 3.742 GPa. After laser and heat treatment, a reduction in the stress was observed, together with a significant increase in the hardness of the tested materials, with the highest value for Ti-6Al-4V alloy at 27.723 GPa. This can provide better abrasion resistance and lower long-term toxicity, both of which are desirable when using Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloys for implant materials.

Biocompatibility and patency of a novel titanium vascular anastomotic device in a pig jugular vein

This study aimed to evaluate the biocompatibility and patency of our newly developed titanium vascular anastomotic device (TVAD) in a pig jugular vein. TVAD was made of commercially pure grade 2 titanium. The patency and anastomotic time were simultaneously confirmed in an ex-vivo system developed by the authors and in vivo using pig jugular veins. Five 8-month-old pigs, with body weights of 50–60 kg, underwent anastomosis of both jugular veins using the device. Graft patency was evaluated for 12 weeks by biplane angiography and sonography. All tissue biopsy samples were analysed by histology. In all 10 cases, the anastomosis was completed in < 5 min. The vessel lumen was not damaged, and the inner vessel wall was completely endothelialised at the anastomotic site. No foreign body reactions were observed at the vessel lumen, vessels, and outer vessel walls by histopathologic analysis. Patency and absence of leakage at the anastomotic site of the follow-up period were confirmed clearly by angiography and sonography. This preliminary animal study proved that our newly developed device is a very promising tool for intima-to-intima contact anastomosis. TVAD can be used as a feasible and safe medical tool for vessel anastomosis.

Forming Evolution of Titanium Grade2 Sheets

Titanium and its alloys take attention, especially in aerospace, automotive, and biomedical applications because of their strength, corrosion resistance biocompatibility. Titanium components, in general, are produced by sheet metal forming. However, the springback effect is a critical problem in the forming process due to the difficult formability of titanium sheets. In the present study, the hot forming process was applied to sheets to investigate the effect of deformation temperature on microstructure, mechanical properties, and springback behavior of commercially pure grade 2 (CP2) titanium sheets. The springback angles were measured at the CAD model after the sheets were scanned by the 3D scanner. The tensile test, hardness measurements, and microstructural analysis were examined by using specimens that were cut from the side-wall and bottom of the deformed sheet as U-profile. The results reveal that the microstructure is substantially changed, and springback is reduced with increasing temperature, and thus, optimum results were obtained compared to the data obtained at room temperature.

Low-temperature Conversion of Fe-rich Sludge to KFeS2 Whisker: a New Flocculant Synthesis From Laboratory Scale to Pilot Scale

KFeS2 is a one-dimensional material and commonly used raw material for synthesising AgFeS2 and CuFeS2. With the solvothermal method, KFeS2 cluster could be synthesised at 190 °C with chemically pure grade Fe salt as Fe source. Herein, a KFeS2 whisker was formed in mass production at a low temperature, with waste cold-rolling sludge as Fe source, and exhibited good performance in the removal of Zn/Ni from real electroplating effluent. At laboratory scale, results showed that KFeS2 was not generated after heating at 50 °C for 24 h; however, after heating at 80 °C for 10 h, KFeS2 whisker (diameter and length of 0.2 and 0.5–1 mm, respectively) was produced, which grew radially to 1–4 mm after 24 h. This method was applied at pilot scale, where a similar KFeS2 whisker was also produced with waste cold-rolling sludge as Fe source. At pilot scale, a residual brownish supernatant was observed after the reaction and then completely recycled in the next round for KFeS2 synthesis. After recycling five times, the produced KFeS2 whisker did not change. For KFeS2 drying, freeze-drying and vacuum-drying were applicable, whilst air-drying was not profitable. The prepared KFeS2 was spontaneously hydrolysed in electroplating wastewater to generate Fe/S-bearing oxyhydroxide colloid for Zn/Ni removal. By adding 1 g of KFeS2, the residual levels of Zn/Ni were 0.22 and 0.02 mg/L, met the discharge standard of electroplating wastewater. Undried KFeS2 showed similar efficiencies of Zn/Ni removal to dried KFeS2, whose efficiencies were apparently higher than those with Na2S·9H2O, polymeric ferric sulfuric, sodium diethyldithiocarbamatre and lime. With the method, KFeS2 whisker was produced at pilot scale without generating any secondary waste and exhibited good performance in the treatment of electroplating wastewater.

Exploring Novel Surface Representations via an Experimental Ray-Tracer in CGA

Conformal Geometric Algebra (CGA) provides a unified representation of both geometric primitives and conformal transformations, and as such holds significant promise in the field of computer graphics. In this paper we implement a simple ray tracer in CGA with a Blinn–Phong lighting model, before putting it to use to examine ray intersections with surfaces generated from the direct interpolation of geometric primitives. General surfaces formed from these interpolations are rendered using analytic normals. In addition, special cases of point-pair interpolation, which might find use in graphics applications, are described and rendered. A closed form expression is found for the derivative of the square root of a scalar plus 4-vector element with respect to a scalar parameter. This square root derivative is used to construct an expression for the derivative of a pure-grade multivector projected to the blade manifold. The blade manifold projection provides an analytical method for finding the normal line to the interpolated surfaces and its use is shown in lighting calculations for the ray tracer and in generating vertex normals for exporting the evolved surfaces as polygonal meshes.

Analytical Pyrolysis of the Fungal Melanins from Ochroconis spp. Isolated from Lascaux Cave, France

Analytical pyrolysis is a tool widely used for investigating the nature of macromolecules. This technique has been applied with success for solving the chemical structure of geo- and biopolymers. However, with complex macromolecules, such as fungal melanins, analytical pyrolysis presents some drawbacks due to the fact that they rarely can be obtained in a pure grade and contains a mixture of polysaccharides, chitin, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids, among other materials. Analytical pyrolysis permits the characterization of the compounds co-extracted or linked to the melanin. Nevertheless, our data revealed that under the conditions usually employed in the pyrolysis of melanins, the technique presented serious limitations due to the complex structure and diversity of components that suffer extensive thermal degradation through secondary reactions with the production of considerable number of artifacts. To the light of pyrolysis data, the melanin of Ochroconis spp. is not based on 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) or 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN), and it is suggested that it could be a type of pyomelanin, based on the polymerization of homogentisic acid and other phenolic compounds.

THE RESEARCH OF AGING AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOSTRUCTURAL TITANIUM

It is known that titanium and its alloys are one of the promising materials in the industry, especially in medicine, due to their excellent biocompatibility and corrosion resistance. The latest modern equipment and instruments used in traumatology, orthopedics, dentistry, etc. demand increasingly higher mechanical properties for materials. In comparison with commercially pure titanium, alloys do not have such high corrosion-resistant properties and biocompatibility. In this regard, improving the mechanical characteristics of a pure material is an urgent issue. The authors studied the effect of annealing on the structure and properties of commercially pure grade 4 titanium in the coarse-grained and ultrafine-grained states. The ultrafine-grained state was obtained using high-pressure torsion (HPT) under the pressure of 6 GPa at N=10 revolutions at room temperature. In the microstructure investigated using transmission electron microscopy, the authors could detect particles of precipitated phases after annealing, which had different morphologies. Deformation leads to an increase in the precipitated particles after annealing. The authors carried out an X-ray phase analysis, which showed the approximation of the lattice parameters of the α-phase after deformation and annealing at 700 °C to the values of the parameters of pure titanium. Thus, aging processes occur in the material, accompanied by the decomposition of the supersaturated solid solution and the release of particles of the second phase. The paper shows the results of titanium microhardness measurements in different states. The combined treatment, consisting of HPT at N=5 revolutions, annealing at 700 °C, and additional HPT deformation at N=5 revolutions, allowed obtaining the record strength for commercially pure grade 4 titanium.

Optimal Design of High-Frequency Induction Heating Apparatus for Wafer Cleaning Equipment Using Superheated Steam

In this study, wafer cleaning equipment was designed and fabricated using the induction heating (IH) method and a short-time superheated steam (SHS) generation process. To prevent problems arising from the presence of particulate matter in the fluid flow region, pure grade 2 titanium (Ti) R50400 was used in the wafer cleaning equipment for heating objects via induction. The Ti load was designed and manufactured with a specific shape, along with the resonant network, to efficiently generate high-temperature steam by increasing the residence time of the fluid in the heating object. The IH performance of various shapes of heating objects made of Ti was analyzed and the results were compared. In addition, the heat capacity required to generate SHS was mathematically calculated and analyzed. The SHS heating performance was verified by conducting experiments using the designed 2.2 kW wafer cleaning equipment. The performance of the proposed pure Ti-based SHS generation system was found to be satisfactory, and SHS with a temperature higher than 200 °C was generated within 10 s using this system.

Impact of a hydrophilic dental implant surface on osseointegration: biomechanical results in rabbit.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of surface hydrophilicity on the biomechanical aspects of osseointegration of dental implants in the tibia and femur of rabbits. Forty-eight mature female New Zealand White rabbits were included, and 96 commercially pure, Grade 4, titanium dental implants (control group), and 96 implants of same macro geometry with the hydrophilic surface (test group) were used in this study. One osteotomy was performed in each tibia and femur on both sides of the rabbit, and four implants were placed in each rabbit. Control and test groups were randomly allocated on the left and right sides. During surgery, insertion torque (ITQ) value of the complete implant placement was recorded. After healing periods of 0, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after surgery, Implant Stability Quotient (ISQ) value, and removal torque (RTQ) values were measured. No statistical difference was observed for ITQ, for ISQ and for RTQ between the control group and test group in tibia/femur for all time periods. The effect of hydrophilic properties on moderately roughened surfaces has no impact in terms of biomechanical outcomes (ISQ values and RTQ values) after a healing period of 2 to 8 weeks in rabbit tibias /femurs.