• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.175-193
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• 2023

Stainless steel-concrete composite beam has become an attractive structural form for offshore bridges and iconic high-rise buildings, owing to the superior corrosion resistance and excellent ductility of stainless steel material. In a composite beam, stainless steel shear connectors play an important role by establishing the interconnection between stainless steel beam and concrete slab. To enable the best use of high strength stainless steel shear connectors in composite beams, high strength concrete is recommended. To date, the application of stainless steel shear connectors in composite beams is still very limited due to the lack of research and proper design recommendations. In this paper, a total of seven pushout specimens were tested to investigate the load-slip behaviour of stainless steel shear connectors. A thorough discussion has been made on the differences between stainless steel bolted connectors and welded studs, in terms of the failure modes, load-slip behaviour and ultimate shear resistance. In parallel with the experimental programme, a finite element model was developed in ABAQUS to simulate the behaviour of stainless steel shear connectors, with which the effects of shear connector strength, concrete strength and embedded connector height to diameter ratio (h/d) were evaluated. The obtained experimental and numerical results were analysed and compared with existing codes of practice, including AS/NZS 2327, EN 1994-1-1 and ANSI/AISC 360-16. The comparison results indicated that the current codes need to be improved for the design of high strength stainless steel shear connectors. On this basis, modified design approaches were proposed to predict the shear capacity of stainless steel bolted connectors and welded studs in the composite beams.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.259-270
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• 1998

An automatic seedling transplanter, employed an innovative plug-seedling feeder was developed by improving the problems of conversational feeding and transplanting mechanisms. With conventional methods, missing and damage rates of seedling were high for long seedlings over 20cm and also breaking seed-bed was frequently observed. Thus, a pushout-bucket slide-hopper type trandsplanter was devised and tested. Test results of picking and transferring accuracies of the developed transplanter are as follows : A prototype transplanter performed with 1.5% of missing rate. The deviations of horizontal feed ranged from -0.3mm to 2.8mm and averaged 0.673mm for the 128-hoe test tray : and ranged from -lmm to ＋3mm and averaged 0.785mm for the 200-hole test tray. The deviations could decrease with precise manufacturing and lightening the mechanism. The maximum and deviations of vertical feed were -2.3mm and + 1mm, respectively, for the 128-hole test tray ; and were ＋3mm and ＋2.5mm, respectively, for the 200-hole test tray. The missing rate, seeding bruise rate and seed-bed damage rate were esitmate to be 1.3％, 0.4% and 3.5％, respectively, with the developed automatic transplanter.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.234-240
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• 2013

Objectives: This study evaluated the effects of intraradicular moisture on the pushout bond strength of a fibre post luted with several self-adhesive resin cements. Materials and Methods: Endodontically treated root canals were treated with one of three luting cements: (1) RelyX U100, (2) Clearfil SA, and (3) G-Cem. Roots were then divided into four subgroups according to the moisture condition tested: (I) dry: excess water removed with paper points followed by dehydration with 95% ethanol, (II) normal moisture: canals blot-dried with paper points until appearing dry, (III) moist: canals dried by low vacuum using a Luer adapter, and (IV) wet: canals remained totally flooded. Two 1-mm-thick slices were obtained from each root sample and bond strength was measured using a push-out test setup. The data were analysed using a two-way analysis of variance and the Bonferroni post hoc test with p = 0.05. Results: Statistical analysis demonstrated that moisture levels had a significant effect on the bond strength of luting cements (p < 0.05), with the exception of G-Cem. RelyX U100 displayed the highest bond strength under moist conditions (III). Clearfil SA had the highest bond strength under normal moisture conditions (II). Statistical ranking of bond strength values was as follows: RelyX U100 > Clearfil SA > G-Cem. Conclusions: The degree of residual moisture significantly affected the adhesion of luting cements to radicular dentine.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.18.1-18.13
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• 2024

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties of relined and non-relined fiberglass posts when cemented to root canal dentin using a conventional dual-cure resin cement or a self-adhesive resin cement. Materials and Methods: Two types of resin cements were utilized: conventional and self-adhesive. Additionally, 2 cementation protocols were employed, involving relined and non-relined fiberglass posts. In total, 72 bovine incisors were cemented and subjected to push-out bond strength testing (n = 10) followed by failure mode analysis. The cross-sectional microhardness (n = 5) was assessed along the root canal, and interface analyses (n = 3) were conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Data from the push-out bond strength and cross-sectional microhardness tests were analyzed via 3-way analysis of variance and the Bonferroni post-hoc test (α= 0.05). Results: For non-relined fiberglass posts, conventional resin cement exhibited higher pushout bond strength than self-adhesive cement. Relined fiberglass posts yielded comparable results between the resin cements. Type II failure was the most common failure mode for both resin cements, regardless of cementation protocol. The use of relined fiberglass posts improved the cross-sectional microhardness values for both cements. SEM images revealed voids and bubbles in the incisors with non-relined fiberglass posts. Conclusions: Mechanical properties were impacted by the cementation protocol. Relined fiberglass posts presented the highest push-out bond strength and cross-sectional microhardness values, regardless of the resin cement used (conventional dual-cure or self-adhesive). Conversely, for non-relined fiberglass posts, the conventional dual-cure resin cement yielded superior results to the self-adhesive resin cement.