• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.702-709
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• 2018

A quick-hardened concrete track was developed to improve the aged ballasted track to a concrete track, and applied to earthworks and tunnels of main and urban railways. Rebars for reinforcement are not generally applied to prestressed concrete sleepers. On the other hand, many cracked sleepers have been observed in railroad sites. A wide sleeper, which is one of the main components of quick-hardened concrete track, should be structurally safe and crack-resistant in a ballasted and concrete track to avoid this problem. In particular, a wide sleeper manufactured by a post-tension method must have reinforcing bars applied to the rail-seat section. In this paper, static tests, dynamic tests, and fatigue tests were carried out to compare the flexural strength and crack resistance performance of a wide sleeper with and without reinforcing bars for a quick-hardened concrete track. As a result of the test, if some reinforcing bars are applied appropriately to the rail-seat section of a wide sleeper, it will be possible to prevent the occurrence of cracks, delay the expansion of the crack width, and the flexural fracture.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2020

Background: This study aimed to compare the pain levels during anesthesia and the efficacy of the QuickSleeper intraosseous (IO) injection system and conventional inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) in impacted mandibular third molar surgery. Methods: This prospective randomized clinical trial included 30 patients (16 women, 14 men) with bilateral symmetrical impacted mandibular third molars. Thirty subjects randomly received either the IO injection or conventional IANB at two successive appointments. A split-mouth design was used in which each patient underwent treatment of a tooth with one of the techniques and treatment of the homologous contralateral tooth with the other technique. The subjects received 1.8 mL of 2% articaine. Subjects' demographic data, pain levels during anesthesia induction, tooth extractions, and mouth opening on postoperative first, third, and seventh days were recorded. Pain assessment ratings were recorded using the 100-mm visual analog scale. The latency and duration of the anesthetic effect, complications, and operation duration were also analyzed in this study. The duration of anesthetic effect was considered using an electric pulp test and by probing the soft tissue with an explorer. Results: Thirty patients aged between 18 and 47 years (mean age, 25 years) were included in this study. The IO injection was significantly less painful with lesser soft tissue numbness and quicker onset of anesthesia and lingual mucosa anesthesia with single needle penetration than conventional IANB. Moreover, 19 out of 30 patients (63%) preferred transcortical anesthesia. Mouth opening on postoperative first day was significantly better with intraosseous injection than with conventional IANB (P = 0.013). Conclusion: The IO anesthetic system is a good alternative to IANB for extraction of the third molar with less pain during anesthesia induction and sufficient depth of anesthesia for the surgical procedure.