Background and aims: Diverse gauges have been used to measure and determine bracket height for correct bracket positioning. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare bracket positioning accuracy by using height bracket positioning gauge (HBPG) and Boone gauge (BG).Materials and methods: Nineteen sets of stone models were prepared from one patient. One set was employed to determine the ideal position of brackets, and the remaining nine pairs of sets for bracket placement by nine clinicians using HBPG and BG. Teeth were then sectioned from the stone models and placed inside acrylic molds, photographs were taken and imported to a computer. In two groups, the position of each bonded bracket was compared in three aspects of vertical, mesiodistal and angular with the ideal position of every bracket. Finally, bracket positioning errors were measured.Results: Mann-Whitney U test demonstrated significant differences in the means of vertical error between the HBPG group and BG groups (P<0.001), while there were no significant differences between mesiodistal and angular errors. Factorial ANOVA revealed that gauge and tooth type, and the position of tooth on the right and left side of the mouth play a ma-jor role in the rate of vertical error.Conclusion: Vertical accuracy of bracket positioning by the use of HBPG is more than that by BG. However, there is no difference between two gauges in relation to the mesiodistal and angular errors.

Existence of  xed point in orthogonal metric spaces has been initiated recently by Eshaghi and et al. [On orthogonal sets and Banach  xed Point theorem, Fixed Point Theory, in press]. In this paper, we introduce the notion of the strongly orthogonal sets and prove a genuine generalization of Banach'  xed point theorem and Walter's theorem. Also, we give an example showing that our main theorem is a real generalization of these  xed point theorems.

Purpose: To compare and evaluate whether a 20 gauge (20G) biopsy needle maintains a similar detection rate as that of the commonly used 18G needle for transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy (TRUSPB) aimed at assessing prostate cancer (PCa) and decreasing pain and complications. Materials and Methods: A total of 122 cases with indications of PCa were randomly allocated into two groups for this randomized controlled study. TRUSPB was performed randomly using either an 18G or 20G needle for core biopsies (62 cases with 18G and 60 cases with 20G). Detection rate, pain, and complications were assessed after the procedure. Results: The cancer detection rate in the 18G group (40. 3%) did not differ from that in the 20G group (35. 0%). However, the number of patients with pain was significantly lower in 20G group (P <. 05). The number of patients with self-limiting hematuria decreased in both groups after the biopsy procedure (18G: 38 cases; 20G: 16 cases; P <. 0001). Hematochezia occurred in 11 cases (9 cases [14. 5%] in the 18G group; 2 cases [3. 4%] in the 20G group). The number of patients with infection, dysuria, and urinary retention tended to be lower in 20G group. Conclusion: Use of a 20G needle for TRUSPB yielded a comparable cancer detection rate to that of an 18G needle and led to less local injury, pain, and complications. A larger and more sensitive study is needed to verify our results.