Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Root resorption diagnosed with cone beam computed tomography after 6 months of orthodontic treatment with fixed appliance and the relation to risk factors.

OBJECTIVES To investigate root resorption after 6 months of active orthodontic treatment and its relation to possible risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ninety-seven patients (10-18 years) with a Class I malocclusion and crowding treated with fixed appliance and premolar extractions were examined with cone beam computed tomography before and after 6 months of active treatment. The exposure covered all teeth from first molar to first molar in both jaws. The Malmgren index was used to evaluate the degree of root resorption. Irregular root contour (score 1) was seen in most teeth already before active treatment, and therefore resorptions were registered only as score 2 (<2 mm, minor resorption) or higher. RESULTS Minor root resorption was noted in 10% of the patients and severe root resorption, >2 mm (score 3) was found in four patients. Root resorption was more frequently seen in the upper jaw, especially the incisors. There was no statistically significant correlation of root resorption with any of the selected risk factors. CONCLUSIONS After 6 months of treatment, clinically significant resorption was diagnosed in 4% of the patients, ie, in 96% of the patients the radiographic examination did not reveal any significant information. The selected risk factors did not have any impact on the amount of resorption after 6 months of active treatment.
Rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculous arthritis: differentiating MRI features.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to determine the MRI findings of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and tuberculous arthritis, with emphasis on differential diagnostic features. MATERIALS AND METHODS MR images of 63 joints in 62 patients with clinically or pathologically proven RA (36 joints in 35 patients) or tuberculous arthritis (27 joints in 27 patients) were evaluated retrospectively with regard to pattern and degree of synovial thickening, size of bone erosions, rim enhancement at bone erosions, degree of bone marrow and periarticular soft-tissue edema, and presence and number of extraarticular cystic masses. MRI findings were compared between RA and tuberculous arthritis by statistical analysis using kappa statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test, linear-by-linear association, and the chi-square test. RESULTS Nonuniform and greater degree of synovial thickening was more frequent in RA (p < 0.01); the thicker the synovial membrane, the greater the likelihood of RA (p < 0.01). Bone erosions of tuberculous arthritis were larger (p < 0.01), and the likelihood of tuberculous arthritis increased proportionally to the increment of size of the bone erosions (p < 0.01). Rim enhancement at bone erosion was more frequent in tuberculous arthritis (p < 0.01). Extraarticular cystic masses were more frequently seen and more numerous in tuberculous arthritis (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION Uniform synovial thickening, large size of bone erosion, rim enhancement at site of bone erosion, and extraarticular cystic masses were more frequent and more numerous in tuberculous arthritis. MRI may be helpful in the differentiation between RA and tuberculous arthritis.
Still Social and Democratic? Inclusive Education Policies in the Nordic Welfare States

In this article, education policy is analysed from a welfare state perspective. The aim is to analyse the significance attributed to social‐inclusive aspects of education in contemporary education policies of the Nordic countries, and the extent to which education is regarded as an element in welfare policies. Four aspects are addressed: (1) access to education and measures to prevent social exclusion of young people, (2) comprehensiveness of education in terms of public/private, integration/segregation of e.g. minority children and children with special needs, (3) emphasis on democratic values and participation, (4) the importance of community and equality versus a focus on the individual. It is concluded that it is still justified to speak of the five Nordic countries as a rather distinct group. However, social‐inclusive policies have also clearly been reformulated and delimited, related to a strengthening of the economic‐utilitarian functions of education and a weakening of central education governance.
Static and Dynamic Approaches for Pain Intensity Estimation using Facial Expressions

Self-report is the most conventional means of pain intensity assessment in clinical environments. But, it is not an accurate metric or not even possible to measure in many circumstances, e.g. intensive care units. Continuous and automatic pain level evaluation is an advantageous solution to overcome this issue. In this paper, we aim to map facial expressions to pain intensity levels. We extract well-known static (local binary pattern(LBP) and dense scale-invariant feature transform (DSIFT)) and dynamic (local binary patterns on three orthogonal planes (LBP-TOP) and three dimensional scale-invariant feature transform (3D-SIFT)) facial feature descriptors and employ the linear regression method to label a number between zero (no pain) to five (strong pain) to each testing sequence. We have evaluated our methods on the publicly available UNBC-McMaster shoulder pain expression archive database and achieved average mean square error (MSE) of 1.53 and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) of 0.79 using leave-one-subject-out cross validation. Acquired results prove the superiority of dynamic facial features compared to the static ones in pain intensity determination applications.
Impact of poor governance and income inequality of poverty in Pakistan

The widespread poverty is due to two main reasons are poor governance and income inequality in Pakistan. Few studies have focused on the theoretical substantiation of impact of bad governance and income inequality on poverty but we do not find any study carrying empirical work on the impact of bad governance on poverty in Pakistan. This study is an empirical research that attempts to find out the long run and short run impact of poor governance and inequality in wealth and income distribution on poverty in Pakistan through time series analysis for the year 1984-2008. Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) Approach to Co integration is applied in order to find out the short run and long run relationship between the variables. Co integration between poverty, poor governance and income inequality is found in the present study. The results of this study also confirm the positive relationship between poverty and income inequality both in short run and long run. Poor governance is found to positively affect poverty in the long run but in the short run it does not have significant impact on poverty in Pakistan. CUSUM and CUSUMQ stability tests are employed on the model and the results show there is a stable relationship between the variables indicating stability of the estimated model.
Community mobilisation programme for female sex workers in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India: processes and their effects

Background This paper describes the process of setting up community-based organisations (CBOs) of sex workers during the 5-year community mobilisation initiative of the Swagati project, an HIV prevention programme in nine coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. Method The Swagati project facilitated the formation of 11 CBOs through partnerships with local non-governmental organisations and meetings with groups of sex workers. Activities included peer-led outreach, information campaigns, institution building through community committees and capacity building for organisational development. Results In 2010, a Community Ownership and Preparedness Index tool assessed the CBOs in terms of leadership, democratic governance, decision making and others qualities. All except two CBOs scored in the ‘promising’ category. One of these CBOs moved to promising stage by the year 2011 indicating good progress, considering how recently they were established. The Community Ownership and Preparedness Index assessments of organisational strengths showed wide variations among the CBOs, despite the essentially similar organisational steps taken by the Swagati programme. A Behavioural Tracking Survey (2010) of individual CBO members also showed district-level differences in sex workers' expressions of confidence in collective action, participation in organisational activities and other indicators. Conclusion Mobilising marginalised populations such as sex workers to form CBOs is a complex process and can be affected by many influences, including the qualities of CBO leadership. Although the CBOs have not yet reached full ‘maturity’, they have made significant improvements in terms of collectivisation and its translation into collective action as reported by individual sex workers.
Markets and Inequality in Transitional Economies: Toward Testable Theories

Nee's (1989 and in this issue) "market transition theory," contested by Xie and Hannum (in this issue), claims that market mechanisms have predictable implications for inequality. "Compared to nonmarket allocation, market exchange enhances the bargaining power of producers" (Nee, p. 910). The core argument is that cadre advantages shall decline to the extent that markets replace redistribution as the dominant mode of economic allocation. While in successive publications Nee has altered his judgment about how far the market transition has proceeded in rural China, and whether his theory does predict a decline of cadre privilege, he has not altered the core claim about market allocation. Market economies vary widely in their patterns of power and privilege, in ways unrelated to the extent to which a market economy has been established. The variability of market economies warns against attempts to predict changes in inequality without first specifying the kinds of enterprises and other institutions that characterize the emerging market economy-or even the characteristics of markets themselves. We have been tempted into these predictions by the memorable Polanyian contrast between two ideal-typical economies-"redistributive" and "market" -that has proven a rich source of hypotheses about stratification (Szelenyi 1978, 1983) and the theory of the firm (Kornai 1992) under state socialism. This contrast has crystallized a research agenda by posing an important historical question about the social impact of the rise of market allocation in planned economies-especially as it concerns the fate of communist officials. But many now find that these ideal-types, and the continuum that bridges them, are a poor guide to the analysis of emerging market economies (see Bian and Logan 1996; Lin 1995; Rona-Tas 1994, 1995; Walder 1992, 1995; and Stark and Xie and Hannum, in this issue). General claims about the impact of markets should be viewed skeptically, for the impact of markets works through the allocation of assets, the characteristics of emerging markets, and the political processes by which market economies are established. Markets per se are not the issue.
Effect of lasalocid on fall-calving beef cows.

The effects of lasalocid on fall-calving beef cows were examined in a 196-d trial that began October 12, 1983. Forty-two crossbred cow-calf pairs were stratified to six groups by breed, calving date and sex of calf. Three replications of each of two treatments, 0 and 200 mg lasalocid X head-1 X d-1, were used. The cows were fed a combination of haylage and grass hay ad libitum. The cow-calf pairs were allowed access to pasture at all times, except during the breeding season. At this time they were kept in confinement to facilitate heat detection and artificial insemination. Cow weight changes and body condition (0 = very thin, 9 = very fat) were unaffected (P greater than .10) by feeding lasalocid to the cows. Twelve-hour milk production per cow, percent fat and percent protein were each determined three times during the trial. A slight increase in milk yield was observed in treated cows (P greater than .10). Percent milk fat and protein were also unaffected by treatment (P greater than .10). Lasalocid supplementation of cows did not affect calf gain or 205-d adjusted weaning weight (P greater than .10). Average days open was evaluated for the cows. There were no differences between treatments for actual average days open (P greater than .10). No detrimental effects were observed in long-term feeding of lasalocid to fall-calving beef cows.
Progressive lengthening of 3′ untranslated regions of mRNAs by alternative cleavage and polyadenylation in cellular senescence of mouse embryonic fibroblasts

Background Cellular senescence has historically been viewed as an irreversible cell cycle arrest that acts to prevent cancer. Recent discoveries demonstrated that cellular senescence also played a vital role in normal embryonic development, tissue renewal and senescence-related diseases. Alternative cleavage and polyadenylation (APA) is an important layer of post-transcriptional regulation, which has been found playing an essential role in development, activation of immune cells and cancer progression. However, the role of APA in the process of cellular senescence remains unclear. Materials and Methods We applied high-throughput paired-end polyadenylation sequencing (PA-seq) and strand-specific RNA-seq sequencing technologies, combined systematic bioinformatics analyses and experimental validation to investigate APA regulation in different passages of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells of rats (VSMCs) with different ages. Results Based on PA-seq, we found that genes in senescent cells tended to use distal pA sites and an independent bioinformatics analysis for RNA-seq drew the same conclusion. In consistent with these global results, both the number of genes significantly preferred to use distal pAs in senescent MEFs and VSMCs were significantly higher than genes tended to use proximal pAs. Interestingly, the expression levels of genes preferred to use distal pAs in senescent MFEs and VSMCs tended to decrease, while genes with single pAs did not show such trend. More importantly, genes preferred to use distal pAs in senescent MFEs and VSMCs were both enriched in common senescence-related pathways, including ubiqutin mediated proteolysis, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, cell cycle and wnt signaling pathway. By cis-elements analyses, we found that the longer 3′ UTRs of the genes tended to use distal pAs progressively can introduce more conserved binding sites of senescence-related miRNAs and RBPs. Furthermore, 375 genes with progressive 3′ UTR lengthening during MEF senescence tended to use more strong and conserved polyadenylation signal (PAS) around distal pA sites and this was accompanied the observation that expression level of core factors involved in cleavage and polyadenylation complex was decreased. Conclusions Our finding that genes preferred distal pAs in senescent mouse and rat cells provide new insights for aging cells’ posttranscriptional gene regulation in the view of alternative polyadenylation given senescence response was thought to be a tumor suppression mechanism and more genes tended to use proximal pAs in cancer cells. In short, APA was a hidden layer of post-transcriptional gene expression regulation involved in cellular senescence.
Bacterial O-methylation of halogen-substituted phenols

Two strains of bacteria capable of carrying out the O-methylation of phenolic compounds, one from the gram-positive genus Rhodococcus and one from the gram-negative genus Acinetobacter, were used to examine the O-methylation of phenols carrying fluoro-, chloro-, and bromo-substituents. Zero-order rates of O-methylation were calculated from data for the chloro- and bromophenols; there was no simple relationship between the rates of reaction and the structure of the substrates, and significant differences were observed in the responses of the two test organisms. For the gram-negative strain, the pattern of substitution was as important as the number of substituents. Hexachlorophene was resistant to O-methylation by both strains, and tetrabromobisphenol-A was O-methylated only by the gram-positive strain. It is suggested that in the natural environment, bacterial O-methylation of phenols carrying electron-attracting substituents might be a significant alternative to biodegradation.
Corruption and voting in Senegal: Evidence from experimental and survey research

In Senegal, as in other emerging African democracies, political corruption remains rampant. While all experts on Africa acknowledge the profound impact of widespread corruption on politics, there is disagreement on the role corruption plays on average citizens' behavior. Does corruption affect participation in Africa, and if so, does it do so because powerful patrons compel or bribe Africans to vote? Or, are Africans motivated to vote because they dislike corruption and want to punish or remove corrupt leaders? Using a field based experiment set in Senegal, we study the effect of perceptions of national-level corruption on political participation. We find that as perceived corruption increases, subjects are more likely to vote. We replicate these findings with Round 3 of the Afrobarometer survey. Key words: Corruption, voting, turnout, ethnicity, participation.
Asymmetries in Transatlantic Monetary Policy-Making: Does the ECB Follow the Fed?

The belief that the European Central Bank (ECB) follows the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) in setting its policy is so entrenched with market participants and commentators that the search for empirical support would seem to be a trivial task. However, this is not the case. We find that the ECB is indeed often influenced by the Fed, but the reverse is true at least as often if one considers longer sample periods. There is empirically little support for the proposition that there has for a long time been a systematic asymmetric leader-follower relationship between the ECB and the Fed. Only after September 2001 is there more evidence of such an asymmetry. There is a clear-cut structural break between the period pre-economic and monetary union (EMU) and EMU itself in terms of the relationship between short-term interest rates on both sides of the Atlantic.
Foreign Ownership and Non‐Life Insurer Efficiency in the Japanese Marketplace

Traditional shareholding patterns in Japan have experienced significant change beginning in the early 1990s. Since that time, foreign institutional shareholding has increased significantly largely at the expense of domestic financial institution ownership. This article examines whether these changes in ownership patterns share a relationship with insurer performance in the non‐life insurance market. Using data from 1992 to 2005, we assess performance in terms of efficiency measures using data envelopment analyses (DEA) techniques. Our results show that higher levels of domestic financial institution ownership in Japan are associated with insurer inefficiency. Relative to that relationship, the foreign ownership–insurer efficiency relationship is found to be positive. Additionally, we find that the disparity between those relationships has become more acute since 2001 when the Japanese non‐life insurance market experienced significant consolidation.
Absence of SV40 in Austrian Tumors Correlates with Low Incidence of Mesotheliomas

Between 1955 and 1963 millions of people were worldwide vaccinated with poliovaccines that were contaminated with the simian virus 40 (SV40). This tumor-inducing virus has subsequently been detected in several human tumors. In Austria, polio mass vaccination started in winter 1961/62 with a presumably SV40-free British vaccine. Thus, we hypothesized that the Austrian population should be SV40-free. We used a polymerase chain reaction-based (PCR) method to search for SV40 sequences in DNA that was extracted from 14 giant cell tumors, ten osteosarcomas and eight mesotheliomas. SV40 was easily detected in two bone tumor DNAs from Italy, and one from the USA, and in one SV40 positive cell line. In parallel experiments all Austrian samples tested consistently negative. Our findings support the notion that 1) polio vaccination is the main source for SV40 in human populations, 2) Austria was not exposed to SV40, and 3) its absence correlates with the low incidence of mesotheliomas in Austria.
Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) mainly includes ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Both conditions are characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, with alternating periods of relapse and remission. Both forms of IBD involve an uncontrolled inflammatory process in the intestines, leading to worsening quality of life and requiring long-term medical and/or surgical intervention. Epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease is strongly linked to genetic predisposition. CD and UC are considered polygenic diseases in which familial clustering is observed in 5–10% of patients. Among genetic factors associated with IBD development, it has been found that many single nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to IBD progression. SNP can affect the production or function of a protein and thus affect the development of the disease. However, although the overall role of genes involved in the development of IBD is already in most cases known, as of today it is unclear how the SNPs in these genes affect cellular function, or how such changed cellular functions would contribute to the development of IBD. In the present work several selected polymorphisms in genes involved in IBD development are discussed.
Industrial Policy in Great Britain and its Effect on Total Factor Productivity in Manufacturing Plants, 1990-1998

Industrial policy in any economy has a number of varying and occasionally conflicting objectives, but the overarching intention of the various grants, subsidies and support schemes, arguably, must be to improve the economic performance of the plants they assist directly. However, in the absence of counterfactual evidence, whether or not assistance does improve performance is hard to establish. In this paper, we consider the impact of two UK government industrial support schemes (Regional Selective Assistance and the Small Firm Merit Awards for Research and Technology) on UK manufacturing plant level total factor productivity in an attempt to answer the question, 'did assistance make a difference? ' Copyright (c) Scottish Economic Society 2004.
Output and Inflation Responses to Credit Shocks: Are There Threshold Effects in the Euro Area?

This paper investigates whether output and inflation respond asymmetrically to credit shocks in the euro area. The methodology, based on a non-linear VAR system, follows work by Balke (2000) for the U.S. The results reveal evidence of threshold effects related to credit conditions in the economy. Consistent with this finding, the impulse responses show some signs of asymmetric responses over the lending cycle. However, the results of the paper suggest that in the euro area non-linearities arising from credit market imperfections may be less pronounced than in the U.S., probably reflecting specific institutional features of its banking sector.