Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of two non-radiographic techniques of mixed dentition space analysis and evaluation of their reliability for Bengali population

Context: Mixed dentition arch analysis system is an important criterion in determining the type of orthodontic treatment plan. Different mixed dentition arch analysis system are available and among them both Moyer's and Tanaka-Jhonson method of space analysis was developed for North American children. Anthropological study reveals that tooth size varies among different ethnicities The present study was performed to determine the reliability of Moyer's and Tanaka-Jhonson's method of mixed dentition arch analysis system among Bengali population. Aims: To perform the comparative evaluation of the two mixed dentition space analysis system among Bengali population. Materials and Methods: Dental casts of maxillary and mandibular arches of 70 Bengali children with permanent dentitions were fabricated. The mesiodistal crown dimensions of all erupted permanent incisors, canines, and premolars were measured with digital callipers. For particular sum of mandibular incisors, Moyer's and Tanaka-Jhonson's mixed dentition arch analysis were calculated and further statistical analysis was carried on. Statistical analysis used: Descriptive statistics including the mean, standard deviation, and minimum and maximum values, unpaired‘t’ tests, correlation coefficient “r” were calculated and tabulated. Results: Tanaka and Johnston regression equations under-estimated the mesiodistal widths of permanent canines and premolars. On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences between actual mesiodistal widths of canines and premolars and the predicted widths from Moyers charts at the 50% level for the lower and upper arches, among Bengali population. Conclusions: The study suggested that both Moyer's and Tanaka-Jhonson's mixed dentition arch analysis are applicable in Bengali population but with little modification in their regression equation.
The Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project--Assessing the World Bank's Failed Experiment to Direct Oil Revenues towards the Poor

The World Bank's engagement with projects involving extractive industries has not proven particularly successful. Especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has actually often made matters worse. Borrower countries' economies failed to grow, and corruption increased; the poor did not benefit from the revenues that were generated. This paper assesses the complex legal and institutional framework of the World Bank project that many hoped would change this bleak record: in the highly publicized and controversial Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project, the Bank catalyzed the largest private investment in the history of Sub-Saharan Africa. This model project featured new and untested contractual, statutory, institutional and fiscal mechanisms which were intended to make Chad's oil revenues transparent and compel the Government of Chad—one of the world's poorest—to expend its oil revenues on areas consistent with the project's agreed poverty reduction objective, such as education and health. Despite these heroic measures, in 2008 the revenue allocation program collapsed, and the Bank's projects in Chad terminated prematurely. Not for the first time, the government of Chad had unilaterally altered the underlying laws to enable more security and military spending. Yet again, the poor had not profited from the oil revenues. We analyse in this paper whether the Bank's failure in the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project was due to specific errors in the framework of contracts, laws and institutional structures the Bank deployed—errors which could, in theory, be taken as lessons for a future project making use of an improved revenue allocation system—or whether generally the Bank's entire concept of contractually imposing a revenue allocation system is flawed, such that any attempt to revive such a system on another occasion is misguided and futile.
Evaluation of commercial HPV assays in the context of post-treatment follow-up: Scottish Test of Cure Study (STOCS-H)

Aims Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is more sensitive than cytology for detection of residual/recurrent cervical disease after lesion treatment. Several HPV test comparison studies have been performed within triage and screening populations, but data on their comparative performance in a test of cure context is lacking. This study aims to address this gap. Methods We compared the technical and clinical performance of Abbott RealTime High risk (HR)-HPV, Genprobe Aptima PV, Hologic Cervista HPV-HR, Qiagen Hybrid Capture 2 and Roche cobas HPV in the Early Implementation phase of a ‘test of cure’ service within the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme. Results Valid results with all five HPV Tests from 1020 first samples taken ∼6 months post-treatment showed HPV positivity ranging from 17.84% to 26.96%. There was perfect agreement in 74%, and greatest variation between assays was observed in cytologically negative samples. Clinical performance was judged on cumulative incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2+ (CIN2+) during follow-up (mean: 13.2 months). There were 23 cases of CIN2+ of which 14 were CIN3+. All assays, including cytology, were 100% sensitive for detection of CIN3+. Of the nine cases of residual CIN2, three assays detected all, one assay missed one and one assay missed two cases. Specificity ranged from 75% to 84% according to assay. Conclusions All assays were sensitive for detection of CIN2+ at 6 months post-treatment. The range of positivity equated to a 50% increase between assays with the lowest and highest positivity rates. The relevance of HPV positivity in the absence of cytological abnormalities requires longer follow-up to determine whether additional tools for risk stratification are required.
Implications of Parameter Estimation Uncertainty for the Central Banker Behaviour

This paper studies the implications of parameter estimation uncertainty on the central banker behaviour. It first describes the optimal monetary policy rule obtained by the linear quadratic stochastic control approach. The treatment of parameter estimation uncertainty is covered by the introduction of the full variance-covariance matrix of the parameter estimates in the optimal control theory. It then examines how this rule ought to be modified according to the preferences of the monetary authorities when there is uncertainty about the estimation of the persistence and/or transmission parameters. Our application to the euro area shows that (i) the conservatism principle is found relevant only when the central banker has an inflation and output stabilization objective, (ii) introducing an interest rate smoothing objective makes the central banker more aggressive, (ii) with conventional values for the weights of the loss function, there are few differences between the parameters of the rule under certainty-equivalence and those under uncertainty.
Resurrection through Adaptation: The Dynamics of China's “Comcapitalism” Model

China's development model has been discussed extensively by scholars over the past decade. However, they largely failed to capture the essence of the model — the uniqueness of the fusion between China's communist political legacies and capitalist economic practices that has produced a formidable force for economic development. Such a fusion created a de facto new type of political economy that deserves its own place in political science and a new term — comcapitalism — that describes it more accurately. This research attempts to reconceptualize China's development model through demystifying its evolution, moulding and improvement over the reform era (especially during the Hu-Wen administration) from a new approach — that of mutual concessions and accommodations leading to the formation of a social contract with Chinese characteristics. The article concludes that so long as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is able to reduce corruption effectively and continues to accommodate the needs of the rapidly changing Chinese society in enriching the country and the people, its legitimacy is likely to be prolonged. The comcapitalism model may continue to contribute to China's success and is also likely to have growing implications for the rest of the world.
Verification of the virtual bandwidth SAR (VB-SAR) scheme for centimetric resolution subsurface imaging from space

— This work presents the first experimental demonstration of the virtual bandwidth synthetic aperture radar (VB-SAR) imaging scheme. VB-SAR is a newly-developed subsurface imaging technique which, in stark contrast to traditional close-proximity ground penetrating radar (GPR) schemes, promises imaging from remote standoff platforms such as aircraft and satellites. It specifically exploits the differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) phase history of a radar wave within a drying soil volume to generate high-resolution vertical maps of the scattering through the soil volume. For this study, a stack of C-band VV polarisation DInSAR images of a sandy soil containing a buried target was collected in the laboratory whilst the soil moisture was varied - firstly during controlled water addition, and then during subsequent drying. The wetting image set established the moisture-phase relationship for the soil, which was then applied to the drying DInSAR image set using the VB-SAR scheme. This allowed retrieval of high resolution VB-SAR imagery with a vertical discrimination of 0.04m from a stack of 1m vertical resolution DInSAR images. This work unequivocally shows that the basic principles of the VB-SAR technique are valid and opens the door to further investigation of this promising technique.
Tropical deforestation and the global carbon budget

▪ Abstract The CO2 concentration of the atmosphere has increased by almost 30% since 1800. This increase is due largely to two factors: the combustion of fossil fuel and deforestation to create croplands and pastures. Deforestation results in a net flux of carbon to the atmosphere because forests contain 20–50 times more carbon per unit area than agricultural lands. In recent decades, the tropics have been the primary region of deforestation. The annual rate of CO2 released due to tropical deforestation during the early 1990s has been estimated at between 1.2 and 2.3 gigatons C. The range represents uncertainties about both the rates of deforestation and the amounts of carbon stored in different types of tropical forests at the time of cutting. An evaluation of the role of tropical regions in the global carbon budget must include both the carbon flux to the atmosphere due to deforestation and carbon accumulation, if any, in intact forests. In the early 1990s, the release of CO2 from tropical deforestation.
The perception of Africa by African Americans in the predominantly black community of East St. Louis, Illinois, USA

The dominant image of Africa in the colonial discourses of Western explorers has been persistently negative, stereotypical, and demeaning. The unauthenticated negative images are the largest influencer of Western perception of Africa because as long as the misrepresentation lingers on in Western media and film, the dominant white attitude toward African Americans as inferior could be rationalized and sustained. Moreover the real impact of such misrepresentations on how African Americans see and relate to their ancestral homeland remains grossly under studied. Through purposive sampling, this study interviewed 55 East St. Louis African Americans on the meaning of Africa to them. The results show that they had very positive perceptions of Africa and prided themselves as Africans despite centuries of negative Western portrayal of the continent. Their most important positive images included: Africa as the ancestral home of black people, African festivals and attire, African history and traditions, and African spirituality and belief systems. Through factor analysis, seven underlying dimensions that structure how African Americans construct their perceptions of Africa emerged – including: their Black African heritage, their fantasy of going back to Africa, their inerasable African identity, Connecting Africa to the world, African heroes, keeping the Black pride alive, and the failed stereotypic portrayal of Africa over the centuries.
Bayesian network with quantitative input for maritime risk analysis

This article presents an innovative approach towards integrating logistic regression and Bayesian networks (BNs) into maritime risk assessment. The approach has been developed and applied to a case study in the maritime industry, but has the potential for being adapted to other industries. Various applications of BNs as a modelling tool in maritime risk analysis have been widely seen in relevant literature. However, a common criticism of the Bayesian approach is that it requires too much information in the form of prior probabilities, and that such information is often difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in risk assessment. The traditional and common way to estimate prior probability of an accident is to use expert estimation (inputs) as a measure of uncertainty in risk analysis. In order to address the inherited problems associated with subjective probability (expert estimation), this study develops a binary logistic regression method of providing input for a BN, making use of different maritime accident data resources. Relevant risk assessment results have been achieved by measuring the safety levels of different types of vessels in different situations.
Intellectual Capital : Definitions, Categorization and Reporting Models

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that can be used to formalise a reporting model for intellectual capital (IC). Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes a reporting model with a formal definition and classifications of IC to analyse and report on the IC generated by a firm.Findings – This paper demonstrates that the field is maturing to one in which it is possible to analyse existing definitions and classifications of IC to construct a formal body of items that can be considered as IC for use in the study and application of IC.Practical implications – The paper presents a formal reporting model which can be used generally in the analysis of the IC generated from the production process of a firm.Originality/value – This study examines the characteristics of items that can be considered as IC in order to provide a formal classification system of IC that can be instilled in a reporting system which can be used generally in any organization that involves the use.
Reallocating Resources: How to Boost Student Achievement Without Asking for More

Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction: Why Reallocate Resources? 1. The Change Process 2. Defining a New Educational Strategy 3. Organizing and Staffing the School to Support the New Educational Strategy 4. Deciding How to Serve Students Who Need Extra Help 5. Paying for the Changes 6. Effects of Resource Reallocation and District Roles to Support Such Changes Resource A: Resources on the Internet References Index
Early Warning with Calibrated and Sharper Probabilistic Forecasts

Given a nonlinear model, a probabilistic forecast may be obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. At a given forecast horizon, Monte Carlo simulations yield sets of discrete forecasts, which can be converted to density forecasts. The resulting density forecasts will inevitably be downgraded by model mis-specification. In order to enhance the quality of the density forecasts, one can mix them with the unconditional density. This paper examines the value of combining conditional density forecasts with the unconditional density. The findings have positive implications for issuing early warnings in different disciplines including economics and meteorology, but UK inflation forecasts are considered as an example.
Consistent Regulatory Policy under Uncertainty

This article is concerned with the effects of regulation on the risk and value of the regulated firm in a dynamic context. Current regulatory practice is shown to be logically deficient, since it ignores the effect of regulatory policy on the cost of capital and therefore on the appropriate allowed rate of return. A notion of consistency in regulatory policy is developed, and it is shown how consistent regulatory policies may be implemented once the valuation problem is solved.
A Social Exchange Approach to Voluntary Cooperation

A social exchange approach to voluntary cooperation is developed on the assumption that voluntary cooperative behavior is motivated by social approval, which is conceptualized as an emotional activity. The associated unique Nash equilibrium may have attractive welfare properties and provides an understanding of spontaneous norm emergence. Furthermore, the opening of a market or government intervention for the collective good is shown to affect voluntary cooperation negatively. Copyright 1990 by American Economic Association.
Glucose-induced insulin hypersecretion in lipid-infused healthy subjects is associated with a decrease in plasma norepinephrine concentration and urinary excretion.

We investigated the effect of a 48 h triglyceride infusion on the subsequent insulin secretion in response to glucose in healthy men. We measured the variations in plasma concentration and urinary excretion of catecholamines as an indirect estimation of sympathetic tone. For 48 h, 20 volunteers received a triglyceride/heparin or a saline solution, separated by a 1-month interval. At time 48 h, insulin secretion in response to glucose was investigated by a single iv glucose injection (0.5 g/kg(-1)) followed by an hyperglycemic clamp (10 mg.kg(-1). min(-1), during 50 min). The triglyceride infusion resulted in a 3-fold elevation in plasma free fatty acids and an increase in insulin and C-peptide plasma concentrations (1.5- and 2.5-fold, respectively, P < 0.05), compared with saline. At time 48 h of lipid infusion, plasma norepinephrine (NE) concentration and urinary excretion levels were lowered compared with saline (plasma NE: 0.65 +/- 0.08 vs. 0.42 +/- 0.06 ng/ml, P < 0.05; urinary excretion: 800 +/- 70 vs. 620 +/- 25 nmol/24 h, P < 0.05). In response to glucose loading, insulin and C-peptide plasma concentrations were higher in lipid compared with saline infusion (plasma insulin: 600 +/- 98 vs. 310 +/- 45 pM, P < 0.05; plasma C-peptide 3.5 +/- 0.2 vs. 1.7 +/- 0.2 nM, P < 0.05). In conclusion, in healthy subjects, a 48-h lipid infusion induces basal hyperinsulinemia and exaggerated insulin secretion in response to glucose which may be partly related to a decrease in sympathetic tone.
Free vascularised osteocutaneous filet flap for covering, that permitted sensitive terminal weight-bearing by a thigh stump after transfemoral amputation

We covered a transfemoral amputation stump with a modified free filet flap including the calcaneus. The flap survived, resulting in lengthening of the femur, improved distal weight-bearing, preserved sensitivity of the stump, and the design of a prosthesis with terminal loading of the femur rather than an ischial contained prosthesis.
Circulating soluble endoglin modifies the inflammatory response in mice

Inflammation is associated with every health condition, and is an important component of many pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases. Circulating levels of soluble endoglin have been shown to be higher in the serum of patients with cardiovascular diseases with a significant inflammatory component. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implication of circulating soluble endoglin in the inflammatory response. For this purpose, a transgenic mouse expressing human soluble endoglin (sEng+) was employed, and three different inflammatory approaches were used to mimic inflammatory conditions in different tissues. This study shows that control sEng+ mice have a normal inflammatory state. The lung and kidney injury induced by the inflammatory agents was reduced in sEng+ mice, especially the intra-alveolar and kidney infiltrates, suggesting a possible reduction in inflammation induced by soluble endoglin. To deepen into this possible effect, the leukocyte number in the bronchoalveolar lavage and air pouch lavage was evaluated and a significant reduction of neutrophil infiltration in LPS-treated lungs and ischemic kidneys from sEng+ with respect to WT mice was observed. Additionally, the mechanisms through which soluble endoglin prevents inflammation were studied. We found that in sEng+ animals the increment of proinflammatory cytokines, TNFα, IL1β and IL6, induced by the inflammatory stimulus was reduced. Soluble endoglin also prevents the augmented adhesion molecules, ICAM, VCAM and E-selectin induced by the inflammatory stimulus. In addition, vascular permeability increased by inflammatory agents was also reduced by soluble endoglin. These results suggest that soluble endoglin modulates inflammatory-related diseases and open new perspectives leading to the development of novel and targeted approaches for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
A Practice-Based Coupling of the Precautionary Principle to the Large Marine Ecosystem Fisheries Management Concept with a Policy Orientation: The Northeast United States Continental Shelf as a Case Example

This article addresses interdisciplinary sustainable aspects of fisheries as part of ocean management. Human-caused impacts and their role as modifiers of living marine resources is discussed. The research note also theorizes about contemporary global change and its prospective biological consequences, especially when coupled with human-induced factors in coastal marine waters. Also addressed is the management and ecological aspects of fish stock populations as part of a large marine ecosystem (LME) in the Northeast United States continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean with suggestions for an interdisciplinary policy orientation paradigm to foster the sustainability of marine life in the sea.
The Effect of an Anatomically Classified Procedure on Antiemetic Administration in the Postanesthesia Care Unit

BACKGROUND: The effect of the type of surgical procedure on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) rate has been debated in the literature. Our goal in this retrospective database study was to investigate the effect the type of surgical procedure (categorized and compared anatomically) has on antiemetic therapy within 2 h of admission to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data for oncology surgeries (n = 18,109), from our automated anesthesia information system database. We classified the types of surgical procedures anatomically into seven categories, with the integumentary musculoskeletal and the superficial surgeries chosen as the referent group. Our analysis included nine other risk factors for each patient, such as gender, smoking status, history of PONV or motion sickness, duration of anesthesia, number of prophylactic antiemetics administered, intraoperative opioids, ketorolac, epidural use, and postoperative opioids. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the effect of the type of surgery on antiemetic administration within the first 2 h of PACU admission, while adjusting for the other risk factors. RESULTS: Compared with integumentary musculoskeletal and superficial surgeries, patients undergoing neurological (P < 0.0001), head or neck (P < 0.0001), and abdominal (P < 0.0001) surgeries were administered PACU antiemetic significantly more often, whereas patients undergoing thoracic surgeries were administered PACU antiemetic significantly less often (P = 0.02). Breast or axilla (P = 0.74) and endoscopic (P = 0.28) procedures did not differ from the referent category. Female, nonsmoker, history of PONV or motion sickness, anesthesia duration, and intraoperative and postoperative opioid administration were significantly associated with antiemetic administration during early PACU admission. CONCLUSIONS: Using our automated anesthesia information system database, we found that the type of surgery, when categorized anatomically, was associated with an increased frequency of early PACU antiemetic administration in our population.