The Correlation of Dental Arch Width and Ethnicity

This study sought to demonstrate a correlation between arch width, ethnic background, individual height, weight, and whether orthodontic treatment had been rendered. Conclusions revealed that arch widths were significantly larger (p= 0.002 for the mandible and p= 0.008 for the maxilla) in non-Whites than in Whites. In addition, arch widths of the mandible were significantly larger in individuals who had had orthodontic treatment compared to those who had not (p=0.005). This did not carry through to those arch widths in the maxilla of orthodontic versus nonorthodontic care (p=0.258)

Neural-inspired sensors enable sparse, efficient classification of spatiotemporal data

Sparse sensor placement is a central challenge in the efficient characterization of complex systems when the cost of acquiring and processing data is high. Leading sparse sensing methods typically exploit either spatial or temporal correlations, but rarely both. This work introduces a new sparse sensor optimization that is designed to leverage the rich spatiotemporal coherence exhibited by many systems. Our approach is inspired by the remarkable performance of flying insects, which use a few embedded strain-sensitive neurons to achieve rapid and robust flight control despite large gust disturbances. Specifically, we draw on nature to identify targeted neural-inspired sensors on a flapping wing to detect body rotation. This task is particularly challenging as the rotational twisting mode is three orders-of-magnitude smaller than the flapping modes. We show that nonlinear filtering in time, built to mimic strain-sensitive neurons, is essential to detect rotation, whereas instantaneous measurements fail. Optimized sparse sensor placement results in efficient classification with approximately ten sensors, achieving the same accuracy and noise robustness as full measurements consisting of hundreds of sensors. Sparse sensing with neural inspired encoding establishes a new paradigm in hyper-efficient, embodied sensing of spatiotemporal data and sheds light on principles of biological sensing for agile flight control.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figure

No Longer Home

A father and his wife struggle to adapt to their son just home from the long War on Terrorism. Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit. Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers participants a twelve-week writing class customized for veterans and their family members, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences related to their military experience so the writer and readers may benefit from the stories shared

Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy

[Excerpt] This report examines changes in income inequality among tax filers between 1996 and 2006. In particular, the role of changes in wages, capital income, and tax policy, especially the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, is investigated. During this period, there were changes in the sources of income that differed by income category and there were changes in tax policy. The years 1996 and 2006 are examined for several reasons. First, both years were at approximately similar points of the business-cycle with moderate inflation (about 3%), a modest unemployment rate (about 5%), and moderate economic growth (3.7% in 1996 and 2.7% in 2006). Second, 2006 was the year before the August 2007 liquidity crunch and the onset of the severe 2007-2009 recession. Third, there were major tax policy changes between these two years. Fourth, both 1996 and 2006 were three years after the enactment of tax legislation that affected tax rates and are unlikely to be affected by short-run behavioral responses to these changes

Who\u27s That Again?

When a student came to my office to introduce himself as Roy King, my onomastic perception quotient was immediately activated; I realized that what I had here was a prime example of an onomastic tautology. For the cognoscenti, further explanation of this is probably not necessary, but as I often find myself in the rands of the incognoscenti, let me explain that even though the words have different linguistic origins, they denote the same idea and have the same meaning. (Roy is French or Anglo-American for King.