Application of intraoral scanner to identify monozygotic twins

Background DNA base identification is a proper and high specificity method. However, identification could be challenged in a situation where there is no database or the DNA sequence is almost identical, as in the case of monozygotic (MZ) twins. The aim of this study was to introduce a novel forensic method for distinguishing between almost identical MZ twins by means of an intraoral scanner using the 3D digital pattern of the human palate. Methods The palatal area of 64 MZ twins and 33 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins (DZSS) and seven opposite-sex dizygotic twins (DZOS) were scanned three times with an intraoral scanner. From the scanned data, an STL file was created and exported into the GOM Inspect® inspection software. All scans within a twin pair were superimposed on each other. The average deviation between scans of the same subject (intra-subject deviation, ISD) and between scans of the two siblings within a twin pair (intra-twin deviation, ITD) was measured. One-sided tolerance interval covering 99% of the population with 99% confidence was calculated for the ISD (upper limit) and the ITD (lower limit). Results The mean ISD of the palatal scan was 35.3 μm ± 0.78 μm. The calculated upper tolerance limit was 95 μm. The mean ITD of MZ twins (406 μm ± 15 μm) was significantly (p < 0.001) higher than the ISD, and it was significantly lower than the ITD of DZSS twins (594 μm ± 53 μm, p < 0.01) and the ITD of DZOS twins (853 μm ± 202 μm, p < 0.05). Conclusion The reproducibility of palatal intraoral scans proved to be excellent. The morphology of the palate shows differences between members of MZ twins despite their almost identical DNA, indicating that this method could be useful in forensic odontology.

Is It Time to Recast India's Fiscal and Monetary Policy Frameworks?

With the onset of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a number of macro parameters of the Indian economy have been thrown out of gear. The fiscal deficit on the combined account of centre and state governments in 2020-21 may increase to 11-12% of estimated GDP. Consequently, the combined debt-GDP ratio of the central and state government may reach close to 81% of GDP at the end of 2020-21, more than 20% points above the targeted threshold of 60% as per centre’s 2018 amendment to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA). The CPI inflation rate breached the upper tolerance limit of the monetary policy framework (MPF) in the last quarter of 2019-20 and the first quarter of 2020-21. In fact, India’s economic crisis predates the pandemic. The infirmities of the FRBMA and the MPF had already started becoming visible with 2019-20 real and nominal GDP growth rates plummeting to 4.2% and 7.2% respectively. It is high time that we consider recasting India’s fiscal and monetary policy frameworks. In this article, we review these frameworks, identify their inconsistencies, and consider remedial changes so as to serve India’ future needs and compulsions.

Water Level Fluctuation Requirements of Emergent Macrophyte Typha angustifolia L.

The management of water levels in wetlands is of great importance for the wetland ecosystem, including the conservation and revitalization of plants. However, the water level requirements (WLRs) of wetland plants have not been well investigated. In this study, Typha angustifolia was selected as an experimental plant species. Combining field investigation and simulation experiments, the relationship between the development status of this species and water level fluctuations (WLFs) in different life-history stages were analyzed. The results show that populations in the Yangtze floodplain, China, had two phenotypic forms ‘tall’ and ‘short’, and that these were distributed in lakes with intermittent or quasi-natural fluctuations and reservoir-like fluctuations, respectively. Lakes with high amplitude (>3.2 m) water fluctuations did not contain T. angustifolia. We investigated the distribution and growth of T. angustifolia in lakes of varying hydrology across the Yangtze floodplain, seeking to define its tolerance of water-level fluctuations and submergence at different stages in its life cycle. The upper tolerance limit of static submerged water depth was bounded by 1.5 times the height of plants in the seedling stage, and the upper tolerance limit of the submergence rate in the seedling stage was the average growth rate of seedling, 1.5 cm/d. The plant height had a positive linear correlation with amplitude and water depth from June to July. The autumn biomass was significantly negatively correlated with amplitude and water depth from January to May. This paper is perhaps the first case study on water level fluctuation requirements (WLFRs) of emergent macrophytes. It systematically assessed the WLFRs of T. angustifolia in each life-history stage, and established a comprehensive WLFR conceptual model. The results of this study could provide a quantitative operational basis for the protection and restoration of this species in Yangtze floodplain lakes.

Increasing the Removal Efficiency of CPAs by the Dilution-Concentration Method: Adaptive Optimization of Diluent Flow Rates

A dilution-concentration method for removing cryoprotective agents from cryopreserved blood was proposed in our previous work. In this study, the method was optimized adaptively by adjusting diluent flow rates. In the optimization, the diluent flow rate was set to vary with time, the tendency of which was designed to automatically minimize the washing time whereas the volume maximum of red blood cells was guaranteed below the upper tolerance limit. The results show that the optimized diluent flow rate decreases firstly and then increases rapidly. By doing so, the washing time is reduced by about 50%. In practice, the optimization strategy presented here will be very useful in the rapid preparation of cryopreserved blood for clinical use.

Estimation of Measurement Upper Limit in Deriving the Vibration Environmental Test Conditions by Bootstrap Method

For deriving the vibration environmental test conditions of materiels in the limited field measured data, a bootstrap method is firstly employed to evaluate the upper tolerance limit of the vibration power spectral density (PSD). Firstly for the simulation data from the normal distribution, the bias-corrected bootstrap method and the bootstrap-t method are validated to attain the appropriate upper limits for the small sample data through comparing the evaluations with the true values. Secondly for the 10 and 90 flight measurements of some aircraft, the upper tolerance limits of vibration PSD have been estimated by the above method and the traditional computation methods of MIL-STD-810F and GJB126. The result shows the bootstrap method fits the actual vibration environment better than other two methods and it has a wide application in the determination of vibration test conditions based on the small field measure data.

Evaluating test methods by estimating total error

A common procedure for evaluating a test method by comparison with another, well-accepted method has been to use a repeated measurements design, in which several individual subjects' specimens are assayed with both methods. We propose the use of the intrasubject relative mean square error, which is a function of the intrasubject relative bias and the coefficient of variation of the test method, as a measure of total error. We construct for each individual subject a score that is based on how well an individual's estimate of total error compares with a maximum allowable value. If the individual's score is &gt; 100%, then that individual's estimate of total error exceeds the maximum allowable value. We present a distribution-free statistical methodology for evaluating the sample of scores. This involves the construction of an upper tolerance limit to determine whether the test method yields values of the total error that are acceptable for most of the population with some level of confidence. Our definition of total error is very different from that defined in the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines. The NCEP bound for total error has three main problems: (a) it incorrectly assumes that the standard error of the estimated relative bias is the test coefficient of variation; (b) it incorrectly assumes that the individual estimated relative biases follow gaussian distributions; (c) it is based on requiring the relative bias of the average individual in the population to lie within prescribed limits, whereas we believe it is more important to require the total error for most of the individuals in the population, say 95%, to lie within prescribed limits.