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Three-dimensional (3D) printing has bought much enthusiasm for medical applications. The upgraded quality with the use of 3D printing has gained detailed clinical and associated results. This paper bridges the available writing, based on literature, about the capability of 3D printing innovation in medical applications. 3D printing can build highly complex individualized medical parts/tools/inserts, etc., with improved results and increments financial plausibility. This innovative approach offers a potential level of openness that is fundamental for remote and asset restricted areas where human services are frequently constrained. The 3D printing-based advances immensely affect the reproduction of terrible wounds, facial and appendage prosthetic improvement, and headways in biologic and manufactured inserts. It is identified from the available literature that 3D printing is being incorporated successfully in medical cases for improved medical results. Its applications fluctuate from anatomical models for study/training purposes to fully functional implantable body parts/organs.

Developing countries have greatly benefited from globalization, coinciding with economic growth and structural transformation. The standard trade theory postulates that trade openness contributes to poverty alleviation directly by changing factor proportions of production and indirectly through the trickle-down effect of growth. Existing multicountry studies using the trade-to-gross-domestic-product ratio to measure openness often fail to find a direct effect of openness on poverty over and above the growth–poverty nexus. This paper is motivated by the concern that the failure of these studies to detect the effectiveness of the factor proportion channel may be due to limitations of the commonly used measure of trade openness: the trade-to-gross-domestic-product ratio. Using a newly constructed index of trade openness, which I dub “the price convergence index,” I find a significant direct effect of openness on poverty reduction. The results also suggest that the impact of growth on poverty is greater for economies with more open trade regimes.

A proton microbeam system is under construction for a 2.5 MV Van de Graaff in Hiroshima University. We have prepared and tested a proto-type target chamber, a beam scanning system, a secondary electron detection system and software for scanner control and data acquisition. The minimum beam spot size obtained so far is 3.0 µm×2.7 µm (FWHM) for 2 MeV protons.

Here, it is shown that if a forward geodesically complete Finsler manifold admits a circle preserving change of metric then its indicatrix is conformally diffeomorphic to the Euclidean sphere S^n-1. Moreover, if the Finsler manifold is absolutely homogeneous and of scalar flag curvature then it is a Riemannian manifold of constant sectional curvature. These results provide a geometric interpretation for existence of solutions to the certain ODE on the Riemannian tangent space.

Using the Indonesian Family Life Survey, this paper elucidates the factors related to happiness in Indonesia. Some factors yield results consistent with those in the literature, but other factors such as unemployment and the female gender turn out not to be robust. Some attempts are made to purge endogeneity for past income mobility, social trust, and political environment. Also, measures with a more immediate impact on happiness are exploited for social trust and political environment. The sign of the coefficient on past income mobility is reversed once the variable has been purged of endogeneity. In addition, social trust and political environment are found to have little relationship with happiness.

The puzzle that we address in this paper is why migrants at their destination fare better than non-migrants, across different socio-economic classes in India, while the general perception of migrants is that they are less endowed than the locally residing population. We explain this by the relatively high elite presence among migrants, dualism of Indian migration (between long-term and circular ones), but mainly by the differences in the levels of education. In India, migration has taken an overall color of increasing the nation-wide inequalities (mainly by heightening the rural–urban gap and urban disparities).

The paper reviews the economic growth and development experience of Malaysia since her early independence years against the major economic policy initiatives that she has undertaken over the years. It then tries to link those policy initiatives to the various economic growth theories. Subsequently, it dwells upon the various challenges faced by Malaysia to join the ranks of high income nations.

Relatively little is known about the determinants of inequality in Southeast Asia. This paper fills this void by comprehensively testing Kuznets' hypothesis for Southeast Asia. We estimate both unconditional and conditional Kuznets' curves using panel data for 8 countries. The analysis suggests the existence of a Kuznets' curve with respect to per capita income; the path of inequality is non-linear with respect to economic development. There is no evidence of a Kuznets curve with respect to non-agricultural employment. There is some evidence in terms of urbanization, though this is not robust. There is robust evidence on the role of national governments and education in shaping the path of inequality in the region. Government involvement reduces inequality. Education appears to have a non-linear effect on inequality.

This paper postulates that highly educated leaders matter in economic growth and development and that this is one of the fundamental causes of the differences in income between countries. To verify this assertion, we examine Central African Republic and Singapore within the neoclassical growth model that incorporates educational attainments of leaders as the functionally relevant explanatory variable. We found the mean years of schooling of educated leaders to be statistically and significantly different in both countries, but more importantly, educational attainments of leaders have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth in Singapore, but negative in Central African Republic.

Developing economies, especially emerging market economies (EMEs), face complex challenges in investing for growth, including building infrastructure. Many developing economies are trying to sustain the growth catch-up process, and manage disruptions related to transition to the “new economy”, as well as headwinds from protectionist tendencies in trade and technology. Investing for the long term — including in infrastructure — has therefore become a critical issue. In this context, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has captured the imagination of the world. An ambitious initiative involving more than 70 countries collaborating through investments in infrastructure, it seeks to improve connectivity for cross-border trade and investment, and generate economic benefits for the countries involved. It seeks to address large infrastructure gaps and build capacities for growth. And it helps countries unable to get affordable financing for plugging savings-investment shortfalls. However, the BRI has drawn criticisms over China’s underlying geopolitical motives, and BRI partner countries have been warned of the risk of becoming heavily indebted or getting locked into business platforms created by China. This paper aims to contribute to the policy debate over the BRI from an ASEAN perspective. It analyzes the reasons for the persistent infrastructure investment gaps in EMEs from an ASEAN perspective; assesses whether BRI is more of a development opportunity or a debt trap; outlines a framework to address the risks and concerns in order to unlock the potential benefits; and uses case studies both outside of and within the ASEAN region to distil key themes needing policy attention.

How do territorial disputes affect bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) between claimant states? Using a difference model, we find that a regime’s position on the South China Sea (SCS) significantly impacts Chinese FDI. We used a novel dataset on firm registrations in the Philippines, finding that the annual number of new firm entrants with Chinese investment significantly increases when maritime border disputes are stabilized. In contrast, we observe that conflictual relations in the maritime borders tend to decrease the number of new firms. We also notice that disputes do not influence FDI from non-claimant states.

One of the main goals of the Software Engineering discipline is to find higher abstraction levels and ways to reuse software in order to increase its productivity and quality. Ontologies, which are typically considered as a technique or an artifact used in one or more software lifecycle phases, may be used to help achieve that goal. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the proposed solutions for applying ontologies in automatic and generative programming. The paper aims to identify ontologies and software development tools, frameworks, prototypes, design patterns and methodologies that use them as development artifacts for source code generation or product derivation. The review provides researchers with the state of the art, while also identifying challenges and gaps that require further exploration and development.

Developmental processes may impose limitations and directionality in the mode of development of a particular structure. The main problem is to determine the nature and the respective effects of physical and biological constraints in the development of organisms. The Aboav-Weaire law is a semi-empirical law developed to explain the topological structure of physical materials. In the present paper, we make a formal analysis of the quantitative relationships between physical and biological constraints in biological structures by using the inflorescence of the Araceae as a case study. The Aboav-Weaire law permits to obtain a quantitative estimate of the biological constraint acting on the inflorescences of this family. In the case of the Araceae, the empirical curve presents a constant deviation with respect to the Aboav-Weaire law. This deviation is due to the presence of a biological constraint as opposed to a physical constraint. The biological constraint tends to decrease the variance of the number of sides while it is the inverse situation for the physical constraint. The results obtained using the Araceae model can be used to study the interrelationships between biological and physical constraints in any organism or biological structure.

The paper deals with a statistical method to analyze irregular phyllotactic patterns. To characterize the degree of order in phyllotactic systems, we determine the variation of the angle of divergence of a given leaf with regard to the preceding one. By knowing the range of uncertainty of the angle of divergence, it is possible to determine from which leaves rank a system becomes completely disorganized. We show that there is a quantitative link between the degree of uncertainty of the angle of divergence, and the number of regularly and randomly distributed leaves. To quantify this relationship, we deduced a formula from numerical simulations involving different ranges of uncertainty that can be observed in the angle of divergence in three different phyllotactic patterns: distichous (two orthostichies), opposite-decussate (four orthostichies) and spiral (137°). A χ² statistical test allows us to determine the threshold of transition between ordered and disordered phyllotactic patterns with a fixed level of confidence. By using the sho mutants described by Itoh et al.¹ as a case study, we show that this formula is useful mainly for analyzing the degree of order in phyllotactic mutants from two complementary points of view: the number of regularly distributed leaves and the degree of uncertainty of the divergence angle.

The inflorescence of Symplocarpus foetidus constitutes good material to analyse the biological processes and physical constraints involved in the development of plants. During the development of the inflorescence, two morphogenetic periods can be distinguished (i) before and (ii) during and after the development of floral parts. In the first period, when the floral primordia appear, the phyllotactic system could be explained by global processes at the inflorescence level. In the second period, the development of floral parts produces patterns which can be explained by local processes at the floral level. In this analysis the author defines the concepts of open system and closed system in phyllotaxis. In a closed system (e.g. spadix) the elements are arranged on a continuous and closed surface. In an open system (e.g. shoot apex) the elements appear on a surface periodically renewed and are removed from each other by the intercalary growth.

Metallic biomaterial, as a kind of composite materials, has been applied extensively in medical field due to its mechanical advantages and biological affinity. The sol–gel technique, as a new method to prepare the hydroxyapatite (HA) coating, has a lot of advantages. Therefore, the principle, characteristic and the researchment status of sol–gel technique are introduced. And the structure, characteristic and bioactivity of the HA coatings prepared by this method, as well as the influence of various parameters are discussed. Finally, the applied prospects of sol–gel technique in medical field are discussed.

The discoid meniscus is the most common meniscal variant. The likely etiology being congenital, the condition usually affects the lateral meniscus. Poorly vascularized, thicker and unstable, the discoid lateral meniscus (DLM) is more prone to tears due to abnormal shearing forces. Watanabe et al. (1979) classified the discoid lateral meniscus into three types: Complete, incomplete and Wrisberg type; Monllau et al. (1998) added the ring type as the fourth variant. Pain and clicks/thud are the most common presentations. Plain radiograph and magnetic resonance imaging are helpful in confirming the diagnosis. Asymptomatic DLM is best left alone. For symptomatic complete and incomplete types, partial arthroscopic saucerization is the treatment of choice leaving behind a stable rim. The Wrisberg type needs peripheral stabilization with resection of excess rim, if any. Total meniscectomy should be avoided unless inevitable. Short term results after partial meniscectomy are good.

The article is about the development of biotechnology industry in Taiwan. It is an overview of the progress of the research and development in the biomedical sector in Taiwan.

Was it SARS?

Eli Lilly's Bid to Curb Tuberculosis.

Fountain-Pen Nanochemistry Enables Writing of Microscipic Patterns of Protein.

Pig Vaccines Enter Development Phase.

Spilled GM Seeds Take Root.

Rice Genome Sequenced.