OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the success rates of the manual and motor-driven mini-screw insertion methods according to age, gender, length of mini-screws, and insertion sites. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 429 orthodontic mini-screw placements in 286 patients (102 in men and 327 in women) between 2005 and 2010 at private practice. Age, gender, mini-screw length, and i...

Statement of interest Different studies show (e.g., [1]) that over 80% of today’s innovations in the automotive industry are based on car electronics and its software. These innovations can be categorized into hidden technologies (e.g., ASP, ESP), comfort functions (e.g., navigation, communication, entertainment) or driver assistance (e.g., distance checking). Especially the last two categories...

We focus on vision-based hand activity analysis in the vehicular domain. The study is motivated by the overarching goal of understanding driver behavior, in particular as it relates to attentiveness and risk. First, the unique advantages and challenges for a nonintrusive, vision-based solution are reviewed. Next, two approaches for hand activity analysis, one relying on static (appearance only)...

In recent years, ITS projects in Japan, Europe and the US have been characterized by a strong emphasis on safe driver assistance systems designed to prevent traffic accidents. As it has become clear that eradicating accidents will be impossible by means of vehicle passive safety and single-vehicle active safety efforts alone, research and development of systems for preventing accidents through ...

Communication technologies and the management of context aware information are two key researching lines in the intelligent transportation domain. A suited network infrastructure which allows Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications, on one hand, and the provision of location-based information adapted to the driver, on the other hand, comprise two important co...

A person’s ability to perform a task is often limited by their ability to maintain balance. This is particularly true in lateral work performed in seated environments. For a truck driver operating the shift lever of a manual transmission, excessive shift forces can necessitate pulling on the steering wheel with the other hand to maintain balance, creating a potentially unsafe condition. An anal...

To better understand the development of e-commerce across countries we utilize competing theories to examine information and communication technology (ICT) adoption, a critical foundation of global e-commerce. On the one hand, economic institutional theory predicts that strong national institutions will engender trust and thus foster arms length business transactions in a society, such as those...

abstract this study uses annual data over the period 2005-2014 and the panel vecm approach to examine financial inclusion and monetary policy effectiveness in africa. the study shows that financial inclusion and monetary policy effectiveness are linked by a set of long-run relationships. policy reaction to the positive financial inclusion shock is not significant. policy reaction to the positiv...

Developing device drivers is one of the most difficult tasks to develop or port operating systems. A device driver needs to be described according to the target device and OS. A major design goal in operating system developments is stability and one of the challenges of this stability is device drivers. Device drivers are more likely to crash the operating system for two reasons: on one side th...