Gibbs random fields play an important role in statistics, however, the resulting likelihood is typically unavailable due to an intractable normalizing constant. Composite likelihoods offer a principled means to construct useful approximations. This paper provides a mean to calibrate the posterior distribution resulting from using a composite likelihood and illustrate its performance in several ...

Background & Aims: Crown restoration of teeth after root canal treatment protects their remaining structure against breakage and infection of the root canal, and will replace the missing structure. This study was performed to identify the prevalence of different types of crown restorations after root canal treatment of posterior teeth in Kerman, Iran, in 2013. <stro...

The posterior distribution of the likelihood is used to interpret the evidential meaning of P-values, posterior Bayes factors and Akaike's information criterion when comparing point null hypotheses with composite alternatives. Asymptotic arguments lead to simple re-calibrations of these criteria in terms of posterior tail probabilities of the likelihood ratio. (`Prior') Bayes factors cannot be ...

BACKGROUND Failure of dental restorations is a major concern in dental practice. Replacement of failed restorations constitutes the majority of operative work. Clinicians should be aware of the longevity of, and likely reasons for the failure of, direct posterior restorations. In a long-term, randomized clinical trial, the authors compared the longevity of amalgam and composite. SUBJECTS, METHO...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to compare the conversion degree of six different composite materials (Filtek Z 250, Filtek P60, Spectrum TPH, Pertac II, Clearfil AP-X, and Clearfil Photo Posterior) using three different light sources (blue light-emitting diode [LED], plasma arc curing [PAC], and conventional halogen lamp [QTH]). METHODS Composites were placed in a 2 mm thick and 5 ...

BACKGROUND Spontaneous infectious spondylodiscitis is a rare, but serious disease with the risk of progressive neurological impairment. The surgical approach to spontaneous infectious spondylodiscitis is in most cases an anterior debridement and fusion, often in staged surgeries. Here we report a case of single-stage posterior debridement and posterior instrumented fusion in combination with an...

Studies to date have assessed wear of composite restorations in primary molars using the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) evaluation criteria. Direct clinical evaluations of 148 Ful-Fil® restorations using the USPHS wear criteria were made at baseline, 6, 12, and 24 months. Quantitative assessments were made by comparing calibrated standard casts with the die stone casts obtained at ...

Composite resins for posterior tooth restorations have become a viable alternative to dental amalgam. Failures sometimes cannot be easily explained, and we hypothesize that a genetic component may influence longevity of restorations. We aimed to determine if there is any evidence for a difference in the performance of amalgams versus composite resin in extensive posterior restorations. We also ...