Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The awareness of parents of 7-8 years-old children in Kerman about presence of the first permanent molar and concepts of preventive dentistry and effect of education on level of parent's awareness

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The first permanent molar is the first permanent tooth that erupted in 6-7-year-old and is very high risk for caries. Parent’s awareness has very important role in oral and dental health of children. The aim of this study was to assess the awareness of parents of 7-8-year-old children in Kerman about presence of the first permanent molar and concepts of preventive dentistry and the relation between parents’ awareness and the decay, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) of children’s first permanent molar tooth and effect of education on level of parent’s awareness. METHODS: In this community based and interventional study, 296 students at the age of 7-8-year-old were selected randomly from public and private schools of Kerman. A questionnaire was completed by the parents that included parent’s awareness about presence of first permanent molar, oral and dental hygiene principals, and preventive methods. Then, the students were examined and the DMFT of first permanent molar were recorded and educational pamphlets have distributed between parents. The same questionnaire was completed by parents after 3 weeks. The data were analyzed by paired t-test and linear regression. RESULTS: The mean of DMFT of the first permanent molar in female students was 1.64 ± 11.43 and male students were 1.51 ± 1.54. The mean scores of related to parent’s awareness before and after education were 12.06 and 15.13, respectively, which was statistically significant (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: There were no statistical significant different between parent’s awareness and DMFT of first permanent molar. The level of parent’s awareness was increased significantly after education (P < 0.05). KEYWORDS: Awareness, Decay, Missing, Filled Teeth, First Permanent Molar
Effects of Artificial Beach Nourishment on Nearshore Sediment Distribution (Island of Norderney, Southern North Sea)

The continuous erosion of the western spit led to artificial beach nourishment of the affected parts with sand. The aim was to ensure the stability of the solid coastal protection structures. The beach nourishment has been repeatedly carried out at irregular intervals since 1951. This paper reviews some effects of the last beach restoration on the sediment distribution in spring 1989. The beach was partly refilled with well sorted tine sand. The mean grain size of the original beach sediments was much coarser. Sediment samples were taken twice yearly to obtain an overall view of long-term changes of the sediment distribution. Samples taken at monthly intervals, mainly in the problematic zone of severe erosion, gave information on short-term changes. The grain size distribution, carbonate and heavy mineral contents were determined. At first, after the beach nourishment, a strongly decreasing grain size was detected, but soon reversed. Despite a selective erosion of finer sediment particles and the relative enrichment of coarser grains, the grain size spectrum of the beach refilling as it was before the replenishment was observed in the spring of 1991. The natural grain size distribution which is in an equilibrium with the hydrodynamic forces was produced by erosion of the beach material. The fine grained sand used as the refill is a "foreign" material that does not correspond to the boundary conditions at this site. The examination of heavy minerals provides information about transport directions of the beach and shoreface sediments. It shows that the cross-shore transport is dominant within the groin-fields. The grain size of the sediments of the refilled area does not differ very much from those of the shoreface sediments, and thus this parameter is unsuitable for an analysis of the along-shore transport of the sediment. Although, an eastward and southward along-shore transport could be revealed from the refilled beach section after the nourishment. A survey of the beach and shoreface morphology provides additional information on the sediment transport and temporal sediment volume development.
The relationship between ABO/rhesus blood groups and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Maghnia, western Algeria

Abstract Background: To determine the relationship between ABO/rhesus (Rh) blood groups and type 2 diabetes mellitus in a western Algerian population. Method: This case-control study was conducted at the Regional Hospital Centre of Maghnia, Tlemcen, from July 2008 to May 2009, involving 280 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 271 healthy controls. Blood samples were collected from the patients after consent had been obtained. The samples were tested for ABO and Rh blood groups, using the Beth-Vincent and Simonin-Michon methods. The allele frequencies were calculated according to the Bernstein formulas. Results: The χ2 test results showed that there was no association between the ABO blood group and type 2 diabetes mellitus. It was also noted that the O blood group was distributed with the highest frequency among diabetic subjects (52.85%). For the Rh system, d allele frequency presence was higher in diabetics than in nondiabetics (0.3778 and 0.3644 respectively). The difference between phenotype frequencies was not significant (p = 0.733). The distribution of ABO/Rh blood groups between gender and ethnic group showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Our study confirms that there is no association between ABO/Rh blood group and diabetes mellitus in this Algerian population.
Effects of Micronutrient Supplementation on Concentrations of Vitamins and Minerals, Inflammation and Cardiovascular Risk Factors

There is growing interest in the role of micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) in the optimization of health, and prevention and treatment of diseases. As multivitamin –multimineral supplementation (MVMM) is the most commonly reported supplement, it is important to study the health benefits associated with regular intake. We investigated the use of a particular MVMM supplement, developed by the Pure North Foundation, on blood chemistry parameters and lipid profiles, along with the inflammation marker C - reactive protein, in 100 steel company workers over a one year period of supplementation. According to our study, participants with lower levels of vitamins D, B2, and C before supplementation tended to show higher levels of inflammation. Vitamin D levels correlated with a variety of lipid profile parameters. Analysis of the data after one year of supplementation demonstrated that participants with blood vitamin D concentrations above 30 ng/ml showed decreases in triglycerides, cholesterol to HDL ratio, and improvement of HDL levels. In addition, higher vitamin C levels were associated with lower triglyceride and VLDL levels. Blood concentrations of vitamin C, D, and E increased substantially as a result of supplementation, but coenzyme Q10 levels, lutein, lycopene, and vitamin A levels were not greatly affected. Furthermore, looking into the distinction between smokers and non-smokers, our data indicate that improvements in antioxidant levels during MVMM supplementation are less dramatic in smokers. After one year supplementation, smokers had lower plasma antioxidant concentrations than nonsmokers. The greatest differences were found with lycopene, lutein, and vitamin A, while improvements in vitamin C, vitamin D and vitamin E were practically the same for both groups. Smokers had less improvement of the health score in comparison with non-smokers. For all participants, half year and one year of supplementation eliminated very low health scores, and increased the number of people with high scores.
Learning Styles, Critical Think ing Aptitudes, and Immersion Learning in Physician Assistant Students

The changes in healthcare delivery systems and the global burden of disease along with the overwhelming corpus of new knowledge call for a re-evaluation of the educational process of health profession programs. The focus on how best to optimize the learning process necessitates an acknowledgement of the roles of learning styles and critical thinking aptitudes. It also requires attention to the learning experiences and how these, in turn, affect development of both the styles and aptitudes. A sample of 137 Physician Assistant students was recruited to complete a learning style inventory, the Gregorc Style Delineator, and a critical thinking aptitude test, the Health Science Reasoning Test. Participants were then divided into two subgroups, identified as ‘preclinical PA students’ and ‘clinical PA students’ and the results obtained from both instruments were compared to explore for possible associations between immersion clinical experiences and learning style preferences and critical thinking aptitudes. The PA students were preferentially concrete sequential learners with moderate to strong critical thinking aptitudes. There were no significant differences between preclinical and clinical PA students with respect to learning styles or overall critical thinking aptitudes. Significant differences (P=.002) with improvement in scores, was noted for only one parameter of critical thinking, identified by the Health Science Reasoning Test as “inference”. While immersion learning did not appear to impact learning style preferences or overall critical thinking aptitudes, it is important to note the improvement in ‘inference; a skill critical for the medical decision making process required of PA students in their preparation for future practice. LEARNING STYLES, CRITICAL THINKING APTITUDES 10
What can flux tracking teach us about water age distribution patterns and their temporal dynamics

The complex interactions of runoff generation processes underlying the hydrological response of streams remain incompletely understood at the catchment scale. Extensive research has demonstrated the utility of tracers for both inferring flow paths distributions and constraining model parameterizations. While useful, the common use of linearity assumptions, i.e. time-invariance and complete mixing, in these studies provides only partial understanding of actual process dynamics. Here we use long term (< 20 yr) precipitation, flow and tracer (chloride) data of three contrasting upland catchments in the Scottish Highlands to inform integrated conceptual models investigating different mixing assumptions. Using the models as diagnostic tools in a functional comparison, water and tracer fluxes were tracked with the objective of characterizing water age distributions in the three catchments and establishing the wetness-dependent temporal dynamics of these distributions. The results highlight the potential importance of partial mixing which is dependent on the hydrological functioning of a catchment. Further, tracking tracer fluxes showed that the various components of a model can be characterized by fundamentally different water age distributions which may be highly sensitive to catchment wetness, available storage, mixing mechanisms, flow path connectivity and the relative importance of the different hydrological processes involved. Flux tracking also revealed that, although negligible for simulating the runoff response, the omission of processes such as interception evaporation can result in considerably biased water age distributions. Finally, the modeling indicated that water age distributions in the three study catchments do have long, power-law tails, which are generated by the interplay of flow path connectivity, the relative importance of different flow paths as well as by the mixing mechanisms involved. In general this study highlights the potential of customized integrated conceptual models, based on multiple mixing assumptions, to infer system internal transport dynamics and their sensitivity to catchment wetness states.
Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance in China

We investigate executive compensation and corporate governance in China's publicly traded firms. We also compare executive pay in China to the USA. Consistent with agency theory, we find that executive compensation is positively correlated to firm performance. The study shows that executive pay and CEO incentives are lower in State controlled firms and firms with concentrated ownership structures. Boardroom governance is important. We find that firms with more independent directors on the board have a higher pay-for-performance link. Non-State (private) controlled firms and firms with more independent directors on the board are more likely to replace the CEO for poor performance. Finally, we document that US executive pay (salary and bonus) is about seventeen times higher than in China. Significant differences in US-China pay persist even after controlling for economic and governance factors.
Physiological and biochemical controls over methyl halide emissions from rice plants

This paper investigates physiological and biochemical aspects of methyl halide production in rice plants over two growing seasons. Multiple separate mechanisms appear to be responsible for production of methyl halides in rice plant tissues. Evidence for multiple mechanisms is found in timing of peak emissions of methyl halides from rice, inconsistent effects of competitive inhibitors on methyl halide emissions, and large differences in methyl halide emission rates when compared to plant tissue halide concentrations. Other results show that chloride, bromide, and iodide ion concentrations in plant tissue appear to be regulated throughout the season, and observed changes in leaf tissue concentration cannot explain observed methyl halide emissions. The Km for methyl iodide formation in leaf tissue cell‐free extract is 0.018 mM, suggesting a very efficient mechanism. Of the seven competitive inhibitors used, only thiol had a consistently strong effect on both methyl iodide and methyl bromide.
Bank Competition and Stability: Cross-Country Heterogeneity

This paper documents large cross-country variation in the relationship between bank competition and bank stability and explores market, regulatory and institutional features that can explain this variation. We show that an increase in competition will have a larger impact on banks’ fragility in countries with stricter activity restrictions, lower systemic fragility, better developed stock exchanges, more generous deposit insurance and more effective systems of credit information sharing. The effects are economically large and thus have important repercussions for the current regulatory reform debate.
Effect of Internet Banking Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction: Evidence from Ghanaian Banking Industry

The paper examines the influence of Internet Banking Service Quality (IBSQ) on Customer Satisfaction (CS) in the Ghanaian banking industry. The study was a cross-sectional survey that employed the use self-administered questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 200 respondents through personal contact. Through Structural Equation Modelling approach, the findings indicate that, of the five IBSQ dimensions, web design factors have significantly positive influence on CS, explaining about 79.6% of CS with IBSQ. In spite of the limitations of the study, the findings offer important theoretical and managerial implications. The paper contributes to the literature in area of e-Service quality and customer satisfaction in electronic banking.
Characteristics of Merging Firms in India: An Empirical Examination

The process of corporate restructuring through mergers and acquisitions has occupied much relevance in post-liberalization period. The financial characteristics of a firm play a critical role in the merger decision process. This study analyses the distinctive financial characteristics of the acquirer and the target firms in the period of merger. In addition, the empirical challenge is to determine the measurable factors that make a firm attractive as a takeover target. The fundamental research focus is on the characteristics that make a firm an acquirer and on identifying those characteristics of a firm, which will have a significant impact on the probability that firms will be acquired. The ratios involved in the study were reflective of the financial and product market characteristics. The sample firms consisting of 227 acquirer and 215 target firms represented the mergers during the period 1993—2004. The distinctive characteristics of the acquirer and the target firms were analysed with Mann Whitney U test and Kolgomorov Smirnov test on the assumption of non-normality of the sample distribution. The final step involved using the logit regression to examine the likelihood that a given firm will be the target of an acquisition attempt. The same sample of target firms merged between 1993-2004 period and a random sample of 490 non-acquired firms based on a matched industry sector and similar size (sales) are obtained for the logit model estimation. The comparative study of the acquirer and the target firms in the year of merger and the logit analysis reveals the following: The size of the target firms was much smaller compared to the acquirer firms. The acquirer firms have higher cash flow, higher PE ratios, higher book value, higher liquid assets, and lower debt to total assets ratio, which are statistically significant when compared to the target firms. Some evidence points out higher leverage for the target firms especially for measures of market leverage. The lesser the liquidity position, greater the probability of a firm becoming a target. The larger firms are less likely to become acquisition targets. Logit coefficients are consistent with the size hypothesis and inefficient management hypothesis. The advertising intensity ratio and the cash flow to market value of assets show statistical significance based on logit results. The results of the study indicate that firms generating free cash flows and having low debt levels have a tendency to incur agency costs. Capital structure characteristics provide the acquirers and the target firms a motive for mergers. The acquirer firms with unused debt capacity can use mergers as a strategic business tool for gaining financial synergy.
Exploring the Relationship Between Modality and Readability Across Different Text Types

With regard to the relationship between the use of modality and readability levels oftexts, 2 opposing views have been raised. The first view endorses direct positiverelationship between modality and readability in the sense that the use of modalityincreases textual understandability. The second view is that the use of modality leadsto an increase in the number of words, resulting in readability reduction of the texts.Hence, the present study tries to first compare argumentative, expository, andnarrative text types in terms of the use of modalities; then, it explores the possibleinterplay between metadiscourse use and readability indices of the texts. To this end,33 representative texts from different discourse modes were analyzed in terms of thedegrees of idea density and the frequencies of metadiscourse signals. The results ofSpearman rank correlation coefficients did not show any statistically significant gotogethernessbetween metadiscourse use and readability. Moreover, the focused texttypes were not significantly different in terms of the use of metadiscourse modalities,except for shift topic and hedging markers. Targeting intelligibility indices andstylistic devices as dimensions of textual quality, the present study offers implicationsfor writing research and materials design purposes.
Nitrogen Management in No-Till and Conventional-Till Dual-Use Wheat/Stocker Systems

Winter wheat in the Texas Rolling Plains is utilized both as forage and grain crop on more than 50% of the wheat sown, and employs conventional tillage in a semi-arid region prone to severe soil erosion by wind and water. The study compared forage and grain yield response to pre-plant and top-dress N application in no-till and conventional-till dual-use wheat production systems. Five pre-plant N levels, two tillage systems, and one top-dress N application were evaluated. There was a linear increase in forage production with increasing pre-plant N application, and no significance difference in forage yield between conventional- and no-till in 3 of 4 yr. Grain production increased with increased pre-plant N, while top-dressed N enhanced grain yield an additional 20 to 40%. In 2 of 4 yr, conventional-till resulted in increased grain yield over no-till by about 10 to 12 %. Top-dressed N resulted in significant yield increases in all pre-plant N treatments but with the greatest yield increases from the 0 and 34 kg ha -1 pre-plant N treatments. Soil analysis data indicate that following poor wheat production years, residual nitrate N can be substantial and could offset N fertilizer requirements for the following wheat crop.
Competition vs. quality in an industry with imperfect traceability

We consider an industry where firms produce goods that have different quality levels but firms cannot differentiate themselves from rivals. In this situation, producing low-quality generates a negative externality on the whole industry. This is particularly true when consumers cannot identify producers. In this article, we show that under a "Laissez Faire" situation free entry is not socially optimal and we argue that the imposition of a Minimum Quality Standard (MQS) may induce firms to enter the market. The authors are very grateful to an anonymous referee and Quan Wen as an Associate Editor for their helpful comments and suggestions. We have also benefited from comments from Eric Brousseau, Julie Caswell, Gilles Grolleau, Emmanuel Raynaud, Alban Thomas, Antoine Soubeyran, Hubert Stahn, and Isabelle Vagneron on previous versions. Citation: Elodie Rouviere and Raphael Soubeyran, (2011) ''Competition vs. quality in an industry with imperfect traceability.
Dutch retail trade on the rise? Relation between competition, innovation and productivity

The Dutch retail trade demonstrated a relatively meagre performance in terms of productivity (growth) during the 1990s, especially seen from an international perspective. This study analyses the productivity performance of the Dutch retail trade in more detail, and focuses on competition and innovation as two main drivers of productivity growth. More precisely, it takes the mutual relationship between competition, innovation and productivity explicitly into account. Between 1993 and 2002 changes in competition varied substantially within the retail trade. However, on average competition slightly declined. Furthermore, only a few firms in the Dutch retail trade innovate. Regression analysis reveals that both competition and innovation enhance productivity growth directly. Further, fiercer competition induces more innovation, and consequently also raises productivity indirectly via innovation.