Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation into the Change in the Van Hiele Levels of Understanding Geometry of Pre-service Elementary and Secondary Mathematics Teachers

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Maine, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for " fair use " copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Librarian. It is understood that any copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. In August of 2005 changes to the Secondary Mathematics Teaching Certificate were implemented which eliminated the requirement for 35 credit hours of undergraduate mathematics in specific content areas such as geometry, calculus, statistics and probability. In its place is the requirement for 24 credit hours of mathematics content and successful completion of the PRAXIS II Mathematics Content Exam. These rule changes effected this investigation into the level of understanding geometry of pre-service elementary and secondary mathematics teachers, based on the van Hiele model, both before and after completion of the geometry course currently required by their education program of study. The van Hiele model, developed by two Dutch mathematics educators, has been used since the early 1980s to explain why students have difficulty with high school geometry in general, and specifically, higher order cognitive processes. The theory has three aspects, (1) there exists levels of understanding, (2) there are properties that are inherent to each level, and (3) movement to a level needs to be from the previous level. Specifically, there are five levels of understanding. There are five properties, or characteristics that are the same for all five levels. The fifth property, attainment, outlines the learning process that leads to complete understanding at the next higher level. This learning process has five phases. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000) outlines four areas in the Geometry Standard that lists what should be expected of the mathematics curricula for geometry context for grades PK – 12. The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics breaks down these general expectations for each grade level. This study shows that for students taking MAT107, the course required by the Elementary Education program at the University of Maine, there are a statistically significant findings that the mean van Hiele Level of Understanding Geometry of this sample, prior to and after completion of this course, is not at or above a Level 3, the level of understanding expected of students …
AGN feedback drives the colour evolution of local galaxies

We investigate the effects of AGN feedback on the colour evolution of galaxies found in local (z<0.2) groups and clusters. Galaxies located within the lobes of powerful Fanaroff-Riley type II (edge-brightened) sources show much redder colours than neighbouring galaxies that are not spatially coincident with the radio source. By contrast, no similar effect is seen near Fanaroff-Riley type I (core-dominated) radio sources. We show that these colours are consistent with FR-IIs truncating star formation as the expanding bow shock overruns a galaxy. We examine a sample of clusters with no detectable radio emission and show that galaxy colours in these clusters carry an imprint of past AGN feedback. AGN activity in the low-redshift Universe is predominantly driven by low-luminosity radio sources with short duty cycles. Our results show that, despite their rarity, feedback from powerful radio sources is an important driver of galaxy evolution even in the local volume.
Students' Cyber-bullying of Secondary Schools Teachers as A Form of Social Exclusion in Saudi Arabia since the Outbreak of COVID-19

Few previous studies conducted in the USA, UK, and other foreign countries suggest that many teachers worldwide are cyber-bullied by students. However, teachers lack experience and interpretations of the causes of cyber-bullying as well as coping strategies. Therefore, the current study attempted to extensively focus on the nature and manifestation of the phenomenon in Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. In addition, it aimed to raise awareness of cyberbullying causes, different forms of cyber-attacks against teachers, consequences, social problems, and harms caused, along with determining the procedures and actions taken by victimized teachers to cope with this phenomenon or overcome its devastating effects on them. In order to shed light on this sensitive experience, the study depended on a structured interview form using the criteria sampling technique and snowball sampling technique in order to get sufficient insight into the phenomenon's causes, types, effects, and coping strategies. Furthermore, a pilot study was conducted on Saudi secondary school students to determine the real motives for their cyber-attacks against teachers . The study's findings are consistent with the previous studies. Teachers in Saudi secondary schools suffer from persistent and repeated cyber-attacks from their students for various reasons and in different forms due to modernization processes on a large scale in Saudi Arabia that caused a radical change in this community and the appearance of new behavioral patterns with adverse effects due to misusing Information Technology. Besides, a variety of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, you tube, and G+) can spread humiliating and defaming materials among millions in seconds.
RESPONSE OF PAIRI MANGO TREES TO POTASSIUM AND PHENYLALANINE FOLIAR APPLICATIONS: I-YIELD, ENHANCING FRUIT COLOUR AND IMPROVING QUALITY

The present investigation was conducted during 1997 and 1998 seasons to study the effect of potassium and phenylalanine foliar sprays on Pairi mango trees. The experimental results revealed that fruit yield, expressed as kg/tree or fruit number per tree, generally, increased as the levels of potassium increased. The best results in this respect were obtained by using 3% K 2 O. In the meantime, results showed that phenylalanine did not affect the number of fruits per tree, but significantly increased the yield as kg per tree. In both years of study, peel total chlorophyll, generally, decreased, while carotene and anthocyanin increased by the foliar application of both K 2 O and phenylalanine. Both potassium and phenylalanine foliar applications did not influence mango fruit firmness. Results also revealed that potassium and phenylalanine treatments caused an increase in reducing, non-reducing and total sugars on one hand, and reduction in starch on the other. Spraying Pairi mango trees with both potassium and phenylalanine increased total soluble solids and vitamin C. As for fruit acidity, potassium caused an increase in fruit juice acidity, while phenylalanine seemed not to affect fruit juice acidity.
EFFECT OF KETOGENIC DIET AND EXERCISE ON LIPID PROFILE ON OBESE POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

Background: postmenopausal obesity leads to many serious health risks such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and psychological disorder. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effect of ketogenic diet and exercise on lipid profile in obese postmenopausal women. Subjects: Forty obese postmenopausal women participated in this study, aged from 50-55 years, with body mass index (BMI) of 30-35 kg/m 2 ,were selected from outpatient clinic of El Mahalla General Hospital, El Mahalla El Kobra city, El Gharbia Governorate, Egypt. They received very low carbohydrate ketogenic diet for 4 weeks and aerobic exercises in form of walking on the treadmill for 30 min, three times per week for 4 weeks. Material and method: anthropometric measures (body weight, BMI and waist and hip circumference), and lipid profile were assessed pre and post treatment program. Result: comparing pre and post treatment result, there was a significant improvement in body weight, body mass index, waist hip ratio, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol after treatment program than pre-treatment values. Conclusion: combined therapy of ketogenic diet and aerobic exercise is an effective method in improving lipid profile and body weight in obese postmenopausal women
Beneficial use of hyperbranched polymer in cross‐linked anion exchange membranes for fuel cells

A series of cross‐linked blend membranes based on a linear poly(2,6‐dimethyl phenylene oxide) (PPO) and a hyperbranched poly(4‐vinylbenzyl chloride) (HVBC) are prepared via a simple solution casting procedure, followed by a cross‐linking treatment. The experiment indicates that the “HVBC enhancing PPO” membranes can have a looser cross‐linked “linear‐hyperbranched” blend structure, which is expected to improve the water absorption and dimensional stability. As a result, the excellent overall properties including high anion conductivity, low swelling, high strength, and excellent oxidative‐alkaline stability can be achieved simultaneously. A maximum conductivity of PPO‐HVBC‐100 (ion exchange capacity [IEC] ~ 1.88 mmol/g) is up to 135.9 mS/cm at 80°C, which is 2.9 times higher than that of pristine PPO membrane (IEC ~ 1.62 mmol/g). All the results reveal that the hyperbranched HVBC with a unique multi‐cation structure is a preferred “performance‐enhancing component” for the PPO‐based membranes, and this study also provides a novel idea for the preparation of high‐performance AEMs.
Who Says What in Which Networks: What influences Social Media Users’ Emotional Reactions to the COVID-19 Vaccine Infodemic?

This study aims to identify effective predictors that influence publics’ emotional reactions to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation as well as corrective messages. We collected a large sample of COVID-19 vaccine related misinformation and corrective messages on Facebook as well as the users’ emotional reactions (i.e., emojis) to these messages. Focusing on three clusters of features such as messages’ linguistic features, source characteristics, and messages’ network positions, we examined whether users’ reactions to misinformation and corrective information would differ. We used random forest models to identify the most salient predictors among over 70 predictors for both types of messages. Our analysis found that for misinformation, political ideology of the message source was the most salient feature that predicted anxious and enthusiastic reactions, followed by message features that highlight personal concerns and messages’ network positions. For corrective messages, while the sources’ ideology was still key to raising anxiety, the most important feature for triggering enthusiasm was the messages’ network positions and message quality.
Assesment of Quality of Life in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis in RMI, Peshawar

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It has been affecting the quality of life (QOL), an important parameter which needs to be addressed. This study assessed QOL keeping in view WHO criteria for patients undergoing hemodialysis at Rehman medical institute (RMI). The study also evaluated the effects of various socioeconomic and demographic factors affecting life of such patients. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted by selecting a convenient non-probability sample of 100 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing hemodialysis at Rehman Medical Institute /Dialysis center. The project duration was five months, and during this period data collection was done using the World Health Organization Quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire. Patients aged 18 years and above and on regular MHD for at least 3 months were included in this study. Patients with cognitive impairment and coexisting diseases such as stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, heart diseases, and chronic liver diseases were excluded from the study as these factors could potentially affect their QOL and act as confounding factors. Results: Out of the 100 hemodialysis patients, 51% were men while 49% of the participants were females. 36% of the subjects were above 60 years old. The total score of quality of life was found to be higher in participants <60 years, of higher educational level, being very informed about the health problem, not experiencing difficulties with social or family environment, had help at home. Among them 43% subjects were not happy with their quality of life, only 13% were satisfied. Conclusion: Patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis had overall low QOL scores in all four domains. Age, education, marital status and gender affected one or more domains of QOL in such patients. Low income status was the only independent negative predictors of QOL of patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Education level is a positive factor for improving QOL of hemodialysis patients. Keywords: quality of life, hemodialysis, WHOQOL-BREF, chronic kidney disease, End-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Nurses Knowledge Practice and Perceived Barriers during Outbreak of COVID-19 and its Relation to their Intention to Leave

: Background: The world is affected by the spread of Covid-19 especially nurses. A good knowledge of the infection process and control would support the willingness and commitment of nurses to perform their duties. A im: To determine the relationship between nurses' knowledge, practice and barriers they perceived during outbreak of COVID-19 and their intention to leave. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. Subjects: It is a purposive sample of 254 nurses who had at least 6 months of experience who work in Medical, Surgical, Obstetrics & Gynecological, Pediatric, Operations, Emergency and ICUs units at Qena University Hospitals. Tools: Four tools were used for data collection; nurses knowledge questionnaire, nurses practice questionnaire, nurses perceived barriers questionnaire and staff nurses’ intention to leave scale . Results: The majority of nurses had good knowledge and satisfactory level of practice towards COVID-19. The mean score of nurses' intention to leave was 76.64 illustrated is it high intention to leave. There were highly positive statistically significant correlation between nurses' knowledge and their practice towards covid19, and between nurse's intention to leave and barriers as perceived by them. There were highly negative statistically significant correlation between nurses' practice and barriers. Conclusion: The majority of studied nurses had good level of knowledge about COVID-19 and they had satisfactory level of practice towards COVID-19, barriers as perceived by nurses during COVID-19 outbreak were highly effective in nurses' intention to leave. Recommendations: Nursing managers should be providing comprehensive training program for nurses during and after the outbreak to ensure their knowledge and practice.
A model for retention on short, intermediate and long time-scale in ferroelectric thin films

We developed a model with no adjustable parameter for retention loss at short and long time scale in ferroelectric thin-film capacitors. We found that the predictions of this model are in good agreement with the experimental observations in the literature. In particular, it explains why a power-law function shows better fitting than a linear-log relation on a short time scale (10^-7 s to 1 s) and why a stretched exponential relation gives more precise description than a linear-log plot on a long time scale (>100 s), as reported by many researchers in the past. More severe retention losses at higher temperatures and in thinner films have also been correctly predicted by the present theory.
Existence of Yersinia species in marketable milk and some dairy products

Yersinia species are members of the Enterobacteriaceae . These bacteria have Gram-negative or Gram-variable, rod-shaped cells. Yersinia regards as one of the most important food-borne agents along with ability to grow at room and refrigerator temperatures. There are several intestinal and extraintestinal clinical symptoms caused by these organisms, appearing through mild gastroenteritis, mesenteric lymphadenitis, and pseudo appendicitis. Yersiniosis is a zoonotic disease with a wide distribution and a known public health significance caused by Y. enterocolitica. One hundred and sixty marketable milk samples and some milk products including kareish cheese, Domiati cheese and small-scale ice cream were collected randomly from supermarkets, dairy farms, dairy shops, and street vendors, in Assiut city, Egypt. Selective CIN (Cefsulodin-Irgasan-Novobiocin) agar plates were used after enriched by phosphate buffered saline (PBS) supplemented with novobiocin and cefsulodin and incubated at 30 °C for 24 to 48 hours. The suspected colonies were identified by biochemical tests. A total of 33 isolates (20.63%) were identified as Yersinia species , representing Y. enterocolitica (47.5%), Y. pseudotuberculosis (7.5%), Y. pestis (17.5%) and Y. intermedia (10%).
M-theory through the looking glass: Tachyon condensation in the E8 heterotic string

We study the spacetime decay to nothing in string theory and M-theory. First we recall a nonsupersymmetric version of heterotic M-theory, in which bubbles of nothing -- connecting the two E_8 boundaries by a throat -- are expected to be nucleated. We argue that the fate of this system should be addressed at weak string coupling, where the nonperturbative instanton instability is expected to turn into a perturbative tachyonic one. We identify the unique string theory that could describe this process: The heterotic model with one E_8 gauge group and a singlet tachyon. We then use worldsheet methods to study the tachyon condensation in the NSR formulation of this model, and show that it induces a worldsheet super-Higgs effect. The main theme of our analysis is the possibility of making meaningful alternative gauge choices for worldsheet supersymmetry, in place of the conventional superconformal gauge. We show in a version of unitary gauge how the worldsheet gravitino assimilates the goldstino and becomes dynamical. This picture clarifies recent results of Hellerman and Swanson. We also present analogs of R_\xi gauges, and note the importance of logarithmic CFT in the context of tachyon condensation.
Analytical model of infiltration under constant‐concentration boundary conditions

Known integrable models for 1D flow in unsaturated soil have a rescaled soil water diffusivity that is either constant or proportional to C(C − 1)/(C − Θ)2, where Θ is the degree of saturation and C > 1 is constant. With a wider more realistic range of hydraulic conductivity functions than has been used in this context before, a formal series solution is developed for infiltration, subject to constant‐concentration boundary conditions. A readily programmed iteration algorithm, applicable for any value of C, is used to construct many coefficients of the infiltration series without requiring any numerical integration. In particular, for either C − 1 small or 1/C small, several infiltration series coefficients are constructed as formal power series in C − 1 or in 1/C, for which we construct a number of terms explicitly. In the limit as the diffusivity approaches a delta function, the infiltration coefficients are obtained in simpler closed form. All but the sorptivity depend on the form of the conductivity function.
The chemical composition of Galactic ring nebulae around massive stars

We present deep spectra of ring nebulae associated with Wolf-Rayet (WR) and O-type stars: NGC 6888, G2.4+1.4, RCW 58, S 308, NGC 7635 and RCW 52. The data have been taken with the 10m Gran Telescopio Canarias and the 6.5m Clay Telescope. We extract spectra of several apertures in some of the objects. We derive C$^{++}$ and O$^{++}$ abundances from faint recombination lines in NGC 6888 and NGC 7635, permitting to derive their C/H and C/O ratios and estimate the abundance discrepancy factor (ADF) of O$^{++}$. The ADFs are larger than the typical ones of normal HII regions but similar to those found in the ionised gas of star-forming dwarf galaxies. We find that chemical abundances are rather homogeneous in the nebulae where we have spectra of several apertures: NGC 6888, NGC 7635 and G2.4+1.4. We obtain very high values of electron temperature in a peripheral zone of NGC 6888, finding that shock excitation can reproduce its spectral properties. We find that all the objects associated with WR stars show N enrichment. Some of them also show He enrichment and O deficiency as well as a lower Ne/O than expected, this may indicate the strong action of the ON and NeNa cycles. We have compared the chemical composition of NGC 6888, G2.4+1.4, RCW 58 and S 308 with the nucleosynthesis predicted by stellar evolution models of massive stars. We find that non-rotational models of stars of initial masses between 25 and 40 solar masses seem to reproduce the observed abundance ratios of most of the nebulae.
Personnel brain-drain syndrome and quality healthcare delivery among public healthcare workforce in Nigeria

PurposeThe mass exodus of the professional healthcare workforce has become a cankerworm for a developing nation like Nigeria, and this worsens the already depleted healthcare systems in underdeveloped nation. This study investigated the rationale behind medical workers' brain-drain syndrome and the quality healthcare delivery in the Nigerian public healthcare sector.Design/methodology/approachTo stimulate an understanding of the effect of the phenomenon called brain drain, the study adopted a diagnostic research design to survey the public healthcare personnel in government hospitals. The study administered a battery of adapted research scales of different measures to confirm the variables of interest of this study on a probability sampling strategy. The study surveyed 450 public healthcare sector employees from four government hospitals to gather pertinent data. The study used a structural equation model (SEM) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to analyse the collected data from the medical personnel of government hospitals.FindingsThe findings of this study are significant as postulated. The study discovered that poor quality worklife experienced by Nigerian medical personnel was attributed to the brain-drain effect and poor healthcare delivery. The study further demonstrated that job dissatisfaction suffered among the public healthcare workforce forced the workforce to migrate to the international labour market, and this same factor is a reason for poor healthcare delivery. Lastly, the study discovered that inadequate remuneration and pay discouraged Nigerian professionals and allied healthcare workers from being productive and ultimately pushed them to the global market.Originality/valuePractically, this study has shown three major elements that caused the mass movement of Nigerian healthcare personnel to other countries of the world and that seems novel given the peculiarity of the Nigerian labour market. The study is original and novel as much study has not been put forward in the public healthcare sector in Nigeria concerning this phenomenon.