Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pattern of tooth discoloration and care-seeking behavior among adolescents in an underserved rural community in Nigeria

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the pattern of tooth discoloration and care-seeking behavior among adolescents in a Nigerian community. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study using a questionnaire was carried out among 384 adolescents in Idere, Southwestern Nigeria. The questionnaire comprised questions on sociodemographic data, presence of tooth discoloration, and care-seeking behavior. Two calibrated examiners examined the labial and buccal surfaces of the teeth for the presence of tooth discoloration. Frequencies and bar charts were generated, and Chi-square test was used to test the association between categorical variables at P < 0.05. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 14.7 ± 2.3 years, comprising 222 (57.8%) and 162 (42.2%) in junior and senior secondary schools, respectively. Intraoral examination revealed 167 (43.9%) had discolored teeth while 127 (33.1%) perceived that they had discolored teeth. Extrinsic stains were the major cause of tooth discoloration in both anterior and posterior teeth (18%-84%) except in upper anterior teeth where enamel hypoplasia was the major cause (20%-30%). Among participants who perceived that they had tooth discoloration, 81.9% mentioned that they did not know that the discoloration can be treated. Older participants had more discolored teeth than their counterparts (P = 0.01). Age group, sex, and class of participants were associated with frequency of tooth brushing (P < 0.05). Participants who had anterior or intrinsic tooth discoloration sought care more often than those with posterior or extrinsic tooth discoloration (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Extrinsic staining was the major cause of tooth discoloration. Many adolescents did not know that the discoloration can be treated.
User Engagement in Festival Virtual Brand Communities: The Cases of Sónar and Primavera Sound (Barcelona)

Resource branding has become a cocreated process carried out within virtual brand communities (VBCs), which boost the social connectivity of users and contribute to placemaking. However, due to the very nature of VBCs, branding strategies rely on user engagement to succeed. The present study has performed a multidimensional and mixed-method analysis of almost 4,000 entries in the Facebook and Twitter VBCs of two renowned European music festivals, Sónar and Primavera Sound (Barcelona), to show the benefits of understanding the different components that comprise festival engagement and the relationships between them. Results show the importance of considering different festival brands and their main VBCs to develop a strategy based on the structure of each VBC user as well as the most prominent dimensions of user engagement and the inherent relationships between them. In addition, the consideration of “ongoing” engagement is a potential research pathway for exploring brand engagement beyond mere attendance.
Design of a Miniaturized SIW Filter by Using DGS in WLAN Frequency Band

Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) filers are good candidates to substitute for bulky and expensive metallic waveguide filters. Many methods are used to developed specific filter responses. One of them is using defected ground structures (DGS) in SIW filters to generate desired transmission zeros, which cannot be used in waveguide filters. In this paper, an elliptical third order bandpass SIW filter is designed in WLAN frequency band using the DGS technique. It is also shown that this technique reduces the filter size while providing good filtering response. The central frequency and fractional bandwidth of the filter is 2.4 GHz and 16.2%, respectively.
Snow Mechanics Near the Ductile‐Brittle Transition: Compressive Stick‐Slip and Snow Microquakes

The rate‐dependent mechanical response of snow is commonly believed to directly inherit the ductile‐to‐brittle transition (DBT) from the viscoplastic ice matrix. Recent work has however stressed the impact of microstructure evolution by rapid sintering during deformation. To understand these phenomena we have conducted deformation‐controlled compression experiments in an X‐ray tomography stage. By varying the strain rate over 3 orders of magnitude, we find an intermediate regime where the stress response changes from smooth to serrated behavior. This regime is accompanied by microstructure quakes associated with strain localization bands in the sample interior. To interpret the results we developed a minimal, scalar model with a rate‐dependent, elastoplastic constitutive law and healing which falls into the general class of rate‐and‐state models. The model correctly predicts the range of the instability as well as amplitude and frequency of the serrations and reveals a formal equivalence of the observed (compressive) stick‐slip with seismic faults.
Ventilator-associated Complications In The Mechanically Ventilated Veteran

Surveillance of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) has been the common outcome measurement used for internal and external benchmarking for mechanically ventilated patients; and although not a clinical definition, it is commonly used as an outcome measurement for research studies. Criteria in the VAP definition include both subjective and objective components, leading to questions of validity. In addition, recent legislation has mandated the public reporting of healthcare-associated infections, including VAP, in many states. Infectious disease experts have recently recommended monitoring a new outcome, ventilator-associated events (VAE), that contain specific objective criteria. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) have refined this definition and released a new VAE protocol and algorithm, replacing the VAP surveillance definition, as a result. The VAE protocol assesses for ventilatorassociated conditions (VAC). The primary aims of this study were to determine the incidence of VAC; and to assess four predictors for VAC, including two VAP prevention strategies (use of the subglottic secretion drainage endotracheal-tube [SSD-ETT]), and daily sedation vacation); and two patient-related factors (alcohol withdrawal during mechanical ventilation, and history of COPD). In addition, the incidence for VAE, using a new national algorithm was determined. Using a retrospective study design, electronic medical records of 280 veterans were reviewed to identify cases of VAC using the VAE algorithm. The setting was two intensive care units (ICU) at a large Veterans Administration Healthcare System (VAHCS) from October 2009 to September 2011. In addition to demographic information, variables were collected to determine if cases met event criteria (VAC, infection-related ventilator-associated complication
The Role of Attitude toward Challenge in Serious Game Design

ABSTRACT This paper proposes that challenge, an orthogonal game attribute, can be used to improve game effectiveness. The results of our study suggest that attitude toward challenge should be considered when we tune challenge in the serious game for better learning results. A significant moderating role of attitude toward challenge is found in the relationship between challenge and self-efficacy. Investigating from the perspective of game attributes together with players’ attitude toward the attributes is a good approach to improving game design. Our approach of game improvement is a clear, explicit and one-to-one approach to relate game attributes and attitudes toward them.
HIGH SCHOOL ADVISORY PROGRAM AND ITS EFFECTS ON STUDENTS AND TEACHER ADVISORS IN AN INTERNATIONAL SETTING.

ii Dedication . iii Preface . iv Acknowledgements . vi Chapter 1 Overview . 1 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Problem of Practice . 2 Advisory programs (and why high schools need them) . 2 Problem Statement . 5 Theoretical Frameworks . 6 Literature Review . 7 Evolution of Schools . 7 Need for program innovation/competition. 9 Experiential/authentic experiences. 11 Evolution of teacher role . 12 Teacher self-efficacy. 13 Lack of training and preparation. 15 Fostering teacher-student relationships . 16 Culturally relevant and deep relationships in the midst of wide cultural diversity and mobility. 18 Perceived social support. 20 Summary of Factors and Underlying Causes . 22 Chapter 2 Overview . 24 Chapter 2: Empirical examination of the factor and underlying causes . 25 Professional Context . 25 Problem of Practice in Context . 25 Purpose . 26 Method . 28 Participants . 28 Students. 28 Teachers. 29 Secondary data on school climate. 29 Measures . 29 Students. 30 Teachers. 31 Secondary data on school climate. 34 Data Collection Methods . 34 Students. 34 Teachers. 35 Secondary data on school climate. 35 Findings and Discussions . 35 Student Survey Results . 36 RQ1. What is the transition experience of students? 36 RQ2. What is the perceived social support and academic press students feel from their advisors? 36 RQ3. Do students consider their advisors as part of their attachment network? 38 RQ4. Do students perceive an influence from their advisors inside and outside of the school setting? 38 Teacher survey results . 39 RQ5. How effective do teachers feel in their role as advisors? 39 RQ6. What is the teacher advisor’s knowledge and perspective on the supportive and transition activities of the program? 40 RQ7. What are teacher preferences in regard to the advisory program’s organization? 41 School climate survey results . 41
Investigating the Acceptance of Electronic Banking in the Rural Areas of Pakistan: An Application of the Unified Model

The fast-growing phenomenon of electronic banking (e-banking) has taken the world by surprise, and despite its proliferation across the globe, its acceptance has not been too encouraging, especially in the rural areas of the developing countries. This study revolves around this very key issue of e-banking acceptance in the rural areas of Pakistan by employing a comprehensive framework of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), called a unified model by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003). This paper extends the unified model through personality openness and investigates the moderation of trust between behavioral intentions and usage behavior. Using a survey-based questionnaire, data were collected from the customers of rural areas of Pakistan. The authors obtained 434 valid responses from universitiesâ€™ students having a rural background and resultantly analyzed through structural equation modeling with Smart-PLS. Our results reveal that performance expectancy, social influence, and effort expectancy have significant and positive impact on behavioral intentions of rural customers in Pakistan. Moreover, we find that personality openness significantly shapes behavioral intentions and trust on the internet moderates between customersâ€™ intentions and their usage of e-banking. The study broadens the understanding of e-banking in rural areas which might help future researchers and regulators to know and enhance their policy formulation.
Female Student Perceptions of Factors that Influence Persistence in Male-Dominated Community College Career and Technical Education Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Programs

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iv DEDICATION . vi LIST OF TABLES . xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . xiv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . xv CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION . 1 Background of the Study . 6 Statement of the Problem . 7 Purpose of the Study . 9 Research Objectives . 9 Significance of the Study . 10 Conceptual Framework . 11 Delimitations . 12 Assumptions of the Study . 13 Definition of Terms. 13 Organization of the Study . 15 Summary . 15 CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW . 16 vii
Catalytic activation of peroxymonosulfate with manganese cobaltite nanoparticles for the degradation of organic dyes

In this work, we report the facile hydrothermal synthesis of manganese cobaltite nanoparticles (MnCo2O4.5 NPs) which can efficiently activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the generation of sulfate free radicals (SO4˙−) and degradation of organic dyes. The synthesized MnCo2O4.5 NPs have a polyhedral morphology with cubic spinel structure, homogeneously distributed Mn, Co, and O elements, and an average size less than 50 nm. As demonstrated, MnCo2O4.5 NPs showed the highest catalytic activity among all tested catalysts (MnO2, CoO) and outperformed other spinel-based catalysts for Methylene Blue (MB) degradation. The MB degradation efficiency reached 100% after 25 min of reaction under initial conditions of 500 mg L−1 Oxone, 20 mg L−1 MnCo2O4.5, 20 mg L−1 MB, unadjusted pH, and T = 25 °C. MnCo2O4.5 NPs showed a great catalytic activity in a wide pH range (3.5–11), catalyst dose (10–60 mg L−1), Oxone concentration (300–1500 mg L−1), MB concentration (5–40 mg L−1), and temperature (25–55 °C). HCO3−, CO32− and particularly Cl− coexisting anions were found to inhibit the catalytic activity of MnCo2O4.5 NPs. Radical quenching experiments revealed that sulfate radicals are primarily responsible for MB degradation. A reaction sequence for the catalytic activation of PMS was proposed. The as-prepared MnCo2O4.5 NPs could be reused for at least three consecutive cycles with small deterioration in their performance due to low metal leaching. This study suggests a facile route for synthesizing MnCo2O4.5 NPs with high catalytic activity for PMS activation and efficient degradation of organic dyes.
Cycles of curves, cover counts, and central invariants

The first topic of this dissertation is the moduli space of curves. I define half-spin relations, specialising Pandharipande-Pixton-Zvonkine’s spin relations, to reprove Buryak-Shadrin-Zvonkine’s result on the dimension of the top Chow group for the open moduli space, and give new bounds for the lower groups. I also use these relations to reduce Faber’s intersection number conjecture to a combinatorial identity. The second is Hurwitz numbers. I prove quasi-polynomiality for orbifold simple, weakly and strictly monotone, and spin Hurwitz numbers. In the first case, this was already known, via the Johnson-Pandharipande-Tseng formula, and in the other cases this is new. I also prove that triply mixed double Hurwitz numbers satisfy piecewise polynomiality. For monotone and for orbifold spin Hurwitz numbers, I derive a cut-and-join-equation and prove topological recursion (for r = 2 and for genus zero, general r in the latter case). The former was known by Goulden-Guay-Paquet-Novak. The latter proves Zvonkine’s r-ELSV formula for these cases. The third is integrable hierarchies. I reprove a result by Alexandrov, showing that triple Hodge integrals on the moduli space of curves satisfy the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili hierarchy, generalising Kazarian’s single Hodge integral proof. I give a new and purely cohomological proof of Dubrovin-Liu-Zhang’s theorem, that integrable hierarchies described by dispersive semi-simple Poisson pencils are classified by central invariants, and I streamline Carlet-Posthuma-Shadrin’s proof that this is an equivalence.
The Performance of ESEM and BSEM in Structural Equation Models with Ordinal Indicators

ABSTRACT Recent developments allow for incorporating exploratory features into structural equation models (SEM). Two approaches, exploratory SEM (ESEM) and Bayesian SEM (BSEM), have been shown flexible of estimating complex SEM. This simulation study compared the performance of ESEM and BSEM for estimating structural regression models with ordinal indicators where cross-loadings were present in selected factors. Data were generated under conditions including various categorical data distributions, similarity of categorical distributions across indicators, and sample sizes. ESEM with Geomin rotation and BSEM with four small-variance normal priors on cross-loadings were used. Results indicated that ESEM may be prioritized over BSEM when sample sizes were large, distributions of ordinal indicators were symmetric or moderately asymmetric, and cross-loadings were non-ignorable. When sample sizes were relatively small, we recommend using one approach to complement the other. For BSEM, a sensitivity test is recommended to evaluate the impact of various prior choices on the estimation outcomes.
Numerical simulation of the heat transfer of staggered drop-shaped tubes bundle

Tube bundles can be used as a separation heat exchanger in the “organic” Rankine cycle power plants (ORC), while the hot gas passes over the outer surface, and the working substance ORC flows inside the tubes. A numerical study has been conducted to clarify heat transfer and hydrodynamics of a cross-flow heat exchanger with staggered drop-shaped tubes at different flow angles of attack (θ). A mathematical and numerical model in software package ANSYS has been developed for numerical evaluation of heat transfer and flow field of a bundle of drop-shaped tubes, with taking into account the strain caused by different pressures inside and outside the tubes. The results of numerical simulation of pressure, velocity, temperature distribution in the tube’s bundle had provided the development of equation to determine the average Nusselt number (Nu) in terms of Reynolds number (Re), Prandtl number (Pr) and angle of attack.
The Impact of Physical Activity on the Academic Performance among Medical and Health Sciences Students: A Cross Sectional Study from RAKMHSU - Ras Alkhaimah-UAE

Physical activity is a crucial component of school curricula as it is suggested to increase the students’ academic performance. This may be applied in the university age group, especially when considering medical and health sciences colleges where higher stress levels are recorded. Aim: To assess the relationship between physical activity and academic performance among medical and health sciences students. Methods: an online questionnaire-based cross sectional study involved 198 students from RAK Medical and Health Sciences University was conducted to identify the level of physical activity and academic performance. Results were tabulated and analyzed using SPSS. Results: there was significant positive correlation between physical activity and academic performance (r = 0.208). However, the correlation was higher for BDS College with no significant difference with regard to nationality, age and gender.
Improvements of and Extensions to FSMWeb: Testing Mobile Apps

A mobile application is a software program that runs on mobile device. In 2017, 178.1 billion mobile apps downloaded and the number is expected to grow to 258.2 billion app downloads in 2022 [19]. The number of app downloads poses a challenge for mobile application testers to find the right approach to test apps. This dissertation extends the FSMWeb approach for testing web applications [50] to test mobile applications (FSMApp). During the process of analyzing FSMWeb how it could be extended to test Mobile Apps, a number of shortcomings were detected which we improved upon. We discuss these first. We present an approach to generate black-box tests to test fail-safe behavior for web applications. We apply the approach to a large commercial web application. The approach uses a functional (behavioral) model to generate tests. It then determines at which states in the execution of behavioral test failures can occur and what mitigation requirements need to be tested. Mitigation requirements are used to build mitigation models for each failure type. From those mitigation models failure mitigation tests are generated. Next, this dissertation provides an approach for selective black-box model-based fail-safe regression testing for web applications. It classifies existing tests and test requirements as reusable, retestable, and obsolete. Removing reusable test requirements reduces test requirements between 49% to 65% in the case study. The approach also uses partial regeneration for new tests wherever possible. Third, we present the new FSMApp approach to test mobile applications and compare the
Remote Measurements of X-Rays Dose Rate Using a Cerium-Doped Air-Clad Optical Fiber

Cerium doped silica glasses are attractive materials for radiation dosimetry. In this article, Ce-doped air-clad optical fiber has been fabricated for real-time X-ray dose rate measurements through the radioluminescence (RL) signal. The structural properties of the obtained material were studied using Raman spectroscopy. The presence of Ce3+ ions inside the sol-gel-derived silica core was confirmed using photoluminescence (PL) measurements. This optical fiber, with a high numerical aperture, was tested as active and guiding material in an all-fibered remote X-ray dosimeter configuration. We demonstrated that the response dependence of RL versus dose rate is linear from 52 mGy(SiO2)/s up to at least 1.5 Gy(SiO2)/s, allowing to monitor the dose rate evolution during an irradiation run. The presented results confirm the potentialities of this microstructured optical fiber to monitor ionizing radiations in harsh environments. They also pave the way toward an alternative to the widely used approach that uses scintillator material at the end of a transport’s optical fiber.
Effect of Service Quality and Brand Image on Repurchase Intention through Word of Mouth at Budget Hotels Airy Rooms

The study done aimed to analyze the factors that could affect repurchase intention. The study aimed to measure the effect of service quality, brand image, and word of mouth on repurchase intention. Furthermore, the study was also to measure the most dominant factors in affecting repurchase intention, both direct and indirect effects. Semarang City was chosen as a representative place because it had the lowest room occupancy level among the provincial capitals in Java Island. The result of analysis shows that service quality, brand image, and word of mouth affected repurchase intention, both directly and indirectly. The most directly affecting variable was the word-of-mouth variable, while the variable that had indirect effect through the word-of-mouth variable was brand image. The contribution of all variables studied in affecting repurchase intention was 93.7 percent, it means that there were other factors affecting repurchase intention beyond the variables studied.
Sex differences in heart failure

This thesis examined differences between men and women with heart failure. First, it was shown that biological sex is a strong modulator in the clinical expression of various cardiomyopathies. In the general population it was shown that men are more likely to develop heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and also at a younger age. This is mainly due to myocardial infarction. On the other hand, women are at higher risk of developing heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, especially with older age and with atrial fibrillation. In chronic heart failure female sex is strongly associated with specific clinical features, such as advanced age, hypertension, a preserved ejection fraction, and they often have symptoms of congestion. Regardless of these differences, women have a better prognosis. However, it is unclear whether the biological background affects this survival benefit in women. Inflammation parameters and other biomarkers were significantly lower in women compared to men with heart failure, and some also have a gender prognostic value. In acute heart failure women have specific co-morbidities, such as hypertension, diabetes and depression, compared with men. During hospitalization for acute heart failure the biological status of heart failure is less advanced in women compared to men and this could possibly explain the differences in prognosis. It also appears that female sex is an independent predictor of relief from dyspnea, regardless of other factors.