bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Artificial Intelligence Biosensing System on Hand Gesture Recognition for the Hearing Impaired
Authors: Padmanandam Kayal , M. V. Rajesh , N. Upadhyaya Ajay , Chandra K, Ramesh , B, Chandrashekar , Sah Swati
Published: September 2022

AI technologies have the potential to help deaf individuals communicate. Due to the complexity of sign fragmentation and the inadequacy of capturing hand gestures, the authors present a sign language recognition (SLR) system and wearable surface electromyography (sEMG) biosensing device based on a Deep SLR that converts sign language into printed message or speech, allowing people to better understand sign language and hand motions. On the forearms, two armbands containing a biosensor and multi-channel sEMG sensors are mounted to capture quite well arm and finger actions. Deep SLR was tested on an Android and iOS smartphone, and its usefulness was determined by comprehensive testing. Sign Speaker has a considerable limitation in terms of recognising two-handed signs with smartphone and smartwatch. To solve these issues, this research proposes a new real-time end-to-end SLR method. The average word error rate of continuous sentence recognition is 9.6%, and detecting signals and recognising a sentence with six sign words takes less than 0.9 s, demonstrating Deep SLR's recognition.
African-American Males and Psychological Safety in Workplaces and Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
Authors: Burrell Darrell Norman
Published: September 2022

Psychological safety is crucial for positive community and workplace cultures, especially for workers of diverse communities, including African Americans, in periods of crisis. This qualitative study examined Black men's lived experiences with psychological safety in their communities and workplaces relative to the recent environment of biological and social pandemics. The study confirmed some collective phenomena, particularly exhibiting the need for managers to understand, respect, and value that Black male employees' specific experiences are different in ways that often do not allow them to divorce themselves from their experiences with racism stereotypes and racial profiling when they enter the workplace.
Fine Tuning CNN for COVID-19 Patterns Detection From Chest Radiographs
Authors: Jain Anju , Ratnoo Saroj , Kumar Dinesh
Published: September 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has crumbled health systems all over the world. Quick and accurate detection of coronavirus infection plays an important role in timely referral of physicians and control transmission of the disease. RT-PCR is the most widely test used for identification of COVID-19 patients, but it takes long to deliver the report. Researchers around the world are looking for alternative machine learning techniques including deep learning to assist the medical experts for early COVID-19 disease diagnosis from medical imaging such as chest films. This study proposes an enhanced convolutional neural network (EConvNet) model for the presence and absence of coronavirus disease from chest radiographs to contain this pandemic. The model is accurate compared to the traditional machine learning algorithms (RF, SVM, etc.). The suggested CNN model is approximately as accurate as the classifiers based on transfer learning (such as InceptionV3, VGG16, and Densenet121). Despite being simple in terms of number of parameters learnt, it takes less training time and demands less memory.
Digital Distractions and Remote Work
Authors: Nakayama Makoto , Chen Charlie C.
Published: September 2022

The number of remote workforces proliferates to cope with the global pandemic and related stay-at-home restrictions. Remote work is more likely to persist even after the global pandemic. However, many remote workers face coping and managing digital distraction challenges as they rely on digital devices for personal and professional matters. Do they have more digital distractions for remote work at home than in the office? What factors increase and decrease the productivity of remote workers, especially concerning digital distraction? The analysis of a survey questionnaire from 87 remote workers shows that the impact of digital distraction depends on its sources. Remote workers experience more digital distraction with email and texting at home than in the office. The digital distraction that negatively lowers their work performance derives from viewing online videos. However, goal commitment in work and life can counteract such negative influences. Implications are discussed for optimizing their work performance.
Supportive Leadership and Post-Adoption Use of MOOCs
Authors: Ahmed Fawad , Faraz Naveed Ahmad , Ahmad Nisar , Iqbal Muhammad Khalid
Published: September 2022

Educational institutions face significant challenges in extracting interest from their investments in massive open online courses (MOOCs). This study examined the impact of supportive leadership style on university employees' continued use of MOOCs and assessed the mediating role of their innovative work behavior. It uses a multi-theory perspective as opposed to the majority of past studies that use singular theoretical perspectives and extends the information system continuance (ISC) model with the leadership concept. Researchers collected multi-source dyadic data for this cross-sectional study from 632 employees and 316 supervisors from 19 Chinese universities. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least squares through SmartPLS 3.2.9. Results indicate supportive leadership influences employees' innovative behavior, which mediates between supportive leadership and employees' satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and intention to continue using MOOCs.
Synthesis of Poly(O-Anisidine)-Coated Kapok Fibers for Removal of Methylene Blue Dye
Authors: Bayer Jr. Rex J. , Aquino Christian Laurence E. , Balela Mary Donnabelle L.
Published: September 2022

In this study, an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye based on kapok fiber coated with Poly (o-Anisidine) (KF-PoA) was synthesized. Raw KF were first pre-treated with NaClO2 to improve wettability. KF was then coated with PoA via in-situ oxidative polymerization with varying amounts of o-Anisidine monomer using a fixed amount of (NH4)2S2O8 as initiator and oxidant. The morphology of the synthesized KF-PoA was observed under a scanning electron microscope. The fabricated adsorbents were subjected to adsorption experiments to assess their performance in removing MB dye. It was found that 2.0 mL of o-Anisidine performed best during the initial batch adsorption test, owing to more adsorption sites. Kinetic studies show rapid removal of MB within 10 min of adsorption. The adsorption process was found to be accurately described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with k2=0.0443 min-1 and a calculated equilibrium adsorption capacity at 53.48 mg/g. The removal of MB from the solution may be attributed to the electrostatic interaction between the quaternary ammonium cation head of MB onto the amine groups of PoA.
Mercury Bio Adsorption (Hg) in Aqueous Solution through Mexican Coast’s Pelagic Sargassum
Authors: Espinosa-Garza Gerardo , Hernández Imelda Loera , Treviño María Guadalupe Moreno
Published: September 2022

This article aims to investigate the effectiveness of Sargassum in eliminating mercury in wastewater. The most toxic form of mercury is the methyl mercury, as 90% is absorbed in the body, and mercury chloride only by 2%. Current cleaning methods can be very expensive. Some adverse effects of methyl mercury include, mainly, damage to the brain and kidneys, but it can also cause nervous system disorders. The percentage of Mercury adsorbed by sargassum was analyzed, varying contact times, sargassum concentrations and particle size in microns. Several processes were used, as 4 kilos of sargassum were washed with detergent and water, dehydration techniques were applied to dry the product inside a drying oven, and pulverization was also implemented to obtain 1800 g in different particle sizes (from 100 microns to 300 microns) of product. Subsequently, solutions were prepared with concentrations of Mercury ranging from 10 to 100 ppb. To analyze the effectiveness of its adsorption, 2, 4 and 6 grams of sargassum were deposited in said solutions at contact times of 20, 40 and 60 minutes to finally calculate the decontamination rates of water by different formulas. The fatty acid profile was also analyzed for the adsorbent for a possibility of another property of sargassum.
Study of the Chromium VI Adsorption by the Employment of a Biocomposite Based on Rice Husk and Chitosan
Authors: Lopez-Chavez Marcela , Silva-Vela Alejandro , Huanca-Zuñiga Paul , Gallegos-Florez Daily , Almirón Jonathan , Tupayachy-Quispe Danny
Published: September 2022

This current work has focused on the evaluation of the hexavalent chromium – Cr (VI) adsorption carried out by a biocomposite based on rice husk and chitosan. The chromium IV is an agro industrial contaminant residual while chitosan is a natural biopolymer with a great adsorption of heavy metals. Conditions for the biosorption such as concentrations of rice husk and Cr (VI) alongside the contact time, were identified in order to achieve the highest biosorpion of the heavy metal – Cr (VI). The morphology of rice husk, carried out in a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), showed a porous surface which can allow the adherence of chitosan. Different concentrations of rice husk (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 ) were used for the synthesis of the biopolymer. Furthermore, the capacity of Cr (VI) adsorption of the biocomposite based on rice husk and chitosan was evaluated throughout the contact time, resulting in a 68.28 % of Cr (IV) removal at 120 minutes. Additionally, the results of the experimental design consistent with the adsorption kinetic designs are shown in this work.
Elimination of Hg (II) in Water by Adsorption through Banana
Authors: Espinosa-Garza Gerardo , Hernández Imelda Loera , Vázquez Edgardo Jorge Escalante
Published: September 2022

Banana peel is a low-cost resource that can be used in a wide range of chemical and industrial processes. The novelty of this research is the use of dehydrated and sieved banana peel to remove mercury from water. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the capacity of the banana peel as an adsorbent capable of removing mercury from contaminated water. It has been shown to be an efficient, low-cost, and environmentally friendly process because banana peel is an environmental waste. To determine the ability of the banana peel to adsorb mercury, the following variables were considered: Hg concentration in water (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 ppb), particle size of the banana peel (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 microns), quantity of banana peel per 125 ml of solution contaminated with Hg (2 and 5 grams), the contact time was (20, 40 and 60 minutes); it was not necessary to modify the pH of the solutions to obtain high % of mercury removal. The minerals and fatty acids present in the banana peel were also analyzed to improve the interpretation of the adsorption results. A higher adsorption capacity of mercury was perceived with a banana peel sieved at 150 microns; the results are consistent with other research works such as Cd (II) adsorption according to Azarpira et al. [1] where absorption is improved by decreasing the particle size of the filter material. The effectiveness of bioadsorption depends on the initial concentration of mercury ions and the filter material, the particle size of the filter material, the contact time between the mercury ions and the filter material and the pH (although in this project it is not this variable has been intervened). This study demonstrates that the banana peel used as an adsorbent is very efficient and inexpensive for removing mercury from wastewater. It became possible to demonstrate that the amount of Hg adsorbed per unit mass of absorbent increases with increasing initial Hg concentration in contaminated water, as in other metals [1]. The results of this study have confirmed the viability of using banana peel as an effective alternative for removing mercury from mercury-contaminated waters. Future studies will help to evaluate the economic use of this bioadsorbent and the identification of the main active elements it possesses in mercury adsorption. This study will allow a deeper understanding of the mercury absorption process and will verify the potential possibilities of methods to improve the adsorption process.
Long Term Thermal Performance of Palm Oil and Nano Graphene Filler in Nanofluids Application on Transformer Insulating Oil and Electrical Breakdown Voltage
Authors: Wajanasoonthon Kanin , Suksri Amnart
Published: September 2022

Mineral oil has been used as electrical insulation for a long time due to its availability, excellent cooling and dielectric property. However, petroleum sources are nonrenewable, and it is depleting. Vegetable insulating oil is an alternative since it is renewable, environment-friendly, biodegradable, high fire-point, and has a good electrical breakdown voltage level. These properties can make vegetable insulating oil as a replacement for mineral oil that is going to be limited in availability. Nevertheless, vegetable insulating oil have high viscosity, leading to a slow flow rate on the cooling performance. This research is to investigate the breakdown voltage of palm oil-based liquid insulators. This liquid is palm oil methyl esters-based nanofluids (NPME) that was converted from the transesterification process to reduce viscosity and mixed with graphene nanoparticles. These nanofluids were also aged by thermal aging at 100 °C for 168, 336 and 504 hours before testing for their electrical breakdown voltage. The results show that the transesterification process can reduce the viscosity of palm oil by about 6.6 times. Also, the breakdown voltage of nanofluids is higher than bare palm oil methyl ester after thermal aging for 504 hours.
Effects of Pruning Residues from Blueberry Bushes Powder on the Physical and Rheological Properties of Bitumen
Authors: Alegre Patricia Figueroa , Cardoza Martin Arévalo , Cano Gustavo Llerena , Durán Gary
Published: September 2022

Bitumen is a hydrocarbon product prone to oxidative aging. For this reason, the aim of this study is to evaluate physical and rheological properties of modified bitumen with pruning residues from blueberry bushes powder (RPA), anti-aging natural compound, to reduce the oxidative damage of bitumen. Rolling thin film oven test (RTFOT) was performed to simulate short term aging of modified bitumen with 2, 6 and 10% RPA by weight. The results of conventional tests (penetration, softening point, ductility and rotational viscosity) indicated that the addition of RPA increases the stiffness of bitumen and decreases its temperature susceptibility. In addition, dynamic shear rheometer test (DSR) shows that modified binders improve their resistance against deformation and enhance their elastic response. The 6% RPA binder demonstrated better oxidative aging resistance without compromising its performance at low temperature.
Stabilization of Tropical Residual Soil with Cement and Biomass Bottom Ash
Authors: Busabongpaitoon Sopanat , Lukjan Arun , Iyaruk Arsit
Published: September 2022

This paper investigates an experimental study of cement-stabilized lateritic soil (CSLS) for road construction. The investigation focused on the mechanical properties and the potential of using biomass bottom ash (BBA) as aggregate materials based on the soil-cement standard of Thailand. CSLS specimens were prepared with different contents of BBA (40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%) and hydraulic cement (3%, 5%, and 7%). A series of unconfined compression tests were carried out to present the strength development of the mixtures. The strength development index value indicated the feasibility of using BBA as aggregate materials with the replacement of the lateritic soil (LS) mass by 60% or more. The replacement of LS by BBA of 80% with 5% cement for soil-cement subbase, and 7% cement for soil-cement base courses, is recommended.
Effect of pH on Hydroxyapatite Formation in Amino Acid Capped Gold Nanoparticles
Authors: Sari Yessie Widya , Tsalsabila Annisa , Mahardi Bangkit , Herbani Yuliati
Published: September 2022

The gold nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using the chemical reduction method. The surface of gold nanoparticles was modified using three different charges of amino acid. The amino acid that used in this study was cysteine, arginine, and glutamic acid. The calcium and phosphate sources were added to amino acid capped gold nanoparticle solution to obtain hydroxyapatite. Hydroxyapatite is an inorganic material for teeth and bone tissue engineering. The morphological properties of the samples were investigated using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM). Different morphological characteristic was seen in different pH synthesis. The pH variation was normal pH that form in the solution and pH adjusted to 10 using NaOH in the hydroxyapatite formation. The elemental composition was also investigated using Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDS) analysis. The elemental mapping was shown the homogeneity composition distribution of Ca and P on the sample pH adjustment that contains cysteine. The EDS results indicate the adjusted pH to 10 was potentially formed hydroxyapatite with a Ca/P ratio close to the theory.
Graphene Nanoplatelets Effect on Electrical Tree Inhibition in Epoxy Resin Insulator
Authors: Khaibuth Panupong , Suksri Amnart
Published: September 2022

Epoxy resin is widely used in high voltage insulator material because of its high dielectric strength. Electrical tree phenomena are one of an electrical insulation degradation. It is easily initiated due to the distorted high electrical field. In this study, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) with the contents of 0.003-0.010 wt.% (2.6-8.8 mg) were filled into epoxy resin to improve electrical tree inhibiting ability. Treeing experiments were conducted at a fixed voltage of 15 kV, 50 Hz. LCD digital microscope was used to observe the electrical tree inhibition of GNPs in epoxy resin. The digital image of insulators sample was then analyzed by MATLAB program. The percentage of electrical tree damages of GNPs content of 0.007 wt.% was found at 2.75 %. Experimental results showed that electrical tree has propagated from main branch tree to many small branches. The distributed electrical tree around the main branches occurred after the addition of GNPs. Filling GNPs content of 0.005 wt.% will result to a complex branch tree structure with much longer branches than others. Nevertheless, the average tree length was inhibited at the GNPs filling contents of 0.003 to 0.007 wt.%.
The Influence of Ferronickel Slag as a Replacement of Quartz Sand upon Compressive and Flexural Strength of Reactive Powder Concrete
Authors: Kimsan Masykur , Edwin Romy Suryaningrat , Hasim Minhar , Tamburaka Irmawatty Paula , Pramono Bambang , Azis Asminar , de Belie Nele , Gruyaert Elke
Published: September 2022

This paper aims to evaluate mechanical behavior (compressive and flexural strength) of reactive powder concrete (RPC) with ferronickel slag (FNS) as quartz sand replacement. Standard laboratory tests were performed i.e. sieve analysis to determine the particle size distribution of the FNS, slump and density tests as well as compressive and flexural tests on the RPC. Promising results were obtained in this study. An increased consistency and density were observed upon increasing the FNS content. The utilization of FNS could lead to a compressive strength value of 86 MPa at 28 days. A higher strength enhancement in the early curing days (7 days) was observed than in the longer curing days (28 days), when FNS mixes were compared to reference mixes. The flexural strength result demonstrated two different phenomena at two different ages, where there was a slight rise at 7 days and relatively no increment at 28 days when FNS mixes were compared to the reference mixture.
Potential of Biodegradable Magnesium Alloys for Medical Applications
Authors: Quan Pham Hong , Manescu Paltanea Veronica , Paltanea Gheorghe , Antoniac Iulian , Nemoianu Iosif Vasile
Published: September 2022

Biodegradability of magnesium alloys in physiological media is important for material use in implant manufacture industry. Two industrial Mg alloys ZQ71 and ZQ63 were investigated. Optical microscopy was used to put in evidence microstructure. The conclusions are correlated with obtained results after scanning electron microscopy investigations coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The evaluation of the hydrogen released rate was analyzed in laboratory made simulated body fluid (SBF) and Hanks’ solution at 37°C for 10 days. Different degradation rates are obtained, and it can be concluded that they depend on chemical composition of the alloys and on immersion time of the samples in different physiological solutions.
Fabrication and Characterization of Nanozeolite-Modified High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) Membranes for Nanofiltration
Authors: Valeros Angelica A. , Panganiban Angelica , Millare Jeremiah C.
Published: September 2022

The present study utilized high-impact polystyrene, a polymer with good mechanical, thermal and chemical stability, for its potential as a filter material and matrix for nanozeolite – a well-known adsorbent for wastewater treatment. Different concentrations of nanozeolite (0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75%) were added to the high-impact polystyrene matrix and were fabricated intocomposite membranes via hand-casting method. The membranes were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Contact Angle Goniometer to discuss their functionality in the removal of nanocontaminants from wastewater like dyes. Results showed that nanozeolite can control the porosity and pore size of the High-impact polystyrene polymer while also improving its hydrophilicity; these are important considerations in the removal of organic dyes from wastewater.
Prediction of Direct Tensile Strength of Bamboo Fiber Reinforced Concrete Using Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Baniel Ma Olivia Q. , Estores Gilford
Published: September 2022

Bamboo is among the most economically-significant non-timber forest products in the Philippines, and its fiber can be used for concrete reinforcement, known as bamboo fiber reinforced concrete (BFRC). However, BFRC needs further exploration, and its direct tensile strength is an essential factor that needs to be studied. The present study assessed the direct tensile strength of BFRC utilizing finite element modeling (FEM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A positive correlation was found between compressive and direct tensile strength of the BFRC. The optimum ANN model was obtained from the trial-error approach. This model has 5-5-1 (input-hidden neurons-output) network topology and uses the tan sigmoid transfer function for both input-hidden and hidden-output layer which brought the most accurate prediction. The Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) provided the best optimization performance among other algorithms. The best model has a mean squared error (MSE) of 0.0000287 and r values of 0.98619, 0.99936, 0.99516, and 0.98565 for training, testing, validating, and overall. Sensitivity Analysis shows that compressive can significantly change the system’s performance even with a small change in its parameter value.
Faculty Perceptions on Academic Entitlement in Graduate Health Professional Students
Authors: Ellis Jill M. , Bacon-Baguley Theresa A. , Otieno Sango
Published: September 2022

Objective:

This descriptive study evaluates faculty perceptions of academic entitlement (AE) in graduate health professional students.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used. Demographic data and faculty perceptions on the prevalence of AE in physician assistant students using two validated surveys were collected. One survey assessed AE as a unidimensional construct, and the second used a two-factor scale to assess entitled expectations (EE) and externalized responsibility (ER). The EE subscale assessed student expectations of faculty, and the ER subscale pertained to student expectations of the educational system. Faculty were recruited via email. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results:

One hundred sixty-eight faculty participated in the survey. On the Academic Entitlement Questionnaire and EE subscale score, faculty perceived high AE. They did not agree as strongly with items on the ER subscale. The highest AE perceptions were related to grades, professor roles, course delivery format, exam preparation, exam accommodations, and student responsibility to make up missed work. Faculty reported lower AE levels related to group work, university resources availability, consumerism, and professor knowledge.

Conclusions:

The sample population was well representative of graduate health faculty based on gender, ethnicity, race, age, years of experience, and tenure in education. Faculty reported high levels of AE in physician assistant students. Understanding faculty perception of students’ AE is essential because it can influence educators’ ability to create an environment for effective learning. Faculty should self-reflect and establish teaching strategies to mitigate AE and promote student learning.
Promoting Growth Mindset in Occupational Therapy Education
Authors: Edwards Chelsey
Published: September 2022

Occupational therapy education has seen an increase in rigor and scholarly expectations throughout the years as many programs transition to the doctoral level. Because of this, students continue to struggle with a fixed mindset of their perceived academic abilities. Increasing growth mindset in graduate occupational therapy students is described and further discussed in this article in order to facilitate the development of academically and emotionally prepared occupational therapy practitioners. Growth mindset examples are further described in congruence with the literature on student self-reports of what impacts their perceived ability of intelligence.
Creating a Teaching Technician Team for Support of Veterinary Student Training Laboratories
Authors: Malone Erin D. , Brown Abby L.
Published: September 2022

Veterinary technicians play valuable roles in most veterinary colleges and have particular strengths in coaching new learners. We moved to a teaching technician ‘float team’ model to provide teaching support to core pre-clinical laboratories in our DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) curriculum. The teaching technician team model has enabled us to better utilize staff skill sets and training, created efficiencies and expanded support provided to core laboratory courses, provided skill development and advancement opportunities for team members, and improved our ability to recognize and mentor our teaching staff. This model also allowed us to effectively adjust to the rapidly changing structure and increased numbers of laboratories brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic without increasing numbers of staff involved in laboratory teaching.
Successful Use of Pre-Class Videos from a Pharmacy Course for Pre-Class Learning in a Biomedical Graduate Course
Authors: McLaughlin Jacqueline E. , Greene Jessica , Anselmo Aaron C. , Olsen Amanda A. , Jay Michael , Hingtgen Shawn
Published: September 2022

Introduction:

Although flipped learning has experienced significant uptake within pharmacy schools, its use within related doctoral graduate programs is not well described or understood.

Materials and Methods:

Thirteen pre-class videos originally created for a Doctor of Pharmacy class were implemented as pre-class learning for a related Doctor of Philosophy class. In the Fall 2018 and Fall 2019, students completed a survey about their experiences, and faculty provided narrative feedback about their experiences.

Results:

Pre-class videos were positively rated by students, with most agreeing that they “prepared me for the content or activities in the corresponding class” (n = 16, 94.1%). Most agreed that doctoral courses “taught in a classroom should offer pre-recorded lectures” (n = 13, 76.5%). No significant differences were found by year or gender. Faculty subsequently increased their use of pre-class videos.

Conclusions:

This study is a first step toward exploring strategies for leveraging curriculum materials in flipped classrooms at schools offering multiple degree programs.
Medical Student and Faculty Perceptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Education and Personal Well-Being
Authors: Cruz Janet , Devito Julia , Cheung Cecilia , Vasireddy Aksheta , Stuparich Mallory A. , Nahas Samar , Behbehani Sadikah
Published: September 2022

Objective:

This is a retrospective questionnaire study, which aims to highlight the effects COVID-19 has had on medical education and personal well-being on medical students and faculty.

Materials and Methods:

An email containing two questionnaire links, one for medical students and the other for clinical faculty, was sent to medical institutions in California. The medical student questionnaire consists of 18 questions, and the faculty questionnaire consists of 15 questions.

Results:

The total number of participants who responded was 213; 160 were medical students and 44 were faculty. Forty-seven percent of medical students believe that their medical education has been negatively affected by the pandemic, and 49% strongly agree that lack of in-person communication has negatively affected medical education. Fifty-two percent of faculty indicated that they strongly agree medical education at their institution, which has been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; 46% somewhat agree that lack of in-person communication has negatively affected clinical education.

Conclusion:

Both faculty and medical students reported a decline in the quality of medical education, satisfaction, competency, and personal well-being during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and institutions must adopt a virtual interactive curriculum to improve both education and mental health.
Effects of platelet-rich fibrin in the surgical extraction of mandibular third molar
Authors: Rahman A. F. M. Shakilur
Published: September 2022

Background:

Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) has a wide variety of applications in the field of oral surgery due to its biological potential to accelerate the wound-healing process and tissue regeneration.

Aim:

The objective of this review was to find out whether the role of PRF had been reported to be efficient in the surgical extraction of mandibular third molar (M3).

Methods:

An electronic search of the English-language literature in the PubMed (Medline) database was performed for the period from January 2015 to September 2021. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the impact of PRF application were included in this review. According to the Cochrane Collaboration's standards, the reviewer assessed the risk of bias. Review Manager (version 5.4) Windows software was used for the meta-analysis.

Results:

A total of 39 papers were found in the computerized search, with 13 RCTs meeting the qualitative analysis requirements and 10 trials included in the meta-analysis. The results of a meta-analysis for M3 surgery showed that PRF reduces the incidence of alveolar osteitis (AO) (P = 0.005) and pain on the first (P = 0.05), third (P = 0.002), fourth (P = 0.01), and seventh (P = 0.0003) postoperative days. The meta-analysis also revealed that there was no substantial improvement (P = 0.44) in soft tissue healing with the application of PRF following M3 surgery.

Conclusions:

The application of PRF after M3 extraction decreased the incidence of AO and postextraction pain.
COVID-19 vaccination status of senior dentistry students and their views on the changing educational processes in Turkey
Authors: Özbey Hilal , Ertuǧrul Ceylan Çağıl
Published: September 2022

Background:

COVID-19 has spread rapidly all over the world and has become a global concern. After March 16, 2020, dental education in Turkey completely switched to online education.

Aim:

This survey aimed to evaluate the opinion of students about online education. In addition, it aimed to determine the COVID-19 vaccine status of the students and whether they contracted the disease.

Materials and Methods:

This study was conducted with the use of a web-based survey and 281 senior intern dentistry students from different universities in Turkey participated in the survey. The survey consisted of questions created to understand the view of the students on online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, there were questions about the COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 vaccine experiences of the students. Descriptive analyses were done and differences between the gender was analyzed with Mann–Whitney U-test at a significance level of P ≤ 0.05.

Results:

In the study, 68.32% of the students thought COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected theoretical education and 83.27% of them thought COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected practical education. Of the surveyed students, 28.82% of them had COVID-19 infection. The percentage of students who had at least 1 dose of vaccine was 98.58%.

Conclusions:

The study revealed the unsatisfactory experience of students with the newly introduced online education during COVID-19 pandemic. It is gratifying to notice the higher rate of vaccination among students.
The tooth eruption and its abnormalities - A narrative review
Authors: Sai Charan K V , Sangeetha R , Santana N. , Priya G Hema , Kumari M , Murali P , Gayathri V S
Published: September 2022

Background:

The process of tooth eruption is influenced by local, systemic, and genetic factors. Any disturbances in these factors might lead to abnormalities in the eruption of the tooth.

Aim:

The aim of this narrative review is to classify and discuss the eruption and its abnormality in detail.

Methods:

This narrative review was performed through an electronic search of data for the articles dealing with eruption, theories of eruption, and eruption abnormalities from the following databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Medknow, WebMD, and IndMed.

Results:

Based on our search, we were able to retrieve the information from 15 articles.

Conclusion:

A mastered eye in evaluating the radiographs, the practitioner's acquaintance with associated abnormalities, and the patient's clear history including familial and traumatic history might pave the way in arriving at an approximate diagnosis.
Trends and patterns of head-and-neck cancer among a cohort of bidi smokers
Authors: Gupta Juhi , Asadullah Md , Mariam Sarah , Jain Vipul , Verma Pradhuman , Agarwal Neha
Published: September 2022

Background:

In India, bidi smoking is prevalent among people of low socioeconomic status as it is cheaper than a cigarette.

Aim:

The aim of the current study was to analyze the pattern of distribution of oral and oropharyngeal cancer in bidi smokers in the Western Uttar Pradesh population.

Materials and Methods:

This unicentric cross-sectional study was conducted on patients having an exclusive habit of bidi smoking in the tertiary health care center from March 2019 to February 2022. Five hundred and eighty-five patients diagnosed with oropharyngeal or oral cancer, who were willing to share information related to the bidi smoking habit were enrolled. A Chi-square test and unpaired t-test were used for the statistical analysis.

Results:

The base of the tongue was found to be the most common site of oral cancer. It was our observation that 61.75% of men had cancer in the oropharynx, and about 34.8% had cancer in the oral cavity.

Conclusion:

Bidi smoke is dangerous and contains many carcinogenic agents. Bidi smokers have an increased risk of oropharyngeal cancer as compared to oral cancer.
Are smokeless tobacco products less harmful than smoking tobacco products?
Authors: Srivastav Monika , Kumar Thayalan Dinesh , Dony Elizabeth C
Published: September 2022

Background:

The common belief amongst the consumers of smokeless tobacco products is Smokeless Tobacco Products (STPs) are not hazardous as smoking tobacco. Any form of tobacco consumed is addictive and the nicotine absorbed from these products is manifold higher than the nicotine produced and delivered from a cigarette.

Aim:

The aim of this narrative review is to consolidate and summarize the data from various studies to find out whether smokeless tobacco products are less harmful than smoking tobacco products or vice-versa.

Method:

A comprehensive literature search was conducted using various databases like EBSCO, Google scholar, Pubmed, Embase from 1957 to 2021. The keywords used for search was 'smokeless tobacco products', 'bacterial population AND smokeless tobacco products', 'water content, pH in STP'.

Result:

In total, 52 articles were selected to analyze the parameters, which proved increasing carcinogenicity in smokeless tobacco products. Various parameters were analyzed which include pH, water content, manufacturing procedure of STP and microbial population in smokeless tobacco products.

Conclusion:

The literature search suggests that the microbial population in smokeless tobacco products acts as a cascading series of events in carcinogenesis and other opportunistic infections and concludes that smokeless tobacco products are equally harmful as smoking tobacco products.
HUBUNGAN LITERASI TEKNOLOGI DENGAN HASIL BELAJAR SISWA KELAS TINGGI SEKOLAH DASAR NEGERI 30 BANCOH
Authors: Nova Yanti Ursula , Wedyawati Nelly , Lisa Yasinta
Published: September 2022

Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan literasi teknologi dengan hasil belajar kognitif siswa kelas tinggi. Hasil belajar siswa kelas tinggi kurang memuaskan, hal ini dapat dilihat dari hasil nilai raport siswa, 56% siswa yang memperoleh nilai diatas KKM dan 44% siswa memperoleh nilai dibawah KKM. Penelitian termasuk jenis penelitian kuantitatif dengan bentuk penelitian korelasi kausal. Metode pengolahan data yang digunakan dalam penelitian adalah analisis regresi sederhana. Populasi yang digunakan dalam penelitian adalah seluruh siswa kelas tinggi. Metode pengambilan sampel yang digunakan adalah Probability Sampling, jumlah sampel dalam penelitian adalah seluruh siswa kelas tinggi yang berjumlah 59 siswa. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan komunikasi tidak langsung, alat pengumpulan data menggunakan koesioner/angket dan dokumentasi. Teknik analisis data menggunakan uji validitas dan realibilitas, uji asumsi klasik korelasi, dan analisis hasil. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa perhitungan uji t, diperoleh nilai bahwa Ho diterima dan Ha ditolak, dengan kesimpulannya yakni terdapat hubungan yang sangat tinggi antara literasi teknologi dengan hasil belajar siswa kelas tinggi di SD Negeri 30 Bancoh.
DAMPAK PEMBELAJARAN DARING TERHADAP HASIL BELAJAR SISWA SEKOLAH DASAR
Authors: Yudha Aji Pamungkas Novalia , Suswandari Meidawati , Fitrotiha Tiya Ayu Isnaini , Sapi’i Mohamad
Published: September 2022

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui faktor penyebab dan dampak selama pembelajaran daring terhadap hasil belajar siswa Sekolah Dasar.Selain itu, juga untuk mengupas apa saja yang menjadi penyebab kenaikan hasil belajar siswa yang sangat pesat dalam pembelajaran daring di masa pandemi ini. Penulisan ini dilakukan melalui studi pustaka. Objek penelitian ini adalah hasil belajar selama pembelajaran daring. Subjek penelitian adalah siswa Sekolah Dasar. Alat pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini adalah dengan mencari jurnal-jurnal dan buku dari berbagai media elektronik seperti: google scholar, google cendekia, dan garudaristekdikti. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah bibliografi beranotasi analisis. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa selama pembelajaran daring dapat berdampak pada hasil belajar siswa utamanya pada siswa Sekolah Dasar. Peran orang tua sangat diperlukan. Namun, peran ini jangan dimaknai untuk menggantikan tanggungjawab siswa. Hal ini akan menimbulkan dampak negatif seperti sifat ketergantungan, kurang percaya diri, tidak bertanggungjawab, dan tidak mandiri. Di sisi lain, peran guru sebagai penyedia platform belajar menarik memliki dampak positif seperti membentuk karakter siswa, siswa dapat mengeksplore pengetahuan, dan lebih termotivasi sehingga hasil belajar siswa dapat meningkat sesuai kemampuan.
ANALISIS PENGGUNAAN TIKTOK TERHADAP PERILAKU ADDICTED DI KALANGAN USIA SEKOLAH DASAR
Authors: Suswandari Meidawati , William Andri Siahaan Kevin , Maharromiyati  , Ratih Rosanawati I Made , Angganing Paradika , Wahyu Mega Alfhira Nabela
Published: September 2022

Penelitian ini memiliki tujuan untuk mendeskripsikan penggunaan aplikasi tiktok terhadap terhadap perilaku addicted di kalangan anak usia sekolah dasar. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah survey. Teknik dalam mengumpulkan data penelitian berupa kuesioner. Populasi yang dipergunakan adalah siswa usia sekolah dasar di desa Palur, Kecamatan Mojolaban, Kabupaten Sukoharjo, Jawa Tengah. Sampel dari riset ini sejumlah 20 siswa Sekolah Dasar yang tersebar di desa Palur. Sebanyak 20 siswa terdiri dari kelas I hingga kelas VI. Teknik analisis data menggunakan analisis data kuesioner. Hasil penelitian memperlihatkan bahwa media sosial tiktok memberikan pengaruh besar dalam kehidupan seseorang salahsatunya anak-anak di kalangan usia sekolah dasar di desa Palur sehingga mereka menjadi perilaku adiksi. Hal inilah yang menjadikan peran orangtua sangat diperlukan dalam mengkontrol dan mengawasi serta menyeleksi anak-anak mereka supaya tidak ketergantungan dengan media sosial tiktok.
EVALUASI PSIKOMOTORIK DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA BERBASIS HYBRID LEARNING
Authors: Veronika Sitepu Santa , Parulian Sijabat Oslen , Naibaho Tutiarny , Mayasari Simanjuntak Ruth
Published: September 2022

Artikel ini membahas tentang evaluasi psikomotorik dalam pembelajaran matematika berbasis hybrid learning. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian dengan pendekatan deskriptif kualitatif, melalui kajian telaah Pustaka, penggunaan buku dan jurnal yang berkaitan dengan artikel ini, sehingga diharapka artikel ini dapat menjadi acuan guru matematika dalam melakukan evaluasi psikomotorik dalam pembelajaran matematika berbasis hybrid learning. Salah satu dampak pandemi Covid-19 dalam bidang Pendidikan di Indonesia adalah penggunaan model pembelajaran Hybrid, dimana siswa dapat belajar secara daring (online learning) dan tatap muka di waktu bersamaan. Dalam pembelajaran matematika berbasis hybrid learning, guru dapat mengevaluasi ranah psikomotorik siswa dengan menggunakan teknik penilaian psikomotorik yang lebih bervariasi dan disesuaikan dengan kebutuhan belajar siswa, baik siswa yang belajar secara daring maupun tatap muka.
New Low-Memory Algebraic Attacks on LowMC in the Picnic Setting
Authors: Liu Fukang , Meier Willi , Sarkar Santanu , Isobe Takanori
Published: September 2022

The security of the post-quantum signature scheme Picnic is highly related to the difficulty of recovering the secret key of LowMC from a single plaintext-ciphertext pair. Since Picnic is one of the alternate third-round candidates in NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization process, it has become urgent and important to evaluate the security of LowMC in the Picnic setting. The best attacks on LowMC with full S-box layers used in Picnic3 were achieved with Dinur’s algorithm. For LowMC with partial nonlinear layers, e.g. 10 S-boxes per round adopted in Picnic2, the best attacks on LowMC were published by Banik et al. with the meet-in-the-middle (MITM) method.In this paper, we improve the attacks on LowMC in a model where memory consumption is costly. First, a new attack on 3-round LowMC with full S-box layers with negligible memory complexity is found, which can outperform Bouillaguet et al.’s fast exhaustive search attack and can achieve better time-memory tradeoffs than Dinur’s algorithm. Second, we extend the 3-round attack to 4 rounds to significantly reduce the memory complexity of Dinur’s algorithm at the sacrifice of a small factor of time complexity. For LowMC instances with 1 S-box per round, our attacks are shown to be much faster than the MITM attacks. For LowMC instances with 10 S-boxes per round, we can reduce the memory complexity from 32GB (238 bits) to only 256KB (221 bits) using our new algebraic attacks rather than the MITM attacks, while the time complexity of our attacks is about 23.2 ∼ 25 times higher than that of the MITM attacks. A notable feature of our new attacks (apart from the 4-round attack) is their simplicity. Specifically, only some basic linear algebra is required to understand them and they can be easily implemented.
New Cryptanalysis of ZUC-256 Initialization Using Modular Differences
Authors: Liu Fukang , Meier Willi , Sarkar Santanu , Wang Gaoli , Ito Ryoma , Isobe Takanori
Published: September 2022

ZUC-256 is a stream cipher designed for 5G applications by the ZUC team. Together with AES-256 and SNOW-V, it is currently being under evaluation for standardized algorithms in 5G mobile telecommunications by Security Algorithms Group of Experts (SAGE). A notable feature of the round update function of ZUC-256 is that many operations are defined over different fields, which significantly increases the difficulty to analyze the algorithm.As a main contribution, with the tools of the modular difference, signed difference and XOR difference, we develop new techniques to carefully control the interactions between these operations defined over different fields. At first glance, our techniques are somewhat similar to those developed by Wang et al. for the MD-SHA hash family. However, as ZUC-256 is quite different from the MD-SHA hash family and its round function is much more complex, we are indeed dealing with different problems and overcoming new obstacles.As main results, by utilizing complex input differences, we can present the first distinguishing attacks on 31 out of 33 rounds of ZUC-256 and 30 out of 33 rounds of the new version of ZUC-256 called ZUC-256-v2 with low time and data complexities, respectively. These attacks target the initialization phase and work in the related-key model with weak keys. Moreover, with a novel IV-correcting technique, we show how to efficiently recover at least 16 key bits for 15-round ZUC-256 and 14-round ZUC-256-v2 in the related-key setting, respectively. It is unpredictable whether our attacks can be further extended to more rounds with more advanced techniques. Based on the current attacks, we believe that the full 33 initialization rounds provide marginal security.
Attacks on the Firekite Cipher
Authors: Johansson Thomas , Meier Willi , Nguyen Vu
Published: September 2022

Firekite is a synchronous stream cipher using a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) whose security is conjectured to rely on the hardness of the Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem. It is one of a few LPN-based symmetric encryption schemes, and it can be very efficiently implemented on a low-end SoC FPGA. The designers, Bogos, Korolija, Locher and Vaudenay, demonstrated appealing properties of Firekite, such as requiring only one source of cryptographically strong bits, small key size, high attainable throughput, and an estimate for the bit level security depending on the selected practical parameters.We propose distinguishing and key-recovery attacks on Firekite by exploiting the structural properties of its PRNG. We adopt several birthday-paradox techniques to show that a particular sum of Firekite’s output has a low Hamming weight with higher probability than the random case. We achieve the best distinguishing attacks with complexities 266.75 and 2106.75 for Firekite’s parameters corresponding to 80-bit and 128-bit security, respectively. By applying the distinguishing attacks and an additional algorithm we describe, one can also recover the secret matrix used in the Firekite PRNG, which is built from the secret key bits. This key recovery attack works on most large instances of Firekite parameters and has slightly larger complexity, for instance, 269.87 on the 80-bit security parameters n = 16,384, m = 216, k = 216.