Predetermined Dimensions Research Articles

Assessment of bone gain and neurosensory affection with the sandwich osteotomy technique for vertically deficient posterior mandible using a full digital workflow versus conventional protocol: A randomized split mouth study.

Using the sandwich osteotomy technique in the posterior mandible is delicate. This study aimed to assess the safety and the amount of bone gain using a full digital workflow versus the conventional procedure. This split mouth study included 10 patients with bilateral vertically deficient posterior mandible. One side received conventional sandwich interpositional bone grafting (control group), while the other side received the same protocol using two patient-specific guides. The first guide (cutting guide) was used to place the osteotomies safely and accurately according to the predetermined dimensions and locations, and the second guide was used to fix the mobilized bony segment, leaving the desired gap to be filled with a particulate xenogenic bone graft. Full neurosensory recovery was documented at 2 months postoperative for all patients and bilaterally. After 4 months, there was a statistically significant difference in vertical bone gain between both groups (p = 0.001), measuring an average of 3.76 ± 0.72 mm in the study group and 2.69 ± 0.37 mm in the control group. No statistically significant difference was found between the planned vertical augmentation (3.85 ± 0.58 mm) and the obtained vertical bone gain (3.76 ± 0.72 mm) in the study group (p = 0.765) proving the accuracy of the guided procedure. Computer-guided sandwich interpositional grafting is predictable regarding the execution of the osteotomies and the accuracy of fixation of the transport segment.

Iranian community-dwelling older adults' perceptions of prosociality: A qualitative study.

The world population is aging at an accelerating rate, and prosociality aspects increase in people with age. This study aimed to explore Iranian community-dwelling older adults' perspectives of the prosociality concept. This qualitative study was conducted among older adults aged 60 years and older in Qom City, Iran. A purposive sampling method was used to collect data between July and October 2022. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 older adults engaged in various types of prosocial activities. Data were analyzed applying a directed content analysis approach. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using MAXQDA 20 software. Overall, 5 main categories and 19 subcategories emerged from the content data analysis. The two emerged categories were related to the predetermined dimensions of the prosociality concept, namely, "prosocial behaviors" and "prosocial dispositions." The remaining three newly emerged categories included "egocentric motives," "facilitators," and "barriers" to prosocial behaviors. As participants reported, "informal spontaneous helping" was the most prevalent subcategory of prosocial behaviors. "Prosocial norms" and "social reward-seeking" were identified as the most common subcategories of prosocial dispositions and egocentric motives, respectively. Likewise, participants mentioned "religious and metaphysic beliefs" and "social distrust" as important facilitators and barriers, respectively. The results of this qualitative study provide a new understanding of the prosociality concept among older adults in the context of Iran. In conclusion, to improve prosocial behaviors in this population, the interaction between all factors that influence it such as motives, facilitators, and barriers must be considered.

Taxonomic structure in a set of abstract concepts.

A large portion of human knowledge comprises "abstract" concepts that lack readily perceivable properties (e.g., "love" and "justice"). Since abstract concepts lack such properties, they have historically been treated as an undifferentiated category of knowledge in the psychology and neuropsychology literatures. More recently, the categorical structure of abstract concepts is often explored using paradigms that ask participants to make explicit judgments about a set of concepts along dimensions that are predetermined by the experimenter. Such methods require the experimenter to select dimensions that are relevant to the concepts and further that people make explicit judgments that accurately reflect their mental representations. We bypassed these requirements by collecting two large sets of non-verbal and implicit judgments about which dimensions are relevant to the similarity between pairs of 50 abstract nouns to determine the representational space of the concepts. We then identified categories within the representational space using a clustering procedure that required categories to replicate across two independent data sets. In a separate experiment, we used automatic semantic priming to further validate the categories and to show that they are an improvement over categories that were defined within the same set of abstract concepts using explicit ratings along predetermined dimensions. These results demonstrate that abstract concepts can be characterized beyond their negative relation to concrete concepts and that categories of abstract concepts can be defined without using a priori dimensions for the concepts or explicit judgments from participants.

A Study of the Corrosion Behavior of Engineering Mild Steel in Acidified and Hydrolyzed Extracts of Zingiber Officinale (Ginger)

We report the use of weight loss technique in the study of the corrosion behaviour of engineering mild steel in acidified and hydrolysed corrosion media using Zingiber officinale (Ginger) extracts. Cylindrical steel rods were cut into corrosion coupons of predetermined dimensions of 15 mm by 10mm diameter. The coupons were then weighed before being suspended in situ in fours into beakers containing 10 mL, 15 mL and 20 mL of the extracts in 0.5 M and 1.0 M concentrations of H2SO4 and NaOH respectively. These setups were allowed to stand for a period of 28 days with a coupon withdrawn from each beaker after every 7 days, processed according to standard procedures before reweighing. The data of the weight loss were recorded and computations of the corrosion penetration rate using the formula; CPR=K∆W/ρA∆t were calculated. Plots of corrosion penetration rate against time, inhibition efficiency against concentration of extract and Langmuir adsorption isotherms were then plotted. The results obtained revealed that the corrosion rate profiles for passivating metals in which there is an initial sharp rise in corrosion rate, followed by a progressive decline as exposure time increased were observed. The inhibition efficiencies of the extract in the various media also showed significant increase in all the media. The Langmuir adsorption isotherms indicated that the adsorption of the molecules of the extract on the metal surface was uniformly distributed over the entire metal surface and also the adsorptive forces were strong enough to cause effective adhesion to prevent further corrosion attack. In conclusion, it was established that Zingiber officinale leaf extracts are good inhibitors of corrosion and that the inhibitive potency of the extract increases with increase in the concentrations of the extract and the corrosion media as exposure time increased, with the extract showing better inhibition characteristics in NaOH than H2SO4.

Nanofabrication of Bulk Diffraction Nanogratings via Direct Ultrashort-Pulse Laser Micro-Inscription in Elastomers and Heat-Shrinkable Polymers.

Optical-range bulk diffraction nanogratings were fabricated via challenging direct inscription by ultrashort (femtosecond, fs) laser pulses inside heat-shrinkable polymers (thermoplastics) and VHB 4905 elastomer. The inscribed bulk material modifications do not emerge on the polymer surface, being visualized inside the materials by 3D-scanning confocal photoluminescence/Raman microspectroscopy and by the multi-micron penetrating 30-keV electron beam in scanning electron microscopy. The laser-inscribed bulk gratings have multi-micron periods in the pre-stretched material after the second laser inscription step, with their periods continuously reduced down to 350 nm on the third fabrication step, using thermal shrinkage for thermoplastics and elastic properties for elastomers. This three-step process allows facile laser micro-inscription of diffraction patterns and their following controlled scaling down as a whole pattern to pre-determined dimensions. In elastomers, utilizing the initial stress anisotropy, the post-radiation elastic shrinkage along the given axes could be precisely controlled until the 28-nJ threshold fs-laser pulse energy, where elastomer deformation ability is dramatically reduced, producing wrinkled patterns. In thermoplastics, the fs-laser inscription does not affect their heat-shrinkage deformation up to the carbonization threshold. The measured diffraction efficiency of the inscribed gratings increases during the elastic shrinkage for the elastomers and slightly decreases for the thermoplastics. High 10% diffraction efficiency was demonstrated for the VHB 4905 elastomer at the 350 nm grating period. No significant molecular-level structural modifications were observed by Raman micro-spectroscopy in the inscribed bulk gratings in the polymers. This novel few-step method paves the way for facile and robust ultrashort-pulse laser inscription of bulk functional optical elements in polymeric materials for diffraction, holographic and virtual reality devices.

Categorical Variable Mapping Considerations in Classification Problems: Protein Application

The mapping of categorical variables into numerical values is common in machine learning classification problems. This type of mapping is frequently performed in a relatively arbitrary manner. We present a series of four assumptions (tested numerically) regarding these mappings in the context of protein classification using amino acid information. This assumption involves the mapping of categorical variables into protein classification problems without the need to use approaches such as natural language process (NLP). The first three assumptions relate to equivalent mappings, and the fourth involves a comparable mapping using a proposed eigenvalue-based matrix representation of the amino acid chain. These assumptions were tested across a range of 23 different machine learning algorithms. It is shown that the numerical simulations are consistent with the presented assumptions, such as translation and permutations, and that the eigenvalue approach generates classifications that are statistically not different from the base case or that have higher mean values while at the same time providing some advantages such as having a fixed predetermined dimensions regardless of the size of the analyzed protein. This approach generated an accuracy of 83.25%. An optimization algorithm is also presented that selects an appropriate number of neurons in an artificial neural network applied to the above-mentioned protein classification problem, achieving an accuracy of 85.02%. The model includes a quadratic penalty function to decrease the chances of overfitting.

Alignment of patient-centredness definitions with real-life patient and clinician experiences: A qualitative study.

Patient-centred care (PCC) has come to the forefront for many institutions, funding agenciesand clinicians, and is integrated into care. Does a disconnect in understanding still exist between patients, healthcare organizationsand clinicians in what PCC means and how outstanding issues might be addressed? We conducted interviews and focus groups with self-reported chronic care patients and clinicians providing care to these patients exploring PCC experiences, expectationsand practices. These data were initially analysed using inductive thematic analysis. This paper reports on the findings of a secondary analysis examining the alignment between patients and clinicians on five key predetermined dimensions of PCC. Eighteen patients participated, representing a range of chronic conditions. Thirty-eight clinicians participated. One thousand and three hundred patient and 1800 clinician codes were identified and grouped into 5 main topics with 140 unique themes (patients) and 9 main topics with 54 unique themes (clinicians). A total of 166 quotes (patient = 93, clinician = 73) were identified for this PCC definition alignment analysis. Partial or complete alignment of patient and clinician perspectives was seen on most dimensions. Key disconnects were observed in patient involvement, patient empowermentand clinician-patient communication. Only 18% of patients reported experiencing patient-centred communication, whereas 57% of clinicians reported using patient-focused communication approaches. Overall, study patients and clinicians endorse that many PCC elements occur. This study highlights key differences between patients and clinicians, suggesting persistent challenges. Clinician participants relayed their PCC approaches of informing and educating patients; however, patients often perceive these approaches as didactic, role-diminishingand noncollaborative. Collaborative approaches, such as shared decision-making,hold promise to bridge persistent PCC gaps and should be integrated into medical education programmes. This project was conceived and executed with a co-design approach wherein patients with chronic conditions who are trained in research (i.e., see descriptions of Patient and Community Engagement Research in the text) were involved in all stages of the research project alongside other researchers on the project team. Healthcare providers were involved as participants and as principal investigators in the project.

Morphometric analysis of the Filipino knee and its implication in total knee arthroplasty prosthesis design

BackgroundProsthesis factors account for a quarter of the dissatisfaction rates among post-total knee replacement (TKR) patients. In the Philippines, the available prostheses have pre-determined sizes and dimensions that are based on Caucasian morphometric data. This can pose a problem, since according to previous studies Asian knees have smaller dimensions compared to Caucasians. Since there is a paucity of research looking into the fitness of these prostheses to the Filipino knee, this study was pursued.MethodsThis study measured 675 knees of 675 adult Filipinos from January 2018 to December 2020. The morphometric measurements were performed on T1-weighted magnetic resonance images. The distal femoral morphometry included: the anteroposterior distance, lateral and medial anteroposterior distances, mediolateral distance, anterior and posterior mediolateral distances, and the femoral aspect ratio. The proximal tibial morphometry included: the anteroposterior distance, mediolateral distance, the medial and lateral anteroposterior distances, and the tibial aspect ratio. The patellar height, width, and thickness were also determined. Statistical analyses were done by using SPSS (version 26) and Microsoft Excel (version 2016).ResultsThe mean femoral medial and lateral anteroposterior distances were 57.6 mm and 57.1 mm, respectively. The femoral mediolateral distance was 69.3 mm, and the mean femoral aspect ratio was 1.21. The mean proximal tibial antero-posterior and mediolateral distances were 45.3 mm and 71.9 mm, respectively. The mean tibial aspect ratio was 1.66. Most TKR prostheses can be fitted to the Filipino knee but underhang on the mediolateral aspect is commonly observed in both the femoral and tibial components. The mean patellar height and width of Filipinos were 39.6 mm and 42.6 mm, respectively while the average thickness was 23.1 mm.ConclusionMost prostheses available in the Philippine and Asian markets can be fitted into Filipino knees albeit the underhang observed in the mediolateral aspects of both femoral and tibial components. Potential patellar complications are unlikely given the adequate thickness. To avoid the potential mismatch, the best approach is to design a prosthesis aptly suited for the Filipino knees.

Innovative Printed Scarf Designs Utilizing Crochet Motifs

This work suggests innovative printed scarf designs using crochet motifs as a source of influence and inspiration to add a modern sense to crochet as a traditional craft, keeping up with fashion and creating a competitive product. This work used Adobe Photoshop CS6 software to enhance the images of the original motifs and then saved them in a PNG format with a transparent background and then used them for scarf designs. Eight rectangular and four square scarves were designed in predetermined dimensions. The suggested scarf designs were printed on chiffon and satin fabrics using the sublimation printing method. Finally, the designs have been statistically investigated by specialists in the clothing and textile fields and final printed scarves to evaluate the originality of the idea, quality of the design, and final product according to Likert's five-point scale. There was a statistical significance that the proposed scarf designs created an acceptable competitive product according to the questionnaire

To determine the optimal size of the elements of complex overlap

The article discusses the possibilities of optimizing the size of elements of reinforced concrete ceilings along. The optimization of the overlap consists in finding such parameters of the reinforced concrete slab, profiled flooring and steel beams, in which their strength is fully used. For ceilings with steel beams included, the dimensions of the sections of the elements and their strength characteristics are determined by the requirements of the limit states of the second group (deflections), and the calculation of the forces in the slab and beams and strength calculations are performed taking into account the geometric and strength characteristics established from the calculation of deformations. To clarify the features of the calculation and verification of the main provisions, a numerical experiment was carried out, where the center cell of the steel concrete slab along metal rolling beams was selected as the object of study. Formulas are obtained for determining the forces using predetermined dimensions of the components of the overlap based on satisfying the requirements of the 2 groups of limit states. These studies can serve as a basis for further research on the search for optimal parameters of complex floors.

Ecotourism Product Attributes and Tourist Attractions: UiTM Undergraduate Studies

Ecotourism is one of the core tourism products that is highly promoted by the government of Malaysia. In Sarawak, ecotourism is one of the means for income and employment opportunities in the rural communities due to the integrative nature of the state's resources that combines culture, nature and adventure into one ecotourism package. As such, Sarawak is one of the states in the country that is experiencing the growing numbers ecotourism assets. However, apart from providing the ecotourism attractions, there is also a great need to understand the attributes that attract tourists to ecotourism destinations. These attributes are important in enabling tour operators and ecotourism providers in luring desirable tourists with the right ecotourism product. This paper ranked five pre-determined dimensions (nature, culture, sustainability, people and history) of the ecotourism attributes based on its importance. These attributes were further tested to determine their relationship with a tourist's tour intentions. The methodology included a questionnaire survey distribution to 364 respondents in UiTM Sarawak, Kota Samarahan. In addition, factor analysis had been conducted to determine the ecotourism product attributes. As a result, four new attributes of ecotourism product were identified. They included cultural, natural, attraction, and community attributes. Multiple regression analysis revealed that cultural is the most important attribute that influence tourist tour intention as compared to other identified attributes. It is important for operators to consider all identified attributes in developing strategies that can boost a tourist's tour intention. However, the allocation of resources for strategy development must be based on the rank of importance of the attributes namely cultural, attractions, community, and natural.

Services Quality Deliver through Web Sites of Banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This research renders analysis of the web sites and service quality that banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) deliver through the Internet to the clients and other stakeholders. Objective of study was to examine how a set predetermined dimensions and attributes of Web services quality delivery represent tangible and intangible elements that influence banking industry image. The analysis is based on the model of service quality delivery through Internet, defined by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhtra (2002). Research results show many interesting things about Internet presentations of banks in B-H. Of all the banks included in the research (23), only one bank provides no basic information about itself (4.35%), while one bank provides its information in the form of presentation. The rest of the banks provide complete information on themselves (95.65%). The English version of their web pages is provided by 15 banks (65.2%), while the remaining six banks (26.1%) do not provide such a service. Two banks (8.7%) have broken links. Standard navigation is provided by 22 banks (95.65%), while only one bank (4.35%) provides specific link to the previous page through the“fast link”. Banks in B-H do not have any privacy policies.

Assessment of Conversational Speech Quality Inside Vehicles, Concerning Influences of Room Acoustics and Driving Noises

This study considers the influences of room acoustics and driving noises in vehicle interiors on the subjectively perceived acoustical quality of conversations between passengers. A listening test with 25 participants was performed inside a laboratory to assess the impact of different vehicle interior transfer functions on the speech quality assessment in four predetermined dimensions. Idealized driving noises at three different vehicle speeds were presented simultaneously with speech samples to quantify the interferences of these noise conditions with varied signal-to-noise ratios. To minimize the influence of different human speakers, four talkers (two male and two female) were selected from commercially available audio books. The respective speech samples were adjusted in level and long-term average speech spectrum to the common values of conversational speech. The automatic reflex of raising one's voice in noisy environments, called “Lombard Effect” [1], was taken into account for an additional adjustment of speech levels while driving noises were present. A strong relationship between the speech-to-noise ratio and the test participants' evaluations was found. Thus, one can assume that the speech signals' attenuation or amplification caused by the different room acoustics of the tested vehicles play a more important role for a sufficient speech quality than the varied speech timbre or other parameters. Only at very high speech-to-noise ratios ( ≥ 20 dB with A-weighting), room-acoustical parameters such as IACC or the reverberation time are more determining for the speech quality appreciation than the speech's sound pressure level.

The Content of Corporate Social Responsibility Information: The Case of Greek Telecommunication Sector

The aim of this study is to illustrate what and how stand-alone Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and web information provide to readers. These characteristics are recorded in predetermined schemes. The study focuses on the telecommunication sector, especially on fixed and mobile telephony and internet access providers in the Greek market. In all, five companies that provide CSR reports are identified. Their characteristics are categorized by four main predetermined dimensions, namely: type of communication, context, indicators and distinctions. The content analysis technique is selected as it is widely accepted and used in the field of CSR report research. The analysis indicates that three annual reports are almost similar in all dimensions and sub-dimensions. All of the companies publish their management systems certifications and awards and both Greek and English information versions exist; however, there are contradictory results in the dimension of indicators, the sub-dimensions of report guidelines and stand-alone reports. The value of the paper is to promote the standardization of CSR report.

Compact triple‐mode stub‐loaded stepped impedance resonator and bandpass filter

AbstractA compact microstrip triple‐mode stub‐loaded stepped impedance resonator (SIR) and bandpass filter (BPF) are proposed in this letter.As a starting part of designing a triple‐mode BPF, the initial miniaturization dual‐mode folded T‐type open stub‐loaded SIR characteristic is investigated to choose its proper dimensions. Based on these predetermined dimensions of this dual‐mode resonator, a short‐circuited stub at the center plane is introduced in this resonator to generate an even mode and four transmission zeros which lead to a high rejection skirt and wide upper stopband outside the desired passband. A compact BPF with the triple‐mode SIR is simulated, fabricated and measured. The electromagnetic (EM) simulated and measured results are presented and an excellent agreement is obtained. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:701–703, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25841

A two-stage clustering method to analyze customer characteristics to build discriminative customer management: A case of textile manufacturing business

In order to obtain comprehensive information about customers, this study aims to use a systematized analytic method to examine customers. This study uses LRFM customer relationship model, which consists of four dimensions: relation length (L), recent transaction time (R), buying frequency (F), and monetary (M), to carry out customer clusters. We proceed with this clustering analysis to classify customers in order to set discriminative marketing strategies. In addition, this study further employed a cross analysis over three predetermined dimensions: area, sales, and new/old characteristics to enhance the clustering analysis. The results obtained from the real textile business show that the customer groups formed using the four-factor (LRFM) clustering all has statistical significant differences, and with meaningful explanations in terms of marketing strategy. Thus, this study considers useful for discriminative customer relationship management.

QUADRUPLE-MODE STUB-LOADED RESONATOR AND BROADBAND BPF

Novel compact microstrip quadruple-mode stub-loaded resonator and broadband bandpass fllter (BPF) are proposed in this letter. As a starting part of designing a quadruple-mode broadband BPF, the initial novel triple-mode open impedance-stepped stub loaded resonator characteristic is investigated to choose its proper dimensions. Based on these pre-determined dimensions of the triple- mode resonator, two identical short-circuited stubs are loaded against the impedance-stepped open stubs in the resonator to generate a tuned resonant mode and a transmission zero in lower stopband which leads to a high rejection skirt. A compact broadband BPF with the quadruple-mode resonator is simulated, fabricated and measured. The measured results agree well with the EM simulations.

Quadruple-Mode UWB Bandpass Filter With Improved Out-of-Band Rejection

A quadruple-mode ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter with sharp out-of-band rejection is presented in this work. As a starting part of designing a quadruple-mode filter, a mode graph of the initial triple-mode resonator is studied to choose its proper dimensions. Based on these pre-determined dimensions of this triple-mode resonator, two short-circuited stubs are introduced in this resonator to generate two transmission zeros near the lower and upper cut-off frequencies, leading to a higher rejection skirt outside the desired passband. Moreover, as these two stubs are installed, the fourth resonant mode falls down and works together with the first three resonant modes to form a novel quadruple-mode UWB filter. Finally, a filter prototype is designed and fabricated to experimentally validate the attractive in-band and out-of-band performances as predicted in theory.

Desenvolvimento de parafusos de osso bovino: método de usinagem e estudo metrológico com projetor de perfil

Parafusos confeccionados de osso são pouco estudados na literatura. Aspectos estruturais, mecânicos e relativos a osteointegração e osteoindução são importantes tópicos de pesquisa a serem abrangidos previamente ao uso in vivo de implantes de osso. Entretanto, o fator inicial a ser avaliado é a usinabilidade do tecido ósseo. Outro ponto de relevância é a verificação da praticabilidade de confeccionar parafusos ósseos de dimensões pré-estabelecidas. Nestas pesquisas, os parafusos foram confeccionados a partir de amostras de osso cortical retiradas de forma padronizada da porção médio-diafisária da tíbia bovina. A usinagem do osso foi realizada em torno horizontal com uso de duas ferramentas: bits de aço e rebolo de ponta montada de óxido de alumínio, produzindo-se 22 parafusos. A avaliação das dimensões dos parafusos ósseos foi realizada em projetor de perfil, tendo-se como referência 10 parafusos metálicos. De forma geral a análise metrológica não mostrou variações significativas dentro do grupo dos parafusos ósseos e metálicos. Os principais problemas dimensionais encontrados nos dois grupos de parafusos foram: ângulos alfa muito elevados nos implantes ósseos e os similares metálicos apresentaram um diâmetro de corpo com valor muito abaixo do esperado. Concluímos que o tecido ósseo foi usinável e a confecção de parafusos de dimensões pré-estabelecidas, mostrou-se possível no osso.

Crystal structure prediction by data mining

The ever increasing number of experimentally determined crystal structures allows for the use of data mining methods to address crystallographic questions. Here we study the application of data mining for predicting the arrangement of molecules in unit cells of unknown dimensions (crystal structure prediction) as well as in unit cells of predetermined dimensions (fractional coordinate prediction). In this work, data mining is used to derive an atom-pair potential, which is then compared to known force fields. It is shown that the potential is physically reasonable when the data are sufficient in quality and quantity. For validation the energy function is applied to the problems of crystal structure prediction and fractional coordinate prediction. In both cases a large number of structures was generated and the structures were ranked according to their energies. Structure prediction was considered successful if a structure similar to the experimentally observed one was ranked highest. For crystal structure prediction the energy function is tested on an independent set of crystal structures taken from the P1 and P 1 ̄ space groups. We show that approximately 76% of the 218 molecules tested in space group P1 are predicted correctly. For the more complex space group P 1 ̄ the success rate is 24%. If the powder diffraction can be indexed, the problem simplifies to fractional coordinate prediction. With the assumption of known cell parameters the structure has been resolved in 92% of the test cases for P1 and 29% for P 1 ̄ .