Assessment Of Factors Involved In The Visual Choice Of Dental Color - Clinical Trials

With the development of societies, the demands of patients in terms of dental aesthetics have increased. To keep up with the increasingly demanding requirements of patients, dentists have been researching the factors that influence positively or negatively the choice of dental color, in order to control them and to obtain the best aesthetic results.Purpose of the study:Whether there is a correlation between choice time and accuracy. Whether there are differences in time and accuracy in determining with the Vita Classical key compared to the Vita Linear Guide.Material and Methods:This study involved 30 students (10 males and 20 females) of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Iuliu Hațieganu" ClujNapoca from the second to sixth year of study, aged 19-26. Of these, 18 (5 males and 13 females) were included and participated in the study itself. The participants were asked to determine the dental color of 1.1; 1.2; 1.3 of a patient. Results:In all three teeth color, both with the Vita Classical key and with the Vita Linear Guide key, no statistically significant correlation was found between the tooth color matching time and the matching accuracy. Conclusions: 1. A3 color required a longer matching time than A2 and A3.5, however the differences were not statistically significant. 2M2 also required a longer determination time than 3M2, but the differences were not statistically significant. 2. No correlation was found between the time required to determine a color and the accuracy of its determination

Is there a scope for Organic wine tourism development? A focus on South African wine industry.

Wine tourism has been earmarked as an important provider of revenue by the wine producing countries. Due to the high competition in the wine tourism market, many of these countries are trying to explore new ideas and attractions, one of them being organic wine tourism. The research explores the developments of such tourism in South Africa by measuring the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for organic wine as a part of further developing the organic wine production and implicitly the associated tourism market. The research showed that there is a willingness to pay a premium amount for organic wines based on a number of attributes. Attributes such as: Awards, Certification, Recommendations and Income have a positive impact on the WTP, while previous perceptions of organic wines have a lowering effect. More research needs to be undertaken to identify whether the WTP is indeed transformed into actual demand

Hotel rate parity in the focus: Is there a need for change in the relationship between hotels in Berlin and their wholesale partners?

Recent developments in revenue management at hotels in Berlin have brought a lot of challenges in upholding rate parity, particularly in the wholesale segment. Little research has been done on this topic, especially with regard to the advantages and disadvantages of partners in such agreements. This study focuses on the control over rate parity and what changes have to be applied to mitigate the danger of termination of business relationships between hotels and their wholesale partners. The research, based on in-depth interviews with hotel and wholesale managers, revealed that there are systematic problems in communication between hotels and wholesalers. Other issues that need to be improved, as revealed by the research, include the excessive control of third parties, the new pricing models and the flexibility of both parties. Establishing real-time connectivity is the key factor recommended. Other recommendations are the implementation of a more flexible approach to hotel policy of 100% dynamic rates, and finding more market-specific solutions such as keeping rates static for certain target groups. The results also demonstrate that controlling the rate parity will not be solved by the wholesalers themselves. A common control system is advocated in which hotels have to take over an important role by using their worldwide network and technological resources.Keywords: wholesale, revenue management, rate parity, channel contro

A preliminary evaluation of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic could have on female employability in the tourism and hospitality sectors in Italy

The article focuses on the analysis of preliminary data regarding the challenges that female employability in the tourism and hospitality sectors in Italy has faced and will continue to experience as a result of the economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown. A review of the literature shows the precarious nature of the female employability opportunities that were already inherent in the industry. The research surveyed 54 male and female employees in the tourism and hospitality sectors regarding perceptions and expectations of work security and future job opportunities. The results revealed that no significant differences were found regarding job opportunity expectations between male and female respondents in general. The gaps in expectations became significant, however, when household, pressure obligations such as childcare, care of relatives or household duties are taken into consideration. These expectations seem to be less for the male respondents. These preliminary results suggest a need for governmental policies to aid in the provision of household support. Keywords: crisis, expectations, female workforce, lockdow

A Role-Based Approach for Orchestrating Emergent Configurations in the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned as a global network of connected things enabling ubiquitous machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. With estimations of billions of sensors and devices to be connected in the coming years, the IoT has been advocated as having a great potential to impact the way we live, but also how we work. However, the connectivity aspect in itself only accounts for the underlying M2M infrastructure. In order to properly support engineering IoT systems and applications, it is key to orchestrate heterogeneous 'things' in a seamless, adaptive and dynamic manner, such that the system can exhibit a goal-directed behaviour and take appropriate actions. Yet, this form of interaction between things needs to take a user-centric approach and by no means elude the users' requirements. To this end, contextualisation is an important feature of the system, allowing it to infer user activities and prompt the user with relevant information and interactions even in the absence of intentional commands. In this work we propose a role-based model for emergent configurations of connected systems as a means to model, manage, and reason about IoT systems including the user's interaction with them. We put a special focus on integrating the user perspective in order to guide the emergent configurations such that systems goals are aligned with the users' intentions. We discuss related scientific and technical challenges and provide several uses cases outlining the concept of emergent configurations.Comment: In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on the Internet of Agents @AAMAS201

An optimization model for group formation in project-based learning

We propose an optimization model to tackle the problem of determining how projects are assigned to student groups based on a bidding procedure. In order to improve student experience in project-based learning we resort to actively involving them in a transparent and unbiased project allocation process. To evaluate our work, we collected information about the students\u27 own views on how our approach influenced their level of learning and overall learning experience and provide a detailed analysis of the results. The results of our evaluation show that the large majority of students (i.e., 91%) increased or maintained their satisfaction ratings with the proposed procedure after the assignment was concluded, as compared to their attitude towards the process before the project assignment occurred

Interrelationships Between the Posterior Pharyngeal Space and the Dento-Maxillary Anomalies

Introduction: Nocturnal breathing problems have become more common and cause problems during the day for both those affected by this condition and those around them. These problems are caused in most cases by a decrease in the size of the pharyngeal posterior space, which is associated with various abnormalities of the facial skeleton, and the positioning of the tongue. Purpose: The present study has the purpose to determine the existence of a correlation between different facial skeletal abnormalities and the size of the pharyngeal posterior space. Materials and methods: In the present study we performed the analysis of 131 teleradiographs from the database of the department of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics within UMFST “Târgu Mureș” performed on patients in order to perform an orthodontic treatment. Patients range in age from 10 to 21 years. Results: To observe the existence of a link between the median differences in values in the lower pharyngeal space between class I and class II, we used the Mann-Whitney U test to compare median values. Thus, the median value in class I is 0, while the median value in class II is 0.3. It was concluded that this difference is statistically significant (p = 0.02). Conclusion: Patients with skeletal class II have smaller dimensions of the lower pharyngeal space than patients with class I and class III. Patients with skeletal class II have an increased risk compared to those with class I or class III of developing obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome during their lifetime

Identifying the willingness to pay for eco-certified wine by South African consumers: a comparison of biodynamic, fair trade and sustainably produced wines

As eco-certified wines are being produced in increasing quantities and varieties, so are the definitions and the labels that accompany them. This has resulted in confusion with regard to what type of eco-certified wines customers prefer and what prices they are prepared to pay for such wines. The purpose of the research is to provide clarity regarding consumer knowledge about eco-certified wines and their preferences for each category as expressed by their willingness to pay (WTP). Specifically, the goal of the research was to identify the willingness to pay for South African eco-certified wine with a focus on three labels: biodynamic, fair trade and sustainable. The methodology used by the study was to identify the willingness to pay for the wines by using contingency valuation modelling. A survey was administered using the Qualtrics platform. It consisted of three sections: the first set of questions included questions about purchasing behaviour and important considerations when buying wine. The second set of questions collected perspectives and opinions about the multiple wine certifications discussed in this article and the third set of questions collected demographic data. The research focused on South African consumers and consisted of 267 respondents. Three WTP models were run separately for biodynamic, fair trade and sustainable wines. The study found that younger individuals with higher incomes, higher levels of education, previous eco-labelled product purchases and better knowledge of eco-certified wines have a positive impact on the WTP. The only exception seems to be the in case of biodynamic wines where previous knowledge of eco-certification has a negative effect on the WTP. The research outcomes provide guidelines to producers, retailers and restaurateurs about their output, marketing and salesefforts towards the ever-growing consumer demand for such wines

Identifying the willingness to pay for eco-certified wine by south african consumers: a comparison of biodynamic, fair trade and sustainably produced wines

As eco-certified wines are being produced in increasing quantities and varieties, so are the definitions and the labels that accompany them. This has resulted in confusion with regard to what type of eco-certified wines customers prefer and what prices they are prepared to pay for such wines. The purpose of the research is to provide clarity regarding consumer knowledge about eco-certified wines and their preferences for each category as expressed by their willingness to pay (WTP). Specifically, the goal of the research was to identify the willingness to pay for South African eco-certified wine with a focus on three labels: biodynamic, fair trade and sustainable. The methodology used by the study was to identify the willingness to pay for the wines by using contingency valuation modelling. A survey was administered using the Qualtrics platform. It consisted of three sections: the first set of questions included questions about purchasing behaviour and important considerations when buying wine. The second set of questions collected perspectives and opinions about the multiple wine certifications discussed in this article and the third set of questions collected demographic data. The research focused on South African consumers and consisted of 267 respondents. Three WTP models were run separately for biodynamic, fair trade and sustainable wines. The study found that younger individuals with higher incomes, higher levels of education, previous eco-labelled product purchases and better knowledge of eco-certified wines have a positive impact on the WTP. The only exception seems to be the in case of biodynamic wines where previous knowledge of eco-certification has a negative effect on the WTP. The research outcomes provide guidelines to producers, retailers and restaurateurs about their output, marketing and sales efforts towards the ever-growing consumer demand for such wines

Femtosecond laser ablation and structuring of a hard bi-layered coating

We studied surface modification of a bi-layered coating (Al2O3/TiAlN/steel) induced by fs laser with single and multi-pulse irradiation. The laser pulses (λ=775 nm, τ=200 fs) were generated by a Ti:sapphire laser. The single pulse threshold fluence for ablation of the top Al2O3 layer was Dath =0.56 Jcm-2. Single pulse actions with fluence increased up to 16.47 Jcm-2 caused widening of ablated area without significant change of the TiAlN layer underneath. In case of multipulse irradiation, periodical surface structures (LIPSS) were induced on the TiAlN layer surface. The average periodicity of created LIPSS was 600 nm.Physical chemistry 2012 : 11th international conference on fundamental and applied aspects of physical chemistry; Belgrade (Serbia); 24-28 September 201