One of the most serious challenges that dental educators face today is improving the level of student satisfaction with the curriculum and learning environment. To determine whether a particular teaching method might enhance student satisfaction with the learning process, a learning preference survey linked to sensory modalities was given to students in the four classes of the Temple University School of Dentistry. New Zealand educator Neil Fleming developed the survey called VARK (an acronym for Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic) in 1998. The purpose of this study was to measure the distribution of learning preference mean scores of the dental students and note any significant differences among classes, gender, and a sample population determined using 31,243 participants on the VARK website. Results clearly demonstrate that the dominant preference distributions for the two populations (dental student and sample population) are different. In particular, the proportions of learners who selected visual or kinesthetic are significantly different for the two populations, while the proportions of learners who selected aural or read/write are not significantly different. Dental students prefer visual learning at a higher percentage and kinesthetic learning at a lower percentage than the sample population measured in the VARK website. Inter-class differences varied, and gender differences were not significant. The distribution of dental student scores shows a preference for instructors who use strong visual presentations and facilitate note-taking during lectures. Dental educators should be aware of these differences in order to explore opportunities for making the educational experience more productive and enjoyable.

Efficiency of treatment mechanics has been a major focus throughout the history of orthodontics. Self-ligating brackets were developed on the premise that elimination of ligature ties creates a friction-free environment and allows for better sliding mechanics. It is expected that the self-ligating bracket will reduce the treatment time. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of Damon self-ligating (SL) brackets to those brackets ligated with either steel ligatures or elastomeric 'O' rings. Not only treatment time and the number of appointments needed were addressed, but the quality of the treatment outcome was also assessed. American Board of Orthodontics (ABO) grading criteria for models and panoramic radiographs were employed. Additionally, a nine-question survey was sent to the 215-patients in this study (108 Damon, 107 conventionally-ligated) to elicit their perceptions of how their orthodontic treatment progressed and finished. The results showed that patients treated with Damon SL brackets had significantly lower treatment times, required significantly fewer appointments, and had significantly higher ABO scores than those treated with conventionally-ligated edgewise brackets. There were no significant differences in Damon or non-Damon ABO scores with respect to gender. Damon patients over the age of 21 had significantly higher ABO scores. Conversely, the non-Damon patients under the age of 21 had significantly higher ABO scores. For pre-treatment Angle classification, no significant differences were noted. Patient responses showed that Damon patients perceived their treatment time as being shorter than expected. It appears that faster orthodontic treatment can be better as measured by the ABO criteria.

The purpose of this research was to determine the predictive value of the Dental Admission Test (DAT) for clinical success using Ackerman's theory of ability determinants of skilled performance. The Ackerman theory is a valid, reliable schema in the applied psychology literature used to predict complex skill acquisition. Inconsistent stimulus-response skill acquisition depends primarily on determinants of cognitive ability. Consistent information-processing tasks have been described as "automatic," in which stimuli and responses are mapped in a manner that allows for complete certainty once the relationships have been learned. It is theorized that the skills necessary for success in the clinical component of dental schools involve a significant amount of automatic processing demands and, as such, student performance in the clinics should begin to converge as task practice is realized and tasks become more consistent. Subtest scores of the DAT of four classes were correlated with final grades in nine clinical courses. Results showed that the DAT subtest scores played virtually no role with regard to the final clinical grades. Based on this information, the DAT scores were determined to be of no predictive value in clinical achievement.

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This paper deals with a phenomenological model for methanol conversion to olefins. A system of linear independent reactions is built from the global reaction of methanol transformation. The mechanism of reaction, a development based on carbenoid intermediates of the above set of chemical reactions, has 27 reactions and 18 molecular species. The kinetic parameters identified using nonlinear optimization techniques, and the model predictions, agree satisfactorily with experimental data and data available in the literature.