Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Association between Sleep Apnea and the Risk of Traffic Accidents

Background and Methods Drowsiness and lack of concentration may contribute to traffic accidents. We conducted a case–control study of the relation between sleep apnea and the risk of traffic accidents. The case patients were 102 drivers who received emergency treatment at hospitals in Burgos or Santander, Spain, after highway traffic accidents between April and December 1995. The controls were 152 patients randomly selected from primary care centers in the same cities and matched with the case patients for age and sex. Respiratory polygraphy was used to screen the patients for sleep apnea at home, and conventional polysomnography was used to confirm the diagnosis. The apnea–hypopnea index (the total number of episodes of apnea and hypopnea divided by the number of hours of sleep) was calculated for each participant. Results The mean age of the participants was 44 years; 77 percent were men. As compared with those without sleep apnea, patients with an apnea–hypopnea index of 10 or higher had an odds ratio .
The application of least-square collocation and variance component estimation in crossover analysis of satellite altimetry observations and altimeter calibration

ABSTRACT In this study, the collocation method accompanied with variance component estimation is used for least square adjustment of crossover observations in order to determine the effects of radial errors on the observations of satellite altimetry. The collocation is used for time series analysis of sea surface height observations both for predicting the possible missing observations in each cycle, and for approximating the observation of each cycle at crossover points. In addition, use is made of the variance component estimation to quantify the noise variance of observations and improve the least square evaluation of radial errors. For analysis of radial errors, two different approaches are followed, in the first approach, the radial errors are assumed to behave like a series of trigonometric function, the coefficients of which are unknowns which should be determined from observations. In the second approach, the values of radial errors, for ascending and descending passes are determined. Our results show the efficiency of collocation algorithm for highly accurate time series analysis of altimetry observations and moreover, they reveal the effectiveness of variance component estimation for true noise specification of observations which can significantly improve the results of least square adjustment. The outcome of this study can be used to calibration of altimeters. The numerical results indicate that the mean range biases of Topex/Poseidon, Jason 1-2 and ENVISAT in the six single and dual crossover points using the first and the second methods are about 0, 84, 33, 204 and 0, 98, 41, 286 mm, respectively.
Analytical study for swimmers in a channel

There is an overabundance of microswimmers in nature, including bacteria, algae, mammalian cells and so on. They use flagellum, cilia or global shape changes (amoeboid motion) to move forward. In the presence of confining channels, these swimmers exhibit often non-trivial behaviours, such as accumulation at the wall, navigation and so on, and their swimming speed may be strongly influenced by the geometric confinement. Several numerical studies have reported that the presence of walls either enhances or reduces the swimming speed depending on the nature of the swimmer, and also on the confinement. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical explanation of several previously obtained numerical results. We treat the case of amoeboid swimmers and the case of squirmers having either a tangential (the classical situation) or normal velocity prescribed at the swimmer surface (pumper). For amoeboid motion we consider a quasi-circular swimmer which allows us to tackle the problem analytically and to extract the equations of the motion of the swimmer, with several explicit analytical or semi-analytical solutions. It is found that the deformation of the amoeboid swimmer as well as a high enough order effect due to confinement are necessary in order to account for previous numerical results. The analytical theory accounts for several features obtained numerically also for non-deformable swimmers.
Approximation of Quantiles of Rank Test Statistics Using Almost Sure Limit Theorems

APPROXIMATION OF QUANTILES OF RANK TEST STATISTICS USING ALMOST SURE LIMIT THEOREMS Mark Ledbetter Old Dominion University, 2018 Director: Dr. Lucia Tabacu There are many problems in statistics where the analysis is based on asymptotic distributions. In some cases, the asymptotic distribution is in an open form or is intractable. One possible solution is the logarithmic quantile estimation (LQE) method introduced by Thangavelu (2005) for rank tests and Fridline (2010) for the correlation coefficient. LQE is derived from an almost sure version of the central limit theorem using the results of Berkes and Csáki (2001), and it estimates the quantiles of a test statistic using only the data. To date, LQE has been used in only a few applications. We extend the use of LQE to three widely analyzed problems. We investigate the LQE approach using fully nonparametric rank statistics to test for known trend and umbrella patterns in the main effects of three widely used factorial designs: a two-factor fixed effect model, a partial hierarchical repeated measures mixed effect model, and a mixed effect cross-classification repeated measures model. We also test for patterned alternatives in the interaction between the main effect and time in the partial hierarchical repeated measures model. We derive the almost sure central limit theorems for all of these problems and determine the level and power. The Pettitt (1979) test is a nonparametric test based on the Mann-Whitney statistic used to detect a change in distribution in a sequence of random variables. The proposed statistic has an asymptotic distribution that is the distribution of the supremum of the absolute value of the Brownian bridge, which has an open form. We propose an approximation of the quantiles for the test statistic based on LQE. We provide simulation results for Type I error and power of the logarithmic quantile estimates for the test statistic, and compare the LQE results with other methods for two real data examples. Thangavelu (2005) considered LQE for the nonparametric Behrens-Fisher problem with some success by introducing new numerically determined coefficients. We examine the nonparametric two-sample problem using an empirical process of U statistic structure (Denker and Puri, 1992). Specifically, we investigate using LQE with a second order U-statistic for paired averages within each sample. We provide simulation results to show almost sure convergence of the new test statistic.
Resonant reconciliation of convex-potential inflation models and the Planck data

We consider single field chaotic inflationary models plus a cosine modulation term, as in axion monodromy models, and augment it by a light scalar field with similar cosine coupling. We show the power spectrum of curvature perturbations of this model is dominated by the one-loop contribution to inflaton two-point function which is enhanced due to resonant interactions. This allows to disentangle the scale of scalar and tensor perturbations and hence to suppress the ratio of tensor-to-scalar power spectra and alters the expression of scalar spectral tilt from the simple chaotic models, thus opening the way to reconcile chaotic models with convex potential and the Planck data. As in monodromy inflation models, we also have a cosine modulation in spectral tilt. We mention that contribution of resonance effects on non-Gaussianty is small and it remains within the current bounds. Resonant production of light particles toward the end of inflation may set the stage for a successful reheating model.
The Effectiveness of Hand Hygiene Education Intervention for Medical Students in Primary Care Settings : Ismailia City , Egypt

Background: All medical students must be aware and practice hand hygiene procedures as one of the infection control measures that could lower health care acquired infections. Aims: to improve practice of hand hygiene among medical students in health care settings and to evaluate the effectiveness of educational training on hand hygiene among the medical students. Methods: The study is a prospective before-and-after trial of an educational intervention with longitudinal follow up. Pre-post intervention was between April and May 2014 with one month interval and the follow up was 6 months later. The pre post intervention included all the first year medical students with affiliation to Faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University in Ismailia city. The follow up included all the participants who continued their second educational year in the same faculty. The researchers used a validated questionnaire and observation checklist to collect data in all periods of the study. Educational training program was designed and conducted by the researchers on hand hygiene importance, measures, technique, time and compliance. Results: The educational intervention had a significant improvement in KAP, one and six months after the intervention (P <0.001). Non significant decrease in median scores of knowledge with no change in median scores of attitude but significant improvement of median scores of practice and overall KAP scores of hand hygiene in the follow up (P <0.001) was observed. Conclusion: The educational intervention was effective in improvement in KAP of hand hygiene in pre-post intervention with one month interval and in the follow up after six months after the intervention.
Clinical Outcome Following Treatment Of Pertrochanteric Fractures With Dynamic Hip Screw In A Nigerian Rehabilitation Hospital

Pertrochanteric fracture is a severe and frequent injury with consequent high morbidity and mortality. Dynamic hip screw is an effective treatment modality for stable intertrochanteric hip fractures. It is based on "tension band principle" which allows compression of fracture fragment when the patient bears weight with consequent high rates of union and restoration of hip function to pre injury level. This study determined the epidemiological pattern, care, complications and functional outcome of pertrochanteric fractures following treatment with dynamic hip screw. Retrospective data was obtained over a 5 year period from January, 2007 to December, 2012. All patients with pertrochanteric hip fractures treated with dynamic hip screw were consecutively selected. Data was analysed using SPSS version 21. The total number of patients was 48 of whom were 28 males and 20 females with a mean age of 63.8±15years. The commonest mechanical complication encountered was lag screw cut through in 4 (8.3%) patients. Post-operative hip functional status done according to Postel and Merle d Aubigne scoring system at 4 - 6 months postop revealed that majority (90.0%) of patients had satisfactory hip function with minimal morbidity. Careful patient selection, proper training of surgeons as well as attention to detail is vital and may minimize failure rates.
n + 7Be Cross-Sections of Astrophysical Interest at the CERN n_TOF Facility

One of the possible explanations of the so-called Cosmological Lithium Problem (CLIP), i.e., the large overestimate of the primordial 7 Li abundance by the standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis theory (BBN), is related to an incorrect underestimation of the 7 Be destruction rate by neutron-induced reactions. To verify this possibility, the n + 7 Be reactions have been investigated at n_TOF (CERN) in a wide neutron energy range, taking advantage of the new high-flux experimental area (EAR2) and specifically developed experimental setups. The 7 Be(n, α ) 4 He cross section, measured for the first time from thermal to 10 keV neutron energy, was found consistent with previous estimates. A 10% increase of the 7 Be destruction rate was instead determined on the basis of the 7 Be(n, p) 7 Li cross section measured at n_TOF from thermal to 300 keV neutron energy, a value clearly insufficient to provide a solution to the Cosmological Lithium Problem. Combined together, the two measurements finally rule out neutron-induced reactions on 7 Be as a possible explanation of the CLIP.
Influência do polímero utilizado como aglomerante em eletrodos revestidos básicos sobre a formação de ferrita acicular no metal de solda

O processo de soldagem manual com eletrodos revestidos teve um papel de destaque ao longo de parte do seculo XX. Ainda hoje, onde ha varios processos mais produtivos, eletrodos revestidos basicos sao largamente empregados em soldagens de grande responsabilidade. Contudo, a elevada susceptibilidade a absorcao de umidade pelo revestimento ainda e um problema a ser superado. Estudos realizados na soldagem subaquatica molhada, onde o revestimento e protegido por uma camada de verniz, indicaram a possibilidade do uso de polimeros em substituicao aos silicatos como aglomerante do revestimento durante a fabricacao. A expansao dessa tecnologia para os eletrodos revestidos basicos destinados a soldagem convencional se mostrou satisfatoria. O principal objetivo, reduzir a sensibilidade do consumivel a umidade e, assim, produzir um metal de solda com baixos teores de hidrogenio difusivel, foi atingido. Alem disso, foi possivel obter um metal de solda com microestrutura diferenciada constituida por elevadas fracoes volumetricas de ferrita acicular. O objetivo desse estudo foi investigar as causas das diferencas observadas na microestrutura e avaliar a influencia do polimero utilizado neste processo. A comparacao entre a microestrutura produzida por eletrodos aglomerados com polimero e a prevista na literatura para eletrodos basicos com composicao quimica semelhante evidenciou diferencas significativas. A investigacao das condicoes empregadas na obtencao destes metais de solda nao justificou as diferencas observadas. Por outro lado, a analise dos elementos quimicos residuais indicou variacoes nos teores de alguns destes, principalmente nitrogenio, que justificaram as alteracoes microestruturais. Nao foi possivel descartar a influencia de outros elementos quimicos, contudo, esses desempenharam funcao complementar. O estudo das caracteristicas operacionais de eletrodos com polimero e classe E7018 permitiu identificar como o polimero influencia o teor de nitrogenio no metal de solda. A comparacao entre os teores de nitrogenio da alma, gotas metalicas transferidas e metal de solda confirmou que a absorcao desse elemento ocorreu principalmente durante a transferencia metalica, ou seja, e proveniente da contaminacao pela atmosfera que envolve o arco. Resultados dos experimentos realizados indicaram o teor mais baixo de nitrogenio na presenca do polimero se deve a formacao de uma atmosfera protetora mais eficiente durante a soldagem e ainda por alteracoes no modo de transferencia metalica predominante. O teor elevado de carbono no metal de solda indicou que a decomposicao do polimero forma uma atmosfera rica nesse elemento. A Difracao de Raios-X das escorias indicou a alteracao na atmosfera que envolve o arco. A avaliacao da morfologia das gotas durante sua formacao, a medicao do tamanho medio das gotas coletadas e monitoramento da tensao durante a soldagem confirmaram as alteracoes na transferencia metalica.
Diffusive growth of successive bubbles in confinement

We analyse how a succession of single bubbles extracts dissolved gas from a liquid solution while they grow and detach in a confinement induced by the presence of lateral walls. Like bubbles growing on a liquid-immersed unconfined surface, these bubbles absorb the dissolved gas in the liquid around them and hence deplete their surroundings. The supersaturation level, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$ , stands out as the main parameter which determines the diffusive bubble dynamics, both in the confined and unconfined scenarios. For slightly supersaturated solutions, the bubble evolution is rather similar for the two cases. We observe nonetheless mildly higher concentration gradients within confinement due to the lack of gas renewal. This causes a slightly enhancement of density-driven convection as compared to the unconfined case, which results in a higher mass transfer rate towards the bubble and a somewhat faster long-term gas depletion. For larger supersaturations, the onset of natural convection is inhibited by the presence of the confinement. Confinement promotes the gas mixing within the cavity as well. These two effects combined result in a slower depletion in the confined case as compared to the unconfined one. The two opposite behaviours for small and large supersaturation suggest that there must be a transition in between the two scenarios. The cross-over has been estimated to occur at $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}\approx 0.17$ . We propose a modified depletion model which accounts for the confined configuration and its effect on the effective area through which gas diffuses into the bubble. The model can accurately describe the experimental results and sheds more light on the origin of the depletion effect due to the successive bubble growth.
Partitioned Method of Insect Flapping Flight for Maneuvering Analysis

This study proposed a partitioned method to analyze maneuvering of insects during flapping flight. This method decomposed the insect flapping flight into wing and body subsystems and then coupled them via boundary conditions imposed on the wing’s base using one-way coupling. In the wing subsystem, the strong coupling of the flexible wings and surrounding fluid was accurately analyzed using the finite element method to obtain the thrust forces acting on the insect’s body. The resulting thrust forces were passed from the wing subsystem to the body subsystem, and then rigid body motion was analyzed in the body subsystem. The rolling, yawing, and pitching motions were simulated using the proposed method as follows: In the rolling simulation, the difference of the stroke angle between the right and left wings caused a roll torque. In the yawing simulation, the initial feathering angle in the right wing only caused a yaw torque. In the pitching simulation, the difference between the frontand back-stroke angles in both the right and left wings caused a pitch torque. All three torques generated maneuvering motion comparable with that obtained in actual observations of insect flight. These results demonstrate that the proposed method can adequately simulate the fundamental maneuvers of insect flapping flight. In the present simulations, the maneuvering mechanisms were investigated at the governing equation level, which might be difficult using other approaches. Therefore, the proposed method will contribute to revealing the underlying insect flight mechanisms.
Inclusions of General Shapes Having Constant Field Inside the Core and NonElliptical Neutral Coated Inclusions With Anisotropic Conductivity

For certain shapes of inclusions embedded in a body, the field inside the inclusion is uniform for some boundary condition. We provide a construction scheme for inclusions of general shapes having such a uniformity property in two dimensions based on the conformal mapping technique for the potential problem. Using this complex analysis method, we also design non-elliptical neutral coated inclusions with anisotropic conductivity. Neutral coated inclusions do not perturb a background uniform field when they are inserted into a homogeneous matrix. Although coated inclusions of various shapes are neutral to a single field, only concentric ellipses or confocal ellipsoids can be neutral to all uniform fields. This paper presents our work relating to the construction of non-elliptical coated inclusions with anisotropic conductivity in two dimensions that are neutral to all uniform fields, where the assignment of the flux condition on the boundary of the core depends on the applied background field. Using these neutral inclusions, we obtain cylindrical neutral inclusions in three dimensions, with no flux applied to the boundary of the core and with the anisotropic conductivity function of the shell given in accordance with the background uniform field.
Parental migration, care-giving practices and left-behind children?s nutritional health in rural China: A mixed-methods approach

China? s rural-urban migration has resulted in 61 million children living apart from their parent(s) in rural communities. Previous studies have failed to examine the long-term effects of parental migration on left-behind children? s nutritional health, and have not examined the gender differences (of parents and children) in those associations. This research uses a mixed-methods design that incorporates quantitative and qualitative techniques to explore links between parental migration, care-giving arrangements and left-behind children? s nutritional health in rural China. The quantitative analyses draw on a longitudinal dataset ? the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) (1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2009) to examine the relationships between children? s nutritional outcomes and different patterns of parental migration including being left behind in different stages of childhood, and being left behind by the father or the mother. The qualitative component consists of analyses of interviews with 32 caregivers (21 grandparents, 9 mothers, and 2 uncles/aunts), and children? s diaries (26 children aged 6-12, 21 left-behind children and 5 non-left-behind children) to explore the care-giving practices for left-behind children from the perspectives of a group of children and their caregivers in rural northern central China. Results of the quantitative analyses show negative associations between parental migration, especially maternal migration, and left-behind children? s nutritional outcomes indicated by anthropometric measures and macronutrient intakes, and this is particularly true for boys left behind during early life in rural China. The qualitative findings highlight the importance of socio-cultural factors, since there seems to be a paradox of intergenerational obligations for boys in a culture where sons are more valued than daughters. This is because parents migrate to save for their sons? adult lives, reducing the remittances sent to support their sons who stay behind. There is less pressure to save for daughters? adult lives and so more potential for remittances to support their nutrition. The research also recognizes the importance of grandparents as carers, and their experiences and beliefs about healthy eating for children. Grandparents, particularly on the paternal side, are expected to fulfil social obligations to care for left-behind grandchildren even without immediate financial returns. Inadequate financial support from the migrant parents of left-behind boys in rural China, in particular boys cared for by paternal grandparents, may result in greater risk of poor nutrition during the early childhood. This potentially renders such left-behind boys vulnerable to developmental delays. These findings are important for policy-makers to develop effective interventions to improve left-behind children? s nutritional well-being in rural China.