Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obstructive sleep apnea devices for out-of-center (OOC) testing: technology evaluation.

Guidance is needed to help clinicians decide which out-of-center (OOC) testing devices are appropriate for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A new classification system that details the type of signals measured by these devices is presented. This proposed system categorizes OOC devices based on measurements of Sleep, Cardiovascular, Oximetry, Position, Effort, and Respiratory (SCOPER) parameters.Criteria for evaluating the devices are also presented, which were generated from chosen pre-test and post-test probabilities. These criteria state that in patients with a high pretest probability of having OSA, the OOC testing device has a positive likelihood ratio (LR+) of 5 or greater coinciding with an in-lab-polysomnography (PSG)-generated apnea hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 5, and an adequate sensitivity (at least 0.825). Since oximetry is a mandatory signal for scoring AHI using PSG, devices that do not incorporate oximetry were excluded. English peer-reviewed literature on FDA-approved devices utilizing more than 1 signal was reviewed according to the above criteria for 6 questions. These questions specifically addressed the adequacy of different respiratory and effort sensors and combinations thereof to diagnose OSA. In summary, the literature is currently inadequate to state with confidence that a thermistor alone without any effort sensor is adequate to diagnose OSA; if a thermal sensing device is used as the only measure of respiration, 2 effort belts are required as part of the montage and piezoelectric belts are acceptable in this context; nasal pressure can be an adequate measurement of respiration with no effort measure with the caveat that this may be device specific; nasal pressure may be used in combination with either 2 piezoelectric or respiratory inductance plethysmographic (RIP) belts (but not 1 piezoelectric belt); and there is insufficient evidence to state that both nasal pressure and thermistor are required to adequately diagnose OSA. With respect to alternative devices for diagnosing OSA, the data indicate that peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT) devices are adequate for the proposed use; the device based on cardiac signals shows promise, but more study is required as it has not been tested in the home setting; for the device based on end-tidal CO(2) (ETCO(2)), it appears to be adequate for a hospital population; and for devices utilizing acoustic signals, the data are insufficient to determine whether the use of acoustic signals with other signals as a substitute for airflow is adequate to diagnose OSA.Standardized research is needed on OOC devices that report LR+ at the appropriate AHI (≥ 5) and scored according to the recommended definitions, while using appropriate research reporting and methodology to minimize bias.
The European Parliament: Agenda Territories and Agri-Environment Policymaking

We investigate the influence of the European Parliament (EP) in European Union (EU) decisionmaking. Two principal concepts are developed to explain EP influence in agricultural policy: those of agenda territories and agenda interlocking. The authors look at the EP's influence in policy shaping and policy setting, and argue that this institution's influence is dependent upon the degree to which its views interlock with the pragmatic options and strategic preferences of the European Commission. In a detailed empirical analysis of EU agri-environment policy, drawing upon seventy interviews with senior officers of the European Commission, members of the European Parliament, and agricultural officials in member states, we demonstrate how the mobilisation of these agenda territories enabled the EP to exert influence in the development of EU agri-environment policy.
Meaningful differences in maternal smoking behaviour during pregnancy: implications for infant behavioural vulnerability

Background: Smoking during pregnancy has been consistently associated with risk of problem behaviour in offspring. There is debate about whether this association reflects a teratological effect or is a marker for problematic maternal characteristics. We test these “competing” hypotheses by examining whether (1) exposure is associated with an early risk pathway by testing its association with infant temperamental difficultness, and (2) whether pregnancy quitting is associated with an early protective pathway, testing its association with easy infant temperament. Methods: We used the 9-month-old sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study, a cohort of over 18 000 infants born in 2000–2. Mothers were classified as pregnancy non-smokers, quitters and light or heavy smokers. Temperamental positive mood, receptivity to novelty and regularity were assessed with the Carey Infant Temperament Scale. Results: Pregnancy quitters had infants with the highest scores of easy temperament and heavy smokers had infants with the lowest scores (F = 28.51, p<0.001). Pregnancy smoking also predicted difficult temperament: heavy smoking was associated with increased risk of low positive mood (OR = 1.17, p = 0.09). In contrast, pregnancy quitting exerted a protective effect with decreased risk of distress to novelty (OR = 0.79, p<0.01) and irregularity (OR = 0.89, p = 0.02) in these infants. Conclusions: Pathways from pregnancy smoking to offspring behaviour are complex and multi-determined. These findings suggest that both exposure and maternal characteristics associated with pregnancy smoking status contribute to offspring behavioural patterns. Research that characterises differences between quitters and persistent smokers and examines the role of these differences in prediction of early vulnerabilities and problems in adaptation over time will be important for elucidating these pathways.
Special Aspects of Arabic Teaching in Tatar Schools and Madrasas at the End of the XIX - Beginning of the XX Centuries

The article deals with special aspects of Arabic Teaching in Tatar schools and madrasas at the end of XIX – beginning of XX centuries in the light of Arabic textbooks preserved up modern times. The author investigates continuity of Arabic Linguistic traditions in writing and publishing books on Arabic Grammar for Tatars. Tatar teachers of Arabic tried to find their own approach to an educational process which allows to preserve and show the feature of a foreign language to implement practical and theoretical objectives. Taking into account today’s public attention to Arabic in educational fields the address to experience is very important because it gives an opportunity to avoid mistakes and to develop the methods of Arabic teaching for Tatars used by teachers of Arabic at the end of XIX – the beginning of XX centuries. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015. v6n3s1p131
Projection of Construction and Demolition Waste in Norway

Current waste generation from the construction and demolition industry (C&D industry) in Norway is about 1.25 million tonnes per year. This article presents a procedure for projection of future waste amounts by estimating the activity level in the C&D industry, determining specific waste generation factors related to this activity, and finally calculating projections on flows of waste materials leaving the stocks in use and moving into the waste management system. This is done through a simple model of stocks and flows of buildings and materials. Monte Carlo simulation is used in the calculations to account for uncertainties related to the input parameters in order to make the results more robust. The results show a significant increase in C&D waste for the years to come, especially for the large fractions of concrete/bricks and wood. These projections can be a valuable source of information to predict the future need for waste treatment capacity, the dominant waste fractions, and the challenges in future waste handling systems. The proposed method is used in a forthcoming companion article for eco‐efficiency modeling within an evaluation of a C&D waste system.
Bcl‐2 and Fas/APO‐1 regulate distinct pathways to lymphocyte apoptosis.

Activation of the cell surface receptor Fas/APO‐1 (CD95) induces apoptosis in lymphocytes and regulates immune responses. The cytoplasmic membrane protein Bcl‐2 inhibits lymphocyte killing by diverse cytotoxic agents, but we found it provided little protection against Fas/APO‐1‐transduced apoptosis in B lymphoid cell lines, thymocytes and activated T cells. In contrast, the cowpox virus protease inhibitor CrmA blocked Fas/APO‐1‐transduced apoptosis, but did not affect cell death induced by gamma‐radiation or serum deprivation. Signalling through Fas/APO‐1 did not down‐regulate Bcl‐2 or induce its antagonists Bax and Bcl‐xS. In Fas/APO‐1‐deficient lpr mice, Bcl‐2 transgenes markedly augmented the survival of antigen‐activated T cells and the abnormal accumulation of lymphocytes (although they did not interfere with deletion of auto‐reactive cells in the thymus). These data raise the possibility that Bcl‐2 and Fas/APO‐1 regulate distinct pathways to lymphocyte apoptosis.
Value at Risk for the Term Structure of Interest Rates: An Orthogonal Approach

Value at Risk is the maximum potential loss of a portfolio with a given probability during a period of time. This tool is extremely useful for hedging portfolio decisions as making efficient strategies by controlling for the incremental risk. The principal challenge of this risk measure is the accuracy of the loss estimation which depends on the particular model used. In this sense, the main objective of this paper is to present an adequate methodology in order to measure market risk for fixed income portfolios. It evaluates risk related to the yield curve in time by using Principal Components Analysis, Orthogonal Garch and Key Rates Durations. Using dynamic conditional correlations as the simulation under stress scenarios let ensure a Value at Risk. Models output generate dynamic hedging strategies as portfolio management in a coherent way fitting positions taken in the market.
Planarity as a driver of Spatial Network structure

In this paper we introduce a new model of spatial network growth in which nodes are placed at randomly selected locations in space over time, forming new connections to old nodes subject to the constraint that edges do not cross. The resulting network has a power law degree distribution, high clustering and the small world property. We argue that these characteristics are a consequence of two features of our mechanism, growth and planarity conservation. We further propose that our model can be understood as a variant of random Apollonian growth. We then investigate the robustness of our findings by relaxing the planarity. Specifically, we allow edges to cross with a defined probability. Varying this probability demonstrates a smooth transition from a power law to an exponential degree distribution.
The Limitations of Using the Existing TAM in Adoption of Clinical Decision Support System in Hospitals: An Empirical Study in Malaysia

The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been widely used to study user acceptance of new computer technologies. Previous studies claimed that future technology acceptance research should explore other additional explanatory variables, which may affect the originally proposed constructs of the TAM. The use of information technology in the health care sector and especially in hospitals offers great potential for improving the performance of physicians, increasing the quality of services and also reducing the organizational expenses. However, the main challenge that arises according to the literature is whether healthcare professionals are willing to adopt and use clinical information technology while performing their tasks. Although adoption of various information technologies has been studied using the technology acceptance model (TAM), the study of technology acceptance for professional groups (such as physicians) has been limited. Physician adoption of clinical information technology is important for its successful implementation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a better insight about factors affecting physiciansâ€™ acceptance of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) in a hospital setting. The results reflect the importance of perceived threat to professional autonomy, perceived interactivity with clinical IT, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in determining physiciansâ€™ intention to use CDSS.
Nanomedicine for drug delivery and imaging: A promising avenue for cancer therapy and diagnosis using targeted functional nanoparticles

The diagnosis and treatment of cancer or tumor at the cellular level will be greatly improved with the development of techniques that enable the delivery of analyte probes and therapeutic agents into cells and cellular compartments. Organic and inorganic nanoparticles that interface with biological systems have recently attracted widespread interest in the fields of biology and medicine. The new term nanomedicine has been used recently. Nanoparticles are considered to have the potential as novel intravascular or cellular probes for both diagnostic (imaging) and therapeutic purposes (drug/gene delivery), which is expected to generate innovations and play a critical role in medicine. Target‐specific drug/gene delivery and early diagnosis in cancer treatment is one of the priority research areas in which nanomedicine will play a vital role. Some recent breakthroughs in this field recently also proved this trend. Nanoparticles for drug delivery and imaging have gradually been developed as new modalities for cancer therapy and diagnosis. In this article, we review the significance and recent advances of gene/drug delivery to cancer cells, and the molecular imaging and diagnosis of cancer by targeted functional nanoparticles. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An antenna selection scheme with MRE and AWC for decision fusion in cognitive radio

Spectrum sensing is an important task for the existence of cognitive radio. Accuracy of sensing is essential to eliminate interference to primary users. In a practical scenario, primary users may change its position and power frequently. A new scenario that may challenge cooperative spectrum sensing is considered here. An antenna selection scheme with multiple regions encoding for single node sensing and an adaptive weighted combining fusion rule for decision fusion are proposed to manage this scenario. The performance of the rule was analyzed in the new scenario under Rayleigh fading and compared with other fusion rules in the literature namely soft optimized linear combining (SOLC), soft equal weight linear combining, AND, OR, and voting. Probability of detection of the proposed approach was found better than SOLC (best among the rest) at low average SNR. Simulations showed that the probability of detection of proposed approach was nearly 10% better than SOLC at probability of false alarm Pf=0.01 and gradually became equal at Pf=0.15, and it maintains it as Pf goes up. Computational complexity of these approaches were measured as the time consumed in making a decision, and it was found that the proposed approach consumed only 20% of the time than that of SOLC approach. Effect of number of neighbors on the performance of these approaches were also analyzed. Adaptive nature of this rule makes it suitable to perform well in any scenario under distributed sensing.
Preventive care: underused even when free. Is there something else at work?

Explaining the rationale of preventive care underuse is a difficult task considering its great benefits for health. Underuse is even more difficult to explain in countries like Italy where preventive care can be obtained for free. In this article we investigate the determinants of prevention underuse with an empirical model based on human capital theory which also includes three factors to which little attention has been paid so far: role played by the General Practitioner (GP), nonmonetary barriers to access and health beliefs. We apply a recursive probit model explaining both recourse to prevention and to the GP which allows us to adequately measure the effect of the latter on the former and to quantitatively compare the determinants of curative and preventive care. We find that the GP plays a minor role in prevention use but that nonmonetary barriers to access and health beliefs are strong determinants of preventive care demand. Finally, we also find support for both Grossman's capital depreciation theory (at younger ages) and Cropper's shorter pay-off period theory (at older ages).
Policy Area as a Potential Moderator of Transparency Effects: An Experiment

Building on the counterintuitive findings of recent empirical studies that transparency in political decision making may have a negative effect on public legitimacy beliefs, this article suggests that transparency has different effects depending on the policy area. Specifically, it argues that transparency is less effective in policy decisions that involve trade-offs related to questions of human life and death or well-being. Using an experiment that involved 1,032 participants, the effect of transparency is tested in two policy areas that represent routine priority setting (culture and leisure) and policy decisions implicitly related to human life and well-being (traffic security). Results indicate that transparency can increase public acceptance of political decisions, but this effect is moderated by the type of policy area. Furthermore, a limited type of transparency in which decision makers provide justifications for their decisions can result in benefits while avoiding potential costs.
QTL Express: mapping quantitative trait loci in simple and complex pedigrees

QTL Express is the first application for Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping in outbred populations with a web-based user interface. User input of three files containing a marker map, trait data and marker genotypes allows mapping of single or multiple QTL by the regression approach, with the option to perform permutation or bootstrap tests.
Probabilistic graphical models

This issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Systems comprises a series of articles on probabilistic graphical models selected from the Conference of the Spanish Association for Artiﬁcial Intelligence (CAEPIA’01), held in Gijo´n (Spain) from the 14th to the 16th of November 2001. Organized at a regular 2-year interval, the CAEPIA Conference is the main forum for Spanish researchers in Artiﬁcial Intelligence, and in the last edition 131 articles were presented. In this conference, two invited sessions were devoted to bring together researchers working mainly on Bayesian networks and decision graphs. In
The public sector pay gap in Italy

I investigate the public-private pay gap using Italian microdata covering the period 1980-2006. Even after controlling for observable characteristics of the labour force, I find a positive wage premium for the public sector, almost negligible during the eighties and averaging at about 12 percent in the period 1993-2006. While the pay gap for women and workers in southern regions turns out to be higher than the average in the whole sample period, the greater advantage from working in the public sector that low-skilled workers seemed to enjoy up to 1995, disappears afterwards. Moreover, whereas managers in the public sector appear almost always penalized relatively to those working in the private sector, for workers with graduate or post-graduate degrees the wage differential is negative before 1993; afterwards it becomes positive, and starts exceeding the average premium in 2000. Finally, a simple comparison of GDP growth rates with public-private wage differentials shows a negative correlation between these two variables. After relatively favourable macroeconomic conditions during the eighties, a slowing in the economic activity accompanied the observed widening of the pay gap.
Genetic linkage and physical mapping of the porcine androgen receptor (AR) gene.

Source and Description of Primers. Primers were designed from published bovine and human androgen receptor (AR) sequences (GenBank accession number Z75315 and M27430, respectively). These primers were used to obtain a porcine sequence (submitted to GenBank: accession number AF079783). A total of 247 bp out of the entire 793-bp PCR product shared 90.3% identity with sections of exons 7 and 8 of the human AR gene. Porcine specific primers (AR-3 and AR-4) were then designed to amplify a 160-bp fragment in intron 7 of the AR gene region from porcine genomic DNA.
A comparative value chain analysis of burley tobacco in Malawi: 2003/04 and 2009/10

This article conducts a value chain analysis of smallholder burley tobacco production in Malawi for the 2003/04 and 2009/10 agricultural seasons. The comparison suggests in 2003/04 smallholder profits from growing burley were limited by two main factors: first, the practices of leaf merchant companies on the auction floors who operated as a cartel (and governed the burley supply thread); and secondly, by inefficient marketing arrangements. By the 2009/10 season the rents, governance and systemic efficiency within the supply thread had changed considerably: there was greater competition on the auction floors largely due to direct state intervention (which increased growers' net margins in nominal terms), improvements in marketing arrangements, tighter state regulation (including the introduction of minimum prices for grades of burley) and increased systemic efficiency (through a rapid expansion of contract farming). The article concludes by highlighting some of the opportunities and threats that this form of vertical integration poses smallholder growers.
Virtual Conversation Partner for Adults with Autism

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is notable for severely impaired reciprocal social interaction skills relative to language and intellectual abilities, presenting a major barrier to social integration and vocational success. Evidence-based interventions to address these needs are lacking. We report on the development of a small, prototype conversation simulation to teach conversational skills to adolescents and adults with ASD and average to superior intellectual abilities. We also report on a test of the feasibility and acceptability of the simulation approach with a sample of the target population. The simulation engages the user in a virtual conversation with an on-screen partner whose reactions provide naturalistic feedback geared to the appropriateness of the learner's response choices. The prototype simulation, which provides for up to 12 potentially unique multi-turn conversations, was used over a period of 2 weeks by 16 adolescents and adults who then rated statements about the system on a linear scale of 1 (disagreement) to 5 (high agreement). The participants highly endorsed the majority of positive statements about the quality and credibility of the interaction and the virtual conversation partner. In contrast, agreement with positive statements about instructional features external to the conversation was moderate. Unexpectedly, most participants strongly agreed that using the simulation had been helpful to them. Further development and testing in the context of a controlled study with randomized assignment to control and experimental groups are needed to determine whether this approach is effective in improving real-world pragmatic language behavior of high-functioning adults with ASD.