Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of acupuncture on upper airway function and physiology in obstructive sleep apnoea

II DECLARATION . IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . V LIST OF FIGURES . XI GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS . XIII CHAPTER 1 OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNOEA . 1 1.1 DEFINITION OF OSA . 1 1.2 DIAGNOSIS OF OSA . 3 1.3 PREVALENCE OF OSA . 5 1.3. 1 Gender differences. 10 1.4 SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF OSA . 11 1.4. 1 Snoring. 11 1.4. 2 Hypersomnolence. 11 1.4. 3 Daytime functioning and quality of life. 14 1.5 PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL AND NEUROCOGNITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF OSA . 18 1.5. 1 Depression and mood disturbance. 19 1.5. 2 Neurocognitive performance. 23 1.6 RISKS OF OSA. 25 1.6. 1 Hypertension and cardiovascular disease. 25 1.6. 2 Obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. 27 CHAPTER 2 PATHOPHYSIOLOGY, DISEASE PROGRESSION AND TREATMENT OF OSA34 2.1 PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF OSA. 34 2.1.2 Narrowed upper airway anatomy and increased upper airway resistance. 35 2.1.3 Increased upper airway collapsibility. 37 2.1.4 Poor upper airway muscle responsiveness. 41 2.1.5 Lung volume. 46 2.1.6 Ventilatory control instability. 48 2.1. 7 Respiratory arousal threshold. 50 2.1. 7 Surface tension of upper airway liquid lining. 53 2.1. 8 OSA phenotypes. 55
WIC Program Participation and Early Childhood Overweight

Overweight and obesity constitute a growing and significant public health problem; increasing incidence and prevalence of overweight in young children is of particular concern. This study examines the question of whether participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) may play a role in risk for early childhood overweight. We conducted a case-control study including 555 WIC participant children ages 3-5 years who were either overweight (BMI >95th percentile of reference standard) or normal weight (BMI 25-75th percentile). The hypothesis was two-sided, since there are logical reasons why WIC participation might be either preventive or promotive of overweight in young children. The population is large majority (95%) Hispanic, a group that has been documented to have the highest rates of overweight and obesity in adults and children. The independent variable of interest (“Family Dose of WIC”) was constructed as cumulative history of WIC program participation for the entire family, adjusted for reported breaks in participation, and then expressed as person-years. Family dose of WIC did not differ between cases and controls, and had a median of 12.6 person-years. In multivariate logistic regression analyses controlled for a number of variables, “family dose of WIC” had no predictive power. Only mother’s BMI and child height were significantly predictive of child overweight; number of hours of television watching showed a slight but non-significant relationship to overweight risk and number of hours of sleep at night a slight but non-significant negative relationship. There is no indication that cumulative time of WIC program participation influences risk of early childhood overweight.
Learning the Course of Design and Analyze of Computer Algorithms via Online Coding

The course of design and analysis of computer algorithms is one of the core-course of computer science education; this paper presents an online coding framework to help students to learn the course of design and ananlysis of computer algorithms and other coding-related courses in computer science. With the online coding framework, a student can edit code in any web browser, and then executes it. This online coding framework can connect teachers, curriculum authors, and students in a unique social experience by tracking and streaming progress updates in real time. In particular, with the newly proposed framework, it is not difficult to find interesting and unexpected input values during students’practicing, and then help them to understand what their code is actually doing. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/ijere.v2i3. 2570
A linear time implementation of profile reduction algorithms for sparse matrices

The profile reduction method is intended for time and storage reduction in solving a linear system of equations $Mx = b$ using direct methods.A Frontal Increase Minimization strategy (FIM strategy) is a generalization of the so-called King's numbering criterion. This class of strategy is used in some other classical algorithms (Levy's, Snay's, Gibbs's algorithms). Although efficient, these algorithms are far greater time consumers in their original implementation than other classical profile reduction algorithms (e.g., Reverse Cuthill McKee algorithm). In this paper we first apply the principles given by the authors to propose a unified “classical”implementation of the above mentioned algorithms. Then we provide some time complexity estimates for this implementation.Secondly, we describe an improved implementation of the FIM strategy algorithms using a new insight into the numbering process and best appropriate data structures. This implementation is proven linear in time complexity with respect to the number of nonzeros in M for all the above-mentioned algorithms.Finally, we provide practical execution times on a collection of test problems, highlighting the improvement achieved by the new implementation and its efficiency for small problems. The evaluation of the performance/cost ratio of the FIM strategy algorithms in the new implementation shows that they are competitive compared to other classical profile reduction algorithms.
A 1.2 V micropower CMOS op amp with floating-gate input transistors

A micropower 1.2 V op amp has been integrated in a 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process. Floating-gate input transistors are used to increase the input common mode voltage range of the op amp. Measured dc gain of the op amp is 65 dB. With a 9 pF load unity gain bandwidth is 230 kHz and phase margin is 62/spl deg/. Input referred noise is 0.5 /spl mu/V//spl radic/(Hz) at 10 Hz and 0.15 /spl mu/V/(Hz) at 10 kHz. Current consumption of the op amp is 4.3 /spl mu/A and active area is 0.11 mm/sup 2/.
English for Business: Student Responses to Language Learning through Social Networking Tools.

This action research based case study addresses the situation of a first year class of Business English students at Universidad de Alcalá and their attitudes towards using Web 2.0 tools and social media for language learning. During the semester, the students were asked to collaborate in the creation and use of some tools such as blogs, video repositories (YouTube), networking programs (LinkedIn), and communication tools (SlideShare). The data were obtained through an online questionnaire designed after a focus group had been held. The results, which are quantitative, suggest that the use of Web 2.0 tools and social networks for language learning facilitated collaboration within the groups when completing tasks, proved to be motivating, and made a clear distinction from traditional university language courses, often centered on the teacher and the syllabus contents. In addition, the students viewed the tools as being important for their future as professionals in the business world. While the sample in this study is limited and, hence, the results are not universally applicable, there is evidence that this method of learning may work well in a variety of international contexts.
Procédé de tatouage d'une séquence vidéo à sélection adaptative de la zone d'insertion du tatouage, procédé de détection, dispositifs, support de données et programmes d'ordinateur correspondants.

L'invention concerne un procede de tatouage d'une sequence d'images video, mettant en oeuvre une etape d'insertion d'au moins un bit de tatouage sur au moins un vecteur de mouvement obtenu par estimation de mouvement entre deux images de ladite sequence, de facon a obtenir au moins un vecteur de mouvement tatoue. Le vecteur de mouvement est repere par ses coordonnees dans un espace de reference, partitionne en deux types de zones complementaires, a chacun desquels est associee une valeur binaire distincte. L'etape d'insertion met en oeuvre, si necessaire, une modification des coordonnees dudit vecteur de mouvement, de facon qu'il se situe dans une zone de valeur binaire correspondant audit bit de tatouage a inserer. Selon l'invention, lors de ladite modification, on determine au moins deux vecteurs de mouvement tatoues potentiels et on selectionne, parmi lesdits vecteurs de mouvement tatoues potentiels, un vecteur de mouvement tatoue optimal, selon au moins un critere predetermine, de facon que les coordonnees modifiees dudit vecteur de mouvement soient celles dudit vecteur de mouvement tatoue optimal.
Steady-State and Small-Signal Modeling of a PWM DC-DC Switched-Inductor Buck-Boost Converter in CCM

Lee, Julie J. M.S. Egr. , Department of Electrical Engineering, Wright State University, 2007. Small-Signal Modeling PWM DC-DC Switched-Inductor Buck-Boost Converter in CCM. Pulse-width modulated (PWM) buck-boost converters have a signi cant role in power electronic systems for renewable energy applications. A new hybrid, the switched-inductor buck-boost converter, is superior to the conventional buck-boost because it uses less energy in the magnetic eld, has smaller component size of inductors, and produces less current stresses in the switching elements. Steady-state and dynamic modeling of the switched-inductor buck-boost converter is essential to design and implement of a feed-back network. The objective of this work is to present the steady-state analysis of a PWM switched-inductor buck-boost dc-dc converter operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM). The idealized voltage and current waveforms, and expressions for steady-state operations of the converter are presented. The minimum values to ensure CCM operation for for inductance and capacitance are derived. The lter capacitor and its ESR with the ripple voltage e ects are derived. Expressions for power losses and the overall e ciency of the PWM switched-inductor dc-dc buck-boost converter are given. A PWM switched-inductor buck-boost is designed, and a laboratory prototype is built and tested per given speci cations. The theoretical and simulated analysis was in accordance with the experimental results. Small-signal modeling of PWM switched-inductor dc-dc buck-boost converter operating in CCM is presented. The averaged large-signal, dc, and time-invariant linear small-signal circuit models of a PWM switched-inductor dc-dc buck-boost converter power stage operating in CCM are presented. The small-signal modeling focuses on the dynamics introduced by the switched-inductor dc-dc buck-boost converter. Using the smallsignal model to derive the open-loop power stage transfer functions: the input-tooutput voltage, inductor current-to-input voltage, control-to-output voltage, input impedance and output impedance are derived. These transfer functions and their
A study of Task-based Language Teaching Strategies in English

The task-based approach is only written into the new curriculum standard teaching approach, is a match with the concept of the new curriculum standards, teaching ways to contribute to the implementation of the new curriculum standard. It is suitable for various types of activities and organization. TBLT is beneficial to students' all-round development, advocate the perception, experience, practice, participation and cooperation learning. Task based language teaching to create close to the student life situations, to have real significance. Analysis of task-based language teaching, and illustrates the implementation of task-based language teaching.
A Temporomandibular Joint Ankylosis with Periarticular Tissue Calcification Long Followed up Case

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis is defined as bony or fibrous adhesion of the anatomic joint components accompanied with the mouth opening limitation. However, effective treatment method has not been still established. A 63-year-old man without dentofacial deformity visited our hospital with a complaint of limitation of mouth opening due to periarticular bone formation. His joints were possible of hinge movement; maximal incisal opening (MIO) was 17 mm. He refused surgical treatment. So he was treated mobilization therapy of TMJ when he visited our clinic and instructed to perform mouth-opening exercise by himself to prevent the progression of bony ankylosis. By successful of physical therapy, 6 months after, MIO was 28 mm. Limitation of mouth opening was not bothering him so much. After 9 years, periarticular tissue calcification was slightly progressive. But his joints of hinge movement were still remained. MIO was 25 mm. This case, physical therapy could be effective to prevent the progression from fibrous ankylosis of temporomandibular joint to the bony ankylosis.
Estudio comparativo in vitro de resinas acrílicas de uso en prótesis fija provisional

El objetivo de este estudio es comparar algunos de los productos que se encuentran actualmente en el mercado para la elaboracion de provisionales y ofrecerle al clinico elementos de juicio que le permitan hacer una seleccion apropiada con miras a disminuir los inconvenientes que con mas frecuencia se presentan, menor pigmentacion a largo plazo ofreciendo un mejor confort estetico al paciente, una mayor resistencia para disminuir el numero de las reparaciones durante el proceso del tratamiento y manipular materiales con un rango de seguridad para evitar el dano pulpar en dientes vitales.
Associação na mesma família das doenças de Charcot-Marie-Tooth e de Friedreich

Four brothers with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease are studied clinically and genetically. By comparing the symptomatology, the mixed clinical forms within the great group of heredodegenerative diseases are enfazised, with special attention to the intermediate forms between Charcot-MarieTooth and Friedreich diseases. In the present cases there were signs of Charcot-Marie-Tooth's peroneal muscular atrophy and Friedreich's spinocerebelar degeneration. By the genetic study a cromosomal breakage, an unusual phenomenon in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, was observed.
Current developments in MRI for assessing rodent models of multiple sclerosis

ABSTRACT: MRI is a key radiological imaging technique that plays an important role in the diagnosis and characterization of heterogeneous multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions. Various MRI methodologies such as conventional T 1/T 2 contrast, contrast agent enhancement, diffusion-weighted imaging, magnetization transfer imaging and susceptibility weighted imaging have been developed to determine the severity of MS pathology, including demyelination/remyelination and brain connectivity impairment from axonal loss. The broad spectrum of MS pathology manifests in diverse patient MRI presentations and affects the accuracy of patient diagnosis. To study specific pathological aspects of the disease, rodent models such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, virus-induced and toxin-induced demyelination have been developed. This review aims to present key developments in MRI methodology for better characterization of rodent models of MS.
Persistence of conduct disorders and their relation to early initiation of smoking and alcohol drinking in a prospective ELSPAC Study

The important risk factors of early initiation of smoking and alcohol drinking are: prosmoking family and peers, conduct disorders and delinquency, poor academic performance. The data obtained by physicians, teachers and children were collected at the age of 11 years. Children were divided into group A (without symptoms), Group B (with one or more symptoms). For statistic analysis, the programme EPI INFO was used.During the period between 7 and 11 years, new children with problematic behaviour (178=3.9%) were diagnosed in Group A, while substantial decreasing of children previously included in Group B was seen (by 59.1%). Together 7.05% of 11 years old children visited specialists (psychologists) due to their conduct disorders: 6.8% from Group A and 12.3% from Group B. Children more often than their teachers reported the frequent occurrence of conduct disorder. About 20% of children smoked, and more than 40% had tasted alcohol. However, the differences between Groups A and B were not significant. Our prospective study has demonstrated the possibility of misinterpretation of behavioural outputs. Children with previous behavioural problems had not a higher risk for early smoking and alcohol use.
Programming future architectures: dusty decks, memory walls, and the speed of light

Due to advances in CMOS fabrication technology, high performance computing capabilities have continually grown. More capable hardware has allowed a range of complex scientific applications to be developed. However, these applications present a bottleneck to future performance. Entrenched 'legacy' codes---"Dusty Decks"---demand that new hardware must remain compatible with existing software. Additionally, conventional architectures faces increasing challenges. Many of these challenges revolve around the growing disparity between processor and memory speed---the "Memory Wall"---and difficulties scaling to large numbers of parallel processors. To a large extent, these limitations are inherent to the traditional computer architecture. As data is consumed more quickly, moving that data to the point of computation becomes more difficult. Barring any upward revision in the speed of light, this will continue to be a fundamental limitation on the speed of computation. This work focuses on these solving these problems in the context of Light Weight Processing (LWP). LWP is an innovative technique which combines Processing-In-Memory, short vector computation, multithreading, and extended memory semantics. It applies these techniques to try and answer the questions "What will a next-generation supercomputer look like? " and "How will we program it? " To that end, this work presents four contributions: (1) An implementation of MPI which uses features of LWP to substantially improve message processing throughput; (2) A technique leveraging extended memory semantics to improve message passing by overlapping computation and communication; (3) An OpenMP library modified to allow efficient partitioning of threads between a conventional CPU and LWPs---greatly improving cost/performance; (4) An algorithm to extract very small "threadlets" which can overcome the inherent disadvantages of a simple processor pipeline.
The challenge of computer algebra to engineering mathematics

The role of computer algebra within engineering mathematics in higher education is discussed. A brief description of computer algebra systems and the current status of computer algebra within higher education is given. The author believes that imminent technology changes which will make computer algebra routinely available to students on hand-held `calculators' challenge those involved with teaching engineering mathematics at university to re-examine both the curriculum and its delivery. Specific examples of these challenges in the areas of differentiation and differential equations are presented.
Solving the Accuracy Metrics and Diversity Measures For Personalised Recommendation

In the vast amount of information in the internet, to give individual attention for each users, the personalised recommendation system is used, which uses the collaborative filtering method. By the result of the survey did with some papers, the main problems like the cold start and the sparsity which were found previously have been overcome. Filtering the users when the number is large is done by the nearest neighbour approach or by the filtration approach. Due to some popular objects the accuracy of the data’s are lost. To remove this influence, the method which is proposed here is a network based collaborative filtering which will create a user similarity network, where the users having similar interests of item or movies will be grouped together forming a network. Then we calculate discriminant scores for candidate objects. Validate the proposed approach by performing random sub-sampling experiments for about 20 times to get the accurate results and evaluate the method using two accuracy criteria and two diversity measures. Results show that the approach outperforms the ordinary userbased collaborative filtering method by not only enhancing the accuracy but also improving the diversity.
Prenatal Sex-Selective Abortion and High Sex Ratio at Birth in the Rural Henan Province

Based on data from a snowball sampling survey conducted in rural Henan in 2001, we analyze the prevalence, patterns, and risk factors of prenatal sex selection and estimate its impact on sex ratio at birth. Our results indicate that prenatal sex selection is widely known and practiced in rural Henan; ex ante fetal sex and family sibset composition are the dominant predictors of abortion, regardless of maternal heterogeneity; and sex-selective abortion is the predominant, if not sole, cause of the sample's high sex ratio at birth.
An Analysis of the Usage of Mobile Phones for Personalized Interactions with Ubiquitous Public Displays

Do personalized interactions with ubiquitous public displays make sense? In our analysis we investigate what forms of personalization and interaction styles are applicable in this context. Based on this we present a matrix relating the number of persons that can see the display to the number of people that can interact with the display. Through this we show that there are different cases where personalization of services on public displays is useful. At the end of the paper we introduce a prototype currently under development. We conclude with a set of open questions which might be answered through the development and usage of this prototype.
APSON: Anonymous and Private SOcial Network

In recent years, user privacy in online social networks has become an important issue. Existing researches use anonymity techniques to preserve privacy. However traditional anonymity techniques do not support profile matching, thus have limitations in providing services which are based on social network topologies. This means that anonymous users cannot establish relationship or connect with friends if such techniques are used. This paper proposes an anonymous social network framework, which implements profile matching while still allows users to remain anonymous.
Separation-based reasoning for deterministic channel-passing concurrent programs

Tractable proof systems for concurrent processes are hard to achieve because of the non-deterministic interleaving of statements. This is particularly true when the scheduling of statements have an eﬀect on the ﬁnal state of the program, referred to as racy conditions. As a result, when we try to reason about concurrent programs, we have to consider all possible thread interleaving to accurately approximate the ﬁnal result. Since, scalability is important we limit our reasoning to a subset of the concurrent programs that are race-free. By doing so we gain serialized reasoning, where examining one possible path will automatically encapsulate the other interleaving. Fundamentally, races are caused when two concurrent processes try to access shared resources simultaneously (for example two concurrent processes trying to alter a location in memory at the same time) and hence the ﬁnal result depends on the last statement that updates the location. A popular approach for delimiting the class of race-free processes is through resource separation. [3] Through the resources assigned to each process we can approximate the interference that a process can create to its concurrent processes. Therefore, if the resources available are split disjointly among the concurrent processes, we guarantee that no interference between the processes is created. More concretely, if all concurrent processes work within diﬀerent parts of the memory, each process will not create race conditions for other processes. Moreover, this guarantee allows us to reason about each process independently, as a sequential process.