BACKGROUND In the absence of surgical treatments with demonstrable long-term efficacy, conservative treatments for snoring remain appropriate. Only limited evidence evaluating the use of ear protection by partners has been published. METHODS Eligible couples were invited to participate in a two-month trial, with each partner using custom-moulded ear plugs. Five questionnaires were completed b...

One of the principal value propositions for the creation of Systems of Systems (SoS) is the ability to generate stakeholder value beyond that which can be delivered by a single system or even a collection of systems. The dynamic interactions among the component systems in a SoS make conceptual design decisions for SoS more complex compared to traditional system design. There are several heurist...

Sotos syndrome (Sos) is an overgrowth disorder also characterized clinically by mental retardation, specific craniofacial features and advanced bone age. As NSD1 haploinsufficiency was determined in 2002 to be the major cause of Sos, many intragenic mutations and chromosomal microdeletions involving the entire NSD1 gene have been described. In the Japanese population, half of the cases analyzed...

SOSOPT is a Matlab toolbox for formulating and solving Sum-of-Squares (SOS) polynomial optimizations. This document briefly describes the use and functionality of this toolbox. Section 1 introduces the problem formulations for SOS tests, SOS feasibility problems, SOS optimizations, and generalized SOS problems. Section 2 reviews the SOSOPT toolbox for solving these optimizations. This section i...

OBJECTIVES Investigate the effects of selected factors associated with quantitative ultrasound parameters among Inuit preschoolers living in Arctic communities (56° 32'-72° 40'N). MATERIALS AND METHODS Children were selected randomly in summer and early fall (n=296). Dietary intake was assessed through the administration of a 24-h dietary recall (24-h recall) and a food frequency questionnair...

Introduction: The low regeneration of bone in defective bones causes therapeutic problems. Various strategies to assess the healing of bone defects have been used which they include histological and histo-chemical analysis in an invasive study. The purpose of this study was to determine the ultrasonic parameters of bone as a promising noninvasive technology for assessing bone repair process. Ma...

Sos proteins function as activators of Ras signaling by catalyzing guanine nucleotide exchange on Ras. Sos regulation was initially thought to be accomplished primarily through its growth factor-dependent recruitment to the plasma membrane. More recent data has indicated that while membrane association is an indispensable means of Sos regulation, additional mechanisms involving intramolecular i...

In this work, a new hybrid Symbiotic Organisms Search (SOS) algorithm introduced to design and optimize spatial and planar structures under structural constraints. The SOS algorithm is inspired by the interactive behavior between organisms to propagate in nature. But one of the disadvantages of the SOS algorithm is that due to its vast search space and a large number of organisms, it may trap i...

Many qualitative descriptions of Systems of Systems (SoS) exist in the literature, but only heuristics and guiding principles have been suggested with regard to SoS design methods. To assist SoS designers in decision making during conceptual design, prescriptive design methods are required for SoS. To develop a SoS design method, we propose to build on an existing system tradespace exploration ...