STUDY OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy of a mandibular advancement splint (MAS) and a novel tongue stabilizing device (TSD) in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). DESIGN A randomized crossover design was used. PATIENTS Twenty-seven patients (20 male, 7 female), recruited from a tertiary hospital sleep clinic. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was reduce...

In software engineering community there is an increasing effort of design and development of multiagent systems (MAS). Among several issues emerging from this initiative, complexity, quality and uncertainty issues have not yet received much attention. The main factors affecting quality of MAS are complexity and knowledgeability. Complexity of MAS can be defined in terms of structural and algori...

Masev (MAs Software engineering EValuation framework) is an online application that allows analyzing and comparing methods, techniques and environments for developing MAS. Moreover, Masev allows the evaluation of how these methods and tools support the development of Organizational MAS and Service-oriented MAS. Finally, Masev provides a quantitative comparison based on a simple metric whose par...

The Mas protooncogene is a maternally imprinted gene encoding an orphan G protein-coupled receptor expressed mainly in forebrain and testis. Here, we provide evidence for a function of Mas in the central nervous system. Targeted disruption of the Mas protooncogene leads to an increased durability of long term potentiation in the dentate gyrus, without affecting hippocampal morphology, basal syn...

GEAMAS is a knowledge engineering environment for multi-agent simulation of complex systems. The basic architecture of GEAMAS is designed around three dimensions: MultiAgent Systems (MAS) software design, MAS knowledge abstraction and MAS services dimension. Each one of this third aspects, is implemented into several modular open software layers. First, the paper argues the benefits of a such a...

PURPOSE To investigate a technique for optimizing radiation dose and image quality for a computed radiography system. METHODS Entrance skin doses were measured for phantom models of the pelvis and lumbar spine imaged using the vendor's recommended exposure settings (ie, the reference doses) as well as doses above and below the vendor's recommended settings for both body parts. Images were ass...

This paper attempts to articulate the general role of infrastructure for multi-agent systems (MAS), and why infrastructure is a particularly critical issue if we are to increase the visibility and impact of multi-agent systems as a universal technology and solution. Second, it presents my current thinking on the socio-technical content of the needed infrastructure in four different corners of t...

Severe yield loss due to various biotic stresses like bacterial blight (BB), gall midge (insect) and Blast (disease) and abiotic stresses like submergence and salinity are a serious constraint to the rice productivity throughout the world. The most effective and reliable method of management of the stresses is the enhancement of host resistance, through an economical and environmentally friendl...

In recent years, genomic tools have become available for most livestock species and are now being used routinely to map quantitative trait loci underlying the genetic variance for numerous economically important traits. Fine-mapping methods are being devised to refine the initially coarse map positions of the quantitative trait loci to the point required for marker assisted selection and, event...