BACKGROUND Numerous twin studies have reported significant genetic contributions to the variability of tobacco initiation (TI), while fewer studies have shown similar results for the persistence of smoking behavior, or nicotine dependence (ND). As the development of ND requires regular tobacco use (RTU) which in turn requires TI, a conditional approach is necessary. METHOD We used structural ...

BACKGROUND Prior studies of twins reared together suggest that regular tobacco use (RTU) is substantially heritable. However, strong social influences on RTU might have biased these results. METHODS We examine the self-report lifetime history of RTU in members of 778 male-male and female-female twin pairs, raised together and apart, born from 1890 to 1958 and ascertained through the populatio...

For energy deficit countries, the design of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) based energy management systems for optimal distribution is of high interest. Such design involves development of Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) which is considered as an essential component of any high scale SCADA system and it is functioning as remote field data interface. Considering various generations ...

BACKGROUND AlloDerm, a human acellular dermal matrix, is available in a ready-to-use (RTU) or freeze-dried (FD) form. A limited number of studies have compared complication rates between RTU and FD in implant-based breast reconstruction. The objective of this report was to conduct a meta-analysis of previously reported complication rates between RTU and FD. METHODS A systematic literature rev...

Real-time ultrasound (RTU) may aid in identifying sources of reproductive failure. In the month prior to observation, a commercial 2500-sow unit experienced an increase in the wean-to-estrus interval and reduced conception rates. A subpopulation of 52 sows was examined using RTU once daily on days 4, 5, and 6 postweaning. Transrectal RTU of the ovaries and uterus, performed following estrus det...

One hundred patients with asymptomatic carotid bruit or transient ischemic attack (TIA) underwent continuous-wave Doppler (CWD) and real time ultrasound (RTU) testing of their cervical carotid arteries. After ultrasonic studies, 51 patients also underwent bilateral carotid angiography. There was 95% agreement between CWD and angiography for the diagnosis of a significant (greater than 50%) sten...

The accuracy of transrectal real-time ultrasonography (RTU) scanning technique to detect ovarian structures (follicles and corpus luteum) of Serrana goats was compared to the data obtained by observation of ovarian sequential slices. This slicing technique (SLI) was considered as reference method. The laparoscopy and laparotomy techniques were also used for corpora lutea identification. For thi...

Real-time upcalls (rtus) are an operating systems mechanism to provide quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees to network applications, and to e ciently implement protocols in user space with (QoS) guarantees. Traditionally, threads (and real-time extensions to threads) have been used to structure concurrent activities in user space protocol implementations. However, preemptive scheduling required ...

The present work addresses the study of techniques of digital image processing based on fuzzy logic for subcutaneous fat (SF) estimation in real time ultrasound (RTU) images. The process for SF automatic estimation in RTU images is divided into two steps: the identification of the image area corresponding to the SF regions and, from these regions, the SF estimation. In order to deal with the am...

Processors in microcontrollers are optimized for speed executing tasks in order to minimize completion time. Often burdened with interrupts, nondeterministic execution, auxiliary tasks, and non real-time operating systems, processors are unable to make any timing guarantees on most operations. In a traditional setup, interfacing with external components is done via protocol-specific hardware pe...