Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computing the centroid of a general type-2 fuzzy set by means of the centroid-flow algorithm

Previous studies have shown that the centroid of a general type-2 fuzzy set (T2 FS) Ã can be obtained by taking the union of the centroids of all the α-planes (each raised to level α) of Ã. Karnik-Mendel (KM) or the enhanced KM (EKM) algorithms are used to compute the centroid of each α-plane. The iterative features in KM/EKM algorithms can be time-consuming, especially when the algorithms have to be repeated for many α-planes. This paper proposes a new method named centroid-flow (CF) algorithm to compute the centroid of Ã without having to apply KM/EKM algorithms for every α-plane. Extensive simulations have shown that the CF algorithm can reduce the computation time by 75%-80 % and 50% -75%, compared with KM and EKM algorithms, respectively, and still maintains satisfactory computation accuracy for various T2 FSs when the primary variable x and α -plane are discretized finely enough.
Biomechanical aspects of work-related musculoskeletal disorders

This article provides a review of the biomechanics literature on the low back and upper extremities. Biomechanics is the study of forces acting on and generated within the body and of the effects of these forces on the tissues, fluids, or materials used for diagnosis, treatment, or research purposes. The discussion begins with an overview of basic concepts and methods. This is followed by the two literature reviews. The study selection criteria are presented at the beginning of each review. The two bodies of literature differ in maturity; the research on the low back is more substantial. The number of studies reviewed is 196 for the low back and 109 for the upper extremities. While there are certainly individual factors that put a person at risk for back pain, overall, this body of literature indicates that back pain can be related to excessive mechanical loading of the spine that can be expected in the workplace. The literature also indicates that appropriate reduction of work exposure can decrease the risk of low back disorder. Hence, it is clear, from a biomechanical perspective, that exposure to excessive amounts of physical loading can increase the risk of low back disorder. The literature also reveals that there are strong relationships between physical loads in the workplace and biomechanical loading, internal tolerances, and pain, impairment, and disability associated with the upper limb. Although many of these relationships are complex, the associations are clear. The biomechanical literature has identified relationships between physical work attributes and external loads for force, posture, vibration and temperature. Research has also demonstrated relationships between external loading and biomechanical loading (i.e. internal loads or physiologic responses). Relationships between external loading and internal tolerances (i.e. mechanical strain or fatigue) have also been demonstrated. Finally, relationships have been shown between external loading and upper limb pain, discomfort, impairment or disability. Although the relationships exist, the picture is far from complete. Individual studies have, for the most part, not fully considered the characteristic properties of physical work and external loading (i.e. magnitude, repetition or duration). Few studies have considered multiple physical stress factors or their interactions. The existence of these interactive relationships supports the load-tolerance model presented in this paper.
Health Literacy and Health Actions: A Review and a Framework From Health Psychology

The association between performance on health literacy measures and health outcomes is well established. The next step is to understand the processes through which health literacy affects health. This review introduces a framework drawing on ideas from health psychology and proposing that associations between health literacy and health outcomes could be mediated by a range of health actions involving access and use of health care, patient—provider interactions, and the management of health and illness. The framework outlines routes through which health literacy might affect either health actions themselves or the motivational and volitional determinants that have been identified in social cognition models. The implications of the framework for future research and intervention strategies are discussed.
Conditional Density Estimation Using Probabilistic Fuzzy Systems

We consider conditional density approximation by fuzzy systems. Fuzzy systems are typically used to approximate deterministic functions in which the stochastic uncertainty is ignored. We propose probabilistic fuzzy systems (PFSs), in which the probabilistic nature of uncertainty is taken into account. These systems take also fuzzy uncertainty into account by their fuzzy partitioning of input and output spaces. We discuss an additive reasoning scheme for PFSs that leads to the estimation of conditional probability densities and prove how such fuzzy systems compute the expected value of this conditional density function. We show that some of the most commonly used fuzzy systems can compute the same expected output value, and we derive how their parameters should be selected in order to achieve this goal. The additional information and process understanding provided by the different interpretations of the PFS models are illustrated using a real-world example.
A human vaccine strategy based on chimpanzee adenoviral and MVA vectors that primes, boosts, and sustains functional HCV-specific T cell memory

A prime-boost HCV vaccine strategy induces durable and broad T cell responses, characteristic of those associated with viral control. An Ounce of HCV Prevention Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes liver inflammation that can lead to diminished liver function or liver failure. Recent approval of antiviral drugs for HCV affords health care providers with treatment options; however, these new therapies are expensive with limited availability, leaving the door open for preventative approaches such as vaccines. Swadling et al. report a first-in-human trial of a prime-boost vaccine strategy for HCV. They prime with a simian adenoviral vector followed by a modified vaccinia Ankara vector encoding HCV proteins, which induces a T cell response similar to that found in HCV control in natural infection. If this strategy can show efficacy in later-stage studies, this approach could be used in a preventative HCV vaccine. A protective vaccine against hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains an unmet clinical need. HCV infects millions of people worldwide and is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer. Animal challenge experiments, immunogenetics studies, and assessment of host immunity during acute infection highlight the critical role that effective T cell immunity plays in viral control. In this first-in-man study, we have induced antiviral immunity with functional characteristics analogous to those associated with viral control in natural infection, and improved upon a vaccine based on adenoviral vectors alone. We assessed a heterologous prime-boost vaccination strategy based on a replicative defective simian adenoviral vector (ChAd3) and modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector encoding the NS3, NS4, NS5A, and NS5B proteins of HCV genotype 1b. Analysis used single-cell mass cytometry and human leukocyte antigen class I peptide tetramer technology in healthy human volunteers. We show that HCV-specific T cells induced by ChAd3 are optimally boosted with MVA, and generate very high levels of both CD8+ and CD4+ HCV-specific T cells targeting multiple HCV antigens. Sustained memory and effector T cell populations are generated, and T cell memory evolved over time with improvement of quality (proliferation and polyfunctionality) after heterologous MVA boost. We have developed an HCV vaccine strategy, with durable, broad, sustained, and balanced T cell responses, characteristic of those associated with viral control, paving the way for the first efficacy studies of a prophylactic HCV vaccine.
Information Processing Versus Social Cognitive Mediators of Weight Loss in a Podcast-Delivered Health Intervention

Podcasting is an emerging technology, and previous interventions have shown promising results using theory-based podcast for weight loss among overweight and obese individuals. This study investigated whether constructs of social cognitive theory and information processing theories (IPTs) mediate the effect of a podcast intervention on weight loss among overweight individuals. Data are from Pounds off Digitally, a study testing the efficacy of two weight loss podcast interventions (control podcast and theory-based podcast). Path models were constructed (n = 66). The IPTs, elaboration likelihood model, information control theory, and cognitive load theory mediated the effect of a theory-based podcast on weight loss. The intervention was significantly associated with all IPTs. Information control theory and cognitive load theory were related to elaboration, and elaboration was associated with weight loss. Social cognitive theory constructs did not mediate weight loss. Future podcast interventions grounded in theory may be effective in promoting weight loss.
Evolving Fuzzy Rules for Anomaly Detection in Data Streams

Evolvable Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) models are fuzzy-rule-based models with the ability to continuously learn and adapt to incoming samples from data streams. The model adjusts both premise and consequent parameters to enhance the performance of the model. This paper introduces a new methodology for the estimation of the premise parameters in the evolvable T-S (eTS) model. Incremental updates for the weighted sample mean and inverse of the covariance matrix enable us to construct an evolvable fuzzy rule base that is used to detect outliers and regime changes in the input stream. We compare our model with Angelov's eTS+ model with artificial and real data.
A Multi-Gbps Millimeter-Wave WPAN System Based on STDMA with Heuristic Scheduling

This paper proposes a spatial time-division multiple access (STDMA) throughput enhancement scheme for a multi-Gbps millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless personal area network (WPAN) system. The system design includes in the medium access control (MAC) layer, an interference-monitoring mechanism and a heuristic TDMA time-slot scheduling engine, and in the physical (PHY) layer, a Reed-Solomon (RS) coded phase-shift keying (PSK) system with selective Rake reception over a realistic 60GHz multipath propagation channel. The theoretical analysis of the throughput and error performance is verified by Monte Carlo simulations. Firstly, it is found that the proposed STDMA scheme is capable of improving system throughput as much as 100%. Secondly, the co-channel interference (CCI) in a communication link has to be controlled at/below -15dB in order to achieve the optimum system throughput. Lastly, different tolerable CCI levels to meet respective application requirements are determined.
A New Hybrid Location-Based Ad Hoc Routing Protocol

A key design issue in routing for wireless ad hoc networks is scalability. By scalability we mean the ability of the network to support increases in node numbers without significantly degrading network performance. In this work we introduce a new hybrid wireless routing protocol specifically designed to address this issue. Our new protocol combines features of reactive routing with location-based geographic routing, in such a manner so as to efficiently use all the location information available. The protocol is designed to gracefully exit to reactive routing as the location information degrades. Another aspect of our protocol is that it can be spatially dependent - meaning different physical areas of the network can be using quite different routing procedures at the same epoch. That our protocol can dramatically increase scalability can be measured via the routing control overhead which we show, through analysis and simulation, to be significantly reduced relative to current protocols. This is particularly so when a large fraction of nodes possess up-todate accurate location information. Our new protocol operates even though nodes can be mobile, and it provides an enhanced, yet pragmatic, location-enabled solution that can be deployed in all emerging wireless ad hoc networks.
Patient 'follow up' as a pedagogical technique for medical students

Medicine is a career that requires lifelong learning, and finding an effective way of doing this is a valuable skill to have acquired as a medical student. ‘Follow up’ is a normal part of the treatment process for patients where most doctors see their patients in clinic post-discharge. This is beneficial for the patient, who receives a high quality continuum of care, and for the doctor, who can further their knowledge of pathological progression and individual responses to treatment. Medical students do not seem to regularly chase patient results or seek to find out clinical outcomes, despite students at some hospitals having access to electronic patient records systems. Pedagogy is the science of teaching and education. There is little evidence of the use of ‘follow up’ as a pedagogical technique, but there are some obvious gains to be made from doing so, including acquiring skills in using specific hospital computer systems, appreciating the holistic nature of medical care and laying down strong foundations of clinical experiences, which can be built on with personal study. There are ethical issues surrounding patient confidentiality where students have access to personal records, but as long as governance guidelines are followed the benefits of the ‘follow up’ process outweigh any potential risk to patient confidentiality. There are multiple benefits to following up a patient, and it is a practice that more medical students should embark upon.
Endokrine Badereaktionen. Physiologische Grundlagen eines Immersionstrainings

PRA) and aldosterone. Daily baths of 30—60 minutes duration were taken for three weeks. Then another test bath was followed by hormone determinations. The hypothesis is that daily immersion training had adaptive effects on the regulation of blood volume and salt-water homeostasis. The results show that subsequent to the immersion training the ANF after a test bath was increased and the renine was more suppressed. The cause for this could be an increased endocrine response.
Selected Phlebology Abstracts

The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and the American Venous Forum (AVF) have developed clinical practice guidelines for the care of patients with varicose veins of the lower limbs and pelvis. The document also includes recommendations on the management of superficial and perforating vein incompetence in patients with associated, more advanced chronic venous diseases (CVDs), including edema, skin changes, or venous ulcers. Recommendations of the Venous Guideline Committee are based on the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system as strong (GRADE 1) if the benefits clearly outweigh the risks, burden, and costs. The suggestions are weak (GRADE 2) if the benefits are closely balanced with risks and burden. The level of available evidence to support the evaluation or treatment can be of high (A), medium (B), or low or very low (C) quality. The key recommendations of these guidelines are: We recommend that in patients with varicose veins or more severe CVD, a complete history and detailed physical examination are complemented by duplex ultrasound scanning of the deep and superficial veins (GRADE 1A). We recommend that the CEAP classification is used for patients with CVD (GRADE 1A) and that the revised Venous Clinical Severity Score is used to assess treatment outcome (GRADE 1B). We suggest compression therapy for patients with symptomatic varicose veins (GRADE 2C) but recommend against compression therapy as the primary treatment if the patient is a candidate for saphenous vein ablation (GRADE 1B). We recommend compression therapy as the primary treatment to aid healing of venous ulceration (GRADE 1B). To decrease the recurrence of venous ulcers, we recommend ablation of the incompetent superficial veins in addition to compression therapy (GRADE 1A). For treatment of the incompetent great saphenous vein (GSV), we recommend endovenous thermal ablation (radiofrequency or laser) rather than high ligation and inversion stripping of the saphenous vein to the level of the knee (GRADE 1B). We recommend phlebectomy or sclerotherapy to treat varicose tributaries (GRADE 1B) and suggest foam sclerotherapy as an option for the treatment of the incompetent saphenous vein (GRADE 2C). We recommend against selective treatment of perforating vein incompetence in patients with simple varicose veins (CEAP class C(2); GRADE 1B), but we suggest treatment of pathologic perforating veins (outward flow duration ≥500 ms, vein diameter ≥3.5 mm) located underneath healed or active ulcers (CEAP class C(5)-C(6); GRADE 2B). We suggest treatment of pelvic congestion syndrome and pelvic varices with coil embolization, plugs, or transcatheter sclerotherapy, used alone or together (GRADE 2B).
Is the third interferon a charm?

IFNλ restores the integrity of the blood brain barrier, which is disrupted by West Nile virus infection, thereby reducing neuroinvasion and increasing survival in a mouse model of the disease. IFNλ restores blood-brain barrier integrity after disruption by West Nile virus, reducing virus invasion of the brain and increasing survival of infected mice (Lazear et al., this issue).
Outcomes of fractional CO2 laser application in aesthetic surgery: a retrospective review.

BACKGROUND Despite the effectiveness of ablative CO(2) laser resurfacing for facial rejuvenation, its application has been limited owing to an undesirable side-effect profile, including prolonged hyperemia and potential pigmentary changes. However, newer fractional CO(2) laser technology has reduced the recovery time and led to decreases in postprocedural hypo- and hyperpigmentation. OBJECTIVES The authors investigate the application and outcomes of ablative fractional technology in a private cosmetic surgery practice. METHODS In this retrospective cohort study, the charts of patients who received fractional CO(2) laser resurfacing between March 2007 and May 2008 were reviewed. Data regarding patient demographics, pretreatment regimens, detailed operative data, and posttreatment findings were obtained. The length of hyperemia (less than five weeks, five to eight weeks, and more than eight weeks), complication rates, and revision rates were analyzed. A satisfaction survey was also sent to all patients. RESULTS Throughout the 19-month study period, 97 patients received 101 treatments with an average follow-up of 4.5 months. Full-face laser resurfacing was performed in 81.1% of patients, with 64.3% receiving their treatment under local anesthesia without sedation. Length of hyperemia was less than five weeks in 93%, five to eight weeks in 5.9%, and more than eight weeks in 0.9% of patients. Hyperpigmentation (9.9%), milia (6.9%), acne breakout (5.9%), and transient ectropion (0.9%) were less common. Patient satisfaction surveys revealed that a majority of patients were satisfied with their results. CONCLUSIONS New fractional CO(2) laser skin resurfacing is associated with shorter periods of hyperemia, resulting in shorter recovery time in comparison with older ablative technology. The side-effect profile is minor and infrequent. This new technology provides significant clinical improvement with high patient satisfaction.
Exploiting selective BCL-2 family inhibitors to dissect cell survival dependencies and define improved strategies for cancer therapy

Selective inhibition of BCL-XL synergizes with docetaxel to inhibit the growth of solid tumors but does not inhibit granulopoiesis. A more refined antitumor strategy The BCL-2 family is a group of related proteins that regulate apoptosis in a variety of ways. The success of anticancer treatments often hinges on the ability to induce cancer cell death by apoptosis. As a result, there has been a great deal of interest in developing drugs that can inhibit the antiapoptotic members of the BCL-2 pathway. Unfortunately, some of these drugs are also associated with dose-limiting hematologic toxicities, such as neutropenia. Now, Leverson et al. have used a toolkit of BCL-2 family inhibitors with different specificities to show that specifically inhibiting BCL-XL (one member of this protein family) is effective for killing tumors, but without the common side effects seen with less selective drugs. The BCL-2/BCL-XL/BCL-W inhibitor ABT-263 (navitoclax) has shown promising clinical activity in lymphoid malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia. However, its efficacy in these settings is limited by thrombocytopenia caused by BCL-XL inhibition. This prompted the generation of the BCL-2–selective inhibitor venetoclax (ABT-199/GDC-0199), which demonstrates robust activity in these cancers but spares platelets. Navitoclax has also been shown to enhance the efficacy of docetaxel in preclinical models of solid tumors, but clinical use of this combination has been limited by neutropenia. We used venetoclax and the BCL-XL–selective inhibitors A-1155463 and A-1331852 to assess the relative contributions of inhibiting BCL-2 or BCL-XL to the efficacy and toxicity of the navitoclax-docetaxel combination. Selective BCL-2 inhibition suppressed granulopoiesis in vitro and in vivo, potentially accounting for the exacerbated neutropenia observed when navitoclax was combined with docetaxel clinically. By contrast, selectively inhibiting BCL-XL did not suppress granulopoiesis but was highly efficacious in combination with docetaxel when tested against a range of solid tumors. Therefore, BCL-XL–selective inhibitors have the potential to enhance the efficacy of docetaxel in solid tumors and avoid the exacerbation of neutropenia observed with navitoclax. These studies demonstrate the translational utility of this toolkit of selective BCL-2 family inhibitors and highlight their potential as improved cancer therapeutics.
Necrobiosis Lipoidica Diabeticorum: Results of Glucose-Tolerance Tests in Nondiabetic Patients

To determine the effect of cortisone acetate on the standard glucose-tolerance test as a means of appraising insulinogenic reserve and to evaluate more completely the relationship of necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum (NLD) to diabetes mellitus, the authors reexamined 19 patients who had NLD but who had not been found to have diabetes mellitus during previous examinations at the Mayo Clinic. Standard glucose-tolerance tests gave abnormal results in three cases, including that of one patient who was taking hydrochlorothiazide. Cortisone glucose-tolerance tests gave abnormal results in five of the remaining 16 cases. Six of the 11 patients without evidence of carbohydrate intolerance gave family histories of diabetes. These findings confirm the close relationship between NLD and diabetes mellitus and suggest a relation to the prediabetic state, perhaps independent of carbohydrate metabolism.