Some Applications of Fuzzy Databases With FSQL

2006 ◽  
pp. 259-279
Author(s):  
Jose Galindo ◽  
Angelica Urrutia ◽  
Mario Piattini

The applications of databases are immense. In almost all of them, the advantages of the fuzzy databases can be applied, exploiting their innovative features and possibilities without losing usefulness. Even the model presented here permits an easy use of those advantages in already existing traditional databases. The Type 1 fuzzy attributes are traditional attributes that admit fuzzy queries on them (by using labels, approximate values, fuzzy comparators, etc.). Imprecise information is a common phenomenon in any context, so it is not unusual to receive information in an incomplete or inexact way. In traditional databases, if information other than precise information exists, the value NULL is stored, preventing the storage of any known information, because the facts are not precise.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. e239884
Author(s):  
Isabella Supnet ◽  
Joycie Eulah Abiera ◽  
Maria Melanie Liberty Alcausin ◽  
Carlo Emmanuel Sumpaico

This is a case of a 54-year-old woman managed as a case of osteogenesis imperfecta type 1 who sustained a left subtrochanteric fracture and eventual ankylosis of both hips after surgery and immobilisation. These injuries rendered her bedridden, maximally assisted in transitions and transfers, and unable to be positioned past 30° of backrest elevation. The patient underwent a bilateral Girdlestone procedure and had tailored progressive postoperative rehabilitation in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. The patient also continued to receive bisphosphonates during her preoperative and postoperative period, to improve bone stock and aid in relieving pain. Through the efforts of a team of physiatrists, geneticists and orthopaedic surgeons, the patient was able to achieve pain-free sitting, independent transitions and short-distance ambulation, which have allowed her to care for herself more effectively and return to her work and activities of daily living.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 521-528
Author(s):  
Eric S Leifer ◽  
James F Troendle ◽  
Alexis Kolecki ◽  
Dean A Follmann

Background/aims: The two-by-two factorial design randomizes participants to receive treatment A alone, treatment B alone, both treatments A and B( AB), or neither treatment ( C). When the combined effect of A and B is less than the sum of the A and B effects, called a subadditive interaction, there can be low power to detect the A effect using an overall test, that is, factorial analysis, which compares the A and AB groups to the C and B groups. Such an interaction may have occurred in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes blood pressure trial (ACCORD BP) which simultaneously randomized participants to receive intensive or standard blood pressure, control and intensive or standard glycemic control. For the primary outcome of major cardiovascular event, the overall test for efficacy of intensive blood pressure control was nonsignificant. In such an instance, simple effect tests of A versus C and B versus C may be useful since they are not affected by a subadditive interaction, but they can have lower power since they use half the participants of the overall trial. We investigate multiple testing procedures which exploit the overall tests’ sample size advantage and the simple tests’ robustness to a potential interaction. Methods: In the time-to-event setting, we use the stratified and ordinary logrank statistics’ asymptotic means to calculate the power of the overall and simple tests under various scenarios. We consider the A and B research questions to be unrelated and allocate 0.05 significance level to each. For each question, we investigate three multiple testing procedures which allocate the type 1 error in different proportions for the overall and simple effects as well as the AB effect. The Equal Allocation 3 procedure allocates equal type 1 error to each of the three effects, the Proportional Allocation 2 procedure allocates 2/3 of the type 1 error to the overall A (respectively, B) effect and the remaining type 1 error to the AB effect, and the Equal Allocation 2 procedure allocates equal amounts to the simple A (respectively, B) and AB effects. These procedures are applied to ACCORD BP. Results: Across various scenarios, Equal Allocation 3 had robust power for detecting a true effect. For ACCORD BP, all three procedures would have detected a benefit of intensive glycemia control. Conclusions: When there is no interaction, Equal Allocation 3 has less power than a factorial analysis. However, Equal Allocation 3 often has greater power when there is an interaction. The R package factorial2x2 can be used to explore the power gain or loss for different scenarios.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Crawford ◽  
Kay Wilhelm ◽  
Judy Proudfoot

BACKGROUND The high prevalence of diabetes distress and subclinical depression in adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T1DM and T2DM, respectively) indicates the need for low-intensity self-help interventions that can be used in a stepped care approach to address some of their psychological needs. However, people with diabetes can be reluctant to engage in mental health care. Benefit-finding writing (BFW) is a brief intervention that involves writing about any positive thoughts and feelings concerning a stressful experience such as an illness, avoiding potential mental health stigma. It has been associated with increases in positive affect and positive growth and has demonstrated promising results in trials in other clinical populations. However, BFW has not been examined in people with diabetes. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a Web-based BFW intervention for reducing diabetes distress and increasing benefit finding in diabetic adults with T1DM or T2DM compared to a control writing condition. METHODS Adults with T1DM or T2DM and diabetes distress were recruited online through the open access Writing for Health program. After completing baseline questionnaires, they were randomly allocated to receive online BFW or an active control condition of online writing about the use of time (CW). Both groups completed 15-minute online writing sessions, once per day, for 3 consecutive days. Online measures were administered at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months postintervention. Participants were also asked to rate their current mood immediately prior to and following each writing session. RESULTS Seventy-two adults with T1DM or T2DM were recruited and randomly allocated to receive BFW (n=24) or CW (n=48). Participants adhered to the BFW regimen. Greater increases in positive affect immediately postwriting were found in the BFW group than in the CW group. However, there were no significant group-by-time interactions (indicating intervention effects) for benefit finding or diabetes distress at either the 1-month or 3-month follow-up. Both the BFW and CW groups demonstrated small, significant decreases in diabetes distress over time. CONCLUSIONS BFW was well tolerated by adults with diabetes in this study but did not demonstrate efficacy in improving diabetes distress or benefit finding compared to an active control writing condition. However, due to recruitment difficulties, the study was underpowered and the sample was skewed to individuals with minimal diabetes distress and none to minimal depression and anxiety at baseline. Future research should continue to investigate the efficacy of variants of therapeutic writing for adults with T1DM or T2DM, using larger samples of participants with elevated diabetes distress. CLINICALTRIAL Australiand New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12615000241538; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=368146


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meenal Mavinkurve ◽  
Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin ◽  
Elaine Wan Ling Chan ◽  
Mazidah Noordin ◽  
Nurshadia Samingan ◽  
...  

BackgroundChildren with Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) commonly present in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at initial diagnosis. This is likely due to several factors, one of which includes the propensity for T1DM to be misdiagnosed. The prevalence of misdiagnosis has been reported in non-Asian children with T1DM but not in Asian cohorts.AimTo report the rate of misdiagnosis and its associated risk factors in Malaysian children and adolescents with T1DM.MethodsA retrospective analysis of children with T1DM below 18 years of age over a 10 year period was conducted.ResultsThe cohort included 119 children (53.8% female) with a mean age 8.1 SD ± 3.9 years. 38.7% of cases were misdiagnosed, of which respiratory illnesses were the most common (37.0%) misdiagnosis. The rate of misdiagnosis remained the same over the 10 year period. Among the variables examined, younger age at presentation, DKA at presentation, healthcare professional (HCP) contact and admission to the intensive care unit were significantly different between the misdiagnosed and correctly diagnosed groups (p <0.05).ConclusionMisdiagnosis of T1DM occurs more frequently in Malaysian children <5 years of age. Misdiagnosed cases are at a higher risk of presenting in DKA with increased risk of ICU admission and more likely to have had prior HCP contact. Awareness of T1DM amongst healthcare professionals is crucial for early identification, prevention of DKA and reducing rates of misdiagnosis


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (10) ◽  
pp. 85-93
Author(s):  
Jihoon Lee ◽  
Gyuhong Lee ◽  
Jinsung Lee ◽  
Youngbin Im ◽  
Max Hollingsworth ◽  
...  

Modern cell phones are required to receive and display alerts via the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) program, under the mandate of the Warning, Alert, and Response Act of 2006. These alerts include AMBER alerts, severe weather alerts, and (unblockable) Presidential Alerts, intended to inform the public of imminent threats. Recently, a test Presidential Alert was sent to all capable phones in the U.S., prompting concerns about how the underlying WEA protocol could be misused or attacked. In this paper, we investigate the details of this system and develop and demonstrate the first practical spoofing attack on Presidential Alerts, using commercially available hardware and modified open source software. Our attack can be performed using a commercially available software-defined radio, and our modifications to the open source software libraries. We find that with only four malicious portable base stations of a single Watt of transmit power each, almost all of a 50,000-seat stadium can be attacked with a 90% success rate. The real impact of such an attack would, of course, depend on the density of cellphones in range; fake alerts in crowded cities or stadiums could potentially result in cascades of panic. Fixing this problem will require a large collaborative effort between carriers, government stakeholders, and cellphone manufacturers. To seed this effort, we also propose three mitigation solutions to address this threat.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Dr. Mangesh M. Ghonge ◽  
Mr. Deepak Pathratkar

Viral pandemics are a serious threat. COVID-19 is not the first, and it won't be the last. As the whole world is going through the black phase of COVID-19 virus, the scientists are trying to invent a fighting vaccine against the same. Each and every sector in every part of the world is infected by the outburst of the fatal virus. Right from business and trade to sports and entertainment, every aspect of life is suffering a lot. To combat the outbreak of the pandemic, most of the countries have used partial to complete lockdown as the only weapon to stop the spread of the virus. In the current scenario, almost all the private sector companies as well as the government offices have suggested all the employees to work from home to stop the community spread of the disease that may occur if people come in mutual contact. While we think of governing authorities around the world, each and every government provides some e-facilities to their citizens to some what extent. Generally E-Governance can be stated as the facility to receive each and everything electronically i.e. you don’t need to go to outside home to receive any document or order. In this paper, we briefly described the different aspects of e-governance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Destro ◽  
Giorgio Selvaggio ◽  
Federica Marinoni ◽  
Andrea Pansini ◽  
Giovanna Riccipetitoni

Primary Obstructive Megaureter (POM) is a common cause of hydronephrosis in children with spontaneous resolution in most cases. High-Pressure Balloon Dilatation (HPBD) has been proposed as a minimally invasive procedure for POM correction in selected patients. The aim of the paper is to review our experience with HPBD in patients with POM. We performed a retrospective study in a single Centre collecting data on patients’ demographics, diagnostic modalities, surgical details, results and follow-up. In particular, the endoscopic aspect of the orifice permitted the identification of 3 patterns: adynamic ureteral segment, stenotic ureteric ring and pseudoureterocelic orifice. We performed HPBD in 30 patients over 6 years. We had 23 patients with adynamic distal ureteral segment (type 1), 4 with stenotic ring (type 2) and 3 with ureterocelic orifice (type 3). In 3 patients (10%) the guidewire did not easily pass into the ureter requiring ureteral stenting or papillotomy. Post-operative course was uneventful. Five patients (3 pseudoureterocelic) required open surgery during follow-up. HPBD for the treatment of POM is a safe and feasible procedure and it can be a definitive treatment of POM. Complications are mainly due to double J stent and none of our patients had symptoms related to vescico-ureteral reflux. The aspect of the orifice, identified during cystoscopy, seems to correlate with the efficacy of the dilatation: type 1 and 2 are associated with good and excellent results respectively; type 3 do not permit dilatation in almost all cases requiring papillotomy. HPBD can be performed in selected patients of all paediatric ages as first therapeutic line. The presence of a pseudoureterocelic orifice or long stenosis might interfere with the ureteral stenting and seems associated with worse outcomes.


1972 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Jennings

SUMMARYSurveys for respiratory virus antibodies in the Jamaican population have shown that adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus and parainfluenza types 1 and 3 virus antibodies are acquired early in life. The incidence of haemagglutination-inhibiting antibodies to parainfluonza viruses increases rapidly with age and almost all adults possess parainfluenza type 3 antibody, usually in high titre. Parainfluenza type 1 antibodies are only slightly less common. Complement-fixing antibodies to the adenovirus group were also observed to increase in incidence with age.Complement-fixing antibody to respiratory syncytial virus was less common in Jamaican sera than antibody to the other respiratory viruses described here. The highest titres were observed in the youngest age-group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S623-S624
Author(s):  
M Charro Calvillo ◽  
M Charro-Calvillo ◽  
E Peña-Gonzalez ◽  
Y Ber-Nieto ◽  
M T Botella Esteban ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Breastfeeding is one of the most important environmental factors in early childhood for later development of an Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The duration of lactation is essential for it to have a protective effect. In addition to IBD patients, breastfeeding can have a beneficial effect for preventing disease relapse. For these reasons, we plan to know how lactation develops in our group of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Methods A retrospective analysis of patients followed by gastroenterology consultations, with established diagnosis of IBD and with at least one gestation, in a period from January 2011 to January 2016. The data were collected a posteriori through two simple questionnaires, one completed by the patient, collecting the type of childbirth and breastfeeding she experienced and factors that influenced it. Another form is filled out by the gastroenterologist recording the characteristics of his inflammatory bowel disease. The data is collected in a structured database in Microsoft Excel and analysed with the SPSS statistic package for Windows. Results Data from 78 patients diagnosed with IBD are analysed from eight public hospitals in our autonomous community. 61.1% of patients have ulcerative colitis and 38.9% Crohn’s disease. The deliveries were mainly vaginal (82%), compared with 18% of caesarean-sections, four of them directly motivated by digestive disease. More than half of patients (57.7%) started breastfeeding after childbirth, 10.25% breastfeeding and 32.05% mixed breastfeeding But only 34.6% reach six months of breastfeeding, reaching 39.7% if we include mixed breastfeeding. In 17 patients (21.8%) their base-based inflammatory bowel disease directly influenced the development of lactation. Pharmacological treatment is the main cause for breastfeeding, followed by disease outbreaks, hospitalisations and surgery. Only 47.4% of the patients stated that in the IBD consultation they were given some information about breastfeeding, although almost all replied that they would have liked to receive it. Conclusion The majority of patients with inflammatory bowel disease in our consultations, do not reach six months of breastfeeding currently recommended by the World Health Organisation, so we have a great opportunity for improvement in this field and as gastroenterologists, we can contribute by providing more information to our patients about breastfeeding and its relationship with IBD.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry E Smallbone ◽  
Thomas FE Drake-Brockman ◽  
Britta S von Ungern-Sternberg

Follow-up for ongoing management and monitoring of patients is important in clinical practice and research. While common, telephone follow-up is resource intensive and, in our experience, yields low success rates. Electronic communication using mobile devices including smartphones and tablets can provide efficient alternatives — including SMS (text), online forms and mobile apps. To assess attitudes towards electronic follow-up, we surveyed 642 parents and carers at Perth Children’s Hospital, targeting demographics, device ownership and attitudes towards electronic follow-up. Mobile phone ownership was effectively universal. Almost all respondents were happy to communicate electronically with the hospital. Promisingly, 93.2% of respondents were happy to receive follow-up SMSs from the hospital and 80.3% were happy to reply to SMS questions. There was less enthusiasm regarding other modalities, with 59.9% happy to use a website and 69.0% happy to use a mobile app. The results support the introduction of electronic communication for follow-up in our paediatric population.


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