Effect of SIT on quality of life

PubMedID: 10753028[No abstract available

Fuzzy decision support system to determine swell/shrink factor affecting earthwork optimization of highways

The optimization of cut and fill volumes of a highway infrastructure is crucial for minimizing the total earthwork cost. Borrow material swells after excavation and shrinks when mechanical compaction is applied; in this respect, it may be misleading to calculate cut-fill volumes directly without considering the amount of swelling and/or shrinkage. On the other hand, determination of such factors characterizing shrinkage/swelling behavior is highly ambiguous. The aim of this paper is to present the applicability of a fuzzy rule-based system for choosing swelling/shrinkage factors affecting the precision of earthwork optimization. This approach may assist in any highway alignment procedure to handle cut and fill volumes more accurately. © Association for Scientific Research

Lead Poisoning From Contaminated Flour in a Family of 11 Members

PubMedID: 2509324Eleven members of a family living in southeastern Turkey are presented. They were diagnosed as suffering from ‘lead poisoning’ with typical clinical manifestations and high blood lead concentrations. Contaminated flour (665 µg Pb/g) was the cause of poisoning, by oral ingestion. The source of contamination was sought and it was found that the stone of the mill had been repaired with molten lead on the same day that the wheat of the family had been ground; while grinding the wheat some lead was mixed into the flour. © 1989, Sage Publications. All rights reserved

Correlation between atopic diseases and tuberculin responses

PubMedID: 10921467Background: In recent decades, the prevalence of atopic diseases has risen steadily in developed countries. The reasons for this increase are not clear. It has been hypothesized that a reduction in infections and immunization programs may contribute to the increase in the prevalence of atopic diseases. We investigated the relationship between tuberculin response and atopic disease. Methods: A total of 538 (73.0%) atopic and 198 (27.0%) nonatopic children vaccinated with BCG were included in the study. All the children included in the study had neither been given BCG nor tuberculin skin-tested in the previous 6 months, nor did they have a condition known to cause anergy. All the children were given five tuberculin units PPD, and PPD indurations were recorded after 48 h. Results: The PPD induration size was 6.8 ± 5.6 mm (mean ± SD) in atopic children and 7.4 ± 5.9 mm in nonatopic children. The difference between the two groups was not significant (P > 0.05). The PPD induration sizes of children with asthma, rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis were found to be similar. The children with atopic dermatitis had lower PPD induration size, but this was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The rates of negative (< 5 mm skin induration) and intermediate (5-9 mm) responses were 32.6% and 30.5% in atopic children and 30.2% and 32.4% in nonatopic children, respectively. Positive tuberculin responses (PPD ± 10 mm) were recorded in 36.9% of atopic children and 37.4% of nonatopic children. Total serum IgE levels of atopic and nonatopic children were 623.35 and 46.78 IU/ml, respectively. There was no correlation between serum total IgE level and PPD induration size (r = -0.0012, P = 0.737). Conclusions: We did not find any relationship between tuberculin response and atopy status later in life in BCG-immunized subjects. We need further studies to clarify the effect of BCG on the development of atopy

Piecewise constant line fitting on noisy ramped signals by particle swarm optimization [Parçacik sürü opti̇mi̇zasyonu i̇le gürültülü rampa si̇nyallere sabi̇t parçali si̇nyalleri̇n oturtulmasi]

In this study, Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) is proposed for change point (edge) detection on noisy ramped signals. By taking moving averages between detected edges, noise on ramped signals is filtered and desired piecewise constant signals are acquired. It is required to detect edges in the immediate vicinity of actual edges. Performance of PSO is measured by the difference between estimated and actual position of edges. It is not possible to satisfy such a condition by standard PSO. Hence, in this work, two modifications to standard PSO are proposed: "PSO with uniformly distributed position vectors" and "Cascading PSO". Throughout this work, all implementations are done on real signals which indicate generated powers by plants. © 2012 IEEE