Fuzzy Recommendations in Marketing Campaigns

The population in Sweden is growing rapidly due to immigration. In this light, the issue of infrastructure upgrades to provide telecommunication services is of importance. New antennas can be installed at hot spots of user demand, which will require an investment, and/or the clientele expansion can be carried out in a planned manner to promote the exploitation of the infrastructure in the less loaded geographical zones. In this paper, we explore the second alternative. Informally speaking, the term Infrastructure-Stressing describes a user who stays in the zones of high demand, which are prone to produce service failures, if further loaded. We have studied the Infrastructure-Stressing population in the light of their correlation with geo-demographic segments. This is motivated by the fact that specific geo-demographic segments can be targeted via marketing campaigns. Fuzzy logic is applied to create an interface between big data, numeric methods for processing big data and a manager.Comment: conferenc

Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Democratic Backsliding in Turkey: Beyond the Narratives of Progress

Unpacking the core themes that are discussed in this collection, this article both offers a research agenda to re-analyse Turkey’s ‘authoritarian turn’ and mounts a methodological challenge to the conceptual frameworks that reinforce a strict analytical separation between the ‘economic’ and the ‘political’ factors. The paper problematises the temporal break in scholarly analyses of the AKP period and rejects the argument that the party’s methods of governance have shifted from an earlier ‘democratic’ model – defined by ‘hegemony’ – to an emergent ‘authoritarian’ one. In contrast, by retracing the mechanisms of the state-led reproduction of neoliberalism since 2003, the paper demonstrates that the party’s earlier ‘hegemonic’ activities were also shaped by authoritarian tendencies which manifested at various levels of governance

Towards Comprehensive Foundations of Computational Intelligence

Abstract. Although computational intelligence (CI) covers a vast variety of different methods it still lacks an integrative theory. Several proposals for CI foundations are discussed: computing and cognition as compression, meta-learning as search in the space of data models, (dis)similarity based methods providing a framework for such meta-learning, and a more general approach based on chains of transformations. Many useful transformations that extract information from features are discussed. Heterogeneous adaptive systems are presented as particular example of transformation-based systems, and the goal of learning is redefined to facilitate creation of simpler data models. The need to understand data structures leads to techniques for logical and prototype-based rule extraction, and to generation of multiple alternative models, while the need to increase predictive power of adaptive models leads to committees of competent models. Learning from partial observations is a natural extension towards reasoning based on perceptions, and an approach to intuitive solving of such problems is presented. Throughout the paper neurocognitive inspirations are frequently used and are especially important in modeling of the higher cognitive functions. Promising directions such as liquid and laminar computing are identified and many open problems presented.

Detection of rifampin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains by RNA/RNA mismatch method [Mycobacterium tuberculosis i·zolatlarinda ri·fampi·n di·renci·ni·n RNA/RNA uyumsuz bi·rleşme (mismatch) yöntemi· i·le saptanmasi]

PubMed ID: 12838673Rifampin is one of the most potent antituberculosis drugs and therefore, rifampin resistance leads to high clinical relapse rates. Detection of rifampin resistance could be an indication of multidrug resistance. In the recent years several molecular methods have been developed to evaluate the mutations in rpoB gene for the detection of rifampin resistance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of the RNA/RNA Mismatch Assay for detection of the mutations in the rpoB gene in 20 M.tuberculosis isolates which were determined as resistant to rifampin by agar proportion method. While RNA/RNA Mismatch Assay detected the mutations in the rpoB region in 16 of 20 (80%) M.tuberculosis isolates, the remaining four isolates yielded no band pattern indicating resistance. However, there may be situations where interpretation of the results is difficult in RNA/RNA Mismatch Assay which is already cheaper than DNA sequencing and other molecular methods. In conclusion, if the RNA/RNA Mismatch Assay can be optimized, it can be used for the rapid detection of rifampin resistance

Updates in the clinical virologic diagnosis of viral respiratory tract infections [Viral solunum yolu enfeksi·yonlarinin kli·ni·k vi·roloji·k tanisina güncel yaklaşim]

PubMed ID: 14593903Respiratory viruses (respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus type A and B, parainfluenza virus and adenovirus) can cause a wide variety of human disease. Viral respiratory diseases in adults and children cause significant morbidity and mortality. Proper and rapid diagnosis of these etiological agents is necessary for the appropriate use of effective antiviral drugs and to decrease unnecessary antibiotic therapy. Many virology laboratories detect respiratory viruses by inoculating conventional cell culture tubes with respiratory samples and then examining for cytopathic effect or hemadsorption. However, this procedure can require many days or even weeks for viral detection and identification, providing culture results to clinicians in a period of time that may not be clinically useful. Laboratory diagnosis of respiratory virus infections has become easier and more rapid with the use of immunofluorescent antibody tests, shell vial culture methods, and molecular biological assays. In this review, article, the specificities and sensitivities of these assays were compared on the basis of recent studies, and the favorable ones for the routine diagnosis were updated

The Clinicopathological Factors Associated With Multicentricity In Papillary Thyroid Cancer | Papiller Tiroid Kanserinde Multisentrisite Ile Ilişkili Klinikopatolojik Faktörler

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Clinical evaluation of the FASTPlaqueTB for the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis

The reliability of the FASTPlaqueTB (FPTB) test (Biotec Ltd.) for the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis was evaluated and its diagnostic performance was compared with the Amplified Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Direct (MTD) test (Gen-Probe) by testing 80 sputum samples obtained from 77 patients. The results were compared to those of mycobacterial culture, smear and clinical course. After a chart review 14 culture-negative patients who had been on antituberculosis therapy before the study began were excluded from the final analysis. Of the remaining 63 patients, 33 were considered to have tuberculosis; 29 of them were both smear and culture positive, for whom FPTB gave a sensitivity of 27% and a specificity of 97%. MTD exhibited a sensitivity and a specificity of 91% and 93%, respectively. In patients with a specimen storage and antituberculosis therapy period of ? 7 days, FPTB sensitivity increased up to 53% (8/15). These data suggest that even under optimal conditions the sensitivity of FPTB is lower than that of MTD, smear and culture tests. It could be said, therefore, that FPTB for the direct detection of M. tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens did not add an adjunct value to smears and culture. Thus, we conclude that the sensitivity of FPTB needs to be improved in order to be used for a rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis

Perioral myoclonia with absence seizures: a rare epileptic syndrome

We present the clinical and video-EEG data on an epileptic boy whose absence seizures with marked perioral movements had started at the age of 1.5 years. From age 12 years, he experienced frequent episodes of typical absence status epilepticus (ASE) lasting 1-2 hours with marked perioral myoclonia and moderate confusion. initial therapy with carbamazepine was substituted by valproate because of worsening of the absence seizures. At the age of 17, the patient was admitted to our clinic with his usual, but long lasting ASE attack, accompanied by 2 generalized tonic-clonic convulsions. ASE was confirmed with the EEG which showed continuous 3 Hz spike and wave paroxysms with occasional normal intervals of 1-5 seconds. IV injection of clonazepam improved the clinical and EEG findings immediately. Video-EEG examination performed after a few weeks demonstrated typical absence seizures with perioral myoclonia. Based on the characteristics of seizure semiology, other clinical data and EEG findings, the patient was diagnosed as having the syndrome of "perioral myoclonia with absence seizures" described by Panayiotopoulos