Analytical Marketing with Collective Perception

Social networks, forums and blogs are widely considered as a valuable source of information for many applications and in different domains. Being able to extract, analyze and use the knowledge, opinions and sentiments the users share on the Web can become a competitive advantage for any company or organization. Specifically, information about the feelings and the opinions of the users of a Web community with respect to a product or a service can be useful for marketing.  In this context, the concept of collective perception is gaining momentum as a way to process, evaluate and quantify the perception and the sentiment that a community of users share about a given phenomenon. In this work, we propose an approach, based on Fuzzy Logic and Sentiment Analysis techniques, which allows to evaluate, also in a quantitative manner, the collective perception of a Web community with respect to a specific product or service. Keywords: Collective Perception; Analytical Marketing; Fuzzy Logic; Sentiment Analysis

Evaluating the Surgeons' Perception of Difficulties of Two Techniques to Perform STARR for Obstructed Defecation Syndrome: A Multicenter Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND After initial enthusiasm in the use of a dedicated curved stapler (CCS-30 Contour Transtar) to perform stapled transanal rectal resection (STARR) for obstructed defecation syndrome (ODS), difficulties have emerged in this surgical technique. OBJECTIVE First, to compare surgeons' perception of difficulties of STARR performed with only Transtar versus STARR performed with the combined use of linear staplers and Transtar to cure ODS associated with large internal prolapse and rectocele; second, to compare the postoperative incidence of the urge to defecate between the 2 STARR procedures. DESIGN AND SETTING An Italian multicenter randomized trial involving 25 centers of colorectal surgery. PATIENTS Patients with obstructed defecation syndrome and rectocele or rectal intussusception, treated between January and December 2012. INTERVENTIONS Participants were randomly assigned to undergo STARR with a curved alone stapler (CAS group) or with the combined use of linear and curved staplers (LCS group). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary end-points were the evaluation of surgeons' perception of difficulties score and the incidence of the "urge to defecate" at 3-month follow up. Secondary end-points included duration of hospital stay, rates of early and late complications, incidence of "urge to defecate" at 6 and 12 months, success of the procedures at 12 months of follow-up. RESULTS Of 771 patients evaluated, 270 patients (35%) satisfied the criteria. Follow-up data were available for 254 patients: 128 patients (114 women) in the CAS group (mean age, 52.1; range, 39-70 years) and 126 (116 women) in LCS group (mean age, 50.7 years; range, 41-75 years). The mean surgeons' perception score, was 15.36 (SD, 3.93) in the CAS group and 12.26 (SD, 4.22) in the LCS group (P < .0001; 2-sample t test). At 3-month follow-up, urge to defecate was observed in 18 (14.6%) CAS group patients and in 13 (10.7%) LCS group patients (P = .34; Fisher's exact test). These values drastically decrease at 6 months until no urge to defecate in all patients at 12 months was observed. At 12-month follow-up, a successful outcome was achieved in 100 (78.1%) CAS group patients and in 105 (83.3%) LCS group patients (P = .34; Fisher's exact test). No significant differences between groups were observed in the hospital stay and rates of early or late complications occurring after STARR. CONCLUSIONS STARR with Transtar associated with prior decomposition of prolapse, using linear staplers, seems to be less difficult than that without decomposition. Both procedures appear to be safe and effective in the treatment of obstructed defecation syndrome resulting in similar success rates and complications

Burning Mouth Syndrome and Hypertension: Prevalence, Gender Differences and Association with Pain and Psycho-Social Characteristics—A Case Control Study

Background: To assess the prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in burning mouth syndrome (BMS) patients and to investigate its relationship with sociodemographic factors, pain and the psychological profile. Methods: A case-control study was conducted by enrolling 242 BMS patients and 242 controls matched for age and gender. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were recorded, and all participants completed numeric rating scale (NRS), the short-form of the McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ), the Hamilton rating scale for anxiety and depression (HAM-A, HAM-D), the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). Results: The BMS patients presented with a statistically significant higher prevalence of HTN compared to that in the controls (55% versus 33.5%; p-value: <0.001) and higher median scores of the NRS, SF-MPQ, HAM-A, HAM-D, PSQI and ESS (p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis in the BMS patients indicated positive correlations between HTN and age, systemic diseases, drug consumption and anxiety (p-value: <0.001) and these predictors were responsible for 11.3% of the HTN variance in the BMS patients, when considered together. Conclusions: The prevalence of HTN was significantly higher in the BMS patients, since ageing, the presence of comorbidities, drug consumption and anxiety were potential predictors. Further studies are needed to better investigate the relationship between BMS and HTN

A djuvant treatment in patients at high risk of recurrence of thymoma: Efficacy and safety of a three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy regimen

The clinical benefits of postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) for patients with thymoma are still controversial. In the absence of defined guidelines, prognostic factors such as stage, status of surgical margins, and histology are often considered to guide the choice of adjuvant treatment (radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy). In this study, we describe our single-institution experience of three-dimensional conformal PORT administered as adjuvant treatment to patients with thymoma. METHODS: Twenty-two consecutive thymoma patients (eleven male and eleven female) with a median age of 52 years and treated at our institution by PORT were analyzed. The patients were considered at high risk of recurrence, having at least one of the following features: stage IIB or III, involved resection margins, or thymic carcinoma histology. Three-dimensional conformal PORT with a median total dose on clinical target volume of 50 (range 44-60) Gy was delivered to the tumor bed by 6-20 MV X-ray of the linear accelerator. Follow-up after radiotherapy was done by computed tomography scan every 6 months for 2 years and yearly thereafter. RESULTS: Two of the 22 patients developed local recurrence and four developed distant metastases. Median overall survival was 100 months, and the 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 83% and 74%, respectively. Median disease-free survival was 90 months, and the 5-year recurrence rate was 32%. On univariate analysis, pathologic stage III and presence of positive surgical margins had a significant impact on patient prognosis. Radiation toxicity was mild in most patients and no severe toxicity was registered. CONCLUSION: Adjuvant radiotherapy achieved good local control and showed an acceptable toxicity profile in patients with high-risk thymoma

Hsp60 Response in Experimental and Human Temporal Lobe Epilepsy due to hyppocampal sclerosis

Hsp60 is widely distributed in the brain, and its alteration has been involved in different neurological disorders. Epilepsy is considered one of the most common neurological disorders and typically involves the hippocampal formation. Compelling evidence describes a role of mitochondria, oxidative stress and both innate and adaptive immunity during epileptogenesis in temporal lobe epilepsy due to hyppocampal sclerosis (TLE-HS). Here, we investigate the Hsp60 involvement in experimental and human epilepsy. Firstly, expression and distribution of Hsp60 in epileptic hippocampi of a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), based on the phenomenon of maximal dentate gyrus activation (MDA), using western blotting and immunohistochemistry was evaluated. Moreover, the circulating levels of Hsp60 in the plasma derived from the blood of TLE-HS patients before and after epileptic seizure and agematched controls, using ELISA were investigated. Protein level and immunostaining of Hsp60 were increased in both the ipsilateral and contralateral hippocampi of the epileptic rats. The Hsp60 up-regulation was observed on neurons somata and neuropil of the dentate gyrus (DG) and in hippocampus proper (CA3, CA1). Moreover, Hsp60 plasmatic levels in patients after epilepitic seizure, compared to levels of the same subjects before seizure was significantly higher. These results demonstrate that Hsp60 synthesis is increased in response to epileptic seizures and could be used as a biomarker for hippocampal stress response in TLE-HS. In conclusion, our findings suggest that Hsp60 could play an importanty role in TLE-HS and support the possible involvement of immunological factors in epileptogenesis

Fuzzy logic for situation awareness: a systematic review

Situation awareness is the cognitive capability of human and artificial agents to perceive, understand and predict the status of the situation in an environment. Situation awareness systems aim at supporting the situation awareness of human and artificial agents using computational techniques, models, and approaches for supporting the assessment, tracking, and prediction of critical situations. Fuzzy logic formalisms have been extensively used in situation awareness systems thanks to their capability of dealing with uncertainties while providing agents with easily understandable models of situations and decisions. This paper proposes a systematic, unbiased, and updated review of the literature on fuzzy logic for situation awareness from 2010 to 2021, conducted using the PRISMA methodology, analyzing 139 articles. An in-depth discussion of the main open challenges and future research directions is provided

Special Issue on Human and Artificial Intelligence

Although tremendous advances have been made in recent years, many real-world problems still cannot be solved by machines alone [...

Cultural Situation Awareness in e-Learning Systems

Culture heavily influences the ways we think and act. In a globalized world, the underestimation of cultural factors can lead to serious consequences. In educational courses involving students from all over the world, it is important to consider cultural differences. Having high levels of Cultural Situation Awareness is therefore fundamental for both teachers and students. In this work, we propose an approach to build and maintain Cultural Situation Awareness in an adaptive e-learning system

A multi-agent fuzzy consensus model in a Situation Awareness framework

In order to define systems enabling the automatic identification of occurring situations, numerous approaches employing intelligent software agents to analyse data coming from deployed sensors have been proposed. Thus, it is possible that more agents are committed to monitor the same phenomenon in the same environment. Redundancy of sensors and agents is needed, for instance, in real world applications in order to mitigate the risk of faults and threats. One of the possible side effects produced by redundancy is that agents, observing the same phenomenon, could provide discordant opinions. Indeed, solid mechanisms for reaching an agreement among these agents and produce a shared consensus on the same observations are needed. This paper proposes an approach to integrate a fuzzy-based consensus model into a Situation Awareness framework. The main idea is to consider intelligent agents as experts claiming their opinions (preferences) on a phenomenon of interest