Fuzzy logic as a decision-making support system for the indication of bariatric surgery based on an index (OBESINDEX) generated by the association between body fat and body mass index

Background: A Fuzzy Obesity Index (OBESINDEX) for use as an alternative in bariatric surgery indication (BSI) is presented. The search for a more accurate method to evaluate obesity and to indicate a better treatment is important in the world health context. BMI (body mass index) is considered the main criteria for obesity treatment and BSI. Nevertheless, the fat excess related to the percentage of Body Fat (%BF) is actually the principal harmful factor in obesity disease that is usually neglected. This paper presents a new fuzzy mechanism for evaluating obesity by associating BMI with %BF that yields a fuzzy obesity index for obesity evaluation and treatment and allows building up a Fuzzy Decision Support System (FDSS) for BSI.

Methods: Seventy-two patients were evaluated for both BMI and %BF. These data are modified and treated as fuzzy sets. Afterwards, the BMI and %BF classes are aggregated yielding a new index (OBESINDEX) for input linguistic variable are considered the BMI and %BF, and as output linguistic variable is employed the OBESINDEX, an obesity classification with entirely new classes of obesity in the fuzzy context as well is used for BSI.

Results: There is a gradual, smooth obesity classification and BSI when using the proposed fuzzy obesity index when compared with other traditional methods for dealing with obesity.

Conclusion: The BMI is not adequate for surgical indication in all the conditions and fuzzy logic becomes an alternative for decision making in bariatric surgery indication based on the OBESINDEX

The Incidence of Reserve Requirements in Brazil: Do Bank Stockholders Share the Burden?

There is consensus in the economic literature that the reserve requirements are a tax levied upon financial intermediation, yet the incidence of the tax remains controversial. In this paper, we test whether changes in reserve requirements in Brazil impact the stock returns of the financial system distinctly from the rest of the economy. We find evidence that Brazilian bank stock returns were affected by changes in reserve requirements on both time deposits and transaction accounts, which implies that the tax burden of required reserves was not fully passed through to banks' borrowers or clients. Stock returns of non-financial firms were also affected by these changes, suggesting that in some cases, reserve requirements on time deposits and transaction accounts served as a non-neutral instrument of monetary or fiscal policy in Brazil.

Anticoagulant-Related Nephropathy in a Patient with IgA Nephropathy

Anticoagulant-related nephropathy is a type of acute kidney injury caused by overcoagulation. We describe a case of an 84-year-old man with arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease and atrial fibrillation treated with acenocoumarol, who presented with haematoproteinuria and acute kidney injury during a phase of excessive anticoagulation. In addition to IgA nephropathy, renal biopsy also revealed acute tubular necrosis, red blood cell casts and positive iron staining in tubular cells. After this acute episode, renal function improved and proteinuria decreased below the nephrotic range.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Geotechnical Performance of a Tunnel in Soft Ground

The analysis of a tunnel section excavated through soft ground is presented. The tunnel construction was monitored and its behavior is compared with results obtained by a numerical simulation. The field instrumentation and the geotechnical properties of the site are presented and the modeling of the soil behavior using Lade\u27s model discussed

Detection and discrimination of microorganisms using Locked Nucleic Acid - Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (LNA-FISH)

The impact of multispecies biofilms on catheter-associated urinary tract infections outcome is still unclear due to the lack of adequate methodologies to discriminate the populations in situ. Employing fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to discriminate the populations in a biofilm, can contribute to the understanding of microorganisms interactions in this structures. Consequently, this information might help to develop efficient strategies to prevent this disease. This work presents the first study that apply the FISH methodology using a set of LNA and/2’-O-Methyl RNA oligonucleotide probes, for the in situ detection of microorganisms in biofilms formed under conditions similar to the catheter-associated urinary tract infections

Relationship of arterial and exhaled CO2 during elevated artificial pneumoperitoneum pressure for introduction of the first trocar.

The present study evaluated the correlation between arterial CO2 and exhaled CO2 during brief high-pressure pneumoperitoneum. Patients were randomly distributed into two groups: P12 group (n=30) received a maximum intraperitoneal pressure of 12mmHg, and P20 group (n=37) received a maximum intraperitoneal pressure of 20mmHg. Arterial CO2 was evaluated by radial arterial catheter and exhaled CO2 was measured by capnometry at the following time points: before insufflation, once intraperitoneal pressure reached 12mmHg , 5 minutes after intraperitoneal pressure reached 12mmHg for the P12 group or 20mmHg for the P20 group, and 10 minutes after intraperitoneal pressure reached 12mmHg for the P12 group or when intraperitoneal pressure had decreased from 20mmHg to 12mmHg, for the P20 group. During brief durations of very high intraperitoneal pressure (20mmHg), there was a strong correlation between arterial CO2 and exhaled CO2. Capnometry can be effectively used to monitor patients during transient increases in artificial pneumoperitoneum pressure

Manejo preventivo da broca-do-rizoma da bananeira no Acre.

Com a introdução da sigatoka-negra na cultura da banana do Acre, fez-se necessário o desenvolvimento de ações de pesquisas no sentido de selecionar novos materiais resistentes a esta doença.bitstream/CPAF-AC/4493/1/comunicado110.pd

New U-Pb zircon age constraints for the emplacement of the Reguengos de Monsaraz Massif (Ossa Morena Zone)

The Reguengos de Monsaraz massif is located in the Portuguese sector of the Ossa Morena Zone (ZOM), one of the major geotectonic units of the Iberian Variscan Belt. It intruded Lower Paleozoic metasediments, strongly affected by deformation and metamorphism during the Varis-can orogeny. Pluton emplacement was responsible for the development of a contact metamor-phism aureole in the surrounding country rocks. Based on regional constraints, the intrusion was included in the group of the late-post-tectonic granitoids. The pluton shows an inversely zoned pattern and consists of tonalitic to granodioritic rocks with abundant mafic microgranular enclaves, occupying most of the presently exposed intrusion area and minor bodies of gabbro-diorites in the east and centre. Field, petrographical and geo-chemical data reveal that mixing / mingling between mantle- and crustally-derived magmas and fractional crystallization played a major role in the genesis and evolution of these granitoids 1. Early attempts to date the Reguengos de Monsaraz intrusion, using Rb-Sr isotopic data for a feldspar-amphibole pair from one granodiorite sample, yielded an age of 297.5 ± 2.9 Ma. This age was interpreted as a cooling age and provided a minimum estimate for the timing of mag-matic crystallization. In order to better constrain the age and emplacement sequence of the mas-sif, five samples representing the different magmatic units (gabbro diorites, tonalites and mafic microgranular enclaves) were selected for determination of U-Pb zircon ages by isotope dilution techniques. The zircon populations from two samples of the gabbro diorites (one from the central sector and the other from the easternmost body) yielded overlapping 206Pb/238U average ages of 337.4 1.1 Ma and 338.6 ± 0.7 Ma, respectively. Similar ages were obtained in two samples from the main tonalite-granodiorite facies (337.3 ± 2.3 Ma; 337.8 ± 0.7 Ma). Finally, the zircons from the microgranular enclave yielded a 206Pb/238U average age of 336.5 ± 0.5 Ma. A slightly younger age was obtained in two fractions of titanite from the enclave (333.6 ± 2.5 Ma), suggesting either resetting of their original magmatic ages or late stage crystallization. The new U-Pb age data support a coeval emplacement for all the members of this suite, at ap-proximately 337-338 Ma. Such a close space-time association between mafic and felsic grani-toids is consistent with the proposed mixing model. According to recent studies, this sector of the OMZ was affected by three Variscan deforma-tion events 2. The earlier deformation phases (D1 and D2) occurred in Late Devonian ( 380-360 Ma) and Early Carboniferous times ( 360-345 Ma), whilst the latter (D3) has a Pennsylva-nian age (305-295 Ma). Based on the available geochronological information, the emplacement of the Reguengos de Monsaraz magmas took place at a time of tectonic quiescence between D2 and D3. The relatively young Rb-Sr age recorded in the feldspar-amphibole pair may therefore reflect the effects of the last tectonothermal event, also documented by the replacement of horn-blende crystals by actinolite

Geochronology and Isotope Geochemistry of Felsic Marginal Facies of the Reguengos de Monsaraz Pluton (OMZ)

No sector sueste do maciço de Reguengos de Monsaraz (Zona de Ossa-Morena), ocorrem rochas félsicas quer em continuidade espacial com as litologias principais do plutonito quer em pequenos corpos aparentemente separados. Neste trabalho, estudou-se o granito marginal da zona de Arraieiras, bem como o tonalito da zona do ribeiro dos Gagos. Datações U-Pb (em zircão e monazite) revelam que estas litologias são, no essencial, contemporâneas entre si, bem como relativamente às fácies mais comuns do maciço de Reguengos, e que os processos de instalação magmática deverão ter decorrido há 337-338 Ma. Do ponto de vista geoquímico, o granito de Arraieiras parece ter uma relação genética forte com o resto do plutonito, através de processos de mistura de líquidos (de origens mantélica e de anatexia de metassedimentos) e diferenciação magmática, a que se terão seguido fenómenos locais de assimilação do encaixante no nível de instalação final. O paradoxo de haver rochas mais máficas do que o granito com assinaturas isotópicas mais “crustais” poderá ser explicado pela intervenção final destes processos de assimilação. Quanto ao tonalito de Gagos, as suas características geoquímicas, e em particular as razões isotópicas de Sr e Nd, requerem uma origem distinta, com contribuição de fonte infracrustal.Felsic rocks occur in the SE sector of the Reguengos de Monsaraz massif either as a border zone of the pluton or as small satellite bodies. In this work, the Arraieiras granite (from the border zone) and the Gagos tonalite (from a satellite body) were studied for geochronology and geochemistry. The obtained zircon and monazite U-Pb ages show that the two felsic lithologies and the main units of the Reguengos pluton are essentially contemporaneous to each other and that magma emplacement took place at 337-338 Ma. Geochemical features of the Arraieiras granite suggest that it has a strong genetic link with the other lithologies of the pluton, through magma mixing (from mantle and metasedimentary sources) and differentiation processes; in a late evolutionary stage, at the final emplacement level, assimilation of country rock material also took place. The paradox of some more mafic rocks displaying isotope signatures more “crustal” than those revealed by the Arraieiras granite is probably a consequence of late assimilation events. In contrast, the Gagos tonalite, according to the Sr and Nd isotope fingerprints, seems to be related to a different sequence of processes and, in particular, it requires the contribution of an infracrustal source