Neuro-Fuzzy Model for the Prediction and Classification of the Fused Zone Levels of Imperfections in Ti6Al4V Alloy Butt Weld

Weld imperfections are tolerable defects as stated from the international standard. Nevertheless they can produce a set of drawbacks like difficulty to assembly, reworking, limited fatigue life, and surface imperfections. In this paper Ti6Al4V titanium butt welds were produced by CO2laser welding. The following tolerable defects were analysed: weld undercut, excess weld metal, excessive penetration, incomplete filled groove, root concavity, and lack of penetration. A neuro-fuzzy model for the prediction and classification of the defects in the fused zone was built up using the experimental data. Weld imperfections were connected to the welding parameters by feed forward neural networks. Then the imperfections were clustered using the C-means fuzzy clustering algorithm. The clusters were named after the ISO standard classification of the levels of imperfection for electron and laser beam welding of aluminium alloys and steels. Finally, a single-value metric was proposed for the assessment of the overall bead geometry quality. It combined an index for each defect and functioned according to the criterion "the-smallest-the-best.

Resistant Hypertension in Nondialysis Chronic Kidney Disease

Resistant hypertension (RH) is defined as blood pressure (BP) that remains above the target of less than 140/90 mmHg in the general population and 130/80 mmHg in people with diabetes mellitus or chronic kidney disease (CKD) in spite of the use of at least three full-dose antihypertensive drugs including a diuretic or as BP that reaches the target by means of four or more drugs. In CKD, RH is a common condition due to a combination of factors including sodium retention, increased activity of the renin-angiotensin system, and enhanced activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Before defining the hypertensive patient as resistant it is mandatory to exclude the so-called “pseudoresistance.” This condition, which refers to the apparent failure to reach BP target in spite of an appropriate antihypertensive treatment, is mainly caused by white coat hypertension that is prevalent (30%) in CKD patients. Recently we have demonstrated that “true” RH represents an independent risk factor for renal and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD patients

Factors Associated with Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Acceptance among Pregnant Women: Data from Outpatient Women Experiencing High-Risk Pregnancy

Pregnant women are at higher risk of severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) complications than non-pregnant women. The initial exclusion of pregnant women from anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines clinical trials has caused a lack of conclusive data about safety and efficacy for this vulnerable population. This cross-sectional study aims to define the factors related to vaccination adherence in a sample of women experiencing high-risk pregnancies. The recruited women completed a questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model. Data were analyzed to evaluate the associations between socio-demographic variables and vaccination acceptance through descriptive, univariate and multivariate logistic analyses. Among the 233 women enrolled, 65.2% (n = 152) declared that they would accept the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Multivariate analysis showed that vaccination acceptance was associated with a high educational level (aOR = 4.52, p = 0.001), a low perception of barriers to vaccination (aOR = 1.58, p = 0.005) and the gynecologist's advice (aOR = 3.18, p = 0.01). About a third of pregnant women are still hesitant about the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, probably because of the conflicting information received from media, friends, acquaintances and health institutions. Determining factors linked to vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women is useful for creating vaccination strategies that increase vaccination uptake

Hereditary Angioedema and Psychopathology: Neurobiology, Stress and Attachment Styles

Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) is considered an autosomal dominant disorder, characterized by a quantitativeand/or qualitative deficit of C1 esterase inhibitor. The aim of the study is to establish the relationshipbetween HAE, clinical events, and neurobiological and psychopathologicalparameters, which could influence the phenotype of the disease and thereforeits manifestation in terms of quality, severity and duration of symptoms. Materialsand Methods: observational study, cross-sectional, non-interventional, cohortof 46 patients with diagnosis of hereditary angioedema. ExclusionCriteria: current pharmacological treatment with ACE-inhibitors,glucocorticoids, psychotropic drugs, immunomodulators, anesthetics. A blood sampling was performed to measure cortisol,IL-6, TNF-α and catecholamines, medical examination, psychiatric examination toinvestigate the clinical characteristics of HAE and presence of life events, psychometric evaluation. Any correlation was assessed by Spearman Rho. Results the sample consists of 46 patients, including 22 women (47,8%) e 24 men (52,2%). Averageage of onset of symptoms is equal to 14,61 ± 12,46. High values ??of IL-6 (1,83 ± 3,9) and TNF-α (10,2 ± 27,5) were relatedwith severity of pathology . Conclusions levels of IL-6and TNF-α are in agreement with the increase in the number of attacks of HAE. There is a relationshipbetween increased levels of IL-6 and high scores on Hamilton Depression RatingScale and on Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and a higher subjective perceptionof disease severity. The higher was the perceived stress, the greater will bethe subjective perception of disease severity and the presence of pathologicalattachment styles

Uji Efek Analgesik Ekstrak Kulit Manggis (Garcinia Mangostana L.) Pada Mencit Swiss (Muss Musculus)

Background:Indonesia is the country with the second largest plants after Brazil. One of the plants that grow in Indonesia is the mangosteen plant is utilized as a medicine by the people of Indonesia but also by people in some other countries. Mangosteen skin is most often used to treat diseases such as fever, diarrhea, hypertension, antioksidant, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, and many other diseases. This study aims to prove the presence or absence laboratorik analgesic effects of mangosteen peel extract in mice.Methods:This study uses a sample of nine experimental Swiss mice. The sample was divided into 3 groups, namely the positive control group given the drug tramadol, negative control group given distilled water control and experimental groups were given mangosteen peel extract, each group consisted of three mice. Testing is done by providing analgesic effects of pain stimuli using thermal stimuli (hot plate method) with a temperature of 550C. Given pain stimuli will cause the mice were protecting themselves by jumping response or lick the feet and tail. Testing efekan algesik done before giving the test substance and the reference solution, then at minute 30,60,90 and 120 minutes after administration of the test substance and the reference solution. Tests carried out for 1 minute.Results:mangosteen peel extract has analgesic effects are starting to look at minute 30 to minute 120 with the maximum effect seen at minute 90.Conclusion:mangosteen peel extract (Garcinia mangostana, L) has analgesic effect in Swiss mice (Mus musculus

Betting on Yourself: A Decision Model for Human Resource Allocation Enriched With Self-Assessment of Soft Skills and Preferences

n/

Selection of Optimal Process Parameters for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Abstract This paper is about the optimal selection of process parameters for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing technology, an emerging solution for additive production of metal parts. In particular, the selection of the process parameters is based on the evolution of the microstructure and on the mechanical properties of the final samples obtained through the successive deposition weld beads of a ER70S-6 steel, according to the AWS legislation. The feed rate and the heat input during the deposition of the weld beads have been varied, in order to understand how the temperature reached by the samples can affect the final product mechanical characteristics. The final cooling has been carried in calm air at room temperature and between the deposition of a weld bead and the following one it has been imposed a pause of 60s. The tests on mechanical properties carried out have been: A full experimental campaign that includes: macrographic observations, micrographic observations and Vickers microhardness. The analysis of these tests has highligthed that by varying the process parameters, the samples do not have substantial differences between them. Instead, a microstructure that evolves from pearlitic-ferritic grains until bainitic lamellae along the vertical direction of the samples has been observed by micrographic analysis and confirmed by microhardness measurements

ELECTRA for Neural Coreference Resolution in Italian

In recent years, the impact of Neural Language Models has changed every field of Natural Language Processing. In this scenario, coreference resolution has been among the least considered task, especially in language other than English. This work proposes a coreference resolution system for Italian, based on a neural end-to-end architecture integrating ELECTRA language model and trained on OntoCorefIT, a novel Italian dataset built starting from OntoNotes. Even if some approaches for Italian have been proposed in the last decade, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first neural coreference resolver aimed specifically to Italian. The performance of the system is evaluated with respect to three different metrics and also assessed by replacing ELECTRA with the widely-used BERT language model, since its usage has proven to be effective in the coreference resolution task in English. A qualitative analysis has also been conducted, showing how different grammatical categories affect performance in an inflectional and morphological-rich language like Italian. The overall results have shown the effectiveness of the proposed solution, providing a baseline for future developments of this line of research in Italian

Central Venous Stenosis after Hemodialysis: Case Reports and Relationships to Catheters and Cardiac Implantable Devices

The appropriate vascular access for hemodialysis in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) is undefined. We describe two cases of end-stage renal disease patients with CIED and tunneled central venous catheter (CVC) who developed venous cava stenosis: (1) a 70-year-old man with sinus node disease and pacemaker in 2013, CVC, and a Brescia-Cimino forearm fistula in 2015; (2) a 75-year-old woman with previous ventricular arrhythmia with implanted defibrillator in 2014 and CVC in 2016. In either case, after about 1 year from CVC insertion, patients developed superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome due to stenosis diagnosed by axial computerized tomography. In case 1, the patient was not treated by angioplasty of SVC and removed CVC with partial resolving of symptoms. In case 2, a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with placement of a new CVC was required. To analyze these reports in the context of available literature, we systematically reviewed studies that have analyzed the presence of central venous stenosis associated with the simultaneous presence of CIED and CVC. Five studies were found; two indicated an increased incidence of central venous stenosis, while three did not find any association. While more studies are definitely needed, we suggest that these patients may benefit from epicardial cardiac devices and the insertion of devices directly into the ventriculus. If the new devices are unavailable or contraindicated, peritoneal dialysis or intensive conservative treatment in older patients may be proposed as alternative options