Some kinds of the controllable problems for fuzzy control dynamic systems

In this work, we have discussed the fuzzy solutions for fuzzy controllable problem, fuzzy feedback problem, and fuzzy global controllable (GC) problems. We use the method of successive approximations under the generalized Lipschitz condition for the local existence and furthermore, we have described the contraction principle under suitable conditions for global existence and uniqueness of fuzzy solutions. We have too the GC results for fuzzy systems. Some examples and computer simulation illustrating our approach are also given for these controllable problems

Preparation and Foliar Application of Oligochitosan - Nanosilica on the Enhancement of Soybean Seed Yield

Oligochitosan with weight average molecu-lar weight (Mw) of 5000 g/mol was prepared by gamma Co-60 radiation degradation of 4% chitosan solution containing 0.5% H2O2 at 21 kGy. Nanosilica with size of 10 – 30 nm was synthesized by calcination of acid treated rice husk at 700o C for 2 h. The mixture of 2% oligo-chitosan-2% nanosilica was prepared by dispersion of nanosilica in oligochitosan solution. Oligochitosan, nanosilica and their mixture were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), transmission electr-on microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Furrier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Effect of foliar application of oli-gochitosan and oligochitosan-nanosilica on soybean seed yield was conducted in experimental field. Results indi-cated that soybean seed yield increased 10.5 and 17.0% for oligochitosan and oligochitosan-nanosilica, respect-tively for the control. Radiation degraded oligo-chitosan and its mixture with nanosilica can be potentially used for cultivation of soybean with enhanced seed yield

Chemical composition, antimicrobial and larvicidal activities of essential oils of two Syzygium species from Vietnam

Abstract The present study is the first to investigate the chemical composition, antimicrobial and larvicidal activities of the essential oils from the leaves of Syzygium attopeuense (Gagnep.) Merr. & L.M.Perry and Syzygium tonkinense (Gagnep.) Merr. & L.M.Perry collected in Vietnam. The essential oils were extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC and GC–MS. The study indicated the presence of a high percentage of sesquiterpenes in both investigated essential oils. The major components of S. attopeuense essential oil were bicyclogermacrene (24.26%), (E)-caryophyllene (11.72%), and (E)-β-ocimene (6.75%), whereas S. tonkinense essential oil was dominated by (E)-caryophyllene (80.80%). The antimicrobial activity of essential oils was evaluated by broth microdilution assay to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and median inhibitory concentration (IC50). Both essential oils exhibited remarkable inhibitory activity against all tested Gram-positive bacteria and yeast than Gram-negative bacteria. Among them, essential oils of S. attopeuense and S. tonkinense possessed the strongest activity against Enterococcus faecalis (MIC = 4.00 μg/mL; IC50 = 1.69 μg/mL) and Candida albicans (MIC = 16.00 μg/mL; IC50 = 8.67 μg/mL), respectively. Furthermore, the larvicidal activity of essential oils was tested using fourth-instar larvae of Aedes aegypti. Results from the larvicidal test revealed that both essential oils had an excellent inhibitory effect against A. aegypti larvae with LC50 values from 25.55 to 30.18 μg/mL and LC90 values from 33.00 to 39.01 μg/mL. Our findings demonstrate that the essential oil extracted from S. attopeuense and S. tonkinense are potential sources of natural antimicrobials and can act as inexpensive mosquito larvicidal agents

Photonic fractal metamaterials: a metal–semiconductor platform with enhanced volatile‐compound sensing performance

Advance of photonics media is restrained by the lack of structuring techniques for the 3D fabrication of active materials with long‐range periodicity. A methodology is reported for the engineering of tunable resonant photonic media with thickness exceeding the plasmonic near‐field enhancement region by more than two orders of magnitude. The media architecture consists of a stochastically ordered distribution of plasmonic nanocrystals in a fractal scaffold of high‐index semiconductors. This plasmonic‐semiconductor fractal media supports the propagation of surface plasmons with drastically enhanced intensity over multiple length scales, overcoming the 2D limitations of established metasurface technologies. The fractal media are used for the fabrication of plasmonic optical gas sensors, achieving a limit of detection of 0.01 vol% at room temperature and sensitivity up to 1.9 nm vol%−1, demonstrating almost a fivefold increase with respect to an optimized planar geometry. Beneficially to their implementation, the self‐assembly mechanism of this fractal architecture allows fabrication of micrometer‐thick media over surfaces of several square centimeters in a few seconds. The designable optical features and intrinsic scalability of these photonic fractal metamaterials provide ample opportunities for applications, bridging across transformation optics, sensing, and light harvesting

Combination Antifungal Therapy for Cryptococcal Meningitis

Background Combination antifungal therapy (amphotericin B deoxycholate and flucytosine) is the recommended treatment for cryptococcal meningitis but has not been shown to reduce mortality, as compared with amphotericin B alone. We performed a randomized, controlled trial to determine whether combining flucytosine or high-dose fluconazole with high-dose amphotericin B improved survival at 14 and 70 days. Methods We conducted a randomized, three-group, open-label trial of induction therapy for cryptococcal meningitis in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection. All patients received amphotericin B at a dose of 1 mg per kilogram of body weight per day; patients in group 1 were treated for 4 weeks, and those in groups 2 and 3 for 2 weeks. Patients in group 2 concurrently received flucytosine at a dose of 100 mg per kilogram per day for 2 weeks, and those in group 3 concurrently received fluconazole at a dose of 400 mg twice daily for 2 weeks. Results A total of 299 patients were enrolled. Fewer deaths occurred by days 14 and 70 among patients receiving amphotericin B and flucytosine than among those receiving amphotericin B alone (15 vs. 25 deaths by day 14; hazard ratio, 0.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30 to 1.08; unadjusted P=0.08; and 30 vs. 44 deaths by day 70; hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.39 to 0.97; unadjusted P=0.04). Combination therapy with fluconazole had no significant effect on survival, as compared with monotherapy (hazard ratio for death by 14 days, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.44 to 1.41; P=0.42; hazard ratio for death by 70 days, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.45 to 1.11; P=0.13). Amphotericin B plus flucytosine was associated with significantly increased rates of yeast clearance from cerebrospinal fluid (−0.42 log10 colony-forming units [CFU] per milliliter per day vs. −0.31 and −0.32 log10 CFU per milliliter per day in groups 1 and 3, respectively; P<0.001 for both comparisons). Rates of adverse events were similar in all groups, although neutropenia was more frequent in patients receiving a combination therapy. Conclusions Amphotericin B plus flucytosine, as compared with amphotericin B alone, is associated with improved survival among patients with cryptococcal meningitis. A survival benefit of amphotericin B plus fluconazole was not found

Intensified Antituberculosis Therapy in Adults with Tuberculous Meningitis

BACKGROUND Tuberculous meningitis is often lethal. Early antituberculosis treatment and adjunctive treatment with glucocorticoids improve survival, but nearly one third of patients with the condition still die. We hypothesized that intensified antituberculosis treatment would enhance the killing of intracerebral Mycobacterium tuberculosis organisms and decrease the rate of death among patients. METHODS We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults and HIV-uninfected adults with a clinical diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis who were admitted to one of two Vietnamese hospitals. We compared a standard, 9-month antituberculosis regimen (which included 10 mg of rifampin per kilogram of body weight per day) with an intensified regimen that included higher-dose rifampin (15 mg per kilogram per day) and levofloxacin (20 mg per kilogram per day) for the first 8 weeks of treatment. The primary outcome was death by 9 months after randomization. RESULTS A total of 817 patients (349 of whom were HIV-infected) were enrolled; 409 were randomly assigned to receive the standard regimen, and 408 were assigned to receive intensified treatment. During the 9 months of follow-up, 113 patients in the intensified-treatment group and 114 patients in the standard-treatment group died (hazard ratio, 0.94; 95% confidence interval, 0.73 to 1.22; P=0.66). There was no evidence of a significant differential effect of intensified treatment in the overall population or in any of the subgroups, with the possible exception of patients infected with isoniazid-resistant M. tuberculosis. There were also no significant differences in secondary outcomes between the treatment groups. The overall number of adverse events leading to treatment interruption did not differ significantly between the treatment groups (64 events in the standard-treatment group and 95 events in the intensified-treatment group, P=0.08). CONCLUSIONS Intensified antituberculosis treatment was not associated with a higher rate of survival among patients with tuberculous meningitis than standard treatment. (Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Li Ka Shing Foundation; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN61649292.)

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Clinical Isolates Is Associated With Sputum Pre-treatment Bacterial Load, Lineage, Survival in Macrophages, and Cytokine Response

It is uncertain whether differences in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) virulence defined in vitro influence clinical tuberculosis pathogenesis, transmission, and mortality. We primarily used a macrophage lysis model to characterize the virulence of Mtb isolates collected from 153 Vietnamese adults with pulmonary tuberculosis. The virulence phenotypes were then investigated for their relationship with sputum bacterial load, bacterial lineages, bacterial growth, and cytokine responses in macrophages. Over 6 days of infection, 34 isolates (22.2%) showed low virulence (&lt; 5% macrophages lysed), 46 isolates (30.1%) showed high virulence (≥90% lysis of macrophages), and 73 isolates (47.7%) were of intermediate virulence (5–90% macrophages lysed). Highly virulent isolates were associated with an increased bacterial load in patients' sputum before anti-tuberculosis therapy (P = 0.02). Isolate-dependent virulence phenotype was consistent in both THP-1 and human monocyte-derived macrophages. High virulence isolates survived better and replicated in macrophages one hundred fold faster than those with low virulence. Macrophages infected with high virulence isolates produced lower concentrations of TNF-α and IL-6 (P = 0.002 and 0.0005, respectively), but higher concentration of IL-1β (P = 5.1 × 10−5) compared to those infected with low virulence isolates. High virulence was strongly associated with East Asian/Beijing lineage [P = 0.002, Odd ratio (OR) = 4.32, 95% confident intervals (CI) 1.68–11.13]. The association between virulence phenotypes, bacterial growth, and proinflammatory cytokines in macrophages suggest the suppression of certain proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6) but not IL-1β allows better intracellular survival of highly virulent Mtb. This could result in rapid macrophage lysis and higher bacterial load in sputum of patients infected with high virulence isolates, which may contribute to the pathogenesis and success of the Beijing lineage

Copy number, linkage disequilibrium and disease association in the FCGR locus.

The response of a leukocyte to immune complexes (ICs) is modulated by receptors for the Fc region of IgG (FcgammaRs), and alterations in their affinity or function have been associated with risk of autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The low-affinity FcgammaR genomic locus is complex, containing regions of copy number variation (CNV) which can alter receptor expression and leukocyte responses to IgG. Combined paralogue ratio tests (PRTs) were used to distinguish three intervals within the FCGR locus which undergo CNV, and to determine FCGR gene copy number (CN). There were significant differences in FCGR3B and FCGR3A CNV profiles between Caucasian, East Asian and Kenyan populations. A previously noted association of low FCGR3B CN with SLE in Caucasians was supported [OR = 1.57 (1.08-2.27), P = 0.018], and replicated in Chinese [OR = 1.65 (1.25-2.18), P = 4 x 10(-4)]. There was no association of FCGR3B CNV with vasculitis, nor with malarial or bacterial infection. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) between multi-allelic FCGR3B CNV and SLE-associated SNPs in the FCGR locus was defined for the first time. Despite LD between FCGR3B CNV and a variant in FcgammaRIIB (I232T) which abolishes inhibitory function, both reduced CN of FCGR3B and homozygosity of the FcgammaRIIB-232T allele were individually strongly associated with SLE risk. Thus CN of FCGR3B, which controls IC responses and uptake by neutrophils, and variations in FCGR2B, which controls factors such as antibody production and macrophage activation, are important in SLE pathogenesis. Further interpretations of contributions to pathogenesis by FcgammaRs must be made in the context of LD involving CNV regions