Improving Retrieval Performance of Case Based Reasoning Systems by Fuzzy Clustering

Case-based reasoning (CBR), which is a classical reasoning methodology, has been put to use. Its application has allowed significant progress in resolving problems related to the diagnosis, therapy, and prediction of diseases. However, this methodology has shown some complicated problems that must be resolved, including determining a representation form for the case (complexity, uncertainty, and vagueness of medical information), preventing the case base from the infinite growth of generated medical information and selecting the best retrieval technique. These limitations have pushed researchers to think about other ways of solving problems, and we are recently witnessing the integration of CBR with other techniques such as data mining. In this article, we develop a new approach integrating clustering (Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) and K-Means) in the CBR cycle. Clustering is one of the crucial challenges and has been successfully used in many areas to develop innate structures and hidden patterns for data grouping [1]. The objective of the proposed approach is to solve the limitations of CBR and improve it, particularly in the search for similar cases (retrieval step). The approach is tested with the publicly available immunotherapy dataset. The results of the experimentations show that the integration of the FCM algorithm in the retrieval step reduces the search space (the large volume of information), resolves the problem of the vagueness of medical information, speeds up the calculation and response time, and increases the search efficiency, which further improves the performance of the retrieval step and, consequently, the CBR system

ECONOMIC AND MONETARY INTEGRATION IN THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL (GCC): A KUWAITI PERSPECTIVE

The State of Kuwait is has been a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since its establishment in 1980. Kuwait is a geographically small but oil-rich country, whose economic development in recent years is the result of an increase in both the production and prices of oil, which now accounts for almost 90% of exports. Meanwhile Kuwait imports almost all its local market needs from abroad. In 2010 the Kuwaiti government passed a development plan which was intended to diversify the Kuwaiti economy and promote non-oil economic sectors. Kuwait has an open economy, and is an ally of its GCC neighbours and the West. It is a member of the World Trade Organisation, which helps to enhance the country’s exports and imports. At the same time Kuwait is committed to advancing Economic and Monetary Integration with the GCC countries, and put into practice the guidelines which will make the Currency and Economic Union successful. This study will extend the literature on Economic and Monetary Integration in the context of the GCC monetary union. A literature review of the theory of Optimum Currency Areas (OCA) examines the development of exchange rate policy and monetary unions. Investigating and assessing Kuwait’s national interest in joining the GCC currency union is the main objective of this thesis. The study applies both quantitative and qualitative approaches to estimating the likely costs and benefits. In the study annual published data is used to analyse the country’s main economic structure and indicators, and semi-structured interviews are used to ascertain the opinions of Kuwaiti nationals working in financial institutions concerning monetary union. The conclusion of our study is that Kuwait is ready to join the GCC monetary union, the benefits of membership outweighing the costs. Having an oil-based economy like that of other GCC countries will make it easier for Kuwait to join the GCC monetary union. In addition, Kuwait imports products from abroad to meet local demand and controls inflation through its exchange rate regime. The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) is the sole authority managing the country’s monetary policy and the financial sector. However, GCC monetary union will subordinate the CBK to the Gulf Central Bank and reduce its flexibility to use its own monetary tools

Reuse of Iraqi Agricultural Drainage Water Using Nanofiltration

Abstract: Irrigated areas between Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq suffer from salinity buildup in the root zone of corps. Agricultural drain water (ADW) from these areas is collected in a single main drain canal, in an annual flow rate of about 6 billion cubic meter. In the present work, a pilot-scale nanofiltration membranes unit was used to evaluate the feasibility of desalinating ADW from the main drain canal for further reuse. Bench scale experiments were conducted to determine the optimum anti-scale dosage values in the unit. These values were verified in a plate type laboratory scale NF membrane to visually monitor the onset of crystal appearance behavior. A method for calcium sulfate precipitation control is presented and an empirical correlation of anti-scale dosage as a function of concentration factor (CF) was obtained. A pilot-scale unit was used to investigate the performance of NF membrane. High rejection values for both cations and anions indicate that the use of NF membrane in desalinating ADW from the Iraqi main drain canal is promising. The treated drainage water is considered good for irrigation when classified according to Wilcox classification

Confining Flux Tubes in a Current Algebra Approach

We describe flux tubes and their interactions in a low energy sigma model induced by $SU({N_f}) \rightarrow SO({N_f})$ flavor symmetry breaking in $SO(N_c)$ QCD. Unlike standard QCD, this model allows gauge confinement to manifest itself in the low energy theory, which has unscreened spinor color sources and global $Z_2$ flux tubes. We construct the flux tubes and show how they mediate the confinement of spinor sources. We further examine the flux tubes' quantum stability, spectrum and interactions. We find that flux tubes are Alice strings, despite ambiguities in defining parallel transport. Furthermore, twisted loops of flux tube support skyrmion number, just as gauged Alice strings form loops that support monopole charge. This model, while phenomenologically nonviable, thus affords a perspective on both the dynamics of confinement and on subtleties which arise for global Alice strings.Comment: 29 pages (REVTEX) plus 6 figures, two corrections in the final section and added reference

Identity crisis in pulmonary arterial hypertension

International audiencePulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) shares many hallmarks with cancer. Cancer cells acquire their hallmarks by a pathological Darwinian evolution process built on the so-called cancer cell ''identity crisis.'' Here we demonstrate that PAH shares the most striking features of the cancer identity crisis: the ectopic expression of normally silent tissue-specific genes

An Anisotropic Diffusion Adaptive Filter for Image Denoising and Restoration Applied on Satellite Remote Sensing Images

This paper proposes an operating approach based on the anisotropic diffusion method to restore and denoise Satellite Remote Sensing Images (SRSIs). The contents of the approach are the motion by mean curvature to detect the noise direction for each degraded pixel and preserve the original edges of the image, and the gradient in the Gaussian kernel which restores the degraded pixel locally, assuring the estimation of its original value and saving the contrast of the image. The algorithm, concluded by our proposed system, treats noised SRSIs regardless of noise type, so better restoration is achieved. Experiments of the proposed system and of other approaches were conducted in MATLAB in order to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach and its performance was confirmed through evaluation with PSNR and SSIM

Neuroinflammation in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) as assessed by [11C]PBR28 PET correlates with vascular disease measures

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has triggered a consequential public health crisis of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), sometimes referred to as long COVID. The mechanisms of the heterogeneous persistent symptoms and signs that comprise PASC are under investigation, and several studies have pointed to the central nervous and vascular systems as being potential sites of dysfunction. In the current study, we recruited individuals with PASC with diverse symptoms, and examined the relationship between neuroinflammation and circulating markers of vascular dysfunction. We used [ 11C]PBR28 PET neuroimaging, a marker of neuroinflammation, to compare 12 PASC individuals versus 43 normative healthy controls. We found significantly increased neuroinflammation in PASC versus controls across a wide swath of brain regions including midcingulate and anterior cingulate cortex, corpus callosum, thalamus, basal ganglia, and at the boundaries of ventricles. We also collected and analyzed peripheral blood plasma from the PASC individuals and found significant positive correlations between neuroinflammation and several circulating analytes related to vascular dysfunction. These results suggest that an interaction between neuroinflammation and vascular health may contribute to common symptoms of PASC

N-String Vertices in String Field Theory

We give the general form of the vertex corresponding to the interaction of an arbitrary number of strings. The technique employed relies on the ``comma" representation of String Field Theory where string fields and interactions are represented as matrices and operations between them such as multiplication and trace. The general formulation presented here shows that the interaction vertex of N strings, for any arbitrary N, is given as a function of particular combinations of matrices corresponding to the change of representation between the full string and the half string degrees of freedom.Comment: 22 pages, A4-Latex (latex twice), FTUV IFI

Cervical ripening by using extra-amniotic dexamethasone infusion versus extra-amniotic saline infusion

Background: Induction of labour is a commonly practiced obstetric intervention designed to artificially initiate the process of cervical effacement to achieve vaginal delivery. Objective: examine the hypothesis that corticosteroids, when administered extra-amniotically, can enhance labor process and reduce the induction--delivery interval in comparison with folly's and extra-amniotic saline infusion. Patients and methods: This, randomized case- control study was conducted on99 women, who were referred to the AL-Batool teaching Hospital in Diyala, Iraq, for induction of labor with a Bishop score of less than or equal to 5 from January 2014-March 2016, and divided into 2 groups, 1st group consist of 58 pregnant, a 26F catheter & and 20 mg of dexamethasone mixed with 20 ml of sterile saline solution infused extraamniotically. 2nd group consist of 41 pregnant, with the same size catheter attached to 500 ml of saline solution infused into the extra-amniotic space. Results: Administration of dexamethasone extraamnioticlly improve the Bishop score, reduce the time needed for expulsion of the catheter, shortening of 1st&2nd stage of labour without increasing the caesarean section rate. Conclusion: Extraamniotic administration of dexamethasone is effective & safe method for induction of labour. خلفية الموضوع:إن تحفيز الولادة من الممارسات الشائعة في مجال التوليد التي تستخدم لنضج عنق الرحم وإحداث الولادة اصطناعيا.لغرض تجنب الولادة بواسطة العملية الجراحية(القيصرية  ) الهدف: لبيان مدى صحة النظرية التي تنص على إن استخدام مادة الكورتزون المحقونة خارج السائل الامينوسي تستطيع تحفيز عملية الولادة وتقلل المدة بين التحفيز و حصول الولادة بالمقارنة مع استخدام مادة المحلول الملحي النظامي المحقون بنفس الطريقة. طريقة الدراسة:دراسة تداخليه مقارنة  سريريه أجريت على 99 امرأة حامل (حمل منفرد)وكانت مدة الحمل ما بين 37-42 أسبوع  أحيلت إلى مستشفى البتول التعليمي –ديالى –العراق.لغرض تحفيز الولادة وكان مقياس بيشوب اقل من 5.وقد أجريت الدراسة للفترة من كانون الثاني 2014-آذار 2016.وقد تم تقسيم النساء الحوامل إلى مجموعتين: الأولى:تتكون من 58 امرأة حامل تم إدخال قسطرة فولي عن طريق عنق الرحم وتم حقن 20 ملغ من مادة الدكساميثازون مخلوطة مع 20 مل من المحلول الملحي النظامي. الثانية:تتكون من41 امرأة حامل تم إدخال قسطرة فولي بنفس الطريقة للمجموعة الأولى مع استبدال مادة الدكساميثازون ب 500 مل محلول ملحي نظامي بمعدل 5 قطرات بالدقيقة وفي كلتا المجموعتين ننتظر خروج الفولي من عنق الرحم تلقائيا وإذا لم يتم ذلك تلقائيا يتم استخراجه من عنق الرحم .وبعد ذلك يتم إعطاء المادة المحفزة للولادة(هرمون الولادة)لحين الحصول على ثلاث تقلصات  خلال عشر دقائق. وبعد ساعتين يتم إجراء الفحص الداخلي للمريضة لغرض معرفة مدى تقدم مقياس بيشوب. وفي حال دخول المريضة إلى طور الولادة الفعال يتم استكمال خطة الدراسة.أما في حالة عدم حصول أي تقدم أو حصول تقدم بطئ يتم إيقاف المادة المحفزة للولادة  وبذلك يكون تحفيز الولادة قد فشل. النتائج:حقن مادة الدكساميثازون خارج السائل الامينوسي عن طريق قسطرة فولي يحسن مقياس بيشوب ويقلل الفترة بين تحفيز الولادة وحصول الولادة مع تقليل مدة كل من المرحلة الأولى والثانية للولادة بدون أي زيادة في نسبة الولادة بواسطة العملية القيصرية. الاستنتاج:حقن مادة الدكساميثازون خارج السائل الامينوسي طريقة فعالة وآمنة ورخيصة يمكن استخدامها لتحفيز الولادة