Automatic generation of fuzzy classification rules using granulation-based adaptive clustering

A central problem of fuzzy modelling is the generation of fuzzy rules that fit the data to the highest possible extent. In this study, we present a method for automatic generation of fuzzy rules from data. The main advantage of the proposed method is its ability to perform data clustering without the requirement of predefining any parameters including number of clusters. The proposed method creates data clusters at different levels of granulation and selects the best clustering results based on some measures. The proposed method involves merging clusters into new clusters that have a coarser granulation. To evaluate performance of the proposed method, three different datasets are used to compare performance of the proposed method to other classifiers: SVM classifier, FCM fuzzy classifier, subtractive clustering fuzzy classifier. Results show that the proposed method has better classification results than other classifiers for all the datasets used

Optimal Anteroposterior Position of Maxillary Incisors in Caucasian Males Viewed from a Smiling Profile

Background and Objectives: Anteroposterior (AP) position of the maxillary incisors affects the harmony of a facial profile. Different methods have been suggested to evaluate the maxillary incisor AP position, including cephalometric analysis and soft-tissue analysis. Andrews suggested using a lateral smiling profile to evaluate the AP position of the maxillary incisors. The objective of this study was to investigate the optimal AP position of maxillary incisors in Caucasian males using Glabella Vertical (GV), a coronal plane tangent to soft tissue Glabella, as a reference line. In addition, an attempt was made to determine if there are differences in judged facial attractiveness between smiling versus repose profiles, and between dental professionals versus laypersons, and males versus females.;Experimental Design and Methods: Smiling and repose profile photographs of 30 randomly selected Caucasian adult males were taken in adjusted natural head position. The AP distance between the maxillary central incisors and GV was measured for each subject. A total of 36 judges (6 male orthodontists, 6 female orthodontists, 12 male lay judges, and 12 female lay judges) were recruited to rate the facial attractiveness of each subject\u27s photograph using a visual analog scale. The data was examined using Tukey\u27s test for multiple comparisons, ANOVA, and chi-square analysis.;Results: No statistically significant difference was found in judged facial attractiveness among Caucasian males with various AP positions of maxillary incisors. However, a trend was found; incisors falling on GV were preferred by the judges, followed by incisors ahead of the GV, with incisors behind GV being the least preferred. A significant difference in facial attractiveness was found between smiling versus repose profiles, in particular, patients with maxillary incisors behind GV being judged less attractive. Orthodontic training and sex of the judges did not significantly affect the judgment of facial attractiveness.;Conclusions: The AP position of maxillary incisors in Caucasian males might not be a significant factor defining face attractiveness. However, there is a tendency for the preferred maxillary incisor position to fall on GV, ahead of GV being less preferred, and behind GV being least preferred. Orthodontic training and gender does not affect perception of profile esthetics. A smiling profile view is useful for assessing facial esthetics

Release the Kratom: Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome in a 70 Year Old Male

Centuries in Eastern medicine.. Kratom has been commonly used for chronic pain and opiate withdrawal symptoms with first reported cases in the United States in the early 2000s. It is a plant that consists of psychoactive alkaloids that target opioid receptors with different affinity. Effects from Kratom are dose-dependent, at lower doses, it acts as a stimulant, while at higher doses produces analgesia and euphoria. Although Kratom is legal and easily accessible over the counter, there have been increasing reports of potential for addiction and toxicity. Cessation of Kratom can result in withdrawal symptoms similar to opiate withdrawal. Here we discuss a case of a 71 year old male with inadvertent Kratom dependence, who had prolonged withdrawal weeks after cessation and required management of dysphoric mood and insomnia symptoms persisting after withdrawal

A Novel Method for Event Detection using Wireless Sensor Networks

Reliable event detection is one of the hottest research areas in the wireless sensor networks field these days. Battlefield monitoring, fire detection, nuclear and chemical attack, and gas leak detection are examples of the event detection applications. One of the main goals to WSNs is transmitting the sensed data to the sink (Base station) in an efficient way with minimum energy usage to achieve high degree of event detection reliability. Thus, Its very important to determine the reliability degree to know the number of data that are required to receive at the sink to achieve the desired reliability. Most of the previous research works proposed different solutions for reliable event detection. The idea of all these solutions is based on increasing the amount of the transmitted data to the sink by controlling the sources reporting rate. However, rising the reporting rate may lead to losing the transmitted data due to the network congestion and packets collision, and this is related to the restricted resources capacity of the network\u27s sensor nodes. Therefore, in this paper, a new indoor method to achieve quality based event reliability for critical event detection have been implemented using hardware sensor nodes (Waspmote). The idea of this method is depending on sending the sensed data to the sink using a node called Cluster Head (CH) in a sequence according to their priority from the high to the low. The network nodes have been deployed in the experiment area into clusters, and each cluster have a CH node which work on collecting the cluster members readings and reorder it in descending order to send it next to the sink. The probability to deliver the important data to detect the event to the sink will increase by using this new method. The proposed mechanism intends to improve the event detection reliability, minimize the end-to-end delay, and increase the network lifetime. Experiments results show that the proposed method achieved a good the performance in terms of packets delivery, event detection, and end-to-end delay

Phytochemical Characterization using GC-MS Analysis of Methanolic Extract of Moringa oleifera ( Family Moringaceae) Plant Cultivated in Iraq

Objective: The aim of the present study was to characterize the Moringa oleifera plant cultivated in Iraq for the presence of biologically active phyto-chemicals using methanolic extracts of the plant (leaves and seeds)  . This study was determined by using Gas Chromatography –Mass spectrometry, while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extract was matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library. Methods: In the present investigation, methanolic extracts of Moringa oleifera were screened for the presence of steroids, alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, anthraquinoin and cardiac glycosides  by standard qualitative test procedures and further this study was extended by analyzing the potent bioactive compounds in the methanolic extract of plant using GC-MS analysis. Results:  reveal the presence of different compounds (about 100 compound)  in the Moringa plant extract  among them alkaloids, terpenoids  steroids, saturated and unsaturated fatty acid, aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon, polyphenolic compounds . GC-MS was done using the database of National Institute of standard and Technology (NIST). Conclusion: Results confirmed the presence of therapeutically potent compounds in the Moringa extract predominantly steroids, flavonoids and terpenoids. Keywords: Moringa oleifera, biologically active, Phytochemicals, GC-MS analysis

A Terrible Prank Gone Horribly Wrong the Development of Delusional Infestation as an Adjustment Reaction to a Traumatic Hoax

Delusional infestation (DI) is a somatic type delusional disorder, characterized by a fixed belief that one is infested by living or nonliving pathogens (1,3) . DI is a relatively rare disorder (4,5), with an estimated 20-80 cases per million people annually (6). Effective management of patients suffering from DI is crucial, as patients may cause significant harm to themselves in their attempts to remove the pathogens (7,8). Regarding treatment options, antipsychotic medications such as pimozide and risperidone have been promising (8,10). However, there remain many barriers to care (11), and patients are hardly ever seen in psychiatry as they preferably seek other specialists such as dermatologists (7,11). It is important for psychiatrists to understand this devastating disorder and properly manage and treat patients with DI when the opportunity arises

Granular computing approach for intelligent classifier design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.Granular computing facilitates dealing with information by providing a theoretical framework to deal with information as granules at different levels of granularity (different levels of specificity/abstraction). It aims to provide an abstract explainable description of the data by forming granules that represent the features or the underlying structure of corresponding subsets of the data. In this thesis, a granular computing approach to the design of intelligent classification systems is proposed. The proposed approach is employed for different classification systems to investigate its efficiency. Fuzzy inference systems, neural networks, neuro-fuzzy systems and classifier ensembles are considered to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed approach. Each of the considered systems is designed using the proposed approach and classification performance is evaluated and compared to that of the standard system. The proposed approach is based on constructing information granules from data at multiple levels of granularity. The granulation process is performed using a modified fuzzy c-means algorithm that takes classification problem into account. Clustering is followed by a coarsening process that involves merging small clusters into large ones to form a lower granularity level. The resulted granules are used to build each of the considered binary classifiers in different settings and approaches. Granules produced by the proposed granulation method are used to build a fuzzy classifier for each granulation level or set of levels. The performance of the classifiers is evaluated using real life data sets and measured by two classification performance measures: accuracy and area under receiver operating characteristic curve. Experimental results show that fuzzy systems constructed using the proposed method achieved better classification performance. In addition, the proposed approach is used for the design of neural network classifiers. Resulted granules from one or more granulation levels are used to train the classifiers at different levels of specificity/abstraction. Using this approach, the classification problem is broken down into the modelling of classification rules represented by the information granules resulting in more interpretable system. Experimental results show that neural network classifiers trained using the proposed approach have better classification performance for most of the data sets. In a similar manner, the proposed approach is used for the training of neuro-fuzzy systems resulting in similar improvement in classification performance. Lastly, neural networks built using the proposed approach are used to construct a classifier ensemble. Information granules are used to generate and train the base classifiers. The final ensemble output is produced by a weighted sum combiner. Based on the experimental results, the proposed approach has improved the classification performance of the base classifiers for most of the data sets. Furthermore, a genetic algorithm is used to determine the combiner weights automatically.Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED

MAINTAINING ROOT CANAL CURVATURES AFTER PREPARATION WITH DIFFERENT NICKEL-TITANIUM ROTARY SYSTEMS (A COMPARATIVE IN VITRO STUDY)

The ongoing advancement of materials and methods for root canal instrumentation is resulting in improved techniques with minimal variations to the canal morphology. One standard for assessment of the shaping quality of curved root canals is preparation-induced straightening of the canal. The aim of the study: To compare the effects of 2 Nickel-Titanium rotary systems, 2Shape (Micro-Mega, Besançon, France) and ProTaper Next (Dentsply,Sirona, Ballaigues, Switzerland), on maintaining the distobuccal canals curvature of extracted human maxillary molar teeth using periapical radiographs. Materials and methods: In this study a total of 26 distobuccal roots of upper maxillary molars were used and divided into 2 groups: Group 1 (n=13) root canals prepared with 2Shape system (TS1, TS2) (Micro-Mega, Besançon, France) and Group 2 (n=13) root canals prepared with ProTaper Next (X1, X2) (Dentsply,Sirona, Ballaigues, Switzerland). A buccolingual radiograph was taken for every sample before and after instrumentation in the same position, and the postoperative angle of curvature was measured with the Image J Software and the same principle of the method of Schneider. The post instrumentation curvature degree was subtracted from the pre instrumentation curvature degree and these results represented the degree of straightening. Result: P\u3c 0.05 was significant for ProTaper Next and 2Shape. 2Shape respected better the curvature angulations than ProTaper Next. Conclusion: Selection of the instruments has an important influence on the respect of the root canal curvature angulations

CLINICAL EVALUATION OF SOFT TISSUE HEALING USING DIODE LASER VERSUS CONVENTIONAL SCALPEL AFTER MICRO-ENDODONTIC SURGERY

Micro-endodontic surgery attempt to minimize trauma and enhance esthetics soft tissue surgical results. Wound healing monitoring is performed for early identification of signs and symptoms related to surgical complications. The aim of this study was to compare surgical wound healing of soft tissue flap after using conventional scalpel and diode laser in micro-endodontic surgery. Methodology: This study was carried out as a randomized controlled clinical trial after taking approval of BAU institutional review board. Fourteen healthy patients were indicated for root end surgery; full mucoperiosteal tissue flap incision was done by using Bard-Parker Blades (Group I) and(Group II) Diode Laser with a wavelength of 940 nm set at a power of 1.5 W. Follow-up assessment scale was used at the day of surgery (baseline) and days1, 3, 7 and 30. After surgery to monitor the following clinical parameters including pain, swelling, bleeding and wound healing. Result: The clinical parameters investigated were statically analyzed and showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the laser and scalpel groups during all follow-up days (P \u3e 0.05). Conclusion: Both Diode Laser and Conventional Scalpel yield same effect on wound healing. Moreover, careful training in oral hygiene, combined with a valid surgical technique is essential to obtain the best result of soft tissue healing after micro-endodontic surgery

Seizure to Drug Induced Schizophrenia: A Rare Case of Keppra-Induced Psychosis

Levetiracetam is a broad-spectrum antiseizure medication and is approved as adjunctive therapy to treat focal-onset seizures in children and adults with epilepsy. Levetiracetam has a wide margin of safety and patient-friendly pharmacokinetics that distinguish it from other currently available antiepileptic drugs. Most common side effects are fatigue, somnolence, dizziness, and upper respiratory infection. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are reported. Psychotic symptoms, paranoid ideation, hallucinations, and behavioral problems may occur in adult and pediatric patients. Among all adverse effects, the rate of psychosis is very low and ranges from less than 1% to 1.4%. A retrospective study showed that this rate is higher in older patients than in the younger population. Although the current literature provides cases of levetiracetam-induced psychosis, the onset of psychotic symptoms is one-week post drug administration. This case highlights that it is essential for psychiatrists to consider drug induced psychosis even when the onset of symptoms is not acutely after drug administration