Preaggregation Functions: Construction and an Application Lucca, Giancarlo; Sanz, Jose Antonio; Dimuro, Gracaliz Pereira ...
IEEE transactions on fuzzy systems,
2016-April, 2016-4-00, 20160401, Volume:
24, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In this paper, we introduce the notion of preaggregation function. Such a function satisfies the same boundary conditions as an aggregation function, but, instead of requiring monotonicity, only ...monotonicity along some fixed direction (directional monotonicity) is required. We present some examples of such functions. We propose three different methods to build preaggregation functions. We experimentally show that in fuzzy rule-based classification systems, when we use one of these methods, namely, the one based on the use of the Choquet integral replacing the product by other aggregation functions, if we consider the minimum or the Hamacher product t-norms for such construction, we improve the results obtained when applying the fuzzy reasoning methods obtained using two classical averaging operators such as the maximum and the Choquet integral.
Background Eosinophils secrete several granules that are involved in the propagation of inflammatory responses in patients with pathologies such as asthma. Objective We hypothesized that some of ...these granules are exosomes, which, when transferred to the recipient cells, could modulate asthma progression. Methods Eosinophils were purified from peripheral blood and cultured with or without IFN-γ or eotaxin. Multivesicular bodies (MVBs) in eosinophils were studied by using fluorescence microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and flow cytometry. Exosome secretion was measured and exosome characterization was performed with TEM, Western blotting, and NanoSight analysis. Results Generation of MVBs in eosinophils was confirmed by using fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry and corroborated by means of TEM. Having established that eosinophils contain MVBs, our aim was to demonstrate that eosinophils secrete exosomes. To do this, we purified exosomes from culture medium of eosinophils and characterized them. Using Western blot analysis, we demonstrated that eosinophils secreted exosomes and that the discharge of exosomes to extracellular media increases after IFN-γ stimulation. We measured exosome size and quantified exosome production from healthy and asthmatic subjects using nanotracking analysis. We found that exosome production was augmented in asthmatic patients. Conclusion Our findings are the first to demonstrate that eosinophils contain functional MVBs and secrete exosomes and that their secretion is increased in asthmatic patients. Thus exosomes might play an important role in the progression of asthma and eventually be considered a biomarker.
•The southern Spanish population of Egyptian vulture is declining.•Egyptian vultures experienced low non-breeder survival.•Recruitment began at age 5 and progressed onwards.•Under current vital rates ...Egyptian vultures will likely continue to declining.•Poisoning and wind farm mortality mitigation is necessary to maintain populations.
Large body-sized avian scavengers, including the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), are globally threatened due to human-related mortality so guidelines quantifying the efficacy of different management approaches are urgently needed. We used 14years of territory and individual-based data on a small and geographically isolated Spanish population to estimate survival, recruitment and breeding success. We then forecasted their population viability under current vital rates and under management scenarios that mitigated the main sources of non-natural mortality at breeding grounds (fatalities from wind farms and illegal poisoning). Mean breeding success was 0.68 (SD=0.17) under current conditions. Annual probabilities of survival were 0.72 (SE=0.06) for fledglings and 2yr old non-breeders, 0.73 (SE=0.04) for non-breeders older than 2yrs old and 0.93 (SE=0.04) for breeders. Probabilities of recruitment were 0 for birds aged 1–4, 0.10 (SE=0.06) for birds aged 5 and 0.19 (SE=0.09) for older birds. Population viability analyses estimated an annual decline of 3–4% of the breeding population under current conditions. Our results indicate that only by combining different management actions in the breeding area, especially by removing the most important causes of human-related mortality (poisoning and collisions on wind farms), will the population grow and persist in the long term. Reinforcement with captive breeding may also have positive effects but only in combination with the reduction in causes of non-natural mortality. These results, although obtained for a focal species, may be applicable to other endangered populations of long-lived avian scavengers inhabiting southern Europe.
Controlling the spin of electrons in nanoscale electronic devices is one of the most promising topics aiming at developing devices with rapid and high density information storage capabilities. The ...interface magnetism or spinterface resulting from the interaction between a magnetic molecule and a metal surface, or vice versa, has become a key ingredient in creating nanoscale molecular devices with novel functionalities. Here, we present a single-molecule wire that displays large (>10000%) conductance switching by controlling the spin-dependent transport under ambient conditions (room temperature in a liquid cell). The molecular wire is built by trapping individual spin crossover FeII complexes between one Au electrode and one ferromagnetic Ni electrode in an organic liquid medium. Large changes in the single-molecule conductance (>100-fold) are measured when the electrons flow from the Au electrode to either an α-up or a β-down spin-polarized Ni electrode. Our calculations show that the current flowing through such an interface appears to be strongly spin-polarized, thus resulting in the observed switching of the single-molecule wire conductance. The observation of such a high spin-dependent conductance switching in a single-molecule wire opens up a new door for the design and control of spin-polarized transport in nanoscale molecular devices at room temperature.
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•A consensus method via penalty functions for decision making in ensembles of fuzzy rule-based classification systems is introduced.•Overlap indices are built using overlap ...functions.•A method for constructing confidence and support measures from overlap indices is presented.•A new fuzzy rule mechanism is proposed, considering different overlap indices, which generalizes the classical methods.•An example of a generation of fuzzy rule-based ensembles and the decision making by consensus via penalty functions is presented.
The aim of this paper is to propose a consensus method via penalty functions for decision making in ensembles of fuzzy rule-based classification systems (FRBCSs). For that, we first introduce a method based on overlap indices for building confidence and support measures, which are usually used to evaluate the degree of certainty or interest of a certain association rule. Those overlap indices (a generalizations of the Zadeh's consistency index between two fuzzy sets) are built using overlap functions, which are a special kind of non necessarily associative aggregation functions proposed for applications related to the overlap problem and/or when the associativity property is not demanded. Then, we introduce a new FRM for the FRBCS, considering different overlap indices, which generalizes the classical methods. By considering several overlap indices and aggregation functions, we generate fuzzy rule-based ensembles, providing different results. For the decision making related to the selection of the best class, we introduce a consensus method for classification, based on penalty functions. We also present theoretical results related to the developed methods. A detailed example of a generation of fuzzy rule-based ensembles based on the proposed approach, and the decision making by consensus via penalty functions, is presented.
Overlap functions are aggregation functions that express the overlapping degree between two values. They have been used both as a conjunction in several practical problems (e.g., image processing and ...decision making), and to generate overlap indices between two fuzzy sets, which can be used to construct fuzzy confidence values to be applied in fuzzy rule based classification systems. Some generalizations of overlap functions were recently proposed, such as n-dimensional and general overlap functions, which allowed their application in n-dimensional problems. More recently, the concept of interval-valued overlap functions was presented, mainly to deal with uncertainty in providing membership functions. In this paper, we introduce: (i) the concept of n-dimensional interval-valued overlap functions, studying their representability, (ii) the definition of general interval-valued overlap functions, providing their characterization and some construction methods. Moreover, we also define the concept of interval-valued overlap index, as well as some constructing methods. In addition, we show an illustrative example where those new concepts are applied.
(Amino)cyclotriphosphazenes have been used as new scaffolds for the synthesis of silver(I) metallomesogens. Two cyclotriphosphazenes, N3P3(NHCy)6 (phos-1) and nongem-trans-N3P3(NHCy)3(NMe2)3 ...(phos-2), were reacted with the silver complex having a pro-mesogenic ligand, Ag(OTf)L (L = CNC6H4{OC(O)C6H2(3,4,5-(OC10H21)3)}-4; OTf = OSO2CF3), in different molar ratios, 1:1, 1:2, or 1:3, to give two series of cationic metallophosphazenes, N3P3(NHCy)6{AgL} n (TfO) n (phos-1.n ) and nongem-trans-N3P3(NHCy)3(NMe2)3{AgL} n (TfO) n (phos-2.n ) with n = 1, 2, or 3. The chemical structure of these compounds, deduced from spectroscopic techniques, was in accordance with coordination of the silver fragments “AgL” to nitrogen atoms of the phosphazene ring, whereby their number n depends on the molar ratio used. Despite the presence of the bulky substituents on the core N atoms, cyclotriphosphazenes coordinated to three “AgL” units exhibited mesomorphism at room temperature. The mesophase was characterized as columnar hexagonal according to the optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies. A model based on an intermolecular association in pairs of the metallocyclotriphosphazenes having three AgL units has been proposed in order to explain the mesomorphic columnar arrangement in these materials. Starting silver complex, Ag(OTf)L, also exhibited a columnar hexagonal mesophase at room temperature.
Among the computational intelligence techniques employed to solve classification problems, Fuzzy Rule-Based Classification Systems (FRBCSs) are a popular tool because of their interpretable models ...based on linguistic variables, which are easier to understand for the experts or end-users.
The aim of this paper is to enhance the performance of FRBCSs by extending the Knowledge Base with the application of the concept of Interval-Valued Fuzzy Sets (IVFSs). We consider a post-processing genetic tuning step that adjusts the amplitude of the upper bound of the IVFS to contextualize the fuzzy partitions and to obtain a most accurate solution to the problem.
We analyze the goodness of this approach using two basic and well-known fuzzy rule learning algorithms, the Chi et al.’s method and the fuzzy hybrid genetics-based machine learning algorithm. We show the improvement achieved by this model through an extensive empirical study with a large collection of data-sets.
Interleukin-17 family (IL-17s) comprises six structurally related members (IL-17A to IL-17F); sequence homology is highest between IL-17A and IL-17F, displaying certain overlapping functions. In ...general, IL-17A and IL-17F play important roles in chronic inflammation and autoimmunity, controlling bacterial and fungal infections, and signaling mainly through activation of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. The role of IL-17A and IL-17F has been established in chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), such as psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), axial spondylarthritis (axSpA), hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and asthma. CD4
helper T cells (Th17) activated by IL-23 are well-studied sources of IL-17A and IL-17F. However, other cellular subtypes can also produce IL-17A and IL-17F, including gamma delta (γδ) T cells, alpha beta (αβ) T cells, type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3), natural killer T cells (NKT), or mucosal associated invariant T cells (MAIT). Interestingly, the production of IL-17A and IL-17F by innate and innate-like lymphocytes can take place in an IL-23 independent manner in addition to IL-23 classical pathway. This would explain the limitations of the inhibition of IL-23 in the treatment of patients with certain rheumatic immune-mediated conditions such as axSpA. Despite their coincident functions, IL-17A and IL-17F contribute independently to chronic tissue inflammation having somehow non-redundant roles. Although IL-17A has been more widely studied, both IL-17A and IL-17F are overexpressed in PsO, PsA, axSpA and HS. Therefore, dual inhibition of IL-17A and IL-17F could provide better outcomes than IL-23 or IL-17A blockade.
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