Interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) has been called a "master switch" for its ability to determine whether cells mount proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory responses. Accordingly, IRF5 should be an attractive target for therapeutic drug development. Here we report on the development of a novel decoy peptide inhibitor of IRF5 that decreases myocardial inflammation and improves vascular endothe...

OBJECTIVE To assess the association of CD40/CD40 ligand (CD40L) interactions with the development of skin fibrosis and autoimmunity in tight-skin (TSK/+) mouse, which is a mouse model for human systemic sclerosis. METHODS Newly born TSK/+ mice were treated with murine anti-CD40L monoclonal antibody (100 microg intraperitoneally weekly). Hypodermal thickness of 8-week-old female mice (defined ...

This paper presents a new approach of achieving inverse model control (IMC) of nonlinear plants with TaSe Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy system. The inverse control law, designed for the control of nonlinear plant dynamics, is derived directly based on approximate model method and it is implemented using TaSe TSK fuzzy system modeling. The robust stability of the IMC is analyzed using Lyapunov ...

BACKGROUND Radiation therapy is generally contraindicated for cancer patients with collagen vascular diseases (CVD) such as scleroderma due to an increased risk of fibrosis. The tight skin (TSK) mouse has skin which, in some respects, mimics that of patients with scleroderma. The skin radiation response of TSK mice has not been previously reported. If TSK mice are shown to have radiation sensit...

UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of an abbreviated version of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) in a clinical sample of patients with chronic pain. Chronic pain patients (n = 276) seeking treatment at an interdisciplinary treatment center completed self-report questionnaires including the TSK-13, and 2 tests of physical functioning. Four comp...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the validity and reliability of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia Heart (TSK-SV Heart), a brief questionnaire to detect kinesiophobia (fear of movement) in patients with coronary artery disease. DESIGN Methodological research (cross-sectional study). SUBJECTS A total of 332 patients, mean age 65 years (standard deviation 9.1) diagnosed with coronary artery disease a...

Cardiovascular mortality increases in cold weather in older adults, and physical activity may impart even greater cardiovascular risk than cold exposure alone. Human aging is associated with exaggerated pressor responses to whole body cooling; however, the sympathetic response to cold stress alone and in combination with isometric exercise is unknown. We hypothesized that cold stress would 1) i...

This paper presents a tool condition monitoring approach using Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy logic incorporating a subtractive clustering method. The experimental results show its effectiveness and satisfactory comparisons with several other artificial intelligence methods.

The nature of the development of emphysema in the tight skin (Tsk) and the pallid (Pa) mice are not well understood. We assessed the mechanical and nonlinear properties of the respiratory system, the alveolar structure, and the levels of microfibril-associated glycoproteins (MAGP) 1 and 2 in Tsk mice with developmental emphysema; in Pa mice, which are thought to develop adult onset emphysema; a...