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Background Dense deposit disease (DDD) (also known as membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type II) in childhood is a rare glomerulonephritis with frequent progression to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and a high recurrence after kidney transplantation. The pathophysiologic basis of DDD is associated with the uncontrolled systemic activation of the alternative pathway (AP) of the complement cascade. Case-diagnosis/treatment A 14-year-old girl presented with edema and nephrotic range proteinuria. Blood tests showed hypoalbuminemia, nephrotic range proteinuria, normal renal function, and a low C3 level. Renal biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of crescentic DDD. Complement analysis revealed strong AP activation (low C3), positive C3 nephritic factor (C3NeF), and a decreased complement factor H (CFH) levels with CFH polymorphisms. Therapy with eculizumab was considered after the failure of corticosteroid and plasmapheresis to modulate the ongoing massive proteinuria and persistence of low serum C3 levels. There was a marked clinical and biochemical response following the administration of eculizumab. Conclusions Our case emphasizes the efficacy of eculizumab in the management of crescentic DDD in a patient with a normal renal function, in a short follow-up period. Considering previously reported cases, it appears that eculizumab represents a promising new approach which may prevent progression to ESRD in a subset of patients with DDD., Author(s): Ozan Ozkaya [sup.1], Hulya Nalcacioglu [sup.1], Demet Tekcan [sup.1], Gurkan Genc [sup.1], Bilge Can Meydan [sup.2], B. Handan Ozdemir [sup.3], M. Kemal Baysal [sup.4], Hasan Tahsin Keceligil [sup.5] Author [...]

The distributed permutation flow shop scheduling (DPFSS) is a permutation flow shop scheduling problem including the multi-factory environment. The processing times of the jobs in a real life scheduling problem cannot be precisely know because of the human factor. In this study, the process times and due dates of the jobs are considered triangular and trapezoidal fuzzy numbers for DPFSS environment. An artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is developed to solve the multi-objective distributed fuzzy permutation flow shop (DFPFS) problem. First, the proposed ABC algorithm is calibrated with the well-known DPFSS instances in the literature. Then, the DPFSS instances are fuzzified and solved with the algorithm. According to the results, the proposed ABC algorithm performs well to solve the DFPFS problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trazodone (TRZ) is an antidepressant drug commonly used in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Although some studies demonstrated the adverse effects of TRZ related to cardiovascular system, the conflicting results were observed in these studies. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the cardiac adverse effects of TRZ in rats at repeated doses in our study. In accordance with this purpose, TRZ was administered orally to rats at 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg doses for 28 days. Electrocardiogram records, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase-myoglobin band, cardiac troponin-T (cTn-T) levels, DNA damage in cardiomyocytes, and histologic view of heart tissues were evaluated. In addition, glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured to determine the oxidative status of cardiac tissue after TRZ administration. Heart rate was decreased, PR interval was prolonged, and QRS and T amplitudes were decreased in 20 mg/kg TRZ-administered group compared to the control group. Serum AST and cTn-T levels were significantly increased in 10 and 20 mg/kg TRZ-administered rats with respect to control rats. DNA damage was significantly increased in these groups. Additionally, degenerative histopathologic findings were observed in TRZ-administered groups. Although there was no difference in MDA levels between groups, GSH levels were significantly decreased in 10 and 20 mg/kg TRZ-administered groups compared to the control group. Our results have shown that TRZ induced cardiotoxicity in rats dose-dependently. It is assumed that oxidative stress related to GSH depletion may be accompanied by these adverse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade job shop scheduling problems have been subject to intensive research due to their multiple applications. Job shop scheduling is known as a strongly NP-complete problem. In the job shop scheduling problems, processing times and due dates are very dynamic due to both human and machine resource factors. Fuzzy sets have been used to model the uncertain processing times and due dates in recent years. In this study, a fuzzy job shop s cheduling problem with availability constraints is considered. Availability constraints mean that machines can be unavailable for preventive maintenance, periodic repair or random breakdown. These constraints have been considered in this study for fuzzy job shop scheduling problems. A Scatter Search (SS) method is proposed to solve these problems. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scatter search method is demonstrated by comparing it with the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA). The aim of the study is to minimize the tardiness and earliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open shop scheduling problem is essentially a sort of scheduling problem that each job has only one operation to be processed on each machine and the processing order is not significant. It has been mainly encountered in a facility that is manufacturing similar types of products groups. In this study, open shop scheduling problems were solved in order to minimize the total make-span with Parallel Kangaroo algorithm which runs by the random jumping method. Parallel Kangaroo Algorithm is a meta-heuristic algorithm which continuously tries to reach the better solutions. The open shop scheduling instances for the benchmarking in the literature were solved with a Kangaroo Algorithm in which the wild and the tame kangaroo operators are operated in a parallel manner. The yielded results were compared with the best results in the literature. It has been found the performance of the Parallel Kangaroo Algorithm for solving the open shop scheduling problems was efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teknoloji is the property of Engineering Science & Technology, an International Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Teknoloji is the property of Engineering Science & Technology, an International Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)