Search

Pore-forming proteins (PFPs) comprise the largest single class of bacterial protein virulence factors and are expressed by many human and animal bacterial pathogens. Cells that are attacked by these virulence factors activate epithelial intrinsic cellular defenses (or INCEDs) to prevent the attendant cellular damage, cellular dysfunction, osmotic lysis, and organismal death. Several conserved PFP INCEDs have been identified using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the nematicidal PFP Cry5B, including mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. Here we demonstrate that the gene nck-1, which has homologs from Drosophila to humans and links cell signaling with localized F-actin polymerization, is required for INCED against small-pore PFPs in C. elegans. Reduction/loss of nck-1 function results in C. elegans hypersensitivity to PFP attack, a hallmark of a gene required for INCEDs against PFPs. This requirement for nck-1-mediated INCED functions cell-autonomously in the intestine and is specific to PFPs but not to other tested stresses. Genetic interaction experiments indicate that nck-1-mediated INCED against PFP attack is independent of the major MAPK PFP INCED pathways. Proteomics and cell biological and genetic studies further indicate that nck-1 functions with F-actin cytoskeleton modifying genes like arp2/3, erm-1, and dbn-1 and that nck-1/arp2/3 promote pore repair at the membrane surface and protect against PFP attack independent of p38 MAPK. Consistent with these findings, PFP attack causes significant changes in the amount of actin cytoskeletal proteins and in total amounts of F-actin in the target tissue, the intestine. nck-1 mutant animals appear to have lower F-actin levels than wild-type C. elegans. Studies on nck-1 and other F-actin regulating proteins have uncovered a new and important role of this pathway and the actin cytoskeleton in PFP INCED and protecting an intestinal epithelium in vivo against PFP attack.

Quality function deployment (QFD) can provide a means of translating customer requirements (CRs) into engineering characteristics (ECs) for each stage of product development and production. The main objective of QFD-based product planning is to determine the target levels of ECs for a new product or service. QFD is a breakthrough tool which can effectively reduce the gap between CRs and a new product/service. Even though there are conflicts among some ECs, the objective of developing new product is to maximize the overall customer satisfaction. Therefore, there may be room for cooperation among ECs. A cooperative game framework combined with fuzzy set theory is developed to determine the target levels of the ECs in QFD. The key to develop the model is the formulation of the bargaining function. In the proposed methodology, the players are viewed as the membership functions of ECs to formulate the bargaining function. The solution for the proposed model is Pareto-optimal. An illustrated example is cited to demonstrate the application and performance of the proposed approach.

Maji et al. introduced the concept of fuzzy soft sets as a generalization of the standard soft sets and presented an application of fuzzy soft sets in a decision making problem. The aim of this paper is to apply the concept of fuzzy soft sets to n-ary hypergroup theory. The concepts of (∈γ,∈γ∨qδ)-fuzzy soft (invertible) n-ary subhypergroups over a commutative n-ary hypergroup are introduced and some related properties and characterizations are obtained. The homomorphism properties of (∈γ,∈γ∨qδ)-fuzzy soft (invertible) n-ary subhypergroups are also derived.

This study considers a scheduling environment in which there are two agents and a set of jobs, each of which belongs to one of the two agents and its actual processing time is defined as a decreasing linear function of its starting time. Each of the two agents competes to process its respective jobs on a single machine and has its own scheduling objective to optimize. The objective is to assign the jobs so that the resulting schedule performs well with respect to the objectives of both agents. The objective functions addressed in this study include the maximum cost, the total weighted completion time, and the discounted total weighted completion time. We investigate three problems arising from different combinations of the objectives of the two agents. The computational complexity of the problems is discussed and solution algorithms where possible are presented.

Some generalized forms of the hyperideals of a hyperring in the paper of Zhan et al. (2008) will be given. As a generalization of the interval valued (α,β)-fuzzy hyperideals of a hyperring with α,β∈{∈,q,∈∧q,∈∨q} and α≠∈∧q, the notion of generalized interval valued (α,β)-fuzzy hyperideals of a hyperring is also introduced. Special attention is concentrated on the interval valued (∈γ~,∈γ~∨qδ~)-fuzzy hyperideals. As a consequence, some characterizations theorems of interval valued (∈γ~,∈γ~∨qδ~)-fuzzy hyperideals will be provided.

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concepts of fuzzy strong h-ideals and fuzzy congruences of hemirings. The quotient hemirings via fuzzy strong h-ideals are investigated. The relationships between fuzzy congruences and fuzzy strong h-ideals of hemirings are discussed. Pay attention to an open question on fuzzy congruences. Finally, the normal fuzzy strong h-ideals of hemirings are explored.

The concepts of (∈γ,∈γ∨qδ)-fuzzy bi-hyperideals and (∈γ,∈γ∨qδ)-fuzzy quasi-hyperideals of a semihyperring are introduced, and some related properties of such (∈γ,∈γ∨qδ)-fuzzy hyperideals are investigated. In particular, the notions of hyperregular semihyperrings and left duo semihyperrings are given, and their characterizations in terms of hyperideals and (∈γ,∈γ∨qδ)-fuzzy hyperideals are studied.