We reviewed the clinical features of 44 patients with invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease who were treated at two teaching hospitals in southern Taiwan from 1991 to 1994. Genes encoding streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin types A (speA), B (speB), C (speC), and F (speF) and serotypes of M1, M6, and M12 were determined by polymerase chain reaction to target specific sequences in the 44 iso...

The aim of this paper is to clearly demonstrate the importance of finding a good balance between genetic search and local search in the implementation of hybrid evolutionary multi-criterion optimization (EMO) algorithms. We first modify the local search part of an existing multi-objective genetic local search (MOGLS) algorithm. In the modified MOGLS algorithm, the computation time spent by loca...

Objective(s): Streptococcus pyogenes, a notorious human pathogen is responsible to cause a wide range of infections varies from superficial common clinical illness to severe and life threatening infections. To our knowledge this is the first report exploring the emm types and superantigen/exotoxin gene profile of S. pyogenes from Pakistan. Materials a...

A new hybrid multi-objective, multivariable optimizer utilizing Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA), Non-dominated Sorting Differential Evolution (NSDE), and Multi-Objective Particle Swarm (MOPSO) has been created and tested. The optimizer features automatic switching among these algorithms to expedite the convergence of the optimal Pareto front in the objective function(s) space. The...

In this paper a Multi-objective Honey Bee Mating Optimization (MOHBMO) technique is applied to damp power system oscillation by tuning the Power System Stabilizer (PSS) parameters. Selecting the parameters of PSS which simultaneously stabilize system oscillations is converted to a simple optimization problem which is solved by a HBMO. In the proposed syndicate tuning technique, two performances...

This study examines the diversity of superantigen gene profiles between and within emm-genotypes of 92 clinical group A streptococcal isolates (30 STSS, 24 sepsis, 25 erysipelas, and 12 tonsillitis) collected in Sweden between 1986 and 2001. The emm-genotype and the distribution of smeZ, speG, speJ, speA, speC, speH, speI, speK/L, speL/M, speM, and ssa genes, and the smeZ allelic variant were d...

Ecological character displacement occurs when interacting species diverge in resource use and associated traits in response to selection to minimize resource competition between them. Yet, when resource quality is asymmetric, the species that monopolizes the more profitable resource following character displacement may have higher fitness and therefore be deemed the 'winner'. Here, we ask: does...

This research proposes the various versions of modified cuckoo search (MCS) metaheuristic algorithm deploying the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA) multiobjective (MO) optimization technique in rectangular array geometry synthesis. Precisely, the MCS algorithm is proposed by incorporating the Roulette wheel selection operator to choose the initial host nests (individuals) that give ...