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Introduction: Solid Organ Transplants (SOT) is at increased risk of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, which may result in acute graft dysfunction and even death. While the disease has been well studied in the general population, it is not the case in renal transplant recipients. The poor immunological response of the vaccine in post renal transplant patients, the emergence of newer strains, and the possibility of a third wave in India, makes it even more important to know more about the course and outcome of the disease in post renal transplant patients. Aim: To evaluate the demographics, clinical presentation, biochemical profile, course of hospitalisation in post kidney transplant patients with COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This retrospective observational study study with 18 patients was conducted in Madurai Medical College, Tamil Nadu, India for duration of four months, from May 2021 to August 2021 and data collection from May 2021 to July 2021 and data analysis in August 2021. All post kidney transplant patients having evidence of COVID-19 were included. Detailed clinical history, biochemical profile, radiological findings, treatment, and final outcomes were collected and compared. Non parametric statistical tests were used, in addition to Chi-square test and odds ratio. Kaplan-Meier plot was used for survival analysis. Results: The most common presentation was fever 15 (83.3%), followed by cough 10 (55.6%). C-reactive Protein (CRP) {65 mg/L (11.48-94.48)}, D-dimer {0.72 mcg/mL (0.59-1.1)}, serum creatinine {3.5 mg/dL (2.12-5.93)}, and platelet count {200,000 cells/cu.mm (1.75-2.22)} and showed statistically significant (p<0.05) association with the outcome. About 15 (83.3%) patients developed Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Seven patients (38.9%) had stage three AKI necessitating haemodialysis, of which six did not survive. The median survival time was 22 days, with 95% confidence interval (19.792-24.208), with case fatality rate of 33.3%. Conclusion: Post kidney transplant patients are at high risk of contracting COVID-19. CRP, D-dimer, serum creatinine, platelet counts, and arterial oxygen saturation may serve as prognostic markers. Dialysis may be required in view of high incidence of AKI and acute graft dysfunction, though the outcome seems dismal in such patients. Hence, the need for early hospitalisation and more effective treatment protocol is essential to improve outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Novel coronavirus disease-19 is spreading rapidly, and therefore, optimal management of the disease in end-stage kidney disease patients requiring hemodialysis is not fully explained. We report the clinical characteristics and the short-term outcomes in patients with end-stage renal disease who require hospitalization for coronavirus disease-19 and who underwent hemodialysis. Methods: In this retrospective, observational, single-center study, we analyzed the clinical course and outcomes of 116 consecutive end-stage kidney disease patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease-19 who underwent at least 1 hemodialysis session in our hospital between June 26 and August 10, 2020. Baseline clinical features, laboratory data, and treatment given were compared between survivors and non-survivors to identify risk factors associated with mortality. Results: Among the 116 patients who were enrolled in our study, males constituted 81% (n = 94). Many had underlying comorbidities, of which hypertension (90.4%) was the most common. The most common symptoms were fever (76.1%), dyspnoea (61.2%), cough (58.6%), and diarrhea (18.1%). In total, 66.4% of patients had arteriovenous fistula or grafts. Inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein and serum ferritin were significantly higher in non-survivors group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that dialysis vintage less than 6 months was the most important predictor for mortality. Mortality was 27.5% in our cohort. Conclusion: Mortality among hospitalized end-stage kidney disease patients who underwent hemodialysis was higher when compared to the general population. The presence of comorbid conditions like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and pre-existing pulmonary disease had a poor prognosis. Patients having central venous catheters as their dialysis access had a poor prognosis. Dialysis vintage less than 6 months was the most important predictor of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In planning and operation processes of power systems, the most critical and outstanding problem is the optimal scheduling of reactive power resources. The current research study considered real power loss as well as the deviation of voltage magnitude as objective functions since these two play important roles in a power system's operations and control. Due to the above-mentioned considerations, bi-objective optimization takes a form here. In the recent times, lot of meta-heuristic optimization techniques was implemented to elucidate ORPD problem. One such recently advanced algorithm named Interior Search Algorithm is utilized to find a solution for challenges in power system. It is observed that it is not producing accurate solution and convergence characteristic curve is also not smooth. In order to enhance the searching ability of ISA a new method called Levy Interior Search Algorithm (LISA) was proposed in this paper. In this two different strategies of LISA were proposed. In order to validate the proposed algorithm, LISA is implemented on five various standard test systems comprising IEEE 30-bus, IEEE 57-bus, IEEE 118-bus, IEEE 300-bus and IEEE 354-bus test systems. To conclude, application results of LISA are compared with the results of other optimization techniques reported in literature. The comparison reveals that the LISA Strategy-II outperformed all other optimization techniques in terms of robustness, accuracy and convergence speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two improved differential harmony search algorithms called self-adaptive differential harmony search (SADHS) algorithm and chaotic SADHS (CSADHS) algorithm are proposed to solve economic load dispatch problems with valve-point effect, ramp-rate limits, prohibited operating zones, and multiple fuel options. The effectiveness and suitability of the proposed algorithms are demonstrated on test systems consisting of 13, 15, and 40 generating units with valve-point effect and 10 generating units with multiple fuel options and valve-point effect. The simulation results obtained by the proposed algorithms are compared with the results obtained using DHS and with the results of other methods reported in the literature. The solution obtained by the proposed CSADHS algorithm is found to be better than the other methods in terms of solution quality. In terms of convergence speed and computation time, the proposed CSADHS algorithm is better than DHS and the other proposed SADHS algorithms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Acro-renal syndrome’ refers to co-occurrence of congenital renal and limb anomalies. The term acro-renal syndrome was coined by Curran et al. in 1972 though Dieker and Opitz were the first to report this phenomenon in three male patients in 1969. The common limb defects include oligodactyly, ectrodactyly, syndactyly or brachydactyly anomalies of the carpal and tarsal bones and the common renal anomalies observed are unilateral renal agenesis (URA), bilateral renal hypoplasia, ureteric hypoplasia, hydroureteronephrosis and duplication abnormalities. The acro-renal syndrome as originally described is rare, reported only in ∼20 patients in the international literature. We report a 23-year-old male patient with renal anomalies in the form of absent right kidney, left-sided vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) and skeletal anomalies viz short radius, absent first metacarpal ray in left hand and left undescended testis, consistent with Dieker's type acro-renal syndrome. Apart from the classical acro-renal syndrome, several anomalies of acro-renal patterns and the abnormal gene loci involved are described in the literature. This article is a comprehensive review of the development of kidneys, types of acro-renal syndromes, congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT), syndromes associated with combined limb and renal anomalies, and anomalies associated with URA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]