Le flore come opere aperte: nuove soluzioni per l’archiviazione e il reperimento di informazioni botaniche

Negli ultimi due decenni si sono verificati numerosi cambiamenti nell’approccio sistematico-tassonomico allo studio dei vegetali. La moderna delimitazione di ciascuna specie può includere da un lato conoscenze derivanti dall’indagine a livello ecosistemico e all’estremo opposto quelle derivanti dall’indagine a livello molecolare. La tassonomia del 21° secolo sarà sempre più fortemente orientata verso una definizione “olistica” delle specie, che verranno archiviate non più solo negli erbari, ma anche, e soprattutto, in archivi digitali interattivi, progettati per fungere da “collettori di informazione tassonomica multilivello”. In tali archivi possono infatti confluire dati morfologici, biom…

An Intelligent System for Decision Support in Bioinformatics

The enormous array of computational techniques and data available due to today's use of high-throughput technologies can be quite overwhelming for researchers investigating biological problems. For any problem, there are many possible models and algorithms giving different results. We present a new Intelligent System that supports the selection, configuration and operation of strategies and tools in the bioinformatics domain. The Institute for High Performance Computing and Networking (ICAR-CNR) and the University of Palermo are developing an intelligent system that supports bioinformatics research. The system guides the researcher in building a data analysis workflow and acts as an interfa…

Classification of Sequences with Deep Artificial Neural Networks: Representation and Architectural Issues

DNA sequences are the basic data type that is processed to perform a generic study of biological data analysis. One key component of the biological analysis is represented by sequence classification, a methodology that is widely used to analyze sequential data of different nature. However, its application to DNA sequences requires a proper representation of such sequences, which is still an open research problem. Machine Learning (ML) methodologies have given a fundamental contribution to the solution of the problem. Among them, recently, also Deep Neural Network (DNN) models have shown strongly encouraging results. In this chapter, we deal with specific classification problems related to t…

Differential up-regulation of circulating soluble selectins and endothelial adhesion molecules in Sicilian patients with Boutonneuse fever

SUMMARYIn 150 patients with Boutonneuse fever (BF), caused by Rickettsia conorii, we studied the plasma levels of soluble l-selectin (s l-selectin), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and E-selectin (sE-selectin) in various phases of disease to clarify their role in disease evolution. Results indicate that during the acute phase of BF there is a significant increase in the serum levels of s l-selectin, sE-selectin, sVCAM-1 and sICAM-1. s l-selectin and sVCAM-1 returned to normal levels in the third week of disease, whereas sE-selectin and sICAM-1 persisted at significantly high levels even after the third week. The secretion of these sol…

An ontological-based knowledge organization for bioinformatics workflow management system