Search results for "work"
showing 10 items of 14511 documents
L1-Penalized Censored Gaussian Graphical Model
2018
Graphical lasso is one of the most used estimators for inferring genetic networks. Despite its diffusion, there are several fields in applied research where the limits of detection of modern measurement technologies make the use of this estimator theoretically unfounded, even when the assumption of a multivariate Gaussian distribution is satisfied. Typical examples are data generated by polymerase chain reactions and flow cytometer. The combination of censoring and high-dimensionality make inference of the underlying genetic networks from these data very challenging. In this article, we propose an $\ell_1$-penalized Gaussian graphical model for censored data and derive two EM-like algorithm…
Model selection for factorial Gaussian graphical models with an application to dynamic regulatory networks.
2016
Abstract Factorial Gaussian graphical Models (fGGMs) have recently been proposed for inferring dynamic gene regulatory networks from genomic high-throughput data. In the search for true regulatory relationships amongst the vast space of possible networks, these models allow the imposition of certain restrictions on the dynamic nature of these relationships, such as Markov dependencies of low order – some entries of the precision matrix are a priori zeros – or equal dependency strengths across time lags – some entries of the precision matrix are assumed to be equal. The precision matrix is then estimated by l 1-penalized maximum likelihood, imposing a further constraint on the absolute value…
Nature lessons: the whitefly bacterial endosymbiont is a minimal amino acid factory with unusual energetics
2016
Reductive genome evolution is a universal phenomenon observed in endosymbiotic bacteria in insects. As the genome reduces its size and irreversibly losses coding genes, the functionalities of the cell system, including the energetics processes, are more restricted. Several energetic pathways can also be lost. How do these reduced metabolic networks sustain the energy needs of the system? Among the bacteria with reduced genomes Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum, obligate endosymbiont of whiteflies, represents an extreme case since lacks several key mechanisms for ATP generation. Thus, to analyze the cell energetics in this system, a genome-scale metabolic model of this endosymbiont was const…
The latent geometry of the human protein interaction network
2017
Abstract Motivation A series of recently introduced algorithms and models advocates for the existence of a hyperbolic geometry underlying the network representation of complex systems. Since the human protein interaction network (hPIN) has a complex architecture, we hypothesized that uncovering its latent geometry could ease challenging problems in systems biology, translating them into measuring distances between proteins. Results We embedded the hPIN to hyperbolic space and found that the inferred coordinates of nodes capture biologically relevant features, like protein age, function and cellular localization. This means that the representation of the hPIN in the two-dimensional hyperboli…
Sustained oscillations in the MAP kinase cascade.
2016
Abstract The MAP kinase cascade is a network of enzymatic reactions arranged in layers. In each layer occurs a multiple futile cycle of phosphorylations. The fully phosphorylated substrate then serves as an enzyme for the layer below. This paper focuses on the existence of parameters for which Hopf bifurcations occur and generate periodic orbits. Furthermore it is explained how geometric singular perturbation theory allows to generalize results from simple models to more complex ones.
On the origin of mitosing cells: A historical appraisal of Lynn Margulis endosymbiotic theory
2017
Although for a long-time symbiosis was considered to be quite rare and with no role in evolutionary processes, Lynn Margulis demonstrated that endosymbiotic events played a key role in the origin and evolution of eukaryotic cells. Starting with her seminal assay in the Journal of Theoretical Biology in 1967 (authored as Lynn Sagan), her lifelong work on eukaryogenesis and the role of symbiosis in evolution stands as a valid and authoritative contribution to science. As was quick to acknowledge, she was not the first to discuss the significance of symbiosis to explain the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts, but no one else had done it to her extent and depth, nor had anyone provided a v…
A Systematic Study of Dysregulated MicroRNA in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
2017
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that modulate the cellular transcriptome at the post-transcriptional level. miRNA plays important roles in different disease manifestation, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Many studies have characterized the changes of miRNAs in T2DM, a complex systematic disease; however, few studies have integrated these findings and explored the functional effects of the dysregulated miRNAs identified. To investigate the involvement of miRNAs in T2DM, we obtained and analyzed all relevant studies published prior to 18 October 2016 from various literature databases. From 59 independent studies that met the inclusion criteria, we identified 158 dysregu…
Primary Sensorimotor Cortex Drives the Common Cortical Network for Gamma Synchronization in Voluntary Hand Movements
2018
Background: Gamma synchronization (GS) may promote the processing between functionally related cortico-subcortical neural populations. Our aim was to identify the sources of GS and to analyze the direction of information flow in cerebral networks at the beginning of phasic movements, and during medium-strength isometric contraction of the hand. Methods: We measured 64-channel electroencephalography in 11 healthy volunteers (age: 25 ± 8 years; four females); surface electromyography detected the movements of the dominant hand. In Task 1, subjects kept a constant medium-strength contraction of the first dorsal interosseus muscle, and performed a superimposed repetitive voluntary self-paced br…
Identification of control targets in Boolean molecular network models via computational algebra
2015
Motivation: Many problems in biomedicine and other areas of the life sciences can be characterized as control problems, with the goal of finding strategies to change a disease or otherwise undesirable state of a biological system into another, more desirable, state through an intervention, such as a drug or other therapeutic treatment. The identification of such strategies is typically based on a mathematical model of the process to be altered through targeted control inputs. This paper focuses on processes at the molecular level that determine the state of an individual cell, involving signaling or gene regulation. The mathematical model type considered is that of Boolean networks. The pot…
Accelerating metagenomic read classification on CUDA-enabled GPUs.
2016
Metagenomic sequencing studies are becoming increasingly popular with prominent examples including the sequencing of human microbiomes and diverse environments. A fundamental computational problem in this context is read classification; i.e. the assignment of each read to a taxonomic label. Due to the large number of reads produced by modern high-throughput sequencing technologies and the rapidly increasing number of available reference genomes software tools for fast and accurate metagenomic read classification are urgently needed. We present cuCLARK, a read-level classifier for CUDA-enabled GPUs, based on the fast and accurate classification of metagenomic sequences using reduced k-mers (…