A Parallel Algorithm for Large-Scale Multiple Sequence Alignment

Multiple sequence alignment is a central topic of extensive research in computational biology. Basically, two or more protein sequences are compared to evaluate their similarity and to identify conserved regions. This work reports a methodology for parallel processing of a multiple sequence alignment algorithm (ClustalW) in an environment of networked computers. A detailed description of the modules that compose the distributed system is provided, giving special attention to the way a dynamic programming algorithm is run in multilevel parallelism. Extensive experiments were done to evaluate performance and scalability of the reported method. Results suggest that the proposed method is very promising for large-scale multiple protein sequence alignment

Identifying emerging topics in the peer‑reviewed literature to facilitate curriculum renewal and development

This article reports a bibliometric analysis of emerging topics in the psychiatric literature indexed in the MEDLINE database as a technique for renewal of clinical training curricula. Summary data of English-language articles indexed in the MEDLINE database between 1971-2018 were downloaded. Emerging topics in nine demi-decades between 1972-1976 and 2012-2016 were identified by the incremental incidence of individual Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) compared with previous years. Co-word analysis was used to investigate and visualise the relationships between emerging topics in each demi-decade. Summaries of 18 million articles annotated with psychiatric/psychological MeSH were retrieved and used to identify emerging topics. Peaks in the number of articles annotated by the top 20 emerging topics in 9 demi-decades coincided with release of the third and fourth editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual which codifies psychiatric diagnoses. Themes emerging from network visualisations of the most common emerging MeSH in each demi-decade were consistent with movements in psychiatric/psychological theory and practice since the 1970s, including the recent focus on psychological and social factors implicated in suicide and suicide prevention. The identification of emerging topics within the published medical literature is a viable technique for use in curriculum renewal projects as a counterweight to biases driven by expert judgement. While indices like MEDLINE make the published literature an appealing initial step in building an empirical basis for curriculum development, it also demonstrates the potential value of less public and less structured data, such as health service electronic medical record

Identificación de subpoblaciones en relación a las trayectorias de vuelo del Larus Audouinii

La gaviota de Audouin (Larus audouinii) es un ave marina que se encuentra en estado vulnerable debido a una rápida disminución de su población. Estudios anteriores revelaron que la población de la colonia del delta del Ebro ha sabido adaptar su comportamiento a la actividad pesquera, aunque es posible que esta adaptación haya ocurrido de forma desigual en los individuos de la colonia. En este trabajo se analizan los datos de las trayectorias de 36 gaviotas de Audouin de la colonia del delta del Ebro, 38090 localizaciones espaciotemporales recogidas con dispositivos GPS, con el objetivo de evaluar la posible existencia de subpoblaciones de gaviotas. Primero, se desarrolla e implementa un algoritmo eficiente para el cálculo de la distancia de Hausdorff mediante el software R, logrando reducir notablemente el tiempo computacional de la operación. Luego, se lleva a cabo un análisis clúster segregando las trayectorias por los diferentes momentos de la actividad pesquera (presencia diurna, presencia nocturna y ausencia de pesca) con los que se consigue identificar gaviotas con comportamientos extremos y se confirma la necesidad de la segregación