Tree-Mining: Understanding Applications and Challenges

Tree-mining is an essential system of techniques and software technologies for multi-level and multi-angled operations in databases. Pertaining to the purview of this manuscript, several applications of various sub-techniques of tree mining have been explored. The current write-up is aimed at investigating the major applications and challenges of different types and techniques of tree mining, as there have been patchy and scanty investigations so far in this context. To accomplish these tasks, the author has reviewed some of the latest and most pertinent research articles of the last two decades to investigate the titled aspects of this technique

Systems Engineering

The book "Systems Engineering: Practice and Theory" is a collection of articles written by developers and researches from all around the globe. Mostly they present methodologies for separate Systems Engineering processes; others consider issues of adjacent knowledge areas and sub-areas that significantly contribute to systems development, operation, and maintenance. Case studies include aircraft, spacecrafts, and space systems development, post-analysis of data collected during operation of large systems etc. Important issues related to "bottlenecks" of Systems Engineering, such as complexity, reliability, and safety of different kinds of systems, creation, operation and maintenance of services, system-human communication, and management tasks done during system projects are addressed in the collection. This book is for people who are interested in the modern state of the Systems Engineering knowledge area and for systems engineers involved in different activities of the area. Some articles may be a valuable source for university lecturers and students; most of case studies can be directly used in Systems Engineering courses as illustrative materials

Understanding virus and microbial evolution in wildlife through meta-transcriptomics

Wildlife harbors a substantial and largely undocumented diversity of RNA viruses and microbial life forms. RNA viruses and microbes are also arguably the most diverse and dynamic entities on Earth. Despite their evident importance, there are major limitations in our knowledge of the diversity, ecology, and evolution of RNA viruses and microbial communities. These gaps stem from a variety of factors, including biased sampling and the difficulty in accurately identifying highly divergent sequences through sequence similarity-based analyses alone. The implementation of meta-transcriptomic sequencing has greatly contributed to narrowing this gap. In particular, the rapid increase in the number of newly described RNA viruses over the last decade provides a glimpse of the remarkable diversity within the RNA virosphere. The central goal in this thesis was to determine the diversity of RNA viruses associated with wildlife, particularly in an Australian context. To this end I exploited cutting-edge meta-transcriptomic and bioinformatic approaches to reveal the RNA virus diversity within diverse animal taxa, tissues, and environments, with a special focus on the highly divergent "dark matter" of the virome that has largely been refractory to sequence analysis. Similarly, I used these approaches to detect targeted common microbes circulating in vertebrate and invertebrate fauna. Another important goal was to assess the diversity of RNA viruses and microbes as a cornerstone within a new eco-evolutionary framework. By doing so, this thesis encompasses multiple disciplines including virus discovery, viral host-range distributions, microbial-virus and host–parasite interactions, phylogenetic analysis, and pathogen surveillance. In sum, the research presented in this thesis expands the known RNA virosphere as well as the detection and surveillance of targeted microbes in wildlife, providing new insights into the diversity, evolution, and ecology of these agents in nature

Systematics and Diversity of Annelids

In this Special Issue, we address the state of the art of the systematics of the main annelid groups and the improvements in the diversity they hold, with special emphasis on the latest discoveries in well-studied areas, expeditions to unsurveyed areas or environments, or the use of novel techniques that allow for the improvement of biodiversity knowledge. We are hoping that this Special Issue will provide a platform facilitating a review of current knowledge on the subject, identifying current research problems, as well as indicating directions and research trends for the future

Investigating the diagnostic potential of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) as a non-invasive liquid biopsy: from research to clinic.

Recent advances in oncology have led to the development of targeted therapies, enabling patients to be treated based on their tumour molecular profile. Whilst tumour biopsies are routinely used for profiling, they can be highly invasive, may not fully reflect the heterogeneity present within the tumour mass, or accurately represent the genomic profile as the tumour evolves over time. Recent interest has focussed on the use of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) as a non-invasive ‘liquid biopsy’. Cell-free ctDNA, released from cancer cells, is highly fragmented, and carries the same genetic modifications present in the originating tumour, so has potential to be an exquisitely specific biomarker. This thesis will focus on research I have performed over the last decade to investigate the diagnostic potential of ctDNA. I assessed the hypothesis that ctDNA is a clinically useful biomarker, able to correlate with disease burden, monitor tumour dynamics, and be used to guide treatment. I developed novel digital PCR and next generation sequencing (NGS) assays for the highly sensitive detection of ctDNA, and led the development and analytical validation of a clinical diagnostic ctDNA test to ISO15189:2012 regulatory standards, which is now being used in the clinic to stratify advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients to treatment. This thesis involves critical analysis of 14 publications that I have co-authored investigating the use of ctDNA in high-grade serous ovarian, breast and lung cancer, and the development of novel methods to improve sensitivity of detection. When I started this work in 2009, very little was known about the clinical relevance of ctDNA. Since this time, work by myself and others has led to an explosion of interest in this area, leading to significant advances in the use of ctDNA for cancer diagnosis, treatment selection, patient monitoring and detection of minimal residual disease

Applications of Liquid Chromatography in Analysis of Pharmaceuticals and Natural Products

It is our pleasure to present this Special Issue of Pharmaceuticals, entitled “Applications of Liquid Chromatography in Analysis of Pharmaceuticals and Natural Products”. Plants produce a wide range of phytochemicals, which are secondary metabolites that confirm their identity and are used for the production of natural pharmaceuticals, among other things. The use of modern chromatographic techniques allows accurate quantitative and qualitative identification of the above-mentioned phytochemicals and their natural products. Liquid chromatography is one of the most efficient and robust specific techniques, due to the merits of convenience and strong separation ability, as well as a wide range of material applications for identification. Liquid chromatography is widely used for the analysis of plants, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, natural product quality control, or quantitative determination of bioactive compounds. The most commonly used for the identification of different plant material and pharmaceuticals are the ultra- and high-performance liquid chromatography with UV-VIS, fluorescence, diode array, and equipped with mass spectrometry or tandem mass spectrometry detection methods. Therefore, for this Special Issue, we published works concerning the latest scientific news, insights, and advances in the field of innovation and applications of liquid chromatography in the analysis of phytochemicals and natural products

Proceedings of the 10th International Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference - CHEMPOR 2008

This volume contains full papers presented at the 10th International Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference - CHEMPOR 2008, held in Braga, Portugal, between September 4th and 6th, 2008.FC