Equations defining probability tree models

Coloured probability tree models are statistical models coding conditional independence between events depicted in a tree graph. They are more general than the very important class of context-specific Bayesian networks. In this paper, we study the algebraic properties of their ideal of model invariants. The generators of this ideal can be easily read from the tree graph and have a straightforward interpretation in terms of the underlying model: they are differences of odds ratios coming from conditional probabilities. One of the key findings in this analysis is that the tree is a convenient tool for understanding the exact algebraic way in which the sum-to-1 conditions on the parameter space translate into the sum-to-one conditions on the joint probabilities of the statistical model. This enables us to identify necessary and sufficient graphical conditions for a staged tree model to be a toric variety intersected with a probability simplex.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Lixo ordinário, espacialidades extraordinárias: o entulho como matéria prima para construir

The contemporary reality sensitizes us by the approach of the exhaustion of natural resources and the accumulation of waste, being of extreme urgency the intellectual investment, besides the financial and the technological one, in this reflection on the treatment of everything that is consumed and discarded. It is worth recalling that this concern is not recent and has been raised since the nineteenth century in the neoclassical school, where the Marxist argument was maintained that the predatory exploitation of natural resources, promoted by capitalist techniques, would disturb the maintenance of the planet's ecosystem. However, this concern has always been softened by prioritizing the immediate reproduction of capital. Faced with the current productive process, its excesses in the extraction and accumulation of material discards, and its irreversible environmental accidents, the present text aims to motivate a reflection about the waste generated when environmental conscience is not predominant, ethically considering the existing entropy in matter and in its natural cycles in the environment. The text seeks to bring the added value of this waste to the capitalist interest itself by proposing, demonstrating and arguing that the so-called garbage is actually a new gold mine. In this sense, the question of waste in civil construction is used to show the potential in only one of several cycles in the production chain, and the "unlimited" characteristic that the production process assumes, considering that the residual components of a given process, or from consumption, can always be treated as inputs to a new process, and in this way suggest the emergence of new social conceptions that are more just and integrated with the planet, but can still generate profits and become part of the means of production currently capitalists.A realidade contemporânea nos sensibiliza pela aproximação do esgotamento dos recursos naturais e do acúmulo de resíduos, sendo de extrema urgência o investimento intelectual, além do financeiro e do tecnológico, nesta reflexão sobre o tratamento de tudo que é consumido e descartado. Vale lembrar que esta preocupação não é recente, sendo levantada desde o século XIX, na escola neoclássica, onde se resguardava a argumentação marxista de que a exploração predatória dos recursos naturais, promovida pelas técnicas capitalistas, perturbaria a manutenção do ecossistema do planeta. Porém esta preocupação sempre foi sendo abrandada priorizando a reprodução imediata do capital. Diante do processo produtivo atual, seus excessos na extração e acúmulo de descarte de materiais, e seus irreversíveis acidentes ambientais, o presente texto tem por objetivo motivar uma reflexão acerca do desperdício gerado quando não se predomina a consciência ambiental, que considere eticamente a entropia existente na matéria e em seus ciclos naturais no meio ambiente. O texto procura trazer o valor agregado deste resíduo para o próprio interesse capitalista ao propor, demonstrar e discutir que o chamado lixo é na verdade uma nova mina de ouro. Neste sentido, a questão do resíduo na construção civil é utilizada para evidenciar o potencial existente em apenas um dos diversos ciclos na cadeia de produção, e a característica “ilimitada” que o processo de produção assume, ao considerar que os componentes residuais de um dado processo, ou oriundos do consumo, possam sempre ser tratados como insumos de um novo processo, e desta forma sugerir o surgimento de novas concepções sociais mais justas e integradas com o planeta, podendo ainda assim, gerar lucros e se inserir nos meios de produção atualmente capitalistas

Relatório de estágio curricular na direção de gestão do risco de medicamentos

Mestrado em Biomedicina FarmacêuticaThis report is a summary of the activities developed during 9 months of curricular training at the Directorate of Risk Management for Medicines as part of the master degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine. The internship has the purpose of complement the theoretical knowledge previously acquired and was focused on the two areas of the Directorate: Safety Monitoring and Risk Minimization. The activities of the Directorate include the collection and validation of Individual Case Safety Report received from healthcare professionals, patients and pharmaceutical companies. The activities of Risk Minimization include the implementation of safety variations, management of periodic safety update report and risk management plan, validation of the direct healthcare professional communication and the evaluation of educational materials. The Directorate is also responsible to identify and manage safety signals.Este relatório é o sumário das atividades realizadas durante 9 meses de estágio na Direção de Gestão do Risco de Medicamentos no âmbito do mestrado em Biomedicina Farmacêutica. O estágio teve o objetivo de complementar os conhecimentos teóricos adquiridos e contemplou as duas principais áreas de ação da Direção: a Monitorização de Segurança de Medicamentos de Uso Humano e a Minimização do Risco. De entre as atividades da Direção inclui-se a recolha e avaliação de notificações de reações adversas enviadas por profissionais de saúde, utentes e empresas farmacêuticas. As atividades de minimização do risco associado a medicamentos incluem atividades como as alterações de segurança, a gestão dos relatórios periódicos de segurança e dos planos de gestão do risco, a validação das comunicações dirigidas aos profissionais de saúde e a avaliação dos materiais educacionais. A Direção tem ainda a função de detetar novos sinais de segurança e fazer a sua gestão

Global projections of the soil microbiome in the Anthropocene

Aim: Soil microbes are essential for maintenance of life‐supporting ecosystem services, but projections of how these microbes will be affected by global change scenarios are lacking. Therefore, our aim was to provide projections of future soil microbial distribution using several scenarios of global change. Location: Global. Time period: 1950–2090. Major taxa studied: Bacteria and fungi. Methods: We used a global database of soil microbial communities across six continents to estimate past and future trends of the soil microbiome. To do so, we used structural equation models to include the direct and indirect effects of changes in climate and land use in our predictions, using current climate (temperature and precipitation) and land‐use projections between 1950 and 2090. Results: Local bacterial richness will increase in all scenarios of change in climate and land use considered, although this increase will be followed by a generalized community homogenization process affecting > 85% of terrestrial ecosystems. Changes in the relative abundance of functional genes associated with the increases in bacterial richness are also expected. Based on an ecological cluster analysis, our results suggest that phylotypes such as Geodermatophilus spp. (typical desert bacteria), Mycobacterium sp. (which are known to include important human pathogens), Streptomyces mirabilis (major producers of antibiotic resistance genes) or potential fungal soil‐borne plant pathogens belonging to Ascomycota fungi (Venturia spp., Devriesia spp.) will become more abundant in their communities. Main conclusions: Our results provide evidence that climate change has a stronger influence on soil microbial communities than change in land use (often including deforestation and agricultural expansion), although most of the effects of climate are indirect, through other environmental variables (e.g., changes in soil pH). The same was found for microbial functions such as the prevalence of phosphate transport genes. We provide reliable predictions about the changes in the global distribution of microbial communities, showing an increase in alpha diversity and a homogenization of soil microbial communities in the Anthropocene.This manuscript was developed from discussions within the German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG FZT118). C.A.G. and N.E. acknowledge funding by iDiv (DFG FZT118) Flexpool proposals 34600850 and 34600844. N.E. acknowledges funding by the DFG (FOR 1451) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 677232). E.D. acknowledges funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG GRK 2297 –314838170), MathCoRe. M.D.-B. acknowledges support from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions of the Horizon 2020 Framework Program H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 under REA grant agreement number 702057. F.T.M. acknowledges support from the European Research Council grant agreement number 647038 (BIODESERT)

p53 Function Re-Establishment and Apoptosis Induction in Cervical Cancer Cells

Funding Information: Funding: This work was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through funds from the State Budget, and by the European Regional Development Fund through the “Pro-grama Operacional Regional do Centro (Centro 2020)—Sistema de Apoio à Investigação Científica e Tecnológica—Programas Integrados de IC&DT” (Project Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000019—C4—Centro de Competências em Cloud Computing) and the project ref: UIDB/00709/2020. This work was also supported by national funds from FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences—UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy—i4HB. D. Gomes also acknowledges the doctoral fellowship from FCT (ref: 2020.06792.BD). This work was also supported by the Ramalingaswami Fellowship (BT/RLF/Re-entry/64/2017), Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (V.K.). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in women worldwide, with 99% of cases associated with a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Given that HPV prophylactic vaccines do not exert a therapeutic effect in individuals previously infected, have low coverage of all HPV types, and have poor accessibility in developing countries, it is unlikely that HPV-associated cancers will be eradicated in the coming years. Therefore, there is an emerging need for the development of anti-HPV drugs. Considering HPV E6’s oncogenic role, this protein has been proposed as a relevant target for cancer treatment. In the present work, we employed in silico tools to discover potential E6 inhibitors, as well as biochemical and cellular assays to understand the action of selected compounds in HPV-positive cells (Caski and HeLa) vs. HPV-negative (C33A) and non-carcinogenic (NHEK) cell lines. In fact, by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations, we found three phenolic compounds able to dock in the E6AP binding pocket of the E6 protein. In particular, lucidin and taxifolin were able to inhibit E6-mediated p53 degradation, selectively reduce the viability, and induce apoptosis in HPV-positive cells. Altogether, our data can be relevant for discovering promising leads for the development of specific anti-HPV drugs.publishersversionpublishe

Adding complexity to complexity: Gene family evolution in polyploids

Comparative genomics of non-model organisms has resurrected whole genome duplication (WGD) from being viewed as a somewhat obscure process that happens in plants to a primary driver of eukaryotic diversification. The shadow of past ploidy increases has left a strong signature of duplicated genes organized into gene families, even in small genomes that have undergone effectively complete rediploidization. Nevertheless, despite continually advancing technologies and bioinformatics pipelines, resolving the fate of duplicate genes remains a substantial challenge. For example, many important recognition processes are driven not only by allelic expansion through retention of duplicates but also by diversification and copy number variation. This creates technical difficulties with assembly to reference genomes and accurate interpretation of homology. Thus, relatively little is known about the impacts of recent polyploidization and hybridization on the evolution of gene families under selective forces that maintain diversity, such as balancing selection. Here we use a complex of species and ploidy levels in the genus Arabidopsis (A. lyrata and A. arenosa) as a model to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of a large and complicated gene family known to be under strong balancing selection: the receptor-like kinases, which include the female component of genetically controlled self-incompatibility. Specifically, we question: (1) How does diversity of S-receptor kinase (SRK) alleles in tetraploids compare to that in their close diploid relatives? (2) Is there increased trans-specific polymorphism (i.e., sharing of alleles that transcend speciation, characteristic of balancing selection) in tetraploids compared to diploids due to the higher number of copies they carry? (3) Do these highly variable loci show evidence of introgression among extant species/ploidy levels within or outside known zones of hybridization? (4) Is there evidence for copy number variation among paralogs? We use this example to highlight specific issues to consider when interpreting gene family evolution, particularly in relation to polyploids but also more generally in diploids. We conclude with recommendations for strategies to address the challenges of resolving such complex loci in the future, using advances in deep sequencing approaches

Characterization of the hypoglycemic drug glibenclamide

Glibenclamide (GLIB) or glyburide, a second-generation hypoglycemic agent is orally used in the form of tablets for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Bulk GLIB has a low aqueous solubility and it may yield low drug release in the dissolution test, causing variabilility in the treatment. This work evaluates the bulk GLIB features, which may influence drug release profile, hence, bioavailability, by means of techniques such as nitrogen sorption analysis, laser diffraction, thermal analysis, IV/UV spectroscopy and X-ray analysis.A glibenclamida (GLIB) é um fármaco de segunda geração, administrado por via oral na forma de comprimidos, utilizado para o tratamento de Diabetes mellitus. GLIB possui baixa solubilidade aquosa, o que pode levar a uma baixa liberação a partir de formas farmacêuticas sólidas no teste de dissolução e, portanto, a variabilidades no tratamento. Neste estudo, avaliam-se as características da matéria-prima GLIB, que podem influenciar o perfil de dissolução, e conseqüentemente, a biodisponibilidade, por meio de técnicas tais como, adsorção de nitrogênio, difração de raio laser, análise térmica, espectroscopia por IV/UV e difração de raios X

Dietary intake in kickboxing fighters/ Consumo alimentar de lutadores de kickboxing

Kickboxing is a combat sport modality which prioritizes classifying competitors by weight categories for their participation. The aim of this study was to analyze Kickboxing athletes’food intake. Fourteen Kickboxing fighters aged seventeen to twenty-eight participated in the study: twelve men and two women. The 24-hour food recall was used as an instrument. Athletes' food intake data was analyzed in the Virtual Nutri Plus® program. Average daily caloric intake was below the limit recommended in both sexes (2142.85 kcal/day –2125.74 kcal/day median). As for macronutrients; carbohydrates (484g ± 302g) 70% of the sample, lipids (71.3g ± 28.4) 60% and protein (1.76 ± 1.03 g/kg weight) 22% were all below the recommended amount. Fiber consumption  was 60% lower  than recommended, while 50% of volunteers consumed sodium above the amount recommended. This study found inadequacies in the consumption of macronutrients and micronutrients, underlining the importance of multidisciplinary  work  between nutritionists and other professionals  responsible for an athlete’s performance