Revisiting the Sequential Symbolic Regression Genetic Programming

Sequential Symbolic Regression (SSR) is a technique that recursively induces functions over the error of the current solution, concatenating them in an attempt to reduce the error of the resulting model. As proof of concept, the method was previously evaluated in one-dimensional problems and compared with canonical Genetic Programming (GP) and Geometric Semantic Genetic Programming (GSGP). In this paper we revisit SSR exploring the method behaviour in higher dimensional, larger and more heterogeneous datasets. We discuss the difficulties arising from the application of the method to more complex problems, e.g., overfitting, along with suggestions to overcome them. An experimental analysis was conducted comparing SSR to GP and GSGP, showing SSR solutions are smaller than those generated by the GSGP with similar performance and more accurate than those generated by the canonical GP

Reducing Dimensionality to Improve Search in Semantic Genetic Programming

Genetic programming approaches are moving from analysing the syntax of individual solutions to look into their semantics. One of the common definitions of the semantic space in the context of symbolic regression is a n-dimensional space, where n corresponds to the number of training examples. In problems where this number is high, the search process can became harder as the number of dimensions increase. Geometric semantic genetic programming (GSGP) explores the semantic space by performing geometric semantic operations—the fitness landscape seen by GSGP is guaranteed to be conic by construction. Intuitively, a lower number of dimensions can make search more feasible in this scenario, decreasing the chances of data overfitting and reducing the number of evaluations required to find a suitable solution. This paper proposes two approaches for dimensionality reduction in GSGP: (i) to apply current instance selection methods as a pre-process step before training points are given to GSGP; (ii) to incorporate instance selection to the evolution of GSGP. Experiments in 15 datasets show that GSGP performance is improved by using instance reduction during the evolution

Common cancer-associated imbalances in the DNA damage response confer sensitivity to single agent ATR inhibition

ATR is an attractive target in cancer therapy because it signals replication stress and DNA lesions for repair and to S/G2 checkpoints. Cancer-specific defects in the DNA damage response (DDR) may render cancer cells vulnerable to ATR inhibition alone. We determined the cytotoxicity of the ATR inhibitor VE-821 in isogenically matched cells with DDR imbalance. Cell cycle arrest, DNA damage accumulation and repair were determined following VE-821 exposure. Defects in homologous recombination repair (HRR: ATM, BRCA2 and XRCC3) and base excision repair (BER: XRCC1) conferred sensitivity to VE-821. Surprisingly, the loss of different components of the trimeric non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) protein DNA-PK had opposing effects. Loss of the DNA-binding component, Ku80, caused hypersensitivity to VE-821, but loss of its partner catalytic subunit, DNA-PKcs, did not. Unexpectedly, VE-821 was particularly cytotoxic to human and hamster cells expressing high levels of DNA-PKcs. High DNA-PKcs was associated with replicative stress and activation of the DDR. VE-821 suppressed HRR, determined by RAD51 focus formation, to a greater extent in cells with high DNA-PKcs. Defects in HRR and BER and high DNA-PKcs expression, that are common in cancer, confer sensitivity to ATR inhibitor monotherapy and may be developed as predictive biomarkers for personalised medicine

Reduced corneal nerve fibre length in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes: The Maastricht Study

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A Coulomb gas approach to the anisotropic one-dimensional Kondo lattice model at arbitrary filling

We establish a mapping of a general spin-fermion system in one dimension into a classical generalized Coulomb gas. This mapping allows a renormalization group treatment of the anisotropic Kondo chain both at and away from half-filling. We find that the phase diagram contains regions of paramagnetism, partial and full ferromagnetic order. We also use the method to analyze the phases of the Ising-Kondo chain.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure

Norovirus outbreak in a natural playground: A One Health approach

Norovirus constitutes the most frequently identified infectious cause of disease outbreaks associated with untreated recreational water. When investigating outbreaks related to surface water, a One Health approach is insightful. Historically, there has been a focus on potential contamination of recreational water by bird droppings and a recent publication demonstrating human noroviruses in bird faeces suggested this should be investigated in future water-related norovirus outbreaks. Here, we describe a One Health approach investigating a norovirus outbreak in a natural playground. On social media, a large amount of waterfowl were reported to defecate near these playground premises leading to speculations about their potential involvement. Surface water, as well as human and bird faecal specimens, was tested for human noroviruses. Norovirus was found to be the most likely cause of the outbreak but there was no evidence for transmission via waterfowl. Cases had become known on social media prior to notification to the public health service underscoring the potential of online media as an early warning system. In view of known risk factors, advice was given for future outbreak investigations and natural playgroun

Características de la carne de conejo y su vida de anaquel valorada con el perfil de aminas biogénica

En América latina, México tiene el primer lugar en producción de carne de conejo, principalmente el 95% se produce en  pequeña escala, el otro 5% es por empresas. La carne de conejo acumula menos grasa (3 a 6 %) y contiene de 19 a 26 % de proteína. La carne es inaceptable para el consumidor cuando hay cambios físicos en el color, olor, textura y oxidación de lípidos, durante la descomposición se forman aminas biogénicas (AB), éstas son bases orgánicas de bajo peso molecular, caracterizadas por la presencia de un grupo amina. Las principales AB son Putresina, cadaverina, histamina y tiramina. La cromatografía liquida de alta resolución es una técnica confiable para la detección de las AB. Se realizó un estudio con 3 grupos de carne (Longissimus thoracis et lumborum): 1) grupo testigo (T), envasadas en bolsa de plástico, 2) Con empaque semipermeable (ES) y 3) Con empaque al vacío (EV), estas se conservaron en refrigeración, durante 4 tiempos de almacenamiento: Cero (menos de 12 horas de refrigeración), 7, 14 y 21 días. La putrescina incrementó drásticamente (P <0.05) desde los 7 a 21d de almacenamiento. Todos los empaques presentaron un incremento de histamina conforme pasaron los días de almacenamiento.  El tipo de empaque y el tiempo de refrigeración influyeron en la concentración de AB; principalmente el EV tuvo la más baja concentración de putrescina hasta los 21 días de almacenamiento

Biopolímeros de celulosa en empaques alimenticios: Retos y aplicaciones

Objetivo: el objetivo de este trabajo fue mostrar un panorama general de los retos y aplicaciones de la celulosa en la industria de empaques alimentarios. Diseño/metodología/aproximación: se realizó una búsqueda a través de publicaciones científicas en diferentes bases de datos científicas y académicas como: Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, Google académico entre otras. Resultados: se encontró una amplia variedad de información acerca de la celulosa, realizando la búsqueda de “cellulose food packaging” en la base de datos Scopus, se encontraron alrededor de 900 trabajos, siendo 177 del año 2018 y 45 trabajos en lo que va del 2019; entre estos trabajos, existen sobre mejorar las características de papel, utilizar derivados de celulosa, mezclas con otros materiales o biomateriales, modificaciones químicas hasta el uso de sus formas nano y elaboración de bionanocompositos; también, mediante la conjugación de algunos de estos métodos se obtiene la funcionalización del biopolímero brindándole nuevas características. Limitaciones del estudio/implicaciones: el reto de los materiales celulósicos es obtener las propiedades mecánicas, de barrera, etc. que los polímeros derivados del petróleo proporcionan a los empaques alimentarios Hallazgos/conclusiones: de acuerdo a la literatura la celulosa ha estado presente en la industria de empaques desde tiempos remotos; hoy en día se está tratando de alcanzar las características que presentan los polímeros derivados del petróleo y sin duda mejorar estas características ofreciendo empaques que cumplan su función y además presenten un valor agregado, por ejemplo, ser antimicrobiano y/o antioxidant