A Pipeline to Generate Deep Learning Surrogates of Genome-Scale Metabolic Models

Genome-Scale Metabolic Models (GEMMs) are powerful reconstructions of biological systems that help metabolic engineers understand and predict growth conditions subjected to various environmental factors around the cellular metabolism of an organism in observation, purely in silico. Applications of metabolic engineering range from perturbation analysis and drug-target discovery to predicting growth rates of biotechnologically important metabolites and reaction objectives within dierent single-cell and multi-cellular organism types. GEMMs use mathematical frameworks for quantitative estimations of flux distributions within metabolic networks. The reasons behind why an organism activates, stuns, or fluctuates between alternative pathways for growth and survival, however, remain relatively unknown. GEMMs rely on manual intervention during their curation and annotation process, which can potentially induce substantial experimental bias. Also, solution spaces that cater to the flux distributions can be sensitive to the addition, updates, and deletions of metabolites and reactions and gene-enzyme-reaction rules within the model. Therefore, the quest for optimality can often be lost due to the number of hyper dimensions represented by these networks Recently, Deep Learning (DL) has played a significant role in building function approximators for highly complex input datasets correlating in extremely large hyper dimensions. In this thesis, to address the computational costs associated with the simulations of GEMMs, we use an interpretable learning-driven approach to build surrogate GEMM models that act as alternatives to existent Flux Balance Analysis (FBA)-based approaches for predicting intracellular fluxes of reactions. We exploit the network characteristics of a well-curated input organism and build a synthetic subset of the flux cone containing thermodynamically feasible reaction growth rates. We then feed this dataset into a deep generative model capable of reconstructing intracellular flux values of the input organism. We evaluate its efficiency based on time-to-construct, accuracy, and ease of use. To provide a fair comparative analysis, we explore our learning approach with other traditional regression-based models and test our pipeline on three different input organisms subjected to network reduction techniques and different hyperparameters. Advisers: Tomáš Helikar & Massimiliano Pierobo

The Integration of Simulation and Reality for Education Enhancement and Training

Quite often, when engineers are exposed to a manufacturing environment on the job for the first time, they undergo a baptism by fire. The environment forces them to deal with situations that integrate many different bodies of knowledge. Reliance on concepts acquired in the academic environment is crucial to their success. Unfortunately, lacking in most academic environments, is any experience through which some or all of these concepts are integrated. In a continuing effort to enhance educational practices in Manufucturing/Systems Engineering programs and perhaps improve the preparedness of a young engineer, the CITE (Computer Integrated Technological Enterprise) tool offers educators a mechanism through which several important concepts can be integrated and presented to students in a meaningful way

Stem Cell Banking: an Update On Current Scenario

The emerging medical science coupled with biotechnological innovations is paving way for an exciting science - stem cell research. The researchers in the area of stem cell banking are exploiting the factual impending market worldwide. The possible clinical application of stem cells has generated great curiosity amongst medical professionals and general public. No only this, but stem cell research can be used for the treatment of widespread diseases like diabetes, Parkinson\u27s disease, severe aplastic anemia, leukeamias, etc. The present article highlights the historical perspective about the stem cell banking along with an overview of global scenario of stem cell banking in the private and public sectors

A fracture of OS trigonum: a rare case report

Fractures of os trigonum is an extremely rare event. It is one of the accessory ossicles of the foot found in about 7 % of the population. Very few cases have been reported in the literature about a fracture of the ostrigonum. We present a case of fracture of ostrigonum with associated fracture of the fibula and a large lacerated wound in the leg, in a young man sustained due to road traffic accident. The initial radiological examination with Xray ankle showed a doubtful fracture of posterior process of talus but was not clear. The diagnosis was clinched by CT scan of the ankle with 2mm cuts, which showed clearly a fracture of the os trigonum. It was treated by flap cover for the wound and plaster immobilisation for the fracture. So, any doubtful fracture near the posterior process of talus should be fully assessed radiologically with a CT scan to guide in the treatment

Promover a saúde das crianças reforçando as competências socioemocionais na escola

Estudos revelam que o insucesso e o abando escolar afetam a saúde das crianças e que o estado de saúde mental das crianças influencia o insucesso e abandono escolar. Acrescentam que a promoção das competências socioemocionais em ambiente escolar devem ocupar um lugar de destaque para obtenção de ganhos em saúde. As orientações políticas atuais estão direcionadas no mesmo caminho. O projeto de intervenção comunitária foi implementado na Unidade de Cuidados na Comunidade D’Alagoa, no âmbito da saúde escolar, na escola básica de Porches. Este tem como finalidade promover a saúde das crianças de um agrupamento escolar, através da promoção das competências socioemocionais na escola, nas crianças do 1º ciclo, contribuindo assim para a diminuição da retenção escolar no 2º ciclo. Este trabalho baseou-se na metodologia do planeamento em saúde, nas competências específicas do enfermeiro especialista em enfermagem comunitária e de saúde pública e no modelo Social and Emocional Learning; Promoting children’s health by strengthening socio-emotional skills in school Abstract: Studies reveal that school failure and dropout affects children´s health and their mental state influences it. They add that the promotion of social-emotional competencies in school environment should occupy a prominent place in order to obtain gains in health. The current politicies should be directed in the same path. A project of community intervention was implemented in The Unity of Community Care D’Alagoa, in scope of school health, in the Basic School of Porches. It aims to promote the health of the children of a school group, through the promotion of social-emotional competences in school, in the children of the first cycle, contributing to the reduction of school retention in the second cycle. This essay was based on the methodology of the health planning, on the specific competences of the specialist nurse in community nursing and public health and on the Social and Emotional Learning Model

Mercado negro – A (in)visibilidade do tráfico humano e sua caracterização nos âmbitos interno e internacional

O tráfico de pessoas é um crime de extrema relevância, visto que, em suma, tem como principal característica o transporte de pessoas (de um Estado para outro ou de um País para outro), para que estas sejam exploradas (sexualmente, obrigadas a exercer trabalhos forçados, obrigadas a doar/vender um órgão ou tecidos do corpo) com o objetivo de gerar lucratividade. Dessa forma, esta monografia tem como objetivo geral analisar as principais circunstâncias que levam as pessoas a caírem no tráfico de pessoas, identificando as motivações, espécies e as possíveis soluções previstas na legislação brasileira e internacional. Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, realizada por meio de método dedutivo e de procedimento técnico bibliográfico e documental. Dessa forma, as reflexões começam por um resgate histórico acerca do surgimento da necessidade do Direito (normas e regras) para regulamentar a sociedade até chegar a análise do que acontece com as pessoas sem a presença deste Direito. Em seguida, é feita uma abordagem detalhada sobre as principais espécies de tráfico de pessoas: a prostituição, o trabalho em condições análogas as de escravo e o tráfico de órgãos. Finalmente, examina a legislação internacional e nacional e a cooperação internacional no combate do crime de tráfico de pessoas e como a legislação brasileira regulamenta a situação. Nesse sentido, conclui que o tráfico de pessoas é um problema que atinge diversos países, e por este motivo necessita da cooperação mundial para que o combate seja realmente efetivo

IL-10 as a Th2 cytokine: differences between mice and humans

The discovery of interleukin (IL)-10 more than 30 years ago marked the beginning of our understanding of how cytokines regulate immune responses, based on cross-regulation between T helper (Th)1 and Th2 cytokines. Although multiple cell types were shown to produce IL-10, its identity as a Th2 cytokine remained strong since it was rigidly associated with Th2 clones in mice, whereas both Th1 and Th2 clones could secrete IL-10 in humans. However, as new Th1/Th2 cell functionalities emerged, anti-inflammatory action of IL-10 gained more attention than its inhibitory effect on Th1 cells, which may occur as an indirect consequence of suppression of antigen-presenting cells. This notion is also supported by the discovery of Treg cells whose suppressor functions involve the mediation of IL-10, among other molecules. From this perspective, we discuss the functionalities of IL-10 by highlighting important differences between mice and humans with an emphasis on Th1 and Th2 paradigm

Cerebral Ischemia Induced Proteomic Alterations: Consequences for the Synapse and Organelles

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye