79 research outputs found
ParadisEO-MOEO: A Software Framework for Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization
This chapter presents ParadisEO-MOEO, a white-box object-oriented software framework dedicated to the flexible design of metaheuristics for multi-objective optimization. This paradigm-free software proposes a unified view for major evolutionary multi-objective metaheuristics. It embeds some features and techniques for multi-objective resolution and aims to provide a set of classes allowing to ease and speed up the development of computationally efficient programs. It is based on a clear conceptual distinction between the solution methods and the problems they are intended to solve. This separation confers a maximum design and code reuse. This general-purpose framework provides a broad range of fitness assignment strategies, the most common diversity preservation mechanisms, some elitistrelated features as well as statistical tools. Furthermore, a number of state-of-the-art search methods, including NSGA-II, SPEA2 and IBEA, have been implemented in a user-friendly way, based on the fine-grained ParadisEO-MOEO components
Analytical techniques for multiplex analysis of protein biomarkers
Introduction: The importance of biomarkers for pharmaceutical drug development and clinical diagnostics is more significant than ever in the current shift toward personalized medicine. Biomarkers have taken a central position either as companion markers to support drug development and patient selection, or as indicators aiming to detect the earliest perturbations indicative of disease, minimizing therapeutic intervention or even enabling disease reversal. Protein biomarkers are of particular interest given their central role in biochemical pathways. Hence, capabilities to analyze multiple protein biomarkers in one assay are highly interesting for biomedical research. Areas covered: We here review multiple methods that are suitable for robust, high throughput, standardized, and affordable analysis of protein biomarkers in a multiplex format. We describe innovative developments in immunoassays, the vanguard of methods in clinical laboratories, and mass spectrometry, increasingly implemented for protein biomarker analysis. Moreover, emerging techniques are discussed with potentially improved protein capture, separation, and detection that will further boost multiplex analyses. Expert commentary: The development of clinically applied multiplex protein biomarker assays is essential as multi-protein signatures provide more comprehensive information about biological systems than single biomarkers, leading to improved insights in mechanisms of disease, diagnostics, and the effect of personalized medicine
LCâMS-based absolute metabolite quantification:Application to metabolic flux measurement in trypanosomes
Human African trypanosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma brucei. In the mammalian bloodstream, the trypanosomeâs metabolism differs significantly from that of its host. For example, the parasite relies exclusively on glycolysis for energy source. Recently, computational and mathematical models of trypanosome metabolism have been generated to assist in understanding the parasite metabolism with the aim of facilitating drug development. Optimisation of these models requires quantitative information, including metabolite concentrations and/or metabolic fluxes that have been hitherto unavailable on a large scale. Here, we have implemented an LCâMS-based method that allows large scale quantification of metabolite levels by using U-13C-labelled E. coli extracts as internal standards. Known amounts of labelled E. coli extract were added into the parasite samples, as well as calibration standards, and used to obtain calibration curves enabling us to convert intensities into concentrations. This method allowed us to reliably quantify the changes of 43 intracellular metabolites and 32 extracellular metabolites in the medium over time. Based on the absolute quantification, we were able to compute consumption and production fluxes. These quantitative data can now be used to optimise computational models of parasite metabolism
Cross-Platform Comparison of Caenorhabditis elegans Tissue Extraction Strategies for Comprehensive Metabolome Coverage
A note on ââTwo-machine flow-shop scheduling with rejection'' and its link with flow-shop scheduling and common due date assignment
In a recent paper by Shabtay and Gasper ââTwo-machine flow-shop scheduling with rejection, Computers and Operations Research'', forthcoming, doi:10.1016/j.cor.2011.05.023, several complexity and approximation results are proposed for a two-criteria two-machine flow-shop scheduling problem with rejection. The two criteria to be minimized are the makespan the total rejection cost. This note positions the contribution of such results with respect to the contributions of the literature on common due date assignment and flow-shop scheduling not considered in the work of Shabtay and Gaspe
A Pareto-optimal solution procedure for the single-machine scheduling problem with release time and multiple performance measures
Single machine scheduling to minimise resource consumption cost with a bound on scheduling plus due date assignment penalties
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