A Genetic Programming Model for Association Studies to Detect Epistasis in Low Heritability Data

The genome-wide associations studies (GWAS) aims to identify the most influential markers in relation to the phenotype values. One of the substantial challenges is to find a non-linear mapping between genotype and phenotype, also known as epistasis, that usually becomes the process of searching and identifying functional SNPs more complex. Some diseases such as cervical cancer, leukemia and type 2 diabetes have low heritability. The heritability of the sample is directly related to the explanation defined by the genotype, so the lower the heritability the greater the influence of the environmental factors and the less the genotypic explanation. In this work, an algorithm capable of identifying epistatic associations at different levels of heritability is proposed. The developing model is a aplication of genetic programming with a specialized initialization for the initial population consisting of a random forest strategy. The initialization process aims to rank the most important SNPs increasing the probability of their insertion in the initial population of the genetic programming model. The expected behavior of the presented model for the obtainment of the causal markers intends to be robust in relation to the heritability level. The simulated experiments are case-control type with heritability level of 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.1 considering scenarios with 100 and 1000 markers. Our approach was compared with the GPAS software and a genetic programming algorithm without the initialization step. The results show that the use of an efficient population initialization method based on ranking strategy is very promising compared to other models

O Corcunda de Notre-Dame em cordel: carnavalização, performance e teatralidade na literatura popular / O corcunda de Notre-Dame em cordel: carnivalization, performance and theatricalism in popular literature

Ancorando-se nas contribuições de Bakhtin (1999), Stam (1992), Barros (2006) e Burke (2005) acerca do processo da carnavalização literária e cultura popular, nos estudos de Zumthor (1993), Pavis (1999), Ryngaert (1996) sobre as noções de performance e teatralidade, este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar um percurso de leitura da obra infantojuvenil, O corcunda de Notre-Dame em cordel (2008), adaptada por João Gomes de Sá, observando o cenário dialógico entre a adaptação e as produções em cordel de diferentes épocas

Land Use and Vegetation Cover in the Watershed of Una River – Ibiúna/SP

Este artigo apresenta resultados de uma pesquisa sobre a evolução espaço temporal do uso do solo e cobertura vegetal na bacia hidrográfica do Rio Una localizada no município de Ibiúna, Estado de São Paulo, entre os anos de 2004, 2008 e 2012. Através de técnicas de geoprocessamento e sensoriamento remoto, em imagens dos satélites Landsat 5 e Spot 5 e após as etapas básicas de georreferenciamento e composição colorida foi empregado o método de Classificação Supervisionada Multivariada de Máxima Verossimilhança, sendo possível delimitar as classes temáticas presentes e observá-las no que se refere à expansão de categorias como áreas urbanas e agricultura sobre a categoria floresta. Além disso, a composição da matriz de transição de uso do solo permitiu a realização de exame a respeito das mudanças quantitativas entre as classes, bem como a verificação de acurácia entre os mapeamentos produzidos e as imagens referência em cada um dos anos analisados.This article presents results of a research on the timeline evolution of land use and vegetation cover in the Watershed of Una River, municipality of Ibiúna, State of São Paulo between 2004, 2008 and 2012. Through GIS and remote sensing techniques with satellite images of the Landsat 5 and Spot 5 and after basic steps of geoprocessing and color compositing was employed Supervised Classification Maximum Likelihood Multivariate method, that became possible delimit thematic categories existent and noted in relation to growth in urban areas and agriculture over forest. Besides, the composition of land use transition matrix allowed for examination regarding quantitative changes between classes, as well as accuracy of the produced maps and reference images for each of the years analyzed

Patenting in the cosmetic sector: study of the use of herbal extracts

The aim of this work was to evaluate the innovative performance of herbal extracts applied in cosmetics area, based on information collected from Brazilian, American and European patent banks. Analysis were carried out to evaluate the number of patent deposits from each database, the patent applicants profiles, the companies with most patent applications, and also the main uses of herbal extracts in cosmetics. Based on the results achieved, the number of patents filed at the Brazilian patent bank is much lower than that observed in American and European patent banks. Although the number of patents is limited, the analysis indicated a range of cosmetic applications that acts according to the international market trend, represented by a large number of multifunctional products.O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o cenário da inovação referente a extratos vegetais aplicados no setor de cosméticos, com base em informações extraídas dos bancos de patentes brasileiro, americano e europeu. Foram realizadas análises para avaliar o número de depósitos de patentes de cada banco de dados, o perfil dos depositantes, as empresas com maior número de registros de patentes, e também as principais aplicações dos extratos vegetais descritos nos documentos. Com base nos resultados obtidos, o número de patentes depositadas no banco de patentes brasileiro é muito inferior ao observado nos bancos de patentes americano e europeu. No entanto, embora o número de patentes seja limitado, as análises indicaram uma variedade de aplicações cosméticas que agem de acordo com a tendência do mercado internacional, representada por um número elevado de produtos multifuncionais

Obliteration of Dentinal Tubules by Desensitizing Agents Based on Silver Fluoride/Potassium Iodide or Pre-Reacted Glass Particles: An in Vitro Study

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of desensitizing agents for the obliteration of dentinal tubules subjected or not to a simulated oral environment. Material and Methods: Dentinal discs (n=8) treated with Riva-Star (RS) or PRG-Barrier-Coat (PRG) were submitted (cycled) or not submitted (control) to erosive-abrasive-thermal cycles and evaluated using scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopic analysis. The variables analyzed were tubule obliteration and dentin surface chemical composition. Data were analyzed by non-parametric tests (p<0.05). Results: The cycled and control groups did not differ significantly for the responses in each material. The PRG control and cycled groups had fewer visible tubules and a higher proportion of totally obliterated tubules than the RS groups. The percentages of silver coverage were higher in the RS-control than in the RS-cycled. There was a significant inverse correlation between the presence of silver and non-obliterated tubules (R=-0.791; p<0.001). The percentages of carbon, aluminum, strontium, and potassium were significantly higher in the PRG-control and PRG-cycled compared to the RS control. The percentages of calcium, phosphorus, and silver were significantly higher in the RS compared to the PRG groups. PRG-control showed a higher percentage of boron than RS-control. Conclusion: PRG promoted greater tubule obliteration than SR. Simulated stress did not affect the obliterating effect of each agent. Greater silver coverage corresponded to a lower proportion of non-obliterated tubules in RS. Carbon, aluminum, strontium, boron, and potassium predominated in the dentin surface treated with PRG, while calcium, phosphorus, and silver prevailed in RS groups

POTENTIAL AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS FOR SEMIARID REGIONS

The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of agroforestry systems in the semiarid, and to evaluate the productivity of eucalyptus in three planting spacing, in single cultivation in agroforestry systems. The comparison of the systems was in a randomized block design with four systems (monoculture; peanut systems; castor bean; cassava) and three eucalyptus spacing (10 m x 2 m, 10 m x 3 m and 10 m x 4 m). Monocultures and other characteristics were compared by randomized block design. Peanut productivity was evaluated at three and a half months, castor productivity at five and eight months and cassava productivity at 21 months. Eucalyptus productivity was measured at 13 and 21 months of age. The results showed that the wood production was greater in the 10 m x 2 m spacing and in the system with castor and single cultivation. The castor yield was higher in the system, in the 10 m x 3 m spacing, while the cassava productivity was higher in monoculture. The area equivalence index of the systems was higher than that of monocultures. Therefore, eucalyptus agroforestry systems intercropped with castor and cassava are suitable for the semiarid region. The 10 m x 2 m spacing provided a larger volume of wood (m³ ha-1). Castor yield was higher in the 10 m x 3 m spacing. For cassava, the highest yield was obtained in monoculture and in the system with 10 m x 3 m or 10 m x 4 m spacing

EXPERIÊNCIAS DE APRENDIZAGENS E CONHECIMENTOS DE PROFESSORES QUE ENSINAM MATEMÁTICA EM GRUPO DE ESTUDO

Este texto focaliza um grupo de estudo que desenvolve um trabalho colaborativo com professores que ensinam matemática. Desenvolve-se uma pesquisa qualitativa para evidenciar experiências de aprendizagem e conhecimentos de professores e comparar as ações com estudos deaula. Apresentam-se características e objetivos do grupo e analisam-se experiências em 2018 e 2019. Hart, Alston e Murata (2011) fornecem os aportes teóricos sobre os estudos de aula, Ball (1988) e Shulman (1986, 1987) sobre os conhecimentos de professores e Skemp (1976, 1987/2009) acerca doentendimento instrumental e relacional. As ações dos participantes no grupo de estudo evidenciam que: (i) acontece trabalho intencional das professoras; (ii) ocorrem estratégias docentes para envolver estudantes; (iii) acontece discussão e mediação de professoras e alunos na resolução de problemas; (iv) ocorre estímulo, provocação e mediação das professoras para que alunos representem, de várias formas, as possíveis respostas; (v) trabalha-se o potencial do uso de dramatizações e estratégias alternativas; (vi) acontece tomada de consciência de conhecimentos que professoras possuem e/ouprecisam melhorar; e (vii) importância do papel profissional delas. As ações mostram similaridades com estudos de aulas. Entretanto, é necessário ter tempo para mudar práticas e motivar todos, para registrar, gravar e fazer vídeos de encontros e aulas, para depois reler, escutar, ver e ler transcriçõesdesses episódios

Ensino de artes visuais e Políticas Públicas Educacionais

Ensino de artes visuais e Políticas Públicas Educacionai

A graph-based approach for designing extensible pipelines

Abstract"/p" "p"Background"/p" "p"In bioinformatics, it is important to build extensible and low-maintenance systems that are able to deal with the new tools and data formats that are constantly being developed. The traditional and simplest implementation of pipelines involves hardcoding the execution steps into programs or scripts. This approach can lead to problems when a pipeline is expanding because the incorporation of new tools is often error prone and time consuming. Current approaches to pipeline development such as workflow management systems focus on analysis tasks that are systematically repeated without significant changes in their course of execution, such as genome annotation. However, more dynamism on the pipeline composition is necessary when each execution requires a different combination of steps."/p" "p"Results"/p" "p"We propose a graph-based approach to implement extensible and low-maintenance pipelines that is suitable for pipeline applications with multiple functionalities that require different combinations of steps in each execution. Here pipelines are composed automatically by compiling a specialised set of tools on demand, depending on the functionality required, instead of specifying every sequence of tools in advance. We represent the connectivity of pipeline components with a directed graph in which components are the graph edges, their inputs and outputs are the graph nodes, and the paths through the graph are pipelines. To that end, we developed special data structures and a pipeline system algorithm. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach by implementing a format conversion pipeline for the fields of population genetics and genetic epidemiology, but our approach is also helpful in other fields where the use of multiple software is necessary to perform comprehensive analyses, such as gene expression and proteomics analyses. The project code, documentation and the Java executables are available under an open source license at "url"http://code.google.com/p/dynamic-pipeline"/url". The system has been tested on Linux and Windows platforms."/p" "p"Conclusions"/p" "p"Our graph-based approach enables the automatic creation of pipelines by compiling a specialised set of tools on demand, depending on the functionality required. It also allows the implementation of extensible and low-maintenance pipelines and contributes towards consolidating openness and collaboration in bioinformatics systems. It is targeted at pipeline developers and is suited for implementing applications with sequential execution steps and combined functionalities. In the format conversion application, the automatic combination of conversion tools increased both the number of possible conversions available to the user and the extensibility of the system to allow for future updates with new file formats. Document type: Articl

Coleta de equinodermos na Baía de Todos os Santos, estado da Bahia: o comércio aquariofilista

The ornamental marine trade has increased on a worldwide scale. Although Brazil is amongst the major exporters, data about this activity are underestimated. Therefore, the profile and consequences of such activity to the wild populations are not fully understood. In spite of being basically supported by fish collection, charismatic invertebrates also figure in this trade and virtually nothing is known about the echinoderms harvested in Brazil. Since baseline data are scarce, this study aims to provide an initial assessment on the marine aquarium echinoderm trade in Bahia State, northeastern Brazil, evaluating the landing of these animals during a ten-year period. Echinoderm landing was monitored and the trade profile was investigated from January 1996 to December 2005. The trade involved five economic segments and supplied not only the local market but other Brazilian states and countries such as Argentina. Fifteen species were commercialized and, amongst them, threatened echinoderms included in the National Red List. Fishermen usually captured them by hand but destructive methods were also used. For these reasons, studies on the dynamics of harvested populations and the development of public policies are urgently needed in order to allow the sustainability of this trade.O comércio ornamental marinho tem crescido em escala mundial. Apesar do Brasil estar entre os maiores exportadores, dados sobre esta atividade são subestimados e, portanto, seu perfil e consequências às populações não são totalmente entendidos. Ainda que seja sustentado pela coleta de peixes, invertebrados carismáticos também figuram neste comércio e praticamente não há informações sobre os equinodermos coletados no Brasil. Dada a escassez de dados, este estudo teve como objetivo prover uma avaliação inicial do comércio de equinodermos pra o aquariofilismo marinho no estado da Bahia, Nordeste do Brasil. O desembarque de equinodermos foi monitorado e o perfil do comércio investigado de Janeiro de 1996 a Dezembro de 2005. A atividade envolveu cinco segmentos econômicos e abasteceu não apenas o comércio local, mas outros estados brasileiros e países, a exemplo da Argentina. Quinze espécies foram comercializadas, entre elas, equinodermos incluídos na Lista Vermelha Nacional de organismos ameaçados. Pescadores normalmente os coletavam manualmente, no entanto, métodos destrutivos também eram utilizados. Assim, estudos sobre a dinâmica das populações coletadas e o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas que regulem esta atividade são urgentes, a fim de permitir a sustentabilidade deste comércio