ORI-Explorer: a unified cell-specific tool for origin of replication sites prediction by feature fusion.

MOTIVATION: The origins of replication sites (ORIs) are precise regions inside the DNA sequence where the replication process begins. These locations are critical for preserving the genome's integrity during cell division and guaranteeing the faithful transfer of genetic data from generation to generation. The advent of experimental techniques has aided in the discovery of ORIs in many species. Experimentation, on the other hand, is often more time-consuming and pricey than computational approaches, and it necessitates specific equipment and knowledge. Recently, ORI sites have been predicted using computational techniques like motif-based searches and artificial intelligence algorithms based on sequence characteristics and chromatin states. RESULTS: In this article, we developed ORI-Explorer, a unique artificial intelligence-based technique that combines multiple feature engineering techniques to train CatBoost Classifier for recognizing ORIs from four distinct eukaryotic species. ORI-Explorer was created by utilizing a unique combination of three traditional feature-encoding techniques and a feature set obtained from a deep-learning neural network model. The ORI-Explorer has significantly outperformed current predictors on the testing dataset. Furthermore, by employing the sophisticated SHapley Additive exPlanation method, we give crucial insights that aid in comprehending model success, highlighting the most relevant features vital for forecasting cell-specific ORIs. ORI-Explorer is also intended to aid community-wide attempts in discovering potential ORIs and developing innovative verifiable biological hypotheses. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The used datasets along with the source code are made available through https://github.com/Z-Abbas/ORI-Explorer and https://zenodo.org/record/8358679.

XGBoost framework with feature selection for the prediction of RNA N5-methylcytosine sites.

5-methylcytosine (m5C) is indeed a critical post-transcriptional alteration that is widely present in various kinds of RNAs and is crucial to the fundamental biological processes. By correctly identifying the m5C-methylation sites on RNA, clinicians can more clearly comprehend the precise function of these m5C-sites in different biological processes. Due to their effectiveness and affordability, computational methods have received greater attention over the last few years for the identification of methylation sites in various species. To precisely identify RNA m5C locations in five different species including Homo sapiens, Arabidopsis thaliana, Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster, and Danio rerio, we proposed a more effective and accurate model named m5C-pred. To create m5C-pred, five distinct feature encoding techniques were combined to extract features from the RNA sequence, and then we used SHapley Additive exPlanations to choose the best features among them, followed by XGBoost as a classifier. We applied the novel optimization method called Optuna to quickly and efficiently determine the best hyperparameters. Finally, the proposed model was evaluated using independent test datasets, and we compared the results with the previous methods. Our approach, m5C- pred, is anticipated to be useful for accurately identifying m5C sites, outperforming the currently available state-of-the-art techniques.

ENet-6mA: Identification of 6mA Modification Sites in Plant Genomes Using ElasticNet and Neural Networks.

N6-methyladenine (6mA) has been recognized as a key epigenetic alteration that affects a variety of biological activities. Precise prediction of 6mA modification sites is essential for understanding the logical consistency of biological activity. There are various experimental methods for identifying 6mA modification sites, but in silico prediction has emerged as a potential option due to the very high cost and labor-intensive nature of experimental procedures. Taking this into consideration, developing an efficient and accurate model for identifying N6-methyladenine is one of the top objectives in the field of bioinformatics. Therefore, we have created an in silico model for the classification of 6mA modifications in plant genomes. ENet-6mA uses three encoding methods, including one-hot, nucleotide chemical properties (NCP), and electron-ion interaction potential (EIIP), which are concatenated and fed as input to ElasticNet for feature reduction, and then the optimized features are given directly to the neural network to get classified. We used a benchmark dataset of rice for five-fold cross-validation testing and three other datasets from plant genomes for cross-species testing purposes. The results show that the model can predict the N6-methyladenine sites very well, even cross-species. Additionally, we separated the datasets into different ratios and calculated the performance using the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC), achieving 0.81, 0.79, and 0.50 with 1:10 (positive:negative) samples for F. vesca, R. chinensis, and A. thaliana, respectively.

ZayyuNet - A Unified Deep Learning Model for the Identification of Epigenetic Modifications Using Raw Genomic Sequences.

Epigenetic modifications have a vital role in gene expression and are linked to cellular processes such as differentiation, development, and tumorigenesis. Thus, the availability of reliable and accurate methods for identifying and defining these changes facilitates greater insights into the regulatory mechanisms that rely on epigenetic modifications. The current experimental methods provide a genome-wide identification of epigenetic modifications; however, they are expensive and time-consuming. To date, several machine learning methods have been proposed for identifying modifications such as DNA N6-Methyladenine (6mA), RNA N6-Methyladenosine (m6A), DNA N4-methylcytosine (4mC), and RNA pseudouridine ( Ψ). However, these methods are task-specific computational tools and require different encoding representations of DNA/RNA sequences. In this study, we propose a unified deep learning model, called ZayyuNet, for the identification of various epigenetic modifications. The proposed model is based on an architecture called, SpinalNet, inspired by the human somatosensory system that can efficiently receive large inputs and achieve better performance. The proposed model has been evaluated on various epigenetic modifications such as 6mA, m6A, 4mC, and Ψ and the results achieved outperform current state-of-the-art models. A user-friendly web server has been built and made freely available at http://nsclbio.jbnu.ac.kr/tools/ZayyuNet/.

Reliable Route Selection for Wireless Sensor Networks with Connection Failure Uncertainties.

For wireless sensor networks (WSN) with connection failure uncertainties, traditional minimum spanning trees are no longer a feasible option for selecting routes. Reliability should come first before cost since no one wants a network that cannot work most of the time. First, reliable route selection for WSNs with connection failure uncertainties is formulated by considering the top-k most reliable spanning trees (RST) from graphs with structural uncertainties. The reliable spanning trees are defined as a set of spanning trees with top reliabilities and limited tree weights based on the possible world model. Second, two tree-filtering algorithms are proposed: the k minimum spanning tree (KMST) based tree-filtering algorithm and the depth-first search (DFS) based tree-filtering algorithm. Tree-filtering strategy filters the candidate RSTs generated by tree enumeration with explicit weight thresholds and implicit reliability thresholds. Third, an innovative edge-filtering method is presented in which edge combinations that act as upper bounds for RST reliabilities are utilized to filter the RST candidates and to prune search spaces. Optimization strategies are also proposed for improving pruning capabilities further and for enhancing computations. Extensive experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms.

TS-m6A-DL: Tissue-specific identification of N6-methyladenosine sites using a universal deep learning model.

The most communal post-transcriptional modification, N6-methyladenosine (m6A), is associated with a number of crucial biological processes. The precise detection of m6A sites around the genome is critical for revealing its regulatory function and providing new insights into drug design. Although both experimental and computational models for detecting m6A sites have been introduced, but these conventional methods are laborious and expensive. Furthermore, only a handful of these models are capable of detecting m6A sites in various tissues. Therefore, a more generic and optimized computational method for detecting m6A sites in different tissues is required. In this paper, we proposed a universal model using a deep neural network (DNN) and named it TS-m6A-DL, which can classify m6A sites in several tissues of humans (Homo sapiens), mice (Mus musculus), and rats (Rattus norvegicus). To extract RNA sequence features and to convert the input into numerical format for the network, we utilized one-hot-encoding method. The model was tested using fivefold cross-validation and its stability was measured using independent datasets. The proposed model, TS-m6A-DL, achieved accuracies in the range of 75-85% using the fivefold cross-validation method and 72-84% on the independent datasets. Finally, to authenticate the generalization of the model, we performed cross-species testing and proved the generalization ability by achieving state-of-the-art results.

4mCPred-CNN-Prediction of DNA N4-Methylcytosine in the Mouse Genome Using a Convolutional Neural Network.

Among DNA modifications, N4-methylcytosine (4mC) is one of the most significant ones, and it is linked to the development of cell proliferation and gene expression. To know different its biological functions, the accurate detection of 4mC sites is required. Although we have several techniques for the prediction of 4mC sites in different genomes based on both machine learning (ML) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs), there is no CNN-based tool for the identification of 4mC sites in the mouse genome. In this article, a CNN-based model named 4mCPred-CNN was developed to classify 4mC locations in the mouse genome. Until now, we had only two ML-based models for this purpose; they utilized several feature encoding schemes, and thus still had a lot of space available to improve the prediction accuracy. Utilizing only a single feature encoding scheme-one-hot encoding-we outperformed both of the previous ML-based techniques. In a ten-fold validation test, the proposed model, 4mCPred-CNN, achieved an accuracy of 85.71% and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) of 0.717. On an independent dataset, the achieved accuracy was 87.50% with an MCC value of 0.750. The attained results exhibit that the proposed model can be of great use for researchers in the fields of biology and bioinformatics.

A Survey on Energy Conserving Mechanisms for the Internet of Things: Wireless Networking Aspects.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging key technology for future industries and everyday lives of people, where a myriad of battery operated sensors, actuators, and smart objects are connected to the Internet to provide services such as mobile healthcare, intelligent transport system, environmental monitoring, etc. Since energy efficiency is of utmost importance to these battery constrained IoT devices, IoT-related standards and research works have focused on the device energy conserving issues. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on energy conserving issues and solutions in using diverse wireless radio access technologies for IoT connectivity, e.g., the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) machine type communications, IEEE 802.11ah, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Z-Wave. We look into the literature in broad areas of standardization, academic research, and industry development, and structurally summarize the energy conserving solutions based on several technical criteria. We also propose future research directions regarding energy conserving issues in wireless networking-based IoT.

The association between angiotensin converting enzyme gene polymorphism and Alzheimer’s disease in Jiamusi region / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND:Angiotensin-converting enzyme as a key enzyme of the renin-angiotensin system, through the degradation effects of substance P mechanism, is involved in the occurrence and development of Alzheimer’s disease. OBJECTIVE:To research the relationship between angiotensin-converting enzyme gene polymorphism and Alzheimer’s disease in Jiamusi region, as wel as the effect of gender and hypertension on the relationship. METHODS:This case-control study included 96 Alzheimer’s disease patients. Another 102 subjects served as controls coming from the same area and in the same environmental condition. DNA segments were amplified using PCR in 20 g/L agarose gel electrophoresis and observed under ultraviolet lamp. II, ID, DD genotypes and genotype frequencies were calculated for statistical analysis. On this basis, according to clinical data col ected, we investigated association of Alzheimer’s disease with hypertension and gender. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:There was significant difference between Alzheimer’s disease patients and controls in angiotensin-converting enzyme genotypes and al ele frequency. There was statistical y significant difference between Alzheimer’s patients with hypertension and controls in angiotensin-converting enzyme genotypes and al ele frequency. There was no statistical difference between Alzheimer’s disease patients with different genders and controls in angiotensin-converting enzyme genotypes and al ele frequency. These findings indicate that there are some relationships between angiotensin-converting enzyme polymorphism and Alzheimer’s disease. II genotype is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, angiotensin-converting enzyme II genotype is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease with hypertension.