A High-Throughput Screening System Based on Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting for the Directed Evolution of Chitinase A

Chitinases catalyze the degradation of chitin, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine found in crustacean shells, insect cuticles, and fungal cell walls. There is great interest in the development of improved chitinases to address the environmental burden of chitin waste from the food processing industry as well as the potential medical, agricultural, and industrial uses of partially deacetylated chitin (chitosan) and its products (chito-oligosaccharides). The depolymerization of chitin can be achieved using chemical and physical treatments, but an enzymatic process would be more environmentally friendly and more sustainable. However, chitinases are slow-acting enzymes, limiting their biotechnological exploitation, although this can be overcome by molecular evolution approaches to enhance the features required for specific applications. The two main goals of this study were the development of a high-throughput screening system for chitinase activity (which could be extrapolated to other hydrolytic enzymes), and the deployment of this new method to select improved chitinase variants. We therefore cloned and expressed the Bacillus licheniformis DSM8785 chitinase A (chiA) gene in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells and generated a mutant library by error-prone PCR. We then developed a screening method based on fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) using the model substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl β-d-N,N′,N″-triacetyl chitotrioside to identify improved enzymes. We prevented cross-talk between emulsion compartments caused by the hydrophobicity of 4-methylumbelliferone, the fluorescent product of the enzymatic reaction, by incorporating cyclodextrins into the aqueous phases. We also addressed the toxicity of long-term chiA expression in E. coli by limiting the reaction time. We identified 12 mutants containing 2–8 mutations per gene resulting in up to twofold higher activity than wild-type ChiA.     

Grid Search for Predicting Coronary Heart Disease by Tuning Hyper-Parameters

Diagnosing the cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest medical difficulties in recent years. Coronary cardiovascular (CHD) is a kind of heart and blood vascular disease. Predicting this sort of cardiac illness leads to more precise decisions for cardiac disorders. Implementing Grid Search Optimization (GSO) machine training models is therefore a useful way to forecast the sickness as soon as possible. The state-of-the-art work is the tuning of the hyperparameter together with the selection of the feature by utilizing the model search to minimize the false-negative rate. Three models with a cross-validation approach do the required task. Feature Selection based on the use of statistical and correlation matrices for multivariate analysis. For Random Search and Grid Search models, extensive comparison findings are produced utilizing retrieval, F1 score, and precision measurements. The models are evaluated using the metrics and kappa statistics that illustrate the three models’ comparability. The study effort focuses on optimizing function selection, tweaking hyperparameters to improve model accuracy and the prediction of heart disease by examining Framingham datasets using random forestry classification. Tuning the hyperparameter in the model of grid search thus decreases the erroneous rate achieves global optimization.     

A general framework to study the price‐color relationship in paintings with an application to Mark Rothko rectangular series

We propose a general framework to study the relationship between the price of a painting and its color‐related attributes. To this end we focus on four key aspects: dominant colors, features of the color palette, color harmony, and color emotions. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach with an example based on Mark Rothko's post‐1950 paintings (the “rectangular” series), and auction data from the 1994 to 2018 period. We identify two distinct price‐color regimes in Rothko's market: (a) [1994‐2005], a period in which prices are explained mainly by the growing popularity of the artist regardless of the color attributes of the paintings sold; and (b) [2006‐2018], a period in which color‐related attributes explain most of the prices. Furthermore, we find that in this second period, the dominant colors and the diversity of the color palette, are by far the most relevant attributes that influence the price; color harmony and color emotions hold almost no explanatory power during this period. Finally, we propose a new metric based on the Herfindahl Index to describe color diversity; this metric seems to be promising at characterizing the effect of the color palette on the price of a painting.     

基于深度EPG的智能导航平台建设

随着三网融合的大力推进以及双向互动业务的大力开展,运营商使用原有简单的EPG不足以支撑开展更多的增值业务,不能主动为用户推荐节目,不能为运营商带来新的收入机会。作为重要的创新能力支撑系统,介绍了江苏有线智能导航平台的设计与应用,为相关广电运营商提供一定的设计参考。     

基于Word2Vec模型特征扩展的Web搜索结果聚类性能的改进

对于用户泛化和模糊的查询，将Web搜索引擎返回的列表内容聚类处理，便于用户有效查找感兴趣的内容。由于返回的列表由称为片段（snippet）的短文本组成，而传统的单词频率-逆文档频率（TF-IDF）特征选择模型不能适用于稀疏的短文本，使得聚类性能下降。一个有效的方法就是通过一个外部的知识库对短文本进行扩展。受到基于神经网络词表示方法的启发，提出了通过词嵌入技术的Word2Vec模型对短文本扩展，即采用Word2Vec模型的TopN个最相似的单词用于对片段（snippet）的扩展，扩展文档使得TF-IDF模型特征选择得到聚类性能的提高。同时考虑到通用性单词造成的噪声引入，对扩展文档的TF-IDF矩阵进行了词频权重修正。实验在两个公开数据集ODP239和SearchSnippets上完成，将所提方法和纯snippet无扩展的方法、基于Wordnet的特征扩展方法和基于Wikipedia的特征扩展方法进行了对比。实验结果表明，所提方法在聚类性能方面优于对比方法。     

基于k-shell的复杂网络最短路径近似算法

复杂网络最短路径经典算法的处理效率较低，不适用于大规模复杂网络，而现有近似算法通用性有限，且计算准确率不理想，不能满足规模日益扩大的复杂网络中的最短路径计算需求。针对于此，提出基于[k]-shell的复杂网络最短路径近似算法。算法利用节点的[k]-shell值进行网络划分并引导搜索路径，利用超点聚合处理[k]-shell子网来降低路径搜索中节点和连边的规模，通过在路径搜索过程使用双向搜索树方法提高算法的计算效率和准确率。实验结果表明，算法通用性较好，在现实与仿真大规模复杂网络中均具有较高的计算效率和准确率。     

An improved cuckoo search algorithm for the problem of electric distribution network reconfiguration

Power loss reduction has an important role in operating electric distribution network system. There are a lot of methods for reduction power loss such as capacitor placement, distributed generation placement and electric distribution network reconfiguration (EDNR). Among these methods, the EDNR is an efficient technique to reduce power loss due to without taking any costs. However, the EDNR problem is a nonlinear, discrete problem and lots of extreme points. Therefore, it is necessary to have efficient methods for solving the EDNR problem. In this paper, an improved cuckoo search algorithm (ICSA) is proposed for solving the EDNR problem. In which, based on disadvantages of exploration and exploitation process of cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) for solving the EDNR problem, a local search mechanism is added to exploit candidate solutions existing around the current best solution. The calculated results on the simple distribution networks to complex distribution networks show that ICSA has ability for finding the global optimal solution with much smaller iterations and better quality of obtained solution compared with CSA and some other improved versions of CSA. The performance comparisons with other existing methods available in previous studies and the software of Power System Simulator/Advanced Distribution Engineering Productivity Tool (PSS/ADEPT) also lead to the better electric distribution network configuration with smaller total power losses. As a result, ICSA is a potential and reliable method for solving the EDNR problems.     

基于平面不封闭图形切割的路径规划

在平面切割环节中，如何确定更短切割路径以减少加工成本、降低设备损耗和提升切割质量是工业应用和学术研究的重点。目前国内外对平面切割路径的研究主要集中于封闭图形，为此，针对在激光刀模行业中不封闭图形的问题，提出一种基于禁忌搜索的贪婪算法和贪婪准则的局部优化。首先使用构建型的贪婪算法和改进型的禁忌搜索算法相结合的方式对加工过程中的图元路径进行优化排序，随后提出贪婪准则的局部优化系数，削弱贪婪算法的“贪心”思想，解决加工路径的规划和优化问题。实验数据表明，禁忌搜索的贪婪算法和局部优化在对切割路径的规划和空行程优化上有显著效果，空行程减少50%以上，并且其优化性能和图元数量成正比，能有效地解决刀模行业以及其他激光雕刻行业中图形不封闭的切割难题。     

定子分段式永磁直线同步电机速度波动抑制方法研究

为了解决定子分段式永磁直线同步电机(PMLSM)存在的因磁阻效应、负载阻力、摩擦力、参数摄动以及动子进出定子时耦合面积变化所造成的控制性能下降的难题,根据动子和定子的耦合状态,提出一种在完全耦合阶段和动子退出定子阶段的分段式控制方法。首先,在动子与定子完全耦合阶段采用改进滑模控制器减小推力波动导致的速度波动,再通过加入扰动观测器降低滑模切换项所带来的抖振现象;在动子退出定子阶段,建立相关电磁参数与动子位置的函数关系,实时补偿由耦合面积变化引起的动子失速,使动子速度在退出时接近给定值。仿真及实验结果表明动定子完全耦合过程中的速度稳态误差为0.005 m/s,收敛时间为0.3 s,动子退出定子阶段的速度波动不超过0.04 m/s,满足定子分段式PMLSM用于长行程自动运输系统对平稳性及快速性的需求。     

Scheduling distributed flowshops with flexible assembly and set-up time to minimise makespan

The scheduling problems under distributed production or flexible assembly settings have achieved increasing attention in recent years. This paper considers scheduling the integration of these two environments and proposes an original distributed flowshop scheduling problem with flexible assembly and set-up time. Distributed production stage is deployed several homogeneous flowshop factories that process the jobs to be assembled into final products in the flexible assembly stage. The objective is to find a schedule, including a production subschedule for jobs and an assembly subschedule for products, to minimise the makespan. Such a scheduling problem involves four successive decisions: assigning jobs to production factories, sequencing jobs at every factory, designating an assembly machine for each product and sequencing products on each assembly machine. The computational model is first established, and then a constructive heuristic (TPHS) and two hybrid metaheuristics (HVNS and HPSO) are proposed. Numerical experiments have been carried out and results validate the algorithmic feasibility and effectiveness. TPHS can obtain reasonable solutions in a shorter time, while metaheuristics can report better solutions using more yet acceptable time. HPSO is statistically comparable yet less robust compared with HVNS for small-scale instances. For the large-scale case, HPSO outperforms HVNS on both effectiveness and robustness.