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Anand S, Hallsworth JE, Timmis J, Verstraete W, Casadevall A, Ramos JL, Sood U, Kumar R, Hira P, Dogra Rawat C, Kumar A, Lal S, Lal R, Timmis K. Weaponising microbes for peace. Microb Biotechnol 2023; 16:1091-1111. [PMID: 36880421 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.14224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023] Open
Abstract
There is much human disadvantage and unmet need in the world, including deficits in basic resources and services considered to be human rights, such as drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, healthy nutrition, access to basic healthcare, and a clean environment. Furthermore, there are substantive asymmetries in the distribution of key resources among peoples. These deficits and asymmetries can lead to local and regional crises among peoples competing for limited resources, which, in turn, can become sources of discontent and conflict. Such conflicts have the potential to escalate into regional wars and even lead to global instability. Ergo: in addition to moral and ethical imperatives to level up, to ensure that all peoples have basic resources and services essential for healthy living and to reduce inequalities, all nations have a self-interest to pursue with determination all available avenues to promote peace through reducing sources of conflicts in the world. Microorganisms and pertinent microbial technologies have unique and exceptional abilities to provide, or contribute to the provision of, basic resources and services that are lacking in many parts of the world, and thereby address key deficits that might constitute sources of conflict. However, the deployment of such technologies to this end is seriously underexploited. Here, we highlight some of the key available and emerging technologies that demand greater consideration and exploitation in endeavours to eliminate unnecessary deprivations, enable healthy lives of all and remove preventable grounds for competition over limited resources that can escalate into conflicts in the world. We exhort central actors: microbiologists, funding agencies and philanthropic organisations, politicians worldwide and international governmental and non-governmental organisations, to engage - in full partnership - with all relevant stakeholders, to 'weaponise' microbes and microbial technologies to fight resource deficits and asymmetries, in particular among the most vulnerable populations, and thereby create humanitarian conditions more conducive to harmony and peace.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shailly Anand
- Department of Zoology, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
| | - John E Hallsworth
- Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - James Timmis
- Athena Institute for Research on Innovation and Communication in Health and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Willy Verstraete
- Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Arturo Casadevall
- Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | | | - Utkarsh Sood
- Department of Zoology, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
| | - Roshan Kumar
- Post-Graduate Department of Zoology, Magadh University, Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India
| | - Princy Hira
- Department of Zoology, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
| | - Charu Dogra Rawat
- Department of Zoology, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
| | - Abhilash Kumar
- Department of Zoology, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
| | - Sukanya Lal
- PhiXgen Pvt. Ltd, Gurugram, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
| | - Rup Lal
- Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi, Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New Delhi, India
| | - Kenneth Timmis
- Institute of Microbiology, Technical University Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
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Dane A, Ashraf S, Timmis J, Bos M, Uyl-de Groot C, van der Kuy PHM. Barriers to patient enrolment in phase III cancer clinical trials: interviews with clinicians and pharmaceutical industry representatives. BMJ Open 2022; 12:e055165. [PMID: 35177455 PMCID: PMC8860011 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Phase III cancer clinical trials are expensive and time-consuming phases in drug development. Effective patient enrolment can reduce delays and save costs, offering patients an opportunity to benefit from innovative treatments. However, the current evidence base does not fully explain the persistence of barriers to patient enrolment in phase III cancer clinical trials. The aim was to explore clinicians' and pharmaceutical representatives' views on these barriers. DESIGN A qualitative study was performed. In-depth information was collected from 15 experts in the field of oncology clinical trials, in particular clinical oncologists acting as principal investigators (PIs) and clinical research associates. By means of semistructured interviews, based on a questionnaire derived from our newly developed conceptual framework, they were asked to identify barriers to patient enrolment they had experienced and comment on barriers identified in literature. FINDINGS Existing knowledge on barriers to patient enrolment was confirmed by all interviewees. Two new key barriers to patient enrolment were identified, that is, insufficient attention to the importance of clinical trial-based research in medical training and a trust gap between PIs and pharmaceutical representatives. A third important barrier was increasingly narrow patient inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS The success rate of patient enrolment in phase III cancer clinical trials highly depends on the clinicians' willingness to take part in clinical trials. Raising awareness of the importance of clinical trials in medical training and among practising oncologists is recommended. Furthermore, to reduce barriers to patient enrolment, it is essential that both clinicians and pharmaceutical representatives acknowledge each other's expertise, become acquainted with each other's procedures and regulations, and work on building trust relationships. Finally, in accordance with our key findings, we propose to add two new barriers to our newly developed conceptual framework; insufficient attention to clinical trial research in medical training and trust gap.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aniek Dane
- Clinical Pharmacy, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Soedaba Ashraf
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - James Timmis
- Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Institute for Nursing Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Monique Bos
- Internal Oncology, Erasmus MC Cancer Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Carin Uyl-de Groot
- Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Timmis K, Huang WE, Timmis J. Strategies to minimize preventable morbidity and mortality resulting from pandemics like
COVID
‐19. Environ Microbiol 2020; 22:4085-4092. [DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Timmis
- Institute of Microbiology, Technical University Braunschweig Braunschweig Germany
| | - Wei E. Huang
- Department of Engineering Science University of Oxford Oxford UK
| | - James Timmis
- Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands
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Abstract
Microbes and their activities have pervasive influence and deterministic roles in the functioning and health of the geosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, i.e. in nature. Microbiology can be considered a language of nature. We have argued that the relevance of microbes for everyday personal decisions and collective policies requires that society attains microbiology literacy, through the introduction of child-relevant microbiology topics into school curricula. That is: children should learn the microbiology language of nature. Children can be effective transmitters of new and/or rapidly evolving knowledge within families and beyond, where there is a substantive information asymmetry (witness digital technology, social media, and new languages in foreign countries). They can thus be key disseminators of microbiology knowledge, where there will be information asymmetry for the foreseeable future, and thereby contribute to the attainment of microbiology literacy in society. The education of family and friends can be encouraged/stimulated by home assignments, family leisure projects, and school-organised microbiology-centric social-education events. Children are key stakeholders in family decisions. Their microbiology knowledge, and their dissemination of it, can help inform and increase the objectivity of such decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Timmis
- Institute of MicrobiologyTechnical UniversityBraunschweigGermany
| | - James Timmis
- Athena InstituteVrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
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Timmis K, Cavicchioli R, Garcia JL, Nogales B, Chavarría M, Stein L, McGenity TJ, Webster N, Singh BK, Handelsman J, de Lorenzo V, Pruzzo C, Timmis J, Martín JLR, Verstraete W, Jetten M, Danchin A, Huang W, Gilbert J, Lal R, Santos H, Lee SY, Sessitsch A, Bonfante P, Gram L, Lin RTP, Ron E, Karahan ZC, van der Meer JR, Artunkal S, Jahn D, Harper L. The urgent need for microbiology literacy in society. Environ Microbiol 2019; 21:1513-1528. [PMID: 30912268 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.14611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2018] [Revised: 03/24/2019] [Accepted: 03/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Timmis
- Institute of Microbiology, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Ricardo Cavicchioli
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - José Luis Garcia
- Department of Environmental Biology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB) (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Balbina Nogales
- Grupo de Microbiologia, Dept. Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, and Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados 8IMEDEA, UIB-CSIC), Palma de Mallorca, Spain
| | - Max Chavarría
- Escuela de Química, Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales (CIPRONA), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica & Centro Nacional de Innovaciones Biotecnológicas (CENIBiot), CeNAT-CONARE, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Lisa Stein
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Terry J McGenity
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
| | - Nicole Webster
- Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville and Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Brajesh K Singh
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, Australia
| | - Jo Handelsman
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA
| | - Victor de Lorenzo
- Systems Biology Program, Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
| | - Carla Pruzzo
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy
| | - James Timmis
- Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | | | - Willy Verstraete
- Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Mike Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Antoine Danchin
- Institut Cochin INSERM U1016, CNRS UMR8104, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
| | - Wei Huang
- Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Jack Gilbert
- Dept. of Pediatrics, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Rup Lal
- Department of Zoology, Molecular Biology Laboratory, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
| | - Helena Santos
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Sang Yup Lee
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Angela Sessitsch
- Bioresources Unit, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Tulln, Austria
| | - Paola Bonfante
- Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Italy
| | - Lone Gram
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Raymond T P Lin
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Eliora Ron
- School of Molecular Cell Biology & Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | - Z Ceren Karahan
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Ankara University, Turkey
| | | | - Seza Artunkal
- Department of Clinical Microbiology, Haydarpaşa Numune Training Hospital, lstanbul, Turkey
| | - Dieter Jahn
- Institute of Microbiology, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Lucy Harper
- Society for Applied Microbiology, London, UK
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Ribba B, Grimm HP, Agoram B, Davies MR, Gadkar K, Niederer S, van Riel N, Timmis J, van der Graaf PH. Methodologies for Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) Models: Design and Estimation. CPT Pharmacometrics Syst Pharmacol 2017; 6:496-498. [PMID: 28585415 PMCID: PMC5572127 DOI: 10.1002/psp4.12206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2017] [Revised: 04/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/09/2017] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
With the increased interest in the application of quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) models within medicine research and development, there is an increasing need to formalize model development and verification aspects. In February 2016, a workshop was held at Roche Pharma Research and Early Development to focus discussions on two critical methodological aspects of QSP model development: optimal structural granularity and parameter estimation. We here report in a perspective article a summary of presentations and discussions.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Ribba
- Roche Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Switzerland
| | - H P Grimm
- Roche Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Switzerland
| | - B Agoram
- MedImmune, Mountain View, California, USA
| | - M R Davies
- QT Informatics Limited, Macclesfield, UK
| | - K Gadkar
- Genentech, South San Francisco, California, USA
| | - S Niederer
- King's College London, Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, London, UK
| | - N van Riel
- Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.,University of Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - J Timmis
- SimOmics Ltd, Department of Electronics, University of York, York, UK
| | - P H van der Graaf
- Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR), Leiden, The Netherlands.,Certara QSP, Canterbury, UK
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Timmis J, Alden K, Andrews P, Clark E, Nellis A, Naylor B, Coles M, Kaye P. Building confidence in quantitative systems pharmacology models: An engineer's guide to exploring the rationale in model design and development. CPT Pharmacometrics Syst Pharmacol 2017; 6:156-167. [PMID: 27863172 PMCID: PMC5351409 DOI: 10.1002/psp4.12157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2016] [Revised: 09/30/2016] [Accepted: 11/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
This tutorial promotes good practice for exploring the rationale of systems pharmacology models. A safety systems engineering inspired notation approach provides much needed rigor and transparency in development and application of models for therapeutic discovery and design of intervention strategies. Structured arguments over a model's development, underpinning biological knowledge, and analyses of model behaviors are constructed to determine the confidence that a model is fit for the purpose for which it will be applied.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Timmis
- Department of Electronics, The University of York, York, UK.,SimOmics Limited, York, UK
| | - K Alden
- Department of Electronics, The University of York, York, UK
| | | | | | | | - B Naylor
- Department of Electronics, The University of York, York, UK.,SimOmics Limited, York, UK
| | - M Coles
- Centre for Immunology and Infection, Hull York Medical School/University of York, York, UK
| | - P Kaye
- Centre for Immunology and Infection, Hull York Medical School/University of York, York, UK
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Timmis J, Ismail AR, Bjerknes JD, Winfield AFT. An immune-inspired swarm aggregation algorithm for self-healing swarm robotic systems. Biosystems 2016; 146:60-76. [PMID: 27178784 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2016.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2016] [Accepted: 04/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Swarm robotics is concerned with the decentralised coordination of multiple robots having only limited communication and interaction abilities. Although fault tolerance and robustness to individual robot failures have often been used to justify the use of swarm robotic systems, recent studies have shown that swarm robotic systems are susceptible to certain types of failure. In this paper we propose an approach to self-healing swarm robotic systems and take inspiration from the process of granuloma formation, a process of containment and repair found in the immune system. We use a case study of a swarm performing team work where previous works have demonstrated that partially failed robots have the most detrimental effect on overall swarm behaviour. We have developed an immune inspired approach that permits the recovery from certain failure modes during operation of the swarm, overcoming issues that effect swarm behaviour associated with partially failed robots.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Timmis
- Department of Electronics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
| | - A R Ismail
- Department of Computer Science, Kulliyyah of ICT, International Islamic University Malaysia, P.O. Box 10, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
| | - J D Bjerknes
- Kongsberg Defence Systems, P.O. Box 1003, NO-3601 Kongsberg, Norway.
| | - A F T Winfield
- Faculty of Environment and Technology, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK.
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Cosgrove J, Butler J, Alden K, Read M, Kumar V, Cucurull-Sanchez L, Timmis J, Coles M. Agent-Based Modeling in Systems Pharmacology. CPT Pharmacometrics Syst Pharmacol 2015; 4:615-29. [PMID: 26783498 PMCID: PMC4716580 DOI: 10.1002/psp4.12018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2015] [Revised: 06/29/2015] [Accepted: 07/31/2015] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Modeling and simulation (M&S) techniques provide a platform for knowledge integration and hypothesis testing to gain insights into biological systems that would not be possible a priori. Agent‐based modeling (ABM) is an M&S technique that focuses on describing individual components rather than homogenous populations. This tutorial introduces ABM to systems pharmacologists, using relevant case studies to highlight how ABM‐specific strengths have yielded success in the area of preclinical mechanistic modeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Cosgrove
- York Computational Immunology LabUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Centre for Immunology and InfectionUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Department of ElectronicsUniversity of YorkYorkUK
| | - J Butler
- York Computational Immunology LabUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Centre for Immunology and InfectionUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Department of ElectronicsUniversity of YorkYorkUK
| | - K Alden
- York Computational Immunology LabUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Centre for Immunology and InfectionUniversity of YorkYorkUK
| | - M Read
- Charles Perkins Centre University of Sydney Sydney Australia
| | - V Kumar
- University of California School of Medicine LA Jolla California USA
| | | | - J Timmis
- York Computational Immunology LabUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Department of ElectronicsUniversity of YorkYorkUK; SimOmicsYorkUK
| | - M Coles
- York Computational Immunology LabUniversity of YorkYorkUK; Centre for Immunology and InfectionUniversity of YorkYorkUK; SimOmicsYorkUK
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Bremner P, Liu Y, Samie M, Dragffy G, Pipe AG, Tempesti G, Timmis J, Tyrrell AM. SABRE: a bio-inspired fault-tolerant electronic architecture. Bioinspir Biomim 2013; 8:016003. [PMID: 23302298 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/8/1/016003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
As electronic devices become increasingly complex, ensuring their reliable, fault-free operation is becoming correspondingly more challenging. It can be observed that, in spite of their complexity, biological systems are highly reliable and fault tolerant. Hence, we are motivated to take inspiration for biological systems in the design of electronic ones. In SABRE (self-healing cellular architectures for biologically inspired highly reliable electronic systems), we have designed a bio-inspired fault-tolerant hierarchical architecture for this purpose. As in biology, the foundation for the whole system is cellular in nature, with each cell able to detect faults in its operation and trigger intra-cellular or extra-cellular repair as required. At the next level in the hierarchy, arrays of cells are configured and controlled as function units in a transport triggered architecture (TTA), which is able to perform partial-dynamic reconfiguration to rectify problems that cannot be solved at the cellular level. Each TTA is, in turn, part of a larger multi-processor system which employs coarser grain reconfiguration to tolerate faults that cause a processor to fail. In this paper, we describe the details of operation of each layer of the SABRE hierarchy, and how these layers interact to provide a high systemic level of fault tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- P Bremner
- Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK.
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Timmis J, Timmis A, Timmis B. Peter Timmis. West J Med 2011. [DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d1025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Secker A, Davies MN, Freitas AA, Clark EB, Timmis J, Flower DR. Hierarchical classification of G-protein-coupled receptors with data-driven selection of attributes and classifiers. INT J DATA MIN BIOIN 2010; 4:191-210. [PMID: 20423020 DOI: 10.1504/ijdmb.2010.032150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We address the important bioinformatics problem of predicting protein function from a protein's primary sequence. We consider the functional classification of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), whose functions are specified in a class hierarchy. We tackle this task using a novel top-down hierarchical classification system where, for each node in the class hierarchy, the predictor attributes to be used in that node and the classifier to be applied to the selected attributes are chosen in a data-driven manner. Compared with a previous hierarchical classification system selecting classifiers only, our new system significantly reduced processing time without significantly sacrificing predictive accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Secker
- Computing Laboratory and Centre for BioMedical Informatics, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NF, UK.
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MacFarlane A, Secker A, May P, Timmis J. An experimental comparison of a genetic algorithm and a hill‐climber for term selection. Journal of Documentation 2010. [DOI: 10.1108/00220411011052939] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Timmis J. Toxoplasma gondii. Biologist (London) 2001; 48:57. [PMID: 11313530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/19/2023]
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Abstract
We present a simplified view of those parts of the human immune system which can be used to provide the basis for a data analysis tool. The motivation for and reasoning behind such a model is given and the desire for a 'transparent' model and meaningful visualization and interpretation techniques is noted. A minimalist formulation of an artificial immune system and some of its behaviour is described. A simple implementation and a suitable visualization technique are demonstrated using some trivial data and the famous 'iris' data set.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Timmis
- Department of Computer Science, Centre for Intelligent Systems, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, UK.
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Abstract
The regulation of activity of ribosomal RNA genes has been studied in euploid and aneuploid varieties of hyacinth. The gene/gene product relationship was determined by measuring the specific gene product (stable rRNA) and the total gene product (protein) in varieties with different dosages of rRNA genes. The results show that the cellular rRNA content is positively regulated, that maximum gene utilization is not normally employed, and that the degree of utilization responds to the total genome rather than to the specific rRNA gene dosage. The mechanism of control of this regulation appears to be at the transcriptional level.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Timmis
- Department of Botany, University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JH, United Kingdom
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