Local Similarity Matrix for Cysteine Disulfide Connectivity Prediction from Protein Sequences.

Accurately predicting three dimensional protein structures from sequences would present us with targets for drugs via molecular dynamics that would treat cancer, viral infections, and neurological diseases. These treatments would have a far reaching impact to our economy, quality of life, and society. The goal of this research was to build a data mining framework to predict cysteine connectivity in proteins from the sequence and oxidation state of cysteines. Accurately predicting the cysteine bonding configuration improves the TM-Score, a quantitative measurement of protein structure prediction accuracy. We provided state of the art Qp and Qc on the PDBCYS and IVD-54 Datasets. Furthermore, we have produced a Local Similarity Matrix that compares favorably to the default PSSMs generated from PSI-Blast in a statistically significant way. Our Qp for SP39, PDBCYS, and IVD-54 were 90.6, 80.6, and 68.5, respectively.

Residue Adjacency Matrix Based Feature Engineering for Predicting Cysteine Reactivity in Proteins.

Free radicals that form from reactive species of nitrogen and oxygen can react dangerously with cellular components and are involved with the pathogenesis of diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, and heart disease. Cysteine amino acids, due to their reactive nature, are prone to oxidation by these free radicals. Determining which cysteines oxidize within proteins is crucial to our understanding of these chronic diseases. Wet lab techniques, like differential alkylation, to determine which cysteines oxidize are often expensive and time-consuming. We utilize machine learning as a fast and inexpensive approach to identifying cysteines with oxidative capabilities. We created the original features RAMmod and RAMseq for use in classification. We also incorporated well-known features such as PROPKA, SASA, PSS, and PSSM. Our algorithm requires only the protein sequence to operate; however, we do use template matching by MODELLER to acquire 3D coordinates for additional feature extraction. There was a mean improvement of RAM over N6C by 22.04% MCC. It was statistically significant with a p-value of 0.015. RAM provided a significant increase over PSSM with a p-value of 0.040 and an average 70.09% improvement MCC.

Classification of diabetes maculopathy images using data-adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference classifier.

Prolonged diabetes retinopathy leads to diabetes maculopathy, which causes gradual and irreversible loss of vision. It is important for physicians to have a decision system that detects the early symptoms of the disease. This can be achieved by building a classification model using machine learning algorithms. Fuzzy logic classifiers group data elements with a degree of membership in multiple classes by defining membership functions for each attribute. Various methods have been proposed to determine the partitioning of membership functions in a fuzzy logic inference system. A clustering method partitions the membership functions by grouping data that have high similarity into clusters, while an equalized universe method partitions data into predefined equal clusters. The distribution of each attribute determines its partitioning as fine or coarse. A simple grid partitioning partitions each attribute equally and is therefore not effective in handling varying distribution amongst the attributes. A data-adaptive method uses a data frequency-driven approach to partition each attribute based on the distribution of data in that attribute. A data-adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system creates corresponding rules for both finely distributed and coarsely distributed attributes. This method produced more useful rules and a more effective classification system. We obtained an overall accuracy of 98.55%.

Ensemble selection for feature-based classification of diabetic maculopathy images.

As diabetic maculopathy (DM) is a prevalent cause of blindness in the world, it is increasingly important to use automated techniques for the early detection of the disease. In this paper, we propose a decision system to classify DM fundus images into normal, clinically significant macular edema (CMSE), and non-clinically significant macular edema (non-CMSE) classes. The objective of the proposed decision system is three fold namely, to automatically extract textural features (both region specific and global), to effectively choose subset of discriminatory features, and to classify DM fundus images to their corresponding class of disease severity. The system uses a gamut of textural features and an ensemble classifier derived from four popular classifiers such as the hidden naïve Bayes, naïve Bayes, sequential minimal optimization (SMO), and the tree-based J48 classifiers. We achieved an average classification accuracy of 96.7% using five-fold cross validation.

Wavelet-based energy features for glaucomatous image classification.

Texture features within images are actively pursued for accurate and efficient glaucoma classification. Energy distribution over wavelet subbands is applied to find these important texture features. In this paper, we investigate the discriminatory potential of wavelet features obtained from the daubechies (db3), symlets (sym3), and biorthogonal (bio3.3, bio3.5, and bio3.7) wavelet filters. We propose a novel technique to extract energy signatures obtained using 2-D discrete wavelet transform, and subject these signatures to different feature ranking and feature selection strategies. We have gauged the effectiveness of the resultant ranked and selected subsets of features using a support vector machine, sequential minimal optimization, random forest, and naïve Bayes classification strategies. We observed an accuracy of around 93% using tenfold cross validations to demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods.

Region quad-tree decomposition based edge detection for medical images.

Edge detection in medical images has generated significant interest in the medical informatics community, especially in recent years. With the advent of imaging technology in biomedical and clinical domains, the growth in medical digital images has exceeded our capacity to analyze and store them for efficient representation and retrieval, especially for data mining applications. Medical decision support applications frequently demand the ability to identify and locate sharp discontinuities in an image for feature extraction and interpretation of image content, which can then be exploited for decision support analysis. However, due to the inherent high dimensional nature of the image content and the presence of ill-defined edges, edge detection using classical procedures is difficult, if not impossible, for sensitive and specific medical informatics-based discovery. In this paper, we propose a new edge detection technique based on the regional recursive hierarchical decomposition using quadtree and post-filtration of edges using a finite difference operator. We show that in medical images of common origin, focal and/or penumbral blurred edges can be characterized by an estimable intensity gradient. This gradient can further be used for dismissing false alarms. A detailed validation and comparison with related works on diabetic retinopathy images and CT scan images show that the proposed approach is efficient and accurate.

Ranking through integration of protein-similarity for identification of cell-cyclic genes.

Gene array experiments are progressively conducted. However, the biological functional interpretation has not kept pace with this rapid escalation. Functional genomics using data mining methods potentially offers precise, objective, and more reliable gene identification. Our work creates a gene-ranking scheme by integrating gene expression profile phase information with protein similarity to identify cell-cyclic genes. We present a unique schema to enable integration by employing QR-factorisation from the pair-wise similarity matrix formulation. Angular coefficients are derived and consequently employed for integrated gene ranking. Experimental results on an independent benchmark dataset signify the efficacy of the method.

Protein structure classification based on conserved hydrophobic residues.

Protein folding is frequently guided by local residue interactions that form clusters in the protein core. The interactions between residue clusters serve as potential nucleation sites in the folding process. Evidence postulates that the residue interactions are governed by the hydrophobic propensities that the residues possess. An array of hydrophobicity scales has been developed to determine the hydrophobic propensities of residues under different environmental conditions. In this work, we propose a graph-theory-based data mining framework to extract and isolate protein structural features that sustain invariance in evolutionary-related proteins, through the integrated analysis of five well-known hydrophobicity scales over the 3D structure of proteins. We hypothesize that proteins of the same homology contain conserved hydrophobic residues and exhibit analogous residue interaction patterns in the folded state. The results obtained demonstrate that discriminatory residue interaction patterns shared among proteins of the same family can be employed for both the structural and the functional annotation of proteins. We obtained on the average 90 percent accuracy in protein classification with a significantly small feature vector compared to previous results in the area. This work presents an elaborate study, as well as validation evidence, to illustrate the efficacy of the method and the correctness of results reported.