Abstract

Abstract
Recent advances in sequencing allow the study of all identified human genes (22,000 protein encoding genes), which have differential expression between tissues. However, current knowledge on gene interactions lags behind, especially when one of the elements encodes a mitochondrial protein (1500). Mitochondrial proteins are encoded either by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA; 13 proteins) or by nuclear DNA (nDNA; the remaining), which implies a coordinated communication between the two genomes. Since mitochondria coordinate several life-critical cellular activities, namely energy production and cell death, deregulation of this communication is implicated in many complex diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and diabetes. Thus, this work aimed to identify high co-expression groups between mitochondrial genes-all genes, and associated protein networks in several human tissues (Genotype-Tissue Expression database). We developed a pipeline and a web tree viewer that is available at GitHub (https://github.com/Pereira-lab/CoExpression). Biologically, we confirmed the existence of highly correlated pairs of mitochondrial-all protein encoding genes, which act in pathways of functional importance such as energy production and metabolite synthesis, especially in brain tissues. The strongest correlation between mtDNA genes are with genes encoded by this genome, showing that correlation among genes encoded by the same genome is more efficient.

Abstract

Abstract
VASO is a Portuguese participatory maize breeding project (1984), where several maize landraces such as Pigarro have been selected both by a farmer's (phenotypic recurrent selection) and a breeder's approach (S2 lines recurrent selection). The objectives of this study were to determine the phenotypic and genotypic responses to participatory selection using these two different approaches, to clarify to which extent both selection methods preserve genetic diversity, and conclude what is the preferred method to apply in sustainable farming systems. The results, obtained via ANOVA, regression analyses and molecular markers, indicate that for both selection methods, genetic diversity was not significantly reduced, even with the most intensive breeder's selection. Although there were some common outputs, such as the determinated versus indeterminated ears, cob and ear weight ratio per ear and rachis 2, specific phenotypic traits evolved in opposite directions between the two selection approaches. Yield increase was only detected during farmer selection, indicating its interest on PPB. Candidate genes were identified for a few of the traits under selection as potential functional markers in participatory plant breeding.

Abstract
The environmental concerns are having a significant impact on the operation of power systems. The traditional Unit Commitment problem (UCP), which minimizes the total production costs is inadequate when environmental emissions need to be considered in the operation of power plants. This paper proposes a metaheuristic approach combined with a non-dominated sorting procedure to find solutions for the multi-objective UCP. The metaheuristic proposed, a Biased Random Key Genetic Algorithm, is a variant of the random-key genetic algorithm, since bias is introduced in the parent selection procedure, as well as in the crossover strategy. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade provides the means of trading gas globally and represents about 10% of the gas trade. The forecasts show the LNG business will grow, over the next 20 years, at about twice the rate of the whole gas trade. Although the current state of LNG trade is well studied, the literature on the future business structure of it is limited and conflictual. This work considers the future LNG business structure by comparing the development trajectories of the oil and LNG sectors. In addition, it assesses the conclusions drawn by researchers against this background and the current pattern of change in the industry. The comparison involves three stages: (1) trade flows-oil and LNG trade flows are very similar, mainly due to the common distribution of the oil and gas reserves. (2) Supply chain configuration-the international trade for both fuels is tanker based thus allowing for a similar market responsive trade policy, i.e., real-time destination selection (spot sale) at a global scale. (3) Institutional developments-the current transparent and competitive global oil trade, with prices dominated by physical and paper markets, was driven previously by long-term contracts, in the same manner as the current LNG business. This analysis, together with transaction cost economics, supports the argument that, in future, LNG spot trade will increase and give rise to a competitive and globally unified LNG market. Further-more, LNG pricing will become transparent and would be dominated by physical and paper markets benchmark prices. (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.