Ocean University of China

About: Ocean University of China is a education organization based out in Qingdao, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Sea surface temperature. The organization has 27604 authors who have published 27886 publications receiving 440181 citations. The organization is also known as: Zhōngguó Hǎiyáng Dàxué & OUC.

Gene coexpression networks in human brain identify epigenetic modifications in alcohol dependence.

Abstract: Alcohol abuse causes widespread changes in gene expression in human brain, some of which contribute to alcohol dependence. Previous microarray studies identified individual genes as candidates for alcohol phenotypes, but efforts to generate an integrated view of molecular and cellular changes underlying alcohol addiction are lacking. Here, we applied a novel systems approach to transcriptome profiling in postmortem human brains and generated a systemic view of brain alterations associated with alcohol abuse. We identified critical cellular components and previously unrecognized epigenetic determinants of gene coexpression relationships and discovered novel markers of chromatin modifications in alcoholic brain. Higher expression levels of endogenous retroviruses and genes with high GC content in alcoholics were associated with DNA hypomethylation and increased histone H3K4 trimethylation, suggesting a critical role of epigenetic mechanisms in alcohol addiction. Analysis of cell-type-specific transcriptomes revealed remarkable consistency between molecular profiles and cellular abnormalities in alcoholic brain. Based on evidence from this study and others, we generated a systems hypothesis for the central role of chromatin modifications in alcohol dependence that integrates epigenetic regulation of gene expression with pathophysiological and neuroadaptive changes in alcoholic brain. Our results offer implications for epigenetic therapeutics in alcohol and drug addiction.

Earthworm optimisation algorithm: a bio-inspired metaheuristic algorithm for global optimisation problems

Abstract: Earthworms can aerate the soil with their burrowing action and enrich the soil with their waste nutrients. Inspired by the earthworm contribution in nature, a new kind of bio-inspired metaheuristic algorithm, called earthworm optimisation algorithm (EWA), is proposed in this paper. The EWA method is inspired by the two kinds of reproduction (Reproduction 1 and Reproduction 2) of the earthworms. Reproduction 1 generates only one offspring by itself. Reproduction 2 is to generate one or more than one offspring at one time, and this can successfully be done by nine improved crossover operators. In addition, Cauchy mutation (CM) is added to EWA method. Nine different EWA methods with one, two and three offsprings based on nine improved crossover operators are respectively proposed. The results show that EWA23 performs the best and it can find the better fitness on most benchmarks than others.