Integrating cell segmentation with tracking is critical for achieving a detailed and dynamic understanding of cellular behavior. This integration facilitates the study and quantification of cell morphology, movement, and interactions, offering valuable insights into a wide range of biological processes and diseases. However, traditional methods rely on labor-intensive and costly annotations, such as full segmentation masks or bounding boxes for each cell. To address this limitation, we present SAT: Segment and Track Anything for Microscopy, a novel pipeline that leverages point annotations in the first frame to automate cell segmentation and tracking across all subsequent frames. By significantly reducing annotation time and effort, SAT enables efficient and scalable analysis, making it well-suited for large-scale studies. The pipeline was evaluated on two diverse datasets, achieving over 80% Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy (MOTA), demonstrating its robustness and effectiveness across various imaging modalities and cell types. These results highlight SAT’s potential to streamline biomedical research and enable deeper exploration of cellular behavior.

A comprehensive understanding of miRNA sub-cellular localization may leads towards better understanding of physiological processes and support the fixation of diverse irregularities present in a variety of organisms. To date, diverse computational methodologies have been proposed to automatically infer sub-cellular localization of miR-NAs solely using sequence information, however, existing approaches lack in performance. Considering the success of data transformation approaches in Natural Language Processing which primarily transform multi-label classification problem into multi-class classification problem, here, we introduce three different data transformation approaches namely binary relevance, label power set, and classifier chains. Using data transformation approaches, at 1ststage, multi-label miRNA sub-cellular localization problem is transformed into multi-class problem. Then, at 2ndstage, 3 different machine learning classifiers are used to estimate which classifier performs better with what data transformation approach for hand on task. Empirical evaluation on independent test set indicates that L2S-MirLoc selected combination based on binary relevance and deep random forest outperforms state-of-the-art performance values by significant margin.

With the evolution of deep learning in the past decade, more biomedical related problems that seemed strenuous, are now feasible. The introduction of U-net and Mask R-CNN architectures has paved a way for many object detection and segmentation tasks in numerous applications ranging from security to biomedical applications. In the cell biology domain, light microscopy imaging provides a cheap and accessible source of raw data to study biological phenomena. By leveraging such data and deep learning techniques, human diseases can be easily diagnosed and the process of treatment development can be greatly expedited. In microscopic imaging, accurate segmentation of individual cells is a crucial step to allow better insight into cellular heterogeneity. To address the aforementioned challenges, DeepCeNS is proposed in this paper to detect and segment cells and nucleus in microscopic images. We have used EVICAN2 dataset which contains microscopic images from a variety of microscopes having numerous cell cultures, to evaluate the proposed pipeline. DeepCeNS outperforms EVICAN-MRCNN by a significant margin on the EVICAN2 dataset.

BACKGROUND: ) are widely used for variable selection purposes, including (i) variable importance assessment, (ii) dimensionality reduction of big data and (iii) interpretation enhancement of PLS, OPLS and O2PLS models. For multiblock analysis, the OnPLS models find relationships among multiple data matrices (more than two blocks) by calculating latent variables; however, a method for improving the interpretation of these latent variables (model components) by assessing the importance of the input variables was not available up to now. RESULTS: A method for variable selection in multiblock analysis, called multiblock variable influence on orthogonal projections (MB-VIOP) is explained in this paper. MB-VIOP is a model based variable selection method that uses the data matrices, the scores and the normalized loadings of an OnPLS model in order to sort the input variables of more than two data matrices according to their importance for both simplification and interpretation of the total multiblock model, and also of the unique, local and global model components separately. MB-VIOP has been tested using three datasets: a synthetic four-block dataset, a real three-block omics dataset related to plant sciences, and a real six-block dataset related to the food industry. CONCLUSIONS: We provide evidence for the usefulness and reliability of MB-VIOP by means of three examples (one synthetic and two real-world cases). MB-VIOP assesses in a trustable and efficient way the importance of both isolated and ranges of variables in any type of data. MB-VIOP connects the input variables of different data matrices according to their relevance for the interpretation of each latent variable, yielding enhanced interpretability for each OnPLS model component. Besides, MB-VIOP can deal with strong overlapping of types of variation, as well as with many data blocks with very different dimensionality. The ability of MB-VIOP for generating dimensionality reduced models with high interpretability makes this method ideal for big data mining, multi-omics data integration and any study that requires exploration and interpretation of large streams of data.

BACKGROUND: Selecting the proper parameter settings for bioinformatic software tools is challenging. Not only will each parameter have an individual effect on the outcome, but there are also potential interaction effects between parameters. Both of these effects may be difficult to predict. To make the situation even more complex, multiple tools may be run in a sequential pipeline where the final output depends on the parameter configuration for each tool in the pipeline. Because of the complexity and difficulty of predicting outcomes, in practice parameters are often left at default settings or set based on personal or peer experience obtained in a trial and error fashion. To allow for the reliable and efficient selection of parameters for bioinformatic pipelines, a systematic approach is needed. RESULTS: We present doepipeline, a novel approach to optimizing bioinformatic software parameters, based on core concepts of the Design of Experiments methodology and recent advances in subset designs. Optimal parameter settings are first approximated in a screening phase using a subset design that efficiently spans the entire search space, then optimized in the subsequent phase using response surface designs and OLS modeling. Doepipeline was used to optimize parameters in four use cases; 1) de-novo assembly, 2) scaffolding of a fragmented genome assembly, 3) k-mer taxonomic classification of Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION reads, and 4) genetic variant calling. In all four cases, doepipeline found parameter settings that produced a better outcome with respect to the characteristic measured when compared to using default values. Our approach is implemented and available in the Python package doepipeline. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed methodology provides a systematic and robust framework for optimizing software parameter settings, in contrast to labor- and time-intensive manual parameter tweaking. Implementation in doepipeline makes our methodology accessible and user-friendly, and allows for automatic optimization of tools in a wide range of cases. The source code of doepipeline is available at https://github.com/clicumu/doepipeline and it can be installed through conda-forge.

BACKGROUND: Kernel-based classification and regression methods have been successfully applied to modelling a wide variety of biological data. The Kernel-based Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures (K-OPLS) method offers unique properties facilitating separate modelling of predictive variation and structured noise in the feature space. While providing prediction results similar to other kernel-based methods, K-OPLS features enhanced interpretational capabilities; allowing detection of unanticipated systematic variation in the data such as instrumental drift, batch variability or unexpected biological variation. RESULTS: We demonstrate an implementation of the K-OPLS algorithm for MATLAB and R, licensed under the GNU GPL and available at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/kopls/. The package includes essential functionality and documentation for model evaluation (using cross-validation), training and prediction of future samples. Incorporated is also a set of diagnostic tools and plot functions to simplify the visualisation of data, e.g. for detecting trends or for identification of outlying samples. The utility of the software package is demonstrated by means of a metabolic profiling data set from a biological study of hybrid aspen. CONCLUSION: The properties of the K-OPLS method are well suited for analysis of biological data, which in conjunction with the availability of the outlined open-source package provides a comprehensive solution for kernel-based analysis in bioinformatics applications.

BACKGROUND: Modelling the time-related behaviour of biological systems is essential for understanding their dynamic responses to perturbations. In metabolic profiling studies, the sampling rate and number of sampling points are often restricted due to experimental and biological constraints. RESULTS: A supervised multivariate modelling approach with the objective to model the time-related variation in the data for short and sparsely sampled time-series is described. A set of piecewise Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures (OPLS) models are estimated, describing changes between successive time points. The individual OPLS models are linear, but the piecewise combination of several models accommodates modelling and prediction of changes which are non-linear with respect to the time course. We demonstrate the method on both simulated and metabolic profiling data, illustrating how time related changes are successfully modelled and predicted. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is effective for modelling and prediction of short and multivariate time series data. A key advantage of the method is model transparency, allowing easy interpretation of time-related variation in the data. The method provides a competitive complement to commonly applied multivariate methods such as OPLS and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for modelling and analysis of short time-series data.

BACKGROUND: During generation of microarray data, various forms of systematic biases are frequently introduced which limits accuracy and precision of the results. In order to properly estimate biological effects, these biases must be identified and discarded. RESULTS: We introduce a normalization strategy for multi-channel microarray data based on orthogonal projections to latent structures (OPLS); a multivariate regression method. The effect of applying the normalization methodology on single-channel Affymetrix data as well as dual-channel cDNA data is illustrated. We provide a parallel comparison to a wide range of commonly employed normalization methods with diverse properties and strengths based on sensitivity and specificity from external (spike-in) controls. On the illustrated data sets, the OPLS normalization strategy exhibits leading average true negative and true positive rates in comparison to other evaluated methods. CONCLUSION: The OPLS methodology identifies joint variation within biological samples to enable the removal of sources of variation that are non-correlated (orthogonal) to the within-sample variation. This ensures that structured variation related to the underlying biological samples is separated from the remaining, bias-related sources of systematic variation. As a consequence, the methodology does not require any explicit knowledge regarding the presence or characteristics of certain biases. Furthermore, there is no underlying assumption that the majority of elements should be non-differentially expressed, making it applicable to specialized boutique arrays.

UNLABELLED: MASQOT-GUI provides an open-source, platform-independent software pipeline for two-channel microarray spot quality control. This includes gridding, segmentation, quantification, quality assessment and data visualization. It hosts a set of independent applications, with interactions between the tools as well as import and export support for external software. The implementation of automated multivariate quality control assessment, which is a unique feature of MASQOT-GUI, is based on the previously documented and evaluated MASQOT methodology. Further abilities of the application are outlined and illustrated. AVAILABILITY: MASQOT-GUI is Java-based and licensed under the GNU LGPL. Source code and installation files are available for download at http://masqot-gui.sourceforge.net/

BACKGROUND: cDNA microarray technology has emerged as a major player in the parallel detection of biomolecules, but still suffers from fundamental technical problems. Identifying and removing unreliable data is crucial to prevent the risk of receiving illusive analysis results. Visual assessment of spot quality is still a common procedure, despite the time-consuming work of manually inspecting spots in the range of hundreds of thousands or more. RESULTS: A novel methodology for cDNA microarray spot quality control is outlined. Multivariate discriminant analysis was used to assess spot quality based on existing and novel descriptors. The presented methodology displays high reproducibility and was found superior in identifying unreliable data compared to other evaluated methodologies. CONCLUSION: The proposed methodology for cDNA microarray spot quality control generates non-discrete values of spot quality which can be utilized as weights in subsequent analysis procedures as well as to discard spots of undesired quality using the suggested threshold values. The MASQOT approach provides a consistent assessment of spot quality and can be considered an alternative to the labor-intensive manual quality assessment process.