Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is one of the most important tasks in bioinformatics and it can be used to prediction of structures or functions of unknown proteins and to phylogenetic tree reconstruction. There are many heuristics to perform multiple sequence alignment, as Progressive Alignment, Ant Colony, Genetic Algorithms, among others. Along the years, some tools were proposed to perform MSA and MSA-GA is one of them. The MSA-GA is a tool based on Genetic Algorithm to perform multiple sequence alignment and its results are generally better than other well-known tools in bioinformatics, as Clustal W. The COFFEE objective function was implemented in the MSA-GA in order to allow it to produce better alignments to less similar sequence sets of proteins. Nonetheless, the COFFEE objective function is not suited do perform multiple sequence alignment of nucleotides. Thus, we have modified the COFFEE objective function, previously implemented in the MSA-GA, to allow it to obtain better results also to sequences of nucleotides. Our results have shown that our approach has achieved better results in all cases when compared with standard COFFEE and most of cases when compared with WSP for all test cases from BAliBase and BRAliBase. Moreover, our results are more reliable because their standard deviations have less variation.
Educational software, especially gaming, have been the target of research in different areas due to their potential benefits in promoting more dynamic, interactive, and motivating learning. The use of educational games for teaching in Engineering and Computing courses, such as Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, given the familiarity of these students with computers, can promote greater engagement in the study of theoretical concepts. However, existing educational games still lack the good motivational quality considered essential to ensure real learning. In this context, this paper defines guidelines that address the development of educational games focusing on motivational quality. To support the definition of these guidelines, different motivational methods, together with the attributes that can be improved in a student such as autonomy, effort, and overcoming, were analyzed. These guidelines were applied in the development of an educational game prototype as proof of concept to confirm its effective applicability and its contributions to motivate students. The prototype was assessed by 118 students of the higher education in Computing for 15 days. The majority of participants in the assessment process attested that the prototype meets the motivational quality subcriteria, promoting fun (55%), challenge (68%), social interaction (59%), and feeling of satisfaction (74%). It was then possible to verify its attendance to the desired motivational quality and attest to the potential of the established guidelines.
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