11th International Conference on Predictive Modelling in Food: book of abstracts

It is our great pleasure to welcome you in Bragança, Portugal, for the 11th International Conference of Predictive Modelling in Food (ICPMF11). Since 1992, ten ICPMF editions have taken place, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, identification of research needs and novel approaches for the advancement of predictive modelling towards ensuring safety and quality of foods. Bragança is a typically-Portuguese old town (Romanic origin dates back to the 10th century), located by the Natural Park of Montesinho – one of the wildest forest zones of Europe – and the Douro Valley – the third oldest protected wine region in the world; and surrounded by traditional villages of a distinctive rustic beauty. Bragança houses several traditional industries producing a myriad of local foods, such as cheese, fermented meats, wine, chestnuts and honey, which provide substantial economic sustainability to the region. ICPMF11 reunites food researchers, stakeholders, risk assessors and users of predictive models to present recent developments and trends in modelling approaches for food quality, safety and sustainability. We succeeded to gather a significant number of delegates from over the world to participate in a comprehensive scientific programme that includes keynote lectures, oral communications and posters, allocated in sessions focusing on: . Advances in predictive microbiology modelling . Predictive modelling in innovative food processing and preservation technologies . Advances in microbial dynamics and interactions . Advances in software and database tools . Meta-analysis protocols and applications . Advances in risk assessment methods and integration of omics techniques . Advances in predictive modelling in food quality and safety . Predictive mycology . Individual cell and whole-cell modelling Apart from those, ICPMF11 features for the first time a special session dedicated to “Innovative approaches for ensuring safety of traditional foods” and the Round Table: “Assuring the Safety of Traditional Foods: A Scientific Contribution to Protecting our Cultural Heritage”. We, as food researchers based in a Mediterranean mountain region, are aware that the production of traditional foods plays a key role in the development of rural regions, since the agricultural commodities used as raw materials are generally produced locally, allowing and stimulating local commercialisation, thus contributing to a sustainable environment, and employment in rural populations. It was inspiring for us to have received many submissions from both developed and developing countries on the valorisation of traditional foods through the application of up-to-date modelling research. Besides that, one morning workshop and three afternoon tutorials were programmed during the day before the scientific programme. The workshop “How to benefit from the Risk Assessment Modelling and Knowledge Integration Platform (RAKIP)” was organised by Matthias Filter. The parallel tutorials “Towards an integrated predictive software map: Practical examples of use of predictive microbiology software tools for food safety and quality”; “Advanced methods in predictive microbiology” and “Topics in quantitative microbial risk assessment using R” were organised by Fernando Pérez-Rodríguez, Pablo Fernández, Alberto Garre and Mariem Ellouze; by Lihan Huang, Cheng-An Hwang and Vasco Cadavez; and by Patrick Njage and Ana Sofia Ribeiro Duarte, respectively. We thank these organisers for their proposals. Abstracts, reviewed by the ICPMF11 Scientific Committee, are published in the present Book of Abstracts while peer-reviewed original research articles will be invited to be published in ICPMF11 Special Issues in the International Journal of Food Microbiology and Microbial Risk Analysis. To stimulate the participation of postgraduate students and young researchers, two kinds of awards were arranged: the Young Researcher Best Oral Presentation prizes, sponsored by Elsevier; and the Developing Scientist Best Poster prizes, sponsored by the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS). For the first time, this ICPMF edition gives out two awards for the Senior Researcher Best Oral Presentation, sponsored by the open-access journal Foods – MDPI. In addition to the scientific programme, we prepared an exciting social programme for delegates to appreciate the rich culture, gastronomy and traditions of Bragança, w includes welcome reception, live music, tasting of regional food and a gala dinner in the Castle of Bragança. We look forward to lively discussions, and hope that this meeting will give you the opportunity to strengthen friendship and cooperation, and build new contacts for future research endeavours.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Emerging semantics to link phenotype and environment

abstract: Understanding the interplay between environmental conditions and phenotypes is a fundamental goal of biology. Unfortunately, data that include observations on phenotype and environment are highly heterogeneous and thus difficult to find and integrate. One approach that is likely to improve the status quo involves the use of ontologies to standardize and link data about phenotypes and environments. Specifying and linking data through ontologies will allow researchers to increase the scope and flexibility of large-scale analyses aided by modern computing methods. Investments in this area would advance diverse fields such as ecology, phylogenetics, and conservation biology. While several biological ontologies are well-developed, using them to link phenotypes and environments is rare because of gaps in ontological coverage and limits to interoperability among ontologies and disciplines. In this manuscript, we present (1) use cases from diverse disciplines to illustrate questions that could be answered more efficiently using a robust linkage between phenotypes and environments, (2) two proof-of-concept analyses that show the value of linking phenotypes to environments in fishes and amphibians, and (3) two proposed example data models for linking phenotypes and environments using the extensible observation ontology (OBOE) and the Biological Collections Ontology (BCO); these provide a starting point for the development of a data model linking phenotypes and environments.The final version of this article, as published in PeerJ, can be viewed online at: https://peerj.com/articles/1470

Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity

This Open Access volume aims to methodologically improve our understanding of biodiversity by linking disciplines that incorporate remote sensing, and uniting data and perspectives in the fields of biology, landscape ecology, and geography. The book provides a framework for how biodiversity can be detected and evaluated—focusing particularly on plants—using proximal and remotely sensed hyperspectral data and other tools such as LiDAR. The volume, whose chapters bring together a large cross-section of the biodiversity community engaged in these methods, attempts to establish a common language across disciplines for understanding and implementing remote sensing of biodiversity across scales. The first part of the book offers a potential basis for remote detection of biodiversity. An overview of the nature of biodiversity is described, along with ways for determining traits of plant biodiversity through spectral analyses across spatial scales and linking spectral data to the tree of life. The second part details what can be detected spectrally and remotely. Specific instrumentation and technologies are described, as well as the technical challenges of detection and data synthesis, collection and processing. The third part discusses spatial resolution and integration across scales and ends with a vision for developing a global biodiversity monitoring system. Topics include spectral and functional variation across habitats and biomes, biodiversity variables for global scale assessment, and the prospects and pitfalls in remote sensing of biodiversity at the global scale

Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity

At last, here it is. For some time now, the world has needed a text providing both a new theoretical foundation and practical guidance on how to approach the challenge of biodiversity decline in the Anthropocene. This is a global challenge demanding global approaches to understand its scope and implications. Until recently, we have simply lacked the tools to do so. We are now entering an era in which we can realistically begin to understand and monitor the multidimensional phenomenon of biodiversity at a planetary scale. This era builds upon three centuries of scientific research on biodiversity at site to landscape levels, augmented over the past two decades by airborne research platforms carrying spectrometers, lidars, and radars for larger-scale observations. Emerging international networks of fine-grain in-situ biodiversity observations complemented by space-based sensors offering coarser-grain imagery—but global coverage—of ecosystem composition, function, and structure together provide the information necessary to monitor and track change in biodiversity globally. This book is a road map on how to observe and interpret terrestrial biodiversity across scales through plants—primary producers and the foundation of the trophic pyramid. It honors the fact that biodiversity exists across different dimensions, including both phylogenetic and functional. Then, it relates these aspects of biodiversity to another dimension, the spectral diversity captured by remote sensing instruments operating at scales from leaf to canopy to biome. The biodiversity community has needed a Rosetta Stone to translate between the language of satellite remote sensing and its resulting spectral diversity and the languages of those exploring the phylogenetic diversity and functional trait diversity of life on Earth. By assembling the vital translation, this volume has globalized our ability to track biodiversity state and change. Thus, a global problem meets a key component of the global solution. The editors have cleverly built the book in three parts. Part 1 addresses the theory behind the remote sensing of terrestrial plant biodiversity: why spectral diversity relates to plant functional traits and phylogenetic diversity. Starting with first principles, it connects plant biochemistry, physiology, and macroecology to remotely sensed spectra and explores the processes behind the patterns we observe. Examples from the field demonstrate the rising synthesis of multiple disciplines to create a new cross-spatial and spectral science of biodiversity. Part 2 discusses how to implement this evolving science. It focuses on the plethora of novel in-situ, airborne, and spaceborne Earth observation tools currently and soon to be available while also incorporating the ways of actually making biodiversity measurements with these tools. It includes instructions for organizing and conducting a field campaign. Throughout, there is a focus on the burgeoning field of imaging spectroscopy, which is revolutionizing our ability to characterize life remotely. Part 3 takes on an overarching issue for any effort to globalize biodiversity observations, the issue of scale. It addresses scale from two perspectives. The first is that of combining observations across varying spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions for better understanding—that is, what scales and how. This is an area of ongoing research driven by a confluence of innovations in observation systems and rising computational capacity. The second is the organizational side of the scaling challenge. It explores existing frameworks for integrating multi-scale observations within global networks. The focus here is on what practical steps can be taken to organize multi-scale data and what is already happening in this regard. These frameworks include essential biodiversity variables and the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). This book constitutes an end-to-end guide uniting the latest in research and techniques to cover the theory and practice of the remote sensing of plant biodiversity. In putting it together, the editors and their coauthors, all preeminent in their fields, have done a great service for those seeking to understand and conserve life on Earth—just when we need it most. For if the world is ever to construct a coordinated response to the planetwide crisis of biodiversity loss, it must first assemble adequate—and global—measures of what we are losing

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

Hands-on science: science education with and for society

The decisive importance of Science on the development of modern societies gives Science Education a role of special impact. Society sets the requirements rules and procedures of Education defining what concepts and competencies citizens must learn and how this learning should take place. Educational policies set by governments, elected and or imposed, not always reflects the will and ruling of Society. The School as pivotal element of our modern educational system must look behind and beyond imposed rules and regulations and persistently seek a permanent and open relation with Society, in all its dimensions, assuming and defending its crucial role on the development of Society and humankind. Aiming to contribute to an effective implementation of a sound widespread scientific literacy and effective Science Education in our Schools and Society at large, the Hands-on Science Network promotes a number of meetings and conferences open to the widest range of contributions on different pedagogic approaches with the common goal of promoting an effective learning of Science. This book gathers a number of interesting works presented at the 11th International Conference on Hands-on Science held in Aveiro, Portugal, July 21 to 25, 2014. The different chapters covers a wide range of topics including different strategies on connecting school’ science education with society and on synergetic relations between Society and Science Education, reports on good practices on formal as well as non-formal or informal science education, ICT tools, IBSE, active learning and hands-on pedagogy. We believe that the materials herein are a rather useful tool to assist teachers and educators as well as all interested in Science Education and its impact on the development of our Societies

Genome-scale metabolic reconstruction and analysis of the Trypanosoma brucei metabolism from a Systems biology perspective

Les progrès récents dans la modélisation informatique des réseaux biologiques permettent maintenant aux chercheurs d'étudier le métabolisme cellulaire des organismes. Dans ce projet, ces approches ont été utilisées pour analyser le métabolisme de Trypanosoma brucei. Ce parasite protozoaire est responsable de la trypanosomiase africaine, une maladie mortelle chez l'homme et qui entraine des dégâts importants dans les élevages. Ce parasite est principalement retrouvé dans les régions d'Afrique sub-sahariennes. Durant cette thèse, des informations sur le métabolisme de T. brucei ont été recueillies à partir d'études publiées, bases de données et de communication personnelle avec des experts qui étudient les différents aspects du métabolisme des trypanosomatides. Cette information a été mise à disposition de la communauté à travers la base de données TrypanoCyc. La base de données a été publiée en Novembre 2014 et a eu plus de 4200 visiteurs provenant de plus de cent pays depuis Novembre 2015. Un modèle métabolique à l'échelle du génome de T. brucei a également été reconstruit sur la base des informations recueillies. Ce modèle a permis de faciliter l'étude du métabolisme de T. brucei en utilisant une approche de biologie des systèmes. Des algorithmes basés sur l'analyse de balance des flux ont été conçus pour optimiser la visualisation et l'étude des propriétés métaboliques du parasite. En utilisant l'algorithme iMat, des modèles spécifiques de la forme sanguine de T. brucei ont été générés à partir des informations fournies par les études publiées et les annotations présentent dans. Enfin, un algorithme a été conçu pour optimiser encore ces modèles spécifiques afin d'améliorer la cohérence de leurs prédictions avec les résultats publiés. Les modèles ainsi créés, spécifiques à la forme sanguine, ont montré une meilleure puissance prédictive que le modèle initial à l'échelle du génome, en particulier pour prédire le comportement métabolique spécifique de différents mutants de T. brucei. ABSTRACT : Recent advances in computational modelling of biological networks have helped researchers study the cellular metabolism of organisms. In this project, these approaches were used to analyze Trypanosoma brucei metabolism. This protozoan parasite is the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis, a lethal disease which has been responsible for huge loss of lives and livestock in Sub- Saharan Africa since ancient times. Information on T. brucei metabolism was gathered from published studies, databases and from personal communication with experts studying different areas of Trypanosomatid research. This information has been presented to the public through the TrypanoCyc Database, a community annotated T. brucei database. The database was published in November 2014 and has had over 4200 visitors from more than 100 countries as of November 2015. A manually curated genome-scale metabolic model for T. brucei was also built based on the gathered information to facilitate the study of T. brucei metabolism using systems biology approaches. Flux balance analysis based algorithms were designed to optimize visualization and study interesting metabolic properties. Blood-stream form specific metabolic models were generated using information available from published studies and the TrypanoCyc annotations with the help of the iMAT algorithm. Finally, an algorithm was designed to further optimize these stage specific models to improve the consistency of their predictions with results published in previous studies. These stage-specific models were observed to have a clear advantage over the genome-scale model when predicting stage-specific behaviour of T. brucei, particularly when predicting mutant behaviour

Proceedings of the Scientific-Practical Conference "Research and Development - 2016"

talent management; sensor arrays; automatic speech recognition; dry separation technology; oil production; oil waste; laser technolog

1999 Florida Bay and adjacent marine systems science conference; November 1-5, 1999; Westin Beach Resort, Key Largo, FL

The Florida Bay Science Conference provides an opportunity annually for researchers to exchange technical information, share that information with resource managers and other interested conference attendees, and establish collaborative partnerships. This year’s conference allows investigators from more than 90 research and monitoring projects the opportunity to highlight their findings in platform and poster presentations