Lessons from Chile: protesting the state of education

On the second day of industrial action, as staff and students from UK universities participate in record numbers, Daniela Perez Aguilar and Cristóbal Villalobos Dintrans shed light on the Chilean approach to resistance drawing important comparisons between the participants and strategies for protest in the two countries

Improving the Evolutionary Coding for Machine Learning Tasks

The most influential factors in the quality of the solutions found by an evolutionary algorithm are a correct coding of the search space and an appropriate evaluation function of the potential solutions. The coding of the search space for the obtaining of decision rules is approached, i.e., the representation of the individuals of the genetic population. Two new methods for encoding discrete and continuous attributes are presented. Our “natural coding” uses one gene per attribute (continuous or discrete) leading to a reduction in the search space. Genetic operators for this approached natural coding are formally described and the reduction of the size of the search space is analysed for several databases from the UCI machine learning repository.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC1143–C03–0

Evaluation of autohydrolysis pretreatment using microwave heating for enzymatic saccharification of corn residues

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials (LCMs) is one of the most critical stages in the production of 2G bioethanol, this stage allows to maximize the production of fermentable sugars in the enzymatic saccharification process (ESP). Recently the microwave heating (MH) have been studied for enhanced the LCMs pretreatment, this technology reduces the energy requirements in the process, due to the fast heat transfer and it has allowed to redefine a lot of reactions which the thermal factor plays an essential role in the process. In this work were evaluated the effects of autohydrolysis pretreatment from corn residues using microwave heating and the pretreated solids as substrate in the enzymatic saccharification. The autohydrolysis pretreatment was performed using water as catalyst, the time (10, 30 and 50) and temperature (160, 180 and 200 ºC) were evaluated and the pretreated solids were used in the ESP. The enzymatic saccharification were performed with a working volume of 50 mL, 50 mM citrate buffer (pH 4.8), 2% (w/v) sodium with a cellulose concentration of 1 % (w/v) and incubated at 50 °C. The CellicCTec2 - cellulase was used with a loading of 20 FPU/g. This work showed that microwave autohydrolysis processing is an efficient pretreatment producing a solid enriched with cellulose (63.67±0.91) . The solid pretreated at 200 °C for 10 min was the best condition for saccharification yield (96.95% ± 0.79). This autohydrolysis pretreatment using microwave heating and enzymatic saccharification is a good alternative to obtain fermentable sugars for bioethanol production

Advances in preservation of fruits and vegetables with bioactive coatings

Bioactive compounds are a large group of compounds (antimicrobials, antioxidants, nutrients, etc.), but its use in edible fi lms and coatings for application on fruits and vegetables has been very important because nowadays the consumers demand fruits and vegetables that are fresh, healthy, high quality and easy to prepare. A number of investigations have shown that the use of additives in edible fi lms and coatings improve its functionability and provide compounds for human health. However, it is necessary to continue research that can generate specifi c or tailor-made edible fi lms and coatings for each product with the best characteristics for preservation. In this review we present and analyze the concepts, progress and perspectives in the design and application of edible fi lms and coatings for fruits and vegetables in order to defi ne the challenges and opportunities that this topic of study in the fi eld of science, technology and food engineering.Los autores agradecen el apoyo fi nanciero brindado por el Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), a la Dra. Blanca Valdivia Urdiales por el apoyo brindado en la escritura de este manuscrito y al M.C. Jorge Alejandro Aguirre Joya por la edición del mismo

A Tool to Obtain a Hierarchical Qualitative Rules from Quantitative Data

A tool to obtain a classifier system from labelled databases is presented. The result is a hierarchical set of rules to divide the space in n-orthohedrons. This hierarchy means that obtained rules must be applied in specific order, that is, an example will be classify by i-rule only if it isn't matched the conditions of the i-1 preceding rules. It is used a genetic algorithm with real codification as searching method. Logically, computation time will be greater than other systems like C4.5, but it will provide flexibility to the user because it is always possible to produce rules set with 0% of error rate and, from here, to relax the error rate for having less rules. Afterwards, a qualitative approach is made to obtain a linguistic rule set. Finally, several results are summarized in section 4

Plan financiero para nuevos productos y servicios financieros que la Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Juan Pio de Mora Ltda, del cantón Chillanes, provincia de Bolívar; pondrá al servicio de sus clientes y asociados a partir del año 2013

El plan financiero propuesto, provee una alternativa económica y financiera a la Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Juan Pio de Mora LTDA, para mejorar su desempeño y resultados económicos, dándole la posibilidad de expandirse y desarrollar planes estratégicos en su crecimiento financiero. El objetivo principal del presente plan financiero es aprovechar de mejor manera los recursos existentes y ampliar la competitividad en la prestación de nuevos productos y servicios para sus socios y la población en general. Para lo cual se desarrolló un estudio de mercado que permitió identificar las necesidades potenciales y proponer nuevos productos y servicios para poder cubrir parte de dichas necesidades a nivel de la población de Chillanes. La presente tesis se constituye en un aporte a la gestión administrativa y financiera de la Cooperativa, ya que a través del trabajo de investigación se ha generado una alternativa viable y favorable para los intereses de la entidad El plan financiero analiza la viabilidad económico financiera del proyecto en un periodo de cinco años, el que define la cartera de productos y servicios a introducir en el mercado financiero local, considerando la Inversión necesaria y su financiamiento el flujo del efectivo; detallando las necesidades de gastos operativos, los plazos de cobro y el cumplimiento de las distintas obligaciones. Finalmente se puede decir que la entidad debería tomar en cuenta el presente trabajo y profundizar en la investigación y estudios de mercado para desarrollar las herramientas necesarias y competir en el mercado financiero local, además tener la oportunidad de expandirse a otros sectores de la provincia y el pais.The proposed financial plan provides an economic and financial alternative to the Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Juan Pio de Mora LTDA, to improve its performance and economic results, giving it the possibility to expand and develop strategic plans in its financial growth. The main objective of this financial plan is to make better use of existing resources and to increase competitiveness in the provision of new products and services for its partners and the general population. For this purpose, a market study was carried out to identify potential needs and propose new products and services to cover part of these needs at the level of the population of Chillanes. This thesis constitutes a contribution to the administrative and financial management of the Cooperative, since through the research work has generated a viable alternative and favorable to the interests of the entity The financial plan analyzes the financial economic viability of the project in a period of five years, which defines the portfolio of products and services to be introduced in the local financial market, considering the necessary investment and its financing cash flow; detailing the needs of operating expenses, collection periods and compliance with the different obligations. Finally, it can be said that the entity should take into account the present work and deepen the research and market studies to develop the necessary tools and compete in the local financial market, also have the opportunity to expand to other sectors of the province and the country

Animated Diving Rules

The purpose of this project is to illustrate the process of creation of an animated product. In this specific case, it is a series of educational, animated short films, which teach about the importance of the security principles of diving. The body is presented in an organized way; starting with the creation of the idea and it's justification. Later on, the process of pre-production is presented, in which the story-board, animatics and 3D assets are created. In the production stage, the 2D and 3D process unralves, along with the problems faced by trying to blend these two methods. In the last stage, post production, sound design and color correction are studied. Finally arriving to the conclusions about what was learn during the making of this productEl propósito de este proyecto es ilustrar el proceso de creación de un producto animado. En este caso en específico se trata de una serie de cortometrajes animados educa-tivos, los cuales muestran la importancia de las reglas y principios de seguridad de buceo. El desarrollo se lo presenta de manera ordenada, comenzando por la concepción de la idea y sus razones. Luego se ve el proceso de pre-producción en el cual se desarrollaron los guiones, storyboards, animatic y todos los assets en 3D. En la etapa de producción se estudia el proceso de animación 2D y 3D junto con los problemas que se encara al juntar ambos métodos. En la última etapa, la post-producción, se estudiada la creación del sonido y correcciones de color. Finalmente se llega a las conclusiones sobre lo aprendido en el desarrollo del producto

Polyphenols and sugars recovery from autohydrolysis of pineapple waste

[Excerpt] The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of temperature, time and mass/ volume ratio on the release of sugars and polyphenols using an autohydrolysis procedure from pineapple waste. A Box-Bhenken design was used with three factors (time, temperature and mass/volume ratio) and three levels was used. All treatments were performed in triplicate. Nine central points were used. For autohydrlosysis treatments, an oil bath was used [1]. After autohydrolysis, liquid phases or hydrolysates were analyzed for glucose and fructose concentration by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [2]. The FolinCiocalteu assay was used to measure total polyphenols of hydrolysates [3] and HPLC to identify these molecules [4]. (...

Discovering hierarchical decision rules with evolutive algorithms in supervised learning

This paper describes a new approach, HIDER (HIerarchical DEcision Rules), for learning rules in continuous and discrete domains based on evolutive algorithms. The algorithm produces a hierarchical set of rules, that is, the rules must be applied in a speciÞc order. With this policy, the number of rules may be reduced because the rules could be one inside of another. The evolutive algorithm uses both real and binary codiÞcation for the individuals of the population and introduces several new genetic operators. In addition, this paper discusses the capability of learning systems based on an evolutive algorithm to reduce both the number of rules and the number of attributes involved in the rule set. We have tested our system on real data from the UCI repository. The results of a 10-fold cross validation are compared to C4.5 s and they show an important improvement.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC99-035