To be fAIr: ethical and fair application of artificial intelligence in virtual laboratories

In 1984, the film “The Terminator” predicted that a hostile Artificial Intelligence (AI) will threaten to extinguish humankind by 2029. Even though the real present is quite far from this post-apocalyptic scenario where AI rebels against its creator, a growing concern about the lack of ethical considerations in the use of AI is rapidly spreading, leading to the current “ethics crisis”. The lack of clear regulations is even more alarming considering that AI is becoming an integral part of new educational platforms. This follows the wave of digital transformation mainly induced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with advances in digitalization strategies, and the COVID-19 crisis, which forced education institutions worldwide to switch to e-learning. The appeal of AI is its potential to answer the needs of both educators and learners. For example, it can provide help grading assignments, enable tutoring opportunities, develop smart content, personalize and ultimately boost on-line learning. Although the “AI revolution” has great potential to improve and boost digital education, there are no clear regulations in place to ensure an ethical and fair use of AI. Therefore, this work aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current concerns regarding fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics in AI applied to education, with specific focus on virtual laboratories. The main aspects that this work aims to discuss, and provide possible suggestions for, are: (i) ethical concerns, fairness, bias, equity, and inclusion; (ii) data transparency and digital rights, including data availability, collection, and protection; and, (iii) collaborative approach between disciplines

Exercício físico com pessoas com doença de Parkinson

Já são reconhecidos benefícios ao exercício físico há muitos anos. Com o evoluir da ciência foram comprovados diversos benefícios, principalmente a nível da saúde. O exercício pode prevenir várias doenças, bem como ajudar a controlar e atrasar o avanço nos casos onde já possa existir a doença. O Parkinson é a segunda doença neurodegenerativa mais comum, no mundo, e em Portugal existem cada vez mais pessoas a serem diagnosticadas com doença de Parkinson. Esta doença é caracterizada por se manifestar através de alterações funcionais e alterações não motoras. Não tem cura conhecida, mas existe medicação que ajuda a controlar alguns dos seus sintomas. Também o exercício pode ajudar no controlo de alguns sintomas e, mais que isso, pode ajudar na desaceleração da progressão da doença. Este relatório é o culminar do trabalho realizado durante o estágio na Associação Portuguesa de Doentes de Parkinson, onde pude ter contacto com uma pequena parte da população com Doença de Parkinson de Lisboa, aprender sobre esta doença com especialistas de diferentes áreas e os próprios doentes e comprovar que o exercício realmente faz a diferença nesta população.The benefits of exercise have been recognized for many years. With the evolution of science, several benefits have been proven, mainly in terms of health. Exercise can prevent many diseases, as well as help to control and delay progress in cases where a disease may already exist. Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world, and in Portugal the number of people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease is increasing. This disease is characterized by symptoms like functional changes and non-motor changes. There is no known cure, but there are medications that helps to control some of the symptoms. Exercise can also help control some symptoms and may help slow the progression of the disease. This report is the culmination of the work done during the master internship at the Portuguese Association of Parkinson's Patients, where I was able to contact with a small part of the population with Parkinson's Disease in Lisbon, to learn about this disease from specialists in different areas and the patients themselves, and prove that exercise can really makes a difference in this population

Contributo para o estudo da inclusão em crianças com deficiência em jardim-de-infância

Dissertação de mestrado, Ciências da Educação, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2005The main goal of this report is contribute for the study of children with disabilities inclusion in kindergarten.O relatório apresentado tem como objectivo principal contribuir para o estudo da inclusão de crianças com deficiência em jardim-de-infância

Production of phosphate biofertilizers as a booster for the techno-economic and environmental performance of a first-generation sugarcane ethanol and sugar biorefinery.

A B S T R A C T The intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture has a significant economic and environmental impact worldwide. Biofertilizers (aka microbial inoculants) could be a potential alternative to decrease costs and the environmental footprint linked to the use of fertilizers while boosting productivity through biological processes. This work aimed to perform a techno-economic-environmental assessment of an industrial biofertilizer production facility integrated with a sugarcane ethanol biorefinery. To this end, systems engineering tools were employed concurrently with techno-economic-environmental analyses to assess the integration of the different processes and their feasibility. Three processes for biofertilizer production are proposed varying in terms of downstream processing and the use of single or double microorganisms. Our findings indicate that the integration of biofertilizer production can enhance the biorefinery’s NPV by as much as 137% in the most favorable scenario and by a minimum of 69% in the most unfavorable scenario. Regarding environmental consequences, in general, all scenarios demonstrate an improvement over the base scenario. Global sensitivity analysis showed that the solid-state fermentation and composite formulation steps of the biofertilizer process have the most substantial influence on both economic and environmental outcomes. The uncertainty analysis further unveils that the scenarios without fungus separation exhibited greater resilience in the face of market volatility. The retro-techno-economic study defined the economically viable region. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that the integration of biofertilizers into an ethanol and sugar biorefinery is a more sustainable alternative than the isolated biorefinery regarding the environmental and techno-economic aspects of sustainability

NyctiDB: A non-relational bioprocesses modeling database supported by an ontology

Strategies to exploit and enable the digitalization of industrial processes are on course to become game-changers in optimizing (bio)chemical facilities. To achieve this, these industries face an increasing need for process models and, as importantly, an efficient way to store the models and data/information. Therefore, this work proposes developing an online information storage system that can facilitate the reuse and expansion of process models and make them available to the digitalization cycle. This system is named NyctiDB, and it is a novel non-relational database coupled with a bioprocess ontology. The ontology supports the selection and classification of bioprocess models focused information, while the database is in charge of the online storage of said information. Through a series of online collections, NyctiDB contains essential knowledge for the design, monitoring, control, and optimization of a bioprocess based on its mathematical model. Once NyctiDB has been implemented, its applicability and usefulness are demonstrated through two applications. Application A shows how NyctiDB is integrated inside the software architecture of an online educational bioprocess simulator. This implies that NyctiDB provides the information for the visualization of different bioprocess behaviours and the modifications of the models in the software. Moreover, the information related to the parameters and conditions of each model is used to support the users’ understanding of the process. Additionally, application B illustrates that NyctiDB can be used as AI enabler to further the research in this field through open-source and reliable data. This can, in fact, be used as the information source for the AI frameworks when developing, for example, hybrid models or smart expert systems for bioprocesses. Henceforth, this work aims to provide a blueprint on how to collect bioprocess modeling information and connect it to facilitate and empower the Internet-of-Things paradigm and the digitalization of the biomanufacturing industries

Optimal design and planning of glycerol-based biorefinery supply chains under uncertainty

The optimal design and planning of glycerol-based biorefinery supply chains is critical for the development and implementation of this concept in a sustainable manner. To achieve this, a decision-making framework is proposed in this work, to holistically optimize the design and planning of the glycerol-based biorefinery supply chains under uncertainties. This framework presents a multilayered strategy composed of different steps, and it is strongly based on optimization techniques, detailed economic and environmental assessment, and multiobjective optimization under a stochastic environment. To maximize the business value, the economic objective is measured by the Net Present Value (NPV), whereas the environmental performance is measured by the estimation of a Single Indicator (SI) through the application of LCA methods. As part of the framework, a stochastic multiperiod, multiproduct, and multiechelon mixed integer linear programming problem is proposed based upon a previous model, GlyThink. In the new formulation, market uncertainties are taken into account at the strategic planning level. The robustness of the supply chain structures is analyzed based on statistical data provided by the implementation of the Monte Carlo method, where a deterministic optimization problem is solved for each scenario. Furthermore, the solution of the stochastic multiobjective optimization model points to the Pareto set of trade-off solutions obtained when maximizing the NPV and minimizing environmental consequences. Therefore, the proposed framework ultimately leads to the identification of the optimal design and planning decisions for the development of environmentally conscious biorefinery supply chains. The effectiveness of the presented approach is demonstrated through its application to the realistic case study of the glycerol-based biorefinery in Europe, where the results showed that the optimal solution under market uncertainties is obtained by establishing a multiplant supply chain for the glycerol-based integrated biorefinery, built upon two plant site locations (Germany, France) based on the production of succinic acid and lactic acid