OptFerm - a computational platform for the optimization of fermentation processes

We present OptFerm, a computational platform for the simulation and optimization of fermentation processes. The aim of this project is to offer a platform-independent, user-friendly, open-source and extensible environment for Bioengineering process optimization that can be used to increase productivity. This tool is focused in optimizing a feeding trajectory to be fed into a fed-batch bioreactor and to calculate the best concentration of nutrients to initiate the fermentation. Also, a module for the estimation of kinetic and yield parameters has been developed, allowing the use of experimental data obtained from batch or fed-batch fermentations to reach the best possible model setup. The software was built using a component-based modular development methodology, using Java as the programming language. AlBench. a Model-View-Control based application framework was used as the basis to implement the different data objects and operations, as well as their graphical user interfaces. Also, this allows the tool to be easily extended with new modules, currently being developed

Optimization of fed-batch fermentation processes with bio-inspired algorithms

The optimization of the feeding trajectories in fed-batch fermentation processes is a complex problem that has gained attention given its significant economical impact. A number of bio-inspired algorithms have approached this task with considerable success, but systematic and statistically significant comparisons of the different alternatives are still lacking. In this paper, the performance of different metaheuristics, such as Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), Differential Evolution (DE) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is compared, resorting to several case studies taken from literature and conducting a thorough statistical validation of the results. DE obtains the best overall performance, showing a consistent ability to find good solutions and presenting a good convergence speed, with the DE/rand variants being the ones with the best performance. A freely available computational application, OptFerm, is described that provides an interface allowing users to apply the proposed methods to their own models and data.The work is partially funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within projects Ref. COMPETE FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-015079 and PEst-OE/ES/UI0752/2011

Desenvolvimento de ferramentas computacionais para a optimização de processos de fermentação em Biotecnologia

Tese de mestrado em InformáticaActualmente, uma larga variedade de produtos tais como antibióticos, proteínas, vacinas e outros compostos químicos são produzidos através de processos fermentativos. Devido à subida dos preços do petróleo e aos fortes incentivos por parte das instituições para substituir os produtos derivados de petróleo por “produtos verdes”, muitos dos processos tradicionais têm vindo a ser substituídos por bioprocessos. Consequentemente, tem existido um esforço para melhorar a produtividade dos processos biológicos. A optimização destes processos pode ser realizada em duas etapas: primeiramente, faz-se uma selecção e uma melhoria genética do microrganismo e num segundo passo são identificadas as melhores condições para realizar o processo fermentativo. Nesta etapa, normalmente são realizados estudos experimentais através de tentativa-erro para obter as condições ambientais que propiciem o melhor crescimento e produtividade do microrganismo, manipulando as concentrações iniciais dos nutrientes, os perfis de alimentação de substrato ao reactor, os modos de operação, bem como a temperatura e o pH. Nos últimos anos, têm sido desenvolvidas várias ferramentas informáticas para simulação e optimização de bioprocessos. Porém, a maioria destas ferramentas está direccionada para estudar as vias metabólicas de um microrganismo de modo a optimizar a produtividade de determinado produto. Numa fase posterior, é efectuada uma optimização genética do microrganismo. Apesar de existir uma grande variedade de ferramentas informáticas verifica-se que nenhuma delas está desenhada especificamente para a optimização e simulação de processos fermentativos. Assim, o objectivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver de raiz uma ferramenta direccionada para simulação, optimização e estimação de parâmetros de processos fermentativos. A aplicação OptFerm foi desenvolvida sobre uma plataforma denominada AIBench, tendo-se utilizado a linguagem Java como linguagem de programação. O OptFerm foi então desenvolvido de modo a ser uma ferramenta de fácil uso, extensível e que pudesse funcionar em qualquer sistema operativo, estando disponível como software livre em http://darwin.di.uminho.pt/optferm/. A aplicação foi desenhada de modo a que o utilizador pudesse realizar várias tarefas de simulação, optimização e estimação de parâmetros com diferentes condições no que se refere a variáveis de estado, parâmetros, perfis de alimentação, etc.. As tarefas de optimização foram focadas na determinação do melhor perfil de alimentação de uma corrente de substrato a alimentar ao reactor, dos melhores valores das variáveis de estado para iniciar uma fermentação e do tempo óptimo de duração para uma fermentação. Foram realizados alguns estudos de optimização e estimação de parâmetros com o objectivo de verificar se a aplicação era suficientemente robusta. Os estudos foram baseados na repetição das experiências por 30 vezes para obter significância estatística. Após os estudos, verificou-se que as operações foram realizadas levando a resultados coerentes, não tendo sido detectados erros relevantes.Nowadays, several products such as antibiotics, proteins, vaccines, aminoacids and other chemicals are produced using fermentation processes. Due to the rise of petroleum prices and the strong incentive to replace petroleum derivatives by “green products”, many traditional processes have been replaced by new biotechnological ones. Consequently, an effort to improve biotechnological techniques has been undertaken. In order to optimize the productivity of a biological process, in the majority of the cases, two different steps have to be addressed: firstly, a selection and genetic improvement of the microbial strain is accomplished; in a second step, the best conditions for the fermentation process are identified, such as the initial nutrient concentrations, operating modes, feeding profiles for fed-batch fermentations, temperature and pH. Over the last few years, several tools have been developed for the simulation and optimization of biological processes. However, the majority of these tools was designed specifically to study metabolic pathways with the aim of increasing the productivity of a certain product. In a subsequent stage, a genetic optimization of the organism is conducted. Although there are several tools available to study simulate and optimize cellular pathways, there is still a clear lack of specific tools to perform the optimization of fermentation processes. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a specific computational tool to perform simulation and optimization of fermentation processes and estimation of unknown parameters. The OptFerm software was developed using the Java programming language, with the aim of being a user-friendly, extensible and platform-independent computational tool. OptFerm is freely available in http://darwin.di.uminho.pt/optferm/. The tool was designed in order to allow the user to evaluate and compare several different methods for the tasks of simulation, optimization and parameter estimation, in the context of fermentation processes. The aim is to allow users to improve process productivity, achieving better results in reduced times. The optimization tasks available include the optimization of a substrate feeding trajectory, of the feeding trajectory plus initial conditions or of the feeding trajectory plus the final fermentation time. After developing the OptFerm tool, some studies on optimization and parameter estimation were performed, with the aim of verifying if the tool is sufficiently robust. The studies were based on repeating 30 times each type of experiment. It was verified that the operations were performed with coherent results and no relevant errors have been detected

Gomes, Christianne L. y Elizalde, Rodrigo, Horizontes latino-americanos do lazer/ Horizontes latinoamericanos del ocio

Gomes, Christianne L. y Elizalde, Rodrigo, Horizontes latino-americanos do lazer/ Horizontes latinoamericanos del oci

Por una educación ociosa: reflexiones desde la filosofía para la liberación de Osvaldo Ardiles Couderc

The leisure like area and notion of culture has, for the education, a space of fundamental attention while it appears towards the creative dimension of the human being. The aim of the written present is Osvaldo Ardiles thinks concerning his philosophical dimensions for an education for the liberation from the ideas of the Argentine philosopher of the liberation.Keywords: leisure; philosophy; education; liberation; Osvaldo Ardiles; Latin America.El ocio como ámbito y noción de cultura tiene, para la educación, un espacio de fundamental atención en tanto que apunta hacia la dimensión creativa del ser humano. El objetivo del presente escrito es reflexionar en torno a sus dimensiones filosoficas por una educación para la liberación, a partir de las ideas del filósofo argentino de la liberación Osvaldo Ardiles.Palabras clave: ocio; filosofía; educación; liberación; Osvaldo Ardiles; América Latina

Osvaldo Ardiles y las filosofías de la liberación. Elementos para una ubicación de su pensamiento

El presente escrito rastrea las diferentes lecturas que ha tenido la obra del filósofo Osvaldo Ardiles, integrante y uno de los fundadores de las filosofías de la liberación argentinas. Centrando el estudio de la obra de Ardiles en el quinquenio de 1971 a 1975, se destaca la importancia que ella ha tenido y tiene hoy para el pensamiento de la liberación, así como los influjos e influencias del filósofo de Córdoba ha tenido en su quehacer teórico. El estudio de estas imágenes del pensamiento de Ardiles permitirá consignar elementos para futuros estudios de su obra

OPTFERM - a computational platform for the optimization of fermentation processes

Numerous products such as antibiotics, proteins, amino-acids and other chemicals are produced using fermentation processes. These systems are affected by biochemical and chemical phenomena as well as environmental conditions. Consequently, several computational tools have been designed and implemented for modeling, simulation and optimization, sharing a common purpose: increase the production yield of the final product. We present OptFerm, a computational platform for the simulation and optimization of fermentation processes. The aim of this project is to offer a platform-independent, user-friendly, open-source and extensible environment for the improvement of Bioengineering processes. This tool is focused in optimizing a feeding trajectory to be fed into a fed-batch bioreactor and to calculate the best concentration of nutrients to initiate the fermentation. Furthermore, a module for the estimation of kinetic and yield parameters has been developed, allowing the use of experimental data obtained from batch or fed-batch fermentations to reach the best possible model setup. The features present in this tool allow the users to analyze the robustness of a fed-batch model, compare simulated with experimental data, determine unknown parameters and optimize feeding profiles. The software was built using a component-based modular development methodology, using Java as the programming language. AIBench, a Model-View-Control based Java application framework was used as the basis to implement the different data objects and operations, as well as their graphical user interfaces. Moreover, this allows the tool to be easily extended with new modules, which are currently being developed

The corporate governance contribution as a creation of value for commercial partnerships between service providers and logistic operators

This theoretical research identified the possibility that Governance factors contribute as evidence of value in the relationships of commercial partnerships between Logistic Operators and service providers. The data analysis allowed to identify three possible levels of grouping due to the variables of facilitators of proximity of partnerships that showed that it is possible to have a relationship with transparence between the client company and its suppliers. Most of these groups of suppliers were characterized by the intention to share operating profits with the client company, with little tolerance to financial risks of joint investments and a tendency to sign future supply contracts. Transparency, ethics and corporate responsibility have contributed to the consolidation of these groupings of partnerships among companies, as well as creating a mutual and evolutionary process of full confidence in such a way that Corporate Governance becomes the main value factor for this relationship

Caracterización de los egresados de nivel universitario en ingeniería de sistemas telemáticas y afines en Colombia para el periodo 2009 - 2016.

Actualmente en Colombia se gradúan aproximadamente 5.000 nuevos profesionales del sector TI, según información del MinTIC, este número de profesionales no compensa la demanda de las empresas, debido a esta necesidad las empresas han empezado a contratar perfiles técnicos y tecnólogos, ya que se valora su trabajo para tareas específicas del desarrollo de software. El presente trabajo muestra una caracterización realizada a los egresados de nivel universitario en Ingeniería de sistemas telemática y afines, en Colombia, en los periodos del 2009 al 2016, a través de un estudio documental según información proporcionada por el Observatorio Laboral Colombiano, la cual además especifica la cantidad de egresados en ese periodo de tiempo, la situación laboral, promedio de ingresos a corte 2016, egresados según la región e ingreso de acuerdo al género. Este estudio a su vez puede ser referencia para futuras investigaciones.Currently in Colombia approximately 5,000 new IT professionals are graduating, according to information from MinTIC, this number of professionals does not compensate for the demand of companies, due to this need companies have begun to hire technical profiles and technologists, as their work is valued for specific tasks of software development. The present work shows a characterization made to the graduates of university level in telematic and related systems engineering, in Colombia, in the periods from 2009 to 2016, through a documentary study according to information provided by the Colombian Labor Observatory, which also specifies the number of graduates in that period of time, the labor situation, average income to court 2016, graduates by region and income according to gender. This study in turn may be a reference for future research

La fiction dans le cadre de l’interaction didactique

À partir d’extraits du théâtre de Ionesco, nous proposons une approche de la fiction comme composante indissociable de la construction et de l’interprétation de l’interaction en classe de langue. Construit sur le mode du pastiche, le texte de Ionesco nous offre quelques "distorsions" de ce discours de la classe, ce qui permet de mieux cerner quelques-unes de ses particularités tel l’équilibre nécessairement instable, toujours renégocié, entre la déréalisation et l’hyper-réalisation de l’espace-classe.Based on a corpus that is constituted of excerpts from lonesco’s works, we propose an approach to fiction as a component seen as inseparable from the constitution and interpretation in the language class. Constructed as pastiche, lonesco’s text offers us “distorsions” of classroom discourse, which allows us a better perception of some of its peculiarities, as, for instance, the necessarily unstable perpetually renegociated balance between de-realization and hyper-realization