A New Multi-Resource cumulatives Constraint with Negative Heights

This paper presents a new cumulatives constraint which generalizes the original cumulative constraint in different ways. The two most important aspects consist in permitting multiple cumulative resources as well as negative heights for the resource consumption of the tasks. This allows modeling in an easy way new scheduling and planning problems. The introduction of negative heights has forced us to come up with new propagation algorithms and to revisit existing ones. The first propagation algorithm is derived from an idea called sweep which is extensively used in computational geometry; the second algorithm is based on a combination of sweep and constructive disjunction, while the last is a generalization of task intervals to this new context. A real-life timetabling problem originally motivated this constraint which was implemented within the SICStus finite domain solver and evaluated against different problem patterns

Benchmark instance indicators and computational comparison of methods

chapter 7This chapter is devoted to extensive computational experiments on the resource-constrained project scheduling problem. Its objective is twofold. First, a selection of representative exact and heuristic methods among the ones presented in the previous chapters are tested and compared under a common experimental framework on four different instance sets. Second, classical and new instance difficulty indicators are evaluated through the experiments and their discriminating power is discussed

Models and Strategies for Variants of the Job Shop Scheduling Problem

Recently, a variety of constraint programming and Boolean satisfiability approaches to scheduling problems have been introduced. They have in common the use of relatively simple propagation mechanisms and an adaptive way to focus on the most constrained part of the problem. In some cases, these methods compare favorably to more classical constraint programming methods relying on propagation algorithms for global unary or cumulative resource constraints and dedicated search heuristics. In particular, we described an approach that combines restarting, with a generic adaptive heuristic and solution guided branching on a simple model based on a decomposition of disjunctive constraints. In this paper, we introduce an adaptation of this technique for an important subclass of job shop scheduling problems (JSPs), where the objective function involves minimization of earliness/tardiness costs. We further show that our technique can be improved by adding domain specific information for one variant of the JSP (involving time lag constraints). In particular we introduce a dedicated greedy heuristic, and an improved model for the case where the maximal time lag is 0 (also referred to as no-wait JSPs).Comment: Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP 2011, Perugia : Italy (2011

The Proteome of Biologically Active Membrane Vesicles from Piscirickettsia salmonis LF-89 Type Strain Identifies Plasmid-Encoded Putative Toxins

Indexación: Scopus.Piscirickettsia salmonis is the predominant bacterial pathogen affecting the Chilean salmonid industry. This bacterium is the etiological agent of piscirickettsiosis, a significant fish disease. Membrane vesicles (MVs) released by P. salmonis deliver several virulence factors to host cells. To improve on existing knowledge for the pathogenicity-associated functions of P. salmonis MVs, we studied the proteome of purified MVs from the P. salmonis LF-89 type strain using multidimensional protein identification technology. Initially, the cytotoxicity of different MV concentration purified from P. salmonis LF-89 was confirmed in an in vivo adult zebrafish infection model. The cumulative mortality of zebrafish injected with MVs showed a dose-dependent pattern. Analyses identified 452 proteins of different subcellular origins; most of them were associated with the cytoplasmic compartment and were mainly related to key functions for pathogen survival. Interestingly, previously unidentified putative virulence-related proteins were identified in P. salmonis MVs, such as outer membrane porin F and hemolysin. Additionally, five amino acid sequences corresponding to the Bordetella pertussis toxin subunit 1 and two amino acid sequences corresponding to the heat-labile enterotoxin alpha chain of Escherichia coli were located in the P. salmonis MV proteome. Curiously, these putative toxins were located in a plasmid region of P. salmonis LF-89. Based on the identified proteins, we propose that the protein composition of P. salmonis LF-89 MVs could reflect total protein characteristics of this P. salmonis type strain. © 2017 Oliver, Hernández, Tandberg, Valenzuela, Lagos, Haro, Sánchez, Ruiz, Sanhueza-Oyarzún, Cortés, Villar, Artigues, Winther-Larsen, Avendaño-Herrera and Yáñez.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00420/ful

Фізико-хімічна геотехнологія

Розглянуто принципові засади геотехнологічного видобування різнома- нітних корисних копалин. Викладено питання розкриття та підготовки родовищ за допомогою свердловинної розробки, проаналізовано способи буріння і кріп- лення геотехнологічних свердловин, а такж застосоване обладнання. Розкрито сутність технологічних процесів, які виконуються при диспергуванні гірських порід, розчиненні солей, вилуговуванні металів, підземній виплавці сірки і га- зифікації вугілля, видобуванні в’язкої нафти та сланцьового газу. Навчальний посібник призначений для студентів, які навчаються за спе- ціальністю «Розробка родовищ та видобування корисних копалин», а також для студентів інших спеціальностей гірничих вузів і факультетів та інженерно- технічних працівників підприємств і проектних організацій гірничовидобувних галузей промисловості України

A capacity management tool for a portfolio of industrialization projects

The management of a project portfolio is a complex decision process because it encompasses the achievement of multiple objectives. A critical point that increases the complexity in the decision-making process of a portfolio manager is the allocation of human resources to manage the projects of the portfolio, project managers, which is crucial to the organization’s performance. In this case, the project manager can manage more than one project simultaneously and it is necessary to assign project managers to the projects, considering that project activities have an amount of work to be accomplished. The main objective of this work was to provide support for this capacity management problem, which aims to provide an easier decision-making process for the capacity management of an industrialization project portfolio. Therefore, it was developed: a hybrid model that creates a schedule respecting the resource constraints and the established due dates; a recommendation system that considers project managers’ allocation and projects requirements; and, an automatic status report that allows identifying the project portfolio capacity usage.This work is supported by: European Structural and Investment Funds in the FEDER component, through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme (COMPETE 2020) [Project nº 39479; Funding Reference: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-39479]

VvNPR1.1 est l’orthologue d’AtNPR1 et sa surexpression provoque l’activation constitutive des gènes PR et la résistance à Erysiphe necator chez Vitis vinifera

La compréhension des bases moléculaires des mécanismes de résistance de la Vigne aux agresseurs biotiques constitue un prérequis à la recherche de moyens de lutte alternatifs aux pesticides. Chez Arabidopsis, NPR1 (Non expressor of PR genes 1) joue un rôle clé dans la voie de signalisation régulée par l’acide salicylique et responsable de la mise en place de la résistance aux agents pathogènes biotrophes et de la résistance systémique acquise (SAR). Nous avons identifié deux gènes homologues d’AtNPR1 chez la Vigne : VvNPR1.1 et VvNPR1.2. La caractérisation fonctionnelle de ces deux gènes montre que la surexpression de VvNPR1.1 dans le mutant npr1-2 d’Arabidopsis permet, contrairement `a VvNPR1.2, de restaurer l’expression de PR1 après traitement par du SA ou inoculation bactérienne, ainsi que la résistance à Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola, un agent pathogène virulent. VvNPR1.1 apparaît donc comme l’orthologue fonctionnel d’AtNPR1, alors que VvNPR1.2 assure vraisemblablement une fonction différente. La surexpression stable de VvNPR1.1 en fusion avec la GFP a également pu être réalisée chez V. vinifera cv. Chardonnay, grâce à une technique de transformation par A. tumefaciens de cals embryogènes de Vigne. Les résultats obtenus sur les plantules transformées montrent une localisation constitutive de VvNPR1-GFP dans le noyau, ainsi qu’une expression élevée des protéines PR en l’absence d’infection. De plus, les vignes surexprimant VvNPR1-GFP montrent clairement une augmentation de la r´esistance vis-à-vis de l’infection par Erysiphe necator, l’agent de l’oïdium. La forte conservation de séquence des gènes VvNPR1 chez les Vitaceae ainsi que l’ensemble de ces résultats souligne l’importance de la voie régulée par le SA et NPR1 pour la résistance aux agents pathogènes biotrophes chez la Vigne