Atualmente a demanda mundial por cacau é superior à sua oferta, impulsionando a pesquisa e desenvolvimento de substitutos. Pesquisa conduzida recentemente evidenciou um potencial substituto ao submeter sementes de jaca dura a processos de fermentação, secagem e torração, resultando na produção de compostos voláteis similares aos do cacau. No entanto, o processo fermentativo foi realizado com a microbiota natural, o que impossibilita o direcionamento da produção de compostos de interesse. Desse modo, o objetivo do presente trabalho foi utilizar cultura starter de dois microrganismos isolados da fermentação da semente do cacau (Kluyveromyces marxianus e Saccharomyces cerevisiae) no processo fermentativo da semente de jaca dura, acompanhar as características da massa fermentativa, caracterizar microbiologicamente e avaliar os compostos voláteis produzidos. No primeiro capítulo são apresentados os dados referentes à primeira etapa do projeto, que envolveu a realização das fermentações em três lotes, contendo um tratamento sem inoculação de leveduras (controle) e dois tratamentos inoculados, sendo o KM, com K. marxianus, e o mix, com K. marxianus e S. cerevisiae. Neste capítulo também foram avaliadas as características da massa fermentativa ao longo do processo fermentativo (pH, exsudação, sólidos solúveis, acidez titulável e temperatura), o consumo de nutrientes (açúcares e proteínas), a produção de etanol e ácidos orgânicos (ácido acético e ácido lático) e a caracterização do conteúdo mineral. Observaram-se diferenças nos parâmetros para os tratamentos, principalmente devido à aceleração da fermentação no tratamento mix, que influenciaram na produção de compostos voláteis. Também foi evidenciada a presença de leveduras, bactérias láticas e bactérias acéticas ao longo do processo. No capítulo 2 estão apresentados os resultados obtidos na segunda etapa do projeto, que envolveu a análise dos compostos voláteis produzidos com perfil aromático semelhante ao do cacau, evidenciando a maximização da produção de alguns compostos voláteis que conferem aroma de chocolate, na presença de mix de culturas starters, indicando o potencial uso das mesmas na fermentação de jaca dura. / Currently the world demand of cocoa exceeds it\'s supply, leading the research and development of substitutes. Study recently conducted evidenced a potential substitute by subjecting hard jackfruit seeds to fermentation, drying and roasting processes, resulting in the production of volatile compounds to those of cocoa. However, the fermentative process was carried out with the natural microbiota, which makes it impossible to direct the production of interests compounds. Thus, the aim of the present work was the application of starter cultures of two microrganisms isolated from the cocoa beans fermentation (Kluyveromyces marxianus e Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the fermentative process of hard jackfruit seeds, the monitoring of the fermentative mass characteristics, the microbiological characterization, and evaluation of volatile compounds produced. In the first chapter are presented the data refering to the first stage of the project, which involved the fermentation in three lots, containing a treatment without yeast inoculation (control) and two inoculated treatments, KM with K.marxianus, and MIX with K.marxianus and S. cerevisiae. In this chapter it was also evaluated the fermentative mass characteristics throughout the fermentation process (pH, exsudation, soluble solids, titratable acidity and temperature), the nutrients consumption (sugars and proteins), the production of ethanol and organic acids (acetic acid and lactic acid) and the characterization of mineral content. Differences were observed in the parameters for the treatments, mainly due to the acceleration of the fermentation in the MIX treatment, which influenced in the volatile compounds production. Also it was evidenced the presence of yeasts, lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria throughout the process. In chapter two are presented the results obtained in the second stage of the project, which involved the analysis of volatile compounds production and the aromatic profile similar to cocoa, evidencing the maximization of some volatile compounds production that confer chocolate aroma, in the presence of MIX of starters cultures, indicating their potential use in the hard jackfruit fermentation.

Production parallel systems are space-shared and employ batch queues in which the jobs submitted to the systems are made to wait before execution. Thus, jobs submitted to parallel batch systems incur queue waiting times in addition to the execution times. Prediction of these queue waiting times is important to provide overall estimates to the users and can also help meta-schedulers make scheduling decisions. In the first part of our research, we have developed an integrated framework PQStar for identification and prediction of jobs with short queue waiting times. Analyses of the job traces of supercomputers reveal that about 56 to 99% of the jobs incur queue waiting times of less than an hour. Hence, identifying these quick starters or jobs with short queue waiting times is Essential for overall improvement on queue waiting time predictions. An important aspect of our prediction strategy for quick starters is that it considers the processor occupancy state and the queue state at the time of the job submission in addition to the job characteristics including the requested number of processors and the estimated runtime. Our experiments with different Production supercomputer job traces show that our prediction strategies can lead to correct identification of about 20% more quick starters on an average and provide tighter bounds for these jobs, and result in about 24% higher overall prediction accuracy on an average than the next best existing method. We have also developed a framework for predicting ranges of queue waiting times for other classes of jobs by employing multi-class classification on similar jobs in history. Our hierarchical prediction strategy first predicts the point wait time of a job using dynamic k- Nearest Neighbor (kNN) method. It then performs a multi-class classification using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) among all the classes of the jobs. The probabilities given by the SVM for the predicted class (obtained from the kNN), along with its neighboring classes, are used to provide a set of ranges of wait times with probabilities. Our experiments with different production supercomputer job traces show that our prediction strategies can lead to about 8% improved accuracy on an average in prediction of the non-quick starters, compared to the next best existing method. Finally, we have used these predictions and probabilities in a meta-scheduling strategy that distributes jobs to different queues/sites in a multi-queue/grid environment for minimizing wait times of the jobs. For a given target job, we first identify the queues/sites where the job can be a quick starter to get a set of candidate queues/sites for the scheduling of the job. We then compute the expected value of the predicted wait time in each of the candidate queues/sites, and schedule the job to the one with minimum expected value, for the execution of the job. We have performed experiments with different production supercomputer job traces and synthetic traces for various system sizes, partitioning schemes and different workloads. These experiments have shown that our scheduling strategy gives much improved performance when compared to the existing scheduling policies by reducing the overall average queue waiting times of the jobs by about 47% on an average.

This diploma thesis deals with the theme of testing young learners in English. The thesis consists of two main parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with testing as one form of assessment. Language skills and subskills are studied and Cambridge Young Learners English Tests are described there in detail. This part also tries to find out the answers to essential questions concerning testing. The practical part investigates how the preparation before CYLET tests and their taking influenced the existing level of pupil´s language skills. The second part also asks whether these tests motivate the students for their further development in English. The case study is based on a one-year observation, the results from questionnaires, and an interview with the teacher who prepared pupils for the exam. The thesis is finished by short essay titled: Why are CYLET tests so motivating?

Le gari, une semoule de manioc (Manihot esculenta, Crantz) fermentée, gélifiée et déshydratée, représente le produit alimentaire le plus populaire de lAfrique de lOuest. Les bactéries lactiques constituent lun des plus importants groupes de micro-organismes impliqués dans létape de la fermentation du manioc, principalement en raison de leurs rôles établis dans le développement de la saveur et la préservation des aliments obtenus. Dans le but de fournir au consommateur un produit sain, de qualité organoleptique constante et acceptable, des efforts damélioration et de contrôle de la fermentation du manioc ont été entrepris. Seize souches de bactéries lactiques ayant des caractéristiques technologiques appropriées, ont été précédemment isolées et sélectionnées au cours de la fermentation du manioc en vue de leur utilisation comme culture starter pour la production de gari. Lobjectif de ce travail est de contribuer à un meilleur contrôle de la fermentation du manioc à travers la production dun starter de bactéries lactiques lyophilisées pour la production de gari. A lissue de la première partie du travail, les souches Lactobacillus plantarum VE36, G2/25, L. fermentum G2/10 et Weissella paramesenteroides LC11 ont été sélectionnées sur base de : (i) leur capacité à survivre après un test de déshydratation dans une solution de glycérol de concentration croissante suivi dun marquage par des marqueurs fluorescents, (ii) leur taux de survie après la lyophilisation, (iii) leur capacité dutilisation dune source de carbone après la lyophilisation, (iv) leur stabilité au cours du stockage sous forme lyophilisée. Nous avons cependant noté que la plupart des souches lyophilisées perdaient plus de 50% de leur viabilité après 60 jours de stockage à basse température. Dans la seconde partie du travail, nous avons essayé de comprendre lun des mécanismes à lorigine de la perte de viabilité au cours du stockage des souches lyophilisées : loxydation des lipides membranaires. Pour ce faire, limpact de la dégradation des acides gras polyinsaturés sur la survie cellulaire ou le pouvoir dacidification de la souche lyophilisée W. paramesenteroides LC11 a été évalué pendant 90 jours de stockage dans différentes conditions de stockage (différentes températures, présence ou absence dair et dhumidité). Un dosage des produits primaires de dégradation des acides gras polyinsaturés a aussi été effectué pour les échantillons stockés dans des conditions daération. A lissue de cette étude, une corrélation a été établie entre la perte de viabilité cellulaire et/ou du pouvoir dacidification et la dégradation des acides gras polyinsaturés. Dans loptique de confirmer ces résultats, leffet de composés protecteurs tels que les cryoprotecteurs et/ou des antioxydants (acide ascorbique et/ou butyle hydroxytoluene) sur la viabilité cellulaire, lintégrité membranaire et loxydation des lipides de la souche lyophilisée W. paramesenteroides LC11, ont été évalués pendant 90 jours de stockage dans des conditions daération et en présence dhumidité. Après le 90ième jour de stockage, les acides gras membranaires totaux ainsi que ceux de la fraction polaire ont également été analysés. La présence des cryoprotecteurs et du butyle hydroxytoluene avait considérablement réduit la perte de viabilité et dintégrité membranaire, ainsi que la dégradation des lipides de la fraction polaire. Une possible relation entre loxydation des acides gras polyinsaturés, plus précisément ceux de la fraction polaire des lipides, et la perte de viabilité cellulaire au cours du stockage des souches lyophilisées, a été confirmée. Des corrélations entre loxydation des acides gras polyinsaturés de la fraction polaire des lipides et la perte dintégrité cellulaire et, dautre part, entre la perte dintégrité cellulaire et la perte de viabilité cellulaire, ont été établies. Alors que les phénomènes doxydation des lipides se déroulaient au cours du temps, la perte de viabilité cellulaire survenait dès les premières heures du stockage. Les changements dans la perméabilité membranaire de la souche W. paramesenteroides LC11 ont ainsi été évalués 20h après la lyophilisation, à travers les déterminations du nombre de cellules viables et de la conductivité dune solution de réhydratation dont nous avons fait varier la température, la concentration en sels (NaCl), protons et composés protecteurs (glycérol, saccharose, maltodextrine, glutamate monosodique). Une augmentation de la température et de la concentration en sels (NaCl) ou en glutamate monosodique, ainsi quune baisse de la concentration en protons entraînaient une augmentation de la concentration en substances ioniques dissoutes et une baisse du nombre de cellules viables. Cependant, une augmentation de la concentration en glycérol, sucrose ou maltodextrine entraînait une diminution de la concentration en substances ioniques dissoutes et un maintien de la viabilité cellulaire. Ces résultats nous suggèrent quil pourrait se produire une rupture cellulaire durant la déshydratation et que cette situation pourrait influencer la stabilité de la souche lyophilisée dès les premières heures du stockage.

Artificial Intelligence in Automotive Industry / Cost reduction is one of the main concerns in industry. Companies invest considerably for better performance in end-of-line fault diagnosis systems. A common strategy is to use data obtained from existing instrumentation. This research investigates the challenge of learning from historical data that have already been collected by companies. Machine learning is basically one of the most common and powerful techniques of artificial intelligence that can learn from data and identify fault features with no need for human interaction. In this research, labeled sound and vibration measurements are processed into fault signatures for vehicle starter motors and alternators. A fault detection and identification system has been developed to identify fault types for end-of-line testing of motors. However, labels are relatively difficult to obtain, expensive, time consuming and require experienced humans, while unlabeled samples needs less effort to collect. Thus, learning from unlabeled data together with the guidance of few labels would be a better solution. Furthermore, in this research, learning from unlabeled data with absolutely no human intervention is also implemented and discussed as well. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)