International Workshop on the Natural Products and Agro-Industrial Processes in Ecuadorian Amazon region

Welcome to the MODEC2017 workshop. This is Amazon State University's (UEA) first workshop, devoted to the promotion and application of the Multidisciplinary Sciences to the development of natural products and agro-industrial processes in Ecuadorian Amazon regions. This includes the application of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for data analysis and computational model including the fields of Agro-industrial Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Veterinary Medicine, and/or Environmental Sciences, etc. We invite you to visit the official web of the workshop: http://sciforum.net/conference/mol2net-02/modec-01 This workshop runs both online and on location at the university. The online portion of the workshop is powered by the SciForum platform of MDPI, hosted by the MOL2NET conference, International Conference on Interdisciplinary Sciences. Additionally, the physical component of the workshop is also scheduled to run through the Department of Earth Sciences (Facultad de Ciencias de la Tierra) at Universidad Estatal Amazónica (UEA), Puyo, Ecuador. Please, contact the workshop chairmen for further details. Paper submission is already open and the publication of papers for conference purposes in SciForum platform is free of cost. Publications are expected to be short papers consisting of 1-3 pages. Be aware that the submission is a two step process. First you must register and submit a tentative title, authors list and abstract. Next, you need to submit your full publication upon acceptance of the abstract by the committee. Full publications will be published online, free of charge, with doi number as soon as possible after acceptance. If you are planning to submit a publication, please use the following template, MODEC Template.doc. Click on the following link to register and/or submit your communication Sumit to MODEC here. SciForum MOL2NET, 2016, 2, doi: 10.3390/mol2net-02-13001 2 http://sciforum.net/conference/mol2net-02/modec-01 All submitted papers should fall under one of the following categories: Computational chemistry, Cheminformatics, and Bioinformatics Mathematical modeling Organic and Functional Foods BioTrade: Natural Products of the Amazon Production systems with agro-business and forestry purposes or biomass for energy purposes Environmental impacts Agro-industrial development processes All summaries should be sent no later than November 25, 2016. The acceptance of a publication will be given December 15, 2016 and completed papers need to be submitted by January 15, 2017. Final acceptance of the finished paper will be given on January 30, 2017 and papers will be published on February 1, 2017.


Computational chemistry, Cheminformatics, and Bioinformatics
The application of computational chemistry, cheminformatics, and bioinformatics to the discovery of new bioactive compounds within the Ecuadorian Amazon ecosystem which can contribute to the identification of natural agents with drug-like bioactivity that will serve to relieve the symptoms of socially relevant diseases. These findings have the potential to enhance the health, well-being, and quality of life for the native population. This section is devoted to, but not limited to the following fields/subjects of study: description of new bio compounds and data sets, (quantum) similarity measures, similarity/diversity searching, clustering algorithms, QSAR techniques, validation metrics, the discovery of enzyme inhibitors, proteasome, tyrosine, computer-aided molecular design, lead optimization, artificial intelligence and machine learning, multi-target approaches, QSPR, QSAR, QSTR, applied computer sciences, and applied statistics.

President
Oscar Miguel Rivera-Borroto received his BS degree in chemistry (summa cum laude) from the Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas Yunierkis Pérez-Castillo obtained his PhD in Science in 2013 at the "Vrije Universiteit Brussel", Belgium and currently is a professor at the "Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja", Ecuador. He has a large experience in researches related to the design, implementation and application of computational tools to biological, chemical and pharmaceutical problems. He has published more than 15 papers in peerreview journals and participated in several international conferences. His research skills include the application of structure-based drug design tools such as homology modeling, molecular dynamics, molecular docking and virtual screening. In addition, he has programming skills and in the application of machine learning algorithms to ligand-based drug discovery.

Mathematical modeling
For the mathematical modeling commission, papers relating to the use of mathematical tools used to obtain or support the presented results will be shared. These purpose of this research is aimed finding natural products in the Amazonian region of Ecuador linked to agro-industrial processes and the related disciplines such as Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and environmental processes. The modeling process should strengthen the analysis of the experimental processes in order to describe with adequate precision the processes, phenomena, data, etc. The techniques applied may be statistical or non-statistical consistent with data analysis and computer and communications technologies. The obtained results may be presented in any stage of the model: development, analysis or interpretation.  Since 2012 is Auxiliary Professor at the Universidad Estatal Amazónica, he is a Professor in mathematics at the Department of Science of Earth. His main research interests concern the applied mathematics at process design, including those related to simulation and optimization.

Organic and Functional Foods
Functional foods have been conceptualized by different researchers and institutions from all over the academic and business worlds. The European Council on Food Information defined functional foods as those that are consumed as part of a normal diet, to provide essential nutrients for life such as proteins with essential amino acids, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. They also contain biologically active components that offer health benefits as they reduce the risk of chronic degenerative diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer among others. The main components of a successful functional food can be summarized in the following categories: 1. Organic food production. 2. Intestinal Micro Flora Balancing including probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics. 3. Antioxidants and their impact on health. 4. Dietary fiber as part of a healthy diet. 5. The marketing of healthy, organic food. 6. The health benefits of using the Ecuadorian Amazon as a food source. Submissions should pertain to the above mentioned categories.

President
Manuel Between 1986 and 2013, she worked as researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Research "Jorge Dimitrov" in the province of Granma, Cuba. Her research mainly referred to the productive and reproductive improvement of cattle, and animal clinic. She was professor at the University of Granma from 2007-2013. Since 2014, she is professor and researcher at the Amazon State University in Puyo -Ecuador. She is responsible for the Food Production Program in Biodiverse Systems. She has been working on matters related to agricultural production, animal physiology and research methodology. She has trained workers, livestock producers and specialists in the design and management of cattle farms. She has 45 publications, including scientific articles and book chapters as lead author and co-author; she has also supervised 10 Bachelors theses and 8 Masters Theses. She has led conferences and lectures in livestock technologies and has collaborated with the Technical and Veterinary Service Team of the Cooperative Society http://sciforum.net/conference/mol2net-02/modec-01

BIOTRADE. Natural Products of the Amazon
BioTrade alludes to collection, production, transformation and commercialization activities of goods and services obtained from native biodiversity in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability. In 1996, the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the "BioTrade Initiative" that has been promoting Biotrade at local level with local farmers and producers. The Amazon basin is strongly involved in Biotrade because of its high biodiversity of natural resources and because of the wide number of transformations in the value chain. Ecuador as well as the other Amazonian countries are a promissory expectation for the "Biotrade Initiative", in light of its high biological resources and related cultural heritage. Some experiences on Biotrade are available and they suggest big opportunities for new incomes for local farmers and producers, as well as for scientific research.

President
Matteo

Production systems with agribusiness and forestry purposes. Biomass for energy purposes.
This workshop pretends to be a meeting point to exchange information about research processes in the use of biomass for renewable energy production in order to foment the development and application of the research activities in the Amazon region in Ecuador. In this context, the workshop tries to cover all aspects related to the use of biomass as a renewable resource, using agro-forest residues to produce clean biofuels.  Biomass (including waste) recovery and recycling  Biomass for biofuels (

Environmental impacts
This workshop brings together engineers, scientists, researchers, students, managers and other professionals in order to address and discuss emerging environmental issues related to agroindustry and petrochemicals processes, waste management, wastewater treatment and cleaner technologies.
Authors are invited to submit papers from the following areas:  Evaluation of carbon footprint and water footprint management for existent and new technologies.  Advances in life cycle assessment and life cycle management of agroindustry and petrochemical processes.  Improved processes through development and usage of "environmentally friendlier" technologies using agriculture waste.  Sustainability of agroindustry and petrochemicals processes.  Agriculture and petrochemical waste management.  Environmental assessment of wastewater treatment.

Development of agroindustrial processes.
To ensure the alimentary security of the global population demands a development of optimized and wisely-designed agroindustrial processes. This upgrading of existing technologies requires a common effort from the scientific community. The alimentary and technical issues associated to agroindustrial processes in Ecuador's Amazon Region are the main drivers for selecting this place as an ideal forum for the discussion and dissemination of knowledge. Therefore, this section encourages scientists to work on improving productivity, efficiency and sustainability of existing and novel agroindustrial processes to submit their works for an open discussion. Papers concerning the reuse and/or valorization of agroindustrial residues, such as: biochar for soil, water and gas treatment and construction materials are very welcomed. This section will pay special attention to those studies concerning to promote strategies for the development and preservation of indigenous communities from the agroindustrial perspective.

President
Chemical Eligio Jesus Castellanos Estupiñán is a chemical engineer graduated in 1972. He obtained his PhD in Technical Sciences in 1990. He is professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Central University "Marta Abreu de Las Villas". He makes research on operational controlling for chemical industries, mainly related to energy and environmental management and unconventional methods (use of membranes, electric and magnetic field). He collaborates in research related to non-conventional methods with the University of Oviedo in Spain and San Luis in Argentina. Institution: Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Ecuador Email: jestupinan@uea.edu.ec Isnel Benítez Cortés. Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. He received his PhD degree in Technical Sciences from the University of "Camaguey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz" in 2008. He worked in the field of technologies to reduce sulfur dioxide in combustion gases, under the supervision of Prof Dr. Luis Beltrán Ramos Sánchez and Dr. Agustín García Rodriguez. He is professor of Automatic Control in Chemical Industry and Process Analysis and Engineering at the University of Camaguey since 1995. Currently, he is a full-time Professor at above mentioned university. He was director of the Chemical Department for five years and is now dean of the Exact Science Faculty. His main research interests concern the development of new process and technologies to obtain essential oils and more clean production. He has been part of different events and has written several scientific articles. Institution: Universidad de Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, Cuba. Email: isnel.benites@reduc.edu.cu Julia Marianela Escobar Arcos received her Master's degrees in Agribusiness Production Management (2011) and Food Engineering (2006 from the Technical University of Ambato (Food Science and Engineering Faculty). She worked as an intern in the UOITA Research Center -UTA, supervising the production company PASTAZA LAC, Chief SWEET production company and training of productive enterprises in GADM-Pastaza. http://sciforum.net/conference/mol2net-02/modec-01 Currently, she works at the Amazon State University in Puyo -Ecuador in the Department of Leveling and Admissions. Institution: Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Ecuador Email: mescobar@uea.edu.ec Hilda de las Mercedes Oquendo Ferrer graduated as an Industrial Engineer in 1984, received her PhD in Technical Science in 2002 at the Universidad Central Martha Abreu de Las Villas. Full-time professor since 2006 in the Engineering Process. Currently, she is working in the Industrial Engineering Department and collaborates with the department of Chemical Engineering in the University of Camagüey. She is member of the National Tribunal of Chemical Engineering. She is an expert of the National Accreditation Council from 2012. She has participated in many projects and national programs of Sugar Agroindustry, specifically about the production of meals, evaluation of alternatives for sugar diversification, development of technologies and process analysis. She is professor of Experimental Design, Economic Engineering, Quality Engineering and Process Analysis in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Institution: Universidad de Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, Cuba. Email: hilda.oquendo@reduc.edu.cu