Texture zeros and weak basis transformations

We investigate the physical meaning of some of the "texture zeros" which appear in most of the Ansatze on quark masses and mixings. It is shown that starting from arbitrary quark mass matrices and making a suitable weak basis transformation one can obtain some of these sets of zeros which therefore have no physical content. We then analyse the physical implications of a four-texture zero Ansatz which is in agreement with all present experimental data. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. AU rights reserved.

Confronting predictive texture zeros in lepton mass matrices with current data

Several popular Ansatze of lepton mass matrices that contain texture zeros are confronted with current neutrino observational data. We perform a systematic chi(2) analysis in a wide class of schemes, considering arbitrary Hermitian charged-lepton mass matrices and symmetric mass matrices for Majorana neutrinos or Hermitian mass matrices for Dirac neutrinos. Our study reveals that several patterns are still consistent with all the observations at the 68.27% confidence level, while some others are disfavored or excluded by the experimental data. The well-known Frampton-Glashow-Marfatia two-zero textures, hybrid textures, and parallel structures (among others) are considered.

Tuning Iris Recognition for Noisy Images

The use of iris recognition for human authentication has been spreading in the past years. Daugman has proposed a method for iris recognition, composed by four stages: segmentation, normalization, feature extraction, and matching. In this paper we propose some modifications and extensions to Daugman's method to cope with noisy images. These modifications are proposed after a study of images of CASIA and UBIRIS databases. The major modification is on the computationally demanding segmentation stage, for which we propose a faster and equally accurate template matching approach. The extensions on the algorithm address the important issue of pre-processing that depends on the image database, being mandatory when we have a non infra-red camera, like a typical WebCam. For this scenario, we propose methods for reflection removal and pupil enhancement and isolation. The tests, carried out by our C# application on grayscale CASIA and UBIRIS images show that the template matching segmentation method is more accurate and faster than the previous one, for noisy images. The proposed algorithms are found to be efficient and necessary when we deal with non infra-red images and non uniform illumination.

Application of GIS-based multi-criteria analysis for site selection of aquifer recharge with reclaimed water

Reclaimed water from small wastewater treatment facilities in the rural areas of the Beira Interior region (Portugal) may constitute an alternative water source for aquifer recharge. A 21-month monitoring period in a constructed wetland treatment system has shown that 21,500 m(3) year(-1) of treated wastewater (reclaimed water) could be used for aquifer recharge. A GIS-based multi-criteria analysis was performed, combining ten thematic maps and economic, environmental and technical criteria, in order to produce a suitability map for the location of sites for reclaimed water infiltration. The areas chosen for aquifer recharge with infiltration basins are mainly composed of anthrosol with more than 1 m deep and fine sand texture, which allows an average infiltration velocity of up to 1 m d(-1). These characteristics will provide a final polishing treatment of the reclaimed water after infiltration (soil aquifer treatment (SAT)), suitable for the removal of the residual load (trace organics, nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens). The risk of groundwater contamination is low since the water table in the anthrosol areas ranges from 10 m to 50 m. Oil the other hand, these depths allow a guaranteed unsaturated area suitable for SAT. An area of 13,944 ha was selected for study, but only 1607 ha are suitable for reclaimed water infiltration. Approximately 1280 m(2) were considered enough to set up 4 infiltration basins to work in flooding and drying cycles.

Wetting behaviour of femtosecond laser textured Ti-6Al-4V surfaces

The aim of the present work was to investigate the wetting behaviour of biomedical grade Ti-6Al-4V alloy surfaces textured by a femtosecond laser treatment. The material was treated in ambient atmosphere using an Yb: KYW chirped-pulse-regenerative amplification laser with a wavelength of 1030 nm and a pulse duration of 500 fs. Four main types of surface textures were obtained depending on the processing parameters and laser treatment method. These textures consist of: (1) nanoscale laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS); (2) nanopillars; (3) a bimodal roughness distribution texture formed of LIPSS overlapping microcolumns; (4) a complex texture formed of LIPSS overlapping microcolumns with a periodic variation of the columns size in the laser scanning direction. The wettability of the surfaces was evaluated by the sessile drop method using distilled-deionized (DD) water and Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS) as testing liquids. The laser treated surfaces present a hydrophilic behaviour as well as a high affinity for the saline solution, with equilibrium contact angles in the ranges 24.1-76.2. for DD water and 8.4-61.8. for HBSS. The wetting behaviour is anisotropic, reflecting the anisotropy of the surface textures. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Data mining framework for fatty liver disease classification in ultrasound: a hybrid feature extraction paradigm

PURPOSE: Fatty liver disease (FLD) is an increasing prevalent disease that can be reversed if detected early. Ultrasound is the safest and ubiquitous method for identifying FLD. Since expert sonographers are required to accurately interpret the liver ultrasound images, lack of the same will result in interobserver variability. For more objective interpretation, high accuracy, and quick second opinions, computer aided diagnostic (CAD) techniques may be exploited. The purpose of this work is to develop one such CAD technique for accurate classification of normal livers and abnormal livers affected by FLD. METHODS: In this paper, the authors present a CAD technique (called Symtosis) that uses a novel combination of significant features based on the texture, wavelet transform, and higher order spectra of the liver ultrasound images in various supervised learning-based classifiers in order to determine parameters that classify normal and FLD-affected abnormal livers. RESULTS: On evaluating the proposed technique on a database of 58 abnormal and 42 normal liver ultrasound images, the authors were able to achieve a high classification accuracy of 93.3% using the decision tree classifier. CONCLUSIONS: This high accuracy added to the completely automated classification procedure makes the authors' proposed technique highly suitable for clinical deployment and usage.

Early literacy development in Catalan: characteristics and instructional influence

Resumo: Este artigo analisa a relação entre o nível de consciência fonológica, conhecimento das letra e as estratégias utilizadas para ler e escrever, em crianças de cinco anos, ensinadas em catalão. Participaram 69 crianças de três classes diferentes. Cada um dos seus professores utilizava um método diferente de ensino: analítico, sintético ou analítico-sintético. As crianças foram avaliadas no início e no final do ano letivo em: Reconhecimento de letras, segmentação palavra oral, leitura de palavras, leitura de um texto curto e um ditado. Foram realizadas análises de granulação fina em nas respostas das crianças, para identificar estratégias e padrões específicos. A análise qualitativa indica que a capacidade de segmentar uma palavra em sílabas por via oral parece ser suficiente para as crianças começarem a ler de uma forma convencional. Além disso, a consciência fonológica e o conhecimento das letras são usados em formas relativamente diferentes, dependendo do tipo de texto a ser lido. As abordagens de ensino dos professores parecem ter uma influência nos resultados das crianças.

Potenciar a consciência fonológica de crianças pré-escolares em contexto naturalístico

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção de grau de mestre em Ciências da Educação Especialidade Intervenção Precoce

O impacto do ensino de estratégias ou morfológicas ou fonológicas na escrita de morfemas homófonos: estudo de intervenção

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção de grau de Mestre em Ciências da Educação - Especialização em Educação Especial

Unveiling the Biometric Potential of Finger-Based ECG Signals

The ECG signal has been shown to contain relevant information for human identification. Even though results validate the potential of these signals, data acquisition methods and apparatus explored so far compromise user acceptability, requiring the acquisition of ECG at the chest. In this paper, we propose a finger-based ECG biometric system, that uses signals collected at the fingers, through a minimally intrusive 1-lead ECG setup recurring to Ag/AgCl electrodes without gel as interface with the skin. The collected signal is significantly more noisy than the ECG acquired at the chest, motivating the application of feature extraction and signal processing techniques to the problem. Time domain ECG signal processing is performed, which comprises the usual steps of filtering, peak detection, heartbeat waveform segmentation, and amplitude normalization, plus an additional step of time normalization. Through a simple minimum distance criterion between the test patterns and the enrollment database, results have revealed this to be a promising technique for biometric applications.

Ensinar a escrever: ensinar a pensar a língua

Projeto de Intervenção apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para a obtenção de grau de Mestre em Didática da Língua Portuguesa no 1º e 2º CEB

Sistema de reconhecimento de impressões digitais baseado em FPGA

Trabalho de Projeto para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Eletrónica e Telecomunicações

Segmentação automática de memórias pessoais

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática e de Computadores

Edição de revista para público com mais de 50 anos

Projeto de mestrado apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Jornalismo.

A contribuição do marketing interno para o sucesso das empresas

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Publicidade e Marketing.