Agentes Inteligentes com Foco de Atenção Afetivo em Simulações Baseadas em Agentes

Simulations based on cognitively rich agents can become a very intensive computing task, especially when the simulated environment represents a complex system. This situation becomes worse when time constraints are present. This kind of simulations would benefit from a mechanism that improves the way agents perceive and react to changes in these types of environments. In other worlds, an approach to improve the efficiency (performance and accuracy) in the decision process of autonomous agents in a simulation would be useful. In complex environments, and full of variables, it is possible that not every information available to the agent is necessary for its decision-making process, depending indeed, on the task being performed. Then, the agent would need to filter the coming perceptions in the same as we do with our attentions focus. By using a focus of attention, only the information that really matters to the agent running context are perceived (cognitively processed), which can improve the decision making process. The architecture proposed herein presents a structure for cognitive agents divided into two parts: 1) the main part contains the reasoning / planning process, knowledge and affective state of the agent, and 2) a set of behaviors that are triggered by planning in order to achieve the agent s goals. Each of these behaviors has a runtime dynamically adjustable focus of attention, adjusted according to the variation of the agent s affective state. The focus of each behavior is divided into a qualitative focus, which is responsible for the quality of the perceived data, and a quantitative focus, which is responsible for the quantity of the perceived data. Thus, the behavior will be able to filter the information sent by the agent sensors, and build a list of perceived elements containing only the information necessary to the agent, according to the context of the behavior that is currently running. Based on the human attention focus, the agent is also dotted of a affective state. The agent s affective state is based on theories of human emotion, mood and personality. This model serves as a basis for the mechanism of continuous adjustment of the agent s attention focus, both the qualitative and the quantative focus. With this mechanism, the agent can adjust its focus of attention during the execution of the behavior, in order to become more efficient in the face of environmental changes. The proposed architecture can be used in a very flexibly way. The focus of attention can work in a fixed way (neither the qualitative focus nor the quantitaive focus one changes), as well as using different combinations for the qualitative and quantitative foci variation. The architecture was built on a platform for BDI agents, but its design allows it to be used in any other type of agents, since the implementation is made only in the perception level layer of the agent. In order to evaluate the contribution proposed in this work, an extensive series of experiments were conducted on an agent-based simulation over a fire-growing scenario. In the simulations, the agents using the architecture proposed in this work are compared with similar agents (with the same reasoning model), but able to process all the information sent by the environment. Intuitively, it is expected that the omniscient agent would be more efficient, since they can handle all the possible option before taking a decision. However, the experiments showed that attention-focus based agents can be as efficient as the omniscient ones, with the advantage of being able to solve the same problems in a significantly reduced time. Thus, the experiments indicate the efficiency of the proposed architecture

Aprendendo e ensinando o sistema de numeração decimal: uma contribuição à prática pedagógica do professor

The central question of the present study is to identify the epistemological knowledge that the teachers-trainees possess regarding the characteristics (properties) of the decimal numbering system; its purpose is to offer a contribution to the pedagogic practice of the teachers who work within the Basic Literacy Cycle, in terms of what concerns both the acquisition of contents and the development of the knowledge that helps them in the elaboration of adequate strategies to working with the Decimal Numbering System in the classroom. The study is based on the constructivist sociointeractionist approach to teaching Mathematics and it constitutes, in itself, a methodological intervention with the teachers-trainees engaged in the Professional Qualification Program in Basic Education of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. The foundations of the study were found in investigations of researchers who had carried out studies on the construction of numerical writing, showing, for instance, that the construction process of ideas and procedures involved in groupings and changes to base 10 take a lot longer to be accomplished than one can imagine. A set of activities was then elaborated which could not only contribute to the acquisition of contents but that could also make the teachers-trainees reflect upon their teaching practices in the classroom so that in this way they will be able to elaborate more consistent didactic approaches, taking into consideration the previous knowledge of the students and also some obstacles that often appear along the way. Even when teachers have access to the most appropriate dicactic resources, the lack of knowledge of the content and of the real meaning of that content make the Decimal Numbering System, a subject of fundamental importance, be taught most times in a mechanical way. The analisys of the discussions and behaviours of the teachers-trainees during the activities reavealed that they made them reflect upon their current practices in the classroom and that, as a whole, the aims of each of the activities carried out with the teachers-trainers were reached

A invenção da Terra da Luz: história, literatura e paisagem (1875-1914)

Ce travail est un étude de cas qui analyse la construction litéraire du paysage du « Sertão» du Ceará entre la fin du siècle XIX et le début du siècle XX. Pour cela, quelques oeuvre simbole de la production litéraire du Ceará ont été sélectionnés, comme les textes qui suivent: O sertanejo (1875), de José Martiniano de Alencar; Os retirantes (1879), de José Carlos do Patrocínio; A fome (1890), de Rodolfo Marcos Teófilo; Luzia-Homem (1903), de Domingos Olímpio Braga Cavalcanti; Terra de sol: natureza e costumes do Norte (1912), de Gustavo Dodt Barroso et finalement, Aves de arribação (1914), de Antônio Sales. Ces oeuvres non seulement prend la nature comme personage, elles représentent aussi trois moments de la production litéraire du Ceará : romantique, réaliste et naturaliste. A invenção da Terra da Luz se rapporte à l idée d une littérature qui fait remarquer le paysage diurne du Sertão du Ceará, élaborée par ces hommes des lettres dans ses discours formidables, beaux et des matériaux qui viennent de ses rapports avec le monde naturel. Pour réaliser une tel entreprise, les idées de Edmund Burke et Gaston Bachelard se sont constitués en référence de cet étude. Et cette réflexion sur la description, la rêverie et l imagination marchent côte-à-côte au discours de ces littéreurs qui ont construits un espace simbolique spécifique : le sertão du Ceará. Comme ça, quelques thèmes deviennent canonique à la forme de penser, représenter et imaginer l espace du sertão du Ceará. De cette manière, le paysage est beaucoup plus que la contemplation, une fois qu elle est liée aussi à la rêverie poétique, à la mémoire et l imagination. C est de là l invention du paysage, car ces littéreurs n ont pas l accès au paysage purement naturel parce que ses perceptions et sensibilitées sur le monde du sertão ont été historiquement, c est-à-dire, dans un certain temps et espace

Acessibilidade aos espaços urbanos :uma dimensão psicológica

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior