Integrated structure selection and parameter optimisation for eng-genes neural models

The eng-genes concept involves the use of fundamental known system functions as activation functions in a neural model to create a 'grey-box' neural network. One of the main issues in eng-genes modelling is to produce a parsimonious model given a model construction criterion. The challenges are that (1) the eng-genes model in most cases is a heterogenous network consisting of more than one type of nonlinear basis functions, and each basis function may have different set of parameters to be optimised; (2) the number of hidden nodes has to be chosen based on a model selection criterion. This is a mixed integer hard problem and this paper investigates the use of a forward selection algorithm to optimise both the network structure and the parameters of the system-derived activation functions. Results are included from case studies performed on a simulated continuously stirred tank reactor process, and using actual data from a pH neutralisation plant. The resulting eng-genes networks demonstrate superior simulation performance and transparency over a range of network sizes when compared to conventional neural models. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relatório de estágio sobre a intervenção pedagógica realizada nas Escolas Básicas do 1º Ciclo com Pré-Escolar Eng. Luís Santos Costa e da Ajuda

O presente relatório, é o resultado do trabalho desenvolvido na unidade curricular de Estágio e Relatório do curso de Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e 1º Ciclo de Ensino Básico. A componente de estágio teve lugar entre os meses de setembro e dezembro de 2012, com um total de 100h em cada uma das valências. A intervenção pedagógica em Pré-escolar decorreu na Escola Básica do 1º Ciclo com Pré-Escolar Eng. Luís Santos da Costa e, sendo que a de 1º Ciclo foi realizada na Escola Básica do 1º Ciclo com Pré-Escolar da Ajuda. Este trabalho encontra-se dividido em três partes, sendo que no primeira é feita uma abordagem teórica considerando autores e bibliografia de referência. As segunda e terceira, referem-se à intervenção educativa, nomeadamente aspetos referentes à contextualização de cada uma das valências, a abordagem às atividades e conteúdos desenvolvidos. Concluo o presente relatório com uma reflexão final expressando a minha opinião pessoal sobre a intervenção pedagógica bem como a contribuição desta para a minha formação pessoal, profissional e social.

Natal qual é a sua cara?: análise do perfil edilício da avenida Eng. Roberto Freire (Natal/RN) à luz da acessibilidade

This study focuses on the building ensemble of Avenida Roberto Freire, a main road in Natal, Brazil, as a material expression of the confluence of various factors among which the following may be emphasized: high level of accessibility due to urban spatial re-structuring and the growth of the real estate market, in view of the increasing number of consumers, who arrived in Natal within the last decades. The intense urban modification process that has been going on in Natal since at least the 1980s, has engendered the formation of long axial lines which express the expansion dynamics and some of the forces subjacent to it. Avenida Roberto Freire has been an iconic example of an urban thoroughfare where architecture becomes primarily a communication support that can be perceived by fast moving passers-by, what brings it close to the venturian concept of strip (Venturi at al, 1972). The building types that line the road not only respond to the dynamics in process but also contribute to intensify it, as they house a variety of uses which attract people and generate more movement. The dynamics is further strengthened by the action of the real estate business which benefits from the increase of highly accessible locations, and from the private and public investments and incentives to tourism that aim to insert this city into the globalized world. Although the intention of reconstituting part of the history of density increase on this avenue in a diachronical perspective was attempted within the limits of the available references and documentation, the central contribution of this study is to understand the relations between topological accessibility and the typological nature of the building ensemble. By observing the synchronic morphological frame resulting from the spatial configuration analysis pertinent to this avenue (cf. Hillier and Hanson,1984) and the inventory and classification of the building ensemble there existing, this study aims to understand how architecture responds to accessibility in view of the real estate pressure, boosted by a cosmopolitanizing process brought about by the continuous flow of foreign and Brazilian arrivals as visitors, temporary or permanent residents