Connecting works of art within the semantic web of symbolic meanings

My doctoral research is about the modelling of symbolism in the cultural heritage domain, and on connecting artworks based on their symbolism through knowledge extraction and representation techniques. In particular, I participated in the design of two ontologies: one models the relationships between a symbol, its symbolic meaning, and the cultural context in which the symbol symbolizes the symbolic meaning; the second models artistic interpretations of a cultural heritage object from an iconographic and iconological (thus also symbolic) perspective. I also converted several sources of unstructured data, a dictionary of symbols and an encyclopaedia of symbolism, and semi-structured data, DBpedia and WordNet, to create HyperReal, the first knowledge graph dedicated to conventional cultural symbolism. By making use of HyperReal's content, I showed how linked open data about cultural symbolism could be utilized to initiate a series of quantitative studies that analyse (i) similarities between cultural contexts based on their symbologies, (ii) broad symbolic associations, (iii) specific case studies of symbolism such as the relationship between symbols, their colours, and their symbolic meanings. Moreover, I developed a system that can infer symbolic, cultural context-dependent interpretations from artworks according to what they depict, envisioning potential use cases for museum curation. I have then re-engineered the iconographic and iconological statements of Wikidata, a widely used general-domain knowledge base, creating ICONdata: an iconographic and iconological knowledge graph. ICONdata was then enriched with automatic symbolic interpretations. Subsequently, I demonstrated the significance of enhancing artwork information through alignment with linked open data related to symbolism, resulting in the discovery of novel connections between artworks. Finally, I contributed to the creation of a software application. This application leverages established connections, allowing users to investigate the symbolic expression of a concept across different cultural contexts through the generation of a three-dimensional exhibition of artefacts symbolising the chosen concept.

Biologically Plausible Connectionist Prediction of Natural Language Thematic Relations

In Natural Language Processing (NLP) symbolic systems, several linguistic phenomena, for instance, the thematic role relationships between sentence constituents, such as AGENT, PATIENT, and LOCATION, can be accounted for by the employment of a rule-based grammar. Another approach to NLP concerns the use of the connectionist model, which has the benefits of learning, generalization and fault tolerance, among others. A third option merges the two previous approaches into a hybrid one: a symbolic thematic theory is used to supply the connectionist network with initial knowledge. Inspired on neuroscience, it is proposed a symbolic-connectionist hybrid system called BIO theta PRED (BIOlogically plausible thematic (theta) symbolic-connectionist PREDictor), designed to reveal the thematic grid assigned to a sentence. Its connectionist architecture comprises, as input, a featural representation of the words (based on the verb/noun WordNet classification and on the classical semantic microfeature representation), and, as output, the thematic grid assigned to the sentence. BIO theta PRED is designed to ""predict"" thematic (semantic) roles assigned to words in a sentence context, employing biologically inspired training algorithm and architecture, and adopting a psycholinguistic view of thematic theory.

Methods of imagetic information representation

The aim of this paper is to highlight some of the methods of imagetic information representation, reviewing the literature of the area and proposing a model of methodology adapted to Brazilian museums. An elaboration of a methodology of imagetic information representation is developed based on Brazilian characteristics of information treatment in order to adapt it to museums. Finally, spreadsheets that show this methodology are presented.

The game inside the school: a representation of 5(th) graders physical education classes

Since the beginning of Physical Education entrance in the brazilin public schools, the game has been frequently used as content, and in the course of time that practice seems to be intensified. In spite of many approaches of different purposes to justify its pedagogic usefulness, the game has been used as an indiscriminate way due to the fascination that it provides to the students. The present study searches for a description and analysis of children`s (10-12 years old) attitudes behaviors in games, on Physical Education classes, inside a public school. The study was accomplished with the researcher also attending as a teacher (action research). For the accomplishment of the study 55 children were filmed in four different games, of different kinds (exposed, transformed, and spontaneous). The classes` description and analysis were focused in the attitude axis and it was defined four topics for the discussion: Conflicts, Respect of rules, Expressiveness, and Competitiveness. The relationship between the individual with the game and its culture were pointed as the main characteristics in the configuration of the ludicrous activity atmosphere. It was also possible to observe specific situations of this relationship, once the games were limited to the social games (Piaget category), in a school atmosphere where children have students roles. Due to the obtained results, the study proposes a reflexive practice in which the students notice their own attitudes and try to adapt the game to their needs and not he other way around. In this perspective, the teacher has an important mediator roll, once he will be responsible to point out the students` difficulties and promote discussions in favor to provide teamwork.

Experimental results on the nonlinear H(infinity) control via quasi-LPV representation and game theory for wheeled mobile robots

In this paper, nonlinear dynamic equations of a wheeled mobile robot are described in the state-space form where the parameters are part of the state (angular velocities of the wheels). This representation, known as quasi-linear parameter varying, is useful for control designs based on nonlinear H(infinity) approaches. Two nonlinear H(infinity) controllers that guarantee induced L(2)-norm, between input (disturbances) and output signals, bounded by an attenuation level gamma, are used to control a wheeled mobile robot. These controllers are solved via linear matrix inequalities and algebraic Riccati equation. Experimental results are presented, with a comparative study among these robust control strategies and the standard computed torque, plus proportional-derivative, controller.

A novel continuous time representation for the scheduling of pipeline systems with pumping yield rate constraints

Pipeline systems play a key role in the petroleum business. These operational systems provide connection between ports and/or oil fields and refineries (upstream), as well as between these and consumer markets (downstream). The purpose of this work is to propose a novel MINLP formulation based on a continuous time representation for the scheduling of multiproduct pipeline systems that must supply multiple consumer markets. Moreover, it also considers that the pipeline operates intermittently and that the pumping costs depend on the booster stations yield rates, which in turn may generate different flow rates. The proposed continuous time representation is compared with a previously developed discrete time representation [Rejowski, R., Jr., & Pinto, J. M. (2004). Efficient MILP formulations and valid cuts for multiproduct pipeline scheduling. Computers and Chemical Engineering, 28, 1511] in terms of solution quality and computational performance. The influence of the number of time intervals that represents the transfer operation is studied and several configurations for the booster stations are tested. Finally, the proposed formulation is applied to a larger case, in which several booster configurations with different numbers of stages are tested. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

MODELING THE UNVOICED COMPONENT IN THE CANONICAL REPRESENTATION OF SPEECH

The canonical representation of speech constitutes a perfect reconstruction (PR) analysis-synthesis system. Its parameters are the autoregressive (AR) model coefficients, the pitch period and the voiced and unvoiced components of the excitation represented as transform coefficients. Each set of parameters may be operated on independently. A time-frequency unvoiced excitation (TFUNEX) model is proposed that has high time resolution and selective frequency resolution. Improved time-frequency fit is obtained by using for antialiasing cancellation the clustering of pitch-synchronous transform tracks defined in the modulation transform domain. The TFUNEX model delivers high-quality speech while compressing the unvoiced excitation representation about 13 times over its raw transform coefficient representation for wideband speech.

Distinct conformational properties determined by implicit and explicit representation of protein-solvent interactions. An analytical and computer simulation study

In the protein folding problem, solvent-mediated forces are commonly represented by intra-chain pairwise contact energy. Although this approximation has proven to be useful in several circumstances, it is limited in some other aspects of the problem. Here we show that it is possible to achieve two models to represent the chain-solvent system. one of them with implicit and other with explicit solvent, such that both reproduce the same thermodynamic results. Firstly, lattice models treated by analytical methods, were used to show that the implicit and explicitly representation of solvent effects can be energetically equivalent only if local solvent properties are time and spatially invariant. Following, applying the same reasoning Used for the lattice models, two inter-consistent Monte Carlo off-lattice models for implicit and explicit solvent are constructed, being that now in the latter the solvent properties are allowed to fluctuate. Then, it is shown that the chain configurational evolution as well as the globule equilibrium conformation are significantly distinct for implicit and explicit solvent systems. Actually, strongly contrasting with the implicit solvent version, the explicit solvent model predicts: (i) a malleable globule, in agreement with the estimated large protein-volume fluctuations; (ii) thermal conformational stability, resembling the conformational hear resistance of globular proteins, in which radii of gyration are practically insensitive to thermal effects over a relatively wide range of temperatures; and (iii) smaller radii of gyration at higher temperatures, indicating that the chain conformational entropy in the unfolded state is significantly smaller than that estimated from random coil configurations. Finally, we comment on the meaning of these results with respect to the understanding of the folding process. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

EOPAS, the EthnoER online representation of interlinear text

One of the goals of the ARC funded Eresearch project called Sharing access and analytical tools for ethnographic digital media using high speed networks, or simply EthnoER is to take outputs of normal linguistic analytical processes and present them online in a system we have called the EthnoER online presentation and annotation system, or EOPAS.

Level-one highest weight representation of U-q[sl((N)over-cap vertical bar 1)] and Bosonization of the multicomponent Super t-J model

We study the level-one irreducible highest weight representations of the quantum affine superalgebra U-q[sl((N) over cap\1)], and calculate their characters and supercharacters. We obtain bosonized q-vertex operators acting on the irreducible U-q[sl((N) over cap\1)] modules and derive the exchange relations satisfied by the vertex operators. We give the bosonization of the multicomponent super t-J model by using the bosonized vertex operators. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0022- 2488(00)00508-9].

Credit assignment: The memory representation of dynamic task events

The experiment examined the influence of memory for prior instances on aircraft conflict detection. Participants saw pairs of similar aircraft repeatedly conflict with each other. Performance improvements suggest that participants credited the conflict status of familiar aircraft pairs to repeated static features such as speed, and dynamic features such as aircraft relative position. Participants missed conflicts when a conflict pair resembled a pair that had repeatedly passed safely. Participants either did not attend to, or interpret, the bearing of aircraft correctly as a result of false memory-based expectations. Implications for instance models and situational awareness in dynamic systems are discussed.

The formal representation of process system modelling assumptions and their implications

In order to analyse the effect of modelling assumptions in a formal, rigorous way, a syntax of modelling assumptions has been defined. The syntax of modelling assumptions enables us to represent modelling assumptions as transformations acting on the set of model equations. The notion of syntactical correctness and semantical consistency of sets of modelling assumptions is defined and methods for checking them are described. It is shown on a simple example how different modelling assumptions act on the model equations and their effect on the differential index of the resulted model is also indicated.