Can Permaculture Design Save the World?

This project will create a blueprint for an eco-settlement in the South Florida area that will house a total of ten people on a five acre plot of land. Using a combination of permaculture design principles and simple tech solutions, this settlement will be capable of supporting its inhabitants “off the grid”, or with no reliance on outside public utilities. More specifically, the settlement will be capable of supporting its inhabitants by producing a minimum of 80% of its resources on site using only all natural farming techniques, proper water management, companion planting and various other techniques. Instead of using modern agricultural practices that damage the land in the long term, all of the principles that will be used in this design will allow the land to heal over time while still producing most of what is needed for any inhabitants. This project is significant because all of the principles used are time-tested and capable of adapting to any type of environment. The principles used do not have a steep learning curve. In fact, anyone ranging from a kindergartener to a 90-year-old will be able to learn and teach the required skill sets in as little as one week. By contrast, in order to fully utilize GMO crops, first a scientist must spend a minimum of eight years getting degrees in various fields of study to even reach a textbook understanding of the exact science. In addition, several years must be spent in sterile lab environments to see the results of complex experiments that may not even be used, thus wasting time, money, and resources. I am certain that this will be successful because similar goals have already been reached by people around the world without access to modern utilities. The only major difference is that my approach will be documented scientifically, and show that not only is this way of life healthy, but also easy and practical. Because of this, my project will bring permaculture design into the spotlight, and will hopefully see widespread adoption. This will result in cities designed with the intent to live with nature instead of conquering it, and will hopefully aid the earth in healing for future generations.

Análise sintagmática aplicada ao processo de sumarização automática de documentos do português brasileiro

This research studies the application of syntagmatic analysis of written texts in the language of Brazilian Portuguese as a methodology for the automatic creation of extractive summaries. The automation of abstracts, while linked to the area of natural language processing (PLN) is studying ways the computer can autonomously construct summaries of texts. For this we use as presupposed the idea that switch to the computer the way a language is structured, in our case the Brazilian Portuguese, it will help in the discovery of the most relevant sentences, and consequently build extractive summaries with higher informativeness. In this study, we propose the definition of a summarization method that automatically perform the syntagmatic analysis of texts and through them, to build an automatic summary. The phrases that make up the syntactic structures are then used to analyze the sentences of the text, so the count of these elements determines whether or not a sentence will compose the summary to be generated

Qualidade dos serviços hoteleiros: percepções dos turistas de negócios de Teresina-PI

Business tourism is one of tourist segments with different market characteristics in relation to others segmentations, such as low seasonality, there is no requirement of natural attractions, it serves as destination projection and it generates profitable larger numbers. Due to the context around business travels, the hotel so many times has a fundamental whole among the elements of the production chain in this segmentation. Business tourism in Teresina is the primary segmentation of the capital, since it represents almost 70% of hotel demand; hence this research has as objective to evaluate through the perceptions of business travelers, the level of quality services of hotels of Teresina. The research is exploratory and descriptive, of functionalist character. This study is characterized by qualitative and quantitative research, supported by a basis of methodological pluralism. For primary data collection was performed applying a suitable research instrument of SERVPERF model (Service Performance). The universe of this study were Teresina's accommodations, restricted to only those that fit in hotel category and it was inside metropolitan area of Teresina. The study subjects were business travelers who were hosted in these hotels. For the analysis, it was considered certain factors: descriptive analysis, factor analysis, correlation matrix analysis of the variables; It was still compiling a graphic of lexicons obtained in the survey about respondent's the notion of quality of vision in the hotel service; Finally, qualitative analysis was based on the theories of marketing, targeting and quality of tourism services applied. The results show that the Teresina hotel service is on a regular average, especially for Reliability and Safety dimensions were highlighted. Whereas, the factor analysis showed the emergence of two factors to explain "Empathy" dimension, one of this is about the organization and the other one is about consumer. And by Lexicometria was possible to observe the importance to the customer of other variables such as: personal aspects, price and location for this tour segmentation.

Dançando a carne: uma poética do corpo no mito adâmico

In this dissertation we reflect about sensitive the dimension of the body, which enables us to participate in mythical space and set him as a potential space for artistic creation in dance, experience provider in senses for world, for life and for existence. It´s a written, thrashing some reflections on the human condition from a gaze cast upon the myth of Adam, leading us to think about the possible relationships between art and myth in contemporary times, as fields of knowledge open to creation, and semantic spaces able to assign new meanings to living through the pulsations of a body that is myth and what is dance. One of the goals of this study is set up a new point of view to analyze the Adam's myth, enabling to new interpretations, meanings and understandings from the experience in the process of creation in contemporary dance. Therefore, methodologically reference is made in the Phenomenology, or rather the phenomenological attitude proposed by Merleau-Ponty (1994), which considers the experience of the body as the primary source of knowledge. Dipping on this process of creation in contemporary dance, one artistic and choreographic work was originated, titled "The Body I am”, in contemplation of this dance that echoes the mystery, that emerges from the depths of the body, and it brings to the human surface and your world, your relationships. Realize that dance is as a sensitive guide and counselor reflections ontological and epistemological, able to validate and perpetuate the myth whereas ancestral wisdom inheritance.

Direction giving: an attempt to increase user engagement

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Summarising News Stories for Children

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Recommending peers for learning: Matching on dissimilarity in interpretations to provoke breakdown

People recommenders are a widespread feature of social networking sites and educational social learning platforms alike. However, when these systems are used to extend learners’ Personal Learning Networks, they often fall short of providing recommendations of learning value to their users. This paper proposes a design of a people recommender based on content-based user profiles, and a matching method based on dissimilarity therein. It presents the results of an experiment conducted with curators of the content curation site Scoop.it!, where curators rated personalized recommendations for contacts. The study showed that matching dissimilarity of interpretations of shared interests is more successful in providing positive experiences of breakdown for the curator than is matching on similarity. The main conclusion of this paper is that people recommenders should aim to trigger constructive experiences of breakdown for their users, as the prospect and potential of such experiences encourage learners to connect to their recommended peers.

(Semi-)automatisch ondertitelen en vertalen van leermateriaal

This presentation summarizes experience with the automated speech recognition and translation approach realised in the context of the European project EMMA.

Expressing Sentiments in Game Reviews

Opinion mining and sentiment analysis are important research areas of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools and have become viable alternatives for automatically extracting the affective information found in texts. Our aim is to build an NLP model to analyze gamers’ sentiments and opinions expressed in a corpus of 9750 game reviews. A Principal Component Analysis using sentiment analysis features explained 51.2 % of the variance of the reviews and provides an integrated view of the major sentiment and topic related dimensions expressed in game reviews. A Discriminant Function Analysis based on the emerging components classified game reviews into positive, neutral and negative ratings with a 55 % accuracy.

Software Components for Serious Game Development

The large upfront investments required for game development pose a severe barrier for the wider uptake of serious games in education and training. Also, there is a lack of well-established methods and tools that support game developers at preserving and enhancing the games’ pedagogical effectiveness. The RAGE project, which is a Horizon 2020 funded research project on serious games, addresses these issues by making available reusable software components that aim to support the pedagogical qualities of serious games. In order to easily deploy and integrate these game components in a multitude of game engines, platforms and programming languages, RAGE has developed and validated a hybrid component-based software architecture that preserves component portability and interoperability. While a first set of software components is being developed, this paper presents selected examples to explain the overall system’s concept and its practical benefits. First, the Emotion Detection component uses the learners’ webcams for capturing their emotional states from facial expressions. Second, the Performance Statistics component is an add-on for learning analytics data processing, which allows instructors to track and inspect learners’ progress without bothering about the required statistics computations. Third, a set of language processing components accommodate the analysis of textual inputs of learners, facilitating comprehension assessment and prediction. Fourth, the Shared Data Storage component provides a technical solution for data storage - e.g. for player data or game world data - across multiple software components. The presented components are exemplary for the anticipated RAGE library, which will include up to forty reusable software components for serious gaming, addressing diverse pedagogical dimensions.

Os paradoxos de Prior e o calculo proposicional deôntico relevante E¹.

Cruz, Ângela Maria Paiva. Os paradoxos de Prior e o cálculo proposicional deôntico relevante. Princípios, Natal, v. 4, p. 05-18, 1996.

Cyber Enigmas? Passive Detection and Pedagogical Agents: Can Students Spot the fake?

This paper presents a study that was undertaken to examine human interaction with a pedagogical agent and the passive and active detection of such agents within a synchronous, online environment. A pedagogical agent is a software application which can provide a human like interaction using a natural language interface. These may be familiar from the smartphone interfaces such as ‘Siri’ or ‘Cortana’, or the virtual online assistants found on some websites, such as ‘Anna’ on the Ikea website. Pedagogical agents are characters on the computer screen with embodied life-like behaviours such as speech, emotions, locomotion, gestures, and movements of the head, the eye, or other parts of the body. The passive detection test is where participants are not primed to the potential presence of a pedagogical agent within the online environment. The active detection test is where participants are primed to the potential presence of a pedagogical agent. The purpose of the study was to examine how people passively detected pedagogical agents that were presenting themselves as humans in an online environment. In order to locate the pedagogical agent in a realistic higher education online environment, problem-based learning online was used. Problem-based learning online provides a focus for discussions and participation, without creating too much artificiality. The findings indicated that the ways in which students positioned the agent tended to influence the interaction between them. One of the key findings was that since the agent was focussed mainly on the pedagogical task this may have hampered interaction with the students, however some of its non-task dialogue did improve students' perceptions of the autonomous agents’ ability to interact with them. It is suggested that future studies explore the differences between the relationships and interactions of learner and pedagogical agent within authentic situations, in order to understand if students' interactions are different between real and virtual mentors in an online setting.

Validation of Electronic Health Record Phenotyping of Bipolar Disorder Cases and Controls

Objective: The study was designed to validate use of elec-tronic health records (EHRs) for diagnosing bipolar disorder and classifying control subjects. Method: EHR data were obtained from a health care system of more than 4.6 million patients spanning more than 20 years. Experienced clinicians reviewed charts to identify text features and coded data consistent or inconsistent with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Natural language processing was used to train a diagnostic algorithm with 95% specificity for classifying bipolar disorder. Filtered coded data were used to derive three additional classification rules for case subjects and one for control subjects. The positive predictive value (PPV) of EHR-based bipolar disorder and subphenotype di- agnoses was calculated against diagnoses from direct semi- structured interviews of 190 patients by trained clinicians blind to EHR diagnosis. Results: The PPV of bipolar disorder defined by natural language processing was 0.85. Coded classification based on strict filtering achieved a value of 0.79, but classifications based on less stringent criteria performed less well. No EHR- classified control subject received a diagnosis of bipolar dis- order on the basis of direct interview (PPV=1.0). For most subphenotypes, values exceeded 0.80. The EHR-based clas- sifications were used to accrue 4,500 bipolar disorder cases and 5,000 controls for genetic analyses. Conclusions: Semiautomated mining of EHRs can be used to ascertain bipolar disorder patients and control subjects with high specificity and predictive value compared with diagnostic interviews. EHRs provide a powerful resource for high-throughput phenotyping for genetic and clinical research.

Distributional effects and individual differences in L2 morphology learning

Second language (L2) learning outcomes may depend on the structure of the input and learners’ cognitive abilities. This study tested whether less predictable input might facilitate learning and generalization of L2 morphology while evaluating contributions of statistical learning ability, nonverbal intelligence, phonological short-term memory, and verbal working memory. Over three sessions, 54 adults were exposed to a Russian case-marking paradigm with a balanced or skewed item distribution in the input. Whereas statistical learning ability and nonverbal intelligence predicted learning of trained items, only nonverbal intelligence also predicted generalization of case-marking inflections to new vocabulary. Neither measure of temporary storage capacity predicted learning. Balanced, less predictable input was associated with higher accuracy in generalization but only in the initial test session. These results suggest that individual differences in pattern extraction play a more sustained role in L2 acquisition than instructional manipulations that vary the predictability of lexical items in the input.

Os paradoxos de Prior e o calculo proposicional deôntico relevante E¹.

Cruz, Ângela Maria Paiva. Os paradoxos de Prior e o cálculo proposicional deôntico relevante. Princípios, Natal, v. 4, p. 05-18, 1996.