Ferramentas e recursos livres para reconhecimento e síntese de voz em português brasileiro

Sistemas de reconhecimento e síntese de voz são constituídos por módulos que dependem da língua e, enquanto existem muitos recursos públicos para alguns idiomas (p.e. Inglês e Japonês), os recursos para Português Brasileiro (PB) ainda são escassos. Outro aspecto é que, para um grande número de tarefas, a taxa de erro dos sistemas de reconhecimento de voz atuais ainda é elevada, quando comparada à obtida por seres humanos. Assim, apesar do sucesso das cadeias escondidas de Markov (HMM), é necessária a pesquisa por novos métodos. Este trabalho tem como motivação esses dois fatos e se divide em duas partes. A primeira descreve o desenvolvimento de recursos e ferramentas livres para reconhecimento e síntese de voz em PB, consistindo de bases de dados de áudio e texto, um dicionário fonético, um conversor grafema-fone, um separador silábico e modelos acústico e de linguagem. Todos os recursos construídos encontram-se publicamente disponíveis e, junto com uma interface de programação proposta, têm sido usados para o desenvolvimento de várias novas aplicações em tempo-real, incluindo um módulo de reconhecimento de voz para a suíte de aplicativos para escritório OpenOffice.org. São apresentados testes de desempenho dos sistemas desenvolvidos. Os recursos aqui produzidos e disponibilizados facilitam a adoção da tecnologia de voz para PB por outros grupos de pesquisa, desenvolvedores e pela indústria. A segunda parte do trabalho apresenta um novo método para reavaliar (rescoring) o resultado do reconhecimento baseado em HMMs, o qual é organizado em uma estrutura de dados do tipo lattice. Mais especificamente, o sistema utiliza classificadores discriminativos que buscam diminuir a confusão entre pares de fones. Para cada um desses problemas binários, são usadas técnicas de seleção automática de parâmetros para escolher a representaçãao paramétrica mais adequada para o problema em questão.

Análise de domínio para avaliação de tesauros: uma experiência com a cadeia produtiva do calçado no Brasil

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Gerenciamento integrado de rede local com software livre

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

Um Método para a Utilização de Ontologias na Indexação Automática

The indexing process aims to represent synthetically the informational content of documents by a set of terms whose meanings indicate the themes or subjects treated by them. With the emergence of the Web, research in automatic indexing received major boost with the necessity of retrieving documents from this huge collection. The traditional indexing languages, used to translate the thematic content of documents in standardized terms, always proved efficient in manual indexing. Ontologies open new perspectives for research in automatic indexing, offering a computer-process able language restricted to a particular domain. The use of ontologies in the automatic indexing process allows using a specific domain language and a logical and conceptual framework to make inferences, and whose relations allow an expansion of the terms extracted directly from the text of the document. This paper presents techniques for the construction and use of ontologies in the automatic indexing process. We conclude that the use of ontologies in the indexing process allows to add not only new feature to the indexing process, but also allows us to think in new and advanced features in an information retrieval system.

Studies of Author Cocitation Analysis: A Bibliometric Approach for Domain Analysis

Author Cocitation Analysis (ACA) can be defined as the analysis of a group of actors, writers or researchers structurally organized in a (social and cognitive) network of a particular scientific community. The greater the number of researchers selected, the greater the amplitude and the domain boundary under consideration; the more restricted the number of researchers chosen as representative and appropriate, the less extensive the domain. From the perspective of the first axis of Tennis (2003), the selection of authors involves setting parameters on the extent of the domain, i.e., its total scope and amplitude. Thus, from the point of view of Tennis’s (2003) approach to Domain Analysis, the selection of authors for Author Cocitation Analysis is associated with the designations and boundaries of the domain, as well as to their goals (Tennis, 2003). Still, the selection of authors through the most cited authors in the literature, reflects the core elements of a domain and constitute the most specific foundation of a domain, aligning to the Degrees of Specialization characterized by Tennis (2003). It is concluded that the Author Cocitation Analysis (ACA) is a relevant procedure to the analysis of the underlying structure of a scientific knowledge domain, which meets the theories and concepts of Domain Analysis researchers, in that it allows characterizing the science, identifying, analyzing and assessing the conditions under which scientific knowledge is constructed and socialized.

Bias in the indexing languages Theorethical approaches about feminine issues

The process of knowledge representation as well as its procedures or tools and its products are not neutral in terms of values; instead they imply moral values. In this context, bias in representation related to prejudice and discrimination, to gender issues, to dicotomic categorization in classification systems or in thesauri and to lack of cultural warrant may arise. Concerning the problem of bias in indexing languages, starting from the initial theoretical reflexions of Brey (1999), Berman (1993), Olson (1998; 2002), Lopez-Huertas Perez & Torres Ramirez (2005), Guimaraes (2006), Hjorland (2008) and Milani et al. (2009), the proposal is to present a preliminary categorization aiming at facilitating the identification of bias concerning feminine issues in indexing languages, to offer a contribution to the theoretical universe of the specific questions of knowledge organization and to present a theme to be discussed by educators and professionals in the areas of cataloging, classification and indexing. If in a society which intends to be politically correct, social attitudes towards stigmatized citizens should be modified, then, the universe of indexing languages, taken as tools of knowledge representation, is a fertile field to sow this reflexion.

Diretrizes para a utilização de ontologias na indexação automática

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Considerações sobre sessões de Teletandem como gênero discursivo: breve estudo e exemplificação

The reflex of social and cultural changes in discursive practices can indicate that language has a fundamental role in transforming the society and attempts of defining the directions of changes must include new forms of language practices. One of these forms concerns to computer media in teaching-learning process, showing how technology and culture interact in a significant way to interfere in language uses. In this context, it has been developed in UNESP/Assis linked to the Center for Language and Teacher Development the project Teletandem Brasil: Foreign Languages for All as a new practice of language teachinglearning through technological resources. The present paper aims to present a description of the teletandem sessions as a discursive gender according to the Bakhtin’s gender theory. The data was collected during the second semester of 2010, in sessions of interaction with an American university. The considerations are directed by the following questions: (a) how are the statements of a session discursively organized; (b) what kind of relationship the partners have with their mother language when they teach it as a foreign language, in this context. The analysis allowed us to conclude that: (a) the sessions can characterize a hybrid and secondary gender in this specific area of human activity, even the partners still find difficulties in this gender domain; (b) the teletandem sessions constitute an important instrument for the critical language awareness between the partners.

Implications of maternal nutrient restriction in transgenerational programming of hypertension and endothelial dysfunction across F1-F3 offspring

Aims: An extensive variety of prenatal insults are associated with an increased incidence of metabolic and cardiovascular disorders in adult life. We previously demonstrated that maternal global nutrient restriction during pregnancy leads to increased blood pressure and endothelial dysfunction in the adult offspring. This study aimed to assess whether prenatal exposure to nutritional insult has transgenerational effects in F-2 and F-3 offspring. Main methods: For this, female Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups on day 1 of pregnancy: a control group fed standard chow ad libitum and a restricted group fed 50% of the ad libitum intake throughout gestation. At delivery, all animals were fed a standard laboratory chow diet. At 11 weeks of age, one female and one male from each restricted litter were randomly selected and mated with rats from another restricted litters in order to generate the F-2 offspring. The same procedure produced F-3 generation. Similarly, the rats in the control group were bred for each generation. Key Findings: Our findings show that the deleterious effects of maternal nutrient restriction to which the F-0 mothers were exposed may not be limited to the male first generation. In fact, we found that elevated blood pressure, an impaired vasodilatory response to acetylcholine and alterations in NO production were all transferred to the subsequent males from F-2 and F-3 generations. Significance: Our data show that global nutrient restriction during pregnancy results in a specific phenotype that can be passed transgenerationally to a second and third generation. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

KRAS gene mutations in Noonan syndrome familial cases cluster in the vicinity of the switch II region of the G-domain: Report of another family with metopic craniosynostosis

Noonan syndrome (NS) and Noonan-related disorders [cardio-facio-cutaneous (CFC), Costello, Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines (NS-ML), and neurofibromatosis-Noonan syndromes (NFNS)] are a group of developmental disorders caused by mutations in genes of the RAS/MAPK pathway. Mutations in the KRAS gene account for only a small proportion of affected Noonan and CFC syndrome patients that present an intermediate phenotype between these two syndromes, with more frequent and severe intellectual disability in NS and less ectodermal involvement in CFC syndrome, as well as atypical clinical findings such as craniosynostosis. Recently, the first familial case with a novel KRAS mutation was described. We report on a second vertical transmission (a mother and two siblings) with a novel mutation (p.M72L), in which the proband has trigonocephaly and the affected mother and sister, prominent ectodermal involvement. Metopic suture involvement has not been described before, expanding the main different cranial sutures which can be affected in NS and KRAS gene mutations. The gene alteration found in the studied family is in close proximity to the one reported in the other familial case (close to the switch II region of the G-domain), suggesting that this specific region of the gene could have less severe effects on intellectual ability than the other KRAS gene mutations found in NS patients and be less likely to hamper reproductive fitness. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dynamic complex formation between HD-GYP, GGDEF and PilZ domain proteins regulates motility in Xanthomonas campestris

RpfG is a member of a class of wide spread bacterial two-component regulators with an HD-GYP cyclic di-GMP phosphodiesterase domain. In the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris, RpfG together with the sensor kinase RpfC regulates multiple factors as a response to the cell-to-cell Diffusible Signalling Factor (DSF). A dynamic physical interaction of RpfG with two diguanylate cyclase (GGDEF) domain proteins controls motility. Here we show that, contrary to expectation, regulation of motility by the GGDEF domain proteins does not depend upon their cyclic di-GMP synthetic activity. Furthermore we show that the complex of RpfG and GGDEF domain proteins recruits a specific PilZ domain adaptor protein, and this complex then interacts with the pilus motor proteins PilU and PiIT. The results support a model in which DSF signalling influences motility through the highly regulated dynamic interaction of proteins that affect pilus action. A specific motif that we identify to be required for HD-GYP domain interaction is conserved in a number of GGDEF domain proteins, suggesting that regulation via interdomain interactions is of broad relevance.

Germline-Specific MATH-BTB Substrate Adaptor MAB1 Regulates Spindle Length and Nuclei Identity in Maize

Germline and early embryo development constitute ideal model systems to study the establishment of polarity, cell identity, and asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) in plants. We describe here the function of the MATH-BTB domain protein MAB1 that is exclusively expressed in the germ lineages and the zygote of maize (Zea mays). mab1 (RNA interference [RNAi]) mutant plants display chromosome segregation defects and short spindles during meiosis that cause insufficient separation and migration of nuclei. After the meiosis-to-mitosis transition, two attached nuclei of similar identity are formed in mab1 (RNAi) mutants leading to an arrest of further germline development. Transient expression studies of MAB1 in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Bright Yellow-2 cells revealed a cell cycle-dependent nuclear localization pattern but no direct colocalization with the spindle apparatus. MAB1 is able to form homodimers and interacts with the E3 ubiquitin ligase component Cullin 3a (CUL3a) in the cytoplasm, likely as a substrate-specific adapter protein. The microtubule-severing subunit p60 of katanin was identified as a candidate substrate for MAB1, suggesting that MAB1 resembles the animal key ACD regulator Maternal Effect Lethal 26 (MEL-26). In summary, our findings provide further evidence for the importance of posttranslational regulation for asymmetric divisions and germline progression in plants and identified an unstable key protein that seems to be involved in regulating the stability of a spindle apparatus regulator(s).

LALP: a language to program custom FPGA-based acceleration engines

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are becoming increasingly important in embedded and high-performance computing systems. They allow performance levels close to the ones obtained with Application-Specific Integrated Circuits, while still keeping design and implementation flexibility. However, to efficiently program FPGAs, one needs the expertise of hardware developers in order to master hardware description languages (HDLs) such as VHDL or Verilog. Attempts to furnish a high-level compilation flow (e.g., from C programs) still have to address open issues before broader efficient results can be obtained. Bearing in mind an FPGA available resources, it has been developed LALP (Language for Aggressive Loop Pipelining), a novel language to program FPGA-based accelerators, and its compilation framework, including mapping capabilities. The main ideas behind LALP are to provide a higher abstraction level than HDLs, to exploit the intrinsic parallelism of hardware resources, and to allow the programmer to control execution stages whenever the compiler techniques are unable to generate efficient implementations. Those features are particularly useful to implement loop pipelining, a well regarded technique used to accelerate computations in several application domains. This paper describes LALP, and shows how it can be used to achieve high-performance computing solutions.

Formalizing languages for service oriented computing

Service Oriented Computing is a new programming paradigm for addressing distributed system design issues. Services are autonomous computational entities which can be dynamically discovered and composed in order to form more complex systems able to achieve different kinds of task. E-government, e-business and e-science are some examples of the IT areas where Service Oriented Computing will be exploited in the next years. At present, the most credited Service Oriented Computing technology is that of Web Services, whose specifications are enriched day by day by industrial consortia without following a precise and rigorous approach. This PhD thesis aims, on the one hand, at modelling Service Oriented Computing in a formal way in order to precisely define the main concepts it is based upon and, on the other hand, at defining a new approach, called bipolar approach, for addressing system design issues by synergically exploiting choreography and orchestration languages related by means of a mathematical relation called conformance. Choreography allows us to describe systems of services from a global view point whereas orchestration supplies a means for addressing such an issue from a local perspective. In this work we present SOCK, a process algebra based language inspired by the Web Service orchestration language WS-BPEL which catches the essentials of Service Oriented Computing. From the definition of SOCK we will able to define a general model for dealing with Service Oriented Computing where services and systems of services are related to the design of finite state automata and process algebra concurrent systems, respectively. Furthermore, we introduce a formal language for dealing with choreography. Such a language is equipped with a formal semantics and it forms, together with a subset of the SOCK calculus, the bipolar framework. Finally, we present JOLIE which is a Java implentation of a subset of the SOCK calculus and it is part of the bipolar framework we intend to promote.

B-type cytochromes of the DOMON domain superfamily (Novel redox elements of plant plasma membrane)

The aim of the present study is understanding the properties of a new group of redox proteins having in common a DOMON-type domain with characteristics of cytochromes b. The superfamily of proteins containing a DOMON of this type includes a few protein families. With the aim of better characterizing this new protein family, the present work addresses both a CyDOM protein (a cytochrome b561) and a protein only comprised of DOMON(AIR12), both of plant origin. Apoplastic ascorbate can be regenerated from monodehydroascorbate by a trans-plasma membrane redox system which uses cytosolic ascorbate as a reductant and comprises a high potential cytochrome b. We identified the major plasma membrane (PM) ascorbate-reducible b-type cytochrome of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and soybean (Glycine max) hypocotyls as orthologs of Arabidopsis auxin-responsive gene air12. The protein, which is glycosylated and glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored to the external side of the PM in vivo, was expressed in Pichia pastoris in a recombinant form, lacking the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-modification signal, and purified from the culture medium. Recombinant AIR12 is a soluble protein predicted to fold into a β-sandwich domain and belonging to the DOMON superfamily. It is shown to be a b-type cytochrome with a symmetrical α-band at 561 nm, to be fully reduced by ascorbate and fully oxidized by monodehydroascorbate. Redox potentiometry suggests that AIR12 binds two high-potential hemes (Em,7 +135 and +236 mV). Phylogenetic analyses reveal that the auxin-responsive genes AIR12 constitute a new family of plasma membrane b-type cytochromes specific to flowering plants. Although AIR12 is one of the few redox proteins of the PM characterized to date, the role of AIR12 in trans-PM electron transfer would imply interaction with other partners which are still to be identified. Another part of the present project was aimed at understanding of a soybean protein comprised of a DOMON fused with a well-defined b561 cytochrome domain (CyDOM). Various bioinformatic approaches show this protein to be composed of an N-terminal DOMON followed by b561 domain. The latter contains five transmembrane helices featuring highly conserved histidines, which might bind haem groups. The CyDOM has been cloned and expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris, and spectroscopic analyses have been accomplished on solubilized yeast membranes. CyDOM clearly reveal the properties of b-type cytochrome. The results highlight the fact that CyDOM is clearly able to lead an electron flux through the plasmamembrane. Voltage clamp experiments demonstrate that Xenopus laevis oocytes transformed with CyDOM of soybean exhibit negative electrical currents in presence of an external electron acceptor. Analogous investigations were carried out with SDR2, a CyDOM of Drosophila melanogaster which shows an electron transport capacity even higher than plant CyDOM. As quoted above, these data reinforce those obtained in plant CyDOM on the one hand, and on the other hand allow to attribute to SDR2-like proteins the properties assigned to CyDOM. Was expressed in Regenerated tobacco roots, transiently transformed with infected a with chimeral construct GFP: CyDOM (by A. rhizogenes infection) reveals a plasmamembrane localization of CyDOM both in epidermal cells of the elongation zone of roots and in root hairs. In conclusion. Although the data presented here await to be expanded and in part clarified, it is safe to say they open a new perspective about the role of this group of proteins. The biological relevance of the functional and physiological implications of DOMON redox domains seems noteworthy, and it can but increase with future advances in research. Beyond the very finding, however interesting in itself, of DOMON domains as extracellular cytochromes, the present study testifies to the fact that cytochrome proteins containing DOMON domains of the type of “CyDOM” can transfer electrons through membranes and may represent the most important redox component of the plasmamembrane as yet discovered.