A contribution to semantic description of images and videos: an application of soft biometrics

Humans have a high ability to extract visual data information acquired by sight. Trought a learning process, which starts at birth and continues throughout life, image interpretation becomes almost instinctively. At a glance, one can easily describe a scene with reasonable precision, naming its main components. Usually, this is done by extracting low-level features such as edges, shapes and textures, and associanting them to high level meanings. In this way, a semantic description of the scene is done. An example of this, is the human capacity to recognize and describe other people physical and behavioral characteristics, or biometrics. Soft-biometrics also represents inherent characteristics of human body and behaviour, but do not allow unique person identification. Computer vision area aims to develop methods capable of performing visual interpretation with performance similar to humans. This thesis aims to propose computer vison methods which allows high level information extraction from images in the form of soft biometrics. This problem is approached in two ways, unsupervised and supervised learning methods. The first seeks to group images via an automatic feature extraction learning , using both convolution techniques, evolutionary computing and clustering. In this approach employed images contains faces and people. Second approach employs convolutional neural networks, which have the ability to operate on raw images, learning both feature extraction and classification processes. Here, images are classified according to gender and clothes, divided into upper and lower parts of human body. First approach, when tested with different image datasets obtained an accuracy of approximately 80% for faces and non-faces and 70% for people and non-person. The second tested using images and videos, obtained an accuracy of about 70% for gender, 80% to the upper clothes and 90% to lower clothes. The results of these case studies, show that proposed methods are promising, allowing the realization of automatic high level information image annotation. This opens possibilities for development of applications in diverse areas such as content-based image and video search and automatica video survaillance, reducing human effort in the task of manual annotation and monitoring.

Desenvolvimento de plataforma digital para análise da satisfação dos utentes de unidades de saúde

Este documento descreve o trabalho realizado em conjunto com a empresa MedSUPPORT[1] no desenvolvimento de uma plataforma digital para análise da satisfação dos utentes de unidades de saúde. Atualmente a avaliação de satisfação junto dos seus clientes é um procedimento importante e que deve ser utilizado pelas empresas como mais uma ferramenta de avaliação dos seus produtos ou serviços. Para as unidades de saúde a avaliação da satisfação do utente é atualmente considerada como um objetivo fundamental dos serviços de saúde e tem vindo a ocupar um lugar progressivamente mais importante na avaliação da qualidade dos mesmos. Neste âmbito idealizou-se desenvolver uma plataforma digital para análise da satisfação dos utentes de unidades de saúde. O estudo inicial sobre o conceito da satisfação de consumidores e utentes permitiu consolidar os conceitos associados à temática em estudo. Conhecer as oito dimensões que, de acordo com os investigadores englobam a satisfação do utente é um dos pontos relevantes do estudo inicial. Para avaliar junto do utente a sua satisfação é necessário questiona-lo diretamente. Para efeito desenvolveu-se um inquérito de satisfação estudando cuidadosamente cada um dos elementos que deste fazem parte. No desenvolvimento do inquérito de satisfação foram seguidas as seguintes etapas: Planeamento do questionário, partindo das oito dimensões da satisfação do utente até às métricas que serão avaliadas junto do utente; Análise dos dados a recolher, definindo-se, para cada métrica, se os dados serão nominais, ordinais ou provenientes de escalas balanceadas; Por último a formulação das perguntas do inquérito de satisfação foi alvo de estudo cuidado para garantir que o utente percecione da melhor forma o objetivo da questão. A definição das especificações da plataforma e do questionário passou por diferentes estudos, entre eles uma análise de benchmarking[2], que permitiram definir que o inquérito iv estará localizado numa zona acessível da unidade de saúde, será respondido com recurso a um ecrã táctil (tablet) e que estará alojado na web. As aplicações web desenvolvidas atualmente apresentam um design apelativo e intuitivo. Foi fundamental levar a cabo um estudo do design da aplicação web, como garantia que as cores utilizadas, o tipo de letra, e o local onde a informação são os mais adequados. Para desenvolver a aplicação web foi utilizada a linguagem de programação Ruby, com recurso à framework Ruby on Rails. Para a implementação da aplicação foram estudadas as diferentes tecnologias disponíveis, com enfoque no estudo do sistema de gestão de base de dados a utilizar. O desenvolvimento da aplicação web teve também como objetivo melhorar a gestão da informação gerada pelas respostas ao inquérito de satisfação. O colaborador da MedSUPPORT é o responsável pela gestão da informação pelo que as suas necessidades foram atendidas. Um menu para a gestão da informação é disponibilizado ao administrador da aplicação, colaborador MedSUPPORT. O menu de gestão da informação permitirá uma análise simplificada do estado atual com recurso a um painel do tipo dashboard e, a fim de melhorar a análise interna dos dados terá uma função de exportação dos dados para folha de cálculo. Para validação do estudo efetuado foram realizados os testes de funcionamento à plataforma, tanto à sua funcionalidade como à sua utilização em contexto real pelos utentes inquiridos nas unidades de saúde. Os testes em contexto real objetivaram validar o conceito junto dos utentes inquiridos.

Automatic dynamic mask extraction for PIV images containing an unsteady interface, bubbles, and a moving structure

When performing Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements in complex fluid flows with moving interfaces and a two-phase flow, it is necessary to develop a mask to remove non-physical measurements. This is the case when studying, for example, the complex bubble sweep-down phenomenon observed in oceanographic research vessels. Indeed, in such a configuration, the presence of an unsteady free surface, of a solid–liquid interface and of bubbles in the PIV frame, leads to generate numerous laser reflections and therefore spurious velocity vectors. In this note, an image masking process is developed to successively identify the boundaries of the ship and the free surface interface. As the presence of the solid hull surface induces laser reflections, the hull edge contours are simply detected in the first PIV frame and dynamically estimated for consecutive ones. As for the unsteady surface determination, a specific process is implemented like the following: i) the edge detection of the gradient magnitude in the PIV frame, ii) the extraction of the particles by filtering high-intensity large areas related to the bubbles and/or hull reflections, iii) the extraction of the rough region containing these particles and their reflections, iv) the removal of these reflections. The unsteady surface is finally obtained with a fifth-order polynomial interpolation. The resulted free surface is successfully validated from the Fourier analysis and by visualizing selected PIV images containing numerous spurious high intensity areas. This paper demonstrates how this data analysis process leads to PIV images database without reflections and an automatic detection of both the free surface and the rigid body. An application of this new mask is finally detailed, allowing a preliminary analysis of the hydrodynamic flow.

Dynamic Programming Approaches for Estimating and Applying Large-scale Discrete Choice Models

People go through their life making all kinds of decisions, and some of these decisions affect their demand for transportation, for example, their choices of where to live and where to work, how and when to travel and which route to take. Transport related choices are typically time dependent and characterized by large number of alternatives that can be spatially correlated. This thesis deals with models that can be used to analyze and predict discrete choices in large-scale networks. The proposed models and methods are highly relevant for, but not limited to, transport applications. We model decisions as sequences of choices within the dynamic discrete choice framework, also known as parametric Markov decision processes. Such models are known to be difficult to estimate and to apply to make predictions because dynamic programming problems need to be solved in order to compute choice probabilities. In this thesis we show that it is possible to explore the network structure and the flexibility of dynamic programming so that the dynamic discrete choice modeling approach is not only useful to model time dependent choices, but also makes it easier to model large-scale static choices. The thesis consists of seven articles containing a number of models and methods for estimating, applying and testing large-scale discrete choice models. In the following we group the contributions under three themes: route choice modeling, large-scale multivariate extreme value (MEV) model estimation and nonlinear optimization algorithms. Five articles are related to route choice modeling. We propose different dynamic discrete choice models that allow paths to be correlated based on the MEV and mixed logit models. The resulting route choice models become expensive to estimate and we deal with this challenge by proposing innovative methods that allow to reduce the estimation cost. For example, we propose a decomposition method that not only opens up for possibility of mixing, but also speeds up the estimation for simple logit models, which has implications also for traffic simulation. Moreover, we compare the utility maximization and regret minimization decision rules, and we propose a misspecification test for logit-based route choice models. The second theme is related to the estimation of static discrete choice models with large choice sets. We establish that a class of MEV models can be reformulated as dynamic discrete choice models on the networks of correlation structures. These dynamic models can then be estimated quickly using dynamic programming techniques and an efficient nonlinear optimization algorithm. Finally, the third theme focuses on structured quasi-Newton techniques for estimating discrete choice models by maximum likelihood. We examine and adapt switching methods that can be easily integrated into usual optimization algorithms (line search and trust region) to accelerate the estimation process. The proposed dynamic discrete choice models and estimation methods can be used in various discrete choice applications. In the area of big data analytics, models that can deal with large choice sets and sequential choices are important. Our research can therefore be of interest in various demand analysis applications (predictive analytics) or can be integrated with optimization models (prescriptive analytics). Furthermore, our studies indicate the potential of dynamic programming techniques in this context, even for static models, which opens up a variety of future research directions.

MAIS(F) : Moodle : Android : interface simplificado para utilização de fóruns

É crescente a utilização dos dispositivos móveis com ecrãs maiores e melhores, mais memória, maiores capacidades multimédia e métodos mais refinados para introduzir dados. Dispositivos que integram comunicações, acesso à internet e diversos tipos de sensores possibilitarão, seguramente, abordagens inovadoras e criativas em atividades pedagógicas, em contraste com as utilizações atuais nos computadores pessoais. A análise das aplicações que atualmente integram os módulos do Moodle nos dispositivos móveis mostra que existe ainda um longo caminho a percorrer. As aplicações existentes têm, quase na sua totalidade, como objetivo adaptar o interface aos dispositivos móveis, o que é apenas o primeiro passo no sentido de aproveitar todas as potencialidades destes dispositivos. É, pois, possível imaginar um futuro próximo, onde as potencialidades dos dispositivos móveis darão origem a aplicações com um enorme potencial de aprendizagem, que advém do facto de os estudantes encontrarem conexões entre as suas vidas e a sua educação, através da realização de atividades em contexto no dispositivo móvel, sempre omnipresente. Com este trabalho de investigação e desenvolvimento pretende-se: a) avaliar o estado da arte do mobile learning, na área dos Learning Management System (LMS); b) refletir sobre as funcionalidades que deve oferecer uma aplicação para dispositivos móveis, com enfoque no sistema operativo Android, que permita a gestão e atualização dos fóruns e ficheiros do Moodle; c) conceber e produzir a referida aplicação, de acordo com as especificações consideradas relevantes; d) avaliar o seu impacto educativo e funcional. É demonstrado neste estudo que o recurso a dispositivos móveis potencia a aprendizagem baseada em LMS (Learning Management System), identificando-se as vantagens da sua utilização. São também apresentadas as funcionalidades da aplicação Mais(f), desenvolvida no âmbito da investigação, a avaliação da mesma pelos participantes no estudo, bem como as perspectivas futuras de utilização da aplicação Mais(f).

Allocating reforestation areas for sediment flow minimization: an integer programming formulation and a heuristic solution method

Policy and decision makers dealing with environmental conservation and land use planning often require identifying potential sites for contributing to minimize sediment flow reaching riverbeds. This is the case of reforestation initiatives, which can have sediment flow minimization among their objectives. This paper proposes an Integer Programming (IP) formulation and a Heuristic solution method for selecting a predefined number of locations to be reforested in order to minimize sediment load at a given outlet in a watershed. Although the core structure of both methods can be applied for different sorts of flow, the formulations are targeted to minimization of sediment delivery. The proposed approaches make use of a Single Flow Direction (SFD) raster map covering the watershed in order to construct a tree structure so that the outlet cell corresponds to the root node in the tree. The results obtained with both approaches are in agreement with expert assessments of erosion levels, slopes and distances to the riverbeds, which in turn allows concluding that this approach is suitable for minimizing sediment flow. Since the results obtained with the IP formulation are the same as the ones obtained with the Heuristic approach, an optimality proof is included in the present work. Taking into consideration that the heuristic requires much less computation time, this solution method is more suitable to be applied in large sized problems.

EasyInterface: a toolkit for the rapid development of GUIs for research prototype tools

During the lifetime of a research project, different partners develop several research prototype tools that share many common aspects. This is equally true for researchers as individuals and as groups: during a period of time they often develop several related tools to pursue a specific research line. Making research prototype tools easily accessible to the community is of utmost importance to promote the corresponding research, get feedback, and increase the tools’ lifetime beyond the duration of a specific project. One way to achieve this is to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that facilitate trying tools; in particular, with web-interfaces one avoids the overhead of downloading and installing the tools. Building GUIs from scratch is a tedious task, in particular for web-interfaces, and thus it typically gets low priority when developing a research prototype. Often we opt for copying the GUI of one tool and modifying it to fit the needs of a new related tool. Apart from code duplication, these tools will “live” separately, even though we might benefit from having them all in a common environment since they are related. This work aims at simplifying the process of building GUIs for research prototypes tools. In particular, we present EasyInterface, a toolkit that is based on novel methodology that provides an easy way to make research prototype tools available via common different environments such as a web-interface, within Eclipse, etc. It includes a novel text-based output language that allows to present results graphically without requiring any knowledge in GUI/Web programming. For example, an output of a tool could be (a structured version of) “highlight line number 10 of file ex.c” and “when the user clicks on line 10, open a dialog box with the text ...”. The environment will interpret this output and converts it to corresponding visual e_ects. The advantage of using this approach is that it will be interpreted equally by all environments of EasyInterface, e.g., the web-interface, the Eclipse plugin, etc. EasyInterface has been developed in the context of the Envisage [5] project, and has been evaluated on tools developed in this project, which include static analyzers, test-case generators, compilers, simulators, etc. EasyInterface is open source and available at GitHub2.

Ontogeny and nutritional programming of the hepatic growth hormone-insulin-like growth factor-prolactin axis in the sheep

The liver is an important metabolic and endocrine organ in the fetus but the extent to which its hormone receptor (R) sensitivity is developmentally regulated in early life is not fully established. We, therefore, examined developmental changes in mRNA abundance for the growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) receptors (R) plus insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and –II and their receptors. Fetal and postnatal sheep were sampled at either 80, or 140 days gestation, 1, 30 days or six months of age. The effect of maternal nutrient restriction between early to mid (i.e. 28 to 80 days gestation, the time of early liver growth) gestation on gene expression was also examined in the fetus and juvenile offspring. Gene expression for the GHR, PRLR and IGF-IR increased through gestation peaking at birth, whereas IGF-I was maximal near to term. In contrast, IGF-II mRNA decreased between mid and late gestation to increase after birth whereas IGF-IIR remained unchanged. A substantial decline in mRNA abundance for GHR, PRLR and IGF-IR then occurred up to six months. Maternal nutrient restriction reduced GHR and IGF-IIR mRNA abundance in the fetus, but caused a precocious increase in the PRLR. Gene expression for IGF-I and –II were increased in juvenile offspring born to nutrient restricted mothers. In conclusion, there are marked differences in the developmental ontogeny and nutritional programming of specific hormones and their receptors involved in hepatic growth and development in the fetus. These could contribute to changes in liver function during adult life.

Ontogeny and nutritional programming of mitochondrial proteins in the ovine kidney, liver and lung

This study investigated the developmental and nutritional programming of two important mitochondrial proteins, namely voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) and cytochrome c in the sheep kidney, liver and lung. The effect of maternal nutrient restriction between early to mid gestation (i.e. 28 to 80 days gestation, the period of maximal placental growth) on the abundance of these proteins was also examined in fetal and juvenile offspring. Fetuses were sampled at 80 and 140 days gestation (term ~147 days), and postnatal animals at 1 and 30 days and 6 months of age. The abundance of VDAC peaked at 140 days gestation in the lung, compared with 1 day after birth in the kidney and liver, whereas cytochrome c abundance was greatest at 140 days gestation in the liver, 1 day after birth in the kidney and 6 months of age in lungs. This differential ontogeny in mitochondrial protein abundance between tissues was accompanied with very different tissue specific responses to changes in maternal food intake. In the liver, maternal nutrient restriction only increased mitochondrial protein abundance at 80 days gestation, compared with no effect in the kidney. In contrast, in the lung mitochondrial protein abundance was raised near to term, whereas VDAC abundance was decreased by 6 months of age. These findings demonstrate the tissue specific nature of mitochondrial protein development that reflects differences in functional adaptation after birth. The divergence in mitochondrial response between tissues to maternal nutrient restriction early in pregnancy further reflects these differential ontogeny’s.

Two-Stage Stochastic Optimization. An Application in the Third Sector

[en] It is known that most of the problems applied in the real life present uncertainty. In the rst part of the dissertation, basic concepts and properties of the Stochastic Programming have been introduced to the reader, also known as Optimization under Uncertainty. Moreover, since stochastic programs are complex to compute, we have presented some other models such as wait-and-wee, expected value and the expected result of using expected value. The expected value of perfect information and the value of stochastic solution measures quantify how worthy the Stochastic Programming is, with respect to the other models. In the second part, it has been designed and implemented with the modeller GAMS and the optimizer CPLEX an application that optimizes the distribution of non-perishable products, guaranteeing some nutritional requirements with minimum cost. It has been developed within Hazia project, managed by Sortarazi association and associated with Food Bank of Biscay and Basic Social Services of several districts of Biscay.

ArrayMining: a modular web-application for microarray analysis combining ensemble and consensus methods with cross-study normalization

Background: Statistical analysis of DNA microarray data provides a valuable diagnostic tool for the investigation of genetic components of diseases. To take advantage of the multitude of available data sets and analysis methods, it is desirable to combine both different algorithms and data from different studies. Applying ensemble learning, consensus clustering and cross-study normalization methods for this purpose in an almost fully automated process and linking different analysis modules together under a single interface would simplify many microarray analysis tasks. Results: We present ArrayMining.net, a web-application for microarray analysis that provides easy access to a wide choice of feature selection, clustering, prediction, gene set analysis and cross-study normalization methods. In contrast to other microarray-related web-tools, multiple algorithms and data sets for an analysis task can be combined using ensemble feature selection, ensemble prediction, consensus clustering and cross-platform data integration. By interlinking different analysis tools in a modular fashion, new exploratory routes become available, e.g. ensemble sample classification using features obtained from a gene set analysis and data from multiple studies. The analysis is further simplified by automatic parameter selection mechanisms and linkage to web tools and databases for functional annotation and literature mining. Conclusion: ArrayMining.net is a free web-application for microarray analysis combining a broad choice of algorithms based on ensemble and consensus methods, using automatic parameter selection and integration with annotation databases.

Interface entre arquitetura bioclimática e decisões projetuais

This research has as its object study focus bioclimatic in architecture and its conection with projects decisions, on what regards to environmental comfort for single-family dwelling. From the analysis of five architectural projects inserted in Natal/RN, warm-moist weather, this research gather informations regarding architectural features guided by shape and space arrengement, which embody important elements for the project design development. Computer simulations assisted as foundation to verify the efficiency grade for these projects strategies from shading analysis. Related strategies for the demands of natural ventilation circulation and thermal mass for refrigeration were analysed as well. Results show that there is an hierarchizing of priorities for the decisions made when it comes to shape and space disposition variables, as well as the way these variables will consider the bioclimatic demands. The analysis, even, show that there is no single way to respond to specific bioclimatic demands, as it points out the value of examination of the projectual solutions throughtout the conception process, in order to achieve an efficient project performance for the envimonment comfort

Estruturas metodológicas direcionadas ao ensino de cinemática para educandos diagnosticados com TDAH : utilizando o modellus como interface interativa entre a teoria e a experimentação

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Física, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Física, 2015.

Interface de app para dispositivos móveis de universidade virtual, caso da UAb

O avanço das tecnologias de informação continua a mudar os paradigmas de ensino e aprendizagem. Os meios disponíveis são cada vez mais diversificados e, com a necessidade de procurar novos estudantes e diversificar o público-alvo, as instituições de ensino superior estão a repensar os seus modelos de negócio e estratégias pedagógicas. A proliferação de dispositivos móveis catalisa uma aposta crescente no ensino a distância (EaD) no sentido de proporcionar aprendizagens em mobilidade (m-learning). No entanto, as soluções existentes para m-learning são ainda pouco adaptadas às recentes metodologias de EaD, na maioria das vezes funcionando como extensão de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem ou com muito foco nos conteúdos. Sendo a Universidade Aberta (UAb) a única instituição de ensino superior público em Portugal de ensino a distância, com um modelo pedagógico próprio, constitui um natural caso de aplicação de tecnologia móvel em novos contextos de aprendizagem, importando por isso estudar e desenhar os mecanismos de interação mais adequados com professores e estudantes em mobilidade. Adotou-se neste trabalho a metodologia Design Science Research, tendo sido identificadas as características e comportamentos de potenciais utilizadores, e definidas as funcionalidades que devem ser disponibilizadas na primeira versão de uma aplicação para dispositivos móveis (app) no contexto do ensino a distância. É proposto o design da interface dessa app, usando o modelo da UAb como caso de aplicação, e disponibilizada uma lista de orientações para o desenvolvimento do protótipo funcional. Da investigação realizada, concluiu-se que a interface proposta constitui um modelo válido para o desenho de uma app para aprendizagens em mobilidade, no regime de ensino de uma universidade virtual. A partir deste modelo, as instituições de ensino superior podem desenvolver apps adaptando-se ao avanço das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação e ficarem alinhadas com as necessidades dos seus alunos e docentes, particularmente se dispuserem de oferta formativa a distância.

Detecção de interface em tanques de petróleo usando transmissores de nível e controladores Fuzzy

This work presents a proposal to detect interface in atmospheric oil tanks by installing a differential pressure level transmitter to infer the oil-water interface. The main goal of this project is to maximize the quantity of free water that is delivered to the drainage line by controlling the interface. A Fuzzy Controller has been implemented by using the interface transmitter as the Process Variable. Two ladder routine was generated to perform the control. One routine was developed to calculate the error and error variation. The other was generate to develop the fuzzy controller itself. By using rules, the fuzzy controller uses these variables to set the output. The output is the position variation of the drainage valve. Although the ladder routine was implemented into an Allen Bradley PLC, Control Logix family it can be implemented into any brand of PLCs