Abstract computation in schizophrenia detection through artificial neural network based systems

Schizophrenia stands for a long-lasting state of mental uncertainty that may bring to an end the relation among behavior, thought, and emotion; that is, it may lead to unreliable perception, not suitable actions and feelings, and a sense of mental fragmentation. Indeed, its diagnosis is done over a large period of time; continuos signs of the disturbance persist for at least 6 (six) months. Once detected, the psychiatrist diagnosis is made through the clinical interview and a series of psychic tests, addressed mainly to avoid the diagnosis of other mental states or diseases. Undeniably, the main problem with identifying schizophrenia is the difficulty to distinguish its symptoms from those associated to different untidiness or roles. Therefore, this work will focus on the development of a diagnostic support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, based on a blended of Logic Programming and Artificial Neural Networks approaches to computing, taking advantage of a novel approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, which aims to solve the problems associated in the handling (i.e., to stand for and reason) of defective information.

An assessment of chronic kidney diseases

Kidney renal failure means that one’s kidney have unexpectedlystoppedfunctioning,i.e.,oncechronicdiseaseis exposed, the presence or degree of kidney dysfunction and its progression must be assessed, and the underlying syndrome has to be diagnosed. Although the patient’s history and physical examination may denote good practice, some key information has to be obtained from valuation of the glomerular filtration rate, and the analysis of serum biomarkers. Indeed, chronic kidney sickness depicts anomalous kidney function and/or its makeup, i.e., there is evidence that treatment may avoid or delay its progression, either by reducing and prevent the development of some associated complications, namely hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular complications. Acute kidney injury appears abruptly, with a rapiddeteriorationoftherenalfunction,butisoftenreversible if it is recognized early and treated promptly. In both situations, i.e., acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, an early intervention can significantly improve the prognosis. The assessment of these pathologies is therefore mandatory, although it is hard to do it with traditional methodologies and existing tools for problem solving. Hence, in this work, we will focus on the development of a hybrid decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures based on Logic Programming, that will allow onetoconsiderincomplete,unknown,and evencontradictory information, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks, in order to weigh the Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such a happening. The present study involved 558 patients with an age average of 51.7 years and the chronic kidney disease was observed in 175 cases. The dataset comprise twenty four variables, grouped into five main categories. The proposed model showed a good performance in the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, since the sensitivity and the specificity exhibited values range between 93.1 and 94.9 and 91.9–94.2 %, respectively.

An evaluation of parchments' degradation a hybrid approach

Parchment stands for a multifaceted material made from animal skin, which has been used for centuries as a writing support or as bookbinding. Due to the historic value of objects made of parchment, understanding their degradation and their condition is of utmost importance to archives, libraries and museums, i.e., the assessment of parchment degradation is mandatory, although it is hard to do with traditional methodologies and tools for problem solving. Hence, in this work we will focus on the development of a hybrid decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, under a formal framework based on Logic Programming, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks, to evaluate Parchment Degradation and the respective Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such a happening.

Artificial neural networks in diagnosis of liver diseases

Liver diseases have severe patients’ consequences, being one of the main causes of premature death. These facts reveal the centrality of one`s daily habits, and how important it is the early diagnosis of these kind of illnesses, not only to the patients themselves, but also to the society in general. Therefore, this work will focus on the development of a diagnosis support system to these kind of maladies, built under a formal framework based on Logic Programming, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, complemented with an approach to computing grounded on Artificial Neural Networks.

Melhoria do processo de tingimento numa empresa têxtil

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão da Qualidade

O ensino da flauta de bisel em grupo como inovação pedagógica: Uma investigação-ação no 2.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Tese de Doutoramento em Estudos da Criança (Especialidade em Educação Musical)

Immersiveness of ubiquitous computing environments prototypes: A case study

The development of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments raises several challenges in terms of their evaluation. Ubicomp virtual reality prototyping tools enable users to experience the system to be developed and are of great help to face those challenges, as they support developers in assessing the consequences of a design decision in the early phases of development. Given the situated nature of ubicomp environments, a particular issue to consider is the level of realism provided by the prototypes. This work presents a case study where two ubicomp prototypes, featuring different levels of immersion (desktop-based versus CAVE-based), were developed and compared. The goal was to determine the cost/benefits relation of both solutions, which provided better user experience results, and whether or not simpler solutions provide the same user experience results as more elaborate one.

Metaphorisms in programming

This paper introduces the metaphorism pattern of relational specification and addresses how specification following this pattern can be refined into recursive programs. Metaphorisms express input-output relationships which preserve relevant information while at the same time some intended optimization takes place. Text processing, sorting, representation changers, etc., are examples of metaphorisms. The kind of metaphorism refinement proposed in this paper is a strategy known as change of virtual data structure. It gives sufficient conditions for such implementations to be calculated using relation algebra and illustrates the strategy with the derivation of quicksort as example.

Relatório detalhado sobre a atividade profissional desenvolvida no perído 2007-2015 no Gabinete de Fundos Comunitários do Município da Póvoa de Lanhoso

Dissertação de mestrado em Geografia (área de especialização em Planeamento e Gestão do Território)

Desarrollo sustentable de Productos y Servicios de Camélidos orientados al mercado en la región andina (DECAM). Sustainable Development Products and Services Marketed oriented in Andean Region

Este proyecto cuenta con el financiamiento del sistema INCO de la Unión Europea e incluye 5 contrapartes europeas, y Bolivia y Perú como contrapartes americanos. Consta de cuatro paquetes: producto, mercado, difusión y coordinación. En el primer paquete se desarrollan fundamentalmente los aspectos relacionados con la carne fresca y los productos cárnicos tanto tradicionales como nuevos a desarrollar. Se realizan faenas protocolizadas y espontáneas comparando animales con distintos tratamientos nutricionales de edades entre 19-21 meses. Se realizan análisis de calidad de carne y paneles de degustación. Los productos tradicionales como el charqui se evalúan en su forma tradicional y se implementan sistemas mejorados como desecadores solares. Los chacinados no son tradicionales en el altiplano por eso se realizan en La Pampa con la idea de transferir la tecnología desarrollada. La evaluación de calidad de la carne incluye técnicas de evaluación del animal en pié como la conservación morfológica y la ecografía para predecir calidad de res en el animal vivo. Estas observaciones se corroboran a la faena donde se realiza toda la batería de evaluaciones de calidad de la res.

Filososofía y Ciencia Computacional: Aspectos epistemológicos, ontológicos y metodológicos. Philosophy and Computing Sciencs: Epistemological, Ontological and Methodological Aspects.

Uno de los temas centrales del proyecto concierne la naturaleza de la ciencia de la computación. La reciente aparición de esta disciplina sumada a su origen híbrido como ciencia formal y disciplina tecnológica hace que su caracterización aún no esté completa y menos aún acordada entre los científicos del área. En el trabajo Three paradigms of Computer Science de A. Eden, se presentan tres posiciones admitidamente exageradas acerca de como entender tanto el objeto de estudio (ontología) como los métodos de trabajo (metodología) y la estructura de la teoría y las justificaciones del conocimiento informático (epistemología): La llamada racionalista, la cual se basa en la idea de que los programas son fórmulas lógicas y que la forma de trabajo es deductiva, la tecnocrática que presenta a la ciencia computacional como una disciplina ingenieril y la ahi llamada científica, la cual asimilaría a la computación a las ciencias empíricas. Algunos de los problemas de ciencia de la computación están relacionados con cuestiones de filosofía de la matemática, en particular la relación entre las entidades abstractas y el mundo. Sin embargo, el carácter prescriptivo de los axiomas y teoremas de las teorías de la programación puede permitir interpretaciones alternativas y cuestionaría fuertemente la posibilidad de pensar a la ciencia de la computación como una ciencia empírica, al menos en el sentido tradicional. Por otro lado, es posible que el tipo de análisis aplicado a las ciencias de la computación propuesto en este proyecto aporte nuevas ideas para pensar problemas de filosofía de la matemática. Un ejemplo de estos posibles aportes puede verse en el trabajo de Arkoudas Computers, Justi?cation, and Mathematical Knowledge el cual echa nueva luz al problema del significado de las demostraciones matemáticas.Los objetivos del proyecto son: Caracterizar el campo de las ciencias de la computación.Evaluar los fundamentos ontológicos, epistemológicos y metodológicos de la ciencia de la computación actual.Analizar las relaciones entre las diferentes perspectivas heurísticas y epistémicas y las practicas de la programación.

Motilidad Orientada de Células Neurales: La comunicación celular a distancia. Oriented neural cell motility: Cell comunication at a distance.

La motilidad celular orientada (o mecanismo quimiotáctico de orientación), es una respuesta celular a señales moleculares de su micro-ambiente necesaria para modular la distribución celular en sitios específicos y con elevada precisión. Nuestra hipótesis establece que la migración orientada de células neurales es regulada por gradientes de concentración de moléculas solubles liberadas por sus regiones "blanco". Este proyecto es continuación del estudio de la quimiotaxis de células de cresta neural (CCN) y de neuronas ventriculares (NV) inducida respectivamente por factores difusibles de la región del futuro ganglio ciliar y del bulbo olfatorio.En el sistema de CCN, hemos caracterizado como moléculas quimiotácticas a la quimioquina Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1, y los factores tróficos Stem Cell Factor y Neurotrophic Factor-3, habiendo determinado la expresión de sus respectivos receptores CXCR4, TrkC y p75 en la población de CCN mesencefálicas de ambrión de pollo. Actualmente, estamos desarrollando experimentos con el Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor y factores de la familia Bone Morphogenetic Proteins. Además de la estrategia experimental in vitro, hemos determinado en el embrión entero la expresión de las moléculas quimioatractantes mediante hibridación in situ del ARNm y la presencia de las respectivas proteínas mediante inmunocitoquímica. En el sistema de NV, estamos analizando la motilidad celular en relación con moléculas liberadas por el bulbo olfatorio. En los dos sistemas biológicos, estamos analizando elementos de la transducción de señales y cambios en el citoesqueleto, en ambos casos asociados con la respuesta temprana en la orientación quimiotáctica de la célula. Asimismo, en ambos sistemas biológicos, evaluamos los efectos del etanol sobre la migración y distribución celular, en condiciones equivalentes a las que inducen el Sindrome Fetal Alcohólico en mamíferos.En base a resultados ya obtenidos en experimentos in vitro, en la presente etapa intentaremos su caracterización in vivo mediante el bloqueo funcional de las moléculas quimiotácticas (y/o sus receptores) sobre embriones enteros, mediante silenciamiento con ARNsi (o morfolinos específicos) mediante electroporación, y posterior determinación de la distribución celular mediante marcadores específicos anti-CCN (o lipofílicos de tipo DiI).Los resultados permitirán mejorar el conocimiento del mecanismo de la migración celular orientada y aportar al diseño de recursos diagnósticos, terapéuticos o de control de anomalías embrionarias o patologías tumorales por mala distribución celular como las Neurocristopatías, o inducidas por tóxicos exógenos como el Sindrome Fetal Alcohólico.

An investigation into system security requirements and implementation in an Application Service Provider (ASP) environment

Although the ASP model has been around for over a decade, it has not achieved the expected high level of market uptake. This research project examines the past and present state of ASP adoption and identifies security as a primary factor influencing the uptake of the model. The early chapters of this document examine the ASP model and ASP security in particular. Specifically, the literature and technology review chapter analyses ASP literature, security technologies and best practices with respect to system security in general. Based on this investigation, a prototype to illustrate the range and types of technologies that encompass a security framework was developed and is described in detail. The latter chapters of this document evaluate the practical implementation of system security in an ASP environment. Finally, this document outlines the research outputs, including the conclusions drawn and recommendations with respect to system security in an ASP environment. The primary research output is the recommendation that by following best practices with respect to security, an ASP application can provide the same level of security one would expect from any other n-tier client-server application. In addition, a security evaluation matrix, which could be used to evaluate not only the security of ASP applications but the security of any n-tier application, was developed by the author. This thesis shows that perceptions with regard to fears of inadequate security of ASP solutions and solution data are misguided. Finally, based on the research conducted, the author recommends that ASP solutions should be developed and deployed on tried, tested and trusted infrastructure. Existing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) should be used where possible and security best practices should be adhered to where feasible.

System-oriented analysis of the dynamic behaviour of direct methanol fuel cells

DMFC, dynamic behaviour, current steps, system analysis, methanol oxidation, flow field design

Component oriented method for simulation of multibody dynamics

Modular modelling, dynamics simulation, multibodies, O(N) method, closed loops, post-stabilization