Automatic generation of user interfaces from rigorous domain and use case models

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Detecting genes for developmental dyslexia on chromosome 6p.

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a complex, cognitive disorder, characterised by an impairment in reading despite adequate educational, motivational and intellectual opportunities and in the absence of any sensory or neurological disability. Family and twin studies have shown that genes make a substantial contribution to individual variation in risk of DD. Genetic linkage and association studies have implicated a number of chromosomal regions that may harbour susceptibility genes for DD, including regions on chromosomes 6p and 15q. The aims of this thesis were to identify novel susceptibility gene(s) for DD on chromosome 6p and to replicate the association reported between DD and EKN1 on chromosome 15q. Eleven genes on chromosome 6p were tested for association with DD using data derived from DNA pooling assays of 168 SNPs. Nineteen associations were observed and a minimum set of 13 SNPs were chosen for individual genotyping in a case-control and family-based sample. Nine SNPs revealed association with DD (p0.20). No significant associations were observed between EKN1 and component phenotypes of DD. This study identifies KIAA0319 as a susceptibility gene for DD and suggests that EKN1 is unlikely to increase vulnerability to DD

Bioinspired metaheuristic algorithms for global optimization

This paper presents concise comparison study of newly developed bioinspired algorithms for global optimization problems. Three different metaheuristic techniques, namely Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO), Firefly Algorithm (FA), and Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) are investigated and implemented in Matlab environment. These methods are compared on four unimodal and multimodal nonlinear functions in order to find global optimum values. Computational results indicate that GWO outperforms other intelligent techniques, and that all aforementioned algorithms can be successfully used for optimization of continuous functions

Experimental Evaluation of Growing and Pruning Hyper Basis Function Neural Networks Trained with Extended Information Filter

In this paper we test Extended Information Filter (EIF) for sequential training of Hyper Basis Function Neural Networks with growing and pruning ability (HBF-GP). The HBF neuron allows different scaling of input dimensions to provide better generalization property when dealing with complex nonlinear problems in engineering practice. The main intuition behind HBF is in generalization of Gaussian type of neuron that applies Mahalanobis-like distance as a distance metrics between input training sample and prototype vector. We exploit concept of neuron’s significance and allow growing and pruning of HBF neurons during sequential learning process. From engineer’s perspective, EIF is attractive for training of neural networks because it allows a designer to have scarce initial knowledge of the system/problem. Extensive experimental study shows that HBF neural network trained with EIF achieves same prediction error and compactness of network topology when compared to EKF, but without the need to know initial state uncertainty, which is its main advantage over EKF

Development and validation of cellular models for studying amyloid precursor protein isoforms.

The development and validation of cellular model for studying amyloid precursor protein isoforms. Amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) is the major constituent of neuritic plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Abeta is a small insoluble 39-43 amino acid peptide derived from the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) by proteolytic cleavage. Different gene splicing produces variant isoforms ranging from 365 to 770 amino acids in length. The main three isoforms are: APP695, APP751 and APP770 and all are potentially sources of Abeta.The project aimed to investigate the hypothesis that one of these APP isoforms (APP695, APP751 and APP770) is more likely to be the source of Abeta in Alzheimer's disease under normal and stress-induced conditions. The clones of HEK293 cells stably expressing human APP695, APP751 and APP770 at comparable levels were put under stress inducing conditions: Serum alteration and energy deprivation.By altering FBS concentration in culture medium, more APP751 was secreted than APP695 and APP770 at all concentrations of FBS. The serum alteration in culture medium had no significant effect on cell number, secreted APP and APP gene expression. Energy deprivation was achieved using 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG). There was a significant reduction in cell number to a similar level for all three clones while the level of secreted APP and APP gene expression increased significantly. Also, the trend of APP secretion from each clone under the same concentration of 2DG was the same: more APP751 was secreted than APP695 and APP770.In summary, this project has suggested that serum in culture medium has no effect on cell number, APP secretion and APP gene expression between isoforms while energy deprivation using 2DG affected cell number, APP gene expression and APP production significantly. Not only does this confirm the importance of glucose as a source of energy but has also revealed the potential relationship between glucose metabolism and pathogenesis of AD. Ultimately, glucose metabolism could be the predominant factor in relation to Abeta peptide production

Language and Nation

Studies on the relation between language, identity and nation (building) represent a long tradition in linguistic, cultural and political research. In this interdisciplinary anthology, we focus on different aspects of how language is used to shape a nation; by retaining a national identity in the context of emigration, by measures taken to change an existing nation into a new one, by introducing a discourse designed to re-establish a putatively lost nation. Finally, we discuss how nation and identity are shaped in a modern multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural society. The anthology contains articles in English, French and German from political science, history, linguistics, literature and translatology and is written by researchers based in Finland, Greece, Norway and the United Kingdom

Language and Nation

Studies on the relation between language, identity and nation (building) represent a long tradition in linguistic, cultural and political research. In this interdisciplinary anthology, we focus on different aspects of how language is used to shape a nation; by retaining a national identity in the context of emigration, by measures taken to change an existing nation into a new one, by introducing a discourse designed to re-establish a putatively lost nation. Finally, we discuss how nation and identity are shaped in a modern multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural society. The anthology contains articles in English, French and German from political science, history, linguistics, literature and translatology and is written by researchers based in Finland, Greece, Norway and the United Kingdom