Optimising user experience with: conversational Interfaces

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaUser Experience is one of the main aspects that maintain a customer loyal to cloud based solutions or SaaS (Software as a Service). With the rise of the natural language processing techniques, the industry is looking at automated chatbot solutions to boost and expand their services. This thesis presents a practical case study of the implementation of a chatbot solution to complement a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software called FOXAIO, and then quantify, following the most appropriate guides and solutions available, the User Experience (UX) optimisation. In order to create a robust and scalable solution based on the constraints created by the company in the case, we reviewed the current deep learning techniques, tools and libraries available to help the development process. The most proven techniques in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) will be introduced. To achieve the goals of this solution without "reinventing the wheel", we present possible architectures to use at the top of some open source and available tools on the market, with a special relief in the framework RASA. Also we discussed some of possible techniques to create the intent classifier, where we detail the better performance in the top of the rasa tensorflow embedding pipeline for this particular case. The conversational system, also, required a channel to interact with the final user. To achieve that, we also implemented a basic chat interface created on the top of the socket protocol, which communicate with the conversation system. In any case, it would be possible to extend to the other channel’s available on the market, like messenger, slack, telegram. Finally, we detail with a few use cases, that’s hypothetically possible to improve the user experience of an existing software system (FOXAIO) using a conversational interface on the top of that. Also, we achieved some highlights about the preference to use a conversational interface because of his simplicity, defended by a better score in the SUS scale, 70 against 58 to the traditional UI, and good indicatives by the HEART framework.O User Experience é possivelmente um dos principais aspetos para fidelizar um cliente numa solução cloud, as chamadas soluções SaaS (Software as a Service). O crescimento acentuado deste tipo de soluções aquece a rivalidade entre competidores e cada vez mais pretende-se oferecer as formas mais revolucionárias para premiar a qualidade de um serviço. Com o crescimento acentuado das técnicas na área do NLP (Natural Language Processing) a indústria começa a olhar para os chatbots como uma possível solução de automatizar, impulsionar e expandir as suas ofertas. A presente tese visa a apresentar uma implementação prática de um chatbot sobre um software com semelhanças de um CRM (Customer Relationship Management) existente intitulado por FOXAIO. Com o objetivo de desenvolver uma solução robusta e escalável tendo em atenção as condições elaboradas pela empresa em questão, um longo e detalhado estudo foi elaborado sobre as mais diversas técnicas de deep learning usadas no ramo de Processamento de Linguagem Natural (NLP). Atribuindo um particular ênfase às redes neurais recorrentes (RNN) e com a devida extensão Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) que juntas, formam e trabalham muito bem na resolução dos problemas de um sistema de inteligência artificial, como é o caso. Para a sua implementação sobre um software já existente, foi necessário o desenvolvimento de uma pequena interface conversacional com o objetivo de mais tarde a complementar sobre a interface do utilizador do mesmo. Para esse efeito, foi implementado um canal sobre o sistema conversacional de comunicação em protocolo de socket, criando uma classe para o efeito que mais tarde seria útil para gerar logs de análise. Durante a implementação do sistema conversacional foram feitas várias comparações sobre as variantes dos seus módulos desde o Dialog Management (DM) ao Intent Classifier onde várias arquiteturas foram expostas e comparadas com o intuito de corresponder à melhor solução possível para um chatbot de língua portuguesa em primeira instância, foi optado pela escolha de um Dialog Management híbrido face ao domínio e à existência de conversas contextuais contínuas onde, por exemplo, se torna bastante difícil de desenvolver sobre outros paradigmas. Quanto ao Intent Classifier, foi usada a técnica rasa tensorflow embedding, esta técnica (que treina palavras do princípio) usada obteve melhores resultados para o particular caso estudado na presente tese (CRM), do que por exemplo o uso um modelo de dados com palavras já treinadas. Finalmente, conseguimos apresentar hipoteticamente, possíveis melhorias do UX no uso de uma interface conversacional sobre uma interface tradicional, usando as várias ferramentas de análise disponíveis, onde por exemplo com o auxílio da framework HEART (criada pelo Google), conseguimos obter indicativos bastante satisfatórios por 34 pessoas que fizeram os primeiros testes no chatbot desenvolvido. Examinando o feedback desses mesmos utilizadores em ambiente de teste, conseguimos obter um resultado na escala de SUS (System Usability Scale) com um valor de 70, enquanto a interface tradicional arrecadou 58, notando então que as pessoas se sentiram mais capazes no uso do sistema conversacional

Obesity, acute kidney injury and mortality in patients with sepsis: a cohort analysis

Although the prognostic effect of obesity has been studied in critically ill patients its impact on outcomes of septic patients and its role as a risk factor for acute kidney injury (AKI) is not consensual. We aimed to analyze the impact of obesity on the occurrence of AKI and on in-hospital mortality in a cohort of critically ill septic patients. This study is retrospective including 456 adult patients with sepsis admitted to the Division of Intensive Medicine of the Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte (Lisbon, Portugal) between January 2008 and December 2014. Obesity was defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher. The Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes classification was used to diagnose and classify patients developing AKI. AKI occurred in 87.5% of patients (19.5% with stage 1, 22.6% with stage 2 and 45.4% with stage 3). Obese patients developed AKI more frequently than non-obese patients (92.8% versus 85.5%, p = .035; unadjusted OR 2.2 (95% CI: 1.04-4.6), p = .039; adjusted OR 2.31 (95% CI: 1.07-5.02), p = .034). The percentage of obese patients, however, did not differ between AKI stages (stage 1, 25.1%; stage 2, 28.6%; stage 3, 15.4%; p = .145). There was no association between obesity and mortality (p = .739). Of note, when comparing AKI patients with or without obesity in terms of in-hospital mortality there were also no significant differences between those groups (38.4% versus 38.4%, p = .998). Obesity was associated with the occurrence of AKI in critically ill patients with sepsis; however, it was not associated with in-hospital mortality.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exercício físico na pessoa com demência: Revisão Sistemática de Literatura

Background: Dementia is characterized by a set of disorders that involving a progressive loss of cognitive functions as well as affecting the skill necessary for the normal development of activities of daily living. Objective: Identify the benefits of physical exercise at the cognitive, sensory and motor level in the person with dementia. Method: Systematic Review of literature, started with the question: "What are the benefits of physical exercise in people with dementia?". The research was carried out using the electronic database platforms: EBSCOHost and BVS, having been identified, selected, evaluated in a methodological quality and included articles that take into account the PRISMA recommendations. Results: There were included seven studies meeting the inclusion criteria, that is, primary experimental studies, addressing the practice of physical exercise in people with dementia and Alzheimer Disease, published in the last 5 years (2014-2018), in Portuguese, English and Spanish, were included, with full text of free access. Conclusions: This Systematic Review reveals evidence of the beneficial effects of physical exercise on cognition and motor ability in people with dementia.Introducción: La demencia es caracterizada por un conjunto de trastornos que engloban una pérdida progresiva de las funciones cognitivas y afecta la destreza que es necesaria para el desarrollo normal de las actividades de vida diaria. Objectivo: Identificar los beneficios de ejercicio físico a nivel cognitivo, sensorial y motor en la persona con demencia. Método: Revisión Sistemática de la Literatura con la cuestión de la investigación "¿Cuáles son los beneficios del ejercicio físico en las personas con demencia?". La investigación fue realizada con recurso a plataformas de bases de datos electrónicas EBSCOHost y Biblioteca Virtual en Salud, habiendo sido identificados, seleccionados, evaluados en la calidad metodológica e incluidos artículos de acuerdo con las recomendaciones del PRISMA. Resultados: Se incluyeron siete estudios que cumplieron los criterios de inclusión, es decir, estudios primarios experimentales que aborden el ejercicio físico en personas con demencia, publicado en los últimos cinco años (2014-2018), en portugués, Inglés y Español, con texto integral de libre acceso. Conclusiones: Esta revisión sistemática de la literatura revela evidencia de los efectos del ejercicio sobre cognición, agitación, depresión y capacidad motora en personas con demencia.Introdução: A demência é caraterizada por um conjunto de transtornos que englobam uma perda progressiva das funções cognitivas e afeta a destreza que é necessária ao desenvolvimento normal das atividades de vida diária. Objetivo: Identificar os benefícios do exercício físico a nível cognitivo, sensorial e motor na pessoa com demência. Método: revisão sistemática da literatura com a questão de pesquisa “Quais os benefícios do exercício físico em pessoas com demência?”. A pesquisa foi realizada com recurso a plataformas de bases de dados eletrónicas EBSCOHost e Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, tendo sido identificados, selecionados, avaliados na qualidade metodológica e incluídos artigos de acordo com as recomendações do PRISMA. Resultados: Foram incluídos 7 estudos que cumpriam os critérios de inclusão, ou seja, estudos primários experimentais, que abordam a prática de exercício físico em pessoas com demência, publicados nos últimos 5 anos (2014-2018), em português, inglês e espanhol, com texto integral de livre acesso. Conclusões: Esta revisão sistemática de literatura revela evidência dos efeitos benéficos do exercício sobre cognição, agitação, depressão e capacidade motora em pessoas com demência

A Step Forward in Breast Cancer Research: From a Natural-Like Experimental Model to a Preliminary Photothermal Approach

Supplementary Materials - The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/24/9681/s1, Figure S1: GNPs’ size distribution by intensity (%) obtained by DLS.Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies and common causes of cancer death in women. Recent studies suggest that environmental exposures to certain chemicals, such as 7,12-Dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA), a chemical present in tobacco, may increase the risk of developing breast cancer later in life. The first-line treatments for breast cancer (surgery, chemotherapy or a combination of both) are generally invasive and frequently associated with severe side effects and high comorbidity. Consequently, novel approaches are strongly required to find more natural-like experimental models that better reflect the tumors’ etiology, physiopathology and response to treatments, as well as to find more targeted, efficient and minimally invasive treatments. This study proposes the development and an in deep biological characterization of an experimental model using DMBA-tumor-induction in Sprague-Dawley female rats. Moreover, a photothermal therapy approach using a near-infrared laser coupled with gold nanoparticles was preliminarily assessed. The gold nanoparticles were functionalized with Epidermal Growth Factor, and their physicochemical properties and in vitro effects were characterized. DMBA proved to be a very good and selective inductor of breast cancer, with 100% incidence and inducing an average of 4.7 tumors per animal. Epigenetic analysis showed that tumors classified with worst prognosis were hypomethylated. The tumor-induced rats were then subjected to a preliminary treatment using functionalized gold nanoparticles and its activation by laser (650–900 nm). The treatment outcomes presented very promising alterations in terms of tumor histology, confirming the presence of necrosis in most of the cases. Although this study revealed encouraging results as a breast cancer therapy, it is important to define tumor eligibility and specific efficiency criteria to further assess its application in breast cancer treatment on other species.The APC was funded by Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra and Coimbra Chemistry Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra. This work was also supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal under the project’s references UIDB/00645/2020 and UID/DTP/04138/2019. TFG was supported by FCT, Portugal under the reference SFRH/BD/147306/2019. Thanks to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020), through national funds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

mais uma limitação na avaliação pré‐competitiva

Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Sociedade Portuguesa de CardiologiaIntroduction Assessment of the electrocardiogram (ECG) in athletes remains controversial, with lack of standardization and difficulty in applying specific criteria in its interpretation. The purpose of this study was to assess variability in the interpretation of the ECG in athletes. Methods Twenty ECGs of competitive athletes were assessed by cardiologists and cardiology residents, 11 of them normal or with isolated physiological changes and nine pathological. Each ECG was classified as normal/physiological or pathological, with or without the use of specific interpretation criteria. Results The study presents responses from 58 physicians, 42 (72.4%) of them cardiologists. Sixteen (27.6%) physicians reported that they regularly assessed athletes and 32 (55.2%) did not use specific ECG interpretation criteria, of which the Seattle criteria were the most commonly used (n=13). Each physician interpreted 15±2 ECGs correctly, corresponding to 74% of the total number of ECGs (variation: 45%‐100%). Interpretation of pathological ECGs was correct in 68% (variation: 22%‐100%) and of normal/physiological in 79% (variation: 55%‐100%). There was no significant difference in interpretation between cardiologists and residents (74±10% vs. 75±10%; p=0.724) or between those who regularly assessed athletes and those who did not (77±12% vs. 73±9%; p=0.286), but there was a trend for a higher rate of correct interpretation using specific criteria (77±10% vs. 72±10%; p=0.092). The reproducibility of the study was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.972; p<0.001). Conclusions A quarter of the ECGs were not correctly assessed and variability in interpretation was high. The use of specific criteria can improve the accuracy of interpretation of athletes’ ECGs, which is an important part of pre‐competitive screening, but one that is underused.publishersversionpublishe

Toxicological and anti-tumor effects of a linden extract (Tilia platyphyllos Scop.) in a HPV16-transgenic mouse model

Tilia platyphyllos Scop. is a popular broad-leaved tree, native to Central and Southern Europe. Hydroethanolic extracts rich in phenolic compounds obtained from T. platyphyllos Scop. have shown in vitro antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties. The aim of this work was to evaluate the therapeutic properties of a hydroethanolic extract obtained from T. platyphyllos in HPV16-transgenic mice. The animals were divided into eight groups according to their sex and phenotype. Four groups of female: HPV+ exposed to linden (HPV linden; n = 6), HPV+ (HPV water; n = 4), HPV- exposed to linden (WT linden; n = 5) and HPV- (WT water; n = 4) and four groups of male: HPV+ exposed to linden (HPV linden; n = 5), HPV+ (HPV water; n = 5), HPV- exposed to linden (WT linden; n = 5) and HPV- (WT water; n = 7). The linden (Tilia platyphyllos Scop.) extract was orally administered at a dose of 4.5 mg/10 mL per animal (dissolved in water) and changed daily for 33 days. The hydroethanolic extract of T. platyphyllos consisted of protocatechuic acid and (-)-epicatechin as the most abundant phenolic acid and flavonoid, respectively, and was found to be stable during the studied period. In two male groups a significant positive weight gain was observed but without association with the linden extract. Histological, biochemical, and oxidative stress analyses for the evaluation of kidney and liver damage support the hypothesis that the linden extract is safe and well-tolerated under the present experimental conditions. Skin histopathology does not demonstrate the chemopreventive effect of the linden extract against HPV16-induced lesions. The linden extract has revealed a favourable toxicological profile; however, additional studies are required to determine the chemopreventive potential of the linden extract. This journal isThis work was supported by the project IBERPHENOL, project number 0377_IBERPHENOL_6_E; Interact R&D project, operation number NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000017, National Funds by FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/04033/2020 (CITAB), and project UIDB/ CVT/00772/2020 (CECAV) and the post-graduation grant SFRH/ BD/136747/2018 and 2020.04789.BD; the authors are also grateful to FCT, Portugal and FEDER under programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and L. Barros acknowledges the national funding by FCT, P. I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract. The authors would like to thank Cantinho das Aromáticas organic farmers from Vila Nova de Gaia (Portugal) for providing the samples. This work was financially supported by: Base Funding - UIDB/00511/2020 of the Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – LEPABE - funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

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Phagosomal removal of fungal melanin reprograms macrophage metabolism to promote antifungal immunity

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000013), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (SFRH/BD/136814/2018 to S.M.G., SFRH/BD/141127/2018 to C.D.O., PD/BD/137680/2018 to D.A., IF/00474/2014 to N.S.O., IF/01390/2014 to E.T., IF/00959/2014 to S.C., IF/00021/2014 to R.S., PTDC/SAU-SER/29635/2017 and CEECIND/04601/2017 to C.C., and CEECIND/03628/2017 to A.C.), the Institut Mérieux (Mérieux Research Grant 2017 to C.C.), and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID Research Grant 2017 to A.C.). M.G.N. was supported by a Spinoza grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. A.A.B. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Collaborative Research Center/Transregio TR124 FungiNet (project A1). G.D.B. was funded by the Wellcome Trust (102705), the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Livro Verde dos Montados

O Livro Verde dos Montados apresenta diversos objectivos que se interligam: Em primeiro lugar, o Livro Verde pretende reunir e sistematizar, de uma forma simples e acessível ao público, o conhecimento produzido em Portugal pelos investigadores e técnicos de várias instituições de investigação ou de gestão que estudam o Montado. Assume-se como uma oportunidade de caracterizar o sistema tendo em conta as suas várias dimensões, identificando as principais ameaças à sua preservação assim como os caminhos que podem ajudar à sua sustentabilidade. Não sendo um documento científico, baseia-se no conhecimento científico e pretende constituir a base para uma plataforma de organização, tanto dos investigadores como do conhecimento científico actualmente produzido em Portugal sobre o Montado.Em segundo lugar, o Livro Verde deverá contribuir para um entendimento partilhado do que é o Montado, por parte do público, de técnicos e de especialistas, conduzindo a uma classificação mais clara do que pode ser considerado Montado e de quais os tipos distintos de Montados que podem ser identificados. Em terceiro lugar, o Livro Verde estabelece as bases para uma estratégia coordenada de disponibilização de informação sobre o sistema Montado, visando o seu conhecimento, apreciação e valorização pela sociedade portuguesa no seu conjunto. Deste modo, o Livro Verde poderá constituir um instrumento congregador e inspirador para a realização de acções de sensibilização e informação sobre o Montado. Em quarto lugar, pretende-se que o Livro Verde contribua para um maior reconhecimento e valorização do Montado como sistema, a nível do desenho das políticas nacionais por parte dos vários sectores envolvidos.Finalmente, o Livro Verde constituirá um documento parceiro do Livro Verde das Dehesas, produzido em Espanha em 2010, de forma a reforçar o reconhecimento e a devida valorização destes sistemas silvo-pastoris no desenho das estratégias e políticas relevantes pelas instituições europeias. Em suma, os autores pretendem que o Livro Verde dos Montados se afirme como o primeiro passo para uma efectiva definição e implementação de uma estratégia nacional para os Montados

Large-scale screening of unknown varieties in a grapevine intra-varietal variability collection

Since the last decade of the last century, it is known that many old grapevine varieties are descendants of other varieties through natural crossing. Portugal has an important program for the conservation of representative samples of intra-varietal variability of all autochthonous varieties, managed by the Portuguese Association for Grapevine Diversity (PORVID), which makes looking for genotypes with dubious identification an important activity from a perspective of its valorisation. This communication presents the results of the molecular analysis of 5,000 samples (accessions) from the PORVID’s collection, using nine microsatellite loci currently recommended by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) for genetic grapevine identification. The results obtained confirmed the molecular identity of 4,220 samples corresponding to 214 varieties present in the official list of Portuguese varieties. In 780 samples, 95 profiles with a plural number of accessions revealed not to be listed in the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) database, corresponding to possible varieties either descendent from natural crossing from at least one known parental variety, or from undetermined origin. Furthermore, the need for a comprehensive strategy aimed at uncovering other hidden varieties is discussed to prevent their imminent loss, deepen understanding of their origin, and add economic value and sustainability to the vine and wine sector