Dyscalculia: A behavioural vision

Learning Disabilities (LD) constitute a diverse group of disorders in which children who generally possess at least average intelligence have problems processing information or generating output, i.e., LD may be interpreted as a neurologically-based processing problem. The causes and treatment of LD, namely reading disorders has been the subject of considerable thought and study. Being one among others, this is the reason why this work will focus on dyscalculia and in its different manifestations and how they may interfere with the children natural development. It will be assessed it in terms of a measurement of the child’s entropy, a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a child brain energy for conversion into mental work, and seen as the degree of disorder or randomness in the brain, i.e., lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder; an arena where entropy reigns supreme. In one's work it reigns in a specific interval, i.e., one may have two scenarios, namely the worst and the best one. The formal background will be grounded in the use of Logic Programming to set the architecture of a Function Machine to assess LD and built on base of a Deep Learning approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Uma abordagem cognitiva evolutiva para o despiste e terapêutica da discalculia

Doctoral program in Biomedical EngineeringA crescente taxa de insucesso escolar e o aumento da aversão à matemática têm geralmente origem na discalculia. A sua incidência na população é de cerca de 6 a 7%, e o facto de que é praticamente desconhecida faz com que a sua associação à discalculia seja difícil de se realizar, tendo um impacto negativo no quotidiano dos indivíduos. Uma vez que esta desordem existe desde a conceção, é crucial iniciar a terapêutica nas fases iniciais da vida para mitigar a sua severidade. Atualmente não existe um teste standard para o diagnóstico da discalculia, e a sua origem ainda não está bem definida. Adicionalmente, os sistemas de apoio à aprendizagem para crianças com discalculia apenas existem sob a forma de papel ou software para computador, somente na língua inglesa. Por isso, é uma lacuna a sua não-consciencialização no sistema de educação especial português, assim como a inexistência de ferramentas de apoio direcionadas para este tipo de dificuldade de aprendizagem. É relevante criar um sistema de apoio à aprendizagem português adequado à discalculia, em linha com as novas tendências tecnológicas. A falta de sensibilização para este tipo de desordem, assim como a inexistência de sistemas de apoio resultam nos maus resultados observados nos exames nacionais de matemática. É importante criar conhecimento nesta área para permitir o desenvolvimento de ferramentas eficientes de apoio compatível com qualquer dispositivo móvel e que visa auxiliar as crianças a evoluir os seus conhecimentos matemáticos, permitindo-lhes ao mesmo tempo divertirem-se enquanto jogam. Doravante, a inclusão de características inteligentes no software que ajusta o jogo às dificuldades das crianças, e o estudo da atividade cerebral enquanto usam a aplicação, são dois potenciais ganhos diferenciadores para o estudo e dedução de novas perspetivas sobre a discalculia. O objetivo principal é desenvolver e extrair conhecimento suficiente de modo a se conseguir uma solução inovadora, atrativa e dinâmica para terapêutica e diagnóstico de discalculia, direcionada para ajudar crianças a melhorar as suas capacidades de ordem matemática enquanto jogam. A inovação surge da inclusão de competências inteligentes e evolutivas na solução de acordo com as dificuldades das crianças e do seu progresso.The growing scholar failure rate among pupils and the increasing aversion to mathematics generally have their origins in dyscalculia. The incidence is around 6-7% and the fact that it is hardly known makes its association hard to accomplish, having a negative impact on everyday life. As it is a disorder that exists since conception, it is important to start therapy early in life to mitigate its severity. Currently, there are no standard tests to detect dyscalculia and its origins are not yet well-identified. In addition, learning support systems for children with dyscalculia exist only in English in the form of paper or computer software. Therefore, it is a big gap that there is no awareness of this disorder in Portuguese special education, as well as the non-existence of support tools targeted at this type of learning disability. It is important to create an appropriate Portuguese learning support system for dyscalculia, in line with new technological trends. The non-awareness of this disorder and the non-existence of support systems contribute to the tragic results seen in the national mathematics tests. It is important to create knowledge in this area to allow the development of efficient support tools that can be adapted to any mobile device and that aims to help children develop their mathematical knowledge, allowing them to have fun while they play it. Henceforth, incorporating intelligent features into the software according to children's difficulties and studying brain activity while playing are two potential gains in studying and deriving new perspectives about dyscalculia. The main goal is to develop and extract enough knowledge to achieve an innovative, engaging, and dynamic solution for dyscalculia therapeutics and screening, aimed at helping children to improve their mathematical skills while playing. Innovation comes from incorporating intelligence and developing skills into the solution according to children's difficulties and progress.This work was supported by a scholarship awarded to Filipa Tinoco Ferraz by the University of Minho, financed by CCDR-N, with the reference UMINHO/BD/35/2016

Learning support system in the area of discalculia to minors

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Biomédica (área de especialização em Informática Médica)Notoriamente, a discalculia ainda é uma área desconhecida para a maioria da população. Apesar da sua incidência de cerca de 6 a 7%, poucos sabem que esta dificuldade de aprendizagem a matemática existe, muito menos quais os seus sintomas e as suas causas. Infelizmente, tem repercussões no quotidiano de um discalcúlico, pois condiciona as suas capacidades aritméticas, incluindo lidar com dinheiro, distinguir a esquerda da direita e dizer as horas. A pressão social impede que estas pessoas notem algo de errado e procurem um diagnóstico, e, mesmo que o tentem fazer, raramente recorrem às áreas adequadas. Terapeuticamente, a discalculia não pode ser totalmente revertida, apenas atenuada. Nesse sentido, convém trabalhar os conceitos que esta desordem afeta, preferencialmente desde criança. E para cativar e ensinar uma criança, nada melhor que um jogo didático. Esta é a via mais realista e acessível para uma criança aprender ao correr do momento e sem grande esforço. Deste modo e dada a atualidade, uma aplicação móvel é um jogo educativo bastante preferido pelos mais pequenos que, se bem adaptado e contruído, torna-se numa excelente ferramenta de apoio. A aplicação disMAT é uma aplicação Android desenvolvida excecionalmente para auxiliar menores com discalculia a evoluírem em áreas porventura mais sensíveis. Construída com base nos pareceres sobre a melhor forma de abordar crianças com dificuldades de aprendizagem da parte de psicólogos, matemáticos, educadores e pedopsiquiatras, esta aplicação foi adequada a crianças dos 5 aos 10 anos de idade, com interface gráfica apelativa, no Android Studio. Embora seja uma aplicação simples, graficamente e a nível de conteúdo, atinge os objetivos de uma terapêutica própria para menores discalcúlicos em ambiente familiar. Contudo, pretende-se completar a mesma em termos de funcionalidades, como registo estatístico, para ser aplicada em ambiente escolar.Dyscalculia is, indeed, an unknown area to most of the population, i.e., despite its incidence (about 7% of the population), a few know that this mathematical learning disability exists, even less about its symptoms and causes. Unfortunately, it has repercussions in the daily life of a dyscalculic, once it affects their arithmetic skills, namely in handling cash, distinguishing left from right or to perceive the time dimension. The social pressure prevent these people to acknowledge something wrong and seek for an information and, even if they attempt to do it, they rarely resort to the appropriate arena. Therapeutically, dyscalculia cannot be completely reversed, just mitigated. Therefore, the whereabouts that are affect should be worked on, preferably since the early stages. Undeniably, to motivate and teach a child, nothing better than a didactic game. This is the most realistic and approachable way for a child to learn the course of time without great effort. Thus, given the present, a mobile application is an educational game preferred by the younger ones, which, if well suited and constructed, it is an excellent support learning tool. The disMAT application is an Android application exceptionally developed to assist children. It takes into account the opinions on how to address children with learning disabilities from different areas, namely the psychologists, mathematicians, educators and psychiatrists, this application is suitable for children with an age of 5 to 10 years old. Though it is a simple application, graphically and in terms of content, it reaches the goals of a specific therapeutics for dyscalculic minors in a familiar environment. However, it is our intention to complete it in terms of new features, such as the managing of statistical records, in order to be applied in a scholar environment

A case base approach to cardiovascular diseases using chest X-ray image analysis

Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) also known as heart and circulatory disease comprises all the illnesses of the heart and the circulatory system, namely coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack, congenital heart disease or stroke. CVDs are, nowadays, one of the main causes of death. Indeed, this fact reveals the centrality of prevention and how important is to be aware on these kind of situations. Thus, this work will focus on the development of a decision support system to help to prevent these events from happening, centred on a formal framework based on Mathematical Logic and Logic Programming for Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented with a Case Based Reasoning approach to computing that caters to the handling of incomplete, unknown or even self-contradictory information or knowledge.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

An evolutionary computing approach to diabetic foot analysis

Evolutionary Algorithms are based on heuristics, being able to find solutions to different kinds of problems. Knowledge representation techniques, in turn, aim the representation of the real world, using mechanical, logical or other descriptions. Usually, in the evolutionary computation area, the problems are clearly defined allowing straightforward comparisons of the performance of the competing entities. Indeed, the core purpose of this work is to describe an approach that aims to establish a dynamic virtual world of complex and interacting entities that map real cases of diabetic foot situations, understood here as the terms that make the extensions of mathematical logic functions in a competitive environment with a strict measure of selection, i.e. fitness is assessed by one criterion alone, its Quality-of-Information, grounded on a Case-Based Reasoning methodology to problem solving, that allows to deal with incomplete, unknown and even self-contradictory data.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Assessing individuals learning’s impairments from a social entropic perspective

Individuals with Learning Impairments (LI) may have not only language problems as reading, spelling and writing, but also difficulties in terms of their relationship with the society, i.e., may have glitches not only with language but also with social handiness. On the other hand, the dimension that most contributes to the process of acceptance or integration of an individual in a learning environment or in the society in general, is Emotional Intelligence, i.e., emotion is the foundation for creativity, passion, optimism, drive, and transformation. Motivation is a synonym for enthusiasm, initiative, and persistence. The technical skills have passed to the bottom, since they denote the rational that sustains an individual’s involvement in such processes. Indeed, among other things, this is the reason why this work focuses on LI and its various manifestations and how it may affect, evaluate and treat the natural development of a human being and the environment (society) in which him/her is immersed.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Predicting diabetic foot maturing through evolutionary computation

It is a twenty-first-century disease, its numbers are still growing exponentially. This brings one to the subject of this work, the Maturing of Diabetic Foot which, like diabetes, rises to values never seen before. It is envisaging the development of an ImageJ plug-into extract relevant feature from diabetic foot images and, in conjunction with the patient’s clinical and lifelong data, a computational system to predict and evaluate its severity. The applied problem-solving method is based on a symbolic/sub-symbolic line of logical formalisms that make complex systems easier to develop and analyze, where solutions to new problems are based on answers to previous ones, and itemized as a Case-Based Reasoning/Artificial Neural Network approach to computing.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Prediction of neoadjuvant chemotherapy outcome in breast cancer patients

Breast Cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women worldwide. Indeed, it is imperative to investigate which factors influence the development of this disease in order to improve the efficiency of the treatment and to allow for a balanced follow-up. In fact, this article has in mind an original Case Based Reasoning (CBR) approach to problem solving, complemented with a novel approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning that takes into consideration the data items entropic states. It works towards cancer’s assessment after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in terms of its size, shape, and texture.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Predicative vagueness in lung metastases in soft tissue sarcoma screening

Soft Tissue Sarcomas (STSs) pose a potential risk for the development of lung metastases, which in turn results in a negative prognosis for patients. Presumptions about the occurrence of these abnormalities during STSs treatment would have countless implications for both patients and healthcare professionals as they could increase the efficacy of the treatment and improve overall survival. Prediction is based on a creative Logic Programming, Case Based Reasoning approach to problem solving, that is complemented with an unusual approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, as it takes into consideration not only the data items entropic states but introduces the concept of Vague’s Predicate Extension.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Entropy and organizational performance

The main purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of the workers’ behavior in terms of their emotions and feelings in system’s performance, i.e., one is looking at issues concerned with Organizational Sustainability. Indeed, one’s aim is to define a process that motivates and inspires managers and personnel to act upon the limit, i.e., to achieve the organizational goals through an effective and efficient implementation of operational and behavioral strategies. The focus will be on the importance of specific psychosocial variables that may affect collective pro-organizational attitudes. Data that is increasing exponentially, and somehow being out of control, i.e., the question is to know the correct value of the information that may be behind these numbers.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019