Automatic Text Summarization

Writing text was one of the first ever methods used by humans to represent their knowledge. Text can be of different types and have different purposes. Due to the evolution of information systems and the Internet, the amount of textual information available has increased exponentially in a worldwide scale, and many documents tend to have a percentage of unnecessary information. Due to this event, most readers have difficulty in digesting all the extensive information contained in multiple documents, produced on a daily basis. A simple solution to the excessive irrelevant information in texts is to create summaries, in which we keep the subject’s related parts and remove the unnecessary ones. In Natural Language Processing, the goal of automatic text summarization is to create systems that process text and keep only the most important data. Since its creation several approaches have been designed to create better text summaries, which can be divided in two separate groups: extractive approaches and abstractive approaches. In the first group, the summarizers decide what text elements should be in the summary. The criteria by which they are selected is diverse. After they are selected, they are combined into the summary. In the second group, the text elements are generated from scratch. Abstractive summarizers are much more complex so they still need a lot of research, in order to represent good results. During this thesis, we have investigated the state of the art approaches, implemented our own versions and tested them in conventional datasets, like the DUC dataset. Our first approach was a frequency­based approach, since it analyses the frequency in which the text’s words/sentences appear in the text. Higher frequency words/sentences automatically receive higher scores which are then filtered with a compression rate and combined in a summary. Moving on to our second approach, we have improved the original TextRank algorithm by combining it with word embedding vectors. The goal was to represent the text’s sentences as nodes from a graph and with the help of word embeddings, determine how similar are pairs of sentences and rank them by their similarity scores. The highest ranking sentences were filtered with a compression rate and picked for the summary. In the third approach, we combined feature analysis with deep learning. By analysing certain characteristics of the text sentences, one can assign scores that represent the importance of a given sentence for the summary. With these computed values, we have created a dataset for training a deep neural network that is capable of deciding if a certain sentence must be or not in the summary. An abstractive encoder­decoder summarizer was created with the purpose of generating words related to the document subject and combining them into a summary. Finally, every single summarizer was combined into a full system. Each one of our approaches was evaluated with several evaluation metrics, such as ROUGE. We used the DUC dataset for this purpose and the results were fairly similar to the ones in the scientific community. As for our encoder­decode, we got promising results.O texto é um dos utensílios mais importantes de transmissão de ideias entre os seres humanos. Pode ser de vários tipos e o seu conteúdo pode ser mais ou menos fácil de interpretar, conforme a quantidade de informação relevante sobre o assunto principal. De forma a facilitar o processamento pelo leitor existe um mecanismo propositadamente criado para reduzir a informação irrelevante num texto, chamado sumarização de texto. Através da sumarização criam­se versões reduzidas do text original e mantém­se a informação do assunto principal. Devido à criação e evolução da Internet e outros meios de comunicação, surgiu um aumento exponencial de documentos textuais, evento denominado de sobrecarga de informação, que têm na sua maioria informação desnecessária sobre o assunto que retratam. De forma a resolver este problema global, surgiu dentro da área científica de Processamento de Linguagem Natural, a sumarização automática de texto, que permite criar sumários automáticos de qualquer tipo de texto e de qualquer lingua, através de algoritmos computacionais. Desde a sua criação, inúmeras técnicas de sumarização de texto foram idealizadas, podendo ser classificadas em dois tipos diferentes: extractivas e abstractivas. Em técnicas extractivas, são transcritos elementos do texto original, como palavras ou frases inteiras que sejam as mais ilustrativas do assunto do texto e combinadas num documento. Em técnicas abstractivas, os algoritmos geram elementos novos. Nesta dissertação pesquisaram­se, implementaram­se e combinaram­se algumas das técnicas com melhores resultados de modo a criar um sistema completo para criar sumários. Relativamente às técnicas implementadas, as primeiras três são técnicas extractivas enquanto que a ultima é abstractiva. Desta forma, a primeira incide sobre o cálculo das frequências dos elementos do texto, atribuindo­se valores às frases que sejam mais frequentes, que por sua vez são escolhidas para o sumário através de uma taxa de compressão. Outra das técnicas incide na representação dos elementos textuais sob a forma de nodos de um grafo, sendo atribuidos valores de similaridade entre os mesmos e de seguida escolhidas as frases com maiores valores através de uma taxa de compressão. Uma outra abordagem foi criada de forma a combinar um mecanismo de análise das caracteristicas do texto com métodos baseados em inteligência artificial. Nela cada frase possui um conjunto de caracteristicas que são usadas para treinar um modelo de rede neuronal. O modelo avalia e decide quais as frases que devem pertencer ao sumário e filtra as mesmas através deu uma taxa de compressão. Um sumarizador abstractivo foi criado para para gerar palavras sobre o assunto do texto e combinar num sumário. Cada um destes sumarizadores foi combinado num só sistema. Por fim, cada uma das técnicas pode ser avaliada segundo várias métricas de avaliação, como por exemplo a ROUGE. Segundo os resultados de avaliação das técnicas, com o conjunto de dados DUC, os nossos sumarizadores obtiveram resultados relativamente parecidos com os presentes na comunidade cientifica, com especial atenção para o codificador­descodificador que em certos casos apresentou resultados promissores

Modelling gamified exercise data to support therapeutic monitoring of fraily in older adults

Research indicates that video games can provide mental stimulation and stress relief, which may contribute to the well-being of gamers. With the continued growth of the video game industry and its demographic, attempts to evoke similar feelings of enjoyment in non-game environments have been proposed, gradually defining the concept of ’gamification’. Over the last two decades, gamification has shown positive effects on user engagement and participation in tasks across several fields of research, such as education and workplace productivity. In the area of healthcare, specifically in subjects of physical therapy and rehabilitation exercise, the implementation of game design choices and social features is evident in mobile applications and smart devices, however, despite the outlined benefits, the adoption of these strategies by the elderly population faces methodological difficulties that bar its progress. Research highlights a lack of process standardization, the employment of inefficient game concepts, and improper design choices for the referred demographic. In this thesis, the complications associated with the employment of gamification strategies in senior healthcare are explored and discussed, leading up to the proposal of a methodological approach to improving the success of such strategies, through the conception and development of a data mining project applied to a real clinical scenario. The use of this approach has been shown to effectively improve the quality of gamification and aid in making better business decisions based on the underlying data. Moreover, five distinct data models and processes were developed, acting on improving the platform with feedback collection, automated game suggestions and logical patient profiling based on physical factors

Skewed greed : realized skewness or maximum returns, which statistical anomaly is better at capturing greed in financial markets?

Investors like to have the possibility of very high returns, even if they are highly unlikely. Because of this, they prefer positively skewed assets, which are consequently overvalued generating lower returns. This work studies the implications of extraordinarily skewed returns in the cross-sectional pricing of stocks in light of previous evidence that investors favor assets with lottery-like payoffs and the fact that many investors are inadequately diversified. Analyzing data from US stocks since 1927 I found that, realized skewness has an economically important and statistically significant negative relationship with expected stock returns. This realized-skewness sorted strategy rewards its investors with an average monthly return of 0.7% with a corresponding t-stat of 27.2 and a Sharpe Ratio of 0.89, with certain unexpected calendar months – April and July – outperforming the market with Sharpe ratios of 1.5 and 2.24, respectively. My findings are of interest to investors as this strategy is easy to implement and this work lays out the path for further academic research regarding skewness related trading strategies.Os investidores gostam de ter a possibilidade de retornos muito elevados, mesmo que sejam altamente improváveis. Por isso, eles preferem ativos positivamente assimétricos, que consequentemente são sobrevalorizados, o que gera retornos inferiores. Este trabalho estuda as implicações de retornos extraordinariamente assimétricos de ações, de acordo com estudos anteriores que concluíram que muitos dos investidores estão inadequadamente diversificados e preferem ativos com retornos semelhantes aos de uma loteria. Ao analisar os dados de ações dos EUA desde 1927, descobri que a assimetria realizada tem uma relação negativa economicamente importante e estatisticamente significativa com os retornos esperados das ações. Essa estratégia recompensa seus investidores com um retorno mensal médio de 0,7% com um t-stat correspondente de 27,2 e um índice de Sharpe de 0,89, com alguns meses do calendário inesperados – abril e julho – a baterem o mercado com os índices de Sharpe de 1,5 e 2,24, respetivamente. O presente trabalho tem relevância para os investidores, dado que esta estratégia é fácil de implementar e estabelece a base para estudos académicos adicionais sobre estratégias de investimento relacionadas à assimetria

Privacy at work = Magánélet a munkában

Today, there is a widespread recognition of the horizontal effect of fundamental rights. The labourcontract represented everywhere, in democratic systems, the natural framework for the development of such an effectiveness of constitutional precepts and values, with the need of answering to the question of whether-and to what extent–the interests that are in the basis of the employer's power require and justify in casuthe limitation of the employee ́s freedom.The Portuguese Labour Code, in articles 14 and following, expressly recognizes certain fundamental rights of the human being in the workplace,including the privacy. The employee has, in fact, the right to expect a certain degree of respect for his privacy in the workplace, which is where he develops an important part of his relations with others. This right shall, however, be balanced with other rights and legitimate interests of the employer, in particular the rights to effectively manage his enterprise and specially to protect himself from liability or damage caused by employee ́s actions.The case law –namely that of the Supreme Court of Justice -has influenced the evolution of the Labour Law, contributing to the interpretation of the lawand the resolution of some controversial employment issues, e.g. in matters related to fundamental rights. In the final part of this article we will seek toprovide a brief overview of some innovative case law issued by the Social Chamber of the Portuguese Supreme Court, particularly after entering into force the Portuguese Labour Code in 2003. = Ma már széles körben elismerik az alapvető jogok horizontális hatását. A munkaszerződés a demokratikus rendszerekben mindenütt az alkotmányos normák és értékek hatékonyságának kialakításához szükséges természetes keretet jelentette, azzal az igénnyel, hogy választ kellett adni arra a kérdésre, hogy a munkáltató hatalmának alapját képező érdekek szükségessé teszik-e - és ha igen, milyen mértékben - a munkavállaló szabadságának korlátozását. A portugál Munka Törvénykönyve a 14. és az azt követő cikkekben kifejezetten elismeri az ember bizonyos alapvető jogait a munkahelyén, beleértve a magánélethez való jogot is. A munkavállalónak joga van ahhoz, hogy elvárja a magánéletének bizonyos fokú tiszteletben tartását a munkahelyén, ahol kapcsolatainak egy fontos részét alakítja ki. Ezt a jogot azonban egyensúlyba kell hozni a munkáltató egyéb jogaival és jogos érdekeivel, különösen a vállalkozás hatékony irányításához való jogával, és különösen azzal, hogy a munkáltató megvédje magát a munkavállaló tevékenysége következtében felmerülő felelősségtől vagy károktól. Az ítélkezési gyakorlat - nevezetesen a Legfelsőbb Bíróság ítélkezési gyakorlata - befolyásolta a munkajog fejlődését, hozzájárulva a törvény értelmezéséhez és egyes vitás munkajogi kérdések megoldásához, például az alapvető jogokkal kapcsolatos kérdésekben is. E cikk utolsó részében arra törekszünk, hogy rövid áttekintést adjunk néhány innovatív esetről, amelyeket a portugál Legfelsőbb Bíróság Szociális Tanácsa hozott, különösen a portugál Munka Törvénykönyve 2003. évi hatálybalépését követően

O Direito do Trabalho do “Estado Novo”

O Estado Novo, corporativo, ancorou toda a sua vasta produção legislativa na área laboral nos princípios, constantes da Constituição de 1933 e do Estatuto do Trabalho Nacional, de proscrição da luta de classes e de solidariedade entre o capital e o trabalho, o que levou a uma forte distorção do direito colectivo de trabalho, marcada pela imposição de sindicatos únicos, pela proibição da greve e pelo forte condicionamento da acção sindical e da negociação colectiva. Nos últimos anos, assistiu-se a uma certa "liberalização" do regime, que se tentava modernizar, até por necessidade do próprio capitalismo português.The Estado Novo, based on the idea of a corporative state, undertook production of labour legislation on a vast scale, anchored and informed by the principies laid down in the Constitution of 1933 and in the Estatuto do Trabalho Nacional (decree-law nº 23.048 of 23.09.1933): proscription of class struggle and solidarity and mutual cooperation between capital and labour. This led to a clear distortion of collective rights that culminated in the imposition of exclusive trade unions, the prohibition of strike and lock-out and the initial prohibition and later limitation of collective bargaining. The final years of the regime saw a certain liberalization, trying the regime to modernize itself in response to the pressures from portuguese capitalism

The Crisis and the Future of the Social State. Remarks in the Light of the Portugal Membership in the Structures of the EU

The financial crisis that has affected Europe became a multi-dimension phenomenon. It has caused changes not only in the macroeconomic sphere, but also in the political and social sphere as well as in the labour law area. And so as an example of the great changes in that matter we can see what happened in Portugal, where most of the more recent legislative measures in the area of employment legislation and labour market (as in general in the area of economic policies) assure the compliance with several obligations foreseen in the Memorandum of Understanding, signed in May 2011 between Portugal, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. Having all that in mind, author intends to analyze the changes in the Portugal’s labour law caused by the financial crisis

Automated Rule-Checking - a tool for design development

Although automated rule-checking is often presented in the context of applyingfor licenses and permits, as a way to assess compliance with building codes, its mostimmediate application can be found in earlier stages of the design phase. The impact ofdesign options on the performance of buildings in several domains can be assessedautomatically using BIM tools. In this article, we discuss the advantages and challenges ofadopting automated rule-checking procedure as a tool for design development and presentexamples of software solutions that can be used for this purpose

Cidade, Estado e sociedade civil: reflexões sobre a participação popular no planejamento urbano em Florianópolis

Este trabalho busca analisar a relação entre Estado e sociedade civil, na (re)produção do espaço urbano de Florianópolis. Parte-se de uma análise dos recentes acontecimentos envolvendo o crescimento urbano e as disputas ocorridas em meio planos e projetos urbanísticos para ilha de Santa Catarina. Com especial ênfase para o Plano Diretor de Florianópolis, que ocorreu em um momento de crescente participação popular. O objetivo é analisar as disputas ocorridas no interior da sociedade civil florianopolitana e a repercussão no âmbito estatal, de maneira a desenvolver construtos teóricos que possam melhor entender o fenômeno da neoliberalização das cidades. Observa-se que o crescimento urbano de Florianópolis engendrou a emergência de empresas dos ramos do turismo e da construção civil – incluindo também o mercado imobiliário. Esses setores procuram articular-se com outras classes sociais a fim de barrar propostas de cunho popular, que ameaçam a hegemonia político-ideológica dos principais setores da cidade.