What I Learned from Joaquim Romero Magalhães

Precisely because they were grounded on a solid knowledge of institutional and social matrices of the Portuguese trans-continental reality, Romero Magalhães’s works provide many relevant contributions on specific matters. Often there are less prominent ideas in the overall economy of a work that can be very striking to those who read them. I would like to emphasize three, which decisively influenced my understanding of Portuguese history and all my historiographical output.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Maxwell, Kenneth. Pombal, Paradox of the Enlightenment

Discussing what has or has not been said in the historiography written in English about themes from Portuguese history runs the risk of being transformed into a string of constantly repeated lamentations. As a general rule, there is almost always a tendency to fall back on a comment made by Laura de Mello e Souza in the first published review (1995) of Maxwell’s book about Pombal: “peripheral, both in the past and in the present, Portugal has ended up being miniaturized by European historians, who have placed it well below its real dimensions or have simply ignored it.” Nonetheless, the eighteenth century has a number of quite distinctive marks, which are best not forgotte

Segmentation and detection of Woody Trunks using Deep Learning for Agricultural Robotics

This project aims to help the implementation of image processing algorithms in agriculture robots so that they are robust to different aspects like weather conditions, vineyard terrain irregularities and efficient to operate in small robots with low energy consumption. Along with this, Deep Learning models became more complex. Thus, not all processors can handle such models. So, to develop a system with real-time detection for low-power processors becomes demanding because there is a lack of real datasets annotated for vine trunks and expedite tools to support this work. To support the deployment of deep-learning technology in agricultural robots, this dissertation presents the first public dataset of vine trunk images, called VineSet, with respective annotations for each trunk. This dataset was built from scratch, having a total of 9481 images of 5 different Douro vineyards, resulting from the images initially collected by AgRob V16 and various augmentation operations. Then, this dataset was used to train different state-of-the-art Deep Learning object detection models, together with Google Tensor Processing Unit. In parallel with this, this work presents an assisted labelling procedure that uses our trained models to reduce the time spent on labelling in the creation of new datasets. Also, this dissertation proposes the segmentation of vine trunks, using object detection models and semantic segmentation models. In this way, all the work done will allow the integration of edge-AI algorithms in SLAM, like Vine-SLAM, which will serve for the localisation and mapping of the robot, through natural markers in the vineyards.Agricultural robots need image processing algorithms, which should be reliable under all weather conditions and be computationally efficient. Furthermore, several limitations may arise, such as the characteristic vineyard terrain irregularities or overfitting in the training of neural networks that may affect the performance. In parallel with this, the evolution of Deep Learning models became more complex, demanding an increased computational complexity. Thus, not all processors can handle such models efficiently. So, developing a system with a real-time performance for low-power processors becomes demanding and is nowadays a research and development challenge because there is a lack of real data sets annotated and expedite tools to support this work. To support the deployment of deep-learning technology in agricultural robots, this dissertation presents a public VineSet dataset, the first public large collection of vine trunk images. The dataset was built from scratch, having a total of 9481 real image frames and providing the vine trunks annotations in each one of them. VineSet is composed of RGB and thermal images of 5 different Douro vineyards, with 952 initially collected by AgRob V16 robot, and others 8529 image frames resulting from a vast number of augmentation operations. To check the validity and usefulness of this VineSet dataset, in this work is presented an experimental baseline study, using state-of-the-art Deep Learning models together with Google Tensor Processing Unit. To simplify the task of augmentation in the creation of future datasets, we propose an assisted labelling procedure - by using our trained models - to reduce the labelling time, in some cases ten times faster per frame. This dissertation presents preliminary results to support future research in this topic, for example with VineSet leads possible to train (by transfer learning procedure) existing deep neural networks with Average Precision (AP) higher than 80% for vineyards trunks detection. For example, an AP of 84.16% was achieved for SSD MobileNet-V1. Also, the models trained with VineSet present good results in other environments such as orchards or forests. Our automatic labelling tool proves this, reducing annotation time by more than 30% in various areas of agriculture and more than 70% on vineyards. In this dissertation, we also propose the segmentation of the vine trunks. Firstly, object detection models were used together with VineSet to perform the trunk segmentation. To evaluate the performance of the different models, a script that implements some metrics of semantic segmentation was built. The results showed that the object detection models trained with VineSet were not only suitable for trunk detection but also trunk segmentation. For example, a DICE Similarity Index (DSI) of 70.78% was achieved for SSD MobileNet-V1. Finally, semantic segmentation was also briefly approached. A subset of the images of VineSet was used to train several models. Results show that semantic segmentation can substitute DL-based object detection models for pixel-based classification if a proper training set is provided. In this way, all the work done will allow the integration of edge-AI algorithms in SLAM, like Vine-SLAM, which will serve for the localisation and mapping of the robot, through natural markers in the vineyards

Os nomes de família em Portugal: uma breve perspectiva histórica

Este ensaio é uma primeira tentativa de estudar um tema que, apesar da sua enorme importância, tem recebido pouca atenção histórica: a evolução das práticas antroponímicas portuguesas; práticas essas cujo impacto se fez sentir em boa parte dos espaços tocados pela presença imperial portuguesa. O autor contrasta as alterações na antroponímia portuguesa que ocorreram durante a viragem do século XX com as práticas vigentes entre a aristocracia portuguesa desde as grandes mudanças que acompanharam o fim da Idade Média.This essay constitutes a first attempt to study a theme which, in spite of its enormous importance, has received little historical attention: the evolution of the Portuguese practices of anthroponymy that had a worldwide impact due to Portuguese imperial expansion. The author contrasts the changes that occurred at the turn of the twentieth century to the practices that were prevalent among the Portuguese aristocracy ever since the great changes that took place at the end of the Middle Ages

A circulação das elites no império dos Bragança (1640-1808) : algumas notas

Este artigo pretende discutir as conexões e os equilíbrios imperiais e atlânticos da monarquia brigantina setecentista, tomando como tópicos de discussão, por um lado, algumas dimensões do vocabulário social e político e, por outro, as marcas mais salientes dos processos de circulação e estruturação das elites nesse mesmo âmbito. Entre as questões debatidas, destaca-se a da fratura identitária entre reinóis e naturais da América portuguesa no início do século XIX

O casamento de Mariana Vitória e de Gregório, ou o «defeito do mulatismo»

A história que se vai contar apoia-se sobretudo em fontes judiciais e refere-se ao contexto imediatamente subsequente à publicação da legislação pombalina da última fase. Datado de 1781/1783, constitui um dos casos nos quais filhos solteiros menores de 25 anos pretenderam casar-se contra a vontade dos seus pais ou tutores que deram lugar a processos que subiram à Mesa Desembargo do Paço e resultaram numa consulta. O caso em análise destaca-se pela singularidade dos argumentos invocados e debatidos, em particular, acerca do «defeito de mulatismo». A consulta final da mesa do supremo tribunal do reino, favorável aos nubentes e depois assinada pelo monarca, permite sugerir que, no reino de Portugal e Algarves (onde se aplicava o  Alvará de 1773), não só se proibia classificar alguém como liberto, como tal inibição era explicitamente equiparada à supressão  jurídica do preceito de «mulatismo», assimilando-se a condição de liberto à de mulato.

Mouzinho da Silveira and the Political Culture of Portuguese Liberalism, 1820–1832

Liberalism as an identity and as a political ideology was non-existent in Portugal, as in most of the countries of Ibero-America, before the beginning of the nineteenth century. But the semantic development of the term ‘liberal’ in Portuguese underwent a clear and rapid mutation in the following decades. It became associated with specific meanings in relation to constitutional issues and civil law matters. While the former prevailed between 1820 and 1823, the latter were dominant in the writings of Mouzinho da Silveira and his Civil War legislation of 1832 to 1834

Aristocracia, poder e família em Portugal, séculos XV-XVIII

Análise da relação, historicamente variável, entre as modalidades de constituição da família aristocrática e o exercício do poder político no centro e na periferia em Portugal, entre os séculos XV e XVII