271 research outputs found
Portuguese Colonial Momentum and Political Inertia
From 1884 to 1915, ten projects to update Macao harbour capacity and equipment were presented by Portuguese engineers, aiming to turn the province from a “silting backwater” serving a supporting role in regional trade into a prosperous colony of an internationally preponderant modern Empire. Portuguese central government had been striving to build the colonial edifice in old self-governing Macao since the 1850s by taking control, restructuring and expanding the urban territory. Unfortunately, the Empire’s finances didn’t match its ambition and, when it came to the Inner Harbour Improvement, project after project was denied funding until full shutdown in 1919. In this paper, studying these projects and the reasons they failed to materialize, we will discuss the paradox of turn-of-the-century Macao in which the colonial momentum, responsible for a notable urban renewal period in an initial “laissez-faire” stage, as well as the deployment of an array of progressive engineers, by being fundamentally at odds with the reality of the province’s part in regional geopolitics, later ended up stifling that same development dynamics, perhaps irreparably, by subjecting the improvement of Macao’s core infrastructure to Lisbon’s endemic political indecisions and lack of resources
Automatic speech recognition for European Portuguese
Dissertação de mestrado em Informatics EngineeringThe process of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) opens doors to a vast amount of possible
improvements in customer experience. The use of this type of technology has increased
significantly in recent years, this change being the result of the recent evolution in ASR
systems. The opportunities to use ASR are vast, covering several areas, such as medical,
industrial, business, among others. We must emphasize the use of these voice recognition
systems in telecommunications companies, namely, in the automation of consumer assistance
operators, allowing the service to be routed to specialized operators automatically through
the detection of matters to be dealt with through recognition of the spoken utterances. In
recent years, we have seen big technological breakthrough in ASR, achieving unprecedented
accuracy results that are comparable to humans. We are also seeing a move from what
is known as the Traditional approach of ASR systems, based on Hidden Markov Models
(HMM), to the newer End-to-End ASR systems that obtain benefits from the use of deep
neural networks (DNNs), large amounts of data and process parallelization.
The literature review showed us that the focus of this previous work was almost exclusively
for the English and Chinese languages, with little effort being made in the development of
other languages, as it is the case with Portuguese. In the research carried out, we did not
find a model for the European Portuguese (EP) dialect that is freely available for general
use. Focused on this problem, this work describes the development of a End-to-End ASR
system for EP. To achieve this goal, a set of procedures was followed that allowed us to
present the concepts, characteristics and all the steps inherent to the construction of these
types of systems. Furthermore, since the transcribed speech needed to accomplish our goal
is very limited for EP, we also describe the process of collecting and formatting data from a
variety of different sources, most of them freely available to the public. To further try and
improve our results, a variety of different data augmentation techniques were implemented
and tested. The obtained models are based on a PyTorch implementation of the Deep Speech
2 model.
Our best model achieved an Word Error Rate (WER) of 40.5%, in our main test corpus,
achieving slightly better results to those obtained by commercial systems on the same data.
Around 150 hours of transcribed EP was collected, so that it can be used to train other ASR
systems or models in different areas of investigation. We gathered a series of interesting
results on the use of different batch size values as well as the improvements provided by
the use of a large variety of data augmentation techniques. Nevertheless, the ASR theme is vast and there is still a variety of different methods and interesting concepts that we could
research in order to seek an improvement of the achieved results.O processo de Reconhecimento Automático de Fala (ASR) abre portas para uma grande
quantidade de melhorias possíveis na experiência do cliente. A utilização deste tipo de
tecnologia tem aumentado significativamente nos últimos anos, sendo esta alteração o
resultado da evolução recente dos sistemas ASR. As oportunidades de utilização do ASR
são vastas, abrangendo diversas áreas, como médica, industrial, empresarial, entre outras.
É
de realçar que a utilização destes sistemas de reconhecimento de voz nas empresas de
telecomunicações, nomeadamente, na automatização dos operadores de atendimento ao
consumidor, permite o encaminhamento automático do serviço para operadores especializados
através da detecção de assuntos a tratar através do reconhecimento de voz. Nos
últimos anos, vimos um grande avanço tecnológico em ASR, alcançando resultados de
precisão sem precedentes que são comparáveis aos atingidos por humanos. Por outro lado,
vemos também uma mudança do que é conhecido como a abordagem tradicional, baseados
em modelos de Markov ocultos (HMM), para sistemas mais recentes ponta-a-ponta que
reúnem benefícios do uso de redes neurais profundas, em grandes quantidades de dados e
da paralelização de processos.
A revisão da literatura efetuada mostra que o foco do trabalho anterior foi quase que
exclusivamente para as línguas inglesa e chinesa, com pouco esforço no desenvolvimento de
outras línguas, como é o caso do português. Na pesquisa realizada, não encontramos um
modelo para o dialeto português europeu (PE) que se encontre disponível gratuitamente para
uso geral. Focado neste problema, este trabalho descreve o desenvolvimento de um sistema
de ASR ponta-a-ponta para o PE. Para atingir este objetivo, foi seguido um conjunto de
procedimentos que nos permitiram apresentar os conceitos, características e todas as etapas
inerentes à construção destes tipos de sistemas. Além disso, como a fala transcrita necessária
para cumprir o nosso objetivo é muito limitada para PE, também descrevemos o processo
de coleta e formatação desses dados em uma variedade de fontes diferentes, a maioria
delas disponíveis gratuitamente ao público. Para tentar melhorar os nossos resultados, uma
variedade de diferentes técnicas de aumento de dados foram implementadas e testadas. Os
modelos obtidos são baseados numa implementação PyTorch do modelo Deep Speech 2.
O nosso melhor modelo obteve uma taxa de erro de palavras (WER) de 40,5% no nosso
corpus de teste principal, obtendo resultados ligeiramente melhores do que aqueles obtidos
por sistemas comerciais sobre os mesmos dados. Foram coletadas cerca de 150 horas de PE
transcritas, que podem ser utilizadas para treinar outros sistemas ou modelos de ASR em
diferentes áreas de investigação. Reunimos uma série de resultados interessantes sobre o uso de diferentes valores de batch size, bem como as melhorias fornecidas pelo uso de uma
grande variedade de técnicas de data augmentation. O tema ASR é vasto e ainda existe uma
grande variedade de métodos diferentes e conceitos interessantes que podemos investigar
para melhorar os resultados alcançados
The Influence of Music on the Perception of Taste
The food experience is one of the most multisensory experiences. The background
soundscapes, and particularly music, can influence not only behaviour and choices, but also the sensory perception, either discriminative or hedonic, of a food experience. The auditory properties of a musical piece could be matched in a congruent manner with the basic tastes, affecting the way consumers perceive, respond and remember the sensory attributes and the overall experience. Based on this premise, the present study was developed in order to extend the understanding of crossmodal interactions between gustatory and auditory stimuli. Concretely, it was intended to investigate the influence of background music on the tasting experience, namely on basic tastes and texture perception.
For this purpose, two musical pieces were selected to match with sweet and sour basic tastes, taking into consideration their auditory characteristics. The gustatory stimulus chosen was a dessert (passion fruit mousse) with these two basic tastes.
The sensory tests were performed immediately after basic tastes recognition tests and
familiarization with the scale. Each participant experienced three different conditions, in different orders: i) control, where the dessert was tasted in silence; ii) experience A, where participants tasted the same dessert while listening a sweet musical piece that expectably would enhance sweet taste of it and iii) experience B, where participants tasted the same dessert while listening a sour musical piece that expectably would enhance sour taste of it.
The results show that the same dessert was not perceived exactly in the same way when participants were exposed to different music stimulus, what can corroborate by itself the music’s influence on tasting experience. Moreover, it was verified that crossmodal correspondences between music and taste were stronger regarding sour taste where a significant effect was observed. Sweet music, by contrast, did not enhance the sweet taste of the dessert. However, it decreased the intensity of sour taste in the dessert what could suggest a different approach to crossmodal correspondences between music and taste.
These findings can be very helpful on design and building of new multisensory gastronomic experiences, applied by food businesses and restaurant entrepreneurs to enhance consumers’ experience
In a zebrafish biomedical model of human Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome impaired MTH signaling leads to decreased neural cell diversity
Maternally derived thyroid hormone (T3) is a fundamental factor for vertebrate neurodevelopment. In humans, mutations on the thyroid hormones (TH) exclusive transporter monocarboxylic acid transporter 8 (MCT8) lead to the Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome (AHDS). Patients with AHDS present severe underdevelopment of the central nervous system, with profound cognitive and locomotor consequences. Functional impairment of zebrafish T3 exclusive membrane transporter Mct8 phenocopies many symptoms observed in patients with AHDS, thus providing an outstanding animal model to study this human condition. In addition, it was previously shown in the zebrafish mct8 KD model that maternal T3 (MTH) acts as an integrator of different key developmental pathways during zebrafish development. MethodsUsing a zebrafish Mct8 knockdown model, with consequent inhibition of maternal thyroid hormones (MTH) uptake to the target cells, we analyzed genes modulated by MTH by qPCR in a temporal series from the start of segmentation through hatching. Survival (TUNEL) and proliferation (PH3) of neural progenitor cells (dla, her2) were determined, and the cellular distribution of neural MTH-target genes in the spinal cord during development was characterized. In addition, in-vivo live imaging was performed to access NOTCH overexpression action on cell division in this AHDS model. We determined the developmental time window when MTH is required for appropriate CNS development in the zebrafish; MTH is not involved in neuroectoderm specification but is fundamental in the early stages of neurogenesis by promoting the maintenance of specific neural progenitor populations. MTH signaling is required for developing different neural cell types and maintaining spinal cord cytoarchitecture, and modulation of NOTCH signaling in a non-autonomous cell manner is involved in this process. DiscussionThe findings show that MTH allows the enrichment of neural progenitor pools, regulating the cell diversity output observed by the end of embryogenesis and that Mct8 impairment restricts CNS development. This work contributes to the understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying human AHDS.ALG-01-0145-FEDER-022121; ABC-RI CRESC Algarve 2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The influence of music on the perception of taste
Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier B.V.The auditory characteristics of a musical composition can be matched in a congruent manner with the basic tastes affecting the way consumers perceive them. Based on this evidence, the present study was developed to extend the understanding of crossmodal interactions between gustatory and auditory stimuli—namely, the influence of music on sweet and sour basic tastes intensity. For this purpose, two musical compositions congruent with sweet and sour basic tastes were selected. The gustatory stimulus chosen was a real food (passion fruit mousse) having these two basic tastes. Sensory tests were performed upon a participants screening using basic tastes recognition tests and familiarization with the used scale. Each participant experienced the same dessert in three different conditions, in random order: i) control, in which the dessert was tasted in silence; ii) condition A, in which the dessert was tasted while listening to sweet music, that expectably would enhance the sweet taste and iii) condition B, in which the dessert was tasted while listening to sour music, that expectably would enhance the sour taste. Results demonstrated that the same dessert was perceived differently when participants were exposed to different auditory stimuli, validating the music's influence on the tasting experience. Furthermore, it was verified that crossmodal music-taste correspondences with the sour taste were stronger and showed a significant effect. Sweet music, by contrast, did not increase the sweet taste of the dessert. However, it decreased the intensity of sour taste, suggesting a different approach to crossmodal correspondences between music and taste.publishersversionpublishe
In a zebrafish biomedical model of human Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome impaired MTH signaling leads to decreased neural cell diversity
BackgroundMaternally derived thyroid hormone (T3) is a fundamental factor for vertebrate neurodevelopment. In humans, mutations on the thyroid hormones (TH) exclusive transporter monocarboxylic acid transporter 8 (MCT8) lead to the Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome (AHDS). Patients with AHDS present severe underdevelopment of the central nervous system, with profound cognitive and locomotor consequences. Functional impairment of zebrafish T3 exclusive membrane transporter Mct8 phenocopies many symptoms observed in patients with AHDS, thus providing an outstanding animal model to study this human condition. In addition, it was previously shown in the zebrafish mct8 KD model that maternal T3 (MTH) acts as an integrator of different key developmental pathways during zebrafish development.MethodsUsing a zebrafish Mct8 knockdown model, with consequent inhibition of maternal thyroid hormones (MTH) uptake to the target cells, we analyzed genes modulated by MTH by qPCR in a temporal series from the start of segmentation through hatching. Survival (TUNEL) and proliferation (PH3) of neural progenitor cells (dla, her2) were determined, and the cellular distribution of neural MTH-target genes in the spinal cord during development was characterized. In addition, in-vivo live imaging was performed to access NOTCH overexpression action on cell division in this AHDS model. We determined the developmental time window when MTH is required for appropriate CNS development in the zebrafish; MTH is not involved in neuroectoderm specification but is fundamental in the early stages of neurogenesis by promoting the maintenance of specific neural progenitor populations. MTH signaling is required for developing different neural cell types and maintaining spinal cord cytoarchitecture, and modulation of NOTCH signaling in a non-autonomous cell manner is involved in this process.DiscussionThe findings show that MTH allows the enrichment of neural progenitor pools, regulating the cell diversity output observed by the end of embryogenesis and that Mct8 impairment restricts CNS development. This work contributes to the understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying human AHDS
A thyroid hormone regulated asymmetric responsive centre is correlated with eye migration during flatfish metamorphosis
Flatfish metamorphosis is a unique post-embryonic developmental event in which thyroid hormones (THs) drive the development of symmetric pelagic larva into asymmetric benthic juveniles. One of the eyes migrates to join the other eye on the opposite side of the head. Developmental mechanisms at the basis of the acquisition of flatfish anatomical asymmetry remain an open question. Here we demonstrate that an TH responsive asymmetric centre, determined by deiodinase 2 expression, ventrally juxtaposed to the migrating eye in sole (Solea senegalensis) correlates with asymmetric cranial ossification that in turn drives eye migration. Besides skin pigmentation that is asymmetric between dorsal and ventral sides, only the most anterior head region delimited by the eyes becomes asymmetric whereas the remainder of the head and organs therein stay symmetric. Sub-ocular ossification is common to all flatfish analysed to date, so we propose that this newly discovered mechanism is universal and is associated with eye migration in all flatfish.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [SFRH/BPD/66808/2009, IF/01274/2014]; FCT [SFRH/BPD/79105/2011, SFRH/BPD/89889/2012, PTDC/MAR/115005/2009, PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2011, UID/Multi/04326/2013, Pest-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013, UID/BIM/04773/2013]; European Regional Development Fund through COMPETE; INIA; EU [RTA2013-00023-C02-01
Regulation of troponin T expression during muscle development in sea bream Sparus auratus Linnaeus: the potential role of thyroid hormones
In the sea bream Sparus auratus three stage-specific fast troponin T (fTnT) isoforms have been cloned and correspond to embryonic-, larval- and adult-specific
isoforms. Characterisation, using database searches, of the putative genomic organisation of Fugu rubripes and Tetraodon nigroviridis fTnT indicates that alternative exon splicing in the 59 region of the gene generates the different isoforms. Moreover, comparison of teleost fTnTs suggests
that alternative splicing of fTnT appears to be common in teleosts. A different temporal expression pattern for each fTnT splice variant is found during sea bream development
and probably relates to differing functional demands, as a highly acidic embryonic form (pI 5.16) is substituted by a basic larval form (pI 9.57). Thyroid hormones (THs), which
play an important regulatory role in muscle development in flatfish and tetrapods, appear also to influence TnT gene expression in the sea bream. However, THs have a
divergent action on different sea bream TnT genes and although the slow isoform (sTnT1) is TH-responsive, fTnT, sTnT2 and the itronless isoform (iTnT) are unaffected. The
present results taken together with those published for flatfish seem to suggest differences may exist in the regulation of larval muscle development in teleosts.The authors thank Nádia Silva for her assistance in thyroid follicle analysis. This work has been carried out within the
project Q4RS-1996-1442, ENDCONAQUA, with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities. However, it does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s views and in no way anticipates its future policy in this area. This project was further supported by Pluriannual funding to CCMAR by the Portuguese Science and Technology Council.
M.A.C. was funded by the Portuguese Ministry of Science and
Technology (SFRH/BD/6133/2001)
Arenices - paisagens transitórias
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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