Hypothetical answers to continuous queries over data streams

Continuous queries over data streams may suffer from blocking operations and/or unbound wait, which may delay answers until some relevant input arrives through the data stream. These delays may turn answers, when they arrive, obsolete to users who sometimes have to make decisions with no help whatsoever. Therefore, it can be useful to provide hypothetical answers - "given the current information, it is possible that X will become true at time t" - instead of no information at all. In this paper we present a semantics for queries and corresponding answers that covers such hypothetical answers, together with an online algorithm for updating the set of facts that are consistent with the currently available information

Raciocínio adaptativo de base emocional em agentes inteligentes

O projecto e implementação de agentes inteligentes capazes de comportamento eficaz em ambientes reais, onde a incerteza e o dinamismo são generalizados e onde tempo e recursos são limitados, levanta problemas importantes, relacionados quer com a capacidade adaptativa dos agentes, quer com a complexidade computacional dos processos cognitivos envolvidos, em particular de processos de raciocínio e planeamento. Neste artigo são apresentados mecanismos de base emocional que tornam possível a adaptação a ambientes dinâmicos e um uso controlado de recursos, através da focagem dos processos cognitivos. No sentido de avaliar a abordagem proposta são apresentados resultados experimentais em comparação com resultados de outras abordagens de referência.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Multimodal Approach to Image Sentiment Analysis

Multimodal sentiment analysis is a process for the classi- cation of the content of composite comments in social media at the sentiment level that takes into consideration not just the textual content but also the accompanying images. A composite comment is normally represented by the union of text and image. Multimodal sentiment analysis has a great dependency on text to obtain its classi cation, because image analysis can be very subjective according to the context where the image is inserted. In this paper we propose a method that reduces the text analysis dependency on this kind of classi cation giving more importance to the image content. Our method is divided into three main parts: a text analysis method that was adapted to the task, an image classi er tuned with the dataset that we use, and a method that analyses the class content of an image and checks the probability that it belongs to one of the possible classes. Finally a weighted sum takes the results of these methods into account to classify content according to its sentiment class. We improved the accuracy on the dataset used by more than 9%.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Utilização de assinaturas lipídicas do músculo de polvo comum (Octopus vulgaris) para rastrear a sua origem geográfica

In recent decades, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) has become one of the most important cephalopods in international fisheries due to its high commercial and gastronomic value. In Mediterranean culture, the octopus is a symbol of traditional cuisine for its exquisite flavor and high nutritional value, namely its richness in long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. Most consumers consider that knowing the origin of seafood is extremely important, encouraging the development of reliable methods to trace the geographical origin of these highly-value products. Recently, the use of lipidomic tools has opened new opportunities in the traceability of the geographic origin of seafood products. Lipids, as the main constituents of biological membranes and energy reserves, reflect organisms' biochemical composition, which in turn is influenced by their diet and habitat conditions. This study aimed to determine the lipidomic fingerprints in the muscle of O. vulgaris captured along the Iberian Atlantic coast and use these profiles to determine their origin place. Samples of O. vulgaris were acquired in commercially relevant ports for fishing for common octopus on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula (Ria de Arousa, Ria de Pontevedra, Peniche, Sesimbra and Santa Luzia). The recorded results allowed to determine that there are no significant differences in total lipid extracts. However, on what concerns phospholipid content, samples from Peniche exhibited significantly lower values. The analysis of the octopus lipidome allowed the identification of more than 300 molecular lipid species and 13 different lipid classes, evidencing that this cephalopod is a rich source of plasmalogens phospholipids, ceramides and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. The statistical tools employed allowed to successfully discriminate all five locations. The major contribution to this discrimination is associated to minority molecular lipid species, some of which are characterized by a high degree of unsaturation in their composition. This study opens new perspectives for the use of lipidomic analyses as a tool for the traceability of seafood products.Nas últimas décadas, o polvo comum (Octopus vulgaris) tem-se tornado um dos cefalópodes mais importantes nas pescarias internacionais devido ao seu elevado valor comercial e gastronómico. Na cultura Mediterrânica, o polvo é um símbolo da cozinha tradicional pelo seu requintado sabor e elevado valor nutricional, nomeadamente a sua riqueza em ácidos gordos ómega-3 polinsaturados de cadeia longa. A maioria dos consumidores considera que conhecer a proveniência dos produtos do mar é de extrema importância, encorajando ao desenvolvimento de métodos de confiança para permitir rastrear a origem geográfica destes produtos de elevado valor económico. Recentemente, o uso de ferramentas lipidómicas têm aberto novas oportunidades na rastreabilidade da origem geográfica de produtos de origem marinha. Os lípidos, como principais constituintes das membranas biológicas e das reservas energéticas, refletem a composição bioquímica dos organismos, que pela sua vez é influenciada diretamente pela sua dieta e pelas condições do habitat. Este estudo pretende determinar as impressões digitais lipidómicas no músculo de O. vulgaris capturado ao longo da costa Ibérica Atlântica e usar estes perfis para rastrear o seu local de origem. As amostras biológicas de O. vulgaris analisadas foram adquiridas em portos comercialmente relevantes para a pesca de polvo comum na costa Atlântica da Península Ibérica (Ria de Arousa, Ria de Pontevedra, Peniche, Sesimbra e Santa Luzia). Os resultados obtidos revelaram que não existem diferenças significativas nos extratos totais de lípidos analisados. Contudo, no que diz respeito ao conteúdo de fosfolípidos, as amostras de Peniche exibiram valores significativamente inferiores. A análise do lipidoma do músculo de polvo permitiu a identificação de mais de 300 espécies moleculares lipídicas e de 13 classes diferentes destes compostos, mostrando ser uma fonte rica em fosfolípidos plasmalogénios, ceramidas e ácidos gordos de cadeia longa. As ferramentas estatísticas utilizadas permitiram discriminar com sucesso as cinco localidades de origem das amostras de polvo analisadas. A maior contribuição para esta discriminação está associada a espécies moleculares minoritárias, sendo algumas delas caracterizadas por um elevado grau de insaturação na sua composição molecular. Este estudo abre novas perspetivas para o uso das análises lipidómicas como ferramenta para a rastreabilidade de produtos de origem marinha.Mestrado em Biologia Marinha Aplicad

Image Sentiment Analysis: Experimental Evaluation of Several Deep Learning Architectures

Image sentiment analysis is an important topic nowadays. It is possible to use it to classify an image at sentiment level, as negative, neutral or positive. However, to classify an image at this level is a hard challenge because its semantic meaning can represent many scenarios. In this paper, we present an analysis of several image classification methods that we evaluate to improve the state of the art in a large tweet data set.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Previsão eleitoral para a Assembleia da República Portuguesa

Em trabalho anterior utilizaram-se técnicas de Data Mining para predizer resultados eleitorais, sem utilizar sondagens, recorrendo a variáveis socioeconómicas, disponíveis publicamente sobre Portugal, no período abrangido pelas treze eleições para a Assembleia da República, entre 1974 e 2009. No entanto, o espectro político considerado nesse trabalho não abrange os 100% dos votos expressos, mas apenas os quatro partidos com assento parlamentar regular desde 1975 cuja votação atinge cerca de 84%. Na abordagem anteriormente adoptada, cada um dos quatro partidos tradicionais foi tratado separadamente, resultando em previsões independentes. Neste artigo analisa-se a extensão desse trabalho à previsão do intervalo restante dos resultados eleitorais e a sua utilização para garantir a restrição de que a percentagem total de votos expressos soma 100%. Os resultados mostraram que os métodos anteriormente aplicados permitem obter previsões com resultados de qualidade similar para o conjunto das forças partidárias complementares.In earlier work, Data Mining techniques using a large number of public available socioeconomic variables about Portugal were used to predict election results between 1974 and 2009 (thirteen elections) for the Parliament of the Portuguese Republic. However, the political spectrum considered in that work does not cover 100% of the votes cast, but only the four parties with regular parliamentary seat since 1975, whose voting reaches about 84%. In the approach previously adopted, each of the four traditional parties was treated separately resulting in independent forecasts. In this paper we analyse the extension of that work to the forecasting of the remaining interval of the election results and its use to ensure the restriction that the total percentage of votes cast adds up to 100%. The results showed that the methods previously applied allow making predictions with similar quality for the remaining partisan forces

An Allergist's Perspective

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Assessment of Lactobacillus crispatus´ role in vaginal infections: friend or foe?

Lactobacillus spp. are the most prevalent microorganisms in the vaginal milleu. Several probiotic mechanisms have been associated with Lactobacillus, but the most relevant one is lactate production – resulting in a low pH value, typical of the healthy vagina. However, its pathogenic state is still unknown. We aim to elucidate the role of a commensal vaginal microorganism, Lactobacillus crispatus, in vaginal infections. Twenty-four vaginal washes have been collected from women attending a gynaecology consultation of a private clinic. The samples were categorized according with clinical diagnosis at the time of sampling. The distribution of bacterial species, and their prevalence was assessed by Next-Generation Sequencing of the 16S rRNA V4 region. In addition, L- and D-lactate concentration, and LDH enzymatic activity was quantified in all washes by a commercial kit. Detection of Candida spp. was performed by PCR. L. crispatus was dominant (>70%) in 11 out of 24 samples – diagnosed for vaginal atrophy (VA, 3), cytolytic vaginosis (CV, 2) and lactobacillosis (LB, 2). Lactate was increased in CV, LB and VA cases only. The remaining samples, diagnosed for vulvovaginal candidosis in its majority, had lower prevalence of L. crispatus; and lower to moderate lactate metabolite. There was not a direct relationship between LDH enzymatic activity and clinical diagnosis. L. crispatus dominance, associated with increased lactate production, was observed in CV, LB and VA cases. These results indicate that this microorganism might have a role in dysbiosis of the vagina associated with these specific pathologies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio