Os sistemas Gerenciadores de Bases de Dados (SGBDs) foram desenvolvidos para manipular domínios de dados numéricos e/ou pequenas seqüencias de caracteres (palavras) e não foram projetados prevendo a manipulação de dados complexos, como por exemplo dados multimídia. Os operadores em domínios de dados que requisitam a relação de ordem têm pouca utilidade para manipular operações que envolvem dados complexos. Uma classe de operadores que se adequa melhor para manipular esses dados são os operadores por similaridade: consulta por abrangência (``range queries') e consulta de vizinhos mais próximos (``k-nearest neighbor queries'). Embora muitos resultados já tenham sido obtidos na elaboração de algoritmos de busca por similaridade, todos eles consideram uma única função para a medida de similaridade, que deve ser universalmente aplicável a todos os pares de elementos do conjunto de dados. Este projeto propõe explorar a possibilidade de trabalhar com estruturas de dados concebidas dentro dos conceitos de dados em domínios métricos, mas que admitam o uso de uma função de distância adaptável, ou seja, que mude para determinados grupos de objetos, dependendo de algumas características universais, e assim permitindo acomodar características que sejam particulares a algumas classes de imagens e não de todo o conjunto delas, classificando as imagens em uma hierarquia de tipos, onde cada tipo está associado a uma função de distância diferente e vetores de características diferentes, todos indexados numa mesma árvore. / The DBMS were developed to manipulate data in numeric domains and short strings, not considering the manipulation of complex data, like multimidia data. The operators em data domain which requests for the total order property have no use to handle complex data. An operator class that fit well to handle this type of data are the similarity operators: range query and nearest neighbor query. Although many results have been shown in research to answer similarity queries, all use only one distance function to measure the similarity, which must be applicable to all pairs of elements of the set. The goal of this work is to explore the possibility of deal with complex data in metric domains, that uses a suitable distance function, that changes its behavior for certain groups of data, depending of some universal features, allowing them to use specific features of some classes of data, not shared for the entire set. This flexibility will allow to reduce the set of useful features of each element in the set individually, relying in the values obtainded for one or few features extracted in first place. This values will guide the others important features to extract from data.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:44:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_alberto_bohn.pdf: 586241 bytes, checksum: 0568eec20a5d22d087fb11ebc9a8fb75 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-17 / The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Station of Embrapa Clima Temperado/Lowlands and Seed Analysis Laboratory of the Department of Plant Science, UFPel. Different densities in the soil seeds (T1 - 777.70 kg.ha-1; T2 - 736.63 kg.ha-1; T3 - 624.59 kg.ha-1 and T4 - 234.42 kg.ha-1) were tested in annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) in succession to soybean crop. Forage harvesting has occurred twice and after the second defoliation, were tested different levels of urea (null; 45; 90 and 135 kg.ha-1). The highest densities produced more rapid crop establishment and greater mass of harvested forage, both at first and in the second cut. In this sense, from the application of different doses of urea was found, only significant effect of nitrogen on seed yield, so the addition of a unit of urea increased by 1.7 units seeds. Occurred relationship between levels of SPAD when the assessment was conducted before flowering. Prior to harvest seed regression models between SPAD and urea levels were not significant. The seed physiologic quality was not affected by the levels of in the soil seeds and urea. / O experimento foi conduzido na Estação Experimental da Embrapa Clima Temperado/Terras Baixas e no Laboratório de Análises de Sementes do departamento de Fitotecnia da Universidade Federal de Pelotas - UFPel. Foram avaliadas diferentes densidades de sementes no solo (T1 - 777,70 Kg.ha-1; T2 - 736,63 Kg.ha-1; T3 - 624,59 Kg.ha-1 e T4 - 234,42 Kg.ha-1) de azevém anual (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) em sucessão a cultura da soja. Ocorreu a colheita de forragem em duas ocasiões e, após a segunda desfolha, utilizada diferentes doses de ureia (zero; 45; 90 e 135 kg.ha-1). As maiores densidades proporcionaram mais rápido estabelecimento da cultura e maior massa de forragem colhida, tanto no primeiro, quanto no segundo corte. Neste sentido, a partir da aplicação das diferentes doses de ureia verificou-se, apenas, efeito significativo do nitrogênio sobre o rendimento de sementes, de modo que o acréscimo de uma unidade de ureia aumentou 1,7 unidades de sementes. Através do clorofilômetro foi possível predizer o rendimento de sementes pelos níveis de SPAD, quando comparadas antes do florescimento. Previamente a colheita da semente os modelos de regressão entre SPAD e níveis de nitrogênio não foram significativos. A qualidade fisiológica da semente não influenciada pelos fatores avaliados.

Abstract There are multiple factors simultaneously affecting speech perception in elderly people. These factors include hearing acuity, aging of the auditory system, and changes in both perception and cognitive processes, all of which can interfere with speech comprehension, especially in cognitively demanding situations. The aim of this study is to clarify which factors influence the use of an automatic phone service system designed for elderly (N = 36) people. More specifically, the aim is to investigate whether it is the factors connected to the system itself or the factors connected to the elderly users and their actions with the system that are the most crucial for using the system successfully. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the study. There were four people who performed as speakers in the system. Analysis of the prosodic features of their speech was performed using acoustic analysis software. The variables connected to the elderly participants (n = 30) were investigated using interviews, pure-tone and speech audiometric tests, the Mini-Mental State Examination test (MMSE), and the Token Test for speech comprehension. Statistical analyses were used to explore whether there was a statistical connection between the acoustic measurements or the variables connected to participants themselves and their performance in usability test situation. In addition, the elderly participants’ actions in the test situation were observed using a material-based, qualitative video-analysis. The individuals who performed as speakers in the system were observed to use features of elderspeak in their speech. However, these speaker characteristics had little effect on the participants’ performance in the tasks. It was the voice-menu that contained the most semantically complex text structure that proved to be the most difficult for participants. Both low scores in the Token test and poor word recognition were connected to poor performance in the tasks. It was found based on the qualitative analysis that in addition to speech comprehension, there were other cognitive processes that were important for completing the tasks successfully, i.e. remembering the instructions given (memory), and the ability to direct, divide and maintain attention during the tasks. Poor performance in the tasks and in the Token Test, as well as problems in executive functions observed in the test situation, were found to be factors predicting dropping out of the next phase of the study the following year. Qualitative analysis of language use in cognitively demanding situations can be used in evaluation of high-level language performance. It may be useful for detecting mild changes in language skills that can be symptomatic of early stages of memory disorders. The results of this study can also be utilized when designing voice-based interfaces. In addition, it is important to consider both advantages and disadvantages of using elderspeak in the fields of nursing and speech therapy. / Tiivistelmä Ikääntyvien ihmisten puheen vastaanotossa vaikuttavat samanaikaisesti monet tekijät: kuulokyky, auditiivisen järjestelmän ikääntymismuutokset sekä havaintotoimintojen ja kognitiivisten toimintojen muutokset. Nämä voivat vaikeuttaa puheen ymmärtämistä erityisesti kognitiivisesti vaativassa tilanteessa. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää ikääntyneille osallistujille (N = 36) suunnitellun automaattisen puhelinpalvelujärjestelmän käyttöön liittyviä tekijöitä. Tavoitteena on selvittää se, missä määrin toisaalta kokeiltuun järjestelmään liittyvät tekijät ja toisaalta käyttäjien ominaisuudet sekä heidän toimintansa tutkimustilanteessa olivat yhteydessä järjestelmän menestykselliseen käyttöön. Tutkimuksessa käytetään kvantitatiivisia ja kvalitatiivisia menetelmiä. Järjestelmässä kokeiltiin neljän eri puhujan äänillä nauhoitettuja toimintaohjeita. Heidän puheensa prosodisia piirteitä analysoitiin äänen ja puheen analyysiohjelmilla. Ikääntyneisiin osallistujiin (n = 30) liittyviä muuttujia tutkittiin haastattelulla, kuulon tutkimuksilla (äänesaudiometria ja puheaudiometria), kognitiivisella seulontatestillä (Mini-mental state examination = MMSE) ja puheen ymmärtämistä mittaavalla Token-testillä. Mittaustulosten ja muuttujien yhteyttä tehtävistä suoriutumiseen tarkasteltiin tilastollisesti. Osallistujien toimintaa havainnoitiin järjestelmän käyttötilanteessa aineistolähtöisellä laadullisella videoanalyysillä. Järjestelmän puhujilla havaittiin ikääntyneille suunnatun puheen piirteitä. Tehtävistä suoriutuminen oli kuitenkin hyvin samanlaista puhujasta riippumatta. Semanttisesti monimutkaisin tekstivalikko oli osallistujille vaikein äänite. Matala Token-testin pistemäärä ja heikko puheen tunnistuskyky liittyivät heikkoon tehtävistä suoriutumiseen. Laadullisen analyysin perusteella puheen ymmärtämisen ohella keskeisiä kognitiivisia prosesseja tehtävissä menestymisen kannalta olivat seuraavat: ohjeiden muistaminen, huomion suuntaaminen, jakaminen ja ylläpito. Heikko suoriutuminen tehtävissä ja Token-testissä sekä tutkimustilanteessa havaitut toiminnan ohjauksen ongelmat ennustivat toisesta tutkimusvaiheesta poisjääntiä seuraavana vuonna. Kognitiivisesti vaativista kielen käyttötilanteista tehtävillä laadullisilla analyyseilla voidaan arvioida monimutkaisia kielellis-kognitiivisia toimintoja ja löytää mahdollisesti alkaviin muistisairauksiin liittyviä lieviä kielellisiä muutoksia. Tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää ääneen perustuvien käyttöliittymien suunnittelussa. Ikääntyneille suunnatun puheen etuja ja haittoja on tärkeää pohtia myös hoitotyön ja puheterapian näkökulmasta.

Dans plusieurs tâches de la robotique, la vision est considérée comme l’élément essentiel avec lequel la perception de l’environnement ou l’interaction avec d’autres utilisateurs peut se réaliser. Néanmoins, les artefacts potentiellement présents dans les images capturées rendent la tâche de reconnaissance et d’interprétation de l’information visuelle extrêmement compliquée. Il est de ce fait, très important d’utiliser des primitives robustes, stables et ayant un taux de répétabilité élevé afin d’obtenir de bonnes performances. Cette thèse porte sur les problèmes de localisation et de détection de fermeture de boucle d’un robot mobile en utilisant la saillance visuelle. Les résultats en termes de précision et d’efficacité des applications de localisation et de détection de fermeture sont évalués et comparés aux résultats obtenus avec des approches de l’état de l’art sur différentes séquences d’images acquises en milieu extérieur. Le principal inconvénient avec les modèles proposés pour l’extraction de zones de saillance est leur complexité de calcul, ce qui conduit à des temps de traitement important. Afin d’obtenir un traitement en temps réel, nous présentons dans ce mémoire l’implémentation du détecteur de régions saillantes sur la plate forme reconfigurable DreamCam. / In several tasks of robotics, vision is considered to be the essential element by which the perception of the environment or the interaction with other users can be realized. However, the potential artifacts in the captured images make the task of recognition and interpretation of the visual information extremely complicated. It is therefore very important to use robust, stable and high repeatability rate primitives to achieve good performance. This thesis deals with the problems of localization and loop closure detection for a mobile robot using visual saliency. The results in terms of accuracy and efficiency of localization and closure detection applications are evaluated and compared to the results obtained with the approaches provided in literature, both applied on different sequences of images acquired in outdoor environnement. The main drawback with the models proposed for the extraction of salient regions is their computational complexity, which leads to significant processing time. To obtain a real-time processing, we present in this thesis also the implementation of the salient region detector on the reconfigurable platform DreamCam.

Sedan införandet av datoriserade patientjournalsystem och sammanhållen journalföring har det riktats kritik mot hälso- och sjukvårdens hantering av patientinformation. Det råder delade meningar om det är användare eller systemen som felar. Syftet med undersökningen är att inspektera utvalda funktioner i journalsystemet TakeCare som utvecklats för att upprätthålla patient- och informationssäkerhet. Genom att jämföra funktionerna med Socialstyrelsens uppsatta informationssäkerhetskrav har uppsatsen som mål att hitta var de påtalade problemen kan uppstå. Genom att fråga användare kring deras uppfattning om systemet är avsikten att få en förståelse av om problemet ligger i de tekniska funktionerna eller i hanteringen av systemet. Metoder som använts under arbetet är e-postintervjuer och ett studiebesök på Stockholms läns landstings IT-avdelning i form av en intervju och presentation av TakeCare. Vi har sett att det finns funktioner som tar hänsyn till samtliga informationssäkerhetskrav samt att användarna anser att de kan hantera systemet, men trots det kritiseras informationshanteringen inom sjukvården. Utifrån vår undersökning anser vi att problem uppstår när obehöriga tar beslutet att ta del av information, vilket inte är ett resultat av systemets tillkortakommande. Vi anser att vårdpersonal har ansvar för patientens säkerhet oavsett om det gäller hantering av systemet eller vård av patienten. / Since the introduction of computerized health record systems and unified record-keeping, the health care management of patient information has been criticized. There are divided opinions about whether or not the users or the systems that is imperfect. The survey aims to inspect selected features of the health record system TakeCare developed to maintain patient and information security. By comparing the functions to information security requirements established by Socialstyrelsen, the paper aims to find where the noted problems can arise. By asking users about their view, we intend to find an understanding for whether the problems occur in the technical functions or in the use of the system. Used methods are e-mail interviews and a study visit to Stockholm County Council's department for IT in form of an interview and presentation of TakeCare. We have observed that there are functions that take information security requirements into account and that the users believe they can manage the system, but nevertheless health care’s way of handling information is criticized. Based on our study, we believe that the problem occurs when an unauthorized person makes the decision to take part of information, which is not a result of the system's shortcomings. We believe that health care professionals are responsible for the patient’s safety, whether it's usage of the system or care of the patient.

The aim of this study is to investigate how five boys in grade 3 of compulsory school structure and use language when they write narrative texts retelling and assessing personally experienced events. This is studied by interpreting how the boys use genre steps that are typical of the structure of personal narrative texts and by detecting and naming different linguistic features in the texts. The material in the study consists of five boys’personal reports and the method, which is based on the theories of genre pedagogy (see Johansson & Sandell Ring 2012:28ff, 223f), comes from systemic functional linguistics. A central finding of the study is that the boys structure their texts in varying combinations of genre steps which commonly occur in texts of a narrative kind. Another central finding is that the language in the boys’ texts consists of many verbs and verb groups which explain that someone is acting or doing something, different discourse connectives to indicate time, along with expressions for emotions and descriptions of experiences or objects.

The present study has two purposes. One aim is to investigate to what extent 20 pupils in grade 3 use two different forms of presentation in their narrative texts and how these choices of forms of presentation create certain patterns in the pupils’ texts. Another aim is to study to what extent the pupils use various features of spoken language in their narrative texts and whether these features correlate with the forms of presentation. The material in the study consists of 20 narrative texts from the national test in Swedish in 2011. The analytical models are based, among other things, on the theory of linguistic variation (see Nordberg 2013). A central finding of the study is that the pupils mainly choose to write their narrative texts from their own standpoint and that the choice of forms of presentation creates two different patterns in the pupils’ texts. One pattern that is found in several pupils’ texts builds on an interplay between the pupils’ own voice and the voice of other characters. Another central finding is that the pupils use many colloquial forms of pronouns, and that the features of spoken language are more common in various dialogue contexts than when the pupils tell the story in their own voice.

Notre étude s’inscrit dans le cadre de la théorie des matrices et des étymons (TME), principalement élaborée par G. Bohas (1997, 2000), G. Bohas et M. Dat (2007) et G. Bohas et A. Saguer (2012). Ce nouvel outil propose une réorganisation du lexique des langues sémitiques non plus sur la base de phonèmes mais de traits phonétiques. Cette perspective mène à contester le caractère primitif de la notion de racine triconsonantique développée par les grammairiens arabes du Moyen-Âge. De plus, la TME permet de rendre compte d’un certain nombre de régularités observées dans le lexique, telles que les liens phonético-sémantiques existants entre certains radicaux, l’aspect mimétique de la structure du signe, la polysémie des racines trilitères, etc. Notre thèse traite dans ce cadre du vocabulaire de l’hébreu biblique et se présente en trois parties. Dans un premier temps est donnée une description complète du fonctionnement de la théorie, suit un développement du vocabulaire de sept champs notionnels contraints par un cadre phonétique stable puis nous proposons un dictionnaire présentant une réorganisation totale du lexique hébraïque ancien sur la base d’étymons bilitères. / Our study is on the matrix and etymons theory (TME), mainly elaborated by G. Bohas (1997, 2000), G. Bohas and M. Dat (2007), and G. Bohas and A. Saguer (2012). This new tool proposes a reorganization of the vocabulary of Semitic languages, no longer based on phonemes but on distinctive features. This viewpoint brings us to contest the primitive angle of the notion of triconsonantal root developed by Arab grammarians in the Middle Ages. Moreover, TME enables us to explain lots of regularities noticed in the vocabulary, such as phono-semantical links between stems, the mimetic aspect of the sign’s structure, the polysemy of the triliteral roots, etc. Our thesis deals with biblical Hebrew and is divided in three parts. The first gives a complete definition of the theory. The second applies it to the vocabulary of seven notional fields built on a stable phonetic setting. The third proposes a lexicon presenting a whole reorganization of the vocabulary of ancient Hebrew based on bilateral etymons.

Avec l’avènement des dispositifs nomades tels que les smartphones et les tablettes, la reconnaissance automatique de l’écriture manuscrite cursive à partir d’un signal en ligne est devenue durant les dernières décennies un besoin réel de la vie quotidienne à l’ère numérique. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous proposons de nouvelles stratégies pour un système de reconnaissance de mots manuscrits en-ligne. Ce système se base sur une méthode collaborative segmentation/reconnaissance et en utilisant des analyses à deux niveaux : caractère et bi-caractères. Plus précisément, notre système repose sur une segmentation de mots manuscrits en graphèmes afin de créer un treillis à L niveaux. Chaque noeud de ce treillis est considéré comme un caractère potentiel envoyé à un moteur de Reconnaissance de Caractères Isolés (RCI) basé sur un SVM. Pour chaque noeud, ce dernier renvoie une liste de caractères associés à une liste d’estimations de probabilités de reconnaissance. Du fait de la grande diversité des informations résultant de la segmentation en graphèmes, en particulier à cause de la présence de morceaux de caractères et de ligatures, l’injection de chacun des noeuds du treillis dans le RCI engendre de potentielles ambiguïtés au niveau du caractère. Nous proposons de lever ces ambiguïtés en utilisant des modèles de bi-caractères, basés sur une régression logistique dont l’objectif est de vérifier la cohérence des informations à un niveau de reconnaissance plus élevé. Finalement, les résultats renvoyés par le RCI et l’analyse des modèles de bi-caractères sont utilisés dans la phase de décodage pour parcourir le treillis dans le but de trouver le chemin optimal associé à chaque mot dans le lexique. Deux méthodes de décodage sont proposées (recherche heuristique et programmation dynamique), la plus efficace étant basée sur de la programmation dynamique. / With the advent of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones over the last decades, on-line handwriting recognition has become a very highly demanded service for daily life activities and professional applications. This thesis presents a new approach for on-line handwriting recognition. This approach is based on explicit segmentation/recognition integrated in a two level analysis system: character and bi-character. More specifically, our system segments a handwritten word in a sequence of graphemes to be then used to create a L-levels lattice of graphemes. Each node of the lattice is considered as a character to be submitted to a SVM based Isolated Character Recognizer (ICR). The ICR returns a list of potential character candidates, each of which is associated with an estimated recognition probability. However, each node of the lattice is a combination of various segmented graphemes. As a consequence, a node may contain some ambiguous information that cannot be handled by the ICR at character level analysis. We propose to solve this problem using "bi-character" models based on Logistic Regression, in order to verify the consistency of the information at a higher level of analysis. Finally, the recognition results provided by the ICR and the bi-character models are used in the word decoding stage, whose role is to find the optimal path in the lattice associated to each word in the lexicon. Two methods are presented for word decoding (heuristic search and dynamic programming), and dynamic programming is found to be the most effective.

While the digital market, especially the music streaming market, has rapidly grown in recent years, however the physical music segment still remains relevant in the Thai market. The Thai music market has inimitable characteristics within the market in terms of the physical music record offers, recorded musical works, and a growth trend in physical sales. Moreover, the behaviour in physical music consumption is opposite to that in world markets. Music consumption practices in the Thai market and why physical music, and CDs in particular, remain relevant to the Thai music industry are an enigma. The music industry itself has suggested that the physical music market needs to be revamped and its physical products redeveloped. In addition, the major record companies have also refocused into developing physical markets. However, precisely how this is to be achieved has not been specified. The twin aims of this study are to more fully comprehend Thai music consumption practices in today’s market and to examine how the concepts of product development could be effective in responding to consumer needs and desires. Consumer-led product development is the main concept of this study used to create ideas to enhance music CDs. This study combined many perspectives related to consumer-led product development and then applied them to construct the conceptual framework named “The Seminal Framework for CD Development”. The framework is a roadmap to create a new set of features for a new form of music CD based on the input of the music industry’s representatives and consumers. A new form of music CD which includes a new set of features is named in this study as the “prototype CD”. Also, the framework is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype CD; how the prototype CD is responsive to consumer needs as far as functional and psychological perspectives are concerned. Bearing in mind the aim of this research, the researcher considered the interpretive paradigm to be the most appropriate approach for capturing consumers’ experiences in music consumption practices and for studying the opinions, points of view and ideas derived from the consumers, and the experts in music CD development. In the data collection process, this study employed the technique of purposive sampling for selecting from the population. The purposive sampling technique allows the researcher to judge and select people or prospective participants who: 1) are available to participate I in conducting the research, 2) are knowledgeable about the industry, 3) have experience related to the context of the study, and 4) can provide the reliable and detailed information required to understand the focal themes of the study. This study conducted nine interviews with the music industry’s experts, 60 one-on-one interviews and four group interviews with consumers. For the data analysis, this study adopted the manual coding analysis. The Seminal Framework determined the coding structure, and sets of data could be organised into distinct themes, such as the new features of music CDs or future positive possibilities for music consumption. This enabled, at the end of the process, an easier and more efficient identification of the experiential values derived from prototype music CDs. In addition, in more fully understanding the needs and expectations inherent in music consumption practices, such careful coding analysis helps to re-define the typology of music consumers. The typology and the concepts also facilitated the identification of music consumption behaviour in today’s environment. This study contributes a wider concept in consumer-led product development that has been applied to the context of music consumption practices and music product (CD) development.