A mobilidade é uma marca da nossa civilização. Tanto o transporte de carga quanto o de passageiros compartilham de uma enorme infra-estrutura de conexões operados com o apoio de um sofisticado sistema logístico. Simbiose otimizada de módulos mecânicos e elétricos, os veículos evoluem continuamente com a integração de avanços tecnológicos e são projetados para oferecer o melhor em conforto, segurança, velocidade e economia. As regulamentações organizam o fluxo de transporte rodoviário e as suas interações, estipulando regras a fim de evitar conflitos. Mas a atividade de condução pode tornar-se estressante em diferentes condições, deixando os condutores humanos propensos a erros de julgamento e criando condições de acidente. Os esforços para reduzir acidentes de trânsito variam desde campanhas de re-educação até novas tecnologias. Esses tópicos têm atraído cada vez mais a atenção de pesquisadores e indústrias para Sistemas de Transporte Inteligentes baseados em imagens. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre técnicas de detecção e classificação de sinalização vertical de trânsito em imagens de cenários de tráfego complexos. O sistema de reconhecimento visual automático dos sinais destina-se a ser utilizado para o auxílio na atividade de direção de um condutor humano ou como informação para um veículo autônomo. Com base nas normas para sinalização viária, foram testadas duas abordagens para a segmentação de imagens e seleção de regiões de interesse. O primeiro, uma limiarização de cor em conjunto com Descritores de Fourier. Seu desempenho não foi satisfatório. No entanto, utilizando os seus princípios, desenvolveu-se um novo método de filtragem de cores baseado em Lógica Fuzzy que, juntamente com um algoritmo de seleção de regiões estáveis em diferentes tons de cinza (MSER), ganhou robustez à oclusão parcial e a diferentes condições de iluminação. Para classificação, duas Redes Neurais Convolucionais curtas são apresentadas para reconhecer sinais de trânsito brasileiros e alemães. A proposta é ignorar cálculos complexos ou features selecionadas manualmente para filtrar falsos positivos antes do reconhecimento, realizando a confirmação (etapa de detecção) e a classificação simultaneamente. A utilização de métodos do estado da arte para treinamento e otimização melhoraram a eficiência da técnica de aprendizagem da máquina. Além disso, este trabalho fornece um novo conjunto de imagens com cenários de tráfego em diferentes regiões do Brasil, contendo 2.112 imagens em resolução WSXGA+. As análises qualitativas são mostradas no conjunto de dados brasileiro e uma análise quantitativa com o conjunto de dados alemão apresentou resultados competitivos com outros métodos: 94% de acurácia na extração e 99% de acurácia na classificação. / Mobility is an imprint of our civilization. Both freight and passenger transport share a huge infrastructure of connecting links operated with the support of a sophisticated logistic system. As an optimized symbiosis of mechanical and electrical modules, vehicles are evolving continuously with the integration of technological advances and are engineered to offer the best in comfort, safety, speed and economy. Regulations organize the flow of road transportation machines and help on their interactions, stipulating rules to avoid conflicts. But driving can become stressing on different conditions, leaving human drivers prone to misjudgments and creating accident conditions. Efforts to reduce traffic accidents that may cause injuries and even deaths range from re-education campaigns to new technologies. These topics have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers and industries to Image-based Intelligent Transportation Systems. This work presents a study on techniques for detecting and classifying traffic signs in images of complex traffic scenarios. The system for automatic visual recognition of signs is intended to be used as an aid for a human driver or as input to an autonomous vehicle. Based on the regulations for road signs, two approaches for image segmentation and selection of regions of interest were tested. The first one, a color thresholding in conjunction with Fourier Descriptors. Its performance was not satisfactory. However, using its principles, a new method of color filtering using Fuzzy Logic was developed which, together with an algorithm that selects stable regions in different shades of gray (MSER), the approach gained robustness to partial occlusion and to different lighting conditions. For classification, two short Convolutional Neural Networks are presented to recognize both Brazilian and German traffic signs. The proposal is to skip complex calculations or handmade features to filter false positives prior to recognition, making the confirmation (detection step) and the classification simultaneously. State-of-the-art methods for training and optimization improved the machine learning efficiency. In addition, this work provides a new dataset with traffic scenarios in different regions of Brazil, containing 2,112 images in WSXGA+ resolution. Qualitative analyzes are shown in the Brazilian dataset and a quantitative analysis with the German dataset presented competitive results with other methods: 94% accuracy in extraction and 99% accuracy in the classification.

Esta tese focaliza a questão da formação e das competências envolvidas na atuação de tradutores/intérpretes (Tils) de Língua de Sinais (Libras/Português) para atuação em contexto político em interpretações simultâneas. Fundamenta seus argumentos em um Estudo de Caso de interpretação simultânea em uma sessão da Câmara de Deputados Federais. O problema norteador deste estudo é formulado como: as escolhas realizadas pelo Tils, no processo de interpretação simultânea de Português (modalidade oral) para Libras, em sessões parlamentares, são semântica e pragmaticamente adequadas? Seguem como objetivos: identificar quais as escolhas lexemáticas que os Tils realizam para traduzir os conceitos em contextos políticos, durante uma interpretação simultânea em sessão parlamentar; analisar como são feitas as escolhas explícitas durante o processo de leitura e compreensão interpretativa; e delinear quais as competências e habilidades que o Tils necessita desenvolver para tornar mais eficientes e eficazes as escolhas interpretativas de conceitos utilizados em contextos de ordem política. O aporte teórico situa-se nos Estudos da Tradução e Interpretação e em aspectos relevantes do tratamento da polissemia e da paráfrase no processo interpretativo de Língua Portuguesa para Libras. Detém-se na questão da acessibilidade comunicacional dos sujeitos surdos, fundamentada legalmente, a qual depende, entre outros fatores, da formação especializada e das competências interpretativas dos Tils. O corpus é formado pelas transcrições de uma sessão parlamentar da Câmara dos Deputados Federais. As transcrições da fala dos parlamentares e da interpretação dos Tils são realizadas em trilhas do software Eudico Language Annotator - ELAN, a partir de um sistema de notações e marcações de tempo em segundos. A análise quanti-qualitativa debruça-se sobre toda a sessão, da qual resultam 30 excertos que contemplam a transcrição literal, o mais fiel possível, dos discursos dos parlamentares, seguida da transcrição das glosas da interpretação de dois Tils. A interpretação simultânea em contextos especializados é discutida a partir dos resultados das análises, as quais revelam que o Tils¹ e o Tils² demonstram habilidades e capacidades de desempenho bem definidas. O Tils¹, cuja formação é graduação, com especialização em docência e com proficiência em Libras, realizou mais paráfrases paralelas e redutoras e poucas paráfrases expandidas em relação ao enunciado-matriz; explorou a polissemia dos sinais manuais em Libras; e tendo para suas interpretações iniciais vinte e cinco versões sugeridas. O Tils², cuja formação é graduação, com especialização em tradução e interpretação em Libras, com proficiência em Libras; realizou paráfrases paralelas e expandidas e nenhuma paráfrase redutora, mantendo equivalências simétricas e explicativas nos enunciados; explorou a polissemia dos sinais manuais em Libras; diferentemente do Tils¹, lançou mão do aspecto secundário gramatical da língua de sinais, utilizando expressões faciais e corporais para dar conta da multimodalidade da LP oral: prosódia, expressividade retórica e afetiva dos enunciados dos parlamentares; e teve apenas oito novas versões sugeridas para refinar as escolhas interpretativas. O número das omissões, embora difíceis de contabilizar, foram menores na atuação do Tils². Os resultados das análises confirmam a necessidade de formação específica, especializada, para interpretações simultâneas em contextos políticos e, ato contínuo, em outros contextos especializados, como educacional, clínico, social, jurídico, entre outros. Verifica-se, por conseguinte, que competências, tais como: linguísticas, tradutórias, interpretativa e comunicativa são alvo tanto de formação acadêmica como de aprimoramento ao longo da atuação profissional para o êxito da interpretação simultânea. / Fundação Universidade de Caxias do Sul, FUCS / This thesis focuses on the training and skills involved in translators/interpreters (Tils) of Sign Language (Libras/Portuguese) to act in a political context in simultaneous interpretations. It bases its arguments on a Simultaneous Interpretation Case Study in a session of the House of Federal Representatives. The problem guiding this study is formulated as: Are the choices made by Tils in the process of simultaneous interpretation of Portuguese (oral modality) for Libras in parliamentary sessions semantic and pragmatically adequate? The objectives are: to identify the lexemmatic choices that the Tils carry out to translate the concepts into political contexts during a simultaneous interpretation in parliamentary session; analyze how the explicit choices are made during the process of reading and interpretive understanding; and outline the competencies and abilities that the Tils must develop in order to make the interpretive choices of concepts used in political contexts more efficient and effective. The theoretical contribution is found in the Translation and Interpretation Studies and in relevant aspects of the treatment of polysemy and paraphrase in the interpretative process of Portuguese Language for Libras. It focuses on the issue of communicational accessibility of deaf subjects, legally based, which depends, among other factors, on the specialized training and interpretive skills of the Tils. The corpus is formed by the transcripts of a parliamentary session of the Federal Chamber of Deputies. The transcripts of the parliamentarians' speeches and the interpretation of the Tils are carried out in tracks of the Eudico Language Annotator - ELAN software, from a system of notations and time stamps in seconds. The quantitativequalitative analysis focuses on the whole session, resulting in 30 excerpts that contemplate the literal transcription, as faithful as possible, of the parliamentarians' speeches, followed by the transcription of the glosses of the interpretation of two Tils. Simultaneous interpretation in specialized contexts is discussed from the analysis results, which reveal that Tils¹ and Tils² demonstrate well-defined performance abilities and capacities. Tils¹, whose undergraduate education, with a specialization in teaching and with proficiency in Libras, performed more parallel and reductive paraphrases and few expanded paraphrases in relation to the matrix statement; explored the polysemy of the hand signals in Libras; and having for its initial interpretations twenty-five suggested versions. Tils², whose graduation is graduation, with specialization in translation and interpretation in Libras, with proficiency in Libras; made parallel and expanded paraphrases and no reductive paraphrase, maintaining symmetrical and explanatory equivalences in statements; Explored the polysemy of the hand signals in Libras; unlike Tils¹, it used the grammatical secondary aspect of sign language, using facial and body expressions to account for the multimodality of oral PL: prosody, rhetorical and affective expressiveness of parliamentarian utterances; and had only eight new versions suggested to refine the interpretive choices. The number of omissions, although difficult to account for, was lower in Tils² activity. The results of the analyses confirm the need for specific, specialized training for simultaneous interpretations in political contexts and, in other specialized contexts, such as educational, clinical, social, legal, among others. Therefore, competences such as: linguistic, translational, interpretive and communicative must be targeted both for academic training and for improvement during the course of professional practice for successful simultaneous interpretation.

Le Virus de l’Immunodéficience Humaine de type I (VIH-I) est majoritairement dégradé dans les cellules dendritiques dès son entrée. Des travaux précédemment réalisés dans l’équipe montrent que le mécanisme de l’autophagie contribue à la dégradation virale (virophagie) et promeut les réponses immunitaires innées et adaptatives. Etant donné que cette virophagie est par la suite inhibée par le virus dans les cellules dendritiques, mieux comprendre la mise en place de cette autophagie antivirale est primordial afin de pouvoir favoriser et surtout stabiliser les défenses cellulaires. Nos résultats montrent que DC-SIGN, un récepteur lectine de type C (CLR) qui reconnait des carbohydrates mannosylés ou fucosylés, pourrait être impliqué dans la mise en place de cette autophagie antivirale. Ainsi, nous montrons qu’après reconnaissance du VIH, ce récepteur induit l’autophagie et interagit rapidement avec plusieurs protéines autophagiques dont certaines impliquées dans les voies endosomales. En effet, nous montrons pour la première fois l’association de la protéine Atg9 avec le récepteur DC-SIGN internalisé. La protéine Atg9 est un facteur essentiel de l’initiation de la voie autophagique régulant notamment l’apport de membranes issues de la membrane plasmique pour la nucléation de vésicules liées à la voie autophagique. D’autre part, après une étude par spectrométrie de masse de l’intéractome du récepteur DC-SIGN internalisé, nous montrons qu’une E3 ligase faisant partie de la famille des TRIM, TRIM25, est recrutée lors de l’endocytose du récepteur. Cette protéine a été rapportée comme étant impliquée dans la régulation des réponses innées antivirales issues du récepteur de reconnaissance de pathogène (PRR) RIG-I suggérant une fonction essentielle de TRIM25 dans les réponses immunes innées. De manière intéressante, certains membres de la famille TRIM ont été montrés récemment comme étant essentiels pour l’induction d’une forme d’autophagie sélective parfois antivirale, l’autophagie de précision. Dans ce sens, nous montrons qu’un complexe est formé entre le récepteur DC-SIGN, Atg9 et TRIM25, suggérant que l’autophagie mise en place très tôt lors de l’engagement du récepteur DC-SIGN pourrait s’avérer être sélective. L’ensemble de ces éléments constitue une première étape pour une meilleure compréhension des étapes précoces de l’entrée du VIH dans les cellules dendritiques avec la caractérisation d’une virophagie sélective induite lors de l’engagement d’un récepteur de l’immunité innée et qui représente une cible particulièrement intéressante afin d’améliorer certaines stratégies thérapeutiques développées actuellement. / The Human Immunodeficiency Virus type I (HIV-I) is mostly degraded in dendritic cells as soon as it enters. Previous work in the team shows that the mechanism of autophagy contributes to viral degradation (virophagy) and promotes innate and adaptive immune responses. Since this virophagy is subsequently inhibited by the virus in dendritic cells, a better understanding of the implementation of this antiviral autophagy is essential in order to promote and above all stabilize cellular defenses. Our results show that DC-SIGN, a C-type lectin receptor (CLR) that recognizes mannosylated or fucosylated carbohydrates, may be involved in the development of this antiviral autophagy. Thus, we show that after recognition of HIV, this receptor induces autophagy and interacts rapidly with several autophagic proteins, some of which are involved in the endosomal pathways. Indeed, we show for the first time the association of the protein Atg9 with the internalized DC-SIGN receptor. The Atg9 protein is an essential factor in the initiation of the autophagic pathway regulating in particular the supply of membranes originating from the plasma membrane for the nucleation of vesicles linked to the autophagic pathway. On the other hand, after a mass spectrometric study of the internalized DC-SIGN receptor interbody, we show that an E3 ligase belonging to the TRIM family, TRIM25, is recruited during endocytosis of the receptor. This protein has been reported to be involved in the regulation of antiviral innate responses from the RIG-I pathogen recognition receptor suggesting an essential function of TRIM25 in innate immune responses. Interestingly, some members of the TRIM family have recently been shown to be essential for the induction of a form of selective autophagy, sometimes antiviral, precision autophagy. In this sense, we show that a complex is formed between the DC-SIGN, Atg9 and TRIM25 receptors, suggesting that autophagy early on engagement of the DC-SIGN receptor could be selective. All these elements constitute a first step for a better understanding of the early stages of the entry of HIV into dendritic cells with the characterization of a selective virophagy induced when a receptor of the innate immunity And which represents a particularly interesting target in order to improve certain therapeutic strategies currently being developed.

abstract: This dissertation examines the first impressions that occur between Deaf consumers and American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreters prior to a healthcare appointment. Negative first impressions can lead to a disconnect or loss of trust between Deaf consumers and interpreters and increase the risk for Deaf consumers to receive inadequate healthcare. The recognition of this risk led to an action research study to look at barriers to successful interactions between ASL/English interpreters and Deaf consumers. The mixed methods research design and associated research questions discovered factors and perceptions that contributed to the disconnect and subsequently informed a 10-week intervention with a small group of ASL/English interpreters and Deaf consumers. The factors that influence connection are system related and a lack of a standardized approach to using name badges, missing or incorrect appointment details, and an inconsistent protocol for interpreter behavior when a healthcare provider leaves the room. The intervention allowed the interpreter participants to generate solutions to mitigate these barriers to connection and apply them during the 10 weeks. Deaf consumer feedback was gathered during the intervention period and was used to modify the generated solutions. The generated solutions included re-design of an interpreter referral agency’s name badge, using small talk as a way to learn information about the nature of the healthcare appointment and proactively discuss procedures when a healthcare provider leaves the exam room. These solutions resulted in a positive influence for both interpreters and Deaf consumers and an increase of trust and connection. The findings of this study show new approaches that create a connection between interpreters and Deaf consumers and may lead to more satisfactory healthcare interactions for Deaf consumers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2019

The ability to recognize handshapes in signing video is essential in algorithms for sign recognition and retrieval. Handshape recognition from isolated images is, however, an insufficiently constrained problem. Many handshapes share similar 3D configurations and are indistinguishable for some hand orientations in 2D image projections. Additionally, significant differences in handshape appearance are induced by the articulated structure of the hand and variants produced by different signers. Linguistic rules involved in the production of signs impose strong constraints on the articulations of the hands, yet, little attention has been paid towards exploiting these constraints in previous works on sign recognition. Among the different classes of signs in any signed language, lexical signs constitute the prevalent class. Morphemes (or, meaningful units) for signs in this class involve a combination of particular handshapes, palm orientations, locations for articulation, and movement type. These are thus analyzed by many sign linguists as analogues of phonemes in spoken languages. Phonological constraints govern the ways in which phonemes combine in American Sign Language (ASL), as in other signed and spoken languages; utilizing these constraints for handshape recognition in ASL is the focus of the proposed thesis. Handshapes in monomorphemic lexical signs are specified at the start and end of the sign. The handshape transition within a sign are constrained to involve either closing or opening of the hand (i.e., constrained to exclusively use either folding or unfolding of the palm and one or more fingers). Furthermore, akin to allophonic variations in spoken languages, both inter- and intra- signer variations in the production of specific handshapes are observed. We propose a Bayesian network formulation to exploit handshape co-occurrence constraints also utilizing information about allophonic variations to aid in handshape recognition. We propose a fast non-rigid image alignment method to gain improved robustness to handshape appearance variations during computation of observation likelihoods in the Bayesian network. We evaluate our handshape recognition approach on a large dataset of monomorphemic lexical signs. We demonstrate that leveraging linguistic constraints on handshapes results in improved handshape recognition accuracy. As part of the overall project, we are collecting and preparing for dissemination a large corpus (three thousand signs from three native signers) of ASL video annotated with linguistic information such as glosses, morphological properties and variations, and start/end handshapes associated with each ASL sign.

Single sign-on (SSO) is a session verification mechanism that allows a client to use a single password and name combination to be able to access multiple applications. The mechanism validates the client for all the applications and eliminates the need for authentication prompts when a user switches between applications within a session. SSO mechanisms can be classified as software versus hardware or customer-requirements oriented versus server-side arrangements. The five commonly used mechanisms of Single Sign-On currently are: Web Single Sign-On, Enterprise Single Sign-On, Kerberos (or Ticket/Token Authentication), Open ID, and Federation or Federated Identity. SSO has the main benefit of allowing a user to access many different systems without having to log on to each and every one of them separately. However, SSO introduces a security risk as once an attacker gains access to a single system, then the attacker has access to all of the systems. This thesis describes SSO technology, the Security Assertion Markup Language, and the advantages and risks involved in using SSO. It examines authentication mechanisms and their suitability for SSO integration. The main emphasis is a description of a mechanism that ameliorates some of the disadvantages of SSO by monitoring the user behavior with respect to a template. If a user performs actions that fit the defined template behavior, then the post authentication mechanism will not get activated. If, on the other hand, a user does something unforeseen, the mechanism will not perform authentication for this user, but rather trigger manual authentication. If this manual authentication succeeds, then the user will continue to interact with the system, otherwise user session will be ended. This behavior extension authentication mechanism is a method that eases the authentication process in which users are not expected to remember any username and password that can be forgotten easily or have a biometric attribute that can change over time. This method can be integrated to existing web application without a major risk and increase in cost. / Single sign-on (SSO) är en sessionkontrollmekanism som gör det möjligt för en kund att använda en ett enda par av lösenord och namn för att kunna få tillgång till flera olika program. Mekanismen validerar klienten för alla anrop och eliminerar behovet av ytterligare inloggningsdialoger när en användare växlar mellan program inom en session. SSO-mekanismer kan klassificeras enligt olika kriterier, såsom programvara kontra hårdvara eller kunder krav orienterade mot serversidan arrangemang. De fem vanligen använda mekanismerna för Single Sign-On är närvarande: Web Single Sign-On Enterprise Single Sign-On, Kerberos (eller Token autentisering), Open ID och Federation eller Federated Identity. SSO har den stora fördelen att en användare kan få tillgång till många olika system utan att behöva logga in på vart och ett av dem separat. Men SSO inför också en säkerhetsrisk i och med att tillgång till ett enda av systemen också automatiskt innebär tillgång till samtliga. Denna avhandling beskriver SSO-teknik, Security Assertion Markup Language, och fördelarna och riskerna med att använda SSO, samt undersöker autentiseringsmekanismer och deras lämplighet för SSO integration. Tyngdpunkten är en beskrivning av en mekanism som minskar några av nackdelarna med SSO genom att övervaka användarnas beteende med avseende på en mall. Om en användare utför åtgärder som passar det beteende som beskrivs av mallen, då den föreslagna mekanismen kommer att hantera autentiseringen automatiskt. Om, å andra sidan, en användare gör något oförutsett, kommer mekanismen inte att automatiskt utföra autentisering för den här användaren, utan utlöser manuellt autentisering. Om denna manuella autentiseringen lyckas, så kan användare fortsätta att fortsätta att interagera med systemet, annars kommer användarsessionen att avslutas. Denna beteendebaserade utvidgning av autentiseringsmekanismen är en lovande metod som minskar behovet av att komma ihåg många namn och lösenord, utan att lämna delsystem öppna till de säkerhetsproblem som uppstår i ren SSO, och utan att vara beroende av biometriska egenskaper som kan förändras över tiden. Denna metod kan integreras med befintliga webbaserade lösningar utan ökad risk och ökade kostnader.

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