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Publications

2020

Introduction to the Special Issue on Technology-Based Writing Instruction: A Collection of Effective Tools

Authors
Limpo, T; Nunes, A; Coelho, A;

Publication
JOURNAL OF WRITING RESEARCH

Abstract
This article introduces a Special Issue that gathers a collection of effective tools to promote the teaching and learning of writing in school-aged and university students, across varied contexts. The authors present the theoretical rationale and technical specificities of writing tools aimed at enhancing writing processes (e.g., spelling, revising) and/or at providing writers with automated feedback to improve the implementation of those processes. The tools are described in detail, along with empirical data on their effectiveness in improving one or more aspects of writing. All articles conclude by indicating future directions for further developing and evaluating the tools. This Special Issue represents an important contribution to the field of technology-based writing instruction, in a moment in which online teaching and learning tools have shifted from being an instructional asset to a necessity. We hope that in the future the validation of each tool can be expanded by reaching out to different populations and cultural contexts.

2020

Monitoring of Chestnut Trees Using Machine Learning Techniques Applied to UAV-Based Multispectral Data

Authors
Padua, L; Marques, P; Martins, L; Sousa, A; Peres, E; Sousa, JJ;

Publication
REMOTE SENSING

Abstract
Phytosanitary conditions can hamper the normal development of trees and significantly impact their yield. The phytosanitary condition of chestnut stands is usually evaluated by sampling trees followed by a statistical extrapolation process, making it a challenging task, as it is labor-intensive and requires skill. In this study, a novel methodology that enables multi-temporal analysis of chestnut stands using multispectral imagery acquired from unmanned aerial vehicles is presented. Data were collected in different flight campaigns along with field surveys to identify the phytosanitary issues affecting each tree. A random forest classifier was trained with sections of each tree crown using vegetation indices and spectral bands. These were first categorized into two classes: (i) absence or (ii) presence of phytosanitary issues. Subsequently, the class with phytosanitary issues was used to identify and classify either biotic or abiotic factors. The comparison between the classification results, obtained by the presented methodology, with ground-truth data, allowed us to conclude that phytosanitary problems were detected with an accuracy rate between 86% and 91%. As for determining the specific phytosanitary issue, rates between 80% and 85% were achieved. Higher accuracy rates were attained in the last flight campaigns, the stage when symptoms are more prevalent. The proposed methodology proved to be effective in automatically detecting and classifying phytosanitary issues in chestnut trees throughout the growing season. Moreover, it is also able to identify decline or expansion situations. It may be of help as part of decision support systems that further improve on the efficient and sustainable management practices of chestnut stands.

2020

Bi-Level Operation Scheduling of Distribution Systems with Multi-Microgrids Considering Uncertainties

Authors
Esmaeili, S; Anvari Moghaddam, A; Azimi, E; Nateghi, A; P. S. Catalao, JPS;

Publication
ELECTRONICS

Abstract
A bi-level operation scheduling of distribution system operator (DSO) and multi-microgrids (MMGs) considering both the wholesale market and retail market is presented in this paper. To this end, the upper-level optimization problem minimizes the total costs from DSO's point of view, while the profits of microgrids (MGs) are maximized in the lower-level optimization problem. Besides, a scenario-based stochastic programming framework using the heuristic moment matching (HMM) method is developed to tackle the uncertain nature of the problem. In this regard, the HMM technique is employed to model the scenario matrix with a reduced number of scenarios, which is effectively suitable to achieve the correlations among uncertainties. In order to solve the proposed non-linear bi-level model, Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions and linearization techniques are employed to transform the bi-level problem into a single-level mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated on a real-test MMG system.

2020

Gradient Boosting Machine and LSTM Network for Online Harassment Detection and Categorization in Social Media

Authors
Pereira, FSF; Andrade, T; de Carvalho, ACPLF;

Publication
MACHINE LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY IN DATABASES, ECML PKDD 2019, PT II

Abstract
We present a solution submitted to the Social Media and Harassment Competition held in collaboration with ECML PKDD 2019 Conference. The dataset used is as set of tweets and the first task was on the detection of harassment tweets. To deal with this problem, we proposed a solution based on a gradient tree-boosting algorithm. The second task was categorization harassment tweets according to the type of harassment, a multiclass classification problem. For this problem we proposed a LSTM network model. The solutions proposed for these tasks presented good predictive accuracy.

2020

Learning Low-Level Behaviors and High-Level Strategies in Humanoid Soccer

Authors
Simoes, D; Amaro, P; Silva, T; Lau, N; Reis, LP;

Publication
FOURTH IBERIAN ROBOTICS CONFERENCE: ADVANCES IN ROBOTICS, ROBOT 2019, VOL 2

Abstract
This paper investigates the learning of both low-level behaviors for humanoid robot controllers and of high-level coordination strategies for teams of robots engaged in simulated soccer. Regarding controllers, current approaches typically hand-tune behaviors or optimize them without realistic constraints, for example allowing parts of the robot to intersect with others. This level of optimization often leads to low-performance behaviors. Regarding strategies, most are hand-tuned with arbitrary parameters (like agents moving to pre-defined positions on the field such that eventually they can score a goal) and the thorough analysis of learned strategies is often disregarded. This paper demonstrates how it is possible to use a distributed framework to learn both low-level behaviors, like sprinting and getting up, and high-level strategies, like a kick-off scenario, outperforming previous approaches in the FCPortugal3D Simulated Soccer team.

2020

Smart transformer/large flexible transformer

Authors
Zhu, R; Andresen, M; Langwasser, M; Liserre, M; Lopes, JP; Moreira, C; Rodrigues, J; Couto, M;

Publication
CES Transactions on Electrical Machines and Systems

Abstract

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