This paper presents an Adaptive Maximum Entropy (AME) approach for modeling biological species. The Maximum Entropy algorithm (MaxEnt) is one of the most used methods in modeling biological species geographical distribution. The approach presented here is an alternative to the classical algorithm. Instead of using the same set features in the training, the AME approach tries to insert or to remove a single feature at each iteration. The aim is to reach the convergence faster without affect the performance of the generated models. The preliminary experiments were well performed. They showed an increasing on performance both in accuracy and in execution time. Comparisons with other algorithms are beyond the scope of this paper. Some important researches are proposed as future works.

Adaptive Approach for a Maximum Entropy Algorithm in Ecological Niche Modeling

Linguagens formais e automatos e uma disciplina fundamental dos
cursos superiores da area de computacao, especialmente daqueles
que apresentam enfase na formacao cientifica do aluno, como e o
caso dos cursos de bacharelado em Ciencia da Computacao e de
varios cursos de Engenharia de Computacao Ela faz parte do nucleo
denominado “Fundamentos da Computacao” (conforme o curriculo
de referencia da Sociedade Brasileira de Computacao [1]), e
contempla topicos que, normalmente, sao considerados, pelos alunos,
excessivamente aridos, abstratos, complexos e desvinculados
da sua futura realidade profissional, o que contribui para reduzir o
interesse e a motivacao pelo seu aprendizado O objetivo do presente
artigo e refletir sobre os conteudos programaticos usualmente
adotados para o ensino do seu conteudo, oferecendo alternativas
que possam contribuir para uma melhor assimilacao dos topicos da
disciplina Inicialmente e feita uma analise da enfoque comumente
adotado para a construcao e o desenvolvimento do referido conteudo
A seguir, apresentam-se propostas que possam contribuir
para uma maior motivacao dos alunos para o estudo da disciplina,
assim como para uma aprendizagem mais eficiente
Palavras-chave: linguagens formais, automatos, ensino, aprendizagem

Abstract
Formal languages and automata theory is a fundamental discipline
in undergraduate computer programs, specially those with
emphasis in the scientific education of the student, such as Computer
Science and Computer Engineering  The discipline belongs
to the kernel known as “Foundations of Computing” (according
to the Brazilian Computer Society [1]), and contains a body of
knowledge which is normally considered, by its students, as highly
abstract, complex and unrelated to their future professional activities,
thus reducing their interest and motivation for its study The
objective of the present article is to reflect upon common practices
adopted in the development of its contents, presenting some
alternatives that may contribute for a better absorption of the
discipline It starts with an analysis of the most usual approaches
adopted, and then presents proposals that might contribute for a
higher degree of motivation of the students, as well as for a more
efficient learning process
Keywords: formal languages, automata, teaching, learning

Ensino de linguagens formais e autômatos em cursos superiores de computação

Invited Lectures.- Synthesizing State-Based Object Systems from LSC Specifications.- Applications of Finite-State Transducers in Natural Language Processing.- Technical Contributions.- Fast Implementations of Automata Computations.- Regularly Extended Two-Way Nondeterministic Tree Automata.- Glushkov Construction for Multiplicities.- Implicit Structures to Implement NFA's from Regular Expressions.- New Finite Automaton Constructions Based on Canonical Derivatives.- Experiments with Automata Compression.- Computing Raster Images from Grid Picture Grammars.- A Basis for Looping Extensions to Discriminating-Reverse Parsing.- Automata for Pro-V Topologies.- Reachability and Safety in Queue Systems.- Generalizing the Discrete Timed Automaton.- Factorization of Ambiguous Finite-State Transducers.- MONA Implementation Secrets.- Cursors.- An Automaton Model of User-Controlled Navigation on the Web.- Direct Construction of Minimal Acyclic Subsequential Transducers.- Generic ?-Removal Algorithm for Weighted Automata.- An O(n2) Algorithm for Constructing Minimal Cover Automata for Finite Languages.- Unary Language Concatenation and Its State Complexity.- Implementation of a Strategy Improvement Algorithm for Finite-State Parity Games.- State Complexity and Jacobsthal's Function.- A Package for the Implementation of Block Codes as Finite Automata.- Regional Least-Cost Error Repair.- The Parameterized Complexity of Intersection and Composition Operations on Sets of Finite-State Automata.- Directly Constructing Minimal DFAs: Combining Two Algorithms by Brzozowski.- The MERLin Environment Applied to ?-NFAs.- Abstracts.- Visual Exploration of Generation Algorithms for Finite Automata on the Web.- TREEBAG.- Word Random Access Compression.- Extended Sequentialization of Transducers.- Lessons from INR in the Specification of Transductions.- Part-of-Speech Tagging with Two Sequential Transducers.- Solving Complex Problems Efficiently with Adaptive Automata.

Andrei Păun

Papers

Implementation and Application of Automata: 5th International Conference, CIAA 2000, London, Ontario, Canada, July 24-25, 2000, Revised Papers