Confidence Statements for Ordering Quantiles

This work proposes Quor, a simple yet effective nonparametric method to compare independent samples with respect to corresponding quantiles of their populations. The method is solely based on the order statistics of the samples, and independence is its only requirement. All computations are performed using exact distributions with no need for any asymptotic considerations, and yet can be run using a fast quadratic-time dynamic programming idea. Computational performance is essential in high-dimensional domains, such as gene expression data. We describe the approach and discuss on the most important assumptions, building a parallel with assumptions and properties of widely used techniques for the same problem. Experiments using real data from biomedical studies are performed to empirically compare Quor and other methods in a classification task over a selection of high-dimensional data sets

Southern Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Adult Emergence and Population Growth Assessment After Selection With Vacuolar ATPase-A double-stranded RNA Over Multiple Generations

The southern corn rootworm, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), was exposed over multiple generations to vacuolar (v)ATPase-A double-stranded (ds)RNA, first as adults and later, as neonate larvae. During adult selection, high mortality and lower fecundity were observed in the RNAi-selected cages after beetles were exposed to sublethal dsRNA concentrations that varied between LC40 and LC75. During larval selection, a delay in adult emergence and effects on population growth parameters were observed after neonates were exposed to sublethal dsRNA concentrations that varied between LC50 and LC70. Some of the parameters measured for adult emergence such as time to reach maximum linear adult emergence, time elapsed before attaining linear emergence, termination point of the linear emergence, and total days of linear emergence increase, were significantly different between RNAi-selected and control colonies for at least one generation. Significant differences were also observed in population growth parameters such as growth rate, net reproductive rate, doubling time, and generation time. After seven generations of selection, there was no indication that resistance evolved. The sublethal effects caused by exposures of southern corn rootworm to dsRNAs can affect important life history traits and fitness especially through delays in adult emergence and reduction in population growth. Although changes in susceptibility did not occur, the observation of sublethal effects suggests important responses to potential selection pressure. Assuming resistance involves a recessive trait, random mating between susceptible and resistant individuals is an important factor that allows sustainable use of transgenic plants, and delays in adult emergence observed in our studies could potentially compromise this assumption

Fusing Audio, Textual and Visual Features for Sentiment Analysis of News Videos

This paper presents a novel approach to perform sentiment analysis of news videos, based on the fusion of audio, textual and visual clues extracted from their contents. The proposed approach aims at contributing to the semiodiscoursive study regarding the construction of the ethos (identity) of this media universe, which has become a central part of the modern-day lives of millions of people. To achieve this goal, we apply state-of-the-art computational methods for (1) automatic emotion recognition from facial expressions, (2) extraction of modulations in the participants' speeches and (3) sentiment analysis from the closed caption associated to the videos of interest. More specifically, we compute features, such as, visual intensities of recognized emotions, field sizes of participants, voicing probability, sound loudness, speech fundamental frequencies and the sentiment scores (polarities) from text sentences in the closed caption. Experimental results with a dataset containing 520 annotated news videos from three Brazilian and one American popular TV newscasts show that our approach achieves an accuracy of up to 84% in the sentiments (tension levels) classification task, thus demonstrating its high potential to be used by media analysts in several applications, especially, in the journalistic domain.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Medi

O papel das empresas transnacionais na inserção internacional da produção industrial brasileira no contexto da reestruturação produtiva

Este estudo analisa a influência do padrão de comércio internacional das Empresas Transnacionais (ETNs) sobre a inserção internacional da indústria de transformação brasileira entre 1995 e 2005, com base em dados do Censo de Capitais Estrangeiros do Banco Central do Brasil. O trabalho tem como objetivo investigar em que medida o aumento da inserção internacional das empresas transnacionais nas economias nacionais tem contribuído para a evolução dos produtos brasileiros em termos de comércio internacional. Concluiu-se que a participação significativa de empresas transnacionais no comércio exterior brasileiro revela que a inserção internacional da produção industrial do país apresenta uma crescente dependência de decisões estratégicas das ETNs.This study analyzes the influence of the international trade pattern of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) on the international insertion of Brazilian manufacturing industry between 1995 and 2005, based on data of the Census of Foreign Capitals of the Central Bank of Brazil. The work aims to investigate to what extent increased international insertion of TNCs in national economies has contributed to the evolution of Brazilian manufactures in terms of international trade. It has been concluded that the significant participation of TNCs in Brazilian foreign trade reveals that the international insertion of the country’s industrial output presents an increasing dependency on strategic decisions of TNCs

Multicentric Approach Mechanisms as a Strategy for the Implementation of Public Policies - Reflections in the Context of the Creative Economy

This essay aimed to identify central elements in the field of public policies to allow the proposals of guidelines for the improvement and effectiveness of their designs in the context of Creative Economy aiming at the contribution to the theoretical discussions of the theme From the literary review it was possible to list feasible strategies for sustaining such policies based on the multicentric approach which can strengthen governance processes by making them more participatory and democrati