estimating literacy rates in Senegal

Modern systems of official statistics require the accurate and timely estimation of socio-demographic indicators for disaggregated geographical regions. Traditional data collection methods such as censuses or household surveys impose great financial and organizational burdens for National Statistical Institutes. The rise of new information and communication technologies offers promising sources to mitigate these shortcomings. In this paper we propose a unified approach for National Statistical Institutes based on small area estimation that allows for the estimation of socio-demographic indicators by using mobile phone data. In particular, the methodology is applied to mobile phone data from Senegal for deriving sub-national estimates of the share of illiterates disaggregated by gender. The estimates are used to identify hot spots of illiterates with a need for additional infrastructure or policy adjustments. Although the paper focuses on literacy as a particular socio-demographic indicator, the proposed approach is applicable to indicators from national statistics in general

Desenvolvimento de software educacional livre e inclusão de alunos com deficiência visual

O desenvolvimento de software educacional que proporcione acessibilidade aos alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais é uma necessidade facilmente identificável no contexto atual. Entretanto, a grande maioria das aplicações conhecidas não atende aos requisitos de acessibilidade, e algumas das soluções disponíveis com este objetivo possuem um custo proibitivo e muitas vezes não são adequadas àssituações vivenciadas pelos alunos que as utilizam. Neste artigo, apresentamos um relato de desenvolvimento de software educacional acessível e livre, voltado parainclusão de pessoas com deficiências visuais. Para tal desenvolvimento, houve a interação de uma equipe multidisciplinar envolvendo inclusive os alunos e seusprofessores, além de profissionais da Pedagogia e Informática

Semantic Web and Knowledge Management in User Data Privacy

This paper discusses knowledge representation for privacy andaccountability issues

The Phanerozoic δ88/86Sr Record of Seawater: New Constraints on Past Changes in Oceanic Carbonate Fluxes

The isotopic composition of Phanerozoic marine sediments provides important information about changes in seawater chemistry. In particular, the radiogenic strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) system is a powerful tool for constraining plate tectonic processes and their influence on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However, the 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratio of seawater is not sensitive to temporal changes in the marine strontium (Sr) output flux, which is primarily controlled by the burial of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) at the ocean floor. The Sr budget of the Phanerozoic ocean, including the associated changes in the amount of CaCO3 burial, is therefore only poorly constrained. Here, we present the first stable isotope record of Sr for Phanerozoic skeletal carbonates, and by inference for Phanerozoic seawater (δ88/86Srsw), which we find to be sensitive to imbalances in the Sr input and output fluxes. This δ88/86Srsw record varies from ∼0.25‰ to ∼0.60‰ (vs. SRM987) with a mean of ∼0.37‰. The fractionation factor between modern seawater and skeletal calcite Δ88/86Srcc-sw, based on the analysis of 13 modern brachiopods (mean δ88/86Sr of 0.176±0.016‰, 2 standard deviations (s.d.)), is -0.21‰ and was found to be independent of species, water temperature, and habitat location. Overall, the Phanerozoic δ88/86Srsw record is positively correlated with the Ca isotope record (δ44/40Casw), but not with the radiogenic Sr isotope record ((87Sr/86Sr)sw). A new numerical modeling approach, which considers both δ88/86Srsw and (87Sr/86Sr)sw, yields improved estimates for Phanerozoic fluxes and concentrations for seawater Sr. The oceanic net carbonate flux of Sr (F(Sr)carb) varied between an output of -4.7x1010mol/Myr and an input of +2.3x1010mol/Myr with a mean of -1.6x1010mol/Myr. On time scales in excess of 100Myrs the F(Sr)carb is proposed to have been controlled by the relative importance of calcium carbonate precipitates during the “aragonite” and “calcite” sea episodes. On time scales less than 20Myrs the F(Sr)carb seems to be controlled by variable combinations of carbonate burial rate, shelf carbonate weathering and recrystallization, ocean acidification, and ocean anoxia. In particular, the Permian/Triassic transition is marked by a prominent positive δ88/86Srsw-peak that reflects a significantly enhanced burial flux of Sr and carbonate, likely driven by bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR) and the related alkalinity production in deeper anoxic waters. We also argue that the residence time of Sr in the Phanerozoic ocean ranged from ∼1Myrs to ∼20Myrs

Contrasting Light Spectra Constrain the Macro and Microstructures of Scleractinian Corals

The morphological plasticity of scleractinian corals can be influenced by numerous factors in their natural environment. However, it is difficult to identify in situ the relative influence of a single biotic or abiotic factor, due to potential interactions between them. Light is considered as a major factor affecting coral skeleton morphology, due to their symbiotic relation with photosynthetic zooxanthellae. Nonetheless, most studies addressing the importance of light on coral morphological plasticity have focused on photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) intensity, with the effect of light spectra remaining largely unknown. The present study evaluated how different light spectra affect the skeleton macro- and microstructures in two coral species (Acropora formosa sensu Veron (2000) and Stylophora pistillata) maintained under controlled laboratory conditions. We tested the effect of three light treatments with the same PAR but with a distinct spectral emission: 1) T5 fluorescent lamps with blue emission; 2) Light Emitting Diodes (LED) with predominantly blue emission; and 3) Light Emitting Plasma (LEP) with full spectra emission. To exclude potential bias generated by genetic variability, the experiment was performed with clonal fragments for both species. After 6 months of experiment, it was possible to detect in coral fragments of both species exposed to different light spectra significant differences in morphometry (e.g., distance among corallites, corallite diameter, and theca thickness), as well as in the organization of their skeleton microstructure. The variability found in the skeleton macro- and microstructures of clonal organisms points to the potential pitfalls associated with the exclusive use of morphometry on coral taxonomy. Moreover, the identification of a single factor influencing the morphology of coral skeletons is relevant for coral aquaculture and can allow the optimization of reef restoration efforts

Reconhecimento de entidades nomeadas e rela??es no dom?nio de privacidade e responsabiliza??o

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:49:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 434166.pdf: 1758256 bytes, checksum: cc66addbe46b0c23f53ed7ab0e0c41a8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-12-20O gerenciamento de grandes volumes de informa??o ? uma ?rea de crescente interesse e pesquisa, tanto na academia quanto na ind?stria. Diferentes mecanismos j? foram propostos com o objetivo de facilitar a cria??o, gerenciamento e manuten??o de bases de conhecimento, e recentemente ontologias t?m despontado como um forte candidato para tal fun??o. Ontologias s?o o principal mecanismo para representa??o do conhecimento em contextos tecnol?gicos atuais como o da Web Sem?ntica. Entretanto, a constru??o manual destas ontologias ? custosa, dado o montante de informa??o a ser processada para a execu??o desta tarefa. Com esta motiva??o, este trabalho prop?e que a confec??o de ontologias, mais especificamente a sua popula??o, pode ser automatizada pela tarefa de Reconhecimento de Entidades Nomeadas (REN). O trabalho compreende diferentes tarefas da ?rea de Processamento de Linguagem Natural: Reconhecimento de Entidades Nomeadas, Reconhecimento de Rela??es e Aprendizado de Ontologias. Para a execu??o da tarefa de popula??o de ontologias, foi constru?da manualmente uma ontologia do dom?nio de privacidade e posteriormente desenvolvido um m?todo para executar a sua popula??o atrav?s da tarefa de REN. Este m?todo compreende a popula??o da ontologia com inst?ncias e rela??es. Para validar este m?todo, foi desenvolvido um sistema que o implementa. Este sistema foi testado sobre um corpus montado pela autora deste trabalho. Este corpus ? composto por documentos da ?rea de privacidade e responsabiliza??o, e da legisla??o associada a este tema. S?o apresentados neste trabalho o m?todo, o sistema desenvolvido, as avalia??es a que este trabalho foi submetido e suas conclus?e