Two-stage inference in experimental design using dea : an application to intercropping and evidence from randomization theory

Neste artigo é proposto o uso de medidas de eficiência DEA, com retornos constantes à escala e input unitário, na análise de respostas multidimensionais não negativas de ensaios experimentais. A abordagem proposta concorda com a Análise de Variância (Covariância) clássica para respostas unidimensionais e simplifica a análise estatística para o caso multidimensional. Os melhores tratamentos indicados pela análise otimizam um output combinado, definido por preços sombra, que são as soluções dos problemas lineares de DEA. A abordagem é particularmente útil na análise de experimentos consorciados (plantio simultâneo de mais de uma cultura agrícola). São aqui discutidos dois exemplos. Os resultados são validados via Teoria de Aleatorização, de modo a estudar apropriadamente as questões de correlação e não-normalidade das medidas DEA nas diferentes parcelas experimentais. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTIn this article we propose the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) measures of efficiency, under constant returns to scale and input equal to unity, in the analysis of multidimensional nonnegative responses in the design of experiments. The approach agrees with the standard Analysis of Variance (Covariance) for univariate responses and simplifies the statistical analysis in the multivariate case. The best treatments provided by the analysis optimize a combined output defined by shadow prices, which are the solutions of the DEA problem. The approach is particularly useful for the analysis of intercropping (crop mixtures) experiments. In this context we discuss two examples. To properly address the issue of correlation and non-normality of DEA measurements in different experimental plots we validate the results via Randomization Theory

Dentin bonding and SEM analysis of a new experimental universal adhesive system containing a dendrimer

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Due to their polymerization characteristics, hyper-branched dendrimers have lately shown to be promising candidates for use in dental materials. In this study, a new dental adhesive system was prepared, using a dendrimer derived from 2-isocyanatoethyl methacrylate (G-IEMA), and its adhesive properties were investigated. The exposed dentin was treated with four universal adhesives (UAs): SBU (Scotchbond Universal™), FUT (Futurabond M+™), AE1 (experimental adhesive with Bis-GMA) and AE2 (experimental adhesive with G-IEMA), using Etch & Rinse (ER) or Self Etch (SE) protocols. Composite build-ups were prepared and stored for 24 h at 37 °C in distilled water. Composite/dentin beams were prepared with cross-sectional areas of 1 ± 0.3 mm2 and µTBS (Micro-tensile bond strength) test was performed at 0.5 mm/min. Failures modes were evaluated by stereomicroscopy, and bonding interfaces were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Statistical analysis of µTBS data was performed using General Linear (GLM) and Linear Mixed Models (LMM). The effect of adhesive type on µTBS was significant (p = 0.010), with AE1 presenting significantly higher µTBS than SBU (p = 0.019). No other differences between adhesives were observed. ER showed significantly better results than SE (p = 0.019), and no significant interactions between the adhesives and protocols were determined. Results obtained so far pinpoint the emergence of a new paradigm in the dental materials field, as G-IEMA can be used successfully as an alternative to Bis-GMA.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

USE OF UAV PLATFORM AS AN AUTONOMOUS TOOL FOR ESTIMATING EXPANSION ON INVADED AGRICULTURAL LAND

For a long time, in many countries, questions involving disputes about land ownership has generated demand for geoinformation and documentation. In most cases, access for researchers is restricted or humanely impossible by eminence of conflicts, even armed. In these cases, researchers use Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry to enable their studies. However, the dynamics of the phenomenon being studied often requires approaches that traditional techniques become unviable or unable to fulfil. This work shows the results of an approach that used a photogrammetric UAV platform to take pictures of an invaded rural area in Brazil and estimate its expansion over two years. From the taken images, mosaics were generated and then classified using Decision Tree to identify tents. Then it was developed a Matlab algorithm, to detect and quantify the tents on the classified Images. It was possible to infer that there was an expansion of 7.3% between the two analyzed dates and probably more than three thousand people occupied the invasion site

Biosynthesis of Indole-3-Acetic Acid by New Klebsiella oxytoca Free and Immobilized Cells on Inorganic Matrices

While many natural and synthetic compounds exhibit auxin-like activity in bioassays, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is recognized as the key auxin in most plants. IAA has been implicated in almost all aspects of plant growth and development and a large array of bacteria have been reported to enhance plant growth. Cells of Klebsiella oxytoca isolated from the rhizosphere of Aspidosperma polyneuron and immobilized by adsorption on different inorganic matrices were used for IAA production. The matrices were prepared by the sol-gel method and the silica-titanium was the most suitable matrix for effective immobilization. In operational stability assays, IAA production was maintained after four cycles of production, obtaining 42.80 ± 2.03 μg mL−1 of IAA in the third cycle, which corresponds to a 54% increase in production in relation to the first cycle, whereas free cells began losing activity after the first cycle. After 90 days of storage at 4°C the immobilized cells showed the slight reduction of IAA production without significant loss of activity

Mamiferos da Fazenda Nhumirim, sub-região de Nhecolándia, Pantanal do Mato Grosso do Sul : I - levantamento preliminar de espécies

Trabalho conduzido na Fazenda Nhumirim, Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Pantanal, EMBRAPA, com auxílio da OEA - Organização dos Estados Americanos, através do CNPq, fornecido ao Dr. Cleber J.R. Alho (Conta nº 03-85-528-517-BR-1)The pantanal is one of the world's richest freshwater wetlands. The pantanal is located in the flood plain of the headwaters of the Paraguai river, covering 140,000km2. The habitats of the Pantanal are present in a complex mosaic. The major habitat types are: pockets of forests, called capão or cordilheira, seasonally flooded grasslands or campos, and permanent or temporary lagoons, called baías. The Pantanal harbors both rich and abundant mammal fauna. A survey was conducted at Fazenda Nhumirim, a research station run by the Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Pantanal (CPAP) in Corumbá, a research branch of EMBRAPA. The Fazenda covers an area of 4,310 ha in the sub-region of Nhecolândia, appoximately 150km east of Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul. The area receives an average annual rainfall of 1,022mm, and has a mean monthly temperature that varies between 29.1ºC (January) and 22.0ºC (June). Four routes were followed between two times during ten days of each month. The survey routes were covered on horseback by between two and four observers. Each route was followed and equal number of times in the morning and in the afternoon, to eliminate bias related to the activity patterns of mammals. In order to evaluate relative abundance of nocturnal species, we also conducted a number of nocturnal censuses. These censuses were done by car; a high intensity searchlight was used to spot the animals. We also conducted a trap-mark-recapture survey of the small mammals at Fazenda Nhumirim. After the census period, we continued to collect observations on the occurrence of mammals at the Fazenda, noting wherever possible the kind of habitat in which the animals were observed. The survey identified a diversity of mammals at Fazenda Nhumirim: six orders, 14 families, 19 genera, and 20 species. Nasua nasua was the most frequently observed species during the diurnal census, accounting for 61.5 percent of all observations. Dusicyon (formely Cerdocyon) thous was the most frequently observed species on the nocturnal census (39.13%). The small mammal community of Fazenda Nhumirim is composed of seven species: one marsupial, four cricetine rodents and two echimyid rodents

VALIDATION WITH VIDEOMETRY OF AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM TO ASSESS HORIZONTAL INTRA-CYCLIC VELOCITY WITH A MECHANICAL SPEED-METER

The aim of this paper was to: validate an integrated system (i.e., software application and hardware after calibration) to assess human‟s horizontal intra-cyclic velocity with a mechanical speedo-meter. System validation was done for a set of land-based human locomotion techniques (from slow walk to maximal running) in four subjects and comparing it with a videometric system (i.e. APAS). There were no significant differences between pair wise data (speedo-meter versus APAS data) using student„s t-test for both velocity coefficient of variation and maximal velocity. Linear regression models were very high for both the velocity coefficient of variation and maximal velocity. More than 80% of the Bland-Altman plots were within 1.96 standard-deviations

Human dynamics revealed through Web analytics

When the World Wide Web was first conceived as a way to facilitate the sharing of scientific information at the CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) few could have imagined the role it would come to play in the following decades. Since then, the increasing ubiquity of Internet access and the frequency with which people interact with it raise the possibility of using the Web to better observe, understand, and monitor several aspects of human social behavior. Web sites with large numbers of frequently returning users are ideal for this task. If these sites belong to companies or universities, their usage patterns can furnish information about the working habits of entire populations. In this work, we analyze the properly anonymized logs detailing the access history to Emory University's Web site. Emory is a medium size university located in Atlanta, Georgia. We find interesting structure in the activity patterns of the domain and study in a systematic way the main forces behind the dynamics of the traffic. In particular, we show that both linear preferential linking and priority based queuing are essential ingredients to understand the way users navigate the Web.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Venus’ Cloud-Tracked Winds Using Ground- and Space-Based Observations with TNG/NICS and VEx/VIRTIS †

Characterizing the wind speeds of Venus and their variability at multiple vertical levels is essential for a better understanding of the atmospheric superrotation, constraining the role of large-scale planetary waves in the maintenance of this superrotation, and in studying how the wind field affects clouds’ distribution. Here, we present cloud-tracked wind results of the Venus nightside, obtained with unprecedented quality using ground-based observations during July 2012 with the near-infrared camera and spectrograph (NICS) of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) in La Palma. These observations were performed during 3 consecutive days for periods of 2.5 h starting just before dawn, sensing the nightside lower clouds of Venus close to 48 km of altitude with images taken at continuum K filter at 2.28 μm. Our observations cover a period of time when ESA’s Venus Express was not able to observe these deeper clouds of Venus due to a failure in the infrared channel of its imaging spectrometer, VIRTIS-M, and the dates were chosen to coordinate these ground-based observations with Venus Express’ observations of the dayside cloud tops (at about 70 km) with images at 380 nm acquired with the imaging spectrometer VIRTIS-M. Thanks to the quality and spatial resolution of TNG/NICS images and the use of an accurate technique of template matching to perform cloud tracking, we present the most detailed and complete profile of wind speeds ever performed using ground-based observations of Venus. The vertical shear of the wind was also obtained for the first time, obtained by the combination of ground-based and space-based observations, during the Venus Express mission since the year 2008, when the infrared channel of VIRTIS-M stopped working. Our observations exhibit day-to-day changes in the nightside lower clouds, the probable manifestation of the cloud discontinuity, no relevant variations in the zonal winds, and an accurate characterization of their decay towards the poles, along with the meridional circulation. Finally, we also present the latitudinal profiles of zonal winds, meridional winds, and vertical shear of the zonal wind between the upper clouds’ top and lower clouds, confirming previous findings by Venus ExpressPortuguese Fundação Para a Ciência e a Tecnolo- gia (ref. PD/BD/128019/2016 (R.G.), 2021.05455.BD (F.B.) and project P-TUGA ref. PTDC/FIS- AST/29942/2017 (P.M., J.P., R.G., F.B., and M.SFEDER through COMPETE 2020 (ref. POCI-01-0145 FEDER-00767

A crítica de cinema em Portugal na era digital

Atualmente, à distância de um telemóvel, de um tablet ou de um computador podemos encontrar um número infindável de críticas de cinema e, com a liberdade que existe na Internet, fruto da revolução digital que ocorreu nos últimos anos, qualquer um pode comentar sobre o último filme que foi lançado no cinema. Mas o que implica para o crítico? Será que, na revolução digital que vivenciamos nos dias de hoje, qualquer pessoa pode ser crítico? E o quanto pode isso beneficiar ou prejudicar a crítica? Nesta dissertação, são exploradas as questões referidas, num estudo que se debruça sobre a história da crítica de cinema, como esta evoluiu e como se estabeleceu em Portugal, utilizando como objeto de estudo, três website portugueses e, em língua portuguesa, dedicados à crítica de cinema.Nowadays, at a distance from a mobile phone, a tablet or a computer, we can find an endless number of movie reviews and, as the result of the digital revolution that has occurred in recent years, we can all comment on the latest movie that was released in the cinema. But what does it imply for the critic? Can anyone in the digital revolution we experience these days be a critic? And how much can this benefit or hurt criticism? This dissertation explores the questions mentioned above, in a study that focuses on the history of film criticism, how it has evolved and how it was established in Portugal, using as its object of study three Portuguese websites dedicated to film criticism