Euler Characteristic Tools For Topological Data Analysis

In this article, we study Euler characteristic techniques in topological data analysis. Pointwise computing the Euler characteristic of a family of simplicial complexes built from data gives rise to the so-called Euler characteristic profile. We show that this simple descriptor achieve state-of-the-art performance in supervised tasks at a very low computational cost. Inspired by signal analysis, we compute hybrid transforms of Euler characteristic profiles. These integral transforms mix Euler characteristic techniques with Lebesgue integration to provide highly efficient compressors of topological signals. As a consequence, they show remarkable performances in unsupervised settings. On the qualitative side, we provide numerous heuristics on the topological and geometric information captured by Euler profiles and their hybrid transforms. Finally, we prove stability results for these descriptors as well as asymptotic guarantees in random settings.Comment: 39 page

Effects of shoreline erosion on infrastructure development along the coastal belt of Ghana: Case of Nkontompo community

The coastal areas of Ghana are the locus of rapid urban and industrial growth, oil and gas development, industrial-scale fisheries, recreation and tourism destinations. However, lateral changes in the coastline position has seriously threatened the equilibrium of the coastal environment and affected the socio-economic life of local populations, threatened cultural heritage and hindered coastal tourism development. This paper assessed the extent of shoreline recession and its effects on buildings and  infrastructure along Ghana's coastline through a study of the NkontompoCommunity, a suburb of Sekondi in the Western Region of the country as a case. The study employed data spanning a period of 23 years, including Topographic sheets that were interpolated to establish the rate of recession of the shoreline. The extent of land lost in conjunction with the building density was used to establish the number of buildings lost. The study  revealed that environmental conditions at Nkontompo have changed over the past three to four decades as a result of shoreline erosion. The coastline of the community has been receding at a rate of approximately 2 metres per annum. From the topographical sheet interpolations and analysis made by the authors, it was realized that approximately nine acres of the land, forming a third of the total built up area has been eroded leading to damage and subsequent loss of about 117 buildings to the sea. Recommendations have been made identifying adaptation  techniques and strategies to manage the effects of this phenomenon along the coastal belt of Ghana.Keywords: Coastal erosion, infrastructure development, Nkontompo, Ghan

Water Sorption Isotherm Characteristics of Seeds of Six Indigenous Forest Tree Species in Ghana

The relationship between storage temperature, relative humidity and seed water content was investigated for six indigenous forest tree seed species, namely Garcinia kola, Terminalia superba, Terminalia ivorensis, Mansonia altissima, Entandrophragma angolense and Khaya anthotheca in Ghana. Seeds were equilibrated over a series of lithium chloride solutions with relative humidities ranging from 12 to 93% and silica gel with relative humidity of 3% at 20 ºC. Seeds reached equilibrium with different days depending on seed size and structure, ranging from 13 days for E. angolense to 91 days for G. kola. When seeds equilibrated, moisture contents were determined gravimetrically, and values of moisture contents were then plotted against relative humidity to construct moisture sorption isotherms for the species. Seeds of T. superba, T. ivorensis, M. altissima, E. angolense and K. anthotheca, exhibited a sigmoidal relationship between seed water content and relative humidity indicative of three regions of water binding. Contrarily to other reports, the shape of the isotherm curve for G. kola – a desiccation sensitive species – also showed the reversed sigmoid pattern similar to isotherm curves of orthodox species rather than the monotonic shape. The isotherms showed that seed moisture content increased with increasing relative humidity. Seed samples of G. kola, placed at all relative humidities chambers, lost water(desorption) as the initial water content of 58% was very high and, therefore, possessed a higher water potential than the environments. Seeds of the other species either lost water (desorption) to the relative humidity chambers, or absorbed water from the chambers depending on the relative humidity of the environment they were placed

Gender, Subjective well-being and capabilities: an application to the Moroccan Youth

Our paper investigates how gender shapes youth's aspirations, subjective well-being and capabilities in Morocco. We compare two different informational basis in analysing gender inequalities: the subjective well-being framework, and the capability approach. To do so we propose to operationalize capabilities through mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) based on: 1. Qualitative data that we collected in Morocco and 2. An innovative dataset collected by the Office of Economic Cooperation for Mediterranean and Middle East (OCEMO), among 1333 young Moroccan individuals aged 15-35 living in rural and urban areas of the Marrakesh region. Our results suggest that subjective well-being poorly reflects gender inequalities among Moroccan youths, as it does not consider adaptive preferences. Capabilities indicators perform much better as they account for both the capability to choose a lifestyle, and the ability to fulfill one's choice; i.e. spaces of freedom. The paper also reveals the striking significance of adaptive preferences among rural young women; as well as the frustrations among young educated men resulting from an inability to fulfill a chosen lifestyle. Gender justice and capabilities-as the freedom to choose and to turn opportunities into valuable outcome-indeed appear significant in understanding the structural transformations of the Moroccan society

Sistema setorias de inovação: o caso do Café Conilon no Espírito Santo

XX Encontro Nacional de Economia Política: desenvolvimento Latino-Americano, Integração e Inserção Internacional - UNILA, Foz do Iguaçu, 26 a 29 de maio de 2015A cafeicultura do tipo conilon no Espírito Santo vem apresentando, nos últimos anos, um crescimento expressivo em termos de produtividade. O avanço no melhoramento genético e em melhorias de processo, associado à mudanças institucionais, são apontados como fatores que permitiram o desenvolvimento da atividade no Estado. Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as inovações tecnológicas e institucionais da produção do conilon no Espírito Santo a partir do referencial teórico de Sistema Setorial de Inovação, para o qual conhecimento, aprendizado e interações entre agentes são elementos fundamentais para o desenvolvimento de inovações. O trabalho utilizou como metodologia pesquisa bibliográfi ca e documental e, em especial, entrevistas com representantes de algumas das principais instituições envolvidas. Através da caracterização dos principais atores que compõem esse sistema, da análise do processo de geração e difusão das tecnologias para o setor e da caracterização do arranjo institucional que dá suporte à produção do conilon, mostra-se como uma cultura agrícola que não existia em escala comercial no Espírito Santo até a década de 1970 se tornou tão importante para o estado e passou a ser considerada uma referência em termos de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de tecnologiasBanco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES); Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu (ITAIPU); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) e Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA

O EMPREENDEDOR MORAL NAS REDES SOCIAS: AÇÃO PERSUCUTÓRIA E LINCHAMENTOS VIRTUAIS

O trabalho apresenta características da comunicação nas redes sociais e identifica o modo de atuação de alguns de seus comunicadores, os “comentaristas da redes”, relacionando-os ao conceito de empreendedor moral desenvolvido por Howard Becker. A partir disso, analisa de que modo essa ação pode culminar nos chamados linchamentos virtuais. Subsidiariamente, com base os textos de José de Souza Martins, verifica em que medida os ataques nas redes sociais estão relacionados ao fenômeno dos linchamentos. O problema que conduz a pesquisa é: existe uma relação possível entre a atuação dos chamados empreendedores morais e o fenômenos dos linchamentos virtuais nas redes sociais da internet? Nos primeiros dois tópicos é procedida revisão bibliográfica analítica, com método indutivo e enfoque qualitativo, e no terceiro tópico os conceitos são testados e investigados em um caso prático. Os resultados vão no seguinte sentido: a forma de comunicação nas redes sociais facilita a atuação dos chamados empreendedores morais, que agem combinando interesses morais, econômicos e pessoais, com o afã de impor seus valores de mundo. O sucesso da empreitada moral pode resultar nos chamados linchamentos virtuais

Urban dimensions in rural livelihoods: Implications for grassroots development and sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon.

Analyses of development in the Brazilian Amazon have concentrated largely on two frameworks. Modernisation approaches interpret the issue in terms of an urban sector irradiating progress into the rural, and have informed most official intervention policy in the region, as was the case with development poles and infrastructure building. Marxist-based frameworks, which have filled most of the literature and inspired the action of social movements and non-governmental organisations, focus on the perverse impacts of capitalist penetration of the countryside. These organisations tend to influence the process of agricultural transition by providing a variable combination of both poverty alleviation welfare-type assistance as well as the means for improving social and political participation through empowerment. In both modernisation and Marxist frameworks, however, "rural" and "urban" appear as totally separate sectors, and therefore the relationships established by rural people in urban areas, and vice-versa, are not scrutinised. From the end of the 1980s, actor-oriented research gained momentum and helped to reveal diversity in local development circumstances. This thesis aims at contributing to the analysis of diversity by highlighting the importance of urban dimensions in the livelihoods of rural producers. This study shows that some 61 per cent of the Legal Amazonian population is now urban, and argues that in today's Amazonia one can not address rural development properly if rural-urban linkages are not taken into account. It is also argued that the interactions maintained by peasants with urban areas allow for the strengthening and diversification of their sources of livelihood. This phenomenon challenges the view of peasants as exclusively subsumed to capital, but also questions the modernisation view of conflict-free, rural-urban relations. Such improvements in rural livelihoods are possible due to the dynamics of local institutions and capitalism. Having expanded their sources of livelihood into urban areas, rural producers become a target for agencies that support sustainable rural development projects, which seek to finance grassroots movements that can implement income-generating activities in a participatory fashion, free from political coercion. The Frutos do Cerrado, a project supported by the PP-G7 Pilot Programme to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest, has been selected as a case study. It is argued that programmes such as the PP-G7 should consider the beneficiaries' capacity to commit themselves and their households to the project's aims, and to examine the compatibility of the project with the urban dimensions present in their livelihoods. Theoretical implications of this analysis concern the weakness of grand theories in adequately explaining the dynamics of livelihood strategies, and the developmental roles played by capital and urban areas in contemporary Amazonia

Parcours scolaires en France et espace d’opportunités : une analyse à l’aune de la théorie des capabilités de Sen

De nombreuses études ont mis en exergue le poids de l’environnement socio-culturel sur les trajectoires scolaires. Il s’agit ici d’analyser comment les différents facteurs sociaux, qui peuvent se cumuler, conduisent à élargir, pour certains, le champ des possibles et à le restreindre pour d’autres. Nous proposons d’analyser l’espace des possibles au cours des trajectoires de formation à l’aune de la théorie des « capabilités » de l’économiste Amartya Sen. Appliquée à l'éducation, elle contribue à renouveler l'analyse de l'égalité des chances à l'école en se focalisant sur les opportunités réelles des élèves au cours de leur trajectoire de formation et sur les contraintes qu’ils peuvent rencontrer.Many studies highlighted the impact of socio-cultural background on educational trajectories. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the different social factors lead to the multiplication of opportunities for some individuals while restraining the opportunities for others. We analyze opportunities in educational trajectories in the light of Sen’s theory of capabilities. When applied to education, this theory renews the debate on equality of opportunity by focusing on students’ real opportunities and on the constraints they might face.Viele Studien haben die Bedeutung des soziokulturellen Umfelds auf die schulischen Werdegänge hervorgehoben. Hier soll analysiert werden, wie verschiedene soziale Faktoren, die sich häufen können, für Einige den Bereich des Möglichen erweitern und für Andere einengen können. Wir wollen den Raum des Möglichen während der Ausbildungswerdegänge nach dem Capability Approach des Wirtschaftswissenschaftlers Amartya Sen überprüfen. Diese Theorie, auf die Bildung angewandt, verhilft zu einer neuen Analyse der Chancengleichheit in der Schule unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der reellen Opportunitäten der Schüler auf ihrem Bildungsweg und der Zwänge, denen sie begegnen können.Muchos estudios han puesto en evidencia el peso del entorno sociocultural sobre las trayectorias escolares. Aquí se trata de analizar cómo los diferentes factores sociales, que pueden acumularse, llevan a ampliar el algunos casos el campo de posibles y en otros, a restringirlo. Proponemos analizar el espacio de los posibles en el curso de las trayectorias de formación según la teoría de las “capacidades “ del economista Amartya Sen. Aplicada a la educación, contribuye a renovar el análisis de la igualdad de oportunidades en la escuela, focalizándose en las oportunidades reales de los alumnos en el curso de su trayectoria de formación y en las restricciones que pueden encontrar

O ciclo percepção-expressão: uma abordagem holística da realidade a partir da arte

Fundamentados na interação estética entre conteúdo e forma, visa-se delinear uma relação de equivalência frente aos fenômenos da percepção e da expressão. A partir da análise da interação percepção-expressão inserida na natureza humana, seres orgânicos complexos dotados de consciência, objetiva-se estender a questão tanto aos seres orgânicos mais simples, como até mesmo aos inorgânicos, a fim de generalizar tal interação à realidade em si como é experienciada