Using an holistic method based on prior information to represent global and local variations on face images

Faces are familiar objects that can be easily perceived and recognized by ourselves. However, the computational modeling of such apparently natural human ability remains challenging. Recent studies in the literature have suggested that face processing is a cognition task composed of configural (or global) and featural (or local) sources of information, but with controversial arguments about the combination of these two types of information. In this work, we describe an holistic method that combines variance used in Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with some prior knowledge about the underlying visual perception task, including systematically the global and local information in the common multivariate representation of face images. We have showed that, with prior information, important local variations represented by principal components with small eigenvalues may not be discarded augmenting the classification accuracy of the first orthogonal basis vectors. Most interestingly, PCA with prior knowledge provides a specialized feature selection procedure, where the mapping of high-dimensional data into a lower-dimensional space has been able to handle local variations and capture not only the entire facial appearance but also some sample group facial features

Psicología en la Asistencia Social: la construcción de una práctica comprometida

Since the promulgation of the “Sistema Único da Assistência Social”, social services have become an important working field for psychologists. Most of academic papers and documents regarding this “new” field emphasize these professionals must be committed to social changes, nerveless they don´t make explicit what and how it should be done. In this paper, we aimed to talk about experiences that turn the (abstract) notion of social commitment into concrete professional practices. To do so, weekly visits were made to a housing service in which the researcher talked with its professionals about their everyday work and registered these talks in a field journal. This experience allowed us to say that the work of these psychologist involve a great variety of activities, many of them different from what we usually relate to this professional group.Desde la promulgación del Sistema Único da Assistência Social [Sistema Único de la Asistencia Social], servicios socioasistenciales se volvieron un importante campo de empleabilidad para la Psicología. Gran parte de los textos académicos y documentos que plantean esa “nueva” área de actuación enfatiza que los/as profesionales que actúan en ella deben estar comprometidos/as socialmente, pero no explicita cómo hacerlo. Ante esto, buscamos hablar en este trabajo de experiencias que transforman la (abstracta) noción de compromiso social de la Psicología en prácticas concretas de intervención profesional. Para ello, se realizaron visitas semanales a un servicio de acogida, en las que la investigadora conversó con los/as profesionales involucrados/as acerca de su rutina de trabajo y registró dichas conversaciones en un diario de campo. Esa experiencia permitió concluir que el trabajo de los/as psicólogos/as abarca una gran variedad de actividades, donde muchas de ellas son distintas a aquellas que se suelen atribuir a esa categoría profesional.

Similar but different: Revealing the relative roles of species‐traits versus biome properties structuring genetic variation in South American marsh rats

AimWetland habitats, and the ecological restrictions imposed by them, structure patterns of genetic variation in constituent taxa. As such, genetic variation may reflect properties of the specific biomes species inhabit, or shared life history traits among species may result in similar genetic structure. We evaluated these hypotheses jointly by quantifying the similarity of genetic structure in three South American marsh rat species (Holochilus), and test how genetic variation in each species relates to biome‐specific environmental space and historical stability.LocationSouth America.TaxonRodentia.MethodsUsing complementary analyses (Mantel tests, dbRDA, Procrustes, covariance structure of allele frequencies and environmental niche models [ENMs]) with 8,000–32,000 SNPs per species, we quantified the association between genomic variation and geographic and/or environmental differences.ResultsSignificant association between genetic variation and geography was identified for all species. Similarity in the strength of the association suggests connectivity patterns dictated by shared species‐traits predominate at the biome scale. However, substantial amounts of genetic variation are not explained by geography. Focusing on this portion of the variance, we demonstrate a significant quantitative association between genetic variation and the environmental space of a biome, and a qualitative association with varying regional stability. Specifically, historically stable areas estimated from ecological niche models are correlated with local levels of geographic structuring, suggesting that local biome‐specific histories affect population isolation/connectivity.Main conclusionsThese tests show that although species exhibit similar patterns of genetic variation that are consistent with shared natural histories, irrespective of inhabiting different wetland biomes, local biome‐specific properties (i.e. varying environmental conditions and historical stability) contribute to departures from equilibrium patterns of genetic variation expected by isolation by geographic distance. The reflection of these biome‐specific properties in the genetic structure of the marsh rats provides a window into the differences among South American wetlands with evolutionary consequences for their respective constituent assemblages.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149336/1/jbi13529.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149336/2/jbi13529_am.pd

A INCONSTITUCIONALIDADE DA NÃO CUMULATIVIDADE DOS ADICIONAIS DE PERICULOSIDADE E INSALUBRIDADE

: A cumulação dos adicionais de insalubridade e periculosidade é obstada por entendimento e estudos ultrapassados, merecendo, portanto, uma devida atualização no entendimento majoritário, com o intuito de garantir aos trabalhadores, que se encontrem em situações perigosas ou insalubres tantos adicionais quanto forem os agentes nocivos. Com isso, o presente trabalho, primou enveredar pelo estudo de doutrinas consolidadas e protecionistas, além de jurisprudências atuais em diversos Tribunais Regionais. Ademais, fez-se uma análise das legislações infraconstitucionais, tratados assinados pelo Brasil versando sobre a proteção do meio ambiente do trabalho e princípios protetivos do local de labor. O estudo da Constituição seguiu norteando todo o trabalho, sendo ressaltado o que lhe era harmônico e o que não era. Por fim, examinou julgados adeptos da inteligência da possibilidade de cumulação de adicionais de periculosidade e insalubridade

Exploring Cheminformatic Toolsets for Predicting the Dermal Toxicity of Furanocoumarins

Linear furanocoumarins are skin sensitizers and anticancer agents whose appeal in skincare therapeutics is widely exploited. Owing to the need to predict the biological activities of medicines, this work aimed the investigate the predicted dermal toxicity of linear furanocoumarins through chemoinformatic approaches. Therefore, eight major linear furanocoumarins of interest in medicine were selected, and their pharmacophores / toxicophores were modelled and inputted in several databases and cheminformatic toolsets previously described in the literature. Moreover, Principal Components Analysis was performed to allow multivariable comparisons. Results showcased that the first two PCs accounted for 95.48% of all variance in the model, and molecular weight and polar surface showcased a positive correlation to Log P and Log Kp, which may be involved in skin penetration. Moreover, the pharmacophore modelling evidenced superimposition between linear furanocoumarins, ethidium bromide and acridine orange, thereby suggesting that these compounds share similar biological effects, supported by their acknowledged DNA intercalating activities. Therefore, this work showcased the application of various cheminformatic tools to screen the dermal toxicity of chemicals