Statistical analysis of texture in trunk images for biometric identification of tree species

The identification of tree species is a key step for sustainable management plans of forest resources, as well as for several other applications that are based on such surveys. However, the present available techniques are dependent on the presence of tree structures, such as flowers, fruits, and leaves, limiting the identification process to certain periods of the year Therefore, this article introduces a study on the application of statistical parameters for texture classification of tree trunk images. For that, 540 samples from five Brazilian native deciduous species were acquired and measures of entropy, uniformity, smoothness, asymmetry (third moment), mean, and standard deviation were obtained from the presented textures. Using a decision tree, a biometric species identification system was constructed and resulted to a 0.84 average precision rate for species classification with 0.83accuracy and 0.79 agreement. Thus, it can be considered that the use of texture presented in trunk images can represent an important advance in tree identification, since the limitations of the current techniques can be overcome.

Variabilidade espacial de populações de Diatraea saccharalis em canaviais e sugestão de método de amostragem

A broca Diatraea saccharalis é uma das mais importantes pragas da cana-de-açúcar no Brasil. O manejo de áreas infestadas está embasado no controle biológico com Cotesia flavipes, cujas liberações são feitas em função da população de lagartas da praga em campo. Por esta razão, a estimativa desta população é de fundamental importância para o sucesso do programa de manejo. Assim, o objetivo do presente trabalho foi estudar a variabilidade espacial de D. saccharalis em canaviais e sugerir um método de amostragem que permitisse uma estimativa adequada das populações em campo. Seis campos de aproximadamente 1 ha cada um foram amostrados, em grid retangular de aproximadamente 10 x 10 m, com ilhas. Cada ponto de amostragem foi representado pela coleta das formas biológicas da praga no interior dos colmos em 2 m de sulco. Na maioria das áreas, as populações de formas imaturas de D. saccharalis distribuíram-se de forma contagiosa, com alcance do semivariograma variando de 18 a 80 m. Com base no alcance médio, estimou-se em seis o número médio de pontos de amostragem por hectare que deveriam ser feitos para representar adequadamente a área. Este número foi menor do que o estimado utilizando parâmetros da estatística clássica. Sugere-se que, para estimativa das formas imaturas de D. saccharalis em canaviais, a amostragem seja feita em grid de 40 x 40 m, o que resulta em aproximadamente seis pontos de amostragem por hectare e permitirá, na maioria das áreas, efetuar levantamentos com independência e coeficientes de variação menores que 50%.

Funções de pedotransferência para a curva de resistência do solo à penetração

Funções de pedotransferência são regressões utilizadas para estimar atributos edáficos dependentes a partir de atributos independentes e de fácil determinação. Nesse sentido, são propostas na literatura diversas funções de pedotransferência que visam predizer a resistência do solo à penetração. Objetivou-se, portanto, com este trabalho, desenvolver e comparar a eficiência de cinco funções de pedotransferência para a curva de resistência do solo à penetração, presentes na literatura, por meio do ajuste de dados obtidos tanto com o penetrômetro de impacto (campo) quanto com o penetrômetro eletrônico (laboratório), em um Latossolo manejado sob diferentes modos (convencional e plantio direto). Foram coletadas amostras indeformadas de solo na entrelinha das culturas, nas camadas de 0-0,10, 0,10-0,20 e 0,20-0,30 m, logo após a semeadura, no florescimento e na colheita, para determinação dos atributos físico-hídricos do solo e também da resistência do solo à penetração, com o uso do penetrômetro eletrônico. A resistência do solo à penetração, obtida com o penetrômetro de impacto, foi determinada conforme a variação do conteúdo de água no solo ao longo do ciclo das culturas. As curvas ajustadas de resistência do solo à penetração tiveram a precisão e a acurácia testadas por meio de parâmetros estatísticos e foram comparadas pelo teste F. Houve sobreposição dos valores estimados pelo ajuste das curvas, evidenciando que a maneira de obtenção da resistência do solo à penetração (campo ou laboratório) não influenciou a relação entre a resistência à penetração e os atributos do solo. As equações RP = aUg b; RP = a(1-Ug)b; RP = ae bUg e RP = a + be não diferiram e foram as mais precisas e acuradas na predição da resistência do solo à penetração.

Integrated analysis of halogenated organic pollutants in sub-millilitre volumes of venous and umbilical cord blood sera

A rapid, robust and economical method for the analysis of persistent halogenated organic compounds in small volumes of human serum and umbilical cord blood is described. The pollutants studied cover a broad range of molecules of contemporary epidemiological and legislative concern, including polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), polychlorobenzenes (CBs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), DDTs, polychlorostyrenes (PCSs) and polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Extraction and clean-up with n-hexane and concentrated sulphuric acid was followed with analysis by gas chromatography coupled to electron capture (GC-ECD) and GC coupled to negative ion chemical ionisation mass spectrometry (GC-NICI-MS). The advantages of this method rest in the broad range of analytes and its simplicity and robustness, while the use of concentrated sulphuric acid extraction/clean-up destroys viruses that may be present in the samples. Small volumes of reference serum between 50 and 1000 μL were extracted and the limits of detection/quantification and repeatability were determined. Recoveries of spiked compounds for the extraction of small volumes (≥300 μL) of the spiked reference serum were between 90% and 120%. The coefficients of variation of repeatability ranged from 0.1-14%, depending on the compound. Samples of 4-year-old serum and umbilical cord blood (n = 73 and 40, respectively) from a population inhabiting a village near a chloro-alkali plant were screened for the above-mentioned halogenated pollutants using this method and the results are briefly described. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Wavelets and decision trees for target detection over sea surface using cosmo-skymed SAR data

We are investigating the combination of wavelets and decision trees to detect ships and other maritime surveillance targets from medium resolution SAR images. Wavelets have inherent advantages to extract image descriptors while decision trees are able to handle different data sources. In addition, our work aims to consider oceanic features such as ship wakes and ocean spills. In this incipient work, Haar and Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau 9/7 wavelets obtain detailed descriptors from targets and ocean features and are inserted with other statistical parameters and wavelets into an oblique decision tree. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Auto-avaliação dos Discentes do Curso de Ciências Biológicas da Unemat, Campus de Nova Xavantina: um modelo para avaliação das disciplinas curriculares, segundo a percepção do corpo discente e docente

This paper presents an evaluation of the curriculum subjects of the Biological Sciences course in the University of the State of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Nova Xavantina campus, Brazil. The research was carried out by means of a self-assessment instrument, aimed at searching learners' and educators' points of view. The questionnaires were given in the first, third and seventh semesters, in which students were asked to assess pedagogical aspects regarding professors and their didacticism, as well as the subject matters being taught; in addition, they were invited to evaluate themselves as learners. The data was analyzed using statistical parameters, in order to measure teaching performance, and, subsequently, professors were given the opportunity to express their concepts about the students' assessment. The average value of the overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.923±0.001, a significant value considering that alpha varies between 0 and 1, which proves the questionnaire to be reliable. The hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) does not permit teaching performance to be associated with professors' qualification or workload.

Advances in drug design based on the amino acid approach: Taurine analogues for the treatment of CNS diseases

Amino acids are well known to be an important class of compounds for the maintenance of body homeostasis and their deficit, even for the polar neuroactive aminoacids, can be controlled by supplementation. However, for the amino acid taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) this is not true. Due its special physicochemical properties, taurine is unable to cross the blood-brain barrier. In addition of injured taurine transport systems under pathological conditions, CNS supplementation of taurine is almost null. Taurine is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory semi-essential amino acid extensively involved in neurological activities, acting as neurotrophic factor, binding to GABA A/glycine receptors and blocking the excitotoxicity glutamate-induced pathway leading to be a neuroprotective effect and neuromodulation. Taurine deficits have been implicated in several CNS diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy and in the damage of retinal neurons. This review describes the CNS physiological functions of taurine and the development of new derivatives based on its structure useful in CNS disease treatment.&; 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Fractal dimension and Shannon's entropy analyses of the architectural complexity caused by the inflammatory reactions induced by highly crystalline polyvinyl alcohol) microspheres implanted in subcutaneous tissues of the Wistar rats

The results of the histopathological analyses after the implantation of highly crystalline PVA microspheres in subcutaneous tissues of Wistar rats are here in reported. Three different groups of PVA microparticles were systematically studied: highly crystalline, amorphous, and commercial ones. In addition to these experiments, complementary analyses of architectural complexity were performed using fractal dimension (FD), and Shannon's entropy (SE) concepts. The highly crystalline microspheres induced inflammatory reactions similar to the ones observed for the commercial ones, while the inflammatory reactions caused by the amorphous ones were less intense. Statistical analyses of the subcutaneous tissues of Wistar rats implanted with the highly crystalline microspheres resulted in FD and SE values significantly higher than the statistical parameters observed for the amorphous ones. The FD and SE parameters obtained for the subcutaneous tissues of Wistar rats implanted with crystalline and commercial microparticles were statistically similar. Briefly, the results indicated that the new highly crystalline microspheres had biocompatible behavior comparable to the commercial ones. In addition, statistical tools such as FD and SE analyses when combined with histopathological analyses can be useful tools to investigate the architectural complexity tissues caused by complex inflammatory reactions. © 2012 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.

Estudo de frequências alélicas de STRs do cromossomo X na população brasileira de Araraquara-SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise de polimorfismos da região controle do dna mitocondrial em indivíduos nascidos e residentes no estado do espírito santo para utilização na identificação humana

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo de polimorfismo do cromossomo x na população da região sudeste do Brasil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Avaliação de periódicos científicos: Revista Brasileira de Educação Especial

The Brazilian Journal of Special Education was first published in 1992 and has been continuously evaluated internally by scholars of the Brazilian Association of Researchers in Special Education, and externally, by Capes and ANPEd. The last evaluation made by Capes indicated a Qualis A2 for the Brazilian Journal of Special Education. The aim of this article is to discuss these evaluations in order to improve the quality of the journal. The proposed evaluation focused on qualitative parameters presented by the Anped assessment, and statistical parameters available by SciELO. The result of this analysis is that the Brazilian Journal of Special Education has similar parameters to journals qualified as A1, and sometimes even higher than those. Discussion of quality improvement of the journal indicated: 1) the need to receive articles via internet through its peer review system; 2) assignment of coeditors to ensure the evaluation flow of submitted manuscripts; 3) investment in infrastructure, such as purchase of computers and software to improve editing and publishing.

Detecção e restauração de áreas sombreadas em imagens digitais de alta resolução espacial

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Sistema baseado em regras fuzzy do tipo Takagi-Sugeno aplicado a ecos de radares meteorológicos

Pós-graduação em Ciências Ambientais - Sorocaba

Variabilidade temporal e espacial da precipitação incidente sobre a unidade de gerenciamento de recursos hídricos Sorocaba e Médio Tietê e anomalias

Pós-graduação em Ciências Ambientais - Sorocaba