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This research paper aims to propose a multicriteria solution to the multiple-choice problematic within the same decision problem, based on the hypothesis that the ‘n’ best alternatives in a ranking listing are not necessarily the best set of ‘n’ alternatives. Through experimental research, a recruiting problem where three candidates should be chosen from a set of ten is simulated. MEM - Multiplex Electionis Methodus – offers a solution to this problem starting from the traditional modeling of the decision problems, with a payment matrix and weights vector, and aggregating a matrix of complementarity among criteria. The results show that the best triple set is not the set of the three best ranked options in a simple ranking list, thus fulfilling the research paper’s objective by confirming the stated hypothesis, thereby contradicting the intuitive decision based on the assumption that the ‘n’ first alternatives compose the best set of ‘n’ alternatives.

Notions of evidentiality and mirativity are related; however there are aspects of each of them which indicate that mirativity is a distinct conceptual category. One issue is how languages encode these categories. The semantic domain of evidentiality refers to the source of knowledge behind assertions. In Brazilian Portuguese, for example, there is no specific category for evidentiality or mirativity, but there is a syntactic construction in one dialect of Brazilian Portuguese that exhibits mirative overtones. The main goal of this paper is to describe that construction, based on a functional semantic approach. Notions of evidentiality and mirativity are related; however there are aspects of each of them which indicate that mirativity is a distinct conceptual category. One issue is how languages encode these categories. The semantic domain of evidentiality refers to the source of knowledge behind assertions. In Brazilian Portuguese, for example, there is no specific category for evidentiality or mirativity, but there is a syntactic construction in one dialect of Brazilian Portuguese that exhibits mirative overtones. The main goal of this paper is to describe that construction, based on a functional semantic approach.

The purpose of this paper is to explore machine learning techniques to forecast the oil price. In the era of big data, we investigate whether new automated tools can improve over traditional approaches in terms of forecast accuracy. Oil price point and density forecasts are built from 23 methods, including regression trees (random forest, quantile regression forest, xgboost), regularization procedures (elastic net, lasso, ridge), standard econometric models and forecast combinations, besides the structural factor model of Schwartz and Smith (2000). The database contains 315 macroeconomic and financial variables, used to build high-dimensional models. To evaluate the predictive power of each method, an extensive pseudo out-of-sample forecasting exercise is built, in monthly and quarterly frequencies, with horizons from one month up to five years. Overall, the results indicate a good performance of the machine learning methods in the short-run. Up to six months, lasso-based models, oil future prices, VECM and the Schwartz–Smith model provide the best forecasts. At longer horizons, forecast combinations also become relevant. In several cases, the accuracy gains in respect to the random walk forecast are statistically significant and reach two-digit figures, in percentage terms, using the R 2 out-of-sample statistic; an expressive achievement compared to the previous literature.

A child learning a language has to figure out what the syntactic, or part-of-speech, categories in her language are and assign words to one or more of them. The question we aim to answer here is how much of this learning can be accomplished through the distributional analysis of utterances. To this end, a reimplementation of Redington, Chater and Finch (1998) computational model was conducted and applied to Brazilian Portuguese input data, obtained from publicly available corpora of both child-directed and adult-to-adult speech. Results from all experiments are presented and discussed. These experiments investigate many variables and aspects involved in this learning task: types of distributional contexts, the number of target and context words, the value of distributional information for different categories, corpus size, etc. A comparison between child-directed speech and adult-to-adult speech is also carried out. In general, our results support Redington et al.’s (1998), although we find some possibly important, and maybe contradictory, differences. We also evaluate the cosine metric, comparing it with performance obtained with the Spearman rank correlation metric used in Redington et al.’s (1998) study. The latter seems to produce better performance. In this paper we focus on a quantitative analysis of our results.

Decision trees are data structures or computational methods that enable nonparametric supervised machine learning and are used in classification and regression tasks. The aim of this paper is to present a comparison between the decision tree induction algorithms C4.5 and CART. A quantitative study is performed in which the two methods are compared by analyzing the following aspects: operation and complexity. The experiments presented practically equal hit percentages in the execution time for tree induction, however, the CART algorithm was approximately 46.24% slower than C4.5 and was considered to be more effective. Los árboles de decisión son estructuras de datos o métodos computacionales que permiten el aprendizaje automático supervisado no paramétrico y se utilizan en tareas de clasificación y regresión. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar una comparación entre los algoritmos de inducción del árbol de decisión C4.5 y CART. Se realiza un estudio cuantitativo en el que se comparan los dos métodos mediante el análisis de los siguientes aspectos: operación y complejidad. Los experimentos presentaron porcentajes de aciertos prácticamente iguales en el tiempo de ejecución para la inducción del árbol; sin embargo, el algoritmo CART fue aproximadamente un 46,24% más lento que C4.5 y se consideró más efectivo. Árvores de decisão são estruturas de dados ou métodos computacionais que possibilitam o aprendizado de máquinas supervisionadas não-paramétricas e são usados em tarefas de classificação e regressão. O objetivo do presente artigo é apresentar uma comparação entre os algoritmos de indução de árvores de decisão C4.5 e CART. Realiza-se um estudo quantitativo no qual os dois métodos são comparados a partir de análise dos seguintes aspectos: funcionamento e complexidade. Verificou-se que os experimentos realizados apresentaram percentuais de acerto praticamente iguais no tempo de execução para a indução da arvore, entretanto, para um parâmetro crucial que é o tempo de processamento que é importante para muitas aplicações, o algoritmo CART foi aproximadamente 46,24% mais lento do que o C4.5 para o mesmo tipo de processamento evidenciando-se, desta forma que este pode ser considerando como mais eficiente. Recomenda-se utilizar o algoritmo C4.5 em aplicações que nas quais haja a preocupação com o tempo de processamento.

Algorithms for blind source separation have been extensively studied in the last years. This paper proposes the use of multiresolution analysis in three decomposition levels of the wavelet transform, such as a preprocessing step, and the AMUSE algorithm to separate the source signals in distinct levels of resolution. The results show that there is an improvement in the estimation of the signals and the of mixing matrix even in noisy environment if compared to the use of AMUSE only.

This paper has a double goal: frst, it lays down and refnes the basic hypotheses on the parametric structure of Romance negative systems that were originally introduced in my presentation at the Venice GLOW Workshop on Dialect Variation in 1987 (especially sections 3-9 and 11-13)3; then it further elaborates on them (sections 10 and 14-15), and revisits the conclusions (sections 16-22) in light of a more recent minimalist approach to the possible formats of parametric variation (the Principles & Schemata model, sketched in Longobardi 2005a). More generally, the theoretical focus of the article is on exploring how minimalist research on syntactic diversity could be conducted.In the spirit of Borer (1984), the parameters of negation can be argued to be essentially encoded in the lexical entries of the sentential negation morpheme and of the negative determiners of each language. No space is left in this framework for such generic notions as (strict or non-strict) ‘negative concord’ vs. ‘double negation’ languages. In fact, these notions looked at best epiphenomenal and obsolete already in 1987: in spite of their continued use even in recent literature, they turn out to be both insuffcient and unnecessary, and are potentially misleading.Now, a good deal of the negation parametrisation can be shown to have to do with the feature composition of lexical entries and to be actually nearly ‘perfect’, in three minimalist senses: frst, given Boolean conditions on feature association, the parametric choices exhaust the set of logical possibilities, determining whether the values of such features may, must, or may not co-occur on one and the same (class of) item(s); second, all the parameters needed for crosslinguistic descriptive adequacy ft into independently attested and restrictive schemata; third, they are shaped by, or interact with, natural third-factor conditions (Chomsky 2005); fnally the parametrisation hypothesised is ‘complete’ in the technical sense that all the typologically possible combinations of values turn out to be attested.With respect to UG principles, I show how objections against the possible universality of conditions on covert long-distance dependencies, as established by Italian negative operators (Rizzi 1982, Longobardi 1991), can be successfully addressed and eventually dismissed. Furthermore, such conditions are argued to be fully structural principles rather than functional preferences. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2017.v13n2a13506

Técnicas de clusterização visam à formação de grupos de observações homogêneas dentro de um mesmo grupo e significativamente distintas das observações inseridas em outros grupos. Em processos industriais cuja produção é apoiada em bateladas, a definição de famílias (grupos) de bateladas com perfis semelhantes auxilia na definição de estratégias de controle e monitoramento desses processos. Este artigo propõe um método para seleção das variáveis de clusterização mais relevantes para formação de famílias de bateladas. Para tanto, integra funções kernel a um novo índice de importância de variáveis gerado a partir dos parâmetros oriundos da Análise de Componentes Principais (ACP). A qualidade dos agrupamentos formados é avaliada através do Silhouette Index (SI). Quando aplicada em três processos produtivos, a sistemática proposta reteve em média 5,16% das variáveis iniciais e elevou o SI médio em 235,4% frente à utilização de todas as variáveis. Um estudo de simulação também é realizado para avaliar a robustez do método. Clustering techniques are tailored to find internally homogeneous groups of observations. In industrial processes that rely on batches, grouping batches with similar profiles provides valuable information about process control and monitoring. This paper proposes a variable selection approach based on the kernel function and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The clustering quality is assessed through the Silhouette Index (SI). When applied to three industrial processes, the proposed approach retained an average of 5.16% of the original variables, yielding on average a 235.4% more precise batch grouping. We also performed a simulation experiment.

This paper presents a method for automatic classification of faults and transients in power distribution networks, based on voltage oscillographies of the distribution networks feeders. For signal preprocessing, the discrete wavelet transform was used with the performances of several families of wavelet functions being compared. In the classification stage, three neural models were assessed: multilayer perceptrons, radial basis function networks, and support vector machines. The models were trained autonomously, i.e., using automatic model selection and complexity control. Promising results were obtained using a set of simulations generated using the Alternative Transients Program (ATP). Initial results obtained for real data acquired from a set of oscillograph loggers installed in a distribution network are also presented. 5000

This paper investigates the variable use of the infinitive in oralBrazilian Portuguese considering both the verb morphology and the formalrepresentation of the subject. The analysis of sociolinguistic interviews shows thatthe speakers prefer both the non-finite verb form of the infinitive (92%) and nosubject expressed (71%). These results display a tendency for a regularization ofthe infinitive as an impersonal form. Empirical results also point out a correlationbetween finite verb form and formal representation of the subject, which are highlymarked constructions. The independent variables subject coreferentiality, semantic(in)determination of the subject and syntactic coding of the clause are statisticallysignificant for the expression of the subject.

Submitted by Guilherme Lemeszenski (guilherme@nead.unesp.br) on 2013-08-22T18:43:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 S1676-24442009000400010.pdf: 265327 bytes, checksum: be851e428dced3713a07308883e004af (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T18:43:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 S1676-24442009000400010.pdf: 265327 bytes, checksum: be851e428dced3713a07308883e004af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-01 Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-30T18:22:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1676-24442009000400010.pdf: 265327 bytes, checksum: be851e428dced3713a07308883e004af (MD5) S1676-24442009000400010.pdf.txt: 39618 bytes, checksum: d66d04713874aae5a8919f2d9a20f542 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-01 Submitted by Vitor Silverio Rodrigues (vitorsrodrigues@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2014-05-20T13:33:59Z No. of bitstreams: 2 S1676-24442009000400010.pdf: 265327 bytes, checksum: be851e428dced3713a07308883e004af (MD5) S1676-24442009000400010.pdf.txt: 39618 bytes, checksum: d66d04713874aae5a8919f2d9a20f542 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-20T13:33:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1676-24442009000400010.pdf: 265327 bytes, checksum: be851e428dced3713a07308883e004af (MD5) S1676-24442009000400010.pdf.txt: 39618 bytes, checksum: d66d04713874aae5a8919f2d9a20f542 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-01 INTRODUÇÃO: O ensaio do cometa ou técnica da eletroforese de células isoladas é largamente empregado para avaliação de danos e reparo do DNA em células individuais. O material pode ser corado por técnicas de fluorescência ou por sal de prata. Este último apresenta vantagens técnicas, como o tipo de microscópio utilizado e a possibilidade de armazenamento das lâminas. A análise dos cometas pode ser feita de modo visual, porém há a desvantagem da subjetividade dos resultados, que pode ser minimizada por análise digital automatizada. OBJETIVOS: Desenvolvimento e validação de método de análise digital de cometas corados por sal de prata. MÉTODOS: Cinquenta cometas foram fotografados de maneira padronizada e impressos em papel. Além de medidas manualmente, essas imagens foram classificadas em cinco categorias por três avaliadores, antes e depois de pré-processadas automaticamente pelo software ImageJ 1.38x. As estimativas geradas pelos avaliadores foram comparadas quanto sua correlação e reprodutibilidade. em seguida, foram desenvolvidos algoritmos de análise digital das medidas, com base em filtros estatísticos de mediana e de mínimo. Os valores obtidos foram comparados com os estimados manual e visualmente após o pré-processamento. RESULTADOS: As medidas manuais das imagens pré-processadas apresentaram maior correlação intraclasse do que as imagens preliminares. Os parâmetros automatizados apresentaram alta correlação com as medidas manuais pré-processadas, sugerindo que este sistema aumenta a objetividade da análise, podendo ser utilizado na estimativa dos parâmetros dos cometas. CONCLUSÃO: A presente análise digital proposta para o teste do cometa corado pela prata mostrou-se factível e de melhor reprodutibilidade que a análise visual. BACKGROUND: Comet assay or single cell gel electrophoresis is a useful and widely applied technique for the assessment of DNA damage and repair in individual cells. Nuclei can be stained with fluorescence methods or silver salts. The latter has technical advantages such as the type of microscope used and the possibility of slide storage. Comet analysis may be performed visually, however, there is the disadvantage of subjective results, which can be minimized by automated digital analysis. OBJECTIVES: Development and validation of digital analysis method for silver stained comet assays. METHODS: Fifty comets were photographed in a standardized way and printed on paper. Before and after being automatically preprocessed by ImageJ 1.38x software, the images were manually measured and classified into five categories by three evaluators. Their estimates were compared as to their correlation and reproducibility. Afterwards, an algorithm for automated digital analysis of the comet measurements was developed based on statistical filters of median and minimum. These results were compared with those manually and visually estimated after preprocessing. RESULTS: Manual measurements of preprocessed images showed higher intraclass correlation than the original ones. Automated results had high correlation with the pre-processed manual measurements, suggesting that this system increases objectivity and can be used in the estimation of comet parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Digital analysis of silver stained comet assay proved to be feasible and better reproducible than the visual analysis. Universidade Estadual Paulista Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu Departamento de Patologia UNESP FMB Departamento de Dermatologia e Radioterapia Universidade Estadual Paulista Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu Departamento de Patologia UNESP FMB Departamento de Dermatologia e Radioterapia

CARBONATED SOFT DRINK CLASSIFICATION BASED ON IMAGE ANALYSIS AND PCA. This paper describes an approach for the colour-based classification of RGB (red-green-blue) images, acquired using a common scanner, of commercial carbonated soft drinks. Mean histograms of image colour channels were evaluated for the PCA classification of 29 brands of Guarana, Cola, and orange flavors. Loadings for principal component axes resulted in different patterns for sample grouping on score plots according to RGB histograms. pH, sorbic acid and sucrose measurements were also correlated to the analyzed brands through PCA score plots of the digitalized images.

Em experimentos multi-resposta (MREs) a mesma unidade experimental é avaliada em relação a mais de uma resposta simultaneamente. A otimização de MREs implica na determinação do ponto na superfície de resposta onde as respostas apresentam o melhor desempenho em relação aos critérios estabelecidos. Funções de utilidade são empregadas para transformar realizações das respostas em cada tratamento experimental em medidas de desempenho. Este artigo aborda MREs em que algumas respostas não são observadas como valores individuais, mas descritas por funções. Uma resposta funcional apresenta um ou mais perfis como resultados observados em cada tratamento experimental; o objetivo é identificar tratamentos que resultam em respostas próximas de um perfil-alvo. Neste artigo, propõe-se a utilização da distância de Hausdorff, uma métrica de similaridade utilizada no tratamento de imagens, em combinação com uma função de preferência para obter uma função de utilidade que forneça a distância das respostas funcionais em relação a seu perfil-alvo.In multiresponse experiments (MREs) the same experimental unit is evaluated with respect to more than one response simultaneously. Optimization of MREs involves determining the point in the design region where responses perform best with respect to given criteria. Utility functions are used to transform responses outcomes at each experimental treatment into performance measures. In this paper, we investigate MREs where some response outcomes are profiles rather than individual values. A functional response gives one or more profiles as observed outcomes at each experimental treatment, and the objective is to identify the outcome that is closest to a target profile. We propose the use of the Hausdorff Distance, a similarity metric from the field of image recognition, in combination with a desirability function to obtain a utility function that gives the distance of a functional response outcome to its desired target.

O presente artigo apresenta uma visão geral do estado da arte na área de identificação de sistemas utilizando modelos dinâmicos com estrutura desenvolvida através de bases de funções ortonormais, como as funções de Laguerre, Kautz ou funções ortonormais generalizadas. Discute-se as vantagens e possíveis limitações desse tipo de estrutura bem como os fundamentos matemáticos dos modelos correspondentes nos contextos de identificação linear, linear com incertezas paramétricas (identificação robusta) e não linear, incluindo uma revisão bibliográfica abrangente sobre o tema. Diferentes realizações de modelos com funções de base ortonormal, a saber, modelos lineares, de Volterra, fuzzy e neurais, são detalhadas e discutidas comparativamente em termos de capacidade de representação, parcimônia, complexidade de projeto e interpretabilidade. Aspectos práticos da identificação desses modelos são também apresentados e ilustrados através de dois casos de estudo envolvendo um processo simulado de polimerização isotérmica. In this paper, an overview about the identification of dynamic systems using orthonormal basis function models, such as those based on Laguerre and Kautz functions, is presented. The mathematical foundations of these models as well as their advantages and limitations are discussed within the contexts of linear, robust, and nonlinear identification. The discussions comprise a broad bibliographical survey on the subject and a comparative analysis involving some specific model realizations, namely, linear, Volterra, fuzzy, and neural models within the orthonormal basis function framework. Theoretical and practical issues regarding the identification of these models are also presented and illustrated by means of two case studies related to a polymerization process.

Submitted by Guilherme Lemeszenski (guilherme@nead.unesp.br) on 2013-08-22T18:45:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 S1984-63982002000200006.pdf: 41876 bytes, checksum: ad450d24d09331739aa910c7b7f187ae (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T18:45:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 S1984-63982002000200006.pdf: 41876 bytes, checksum: ad450d24d09331739aa910c7b7f187ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2002-01-01 Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-30T19:33:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1984-63982002000200006.pdf: 41876 bytes, checksum: ad450d24d09331739aa910c7b7f187ae (MD5) S1984-63982002000200006.pdf.txt: 17759 bytes, checksum: c38d5d00001e481a0b1b56452ed74cf7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2002-01-01 Submitted by Vitor Silverio Rodrigues (vitorsrodrigues@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2014-05-20T15:09:12Z No. of bitstreams: 2 S1984-63982002000200006.pdf: 41876 bytes, checksum: ad450d24d09331739aa910c7b7f187ae (MD5) S1984-63982002000200006.pdf.txt: 17759 bytes, checksum: c38d5d00001e481a0b1b56452ed74cf7 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-20T15:09:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1984-63982002000200006.pdf: 41876 bytes, checksum: ad450d24d09331739aa910c7b7f187ae (MD5) S1984-63982002000200006.pdf.txt: 17759 bytes, checksum: c38d5d00001e481a0b1b56452ed74cf7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2002-01-01 Este artigo aborda a questão da equivalência na tradução de expressões idiomáticas para a lexicografia bilíngüe. Considera­se que a fim de se alcançar uma equivalência idiomática o significado da palavra não é fixo nem estável e que se faz necessária uma pesquisa detalhada em vários dicionários bem como junto a informantes nativos. This paper aims to deal with the matter of equivalence in idioms translation for bilingual lexicography. In order to reach an idiomatic equivalence, we consider that the meaning of a word is neither fixed nor stable and that it's necessary to make a detailed research with several dictionaries as well as with native informers. UNESP UNESP

Uma atividade com a magnitude da avicultura, que usa equipamentos de última geração e serviços atualizados, é levada, na maioria dos casos, a tomar decisões que envolvem todos aspectos de produção, apoiada em critérios subjetivos. O presente trabalho objetiva estudar a utilização das redes neurais artificiais para serem usadas na predição dos parâmetros de desempenho das aves em recria, pertencentes a uma integração avícola sul-brasileira. Foram utilizados os registros de 11 lotes de reprodutoras pesadas para a análise por redes neurais artificiais, no período compreendido entre 09/11/97 a 10/01/99. Os dados utilizados corresponderam a 273 linhas de registros semanais. Os modelos de redes neurais artificiais foram comparados e selecionados como melhores, baseados no coeficiente de determinação múltipla (R²), Quadrado Médio do Erro (QME), bem como pela análise de gráficos, plotando a predição da rede versus a predição menos o real. Os autores concluem que é possível explicar os parâmetros de desempenho das aves em recria, através da utilização de redes neurais artificiais. A técnica permite a tomada de decisões por parte do corpo técnico, baseadas em critérios objetivos obtidos cientificamente. Além disso, esse método permite simulações das conseqüências de tais decisões e fornece a percentagem de contribuição de cada variável no fenômeno em estudo. An economic activity with the magnitude of the poultry industry, which uses top line equipment, generally is lead to make decisions involving all production parameters, based in subjective criteria. The aim of this paper is to study the use of artificial neural networks to predict performance parameters in breeding birds, belonging to a South Brazilian poultry farm. Data from 11 broiler breeder flocks was recorded between November, 11th 1997 and October, 1st 1999. These data were processed by artificial neural networks. They corresponded to 273 data lines related to weekly recordings. The artificial neural networks models were compared and the best was selected, based on its determination coefficient, (R²), Mean Squared Error (QME), and by graphical analysis of the plot of network predictions versus the predictions minus the actual data. The authors conclude that it is possible to explain the performance parameters of breeding birds with the use of Artificial Neural Networks. The method allows decision making by the technical staff, based on objective criteria, scientifically obtained. Besides that, this method allows the simulation of consequences of these decisions and estimates the contribution of each variable used in the phenomena under study.