A one-way ANOVA test for functional data with graphical interpretation

A new functional ANOVA test, with a graphical interpretation of the result, is presented. The test is an extension of the global envelope test introduced by Myllymaki et al. (2017, Global envelope tests for spatial processes, J. R. Statist. Soc. B 79, 381--404, doi: 10.1111/rssb.12172). The graphical interpretation is realized by a global envelope which is drawn jointly for all samples of functions. If a mean function computed from the empirical data is out of the given envelope, the null hypothesis is rejected with the predetermined significance level $\alpha$. The advantages of the proposed one-way functional ANOVA are that it identifies the domains of the functions which are responsible for the potential rejection. We introduce two versions of this test: the first gives a graphical interpretation of the test results in the original space of the functions and the second immediately offers a post-hoc test by identifying the significant pair-wise differences between groups. The proposed tests rely on discretization of the functions, therefore the tests are also applicable in the multidimensional ANOVA problem. In the empirical part of the article, we demonstrate the use of the method by analyzing fiscal decentralization in European countries. The aim of the empirical analysis is to capture differences between the levels of government expenditure decentralization ratio among different groups of European countries. The idea behind, based on the existing literature, is straightforward: countries with a longer European integration history are supposed to decentralize more of their government expenditure. We use the government expenditure centralization ratios of 29 European Union and EFTA countries in period from 1995 to 2016 sorted into three groups according to the presumed level of European economic and political integration.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1506.0164

Indexing, browsing and searching of digital video

Video is a communications medium that normally brings together moving pictures with a synchronised audio track into a discrete piece or pieces of information. The size of a “piece ” of video can variously be referred to as a frame, a shot, a scene, a clip, a programme or an episode, and these are distinguished by their lengths and by their composition. We shall return to the definition of each of these in section 4 this chapter. In modern society, video is ver

Data driven Xpath generation

The XPath query language offers a standard for information extraction from HTML documents. Therefore, the DOM tree represen- tation is typically used, which models the hierarchical structure of the document. One of the key aspects of HTML is the separation of data and the structure that is used to represent it. A consequence thereof is that data extraction algorithms usually fail to identify data if the structure of a document is changed. In this paper, it is investigated how a set of tab- ular oriented XPath queries can be adapted in such a way it deals with modifications in the DOM tree of an HTML document. The basic idea is hereby that if data has already been extracted in the past, it could be used to reconstruct XPath queries that retrieve the data from a different DOM tree. Experimental results show the accuracy of our method

CanopyShotNoise - An individual-based tree canopy modelling framework for projecting remote-sensing data and ecological sensitivity analysis

Very few spatially explicit tree models have so far been constructed with a view to project remote-sensing data directly. To fill this gap, we introduced the prototype of the CanopyShotNoise model, an individual-based model specifically designed for projecting airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. Given the nature of ALS data, the model focuses on the dynamics of individual-tree canopies in forest ecosystems, that is, spatial tree interaction and resulting growth, birth and death processes. In this study, CanopyShotNoise was used to analyse the long-term effects of the processes crown plasticity (C) and superorganism formation (S) on spatial tree canopy patterns that are likely to play an important role in ongoing climate change. We designed a replicated computer experiment involving the four scenarios C0S0, C1S0, C0S1 and C1S1 where 0 and 1 imply that the preceding process was switched off and on, respectively. We hypothesized that C and S are antagonistic processes, specifically that C would lead to increasing regularity of tree locations and S would result in clustering. Our simulation results confirmed that in the long run intertree distances decreased and canopy gap size increased when superorganisms were encouraged to form. At the same time, the overlap and packing of tree crowns increased. The long-term effect of crown plasticity increased the regularity of tree locations; however, this effect was much weaker than that of superorganism formation. As a result, gap patterns remained more or less unaffected by crown plasticity. In scenario C1S1, both processes interestingly interacted in such a way that crown plasticity even increased the effect of superorganism formation. Our simulation results are likely to prove helpful in recognizing patterns of facilitation with ongoing climate change

Challenges and recent progress in drug discovery for tropical diseases

Infectious tropical diseases have a huge effect in terms of mortality and morbidity, and impose a heavy economic burden on affected countries. These diseases predominantly affect the world’s poorest people. Currently available drugs are inadequate for the majority of these diseases, and there is an urgent need for new treatments. This Review discusses some of the challenges involved in developing new drugs to treat these diseases and highlights recent progress. While there have been notable successes, there is still a long way to go.</p