Recent research in transform-based image compression has focused on the wavelet transform due to its superior performance over other transforms. Performance is often measured solely in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and compression algorithms are optimized for this quantitative metric. The performance in terms of subjective quality is typically not evaluated. Moreover, the sensitivities of the human visual system (HVS) are often not incorporated into compression schemes. This paper develops new wavelet models of the HVS and illustrates their performance for various scalar wavelet and multiwavelet transforms. The performance is measured quantitatively (PSNR) and qualitatively using our new perceptual testing procedure. Our new HVS model is comprised of two components: CSF masking and asymmetric compression. CSF masking weights the wavelet coefficients according to the contrast sensitivity function (CSF)---a model of humans' sensitivity to spatial frequency. This mask gives the most perceptible information the highest priority in the quantizer. The second component of our HVS model is called asymmetric compression. It is well known that humans are more sensitive to luminance stimuli than they are to chrominance stimuli; asymmetric compression quantizes the chrominance spaces more severely than the luminance component. The results of extensive trials indicate that our HVS model improves both quantitative and qualitative performance. These trials included 14 observers, 4 grayscale images and 10 color images (both natural and synthetic). For grayscale images, although our HVS scheme lowers PSNR, it improves subjective quality. For color images, our HVS model improves both PSNR and subjective quality. A benchmark for our HVS method is the latest version of the international image compression standard---JPEG2000. In terms of subjective quality, our scheme is superior to JPEG2000 for all images; it also outperforms JPEG2000 by 1 to 3 dB in PSNR. / Master of Science

The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the genetic diversity of mtDNA of populations in Central Europe and to assess its relation to geographic distances and/or linguistic affiliation of individual populations. For this purpose, HVS-1 mtDNA segments of 194 individuals of 6 Slovak populations were sequenced. Basic parameters of genetic diversity were estimated for obtained sequences, and compared with similar data published by other authors (4 798 sequences of HVS-1 mtDNA segment of 42 population units in Central Europe in total). Intra-population analysis revealed a high level of gene and nucleotide diversity of studied populations, with values clearly decreasing from north to south. While the Slovak populations were bearing the highest rates of genetic diversity, the lowest values were detected in the Croatian populations. The results of ΦST distances point to a certain similarity of the Slavic population (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Germanic (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) as well as some groups from Hungary and Romania. As the most distant appeared especially the population of Croatia, which differed from almost all populations included in the study. AMOVA showed that the geographic division of population explains the layout of genetic variation...

Este trabalho teve como meta principal contribuir para elucidar algumas das questões em aberto pertinentes à história evolutiva e antropológica de populações nativas americanas. Para isso investigou-se marcadores uniparentais paternos, ligados à NRY, e materno, mtDNA. Para o cromossomo Y foram investigados 108 indivíduos (85 sulameríndios de 16 tribos, pertencentes a 5 grupos lingüísticos, além de 23 asiáticos (siberianos), compreendendo 6 grupos étnicos distintos). Para o mtDNA foram investigados 160 indivíduos (homens e mulheres), compreendendo 10 tribos sulamericanas, pertencentes a 5 grupos lingüísticos distintos. Para o cromossomo Y foram utilizados 26 marcadores (SNPs). Para o mtDNA a região controladora-RC (HVS-I: da posição 16.024 até 16.569, e HVS-II: da posição 001 até 576) e a região imediatamente 5’ à região controladora foram seqüenciadas. Foi possível determinar para o cromossomo Y que Q1a3a* (autóctone nativo-americano, de provável origem beringiana) está fixado em 63% das tribos; o haplogrupo Q1a3*, que por outro lado também é encontrado na Ásia, foi observado entre os Araweté (25%), Jamamadi (100%), Lengua (25%) e esquimós asiáticos (17%). Merece destaque que Q1a3* parece ser o que até agora era identificado como sendo apenas “haplogrupo Q*”, ou seja, cromossomo Y portador do alelo derivado no loco M242, mas com alelo ancestral para o M3. Nenhuma das novas mutações mencionadas na atual árvore filogenética do cromossomo Y (com exceção do M346, que define Q1a3*) foram encontradas. O seqüenciamento de regiões do cromossomo Y não revelou nenhuma nova mutação. No caso do mtDNA, os indígenas do tronco Ge mostram os haplogrupos B e A como sendo os mais freqüentes, enquanto que nos Tupi esses haplogrupos apresentam freqüências mais elevadas apenas em regiões bastante restritas, ficando o haplogrupo D como o mais freqüente. Cabe salientar que o haplogrupo C apresenta freqüência muito baixa tanto para os Ge quanto para os Tupi, sendo que freqüências um pouco mais elevadas estão quase que geograficamente opostas, ficando no sul do Brasil para os Ge e no norte para os Tupi. Avaliando o modelo de fissão-fusão pôde-se sugerir que: 1) As linhagens mitocondriais tribo-específicas dentro das tribos Kayapó aqui investigadas dificilmente representariam linhagens autóctones, já que o tempo de surgimento de cada tribo por processo de fissão é pequeno para comportar uma rede de novas mutações. As especificidades poderiam estar vinculadas ao modelo de fissão envolvendo grupos de pessoas aparentadas via materna. Nesse caso, grupos de parentes carregariam para fora do grupo parental todas as seqüências pertencentes a uma determinada linhagem. Assim a linhagem estaria presente somente no grupo derivado e não mais no parental; 2) Perda de linhagens parentais na dispersão e/ou por deriva na formação do novo grupo, o que resultaria na diferença encontrada entre os grupos derivados; 3) Embora não se possa excluir alguma fusão posterir a fissão, a quantidade de linhages exclusivas nas tribos Kayapó estaria indicando relativo isolamento dos grupos depois da fissão (ausência ou baixa freqüência de fluxo gênico entre os grupos fissionados levando à relativa baixa freqüência de linhagens compartilhadas), o que denota o fato do fenômeno ser recente (atritos ainda presentes na memória coletiva e/ou familiar dos grupos fissionados) como estabelecido pelos dados históricos (início do século XVII). Esse fato poderia sugerir que a fusão demanda mais tempo para ocorrer; 4) O compartilhamento das linhagens mais comuns, normalmente na raiz das networks, entre os Tupi e os Ge, parece denotar mais ancestralidade comum do que importante fluxo gênico depois da formação desses dois grandes estoques lingüísticos. / This work has as its main aim to elucidate some of the still open questions about the evolutive and anthropological history of the Native American populations. Paternal uniparental markers, in the NRY, and maternal, mtDNA, were investigated to do that. For the Y chromosome, 108 individuals were investigated (85 South-Amerindians from 16 tribes, belonging to 5 linguistic groups, and 23 Asians (Siberians), covering 6 distinct ethnical groups). For the mtDNA, 160 individuals (men and women) were evaluated, covering 10 South-American tribes, belonging to 5 distinct linguistic groups. For the Y chromosome 26 SNPs were tested and some regions sequenced. For the mtDNA the control region-CR (HVS-I: from position 16.024 to 16.569, and HVS-II: from position 001 to 576) and the region immediately 5’ of the control region were sequenced. It was possible to determine that Q1a3a* (a Native American autoctonous chromosome, probably of Beringian origin) is fixed in 63% of the tribes; the haplogroup Q1a3*, which, moreover, is also encountered in Asia, was observed in Araweté (25%), Jamamadi (100%), Lengua (25%) and Asian Eskimos (17%). It is worth mentioning that Q1a3* appears to be what until now has been identified as “haplogroup Q*” only, that is, Y chromosome carrier of the derived allele in the M242 locus, but with an ancestral allele for M3. Any of the new mutations mentioned in the current Y chromosome phylogenetic tree (except M346, which defines Q1a3*) were encountered. Sequencing of Y chromosome regions hasn’t revealed any new mutation. In the mtDNA’s case, the Ge indians show the haplogroups B and A as the most frequent ones, while in the Tupi indians these haplogroups show high frequencies only in very restrict regions, being haplogroup D the most frequent. It should be noted that haplogroup C shows very low frequency in both Ge and Tupi, the slightly higher frequencies occuping almost geographically opposite locations, at the South of Brazil for the Ge and on the North for the Tupi. On evaluating the fission-fusion model it could be suggested that: 1) Tribe-specific lineages in the Kayapó tribes investigated here would hardly represent autoctonous lineages, since the time of emergence of each tribe by fission process is small to bear a web of new mutations. The specificities could be related to the fission model involving maternally related groups of people. In this case, groups of relatives would carry out of the parental group all the sequences belonging to a determined lineage. Therefore the lineage would be present only in the derived group and not in the parental anymore; 2) Loss of parental lineages in the dispersion and/or by drift in the new group’s formation, which would result in the differences found between the derived groups; 3) Though some fusion posterior to the fission cannot be excluded, the amount of exclusive lineages in the Kayapó tribes would indicate a relative isolation of the groups after the fission (absence or low frequency of gene flow between the fissioned groups leading to relative low frequency of the shared lineages), which denotes the fact of the phenomenon being recent (struggles still present in the collective and/or familiar memories of the fissioned groups) as estabilished by historical data (beginning of the XVII century). This fact could suggest that the fusion demands more time to occur; 4) The sharing of the more common lineages, normally in the networks’ nodes, between Tupi and Ge, appears to denote more common ancestrality than important gene flow after the formation of these two great linguistic stocks.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier différentes méthodes de prévision de la défaillance d'entreprises aussi bien en statique qu'en dynamique. Plus précisément, dans l'approche statique, nous avons recouru aux méthodes de sélection des variables discriminantes en utilisant les réseaux de neurones. Nous avons ainsi proposé deux nouvelles procédures relevant de ces méthodes.La première, fondée sur le critère HVS, intitulée HVS-AUC, nous a permis i) de construire un modèle plus parcimonieux par rapport à l’ADL ; ii) de dégager un ensemble de variables stables à la fois non conjoncturelles et avec un fort pouvoir explicatif. A l'inverse, la seconde technique est basée sur la procédure forward ou plus exactement sur forward-AUC. Cette méthode fait apparaître des résultats comparables à l'ADL mais avec moins de variables explicatives. Elle permet notamment de détecter les ratios jugés les plus pertinents selon ADL et HVS-AUC.Nous avons de plus utilisé des méthodes d'apprentissage de structure de réseaux bayésiens pour essayer d'améliorer la performance de classification des entreprises. Nous avons mobilisé une technique intitulée "Max-Min Hill-Climbing" ou MMHC. Nous avons analysé les performances de classification d'un algorithme combiné entre MMHC et le modèle de base d'un réseau bayésien naïf (BN). Cette nouvelle méthode a été nommée BN-MMHC (Bayes naïf augmentée par MMHC). Les résultats obtenus confirment néanmoins l'opinion dominante : pour ce qui est du pouvoir discriminant, aucune structure ne semble à même de concurrencer BN de manière significative.Dans la deuxième approche dynamique, nous avons mis plus l'accent sur les facteurs non mesurables a priori et sur des facteurs explicatifs impossibles à appréhender dans un cadre statique. Nous avons mobilisé dans un premier volet les variables macroéconomiques pour mieux estimer le risque de défaut. Dans un second volet, nous avons utilisé une modélisation alternative permettant d'appréhender correctement les chocs que peuvent subir les entreprises au cours du temps. De ce fait, nous avons évalué ainsi l'effet de la propagation de ces chocs. / The objective of this thesis is to study bankruptcy prediction models from both static and dynamic viewpoints. More precisely, in the static approach, we used the methods of selecting discriminating variables using the neural networks. We thus proposed two new procedures relating to these methods. The first one is based on the criterion HVS called HVS-AUC and allowed to 1) build a more parsimonious model compared to the LDA, 2) identify a set of variables both static and non-cyclical with a strong explanatory power. Conversely, the second technique is based on the forward procedure, more precisely on forward-AUC. This method shows results comparable to the LDA but with fewer variables. It allows the detection of ratios considered as the most relevant according to LDA and HVS-AUC. We have also used methods of structure learning of Bayesian networks to improve the performance of classification of firms. We have mobilized a technique called "Max-Min Hill-Climbing" or MMHC. Specifically, we plan to analyze the performance of classification of an algorithm that mixes both MMHC and the canonical model of a naive Bayes network (NB). This new method could be called NB-MMHC (naive Bayes augmented by MMH C). The results confirm the prevailing view: as for the discriminatory power, no structure seems to be able to significantly compete with NB. In the second dynamic approach, we put more emphasis on factors not measurable a priori and also on explanatory factors impossible to capture within a static framework. In the first phase, we used the macroeconomic variables to better estimate the risk of default. In the second part, we used an alternative model to better estimate the shocks that firms could undergo over time. We therefore evaluate the propagation effects of theses shocks

Este trabalho teve como meta principal contribuir para elucidar algumas das questões em aberto pertinentes à história evolutiva e antropológica de populações nativas americanas. Para isso investigou-se marcadores uniparentais paternos, ligados à NRY, e materno, mtDNA. Para o cromossomo Y foram investigados 108 indivíduos (85 sulameríndios de 16 tribos, pertencentes a 5 grupos lingüísticos, além de 23 asiáticos (siberianos), compreendendo 6 grupos étnicos distintos). Para o mtDNA foram investigados 160 indivíduos (homens e mulheres), compreendendo 10 tribos sulamericanas, pertencentes a 5 grupos lingüísticos distintos. Para o cromossomo Y foram utilizados 26 marcadores (SNPs). Para o mtDNA a região controladora-RC (HVS-I: da posição 16.024 até 16.569, e HVS-II: da posição 001 até 576) e a região imediatamente 5’ à região controladora foram seqüenciadas. Foi possível determinar para o cromossomo Y que Q1a3a* (autóctone nativo-americano, de provável origem beringiana) está fixado em 63% das tribos; o haplogrupo Q1a3*, que por outro lado também é encontrado na Ásia, foi observado entre os Araweté (25%), Jamamadi (100%), Lengua (25%) e esquimós asiáticos (17%). Merece destaque que Q1a3* parece ser o que até agora era identificado como sendo apenas “haplogrupo Q*”, ou seja, cromossomo Y portador do alelo derivado no loco M242, mas com alelo ancestral para o M3. Nenhuma das novas mutações mencionadas na atual árvore filogenética do cromossomo Y (com exceção do M346, que define Q1a3*) foram encontradas. O seqüenciamento de regiões do cromossomo Y não revelou nenhuma nova mutação. No caso do mtDNA, os indígenas do tronco Ge mostram os haplogrupos B e A como sendo os mais freqüentes, enquanto que nos Tupi esses haplogrupos apresentam freqüências mais elevadas apenas em regiões bastante restritas, ficando o haplogrupo D como o mais freqüente. Cabe salientar que o haplogrupo C apresenta freqüência muito baixa tanto para os Ge quanto para os Tupi, sendo que freqüências um pouco mais elevadas estão quase que geograficamente opostas, ficando no sul do Brasil para os Ge e no norte para os Tupi. Avaliando o modelo de fissão-fusão pôde-se sugerir que: 1) As linhagens mitocondriais tribo-específicas dentro das tribos Kayapó aqui investigadas dificilmente representariam linhagens autóctones, já que o tempo de surgimento de cada tribo por processo de fissão é pequeno para comportar uma rede de novas mutações. As especificidades poderiam estar vinculadas ao modelo de fissão envolvendo grupos de pessoas aparentadas via materna. Nesse caso, grupos de parentes carregariam para fora do grupo parental todas as seqüências pertencentes a uma determinada linhagem. Assim a linhagem estaria presente somente no grupo derivado e não mais no parental; 2) Perda de linhagens parentais na dispersão e/ou por deriva na formação do novo grupo, o que resultaria na diferença encontrada entre os grupos derivados; 3) Embora não se possa excluir alguma fusão posterir a fissão, a quantidade de linhages exclusivas nas tribos Kayapó estaria indicando relativo isolamento dos grupos depois da fissão (ausência ou baixa freqüência de fluxo gênico entre os grupos fissionados levando à relativa baixa freqüência de linhagens compartilhadas), o que denota o fato do fenômeno ser recente (atritos ainda presentes na memória coletiva e/ou familiar dos grupos fissionados) como estabelecido pelos dados históricos (início do século XVII). Esse fato poderia sugerir que a fusão demanda mais tempo para ocorrer; 4) O compartilhamento das linhagens mais comuns, normalmente na raiz das networks, entre os Tupi e os Ge, parece denotar mais ancestralidade comum do que importante fluxo gênico depois da formação desses dois grandes estoques lingüísticos. / This work has as its main aim to elucidate some of the still open questions about the evolutive and anthropological history of the Native American populations. Paternal uniparental markers, in the NRY, and maternal, mtDNA, were investigated to do that. For the Y chromosome, 108 individuals were investigated (85 South-Amerindians from 16 tribes, belonging to 5 linguistic groups, and 23 Asians (Siberians), covering 6 distinct ethnical groups). For the mtDNA, 160 individuals (men and women) were evaluated, covering 10 South-American tribes, belonging to 5 distinct linguistic groups. For the Y chromosome 26 SNPs were tested and some regions sequenced. For the mtDNA the control region-CR (HVS-I: from position 16.024 to 16.569, and HVS-II: from position 001 to 576) and the region immediately 5’ of the control region were sequenced. It was possible to determine that Q1a3a* (a Native American autoctonous chromosome, probably of Beringian origin) is fixed in 63% of the tribes; the haplogroup Q1a3*, which, moreover, is also encountered in Asia, was observed in Araweté (25%), Jamamadi (100%), Lengua (25%) and Asian Eskimos (17%). It is worth mentioning that Q1a3* appears to be what until now has been identified as “haplogroup Q*” only, that is, Y chromosome carrier of the derived allele in the M242 locus, but with an ancestral allele for M3. Any of the new mutations mentioned in the current Y chromosome phylogenetic tree (except M346, which defines Q1a3*) were encountered. Sequencing of Y chromosome regions hasn’t revealed any new mutation. In the mtDNA’s case, the Ge indians show the haplogroups B and A as the most frequent ones, while in the Tupi indians these haplogroups show high frequencies only in very restrict regions, being haplogroup D the most frequent. It should be noted that haplogroup C shows very low frequency in both Ge and Tupi, the slightly higher frequencies occuping almost geographically opposite locations, at the South of Brazil for the Ge and on the North for the Tupi. On evaluating the fission-fusion model it could be suggested that: 1) Tribe-specific lineages in the Kayapó tribes investigated here would hardly represent autoctonous lineages, since the time of emergence of each tribe by fission process is small to bear a web of new mutations. The specificities could be related to the fission model involving maternally related groups of people. In this case, groups of relatives would carry out of the parental group all the sequences belonging to a determined lineage. Therefore the lineage would be present only in the derived group and not in the parental anymore; 2) Loss of parental lineages in the dispersion and/or by drift in the new group’s formation, which would result in the differences found between the derived groups; 3) Though some fusion posterior to the fission cannot be excluded, the amount of exclusive lineages in the Kayapó tribes would indicate a relative isolation of the groups after the fission (absence or low frequency of gene flow between the fissioned groups leading to relative low frequency of the shared lineages), which denotes the fact of the phenomenon being recent (struggles still present in the collective and/or familiar memories of the fissioned groups) as estabilished by historical data (beginning of the XVII century). This fact could suggest that the fusion demands more time to occur; 4) The sharing of the more common lineages, normally in the networks’ nodes, between Tupi and Ge, appears to denote more common ancestrality than important gene flow after the formation of these two great linguistic stocks.

Este trabalho teve como meta principal contribuir para elucidar algumas das questões em aberto pertinentes à história evolutiva e antropológica de populações nativas americanas. Para isso investigou-se marcadores uniparentais paternos, ligados à NRY, e materno, mtDNA. Para o cromossomo Y foram investigados 108 indivíduos (85 sulameríndios de 16 tribos, pertencentes a 5 grupos lingüísticos, além de 23 asiáticos (siberianos), compreendendo 6 grupos étnicos distintos). Para o mtDNA foram investigados 160 indivíduos (homens e mulheres), compreendendo 10 tribos sulamericanas, pertencentes a 5 grupos lingüísticos distintos. Para o cromossomo Y foram utilizados 26 marcadores (SNPs). Para o mtDNA a região controladora-RC (HVS-I: da posição 16.024 até 16.569, e HVS-II: da posição 001 até 576) e a região imediatamente 5’ à região controladora foram seqüenciadas. Foi possível determinar para o cromossomo Y que Q1a3a* (autóctone nativo-americano, de provável origem beringiana) está fixado em 63% das tribos; o haplogrupo Q1a3*, que por outro lado também é encontrado na Ásia, foi observado entre os Araweté (25%), Jamamadi (100%), Lengua (25%) e esquimós asiáticos (17%). Merece destaque que Q1a3* parece ser o que até agora era identificado como sendo apenas “haplogrupo Q*”, ou seja, cromossomo Y portador do alelo derivado no loco M242, mas com alelo ancestral para o M3. Nenhuma das novas mutações mencionadas na atual árvore filogenética do cromossomo Y (com exceção do M346, que define Q1a3*) foram encontradas. O seqüenciamento de regiões do cromossomo Y não revelou nenhuma nova mutação. No caso do mtDNA, os indígenas do tronco Ge mostram os haplogrupos B e A como sendo os mais freqüentes, enquanto que nos Tupi esses haplogrupos apresentam freqüências mais elevadas apenas em regiões bastante restritas, ficando o haplogrupo D como o mais freqüente. Cabe salientar que o haplogrupo C apresenta freqüência muito baixa tanto para os Ge quanto para os Tupi, sendo que freqüências um pouco mais elevadas estão quase que geograficamente opostas, ficando no sul do Brasil para os Ge e no norte para os Tupi. Avaliando o modelo de fissão-fusão pôde-se sugerir que: 1) As linhagens mitocondriais tribo-específicas dentro das tribos Kayapó aqui investigadas dificilmente representariam linhagens autóctones, já que o tempo de surgimento de cada tribo por processo de fissão é pequeno para comportar uma rede de novas mutações. As especificidades poderiam estar vinculadas ao modelo de fissão envolvendo grupos de pessoas aparentadas via materna. Nesse caso, grupos de parentes carregariam para fora do grupo parental todas as seqüências pertencentes a uma determinada linhagem. Assim a linhagem estaria presente somente no grupo derivado e não mais no parental; 2) Perda de linhagens parentais na dispersão e/ou por deriva na formação do novo grupo, o que resultaria na diferença encontrada entre os grupos derivados; 3) Embora não se possa excluir alguma fusão posterir a fissão, a quantidade de linhages exclusivas nas tribos Kayapó estaria indicando relativo isolamento dos grupos depois da fissão (ausência ou baixa freqüência de fluxo gênico entre os grupos fissionados levando à relativa baixa freqüência de linhagens compartilhadas), o que denota o fato do fenômeno ser recente (atritos ainda presentes na memória coletiva e/ou familiar dos grupos fissionados) como estabelecido pelos dados históricos (início do século XVII). Esse fato poderia sugerir que a fusão demanda mais tempo para ocorrer; 4) O compartilhamento das linhagens mais comuns, normalmente na raiz das networks, entre os Tupi e os Ge, parece denotar mais ancestralidade comum do que importante fluxo gênico depois da formação desses dois grandes estoques lingüísticos. / This work has as its main aim to elucidate some of the still open questions about the evolutive and anthropological history of the Native American populations. Paternal uniparental markers, in the NRY, and maternal, mtDNA, were investigated to do that. For the Y chromosome, 108 individuals were investigated (85 South-Amerindians from 16 tribes, belonging to 5 linguistic groups, and 23 Asians (Siberians), covering 6 distinct ethnical groups). For the mtDNA, 160 individuals (men and women) were evaluated, covering 10 South-American tribes, belonging to 5 distinct linguistic groups. For the Y chromosome 26 SNPs were tested and some regions sequenced. For the mtDNA the control region-CR (HVS-I: from position 16.024 to 16.569, and HVS-II: from position 001 to 576) and the region immediately 5’ of the control region were sequenced. It was possible to determine that Q1a3a* (a Native American autoctonous chromosome, probably of Beringian origin) is fixed in 63% of the tribes; the haplogroup Q1a3*, which, moreover, is also encountered in Asia, was observed in Araweté (25%), Jamamadi (100%), Lengua (25%) and Asian Eskimos (17%). It is worth mentioning that Q1a3* appears to be what until now has been identified as “haplogroup Q*” only, that is, Y chromosome carrier of the derived allele in the M242 locus, but with an ancestral allele for M3. Any of the new mutations mentioned in the current Y chromosome phylogenetic tree (except M346, which defines Q1a3*) were encountered. Sequencing of Y chromosome regions hasn’t revealed any new mutation. In the mtDNA’s case, the Ge indians show the haplogroups B and A as the most frequent ones, while in the Tupi indians these haplogroups show high frequencies only in very restrict regions, being haplogroup D the most frequent. It should be noted that haplogroup C shows very low frequency in both Ge and Tupi, the slightly higher frequencies occuping almost geographically opposite locations, at the South of Brazil for the Ge and on the North for the Tupi. On evaluating the fission-fusion model it could be suggested that: 1) Tribe-specific lineages in the Kayapó tribes investigated here would hardly represent autoctonous lineages, since the time of emergence of each tribe by fission process is small to bear a web of new mutations. The specificities could be related to the fission model involving maternally related groups of people. In this case, groups of relatives would carry out of the parental group all the sequences belonging to a determined lineage. Therefore the lineage would be present only in the derived group and not in the parental anymore; 2) Loss of parental lineages in the dispersion and/or by drift in the new group’s formation, which would result in the differences found between the derived groups; 3) Though some fusion posterior to the fission cannot be excluded, the amount of exclusive lineages in the Kayapó tribes would indicate a relative isolation of the groups after the fission (absence or low frequency of gene flow between the fissioned groups leading to relative low frequency of the shared lineages), which denotes the fact of the phenomenon being recent (struggles still present in the collective and/or familiar memories of the fissioned groups) as estabilished by historical data (beginning of the XVII century). This fact could suggest that the fusion demands more time to occur; 4) The sharing of the more common lineages, normally in the networks’ nodes, between Tupi and Ge, appears to denote more common ancestrality than important gene flow after the formation of these two great linguistic stocks.

This semestral thesis describes the possibilities of source coding videos, the attributes of the videos and their recommended changes for test. Subjective methods of scores of quality and their division into metrics with references and without references are delineated. In this work, a draft of videos for test of comparison of set metrics is specified here. Further, the coding and options of attributes of videosequences for scoring of the quality of the picture is presented. The displaying system is described and quazicrowdsorcing system of collecting the datas was created.

Image and video quality evaluation is very important. In applications involving signal transmission, the Reduced- or No-Reference quality metrics are generally more practical than the Full-Reference metrics. Digital watermarking based quality evaluation emerges as a potential Reduced- or No-Reference quality metric, which estimates signal quality by assessing the degradation of the embedded watermark. Since the watermark contains a small amount of information compared to the cover signal, performing accurate signal quality evaluation is a challenging task. Meanwhile, the watermarking process causes signal quality loss. To address these problems, in this thesis, a framework for image and video quality evaluation is proposed based on semi-fragile and adaptive watermarking. In this framework, adaptive watermark embedding strength is assigned by examining the signal quality degradation characteristics. The "Ideal Mapping Curve" is experimentally generated to relate watermark degradation to signal degradation so that the watermark degradation can be used to estimate the quality of distorted signals. With the proposed framework, a quantization based scheme is first implemented in DWT domain. In this scheme, the adaptive watermark embedding strengths are optimized by iteratively testing the image degradation characteristics under JPEG compression. This iterative process provides high accuracy for quality evaluation. However, it results in relatively high computational complexity. As an improvement, a tree structure based scheme is proposed to assign adaptive watermark embedding strengths by pre-estimating the signal degradation characteristics, which greatly improves the computational efficiency. The SPIHT tree structure and HVS masking are used to guide the watermark embedding, which greatly reduces the signal quality loss caused by watermark embedding. Experimental results show that the tree structure based scheme can evaluate image and video quality with high accuracy in terms of PSNR, wPSNR, JND, SSIM and VIF under JPEG compression, JPEG2000 compression, Gaussian low-pass filtering, Gaussian noise distortion, H.264 compression and packet loss related distortion.

Image and video quality evaluation is very important. In applications involving signal transmission, the Reduced- or No-Reference quality metrics are generally more practical than the Full-Reference metrics. Digital watermarking based quality evaluation emerges as a potential Reduced- or No-Reference quality metric, which estimates signal quality by assessing the degradation of the embedded watermark. Since the watermark contains a small amount of information compared to the cover signal, performing accurate signal quality evaluation is a challenging task. Meanwhile, the watermarking process causes signal quality loss. To address these problems, in this thesis, a framework for image and video quality evaluation is proposed based on semi-fragile and adaptive watermarking. In this framework, adaptive watermark embedding strength is assigned by examining the signal quality degradation characteristics. The "Ideal Mapping Curve" is experimentally generated to relate watermark degradation to signal degradation so that the watermark degradation can be used to estimate the quality of distorted signals. With the proposed framework, a quantization based scheme is first implemented in DWT domain. In this scheme, the adaptive watermark embedding strengths are optimized by iteratively testing the image degradation characteristics under JPEG compression. This iterative process provides high accuracy for quality evaluation. However, it results in relatively high computational complexity. As an improvement, a tree structure based scheme is proposed to assign adaptive watermark embedding strengths by pre-estimating the signal degradation characteristics, which greatly improves the computational efficiency. The SPIHT tree structure and HVS masking are used to guide the watermark embedding, which greatly reduces the signal quality loss caused by watermark embedding. Experimental results show that the tree structure based scheme can evaluate image and video quality with high accuracy in terms of PSNR, wPSNR, JND, SSIM and VIF under JPEG compression, JPEG2000 compression, Gaussian low-pass filtering, Gaussian noise distortion, H.264 compression and packet loss related distortion.

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