O presente estudo tem como objetivo descrever e caracterizar o relise - produto textual realizado pelas assessoria de imprensa para divulgação de seus clientes na mídia - como um novo gênero da esfera de produção jornalística. Optamos pelo enfoque discursivo sobre os gêneros formulado por Bakhtin: os discursos são constituídos sócio-historicamente e determinados pelos diferentes modos de produção, assim como pelas relações estabelecidas entre os interlocutores. Para analisar esse gênero pouco conhecido do grande público, foi necessário, num primeiro momento, situar o leitor deste trabalho no universo das assessorias de imprensa, contando um pouco da história de seu surgimento e do importante papel do relise no dia-a-dia dos escritórios de comunicação. Calcado nas teorias da corrente bakhtiniana sobre gênero e suas aplicações nos estudos de lingüistas contemporâneos, buscou-se apresentar uma conceituação detalhada dos gêneros discursivos, como apoio para a caracterização do relise, evidenciando os recursos persuasivos que permeiam os textos produzidos pelos assessores de imprensa. A análise de cinco relises produzidos por diferentes escritórios de AI, abordando temas variados, revelou que, apesar de cada um deles focar em um público específico, o conjunto deles apresenta aspectos em comum, configurando um gênero com função comunicativa e estilo próprio. Trazemos ainda, ao final, matérias publicadas na imprensa sobre um sexto texto analisado, exemplos de como o relise é aproveitado pelos jornalistas nas redações e qual tipo de notícias ele é capaz de produzir na mídia, tendo como base este caso específico de divulgação. / The present study has as objective to describe and to characterize the release - textual product accomplished by the press consultantships for their customers\' popularization in the media - as a new gender of the sphere of journalistic production. We opted for the focus discursive on the gender formulated by Bakhtin: the speeches are constituted social and historically and determined in agreement with their different production manners, such as the established relationships among the speakers. To analyze this little known gender by the great public, it was necessary, in a first moment, to place the reader of this work in the universe of the press consultantships, describing a little of the history of its appearance and of the important paper of the release in the day by day of the communication offices. Stepped on in the theories of the Bakhtin´s trend about gender and their applications in the contemporary linguists\' studies, it was possible to present a more detailed formulation on the discursive genders, as a support to the characterization of the release, evidencing the persuasive resources that permeate the texts produced by the press assistants. The analysis of five relises produced by different press consultantships, approaching varied themes, revealed that, in spite of each one of them to focus in a specific public, their group presents aspects in common, configuring a gender with communicative function and own style. We still offer, at the end of this work, on a sixth analyzed text, through articles published in the press, examples as the journalists take advantage of the release in their articles and the kind of news they are able to produce in the media, based on this specific case of publicizing.

O presente estudo tem como objetivo descrever e caracterizar o relise - produto textual realizado pelas assessoria de imprensa para divulgação de seus clientes na mídia - como um novo gênero da esfera de produção jornalística. Optamos pelo enfoque discursivo sobre os gêneros formulado por Bakhtin: os discursos são constituídos sócio-historicamente e determinados pelos diferentes modos de produção, assim como pelas relações estabelecidas entre os interlocutores. Para analisar esse gênero pouco conhecido do grande público, foi necessário, num primeiro momento, situar o leitor deste trabalho no universo das assessorias de imprensa, contando um pouco da história de seu surgimento e do importante papel do relise no dia-a-dia dos escritórios de comunicação. Calcado nas teorias da corrente bakhtiniana sobre gênero e suas aplicações nos estudos de lingüistas contemporâneos, buscou-se apresentar uma conceituação detalhada dos gêneros discursivos, como apoio para a caracterização do relise, evidenciando os recursos persuasivos que permeiam os textos produzidos pelos assessores de imprensa. A análise de cinco relises produzidos por diferentes escritórios de AI, abordando temas variados, revelou que, apesar de cada um deles focar em um público específico, o conjunto deles apresenta aspectos em comum, configurando um gênero com função comunicativa e estilo próprio. Trazemos ainda, ao final, matérias publicadas na imprensa sobre um sexto texto analisado, exemplos de como o relise é aproveitado pelos jornalistas nas redações e qual tipo de notícias ele é capaz de produzir na mídia, tendo como base este caso específico de divulgação. / The present study has as objective to describe and to characterize the release - textual product accomplished by the press consultantships for their customers\' popularization in the media - as a new gender of the sphere of journalistic production. We opted for the focus discursive on the gender formulated by Bakhtin: the speeches are constituted social and historically and determined in agreement with their different production manners, such as the established relationships among the speakers. To analyze this little known gender by the great public, it was necessary, in a first moment, to place the reader of this work in the universe of the press consultantships, describing a little of the history of its appearance and of the important paper of the release in the day by day of the communication offices. Stepped on in the theories of the Bakhtin´s trend about gender and their applications in the contemporary linguists\' studies, it was possible to present a more detailed formulation on the discursive genders, as a support to the characterization of the release, evidencing the persuasive resources that permeate the texts produced by the press assistants. The analysis of five relises produced by different press consultantships, approaching varied themes, revealed that, in spite of each one of them to focus in a specific public, their group presents aspects in common, configuring a gender with communicative function and own style. We still offer, at the end of this work, on a sixth analyzed text, through articles published in the press, examples as the journalists take advantage of the release in their articles and the kind of news they are able to produce in the media, based on this specific case of publicizing.

Neste trabalho os retornos de ativos financeiros são modelados com base em dados não-estruturados de notícias aperiódicas. O cerne do tratamento de tais dados está na Recuperação da Informação, que se importa em aplicar uma transformação suficientemente representativa das estruturas de contexto gramatical para o algébrico. Trabalhos anteriores mostram que não só o timing (GOODHART, HALL, et al., 1993), tipo (ÄIJÖ, 2008), ou contexto no momento de publicação da notícia (BEBER e BRANDT, 2010), mas também o conteúdo léxico (WÜTHRICH, PERMUNETILLEKE, et al., 1998; LAVRENKO, SCHMILL, et al., 2000; SCHUMAKER e CHEN, 2009) explicam movimentos de mercado. Este trabalho tem por objetivo estender a discussão já fundamentada sobre a semântica das publicações, com a proposta de aprofundar a avaliação da sensibilidade paramétrica do ajuste de modelos já encontrados na literatura. Questões sobre a metodologia de pré-processamento dos textos são exploradas por meio de diversos experimentos. Por fim, corrobora-se os resultados prévios sobre a possibilidade de aplicar-se uma classificação preditiva sobre movimentos do mercado acionário norte-americano, particularmente dentro da janela de 15 a 25 minutos após a publicação de um press release. Contudo, não são encontradas evidências com de que regressão tenha a mesma capacidade, nem de que exista antecipação pelo mercado da informação a ser anunciada. / In this paper the returns of financial assets are modeled based on data from unstructured aperiodic news. The core processing of such data in is information retrieval, which deals with applying a transformation sufficiently representative from structures of grammatical to algebraic contexts. Previous works show that not only the news timing (GOODHART, HALL, et al., 1993), its type (ÄIJÖ, 2008), or its context in the moment of announcement (BEBER e BRANDT, 2010), but also its lexical content (WÜTHRICH, PERMUNETILLEKE, et al., 1998; LAVRENKO, SCHMILL, et al., 2000; SCHUMAKER e CHEN, 2009) explain movements on the market. This work aims to extend the ongoing discussion over the semantics of publications, with the proposal of further evaluating the sensitivity of the model\'s parametric fitting found in the literature. Questions raised about the methodology of pre-processing of texts are explored through various experiments. Finally, previous results on the possibility of applying a predictive classification of the U.S. stock market movements are corroborated, particularly inside a time frame from 15 to 25 minutes after the publication of a press release. However, no evidence is found with ? <= 0.01 that regression has the same capacity, nor that there is anticipation of market information to be announced.

O nitrogênio é um dos nutrientes mais importante para o desenvolvimento vegetal e o mais aplicado em diversos cultivos agrícolas. Dentre as fontes nitrogenadas disponíveis, a ureia se destaca pela alta concentração de nitrogênio que remete a diversas vantagens econômicas e operacionais no sistema de produção agrícola. Porém, além da alta propensão a perdas, principalmente por volatilização do gás amônia, tem-se a necessidade do aumento da produtividade de modo ao suprimento da demanda crescente de alimentos, fibras e energia. Considerando estes fatores, uma nova vertente de pesquisa está voltada a aplicação de tecnologias à ureia, os fertilizantes com tecnologia agregada, estes vêm se destacando e disponibilizando alternativas de novos produtos no mercado. Com base no exposto, buscou-se elucidar os seguintes questionamentos: As novas tecnologias aplicadas a ureia possibilitam a redução de perdas por volatilização? As novas tecnologias aplicadas a ureia modificam suas transformações inorgânicas e orgânicas no solo e, em caso de modificação, estas são positivas? O uso de tecnologias aplicadas à ureia reflete em maior longevidade na liberação do nutriente ao solo e, em caso positivo, esta longevidade é vantajosa? A combinação entre produtos de ureia convencional e com tecnologia agregada, pode trazer mais benefícios à cultura do milho do que a aplicação destes isoladamente? A substituição do uso/aplicação da ureia em sua forma tradicional pela ureia com tecnologia agregada, na cultura do milho, é viável economicamente ao produtor? Para responder a estes questionamentos, foram conduzidos três experimentos: análise das frações do nitrogênio provenientes da ureia com inibidores de urease; caracterização da dinâmica de liberação e longevidade de fertilizantes recobertos com polímero e enxofre e; análise da produtividade da cultura do milho submetida a adubação com ureia recoberta com polímero e enxofre. O primeiro experimento permitiu concluir que o uso dos inibidores de urease tem potencial para a redução das perdas por volatilização da amônia, foi possível verificar as transformações sofridas pelo nitrogênio desde a aplicação do grânulo até a disponibilidade das formas minerais, passando a incorporação do nutriente na matéria orgânica. No segundo experimento concluiu-se que os fertilizantes recobertos com polímero e enxofre possuem dinâmica exponencial de liberação, o recobrimento é dependente da temperatura, umidade do solo, tipo de material de recobrimento e processo de recobrimento (espessura), que afetam diretamente a liberação e longevidade destes fertilizantes. O último experimento mostrou que uso dos fertilizantes recobertos com polímero e enxofre aumenta a produtividade, os parâmetros biométricos, os parâmetros nutricionais e a qualidade do grão da cultura do milho. As combinações realizadas entre os produtos recobertos com a ureia convencional são alternativas para o aumento da produtividade resultando em valores superiores a aplicação dos insumos de forma isolada. A combinações de produtos recobertos com a ureia convencional é opção para a redução do investimento e, consequentemente, custo de produção resultante da adoção destas novas tecnologias. / Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrient for plant development and the most applied nutrient in several agricultural crops. Among the available nitrogen sources, urea differ due to the high concentration of nitrogen that result to several economic and operational advantages in the agricultural production system. However, in addition to the high propensity for losses, mainly due to the ammonia volatilization, the need to increase yield in order to supply the growing demand for food, fiber and energy emerge. Considering these factors, a new research area is focused to aggregate technologies to the urea, they call fertilizers with aggregate technology, this type of fertilizers emerges and brings new alternatives about new products available in the market. Based on the above, it was tried to answer the following questions: Does the new technologies applied to urea fertilizer enable the reduction of losses by volatilization? The new technologies applied to urea modify their inorganic and organic transformations in the soil and, if modified, are these positive? Does the use of technologies applied to urea reflect in a longer longevity in the release of the nutrient to the soil and, if so, is this longevity advantageous? Can the combination of conventional urea and aggregate technology products brings more benefits to cons than the application of these alone? Is the substitution of urea in its traditional form by urea with aggregate technology in the maize crop economically viable to the producer? In order to answer these questions, three experiments were conducted: analysis of nitrogen fractions from urea and urea mixed with inhibitors; Dynamics of release and longevity of polymer sulfurcoated fertilizers; Analysis of maize yield submitted to fertilization with polymer and sulfur coated urea. The first experiment allowed concluding that the use of the urea inhibitors has potential to reduce losses by ammonia volatilization, it was possible to verify all the changes undergone by the nitrogen fertilization since the granule until the availability of the mineral forms, including the immobilization of the nutrient in organic matter. In the second experiment, it was concluded that the polymer and sulfur coated fertilizers have exponential dynamics of release, the coating depends on the temperature, soil moisture, type of coating material and coating process (thickness), which directly affects the release and longevity of these fertilizers. The last experiment showed that the use of the coated fertilizers with polymer and sulfur increases the yield, the biometric parameters, the leaf concentration and the quality of grain to the maize crop. The combinations performed between the coated products with conventional urea are alternatives for increasing the yield resulting in higher application values of the inputs in an isolated way. Combinations of coated products with conventional urea is an alternative to reduce investment and consequently the production costs, it will result the adoption of these new technologies.

Graduation date: 2003

Graduation date: 1996

In this work, a new approach to optimize facility layout for toxic release, fire and explosion scenarios is presented. By integrating a risk analysis in the optimization formulation, safer assignments for facility layout and siting have been obtained. Accompanying with the economical concepts used in a plant layout, the new model considers the cost of willing to avoid a fatality, i.e. the potential injury cost due to accidents associated with toxic release near residential areas. For fire and explosion scenarios, the building or equipment damage cost replaces the potential injury cost. Two different approaches have been proposed to optimize the total cost related with layout. In the first phase using continuous-plane approach, the overall problem was initially modeled as a disjunctive program where the coordinates of each facility and cost-related variables are the main unknowns. Then, the convex hull approach was used to reformulate the problem as a Mixed Integer Non-Linear Program (MINLP) that identifies potential layouts by minimizing overall costs. This approach gives the coordinates of each facility in a continuous plane, and estimates for the total length of pipes, the land area, and the selection of safety devices. Finally, the 3D-computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to compare the difference between the initial layout and the final layout in order to see how obstacles and separation distances affect the dispersion or overpressures of affected facilities. One of the CFD programs, ANSYS CFX was employed for the dispersion study and Flame Acceleration Simulator (FLACS) for the fires and explosions. In the second phase for fire and explosion scenarios, the study is focused on finding an optimal placement for hazardous facilities and other process plant buildings using the optimization theory and mapping risks on the given land in order to calculate risk in financial terms. The given land is divided in a square grid of which the sides have a certain size and in which each square acquires a risk-score. These risk-scores such as the probability of structural damage are to be multiplied by prices of potential facilities which would be built on the grid. Finally this will give us the financial risk. Accompanying the suggested safety concepts, the new model takes into account construction and operational costs. The overall cost of locations is a function of piping cost, management cost, protection device cost, and financial risk. This approach gives the coordinates of the best location of each facility in a 2-D plane, and estimates the total piping length. Once the final layout is obtained, the CFD code, FLACS is used to simulate and consider obstacle effects in 3-D space. The outcome of this study will be useful in assisting the selection of location for process plant buildings and risk management.

Reintroduction of captive-bred Western Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) in the Nicola Valley, British Columbia, has had limited success in increasing the local breeding population. Traditionally, yearling captive-hatched Burrowing Owls that were paired and released into artificial burrows in the field, held overnight, and provided with supplemental food throughout the breeding season (hard release) have had high post-release dispersal and mortality. In 2005 and 2006, I used an alternative soft-release technique to test for an improvement upon the hard-release technique. The soft release followed the same procedure as the traditional hard release but also included enclosures around burrow entrances to contain the owls for a 2-week period in the field prior to release. I compared immediate post-release dispersal, seasonal survival, and reproductive success for 37 hard-released and 30 soft-released pairs. I radio-tagged 39 of these released owls in order to accurately monitor their activities, regardless of whether they remained at release sites or dispersed. The soft-release technique led to 20% more owls remaining at the release sites, 14% more owls surviving the breeding season, and 20% more owl pairs fledging juveniles. In addition to investigating adult survival and reproductive success, I examined post-fledging juvenile survival, local recruitment, and habitat use, and adult prey consumption behaviour in order to assess the potential of these aspects to limit the success of the reintroduction. Survival and local recruitment rates of the juveniles of captive-bred adults released with two different techniques were similar to that of juveniles of wild adults in the same study area or in other parts of the Burrowing Owl's range. Juvenile habitat-selection analyse sidentified the importance of rangeland, and comparisons of prey consumption revealed the rapid development of foraging abilities by captive-bred Burrowing Owls. I concluded that these aspects of the owl's ecology were not negatively affected by a captive upbringing, and therefore not likely limiting the success of the reintroduction. Overall, the use of an enclosure-based soft-release technique addresses major limitations to the success of releases, and shows promise for increasing the breeding population in this region. This approach can also be applied to recovery efforts throughout the Burrowing Owls' range, and provide guidelines for other species' reintroduction programs.

No description available.

Bone defects treatment and reconstructive surgery continues to increase at a significant rate. Current bone defect treatments are autotransplantation, allograft, and xenografts create many problems such as, inflammation, infection and chronic pain. Moreover, allografts and xenografts arouse immune rejection. These problems have led to development of controlled release system for use as alternatives to autografts, allografts and xenografts in bone repair. There have been many approaches for sustained drug delivery in local bone regeneration using biodegradable polymers and osteotropic biomolecules. This dissertation presents new approaches that apply intermittent drug delivery for local bone regeneration. In the first, the osteotropic molecules simvastatin (Sim) or parathyroid hormone (PTH) were released with intermittent profiles. In the second, alternating delivery of Sim and PTH as well as alternating release of the antimicrobial agent cecropin B (CB) with Sim or PTH. An association polymer system of cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) and Pluronic F-127 (PF-127) was used for the delivery vehicle. Each device showed discrete peaks in release profiles and lasted more than 10 days. Release profiles could be controlled by altering surface area exposed to aqueous environment, number of layers, loading, and blending ratios. Cells were cultured with sustained or intermittent exposure to Sim or PTH at various concentrations, and alternating exposure to CB and Sim or PTH and to Sim and PTH at different concentrations. Low dose Sim and PTH treatments stimulated higher osteoblastic activity than observed in control cultures. Furthermore, intermittent delivery was more effective than sustained exposure. In vivo, newly formed bone was found in animals implanted with both blank Sim-loaded devices. However, a greater anabolic effect was seen for Sim release devices. Further, intermittent release devices stimulated the greatest woven bone thickness, total bone area, and lamellar bone area. These results suggest that intermittent release devices containing a single molecule, Sim or PTH, and alternating release devices containing multiple molecules, CB with Sim or PTH, possess promising potential as a treatment for local bone regeneration.