Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Major Professor Not Listed / Based on the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) approach and Parasocial Interaction (PSI) theory, this study examined how people use live streaming platforms in China. Uniquely, it sought to understand the effect of romantic relationships on how and why people watch Host Live Shows (HLSs) and explored the relationships between Chinese audiences and live- streamers. Through an online survey, four viewing motivations were identified: Community Building, Ego-boost, Escape, and Bandwagon. Ego-boost is a relatively new motivation of media use, which means audiences watch and interact with HLSs to get compliments, self-confidence, self- validation, and ego-boosts. This study found audiences’ perceived realism and PSI were both very neutral. However, emotion projection of audiences onto streamers was observed – most viewers highly agree that streamers are their friends. Moreover, this study found the quality of interpersonal communication is affecting audiences’ HLS dependence and the degree of PSI, while the quantity of interpersonal communication might not be – the more satisfied a person is about his/her interpersonal communication, the heavier he/she depends on HLSs and the stronger his/her PSI is. As expected, the degrees of both romantic relationship status and romantic relationship satisfaction influence people’s HLS use. While compared with females, males are affected by romantic relationships more, both the status and satisfaction level. Lastly, when it comes to people’s romantic lives and social lives, HLSs are more likely to be used as alternatives to meet their unsatisfied needs from their “real partners.”

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Esta dissertação tem como objetivo o relato das apresentações de Fluidos, o primeiro projeto realizado no formato CineVivo. Trata-se de uma experiência inédita de longa-metragem realizado ao vivo, com captação, edição e exibição simultâneas. Em diversas locações, atores encenam a história de ficção captada por três câmeras. Essas imagens são transmitidas para a edição em tempo real e a exibição para os espectadores na sala de cinema. As apresentações aconteceram no Centro Cultural São Paulo, no Sesc Pompeia e no CineSESC entre o período de maio de 2009 a maio de 2010. Em anexo, encontram-se o último tratamento do roteiro, o DVD com a versão apresentada no CineSESC e as principais reportagens publicadas na mídia. / The aim of this dissertation is to report the exhibitions of Fluids. This is the first project completed in the format CineVivo. It is a new experience for feature film performed live, with capture, editing and projection simultaneously. At several locations, cast acts the story captured by three cameras that transmit live for realtime editing and projection in the theater. The film was screened at Centro Cultural São Paulo, SESC Pompeia and CineSESC, between May 2009 to May 2010. Attached the last screenplays treatment, DVD with the version presented in CineSESC, and main reports in the media.

The western and northern parts of South Florida have shallow layers of organic and plastic soils under existing roads. These roads often exhibit large amount of cracking and distortion in a short period of time. Traditional repairs are often not practical due to high costs and extended construction time. In an effort to develop rehabilitation strategies that could be strictly applied to the surface layer, a pilot test site was selected along the alignment of SR 15/US 98 in northwest Palm Beach County, where severe pavement distresses were observed due to the presence of thick organic layers. PaveTrac MT-1, GlasGrid 8501, PetroGrid 4582, and ARMI were used as promising asphalt reinforcing products in 24 experimental pavement sections, including 8 control sections without any reinforcement. A comprehensive field testing and monitoring program involving FWD, rut and ride quality measurements was conducted at the preconstruction, 6-month post-construction, and 18-month post-construction stages. Due to large variability in the sub-surface conditions, a statistics-based data analysis protocol was developed for performance evaluation and relative comparisons of the test sections and, in turn, reinforcing products. Post construction data from both 6 months and 18 months demonstrated that stiffness of reinforced sections were significantly higher than the control sections. Procedures were developed to identify and statistically quantify the benefits derived from the reinforcements only, so that the relative performance of various products could be monitored over time. Based on the field testing data available to date, a framework was developed in this study for the prediction of pavement life, which is essential for conducting a detailed Life Cycle Analysis / by Alex Lima-Arie. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

A feature of prion disease and other protein misfolding neurodegenerative disease is the formation of amyloid plaques. Amyloid is commonly found in the brain of individuals who have died from prion disease and Alzheimer’s disease. The formation and purpose of amyloid in such diseases is poorly understood and it is not currently known whether the material is neurotoxic, neuroprotective or an artefact. Several methods are used to investigate the formation of amyloid both in vitro and in vivo. A cell free protein conversion assay has been optimised to gain insight into the protein misfolding pathway and prion infection has been introduced to a newly characterised whole brain organotypic slice culture model. Fibrillar, but not oligomeric, recombinant PrP species induce a seeding effect on amyloid formation in the protein conversion assay. Brain homogenate containing amyloid from a β-amyloid aggregation mouse model is demonstrated to have a similar effect to recombinant fibril seeds with a PrP substrate indicating a cross-seeding effect. A whole brain organotypic slice culture (BOSC) model has been developed and slices maintained in culture for up to 8 months. During this time slices remain viable with low levels of stress and thin down from 400μm to 30-50μm with morphological consequences. A prominent glial scar forms on the surface of the slice as a result of astrocyte activation and proliferation. The neuronal population decreases while the microglia have a consistent presence throughout time in culture. Replication of misfolded prion protein has been successfully demonstrated within whole BOSC following prion infection after 2 months in culture. The BOSC model represents an accessible short term in vitro model of the brain which can offer insights into protein misfolding in a complex multicellular context. Amyloid formation has been investigated in vivo using a β-amyloid misfolding mouse model following seeding with a range of recombinant protein and brain homogenate seeds. No seeding effect was observed in animals which had received intracerebral inoculations compared to control animals within the time frame of the experiment. A lack of overall amyloid within all animals at the final time point investigated suggests later time points are required for observation of seeding. The functional role of amyloid in protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases remains unclear. From the cell free protein conversion assay oligomers do not form on the direct pathway towards amyloid in prion misfolding. BOSC provide an accessible and useful short term in vitro model which retains multiple characteristics of the brain. BOSC support replication of misfolded protein and amyloid formation therefore this model can now be utilised to investigate plaque growth and the effect of amyloid formation on surrounding cells. Results from these assays provide important information to guide future in vivo studies and aid the search for therapeutic intervention in these devastating diseases.

O estudo comparou o desempenho preditivo dos modelos de previsão de redes neurais e de suavização exponencial, empregando dados diários do preço da arroba do boi gordo futuro (BM&FBOVESPA) entre janeiro de 2010 até dezembro de 2015. Os resultados mostram que modelos relativamente mais complexos como redes neurais não necessariamente apresentam melhor desempenho se comparados a modelos mais simples, e também mostram que a classificação relativa muda conforme variam as medidas de ajuste e/ou horizonte de previsão além de vantagens associadas a combinação de diversos modelos. / This study compared the predictive performance between neural network models and exponential smoothing, using daily data of live cattle future price (BM&FBOVESPA) from January 2010 to December 2015. The results show that relatively more complex models like neural networks do not necessarily display better performance compared to simpler ones. Results also shows that relative classification changes with respect to adjust measures and/or forecast horizons changes besides advantages achieved by model combinaion.

O objetivo desta dissertação é descrever alguns aspectos linguísticos da narração de futebol transmitida por rádio. Para isso, utilizei a partida que gravei (entre outras) disputada pelas equipes do Corinthians-SP e do Flamengo-RJ realizada em 2013, narrada por Deva Pascovici para a rádio CBN. Dessa gravação, o segundo tempo do jogo foi sincronizado com as imagens da transmissão televisiva emitida pela TV Bandeirantes. Realizei essa sincronização no software ELAN, desenvolvido pelo Instituto Max Planck de Psicolinguística. Nesse mesmo software, transcrevi as falas tanto do narrador como dos comentaristas e repórteres. Também as imagens foram transcritas, por meio de um sistema de trilhas que elaborei para as informações visuais baseado no sistema de transcrição desenvolvido pelo Laboratório Linguagem, Interação, Cognição para línguas sinalizadas e outras semióticas visuais (McCleary & Viotti, 2007; McCleary et al., 2010). Os aspectos linguísticos descritos neste trabalho dizem respeito a elementos dos eventos de fala para além do conteúdo segmental como faceta relevante dos processos de significação da narração. Nesse sentido, descrevo o encadeamento dos enquadramentos de visualização (Langacker, 2001) e a prosódia como unidades linguísticas em uma visão mais ampla da narração e os usos da expressão pra fora e do verbo sair ao aproximar o foco dos processos de construal (Langacker, 2000, 2008; Taylor, 2002). Esta dissertação mostra que a narração de eventos em tempo real para um ouvinte que não os presencia necessita não apenas dos conhecimentos compartilhados entre falante e ouvinte sobre o contexto de produção da narração, mas também de estratégias específicas para convencionalizar unidades linguísticas para além do uso corriqueiro da língua. / This dissertation describes some linguistic aspects of football (soccer) radio live commentary. The broadcast of a match between the Corinthians-SP and Flamengo-RJ teams, which occurred in 2013, was recorded live. The main commentator was Deva Pascovic, on CBN radio station. The second half of that match was synchronized with the television shootage, exhibited by TV Bandeirantes. That synchronization was made on the ELAN software, developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. On the same software, a transcription of the speech from the live commentator as well as from other commentators and reporters was made. The video shootage was also transcribed, through a tiers system developed during this study for visual information on football TV broadcast based on the transcription system under development in the Language, Interaction, Cognition Lab at the University of São Paulo (McCleary & Viotti, 2007; McCleary et al., 2010). Some linguistic aspects described in this study are related to speech events elements beyond the segmental content as relevant facets of the signifying process in football live commentary. The study describes then the sequencing of viewing frames (Langacker, 2001) and prosody as linguistic unities in a broader view of the live commentaries and usage events of the expressions pra fora and sair when the research focus was approximated to the construal (Langacker, 2000, 2008; Taylor, 2002) processes. We show that events live commentary made to a listener who does not experience them in presence needs not only shared knowledge beteween speaker and hearer about the speaking event context, but also specific strategies in order to conventionalize linguistic unities that go beyond the language usage of everyday.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Coronato Rodrigues.pdf: 1804799 bytes, checksum: 2818960412f66b55781c923da7ef74da (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-10 / This study aims to understand the current state of the production processes of collective narratives in real-time and identify a different way, not yet experienced, to create Live Cinema pieces. Therefore, it starts from the narrative concept definition supported by the philosophical theories of Rolland Barthes and Walter Benjamin added to the aesthetic theories of digital media of Lev Manovich, the analysis of the types of cinematographic narratives of André Parente and authorship concept discussion according to researchers Lucia Santaella, Arlindo Machado and Antonio Miranda. From these definitions we identified the structural parameters of contemporary digital storytelling, which allowed the analysis of four current examples of collective production of stories in real time, distinguishing them as the kind of narrative created and the depth of the collective participation in its creation. As a result, this paper presents the specification of production real-time collective narratives system, which proves the discovery revealed by analysis and points the universe of possibilities that arise with the advent of digital technologies of information processing / Este estudo busca compreender o estado atual dos processos de produção de narrativas coletivas em tempo real e identificar uma forma diferente, ainda não experimentada, de criação de Live Cinema. Para tanto, parte-se da definição do conceito de narrativa apoiado nas teorias filosóficas de Rolland Barthes e Walter Benjamin somada às teorias estéticas sobre a mídia digital de Lev Manovich, da análise dos tipos de narrativas cinematográficas de André Parente e da discussão do conceito de autoria segundo os pesquisadores Lucia Santaella, Arlindo Machado e Antonio Miranda. A partir destas definições identificou-se os parâmetros estruturais das narrativas digitais contemporâneas, que permitiram a análise de quatro exemplos atuais da produção coletiva de histórias em tempo real, diferenciando-os quanto ao tipo de narrativa criada e a profundidade da participação coletiva em sua criação. Como resultado, este trabalho apresenta a especificação de um sistema coletivo de produção de narrativas em tempo real, que comprova a descoberta revelada pela análise e aponta o universo de possibilidades surgidas com o advento das tecnologias digitais de processamento da informação

Plant viruses have developed a number of strategies that enable them to become obligate intracellular parasites of many agricultural crops. Potato virus X (PVX) belongs to a group of positive-sense, single-stranded plant RNA viruses that replicate on host membranes and form elaborate structures known as viral replication complexes (VRCs) that contain viral RNA (vRNA), proteins and host cellular components. VRCs are the principal sites of viral genome replication, virion assembly and packaging of vRNA for export into neighbouring cells. For many animal viruses, host membrane association is crucial for RNA export. For plant viruses, it is not yet known how vRNA is transported to and through plant plasmodesmata. PVX encodes genetic information required for its movement between cells; three viral triple gene block (TGB) movement proteins and a viral coat protein are essential for viral trafficking. This research project studies the relationship between PVX and its host plants, Nicotiana benthamina and Nicotiana tabacum. A particular focus of this project is exploration of the structural and functional significance of the PVX VRC and how the virus recruits cell host components for its replication and movement between cells. The role of specific viral proteins in establishing the VRC, and the ways in which these interact with host organelles, was investigated. A combination of different approaches was used, including RNA-binding dyes and a Pumilio-based bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay for detection of the vRNA, fluorescent reporters for virusencoded proteins, fluorescent reporters for host organelles involved in viral replication, and also transgenic tobacco plants expressing reporters for specific plant components (endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi, actin, microtubules and plasmodesmata). In addition, mutagenesis was used to study the functions of individual viral proteins in replication and movement. All of these approaches were combined to achieve live-cell imaging of the PVX infection process. The PVX VRC was shown to be a highly compartmentalised structure; (+)-stranded vRNA was concentrated around the viral TGB1 protein, which was localised in discrete circular compartments within the VRC while coat protein was localised to the external edges of the VRC. The vRNA was closely associated with host components (endoplasmic reticulum and actin) shown to be involved in the formation of the VRC. The TGB2/TGB3 viral proteins were shown to colocalise with the host endomembranes (ER) and to exit these compartments in the form of motile granules. vRNA, TGB1, TGB2 and CP localised to plasmodesmata of the infected cells. TGB1 was shown to move cell-to-cell and recruit ER, Golgi and actin in the absence of viral infection. In the presence of virus, TGB1 targeted the VRCs in several neighbouring cells. A model of PVX replication and movement is proposed in which TGB1 functions as a key component for recruitment of host components into the VRC to enable viral replication and spread.

The primary research aims of this thesis were to analyse the mechanism of Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM) signalling during conidial germination and conidial anastomosis tube (CAT)-mediated fusion in Neurospora crassa. Ca2+ is an ubiquitous signalling molecule that regulates many important processes in filamentous fungi including spore germination, hyphal growth, mechanosensing, stress responses, circadian rhythms, and the virulence of pathogens. Transient increases in cytosolic free calcium ([Ca2+]c) act as intracellular signals. As the primary intracellular Ca2+ receptor, calmodulin (CaM) converts these Ca2+ signals into responses by regulating the activities of numerous target proteins. Ca2+-free medium, antagonists of L-type Ca2+ channels, CaM and calcineurin were found to inhibit CAT fusion. In addition, my results showed that CAT chemotropism is dependent on extracellular Ca2+. 65 genes were identified as likely components of the Ca2+ signalling machinery of N. crassa based on a comparative genomic analysis of S. cerevisiae, A. fumigatus and C. albicans. Deletion mutants of 29 of these genes were characterized in relation to their possible roles during colony initiation and development. Four of these mutants (Δcna-1, Δcnb-1, Δcamk-1, Δplc-2, and Δrgs-1), which were homokaryons, exhibited strong morphological phenotypes associated with CAT fusion. To identify the protein machinery involved in Ca2+/CaM signalling during colony initiation, proteins that directly or indirectly interacted with CaM were isolated from germlings by immunoprecipitation and analyzed by mass spectroscopy. A total of 286 putative Ca2+/CaM-interacting proteins were identified in this way and 30 of these proteins contained CaM-binding motifs. This proteomics analysis provided evidence for Ca2+/CaM signalling playing a role in regulating the activity of a wide range of proteins including MAP kinases in the cell integrity pathway, Ras/Rho signalling pathway, and microtubule and actin cytoskeletal proteins. GFP labelled CaM localized as dynamic spots associated with the plasma membrane and cytoplasm in both germ tubes and CATs. Significant CaM accumulation was observed in the tips of CATs growing towards each other, around fusion pores at sites of CAT fusion, and at developing septa in germ tubes. CaM localization was influenced by the actin and microtubule cytoskeleton during the colony initiation. Inhibition of F-actin polymerization with latrunculin-A suppressed the pronounced accumulation of CaM at growing germ tube and CAT tips. The movement of CaM associated with spindle pole bodies was prevented by treatment with the microtubule polymerization inhibitor benomyl. The absence of myo-5 resulted in reduced CAT fusion and the lack recruitment of CaM at growing tips indicating a role for the motor protein, myosin-5, in these processes. Finally, by expressing the genetically encoded Ca2+ sensor GCaMP6s under the control of tef-1 promoter in N. crassa, I have been able to image [Ca2+]c dynamics in this fungus for the first time. Using this I have been able to detect localized [Ca2+]c spikes and waves in conidia, germ tubes and CATs. However, I obtained no clear evidence for localized [Ca2+]c changes being associated with CAT chemotropism or fusion.