O comportamento animal associado a características morfológicas fornece evidências para um melhor entendimento de como o comportamento sexual tem evoluído, e como os organismos podem maximizar seu sucesso reprodutivo. Fatores como tamanho, reservas de energia e outros caracteres sexuais como a coloração são essenciais para o melhor desempenho em relação a outros indivíduos da mesma espécie. Estes podem transmitir informação da qualidade do macho para outros machos co-específicos como também para às fêmeas. Esta qualidade, guarda relação com a condição física (reservas de energia) que possuem, e é necessária para ter sucesso na reprodução. Sendo a reprodução uma das mais custosas em términos energéticos em comparação a outras atividades, é de se esperar que os animais invistam a maioria das reservas no comportamento reprodutivo, o qual influencia no tipo de estratégia que eles adotam e à duração em tempo das interações relacionadas a reprodução, entre outras. Portanto indivíduos com características melhor desenvolvidas ou com boa condição física, terão uma vantagem na reprodução que os outros indivíduos da comunidade. Zenithoptera lanei é uma espécie neotropical presente no Brasil, da qual se tem poucos estudos sobre sua ecologia comportamental, sendo uns dos mais importante o realizado por Guillermo-Ferreira no 2015, para descrever as estruturas que conformam esta pruinosidade e sua função na comunicação intraespecífica. Neste estudo, descrevemos o comportamento sexual de Z. lanei (Libellulidae), com a hipótese que nesta espécie apresentam machos territoriais, e que a coloração de suas asas, o tamanho corporal e a reserva de energia (gordura) devem desempenham um papel importante na condição territorial. Assim, os machos com maior quantidade de energia e maior tamanho deveriam ganhar disputas, defender territórios e, portanto, manter a condição territorial. Além, avaliamos também se essa condição de territorialidade poderia influenciar o tempo de duração das cópulas e a oviposição pelas fêmeas. Os resultados mostraram que machos são territoriais, e esta territorialidade está relacionada com a condição física e tamanho. Sendo que, machos com maior tamanho corporal e maior quantidade de reservas de energia ganharam mais disputas e mantiveram um território. Apesar dos machos serem territoriais, não houve diferença entre a duração do tempo das interações reprodutivas para machos vencedores em comparação aos machos perdedores, indicando que o tempo de duração das interações reprodutivas não são influenciadas pela condição de territorialidade do macho. / Animal behavior associated with morphological characteristics supplies evidence for a better understanding of how sexual behavior has evolved, and how organisms can maximize their reproductive success. Factors such as size, fat reserves and other sexual characters such as coloration are essential to individual better performance in relation to conspecifics. These factors? Can bring information of the male quality to other conspecifics and females. This quality keeps relation with the physical condition (energy reserves) that they have which is required to succeed in breeding, as reproduction is one of the most expensive activity in energy cost in relation to other activities. The reproductive behavior is related to the individual fat reserves that influences, among other factors, in the condition that they adopt and to the duration in time of the related interactions to reproduction. Therefore, individuals with more developed characteristics or with better physical conditions will have an advantage in the reproduction comparing with other individuals of the community. The dragonfly Zenithoptera lanei is a Neotropical species present in Brazil, only studied so far by Guillermo-Ferreira in 2015, when structures that conform this pruinosity and his function in the intraspecific communication were described. In this study, describe the sexual behavior of Z. lanei (Libellulidae). Was hypothesized that in this species males present territorial behavior, and that the coloration of wings, body size and the energy reserves (fat) may play an important role in territorial condition and reproductive success. Thus, males with higher quantity of energy and larger size should win more disputes, defend territories and, therefore, maintain the territorial condition. In addition, was also assessed whether this condition of territoriality may influence the duration of the copulation and oviposition by females. The results showed that males are territorial, and its territoriality keeps relation with size and the physical condition. In other words, males with larger body and higher energy reserves have won more disputes and maintained a territory. Although males were territorial, there was no difference between the duration of reproductive interactions, winning males and losers, thus indicating that the reproductive interactions are not influenced by the condition of territoriality of the male.

O mamão (Carica papaya L.) cv. \"Sunrise Solo\" é um fruto que apresenta mudança gradual e desuniforme da cor da casca, que vai de verde para amarela. Isso faz com que a metodologia instrumental para avaliação da cor, por meio de um colorímetro, seja subjetiva, devido ao número de pontos observados, bem como às localizações deles no fruto. Como alternativa, foi proposta a utilização de imagens digitalizadas de toda região da casca do fruto, obtidas por meio de um scanner de mesa. Para avaliar a precisão desses métodos, foi conduzido um experimento com 20 repetições. Cada repetição era constituída de um fruto de mamoeiro cv. \"Sunrise Solo\", mantido sob temperatura e umidade relativa controladas. A cor da casca dos frutos foi avaliada, diariamente, utilizando um colorímetro e um scanner. Com o scanner, foram digitalizadas as duas faces do fruto e, com o colorímetro, foram observados quatro pontos equidistantes, na região equatorial do mesmo. Como a avaliação para cada fruto foi feita ao longo do tempo, os dados são classificados como longitudinais. Assim, utilizaram-se modelos lineares de efeitos mistos para estudar o comportamento da tonalidade média, pois essa técnica permite o uso de diferentes estruturas de variâncias e covariâncias para as matrizes dos efeitos aleatórios e dos erros. O processo de seleção do modelo foi realizado por meio do teste da razão de verossimilhanças e dos critérios de informação AIC e BIC, resultando no mesmo preditor linear e matrizes de variâncias e covariâncias para ambas as metodologias de quantificação da cor. O modelo final apresentou um preditor linear quadrático com efeitos aleatórios para o intercepto e para os termos linear e quadrático com matriz de variâncias e covariâncias dos efeitos aleatórios não estruturada e componentes de variância com heterocedasticidade para os erros. A utilização do scanner revelou dois grupos de maturação fisiológica distintos, que podem estar relacionados ao ponto de colheita do fruto, fato que não ficou evidente ao utilizar um colorímetro. De forma geral, o uso de um scanner possibilitou obter uma avaliação precisa da maturação do fruto, além de ser mais consistentes e eficiente do que o uso de um colorímetro para estudar a tonalidade média da casca de frutos que apresentam coloração desuniforme. / Papayas (Carica papaya L.) of \"Sunrise solo\" variety are fruits that present gradual and uneven changes in the peel color, which goes from green to yellow. As a consequence, when using a colorimeter to quantify their color, the results are subjective because of the number of observed points, as well as because of their position on the fruit. A proposed alternative was to use scanned images of the whole fruit peel to quantify color. To assess the precision of these methods, an experiment with 20 replicates was carried out. Each replicate consisted of a papaya fruit, kept under controlled temperature and relative humidity. The fruits\' peel colors were assessed, daily, using a colorimeter and a scanner. With the scanner, both sides of the fruit were scanned and, with the colorimeter, four equidistant points at the equatorial region of the fruit were observed. As the assessment was made through time for a same fruit, the data are classified as longitudinal. Therefore, linear mixed effect models were used to study the behavior of the average fruit color tonality through time, as this technique allows usage of different random effects and error covariance structures. Model selection was made using likelihood-ratio tests and the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria, which resulted in the selection of the same linear predictor and covariance matrices for both color quantification methods. The final model presented a quadractic linear predictor with random effects for the intercept, linear and quadractic terms with an unstructured variance-covariance matrix for the random effects and a variance components with heterogeneity matrix for the residuals. The use of a scanner revealed two distinct phisiological maturation groups, which may be related to the harvesting time. This was not observed when using a colorimeter. In general, using a scanner made possible to obtain more consistent observations, which makes it a more efficient methodology to study the average fruit peel color tonality.

Les diagnostics d’hypominéralisations molaire-incisive (HMI) et de colorations post-mortem de l’émail sont peu fiables et reproductibles dans des séries archéologiques. Notre guide de diagnostic a permis de distinguer les hypominéralisations de l’émail des colorations taphonomiques. L'émail hypominéralisé est caractérisé par des taux de β-carbonate plus élevés et une densité minérale plus faible. Les colorations taphonomiques présentent une concentration plus élevée en manganèse, en fer, en cuivre et en plomb, mises en évidences par des analyses en fluorescence X. Les dentures d’individus immatures issus de 21 séries archéologiques ont été examinés et comprenaient : 4 séries françaises, Sains-en-Gohelle (Pas-de-Calais), Cognac-Saint-Martin (Charente), Beauvais (Oise) et Jau-Dignac-et-Loirac (Gironde) provenant de cimetières médiévaux et post-médiévaux et 17 séries anglaises (Londres) provenant de cimetières romains, médiévaux et post-médiévaux. Nous avons dénombré 555 individus dont l’âge au décès est compris entre 5 et 19 ans et dont la datation chronologique s’étale sur une période allant du 1er au 19ème siècle. Au total, sur les 290 individus avec au moins une première molaire permanente (PMP) présente, 42 avaient au moins une opacité délimitée de l’émail sur une PMP (soit 14,5%). Parmi les 17 individus dont les dents ont été analysées, les tests statistiques n’ont mis en évidence que 9 cas de HMI, soit 52,9% de l’effectif. Une prévalence de 9,3% de HMI a été estimée dans nos séries archéologiques ce qui avoisine les prévalences connues à l’heure actuelle dans les populations du vivant en Europe. Les défauts du développement de d'émail sont souvent utilisés comme indicateurs de la santé générale dans les populations archéologiques passées. La possibilité de trouver des HMI dans des populations anciennes minimise l’importance de certaines hypothèses étiologiques contemporaines (par exemple les dérivés de dioxines, les bisphénols ou les antibiotiques) sans exclure l'aspect multifactoriel possible de l'anomalie. / Developmental enamel defects are often used as indicators of general health in past archaeological populations. It can be difficult to macroscopically distinguish subtle hypomineralised enamel opacities such as Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) from post-mortem staining. The diagnostic guide developed enables the differentiation of developmental hypomineralisation of enamel from taphonomic discolorations. Hypomineralised enamel had higher β-carbonate rates and lower mineral density. Taphonomic discoloration had higher concentration of manganese, iron, copper and lead, determined by means of X-ray fluorescence analyses. Sub adults from 21 archaeological series were examined and included: 4 French series, Sains-en-Gohelle (Pas-de-Calais), Cognac-Saint-Martin (Charente), Beauvais (Oise) and Jau-Dignac-et-Loirac (Gironde) from medieval and post-medieval cemeteries and 17 English series (London) from Roman, medieval and post-medieval cemeteries. We recorded 555 individuals aged between 5-19 years dating from 1st to 19th century. Among 290 specimens with at least one first permanent molar (FPM) present, 42 showed at least one FPM opacity (14.5%). Among the 17 individuals whose teeth were analysed, statistics highlighted 9 cases of MIH (52.9%). MIH prevalence of 9.3% was estimated among the archaeological series which is close to prevalence in living populations in Europe. The identification of MIH among past populations downplays contemporary aetiological hypotheses (e.g. dioxins, bisphenols, antibiotics) without excluding multifactorial aetiology of this pathology.

Parasites could represent an important evolutionary driver and play an important role in a sexual selection. In the mate selection process, females use secondary sexual ornaments, which may reflect the parasite load and health condition of males. Females would benefit from choosing males with the most extravagant sexual characters, which indicate low levels of parasite infestation. A popular model species for sexual selection study is the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica). However there are no recent studies investigating the relationship between the level of the ectoparasitic infestation and the ornamentation of the barn swallow. Results of this thesis, based on analysis of ectoparasite load in 204 individuals show, that the level of infestation by feather mites is positively correlated with outermost tail feathers and the intensity of feather holes is negatively correlated with a breast coloration. The relationship between the abundance of ectoparasites and white tail spots was not found. The effect of ectoparasites on the survival of individuals or the nest initiation date was not observed. A possitive relationship between the individual seasonal change in feather mites infestation and brood size was detected. This implies a potential trade-off between the investments into parental care and defence...

Natural precious opals consist of silica nanoparticles of uniform diameter organised in a periodic three-dimensional structure. The physical structure of the material produces the perceived colour by a process of light diffraction. The modification of light by the physical structure of the material is also known as structural colour. This is a different process from how most surface colours are produced where light is more usually absorbed by dye and/or pigment molecules. Desirable aesthetic qualities could be achieved if the structural colours produced by natural opals could be replicated in the form of a film or a coating on textile substrates. The work presented investigates how to produce structurally coloured textiles using surface applications of uniform spherical silica nanoparticles (USSNPs). A novel one-step solvent varying (SV) technique has been developed to synthesise USSNPs with particle diameters in a controlled size range. Using suspensions containing USSNPs, structurally coloured artificial opal (AO) films have been fabricated by self-assembly using a process of natural gravity sedimentation. The sedimentation of a particular particle size range of USSNPs (from which a coloured film was produced), onto the surface of fabrics, produced a structurally coloured fabric. By controlling the mean particle diameter a wide range of spectral colours from red to blue was obtained. The light fastness properties of the coloured textiles were investigated. A further surface modification of USSNPs was performed by adding vinyl functional groups to improve the mechanical strength of the structural colour. This work suggested a novel approach to colouring textile materials without using traditional dyes and/or pigments.

The diploma thesis is focused on the distribution and role of UV reflectant patterns in beetles (Coleoptera) with focus on the family Scarabaeidae. Through a survey of European museum collections, we discovered over 900 species of UV reflectant beetles, of which 850 species were identified as UV reflectant for the first time. The surface structures responsible for UV reflectant patterns in beetles were studied in detail using a scanning electron microscope. We have identified two ways how the UV reflectant patterns occur. The first way: the light rays interact with the internal structure of the cuticular formations or the cuticle itself; the second way: the light rays interact with the surface layer formed by cuticular secretion. Additionally we carried out experiments with live animals, where we investigated the effect of an individual's age on the intensity of UV reflectant patterns and the effect of UV reflectance on reproductive activity. In a pilot study we were able to show that freshly hatched individuals show a higher level of UV reflectance than older individuals.

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Notre objectif est d’évaluer et de rendre opérationnelle la décomposition de problèmes d’optimisation sous contraintes. Nous nous sommes intéressés à deux problèmes en particulier : le problème de la recherche d’un plus grand sous-graphe commun (MCIS), et le problème de somme coloration minimale (MSCP). Il s’agit de problèmes NP-difficiles pour lesquels les approches de résolution complètes passent difficilement à l’échelle, et nous proposons de les améliorer à cet égard en décomposant ces problèmes en sous-problèmes indépendants. Les décompositions que nous proposons s’appuient sur la structure du problème initial pour créer des sous-problèmes de tailles équilibrées. Pour le MCIS, nous introduisons une décomposition basée sur la structure du graphe de compatibilité, et nous montrons que cette décomposition permet d’obtenir des sous-problèmes plus équilibrés que la méthode EPS classiquement utilisée pour paralléliser la résolution de problèmes en programmation par contraintes. Pour le MSCP, nous introduisons une nouvelle décomposition arborescente de hauteur bornée, et nous montrons comment tirer partie de la complémentarité de la programmation par contraintes et de la programmation linéaire en nombres entiers pour obtenir et résoudre les sous-problèmes indépendants qui en découlent. Nous proposons également une approche portfolio qui utilise des techniques d’apprentissage automatique pour choisir dynamiquement l’approche la plus performante en fonction du problème à résoudre. / The objective of this thesis is, from a general standpoint, to design and evaluate decomposition methods for solving constrained optimisation problems. Two optimisation problems in particular are considered: the maximum common induced subgraph problem, in which the largest common part between two graphs is to be found, and the sum colouring problem, where a graph must be coloured in a way that minimises a sum of weights induced by the employed colours. The maximum common subgraph (MCIS) problem is notably difficult, with a strong applicability in domains such as biology, chemistry and image processing, where the need to measure the similarity between structured objects represented by graphs may arise. The outstanding difficulty of this problem makes it strongly advisable to employ a decomposition method, possibly coupled with a parallelisation of the solution process. However, existing decomposition methods are not well suited to solve the MCIS problem: some lead to a poor balance between subproblems, while others, like tree decomposition, are downright inapplicable. To enable the structural decomposition of such problems, Chmeiss et al. proposed an approach, TR-decomposition, acting at a low level: the microstructure of the problem. This approach had yet to be applied to the MCIS problem. We evaluate it in this context, aiming at reducing the size of the search space while also enabling parallelisation. The second problem that caught our interest is the sum colouring problem. It is an NP-hard variant of the widely known classical graph colouring problem. As in most colouring problems, it basically consists in assigning colours to the vertices of a given graph while making sure no neighbour vertices use the same colour. In the sum colouring problem, however, each colour is associated with a weight. The objective is to minimise the sum of the weights of the colours used by every vertex. This leads to generally harder instances than the classical colouring problem, which simply requires to use as few colours as possible. Only a few exact methods have been proposed for this problem. Among them stand notably a constraint programming (CP) model, a branch and bound approach, as well as an integer linear programming (ILP) model. We led an in-depth investigation of CP's capabilities to solve the sum colouring problem, while also looking into ways to make it more efficient. Additionally, we evaluated a combination of integer linear programming and constraint programming, with the intention of conciliating the strong points of these highly complementary approaches. We took inspiration from the classical backtracking bounded by tree decomposition (BTD) approach. We employ a tree decomposition with a strictly bounded height. We then derive profit from the complementarity of our approaches by developing a portfolio approach, able to choose one of the considered approaches automatically by relying on a number of features extracted from each instance.

Procedeu-se ao estudo comparativo das técnicas - de Coloração de Sellers, Imunofluorescência Direta e Inoculação em Camundongos, utilizadas na rotina de diagnóstico laboratorial da raiva e praticadas sobre 2.242 amostras de cérebro de cães, enviadas ao Instituto Pasteur de São Paulo, durante o período de janeiro de 1974 a abril de 1976. As técnicas de Inoculação em Camundongos e de Imunofluorescência Direta foram as que apresentaram maior grau de Sensibilidade, sendo essa associação a que forneceu maior Concordância e valor significante mais alto para o x2 (Qui quadrado). A técnica de Coloração de Sellers foi a que apresentou menor grau de Sensibilidade e sua associação com as técnicas de Imunofluorescência Direta e de Inoculação em Camundongos forneceu resultados de Concordância e x2 (Qui quadrado) inferiores aos obtidos pela associação dessas duas técnicas. / A comparative study was made of three techniques: Coloration of Sellers, Direct Immunofluorescence, and Inoculation in Mice - used in the routine of laboratory diagnosis of rabies and applied on 2,242 samples of dog brains which were sent to the Pasteur Institute of Sã0 Paulo, between January 1974 and April 1976. The techniques of mice inoculation and of direct immunofluorescence were the ones which presented higher degree of sensitivity; this association resulted in a greater rapport and a higher significative value for the x2 (square Qui). The techniques of Sellers Coloration resulted in a lower degree of sensitivity, and its association with the techniques of direct immunofluorescence and inoculation in mice gave over results of rapport and x2 than those obtained by the association of the two latter techniques.