Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / A ocorrência de produtos farmacêuticos no ambiente aquático pode causar efeitos adversos à saúde humana e às comunidades aquáticas. Propranolol, -bloqueador não seletivo, é largamente prescrito no tratamento de doenças ligadas ao coração como angina e hipertensão. Simples medidas de efeito, como a CL50, não fornece informações sobre o impacto de contaminantes em populações. A taxa de crescimento populacional (r) é uma ferramenta importante para estudos que objetiva determinar os efeitos em nível populacional. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de estabelecer a toxicidade aguda e crônica de Propranolol para a espécie autóctone Ceriodaphnia silvestrii (CLADOCERA, CRUSTACEA) com ênfase em efeitos nas populações. Os valores determinados para CE(I)50;48H foram de 2,87 e 2,63 mg.L-1 para água destilada e natural reconstituídas, respectivamente. Para a toxicidade crônica, os valores obtidos para CENO e CEO encontraram-se na faixa de 0,62-1,25 e 1,25-2,50 mg.L-1 para água natural reconstituída. Como critérios de aceitabilidade para os ensaios crônicos populacionais foram estabelecidos para o controle 73 neonatas (±10 DP) e taxa intrínseca de aumento natural de 0,596 (±0,13 DP) em sete dias de experimento com água natural reconstituída. No teste de sensibilidade, os valores obtidos para CENO e CEO populacional foram 0,275 e 0,723 g.L-1 de NaCl, respectivamente, semelhante aos valores nos ensaios crônicos individuais. Para Propranolol, as análises indicaram que os ensaios populacionais foram iguais ou mais sensíveis que a exposição individual. Os resultados nos ensaios crônicos populacionais e com indivíduos encontraram-se entre 1,25 (CENO) e 2,50 mg.L-1 (CEO), respectivamente. Os endpoints populacionais parecem ser medidas mais sensíveis. Comparando-se os valores de ICP para populações e indivíduos, observa-se que as populações foram mais sensíveis na ordem de 70%. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Orientadores: Fernando José Von Zuben, Leandro Nunes de Castro Silva / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T19:55:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pasti_Rodrigo_D.pdf: 4931504 bytes, checksum: 28f0e5bc0f2210db1cfb2cd2fc4c7f15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Existem muitas formas de se entender e descrever a natureza, sendo que a Computação Natural parte do princípio de que sistemas naturais são processadores de informação, ou seja, realizam computação. Esta tese recorre aos mecanismos da Computação Natural para o entendimento das computações realizadas em um sistema natural específico: os ecossistemas. O primeiro passo está fundamentado na ciência da Biogeografia, que estuda os ecossistemas e seus padrões emergentes. Na Biogeografia, é possível identificar elementos, relações entre eles e processos. A principal contribuição desta tese está na formalização computacional da Biogeografia, dando origem à Computação Biogeográfica. A proposta da Computação Biogeográfica é desenvolvida em várias frentes. A primeira delas promove a formalização do metamodelo, definido como uma estrutura conceitual que busca contextualizar a existência de ecossistemas artificiais e seus processos espaço temporais. Em seguida, para ilustrar a aplicação do metamodelo, são propostas definições de computação de ecossistemas em superfícies adaptativas fenotípicas. Essas definições resultam em um conjunto de relações e processos, os quais são aplicáveis à construção de ecossistemas artificiais. Estes, por sua vez, permitem o entendimento de dinâmicas e padrões de ecossistemas e também podem contribuir para a resolução de problemas computáveis. Na etapa final da tese, será proposto um algoritmo de radiação adaptativa que exibe padrões similares aos encontrados em ecossistemas reais e que se mostra competitivo para otimização multimodal em espaços contínuos. Por fim, perspectivas futuras são apresentadas visando indicar caminhos para se consolidar a Computação Biogeográfica como um novo ramo da Computação Natural / Abstract: There are several attempts to understand and describe nature, and Natural Computing is founded on the principle that natural systems are information processors, in the sense that they perform computation. This thesis makes use of Natural Computing mechanisms for the understanding of the computation taking place in a specific natural system: the ecosystems. The first step is based on the science of Biogeography, devoted to the study of ecosystems and their emerging patterns. In Biogeography, it is possible to identify elements, relations among them, and processes. The main contribution of this thesis resides in the computational formalization of Biogeography, thus establishing the research area of Biogeographic Computation. The proposal of Biogeographic Computation is introduced in several fronts. The first front promotes the metamodel formalism, which defines a conceptual framework focused on contextualizing the existence of artificial ecosystems and their spatio-temporal processes. After that, aiming at illustrating the application of the metamodel, definitions of ecosystems computing in phenotypic adaptive surfaces is proposed. These definitions proceed to a set of relations and processes directly applicable to the proposition of artificial ecosystems. These artificial ecosystems promote the understanding of natural ecosystems dynamics and patterns, and can also contribute to the resolution of computable problems. At the final stage of the thesis, it is presented an adaptive radiation algorithm exhibiting patterns which are similar to the ones found in real ecosystems, and also proving to be competitive for multimodal optimization in continuous spaces. To conclude, some perspectives for the further steps of the research are outlined with the purpose of indicating some routes to consolidate Biogeographic Computation as a new branch of Natural Computing / Doutorado / Engenharia de Computação / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

Since the 'discovery' of the high abundance of viruses in aquatic environments, it has been generally assumed that viruses in lakes are similar to those in oceans. I directly compared these two systems using a large, robust data set. Viral abundance was significantly different among the surveyed environments. The relationship between viral and bacterial abundance indicated a fundamental difference between lakes and oceans, and suggested that viruses infecting phytoplankton may be more important in lakes. Molecular techniques (PCR & DGGE) were used to document spatial and temporal variations in the richness of viruses that infect eukaryotic phytoplankton (Phycodnaviridae) in lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA). Phycodnavirus richness was highest in the eutrophic lake, and during the spring/early summer in all the lakes. Viral richness was closely associated with phytoplankton abundance and composition. As a result, richness was influenced by trophic status, while patterns of richness were affected by regional climatic conditions. Phylogenetic analysis of environmental Phycodnavirus DNA polymerase (pol) sequences indicated that freshwater Phycodnaviruses are genetically different from cultured isolates and marine environmental sequences. A genetic distance analysis indicated that pol sequences > 7 % different infected different host species. Therefore, the 20 different freshwater sequences likely infected nine different hosts. Multivariate statistics identified seven possible phytoplankton hosts, including chlorophytes, chrysophytes, diatoms and dinoflagellates. Finally, the modified dilution experiment was evaluated as an approach for estimating viral-mediated phytoplankton mortality in two lakes at the ELA. Experiments resulted in non-significant apparent growth rate regressions. While a model analysis, indicated that the method was sensitive to poorly constrained parameters such as burst size and length of the lytic cycle, making it unsuitable for estimating mortality rates in these lakes. These studies indicate that Phycodnaviridae are a genetically rich and dynamic component of lakes. Their richness is influenced by both the chemical and physical components of their environment. Although the presence of these viruses indicates that they are a source of phytoplankton mortality, the magnitude of their impact on structuring phytoplankton communities awaits methodological advances. Nonetheless, these findings support the view that viruses infecting phytoplankton are ecologically important components of lake ecosystems. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

MSc., Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, 2011 / A multifactor ecological integrity index, focusing on freshwater ecosystems on a quaternary catchment scale, can be of great benefit to conservation planning. No ecological integrity index has previously been developed for South African quaternary catchments. In this study an index was developed based on three environmental surrogates: land cover, river integrity and fish species conservation status, with the intention of identifying quaternary catchments of highest conservation concern. By developing such an index, the aim was to provide a general indication of the degree to which catchments have been transformed from a natural environment to a human altered environment, thereby identifying catchments most in need of conservation. For the three available datasets, indices were developed using a five category point-scoring system. A score of one indicates a completely degraded environment and a score of five indicates a pristine environment. The original land cover data consisted of 49 different land cover types which were reduced to five land cover transformation scores. Available river integrity data already existed in five categories and a numerical score of one to five was applied to each category. Fish species conservation status was scored according to the IUCN red data list classifications on a similar basis. Subsequently, a weighted mean score expressed as a percentage was calculated for the three indices for each quaternary catchment. These indices indicate the degree of change/transformation from a natural system (100%) to a largely degraded system (20%). Ultimately, an ecological integrity index was calculated as a mean value of the three related but independent indices. However, the results of the developed ecological integrity index were not representative of real world conditions. This is largely attributed to the lack of complete data found in two out of the three datasets used in the study. Some of the main limitations encountered were the lack of river segment definitions within each catchment and the incomplete and un-systematic collected fish species data records. The land cover data, on the contrary, was of high definition and high standard. It is recommended that in the interim, the developed land transformation index, based on a detailed analysis of land cover, be used as an indicator index of ecological integrity of catchments

The Okavango River Basin (ORB) located in southern Africa is a region of highly sensitive and biodiverse ecosystems. It spans Angola, Namibia and Botswana, with the world-famous Okavango Delta located in the latter country. The ecosystems depend on the highly seasonal ORB streamflow, which is also the major source of freshwater for the rural population, most of whom depend on subsistence farming. Climate variability and extremes such as droughts, hot days and extreme rainfall events are not well understood over this region. Also, the relationship between climate and other aspects like vegetation and river discharge are not well understood. To contribute to a better understanding of this relationship, the thesis investigated relationships between rainfall, temperature, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and river discharge, and their interannual variability and trends. It was found that at monthly and seasonal time scales, NDVI spatial patterns are closely related to those of rainfall than temperature. The NDVI-rainfall and NDVI-temperature relationships differ north of 18.9°S where rainfall is higher than to its south. Correlations between NDVI and rainfall show lags of 1-2-months. Large areas across the region show significant warming trends in all seasons but mainly in October-December (OND), as well as wetting mainly in the north. The warming trend may imply more evaporation and desiccation which may exacerbate extreme event impacts such as severe droughts. Interannual variability of rainfall, NDVI and temperature is pronounced with significant correlations with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the subtropical Indian Ocean Dipole (SIOD) and the Botswana High for rainfall and temperature, and for NDVI with ENSO. The temperature (rainfall) correlations with ENSO and the Botswana were positive (negative), with the SIOD they were negative (positive), and the NDVI-ENSO correlations were negative. On longer time scales, the wet 2006-2013 period was analysed relative to much drier 1999-2005 epoch for OND. The 2006-2013 wetter conditions appear linked to La Niña Modoki conditions, regional circulation differences and warmer sea surface temperature near Angola. Extreme rainfall events over the ORB were analysed. The analysis was performed within a larger region in western central southern Africa (WCSA), given that many rainfall events extend beyond river basin boundaries. Focus was placed on extreme rainfall events accumulated over 1-day (DP1) and 3-days (DP3), during the main rainy season, January-April (JFMA). Due to data sparsity, the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) were used to identify these events. It was found that contributions of DP1 and DP3 events to JFMA rainfall totals are, on average, ~10% and ~17%, respectively, but in some years their contributions exceed 30%. Most of the events result from tropical-extratropical cloud bands, with tropical lows being also important. Interannual variability in extreme events is substantial and appears linked to ENSO and the Botswana High. Although ENSO influences the extreme events and rainfall totals more generally over southern Africa, by far the neutral JFMA 2017 season experienced the wettest conditions over the world-famous Okavango Delta region. Factors that contributed to these heavy rains included a deeper Angola Low, weaker mid-level Botswana High and anomalous westerly moisture fluxes from the tropical southeast Atlantic during January – early March. The second most intense rainfall event occurred on April 22nd, resulting from a cut-off low. DP1 frequencies show significant increasing trends, and similarly, rain-days and rain totals over many areas. These trends have important implications for agricultural and water management as well as wildlife conservation in the ORB. To contribute to a better understanding of drought over the ORB region, the thesis analysed various drought metrics. These include a Cumulative Drought Intensity (CDI) index, based on the product of maximum dry spell duration and maximum temperature anomaly, and the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Strong horizontal gradients in frequencies of dry spells and hot days were found to shift south over the ORB from August to November as the tropical rain-belt shifts increasingly south of the equator, the Congo Air Boundary declines and the Botswana High strengthens and shifts south-westwards. By December, the tropical gradient in dry spell frequencies is unnoticeable while that across the Limpopo River and southern ORB region, where the Botswana High is centred, stands out. On seasonal time scales, October-November 2013-2021 is particularly hot and dry over the Okavango Delta region. The thesis provided evidence that this hot and dry epoch is related to a stronger and southward shifted Botswana High and reduced low-level moisture convergence. On interannual time scales, there were strong relationships with the Botswana High, and to lesser extent ENSO. A strong drying-warming trend was found in the early summer, linked to a significant strengthening of the Botswana High. These trends, in conjunction with the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) projected early summer drying over southern Africa found in the literature, may impact severely on the sensitive ecosystems of the ORB, and on water availability as well as subsistence farming in the region.

Le développement des nouvelles technologies permet la visualisation interactive de mondes virtuels de plus en plus vastes et complexes. La production de paysages plausibles au sein de ces mondes devient un défi majeur, en raison de l'importance des éléments de terrain et des écosystèmes dans la qualité et le réalisme du résultat. S'y rajoute la difficulté d'éditer de tels éléments sur des échelles spatiales et temporelles aussi vastes que peuvent l'être celles des chaînes de montagnes. Cette édition se fait souvent en couplant des méthodes manuelles et de longues simulations numériques dont le calibrage est complexifié par le nombre des paramètres et leur caractère peu intuitif.Cette thèse propose d'explorer de nouvelles méthodes de simulation de paysages à grande échelle, avec pour objectif d'améliorer le contrôle et le réalisme des scènes obtenues. Notre stratégie est de fonder nos méthodes sur des lois éprouvées dans différents domaines scientifiques, ce qui permet de renforcer la plausibilité des résultats, tout en construisant des outils de résolution efficaces et des leviers de contrôles intuitifs.En observant des phénomènes liés aux zones de compression de la croûte terrestre, nous proposons une méthode de contrôle intuitif de la surrection à l'aide d'une métaphore de sculpture des plaques tectoniques. Combinée avec de nouvelles méthodes efficaces d'érosion fluviale et glaciaire, celle-ci permet de sculpter rapidement de vastes chaînes de montagnes. Pour visualiser les paysages obtenus à échelle humaine, nous démontrons le besoin de combiner la simulation de phénomènes variés et de temporalités différentes, et nous proposons une méthode de simulation stochastique pour résoudre cette difficile cohabitation, que nous appliquons à la simulation de processus géologiques tels que l'érosion, jointe à la formation d'écosystèmes. Cette méthode est déclinée sur GPU et appliquée à la formation du manteau neigeux, en combinant des aspects au long cours (précipitations, changements d'état de l'eau) et des aspects dynamiques (avalanches, impact des skieurs).Les différentes méthodes proposées permettent de simuler l'évolution de paysages à grande échelle, tout en accordant une attention particulière au contrôle. Ces aspects sont validés par des études utilisateur et des comparaisons avec des données issues de paysages réels. / The development of new technologies allows the interactive visualization of virtual worlds showing an increasing amount of details and spacial extent. The production of plausible landscapes within these worlds becomes a major challenge, not only because the important part that terrain features and ecosystems play in the quality and realism of 3D sceneries, but also from the editing complexity of large landforms at mountain range scales. Interactive authoring is often achieved by coupling editing techniques with computationally and time demanding numerical simulation, whose calibration is harder as the number of non-intuitive parameters increases.This thesis explores new methods for the simulation of large-scale landscapes. Our goal is to improve both the control and the realism of the synthetic scenes. Our strategy to increase the plausibility consist on building our methods on physically and geomorphologically-inspired laws: we develop new solving schemes, which, combined with intuitive control tools, improve user experience.By observing phenomena triggered by compression areas within the Earth's crust, we propose a method for the intuitive control of the uplift based on a metaphor on the sculpting of the tectonic plates. Combined with new efficient methods for fluvial and glacial erosion, this allows for the fast sculpting of large mountain ranges. In order to visualize the resulting landscapes withing human sight, we demonstrate the need of combining the simulation of various phenomena with different time spans, and we propose a stochastic simulation technique to solve this complex cohabitation. This methodology is applied to the simulation of geological processes such as erosion interleaved with ecosystems formation. This method is then implemented on the GPU, combining long term effects (snow fall, phase changes of water) with highly dynamics ones (avalanches, skiers impact).Our methods allow the simulation of the evolution of large scale, visually plausible landscapes, while accounting for user control. These results were validated by user studies as well as comparisons with data obtained from real landscapes.

Orientador: Alessandra Tomaselli Fidelis / Resumo: Sistemas savânicos são compostos por espécies herbáceas, principalmente gramíneas C4, as quais se expandiram há milhões de anos atrás, alterando a ocorrência de fogo nas regiões sub e tropicas do globo terrestre. Assim sendo, em sistemas como o Cerrado, onde o fogo está presente há pelo menos 4 milhões de anos, as espécies selecionadas por este fator possuem atributos inflamáveis que contribuem para a propagação das chamas. A essa capacidade que diversas espécies possuem de entrarem em combustão e serem consumidas, chamamos de inflamabilidade, sendo um componente essencial dos sistemas inflamáveis, contribuindo para o regime de fogo do ambiente, a partir de fatores ambientais, como a sazonalidade, e composição de espécies. Sendo assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo compreender a inflamabilidade das espécies herbáceas de ambientes savânicos do Cerrado, bem como entender quais são os grupos e os atributos vegetais que mais influenciam a inflamabilidade do sistema de acordo com a sazonalidade do ambiente. Diferentes espécies de herbáceas, arbustos e gramíneas foram coletadas em áreas de campo sujo do Cerrado durante a estação chuvosa e ao longo da estação seca (começo, meio e fim). Medições dos atributos de inflamabilidade (temperatura máxima, taxa de queima e biomassa consumida) e morfofisiológicos (biomassa morta, teor de umidade e área específica foliar) dessas espécies foram realizadas durante tais épocas, afim de compreender se existia variações na inflamabilidade. Além ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Savanna ecosystems are essentially covered by herbaceous species, mostly C4 grasses, which have a huge expansion million years ago, altering the fire occurrence in the sub and tropical regions of the world. Therefore, fire-prone ecosystems as the Cerrado, have fire present about 4 million years ago, which selected species with flammable traits enhancing the flames propagation. That capacity that several species possess to be consumed and spread the fire is called flammability, which is an essential component of flammable systems, contributing to fire regime, together with environmental factors, as seasonality and species composition. Thus, this study had the main aim understand the flammability of herbaceous species of the Cerrado open savannas physiognomies, besides understand which are the species groups and traits that most influence the system flammability, according to seasonality. Different species of forbs, shrubs and graminoids were collected in areas of Cerrado campo-sujo during the wet season and over the dry season (early, mid and late-dry). Flammability (maximum temperatures, burning rate and burnt biomass) and morphophysiological traits (dead biomass, moisture content and specific leaf area) measurements were taken across seasons, to understand the flammability changes. Moreover, 21 grass species were also collected in the middle of the dry season in two different regions of Cerrado campo-sujo, where the same traits were measured, to evaluate the variability of f... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Current innovation literature stress the fact that companies seeking to boost their innovation capabilities should open their boundaries and collaborate with partners for bolder and faster value creation. While correct, and in fact frequently practice among several industries, many companies have failed in their attempt to innovate on ecosystem’s settings due mainly to lack of the appropriate management methodologies. Although co-development alliances have become a common practice in the market place, tools and strategies to manage them are quite behind on real execution. Furthermore, companies currently involved in such scenarios have overlook the new conditions of co-creation, failing to yield return over the cost of capital, and losing credibility on their ecosystems. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify practical managerial strategies, process and tools for orchestrating innovation ecosystems in general, and tailored them into real company current practices, in particular. In this thesis, a theoretical revision has been carried out in order to understand what innovation ecosystems are, why companies involved in innovation should care about them and what are the essential elements for orchestrating projects breed in that setting, being successful at it. Furthermore, a case study was developed with the purpose of connecting empirical findings to theoretical suggestions, and draw conclusions and recommendations. The company chosen for the analysis is one of the larger international players in their industry; having strong motivations to grow their innovation field, clear objectives to do it on partnership basis, and unquestionable position to claim the role of orchestrator. Moreover, management at this company believed that their innovation partnerships are not fulfilling expectations, and wanted to know how they can improve the way those projects are being managed, while keeping the center of the innovation ecosystem. The results show the process to create an orchestration strategy model, and a final proposal for the company under analysis. The case was developed taking into consideration information provided by key processes stakeholders over a series of interviews, and critical observation of the system during a six-month period. Scientific implications contribute in providing a framework for orchestrating innovation ecosystems on a technology-driven industry, while managerial implications contribute in providing the company with a robust model on how to position as a global hub for cross-innovation.

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Primary succession on the basaltic lava flows of Mt. Etna was studied usmg chronosequence theory to investigate the first 500 years of ecosystem development. Separate experiments were conducted to look at how plant species, nutrient availability and lichen activity on the lava changed over time under different conditions based on the site location (age, aspect and altitude on the volcano). By comparing the results of these different areas of study, close links were observed between soil development and nutrient availability. Lichens were found to be an important stage in primary succession introducing biomass to form a developing soil as well as weathering the lava surface. The plant species present on the lava were found to change as plants first colonised the lava and were then replaced as further species appeared over time. Nutrient availability was investigated in living plant material by measurement of the enzyme nitrate reductase and also in the developing soil. Two large inputs of nitrogen were observed in the chronosequences. An early input believed to be lichen derived and another steadily increasing input associated with the soil. The biomass of the nitrogen fixing lichen Stereocaulofl vesuvianum on the lava flows was found to change over time with a rapid increase over the first 100 years of the chronosequence followed by a slower decline as competition and shading from vascular plants covered available habitat. S. vesuvianum was also found to be an efficient weathering agent on the lava altering the surface morphology. This weathering was observed qualitatively by detailed visual examination of the lava surface by scanning electron microscopy. Weathering was also measured quantitatively using an intelligent machine vision computer system, to collate the surface changes of many images simultaneously and compare surface change to a baseline chronosequence, allowing discrimination of fine differences in the extent of weathering. Two of the experiments conducted on Mt. Etna (nitrate reductase activity and lichen weathering) were repeated on a second volcano, Mauna Loa (Hawaii). This tested if the trends observed on Etna were typical of primary succession on lava and the impact of a different climate regime (tropical) compared to Etna (temperate). Nitrate reductase activity was found to be very low in the primary colonising species studied on Hawaii indicating that nitrogen is limited on the early lava flows. Lichen weathering by Stereocaulon vulcani on Hawaii was found to occur in a comparable manner to S. vesuvianum on Etna, and was similarly controlled by the lichen biomass and associated climatic conditions.