Nuclear receptors (NRs) are important transcription factors involved in the regulation of a variety of physiological processes such as embryonic development, cell differentiation and homeostasis (for review, see Mangelsdorf et al., 1995 TenBaum and Baniahrned, 1997). In contrast to membrane bound receptors, they bind small lipophilic ligands and function in the nucleus as ligand-modulated transcription factors. The ligands for nuclear receptors include steroids (glucocorticoids, progestins, mineralocorticoids, androgens and estrogens), vitamin D3, retinoids, thyroid hormone, prostaglandins, farnesoids etc. Several other nuclear receptors are classified as orphan receptors for which no ligand has yet been identified. More than 300 nuclear receptors have now been identified and together these proteins comprise the single largest family of metazoan transcription factors, the nuclear receptor superfamily. Recently, a unified nomenclature has been evolved (nuclear receptor nomenclature committee, 1999), a summary of which is presented in Table 1.

In networked robot systems (NRS), robots and robotic devices are distributed in the environment; typically tasks are performed by cooperation and coordination of such multiple networked components. NRS offer advantages over monolithic systems in terms of modularity, flexibility and cost effectiveness, and they are thus becoming a mainstream approach to the inclusion of robotic solutions in everyday environments. The components of a NRS are usually robots and sensors equipped with rich computational and communication facilities. In this thesis, we argue that the capabilities of a NRS would greatly increase if it could also accommodate among its nodes simpler entities, like small ubiquitous sensing and actuation devices, home appliances, or augmented everyday objects. For instance, a domestic robot needs to manipulate food items and interact with appliances. Such a robot would benefit from the ability to exchange information with those items and appliances in a direct way, in the same way as with other networked robots and sensors. Combining such highly heterogeneous devices inside one NRS is challenging, and one of the major challenges is to provide a common communication and collaboration infrastructure. In the field of NRS, this infrastructure is commonly provided by a shared middleware. Unfortunately, current middlewares lack the generality needed to allow heterogeneous entities such as robots, simple ubiquitous devices and everyday objects to coexist in the same system. In this thesis we show how an existing middleware for NRS can be extended to include three new types of “citizens” in the system, on peer with the other robots. First, we include computationally simple embedded devices, like ubiquitous sensors and actuators, by creating a fully compatible tiny version of the existing robotic middleware. Second, we include augmented everyday objects or home appliances which are unable to run the middleware on board, by proposing a generic design pattern based on the notion of object proxy. Finally,we go one step further and include humans as nodes in the NRS by defining the notion of human proxy. While there exist a few other NRS which are able to include both robots and simple embedded devices in the same system, the use of proxies to include everyday objects and humans in a generic way is a unique feature of this work. In order to verify and validate the above concepts, we have implemented them in the Peis-Ecology NRS model. We report a number of experiments based on this implementation, which provide both quantitative and qualitative evaluations of its performance, reliability, and interoperability.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:13:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rpbert Taylor Rocha Bezerra.pdf: 1480821 bytes, checksum: 5c9ea37c94c3053c5474aa724324d709 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-31 / This study was conducted to evaluate the application of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in the prediction of levels of protein, moisture, fat besides cooking losses and shear force in non-ground frozen meat under slow method -20° C and rapid -40° C. The study was conducted in two stages, the first to identify the effect of freezing on the spectra and the second for the development of equations of calibration and validation of the quantitative method for the constituents and quality factors cited. For the two stages 16 muscles Longissimus dorsi purchased at a large cold-storage building in the state of Goiás under Federal Inspection were used. The method developed to identify the effect of freezing on the spectra obtained by NIRS was able to identify 100% of the samples for the processing -20° and -40° C, with coefficients of determination (R2) greater than 0.94. After identifying the differences between the spectra according to the treatments in the first stage, the calibration was developed to create equations for moisture, protein, fat, cooking losses and shear force for each treatment. In the stage of calibration the regression analysis was developed, , taking as independent variables the results of physical-chemical analysis, and as dependent variables, the results of reflectance in the near infrared region from 1100 to 2400nm. The method showed itself effective for determining differences between spectra of Longissimus dorsi muscles subjected to freezing in temperatures of -20° and -40° C. The influence of the method of freezing on moisture and cooking losses was significant (P<0.05) on the test. The determination coefficients (R2) obtained from the relation between the analysis values by reference methods and by NIRS, for the protein, moisture and fat contents at -20° and -40°C were superior to 0,90. For shear force and cooking losses the values of R2 were superior to 0,70. / O presente trabalho foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de avaliar a aplicação da espectroscopia de infravermelho próximo (NIRS) na predição de teores de proteínas, umidade, gorduras além de perdas por cocção e força de cisalhamento em carnes não trituradas e congeladas sob método lento -20°C e rápido -40°C. O trabalho foi desenvolvido em duas etapas sendo a primeira para a identificação do efeito do congelamento sobre os espectros e a segunda para o desenvolvimento de equações de calibração e adequação do método quantitativo para os constituintes e fatores de qualidade citados. Para as duas etapas foram utilizados 16 músculos Longissimus dorsi adquiridos em um grande frigorífico do estado de Goiás sob Inspeção Federal. O método desenvolvido para a identificação do efeito do congelamento sobre os espectros obtidos por NIRS foram capazes de identificar 100% das amostras quanto aos tratamentos -20 e a -40ºC, com coeficientes de determinação (R2) superiores a 0,94. Após a identificação das diferenças entre os espectros de acordo com os tratamentos na primeira etapa, foi desenvolvida a calibração para a criação das equações para umidade, proteínas, gorduras, perdas por cocção e força de cisalhamento para cada tratamento. Na etapa de calibração foi desenvolvida a análise de regressão (MPLS), tendo como variáveis independentes os resultados das análises físico-químicas e, como variáveis dependentes, os resultados da reflectância no infravermelho próximo na região de 1100 a 2400nm. O método mostrou-se eficaz para a determinação de diferenças entre espectros de músculos Longissimus dorsi bovino submetidos a congelamento sob temperaturas de -20 e a -40°C. A Influência do método de congelamento sobre umidade e perdas por cocção apresentou-se significativo (P<0,05) ao teste t. Os Coeficientes de determinação (R2) obtidos da relação entre os valores das análises por métodos de referência e pelo NIRS, para os conteúdos de proteínas, umidade, gordura a -20 e a -40 °C foram superiores a 0,90. Para força de cisalhamento e perdas por cocção os valores de R2 foram superiores a 0,70.

In animals, some of the most critical regulators of gene expression are nuclear hormone receptors (NRs) and their coregulators, specifically the Mediator complex. Of particular interest are the NRs implicated in metabolic and developmental regulation and in carcinogenesis: thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs). In this work, I venture to elucidate some aspects of gene expression regulation by these NRs: the degree of evolutionary conservation of signalling based on NRs and their coregulators; the mechanisms of negative regulation by NRs; and possible implications of these findings for clinical medicine. State-of-the-art bioinformatical, genome editing and microscopic techniques are applied at three levels of animal evolution to study NRs and Mediator. Reverse genomics in human patients suffering from the syndrome of resistance to thyroid hormones β are used to infer the structure and function of TRβ subdomains. Alignments, binding studies and in vivo experiments in Trichoplax adhaerens allow identification of a close orthologue of human RXR at the basis of metazoan evolution. Employing database queries, genome editing and microscopy, we describe a correct orthologue of the Mediator subunit 28 in Caenorhabditis elegans, indicating a complete homology of the Mediator complex...