Thermotolerance limit in aquatic organism is set by the ability to sustain aerobic scope to sudden temperature shifts. This study tested the genetic and plastic differences in thermotolerance of Daphnia that can be explained by the differences in the ability to retain mitochondrial integrity at high temperatures. Five genotypes with different biogeographic origins were acclimated to 18ᵒC and 25ᵒC. We developed a rhodamine 123 in-vivo assay to measure mitochondrial membrane potential and observed higher fluorescent in heat damaged tissues as the disruption of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Significant effects on temperature tolerance were observed with CCCP and DNP but not with NaN3. Effects of toxins were significant in temperature sensitive genotype and high concentration of lactate was observed in 18ᵒC acclimated genotype only. We conclude that genetic and physiological differences are intricately linked to the ability of sustaining aerobic respiration at high temperatures which sets limit to the thermotolerance.

Orientador: César Augusto Moreira / Resumo: Aterros sanitários de resíduos sólidos são a forma de disposição final adequada mais utilizada no mundo devido a suas vantagens operacionais. O processo de instalação, no entanto, exige o desenvolvimento de diversos sistemas tecnológicos a fim de garantir uma disposição de resíduos segura em termos ambientais e de saúde pública. Ainda assim, a contaminação do ambiente subterrâneo pelos produtos da degradação dos resíduos sólidos (chorume) é recorrente. Diante dessas ocorrências, é necessário investigar a área com o objetivo de encontrar as falhas nos sistemas do aterro responsáveis pela contaminação; propor projetos de remediação e monitoramento. Este trabalho aplicou o método geofísico da eletrorresistividade em uma vala de resíduos de um aterro sanitário de pequeno porte com o intuito de diagnosticar a presença de chorume no aquífero e detectar possíveis imperfeições no sistema de impermeabilização. Adicionalmente, por meio de um monitoramento temporal do parâmetro resistividade, entender a dinâmica da geração e fluxo do chorume na área do aterro. Para tanto, o levantamento geofísico contou com 12 linhas de tomografia elétrica, adquiridas durante um período de 3 anos (2016, 2017 e 2018). Para complementar os resultados o método do potencial espontâneo foi aplicado na área no ano de 2018 com o objetivo de adicionar informações a respeito do estágio de degradação dos resíduos sólidos. Os resultados do parâmetro resistividade elétrica são apresentados em seções 2D e modelos de... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Landfills are the most widely used destination in the world for municipal solid waste due to their operational advantages. The installation, however, requires the development of several technological systems in order to ensure a safe and environmentally correct disposal of waste. Nevertheless, the contamination of the subsurface by leachate is recurrent. In view of these occurrences, it is necessary to investigate the area in order to find the faults in the landfill systems responsible for the contamination; propose projects for remediation and monitoring of the area. Therefore, this project predicted the application of the resistivity method in order to diagnose the sources of contamination and to detect possible point of percolation through the geomembrane. By means of a temporal monitoring the present project aimed to understand the leachate generation and flow in the landfill area. For this purpose, the geophysical survey consisted of 12 electrical tomography lines, acquired during a three-year acquisition period (2016, 2017 and 2018). To complement the results, the self-potential method was applied in the area in the year 2018 with the purpose of adding information about the solid waste degradation stage. The results of the resistivity parameter are presented in 2D sections and 3D visualization models with discussions for the superficial level of acquisition, for the geomembrane level (-4m) and for the aquifer level (-10m). The analysis over the years allowed the identif... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

More and more people live in cities, cities that both present opportunities, in terms of potential sustainable growth and challenges, for example regarding insufficient infrastructure and waste management. There are several examples on initiatives to make cities reach their sustainability potential; one is to turn municipal organic waste, MOW, and sewage sludge into biogas and use it to produce electricity and/or heat or to upgrade it to biomethane and use it as a fuel in for example public transport or feed it to a gas grid. This study has focused on the potential and feasibility of producing and using biogas/biomethane as well as the remains from the production process, called digestate, in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. For the most feasible options an indication of the environmental improvement and economic performance was also estimated. The study included biogas produced from municipal organic waste, sewage sludge and methane collected at landfills. For the areas of use, electricity or heat produced from biogas was included as well as using biomethane in public transport or feeding it to the gas grid and to use the digestate as biofertilizer. Since multiple factors needs to be considered in order to adequately assess the potential and feasibility a multi-criteria approach was used for developing a framework based on an early assessment tool for biomethane solutions in the urban context. In summary it is indicated that there are good conditions for biogas production in Chisinau with biogas production from sewage sludge being included in the ongoing rehabilitation of the largest wastewater facility and methane collection from the largest landfill historically being part of the operations and planned (although not confirmed) to soon be part of these again. However, the largest potential is for municipal organic waste where the main impediments relates to financial issues and to some extent legislation that indirectly favour short term landfilling. When investigating the possible use of the digestate as biofertilizer the outlooks are considerably less promising than for the supply side. Despite the fact that the law explicitly allows the use of digestate (both from MOW and sewage sludge) the lack of knowledge within the farmer community result in a low or non-existent customer demand. Regarding the possible use of biogas/biomethane it was concluded that electricity production is the most feasible option and heat generation placing as the second most feasible. Feeding the gas to the grid appears more difficult and the least likely option is for the biogas to be used within public transport. Overall it is in general technically possible to use the gas in terms of infrastructure and there is some demand, especially for electricity and heat. The biggest inhibitory factors are rather institutional since biogas in general is overlooked or not prioritized in the strategies leading to a shortcoming in economical instruments or funds and to some extent in the legislation. This thesis is complemented by an executive summary with the same name, both in English and translated to Romanian.

Inledning: Skolans styrdokument fastställer att den svenska skolverksamheten har ett dubbelt uppdrag som innefattar både kunskapsuppdraget liksom värdegrundsuppdraget. Att använda sig av dystopisk skönlitteratur i svenskundervisningen kan förena dessa uppdrag eftersom den dystopiska genren ofta belyser omvärldsfrågor och dagens samhällsproblem. Därutöver har den dystopiska genren ökat i popularitet och lockar många unga läsare vilket gör den fördelaktig att använda i svenskundervisningen. Undersökningen ämnar därför att belysa vilken didaktisk potential tre vanligt förekommande skönlitterära dystopier har i svenskämnets värdegrundsarbete. Didaktisk potential används i enlighet med Alkestrands(2016) definition av begreppet. Syfte: Syftet är att belysa tre skönlitterära dystopiers didaktiska potential i svenskämnets värdegrundsarbete. Metod: Undersökningen bygger på metoden tematisk analys samt den kvalitativa, textanalytiska metoden närläsning. Undersökningen utgår från tre skönlitterära dystopiska verk som bearbetats och analyserats med hjälp av Alkestrands (2016) definition av teorin didaktisk potential. Resultat: De dystopiska verken som studeras i undersökning innehåller många möjligheter att problematisera värdegrunden. Utifrån teorin didaktisk potential har verken som undersökts didaktisk potential eftersom de innehåller möjligheter att belysa vardagliga företeelse ur ett främmande perspektiv, så kallad främmande göring. De främmandegörande aspekterna utgörsav att elever introduceras till världar som är olik den som vi lever i nu. Samtidigt förekommer det igenkänning i och med att de dystopiska världarna anknyter till företeelser som elever kan känna igen från vårt samtida samhälle. Dystopierna ger möjlighet till att den narrativa fantasin tränas genom de etiska och moraliska frågor som tas upp. De litterära verken anknyter tilldiskussioner och problem i vår samtid, men innehåller också motsättningar och moraliska dilemman som en läsare måste förhålla sig till.

No description available.

This study investigated the effectiveness of Feuerstein’s mediated intervention programme on a sample of the Grade Five population, in a remedial school. The participants (n=20) were systematically sampled and they constituted two groups, namely, Individual Mediation (n=10) and Group Mediation (n=10). It was hypothesised that participants exposed to this programme would yield significant improvement in cognitive functioning as measured by the (Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM). As a result of the intensity and the duration of the mediation that was provided to the participants within the Individual Mediation, it was hypothesised that they would perform significantly better than those within the Group Mediation. Set Variations B-8 to B-12 from Feuerstein’s Learning Potential Assessment Device served as vehicle for mediating cognitive deficiencies. Following the intervention, a significant improvement on the RCPM was only obtained within the Individual Mediation. Although there was significant improvement, no significant difference was found between the Individual Mediation and the Group Mediation. The pre-post-test results of the Individual Mediation corroborate existing literature that provision of adequate and appropriate mediated learning experience is effective in improving cognitive functioning. However, non-significant results between the two groups suggest that a pre-post significant finding within the Individual Mediation was as an effect of pre-test differences. These findings are therefore inconclusive. It might be helpful to further replicate this investigation in order to determine whether support is found for the previous or for the present findings.

O aquecimento climático apresenta um impacto sem precedentes na biodiversidade, afetando o desempenho fisiológico e a tolerância dos organismos, particularmente para ectotermos terrestres, que funcionam perto dos seus limites fisiológicos superiores. No entanto, estas relações entre clima e biodiversidade têm sido estudadas principalmente em grandes escalas que não explicam o microclima, entendido como clima numa escala individual. Atualmente o microclima é considerado essencial para compreender o impacto de suas alterações sobre a diversidade biológica com interesses focais sobre dado táxon. A Mata Atlântica do Brasil apresenta uma diversidade fisionômica e biológica que são causa e efeito do clima. Essas relações amplas não são suficientes para explicar as opções de termo e hidro regulação disponíveis para pequenos animais, que é particularmente importante para anfíbios anuros, um táxon particularmente diversificado. Portanto, o objetivo deste projeto foi investigar os microclimas que os anuros da Mata Atlântica podem experenciar em diferentes fisionomias, estratos e habitats fragmentados (áreas abertas, borda e interior da floresta). Todos esses fatores devem influenciar variação hidrotermal numa escala espaço temporal, compatível com o tamanho do corpo dos adultos. Para definir estas relações, usamos um conjunto de indicadores (modelos de ágar com sensores e imagens infravermelhas) que estimam a temperatura operativa e disponibilidade de água no ambiente. Este estudo foi baseado em dados de tamanho corporal real que incluem a maioria dos gamas de tamanhos e permeabilidade de pele de anuros presentes no Parque Estadual Intervales. Usamos como unidade amostral pares de modelos de ágar que simulam a forma e extremos de tamanho corpóreo (pequena vs. grande) e tipos de permeabilidade (totalmente permeáveis vs. impermeáveis). Em geral, modelos permeáveis, especialmente de tamanhos menores, apresentam maior perda de água em áreas de vegetação mais baixa, especialmente no dossel, áreas abertas e em mata de altitude. Os dados obtidos permitiram propor hipóteses de impacto diferencial de altas e baixas temperaturas e baixa umidade relativa, de acordo com a faixa microambiental ocupada pelos anuros. Estas informações ajudam no entendimento da paisagem hidrotermal e do impacto das mudanças climáticas sobre a história natural, em interpretação de dados eco-fisiológicos, modelagem climática e previsão do impacto do clima sobre anuros, particularmente no contexto da dinâmica térmica e do balanço hídrico em escalas espaciais e temporais / Climate warming presents an unprecedented impact to global biodiversity, affecting physiological performance and tolerance of organisms, particularly for terrestrial ectotherms, which function near their upper physiological limits. However, the relationships between climate and biodiversity have been studied mainly at large scales that do not explain microclimate, understood as climate at individual scale. Microclimate is currently considered essential to understand the impact of climate on biological diversity with focal interests on given taxa. Atlantic Forest of Brazil presents physiognomic and biological diversity that are cause and effect of climate. These relationships are not enough to explain options of thermo and hydro-regulation available for small animals, particularly important for anuran amphibians, a particularly diverse taxon. Therefore, the aim of this project was to investigate the microclimates from Atlantic Forest experimented by anurans in different physiognomies, stratums and fragmented habitats (open areas, edge and inside forest). All these factors should influence hydrothermal variation at temporal-space scale compatible with the body size of adults. To define this diversity, we used a set of indicators (agar models with sensors and infrared images) that estimate the operative temperature and water availability. This study was based on actual body size data to include most ranges of size and of skin\'s permeability. We used as sampling unit; pairs of agar\'s models that simulate shape and two body size extremes (small vs. large) and two types of permeability (fully permeable vs. impermeable). In general, permeable models especially of smaller sizes have a higher water loss in lower vegetation areas, especially in Canopy, Open Area and High-Altitude Forest. The data collected allowed to propose hypotheses regarding differential impact of high and low temperatures, and low relative humidity, according to the micro-environmental range occupied by anurans. This information will help to understand hydrothermal landscapes and impact of climate on natural history, interpretation of eco-physiological data, climate modeling and prediction of the impact of climate change on anurans, particularly in the context of thermal dynamics and water balance in spatial and temporal scales

Les Troubles Spécifiques du Langage (TSL) sont une pathologie développementale caractérisée par une grande hétérogénéité (Leonard, 2009). Malgré les progrès déjà effectués dans la compréhension de sa nature, ses causes et ses séquelles, à ce jour, un nombre important de questions reste à étudier. Au niveau théorique, les études réalisées s’inscrivent dans le cadre théorique de l’hypothèse phonologique et de l’approche psycholinguistique qui illustre la causalité réciproque entre les troubles phonologiques et l’apprentissage de l’écrit. C’est à partir de ces considérations théoriques que nous avons proposé une problématique essayant de rendre compte de l’hétérogénéité de cette population. Les différents travaux réalisés dans le cadre de cette thèse ont tenté, à l’aide d’une approche méthodologique variée, d’étudier les caractéristiques langagières et cognitives d’enfants TSL francophones, les capacités à apprendre lors d’une tâche de détection d’intrus et la spécificité des troubles en mémoire de travail (étude des capacités en mémoire visuospatiale) des enfants avec Troubles non Spécifiques du Langage (TnSL) ainsi que les effets bidirectionnels entre l’apprentissage de l’écrit et les déficits en langage oral (enfants TSL, TnSL et TSL-résolus). Les résultats ont montré les difficultés importantes en mémoire de travail (MdT) phonologique chez les enfants TSL indépendamment de leur profil langagier spécifique et un retard développemental dans les capacités à apprendre et dans la mémoire visuospatiale chez les enfants TnSL. Enfin, nous avons montré que la sévérité et la persistance des troubles langagiers, les capacités non verbales et les capacités en MdT phonologique se reflètent dans les performances en lecture-écriture et permettent la différenciation d’enfants diagnostiqués TSL par rapport à l’apprentissage ultérieur de l’écrit. Nos résultats contribuent à une meilleure appréhension des enfants TSL francophones. / Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is a complex developmental condition characterized by significant heterogeneity (Leonard, 2009). The past three decades a great deal has been learned about children with SLI, yet numerous questions still need to be answered regarding its nature, its causes and its repercussions. The theoretical background of our studies is formed by the theory of a phonological deficit and the psycholinguistic approach, illustrating the reciprocal causality between phonological deficits and literacy acquisition. The present work tried to capture the heterogeneity of children with SLI. Using different methodological approaches, the aim of our studies was to investigate the linguistic and cognitive profiles of children with SLI, the learning potential during an implicit task and the specificity of working memory deficits in children with Nonspecific Language Impairments (NLI) and the bidirectional effects between literacy development and language impairments (SLI, NLI and resolved-SLI). The results showed marked deficits in phonological working memory (MdT) in the children with SLI independently of their specific linguistic profile and a developmental delay in learning potential and in Visuospatial WM in children with NLI. Lastly, we showed that the severity and the persistence of the language impairment, the nonverbal skills and the phonological WM skills are reflected in the literacy outcomes of children with language impairments, allowing their differentiation in this aspect. Our results contribute to a better understanding of SLI in French-speaking children.

The facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is a measure of the cheekbone width divided by the height of the face from the upper lip to the brows. The metric is hypothesised to have evolved as an intra-sexual competition mechanism in males, where large fWHRs are thought to signal both threat and aggression. The fWHR is suggested to subtly resemble angry facial expressions, which, in turn, also signal threat. The late positive potential (LPP) and the vertex positive potential (VPP) are two event-related potentials (ERPs) especially sensitive to emotional content. Studies have also found that viewing angry compared to neutral facial expressions elicit a stronger response on the LPP. However, no study has tested how responses to the fWHR and angry facial expressions elicit changes in the LPP or VPP. In this study, participants firstly rated how threatening faces were with either low or high fWHRs with neutral or angry facial expressions. Secondly, EEG-activity was recorded during a picture-viewing task of the same faces. In the first task, participants rated the faces with angry facial expressions as more threatening compared to all other faces, regardless of fWHR, although the high fWHRs were rated as more threatening than the low fWHRs. In the second task, LPP and VPP mean amplitudes were significantly higher for the angry, high fWHR face compared to all other faces tested. This suggests that an additive effect of both angry facial expressions and high fWHRs together creates the highest threat level in both subjective ratings as well as in ERP mean amplitudes. Further ERP research is needed on the relationship between fWHRs and anger to establish how the two features work both separately and together.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur svenska ungdomsromaner från 2018 skildrar HBTQ-personer samt om dessa romaner kan användas i svenskämnets värdegrundsarbete i gymnasieskolan. Arbetssättet har varit en kvalitativ textanalys med ett queerteoretiskt perspektiv. Materialet som använts är 12 romaner, där vissa skildrar huvudpersoner som är HBTQ och andra innehåller små inslag av HBTQ-personer. Efter läsningen av romanerna har nio teman identifierats diskuterats utifrån typ av skildring samt deras didaktiska potential. De teman som identifierades i romanerna som skildrar sexualitet är komma ut-skildringar, homofobi, homosexuella föräldrar, reflektioner över och osäkerhet på sexualitet, vänskap eller kärlek, skildringar som inte kommenteras och heteronormativitet. Skildringar som inte kommenteras förekom i majoriteten av romanerna, medan andra teman endast förekom i några. Endast en roman skildrar transidentiteter, men ytterligare två romaner ifrågasätter ett cisnormativt förhållningssätt. Baserat på våra analyser har vi dragit slutsatsen att samtliga romaner har en didaktisk potential i värdegrundsarbetet, men att grad av potential varierar beroende på vilken/vilka av de identifierade temana som romanen berör.