The process of decomposition can be used as a method for disrupting the knowing subject, thus creating space for the awareness of unnoticed ideologies and beliefs. The body of work presented in this thesis intends to point towards, symbolically represent, and alchemically initiate a process of dissolution. It arises from an intention to negotiate psychospiritual suffering, by transmuting impulses of self destruction and violence into ceremonial and ritual processes. This work incorporates various methods into its scope, including video, performance, sculpture, painting, and gardening. / Master of Fine Arts / The process of decomposition can be used as a method for disrupting the knowing subject, thus creating space for the awareness of unnoticed ideologies and beliefs. The body of work presented in this thesis intends to point towards, symbolically represent, and alchemically initiate a process of dissolution. It arises from an intention to negotiate psychospiritual suffering, by transmuting impulses of self destruction and violence into ceremonial and ritual processes. This work incorporates various methods into its scope, including video, performance, sculpture, painting, and gardening.

No description available.

The evolution of African stateless societies and the diverse impact of their cultures, on political thought previous to and post-modernity, are not well understood. Scholars acknowledge the varied influence of precolonial African culture on the artistic, spiritual, and linguistic expressions of African-descended populations. However, observations regarding the impact of such acephalous societies on the political thought of the African Diaspora remain obscure. The organizational techniques of such societies are best described as a form of kinship-based anarchism. This study seeks to examine the persistence of such organizational techniques among African-descended populations in the United States. The political life and background of Ella Baker will be used as a historical case study to illustrate the possible strands of continuity that may exist between the organizational habitude of African acephalous societies, and modern African-American grassroots political structures.

2 pp. / In the semi-arid climate of southern AZ, evaporative cooling systems are commonly used and very effective for cooling homes (swamp coolers), outdoor areas (misters), and for greenhouses used for commercial and horticultural plant production (pad-and-fan, high-pressure-fog). The purpose of this brochure is to educate users about strategies they can employ to save water and improve the performance of evaporative cooling systems. Principles of operation, a list of advantages and disadvantages, and a comparison of common systems is also included, to help users decide the best system for them.

Tidal freshwater forest restoration after dam removal has been unexplored to date. This study elucidated pre-dam forest composition, as well as post-dam edaphic and microtopographical attributes and woody species recruiting along a narrow ecotone of a 29.3-ha tidal freshwater wetland. The ≈65-year-old historical forest (15 species, 200 stems ha-1) and ≈7-year-old contemporary forest (40 species and 11,009 stems ha-) community dominants were dissimilar (Fraxinus spp. vs. Liquidambar styraciflua, respectively). Pre-dam environmental conditions were unknown. Post-dam edaphic water content, organic matter, redox potential and microtopography differed significantly across tidal sites but were less variable in non-tidal sites. Shifts in the contemporary woody community composition and the concomitant increase in stem density and seedling:sapling ratios with elevation likely owed to significant changes in microtopography and edaphic attributes. Developing ecotones that contain variable microtopography may be extremely important for successful natural woody recruitment after dam removal from a tidal freshwater system.

Sweaty Mother Slow Groove is an engagement in magical thinking that proposes a displacement of swamp methodologies into the virtual realm, existing during the fourth wave. In doing so the cyborg and goddess are united in a re-routing of essentialism and the neo-liberal domination of technology. The metaphorical swamp is the possibility of a mushy danger zone that harnesses the absorption of an unwanted space: a disintegration of the binary and the soft-coded awareness of the body as a process, not a site.

A Área de Proteção Ambiental do Banhado Grande na Bacia Hidrográfica do rio Gravataí, inserida na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre, abriga uma extensa Área Úmida em sua porção central. A partir de técnicas de Sensoriamento Remoto e Geoprocessamento para a análise das variáveis físicas como, geologia, cota altimétrica, pedologia e índices de vegetação como o NDVI e o NDWI, foi possível classificar compartimentos de Unidades de Paisagem associados às Áreas Úmidas em: Unidade de Paisagem Turfeira e Unidade de Paisagem / Planície de Inundação. A delimitação destas áreas, visa o planejamento do uso racional destes ambientes para a sua manutenção e preservação. No início da década de 1970, um trecho do rio Gravataí foi canalizado, com objetivo de drenar as Áreas Úmidas e viabilizar a expansão das áreas de cultivo do arroz, esta intervenção ocasionou um processo erosivo em forma de voçoroca no Banhado Grande, no município de Glorinha. A partir de uma série temporal de imagens satelitais foi possível mapear e quantificar a evolução do processo erosivo da voçoroca entre os anos de 2003 a 2015. Os resultados do mapeamento mostraram um aumento de quatro vezes na área da voçoroca de 2909,62 m² em 2003 para 12097,70 m² em 2015. No mapeamento da voçoroca e no monitoramento dos processos erosivos no banhado foram o uso das técnicas como: a) monitoramento por estaqueamento; b) mapeamento por imagens de satélite; b) mapeamento por varredura de Laser Scanner Terrestre. O Laser Scanner Terrestre mostrou-se uma ferramenta potencial para o mapeamento da voçoroca em virtude de sua alta precisão e rapidez na coleta de dados no campo, gerando modelos digitais de elevação com alta precisão. O uso do modelo permitiu identificar áreas de erosão deposição e de sedimentos, a partir do perfil topográfico. É necessário o monitoramento contínuo do processo erosivo na área do Banhado Grande, combinando métodos para modelar a sua dinâmica. Essas ferramentas de apoio são fundamentais para a elaboração do Plano de Manejo e estudos que visam a restauração das Áreas Úmidas do rio Gravataí. / The Banhado Grande Environmental Protected Area in the Gravataí river basin, located in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, has an extensive wetland area in its central portion. From remote sensing and geoprocessing techniques for the analysis of physical variables such as geology, topography, pedology and vegetation indices such as NDVI and NDWI, it was possible to classify compartments of Landscape Units associated to Wetlands in: Peat Landscape Unit and Landscape Unit / Flood Plain. The delimitation of these areas, aims at planning the rational use of these environments for their maintenance and preservation. In the beginning of the 1970s, a section of the Gravataí river was channeled, with the objective of draining the wetlands and making possible the expansion of rice cultivation areas, this intervention caused an erosive process in the form of gully in Banhado Grande, in the municipality of Glorinha. From a time series of satellite images, it was possible to map and quantify the evolution of the erosion process of the voçoroca between the years 2003 to 2015. The results of the mapping showed a significant increase in the gully of 2909.62 m² in 2003 to 12097.70 m² in 2015. In the mapping of gully and in the monitoring of the erosive processes in the swamp, were used techniques such as: a) stacking monitoring; b) mapping by satellite images; b) scanning mapping of terrestrial Laser Scanner. The terrestrial Laser Scanner has proved to be a potential tool for the mapping of the gully because of its high precision and rapid data collection in the field, generating digital elevation models with high precision. The use of the model allowed identifying areas of erosion deposition and sediment from the topographic profile. It is necessary, however, to choose suitable techniques for the continuous monitoring of the erosive process in the area of the Grande Banhado, combining methods to model the dynamics. These support tools are fundamental for the elaboration of the Management Plan and studies that aim at the restoration of the wetlands of the Gravataí river flood plain.

Submitted by Sandra Pereira (srpereira@ufrrj.br) on 2016-09-08T12:13:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011 - Jos? Antonio Batista da Silva.pdf: 1901739 bytes, checksum: bf67996decc8c7cef031a8ce05d6f464 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-08T12:13:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011 - Jos? Antonio Batista da Silva.pdf: 1901739 bytes, checksum: bf67996decc8c7cef031a8ce05d6f464 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-08 / This work was carried out from August 2007 to July 2011, in Itabora?, RJ, Brazil, and aimed to identify the Calliphoridae species exist in a mangrove swamp, verifying which are the predominant species, highlighting the proportions of males and females, and also analyzing the influence of abiotic factors such as temperature, humidity and moon phases, and also providing an analysis of the abundance, richness, diversity and similarity between the periods of sampling, ecological relationships between species of the same family and the ecological relationship between Calliphoridae and Phoridae parasitoids in Guapi-Mirim Environmental Protection Area, (Guapi-Mirim EPA) in the same city. Semiweekly collections were carried out over 48 months (96 collections). The traps were suspended at a height of 1.20 m above the ground for a period of 48 hours for each collection. To trap and collect the flies, four plastic traps (35 cm x 15 cm) were placed 100m apart each other in the studied area. The bait used was based on fish (sardine) in decomposition. The insects caught were killed by asphyxiation with 70% ethanol inside the trap. After asphyxiation all specimens were put into plastic pots containing 70% ethanol. The specimens were taken to the Laborat?rio de Transmissores de Leishmanioses (Setor de Entomologia M?dica e Forense) - IOC/FIOCRUZ, RJ, where they were separated by the collection day, counted and then identified using a stereoscopic microscope and the dichotomous keys for families and species. The abundance of Calliphoridae flies was statistically analyzed using the Statistica 7.1 program (StatSoft 2005) for the non-parametric test Kruskal-Wallis one way ANOVA (p< 0.05). Also the Kendall Tau Correlation test, Mann-Whitney (significance of 95%; p<0.05) and chi-square test (?2) were used to analyze. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Bray-Curtis similarity and Euclidean Distance were used. A total of 4,531flies were collected. These flies belonged to ten (10) species of the Calliphoridae family: Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) (86.40%), Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann,1819) (5.72%), Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) (4.94%), Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann, 1818) (2.10%), Lucilia eximia (Wiedemann, 1819) (0.30%), Cochliomyia hominivorax (Cocquerel, 1858) (0.22%), Chloroprocta idioidea (Robineau-Desvoidy, 1930) (0.20%), Hemilucilia segmentaria (Fabricius, 1805) (0.04%), Hemilucilia semidiaphana (Rondani, 1850) (0.04%), Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann,1830) (0.04%). The species C. megacephala was the one that presented the greatest abundance. Spring was the preferred season for all species; temperatures between 30.5 and 32.40C and relative humidity between 56.8 and 61.7% were considered those where there was a frenzy of oviposition; the full and new moons were the phases during which there was a higher occurrence of flies; Megaselia scalaris occurred more frequently in the most abundant Calliphoridae species in the same season of the year thus allowing greater dispersion of eggs; Calliphoridae species had a higher rate survival with increased food resources resulting from the polluting activity / Este trabalho foi realizado entre agosto de 2007 e julho de 2011, no Munic?pio de Itabora?, RJ, Brasil, e teve como objetivo identificar as esp?cies de Calliphoridae existentes em uma ?rea de mangue, quantificar as predominantes, destacando as propor??es de machos e f?meas, e tamb?m analisar a influ?ncia de fatores abi?ticos, tais como temperatura, umidade do ar e fases lunares; e ainda relacionar a abund?ncia, a riqueza, a diversidade e a similaridade entre os per?odos de coletas, rela??es ecol?gicas entre as esp?cies da entomofauna da mesma fam?lia e a rela??o ecol?gica entre Calliphoridae e Phoridae parasit?ides dentro da ?rea de Prote??o Ambiental de Guapi-Mirim (APA de Guapi-Mirim), em Itabora?. Durante 48 meses, foram realizadas 96 coletas, uma a cada 15 dias. Em todas as capturas, foram utilizadas armadilhas confeccionadas em recipiente pl?stico com 35 cm de altura e 15 cm de di?metro. Cada uma das quatro armadilhas foi suspensa a uma altura de 1,20 m do solo contendo 100g de isca de peixe (sardinha) em decomposi??o por um per?odo de 48 horas. Ap?s cada captura, todos os esp?cimes foram mortos no interior das armadilhas por asfixia utilizando etanol 70%. Em seguida todos os indiv?duos foram acondicionados em potes pl?sticos, contendo etanol a 70% e encaminhados ao Laborat?rio de Transmissores de Leishmanioses (Setor de Entomologia M?dica e Forense), IOC-FIOCRUZ, RJ, em seguida todos os esp?cimes foram separados por dia de coleta, identificadas e quantificadas. Para tal procedimento utilizou-se um microsc?pio estereosc?pico e chaves dicot?micas para a identifica??o da fam?lia e das esp?cies. As an?lises estat?sticas foram feitas utilizando o programa estat?stico Statistica 7.1 (STATSOFT, 2005), atrav?s do teste de Kruskal- Wallis one way ANOVA, teste de qui- quadrado (?2), Mann-Whitney e correla??o de Kendall Tau (p<0,05). Foram utilizados os ?ndices de diversidade de Shannon-Wiener e similaridade de Bray-Curtis, assim como a Dist?ncia Euclidiana. Foram capturadas 4531 moscas pertencentes a dez (10) esp?cies da fam?lia Calliphoridae: Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) (86,40%), Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann,1819) (5,72%), Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775) (4,94%), Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann, 1818) (2,10%), Lucilia eximia (Wiedemann, 1819) (0,30%), Cochliomyia hominivorax (Cocquerel, 1858) (0,22%), Chloroprocta idioidea (Robineau-Desvoidy, 1930) (0,20%), Hemilucilia segmentaria (Fabricius, 1805) (0,04%), Hemilucilia semidiaphana (Rondani, 1850) (0,04%), Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann,1830) (0,04%). A esp?cie C. megacephala foi aquela que apresentou a maior abund?ncia, a primavera foi a esta??o do ano em que todas as esp?cies mostraram maior prefer?ncia; as temperaturas compreendidas entre 30,5 e 32,40C e a umidade relativa do ar entre 56,8 e 61,7% foram consideradas aquelas onde houve frenesi de oviposi??o; nas luas cheias e novas houve maior ocorr?ncia de moscas capturadas; Megaselia scalaris se utilizou de esp?cies abundantes nas mesmas esta??es do anos em que ela ocorreu com maior frequ?ncia, possibilitando assim maior dispers?o de ovos; a maior disponibilidade de recursos alimentares resultantes da atividade poluidora tempor?ria ofereceram uma melhor condi??o de sobreviv?ncia para as esp?cies os Calliphoridae.

Tropical peatlands have some of the highest carbon densities of any ecosystem and are under enormous development pressure. This dissertation aimed to provide better estimates of the scales and trends of ecological impacts from tropical peatland deforestation and degradation across more than 7,000 hectares of both intact and disturbed peatlands in northwestern Borneo. We combined direct field sampling and airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data to empirically quantify forest structures and aboveground live biomass across a largely intact tropical peat dome. The observed biomass density of 217.7 ± 28.3 Mg C hectare-1 was very high, exceeding many other tropical rainforests. The canopy trees were ~65m in height, comprising 81% of the aboveground biomass. Stem density was observed to increase across the 4m elevational gradient from the dome margin to interior with decreasing stem height, crown area and crown roughness. We also developed and implemented a multi-temporal, Landsat resolution change detection algorithm for identify disturbance events and assessing forest trends in aseasonal tropical peatlands. The final map product achieved more than 92% user’s and producer’s accuracy, revealing that after more than 25 years of management and disturbances, only 40% of the area was intact forest. Using a chronosequence approach, with a space for time substitution, we then examined the temporal dynamics of peatlands and their recovery from disturbance. We observed widespread arrested succession in previously logged peatlands consistent with hydrological limits on regeneration and degraded peat quality following canopy removal. We showed that clear-cutting, selective logging and drainage could lead to different modes of regeneration and found that statistics of the Enhanced Vegetation Index and LiDAR height metrics could serve as indicators of harvesting intensity, impacts, and regeneration stage. Long-term, continuous monitoring of the hydrology and ecology of peatland can provide key insights regarding best management practices, restoration, and conservation priorities for this unique and rapidly disappearing ecosystem.

Les opportunités de reconstituer l’écologie et les comportements d’individus et d’espèces de vertébrés éteints sont rares. Plusieurs grands assemblages de vertébrés fossiles datant de la fin du Jurassique au début du Crétacé fournissent des informations sur la biodiversité et les communautés de vertébrés terrestres. Cependant, à l’exception du Lagerstätte de Las Hoyas (Crétacé inférieur, Espagne), les fossiles de ces assemblages ont été retrouvés sur un large éventail géographique, stratigraphique et/ou temporel. Cette thèse présente les résultats d’une étude taphonomique, couplée avec des données néotaphonomiques, paléontologiques, ichnologiques, sédimentologiques et géochimiques, de l’assemblage de macrorestes fossiles de vertébrés du site du Crétacé inférieur d’Angeac-Charente, situé dans l’Ouest de la France. Neuf campagnes de fouilles menées depuis 2010 ont permis de récolter plusieurs milliers de macrorestes de vertébrés appartenant à 16 taxons différents, auxquels viennent s’ajouter d’abondants microrestes appartenant à 27 taxons de vertébrés supplémentaires, plusieurs centaines de coprolithes de termites et de vertébrés riches en inclusions végétales et osseuses, des centaines de remplissages naturels d’empreintes de dinosaures, de nombreux restes de végétaux, des moules de mollusques bivalves et gastropodes, ainsi que des ostracodes. L’ensemble sédimentaire est dominé par des argiles de décantation interrompues par des dépôts localisés de plus haute énergie (cours d’eau, inondation) déposé dans un environnement de zone humide de type marécage. De nombreuses figures de déformations synsédimentaires formées en milieu liquide sont conservées sous forme de « scènes figées ». Des empreintes attribuées à l’ichnogenre Deltapodus et conservées sous forme de remplissages de dépôt direct ont été produites par un groupe multigénérationnel de stégosaures. De nombreuses empreintes de sauropodes sont conservées en 3-D ou en 4-D sous forme de remplissages de profondeurs variables. L’assemblage osseux est multitaxique, très diversifié et comprend des taxons terrestres, amphibies et aquatiques d’eau douce. Il contient une combinaison de macrofossiles et microfossiles et s’est formé de manière complexe, avec l’intervention de multiples processus d’origine biologique, écologique et physique. Il est dominé par les dinosaures, en particulier une nouvelle espèce d’ornithomimosaure non-ornithomimidé, dont de nombreux restent résultent d’une mort en masse d’un troupeau multigénérationnel dominé par des juvéniles et subadultes. D’abondants restes de sauropodes ont été transportés sur une plus ou moins grande distance avant d’être déposés sur le site. De nombreuses traces de morsure à la surface des restes de carapaces appartenant à plusieurs individus de tortues Pleurosternon bullockii résultent du comportement de prédation du crocodylomorphe Goniopholis, avec l’utilisation de la technique « casse-noix ». Les modifications osseuses post-dépositionnelles, comme la désarticulation, les déplacements, réorientations, fractures et traces de surface, résultent principalement de l’intense piétinement par les dinosaures. Le Lagerstätte d’Angeac-Charente ouvre une fenêtre d’une résolution spatiale et temporelle exceptionnellement fine sur un écosystème terrestre ouest-européen du tout début du Crétacé dont les organismes étaient en interaction directe entre eux et avec leur environnement. / Opportunities to reconstruct the ecology and behaviour of individuals of extinct vertebrate species are rare. Several large assemblages of fossil vertebrate dating from the late Jurassic to the early Cretaceous provide information on biodiversity and terrestrial vertebrate communities. However, with the exception of the Lagerstätte of Las Hoyas (Lower Cretaceous, Spain), the fossils of these assemblages have been found over a wide geographical, stratigraphic and/or temporal range. This PhD thesis presents the results of a taphonomic study, coupled with neotaphonic, paleontological, ichnological, sedimentological and geochemical data, of the assemblage of vertebrate fossils macro-remains from the Lower Cretaceous site of Angeac-Charente, located in the western France. Nine excavation campaigns carried out since 2010 allowed to collect thousands of vertebrate macroremains belonging to 16 different taxa, to which are added abundant microremains belonging to 27 additional vertebrate taxa, hundreds of termite and vertebrate coprolites rich in plant and bone inclusions, hundreds of natural casts of dinosaur tracks, numerous plant remains, bivalve and gastropod casts, as well as ostracods. The sedimentary assemblage is dominated by settling clays interrupted by localized deposits of higher energy deposited in a swampy wetland environment. Many synsedimentary deformations formed in liquefied sediments are preserved as "frozen scenes". Tracks attributed to the ichnogenre Deltapodus and preserved as direct deposit infills were produced by a multigenerational group of stegosaurs. Many sauropod footprints of various depths are stored in 3-D or 4-D. The bone assemblage is multitaxic, highly diversified and includes terrestrial as well as freshwater amphibian and aquatic taxa. It contains a combination of macrofossils and microfossils and has been formed in a complex way, with the intervention of multiple processes of biological, ecological and physical origin. It is dominated by dinosaurs, especially a new species of non-ornithomimid ornithomimosaur, many of whom remain resulting from a catastrophic mass death of a multigenerational herd dominated by juveniles and subadults. Abundant sauropod remains were transported by water currents over various distance before their deposit on the site. Many bite marks on the surface of shell remains belonging to several Pleurosternon bullockii turtle individuals result from the predatory behaviour of the crocodylomorph Goniopholis, with the use of the "nutcracker" technique. Post-depositional bone modifications, such as disarticulation, displacements, reorientations, fractures, fissures and surface marks, result mainly from intense trampling by dinosaurs. The Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte opens a window of exceptionally fine spatial and temporal resolution on a western European terrestrial ecosystem from the very beginning of the Cretaceous whose organisms interacted directly with each other and with their environment.