O Brasil possui grande diversidade de felinos selvagens e a maioria destes animais encontra-se ameaçada de extinção. A reprodução em cativeiro é ferramenta essencial para a conservação de espécies como felinos e, em geral, está diretamente relacionada ao bem-estar animal. O presente projeto objetivou o estudo do comportamento em cativeiro da jaguatirica (Leopardus pardalis), enfocando possíveis comportamentos anormais indicativos de condições ambientais sub-ótimas, e o teste de dois protocolos de enriquecimento ambiental (físico e alimentar), visando um melhor entendimento das necessidades desta espécie em cativeiro e a proposição de técnicas de manejo mais adequadas. Para tanto analisamos parâmetros comportamentais (método de varredura) e endócrinos (metabólitos fecais de corticosterona) de 12 indivíduos adultos e cativos na Associação Mata Ciliar, Jundiaí/SP. Com a análise conjunta dos dados de todos os indivíduos não foi possível sustentar a hipótese de influência do tratamento sobre o bem-estar, mas os resultados apontam para influências sazonais sob o comportamento dos animais (temperatura e fotoperíodo) e para um possível efeito danoso da remoção/interrupção do tratamento sobre o bem-estar. A análise individual também apontou, em alguns casos, para este efeito maléfico da remoção do tratamento e para resultados positivos quando se aplicam técnicas de enriquecimento ambiental, como redução da freqüência de comportamentos anormais, aumento do comportamento social não-agonista e redução da concentração de metabólitos de glicocorticóides. Foi encontrada ainda correlação positiva entre a concentração de metabólitos de corticosterona e comportamentos anormais. Dada a importância prática desta linha de pesquisa e a escassez de trabalhos com pequenos felinos brasileiros em cativeiro, apresentamos ainda algumas sugestões metodológicas para futuros experimentos. / Brazil exhibits a large variety of wild cat species, most of which under the threat of extinction. Reproduction in captivity is an essential tool for the conservation of these species, and it is directly linked to animal welfare. This project aimed the study of the behavior of the ocelot (a small-sized American wild cat; Leopardus pardalis under captivity, looking for potential abnormal behavior indicative of sub-optimal environmental conditions, and the testing of two environmental enrichment procedures (physical and alimentary) in search of a better understanding of this species\' needs in captivity and of better management techniques. For that, we analyzed behavioral (scan sampling) and endocrinal data (fecal corticosterone metabolites) from 12 adult captive individuais in the facilities of the Associação Mata Ciliar (Jundiaí, SP, Brazil). The analysis of data for the whole sample did not support the hypothesis predicting an influence of the environment enrichment procedures on the animals\' welfare, but pointed to seasonal influences on behavior, and to a possible harmful effect of the removal/interruption of the treatment on the welfare. The individual data analysis also pointed, in some cases, to a harmful effect of treatment removal, as well as to some positive results of the application of the environmental enrichment procedures, such as the reduction on the frequencies of abnormal behavior, a rise in non-agonist social behavior, and a reduction in the concentration levels of corticosteroid metabolites. We also found a positive correlation between concentration levels of corticosterone metabolites and abnormal behavior. Finally, given the practical relevance of this line of research and the lack of studies on small cats under captivity, we formulate some methodological suggestions for future research.

Atualmente, existe uma grande gama de dados acadêmicos disponíveis na web. Com estas informações é possível realizar tarefas como descoberta de especialistas em uma dada área, identificação de potenciais bolsistas de produtividade, sugestão de colaboradores, entre outras diversas. Contudo, o sucesso destas tarefas depende da qualidade dos dados utilizados, pois dados incorretos ou incompletos tendem a prejudicar o desempenho dos algoritmos aplicados. Diversos repositórios de dados acadêmicos não contêm ou não exigem a informação explícita das áreas de atuação dos pesquisadores. Nos dados dos currículos Lattes essa informação existe, porém é inserida manualmente pelo pesquisador sem que haja nenhum tipo de validação (e potencialmente possui informações desatualizadas, faltantes ou mesmo incorretas). O presente trabalho utilizou técnicas de aprendizado de máquina na inferência das áreas de atuação de pesquisadores com base nos dados cadastrados na plataforma Lattes. Os títulos da produção científica foram utilizados como fonte de dados, sendo estes enriquecidos com informações semanticamente relacionadas presentes em outras bases, além de adotar representações diversas para o texto dos títulos e outras informações acadêmicas como orientações e projetos de pesquisa. Objetivou-se avaliar se o enriquecimento dos dados melhora o desempenho dos algoritmos de classificação testados, além de analisar a contribuição de fatores como métricas de redes sociais, idioma dos títulos e a própria estrutura hierárquica das áreas de atuação no desempenho dos algoritmos. A técnica proposta pode ser aplicada a diferentes dados acadêmicos (não sendo restrita a dados presentes na plataforma Lattes), mas os dados oriundos dessa plataforma foram utilizados para os testes e validações da solução proposta. Como resultado, identificou-se que a técnica utilizada para realizar o enriquecimento do texto não auxiliou na melhoria da precisão da inferência. Todavia, as métricas de redes sociais e representações numéricas melhoram a inferência quando comparadas com técnicas do estado da arte, assim como o uso da própria estrutura hierárquica de classes, que retornou os melhores resultados dentre os obtidos / Nowadays, there is a wide range of academic data available on the web. With this information, it is possible to solve tasks such as the discovery of specialists in a given area, identification of potential scholarship holders, suggestion of collaborators, among others. However, the success of these tasks depends on the quality of the data used, since incorrect or incomplete data tend to impair the performance of the applied algorithms. Several academic data repositories do not contain or do not require the explicit information of the researchers\' areas. In the data of the Lattes curricula, this information exists, but it is inserted manually by the researcher without any kind of validation (and potentially it is outdated, missing or even there is incorrect information). The present work utilized machine learning techniques in the inference of the researcher\'s areas based on the data registered in the Lattes platform. The titles of the scientific production were used as data source and they were enriched with semantically related information present in other bases, besides adopting other representations for the text of the titles and other academic information as orientations and research projects. The objective of this dissertation was to evaluate if the data enrichment improves the performance of the classification algorithms tested, as well as to analyze the contribution of factors such as social network metrics, the language of the titles and the hierarchical structure of the areas in the performance of the algorithms. The proposed technique can be applied to different academic data (not restricted to data present in the Lattes platform), but the data from this platform was used for the tests and validations of the proposed solution. As a result, it was identified that the technique used to perform the enrichment of the text did not improve the accuracy of the inference. However, social network metrics and numerical representations improved inference accuracy when compared to state-of-the-art techniques, as well as the use of the hierarchical structure of the classes, which returned the best results among the obtained

O presente trabalho está inserido no campo de estudo das cascas axissimétricas, tendo como objetivo a análise de seu comportamento estrutural mediante o desenvolvimento e aplicação de uma ferramenta numérica baseada no método dos elementos finitos generalizados. A utilização desse recurso é uma alternativa eficaz e difere do método dos elementos finitos convencional pela possibilidade de enriquecimento nodal das funções de aproximação. Como resultado pode-se dispensar o uso de redes muito refinadas. Com o intuito de evidenciar as vantagens do método adotado são apresentados exemplos comparando-se as soluções numéricas obtidas com soluções analíticas ou numéricas geradas com o do método dos elementos finitos convencional. Os resultados obtidos com um pequeno número de elementos finitos e com enriquecimento por funções polinomiais, mostraram-se convergentes já nos primeiros graus de enriquecimento. Desenvolve-se uma análise complementar de convergência baseada em estimativa de erro, mostrando que a metodologia adotada pode proporcionar melhores taxas de convergência em relação ao refino h quando predomina a regularidade da solução. A mesma análise aponta que a combinação dos refinos h e p pode levar a resultados mais precisos, com elevadas taxas de convergência, quando a solução (particularmente suas derivadas) apresentar regularidade menor. / The present dissertation is inserted in the field of study of the axisymmetric shells. The objective is to analyze the structural behavior by means of the development and application of a numerical tool based on the generalized finite element method. The use of this resource is an efficient alternative to the conventional finite element method for the possibility of nodal enrichment of the approach functions. Therefore one can avoid the use of very fine nets. In addition, in order to evidence the advantages of the adopted method, there are shown examples comparing the numerical solutions with analytical or numerical values generated with the conventional finite element method. The results obtained with a small number of elements, including enrichment by polynomial functions, had revealed convergence in the first degrees of enrichment. It is developed a complementary convergence analysis based on estimate of error, showing that the adopted methodology can provide better convergence ratios in relation to the h-refinement, in the cases where the regularity of the solution predominates. The same analysis shows that the combination of the refinement in its versions h and p can give more accurate results, by increasing convergence, when the solution (particularly its derivatives) presents lower regularity.

<p>The prevalence of monoculture and landscape simplification is correlated with diminished biodiversity and increased presence of harmful pest species in crop environments. Lepidoptera is the largest clade of herbivorous insects, with many agriculturally significant species. The pest status of insects in agricultural settings is human-defined based on behaviors that may negatively impact the yield of susceptible crops. As such, both the insect behavior and the affected crop play a part in determining pest status. One helpful means of understanding pest status involves using pest injury guilds, which distinguish different pest groups based on similar kinds of injury to comparable plant tissues. Pest injury guilds defined in the literature are reviewed and then applied to agriculturally-significant Lepidoptera. Specialized Lepidoptera behaviors are reviewed within their respective injury guilds, and the systematics, ecology, and control options for fruit-piercing moths are discussed within the context of pest Lepidoptera behaviors. To address the need for distribution information for economically relevant Lepidoptera, the first annotated checklist of pest Lepidoptera is also provided for the United States and Canada. This checklist includes 80 agriculturally significant Lepidoptera species and complexes, and incorporates notes on distribution, species delimitation, natural history, and establishment.<br></p> <p><b> </b></p> <p>Fruit-piercing moths in the genus <i>Eudocima</i> Billberg, 1820 have significant pest status as adults rather than as larvae, and directly injure fruits using a specially-adapted proboscis. There are at least 48 <i>Eudocima</i> species which are found in the world’s tropics, but confusion persists in the classification of this genus and there are several suspected complexes. Additionally, the area of origin for this group is uncertain, although the Oriental region has been postulated. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of <i>Eudocima</i> is conducted using 82 morphological characters, which are each described and figured, and analyzed using parsimony. Results suggest that <i>Eudocima</i> is not monophyletic. Strongly-resolved relationships were recovered, although these did not correspond with previous generic concepts. The Australian region is recovered as the most parsimonious area of origin for <i>Eudocima</i>, and patterns of dispersal, particularly between the Oriental and Australian regions along the Indo-Australian Archipelago, are discussed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The <i>Eudocima phalonia</i>-complex is distributed throughout the Old World and has been the subject of increasing interest and research due to its economic impact in the tropics and status as a potential invasive species. The recent description of closely-related sister species, as well as morphological variation documented within <i>E. phalonia</i> itself, suggests possible speciation occurring within <i>E. phalonia</i> populations across its wide geographic range. To test species boundaries for this taxon, a molecular phylogeny is constructed using anchored hybrid enrichment and a next-generation sequencing approach. Sampling for this phylogeny was informed using a global range map for <i>E. phalonia</i>, which was developed using georeferenced specimen data from natural history collections. Biogeographic analyses are also conducted to investigate the area of origin and dispersal patterns of <i>E. phalonia</i>, and to examine possible speciation modes and gene flow. Georeferenced range information is also utilized along with environmental variables in constructing a correlative environmental niche model using MaxEnt, which is used to evaluate a previous mini risk assessment for environmental suitability in the continental United States for <i>E. phalonia</i> establishment. Results suggest that <i>E. phalonia</i> is monophyletic, with gene flow still occurring between populations. The area of origin for <i>E. phalonia</i> is postulated to be the Oriental region, although further investigation is needed. Range predictions for <i>E. phalonia</i> from environmental modelling were performed for both the Old World, which concurred well with occurrence data, and for the New World. Assessment of environmental suitability for <i>E. phalonia</i> in the continental United States suggests areas in Florida and along the Gulf Coast are most favorable for establishment.</p>

This master's thesis deals with the Instrumental Enrichment Method of Reuven Feuerstein. It provides an introduction to the method as well as examples of its application in institutionalized Preschool education. The aim of the thesis is to provide insight into aspects of introducing the method as a part of Preschool education. The theoretical part desribes the theoretical framework of the method and defines the method in relation to Preschool education. The theoretical part of the thesis also deals with the principles and Czech legislation of current Preschool education and related inclusive education. The practical part of the thesis derives from a qualitative research on the real practice introduction of the method in institutionalized Preschool education. Research data are based on individual interviews with the nursery school headmasters. The interviewers were from various nursery schools across the Czech Republic, which are registered in the Register of Ministry of Education. The results of the research provide the respondents's opinions and experiences of various extent. Many overlaps were found in content of testimonies, which provides method enrichment in various areas of institutionalized preschool education. The research also brings out data on the organizational issues of introducing the...

This study focused on how teachers' planning and teaching methods changed after they acquired more confidence in applying differentiated strategies in their instructional units. Teachers were given a questionnaire about their skills, qualifications and teaching beliefs comparing teaching general education students and gifted education students within the typical classroom setting. Then teachers received several professional development opportunities within the school year exposing them to different forms of differentiation. Time was given between trainings so that teachers would have ample time to integrate what they learned into their planning and instructional design. At the end of the study, teachers were given another questionnaire, similar to the first one, where they had to rank themselves on skills, education, and teaching methods for general education students and gifted students after the professional development. Comparisons between the two questionnaires showed that teachers were more confident in how to meet individual students' needs through differentiation after the trainings than before the study. In fact, before the study, 50% of teachers reported that the needs of gifted students are not being met in the general classroom setting; but, after the study, that number dropped to only 6%. Because teachers felt more confident in their abilities to teach gifted students in the traditional classrooms, the students' needs were addressed.

Adolescence is a critical developmental period in which the brain emerges from an immature state to adulthood. This process of brain development is associated to greater cognitive capacity but also to altered emotional behaviour, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms; as well as increased sensation-seeking and risk taking behaviour. The proper development of brain and behaviour into adulthood can be negatively affected by external factors such as drug abuse and environmental conditions. This work consists firstly on, studying the impact of binge ethanol, 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and its combination in adolescent mice. Secondly, study the consequences of early-life stressful experiences (social isolation) into adulthood. Main results obtained from the first objective are that the combination of binge ethanol and MDMA induces emotional-like alterations. These alterations can be prevented by antidepressant treatment. In addition, MDMA induces memory impairments that may be associated to oxidative damage to specific proteins in the hippocampus. Neuroinflammation is also present after MDMA treatment, but not after binge ethanol treatment, in mice striatum. Metabolomic studies indicate that brain metabolism is altered after binge ethanol, MDMA or its combination. Even though these are only preliminary results, these alterations might be due to an imbalance in tryptophan metabolism. Regarding the second objective, our findings indicate that social isolation during adolescence induces an altered response to novel and stressful situations. These alterations are probably due to altered HPA axis activity. / L'adolescència és un període crític en el desenvolupament de l’individu en el qual el cervell va d’un estat immadur a l’edat adulta. Aquest procés va acompanyat d’una elevada capacitat cognitiva però també de freqüents alteracions de tipus emocional, com l’ansietat o els símptomes depressius, així com la cerca de sensacions de risc. Un bon desenvolupament del cervell i del comportament es pot veure negativament afectat per factors externs com són l’abús de drogues i les condicions ambientals desfavorables. Aquest projecte consisteix en primer lloc, a estudiar l'impacte de l’alcohol en excés, la 3, 4-Metilendioximetamfetamina (MDMA) i la seva combinació en ratolins adolescents. En segon lloc, estudiar les conseqüències en l’edat adulta d’experiències estressants durant l’adolescència. Els principals resultats obtinguts referents al primer objectiu són que la combinació d'alcohol en excés i MDMA provoca alteracions de tipus emocional. Aquestes alteracions poden ser previngudes pel tractament amb antidepressius. A més, la MDMA indueix un deteriorament de la memòria que pot estar associada amb el dany oxidatiu a proteïnes específiques de l'hipocamp. També s’ha observat una resposta neuroinflamatòria en el cos estriat dels ratolins després del tractament amb MDMA, però no després del tractament amb etanol en excés. Finalment, estudis de metabolòmica indiquen que el metabolisme cerebral es veu alterat després de l’alcohol en excés, la MDMA o la seva combinació. Tot i que només són resultats preliminars, aquestes alteracions poden ser conseqüència d'un desequilibri en el metabolisme del triptòfan. Referent al segon objectiu, els nostres resultats indiquen que l'aïllament social durant l’adolescència indueix una resposta alterada a situacions novelles i estressants. Aquestes respostes anormals són probablement conseqüència d’alteracions en l’activitat de l’eix HPA.

Title of Thesis : A study on relationship between project manager behavior and employee job performance in Kaohsiung Rapid Transit building project Name of student: Hui-Wen Cheng Advisor: Dr. Jin-Feng Uen Abstract: The project style organization is normal state in many businesses. The purpose of mission of project is finish job quality by limit budget. Nowadays, Engineering or building project by cooperation to under take a large scale public engineering to resolve problems of plan, design and work. The combinations of project members are provisional, maybe they are work for the different departments for the same company or they work for different companies, maybe they are short-tern workers for project, so the employee source of project is complicated. And there are many important works for building projects, including control budget, plan, and resources distribution properly, so project management is difficult, and project manager¡¦s role is very important. Manager has to share information, trend participated leadership with team and discuss openly to solve problem to complete project. Manager also needs to encourage team members to work together in the project management. This case refers to several references, project manger behaviors defines the following: concern for people, information provide, job goals, external relations and performance rewords.Therefore, project manager behaviors for project organization of members have certain inflation and also has indirectly effect ion. This is a case of KMRT and studies between project manager behavior and employees of job performance including employees of job satisfied, employees of individual personality and job enrichment, etc. It also studies in some circumstances between project manager behavior and employees of job performance. These evidences show as followings¡G 1. Project manager emphasizes information provide and it obviously affect with employees of job performance. 2. Project manager emphasizes concern for people and it obviously affect with employees of job satisfaction. 3. Project manager emphasizes information provide and it obviously affect with employees of job satisfaction. 4. Job enrichment for project manager to emphasize performance and employee of job satisfaction is effective interruptedly. 5. Project employees of different departments for project manager to emphasize concern for people and employee of job satisfaction is effective interruptedly. 6. Age of project employees for project manager to emphasize external relations and employee of job satisfaction is effective interruptedly. 7. Project employees of different departments for project manager to emphasize external relations and employee of job satisfaction is effective interruptedly. 8. Project employees of different positions for project manager to emphasize external relations and employee of job satisfaction is effective interruptedly.

Daily aerosol samples were collected at the &Ccedil / andarli which is located on Aegean coast of Turkey. A rural site was selected to monitor atmospheric pollution by long range transport. Sampling was performed in both summer and winter seasons, and in total 151 samples were obtained. Concentrations of elements in the samples were measured in order to identify sources and possible source locations of pollutants. Measured concentrations of trace elements at the &Ccedil / andarli station were compared with those measured at various sites around the world and, also in Turkey. As a result of comparison, level of pollution at the Aegean Region was found to be lower than the Mediterranean Region and Black Sea Region. Air flow climatology at &Ccedil / andarli was investigated in order to determine potential source regions for pollutants. Frequency of air flows from Russia and Western Europe are higher suggesting that emissions from these industrial regions affect the chemical composition of particulate matter. Besides these, it was concluded that contributions from Central and Eastern European countries are significantly high because of frequent air mass transport. Concentrations of elements measured at &Ccedil / andarli station were found to show short and seasonal variations. Such variations in concentrations are explained by variations in the source strengths and transport patterns. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was applied to determine sources of elements and contribution of sources to each element. This analysis revealed 5 sources, two local anthropogenic emissions factor, one soil factor, one sea salt factor and one long range transport factor. Distribution of Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) values showed that main sources of SO42- are observed in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Ukraine and central part of Aegean region.

Current approaches integrating large scale data and information from a variety of sources to reveal molecular basis of cellular events do not adequately benefit from pathway information. Here, we portray a network structure based pathway enrichment system that fuses and exploits model and data: signalling pathways are taken as the biological models while microarray and ChIP-seq data are the sample input data sources among many other alternatives. Our model- and data-driven hybrid system allows to quantitatively assessing the biological activity of a cyclic pathway and simultaneous enrichment of the significant paths leading to the ultimate cellular response. Signal Transduction Score Flow (SiTSFlow) algorithm is the fundamental constituent of proposed network structure based pathway enrichment system. SiTSFlow algorithm converts each pathway into a cascaded graph and then gene scores are mapped onto the protein nodes. Gene scores are transferred to en route of the pathway to form a final activity score describing behaviour of a specific process in the pathway while enriching of the gene node scores. Because of cyclic pathways, the algorithm runs in an iterative manner and it terminates when the node scores converge. The converged final activity score provides a quantitative measure to assess the biological significance of a process under the given experimental conditions. The conversion of cyclic pathways into cascaded graphs is performed by using a linear time multiple source Breadth First Search Algorithm. Furthermore, proposed network structure based pathway enrichment system works in linear time in terms of nodes and edges of given pathways. In order to explore various biological responses of several processes in a global signalling network, the selected small pathways have been unified based on their common gene and process nodes. The merge algorithm for pathways also runs in linear time in terms of nodes and edges of given pathways. In the experiments, SiTSFlow algorithm proved the convergence behaviour of activity scores for several cyclic pathways and for a global signalling network. The biological results obtained by assessing of experimental data by described network structure based pathway enrichment system were in correlation with the expected cellular behaviour under the given experimental conditions.