Orientador: Noeme Sousa Rocha / Coorientador: Antonio Francisco Godinho / Banca: Júlio Lopes Sequeira / Banca: Simone Biagio Chiacchio / Banca: Cláudia Turra Pimpão / Banca: Rosa Maria Barilli / Resumo: O presente estudo teve o objetivo de avaliar os efeitos toxicológicos em ratos Wistar expostos ao fipronil no período perinatal. Os animais utilizados foram adquiridos do Biotério Central da UNESP, campus de Botucatu e os testes foram realizados em seus descendentes. Foi avaliado o desenvolvimento físico e sensório-motor e aplicados testes de comportamento, como a Arena de Campo aberto, para avaliar atividade geral; o Labirinto em Cruz Elevado, para avaliação do comportamento de ansiedade; o Hole-Board, para coordenação motora; os testes Reconhecimento de Novo Objeto e Labirinto Octogonal, para avaliar memória cognitiva e espacial, respectivamente; e o teste de agressividade, de acordo com o paradigma do animal residente/intruso. Por espectrofotometria, foram dosados os níveis de Acetilcolinesterase, de Cortisol, de Alanina Aminotransferase e de Aspartato Aminotransferase, e quantificado, através de análise cromatográfica, o fipronil e seus metabólitos nos cérebros dos ratos. Fragmentos dos órgãos cérebro e fígado foram coletados e avaliados por técnica de histopatologia. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, o fipronil alterou o desenvolvimento físico, aumentou a ansiedade e agressividade, prejudicou a memória e a coordenação motora, induziu aumento na atividade da enzima acetilcolinesterase, causou alterações histopatológicas no cérebro e fígado dos animais. O fipronil é considerado tóxico para o sistema nevoso central e fígado de ratos, jovens e adultos, expostos ao praguicida no período perinatal / Abstract: This study aimed to evaluate the toxicological effects in rats Wistar exposed to fipronil in the perinatal period. The animals used were acquired from the Biotério Central of UNESP, Botucatu and the tests were performed on their offspring. Were evaluated the physical and sensory-motor development and applied behavioral tests, such as the Open Field test, to assess general activity; the Plus Maze Elevated to assess the anxiety behavior; Hole-Board for motor coordination; tests Recognition New Object and Octagonal Labyrinth, to assess cognitive and spatial memory, respectively; and Aggressivity test, according to the resident/intruder animal paradigm. Were measured levels of Acetylcholinesterase, Cortisol, Alanine aminotransferase and Aspartate aminotransferase by spectrophotometry, and quantified fipronil and metabolites in the brains of rats, by chromatographic analysis. Fragments of organs as brain and liver were collected and evaluated by histopathology technique. According to the results, fipronil alter the physical development, increased anxiety and aggression, impaired memory and motor coordination, induced increase in the Acetylcholinesterase activity, caused histological changes in the brain and liver of these animals. Fipronil is considered toxic to the central nervous system and liver of rats, young and adults, exposed to pesticide in the perinatal period / Doutor

Orientador: Fernando Barbosa Noll / Banca: Eliane Gonçalves de Freitas / Banca: Vera Cristina Silva / Banca: Sergio Ricardo Andena / Banca: Sidnei Mateus / Resumo: Os Epiponini formam um conjunto de gêneros de vespas sociais que popularmente são conhecidas como marimbondos. É um grupo bem conhecido taxonomicamente e revela grande diversidade. Um aspecto importante para seu entendimento se dá pela descrição do forrageio das espécies. Nos Epiponini, vários trabalhos vem sendo realizados ao longo dos anos, porém ainda temos um longo caminho pela frente para um entendimento sólido do grupo todo. A literatura que envolve o estudo do forrageio em vespas sociais, é pontual em sua maioria e ainda utilizam apenas um gênero como objeto de estudo. Uma característica associada a esse fato talvez seja a dificuldade encontrada para realizar estudos de forrageio em vespas sociais. Propomos com este trabalho estudar o forrageio do grupo Epiponini de uma maneira mais ampla, abrangendo um número maior de espécies. Sabemos que o forrageio de recursos tem papel primordial na manutenção das colônias dos Epiponíneos, pois é através dele que recursos fundamentais para a manutenção das colônias são coletados. Entender melhor como é feito o forrageio de vespas sociais ajuda a esclarecer fatores no ciclo colonial das diferentes espécies / Abstract: he epiponines form a group of social wasps genera popularly known as 'marimbondos". It is a group well known taxonomically and shows great diversity. An important part to the understanding this group is the description of the foraging of the species. In Epiponini, several works have been performed over the years, but we still have a long way for a solid understanding of the entire group. Most studies in the literature involving foraging in social wasps, are punctual, and still use just one genus as study object. A feature associated with that fact may be the difficulty for studies of foraging in social wasps. We propose in this paper to study the foraging of the Epiponini covering a larger number of species. We know that the foraging resource has crucial role to the maintenance of epiponines colonies. Better understand how it is done foraging social wasps helps clarify factors in the colony cycle of the different species / Doutor

A produção brasileira de frangos de corte tem atingido níveis de produção e de exportação elevados, conquistando a liderança das exportações mundial. Isso tudo deve-se a inúmeros fatores, tais como o melhoramento genético, a ambiência, a nutrição e as questões relacionadas ao bem-estar e sanidade das aves. A iluminação natural, em que a maioria das aves eram criadas, tanto matrizes como os frangos de corte, foi migrando em sua quase totalidade no formato de fornecimento de iluminação artificial. Atualmente existem fontes distintas para se fornecer iluminação artificial, seja pelo comprimento de onda (cor da luz)como pela própria lâmpada (fluorescente, incandescente, vapor de sódio, LED, etc.). O tipo de iluminação artificial utilizado pode aumentar ou reduzir o consumo de energia, como também pode afetar o desempenho produtivo e comportamental das aves. Em muitos casos, o sistema de fornecimento de luz mais encontrado nos aviários é composto por um grande número de lâmpadas de alta potência, mas com uma eficiência luminosa baixa. Uma forma de tentar minimizar essa carga instalada, e diminuir os custos com energia elétrica é utilizando lâmpadas que apresentem uma eficiência luminosa melhor, como por exemplo, as lâmpadas fluorescentes e as lâmpadas de LED (Light-Emitting Diode). Neste contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi abordar por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica, a importância de distintas cores de iluminação de LED nos índices zootécnicos e comportamentais de frangos de corte,bem como abordar a importância da utilização de novas tecnologias. Para tanto, elaborou-se um capítulo de revisão bibliográfica, destacando a importância da cadeia avícola no mundo e justificando a importância do tema em questão. Já o segundo capítulo, aborda como tema: “Efeito de distintas cores de lâmpadas de LED na produção e comportamento de frangos de corte e a respectiva influência nos custos com energia elétrica na atividade". / The Brazilian production of broilers has reached high levels of production and exportation,gaining leadership on the world exports. This is all due to numerous factors, such as genetic improvement, the ambience, nutrition and other factors related to the welfare and health of the birds. The natural lighting where most birds were raised, both broiler breeders and broilers, has been almost entirely migrated to the artificial form of illumination. Currently there are different sources of roviding artificial lighting, either by the wavelength (color of light), as well as by the lamp itself (fluorescent, incandescent, sodium vapor, LED, etc.). The type of artificial lighting used can increase or reduce energy consumption, but can also affect the behavior and productive performance of the birds. In many cases, the lightning system most often found in aviaries consists of a large number of high-powered lamps, but with a low luminous efficiency. One way to try to minimize this installed load and reduce electricity costs, is using lamps that have a better luminous efficiency, such as fluorescent lamps and LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lamps. In this context, the objective of this study is to address through a literature review, the importance of different colors of LED lighting in zootechnical and behavioral indices of broilers, as well as to address the importance of using new technologies. To this end, it was prepared a chapter of literature review, highlighting he importance of poultry production in the world and justifying the importance of the topic. The second chapter addresses the theme: "Effect of different colors of LED lamps in the production and behavior of broilers and its influence on electricity costs in the activity."

A produção brasileira de frangos de corte tem atingido níveis de produção e de exportação elevados, conquistando a liderança das exportações mundial. Isso tudo deve-se a inúmeros fatores, tais como o melhoramento genético, a ambiência, a nutrição e as questões relacionadas ao bem-estar e sanidade das aves. A iluminação natural, em que a maioria das aves eram criadas, tanto matrizes como os frangos de corte, foi migrando em sua quase totalidade no formato de fornecimento de iluminação artificial. Atualmente existem fontes distintas para se fornecer iluminação artificial, seja pelo comprimento de onda (cor da luz)como pela própria lâmpada (fluorescente, incandescente, vapor de sódio, LED, etc.). O tipo de iluminação artificial utilizado pode aumentar ou reduzir o consumo de energia, como também pode afetar o desempenho produtivo e comportamental das aves. Em muitos casos, o sistema de fornecimento de luz mais encontrado nos aviários é composto por um grande número de lâmpadas de alta potência, mas com uma eficiência luminosa baixa. Uma forma de tentar minimizar essa carga instalada, e diminuir os custos com energia elétrica é utilizando lâmpadas que apresentem uma eficiência luminosa melhor, como por exemplo, as lâmpadas fluorescentes e as lâmpadas de LED (Light-Emitting Diode). Neste contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi abordar por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica, a importância de distintas cores de iluminação de LED nos índices zootécnicos e comportamentais de frangos de corte,bem como abordar a importância da utilização de novas tecnologias. Para tanto, elaborou-se um capítulo de revisão bibliográfica, destacando a importância da cadeia avícola no mundo e justificando a importância do tema em questão. Já o segundo capítulo, aborda como tema: “Efeito de distintas cores de lâmpadas de LED na produção e comportamento de frangos de corte e a respectiva influência nos custos com energia elétrica na atividade". / The Brazilian production of broilers has reached high levels of production and exportation,gaining leadership on the world exports. This is all due to numerous factors, such as genetic improvement, the ambience, nutrition and other factors related to the welfare and health of the birds. The natural lighting where most birds were raised, both broiler breeders and broilers, has been almost entirely migrated to the artificial form of illumination. Currently there are different sources of roviding artificial lighting, either by the wavelength (color of light), as well as by the lamp itself (fluorescent, incandescent, sodium vapor, LED, etc.). The type of artificial lighting used can increase or reduce energy consumption, but can also affect the behavior and productive performance of the birds. In many cases, the lightning system most often found in aviaries consists of a large number of high-powered lamps, but with a low luminous efficiency. One way to try to minimize this installed load and reduce electricity costs, is using lamps that have a better luminous efficiency, such as fluorescent lamps and LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lamps. In this context, the objective of this study is to address through a literature review, the importance of different colors of LED lighting in zootechnical and behavioral indices of broilers, as well as to address the importance of using new technologies. To this end, it was prepared a chapter of literature review, highlighting he importance of poultry production in the world and justifying the importance of the topic. The second chapter addresses the theme: "Effect of different colors of LED lamps in the production and behavior of broilers and its influence on electricity costs in the activity."

abstract: Social structure affects many aspects of ecology including mating systems, dispersal, and movements. The quality and pattern of associations among individuals can define social structure, thus detailed behavioral observations are vital to understanding species social structure and many other aspects of their ecology. In squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes), detailed observations of associations among individuals have been primarily limited to several lineages of lizards and have revealed a variety of social structures, including polygynous family group-living and monogamous pair-living. Here I describe the social structure of two communities within a population of Arizona black rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerberus) using association indices and social network analysis. I used remote timelapse cameras to semi-continuously sample rattlesnake behavior at communal basking sites during early April through mid-May in 2011 and 2012. I calculated an association index for each dyad (proportion of time they spent together) and used these indices to construct a weighted, undirected social network for each community. I found that individual C. cerberus vary in their tendency to form associations and are selective about with whom they associate. Some individuals preferred to be alone or in small groups while others preferred to be in large groups. Overall, rattlesnakes exhibited non-random association patterns, and this result was mainly driven by association selection of adults. Adults had greater association strengths and were more likely to have limited and selected associates. I identified eight subgroups within the two communities (five in one, three in the other), all of which contained adults and juveniles. My study is the first to show selected associations among individual snakes, but to my knowledge it is also the first to use association indices and social network analysis to examine association patterns among snakes. When these methods are applied to other snake species that aggregate, I anticipate the `discovery' of similar social structures. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Biology 2012

abstract: In social insect colonies, as with individual animals, the rates of biological processes scale with body size. The remarkable explanatory power of metabolic allometry in ecology and evolutionary biology derives from the great diversity of life exhibiting a nonlinear scaling pattern in which metabolic rates are not proportional to mass, but rather exhibit a hypometric relationship with body size. While one theory suggests that the supply of energy is a major physiological constraint, an alternative theory is that the demand for energy is regulated by behavior. The central hypothesis of this dissertation research is that increases in colony size reduce the proportion of individuals actively engaged in colony labor with consequences for energetic scaling at the whole-colony level of biological organization. A combination of methods from comparative physiology and animal behavior were developed to investigate scaling relationships in laboratory-reared colonies of the seed-harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus. To determine metabolic rates, flow-through respirometry made it possible to directly measure the carbon dioxide production and oxygen consumption of whole colonies. By recording video of colony behavior, for which ants were individually paint-marked for identification, it was possible to reconstruct the communication networks through which information is transmitted throughout the colony. Whole colonies of P. californicus were found to exhibit a robust hypometric allometry in which mass-specific metabolic rates decrease with increasing colony size. The distribution of walking speeds also scaled with colony size so that larger colonies were composed of relatively more inactive ants than smaller colonies. If colonies were broken into random collections of workers, metabolic rates scaled isometrically, but when entire colonies were reduced in size while retaining functionality (queens, juveniles, workers), they continued to exhibit a metabolic hypometry. The communication networks in P. californicus colonies contain a high frequency of feed-forward interaction patterns consistent with those of complex regulatory systems. Furthermore, the scaling of these communication pathways with size is a plausible mechanism for the regulation of whole-colony metabolic scaling. The continued development of a network theory approach to integrating behavior and metabolism will reveal insights into the evolution of collective animal behavior, ecological dynamics, and social cohesion. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Biology 2012

abstract: Of all the signals and cues that orchestrate the activities of a social insect colony, the reproductives' fertility pheromones are perhaps the most fundamental. These pheromones regulate reproductive division of labor, a defining characteristic of eusociality. Despite their critical role, reproductive fertility pheromones are not evenly expressed across the development of a social insect colony and may even be absent in the earliest colony stages. In the ant Camponotus floridanus, queens of incipient colonies do not produce the cuticular hydrocarbons that serve as fertility and egg-marking signals in this species. My dissertation investigates the consequences of the dramatic change in the quantity of these pheromones that occurs as the colony grows. C. floridanus workers from large, established colonies use egg surface hydrocarbons to discriminate among eggs. Eggs with surface hydrocarbons typical of eggs laid by established queens are nurtured, whereas eggs lacking these signals (i.e., eggs laid by workers and incipient queens) are destroyed. I characterized how workers from incipient colonies responded to eggs lacking queen fertility hydrocarbons. I found that established-queen-laid eggs, incipient-queen-laid eggs, and worker-laid eggs were not destroyed by workers at this colony stage. Destruction of worker-laid eggs is a form of policing, and theoretical models predict that policing should be strongest in incipient colonies. Since there was no evidence of policing by egg-eating in incipient C. floridanus colonies, I searched for evidence of another policing mechanism at this colony stage. Finding none, I discuss reasons why policing behavior may not be expressed in incipient colonies. I then considered the mechanism that accounts for the change in workers' response to eggs. By manipulating ants' egg experience and testing their egg-policing decisions, I found that ants use a combination of learned and innate criteria to discriminate between targets of care and destruction. Finally, I investigated how the increasing strength of queen-fertility hydrocarbons affects nestmate recognition, which also relies on cuticular hydrocarbons. I found that queens with strong fertility hydrocarbons can be transferred between established colonies without aggression, but they cannot be introduced into incipient colonies. Queens from incipient colonies cannot be transferred into incipient or established colonies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Biology 2012

abstract: Intermittent social defeat stress induces cross-sensitization to psychostimulants and escalation of drug self-administration. These behaviors could result from the stress-induced neuroadaptation in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine circuit. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is persistently elevated after social defeat stress, and may contribute to the stress-induced neuroadaptation in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine circuit. BDNF modulates synaptic plasticity, and facilitates stress- and drug-induced neuroadaptations in the mesocorticolimbic system. The present research examined the role of mesolimbic BDNF signaling in social defeat stress-induced cross-sensitization to psychostimulants and the escalation of cocaine self-administration in rats. We measured drug taking behavior with the acquisition, progressive ratio, and binge paradigms during self-administration. With BDNF overexpression in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), single social defeat stress-induced cross-sensitization to amphetamine (AMPH) was significantly potentiated. VTA-BDNF overexpression also facilitates acquisition of cocaine self-administration, and a positive correlation between the level of VTA BDNF and drug intake during 12 hour binge was observed. We also found significant increase of DeltaFosB expression in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the projection area of the VTA, in rats received intra-VTA BDNF overexpression. We therefore examined whether BDNF signaling in the NAc is important for social defeat stress-induced cross-sensitization by knockdown of the receptor of BDNF (neurotrophin tyrosine kinase receptor type 2, TrkB) there. NAc TrkB knockdown prevented social defeat stress-induced cross-sensitization to psychostimulant. Also social defeat stress-induced increase of DeltaFosB in the NAc was prevented by TrkB knockdown. Several other factors up-regulated by stress, such as the GluA1 subunit of Alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor and BDNF in the VTA were also prevented. We conclude that BDNF signaling in the VTA increases social defeat stress-induced vulnerability to psychostimulants, manifested as potentiated cross-sensitization/sensitization to AMPH and escalation of cocaine self-administration. Also BDNF signaling in the NAc is necessary for the stress-induced neuroadaptation and behavioral sensitization to psychostimulants. Therefore, TrkB in the NAc could be a therapeutic target to prevent stress-induced vulnerability to drugs of abuse in the future. DeltaFosB in the NAc shell could be a neural substrate underlying persistent cross-sensitization and augmented cocaine self-administration induced by social defeat stress. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Neuroscience 2013

abstract: When a rolling ball exits a spiral tube, it typically maintains its final inertial state and travels along straight line in concordance with Newton's first law of motion. Yet, most people predict that the ball will curve, a "naive physics" misconception called the curvilinear impetus (CI) bias. In the current paper, we explore the ecological hypothesis that the CI bias arises from overgeneralization of correct motion of biological agents. Previous research has established that humans curve when exiting a spiral maze, and college students believe this motion is the same for balls and humans. The current paper consists of two follow up experiments. The first experiment tested the exiting behavior of rodents from a spiral rat maze. Though there were weaknesses in design and procedures of the maze, the findings support that rats do not behave like humans who exhibit the CI bias when exiting a spiral maze. These results are consistent with the CI bias being an overgeneralization of human motion, rather than generic biological motion. The second experiment tested physics teachers on their conception of how a humans and balls behave when exiting a spiral tube. Teachers demonstrated correct knowledge of the straight trajectory of a ball, but generalized the ball's behavior to human motion. Thus physics teachers exhibit the opposite bias from college students and presume that all motion is like inanimate motion. This evidence supports that this type of naive physics inertial bias is at least partly due to participants overgeneralizing both inanimate and animate motion to be the same, perhaps in an effort to minimize cognitive reference memory load. In short, physics training appears not to eliminate the bias, but rather to simply shift it from the presumption of stereotypical animate to stereotypical inanimate behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013

abstract: The origin and function of color in animals has been a subject of great interest for taxonomists and ecologists in recent years. Coloration in animals is useful for many important functions like species identification, camouflage and understanding evolutionary relationships. Quantitative measurements of color signal and patch size in mammals, birds and reptiles, to name a few are strong indicators of sexual selection cues and individual health. These measurements provide valuable insights into the impact of environmental conditions on habitat and breeding of mammals, birds and reptiles. Recent advances in the area of digital cameras and sensors have led to a significant increase in the use of digital photography as a means of color quantification in animals. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted on ways to standardize image acquisition conditions and calibrate cameras for use in animal color quantification, almost no work has been done on designing automated methods for animal color quantification. This thesis presents a novel perceptual"–"based framework for the automated extraction and quantification of animal coloration from digital images with slowly varying (almost homogenous) background colors. This implemented framework uses a combination of several techniques including color space quantization using a few dominant colors, foreground"–"background identification, Bayesian classification and mixture Gaussian modelling of conditional densities, edge"–"enhanced model"–"based classification and Saturation"–"Brightness quantization to extract the colored patch. This approach assumes no prior information about the color of either the subject or the background and also the position of the subject in the image. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated for the plumage color of the wild house finches. Segmentation results obtained using the implemented framework are compared with manually scored results to illustrate the performance of this system. The segmentation results show a high correlation with manually scored images. This novel framework also eliminates common problems in manual scoring of digital images such as low repeatability and inter"–"observer error. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2013