Orientador: Ana Maria Costa Leonardo / Banca: Fabiana Elaine Casarin dos Santos / Banca: Sulene Noriko Shima / Banca: Luiz Carlos Forti / Banca: Maria Santina de Castro Morini / Resumo: Coptotermes gestroi e Heterotermes tenuis são espécies de cupins pertencentes à família Rhinotermitidae consideradas importantes pragas urbanas no Brasil, sendo que a segunda também é encontrada em ambientes agrícolas. No ambiente urbano, tais espécies são encontradas consumindo várias fontes celulósicas, algumas até aparentemente similares. O processo de forrageamento dos cupins subterrâneos é dinâmico e muda ao longo do tempo. Contudo, devido aos seus hábitos crípticos, existem alguns pontos polêmicos que precisam ser esclarecidos, principalmente visando melhorar e embasar as novas estratégias de manejo, tais como a tecnologia de isca. Em vista do exposto, a presente pesquisa propôs analisar e comparar, por meio de bioensaios, as respostas comportamentais de C. gestroi e H. tenuis considerando diferentes formas de apresentação do alimento e frente a recursos alimentares equivalentes. Uma vez que uma colônia pode utilizar várias fontes alimentares, também foi observado o comportamento de busca por novos alimentos, verificando o forrageamento desses insetos frente a recursos alimentares previamente visitados por outros cupins. Para esses bioensaios foram utilizados diferentes tipos de arenas experimentais compostas por câmaras "ninho" e câmaras alimentares. Adicionalmente, foi observado o comportamento de tunelamento dos forrageiros em solos heterogêneos, acrescidos de pistas físicas, químicas e biológicas, simulando aqueles presentes em áreas urbanas. Para tanto, foram utilizadas arenas bidimensionais compostas por duas placas de vidro separadas por uma moldura, a qual delimitava a área de tunelamento disponível para os indivíduos. Todos os dados obtidos foram analisados gráfica e estatisticamente, sendo que o nível de significância (a) adotado foi igual a 0,05. De acordo com os resultados obtidos nos experimentos com diferentes formas de apresentação... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Coptotermes gestroi and Heterotermes tenuis, termites of the Rhinotermitidae family, are considered important urban pests in Brazil. The latter is also found in rural areas. In urban environments, these species consume many cellulose sources, some apparently similar. The foraging behavior of subterranean termites is dynamic and changes throughout time. However, due to their cryptic behavior, some questions still remain, especially regarding the construction of a framework and the improvement of new control strategies involving baits. The present study was aimed at analyzing and comparing the behavioral responses of C. gestroi and H. tenuis using bioassays involving different food presentations and equivalent food resources. Since a colony can feed on many food sources, the searching behavior of new food items was examined as well as foraging of food items previously visited by other termites. Bioassays consisted of different types of arenas with a "nest" and feeding chambers were carried out. Also, the tunneling behavior of foragers in heterogeneous soils and physical, chemical, and biological cues was examined, simulating those present in urban areas. Bioassyas consisted of two glass plates separated by a frame delimitating the tunneling area available for the termites were carried out. The results were analyzed and significance level was set at p = 0.05. Based on the results obtained in the experiments with different forms of presentation of the food item, both species had similar behavioral patterns, showing a bias toward food items completely buried in the substrate. Regarding the exploitation of equivalent food sources, no differences were observed between consumption and recruiting for the first food sources visited compared to other sources available. Thus, C. gestroi and H. tenuis did not concentrate their efforts in the consumption of the first food item found. In tenacity... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

In this study, I develop a Gaussian Closure method to simulate steady state unsaturated flow in randomly heterogeneous soils. I predict pressure heads and fluxes and evaluate uncertainties associated with these predictions, without resorting to Monte Carlo simulation, upscaling, or linearization of the governing flow equations and the constitutive relationship between unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and pressure head. Upon treating dimensionless pressure head as a multivariate Gaussian function in the manner of Amir and Neuman [2001], I obtain a closed system of coupled non-linear differential equations for the first and second moments of pressure head and flux for both spatially uncorrelated Y (log saturated hydraulic conductivity) and spatially correlated Y. Computational examples for unsaturated flow in a vertical plane, subject to deterministic forcing terms including a point source, show a good agreement between my Gaussian closure solution and a more general Monte Carlo solution. The computational examples include a uniform domain, eight subdomains, spatially uncorrelated non-uniform Y cases, spatially correlated Y cases, and conditional Y cases. Though the computational examples treat the random pore size parameter a as being uniform across the entire flow domain, I show theoretically that the Gaussian closure method could apply to spatially variable a statistics.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-08-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:46:52Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_jt_dr_rcla.pdf: 1902367 bytes, checksum: 643e995723baa05601e16df2db548e28 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Coptotermes gestroi e Heterotermes tenuis são espécies de cupins pertencentes à família Rhinotermitidae consideradas importantes pragas urbanas no Brasil, sendo que a segunda também é encontrada em ambientes agrícolas. No ambiente urbano, tais espécies são encontradas consumindo várias fontes celulósicas, algumas até aparentemente similares. O processo de forrageamento dos cupins subterrâneos é dinâmico e muda ao longo do tempo. Contudo, devido aos seus hábitos crípticos, existem alguns pontos polêmicos que precisam ser esclarecidos, principalmente visando melhorar e embasar as novas estratégias de manejo, tais como a tecnologia de isca. Em vista do exposto, a presente pesquisa propôs analisar e comparar, por meio de bioensaios, as respostas comportamentais de C. gestroi e H. tenuis considerando diferentes formas de apresentação do alimento e frente a recursos alimentares equivalentes. Uma vez que uma colônia pode utilizar várias fontes alimentares, também foi observado o comportamento de busca por novos alimentos, verificando o forrageamento desses insetos frente a recursos alimentares previamente visitados por outros cupins. Para esses bioensaios foram utilizados diferentes tipos de arenas experimentais compostas por câmaras “ninho” e câmaras alimentares. Adicionalmente, foi observado o comportamento de tunelamento dos forrageiros em solos heterogêneos, acrescidos de pistas físicas, químicas e biológicas, simulando aqueles presentes em áreas urbanas. Para tanto, foram utilizadas arenas bidimensionais compostas por duas placas de vidro separadas por uma moldura, a qual delimitava a área de tunelamento disponível para os indivíduos. Todos os dados obtidos foram analisados gráfica e estatisticamente, sendo que o nível de significância (a) adotado foi igual a 0,05. De acordo com os resultados obtidos nos experimentos com diferentes formas de apresentação... / Coptotermes gestroi and Heterotermes tenuis, termites of the Rhinotermitidae family, are considered important urban pests in Brazil. The latter is also found in rural areas. In urban environments, these species consume many cellulose sources, some apparently similar. The foraging behavior of subterranean termites is dynamic and changes throughout time. However, due to their cryptic behavior, some questions still remain, especially regarding the construction of a framework and the improvement of new control strategies involving baits. The present study was aimed at analyzing and comparing the behavioral responses of C. gestroi and H. tenuis using bioassays involving different food presentations and equivalent food resources. Since a colony can feed on many food sources, the searching behavior of new food items was examined as well as foraging of food items previously visited by other termites. Bioassays consisted of different types of arenas with a “nest” and feeding chambers were carried out. Also, the tunneling behavior of foragers in heterogeneous soils and physical, chemical, and biological cues was examined, simulating those present in urban areas. Bioassyas consisted of two glass plates separated by a frame delimitating the tunneling area available for the termites were carried out. The results were analyzed and significance level was set at p = 0.05. Based on the results obtained in the experiments with different forms of presentation of the food item, both species had similar behavioral patterns, showing a bias toward food items completely buried in the substrate. Regarding the exploitation of equivalent food sources, no differences were observed between consumption and recruiting for the first food sources visited compared to other sources available. Thus, C. gestroi and H. tenuis did not concentrate their efforts in the consumption of the first food item found. In tenacity... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Braunkohle ist aktuell immer noch ein wichtiger Rohstoff für die Energieversorgung in Deutschland. Ein großes Abbaugebiet befindet sich in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Im sogenannten rheinischen Braunkohlenrevier liegen mächtige Braunkohleflöze, welche seit einigen Jahrzehnten im Tagebaubetrieb abgebaut werden. Allerdings fallen auch große Mengen an Abraum (die Deckschichten über der Braunkohle) an, welche meist auf der, dem Abbauort, gegenüberliegenden Seite, wieder verkippt werden. Dort bilden die verkippten Massen eine Böschung, die im Fall des Tagebaus Hambach ein Böschungssystem mit über 400m Höhe erreicht hat. Diese sich ständig verändernden Böschungen müssen, wie alle hohen Böschungen, durch Fachpersonal auf ihre Standsicherheit überprüft werden. Für diese Standsicherheitsberechnungen bedarf es Kennwerte, u. a. die undrainierte Scherfestigkeit für die Nachweise der kurzfristigen Standsicherheit, für die vorliegenden verkippten Böden. Diese liegen nach der Verkippung meist heterogen vor und verändern durch eine fortschreitende Konsolidation ihren Zustand. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Bestimmung des Kennwertes der undrainierten Scherfestigkeit in fein- und gemischtkörnigen Böden. Dazu werden zunächst die Klassifikations- und Zustandseigenschaften während der Verkippung der Böden für die in den Tagebauen Inden und Hambach verwendeten Materialklassen vorgestellt. Dabei wird auch auf die Besonderheiten der Böden im Tagebau, wie z.B. die Zustandsänderung während des Transportes oder die vorliegende Heterogenität, eingegangen. Es werden analytische und numerische Prognosemodelle zur Bestimmung der undrainierten Scherfestigkeit vorgestellt. Die Grundlage dieser Modelle bilden die Konsolidationstheorien, mit welchen sich die Zustandsvariablen, wie die Porenzahl oder die effektive Spannungen, berechnen lassen. Über verfügbare Stoffmodelle, wie z.B. das hypoplastische Modell nach Mašín können anhand der Zustandsvariablen die undrainierten Scherfestigkeiten abgeleitet werden. Mit den in dieser Arbeit verwendeten Modellen lassen sich undrainierte Scherfestigkeitskennwerte zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten prognostizieren, mit denen wiederum z.B. Standsicherheitsberechnungen von Böschungen durchgeführt werden können. Die statistischen Auswertungen der Klassifikationseigenschaften und Zustände erlauben eine Beurteilung von im Tagebaubetrieb häufig verwendeten Kennwerten (z.B. Fließgrenze oder Wassergehalt) und deren Streubreiten innerhalb der Materialklassen. / Lignite was and still is an essential source for producing energy in Germany. One huge extraction site is located in North-Rhine-Westphalia (in between Mönchengladbach, Cologne and Aachen). The so called Rhenish lignite district contains very thick lignite deposits, which are mined in open pit mines since a few decades. There are huge overburdens (on top on the lignite) which are transported and dumped on the opposite to the excavation side. The dumped soil masses create slope systems, that can amount to 400m of height (in open pit mine Hambach). These large slopes undergo permanent changes and have to be assessed considering their safety and stability by specialists. Characteristic properties regarding shear strength of the heterogeneous fine- and mixed grained soils are required for such calculations. The main challenge is the description of the state of the soil, as it is permanently changing due to consolidation. One essential characteristic is the undrained shear strength. The main focus of this thesis is the determination of the undrained shear strength. Therefore, the soil properties are determined with classification tests and the state of the soils at the time of dumping is assessed. The results are categorised using the material classes of the open pit mines Inden and Hambach. The particularities of dumped soils in open pit mines are shown, for instance the change of state during transport or the heterogeneity. Moreover, analytical and numerical models are employed to predict the undrained shear strength. The basis of all these models are consolidation theories, which are applied to determine the state variables such as void ratio and effective stresses. The undrained shear strength can then be predicted by using constitutive models such as the hypoplastic model for clays according Mašín. Using the approach presented in this thesis the undrained shear strength can be predicted and employed for example for slope stability analyses. The statistic evaluation of the soil properties allows a review of the soil characteristics that are typically employed in open pit mining. Furthermore, the scattering of properties of the material classes in the open pit mines can be assessed.