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Technological interventions are being considered to alleviate congestion and to improve the quality of driving on our nation's highways. These new technology interventions will be capable of increasing the amount of information provided to the driver; therefore, steps must be taken to ensure they do not require a high attention demand. (Limited attention resources can be diverted from the primary task of driving to a secondary in-vehicle task). The attention demand required as part of the process of extracting information has been studied relatively extensively. However, the processing required to make complex decisions is not well understood and provides cause for concern. This study investigated the attention demand required to perform several types of tasks, such as selecting a route, selecting the cheapest route, and selecting the fastest route. The three objectives of this study were: 1) To investigate driver performance during IVIS tasks that required additional processing of information after the extraction of information from a visual display. 2) To develop a method for evaluating driver performance with regard to safety. This task was accomplished by performing an extensive review of the literature, and developing two composite measures. 3) To provide descriptive data on the proportion of drivers who exceeded a threshold of driver performance for each of the different IVIS tasks. An instrumented vehicle, equipped with cameras and sensors, was used to investigate on-road driver behavior on a four-lane divided road with good visibility. A confederate vehicle was driven in front of the instrumented vehicle to create a vehicle following situation. Thirty-six drivers participated in this study. Age, presentation format, information density, and type of task were the independent variables used in this study. Results from this study indicate that a high proportion of drivers' will have substantially degraded performance performing IVIS tasks such as selecting a route or a hotel from several possibilities. Findings also indicate that tasks involving computations, such as selecting the quickest or cheapest route, require a high attention demand and consequently should not be performed by a driver when the vehicle is in motion. In addition, text-based messages in paragraph format should not be presented to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. The graphic icon format should be utilized for route planning tasks. / Ph. D.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) are key components of the transportation systems within future smart cities, in which information and communication technologies interact to enhance the transportation system. By collecting and analyzing real-time data, and applying advanced data analytics techniques, ITS can make better-informed decisions, that are sent back to the network actuators (cars, drivers, traffic signals, travelers,... etc.) to solve or at least mitigate the ongoing transportation problems. In such feedback systems, the communication network is a major component that interacts with the transportation applications. Consequently, it is imperative to study the mutual interactions and effects between the communication and the transportation networks. The key enabler for such studies is the large-scale modeling of communication and transportation systems. However, developing such models is challenging, not only because of the intricate interdependency between the communication and transportation systems but also because of the scale of such systems that usually covers a city-level network with hundreds of thousands of travelers concurrently moving and communicating in the network. Consequently, in our research, we are interested in studying the mutual impact of the communication and transportation systems in large-scale networks while focusing on eco-routing navigation applications that attempt to minimize the transportation network carbon footprint. Our objectives are: 1) enabling the large-scale modeling of transportation systems in smart cities including both transportation and communication systems and 2) studying the mutual interactions between the communication and the transportation systems in real-world networks. Under this umbrella, we introduced two simulation frameworks to realistically model the communication in vehicular systems. Subsequently, we use them to study the mutual influence of the communication and transportation system. Moreover, we designed, developed, and tested a multi-modal agent-based simulation platform which can simulate large-scale transportation systems. The results show that, in congested road networks, the communication performance has a significant impact on the transportation system performance. Moreover, the results show that there is a negative mutual impact loop that may lead to a degrading performance of both systems. Thus, it is important to consider this impact when deploying new ITS technologies that utilize vehicular wireless communication. / PHD / In future smart cities, communication network is a major component that interacts with the transportation applications. Consequently, it is imperative to study the mutual interactions and effects between the communication and the transportation networks. Studying these systems is challenging, not only because of the intricate interdependency between the communication and transportation but also because of the scale of these systems that usually covers a city-level network with hundreds of thousands of travelers concurrently moving and communicating in the network. Therefore, in this dissertation, our main objectives are: 1) to enable the large-scale modeling of transportation systems in smart cities including both transportation and communication systems and 2) to study the mutual interactions between the communication and the transportation systems in real-world networks. Under this umbrella, we introduced two simulation frameworks to realistically model the communication in vehicular systems. Subsequently, we used them to study the mutual influence of the communication and transportation system. Moreover, we designed, developed, and tested a multi-modal agent-based simulation platform which can simulate large-scale transportation systems. The results show that, in congested road networks, the communication performance has a significant impact on the transportation system performance. Moreover, they show that there is a negative mutual impact loop that may lead to a degrading performance of both systems. Thus, it is important to consider this impact when deploying new ITS technologies that utilize vehicular wireless communication.

An average of 6.5 million crashes are reported to the police every year in the United States. Safety is significantly important considering the rapid increase on traffic volume on American roads. This thesis describes the development of a safety model whose primary objective is to capture the benefits of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) on safety. The specific ITS component that is examined in more detail is traffic signal coordination. The model was tested in a micro-simulation environment using INTEGRATION traffic simulation model as well as in a field data evaluation. The General Estimates System (GES) database was chosen as the primary national database to extract accident data. These data were used for the development of the statistical foundation for the safety model. Crash rates were produced using extracted crash frequencies and annual vehicle miles traveled figures from the Highway Statistics (FHWA, 1997). Regression analysis was performed to predict the behavior of several crash types, as they were associated with a variety of variables, for example the facility speed limit and time the crash occurred. The model was developed in FORTRAN code that estimates the accident risk of a facility based on its free-speed. Two methods were used to test the model: 1. field data from the city of Phoenix, Arizona were used in a GPS (Global Positioning Systems) floating car that tracked the accident risk on a second by second basis. Before and after signal coordination scenarios were tested thus yielding a result that the accident risk is less in the after scenario. 2. the model was then tested in a micro-simulation environment using the INTEGRATION traffic model. A hypothetical network, as well as the Scottsdale/Rural road corridor in Phoenix were used. The sensitivity analysis of before and after signal coordination scenarios indicated that after the signals were coordinated, the crash risk was lower, thus proving that the model could capture the benefits of this ITS component. Reducing the number of crashes is an important aspect of improving safety. Traffic signal coordination smoothens traffic on a facility and reduces its potential accident risk by producing less vehicle-to vehicle interactions. Also, traffic signal control increases the free-speed of a facility. The advantage of this safety model is the fact that it can be used to capture a variety of ITS technologies and not only signal coordination that is examined in more detail in this thesis. / Master of Science

Mathematical models to predict vehicle fuel consumption and emission metrics are presented in this thesis. Vehicle fuel consumption and emissions are complex functions to be approximated in practice due to numerous variables affecting their outcome. Vehicle energy and emissions are particularly sensitive to changes in vehicle state variables such as speed and acceleration, ambient conditions such as temperature, and driver control inputs such as acceleration pedal position and gear shift speeds, among others. Recent empirical studies have produced large amounts of data concerning vehicle fuel consumption and emissions rates and offer a wealth of information to transportation planners. Unfortunately, unless simple relationships are found between fuel consumption and vehicle emission metrics, their application in microscopic traffic and macroscopic planning models becomes prohibitive computationally. This thesis describes the development of microscopic energy and emission models using nonlinear multiple regression and neural network techniques to approximate vehicle fuel consumption and emissions field data. The energy and emission models described in this thesis utilized data collected by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The data include microscopic fuel consumption and emission measurements (CO, HC, and NOx) for eight light duty vehicles as a function of vehicle speed and acceleration. The thesis describes modeling processes and the tradeoffs between model accuracy and computational efficiency. Model verification results are included for two vehicle driving cycles. The models presented estimate vehicle fuel consumption within 2.5% of their actual measured values. Vehicle emissions errors fall in the range of 3-33% with correlation coefficients ranging between 0.94 and 0.99. Future transportation planning studies could also make use of the modeling approaches presented in the thesis. The models developed in this study have been incorporated into a microscopic traffic simulation tool called INTEGRATION to further demonstrate their application and relevance to traffic engineering studies. Two sample Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) application results are included. In the case studies, it was found that vehicle fuel consumption and emissions are more sensitive to the level of vehicle acceleration than to the vehicle speed. Also, the study shows signalization techniques can reduce fuel consumption and emissions significantly, while incident management techniques do not affect the energy and emissions rates notably. / Master of Science

A doença vassoura-de-bruxa do cacaueiro (Theobroma cacao), causada pelo basidiomiceto Crinipellis perniciosa, levou a total destruição da lavoura sul-baiana, previamente cultivada principalmente com variedades altamente suscetíveis, tornando o Brasil, um país tipicamente exportador de cacau em importador em poucos anos. A perda da resistência do genótipo ?Scavina 6?, única fonte de resistência reconhecida contra C. perniciosa, está associada à variabilidade genética do patógeno. Diante disto, o objetivo deste estudo foi caracterizar a diversidade genética de isolados de C. perniciosa derivados de tecido infectado de Theobroma cacao (vassoura vede), originalmente coletados na Amazônia (Amazonas, Pará e Rondônia), uma região de ocorrência endêmica do fungo, usando marcadores moleculares. A identificação de relações genéticas entre isolados amazônicos e da Bahia e a possível existência de isolados geográficos também foram objetos deste trabalho. Primeiramente, a confirmação de identidade dos isolados Amazônicos foi conduzida usando amplificação e digestão da região ITS do rDNA e marcadores teloméricos. Todos os isolados avaliados foram confirmados como C. perniciosa. O primer telomérico TeloC1, previamente apresentado para discriminar o biótipo C, permitiu a separação do biótipo C dos biótipos S e L, porém, revelou variabilidade genética nos isolados de Cametá, PA e Cacaulândia, RO. Usando marcadores telomérico amplificado com o primer TeloA1R e ERIC, uma grande diversidade foi encontrada para os isolados da Região Amazônica em comparação àqueles da Bahia. Dentro dos isolados Amazônicos, a maior diversidade foi detectada para os isolados de Rondônia (Ji-Paraná, Cacaulândia e Ariquemes) e Pará (Cametá), áreas com 11 ocorrência endêmica ou de instalação histórica (mais de 300 anos) do cacaueiro, respectivamente. Isolados coletados em municípios localizados na regiãoTransamazônica, tais como Anapú, Altamira, Brasil Novo, Medicilândia e Uruará apresentaram maior similaridade com aqueles de Santarém e municípios relacionados à Belém, como Cametá, Baião e Mocajuba. Estes resultados sugerem que isolados da região Transamazônica pode ter sido originados de Belém ou Santarém, Pará. Na Bahia, houve a formação de dois grupos de isolados como previamente demonstrado. Os marcadores moleculares Microssatélites, ERIC e teloméricos foram eficientes na detecção da variabilidade genética em C. perniciosa. A diversidade genética observada auxiliará na identificação e escolha de regiões com maior diversidade de isolados para serem usados na seleção para resistência à vassoura-de-bruxa em programas de melhoramento do cacau / Witches broom disease of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), caused by the basidiomycete Crinipellis perniciosa, devastated the producing region of Southern Bahia, previously cultivated mainly with highly susceptible cultivars, forcing Brazil, a typical exporter country to become a cocoa importer. The loss of resistance of the genotype ?Scavina 6?, the unique source of resistance against C. perniciosa has been associated with pathogen genetic variability. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize the genetic diversity of C. perniciosa isolated derived from infected tissues of T. cacao (green-brooms), originally collected in the Amazon (Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia states), a region with endemic occurrence of the fungus, using molecular markers. The identification of the genetic relationships among the Amazonian and Bahian isolates, and the possible existence of geographical isolates were also objectives of this work. First, the identification confirmation of the Amazonian isolates was conducted using amplification and digestion of the ITS region of the rDNA and telomeric markers. All isolates evaluated were confirmed as C. perniciosa. The telomeric primer TeloC1, previously shown to discriminate the C biotype, allowed the separation of biotype C from biotypes S and L, but it revealed genetic diversity for isolates from Cametá, PA and Cacaulândia, RO. Using another telomeric marker amplified with TeloA1 primer and ERIC, a large genetic diversity was detected for isolates from the Amazon in comparison to Bahian. Within the Amazonian isolates, more diversity was detected for isolates from Rondônia (Ji-Paraná, Cacaulândia and Ariquemes) and Pará (Cametá), areas with endemic occurrence of wild cacao or historical introduction and cultivation (over 300 years), respectively. Isolates colletected at the Transamazônica roadway, such as from Anapú, Altamira, Brasil Novo, Medicilândia and Uruará presented more similarity with those from Santarém and locales nearer to Belém, such as Cametá, Baião and Mocajuba. These results suggested that isolates from the Transamazônica region might have originated from Belém or Santarém, Pará. In Bahia, there were two groups of isolates as previously demonstrated. Microsatellite, ERIC and telomeric markers were efficient in detecting the genetic variability of C. perniciosa. The genetic diversity observed will help in identifying and choosing regions with more diverse isolates to be used to screen for witches? broom resistance in cacao breeding programs

O Brasil abrange grande diversidade de espécies da família Orchidaceae, onde o gênero Cattleya se destaca devido a reconhecida importância horticultural e espécies altamente relacionadas de difícil delimitação taxonômica. Anteriormente, Cattleya loddigesii e C. harrisoniana foram reconhecidas como espécies distintas devido à descontinuidade morfológica, fenológica e distribuição geográfica. Entretanto, esses critérios não são suficientes para determinar com clareza a delimitação dessas espécies, uma vez que existem populações com características morfológicas e fenológicas intermediárias consideradas introgredidas. Com o intuito de esclarecer o relacionamento entre C. loddigesii e C. harrisoniana, a relação das populações introgredidas, a estruturação das populações, bem como padrões filogeográficos envolvidos, análises filogeográficas baseadas em sequencias de DNA de cloroplasto (cpDNA) e DNA nuclear ribossomal (ITS) foram utilizadas. No total, foram amostrados 130 indivíduos das duas espécies distribuídos em 17 populações. Os resultados obtidos suportam a distinção entre as plantas, onde a árvore de estimativa de tempo de divergência para ITS separou mais evidentemente em clados distintos as duas espécies, corroborando a alta estruturação encontrada pela AMOVA (ΦCT = 0,597), distribuição haplotípica e análises bayesianas. Apesar disso, os resultados para cpDNA não evidenciaram claramente essa distinção. Os resultados obtidos pelo software Migrate também suportam a distinção das espécies e, ainda, sugerem que as populações introgredidas são mais relacionadas com C. loddigesii. Ademais, os dados sugerem que a estruturação populacional encontrada segue o modelo de isolamento por distância, assim como sugeriram as análises de clados aninhados - NCPA e bayesiana. Ademais, os resultados de estruturação para ambas as regiões, e as possíveis incongruências entre os resultados de cpDNA e ITS estão indicando que existe maior número de indivíduos híbridos e introgressão, necessitando de novos estudos para corroborar essas evidências. Uma das possíveis razões pelo amplo compartilhamento de haplótipos, principalmente para cpDNA, pode ter sido devido à conectividade mantida através das populações introgredidas. Além disso, a reprodução alogâmica, a dispersão por abelhas e a dispersão de sementes pelo vento a longas distâncias podem também ter contribuído para a conexão entre elas. Os resultados da reconstrução filogeográfica, bem como o número de migrantes sugerem que as populações se dispersaram em direção ao Norte-Sul em períodos glaciais do Pleistoceno. Além disso, a alta diversidade e a diferenciação das populações do extremo Sul de SP indicam indícios de uma possível zona de refúgio neste local. / Brazil covers a wide range of species of the orchid family, where the Cattleya genus stands out due to a recognized horticultural importance and highly related species difficult taxonomic delimitation. Previously, Cattleya loddigesii and C. harrisoniana were recognized as distinct species due to morphological, phenological and geographical distribution discontinuity. However, these criteria are not sufficient to determine clearly the identification of these species, as there are populations with intermediate morphological and phenological characteristics considered introgressed. In order to clarify the relationship between C. loddigesii and C. harrisoniana, the ratio of introgressed populations, the population structure and the phylogeographic patterns involved, phylogeographic analyses based on chloroplast DNA sequences (cpDNA) and ribosomal nuclear DNA (ITS), were used. Overall, we sampled 130 individuals of the two species distributed into 17 populations. Results support the distinction between plants, where the tree of divergence time estimate for ITS separated the two species more clearly into distinct clades, corroborating the high structure found by AMOVA (ΦCT = 0.597), haplotype distribution and Bayesian analyses. Nevertheless, the results for cpDNA did not demonstrated that distinction clearly. The results obtained by the Migrate software also support the species distinction and suggest that the introgressed populations are more closely related to C. loddigesii. Furthermore, the data suggest that the population structure found follows the isolation by distance model, as also suggested in the nested clades - NCPA and Bayesian analyses. Furthermore, the population structure results for both regions, plus possible inconsistencies between the cpDNA and ITS results, may indicate that there is a greater number of hybrid individuals and introgression, requiring new studies to corroborate this evidence. One of the possible reasons for the broad sharing of haplotypes, especially for cpDNA, may have been due to connectivity maintained through introgressed populations. Furthermore, the allogamous reproduction, the dispersal by bees and dispersal of seeds by wind over long distances may also have contributed to the connection between them. The results of phylogeographic reconstruction, as well as the number of migrants suggest that the population is dispersed towards North-South in glacial periods of the Pleistocene. In addition, the high diversity and differentiation of populations of the Southern tip of SP indicate evidence of a possible refuge zone at this area.

Le développement du transport partout dans le monde a fourni un grand nombre d'avantages pour de nombreux aspects de la vie humaine. Les systèmes de transport intelligents (ITS) sont des applications avancées qui visent à rendre les réseaux de transport plus sûrs, plus pratiques et plus intelligents. Selon leurs usages, ils peuvent être classés en deux types d'applications ITS, qui sont des applications de sûreté et des applications non-sûreté. Le réseau de véhicules ad hoc (VANET) est un élément clé des systèmes ITS, car il permet la communication entre les unités de transport. Ces communications prennent en charge différentes applications ITS avec différentes propriétés. Parmi les deux types d'applications, nous nous intéressons aux applications de sûreté qui ont des contraintes de qualité de service et des contraintes de sécurité plus strictes. Selon le scénario considéré et l'application de sûreté donnée, les informations échangées entre les véhicules doivent être diffusé localement dans une communication à un seul saut et / ou également notifiées aux véhicules à large dimension. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'améliorer les performances des applications de sûreté en termes de qualité de service et de sécurité, à la fois dans une communication à un saut et dans une communication multi-sauts. Nous nous intéressons à la fiabilité, la connectivité et le déni de service (DoS). Nous étudions et proposons des solutions techniques provenant de couches inférieures (Physique, Liaison et Réseaux) qui jouent un rôle fondamental dans l'atténuation des défis créés par la nature de l'environnement des véhicules. Tout d'abord, nous introduisons une nouvelle méthode efficace pour fiabiliser la radiodiffusion. Dans notre système, les messages de sécurité sont rediffusés lorsque l'expéditeur est sollicité. Cela augmente le pourcentage de véhicules qui reçoivent les messages alors que le nombre de messages dupliqués reste limité. En second lieu, en tenant compte de la fragmentation du réseau, nous étudions des solutions qui permettent de pallier la déconnexion temporaire du réseau pour apporter l'information de sécurité aux destinataires. Basé sur les propriétés sociales des réseaux de véhicules, nous proposons un protocole de transfert basé sur des relations sociales pour relayer la communication entre les véhicules et des points d'intérêt qui fournissent des services de sécurité avec des contraintes de temps plus souples, telles que la recherche et le sauvetage. Troisièmement, nous étudions l'attaque de brouillage, une sorte d'attaques DoS, qui est cruciale pour les applications de sûreté et qui et facilement réalisable au niveau des couches inférieures. Nous modélisons l'attaque de brouillage afin d'étudier la dégradation causée par l'attaque sur les performances du réseau. La dégradation à un certain niveau dans les performances du réseau est une indication de présence d'attaques de brouillage dans le réseau; donc les résultats de cette analyse nous permettent de déterminer les seuils de performance du réseau pour distinguer entre les scénarios normaux et les scénarios attaqués. Toutefois, selon cette analyse, le procédé utilisant la dégradation comme une indication pour détecter une attaque de brouillage est impossible pour des applications temps réel. Par conséquent, nous proposons des nouvelles méthodes afin de détecter les attaques de brouillage temps réel. Nos méthodes permettent la détection en temps réel avec une grande précision, non seulement chez le moniteur central mais aussi au niveau de chaque véhicule. Par conséquent, les véhicules sont avertis sur l'attaque assez tôt pour récupérer la communication et réagir à ces attaques. / The development of transportation all over the world has been providing a lot of benefits for many aspects of human life. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are advanced applications that aim to make the transport networks safer, more convenient and smarter. According to their usages, they can be classified into two types of ITS applications, which are safety applications and non-safety applications. Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a key component of ITS since it enables communications among transportation units. These communications support different ITS applications with various properties. Between two types of applications, we are interested in safety applications which have tighter quality and security constraints. Depending on an applied scenario of a given safety application, the exchanged information among vehicles must be broadcast locally within one-hop communication and/or also be notified to vehicles in large range. The main objective of this thesis is to improve the performance of safety applications in term of the quality of service and security, in both one-hop communication and multi-hop communication. We focus on reliability, connectivity and Denial of Services (DoS) attack. We study and propose technical solutions coming from lower layers (Physical, MAC and network layers) which play a fundamental role in mitigation to challenges created by the nature of the vehicular environment. Firstly, we introduce a reliable scheme to achieve the reliability for broadcasting. In our scheme, the safety messages are rebroadcast when the sender is solicited. This increases the percentage of vehicles receiving the messages while duplicated messages are limited. Secondly, with consideration of the fragmentation of the network, we study solutions that overcome the temporary disconnection in the network to bring the safety information to the recipients. Based on the social properties of vehicular networks, we propose a social-based forwarding protocol to support the communication between vehicles to points of interest that provide safety services with looser time constraints, such as search and rescue. Thirdly, we investigate jamming attack, a kind of DoS attacks, which is crucial for safety applications because of the adequate condition of the attack at the lower layers. We model jamming attack on broadcasting in order to study the degradation caused by the attack on network performance. The degradation at a certain level in network performance is an indication of a jamming attack presence in the network; therefore results from this analysis will allow us to determine network performance thresholds to distinguish between normal and attacked scenarios. However, according to our analysis, the method using the degradation as an indication to detect a jamming attack is not feasible for real-time applications. Hence, we propose methods to detect jamming attacks in real-time. Our methods allow real-time detection with high accuracy, not only at the central monitor but also at each vehicle. Therefore, vehicles are noticed about the attack soon enough to recover the communication and react to these attacks.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T14:38:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marina.pdf: 1184727 bytes, checksum: 464327ef9797c59ec694ee14413ca72c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aimed to select and characterize strains of entomopathogenic fungi in order to control Gyropsylla spegazziniana. For this, the fifth instar nymphs were transferred to Paraguay tea seedlings, followed by spraying conidial suspensions of 48 strains of Beauveria spp., Metarhizium anisopliae, Isaria spp. and Lecanicillium spp. at a concentration of 1 × 109 conidia/mL. The seedlings were placed in PVC cages kept in a climatized room (26 ± 1°C; 12 h photophase and 60 ± 10% R.H.), and the insect mortality was evaluated daily for 10 days. The most active isolates were compared by means of vegetative growth, conidial production in culture media, insecticidal activity and molecular analyses, by sequencing the region rDNA-ITS and RAPD. The genus 22 Beauveria spp. was more efficient among the entomopathogenic fungi, especially for strain Unioeste 44 that showed the best performance, demonstrating its potential to control the pest. Molecular analysis of rDNA-ITS region allowed the identification of isolates as B. bassiana e B. brongniartii and RAPD markes were associated with virulence / O objetivo desse trabalho foi selecionar e caracterizar isolados de fungos entomopatogênicos, visando o controle dessa praga. Para tal, ninfas de 5o ínstar foram transferidas para mudas de erva-mate, seguido da pulverização de suspensões de conídios (1 × 109 conídios/mL) de 48 isolados de Beauveria spp., Metarhizium anisopliae, Isaria spp. e Lecanicillium spp. As mudas foram acondicionadas em gaiolas de PVC, e mantidas em sala climatizada (26 ± 1°C; 12 h de fotofase e U.R. 60 ± 10%). 21 A mortalidade dos insetos foi avaliada diariamente, por 10 dias e os isolados mais ativos foram comparados entre si por meio do crescimento vegetativo, produção de conídios em meios de cultura, atividade inseticida e análises moleculares, por meio do seqüenciamento da região rDNA-ITS e marcadores RAPD. O gênero Beauveria spp. foi mais eficiente dentre os fungos entomopatogênicos, em especial o isolado Unioeste 44 que apresentou o melhor desempenho, evidenciando seu potencial para o controle da praga. As análises moleculares da região rDNA-ITS possibilitou a identificação dos isolados como B. bassiana e B. brongniartii e os marcadores RAPD foram associados à virulência

O gênero Sargassum C. Agardh (Sargassaceae) constitui um dos mais representativos dentre os 41 gêneros da ordem Fucales (Phaeophyceae, Heterokontophyta), é amplamente distribuído nas regiões tropicais e subtropicais do globo e é considerado um importante componente da flora marinha. Devido ampla variabilidade fenotípica é considerado um dos gêneros de taxonomia mais complexa dentre as algas pardas, como são popularmente conhecidos os representantes da classe Phaeophyceae. A filogenia da ordem Fucales é bastante discutida para gêneros do hemisfério norte, mas ainda pouco elucidada. Os estudos de filogenia referentes ao gênero Sargassum são escassos, limitando-se a poucos marcadores moleculares, com baixa resolução no âmbito inter-específico e limitados à espécies de ocorrência nos oceanos Indo-Pacífico e Atlântico Norte. Nenhum estudo filogenético incluí espécies do Atlântico Sul para este gênero. Este estudo é pioneiro na análise de seqüências de diferentes marcadores moleculares para espécies do Atlântico Sul. Neste estudo, foram seqüenciados completamente os marcadores moleculares nucleares SSU rDNA e ITS2 para os táxons infra-genéricos Sargassum cymosum var. cymosum, S. cymosum var. nanum, S. furcatum, S. stenophyllum e S. vulgare. Todas as seqüências obtidas para ambos os marcadores apresentaram 100% de identidade entre os táxons analisados. Foram feitas seqüências também para o marcador molecular plastidial rbcL (parcial) e espaçador rbcLS para as espécies S. filipendula, S. stenophyllum e S. vulgare que resultaram também em 100% de identidade. Análises filogenéticas de cada um dos marcadores moleculares, incluindo nossas seqüências e aquelas disponíveis no Genbank e geradas pelos métodos de inferência \"Neigbour-joining\", máxima parcimônia e máxima verossimilhança se apresentaram robustas e corroboram outros resultados descritos na bibliografia referente a ordem Fucales e ao gênero Sargassum. Entretanto, tais resultados fornecem um forte indício da necessidade de busca de marcadores moleculares eficientes, devidamente respaldados por estudos de hibridação in vitro, dados ecológicos e de biogeografia para um melhor entendimento acerca das espécies ocorrentes na costa brasileira. / The genus Sargassum C. Agardh (Sargassaceae) is one of the most conspicuous among the 41 genera of the order Fucales (Phaeophyceae, Heterokontophyta). The genus has a broad distribution in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and is considered an important component of the marine flora. Due to a high phenotipic variation, the taxonomy of the genus is considered of the most complex among the brown seaweeds, as are known the representatives of the class Phaeophyceae. The phylogeny of the order Fucales was studied for the North Hemisphere genera, but is still not well understood. The phylogenetic studies of the genus Sargassum are scarce and limited to a few molecular markers, presenting low resolution for inter-specific analysis and are available only for species from the Indo-Pacific and the North Atlantic. There are no phylogenetic studies including species from the South Atlantic for the genus. This study is the first to analyze sequences from different molecular markers for species from the South Atlantic. In this study, the nuclear SSU rDNA and ITS2 were completely sequenced for the infra-generic taxa Sargassum cymosum var. cymosum, S. cymosum var. nanum, S. furcatum, S. stenophyllum and S. vulgare. All the sequences for both markers presented 100% identity among analyzed taxa. Sequences were also obtained for the chloroplast marker rbcLS, including parcial rbcL and the spacer region rbcLS for the species S. filipendula, S. stenophyllum and S. vulgar. These sequences also presented 100% identity among analyzed taxa. Phylogenetic analysis of each of the molecular markers, including our sequences together with other sequences available in the Genbank and generated by the inference methods Neigbour-joining, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood were robust and similar to other results described in the literature for the order Fucales and the genus Sargassum. Nonetheless, these results are an indicative of the need for more efficient molecular markers, associated with data from in vitro hibridization, ecology and biogeography for a better understanding about the taxa occurring on the brazilian coast.