A Serra de Paranapiacaba tem o maior remanescente florestal contínuo de Mata Atlântica do Brasil. Poucos estudos sobre caça de animais silvestres foram realizados nesse bioma até o momento. Não existem dados a respeito de pressão de caça de mamíferos e eficiência na fiscalização em unidades de conservação no contínuo de Mata Atlântica do sudeste de São Paulo. Este estudo foi realizado em três áreas na Serra de Paranapiacaba: duas áreas no Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho - PECB (Sede e Base Turvinho) e uma na Reserva Particular Parque do Zizo - RPPZ. O objetivo deste estudo foi quantificar a freqüência de caça e de ocorrência de mamíferos de médio e grande porte, e avaliar as diferenças nas freqüências dos mamíferos nas áreas com diferentes intensidades de pressão de caça e fiscalização. A freqüência das atividades de caça nas áreas foi analisada com base em observações diretas e vestígios de caçadores, além de entrevistas com moradores do entorno das áreas e dados da fiscalização do PECB. Para registrar a freqüência de uso das áreas por mamíferos terrestres de médio e grande porte foi utilizado o método de parcelas de areia. Para as espécies arborícolas utilizou-se o método de transectos lineares para obtenção da taxa de avistamento das espécies e indivíduos nas áreas. Durante sete meses de estudo foram observados 17 registros de atividades de caça em duas das áreas estudadas, sendo seis no Zizo e 11 no Turvinho. Segundo os dados da fiscalização não ocorreram evidências de caça na Sede, e também no Zizo foram registradas menos evidências que no Turvinho. Cumpre destacar que ocorreram mais visitas da fiscalização no Turvinho que no Zizo. A pressão de caça foi considerada moderada nas áreas onde a atividade foi registrada. Nas áreas de estudo foram registradas 20 espécies, sendo 15 por meio de parcelas de areia e cinco por avistamentos. Com um esforço amostral de 2700 parcelas monitoradas foram obtidos 426 registros de presença na parcela nas três áreas estudadas. Foi registrada maior freqüência de ocorrência nas parcelas e taxas de avistamento, tanto de espécies como de indivíduos na área da Sede, seguida do Turvinho e Zizo. Os onívoros foram mais freqüentes na Sede, com destaque para freqüente utilização das trilhas pelo (Cerdocyon thous) cachorro-do-mato, com 51,8% do total de registros nas parcelas. Os herbívoros e as espécies cinegéticas foram mais registrados no Turvinho e os carnívoros no Zizo. A diversidade de espécies foi semelhante nas áreas estudadas, Sede e Turvinho (n=11) e Zizo (n=10). O maior número de registros nas parcelas foi obtido na estação seca. Estes resultados, associado ao atual contexto de pressões antrópicas na região, demonstram que áreas com uma menor freqüência de ocorrência de mamíferos de médio e grande porte, apresentam menor intensidade de fiscalização e maior pressão. Conclui-se que a eficiência da fiscalização pode ser importante na conservação de médios e grandes mamíferos na região, visto que mesmo nas áreas com pressão de caça moderada a presença da fiscalização contribui para uma maior freqüência de animais. / The Paranapiacaba mountain range has the greatest continuous remaining stretch of Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil. Few studies about hunting of wild animals in this ecosystem have been reported until this moment. There are no data regarding to hunting of mammals and fiscalization in preserved areas in the State of Sao Paulo southeastern continuous stretch of Atlantic Rainforest. This study has been developed in three areas in the Paranapiacaba mountain range: two areas in the Carlos Botelho State Park - PECB (Sede and Turvinho Base) and one in Zizo’s Park Particular Reserve - RPPZ. The objective of this study was to quantify the frequency of hunting and of occurrence from mammals of medium and big size, as well as to evaluate the differences in the frequency of the mammals between areas with different intensities of hunting pressure and fiscalization. The hunting frequency in the areas in question was analyzed based in direct observations and vestiges of hunters, as well as interviews with residents of the areas boundaries and data of the PECB fiscalization. To register the frequency of the medium and large size terrestrial mammals it was used the sand parcel method. For the arboreal species was used the method of line transect to obtain the encounter rate of the species and individuals. During a seven months study seventeen registers of hunting activities were observed in two of the studied areas: six in Zizo and eleven in Turvinho. According to fiscalization data, hunting evidences didn’t occurs in the Sede area, in the Zizo also was registered a small number of evidences comparing to Turvinho. The hunting pressure was considered moderate. In the areas studied were registered 20 species were registered in the studied areas: 15 of them by sand parcels and 5 by encounters. In an amostral effort of 2700 parcels monitored, 426 registers of presence in the parcels were registered of the three areas. The frequency registered of species and the encounter rate such as of species as individuals was bigger in the area of the Sede area, followed by Turvinho and Zizo. The omnivores were more frequent in the Sede area, with prominence for the frequent use of the trails by the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) with 51, 8% of the total of the registers. The herbivores and the cinegetic species were more registered in the Turvinho, and the carnivores in the Zizo. The species diversity was similar in the areas, Sede and Turvinho (n=11) and Zizo (n=10). The biggest record number in the parcels was gotten in the dry station. These results, associate to current context of human pressures in the region, demonstrate that the areas with a lesser frequency of mammals, present minor fiscalization intensity and bigger pressure. The conclusions is that efficient fiscalization in the areas can be important in the conservation of medium and large mammals in the region, as it seems that, even in areas with moderate hunting pressure, the presence of fiscalization contributes for a bigger frequency of mammals.

Considerando os conceitos de predição, ocorrência e monitoramento de movimento de maciços rochosos e terrosos submetidos a escavações subterrâneas, enfatiza-se que a tese está voltada para o aspecto do monitoramento fundamentalmente. Estabelece-se uma metodologia técnica para a análise e interpretação de dados históricos gerados pelas medidas de instrumentação geotécnica, fundamentada em critérios geomecânicos e da estatística clássica. Analisam-se diferentes variáveis que participam ou definem o mecanismo: movimento de maciços rochosos e terrosos submetidos a escavações subterrâneas. Como resultado de toda esta análise determinam-se correlações entre as variáveis pesquisadas e a partir dai se estabelecem modelos funcionais entre elas, que definem o comportamento do movimento do maciço na construção da escavação subterrânea. A metodologia proposta é validada usando trabalhos realizados em três túneis de características diferentes. Os resultados desta tese de doutorado são extrapolados para sua aplicação à mineração subterrânea, como também a outros ramos da indústria extrativa, considerando que estes resultados foram obtidos a partir da construção de túneis urbanos de grande porte. / This thesis studies prediction, occurrence and monitoring of movements in rock and soil masses in underground excavations, it is emphasized that the study bases fundamentally on monitoring. A technical methodology is proposed for analysis and interpretation of time series from geotechnical instrumentation measurements, based on geomechanical criteria and classic statistics. The most important variables that define the mechanism are analyzed: movements in underground excavations in rock and soil masses. The results of the analysis are correlations between variables and functional models of variables that characterize rock or soil mass movement in underground excavations construction. The proposed methodology is validated with data from three tunnels with different characteristics. The results of this study are applied to underground mining and to other areas of the extractive industry, since these results came from construction of large urbane tunnels.

Introdução: Um pequeno grupo de fatores de risco modificáveis é responsável por grande parte da mortalidade e morbidade devidas a doenças crônicas não transmissíveis (DCNT). Esses comportamentos de risco, frequentemente, se originam na adolescência e se mantêm na vida adulta, com consequências a curto, médio e longo prazo. Atualmente, além de determinar a prevalência de cada um dos fatores de risco, destaca-se a importância de avaliar como eles se agrupam na população, pois alguns desses comportamentos podem interagir entre si, produzindo um risco ainda maior do que a soma de riscos individuais. Objetivos: Identificar padrões de comportamentos de risco e proteção relacionados a doenças crônicas entre adolescentes brasileiros e verificar sua associação com características socioeconômicas e demográficas; avaliar a coocorrência de múltiplos fatores de risco entre os adolescentes, identificar agrupamentos e verificar a associação do acúmulo de riscos com características da população. Método: A fonte de dados utilizada foi a Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar 2012, que coletou informações sobre saúde de adolescentes por meio de questionário autoaplicável em amostra representativa de alunos matriculados no 9º ano do ensino fundamental de escolas públicas e privadas brasileiras. Foram utilizadas informações sobre alimentação, atividade física, tabagismo, consumo de álcool e características socioeconômicas e demográficas. A análise fatorial foi usada para identificar padrões de comportamento a partir de uma lista de fatores de risco e proteção para DCNT. A associação entre os padrões encontrados e as características dos estudantes foi avaliada com modelos de regressão linear. A coocorrência de múltiplos fatores de risco foi avaliada com um escore correspondente à soma de cinco comportamentos: 1) Consumo infrequente de frutas e hortaliças, 2) Consumo frequente de alimentos ultraprocessados; 3) Atividade física insuficiente; 4) Fumo; e 5) Consumo abusivo de álcool. Os agrupamentos foram identificados utilizando a razão entre a prevalência observada e a prevalência esperada (O/E) para cada uma das 32 combinações de fatores de risco possíveis. As razões de prevalência O/E maiores que um foram indicativas de um agrupamento (ou cluster). A associação entre o acúmulo de quatro ou cinco dos fatores de risco e as variáveis socioeconômicas e demográficas foi avaliada com a utilização de modelo de regressão logística. Resultados: Foram encontrados quatro padrões de comportamentos: \"alimentação não saudável\", \"alimentação saudável\", \"atividade física\" e \"álcool e cigarro\". De forma geral, os grupos que apresentaram pior perfil de adesão aos padrões comportamentais encontrados foram: meninas, adolescentes mais velhos, e aqueles que não viviam com a mãe e o pai. Em relação à ocorrência simultânea dos fatores de risco definidos, apenas 2,5% dos adolescentes não apresentou nenhum dos comportamentos, enquanto 38,1% acumulou dois, 34,2%, três, 8,9%, quatro e 1,5%, os cinco fatores de risco estudados. As combinações de comportamentos mais comuns nos adolescentes foram aquelas em que estavam presentes os fatores de risco relacionados a alimentação e atividade física, ainda que as razões O/E fossem próximas a um. As maiores razões O/E foram encontradas para as combinações em que estavam presentes o cigarro e o álcool, indicando a forte correlação entre o uso das duas substâncias, ainda que a prevalência seja baixa nessa faixa etária. As características associadas ao acúmulo de quatro ou cinco fatores de risco foram: sexo feminino, ter mais de 16 anos, não viver com a mãe e o pai, menor escolaridade da mãe, ser aluno de escola pública, viver em municípios que sejam capitais de estado e nas regiões mais desenvolvidas do país. Conclusão: Os comportamentos de risco relacionados a alimentação e atividade física são os mais frequentes e se distribuem de forma independente nessa faixa etária. Por outro lado, o uso de cigarro e álcool é bastante correlacionado, apesar da baixa prevalência. A presença de múltiplos fatores de risco é comum nessa população e a identificação de grupos mais vulneráveis pode auxiliar no direcionamento de estratégias de promoção à saúde e prevenção de agravos relacionadas ao controle de DCNT ainda durante a adolescência / Introduction: A small group of modifiable risk factors accounts for most of the disease burden and mortality due to non-communicable diseases (NCD). These risk behaviors frequently originate in adolescence and remain in adulthood with short-, medium- and long-term consequences. Currently, in addition to determining the prevalence of each of the risk factors, it is important to evaluate how they cluster among the population, since some of these behaviors might interact with each other, producing an even greater risk than the sheer sum of individual risks. Objectives: To identify patterns of risk and protection behaviors related to chronic diseases among Brazilian adolescents and to verify their association with socioeconomic and demographic characteristics; And to assess the co-occurrence of multiple risk factors among adolescents, to investigate the clustering of risk factors, and to verify the association of presence of multiple risk factors with population characteristics. Methods: Our data source was the Brazilian National Survey of School Health (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar - PeNSE) 2012, which collected data on adolescent health through a self-administered questionnaire in a representative sample of students enrolled in the 9th grade of elementary education in public and private Brazilian schools. We used data about diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Factor analysis was used to identify patterns of behavior from a list of risk and protective factors for NCD. The association between the identified patterns and students\' characteristics was evaluated using linear regression models. The co-occurrence of multiple risk factors was evaluated with a score corresponding to the sum of five behaviors: 1) Infrequent consumption of fruits and vegetables, 2) Frequent consumption of ultraprocessed foods; 3) Insufficient physical activity; 4) Smoke; and 5) Abuse of alcohol. The clustering was identified using the ratio between the observed and expected prevalence (O/E) for each of the 32 combinations of risk factors. Observed/expected ratios (O/E) higher than 1 were considered an indicative of clustering. The association between the prevalence of four or five risk factors and the socioeconomic and demographic variables was evaluated using a logistic regression model. Results: Four patterns of behavior were found: \"unhealthy diet\", \"healthy diet\", \"physical activity\" and \"alcohol and cigarette use\". In general, the groups that presented the worst profile of adherence to the behavioral patterns found were: girls, older adolescents, and those who did not live with the mother and the father. Regarding the simultaneous occurrence of defined risk factors, only 2.5% of adolescents did not present any of the behaviors, while 38.1% accumulated two, 34.2%, three, 8.9%, four and 1.5% all of risk factors analyzed. The most common combinations of behaviors in adolescents were those in which risk factors related to diet and physical activity were present, even though O/E ratios were close to one. The highest O/E ratios were found for the combination of cigarette and alcohol, suggesting a strong correlation between the use of both substances, although the prevalence is low in this age group. The characteristics associated with the presence of four or five risk factors were: female, being over 16 years old, not living with the mother and father, lower education of the mother, being a public school student, living in capitals, and living in the more developed regions of the country. Conclusion: The risk behaviors related to diet and physical activity are the most frequent and occur independently in this age group. On the other hand, cigarette and alcohol use is highly correlated, despite the low prevalence. The presence of multiple risk factors is common in this population and the identification of more vulnerable groups can support strategies for health promotion and prevention of diseases related to the control of CNCD even during adolescence

As áreas protegidas, tanto públicas quanto privadas, e suas áreas de entorno têm desempenhado um papel relevante na sobrevivência de diversas espécies de mamíferos de médio e grande porte. Por essa razão, este estudo teve como primeiro objetivo estimar a riqueza de espécies de mamíferos de médio e grande porte no interior de três áreas de estudo com diferentes níveis de proteção, assim como nas suas respectivas áreas de entorno. Em segundo, e como principal objetivo deste trabalho, foi estimar as probabilidades de ocupação () e detecção (p) de uma espécie ameaçada, o tamanduá-bandeira (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), assim como avaliar se a ocorrência e o período de atividade dessa espécie são afetados pela presença humana. Todos os dados foram coletados por armadilhas fotográficas em três áreas de estudo no nordeste do Estado de São Paulo. A riqueza de mamíferos de médio e grande porte na região de estudo não é diferente entre as áreas com diferentes níveis de proteção ou entre interior e entorno. Quanto às análises de ocupação (uso), todas as covariáveis que influenciaram foram associadas com atividades humanas, positivamente para estradas e para áreas protegidas, e negativamente para proporção de área urbana. A relação positiva com estradas não pavimentadas é inesperada e pode sugerir que a espécie prefere mover-se ao longo da paisagem usando estradas para minimizar o tempo de viagem ou maximizar o forrageamento em paisagens alteradas. A presença humana não afetou positivamente ou negativamente o uso do espaço pelo tamanduá-bandeira, já que ambos ocorreram de maneira independente um do outro ( = 1). Este achado sugere que a falta de influência resulta em parte das características da paisagem de estudo (pressão de caça aparentemente baixa e uma razoável proporção de habitats nativos ainda presentes e protegidos), do desenho amostral empregado (concentrado em áreas protegidas e nas suas zonas de amortecimento) e, provavelmente, da baixa sobreposição nos períodos de atividades encontrada entre ambas espécies. Portanto, esses resultados indicam que tanto a sobrevivência da comunidade de mamíferos como, especificamente, do tamanduá-bandeira na região de estudo é fortemente dependente tanto das unidades de conservação (UC) como das áreas de vegetação nativas existentes em propriedades privadas protegidas pelo Código Florestal Brasileiro, além dos habitats perturbados no entorno dos grandes remanescentes. Todos os resultados encontrados são importantes para embasar a criação de novas áreas protegidas, assim como para o estabelecimento e manejo de zonas de amortecimento, pois indicam que estas têm papel chave na redução dos efeitos das atividades humanas sobre as UCs e na manutenção de populações viáveis das espécies presentes na região. / Protected areas, both public and private areas, and their surroundings have played an important role in the survival of several species of medium and large mammals. For this reason, this study aimed firstly to estimate the species richness of medium and large mammals within three study areas with different levels of protection, as well as their respective surrounding areas. Second, as the main goal of this study, it was to estimate occupancy () and detection (p) probability of an endangered species, the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), also assess if the occurrence and activity period of this species are affected by human presence. All data were collected by camera traps in three study areas in the northeast of São Paulo state. The species richness is not different between areas with different levels of protection or between interior and surroundings. Regarding occupancy analysis (use), all covariates that influenced giant anteater use were associated with human activities, positively to unpaved roads and protected areas, and negatively to proportion of urban area. The positive relationship with unpaved roads is unexpected and may suggest that giant anteater prefers to move along landscape using roads, perhaps to minimize travelling time or maximize foraging in altered landscapes. The human presence did not affect positively or negatively the use of space by giant anteater, since both species occurred independently of each other ( = 1). This finding suggests that lack of influence results in part from the landscape features of study area (apparently low hunting pressure and a reasonable proportion of native habitats still present and protected), the sampling design applied (focused on protected areas and their buffer zones) and probably due to low overlap between activity periods of both two species. Overall, results indicate that both mammals community and, specifically, giant anteater survivorship in the study region are strongly dependent upon the existence of nature reserves and areas of native vegetation existing in private properties which area protected by the Brazilian Forest Code, as well as the disturbed surrounding. All findings are important to support the creation of new protected areas, as well as the establishment and management of buffer zones, because they indicate that these zones have a key role in reducing the effects of human activities on protected areas and in the maintenance of viable species populations in the region.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T16:20:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 27 / Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos,Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente trabalho teve como objetivos caracterizar a estrutura, composição e dinâmica da comunidade de aves em um fragmento de Mata Atlântica localizado no extremo norte do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, bem como realizar análises comparativas entre interior e borda de floresta em relação a (1) composição de espécies, (2) riqueza, (3) abundância de grupos funcionais de aves e (4) abundância de espécies endêmicas de Mata Atlântica. Foram definidos 22 grupos funcionais de aves para descrição geral do fragmento de floresta estudado e comparação entre interior e borda de floresta, entretanto apenas 11 puderam ser comparados a nível estatístico, os demais grupos não obtiveram suficiência amostral para serem incluídos nas análises. Os grupos funcionais utilizados na comparação de abundância entre borda e interior de floresta foram: granívoros/insetívoros generalistas, granívoros/frugívoros de solo, insetívoros de sub-bosque, insetívoros de sub-bosque e estrato médio, insetívoros escaladores de troncos e galhos, ins / The present goal was to characterize structure, composition and dynamics of bird community at an Atlantic Forest remnant at the extreme north of Rio Grande do Sul State as well to compare interior and forest edge related to (1) species composition, (2) richness, (3) abundance of functional groups and (4) Atlantic Forest abundance of endemics bird species. General description of the fragment and comparisons between forest interior and edge were based on 22 defined functional groups, however only 11 could be compared to statistical level, the other groups did not obtain sufficient sample data to be included in the analysis. Functional groups used in the comparison between the abundance of forest edge and interior were: generalist seedeater/insectivores, ground seedeater/frugivores, understory insectivores, mid and understory insectivores, tunk and twig insectivores, bamboo or forest tangle insectivores, canopy insectivores, mid and understory insectivore/frugivores, canopy insectivore/frugivores, nectarivore/in

No description available.

Non-indigenous species have become a global issue of increasing importance in recent years, with many causing significant environmental and economic damage. Identifying locations vulnerable to invasion allows for focus of management efforts towards prevention of invasions at those locations. In order to determine whether constructed water bodies, such as reservoirs, ornamental lakes or retired mines, are more easily invaded environments than natural water bodies, owing to decreased biotic resistance, the distributions of native and non-indigenous freshwater calanoid copepod species in the North Island were examined. Calanoid copepods in ports and other coastal environments were also examined, in order to determine whether ports are more frequently invaded owing to increased propagule supplies from visiting ships and other sources. The distributions of the native freshwater calanoid copepod species Boeckella hamata, B. propinqua, B. delicata and B. tanea are confined in the North Island of New Zealand to specific technostratigraphic terranes when natural waters only are examined, and as such each species can be considered to have a native range. The recently colonised calanoid copepod species Boeckella minuta (6 locations), Skistodiaptomus pallidus (3 locations) and Sinodiaptomus valkanovi (2 locations) are to date confined to constructed water bodies. Boeckella symmetrica (2 locations) may be confined to constructed water bodies, but the status of one location is unclear. Boeckella triarticulata, a species common in the South Island, is known only from a single farm dam in the North Island. The native species Boeckella hamata, B. propinqua and B. delicata were found to occur in constructed waters, but only B. propinqua was found in constructed water bodies outside their natural ranges (9 locations). Calamoecia lucasi is found in lakes throughout most of the North Island, and is not confined to any one terrane. My results indicate that constructed water bodies are more easily invaded by non-indigenous species than natural water bodies, represents a potential pathway for future invaders to establish, and provides locations for species to spread. In order to determine whether recently established freshwater calanoid copepod species have the potential to spread from their present habitats into other water bodies, the prosomal lengths of non-indigenous calanoid copepod species were measured and compared with those for native species. The results suggest that dietary overlap should prevent the non-indigenous species present to date from spreading into any water bodies with established Boeckella populations, although Sinodiaptomus valkanovi and Boeckella triarticulata could potentially spread to lakes containing only Calamoecia lucasi. Data on the co-occurrences of native freshwater calanoid copepod species support the theory of dietary exclusion, as Boeckella species have not been found to coexist. In order to test whether New Zealand marine environments have been invaded by non-indigenous calanoid copepods, and whether ports have been more regularly invaded than non-port areas, calanoid copepods were sampled from various coastal locations around the North Island. With the possible exception of Sulcanus conflictus, no non-indigenous species were found, indicating that non-indigenous marine calanoid copepod species are not establishing in New Zealand despite a history of invasion elsewhere.

Today, with digitally stored information available in abundance, even for many minor languages, this information must by some means be filtered and extracted in order to avoid drowning in it. Automatic summarization is one such technique, where a computer summarizes a longer text to a shorter non-rendundant form. Apart from the major languages of the world there are a lot of languages for which large bodies of data aimed at language technology research to a high degree are lacking. There might also not be resources available to develop such bodies of data, since it is usually time consuming and requires substantial manual labor, hence being expensive. Nevertheless, there will still be a need for automatic text summarization for these languages in order to subdue this constantly increasing amount of electronically produced text. This thesis thus sets the focus on automatic summarization of text and the evaluation of summaries using as few human resources as possible. The resources that are used should to as high extent as possible be already existing, not specifically aimed at summarization or evaluation of summaries and, preferably, created as part of natural literary processes. Moreover, the summarization systems should be able to be easily assembled using only a small set of basic language processing tools, again, not specifically aimed at summarization/evaluation. The summarization system should thus be near language independent as to be quickly ported between different natural languages. The research put forth in this thesis mainly concerns three computerized systems, one for near language independent summarization – The HolSum summarizer; one for the collection of large-scale corpora – The KTH News Corpus; and one for summarization evaluation – The KTH eXtract Corpus. These three systems represent three different aspects of transferring the proposed summarization method to a new language. One aspect is the actual summarization method and how it relates to the highly irregular nature of human language and to the difference in traits among language groups. This aspect is discussed in detail in Chapter 3. This chapter also presents the notion of “holistic summarization”, an approach to self-evaluative summarization that weighs the fitness of the summary as a whole, by semantically comparing it to the text being summarized, before presenting it to the user. This approach is embodied as the text summarizer HolSum, which is presented in this chapter and evaluated in Paper 5. A second aspect is the collection of large-scale corpora for languages where few or none such exist. This type of corpora is on the one hand needed for building the language model used by HolSum when comparing summaries on semantic grounds, on the other hand a large enough set of (written) language use is needed to guarantee the randomly selected subcorpus used for evaluation to be representative. This topic briefly touched upon in Chapter 4, and detailed in Paper 1. The third aspect is, of course, the evaluation of the proposed summarization method on a new language. This aspect is investigated in Chapter 4. Evaluations of HolSum have been run on English as well as on Swedish, using both well established data and evaluation schemes (English) as well as with corpora gathered “in the wild” (Swedish). During the development of the latter corpora, which is discussed in Paper 4, evaluations of a traditional sentence ranking text summarizer, SweSum, have also been run. These can be found in Paper 2 and 3. This thesis thus contributes a novel approach to highly portable automatic text summarization, coupled with methods for building the needed corpora, both for training and evaluation on the new language. / Idag, med ett överflöd av digitalt lagrad information även för många mindre språk, är det nära nog omöjligt att manuellt sålla och välja ut vilken information man ska ta till sig. Denna information måste istället filteras och extraheras för att man inte ska drunkna i den. En teknik för detta är automatisk textsammanfattning, där en dator sammanfattar en längre text till en kortare icke-redundant form. Vid sidan av de stora världsspråken finns det många små språk för vilka det saknas stora datamängder ämnade för språkteknologisk forskning. För dessa saknas det också ofta resurser för att bygga upp sådana datamängder då detta är tidskrävande och ofta dessutom kräver en ansenlig mängd manuellt arbete. Likväl behövs automatisk textsammanfattning för dessa språk för att tämja denna konstant ökande mängd elektronsikt producerad text. Denna avhandling sätter således fokus på automatisk sammanfattning av text med så liten mänsklig insats som möjligt. De använda resurserna bör i så hög grad som möjligt redan existera, inte behöva vara skapade för automatisk textsammanfattning och helst även ha kommit till som en naturlig del av en litterär process. Vidare, sammanfattningssystemet bör utan större ansträngning kunna sättas samman med hjälp av ett mindre antal mycket grundläggande språkteknologiska verktyg, vilka inte heller de är specifikt ämnade för textsammanfattning. Textsammanfattaren bör således vara nära nog språkoberoende för att det med enkelhet kunna att flyttas mellan ett språk och ett annat. Den forskning som läggs fram i denna avhandling berör i huvudsak tre datorsystem, ett för nära nog språkoberoende sammanfattning – HolSum; ett för insamlande av stora textmängder – KTH News Corpus; och ett för utvärdering av sammanfattning – KTH eXtract Corpus. Dessa tre system representerar tre olika aspekter av att föra över den framlagda sammanfattningsmetoden till ett nytt språk. En aspekt är den faktiska sammanfattningsmetoden och hur den påverkas av mänskliga språks högst oregelbundna natur och de skillnader som uppvisas mellan olika språkgrupper. Denna aspekt diskuteras i detalj i kapitel tre. I detta kapitel presenteras också begreppet “holistisk sammanfattning”, en ansats tillsjälvutvärderande sammanfattning vilken gör en innehållslig bedömning av sammanfattningen som en helhet innan den presenteras för användaren. Denna ansats förkroppsligas i textsammanfattaren HolSum, som presenteras i detta kapitel samt utvärderas i artikel fem. En andra aspekt är insamlandet av stora textmängder för språk där sådana saknas. Denna typ av datamängder behövs dels för att bygga den språkmodell som HolSum använder sig av när den gör innehållsliga jämförelser sammanfattningar emellan, dels behövs dessa för att ha en tillräckligt stor mängd text att kunna slumpmässigt extrahera en representativ delmängd lämpad för utvärdering ur. Denna aspekt berörs kortfattat i kapitel fyra och i mer önskvärd detalj i artikel ett. Den tredje aspekten är, naturligtvis, utvärdering av den framlagda sammanfattningsmetoden på ett nytt språk. Denna aspekt ges en översikt i kapitel 4. Utvärderingar av HolSum har utförts både med väl etablerade datamängder och utvärderingsmetoder (för engelska) och med data- och utvärderingsmängder insamlade specifikt för detta ändamål (för svenska). Under sammanställningen av denna senare svenska datamängd, vilken beskrivs i artikel fyra, så utfördes även utvärderingar av en traditionell meningsextraherande textsammanfattare, SweSum. Dessa återfinns beskrivna i artikel två och tre. Denna avhandling bidrar således med ett nydanande angreppssätt för nära nog språkoberoende textsammanfattning, uppbackad av metoder för sammansättning av erforderliga datamängder för såväl modellering av som utvärdering på ett nytt språk. / QC 20100712

The hospital sound environment is complex. Emergency Departments (EDs), in particular, have proven to be hectic work environments populated with diverse sound sources. Medical equipment, alarms, and communication events generate noise that can interfere with staff concentration and communication. In this study, sound measurements and analyses were conducted in six hospitals total: three civilian hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia and Dublin, Ohio, as well as three Washington, DC-area hospitals in the Military Health System (MHS). The equivalent, minimum, and maximum sound pressure levels were recorded over twenty-four hours in several locations in each ED, with shorter 15-30 minute measurements performed in other areas. Acoustic descriptors, such as spectral content, level distributions, and speech intelligibility were examined. The perception of these acoustic qualities by hospital staff was also evaluated through subjective surveys. It was found that noise levels in both work areas and patient rooms were excessive. Additionally, speech intelligibility measurements and survey results show that background noise presents a significant obstacle in effective communication between staff members and patients. Compared to previous studies, this study looks at a wider range of acoustic metrics and the corresponding perceptions of staff in order to form a more precise and accurate depiction of the ED sound environment.

In this thesis, the relationship between several high-latitude phenomena and the ionospheric conductance in both hemispheres is studied theoretically and experimentally. </p>Theoretically, the high-latitude electrodynamics is studied by considering currents in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system resulting from the ionospheric sheet current redistribution between the conjugate ionospheres. It is shown that strong flow between the conjugate ionospheres, the interhemispheric currents (IHC), can be set up if the conductance distribution is asymmetric in the conjugate ionospheric regions. Such conditions are typical for solstices owing to the differences in the solar illumination. Analytical and numerical modeling shows that IHCs can appear in the regions of strong conductance gradient, more specifically around the solar terminator line, and that the intensity of the IHCs can be comparable to the intensity of the well known Region 1/Region 2 currents. The effect of IHC excitation on observable magnetic perturbations on the ground is investigated. It is shown that in the vicinity of the solar terminator line, the pattern of magnetic perturbation can be such that an apparent equivalent current vortex can be detected. In addition, strong conductance gradients are shown to affect significantly the quality of the ionospheric plasma flow estimates from the ground-based magnetometer data. </p>Experimentally, the effect of the nightside ionospheric conductance on occurrence of substorms, global storm sudden commencement and radar auroras is investigated. To characterize substorm occurrence, new parameters, the derivatives of the classical AE and AO indices, are introduced. It is shown that the seasonal and diurnal variations of these parameters are controlled by the total nightside ionospheric conductance in the conjugate regions. The substorm onsets preferentially occur at low levels of the total conductance, which is consistent with the idea of the substorm triggering through the magnetosphere-ionosphere feedback instability. It is hypothesized that the total conductance affects the global storm onsets as well. To check this idea, the 33-year sudden storm commencement (SSC) data are considered. The semiannual, annual, semidiurnal, and diurnal variations in the SSC occurrence rate are found to be significant and these components exhibit a strong relationship with the total conductance of the high-latitude ionospheres. Finally, the SuperDARN midnight echo occurrence is shown to correlate, for some radars, with the total conductance minima and presumably with electric field maxima, which is consistent with general expectation that the F-region irregularities occur preferentially during times of enhanced electric fields. The gradients of the high-latitude conductance can also lead to significant errors in the plasma convection estimates from the ground-based magnetometers, and to investigate this effect a statistical assessment of the difference between the true plasma convection (SuperDARN) and the magnetometer-inferred equivalent convection direction is performed. The largest differences are found for the transition region between the dark and sunlit ionospheres and in the midnight sector where strong conductance gradients are expected due to particle precipitation. Consideration of regular conductance gradients due to solar illumination improves the agreement between the radar and magnetometer data. Finally, an attempt is made to demonstrate the effects of conductance upon the properties of traveling convection vortices (TCVs). Joint SuperDARN and magnetometer data reveal that there is resemblance between the magnetometer and radar inferred TCV images on a scale of thousands of kilometers. However, on a smaller scale of hundreds of kilometers, significant differences are observed.