Facebook3d

INTRODUCTION With the advent of Web 2.0, social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn have become hugely popular. According to (Nilsen, 2009), social networking websites have global1 figures of almost 250 millions unique users among the top five2, with the time people spend on those networks increasing 63% between 2007 and 2008. Facebook alone saw a massive growth of 566% in number of minutes in the same period of time. Furthermore their appeal is clear, they enable users to easily form persistent networks of friends with whom they can interact and share content. Users then use those networks to keep in touch with their current friends and to reconnect with old friends. However, online social network services have rapidly evolved into highly complex systems which contain a large amount of personally salient information derived from large networks of friends. Since that information varies from simple links to music, photos and videos, users not only have to deal with the huge amount of data generated by them and their friends but also with the fact that it‟s composed of many different media forms. Users are presented with increasing challenges, especially as the number of friends on Facebook rises. An example of a problem is when a user performs a simple task like finding a specific friend in a group of 100 or more friends. In that case he would most likely have to go through several pages and make several clicks till he finds the one he is looking for. Another example is a user with more than 100 friends in which his friends make a status update or another action per day, resulting in 10 updates per hour to keep up. That is plausible, especially since the change in direction of Facebook to rival with Twitter, by encouraging users to update their status as they do on Twitter. As a result, to better present the web of information connected to a user the use of better visualizations is essential. The visualizations used nowadays on social networking sites haven‟t gone through major changes during their lifetimes. They have added more functionality and gave more tools to their users, but still the core of their visualization hasn‟t changed. The information is still presented in a flat way in lists/groups of text and images which can‟t show the extra connections pieces of information. Those extra connections can give new meaning and insights to the user, allowing him to more easily see if that content is important to him and the information related to it. However showing extra connections of information but still allowing the user to easily navigate through it and get the needed information with a quick glance is difficult. The use of color coding, clusters and shapes becomes then essential to attain that objective. But taking into consideration the advances in computer hardware in the last decade and the software platforms available today, there is the opportunity to take advantage of 3D. That opportunity comes in because we are at a phase were the hardware and the software available is ready for the use of 3D in the web. With the use of the extra dimension brought by 3D, visualizations can be constructed to show the content and its related information to the user at the same screen and in a clear way. Also it would allow a great deal of interactivity. Another opportunity to create better information‟s visualization presents itself in the form of the open APIs, specifically the ones made available by the social networking sites. Those APIs allow any developers to create their own applications or sites taking advantage of the huge amount of information there is on those networks. Specifically to this case, they open the door for the creation of new social network visualizations. Nevertheless, the third dimension is by itself not enough to create a better interface for a social networking website, there are some challenges to overcome. One of those challenges is to make the user understand what the system is doing during the interaction with the user. Even though that is important in 2D visualizations, it becomes essential in 3D due to the extra dimension. To overcome that challenge it‟s necessary the use of the principles of animations defined by the artists at Walt Disney Studios (Johnston, et al., 1995). By applying those principles in the development of the interface, the actions of the system in response to the user inputs became clear and understandable. Furthermore, a user study needs to be performed so the users‟ main goals and motivations, while navigating the social network, are revealed. Their goals and motivations are important in the construction of an interface that reflects the user expectations for the interface, but also helps in the development of appropriate metaphors. Those metaphors have an important role in the interface, because if correctly chosen they help the user understand the elements of the interface instead of making him memorize it. The last challenge is the use of 3D visualization on the web, since there have been several attempts to bring 3D into it, mainly with the various versions of VRML which were destined to failure due to the hardware limitations at the time. However, in the last couple of years there has been a movement to make the necessary tools to finally allow developers to use 3D in a useful way, using X3D or OpenGL but especially flash. This thesis argues that there is a need for a better social network visualization that shows all the dimensions of the information connected to the user and that allows him to move through it. But there are several characteristics the new visualization has to possess in order for it to present a real gain in usability to Facebook‟s users. The first quality is to have the friends at the core of its design, and the second to make use of the metaphor of circles of friends to separate users in groups taking into consideration the order of friendship. To achieve that several methods have to be used, from the use of 3D to get an extra dimension for presenting relevant information, to the use of direct manipulation to make the interface comprehensible, predictable and controllable. Moreover animation has to be use to make all the action on the screen perceptible to the user. Additionally, with the opportunity given by the 3D enabled hardware, the flash platform, through the use of the flash engine Papervision3D and the Facebook platform, all is in place to make the visualization possible. But even though it‟s all in place, there are challenges to overcome like making the system actions in 3D understandable to the user and creating correct metaphors that would allow the user to understand the information and options available to him. This thesis document is divided in six chapters, with Chapter 2 reviewing the literature relevant to the work described in this thesis. In Chapter 3 the design stage that resulted in the application presented in this thesis is described. In Chapter 4, the development stage, describing the architecture and the components that compose the application. In Chapter 5 the usability test process is explained and the results obtained through it are presented and analyzed. To finish, Chapter 6 presents the conclusions that were arrived in this thesis.

Nematicidal activity of Solanum nigrum and S. sisymbriifolium extracts against the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus goodeyi and its effects on infection and gene expression

The control of Pratylenchus goodeyi a common nematode parasite of banana crop in Madeira Island can benefit from searching for natural nematicides through plants extracts. With this aim we submitted Solanum nigrum and S. sisymbriifolium dried plants to a sequential extraction in the solvent sequence of dichloromethane, acetone, ethanol and water, and to na aqueous extraction of the fresh and dried plants. Analyses with the extracts at several concentrations were used to assess mobility and mortality on P. goodeyi. Results showed that the water extract and aqueous extracts from both plants at a concentration of 10 mg/mL affected nematode mobility and caused mortality but the acetone extract from S. nigrum was the most efficient, causing 100% mortality whereas dichloromethane had no effect on P. goodeyi. Determination of the lipophilic and phenolic compounds present in the two most effective Solanum extracts (acetone and water) and in dichloromethane extract revealed that some of these compounds had nematicidal activity. S. nigrum acetone extract (10 mg/mL) was used to find out the nematicidal potential following the effect at gene expression level and nematode behaviour. Genes coding for calreticulin and beta-1,4- endoglucanase related to parasitism and translocon-associated protein putatively connected to stress were obtained and its relative expression assessed in nematodes exposed to the extract. Results revealed that expression of Pg-CRT decreased showing to influence the infection, Pg-ENG remained steady and Pg-TRAPδ was induced over time exposure. Biological assays showed that P. goodeyi mobility and ability to infect the banana roots were affected as a decrease in the number of nematodes that reached the roots was obtained with the increased exposure time to the extract being implicated in the infection success. The information obtained from this thesis showed that S. nigrum has potential to be used for the development of a new control strategy against plant-parasitic nematodes.

DNA bar-coding reveals source and patterns of Thaumastocoris peregrinus invasions in South Africa and South America

Thaumastocoris peregrinus is a recently introduced invertebrate pest of non-native Eucalyptus plantations in the Southern Hemisphere. It was first reported from South Africa in 2003 and in Argentina in 2005. Since then, populations have grown explosively and it has attained an almost ubiquitous distribution over several regions in South Africa on 26 Eucalyptus species. Here we address three key questions regarding this invasion, namely whether only one species has been introduced, whether there were single or multiple introductions into South Africa and South America and what the source of the introduction might have been. To answer these questions, bar-coding using mitochondrial DNA (COI) sequence diversity was used to characterise the populations of this insect from Australia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay. Analyses revealed three cryptic species in Australia, of which only T. peregrinus is represented in South Africa and South America. Thaumastocoris peregrinus populations contained eight haplotypes, with a pairwise nucleotide distance of 0.2-0.9% from seventeen locations in Australia. Three of these haplotypes are shared with populations in South America and South Africa, but the latter regions do not share haplotypes. These data, together with the current distribution of the haplotypes and the known direction of original spread in these regions, suggest that at least three distinct introductions of the insect occurred in South Africa and South America before 2005. The two most common haplotypes in Sydney, one of which was also found in Brisbane, are shared with the non-native regions. Sydney populations of T. peregrinus, which have regularly reached outbreak levels in recent years, might thus have served as source of these three distinct introductions into other regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

Cloning and Identification of a Complete cDNA Coding for a Bactericidal and Antitumoral Acidic Phospholipase A(2) from Bothrops jararacussu Venom

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

14-3-3: Defense and regulatory proteins coding by Eucalyptus genome

The data mining of Eucalyptus ESTs genome finds four clusters (EGCEST2257E11.g, EGBGRT3213F11.g, and EGCCFB1223H11.g) from highly conservative 14-3-3 protein family which modulates a wide variety of cellular processes. Multiple alignments were built from twenty four sequences of 14-3-3 proteins searched into the GenBank databases and into the four pools of Eucalyptus genome programs. The alignment has shown two regions highly conservative on the sequences corresponding to the motifs of protein phosphorylation and nine highly conservative regions on the sequence corresponding to the linkage regions of alpha helices structure based on three dimensional of dimer functional structure. The differences of amino acid into the structural and functional domains of 14-3-3 plant protein were identified and can explain the functional diversity of different isoforms. The phylogenic protein trees were built by the maximum parsimony and neighborjoining procedures of Clustal X alignments and PAUP software for phylogenic analysis.

Sequence characterization of coding regions of the myostatin gene (GDF8) from Brazilian Murrah buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) and comparison with the Bos taurus sequence

Within about 30 years the Brazilian buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) herd will reach approximately 50 million head as a result of the great adaptive capacity of these animals to tropical climates, together with the good productive and reproductive potential which make these animals an important animal protein source for poor and developing countries. The myostatin gene (GDF8) is important in the physiology of stock animals because its product produces a direct effect on muscle development and consequently also on meat production. The myostatin sequence is known in several mammalian species and shows a high degree of amino acid sequence conservation, although the presence of non-silent and silent changes in the coding sequences and several alterations in the introns and untranslated regions have been identified. The objective of our work was to characterize the myostatin coding regions of B. bubalis (Murrah breed) and to compare them with the Bos taurus regions looking for variations in nucleotide and protein sequences. In this way, we were able to identify 12 variations at DNA level and five alterations on the presumed myostatin protein sequence as compared to non double-muscled bovine sequences.

Genetic variability of porcine parvovirus isolates revealed by analysis of partial sequences of the structural coding gene VP2

The 3'-terminal 853 nt (and the putative 283 aa) sequence of the VP2-encoding gene from 29 field strains of porcine parvovirus (PPV) were determined and compared both to each other and with other published sequences. Sequences were examined using maximum-parsimony and statistical analyses for nucleotide diversity and sequence variability. Among the nucleotide sequences of the PPV field strains, 26 polymorphic sites were encountered; 22 polymorphic sites were detected in the putative amino acid sequence. Mapping polymorphic sites of protein data onto the three-dimensional (3D) structure of PPV VP2 revealed that almost all substitutions were located on the external surface of the viral capsid. Mapping amino acid substitutions to the alignment between PPV VP2 sequences and the 3D structure of canine parvovirus (CPV) capsid, many PPV substitutions were observed to map to regions of recognized antigenicity and/or to contain phenotypically important residues for CPV and other parvoviruses. In spite of the high sequence similarity, genetic analysis has shown the existence of at least two virus lineages among the samples. In conclusion, these results highlight the need for close surveillance on PPV genetic drift, with an assessment of its potential ability to modify the antigenic make-up of the virus.

Report of a chimeric origin of transposable elements in a bovine-coding gene

Despite the wide distribution of transposable elements (TEs) in mammalian genomes, part of their evolutionary significance remains to be discovered. Today there is a substantial amount of evidence showing that TEs are involved in the generation of new exons in different species. In the present study, we searched 22,805 genes and reported the occurrence of TE-cassettes in coding sequences of 542 cow genes using the RepeatMasker program. Despite the significant number (542) of genes with TE insertions in exons only 14 (2.6%) of them were translated into protein, which we characterized as chimeric genes. From these chimeric genes, only the FAST kinase domains 3 (FASTKD3) gene, present on chromosome BTA 20, is a functional gene and showed evidence of the exaptation event. The genome sequence analysis showed that the last exon coding sequence of bovine FASTKD3 is ∼85% similar to the ART2A retrotransposon sequence. In addition, comparison among FASTKD3 proteins shows that the last exon is very divergent from those of Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes and Canis familiares. We suggest that the gene structure of bovine FASTKD3 gene could have originated by several ectopic recombinations between TE copies. Additionally, the absence of TE sequences in all other species analyzed suggests that the TE insertion is clade-specific, mainly in the ruminant lineage. ©FUNPEC-RP.

Human interferon B1 ser17: Coding DNA synthesis, expression, purification and characterization of bioactive recombinant protein

A protocol to produce large amounts of bioactive homogeneous human interferon β1 expressed in Escherichia coli was developed. Human interferon β1 ser17 gene was constructed, cloned and subcloned, and the recombinant protein expressed in E. coli cells. Solubilization of recombinant human interferon β1 ser17 (rhIFN-β1 ser17) was accomplished by employing a brief shift to high alkaline pH in the presence of non-ionic detergent. The recombinant protein was purifi ed by three chromatographic steps. N-terminal amino acid sequencing and mass spectrometry analysis provided experimental evidence for the identity of the recombinant protein. Reverse phase liquid chromatography demonstrated that the content of deamidates and sulphoxides was similar to a commercial standard. Size exclusion chromatography demonstrated the absence of high molecular mass aggregates and dimers. The protocol represents an effi cient and high-yield method to obtain bioactive homogeneous monomeric rhIFN-β1 ser17 protein. It may thus represent an important step towards scaling up for rhIFN-β1 ser17 large-scale production. © 2010 Villela AD, et al.

Gene Content Analysis of Sugarcane Public ESTs Reveals Thousands of Missing Coding-Genes and an Unexpected Pool of Grasses Conserved ncRNAs

Sugarcane is the most important crop for sugar industry and raw material for bioethanol. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the gene content from publicly available sugarcane ESTs. The current sugarcane EST collection sampled orthologs for ~58 % of the closely-related sorghum proteome, suggesting that more than 10,000 sugarcane coding-genes remain undiscovered. Moreover the existence of more than 2,000 ncRNAs conserved between sugarcane and sorghum was revealed, among which over 500 are also detected in rice, supporting the existence of hundreds of conserved ncRNAs in grasses. New efforts towards sugarcane transcriptome sequencing were needed to sample the missing coding-genes as well as to expand the catalog of ncRNAs. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Genetic diversity of the HLA-G coding region in Amerindian populations from the Brazilian Amazon: a possible role of natural selection

HLA-G has an important role in the modulation of the maternal immune system during pregnancy, and evidence that balancing selection acts in the promoter and 3′UTR regions has been previously reported. To determine whether selection acts on the HLA-G coding region in the Amazon Rainforest, exons 2, 3 and 4 were analyzed in a sample of 142 Amerindians from nine villages of five isolated tribes that inhabit the Central Amazon. Six previously described single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified and the Expectation-Maximization (EM) and PHASE algorithms were used to computationally reconstruct SNP haplotypes (HLA-G alleles). A new HLA-G allele, which originated in Amerindian populations by a crossing-over event between two widespread HLA-G alleles, was identified in 18 individuals. Neutrality tests evidenced that natural selection has a complex part in the HLA-G coding region. Although balancing selection is the type of selection that shapes variability at a local level (Native American populations), we have also shown that purifying selection may occur on a worldwide scale. Moreover, the balancing selection does not seem to act on the coding region as strongly as it acts on the flanking regulatory regions, and such coding signature may actually reflect a hitchhiking effect.Genes and Immunity advance online publication, 3 October 2013; doi:10.1038/gene.2013.47.

A contribuition to the study of channel coding in wireless communication systems

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

Informação quântica e relatividade

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

O adoecimento dos trabalhadores docentes na rede pública de ensino de Belém-Pará

Esta tese investiga o adoecimento dos trabalhadores docentes no Ensino Fundamental da Rede Pública de Ensino de Belém – RME no Estado do Pará, a partir das reformas educacionais implementadas no período de 2005-2012. O objetivo geral constituiu-se em analisar as causas do adoecimento dos docentes na Rede Pública de Ensino de Belém RME, observando os seguintes objetivos específicos: analisar as políticas educacionais da RME; identificar as repercussões das políticas educacionais e sua relação com o adoecimento do docente; analisar as condições de trabalho docente; identificar a ocorrência de intensificação e precarização no trabalho docente e possíveis relações com o adoecimento. A pesquisa foi realizada em etapas: a primeira etapa foi a realização da pesquisa bibliográfica para se conhecer melhor o tema. Para compreender o conceito de Trabalho, Mundo do Trabalho, Mercado de Trabalho, Trabalho e Educação foram realizados estudos em autores como: Marx (2006), Alves (2010); Antunes (2006), Frigotto (2003), que trazem uma profunda compreensão do objeto de estudo, razão pela qual são referências para análise na perspectiva histórico-dialética. Sobre as Políticas Educacionais e Trabalho Docente, tomou-se por base de estudos Oliveira (2003); Maués (2006); Shiroma et al,. (2007) e outros. Os autores utilizados para discutir saúde e adoecimento de maneira geral e na escola foram: Bravo (2010; 2011), Codo (2006; 2010), Esteve (1999), Benevides-Pereira (2006), Minayo (1998) e outros. A segunda etapa de construção desta tese foi a pesquisa de campo que serviu para complementar e esclarecer questões e dúvidas acerca do objeto de estudo, sendo utilizados questionário estruturado e entrevista semiestruturada e a terceira etapa se configurou na definição das categorias, a partir da pesquisa de campo. Esta fase se concretizou através da decomposição de textos em unidades, reclassificando-os por reagrupamento e foi realizada em três etapas: a análise prévia, que se consistiu na organização do material, a análise exploratória, que consiste em codificações e classificação, e finalmente o tratamento dos resultados obtidos e interpretação, que incidiu na tabulação e na aplicação de técnicas descritivas e analíticas dos dados. Os resultados da pesquisa indicaram que as causas dos adoecimentos na RME estão relacionadas: a) às condições de trabalho em seu sentido lato, indicando a existência de processos de intensificação e de precarização do trabalho docente; b) às políticas de formação continuada com acentuados graus de exigências das avaliações do Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica – IDEB; c) à existência de mal-estar docente, corroborando com os desgastes e pouca satisfação com o trabalho.