Cross-layer optimizations for multimedia distribution over Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks and Flying Ad-Hoc Networks with quality of experience support

The proliferation of multimedia content and the demand for new audio or video services have fostered the development of a new era based on multimedia information, which allowed the evolution of Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) and also Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs). In this way, live multimedia services require realtime video transmissions with a low frame loss rate, tolerable end-to-end delay, and jitter to support video dissemination with Quality of Experience (QoE) support. Hence, a key principle in a QoE-aware approach is the transmission of high priority frames (protect them) with a minimum packet loss ratio, as well as network overhead. Moreover, multimedia content must be transmitted from a given source to the destination via intermediate nodes with high reliability in a large scale scenario. The routing service must cope with dynamic topologies caused by node failure or mobility, as well as wireless channel changes, in order to continue to operate despite dynamic topologies during multimedia transmission. Finally, understanding user satisfaction on watching a video sequence is becoming a key requirement for delivery of multimedia content with QoE support. With this goal in mind, solutions involving multimedia transmissions must take into account the video characteristics to improve video quality delivery. The main research contributions of this thesis are driven by the research question how to provide multimedia distribution with high energy-efficiency, reliability, robustness, scalability, and QoE support over wireless ad hoc networks. The thesis addresses several problem domains with contributions on different layers of the communication stack. At the application layer, we introduce a QoE-aware packet redundancy mechanism to reduce the impact of the unreliable and lossy nature of wireless environment to disseminate live multimedia content. At the network layer, we introduce two routing protocols, namely video-aware Multi-hop and multi-path hierarchical routing protocol for Efficient VIdeo transmission for static WMSN scenarios (MEVI), and cross-layer link quality and geographical-aware beaconless OR protocol for multimedia FANET scenarios (XLinGO). Both protocols enable multimedia dissemination with energy-efficiency, reliability and QoE support. This is achieved by combining multiple cross-layer metrics for routing decision in order to establish reliable routes.

Distribuição larval planctônica de Bachyura (Crustacea, Decapoda) na região de Ubatuba, com novas descrições larvais para o gênero Persephona Leach, 1817

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Copépodes planctônicos (Crustacea, Calanoida e Cyclopoida) em reservatórios e trechos lóticos da bacia do Rio da Prata (Brasil, Paraguai, Argentina e Uruguai): taxonomia, distribuição geográfica e alguns atributos ecológicos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Composição e diversidade dos camarões marinhos (Crustacea: Decapoda: Penaeoidea) e dinâmica populacional de Xiphopenaeus kroyeri (Heller, 1862) no litoral do Brasil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A família Squillidae (Crustacea : Hoplocarida : Stomatopoda) no Atlântico Sul ocidental: taxonomia e biogeografia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Distribuição ecológica dos Brachyura (Crustacea, Decapoa) do sublitoral rochoso de ilhas continentais do litoral norte do Estado de São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia) - IBB

Spatial Distribution of the Risk of Dengue and the Entomological Indicators in Sumare, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

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

Streptococcus agalactiae in Brazil: serotype distribution, virulence determinants and antimicrobial susceptibility

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Two species of swimming crabs of the genus Achelous (Crustacea, Brachyura): environmental requirements determining the niche

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

Historical biogeography of the neotropical Diaptomidae (Crustacea: Copepoda)

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

Inferring population connectivity across the range of distribution of the stiletto shrimp Artemesia longinaris Spence Bate, 1888 (Decapoda, Penaeidae) from DNA barcoding: implications for fishery management

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

Distribution of constitutive heterochromatin in Triatoma melanocephala (Hemiptera, Triatominae)

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

Population ecology of the planktonic shrimp lucifer faxoni borradaile, 1915 (crustacea, sergestoidea, luciferidae) of the southeastern coast of brazil

Luciferid shrimps have short life spans and a rapid turnover of generations, engage in sequential spawning, and protect their eggs during incubation. This study investigates the ecology of Lucifer faxoni Borradaile, 1915 in the littoral zone, Ubatuba region, São Paulo. Sampling was conducted monthly from July 2005 to December 2006 using a Renfro net trawled over a distance of 50 m for a total sampling effort of 50 m² at each station. Nine stations were sampled, ranging from 1 to 15 m deep. Three stations each were grouped into zones 1, 2 and 3 (Z1, Z2 and Z3). Monthly values of salinity, temperature and rainfall were recorded at each station. The pre-buccal somite length (SL) of each specimen was measured. The results showed that in shallower zones (Z1 and Z2), 6306 individuals were captured, whereas in the deeper zone (Z3), 3808 specimens were captured, but no significant differences in SL was detected between the specimens from Z1 and Z2 and those from Z3 (ANOVA, p=0.25). The abundance of shrimps did not differ significantly between seasons (Tukey’s test, p=0.02) except in the spring. The sex ratio differed significantly over the seasons (χ², p<0.05). The results were closely associated with environmental factors with respect to the spatial and seasonal distribution of L. faxoni. Rainfall affected salinity directly, and contributed to the displacement of these shrimps to deeper areas.

Spatial distribution of runoff depth from a watershed located in a cuesta relief area of São Paulo State, Brazil

This study was undertaken in a 1566 ha drainage basin situated in an area with cuesta relief in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The objectives were: 1) to map the maximum potential soil water retention capacity, and 2) to simulate the depth of surface runoff in each geographical position of the area based on a typical rainfall event. The database required for the development of this research was generated in the environment of the geographical information system ArcInfo v.10.1. Undeformed soil samples were collected at 69 points. The ordinary kriging method was used in the interpolation of the values of soil density and maximum potential soil water retention capacity. The spherical model allowed for better adjustment of the semivariograms corresponding to the two soil attributes for the depth of 0 to 20 cm, while the Gaussian model enabled a better fit of the spatial behavior of the two variables for the depth of 20 to 40 cm. The simulation of the spatial distribution revealed a gradual increase in the depth of surface runoff for the rainfall event taken as example (25 mm) from the reverse to the peripheral depression of the cuesta (from west to east). There is a positive aspect observed in the gradient, since the sites of highest declivity, especially those at the front of the cuesta, are closer to the western boundary of the watershed where the lowest depths of runoff occur. This behavior, in conjunction with certain values of erodibility and depending on the land use and cover, can help mitigate the soil erosion processes in these areas.

A redescription of a common euryhaline cumacean from southern Brazil: Diastylis sympterygiae Bacescu & Queiroz, 1985 (Crustacea: Cumacea)

Diastylis sympterygiae Bacescu & Queiroz (1985) has been reported in many ecological studies conducted in the Patos Lagoon, southern Brazil. However, the original description of this species is based on damaged specimens from stomach contents of rays, and therefore insufficient for a confident identification. In the present contribution, based on a large number of well-preserved specimens now available from the type locality area, the description of this common euryhaline species is completed and its range of distribution as far north as Sao Paulo is extended.