Chemical communication in Apis mellifera: Temporal modulation of alarm behaviors

The effect of pheromones and their chemical analogues in honeybee alarm behaviors was studied in observation boxes. Defensive behaviors, as follows: a) attraction to scent source, b) elevation of wings in 'V', c) abdomen elevation, d) abdomen elevation and pumping and e) first leg pair elevation had been temporarily registered when the following compounds were presented: isoamyl alcohol, octyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, n-butyl acetate, n-octyl acetate, isopentyl acetate, benzyl acetate and 2-heptanone. The results were as follows: 1. the bees elicited some characteristic behaviors when chemical alarm messages were presented, 2. agression (stinging) was not completed with any compound tested, probably because there was not a target (visual stimulus), 3. in all situations the attraction to scent source was low, 4. all the behaviors were elicited in a temporarily different way, 5. the compounds that elicited stronger responses and a greater number of the investigated behaviors were: isopentyl acetate, 2-heptanone, octyl acetate and n-octyl alcohol. In all situations, the first behavior response (and the most intense one) was the elevation and pumping the abdomen. This suggests that the chemical message was promptly recognized and then transmitted to each worker. So, the results obtained in the present work, suggest that chemical alarm messages may be recognized by different mechanisms of neural integration.

Regional perspectives on digital disaster management in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Establishing social statistical databases for evidenced-based social policy formulation in the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Representa����es sociais de adolescentes: ato infracional e projeto de vida

Este estudo tem por objeto as representa����es sociais das adolescentes autoras de atos infracionais sobre a socioeduca����o e as implica����es nos seus projetos de vida. A problem��tica se orientou com o foco nas representa����es sociais anunciadas pelas adolescentes autoras de atos infracionais sobre as medidas socioeducativas de interna����o e semiliberdade e as implica����es nos seus projetos de vida. O l��cus da pesquisa foi o Centro Socioeducativo Feminino - CESEF que pertence a Funda����o de Atendimento Socioeducativo do Estado do Par��. Os objetivos do estudo foram: a) identificar o perfil das adolescentes custodiadas no CESEF, na faixa et��ria de 13 a 18 anos incompletos em cumprimento de medida socioeducativa de interna����o e semiliberdade; b) caracterizar as imagens e sentidos que atribuem ��s medidas socioeducativas que cumprem; c) destacar as objetiva����es e as ancoragens que organizam as representa����es sociais que as adolescentes possuem sobre as medidas que cumprem; d) compreender o projeto de vida das adolescentes; e) correlacionar as representa����es sociais das adolescentes sobre as medidas com os seus projetos de vida. A metodologia seguiu a abordagem qualitativa e o referencial te��rico centrou-se na Teoria das Representa����es Sociais de Moscovici (1978) e Jodelet (2001). Os aportes te��ricos de Nascimento, 2002; 2006 e 2011; e Melucci, 1996 nos auxiliaram nas incurs��es e articula����es sobre a adolesc��ncia. Os referenciais de Volpi, 2001; Louro, 1998; Saffioti, 1987; Assis e Constantino, 2001; Zaluar, 1994; Voegeli, 2003 no entendimento de g��nero e no envolvimento de mulheres em pr��ticas delitivas. Rizzini e Pilotti, 2011; Marc��lio, 1996; 2002; Oliveira e Assis, 1999; sobre o hist��rico das pol��ticas de atendimento �� adolesc��ncia autora de ato Infracional no Brasil e no Par��. Os sujeitos de estudo foram seis adolescentes do Centro Socioeducativo Feminino em cumprimento das medidas socioeducativas de interna����o e semiliberdade. O levantamento de dados constou de: entrevistas com roteiro semi estruturado; observa����o in loco e di��rio de campo. Os instrumentos para a an��lise dos dados utilizamos a an��lise de conte��do de acordo com a abordagem proposta por Franco (2003). Os resultados revelam que as representa����es sociais das adolescentes infratoras sobre a socioeduca����o e as implica����es nos seus projetos de vida se constituem em torno da medida disciplinar. Que por sua vez se consolidou ao longo do processo hist��rico das medidas socioeducativas. O sentido que as adolescentes produzem sobre estas medidas ancoram na d��vida quanto a sua efici��ncia. A imagem consensual que elaboram sobre as suas vidas ap��s o cumprimento dessas medias assinalam que pode haver retorno a institui����o socioeducativa por infringirem as leis. Assim estas representa����es sociais comprometem os projetos de vida das adolescentes autoras de atos infracionais.

Projeto Tipitamba: um estudo sobre recep����o e desenvolvimento local na transfer��ncia de tecnologia ambiental

O presente trabalho analisa como os instrumentos de comunica����o e de transfer��ncia de tecnologia criados pela Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecu��ria (Embrapa) no projeto ���Tipitamba��� foram percebidos. Para tanto realizou-se um estudo de recep����o com os agricultores dos munic��pios de Igarap��-A��u e Marapanim, no nordeste do estado. A pesquisa baseou-se em instrumentos de comunica����o criados pela equipe do projeto Tipitamba como cartilhas educativas, calend��rios, folders e v��deos com o objetivo de ensin��-los a substituir a queima da vegeta����o, pr��tica agropastoril ou florestal muito usada na Amaz��nia, pela agricultura sem queima. O estudo tamb��m verifica se a ado����o da agricultura sem queima, ao longo de duas d��cadas de exist��ncia do projeto Tipitamba, contribuiu ou vem contribuindo para o desenvolvimento local a partir da percep����o dos agricultores familiares inseridos nessa pr��tica.

Think: guia de desenvolvimento mobile ��gil em equipes reduzidas

Currently, applications for smartphones and tablets, called apps, are becoming increasingly relevant and attract more attention from users and finally the developers. With the Application Stores, services provided by the company that maintains the platform, access to such applications is as or more simplified than to web sites, with the advantage of anenhanced user experience and focused on the mobile device, and enjoy natives resources as camera, audio, storage, integration with other applications, etc. They present a great opportunity for independent developers, who can now develop an application and make it availabl e to all users of that platform, at free or at a cost that is usually low. Even students may create their applications in the intervals of their classes and sell them in stores. Making use of tools and services, free or at low cost, anyone can develop quality applications, that can be marketed and have a large number of users even in adverse situations in which the application is not the focus of developer productivity. However, such to ols do not seem to be well used, or are unknown, or its purpose is not considered important, and this paper tries to show the real importance of these tools in the rapid development of quality software. This project presents several tools, services and practices, which together make it possible to develop an application for various mobile platforms, independently and with a team of a few people, as demonstrated. However, this paper aims not to say that the development of software today it is easy and simple, but there are currently a large set of tools, for various platforms, that assists and enhances the work of the programmer

Teletandem: possibilidades, dificuldades e abrang��ncia de um projeto de comunica����o online de PLE

Funda����o de Amparo �� Pesquisa do Estado de S��o Paulo (FAPESP)

Comunica����o p��blica e os interesses do cidad��o: uma perspectiva de rela����es p��blicas

This Project aims to study and verify the importance of effective communication in public organizations, considering current factors such as globalization and new trends in the behavior of the individuals. The issue is relevant because of the need to understand the relationships between the public institution and the various interest groups and research development of new practices of Public Relations as regards their influence on the municipal level. In this context, we present the concept of city, communication, citizenship and participation, focusing on the integration of these elements in the concept of Public Communication. Thus, attem pts to develop the applicability of instruments involving these concepts through scenario analysis, making communication purposal to the prefecture of Laranjal Paulista

Integration of R&D and new product development: case studies of Brazilian high-tech firms

One of the aspects that influence good performance of new product development (NPD) at high-tech companies is the integration of research and development (R&D) and the other functions involved with NPD. The objective of this paper is to examine why Brazilian medium and large sized high-tech companies are different with respect to the integration of R&D with NPD. An analysis of case studies was conducted at five Brazilian high-tech firms. Among the results, collectivism, which is characteristic of the Brazilian organisational culture, was seen to manifest itself in companies through the adoption of cross-functional teams; the valorisation of personal relations, which is stimulated by physical proximity; and project managers��� ample participation in different functions involving NPD.

Parental Ethnotheories of Child Development: Looking Beyond Independence and Individualism in American Belief Systems

Over the past several decades, the topic of child development in a cultural context has received a great deal of theoretical and empirical investigation. Investigators from the fields of indigenous and cultural psychology have argued that childhood is socially and historically constructed, rather than a universal process with a standard sequence of developmental stages or descriptions. As a result, many psychologists have become doubtful that any stage theory of cognitive or socialemotional development can be found to be valid for all times and places. In placing more theoretical emphasis on contextual processes, they define culture as a complex system of common symbolic action patterns (or scripts) built up through everyday human social interaction by means of which individuals create common meanings and in terms of which they organize experience. Researchers understand culture to be organized and coherent, but not homogenous or static, and realize that the complex dynamic system of culture constantly undergoes transformation as participants (adults and children) negotiate and re-negotiate meanings through social interaction. These negotiations and transactions give rise to unceasing heterogeneity and variability in how different individuals and groups of individuals interpret values and meanings. However, while many psychologists���both inside and outside the fields of indigenous and cultural psychology���are now willing to give up the idea of a universal path of child development and a universal story of parenting, they have not necessarily foreclosed on the possibility of discovering and describing some universal processes that underlie socialization and development-in-context. The roots of such universalities would lie in the biological aspects of child development, in the evolutionary processes of adaptation, and in the unique symbolic and problem-solving capacities of the human organism as a culture-bearing species. For instance, according to functionalist psychological anthropologists, shared (cultural) processes surround the developing child and promote in the long view the survival of families and groups if they are to demonstrate continuity in the face of ecological change and resource competition, (e.g. Edwards & Whiting, 2004; Gallimore, Goldenberg, & Weisner, 1993; LeVine, Dixon, LeVine, Richman, Leiderman, Keefer, & Brazelton, 1994; LeVine, Miller, & West, 1988; Weisner, 1996, 2002; Whiting & Edwards, 1988; Whiting & Whiting, 1980). As LeVine and colleagues (1994) state: A population tends to share an environment, symbol systems for encoding it, and organizations and codes of conduct for adapting to it (emphasis added). It is through the enactment of these population-specific codes of conduct in locally organized practices that human adaptation occurs. Human adaptation, in other words, is largely attributable to the operation of specific social organizations (e.g. families, communities, empires) following culturally prescribed scripts (normative models) in subsistence, reproduction, and other domains [communication and social regulation]. (p. 12) It follows, then, that in seeking to understand child development in a cultural context, psychologists need to support collaborative and interdisciplinary developmental science that crosses international borders. Such research can advance cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and indigenous psychology, understood as three sub-disciplines composed of scientists who frequently communicate and debate with one another and mutually inform one another���s research programs. For example, to turn to parental belief systems, the particular topic of this chapter, it is clear that collaborative international studies are needed to support the goal of crosscultural psychologists for findings that go beyond simply describing cultural differences in parental beliefs. Comparative researchers need to shed light on whether parental beliefs are (or are not) systematically related to differences in child outcomes; and they need meta-analyses and reviews to explore between- and within-culture variations in parental beliefs, with a focus on issues of social change (Saraswathi, 2000). Likewise, collaborative research programs can foster the goals of indigenous psychology and cultural psychology and lay out valid descriptions of individual development in their particular cultural contexts and the processes, principles, and critical concepts needed for defining, analyzing, and predicting outcomes of child development-in-context. The project described in this chapter is based on an approach that integrates elements of comparative methodology to serve the aim of describing particular scenarios of child development in unique contexts. The research team of cultural insiders and outsiders allows for a look at American belief systems based on a dialogue of multiple perspectives.

Soil carbon balance in a tropical grassland: Estimation of soil respiration and its partitioning using a semi-empirical model

In savannah and tropical grasslands, which account for 60% of grasslands worldwide, a large share of ecosystem carbon is located below ground due to high root:shoot ratios. Temporal variations in soil CO2 efflux (R-S) were investigated in a grassland of coastal Congo over two years. The objectives were (1) to identify the main factors controlling seasonal variations in R-S and (2) to develop a semi-empirical model describing R-S and including a heterotrophic component (R-H) and an autotrophic component (R-A). Plant above-ground activity was found to exert strong control over soil respiration since 71% of seasonal R-S variability was explained by the quantity of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed (APAR) by the grass canopy. We tested an additive model including a parameter enabling R-S partitioning into R-A and R-H. Assumptions underlying this model were that R-A mainly depended on the amount of photosynthates allocated below ground and that microbial and root activity was mostly controlled by soil temperature and soil moisture. The model provided a reasonably good prediction of seasonal variations in R-S (R-2 = 0.85) which varied between 5.4 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) in the wet season and 0.9 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) at the end of the dry season. The model was subsequently used to obtain annual estimates of R-S, R-A and R-H. In accordance with results reported for other tropical grasslands, we estimated that R-H accounted for 44% of R-S, which represented a flux similar to the amount of carbon brought annually to the soil from below-ground litter production. Overall, this study opens up prospects for simulating the carbon budget of tropical grasslands on a large scale using remotely sensed data. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dise��o, implementaci��n y verificaci��n de un controlador para robots educativos

[EN] This project briefly analyzes the scope and applications of Industrial Robotics, as well as the importance that this technical discipline has gained in the past decades. In addition, it proposes a modern platform to assist in teaching this discipline in colleges and universities. This new educational platform for the teaching of Industrial Robotics is based on the robotic systems from Rhino Robotics Ltd., using the existing robotic arms and replacing the control electronics by a newer, modern and yet backwards-compatible controller. In addition to the controller, this platform also provides new, up-to-date software utilities that are more intuitive than those provided with the old system. The work to be done consists essentially in receiving commands from a personal computer which the controller must interpret in order to control the motors of the robotic arm. The controller itself will be implemented as an embedded system based on microcontrollers. This requires the implementation of a communication protocol between the personal computer and the microcontroller, the design of a command interpreter, the design of the electronics for motor control using PWM and H-bridges, and the implementation of control techniques (more precisely, PID control). Hence, this project combines software and hardware design and integration techniques with motor control techniques and feedback control methods from Control Engineering, along with the kinematic analysis of the Rhino XR-4 robotic arm.��

The use of remote sensing imagery for monitoring recovery in the aftermath of a natural disaster: the Hurricane Katrina Case

Although Recovery is often defined as the less studied and documented phase of the Emergency Management Cycle, a wide literature is available for describing characteristics and sub-phases of this process. Previous works do not allow to gain an overall perspective because of a lack of systematic consistent monitoring of recovery utilizing advanced technologies such as remote sensing and GIS technologies. Taking into consideration the key role of Remote Sensing in Response and Damage Assessment, this thesis is aimed to verify the appropriateness of such advanced monitoring techniques to detect recovery advancements over time, with close attention to the main characteristics of the study event: Hurricane Katrina storm surge. Based on multi-source, multi-sensor and multi-temporal data, the post-Katrina recovery was analysed using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The first phase was dedicated to the investigation of the relation between urban types, damage and recovery state, referring to geographical and technological parameters. Damage and recovery scales were proposed to review critical observations on remarkable surge- induced effects on various typologies of structures, analyzed at a per-building level. This wide-ranging investigation allowed a new understanding of the distinctive features of the recovery process. A quantitative analysis was employed to develop methodological procedures suited to recognize and monitor distribution, timing and characteristics of recovery activities in the study area. Promising results, gained by applying supervised classification algorithms to detect localization and distribution of blue tarp, have proved that this methodology may help the analyst in the detection and monitoring of recovery activities in areas that have been affected by medium damage. The study found that Mahalanobis Distance was the classifier which provided the most accurate results, in localising blue roofs with 93.7% of blue roof classified correctly and a producer accuracy of 70%. It was seen to be the classifier least sensitive to spectral signature alteration. The application of the dissimilarity textural classification to satellite imagery has demonstrated the suitability of this technique for the detection of debris distribution and for the monitoring of demolition and reconstruction activities in the study area. Linking these geographically extensive techniques with expert per-building interpretation of advanced-technology ground surveys provides a multi-faceted view of the physical recovery process. Remote sensing and GIS technologies combined to advanced ground survey approach provides extremely valuable capability in Recovery activities monitoring and may constitute a technical basis to lead aid organization and local government in the Recovery management.

Architectures for Context Aware Services in Smart Environments

This thesis deals with Context Aware Services, Smart Environments, Context Management and solutions for Devices and Service Interoperability. Multi-vendor devices offer an increasing number of services and end-user applications that base their value on the ability to exploit the information originating from the surrounding environment by means of an increasing number of embedded sensors, e.g. GPS, compass, RFID readers, cameras and so on. However, usually such devices are not able to exchange information because of the lack of a shared data storage and common information exchange methods. A large number of standards and domain specific building blocks are available and are heavily used in today's products. However, the use of these solutions based on ready-to-use modules is not without problems. The integration and cooperation of different kinds of modules can be daunting because of growing complexity and dependency. In this scenarios it might be interesting to have an infrastructure that makes the coexistence of multi-vendor devices easy, while enabling low cost development and smooth access to services. This sort of technologies glue should reduce both software and hardware integration costs by removing the trouble of interoperability. The result should also lead to faster and simplified design, development and, deployment of cross-domain applications. This thesis is mainly focused on SW architectures supporting context aware service providers especially on the following subjects: - user preferences service adaptation - context management - content management - information interoperability - multivendor device interoperability - communication and connectivity interoperability Experimental activities were carried out in several domains including Cultural Heritage, indoor and personal smart spaces ��� all of which are considered significant test-beds in Context Aware Computing. The work evolved within european and national projects: on the europen side, I carried out my research activity within EPOCH, the FP6 Network of Excellence on ���Processing Open Cultural Heritage��� and within SOFIA, a project of the ARTEMIS JU on embedded systems. I worked in cooperation with several international establishments, including the University of Kent, VTT (the Technical Reserarch Center of Finland) and Eurotech. On the national side I contributed to a one-to-one research contract between ARCES and Telecom Italia. The first part of the thesis is focused on problem statement and related work and addresses interoperability issues and related architecture components. The second part is focused on specific architectures and frameworks: - MobiComp: a context management framework that I used in cultural heritage applications - CAB: a context, preference and profile based application broker which I designed within EPOCH Network of Excellence - M3: "Semantic Web based" information sharing infrastructure for smart spaces designed by Nokia within the European project SOFIA - NoTa: a service and transport independent connectivity framework - OSGi: the well known Java based service support framework The final section is dedicated to the middleware, the tools and, the SW agents developed during my Doctorate time to support context-aware services in smart environments.

Reti sociali e realt�� aumentata: la digitalizzazione della vita quotidiana

Il mio progetto di ricerca �� nato da una riflessione concernente una domanda fondamentale che si pongono gli studiosi della comunicazione digitale: le attuali tecnologie mediali che hanno creato nuovi modelli comunicativi e inaugurato inedite modalit�� di interrelazione sociale conducono a un dualismo digitale o a una realt�� aumentata? Si �� cercato di dare una risposta a questo interrogativo attraverso un���indagine compiuta su un social network, Facebook, che �� la piattaforma digitale pi�� diffusa nel mondo. L���analisi su Facebook, �� stata preceduta da una riflessione sui concetti dello spazio e del tempo elaborati dalla letteratura filosofica e sociologica. Tale riflessione �� stata propedeutica all���analisi volta a cogliere l���impatto che hanno avuto sulla relazionalit�� intersoggettiva e sulle dinamiche di realizzazione del s�� l���interazione semantica nello spazio delimitato della piazza tradizionale, la molteplicit�� e la potenza seduttiva delle offerte comunicative dei media elettronici nella estensione della piazza massmediale e soprattutto la nascita e l���affermazione del cyberspazio come luogo della comunicazione nella piazza digitale. Se la peculiarit�� della piazza tradizionale �� nel farsi dei rapporti face to face e quella della piazza massmediale nella funzione rilevante della fonte rispetto al destinatario, la caratteristica della piazza digitale consiste nella creazione autonoma di un orizzonte inclusivo che comprende ogni soggetto che si collega con la rete il quale, all���interno del network, riveste il doppio ruolo di consumatore e di produttore di messaggi. Con l���avvento dell���online nella prassi della relazionalit�� sociale si producono e si attuano due piani di interazioni comunicative, uno relativo all���online e l���altro relativo all���offline. L���ipotesi di lavoro che �� stata guida della mia ricerca �� che la pervasivit�� dell���online conduca all���integrazione dei due segmenti comunicativi: l���esperienza della comunicazione digitale si inserisce nella prassi sociale quotidiana arricchendo i rapporti semantici propri della relazione face to face e influenzandoli profondamente.