Climate paradox of the G-8: legal obligations, policy declarations and implementation gap

This article analyzes the climate policy performance of the G-8 from 1992 to 2012 based on their legal commitments (Annex-1 and Annex-B countries) under the UNFCCC (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and their policy declarations on their GHG reduction goals until 2050. A climate paradox has emerged due to a growing implementation gap in Canada, USA and Japan, while Russia, Germany, UK, France and Italy fulfilled their GHG reduction obligation.

Unknown Radial Distortion Centers in Multiple View Geometry Problems

The radial undistortion model proposed by Fitzgibbon and the radial fundamental matrix were early steps to extend classical epipolar geometry to distorted cameras. Later minimal solvers have been proposed to find relative pose and radial distortion, given point correspondences between images. However, a big drawback of all these approaches is that they require the distortion center to be exactly known. In this paper we show how the distortion center can be absorbed into a new radial fundamental matrix. This new formulation is much more practical in reality as it allows also digital zoom, cropped images and camera-lens systems where the distortion center does not exactly coincide with the image center. In particular we start from the setting where only one of the two images contains radial distortion, analyze the structure of the particular radial fundamental matrix and show that the technique also generalizes to other linear multi-view relationships like trifocal tensor and homography. For the new radial fundamental matrix we propose different estimation algorithms from 9,10 and 11 points. We show how to extract the epipoles and prove the practical applicability on several epipolar geometry image pairs with strong distortion that - to the best of our knowledge - no other existing algorithm can handle properly.

Error bounds for low-rank approximations of the first exponential integral kernel

A hierarchical matrix is an efficient data-sparse representation of a matrix, especially useful for large dimensional problems. It consists of low-rank subblocks leading to low memory requirements as well as inexpensive computational costs. In this work, we discuss the use of the hierarchical matrix technique in the numerical solution of a large scale eigenvalue problem arising from a finite rank discretization of an integral operator. The operator is of convolution type, it is defined through the first exponential-integral function and, hence, it is weakly singular. We develop analytical expressions for the approximate degenerate kernels and deduce error upper bounds for these approximations. Some computational results illustrating the efficiency and robustness of the approach are presented.

Annotation taken, in the perspective of criminal and constitutional law, as well as in criminology, to the decision of the portuguese constitutional court, of January 13, 2011 – with respect to the problems of “consent” and “medical act”

1 – Summary of the decision taken by the Portuguese Constitutional Court, of January 13, 2011; 2 – Complete text of the decision of the Portuguese Constitutional Court, of January 13, 2011, Judge Maria João ANTUNES (Reporter), Judge Carlos Pamplona de OLIVEIRA, Judge José Borges SOEIRO, Judge Gil GALVÃO, Judge Rui Manuel Moura RAMOS (President) –in terms of the tribunalconstitucional.pt, August 1, 2011; 3 – Brief annotation to the problem of the “medical act”; 3.1 – Plus some conclusions on the brief annotation to the problem of the “medical act”; 3.2 – Brief annotation to the problem of “consent”– continuation of the previous comments; 4 – Conclusions. It must never be forgotten that “consent” does not stand as the only cause of exclusion of unlawfulness.

Mortality problems in Brazil and in Germany: past-present-future. Learning from each other?

This article was written by a Swiss-German historical demographer after having visited different Brazilian Universities in 1984 as a guest-professor. It aims at promoting a real dialog between developed and developing countries, commencing the discussion with the question: Can we learn from each other? An affirmative answer is given, but not in the superficial manner in which the discussion partners simply want to give each other some "good advice" or in which the one declares his country's own development to be the solely valid standard. Three points are emphasized: 1. Using infant mortality in S. Paulo from 1908 to 1983 as an example, it is shown that Brazil has at its disposal excellent, highly varied research literature that is unjustifiably unknown to us (in Europe) for the most part. Brazil by no means needs our tutoring lessons as regards the causal relationships; rather, we could learn two things from Brazil about this. For one, it becomes clear that our almost exclusively medical-biological view is inappropriate for passing a judgment on the present-day problems in Brazil and that any conclusions so derived are thus only transferable to a limited extent. For another, we need to reinterpret the history of infant mortality in our own countries up to the past few decades in a much more encompassing "Brazilian" sense. 2. A fruitful dialog can only take place if both partners frankly present their problems. For this reason, the article refers with much emprasis to our present problems in dealing with death and dying - problems arising near the end of the demographic and epidemiologic transitions: the superanuation of the population, chronic-incurable illnesses as the main causes of death, the manifold dependencies of more and more elderly and really old people at the end of a long life. Brazil seems to be catching up to us in this and will be confronted with these problems sooner or later. A far-sighted discussion already at this time seems thus to be useful. 3. The article, however, does not want to conclude with the rather depressing state of affairs of problems alternatingly superseding each other. Despite the caution which definitely has a place when prognoses are being made on the basis of extrapolations from historical findings, the foreseeable development especially of the epidemiologic transition in the direction of a rectangular survival curve does nevertheless provide good reason for being rather optimistic towards the future: first in regards to the development in our own countries, but then - assuming that the present similar tendencies of development are stuck to - also in regard to Brazil.

Network air gap controller

As ameaças à segurança da informação, (INFOSEC) atentam contra a perda da respectiva confidencialidade, integridade e disponibilidade, pelo que as organizações são impelidas a implementar políticas de segurança, quer ao nível físico quer ao nível lógico, utilizando mecanismos específicos de defesa. O projecto Network Air Gap Controller (NAGC) foi concebido no sentido de contribuir para as questões da segurança, designadamente daquelas que se relacionam directamente com a transferência de informação entre redes de classificação de segurança diferenciadas ou de sensibilidades distintas, sem requisitos de comunicação em tempo real, e que mereçam um maior empenho nas condições de robustez, de disponibilidade e de controlo. Os organismos que, em razão das atribuições e competências cometidas, necessitam de fazer fluir informação entre este tipo de redes, são por vezes obrigados a realizar a transferência de dados com recurso a um processo manual, efectuado pelo homem e não pela máquina, que envolve dispositivos amovivéis, como sejam o CD, DVD, PEN, discos externos ou switches manuais. Neste processo, vulgarmente designado por Network Air Gap (NAG), o responsável pela transferência de dados deverá assumir de forma infalível, como atribuições intrínsecas e inalienáveis da função exercida, as garantias do cumprimento de um vasto conjunto de normas regulamentares. As regras estabelecidas desdobram-se em ferramentas e procedimentos que se destinam, por exemplo, à guarda em arquivo de todas as transferências efectuadas; à utilização de ferramentas de segurança (ex: antivírus) antes da colocação da informação na rede de classificação mais elevada; ao não consentimento de transferência de determinados tipos de ficheiro (ex: executáveis) e à garantia de que, em consonância com a autonomia que normalmente é delegada no elemento responsável pela operação das comunicações, apenas se efectuam transferências de informação no sentido da rede de classificação inferior para a rede de classificação mais elevada. Face ao valor da informação e do impacto na imagem deste tipo de organizações, o operador de comunicações que não cumpra escrupulosamente o determinado é inexoravelmente afastado dessas funções, sendo que o processo de apuramento de responsabilidades nem sempre poderá determinar de forma inequívoca se as razões apontam para um acto deliberado ou para factores não intencionais, como a inépcia, o descuido ou a fadiga. Na realidade, as actividades periódicas e rotineiras, tornam o homem propenso à falha e poderão ser incontornavelmente asseguradas, sem qualquer tipo de constrangimentos ou diminuição de garantias, por soluções tecnológicas, desde que devidamente parametrizadas, adaptadas, testadas e amadurecidas, libertando os recursos humanos para tarefas de manutenção, gestão, controlo e inspecção. Acresce que, para este tipo de organizações, onde se multiplicam o número de redes de entrada de informação, com diferentes classificações e actores distintos, e com destinatários específicos, a utilização deste tipo de mecanismos assume uma importância capital. Devido a este factor multiplicativo, impõe-se que o NAGC represente uma opção válida em termos de oferta tecnológica, designadamente para uma gama de produtos de baixíssimo custo e que possa desenvolver-se por camadas de contributo complementar, em função das reais necessidades de cada cenário.

Completion problems for real matrices, II

Thirty years ago, G.N. de Oliveira has proposed the following completion problems: Describe the possible characteristic polynomials of [C-ij], i,j is an element of {1, 2}, where C-1,C-1 and C-2,C-2 are square submatrices, when some of the blocks C-ij are fixed and the others vary. Several of these problems remain unsolved. This paper gives the solution, over the field of real numbers, of Oliveira's problem where the blocks C-1,C-1, C-2,C-2 are fixed and the others vary.

Colour filtering in a-SiC : H based p-i-n-p-i-n cells: A trade-off between bias polarity and absorption regions

A large area colour imager optically addressed is presented. The colour imager consists of a thin wide band gap p-i-n a-SiC:H filtering element deposited on the top of a thick large area a-SiC:H(-p)/a-Si:H(-i)/a-SiC:H(-n) image sensor, which reveals itself an intrinsic colour filter. In order to tune the external applied voltage for full colour discrimination the photocurrent generated by a modulated red light is measured under different optical and electrical bias. Results reveal that the integrated device behaves itself as an imager and a filter giving information not only on the position where the optical image is absorbed but also on it wavelength and intensity. The amplitude and sign of the image signals are electrically tuneable. In a wide range of incident fluxes and under reverse bias, the red and blue image signals are opposite in sign and the green signal is suppressed allowing blue and red colour recognition. The green information is obtained under forward bias, where the blue signal goes down to zero and the red and green remain constant. Combining the information obtained at this two applied voltages a RGB colour image picture can be acquired without the need of the usual colour filters or pixel architecture. A numerical simulation supports the colour filter analysis.

Tuning the spectral distribution of p-i-n a-SiC : H devices for colour detection

ZnO:Al/p (SiC:H)/i (Si:H)/n (SiC:H) large area image and colour sensor are analysed. Carrier transport and collection efficiency are investigated from dark and illuminated current-voltage (I-V) dependence and spectral response measurements under different optical and electrical bias conditions. Results show that the carrier collection depends on the optical bias and on the applied voltage. By changing the electrical bias around the open circuit voltage it is possible to filter the absorption at a given wavelength and so to tune the spectral sensitivity of the device. Transport and optical modelling give insight into the internal physical process and explain the bias control of the spectral response and the image and colour sensing properties of the devices.

Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

Are severe occlusal problems more frequent in permanent than deciduous dentition?

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and severity of occlusal problems in populations at the ages of deciduous and permanent dentition and to carry out a meta-analysis to estimate the weighted odds ratio for occlusal problems comparing both groups. METHODS: Data of a probabilistic sample (n=985) of schoolchildren aged 5 and 12 from an epidemiological study in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil, were analyzed using univariate logistic regression (MLR). Results of cross-sectional study data published in the last 70 years were examined in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of occlusal problems increased from 49.0% (95% CI =47.4%-50.6%) in the deciduous dentition to 71.3% (95% CI =70.3%-72.3%) in the permanent dentition (p<0.001). Dentition was the only variable significantly associated to the severity of malocclusion (OR=1.87; 95% CI =1.43-2.45; p<0.001). The variables sex, type of school and ethnic group were not significant. The meta-analysis showed that a weighted OR of 1.95 (1.91; 1.98) when compared the second dentition period with deciduous and mixed dentition. CONCLUSIONS: In planning oral health services, some activities are indicated to reduce the proportion of moderate/severe malocclusion to levels that are socially more acceptable and economically sustainable.

Ant colony system based approach to single machine scheduling problems: weighted tardiness scheduling problem

The paper introduces an approach to solve the problem of generating a sequence of jobs that minimizes the total weighted tardiness for a set of jobs to be processed in a single machine. An Ant Colony System based algorithm is validated with benchmark problems available in the OR library. The obtained results were compared with the best available results and were found to be nearer to the optimal. The obtained computational results allowed concluding on their efficiency and effectiveness.