Ad valorem housing subsidies may reduce house building

In this paper it is shown that an ad valorem housing subsidy set by a central regulator (or a raise in the ad valorem housing subsidy rate) may reduce the number of houses built in the market and increase the price paid by the buyers of houses. The analysis considers a situation where there is imperfect competition in the housing market and a local regulator that decides on density, or on the number of sites for housing development, and that cares about a combination of the profits of housing developers and the surplus of buyers of houses.

Social Housing under Oligopoly

In this paper it is shown that the setting up of a social housing system may decrease the total number of houses built in the market, induce a price of non-social houses greater than the price of houses without that system and increase the profits of housing developers even in situations where they have to sell social houses at a price below production cost. The analysis considers a situation with imperfect competition in the housing market and with a social housing system where housing developers must provide some social houses when they obtain a permit to build non-social houses.

A contribuição da Legimática para a qualidade formal do texto legislativo

O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar como as ferramentas propostas pela Legimática podem contribuir para diminuir as deficiências dos textos legislativos apontadas pela Legística. A preocupação com o processo de criação e com a qualidade do texto legislativo por ele produzido é o foco principal da Legística Formal. Esta atividade encontra amparo nas ferramentas propostas pela Legimática que auxiliam a elaboração de normas legais por meio de processadores eletrônicos de textos concebidos especificamente para este propósito, ou seja, redação de leis. Tais ferramentas garantem o emprego de regras formalmente estabelecidas para um texto legal, e de forma mais abrangente, facilitam a clareza, o rigor e a uniformidade da linguagem legislativa do documento produzido. A realização de pesquisas qualitativa e bibliográfica permitiu propor a criação de um software que auxilie no processo de elaboração normativa dos órgãos legislativos federais brasileiros baseando-se em considerações de especialistas, análise de ferramentas semelhantes e referências na literatura.

Rapid recreation assessment: a tool to assess visitor use and associated impacts at coastal and marine protected areas

As more people discover coastal and marine protected areas as destinations for leisure-time pursuits, the task of managing coastal resources while providing opportunities for high quality visitor experiences becomes more challenging. Many human impacts occur at these sites; some are caused by recreation and leisure activities on-site, and others by activities such as agriculture, aquaculture, or residential and economic development in surrounding areas. Coastal management professionals are continually looking for effective ways to prevent or mitigate negative impacts of visitor use. (PDF contains 8 pages) Most coastal and marine protected area managers are challenged with balancing two competing goals—protection of natural and cultural resources and provision of opportunities for public use. In most cases, some level of compromise between the goals is necessary, where one goal constrains or “outweighs” the other. Often there is a lack of clear agreement about the priority of these competing goals. Consequently, while natural resource decisions should ultimately be science-based and objective, such decisions are frequently made under uncertainty, relying heavily upon professional judgment. These decisions are subject to a complex array of formal and informal drivers and constraints—data availability, timing, legal mandate, political will, diverse public opinion, and physical, human, and social capital. This paper highlights assessment, monitoring, and planning approaches useful to gauge existing resource and social conditions, determine feasibility of management actions, and record decision process steps to enhance defensibility. Examples are presented from pilot efforts conducted at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in South Florida.

Sustainable management of water bodies for small-scale fisheries resorces research and development

Abstract The rapid growth of both formal and informal high density urban settlements around major water resources has led to increased pollution of streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries, due to contaminated runoff from these developments. The paper identified major contaminants to be : organic waste (sewage), industrial effluent, pesticides and litter. Pollutant loads vary depending on the hydrology of the urban area, local topography and soil conditions. In some instances, severe pollution of neighbouring and downstream water courses has been observed. The management of catchment land uses, riparian zones, in stream habitat, as well as in stream water flow patterns and quality are necessary in order to sustain the integrity and "health" of water resources, for fisheries and other developments. As such, attempts to ensure a certain level of water quality without attention to other aspects will not automatically ensure a "healthy" ecosystem even as fish habitat. Proper management leads to better water quality and conducive environment for increased fish production

Media of communication among fishermen around Kainji Lake basin

The findings are presented of a study conducted in the framework of the Nigerian-German Kainji Lake Fisheries Promotion Project to examine the role and structure of communication in fishing villages around Kainji Lake in Nigeria. The major aim was to be able to utilize the knowledge at a later stage in the project cycle to pass on fisheries extension messages to fishing communities. The study had the following terms of reference: 1) describe the structure and processes of communication of fishermen around Kainji Lake; 2) identify the formal and informal media of communication used by the fishermen to communicate information concerning their job; 3) describe the problems inhibiting usage of the different media identified; 4) ascertain the extent of use of mass media by fishermen around the lake; and, 5) identify acceptable ways by which fisheries information can be repackaged for the use of extension workers. (PDF contains 58 pages)

Environmental fiscal reform and unemployment in Spain in the presence of an informal sector

4 p.

Formal methods for control synthesis in partially observed environments : application to autonomous robotic manipulation

Modern robots are increasingly expected to function in uncertain and dynamically challenging environments, often in proximity with humans. In addition, wide scale adoption of robots requires on-the-fly adaptability of software for diverse application. These requirements strongly suggest the need to adopt formal representations of high level goals and safety specifications, especially as temporal logic formulas. This approach allows for the use of formal verification techniques for controller synthesis that can give guarantees for safety and performance. Robots operating in unstructured environments also face limited sensing capability. Correctly inferring a robot's progress toward high level goal can be challenging.

This thesis develops new algorithms for synthesizing discrete controllers in partially known environments under specifications represented as linear temporal logic (LTL) formulas. It is inspired by recent developments in finite abstraction techniques for hybrid systems and motion planning problems. The robot and its environment is assumed to have a finite abstraction as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), which is a powerful model class capable of representing a wide variety of problems. However, synthesizing controllers that satisfy LTL goals over POMDPs is a challenging problem which has received only limited attention.

This thesis proposes tractable, approximate algorithms for the control synthesis problem using Finite State Controllers (FSCs). The use of FSCs to control finite POMDPs allows for the closed system to be analyzed as finite global Markov chain. The thesis explicitly shows how transient and steady state behavior of the global Markov chains can be related to two different criteria with respect to satisfaction of LTL formulas. First, the maximization of the probability of LTL satisfaction is related to an optimization problem over a parametrization of the FSC. Analytic computation of gradients are derived which allows the use of first order optimization techniques.

The second criterion encourages rapid and frequent visits to a restricted set of states over infinite executions. It is formulated as a constrained optimization problem with a discounted long term reward objective by the novel utilization of a fundamental equation for Markov chains - the Poisson equation. A new constrained policy iteration technique is proposed to solve the resulting dynamic program, which also provides a way to escape local maxima.

The algorithms proposed in the thesis are applied to the task planning and execution challenges faced during the DARPA Autonomous Robotic Manipulation - Software challenge.

From Shadow to Green: Linking Environmental Fiscal Reforms and the Informal Economy

47 p.

Regiões metropolitanas brasileiras e autonomia municipal: eficácia da norma constitucional brasileira e de experiências estrangeiras na gestão dos interesses regionais

O atendimento às demandas de determinada parcela da população que vive nas chamadas Regiões Metropolitanas no Brasil tem apresentado acentuada dificuldade em obter resultados satisfatórios, na medida em que estes espaços territoriais estejam situados em diferentes jurisdições político-territoriais. Tais dificuldades têm origem, sobretudo, na necessidade da composição de arranjos governamentais que possam atuar de forma conjunta e coordenada, abrangendo Estados e Municípios envolvidos nesta dinâmica metropolitana, e que abrange aspectos fiscais, sociais, ambientais e jurídicos. O presente trabalho analisa este último aspecto, sobretudo, em relação à questão das competências constitucionais dos entes envolvidos e o papel a ser desempenhado por cada um na regulação do solo urbano, um dos aspectos mais relevantes em relação ao tema metropolitano. Se a dependência de um eventual acordo entre os entes federativos tem se mostrado raro na história federativa brasileira, tal fato não pode constituir-se em um fator impeditivo do alcance dos direitos fundamentais estabelecidos pela Constituição Federal, principalmente levando-se em consideração que uma regulação adequada do solo urbano em uma perspectiva regional (metropolitana) é uma meio fundamental para o alcance de vários direitos, como moradia, meio ambiente equilibrado. Identificando o Estado-Membro como figura principal deste mister, por meio de uma interpretação sistemática e teleológica da Constituição, e reconhecendo o cenário de constitucionalização do direito administrativo atual bem como da chamada crise da lei, verifica-se que este ente federativo pode e deve assumir plenamente suas competências, elaborando um estudo técnico de planejamento regional, não necessariamente aprovado por lei formal, e vinculante para os Municípios.

Educação ambiental na educação formal: do paradigma moderno ao paradigma da complexidade

A educação ambiental vem sendo disseminada por grande parte das escolas do país, conforme atestam pesquisas oficiais, mas uma lenta transformação a acompanha no que diz respeito à mudança dos princípios do modelo de desenvolvimento industrial, que enfatiza o consumismo como estratégia de reprodução. Ao mesmo tempo em que as pesquisas sugerem uma ampliação da consciência ambiental da sociedade como um todo, percebe-se um acirramento dos problemas socioambientais e soluções sendo alcançadas em escala inferior ao patamar considerado desejado. Onde estaria, então, o problema? Qual a razão desta possível defasagem educação ambiental x resultados? Foi com o intuito de responder a estas perguntas que essa tese foi realizada. Parte-se de uma percepção de que a Educação Ambiental praticada na escola reflete e acentua o paradigma moderno hegemônico, que se baseia em uma concepção dualista homem / natureza, em que uma está a serviço do outro, sem promover o questionamento sobre os desdobramentos da adoção dos valores da sociedade de consumo no desequilíbrio da vida no planeta. Essa dicotomia entre cultura e natureza, sociedade e ciência, sujeito e objeto se reflete na busca de soluções parciais, incompletas, visando-se apenas a uma parte do problema socioambiental, que não é visto como um sistema complexo. A educação ambiental realizada nessas bases dificulta a reunião das condições necessárias à mudança das estruturas da atual sociedade brasileira e à busca das soluções dos seus problemas socioambientais. Nessa perspectiva, esse trabalho objetiva criar subsídios para um caminho para a educação ambiental que possa contribuir para uma visão complexa da realidade e dos problemas socioambientais, na busca de soluções mais abrangentes. Para isto procura entender: a) como a teoria da complexidade poderia colaborar para esta mudança; b) em quais modelos práticos e teóricos a Educação Ambiental se dá no Brasil, ou seja, quais as diversas tendências da educação ambiental brasileira; e c) como esses modelos se expressam nas práticas dos professores analisando-se artigos publicados em anais de seminários, congressos e/ou encontros sobre o tema.

Informalidade na região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro a partir de 1980

Este estudo busca contribuir à discussão teórica sobre o comportamento do mercado de trabalho e da informalidade na Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro - RMRJ, sobretudo a partir dos anos 1990. As informações utilizadas na análise são provenientes principalmente da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS) e do Cadastro Geral do Emprego e Desemprego (CAGED) - Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE) - da Pesquisa de Amostragem a Domicílio (PNAD), da Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego (PME) e da Economia Informal Urbana (ECINF) - do Instituto de Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) - com um recorte nos setores tradicionais da economia. Umas das hipóteses centrais é a da existência de uma relação de causalidade entre as políticas econômicas implementadas a partir de 1990, tais como privatizações de empresas públicas, abertura comercial e financeira para o capital estrangeiro com a informalidade. Estas foram determinantes para oscilações nos níveis de emprego formal das indústrias, com o avanço substancial do setor informal, sobretudo na região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ).A análise, feita por setores de atividade, permite comprovar que a informalidade apresenta-se cada vez mais claramente como uma característica da estrutura da economia da metrópole do Rio de Janeiro e não simplesmente como um fenômeno transitório relacionado à redução das atividades industriais.

Formal methods in the foundations of science

The intent of this study is to provide formal apparatus which facilitates the investigation of problems in the methodology of science. The introduction contains several examples of such problems and motivates the subsequent formalism.

A general definition of a formal language is presented, and this definition is used to characterize an individual’s view of the world around him. A notion of empirical observation is developed which is independent of language. The interplay of formal language and observation is taken as the central theme. The process of science is conceived as the finding of that formal language that best expresses the available experimental evidence.

To characterize the manner in which a formal language imposes structure on its universe of discourse, the fundamental concepts of elements and states of a formal language are introduced. Using these, the notion of a basis for a formal language is developed as a collection of minimal states distinguishable within the language. The relation of these concepts to those of model theory is discussed.

An a priori probability defined on sets of observations is postulated as a reflection of an individual’s ontology. This probability, in conjunction with a formal language and a basis for that language, induces a subjective probability describing an individual’s conceptual view of admissible configurations of the universe. As a function of this subjective probability, and consequently of language, a measure of the informativeness of empirical observations is introduced and is shown to be intuitively plausible – particularly in the case of scientific experimentation.

The developed formalism is then systematically applied to the general problems presented in the introduction. The relationship of scientific theories to empirical observations is discussed and the need for certain tacit, unstatable knowledge is shown to be necessary to fully comprehend the meaning of realistic theories. The idea that many common concepts can be specified only by drawing on knowledge obtained from an infinite number of observations is presented, and the problems of reductionism are examined in this context.

A definition of when one formal language can be considered to be more expressive than another is presented, and the change in the informativeness of an observation as language changes is investigated. In this regard it is shown that the information inherent in an observation may decrease for a more expressive language.

The general problem of induction and its relation to the scientific method are discussed. Two hypotheses concerning an individual’s selection of an optimal language for a particular domain of discourse are presented and specific examples from the introduction are examined.