A videovigilância no local de trabalho

The emergence of new technologies has introduced significant changes in the citizens life’s. There is a constant evolution of technological means and profound impact of their use in the habits of life of the human being. These new technological media are important tools in labor relations. The working and businesses worlds are increasingly turning to these new technologies, so that the use of video surveillance in the workplace is nowadays common. New technologies in general and the use of video surveillance in workplace in particular are providing ways to allow control of the work performance that are desired by most employers. However, the collection of images in the workplace often collides with the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers, in particular, with the right to privacy. The subject concerns the question of investigating is whether the images collected in workplace can be used as evidence in disciplinary proceedings. In fact, this issue is controversial. Doctrine and jurisprudence defend, at least, two responses for the same question. Those who understand that the evidence may be admitted for not violate any right of the worker, and others who argue that the evidence should not be admitted in disciplinary office. In the Portuguese legal system, there is, even, a new intermediate theory that begins to be defended, that only on certain occasions the evidence may be admitted. The solution to this problem involves the study of employment law and data video surveillance processing. Analysis of workers fundamental rights is fundamental to come to a grounded conclusion.

User expectations for media sharing practices in open display networks

Open Display Networks have the potential to allow many content creators to publish their media to an open-ended set of screen displays. However, this raises the issue of how to match that content to the right displays. In this study, we aim to understand how the perceived utility of particular media sharing scenarios is affected by three independent variables, more specifically: (a) the locativeness of the content being shared; (b) how personal that content is and (c) the scope in which it is being shared. To assess these effects, we composed a set of 24 media sharing scenarios embedded with different treatments of our three independent variables. We then asked 100 participants to express their perception of the relevance of those scenarios. The results suggest a clear preference for scenarios where content is both local and directly related to the person that is publishing it. This is in stark contrast to the types of content that are commonly found in public displays, and confirms the opportunity that open displays networks may represent a new media for self-expression. This novel understanding may inform the design of new publication paradigms that will enable people to share media across the display networks.

Variación florística de especies arbóreas a escala local en un bosque de tierra firme en la Amazonia colombiana

El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en cinco hectáreas de una parcela permanente establecida en el Parque Nacional Amacayacu, Amazonia colombiana. En éste, se evaluó el efecto de la variación ambiental y la configuración espacial sobre los patrones florísticos de las especies arbóreas (DAP>10 cm) a escala local en un bosque de tierra firme. Se estudió la variación florística y ambiental en cuadrantes de 20x20 m. Adicionalmente, se consideraron diferentes categorías de abundancia (total, alta, media y baja). Se utilizó el Análisis de Correspondencia Linealizado y el Análisis de Correspondencia Canónica, seguido de una partición de la variación, para cuantificar la magnitud a la cual el ambiente y la limitación en dispersión determinan la variación florística. La fracción espacial, representando procesos de autocorrelación como la limitación en dispersión, se analizó mediante dos métodos: Asumiendo un polinomio de tercer grado y por el método de Coordenadas Principales de Matrices Vecinas (PCNM). La diversidad beta de la parcela fue baja. El PCNM aparece como el método de análisis más apropiado para estudios a esta escala. Las diferencias florísticas explicadas a lo largo de la parcela de 5-ha fueron principalmente asociadas con procesos biológicos como la limitación en dispersión. La mayor parte de la variación florística, no obstante, no fue explicada por las variables ambientales o espaciales consideradas. En conclusión, estos resultados sugieren que procesos aleatorios son determinantes esenciales de la variación espacial de las especies arbóreas a escala local en tierra firme en los bosques en el Parque Nacional Amacayacu.

Os media regionais e locais: políticas e paradoxos

"Colecção: Comunicação e sociedade - 12"

Creació d'un media center amb software lliure

Treball de recerca realitzat per un alumne d'ensenyament secundari i guardonat amb un Premi CIRIT per fomentar l'esperit científic del Jovent l'any 2009. L’objectiu d’aquest treball de recerca és la creació d’un dispositiu encarregat de centralitzar totes les necessitats multimèdia de casa nostra i distribuir aquest contingut a tots els terminals de la xarxa local d’una manera senzilla i automatitzada. Aquest dispositiu s’ha dissenyat per estar connectat a una televisió d’alta definició, que permetrà la reproducció i l’organització de tot el nostre multimèdia d’una manera còmoda i fàcil. El media center s’encarrega de gestionar la nostra filmoteca, fototeca, biblioteca musical i sèries de TV de manera transparent i automàtica. A més a més, l’usuari pot accedir a tot el multimèdia emmagatzemat al media center des de qualsevol dispositiu de la xarxa local a través de protocols com CIFS o UPnP, en un intent de replicar el cloud computing a escala local. El dispositiu ha estat dissenyat per a suportar tot tipus de formats i subtítols, assegurant la compatibilitat total amb arxius lliures de DRM. El seu disseny minimalista i silenciós el fa perfecte per a substituir el reproductor de DVD de la sala. Tot això sense oblidar el seu baix consum, de l’ordre d’un 75% inferior al d’un PC convencional.

Collective victimisation and collective guilt in the former Yugoslavia : the interplay between individual, local and societal levels

The thesis examines the impact of collective war victimization on individuals' readiness to accept or assign collective guilt for past war atrocities. As a complement to previous studies, its aim is to articulate an integrated approach to collective victimization, which distinguishes between individual-, communal-, and societal-level consequences of warfare. Building on a social representation approach, it is guided by the assumption that individuals form beliefs about a conflict through their personal experiences of victimization, communal experiences of warfare that occur in their proximal surrounding, and the mass- mediatised narratives that circulate in a society's public sphere. Four empirical studies test the hypothesis that individuals' beliefs about the conflict depend on the level and type of war experiences to which they have been exposed, that is, on informative and normative micro and macro contexts in which they are embedded. The studies have been conducted in the context of the Yugoslav wars that attended the breakup of Yugoslavia, a series of wars fought between 1991 and 2001 during which numerous war atrocities were perpetrated causing a massive victimisation of population. To examine the content and impact of war experiences at each level of analysis, the empirical studies employed various methodological strategies, from quantitative analyses of a representative public opinion survey, to qualitative analyses of media content and political speeches. Study 1 examines the impact of individual- and communal- level war experiences on individuals' acceptance and assignment of collective guilt. It further examines the impact of the type of communal level victimization: exposure to symmetric (i.e., violence that similarly affects members of different ethnic groups, including adversaries) and asymmetric violence. The main goal of Study 2 is to examine the structural and political circumstances that enhance collective guilt assignment. While the previous studies emphasize the role of past victimisation, Study 2 tests the assumption that the political demobilisation strategy employed by elites facing public discontent in the collective system-threatening circumstances can fuel out-group blame. Studies 3 and 4 have been conducted predominantly in the context of Croatia and examine rhetoric construction of the dominant politicized narrative of war in a public sphere (Study 3) and its maintenance through public delegitimization of alternative (critical) representations (Study 4). Study 4 further examines the likelihood that highly identified group members adhere to publicly delegitimized critical stances on war. - Cette thèse étudie l'impact de la victimisation collective de guerre sur la capacité des individus à accepter ou à attribuer une culpabilité collective liée à des atrocités commises en temps de guerre. En compléments aux recherches existantes, le but de ce travail est de définir une approche intégrative de la victimisation collective, qui distingue les conséquences de la guerre aux niveaux individuel, régional et sociétal. En partant de l'approche des représentations sociales, cette thèse repose sur le postulat que les individus forment des croyances sur un conflit au travers de leurs expériences personnelles de victimisation, de leurs expériences de guerre lorsque celle-ci se déroule près d'eux, ainsi qu'au travers des récits relayés par les mass media. Quatre études testent l'hypothèse que les croyances des individus dépendent des niveaux et des types d'expériences de guerre auxquels ils ont été exposés, c'est-à-dire, des contextes informatifs et normatifs, micro et macro dans lesquels ils sont insérés. Ces études ont été réalisées dans le contexte des guerres qui, entre 1991 et 2001, ont suivi la dissolution de la Yougoslavie et durant lesquelles de nombreuses atrocités de guerre ont été commises, causant une victimisation massive de la population. Afin d'étudier le contenu et l'impact des expériences de guerre sur chaque niveau d'analyse, différentes stratégies méthodologiques ont été utilisées, des analyses quantitatives sur une enquête représentative d'opinion publique aux analyses qualitatives de contenu de médias et de discours politiques. L'étude 1 étudie l'impact des expériences de guerre individuelles et régionales sur l'acceptation et l'attribution de la culpabilité collective par les individus. Elle examine aussi l'impact du type de victimisation régionale : exposition à la violence symétrique (i.e., violence qui touche les membres de différents groupes ethniques, y compris les adversaires) et asymétrique. L'étude 2 se penche sur les circonstances structurelles et politiques qui augmentent l'attribution de culpabilité collective. Alors que les recherches précédentes ont mis l'accent sur le rôle de la victimisation passée, l'étude 2 teste l'hypothèse que la stratégie de démobilisation politique utilisée par les élites pour faire face à l'insatisfaction publique peut encourager l'attribution de la culpabilité à l'exogroupe. Les études 3 et 4 étudient, principalement dans le contexte croate, la construction rhétorique du récit de guerre politisé dominant (étude 3) et son entretien à travers la délégitimation publique des représentations alternatives (critiques] (étude 4). L'étude 4 examine aussi la probabilité qu'ont les membres de groupe fortement identifiés d'adhérer à des points de vue sur la guerre critiques et publiquement délégitimés.

Local-global splitting for spatiotemporal-adaptive multiscale methods

We present a novel spatiotemporal-adaptive Multiscale Finite Volume (MsFV) method, which is based on the natural idea that the global coarse-scale problem has longer characteristic time than the local fine-scale problems. As a consequence, the global problem can be solved with larger time steps than the local problems. In contrast to the pressure-transport splitting usually employed in the standard MsFV approach, we propose to start directly with a local-global splitting that allows to locally retain the original degree of coupling. This is crucial for highly non-linear systems or in the presence of physical instabilities. To obtain an accurate and efficient algorithm, we devise new adaptive criteria for global update that are based on changes of coarse-scale quantities rather than on fine-scale quantities, as it is routinely done before in the adaptive MsFV method. By means of a complexity analysis we show that the adaptive approach gives a noticeable speed-up with respect to the standard MsFV algorithm. In particular, it is efficient in case of large upscaling factors, which is important for multiphysics problems. Based on the observation that local time stepping acts as a smoother, we devise a self-correcting algorithm which incorporates the information from previous times to improve the quality of the multiscale approximation. We present results of multiphase flow simulations both for Darcy-scale and multiphysics (hybrid) problems, in which a local pore-scale description is combined with a global Darcy-like description. The novel spatiotemporal-adaptive multiscale method based on the local-global splitting is not limited to porous media flow problems, but it can be extended to any system described by a set of conservation equations.

Hybrid Multiscale Finite Volume method for two-phase flow in porous media

We present a novel hybrid (or multiphysics) algorithm, which couples pore-scale and Darcy descriptions of two-phase flow in porous media. The flow at the pore-scale is described by the Navier?Stokes equations, and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is used to model the evolution of the fluid?fluid interface. An extension of the Multiscale Finite Volume (MsFV) method is employed to construct the Darcy-scale problem. First, a set of local interpolators for pressure and velocity is constructed by solving the Navier?Stokes equations; then, a coarse mass-conservation problem is constructed by averaging the pore-scale velocity over the cells of a coarse grid, which act as control volumes; finally, a conservative pore-scale velocity field is reconstructed and used to advect the fluid?fluid interface. The method relies on the localization assumptions used to compute the interpolators (which are quite straightforward extensions of the standard MsFV) and on the postulate that the coarse-scale fluxes are proportional to the coarse-pressure differences. By numerical simulations of two-phase problems, we demonstrate that these assumptions provide hybrid solutions that are in good agreement with reference pore-scale solutions and are able to model the transition from stable to unstable flow regimes. Our hybrid method can naturally take advantage of several adaptive strategies and allows considering pore-scale fluxes only in some regions, while Darcy fluxes are used in the rest of the domain. Moreover, since the method relies on the assumption that the relationship between coarse-scale fluxes and pressure differences is local, it can be used as a numerical tool to investigate the limits of validity of Darcy's law and to understand the link between pore-scale quantities and their corresponding Darcy-scale variables.

Speed of reaction-diffusion fronts in spatially heterogeneous media

The front speed problem for nonuniform reaction rate and diffusion coefficient is studied by using singular perturbation analysis, the geometric approach of Hamilton-Jacobi dynamics, and the local speed approach. Exact and perturbed expressions for the front speed are obtained in the limit of large times. For linear and fractal heterogeneities, the analytic results have been compared with numerical results exhibiting a good agreement. Finally we reach a general expression for the speed of the front in the case of smooth and weak heterogeneities

Chroma binary similarity and local alignment applied to cover song identification

We present a new technique for audio signal comparison based on tonal subsequence alignment and its application to detect cover versions (i.e., different performances of the same underlying musical piece). Cover song identification is a task whose popularity has increased in the Music Information Retrieval (MIR) community along in the past, as it provides a direct and objective way to evaluate music similarity algorithms.This article first presents a series of experiments carried outwith two state-of-the-art methods for cover song identification.We have studied several components of these (such as chroma resolution and similarity, transposition, beat tracking or Dynamic Time Warping constraints), in order to discover which characteristics would be desirable for a competitive cover song identifier. After analyzing many cross-validated results, the importance of these characteristics is discussed, and the best-performing ones are finally applied to the newly proposed method. Multipleevaluations of this one confirm a large increase in identificationaccuracy when comparing it with alternative state-of-the-artapproaches.

Local ocular immunomodulation resulting from electrotransfer of plasmid encoding soluble TNF receptors in the ciliary muscle.

PURPOSE: Plasmid electrotransfer in the ciliary muscle allows the sustained release of therapeutic proteins within the eye. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the ocular production of TNF-alpha soluble receptor, using this nonviral gene therapy method, could have a beneficial local effect in a model of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU). METHODS: Injection of a plasmid encoding a TNF-alpha p55 receptor (30 microg) in the ciliary muscle, combined with electrotransfer (200 V/cm), was carried out in Lewis rat eyes 4 days before the induction of EAU by S-antigen. Control eyes received naked plasmid electrotransfer or simple injection of the therapeutic plasmid. The disease was evaluated clinically and histologically. Cytokines and chemokines were analyzed in the ocular media by multiplex assay performed 15 and 21 days after immunization. RESULTS: Ocular TNF-alpha blockade, resulting from the local secretion of soluble receptors, was associated with delayed and significantly less severe uveitis, together with a reduction of the retinal damages. Compared with the controls, treated eyes showed significantly lower levels of IL-1beta and MCP1, higher levels of IL-13 and IL-4, and reduced NOS-2 expression in infiltrating cells. Treatment did not influence TNF-alpha levels in inguinal lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results indicate that local immunomodulation was achieved and that no systemic adverse effects of TNF-alpha blockade observed after systemic injection of TNF-alpha inhibitors should be expected.

Capital humano local y productividad en las provincias españolas

En la última década, distintos estudios han intentado contrastar empíricamente la existencia de una relación entre el stock de capital humanolocal y la productividad del territorio, así como la posible presencia de economías externas asociadas a aquél. El resultado común de dichos estudios ha consistido en encontrar una correlación positiva entre ambas variables Losdiversos autores no coinciden, en cambio, a la hora de explicar dicho resultado: un primer grupo de autores argumenta la presencia de economíasexternas vinculadas al capital humano mientras que un segundo grupo plantea la existencia de relaciones de complementariedad entre los diversos factores productivos y, más en concreto, entre el capital humano y el capital físico.El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la existencia de una posible relación positiva entre el nivel de capital humano de las provincias españolas y su productividad de éstas y, a continuación, averiguar si el canal a través delcual se produce el efecto son las economías externas. Para ello, se aplica unametodología que consta de dos etapas. En la primera, se estima una ecuación de Mincer utilizando información de la Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares a fin de obtener una estimación de la productividad media de cada una de las provincias españolas una vez controlado el efecto del capital humano de los individuos sobre su propia productividad. En una segunda etapa, la estimación de la productividad provincial media estimada se introduce como variable endógena en una nueva ecuación cuyas variables explicativas intentan aproximar el nivel de capital humano de cada una de las provincias. A partir de esta segunda regresión se detecta una relación positiva entre la productividad media estimada del territorio y el nivel educativo medio delmismo. Sin embargo, la principal conclusión del análisis realizado es que dicha relación no puede explicarse por el impacto de las economías externas generadas exógenamente por el capital humano, sino que debe atribuirse a otros efectos que, actuando también por lado de la demanda, impulsen al alza la productividad.

Capital humano local y productividad en las provincias españolas

En la última década, distintos estudios han intentado contrastar empíricamente la existencia de una relación entre el stock de capital humanolocal y la productividad del territorio, así como la posible presencia de economías externas asociadas a aquél. El resultado común de dichos estudios ha consistido en encontrar una correlación positiva entre ambas variables Losdiversos autores no coinciden, en cambio, a la hora de explicar dicho resultado: un primer grupo de autores argumenta la presencia de economíasexternas vinculadas al capital humano mientras que un segundo grupo plantea la existencia de relaciones de complementariedad entre los diversos factores productivos y, más en concreto, entre el capital humano y el capital físico.El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la existencia de una posible relación positiva entre el nivel de capital humano de las provincias españolas y su productividad de éstas y, a continuación, averiguar si el canal a través delcual se produce el efecto son las economías externas. Para ello, se aplica unametodología que consta de dos etapas. En la primera, se estima una ecuación de Mincer utilizando información de la Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares a fin de obtener una estimación de la productividad media de cada una de las provincias españolas una vez controlado el efecto del capital humano de los individuos sobre su propia productividad. En una segunda etapa, la estimación de la productividad provincial media estimada se introduce como variable endógena en una nueva ecuación cuyas variables explicativas intentan aproximar el nivel de capital humano de cada una de las provincias. A partir de esta segunda regresión se detecta una relación positiva entre la productividad media estimada del territorio y el nivel educativo medio delmismo. Sin embargo, la principal conclusión del análisis realizado es que dicha relación no puede explicarse por el impacto de las economías externas generadas exógenamente por el capital humano, sino que debe atribuirse a otros efectos que, actuando también por lado de la demanda, impulsen al alza la productividad.

Growth of unstable interfaces in disordered media

The effects of a disordered medium in the growth of unstable interfaces are studied by means of two local models with multiplicative and additive quenched disorder, respectively. For short times and large pushing the multiplicative quenched disorder is equivalent to a time-dependent noise. In this regime, the linear dispersion relation contains a destabilizing contribution introduced by the noise. For long times, the interface always gets pinned. We model the systematics of the pinned shapes by means of an effective nonlinear model. These results show good agreement with numerical simulations. For the additive noise we find numerically that a depinning transition occurs.

Front propagation in spatially modulated media

A two-dimensional reaction-diffusion front which propagates in a modulated medium is studied. The modulation consists of a spatial variation of the local front velocity in the transverse direction to that of the front propagation. We study analytically and numerically the final steady-state velocity and shape of the front, resulting from a nontrivial interplay between the local curvature effects and the global competition process between different maxima of the control parameter. The transient dynamics of the process is also studied numerically and analytically by means of singular perturbation techniques.