Writers' rooms: theories of contemporary authorship in portraits of creative spaces

This article analyzes two series of photographs and essays on writers’ rooms published in England and Canada in 2007 and 2008. The Guardian’s Writers Rooms series, with photographs by Eamon McCabe, ran in 2007. In the summer of 2008, The Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival began to post its own version of The Guardian column on its website by displaying, each week leading up to the Festival in September, a different writer’s “writing space” and an accompanying paragraph. I argue that these images of writers’ rooms, which suggest a cultural fascination with authors’ private compositional practices and materials, reveal a great deal about theoretical constructions of authorship implicit in contemporary literary culture. Far from possessing the museum quality of dead authors’ spaces, rooms that are still being used, incorporating new forms of writing technology, and having drafts of manuscripts scattered around them, can offer insight into such well-worn and ineffable areas of speculation as inspiration, singular authorial genius, and literary productivity.

International transmission mechanisms and contagion in housing markets

This paper explores international transmission mechanism and its role in contagion effect in the housing markets across six major Asian cities. The analysis is based on the identification of house price diffusion effects through a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model estimated using quarterly data for six major Asian cities (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Bangkok) from 1991Q1 to 2011Q2. The empirical results indicate that the open economies heavily relying on international trade such as Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), Taiwan (Taipei) and Thailand (Bangkok) show positive correlations between the economy's openness and house prices, which is consistent with the Balassa–Samuelson hypothesis. Interestingly, some region-specific conditions also appear to play important roles as determinants of house price movements, which may be driven by restrictive housing policies and demand–supply imbalances such as Singapore and Bangkok. These results are reasonably robust across several model specifications. The findings bear significant implications for formulation of investment strategy and public policies.

Toeplitz operators on Dirichlet-Besov spaces

We study Toeplitz operators on the Besov spaces in the case of the open unit disk. We prove that a symbol satisfying a weak Lipschitz type condition induces a bounded Toeplitz operator. Such symbols do not need to be bounded functions or have continuous extensions to the boundary of the open unit disk. We discuss the problem of the existence of nontrivial compact Toeplitz operators, and also consider Fredholm properties and prove an index formula.

Dually discrete spaces

A neighbourhood assignment in a space X is a family O = {O-x: x is an element of X} of open subsets of X such that X is an element of O-x for any x is an element of X. A set Y subset of X is a kernel of O if O(Y) = U{O-x: x is an element of Y} = X. We obtain some new results concerning dually discrete spaces, being those spaces for which every neighbourhood assignment has a discrete kernel. This is a strictly larger class than the class of D-spaces of [E.K. van Douwen, W.F. Pfeffer, Some properties of the Sorgenfrey line and related spaces, Pacific J. Math. 81 (2) (1979) 371-377]. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On the extent of star countable spaces

For a topological property P, we say that a space X is star Pif for every open cover Uof the space X there exists Y aS, X such that St(Y,U) = X and Y has P. We consider star countable and star Lindelof spaces establishing, among other things, that there exists first countable pseudocompact spaces which are not star Lindelof. We also describe some classes of spaces in which star countability is equivalent to countable extent and show that a star countable space with a dense sigma-compact subspace can have arbitrary extent. It is proved that for any omega (1)-monolithic compact space X, if C (p) (X)is star countable then it is Lindelof.

The trajectory of social housing policy in Brazil: From the National Housing Bank to the Ministry of the Cities

This paper discusses social housing policy in Brazil since the 1990s by analyzing government programs’ institutional arrangements, their sources of revenues and the formatting of related financial systems. The conclusion suggests that all these arrangements have not constituted a comprehensive housing policy with the clear aim of serving to enhance housing conditions in the country. Housing ‘policies’ since the 1990s – as proposed by Fernando Collor de Mello, Itamar Franco, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and ´ Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s governments (in the latter case, despite much progress towards subsidized investment programs) – have sought to consolidate financial instruments in line with global markets, restructuring the way private interests operate within the system, a necessary however incomplete course of action. Different from rhetoric, this has resulted in failure as the more fundamental social results for the poor have not yet been achieved.

Estimates for the Poisson kernel and Hardy spaces on compact manifolds

We study Hardy spaces on the boundary of a smooth open subset or R-n and prove that they can be defined either through the intrinsic maximal function or through Poisson integrals, yielding identical spaces. This extends to any smooth open subset of R-n results already known for the unit ball. As an application, a characterization of the weak boundary values of functions that belong to holomorphic Hardy spaces is given, which implies an F. and M. Riesz type theorem. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sustainable development of human settlements: achievements and challenges in housing and urban policy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

A nova política de habitação de interesse social no Pará (2007-2010): avanços e limites

A presente dissertação realiza um reflexão acerca dos avanços e limites da nova Política de Habitação de Interesse Social no Pará, no período de 2007 a 2010, identificando os principais obstáculos que se apresentam para sua implementação neste Estado, considerando especificamente a atuação dos diversos níveis do Poder Público. Entende-se que a instituição do Sistema Nacional da Habitação de Interesse Social pode ser considerada um avanço para a política nacional, resultado da trajetória e do acúmulo dos movimentos ligados à discussão da Reforma Urbana no país, apresentando um novo arranjo institucional, baseado no fortalecimento da pactuação federativa e maior participação e controle social, em que se verifica ainda maior aporte de recursos federais e ampliação da atuação do Governo Estadual. Nesse sentido, o trabalho analisa mais particularmente as estratégias de descentralização adotadas pela recente política, bem como os resultados alcançados principalmente pelas administrações municipais paraenses, no tocante ao acesso aos recursos federais e execução de ações neste setor. A pesquisa bibliográfica aborda a questão habitacional e urbana, Estado e políticas sociais, descentralização de políticas sociais, política habitacional no Brasil e no Pará e urbanização na Amazônia, com foco no Pará. Foram ainda realizadas pesquisa documental e entrevistas com representantes do Governo Federal, Estadual e Municipais, bem como representantes de movimentos sociais e populares. Os resultados apontam que, para além dos avanços na estruturação de um sistema nacional e da conquista de importantes espaços de participação no nível federal, as estratégias de descentralização ainda se apresentam de maneira frágil, o que pode representar um limite ao processo de consolidação do SNHIS.

A representação política dos movimentos urbanos no conselho das cidades do Pará

Este trabalho aborda a representação política exercida pela sociedade civil no conselho de políticas públicas, visto que nesses espaços ocorre a participação através da representação política de organizações da sociedade civil. Nesse sentido este trabalho realiza um estudo acerca do exercício da representação política dos quatro movimentos urbanos de expressão nacional: Confederação Nacional de Associações de Moradores - CONAM; Central de Movimentos Populares - CMP, Movimento Nacional de Luta por Moradia - MNLM e União Nacional por Moradia Popular - UNMP no Conselho das Cidades do Pará na gestão de 2008 – 2010. Tendo como objetivo refletir como ocorre o processo de representação destes movimentos, o processo de autorização, os vínculos com a base dos seus movimentos no processo de consulta e prestação das ações políticas no Conselho, como ocorre a formulação das propostas políticas e o a compreensão dos representantes acerca do papel dos conselheiros. Foi realizada pesquisa de campo utilizando como instrumental a técnica da entrevista, sendo entrevistados nove conselheiros dos quatro movimentos. A pesquisa constatou que o processo de autorização destes movimentos deriva da legitimidade da história de luta na defesa da bandeira da reforma urbana e que a escolha dos representantes ocorre internamente através da indicação; há um esforço em manter um vínculo com a base do movimento, no entanto, as relações de consulta e prestação de contas ocorrem entre os coordenadores estaduais destes movimentos, demonstrando quão frágeis ainda são esses vínculos. Percebemos que há uma articulação entre estes quatro movimentos na formulação de propostas e na defesa das mesmas, mas que também há uma disputa entre eles por mais entidades filiadas.

Semantic coordination through programmable Tuple spaces

Two of the main features of today complex software systems like pervasive computing systems and Internet-based applications are distribution and openness. Distribution revolves around three orthogonal dimensions: (i) distribution of control|systems are characterised by several independent computational entities and devices, each representing an autonomous and proactive locus of control; (ii) spatial distribution|entities and devices are physically distributed and connected in a global (such as the Internet) or local network; and (iii) temporal distribution|interacting system components come and go over time, and are not required to be available for interaction at the same time. Openness deals with the heterogeneity and dynamism of system components: complex computational systems are open to the integration of diverse components, heterogeneous in terms of architecture and technology, and are dynamic since they allow components to be updated, added, or removed while the system is running. The engineering of open and distributed computational systems mandates for the adoption of a software infrastructure whose underlying model and technology could provide the required level of uncoupling among system components. This is the main motivation behind current research trends in the area of coordination middleware to exploit tuple-based coordination models in the engineering of complex software systems, since they intrinsically provide coordinated components with communication uncoupling and further details in the references therein. An additional daunting challenge for tuple-based models comes from knowledge-intensive application scenarios, namely, scenarios where most of the activities are based on knowledge in some form|and where knowledge becomes the prominent means by which systems get coordinated. Handling knowledge in tuple-based systems induces problems in terms of syntax - e.g., two tuples containing the same data may not match due to differences in the tuple structure - and (mostly) of semantics|e.g., two tuples representing the same information may not match based on a dierent syntax adopted. Till now, the problem has been faced by exploiting tuple-based coordination within a middleware for knowledge intensive environments: e.g., experiments with tuple-based coordination within a Semantic Web middleware (surveys analogous approaches). However, they appear to be designed to tackle the design of coordination for specic application contexts like Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services, and they result in a rather involved extension of the tuple space model. The main goal of this thesis was to conceive a more general approach to semantic coordination. In particular, it was developed the model and technology of semantic tuple centres. It is adopted the tuple centre model as main coordination abstraction to manage system interactions. A tuple centre can be seen as a programmable tuple space, i.e. an extension of a Linda tuple space, where the behaviour of the tuple space can be programmed so as to react to interaction events. By encapsulating coordination laws within coordination media, tuple centres promote coordination uncoupling among coordinated components. Then, the tuple centre model was semantically enriched: a main design choice in this work was to try not to completely redesign the existing syntactic tuple space model, but rather provide a smooth extension that { although supporting semantic reasoning { keep the simplicity of tuple and tuple matching as easier as possible. By encapsulating the semantic representation of the domain of discourse within coordination media, semantic tuple centres promote semantic uncoupling among coordinated components. The main contributions of the thesis are: (i) the design of the semantic tuple centre model; (ii) the implementation and evaluation of the model based on an existent coordination infrastructure; (iii) a view of the application scenarios in which semantic tuple centres seem to be suitable as coordination media.

Toeplitz operators on finite and infinite dimensional spaces with associated psi *-Fréchet algebras

The present thesis is a contribution to the multi-variable theory of Bergman and Hardy Toeplitz operators on spaces of holomorphic functions over finite and infinite dimensional domains. In particular, we focus on certain spectral invariant Frechet operator algebras F closely related to the local symbol behavior of Toeplitz operators in F. We summarize results due to B. Gramsch et.al. on the construction of Psi_0- and Psi^*-algebras in operator algebras and corresponding scales of generalized Sobolev spaces using commutator methods, generalized Laplacians and strongly continuous group actions. In the case of the Segal-Bargmann space H^2(C^n,m) of Gaussian square integrable entire functions on C^n we determine a class of vector-fields Y(C^n) supported in complex cones K. Further, we require that for any finite subset V of Y(C^n) the Toeplitz projection P is a smooth element in the Psi_0-algebra constructed by commutator methods with respect to V. As a result we obtain Psi_0- and Psi^*-operator algebras F localized in cones K. It is an immediate consequence that F contains all Toeplitz operators T_f with a symbol f of certain regularity in an open neighborhood of K. There is a natural unitary group action on H^2(C^n,m) which is induced by weighted shifts and unitary groups on C^n. We examine the corresponding Psi^*-algebra A of smooth elements in Toeplitz-C^*-algebras. Among other results sufficient conditions on the symbol f for T_f to belong to A are given in terms of estimates on its Berezin-transform. Local aspects of the Szegö projection P_s on the Heisenbeg group and the corresponding Toeplitz operators T_f with symbol f are studied. In this connection we apply a result due to Nagel and Stein which states that for any strictly pseudo-convex domain U the projection P_s is a pseudodifferential operator of exotic type (1/2, 1/2). The second part of this thesis is devoted to the infinite dimensional theory of Bergman and Hardy spaces and the corresponding Toeplitz operators. We give a new proof of a result observed by Boland and Waelbroeck. Namely, that the space of all holomorphic functions H(U) on an open subset U of a DFN-space (dual Frechet nuclear space) is a FN-space (Frechet nuclear space) equipped with the compact open topology. Using the nuclearity of H(U) we obtain Cauchy-Weil-type integral formulas for closed subalgebras A in H_b(U), the space of all bounded holomorphic functions on U, where A separates points. Further, we prove the existence of Hardy spaces of holomorphic functions on U corresponding to the abstract Shilov boundary S_A of A and with respect to a suitable boundary measure on S_A. Finally, for a domain U in a DFN-space or a polish spaces we consider the symmetrizations m_s of measures m on U by suitable representations of a group G in the group of homeomorphisms on U. In particular,in the case where m leads to Bergman spaces of holomorphic functions on U, the group G is compact and the representation is continuous we show that m_s defines a Bergman space of holomorphic functions on U as well. This leads to unitary group representations of G on L^p- and Bergman spaces inducing operator algebras of smooth elements related to the symmetries of U.

On moduli spaces of semistable sheaves on K3 surfaces

Ich untersuche die nicht bereits durch die Arbeit "Singular symplectic moduli spaces" von Kaledin, Lehn und Sorger (Invent. Math. 164 (2006), no. 3) abgedeckten Fälle von Modulräumen halbstabiler Garben auf projektiven K3-Flächen - die Fälle mit Mukai-Vektor (0,c,0) sowie die Modulräume zu nichtgenerischen amplen Divisoren - hinsichtlich der möglichen Konstruktion neuer Beispiele von kompakten irreduziblen symplektischen Mannigfaltigkeiten. Ich stelle einen Zusammenhang zu den bereits untersuchten Modulräumen und Verallgemeinerungen derselben her und erweitere bekannte Ergebnisse auf alle offenen Fälle von Garben vom Rang 0 und viele Fälle von Garben von positivem Rang. Insbesondere kann in diesen Fällen die Existenz neuer Beispiele von kompakten irreduziblen symplektischen Mannigfaltigkeiten, die birational über Komponenten des Modulraums liegen, ausgeschlossen werden.