The relevancy and effectiveness of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption

La Convention des Nations Unies contre la corruption, adoptée en 2003, est le premier outil international criminalisant la corruption de façon aussi détaillée. Ce mémoire tente d'évaluer sa portée en analysant les dispositions concernant la prévention, la criminalisation, la coopération internationale et le recouvrement d'avoirs. Il tente d’évaluer la pertinence et l'efficacité de la Convention en illustrant ses défis en matière de conformité, pour ensuite étudier d'autres outils internationaux existants qui lui font compétition. Malgré sa portée élargie, il est débattu que la Convention souffre de lacunes non négligeables qui pourraient restreindre son impact à l'égard de la conduite d'États Membres.

Local relevancy evaluation in the accreditation bodies for engineering master's programs

Accreditation models in the international context mainly consider the evaluation of learning outcomes and the ability of programs (or higher education institutions) to achieve the educational objectives stated in their mission. However, it is not clear if these objectives and therefore their outcomes satisfy real national and regional needs, a critical point in engineering master's programs, especially in developing countries. The aim of this paper is to study the importance of the local relevancy evaluation of these programs and to analyze the main models of quality assurance and accreditation bodies of USA, Europe and Latin America, in order to ascertain whether the relevancy is evaluated or not. After a literature review, we found that in a free-market economic context and international education, the accreditation of master’s programs follows an international accreditation model, and doesn´t take in account in most cases criteria and indicators for local relevancy. It concludes that it is necessary both, international accreditation to ensure the effectiveness of the program (achievement of learning outcomes) and the national accreditation through which it could ensure local relevancy of programs, for which we are giving some indicators.

Emissziós jogok közgazdasági relevanciája és számviteli leképezése (Economic relevancy and accounting mapping of emission rights)

A cikk bemutatja, hogy az emissziós jogok mérleg- és beszámoló-képességi kritériumai milyen leképezést tesznek lehetővé a jelenleg érvényes Nemzetközi Pénzügyi Beszámolási Standardokban (IFRS, International Financial Reporting Standards). A vizsgálat fókuszában az üzemeltető áll, aki az Európai Unió kibocsátás-kereskedelmi rendszerének hatálya alá tartozik, azaz ipari tevékenysége folytán szén-dioxiddal szennyezi a Föld légterét. Az üzemeltető mint az emissziós jog tulajdonosa jelenik meg. A cikk megvizsgálja mindazokat a folyamatokat, melynek eredményeképpen birtokolhatja ezeket az egységeket, valamint azt, hogy az IFRS-ek milyen lehetőséget nyújtanak a különböző forrásból származó jogosultságok értékelésére. / === / The author presents that accounting and report ability criteria of the emission rights what mapping allows in the current International Financial Standards. The study focuses on the operator, who is the subject of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, whose industrial activities pollute with carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere. The operator, as the owner of emission rights is displayed. This article examines those processes, which resulted in these units may be owned, and that what possibility is provided by IFRSs to evaluate rights from different sources.

Indicadores de saude em mulheres acima de 50 anos de idade participantes de um programa de atividades fisicas no complexo da Mare-RJ

Univesidade Estadual de Campinas. Faculdade de Educação Física

Quantification of the environmental impacts of road conditions in Brazil

This study evaluates the impacts of Brazilian highway conditions on fuel consumption and, consequently, on carbon dioxide (COO emissions. For the purpose of this study, highway conditions refer to the level of highway maintenance: the incidence of large potholes, large surface cracks, uneven sections, and debris. Primary computer collected data related to the fuel consumption of three types of trucks were analyzed. The data were derived from 88 trips taken over six routes, each route representative of one of two highway conditions: better or worse. Study results are initially presented for each type of truck being monitored. The results are then aggregated to approximate the entire Brazilian highway network. In all cases, results confirmed environmental benefits resulting from travel over the better routes. There was found to be an increase in energy efficiency from traveling better roads, which resulted in lower fuel consumption and lower CO(2) emissions. Statistical analysis of the results suggests that, in general, fuel consumption data were significant at *P < 0.05, rejecting the null hypothesis that average fuel consumption from traveling the better routes is statistically equal to average fuel consumption from traveling the worse routes. Improved Brazilian road conditions would generate economic benefits, reduce dependency on and consumption of fossil fuels (due to the increase in energy efficiency), and reduce CO(2) emissions. These findings may have additional relevancy if Brazil needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to reach future Kyoto Protocol`s emissions targets, which should take effect in January 2013. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A atuação do professor de Educacao fisica nos centros de atencao álcool e drogas

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo conhecer e analisar a atuação do professor de Educação Física no tratamento de pessoas que fazem uso prejudicial de álcool e outras drogas, especificamente em dois Centros de Atenção Psicossocial Álcool e Drogas (CAPSad) da região da Grande Vitória, ES, buscando elementos para subsidiar a questão a partir dos professores e demais integrantes da equipe multidisciplinar. Antes de adentrar no tema da pesquisa, considerei necessário expor os caminhos que fizeram com que se encontrassem, ao longo da história, os personagens protagonistas deste trabalho – professor de Educação Física e CAPSad. Para isso, retomei a Reforma Psiquiátrica Brasileira, a instituição dos CAPS, as intervenções políticas em álcool e outras drogas e a inserção do professor de Educação Física na saúde mental/saúde pública. A metodologia empregada foi a observação e a condução de entrevistas semiestruturadas com os professores e trabalhadores da equipe de saúde. Na descrição e análise dos dados, foi possível constatar que há certa semelhança nas atividades desenvolvidas pelos professores em ambos os CAPSad, os quais demonstraram a participação na equipe de modo multidisciplinar e intersetorial. A pesquisa demonstrou a relevância dos professores de Educação Física não somente como mais um membro da equipe, portador de uma série de intervenções, mas como um trabalhador que pode vir a somar significativamente com o campo da saúde mental. Mesmo não possuindo formação específica para atuarem, os professores se mostraram comprometidos com o trabalho dos CAPSad a partir de práticas corporais e outras atuações que evidenciam as relações humanas.

As representações da infância na publicidade televisiva

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências da Comunicação, 22 de Outubro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

O papel da inovação como factor de sucesso no mercado competitivo actual : um estudo aplicado à Portugal Telecom

Mestrado em Gestão e Empreendedorismo

Variações do repertório clássico nas aulas de Técnica de Dança Clássica do 4º e do 5º ano da Escola de Dança Ana Mangerição

Relatório Final de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Dança, com vista à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de Dança.

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: The case of the defence sector

Journal of Environmental Management, nº 82 p. 410–432

Improving search engines with open Web-based SKOS vocabularies

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Contributions towards smart cities : exploring block level census data for the characterization of change in Lisbon

The interest in using information to improve the quality of living in large urban areas and its governance efficiency has been around for decades. Nevertheless, the improvements in Information and Communications Technology has sparked a new dynamic in academic research, usually under the umbrella term of Smart Cities. This concept of Smart City can probably be translated, in a simplified version, into cities that are lived, managed and developed in an information-saturated environment. While it makes perfect sense and we can easily foresee the benefits of such a concept, presently there are still several significant challenges that need to be tackled before we can materialize this vision. In this work we aim at providing a small contribution in this direction, which maximizes the relevancy of the available information resources. One of the most detailed and geographically relevant information resource available, for the study of cities, is the census, more specifically the data available at block level (Subsecção Estatística). In this work, we use Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and the variant Geo-SOM to explore the block level data from the Portuguese census of Lisbon city, for the years of 2001 and 2011. We focus on gauging change, proposing ways that allow the comparison of the two time periods, which have two different underlying geographical bases. We proceed with the analysis of the data using different SOM variants, aiming at producing a two-fold portrait: one, of the evolution of Lisbon during the first decade of the XXI century, another, of how the census dataset and SOM’s can be used to produce an informational framework for the study of cities.

Ambulatory healthcare information system: a conceptual framework

Despite the tremendous amount of data collected in the field of ambulatory care, political authorities still lack synthetic indicators to provide them with a global view of health services utilization and costs related to various types of diseases. Moreover, public health indicators fail to provide useful information for physicians' accountability purposes. The approach is based on the Swiss context, which is characterized by the greatest frequency of medical visits in Europe, the highest rate of growth for care expenditure, poor public information but a lot of structured data (new fee system introduced in 2004). The proposed conceptual framework is universal and based on descriptors of six entities: general population, people with poor health, patients, services, resources and effects. We show that most conceptual shortcomings can be overcome and that the proposed indicators can be achieved without threatening privacy protection, using modern cryptographic techniques. Twelve indicators are suggested for the surveillance of the ambulatory care system, almost all based on routinely available data: morbidity, accessibility, relevancy, adequacy, productivity, efficacy (from the points of view of the population, people with poor health, and patients), effectiveness, efficiency, health services coverage and financing. The additional costs of this surveillance system should not exceed Euro 2 million per year (Euro 0.3 per capita).

Cluster kernels for semisupervised classification of VHR urban images

In this paper, we present and apply a semisupervised support vector machine based on cluster kernels for the problem of very high resolution image classification. In the proposed setting, a base kernel working with labeled samples only is deformed by a likelihood kernel encoding similarities between unlabeled examples. The resulting kernel is used to train a standard support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Experiments carried out on very high resolution (VHR) multispectral and hyperspectral images using very few labeled examples show the relevancy of the method in the context of urban image classification. Its simplicity and the small number of parameters involved make it versatile and workable by unexperimented users.

Embryonic and fetal development: fundamental research.

Much progress has been made over the past decades in the development of in vitro techniques for the assessment of chemically induced effects in embryonic and fetal development. In vitro assays have originally been developed to provide information on the mechanism of action of normal development, and have hence more adequately been used in fundamental research. These assays had to undergo extensive modification to be used in developmental toxicity testing. The present paper focuses on the rat whole embryo culture system, but also reviews modifications that were undertaken for the in vitro chick embryo system and the aggregate cultures of fetal rat brain cells. Today these tests cannot replace the existing in vivo developmental toxicity tests. They can, however, be used to screen chemicals for further development or further testing. In addition, these in vitro tests provide valuable information on the mechanisms of developmental toxicity and help to understand the relevancy of findings for humans. In vitro systems, combined with selected in vivo testing and pharmacokinetic investigations in animals and humans, can thus provide essential information for human risk assessment.