The World Trade Organization, competition policy, and developing countries: A cross -country examination of domestic policy actions

This dissertation addresses the following research question: in a particular policy area, why do countries that display unanimity in their international policy behavior diverge from each other in their domestic policy actions? I address this question in the context of the divergent domestic competition policy actions undertaken by developing countries during the period 1996-2007, after these countries had quite conspicuously displayed near-unanimity in opposing this policy measure at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This divergence is puzzling because (a) it does not align with their near-unanimous behavior at the WTO over competition policy and (b) it is at variance with the objectives of their international opposition to this policy at the WTO. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this dissertation examines the factors responsible for this divergence in the domestic competition policy actions of developing countries. ^ The theoretical structure employed in this study is the classic second-image-reversed framework in international relations theory that focuses on the domestic developments in various countries following an international development. Methodologically, I employ both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis to ascertain the nature of the relationship between the dependent variable and the eight explanatory variables that were identified from existing literature. The data on some of the key variables used in this dissertation was uniquely created over a multi-year period through extensive online research and represents the most comprehensive and updated dataset currently available. ^ The quantitative results obtained from logistic regression using data on 131 countries point toward the significant role played by international organizations in engineering change in this policy area in developing countries. The qualitative analysis consisting of three country case studies illuminate the channels of influence of the explanatory variables and highlight the role of domestic-level factors in these three carefully selected countries. After integrating the findings from the quantitative and qualitative analyses, I conclude that a mix of international- and domestic-level variables explains the divergence in domestic competition policy actions among developing countries. My findings also confirm the argument of the second-image-reversed framework that, given an international development or situation, the policy choices that states make can differ from each other and are mediated by domestic-level factors. ^

Towards Detecting Changes in Underwater Image Sequences

Detecting changes between images of the same scene taken at different times is of great interest for monitoring and understanding the environment. It is widely used for on-land application but suffers from different constraints. Unfortunately, Change detection algorithms require highly accurate geometric and photometric registration. This requirement has precluded their use in underwater imagery in the past. In this paper, the change detection techniques available nowadays for on-land application were analyzed and a method to automatically detect the changes in sequences of underwater images is proposed. Target application scenarios are habitat restoration sites, or area monitoring after sudden impacts from hurricanes or ship groundings. The method is based on the creation of a 3D terrain model from one image sequence over an area of interest. This model allows for synthesizing textured views that correspond to the same viewpoints of a second image sequence. The generated views are photometrically matched and corrected against the corresponding frames from the second sequence. Standard change detection techniques are then applied to find areas of difference. Additionally, the paper shows that it is possible to detect false positives, resulting from non-rigid objects, by applying the same change detection method to the first sequence exclusively. The developed method was able to correctly find the changes between two challenging sequences of images from a coral reef taken one year apart and acquired with two different cameras

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 42

Two images. First image shows several Japanese landing crafts wrecked against the shore of Beach Blue2. Caption; "Wrecked Japanese landing craft on beach Blue 2. Suribachi can be seen in the background." Second image shows the gun turret of a U.S. Nacy ship, with additional ships in the background. Caption; "Steaming toward the objective."

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 43

Two images. First image shows a wrecked Japanese batleship washed ashore, with a figure in the foreground. Caption; "Wrecked Japanese landing craft on the beach." Second image shows Landing Ship, Tanks (LSTs) unloading cargo as Marines rest on the beach. Includes a stack of drums in the foreground and additional ships and construction equipment in the background. Caption; "LSTs unloading on south eastern beaches."

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 44

Two images. First image shows the remains of a Japanese fighter plane. Caption; "Wrecked Japanese aircraft on Motoyama field No. 1." Second image shows the remains of a Japanese tank in a fortified bunker. Caption; "Emplaced Japanese Tank used as Pillbox."

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 45

Two images. First image shows a wrecked ship and tank on a beach with a large ship in the background. Caption; "Surf pounding wrecked landing craft that were stopped on the beach." Second image shows numerous Japanese vessels on a beach. Caption; "Wrecked Japanese craft littered the beaches."

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 46

Two images. First image shows the view from Mt. Suribachi, looking down on the southeastern beaches with a ship near the shore. Caption; "From atop Mt. Suribachi looking down southeastern beaches." Second image is an aerial view that shows a base of operations on the western beaches, with a large number of vehicles and material surrounded by a road and a cargo ship approaching the shore. Caption; "Unloading on the western beaches."

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 47

Two images. First image shows the view of encampment on the western beaches from atop Mt. Suribachi. Numerous tents and small structures are visible near the foreground of the image. Caption; "Looking down western beach from atop Mt. Suribachi." Second image shows a large stack of artillery shell cases. Caption; "Empty artillery shell cases after morning preparation."

Iwo Jima Photo Album, Image 48

Two images of destroyed Japanese ships and landing craft on a beach; Marines inspect the wreckage in first image and are gathered on the beach near the ships in second image. Caption; "Beached Japanese Landing Craft - detroyed prior to invasion by bombing and naval gunfire."

Tres imágenes del mercado

Resumen: El artículo invita a la reflexión respecto de la dicotomía entre economía y sociedad. Para esto, presenta una descripción de diferentes imágenes del mercado. La primera, representada por un mercado como espacio total, descripto a partir de la ciudad de Chicago y mediante los postulados de Becker. Luego, la segunda imagen remite a las tensiones entre mercado y sociedad, a través de las ideas de desarrolladas por Coraggio. Finalmente, el autor concluye presentando la imagen del mercado como un espacio humano y civil, presentando las consideraciones desarrolladas por Zamagni. Así, el autor deja planteado el interrogante acerca de cuál de las tres imágenes del mercado predominará en la agenda de las decisiones políticas, de la realidad económica y social y, en el imaginario simbólico de nuestra cultura.

A enfermagem no espelho: suas concepções sobre a profissão, a formação, a prática profissional e as especialidades

O objeto do presente estudo é o reflexo da enfermagem no espelho, a partir das concepções sobre as especializações em enfermagem e sobre a própria profissão, a formação e a prática profissional, conforme apresentadas na Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, ano de 2003. Houve uma primeira fase exploratória, onde o trabalho de campo não se mostrou satisfatório, uma vez que não foi suficiente para responder às indagações ou fornecer as explicações sobre a atuação e as atribuições profissionais de enfermeiros com titulação de especialistas no mercado de trabalho. Por isso, partiu-se para um outro tipo de estudo, desta vez, descritivo, contemplando uma abordagem qualitativa por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica, baseada no método de análise de conteúdo. Desta forma, o estudo tem por objetivo geral analisar as imagens refletidas pela enfermagem ao olhar-se no espelho, a primeira a partir de um panorama geral da profissão e suas especialidades e, a segunda a partir das concepções que ela tem a respeito da própria profissão, da formação e da prática profissional, tal como são vistas na Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, ano 2003. Os objetivos específicos são: descrever os principais pontos de vista encontrados sobre as características da profissão, sobre o processo de formação e sobre a prática profissional e contextualizar o panorama das especialidades à luz dos pontos de vista descritos. Dentre os principais resultados do estudo, destacamos a elaboração de um panorama geral da enfermagem no Brasil e as especialidades e de quatro categorias de análise: o que é a profissão de enfermagem; formação profissional da enfermagem; prática profissional da enfermagem e a enfermagem em processo de construção. A nós parece que a enfermagem tem apresentado dois reflexos diferentes neste espelho, as quais não se comunicam entre si. A primeira imagem refletida no espelho é a de uma enfermagem que busca definir especialidades da profissão voltadas para o aperfeiçoamento técnico, numa tentativa de se auto-afirmar no mercado de trabalho, que vem ficando cada vez mais específico e seletivo. A segunda imagem é a de uma enfermagem em busca de encontrar sua identidade enquanto ciência, e para isso, ela reflete, investiga e debate sobre o cuidado e sobre as teorias que sistematizam este cuidado. A questão é que estes dois reflexos apresentam fortes diferenças entre si, o que gera uma imagem distorcida para a profissão.

Short reflections on the history of African communication

This article aims to propose a chronological subdivision in the history of African communication. African communication today is one of the most important axes for implementing development strategies, sustaining education, health, and schooling programmes, and so on. However, many of these programmes fail due to a lack of or ineffective communication between international organisations, local elite and lay people. The reasons for this situation must be found in Africa’s history of communication, which has undergone radical transformations in its different phases. Using the functionalist analysis drawn up by Jakobson, this article proposes a new chronological subdivision of Africa’s history of communication, reflecting on the current contradictions in contemporary communication in Africa.

Fast Retinal Vessel Detection and Measurement Using Wavelets and Edge Location Refinement

The relationship between changes in retinal vessel morphology and the onset and progression of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) has been the subject of several large scale clinical studies. However, the difficulty of quantifying changes in retinal vessels in a sufficiently fast, accurate and repeatable manner has restricted the application of the insights gleaned from these studies to clinical practice. This paper presents a novel algorithm for the efficient detection and measurement of retinal vessels, which is general enough that it can be applied to both low and high resolution fundus photographs and fluorescein angiograms upon the adjustment of only a few intuitive parameters. Firstly, we describe the simple vessel segmentation strategy, formulated in the language of wavelets, that is used for fast vessel detection. When validated using a publicly available database of retinal images, this segmentation achieves a true positive rate of 70.27%, false positive rate of 2.83%, and accuracy score of 0.9371. Vessel edges are then more precisely localised using image profiles computed perpendicularly across a spline fit of each detected vessel centreline, so that both local and global changes in vessel diameter can be readily quantified. Using a second image database, we show that the diameters output by our algorithm display good agreement with the manual measurements made by three independent observers. We conclude that the improved speed and generality offered by our algorithm are achieved without sacrificing accuracy. The algorithm is implemented in MATLAB along with a graphical user interface, and we have made the source code freely available. 

Efeito da estocagem a curto prazo e da temperatura sobre gametas de jundiá, Rhamdia quelen (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)