A European recovery programme

Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and Jakob von Weizsäcker have put together a programme which combines an immediate budgetary stimulus by all EU countries with country-specific measures via the implementation of four concrete steps: 1. Budgetary boost 2. Reform commitment 3. Enforcement 4. Prudent borrowing.

A relação entre Estado e sociedade civil no Programa de Proteção a Testemunhas de Pernambuco

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Departamento de Sociologia, 2014.O Programa de Proteção a Vítimas e Testemunhas Ameaçadas (Provita) surgiu formalmente em Pernambuco no ano de 1996, fruto de demanda da sociedade civil organizada em um contexto político específico. A literatura atual sobre o programa, hoje executado em 18 unidades da federação, aponta para uma série de limitações enfrentadas, que têm como pano de fundo a relação entre instituições governamentais e não governamentais em questão. A notar, esta relação oscila entre a parceria e o conflito, a depender de ângulo de análise. A problemática se origina na forma de execução adotada, que é o convênio do Estado com organizações não governamentais, de modo que um elemento importante de sua gestão está nos conselhos intersetoriais. Neste contexto, a presente dissertação busca reconstruir os eventos que levaram à criação do Provita em Pernambuco, tendo este modelo posteriormente sido expandido a nível nacional. Em seguida, tendo em vista os atores participantes deste processo, confrontam-se visões do Estado e sociedade civil, averiguando em que medida os problemas enfrentados cotidianamente pelo programa passam pela relação destes atores no conselho. Para atingir os objetivos de análise, esta pesquisa utiliza um marco teórico que trata de governança, redes de políticas públicas e participação social democrática. Ao fim do trabalho, a partir de dados coletados, entrevistas com atores relevantes e observação direta; defende-se que há uma disparidade entre o conselho idealmente planejado e como este ocorre na prática, de modo que há entraves para que as instituições que participam dos encontros atuem de acordo com as necessidades do programa. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe Victim and Witness Protection Program (Provita) emerges formally in Pernambuco in 1996, as outgrowth of a demand from civilian society organized in a specific politic context. The current literature about the Program, executed nowadays with 18 federation states of Brazil, points to a series of dealt limitations that has as background the relation between evolved governmental institutions and non-governmental institutions that switch between partnership and conflicts. That is because the way of execution applied is the agreement between the State and non-governmental organizations, in a way that an important element of its management is in internal councils. The present dissertation makes an approach of speeches of the actors evolved with Provita in Pernambuco, confronting visions of the State and civilians, ascertaining in what measure the problems faced daily by the program are passed through these actors in the council. To achieve the goals of analysis, this research uses a theoretical mark that refers to governance, public policies network and democratic social participation. By the end of the work, it's considered that there is a disagreement between the council planned ideally and how it occurs practically, in a way that there are errands for the institutions to act accordingly to the programs needs

Collaborative SLAM using a swarm intelligence-inspired exploration method

Master's thesis in Mechatronics (MAS500)Efficient exploration in multi-robot SLAM is a challenging task. This thesis describes the design of algorithms that would enable Loomo robots to collaboratively explore an unknown environment. A pose graph-based SLAM algorithm using the on-board sensors of the Loomo was developed from scratch. A YOLOv3-tiny neural network has been trained to recognize other Loomos, and an exploration simulation has been developed to test exploration methods. The bots in the simulation are controlled using swarm intelligence inspired rules. The system is not finished, and further workis needed to combine the work done in the thesis into a collaborative SLAM system that runs on the Loomo robots

Smart Cities: A Case Study in Waste Monitoring and Management

This paper explores the potential of employing sensor enabled solutions to improve on waste monitoring and collection in public trash bins. Through a user-centered design approach, an inexpensive monitoring system developed and tested in pilot study. The system consists of wireless nodes that use ultrasonic sensors to measure the empty space in the bins, a sensor gateway that is based on Long Rage Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol and cloud-based back/front end for data collection, analysis and visualization. The system was evaluated through a pilot test, where six outdoor trash bins were remotely monitored at a university campus and a number of stakeholders were observed and interviewed. The results show that the existing technologies are mature enough to be able to develop and implement inexpensive add-on sensors to exiting trash bins, and employing such a system can provide the necessary insights to optimize waste collection processes, to avoid overfilled bins, and to improve the experience of the citizens

Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation in a dysfunctional Trifecta® bioprothesis after high‐pressure balloon fracturing

A percutaneous pulmonary valve‐in‐valve (PPVIV) implantation in small surgical tissue valves may be limited due to the valve's initial diameter. Fracturing of the valve's integrity by high‐pressure balloons may enhance the diameter and facilitate subsequent PPVIV with a large valve. To the best of our knowledge, the Trifecta® valve seemed not to be accessible for fracturing. We report a case of successful 19‐mm Trifecta valve fracturing, followed by PPVIV using a 26‐mm Edwards SAPIEN 3 valve in pulmonary position. By repetitively using a high‐pressure balloon 5 mm larger than the labeled valve size, we were able to fracture the valve's integrity and implant a 26‐mm valve thereafter. Therefore, Trifecta valve appears to be suitable for valve ring fracturing and subsequent PPVIV in certain patients