Illegal immigration and a heterogeneous labour force. When can quotas generate an internal conflict?

In this paper we analyze the effects on the welfare of heterogeneous native workers in the context of the presence of legal and illegal immigrants, and where the main instrument of economic policy takes the form of entry quotas. In the framework of a model of overlapping generations, we find that these effects are not monotonous. More particularly, we note that in certain circumstances the effects on the native workers of a change in the quota are opposite in nature, depending on whether or not these workers are qualified. The key aspect of this result is, on the one hand, the effect of illegal immigration on wages and, on the other, the part of income generated by the illegal immigrants that is appropriated by the natives for managing this “informal” labour market. Keywords: Illegal immigration; entry quotas; qualification. JEL: F22, J61,J68.

Aplicación de un proceso de mejora continua en una asignatura de Desarrollo de Software Dirigido por Modelos

El desarrollo de software dirigido por modelos (DSDM) es una de las áreas de la Ingeniería del Software más prometedoras en la actualidad. DSDM ofrece una oportunidad de alejar al desarrollador de las tecnologías concretas de implementación y centrarlo en los aspectos esenciales del dominio para el cual se desarrolla el software. Recientemente, esta novedosa materia está siendo recogida en distintas recomendaciones curriculares internacionales. En este artículo, por una parte, se aboga por incorporar esta materia al cuerpo de conocimiento de Ingeniería Informática en general y en la Ingeniería del Software en particular y se presenta la estructura de una asignatura para incorporar la materia de DSDM. Por otra parte, se describe la experiencia docente de esta asignatura tras su primer año de impartición. En este sentido, se ha definido un proceso de mejora continua que nos permite analizar los resultados del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje obtenidos, reflexionar sobre el proceso y elaborar un plan de mejora de la misma. El análisis del proceso de mejora se lleva a cabo utilizando la encuesta SEEQ para recoger datos y tomar decisiones.SUMMARY -- Currently, Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) is an emergent area in Software Engineering. DSDM allows developers to think on essential domain aspects more than on specific software implementation technology. Recently, this novel subject has been included in Computer Science and Software Engineering curricula. In this work, our experience teaching MDSD is described. A continuous improvement process has been used which allows us to analyze the teachinglearning process results, to think about this process and to build a improvement plan for the next years. The analysis of this continuous improvement process has been carried out using the SEEQ survey to collect data and make decisions

Extracting speech text from comics

Overall, it has been challenging to find solutions able to correctly extract distinct types of text balloons from any sort of comics, but in particulary from complex comic books. The challenge comes from the fact that there is no general extraction algorithm in the literature capable of handling any text balloons without making any assumption regarding color depth of the image, orientation or language of the text. Even worse, it is the fact that the comics art evolves over time, so that there is some degree of unpredictability associated to comics. This means that, an algorithm may work well for comic books released twenty years ago, but not so well for current comic books, even considering they belong to the same category or series. With this dissertation it is intended to present a possible solution to this problem, by introducing an algorithm capable of extracting text balloons from comic book pages. The presented algorithm, here called CCD (components and corners detection), relies in the concept of corner detection to identify text snippets inside balloon candidates. So, after discarding a significant number of regions that are not considered as tentative text balloons for one reason or another, we look at the shape of the holes of the remaining regions to check if they still hold a significant number of corners capable to make a candidate be classified as text balloon.No geral, tem sido desafiante encontrar soluções capazes de extrair correctamente distintos tipos de balões de texto a partir de qualquer tipo de banda desenhada, mas particularmente da mais complexa. O desafio provém do facto de que não existe na literatura um algoritmo capaz de lidar com quaisquer balões de texto sem fazer qualquer suposição em relação à profundidade de cor da imagem, orientação ou linguagem do texto. Pior ainda, é o facto de que a arte da banda desenhada evolui ao longo do tempo, o que faz com que exista um certo grau de imprevisibilidade associado aos livros. Isto significa que, um algoritmo pode funcionar bem para livros de banda desenhada lançados há vinte anos atrás, mas não tão bem para livros mais actuais, mesmo considerando que eles pertencem à mesma categoria ou série. Com esta dissertação pretende-se apresentar uma possível solução para este problema, ao introduzir um algoritmo capaz de extrair balões de texto de páginas de banda desenhada. O algoritmo apresentado, aqui designado por CCD (components and corners detection), baseia-se no conceito de detecção de cantos para identificar trechos de texto dentro de componentes candidatos a balão. Assim sendo, depois de descartar um número significativo de regiões que não são consideradas balões de texto por um ou outro motivo, olhamos para a forma dos buracos das restantes regiões para verificar se ainda possuem um número significativo de cantos que seja capaz de fazer com que um candidato seja classificado como balão de texto

Designing market-based instruments for biodiversity conservation: learning with the Australian experience and evaluating Portugal's potential

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão de Sistemas AmbientaisBiodiversity has been increasingly recognized as one of the key elements in human development and well-being. The loss of biodiversity is considered alarming not only because of its ethical and esthetical value, but also, because it comprises a variety of services essential for the health, regulation and prosperity of the biosphere. Given their significance, one might expect that the ecosystem services would be prized by markets and explicitly protected by the law, however, neither has been the case. International experience has shown that market-based instruments (MBIs), which basically provide economic incentives to modify behaviour, may be a more effective way to achieve many environmental goals, often yielding better results by harnessing the powerful cost-benefit motivations of businesses and individuals. This study intends to demonstrate the potential of market-based instruments in biodiversity conservation, particularly in protected areas. However biodiversity is not restricted to the network of national parks and other protected areas on state-owned land, it also needs to be protected and managed on privately-owned land. The goal of this work is to design a MBI, to be implemented in Portugal, in order to incentive private landowners in protected areas to achieve economic and social development without depleting the natural capital available. The design of the instrument started with the assessment of MBIs already running, with a special focus in the Australian experience. A methodology is proposed for that assessment in order to standardize the approach and analysis of this type of instrument. To overcome uncertainties and to get more information on the likely costs and benefits it is considered preferable to use an already trialled mechanism as basic framework. The instrument is designed using the basics of the Liverpool Plains Scheme (Australia), but some changes are introduced to improve it and make it more suitable to Portuguese reality. A potential target area in Portugal is selected according to several criteria, as a case study to illustrate the instrument application. It is proposed an implementation program and schedule. MBIs offer an opportunity to integrate biodiversity conservation into the economic market, however without a strong economic foundation, designing market mechanisms can result in costly mistakes. The success of this instrument will mainly depend on the ability to motivate the landowners to participate, in order to create competition between them, which will result in better outcomes at a lower cost. On the other hand, the ability to involve companies in the scheme, basically increasing the demand, will be decisive to its economic sustainability and growth. These are the keys features that will decide the success or failure of its implementation

Dificultades en la comprensión infantil de tareas emocionales ligadas a deseos y creencias

XVIII Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2013)La comprensión de emociones es, evolutivamente compleja, puesto que el mundo emocional aparece desarrollado en varias vertientes: la comprensión de emociones primarias o secundarias, la comprensión de varias emociones juntas, el conocimiento de que los humanos no solemos mostrar todo lo que sentimos, así como que, en ocasiones, manifestamos, por compromiso social, emociones que no sentimos. Esta compleja organización hace que comprender las propias emociones y las de los demás tenga un coste que suele desarrollarse durante toda la infancia. Sin embargo, el ser capaz de tener estas habilidades permite a los niños/as comportarse más adecuadamente con su ambiente y generar habilidades de carácter socio cognitivo útiles para las relaciones interpersonales. El trabajo que se ha realizado referencia los datos de diagnóstico evolutivos previos a un proyecto de intervención emocional para niños/as de entre 5 y 8 años. El estudio se llevó a cabo en un ambiente pseudoescolar (campamento de verano) durante un mes, a la vez que los participantes realizaban otras actividades propias de dicho recurso. Los participantes fueron 40 niños/as. Las tareas para evaluar eran viñetas con pequeñas historias en las que los protagonistas sentían una emoción que debía ser reconocida por el participante. Los resultados demuestran una clara relación entre comprensión emocional y edad, de forma que los niños y niñas mayores de la muestran alcanzan mejores niveles, especialmente en la comprensión de emociones secundarias y encubiertas relacionadas con deseos o creencias de los protagonistas. La discusión se centra en comparar las dificultades que presentan las tareas complejas en las que una emoción se encubre por deseabilidad social. Este trabajo se ha realizado gracias a las ayudas: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (EDU2010-21791) y Fundación Caixa Castellón-Bancaixa (P1- 182010-16)

Recheio : growing through a declining channel : a case on wholesale food private labels and its competitiveness

The Portuguese wholesale food market is in a mature phase where the space to grow seems to be limited. In the end of 2008 economic and business environment were expected to deteriorate intensely making this growth even more difficult wholesale food companies. Recheio, the market leader in this sector, had been growing sustainably and regardless the situation they wanted to keep their pace. As so Mr. Antunes challenged the Marketing Director Rita Silva, to develop a strategy to boost the Traditional Retail channel sales since it was the one with the one decreasing the most. Due to its lack of capacity to compete with Modern Retail chains Mrs. Silva and her team worked to understand the gap between these two channels in order to build the necessary management tools to increase traditional retailers´ competitiveness and Recheio sales. These management tools could be as simple as more competitive prices or as complex as developing a Private Label but one thing was clear, waiting to see the exact evolution without any of these actions was not an option

Mentalidades E Radicalismos: O Extremismo Islâmico

A lei natural mostra ao Homem o caminho a seguir na medida em que enuncia os preceitos essenciais à regulação da vida social, tendo em vista o bem-comum. Estabelecida pela razão, a partir da verdade revelada por Deus, a lei natural exprime a transcendente dignidade da pessoa humana e estende-se a todos os seres humanos - é universal. Enfim, dela emanam os fundamentos da lei civil

Use of principal states of polarization of a liquid crystal device to achieve a dynamical modulation of broadband beams

A spatially resolved polarization switcher operating over a bandwidth of 200 nm is demonstrated. The system is based on liquid crystal technology and no specific-purpose birefringent element is required. The procedure is founded on the polarization mode dispersion theory of optical fibers, which provides a convenient framework for the design of broadband polarization systems. Our device benefits from the high resolution of off-the-shelf twisted nematic liquid crystal displays and is well suited for spatial modulation of the intensity of broadband beams, such as those coming from few-cycle femtosecond laser

Localised damage model applied to the analysis of masonry structures

La simulación de fisuras localizadas en materiales cuasifrágiles mediante la mecánica computacional es un tema de investigación que aún se encuentra abierto. En este trabajo se plantea un modelo continuo para estudiar la fisuración en estructuras de obra de fábrica. El modelo propuesto, llamado modelo de daño localizado, combina el modelo de daño distribuido tracción/compresión, ampliamente aplicado en el estudio del hormigón, con un algoritmo de rastreo de fisuras. La capacidad del modelo se hace patente al aplicarlo al estudio de un arco semicircular de obra de fábrica con carga asimétrica, cuyos resultados son mucho más realistas que los que se obtienen con el modelo de daño distribuido en su forma original.Peer Reviewe