I knew I Shouldn’t Do It; But I Did It: Davidson on Causal Strength and Weakness of Will

Reasons for action is a widely employed methodology in practical philosophy, and especially in moral philosophy. Reasons are facts that explain and justify actions. But, conceptually, if reasons were causes, incontinent actions would be impossible. When an agent ranks an evaluation about what to do as his best judgement, it entails that he has a reason for acting as that judgement prescribes. But when an agent acts incontinently, he acts in accordance to an intention that is not aligned with his best evaluative judgement. Yet, if the agent’s best evaluative judgement provides him a reason for action, this reason should also be his strongest reason, and therefore, the strongest cause. How then can it be possible that an agent incontinently acts according to a reason of inferior causal strength? In this paper, I analyze how Davidson’s argument for the possibility of incontinent actions interacts with his causal theory of actions. I argue that Davidson’s proposal does not fully respect the two principles of intentional rationality, that he himself claims to be compelling. Lastly, I sketch some initial steps that might be helpful to drawing more precise conceptual distinctions in terms of the rationality of incontinent actions

Economic Liberty, Price Control, and Environmental Harm

One core question in contemporary political economy is whether economic liberties should be constitutionally protected as basic rights. In this article I do not provide a positive argument for the view that economic liberties are basic rights. Rather, I seek to provide a reason for not embracing the opposing view, i.e. that economic liberties should not be constitutionally protected as basic rights. Based on Hayek’s theory of price as signal, I argue that price control, a view usually associated with high liberals, and sometimes endorsed by moderate welfarists, is environmentally sub-optimal

Double exposure on the northern coast of the São Paulo State, Brazil

This paper examines how double exposure to both socio-economic and environmental stressors and the interaction between the two affect the population of the Northern coast of the São Paulo State, Brazil based on the conceptual and analytical framework developed by R. Leichenko and K.L. O’Brien. It provides a useful way to examine the multiple and overlapping processes of global change and, in particular, the places and the ways in which the economic and the non-economic interact. Interactions between economic and environmental change shape local landscapes of vulnerability and a major challenge for understanding vulnerability involves identifying how economic and environmental processes interact in particular places and how these interactions shape the effects of some global change processes and drive others. Pathways to increased vulnerability are multidimensional, so that socio-economic conditions may mediate the impacts of environmental change, but changing environmental conditions may also alter socio-economic capacities to maintain particular livelihood strategies. By analysing case studies of four municipalities that compound the region we found that people’s resilience, in general, are largely determined by the socio-economic context and the social vulnerability. Our finding indicate that socio-economic change brought about in the last three decades due to intense urbanization, tourism exploitation and increasingly economic activities have altered people’s livelihood and deepened social problems. We argue that the cross-scale nature of the problem and the cross-level interactions of these processes pose significant challenges for governance structures and institutions in place in the region that fail to address the roots of vulnerability and consequences of a changing environment.draft versio

Fair trade practices in the Northwest Brazilian Amazon

This paper describes and analyzes the Arte Baniwa project, a sustainable development project based on the production and commercialization of Baniwa indigenous basketwork with the support of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a major NGO in Brazil. The project seeks to enhance the value of the Baniwa basket-making tradition, increase production within the limits of the sustainable use of natural resources, generate income for indigenous producers and their political associations, and train indigenous leadership in the skills of business management. The methodology encompasses a literature review on fair trade and builds upon ethnographic and participative research methods. The narrative and analysis of the case study comprise a framework that is two-fold: first, it looks at existing inter-organizational tiers between actors and identifies the presence of two different logics within the project; second, it encompasses the reality of many emerging fair trade initiatives in Brazil which harness market forces to pursue local sustainable development. The paper argues that ISA has acted as a boundary organization by communicating, translating and mediating between traditional (indigenous) knowledge and Western culture. By doing so, it was able to mobilize the project's capacity to promote sustainable development.412432Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Philip Morris in a dying industry - leaving competitors fuming

This report is an equity valuation of Philip Morris International Inc., the tobacco company leading the transition to a smoke-free future. For this, both a relative valuation based on multiples and transactions as well as an intrinsic valuation in the form of a DCF model were completed. The calculated target share price of $108.16 represents a Buy recommendation with a potential total return on investment of 10.79% including the dividend yield. Particularly given PMI's evolving business strategy and clear future focus on risk-reduced products, the company’s competitive position was highly valued. In addition, scenario and sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate potential outcomes of assumption deviation

Sistema de orientação automática para um vibrómetro laser

Mestrado em Engenharia MecânicaThe study of material properties, is in many times done by observation of the material behavior under some vibrations. This vibrations can be measure with a laser vibrometer which has a laser beam that measures using the doppler e ect. This device is available at University of Aveiro, but it is a single point vibrometer, which means that the beam direction is the same as the vibrometer, meaning that, to measure another point it is necessary to move the device. To avoid such issue, it was incorporates, on a system on which a device that de ects the laser beam into desirable locations was added. The process of choosing the points is made using a Kinect which acts as a 3D scanner. To de ect the laser beam of the vibrometer, a galvanometer was used which control is made by an Arduino. The Arduino communicates with MATLAB via Serial communication. Several numerical strategies to de ne automatically a measuring mesh are tested in order to identify their limitations and advantages.O estudo das propriedades dos materiais é muitas vezes realizado a partir da observação do seu comportamento sobre determinados estímulos, tal como vibrações. Estas vibrações podem ser medidas com recurso a um vibrómetro laser sendo que este dispositivo emite um feixe laser e efetua as medições com recurso ao efeito de doppler. Tal dispositivo está disponível na Universidade de Aveiro, sendo este um vibrómetro de ponto único, o que significa que a direção do feixe laser é a direção do vibrómetro, sendo que para obter uma medição noutro ponto é necessário mover o dispositivo. De modo a ultrapassar essa limitação, foi criado um dispositivo onde é incorporado o vibrómetro laser de modo a direcionar o feixe laser para posições pré-definidas. A escolha dos pontos para medição é feita com recurso, a uma câmera Kinect que atua como um scanner 3D. Para deflectir o feixe laser proveniente do vibrómetro foi usado um galvanómetro de espelhos cujo controlo é feito a partir de um Arduino Uno que comunica com o software em MATLAB através de comunicação serie. São analisadas diversas metodologias de definição automática de malha de pontos

Large scale agile software development compliant to IEC 62443-4-1: artefact design and tool support

There has been a considerable increase in the use of agile methodologies over the last years. However, applying these methodologies can be challenging, particularly for industrial control systems that must obey to rigorous operational requirements through regulations and standards, and in particular cybersecurity requirements. The current work proposes a concept for a structured and systematic integration of security activities into a DevOps pipeline, with the ambition of pursuing the capability of both secure agile development and security compliant agile software engineering. The basis for this concept is the integration of the IEC 62443-4-1 (4-1) standard, which describes secure product development in industrial control systems, with a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery pipeline specification. To achieve this, the security requirements, as described in the 4-1 standard, were mapped into a simple DevOps pipeline specification. As a result, all of the 4-1 activities were analysed and classified according to the possibility of being automated through tool support. Interviews with expert practitioners, from the fields of security compliance and agile software engineering, were conducted to evaluate the present work. Results have shown evidence about the possibility of providing tool support for the IEC 62443-4-1 standard and to specify a DevOps pipeline compliant to the 4-1 standard.Nos últimos anos houve um aumento considerável no uso de metodologias ágeis. No entanto, a aplicação destas metodologias pode ser um desafio, em especial para sistemas de controle industrial que têm a obrigação de obedecer a requisitos operacionais rigorosos através de regulamentos e normas, e em particular no âmbito da cibersegurança. Este trabalho propõe um conceito para uma integração estruturada e sistemática de actividades de segurança num pipeline de DevOps, com o intuito de alcançar ambas as capacidades de desenvolvimento ágil seguro e engenharia de software ágil em conformidade com segurança. A base para este conceito é a integração da norma IEC 62443-4-1 (4-1), que descreve o desenvolvimento seguro de produtos em ambientes de controle industrial, com um especificação de Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery. Para alcançar isto, foi feito um mapeamento de requisitos de segurança, de acordo com a descrição na norma 4-1, numa especificação simples de DevOps. Como resultado, todas as actividades da norma 4-1 foram analisadas e classificadas de acordo com a possibilidade de serem automatizadas através de suporte de ferramentas. Para avaliar o trabalho, foram realizadas entrevistas com profissionais especializados nas áreas de conformidade em segurança de TI’s e engenharia de software ágil. Os resultados mostram evidências sobre a possibilidade de fornecer suporte de ferramentas para a automatização da norma IEC 62443-4-1 e para a especificação um pipeline de DevOps conforme com a norma 4-1