Final state QCD studies at LEP: Part I

This is the first of two summaries presented in this conference, of results obtained by the DELPHI and OPAL Collaborations in studies of QCD in the final state, in two-photon and electron-positron collisions at LEP. This talk presents measurements of hadronic cross-sections in two-photon collisions from DELPHI, and thorough studies of QCD in events with 3 jets from DELPHI and from OPAL Collaborations at CERN. DELPHI has studied the charge of leading systems in quark and gluon jets, as well as the contribution of quark and gluon jets to the average event charged multiplicity as a function of the jet energy, and from it measured the ratio 2.261 0.014( .) 0.036( .) 0.066( .) CA F C = ± stat ± exp ± theo . OPAL submitted a report of scaling violations in the quark and gluon fragmentation functions, of which a resume is here included, and measured the average charged particle multiplicity in inclusive hadronic Z0 decays at several centre of mass energies and in flavour selected Z0 decays, obtaining for the inclusive case at 0 Z s = M the value ( 0 ) 20.93 0.01( ch Z n M = ± stat.) ± 0.23(syst.) . All results are preliminary

Relationships between social forms of organic horticultural production and indicators of environmental quality: a multidimensional approach in Brazil

Organic farming (OF) is increasingly considered as a possible alternative for designing a "new rural" in Brazil, where OF covers a wide range of production and certification systems. However, the ways small farmers adopt OF in green belts to meet an urban demand in organic vegetables have not been extensively investigated. Likewise, the impact of such practices on environmental quality components has not been sufficiently documented. Our objective was to relate forms of organisation to environmental assessment in a watershed where organic horticulture significantly contributes to landscape and water quality. We showed how small farmers were organised or how they organised themselves to meet urban demands and develop OF. We assumed that associated practices were consistent with environmental impacts, as evaluated by indicators. Based on interviews with stakeholders, we identified four forms of organisation and associated farmers' practices. We related them to environmental assessment in three compartments: landscape ecology, water quality and soil quality. Although organisations share some objectives, namely with regard to visual quality and the "right price" of products, differences appear in their scope and internal operation, their values and relationships with consumers, and their technical and environmental contents. As for technical content, input supply, planning processes and crop diversity vary among organisations, ranging from liberal to hierarchical. Our results also showed similarities and differences among various organisations in terms of environmental impact. Such results are interpreted and discussed in the light of technical and social dimensions that account for the progressive design of new systems in Brazil

A formação, os desafios e o perfil do jurista orgânico no novo milênio

- Disponível também na revista ADV Advocacia Dinâmica: Seleções Jurídicas, Rio de Janeiro, n. 6, p. 32-42, jun. 2004

Load balancing for constraint solving with GPUs

Solving a complex Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is a computationally hard task which may require a considerable amount of time. Parallelism has been applied successfully to the job and there are already many applications capable of harnessing the parallel power of modern CPUs to speed up the solving process. Current Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), containing from a few hundred to a few thousand cores, possess a level of parallelism that surpasses that of CPUs and there are much less applications capable of solving CSPs on GPUs, leaving space for further improvement. This paper describes work in progress in the solving of CSPs on GPUs, CPUs and other devices, such as Intel Many Integrated Cores (MICs), in parallel. It presents the gains obtained when applying more devices to solve some problems and the main challenges that must be faced when using devices with as different architectures as CPUs and GPUs, with a greater focus on how to effectively achieve good load balancing between such heterogeneous devices

The Effects of Longevity and Distortions on Education and Retirement

This article studies the impact of longevity and taxation on life-cycle decisions and long-run income. Individuals allocate optimally their total lifetime between education, working and retirement. They also decide at each moment how much to save or consume out of their income, and after entering the labor market how to divide their time between labor and leisure. The model incorporates experience-earnings profiles and the return-to-education function that follows evidence from the labor literature. In this setup, increases in longevity raises the investment in education - time in school - and retirement. The model is calibrated to the U.S. and is able to reproduce observed schooling levels and the increase in retirement, as the evidence shows. Simulations show that a country equal to the U.S. but with 20% smaller longevity will be 25% poorer. In this economy, labor taxes have a strong impact on the per capita income, as it decreases labor effort, time at school and retirement age, in addition to the general equilibrium impact on physical capital. We conclude that life-cycle effects are relevant in analyzing the aggregate outcome of taxation.

Projecto de optimização de unidade de secagem de bacalhau por ar forçado

Este Projecto consiste na Concepção de uma Unidade Industrial de Secagem de Bacalhau, no qual serão projectados túneis de secagem, e consequentemente toda a explicação da dinâmica incutida na secagem do bacalhau. Este trabalho começará com uma introdução à secagem artificial do bacalhau, onde se fará referência aos factores envolventes que directa ou indirectamente influenciam a secagem, de onde se realça, de entre outros, as condições termodinâmicas da secagem. De seguida, será feita uma abordagem clara sobre a decomposição do pescado salgado seco, no qual abordaremos a temática relativa às diferentes formas de decomposição que poderão ocorrer nos mesmos, como a muscosidade, bactérias vermelhas ou fungos. Posteriormente, e de um ponto de vista claro e pragmático, apresentar-se-á a memória descritiva do projecto propriamente dito. Neste ponto descreve-se-á todo o projecto, começando-se pelo seu objectivo, pela descrição da Unidade e pela explicação do processo tecnológico. De seguida, faremos uma breve explicação sobre o sistema de segurança do HACCP, no qual fazer-se-á referência às regras higio – sanitárias e técnico-funcionais da Unidade, passando-se depois, ao dimensionamento das câmaras frigorificas e dos túneis de secagem. Após o dimensionamento das instalações serão realizados os balanços térmicos, a partir dos quais, as instalações frigoríficas das câmaras e túneis de secagem serão dimensionadas. No âmbito dos componentes inseridos nas instalações frigoríficas da Unidade Industrial iremos proceder a uma explicação clara e sucinta dos mesmos. Na parte final, mas não menos importante, far-se-á um resumo do funcionamento das instalações das câmaras frigoríficas e túneis de secagem