O objeto de estudo da presente dissertação corresponde ao sopesamento ou ponderação, método que vem sendo aplicado de modo freqüente em vários países para a resolução de colisões entre direitos fundamentais. Por ser altamente difundido atualmente, muitas vezes o cenário é caracterizado por uma aplicação irrefletida, ou seja, sem maiores questionamentos sobre o método em si. No entanto, existe grande discussão sobre o tema, principalmente sobre se é possível aplicar o sopesamento de forma racional. Neste trabalho, o foco da pesquisa constitui exatamente analisar detalhadamente os problemas de aplicação do método, relacionados à possibilidade do desenvolvimento de critérios racionais de decidibilidade. Em outras palavras, procura-se examinar se é possível considerar o sopesamento um método racional na decisão de colisões entre direitos fundamentais, no intuito de se investigar as possibilidades de fundamentação dos juízos ponderativos, assim como as pretensões de racionalidade, correção ou objetividade que se podem relacionar à técnica. Para isso, a pesquisa examinou o debate teórico sobre sopesamento e, tendo em mente as críticas analisadas, foi realizada análise sobre o conceito de racionalidade possível no direito e sobre a estrutura e modelos de ponderação. / The purpose of this paper is to analyze balancing or weighing rights, method that is frequently used worldwide in judicial decisions when principles collide. As its central position in the argumentation of many judicial decisions, the method is often used without a special reflection on its meaning and structure. Notwithstanding, there is a debate about the theme, mainly about if it is possible to use balancing rationally. In this paper, the focus is to analyze the problems related to the method and to the possibility of developing rational criteria. In other words, I seek to examine whether it is possible to consider balancing as a rational method in judicial decisions involving collisions between fundamental rights, in order to investigate the possibilities of reasoning, as well as the claims of rationality, objectivity, or the structure that may relate to the procedure. For this, the research examined the theoretical debate on weighing rights and, after that, studied the concept of rationality possible in law and the structure of weighting models.

A crescente disponibilizaÃÃo de serviÃos atravÃs da Internet vem impondo uma demanda cada vez maior por recursos de processamento no lado servidor favorecendo a utilizaÃÃo dos Clusters de Computadores e das Grades Computacionais. Em paralelo, a engenharia de software traz novos paradigmas, como a OrientaÃÃo a ServiÃos, que impÃem novos desafios a serem tratados pelos fornecedores de serviÃos. A convergÃncia destes fatores deu origem as Arquiteturas de Grades Computacionais Orientadas a ServiÃos. Neste trabalho à apresentada uma proposta de arquitetura em grades computacionais orientada a serviÃos, denominada GDSAC (Grid â DiffServ Admission Control), que trata de aspectos ligados à QoS (Quality of Service) e a diferenciaÃÃo de serviÃos. A arquitetura G-DSAC à uma extensÃo da arquitetura WS-DSAC (Web Servers â DiffServ AdmissionControl). Està extensÃo compreende a concepÃÃo de uma soluÃÃo voltada para grades computacionais que à capaz de garantir os SLAs (Service Level Agreements) estabelecidos com os consumidores de serviÃos utilizando de forma otimizada os recursos de processamento disponibilizados na grade. A soluÃÃo permite ainda a diferenciaÃÃo de serviÃos no que diz respeito aos tempos de resposta oferecidos aos clientes, usuÃrios finais e serviÃos consumidores. A nova arquitetura introduz um bloco de funcionalidades em uma plataforma de grade computacional orientada a serviÃos formada por multclusters. Esse bloco permite a publicaÃÃo e localizaÃÃo de serviÃos, autenticaÃÃo e classificaÃÃo de requisiÃÃes e o escalonamento das mesmas dentro da grade de acordo com a classe de serviÃo a qual pertencem. Foi tambÃm implementado um protÃtipo que permitiu a realizaÃÃo de experimentos em uma plataforma real de testes visando avaliar a capacidade da soluÃÃo em atingir os objetivos por ela proposto

The implementation of the mandatory alternative payment model (APM) guarantees savings for Medicare regardless of participant hospitals ability for reducing spending that shifts the cost minimization burden from insurers onto the hospital administrators. Surgical interventions account for more than 30% and 40% of hospitals total cost and total revenue, respectively, with a cost structure consisting of nearly 56% direct cost, thus, large cost reduction is possible through efficient operation management. However, optimizing operating rooms (ORs) schedules is extraordinarily challenging due to the complexities involved in the process. We present new algorithms and managerial guidelines to address the problem of OR planning and scheduling with disturbances in demand and case times, and inconsistencies among the performance measures. We also present an extension of these algorithms that addresses production scheduling for sustainability. We demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of these algorithms via simulation and statistical analyses.

<p>The aim of this work is to present and examine the ruling on which the Colombian Constitutional Court declared the blanket criminalization of induced abortion to be unconstitutional: ruling C-355/061; all of this based in the understanding I have achieved of the Courts’ reasoning.</p><p>In the first section I will present the norms that constituted the blanket prohibition of abortion, as well as the likely situation of its practice, both by the time the Constitutional Court took up the analysis of the former. This will provide a good understanding of the importance of the ruling and its starting point. In the second section I will put forth the general nature of the Court and its rulings, inscribed in the Colombian social, political and legal transformation brought by the 1991 constitutional change. I will also bring in the specific decisions the Court made regarding the conditioned constitutionality of induced abortion and the unconstitutionality of the legal expression that equated an abortion performed on a woman less than fourteen years of age to an abortion without consent, thus punishing it harder than a consented one. Such verdict is the starting point of an effort to trace, present and examine the ethical arguments the Court has woven to reach it, all of which will be undertaken in the third section.</p><p>In the fourth section I shall elaborate on two of the common ethical elements that work as corner stones for the Court’s arguments: human dignity and the belief that fundamental rights and constitutional protected goods are not absolute; I will particularly point out how they play a role in the Court’s argumentation. As a conclusion I will offer a final general appraisal of the Court’s work.</p>

Cavity balancing is the process of altering the flow front within a cavity through thickness and design changes such that the desired fill pattern is achieved. The 2 dimensional (2D) cavity-balancing algorithm, developed by Lam and Seow [1] can only handle 2D geometry. This represents a major drawback as most, if not all of the practical injected parts are not 2D parts. To overcome this difficulty, the present investigation has developed a 2.5 dimensional (2.5D) cavity balancing optimization routine implemented within a 2.5 D finite elements domain. The aim of the automated cavity balancing routine is to reduce product development time and to improve product quality. This will lower the level of prerequisite expert knowledge necessary for successful mold and part design. The automated cavity balancing routine has been developed using the concept of flow paths. The hill-climbing algorithm of Lam and Seow is utilized but modified for the generation of flow paths for 2.5D parts. The algorithm has been implemented in a computer program running as an external loop to the MOLDFLOW software. Case studies are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of this routine. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

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The aim of this work is to present and examine the ruling on which the Colombian Constitutional Court declared the blanket criminalization of induced abortion to be unconstitutional: ruling C-355/061; all of this based in the understanding I have achieved of the Courts’ reasoning. In the first section I will present the norms that constituted the blanket prohibition of abortion, as well as the likely situation of its practice, both by the time the Constitutional Court took up the analysis of the former. This will provide a good understanding of the importance of the ruling and its starting point. In the second section I will put forth the general nature of the Court and its rulings, inscribed in the Colombian social, political and legal transformation brought by the 1991 constitutional change. I will also bring in the specific decisions the Court made regarding the conditioned constitutionality of induced abortion and the unconstitutionality of the legal expression that equated an abortion performed on a woman less than fourteen years of age to an abortion without consent, thus punishing it harder than a consented one. Such verdict is the starting point of an effort to trace, present and examine the ethical arguments the Court has woven to reach it, all of which will be undertaken in the third section. In the fourth section I shall elaborate on two of the common ethical elements that work as corner stones for the Court’s arguments: human dignity and the belief that fundamental rights and constitutional protected goods are not absolute; I will particularly point out how they play a role in the Court’s argumentation. As a conclusion I will offer a final general appraisal of the Court’s work.

With the rapid growth of data and computational needs, distributed systems and computational Grids are gaining more and more attention. Grids are playing an important and growing role in today networks. The huge amount of computations a Grid can fulfill in a specificc time cannot be done by the best super computers. However, Grid performance can still be improved by making sure all the resources available in the Grid are utilized by a good load balancing algorithm. The purpose of such algorithms is to make sure all nodes are equally involved in Grid computations. This research proposes two new distributed swarm intelligence inspired load balancing algorithms. One is based on ant colony optimization and is called AntZ, the other one is based on particle swarm optimization and is called ParticleZ. Distributed load balancing does not incorporate a single point of failure in the system. In the AntZ algorithm, an ant is invoked in response to submitting a job to the Grid and this ant surfs the network to find the best resource to deliver the job to. In the ParticleZ algorithm, each node plays a role as a particle and moves toward other particles by sharing its workload among them. We will be simulating our proposed approaches using a Grid simulation toolkit (GridSim) dedicated to Grid simulations. The performance of the algorithms will be evaluated using several performance criteria (e.g. makespan and load balancing level). A comparison of our proposed approaches with a classical approach called State Broadcast Algorithm and two random approaches will also be provided. Experimental results show the proposed algorithms (AntZ and ParticleZ) can perform very well in a Grid environment. In particular, the use of particle swarm optimization, which has not been addressed in the literature, can yield better performance results in many scenarios than the ant colony approach.

With the rapid growth of data and computational needs, distributed systems and computational Grids are gaining more and more attention. Grids are playing an important and growing role in today networks. The huge amount of computations a Grid can fulfill in a specificc time cannot be done by the best super computers. However, Grid performance can still be improved by making sure all the resources available in the Grid are utilized by a good load balancing algorithm. The purpose of such algorithms is to make sure all nodes are equally involved in Grid computations. This research proposes two new distributed swarm intelligence inspired load balancing algorithms. One is based on ant colony optimization and is called AntZ, the other one is based on particle swarm optimization and is called ParticleZ. Distributed load balancing does not incorporate a single point of failure in the system. In the AntZ algorithm, an ant is invoked in response to submitting a job to the Grid and this ant surfs the network to find the best resource to deliver the job to. In the ParticleZ algorithm, each node plays a role as a particle and moves toward other particles by sharing its workload among them. We will be simulating our proposed approaches using a Grid simulation toolkit (GridSim) dedicated to Grid simulations. The performance of the algorithms will be evaluated using several performance criteria (e.g. makespan and load balancing level). A comparison of our proposed approaches with a classical approach called State Broadcast Algorithm and two random approaches will also be provided. Experimental results show the proposed algorithms (AntZ and ParticleZ) can perform very well in a Grid environment. In particular, the use of particle swarm optimization, which has not been addressed in the literature, can yield better performance results in many scenarios than the ant colony approach.

Clustering schemes can reduce energy consumption, prolong network lifetime and improve scalability in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In a typical cluster-based WSN, sensor nodes are organized into clusters. Each cluster elects a cluster head (CH) node. The CH is responsible for collecting the sensed data from cluster members, aggregating data and transmitting data to the sink node via a multi-hop path through intermediate CHs. Thus, the use of cluster techniques not only shortens the transmission distances for sensor nodes but also reduces energy consumption; however, each cluster imposes a larger load on the CH. Under this situation, CHs closer to the sink node tend to use up their batteries faster than those farther away from the sink node due to imbalanced traffics among CHs. To overcome this problem, we contribute to the energy balancing issues in WSNs from two aspects. In the first work, we first analyze the corona model. Based on analysis results, we found that nearly balanced energy consumption of WSNs can be achieved with the additional help of arranging different initial conditions. We then propose the Energy-balanced Node Deployment with Balanced Energy (END-BE) scheme and Energy-balanced Node Deployment with Maximum Life-Time (END-MLT) scheme, which determine the cluster density for each corona according to the energy consumption of each CH. Simulation results show that energy consumption is nearly balanced by implementing END-BE, and the network lifetime is greatly improved by adopting END-MLT. In the second work, we development a novel cluster-based routing protocol for corona-structured wireless sensor networks in order to balance the energy consumption among CHs. Based on the relaying traffic of each CH conveys, adequate radius for each corona can be determined through nearly balanced energy depletion analysis, which leads to balanced energy consumption among CHs. Simulation results demonstrate that our clustering approach effectively improves the network lifetime, residual energy and reduces the number of CH rotations in comparison with the Multi-Layer Clustering Routing Algorithm (MLCRA).