On 4 February 2016, after almost seven years of negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ('TPP') was signed by 12 negotiating countries. The TPP was then labelled by all signatory ...countries as a 'new', 'high standard', and '21st century agreement'. However, the ratification process of the agreement was stalled and most likely in a definitive way, after the United States decided to withdraw from the TPP in January 2017. Before regretting this development, looking back to the halt of the ratification process of the TPP one can ask how much innovation this treaty really had and the usefulness of mourning the failure of having a TPP agreement, either in terms of future usage of TPP text, or in terms of political relevancy. This article aims to describe the level of novelty of the TPP, specifically in comparison with existing trade and investment agreements between TPP signatory countries, notably the United States. For that purpose, we have focused on the core disciplines of the agreement that were highlighted as novelty parts of the TPP, or that generated debate during the negotiation of the treaty. As a benchmark, we have compared the texts of the previous treaties concluded between TPP signatory states, with the TPP chapters on investment, government procurement, regulatory coherence, sustainable development, intellectual property, cross-border trade in services, telecommunications, electronic commerce, competition, and state-owned enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises ('SMEs'), transparency and anti-corruption. The article concludes that the TPP was largely 'Made in America' - the same country that triggered its demise - as the structure and content of the treaty clearly follow the texts of previous agreements concluded by the United States. However, the influence of other TPP signatories is also perceived in the final text, notably Australia, Canada, Chile and Peru. We also conclude that some parts of the TPP were not particularly novel for signatory countries, as the treaty built on existing trade and investment agreements, offering a consolidation of commitments already present in treaties in force between TPP signatories. However, the TPP also delivered innovation, by including certain disciplines that have not been traditionally established in preferential trade agreements (like regulatory coherence and e-commerce) and others that have benefited from a larger development compared to existing agreements (like intellectual property and sustainable development). Both consolidation and innovation features can be useful for a TPP 11 or for future preferential trade agreements.
On 4 February 2016, after almost seven years of negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ('TPP') was signed by 12 negotiating countries. The TPP was then labelled by all signatory ...countries as a 'new', 'high standard', and '21st century agreement'. However, the ratification process of the agreement was stalled and most likely in a definitive way, after the United States decided to withdraw from the TPP in January 2017. Before regretting this development, looking back to the halt of the ratification process of the TPP one can ask how much innovation this treaty really had and the usefulness of mourning the failure of having a TPP agreement, either in terms of future usage of TPP text, or in terms of political relevancy. This article aims to describe the level of novelty of the TPP, specifically in comparison with existing trade and investment agreements between TPP signatory countries, notably the United States. For that purpose, we have focused on the core disciplines of the agreement that were highlighted as novelty parts of the TPP, or that generated debate during the negotiation of the treaty. As a benchmark, we have compared the texts of the previous treaties concluded between TPP signatory states, with the TPP chapters on investment, government procurement, regulatory coherence, sustainable development, intellectual property, cross-border trade in services, telecommunications, electronic commerce, competition, and state-owned enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises ('SMEs'), transparency and anti-corruption. The article concludes that the TPP was largely 'Made in America' - the same country that triggered its demise - as the structure and content of the treaty clearly follow the texts of previous agreements concluded by the United States. However, the influence of other TPP signatories is also perceived in the final text, notably Australia, Canada, Chile and Peru. We also conclude that some parts of the TPP were not particularly novel for signatory countries, as the treaty built on existing trade and investment agreements, offering a consolidation of commitments already present in treaties in force between TPP signatories. However, the TPP also delivered innovation, by including certain disciplines that have not been traditionally established in preferential trade agreements (like regulatory coherence and e-commerce) and others that have benefited from a larger development compared to existing agreements (like intellectual property and sustainable development). Both consolidation and innovation features can be useful for a TPP 11 or for future preferential trade agreements.
This article shows a genetic algorithm that makes possible to fnd a feasible and acceptable solution to a manufacturing cell formation problem. The proposed genetic algorithm includes a new approach ...of the usually known aptitude function for this kind of problem resulting in a more exact solution. In order to validate the algorithm genetic operators this work includes a practical example with an imaginary company which wants to organize four manufacturing cells taking in account 30 different products using 10 machine types.
Este artículo desarrolla un algoritmo genético a través del cual es posible obtener una solución factible y satisfactoria al problema de conformación de celdas de manufactura. El algoritmo genético propuesto incluye un nuevo planteamiento de la función de aptitud tradicionalmente empleada para resolver este problema, permitiendo obtener una solución más ajustada a la realidad. Para validar el esquema y los operadores genéticos diseñados, se presenta un ejemplo de aplicación en donde se supone la existencia de una empresa que desea organizar de una manera efciente cuatro celdas de trabajo, teniendo en cuenta la fabricación de 30 productos diferentes en 10 tipos de máquina.
This paper presents the mantisGRID project, an interinstitutional initiative from Colombian medical and academic centers aiming to provide medical grid services for Colombia and Latin America. The ...mantisGRID is a GRID platform, based on open source grid infrastructure that provides the necessary services to access and exchange medical images and associated information following digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) and health level 7 standards. The paper focuses first on the data abstraction architecture, which is achieved via Open Grid Services Architecture Data Access and Integration (OGSA-DAI) services and supported by the Globus Toolkit. The grid currently uses a 30-Mb bandwidth of the Colombian High Technology Academic Network, RENATA, connected to Internet 2. It also includes a discussion on the relational database created to handle the DICOM objects that were represented using Extensible Markup Language Schema documents, as well as other features implemented such as data security, user authentication, and patient confidentiality. Grid performance was tested using the three current operative nodes and the results demonstrated comparable query times between the mantisGRID (OGSA-DAI) and Distributed mySQL databases, especially for a large number of records.
La Organización Mundial de la Salud declaró el Coronavirus como Emergencia de Salud Pública de Importancia Internacional, afirmando además que traspasa las fronteras geográficas a través de la ...transmisión de persona a persona entre viajeros infectados. Esta contingencia fue afrontada por el presidente Iván Duque, a través de 12 decretos presidenciales que expidió días después del primer caso de Coronavirus en Colombia. Sin embargo, la declaración de estado de emergencia y los mandatos presidenciales sobre orden público, entraron en conflicto con decretos departamentales y municipales expedidos previamente. Para dirimir este conflicto, el presente artículo es producto de una investigación cualitativa que hace una interpretación sistémica los 12 decretos presidenciales, con el fin de verificar el cumplimiento del principio de legalidad de las atribuciones presidenciales y el marco jurídico de los estados de excepción. Para tal fin, se aplicó el método de hermenéutica jurídica, con la técnica de análisis documental. Esta investigación evidenció que los decretos presidenciales promovieron la colaboración armónica entre todos los niveles de gobierno (municipal, departamental y nacional), y concluyó que esta facultad presidencial ha sido esencial para enfrentar la contingencia del Coronavirus, ante la ausencia de acciones del poder legislativo y judicial.
Simulation has been widely applied to health care cases in numerous countries. In Colombia, these applications are scarce. We use a systemic approach, discrete event simulation, ...simulation-optimization and linear programming to reduce waiting times in a health center in Medellin, Colombia. With this reduction we ensure a high level of satisfaction of patients with a relatively low additional cost.
Most research in social science in general, and in the field of migration studies,in particular, encounters the problem of causality when assessing the impactof any variable of interest. The ...counterfactual approach solves the problemsarising from non-random allocation of the populations under study to control andtreatment groups. In this paper, we present the problems of analyzing the causaleffects of remittances from the Global South in Paraguay, we propose a solutionand estimates the impact on Paraguayan schooling. The main results highlightthat there are no effects on investment in human capital and the potential of thepropensity score analysis.
Waveguide Stopped Light Mediated by Mode Transitions Pujol-Closa, Pilar; Gomis-Bresco, Jordi; Gomez-Diaz, J. Sebastian ...
2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC),
2019-June
Conference Proceeding
Odprti dostop
Summary form only given. Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) are uniaxial materials that have hyperbolic dispersion curves. There are two types of hyperbolic metamaterials, type I that is described by a ...permittivity tensor with ε || > 0 and ε ⊥ > 0, and type II that has ε || > 0 and ε ⊥ <; 0. Planar waveguides with hyperbolic materials have been mostly studied with propagation direction along the principal axis of the dielectric tensor only. Such studies showed that modes feature anomalous ordering in such a way that cut-off appears for lower order modes as light frequency increases. Interestingly, stopped light featuring null group velocity at specific wavelengths has been predicted for modes near cut-off in type II HMMs planar waveguides with optical axis (OA) oriented along the propagation direction 1. Here, we theoretically study light propagation in type II HMMs planar waveguides for any orientation φ of the OA contained in a plane parallel to the waveguides interfaces. The results shows that a change in the wavelength only changes the OA direction φ at which stopped light exist. The process is a consequence of the lack of mode cut-off and it is caused by a mode spectroscopy transition from hyperbolic modes with anomalous order propagating along the OA (φ = 0°), to modes with normal order, propagating orthogonally to the OA (φ = 90°). We study a three layer system, as it can be seen in Fig. la, in which the film and the cladding are the same isotropic material, and the guiding layer is a type II HMM. The OA of the waveguide is parallel to the interfaces forming an angle çb with the propagation direction. Mode solutions are obtained using a Berreman method.
Con este artículo pretendo mostrar cómo, mediante argumentos escritos, varios miembros de la Compañía de Jesús en la Real Audiencia de Quito trataron de contrarrestar los proyectos de ocupación ...territorial emprendidos por la corona de Portugal en el noroccidente amazónico (provincia de Maynas) durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII. Para ello, se emplearán los diferentes argumentos defensivos escritos por algunos misioneros jesuitas en contra de los portugueses de las capitanías de Grão Pará y Maranhão. Estos argumentos demuestran la complejidad de tales disputas imperiales, pero no fueron efectivos para impedir las constantes acciones militares de los ejércitos portugueses que desembocaron en la pérdida de una amplia fracción jurisdiccional de los dominios hispánicos en América del Sur.
With this article I will try to demonstrate how by the use of written arguments, some members of the Society of Jesus in the Real Audiencia de Quito were trying to counteract the projects of land occupation undertaken by the Portuguese Crown in the Northwestern of the Amazon basin (province of Maynas) during the 18th century. For that, I will use the different defensive arguments written by some of the jesuit missionaries against the Portuguese inhabitants from the capitanias of Grão Pará and Maranhão. Arguments that show the complexity of those imperial disputes, but that were not effective to prevent the constant military actions of the Portuguese armies that led to the loss of a huge jurisdictional fraction of the Spanish domains in South America.
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