João Paulo Dias

Detection of Anatomic Structures in Retinal Images

A retinal image presents three important structures in a healthy eye: optic disk, fovea and blood vessels. These are diseases associated with changes in each of these structures. Some parameters should be extracted in order to evaluate if an eye is healthy. For example, the level of imperfection of the optic disk’s circle contour is related with glaucoma. Furthermore, the proximity of the lesion in the retina to the fovea (structure responsible for the central vision) induces loss of vision. Advanced stages of diabetic retinopathy cause the formation of micro blood vessels that increase the risk of detachment of the retina or prevent light from reaching the fovea. On the other hand, the arterio-venous ratio calculated through the thickness of the central vein and artery of the retina, is a parameter extracted from the vessels segmentation. In image processing, each structure detected has special importance to detect the others, since each one can be used as a landmark to the others. Moreover, often masking the optic disk is crucial to reach good results with algorithms to detect other structures. The performance of the detection algorithms is highly related with the quality of the image and with the existence of lesions. These issues are discussed below.

Citizenship and justice: public prosecutors in social contexts in Portugal

All over the world judicial systems are under tremendous pressure as the instruments used by citizens to access their full rights. The erosion of other state powers has transferred expectations of social intervention or, at least, protection for the rights of the weak and vulnerable, to the sphere of justice. Hence, in some countries the social role of judges or public prosecutors has become more important and their work is publicly scrutinised to ensure that their duties are performed correctly and fairly. In addition to criminal law, social areas of justice (concerning workers and children) have become more central to judicial systems, conferring a new public responsibility on these professionals. In several countries, including Portugal, public prosecutors are unusual within the legal profession given that they have equal status in both social and criminal areas of law. In certain systems, public prosecutors may act as a party, defending the rights of powerless citizens and leading them through the judicial process. Such powers offer great potential for fairness and justice but at the same time can lead to dangerous professional controversies. Through an analysis of the Portuguese model, one of the more advanced of its kind (in terms of intervention), some of the main features will be described and identified. Public prosecutors in Portugal have, for many years, been in charge of a set of very varied responsibilities within the context of the Family and Juvenile and Labour Courts which far exceed what is publicly acknowledged, particularly in criminal matters. However, their functions are not limited to those of the ‘public prosecutor’ or ‘coordinator of the investigation’ typically associated with responsibilities in criminal matters. Within the context of these two major and socially sensitive areas, public prosecutors act as intermediaries between the different parties and entities involved in litigation, a fact which, in professional terms, endows them with features which are atypical of magistrates and places them in close contact with citizens. Thus, taking a case study based on the Coimbra Family and Juvenile and Labour Courts as its starting point, this paper aims to map out these formal and informal functions, which create a level of importance that is probably much higher than would have been expected, particularly given the lack of truly credible and effective alternatives that enable citizens to access law and justice.

The transition to a democratic Portuguese judicial system: (delaying) changes in the legal culture

The Revolution of 25 April 1974 had a strong impact on justice in Portugal. Initially, it can be said that there was evidence of a process of democratisation involving the judicial structures, together with effective improvements to conditions allowing for independent and autonomous professional performance. However, in analysing the course of judicial reforms, it can be seen that changes took place more on a legislative level than in terms of the performance of the courts, proving that the evolution of the judicial system still demands a change of the legal culture. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to reflect on the evolution of the legal architecture in Portugal, seeking to determine whether the transition to a democratic judicial system is complete or whether, on the contrary, we are still faced with the process of justice in transition, delaying any changes in the current legal culture. I. Justice(s), democratisation, protagonists and social change: forty years after the Revolution The analysis of democratisation processes in various countries that have experienced dictatorships, such as Spain, Greece, Portugal or, more recently, Eastern and Central European countries, ‘tends to present the construction of an independent judiciary either as an automatic consequence of the institutionalisation of democracy, or as one of the ceteris paribus conditions under which the behaviour of political actors unfolds’ (Magalhães, 1995, p. 51). The courts and the judicial system as a whole are not, in general, a priority for the new political actors, who are more concerned with stabilising the political system, the functioning of public services and economic recovery (Przeworski, 1991; O’Donnel and Schmitter, 2013). Transitional periods are always complex and difficult to analyse using a multidimensional approach, as the focus is often narrow and restricted to specific disciplines. It is essential to introduce a legal and political analysis within a historical context in order to observe trends, options, actors, attitudes and the performance of the judicial systems (Shapiro, 1981). Failure to consider any complex critical analysis of the evolution of the judicial system frequently leads to only partially drafted, limited reforms to improve the courts’ ability to provide better justice for citizens (Hammergreen, 2007). In Portugal, the process of democratisation after the Revolution of 25 April 1974 followed the same trend, with the major concerns of the new political actors focusing on completing the transition without provoking potential political conflicts between the different emerging parties. * This paper was written within the framework of a broader research project entitled ‘Who are our magistrates? A professional characterisation of judges and public prosecutors in Portugal’, supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPJ-JUR/100390/2008 | FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-009210). In terms of rights and duties, judges and public prosecutors are two separate but parallel judicial professions in Portugal. In addition to carrying out a survey of judges and public prosecutors, the project also analysed the evolution of judicial reforms in Portugal during the last forty years, aiming to understand the complex interactions between politics and justice. This is the focus of the present paper. † Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Email: jpdias@ces.uc.pt; International Journal of Law in Context, 12,1 pp. 24–41 (2016)