9,486 research outputs found

    Economia colaborativa

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    A importância de se proceder à análise dos principais desafios jurídicos que a economia colaborativa coloca – pelas implicações que as mudanças de paradigma dos modelos de negócios e dos sujeitos envolvidos suscitam − é indiscutível, correspondendo à necessidade de se fomentar a segurança jurídica destas práticas, potenciadoras de crescimento económico e bem-estar social. O Centro de Investigação em Justiça e Governação (JusGov) constituiu uma equipa multidisciplinar que, além de juristas, integra investigadores de outras áreas, como a economia e a gestão, dos vários grupos do JusGov – embora com especial participação dos investigadores que integram o grupo E-TEC (Estado, Empresa e Tecnologia) – e de outras prestigiadas instituições nacionais e internacionais, para desenvolver um projeto neste domínio, com o objetivo de identificar os problemas jurídicos que a economia colaborativa suscita e avaliar se já existem soluções para aqueles, refletindo igualmente sobre a conveniência de serem introduzidas alterações ou se será mesmo necessário criar nova regulamentação. O resultado desta investigação é apresentado nesta obra, com o que se pretende fomentar a continuação do debate sobre este tema.Esta obra é financiada por fundos nacionais através da FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito do Financiamento UID/05749/202

    Inovação, empreendedorismo e desenvolvimento económico em África: Uma abordagem pós-positivista e "topo da pirâmide" para Moçambique

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    Esta tese desenvolve uma investigação abrangente sobre o empreendedorismo africano, revisitando o seu quadro concetual tradicional e posicionando-o enquanto elemento fundamental das estratégias de desenvolvimento para a África Subsariana (ASS). Explorados os diferentes impactos do empreendedorismo de oportunidade e do empreendedorismo de necessidade na região, efetuou-se uma pesquisa sobre a situação dos vários países da ASS que participaram no Global Entrepreneurship Monitor na última década, com vista a compor o status quo hipotético do empreendedorismo regional, ao qual juntámos um estudo empírico original e com elementos metodológicos inovadores sobre a atividade empreendedora em Moçambique. O alcance das estratégias empreendedoras implementadas na ASS é avaliado através de um estudo dos polos africanos de inovação tecnológica e do empreendedorismo digital que neles tem vindo recentemente a emergir, a que juntámos um levantamento original do tech hub de Maluana. Por fim, a partir destes casos e de uma leitura política das opções económicas do estado moçambicano com impacto sobre o ecossistema empreendedor, desenvolve-se uma proposta de teoria da mudança, numa lógica pós-positivista, para suportar medidas de política pública desejáveis para a eclosão de um empreendedorismo de “topo da pirâmide” em Moçambique.This thesis develops a comprehensive investigation of African entrepreneurship, revisiting its traditional conceptual framework and positioning it as a fundamental element in development strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Exploring the different impacts of opportunity entrepreneurship and necessity entrepreneurship in the region, an analysis was carried out on the situation of the various SSA countries that participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in the last decade, with a view to composing the hypothetical status quo of the entrepreneurship in the region, to which we added an original empirical study with innovative methodological elements on entrepreneurial activity in Mozambique. The reach of entrepreneurial strategies implemented in the SSA is assessed through a study of the African tech hubs, or innovation hubs, and the digital entrepreneurship that has recently emerged there, to which we have added an original survey of the Maluana tech hub. Finally, based on these cases and on a political reading of the economic options of the Mozambican government with an impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, a proposal for a theory-of-change is developed, within a post-positivist approach, to support desired public policy measures for the emergence of a “top of the pyramid” entrepreneurship in Mozambique

    Desenvolvimento Curricular Baseado em Dados Factuais: uma Revisão Sistemática da Literatura

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    Um dos desafios das instituições de ensino superior e garantir que o estudante não evada do curso e o conclua no tempo ideal. O desenvolvimento curricular que se baseia em dados factuais e uma maneira que busca garantir mais assertividade no (re)desenho curricular. Esta tarefa pode ser realizada através do Balanceamento de Currículo Acadêmico e/ou por meio do Curricular Analytics. Este artigo apresenta a primeira Revisão Sistemática da Literatura sobre o tema. Os resultados mostram uma ascensão dos estudos com abordagens e métodos diversos, porém ainda tímida e com baixo emprego ou disponibilização de ferramentas que apoiem os processos de tomadas de decisão

    Cumulant expansion framework for internal gradient distributions tensors

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    Magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful, non invasive tool for medical diagnosis. The low sensitivity for detecting the nuclear spin signals, typically limits the image resolution to several tens of micrometers in preclinical systems and millimeters in clinical scanners. Other sources of information, derived from diffusion processes of intrinsic molecules as water in the tissues, allow getting morphological information at micrometric and submicrometric scales as potential biomarkers of several pathologies. Here we consider extracting this morphological information by probing the distribution of internal magnetic field gradients induced by the heterogeneous magnetic susceptibility of the medium. We use a cumulant expansion to derive the dephasing on the spin signal induced by the molecules that explore these internal gradients while diffuse. Based on the cumulant expansion, we define internal gradient distributions tensors (IGDT) and propose modulating gradient spin echo sequences to probe them. These IGDT contain microstructural morphological information that characterize porous media and biological tissues. We evaluate the IGDT effects on the magnetization decay with typical conditions of brain tissue and show their effects can be experimentally observed. Our results thus provide a framework for exploiting IGDT as quantitative diagnostic tools

    Neuroanatomical and gene expression features of the rabbit accessory olfactory system. Implications of pheromone communication in reproductive behaviour and animal physiology

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    Mainly driven by the vomeronasal system (VNS), pheromone communication is involved in many species-specific fundamental innate socio-sexual behaviors such as mating and fighting, which are essential for animal reproduction and survival. Rabbits are a unique model for studying chemocommunication due to the discovery of the rabbit mammary pheromone, but paradoxically there has been a lack of knowledge regarding its VNS pathway. In this work, we aim at filling this gap by approaching the system from an integrative point of view, providing extensive anatomical and genomic data of the rabbit VNS, as well as pheromone-mediated reproductive and behavioural studies. Our results build strong foundation for further translational studies which aim at implementing the use of pheromones to improve animal production and welfare

    Valores Públicos e Performance Financeira das Entidades Públicas: Proposta de Modelo de Análise na Perspetiva do Relato

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    Tese de Doutoramento em Administração Pública Especialização em Administração e Políticas PúblicasA criação de valor público, na qual a Administração Pública assume um papel fundamental, deverá traduzir o interesse dos cidadãos e nortear-se por um conjunto abrangente de valores públicos. Estes valores públicos, amplos, complexos e divergentes, devem integrar o modelo de governança democrática, suportar a tomada de decisão e servir de referência para a Administração Pública, na prossecução do interesse público. Tendo por base os modelos de governação pública, a Teoria do Valor Público e a Teoria do Interesse Público, bem como as dimensões dos valores públicos apontadas por stakeholders e influencers da informação financeira pública, procurou estudar-se de que forma os valores públicos, que materializam o interesse público, podem integrar na sua função de accountability, a avaliação e a análise da performance financeira na perspetiva da prestação de contas das entidades públicas. Nesse sentido, o estudo pretendeu identificar quais os valores públicos de natureza económica e financeira que interessam aos stakeholders e enquadrá-los num modelo estruturado de análise da financeira, que contribua para o reforço da performance accountability e transparência do relato financeiro público. A partir de uma estratégia de investigação mista, materializada na realização de entrevistas semiestruturadas e no ensaio aplicado sobre os dados financeiros do Município de Cascais, a investigação desenvolveu um modelo de análise e relato da performance financeira com vista a integrar a prestação de contas das entidades públicas, tendo como referência basilar não a ótica contabilística da estrutura e conteúdo das demonstrações financeiras, mas os «valores públicos» que consubstanciam o «interesse público». Conclui-se que este modelo favorece a adequação do relato financeiro público aos valores públicos, bem como representa um contributo para a normalização da avaliação da performance, reduzindo a discricionariedade do relato, melhorando o benchmarking financeiro e o robustecimento do sistema de avaliação do desempenho das entidades públicas previsto na Lei de Enquadramento Orçamental.The creation of public value, in which the Public Administration plays a key role, should translate the citizens' interest and be guided by a comprehensive set of public values. These public values, broad, complex and divergent, should integrate the democratic governance model, support decision-making, and serve as a reference for the Public Administration in the pursuit of public interest. Based on the models of public governance, the Public Interest Theory and the Theory of Public Values, as well as the dimensions of public values pointed out by stakeholders and influencers of public financial information, we sought to study how public values, which materialize public interest, can integrate into the function of accountability, the evaluation and analysis of financial performance from the perspective of accountability of public entities. In this sense, the study intended to identify which public values of economic and financial nature are of interest to the stakeholders and frame them in a structured model of financial performance analysis, which contributes to the strengthening of accountability and transparency of public financial reporting. Based on a mixed research strategy, materialized in semi-structured interviews and the test applied on the financial data of the Municipality of Cascais, the research developed a model of analysis and reporting of the financial performance to integrate the accountability of public entities. This was done having as an essential reference not the accounting perspective of the structure and content of the financial statements, but the "public values" that embody the "public interest". The conclusion is that this model favours the adequacy of public financial reporting to public values and represents a contribution to the standardization of performance evaluation, reducing the discretion of reporting, improving financial benchmarking, and strengthening the performance evaluation system of public entities foreseen in the Budgetary Framework Law.N/

    Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders

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    This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances

    The mechanisms of antibody generation in the llama

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    The llama is able to generate a unique class of antibody. The heavy chain immunoglobulins consist only of two heavy chain polypeptides and bind antigen specifically through single protein domains. Although the mechanisms by which such an antibody interacts with antigen has been studied at some length the manner in which the heavy chain antibody is generated within the llama is unknown. In this study a number of components of the llama immune system have been characterised. The isolation of genes encoding the variable domain of the heavy chain antibody indicates that specific genetic elements within the llama genome are responsible for the generation of the heavy chain antibody. The discovery of constant region genes that encode the heavy chain antibody provides an explanation for the absence of a major immunoglobulin domain from the final, secreted gene product. The lack of this domain within the expressed antibody is believed to be the result of a single nucleotide splice site mutation. In order to investigate the process of llama antibody generation further additional components of the llama immune system, the recombination activating genes (rag) were isolated. One such llama rag gene (rag-i) was cloned, expressed and utilised in an in vitro assay system to investigate recombination events taking place during antibody generation. This assay involved the use of specific signal sequences derived from variable domain gene sequence data and represents, to our knowledge, the first examination of non-murine RAG activity. Through the use of this system distinct differences between llama and mouse recombination signal sequences (RSSs) were uncovered. These differences, located within a specific region of the RSS known as the coding flank, may play an important role in llama antibody generation. These results have led to the proposal of a number of models for the mechanisms involved in llama antibody generation

    Thermodynamics and inflammation: insights into quantum biology and ageing

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    Inflammation as a biological concept has been around a long time and derives from the Latin “to set on fire” and refers to the redness and heat, and usually swelling, which accompanies injury and infection. Chronic inflammation is also associated with ageing and is described by the term “inflammaging”. Likewise, the biological concept of hormesis, in the guise of what “does not kill you, makes you stronger”, has long been recognized, but in contrast, seems to have anti-inflammatory and age-slowing characteristics. As both phenomena act to restore homeostasis, they may share some common underlying principles. Thermodynamics describes the relationship between heat and energy, but is also intimately related to quantum mechanics. Life can be viewed as a series of self-renewing dissipative structures existing far from equilibrium as vortexes of “negentropy” that ages and dies; but, through reproduction and speciation, new robust structures are created, enabling life to adapt and continue in response to ever changing environments. In short, life can be viewed as a natural consequence of thermodynamics to dissipate energy to restore equilibrium; each component of this system is replaceable. However, at the molecular level, there is perhaps a deeper question: is life dependent on, or has it enhanced, quantum effects in space and time beyond those normally expected at the atomistic scale and temperatures that life operates at? There is some evidence it has. Certainly, the dissipative adaptive mechanism described by thermodynamics is now being extended into the quantum realm. Fascinating though this topic is, does exploring the relationship between quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and biology give us a greater insight into ageing and, thus, medicine? It could be said that hormesis and inflammation are expressions of thermodynamic and quantum principles that control ageing via natural selection that could operate at all scales of life. Inflammation could be viewed as a mechanism to remove inefficient systems in response to stress to enable rebuilding of more functional dissipative structures, and hormesis as the process describing the ability to adapt; underlying this is the manipulation of fundamental quantum principles. Defining what “quantum biological normality” is has been a long-term problem, but perhaps we do not need to, as it is simply an expression of one end of the normal quantum mechanical spectrum, implying that biology could inform us as to how we can define the quantum world

    Equity research - EDP Renováveis S.A. : the value of financial flexibility

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    Mestrado Bolonha em FinançasThe present document is the report of an Equity Research of EDP Renováveis, S.A. (EDPR). EDPR is a leading global renewable energy company, that develops, constructs, and operates onshore wind farms, solar energy plants, and offshore wind projects to deliver clean energy to its customers in over 20 countries. This report applies a DCF FCFF Sum-of-the-Parts approach to capture all the characteristics and risks of each segment. We issue a buy recommendation for EDPR, with a 2022YE price target of €24.7/share. This valuation implies a 24% upside potential from the January 12th, 2022 closing price of €19.9, with medium-low risk. Other valuation approaches were used to confirm the robustness of the analysis. Additionally, the valuation was subject to multiple sensitivity analyses to address its risk. Following the original research, a complementary approach was carried out to analyse EDPR’s Financial Flexibility. By using a Real Options approach with the BlackScholes-Merton model, we value the benefits of staying underlevered and provide a framework to support management’s decisions on the design of the capital structure. Our analysis shows that companies with certain characteristics may benefit a lot from financial flexibility. Specifically, EDPR distinguishes itself from its peers by maintaining flexibility in a current scenario of growth and uncertainty. The value of financial flexibility is not usually accounted for explicitly in the stock price. Thus, we update our recommendation to capture EDPR’s unique strategy in its industry. The report was finalized on January 16th, 2022. By March 2022, an updated snapshot was created, to reflect the impacts of the military invasion of Ukraine.O presente documento consiste num relatório de Equity Research sobre a EDP Renováveis, S.A. (EDPR). A EDPR é uma empresa líder global de energia renovável, que desenvolve, constrói e opera parques eólicos onshore, parques de energia solar e projetos eólicos offshore para fornecer energia limpa aos seus clientes. Neste relatório é aplicada uma abordagem DCF FCFF Soma das Partes de modo a capturar todas as características e riscos de cada segmento. Emitimos uma recomendação de compra para a EDPR, com um preço-alvo de €24.7/ação no final do ano de 2022. Esta avaliação implica um potencial de valorização de 24%, face ao preço de fecho a 12 de Janeiro de 2022 de €19.9, com um nível de risco médio-baixo. Outros métodos de avaliação foram usados para confirmar a robustez da análise. Adicionalmente, a avaliação foi sujeita a várias análises de sensibilidade a fim de abordar o seu risco. Foi realizada uma abordagem complementar para analisar a Flexibilidade Financeira da EDPR. Usando uma abordagem de Real Options com o modelo Black-ScholesMerton, avaliamos os benefícios de permanecer sob-alavancado e fornecemos uma estrutura para apoiar as decisões da gestão no que diz respeito à estrutura de capital. A nossa análise mostra que empresas com certas características podem beneficiar bastante ao mostrar flexibilidade financeira. Especificamente, a EDPR distingue-se dos seus peers ao manter flexibilidade num cenário atual de crescimento e incerteza. Normalmente, o valor da flexibilidade financeira não é incorporado explicitamente no preço da ação. Logo, atualizamos a nossa recomendação de modo a capturar a estratégia diferenciadora da EDPR na sua indústria. Este relatório foi finalizado no dia 16 de janeiro de 2022. Em março de 2022, foi criado um snapshot atualizado, para refletir os impactos da invasão militar à Ucrânia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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