Institutional conditions for effective and legitimate industrial policies: the case of Portugal

State intervention in support of specific productive activities aiming to foster structural change (i.e., industrial policy) has been a controversial topic in both academic and political debates. In spite of many years of theoretical and empirical research, such debate has not reached definite conclusions. Recently, the debate on industrial policy has been experiencing a change of focus, falling away from the rationale of such public interventions to focus on the institutional conditions that promote the success of the policies pursued. In this paper we analyse the conditions for effective and legitimate industrial policies, examining four cases of such type of interventions in Portugal. Our analysis emphasises the differences between the various interventions according to two dimensions: the number of (potential) beneficiaries targeted by the policy and the diversity of public agencies in possession of relevant skills for its implementation. These factors help to determine the level of scrutiny to which public policies are subjected, either by private actors or within the State apparatus. Both sources of scrutiny help to minimise the risks of capture of public resources by private interests, and to foster institutional learning processes that promote the effectiveness of policies.FCT

Counterfactual impact evaluation of EU funded enterprise support in Portugal

This paper uses a counterfactual approach to assess the impact of the main Operational Program of the EU Structural Funds in Portugal during the period 2000-2006 (POE/PRIME) on the performance of beneficiary firms. We find that public support to firms’ investment increases their likelihood of survival after three years by 11 percentage points, and leads to the net creation of 2.1 additional jobs in the same period. The positive results obtained in our study suggest that the public support to firms’ investment in Portugal in 2000-2006 was mostly well designed, at least in the light of the impact dimensions under analysis. The incentives were particularly effective in the case of firms that are typically more fragile (particularly, new firms and/or firms with low financial autonomy). We also find that the support had greater impacts in the case of large firms, and that the average cost per additional job created as a result of incentives was relatively modestObservatório do QREN, COMPETE, CCDR Norte, IFDR and FC

Producción de lípidos funcionales y antioxidantes naturales a partir de semillas de maracuyá

The wild passion fruit species Passiflora setacea, Passiflora alata, and Passiflora tenuifila are native to the Brazilian biomass. The seed waste generated from the extraction of passion fruit juice contains functional polyunsaturated fatty acids and phenolic compounds. The aims of this study were to obtain lipids and natural antioxidants from passion fruit seeds. Passion seed oils were extracted using a lab-scale continuous press and their oxidative stability was evaluated using the Rancimat® method. Higher antioxidant extract capacity was observed when using an ethanol-water solution (70:30) at 45 ºC. In these cases, the total phenolic contents expressed as gallic acid equivalents from P. setacea, P. alata, and P. tenuifila cakes were approximately 1800, 600 and 900 mg·100g−1 of extract. Induction periods increased up to two-fold when adding these extracts to their respective seed oil. Therefore, passion fruit seed extract can contribute to increasing the oxidative stability of polyunsaturated oils.Las especies de maracuyá silvestre Passiflora setacea, Passiflora alata y Passiflora tenuifila son nativas de la biomasa brasileña. El desecho de semillas generado después de la extracción del jugo de maracuyá contiene ácidos grasos poliinsaturados funcionales y compuestos fenólicos. Los objetivos de este estudio fueron obtener lípidos y antioxidantes naturales de las semillas de maracuyá. Los aceites de semillas de la pasión se extrajeron usando una prensa continua a escala de laboratorio y su estabilidad oxidativa se evaluó usando el método Rancimat®. Se observó una mayor capacidad antioxidante del extracto cuando se usó una solución de etanol-agua (70:30) a 45 ºC. En estos casos, el contenido fenólico total expresado como equivalentes de ácido gálico de las tortas de P. setacea, P. alata y P. tenuifila fue de aproximadamente 1800, 600 y 900 mg·100g−1 de extracto. Los períodos de inducción aumentaron hasta dos veces al agregar estos extractos a sus respectivos aceites de semillas. Por lo tanto, el extracto de semillas de maracuyá puede contribuir a aumentar la estabilidad oxidativa de los aceites poliinsaturados

Caracterização química e físico-química de novos híbridos de Maracujá Amarelo.

O maracujá pertence à ordem Passiflorales, família Passifloraceae, gênero Passiflora. No Brasil, existem cerca de 150 espécies nativas de maracujá. As espécies mais cultivadas no Brasil e no mundo são os maracujás amarelo (Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg.), roxo (P. edulis f. edulis Sims), e doce (Passiflora alata Curtis), sendo a última de grande ocorrência silvestre no Brasil (Junqueira, 2006)

Extending automatic transcripts in a unified data representation towards a prosodic-based metadata annotation and evaluation

This paper describes a framework that extends automatic speech transcripts in order to accommodate relevant information coming from manual transcripts, the speech signal itself, and other resources, like lexica. The proposed framework automatically collects, relates, computes, and stores all relevant information together in a self-contained data source, making it possible to easily provide a wide range of interconnected information suitable for speech analysis, training, and evaluating a number of automatic speech processing tasks. The main goal of this framework is to integrate different linguistic and paralinguistic layers of knowledge for a more complete view of their representation and interactions in several domains and languages. The processing chain is composed of two main stages, where the first consists of integrating the relevant manual annotations in the speech recognition data, and the second consists of further enriching the previous output in order to accommodate prosodic information. The described framework has been used for the identification and analysis of structural metadata in automatic speech transcripts. Initially put to use for automatic detection of punctuation marks and for capitalization recovery from speech data, it has also been recently used for studying the characterization of disfluencies in speech. It was already applied to several domains of Portuguese corpora, and also to English and Spanish Broadcast News corpora

Quality of service control in IP networks using Fuzzy Logic for policy condition evaluation

This paper presents the architecture of a policy- based network management system designed specifically for Quality of Service management, where high level business policies are modeled as ECA (Event-Condition-Action) rules. Specifically, the system is mainly based on the policy architecture being proposed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force), and TMF (TeleManagement Forum) standardization bodies. This work proposes a novel approach for policy condition evaluation using fuzzy logic. The fuzzy controller has the ability to examine policy conditions differently from default condition analyzers that employ simple conditions formed by a set of (IFs, ANDs and ORs), allowing the consideration and correlation of several input variables before taking decisions for the execution of policy actions. The system have been implemented and evaluated over a test bed network formed by Cisco® routers

Does the new International Diabetes Federation Definition of Metabolic Syndrome Improve Prediction of Coronary Artery Disease and Carotid Intima-Media Thickening

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with increased incidence of diabetes and atherosclerotic complications. The new definition of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) increases the population with this entity, compared to the NCEP ATP III definition. OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in patients with and without MS, according to the NCEP ATP III and IDF definitions, and the predictive ability of carotid IMT for CAD. METHODS: We studied 270 consecutive patients admitted for elective coronary angiography due to suspicion of CAD. All patients underwent ultrasound study of the carotid arteries to measure IMT (the highest value between the right and left common carotid arteries was used in the analysis). Coronary stenosis of > or =70% (or 50% for the left main coronary artery) was considered significant. RESULTS: By the ATP III definition, 14% of the patients had MS, and these patients had a higher prevalence of CAD (87% vs. 63%, p = 0.004), but no significant difference was found for carotid IMT (1.03 +/- 0.36 mm vs. 0.95 +/- 0.35 mm, p=NS). With the IDF definition, 61% of the patients had MS; this group was slightly older and included more women. There were no differences in terms of CAD (68% vs. 63%) or carotid IMT (0.97 +/- 0.34 vs. 0.96 +/- 0.39 mm). On multivariate analysis, the ATP III definition of MS predicts CAD (OR 4.76, 95% CI 1.71-13.25, p = 0.003), but the IDF definition does not (OR 1.29, 95% CI 0.74-2.27, p = 0.37). On ROC curve analysis, an IMT of > or = 0.95 mm predicts CAD (AUC 0.66, p < 0.001), with a sensitivity of 52% and specificity of 75%. CONCLUSIONS: The new IDF definition increases the population with MS, decreasing the capacity to predict the presence of CAD. In our population, neither the ATP III nor the IDF definition showed differences in terms of carotid IMT. Carotid IMT can predict CAD, but with only modest sensitivity

Gains from trans-boundary water quality management in linked catchment and coastal socioecological systems: a case study for the Minho region

Sustainable economic development requires balancing of marginal costs from catchment water pollution abatement and associated marginal benefits from freshwater/coastal ecosystem appreciation. Hence we need to differentiate between intra- and trans-boundary catchments because benefactors and beneficiaries from water quality improvement are not one and the same. In trans-boundary catchments, private (national) welfare maximizing rates of water quality improvement differ across nations as benefits from water quality improvement generally accrue to one nation while the costs are paid by multiple nations. In this paper we develop a deterministic optimal control approach to explore private and social welfare maximizing rates of water pollution abatement in linked catchment and freshwater/coastal socioecological systems. For a case study of the Minho region (Iberian Peninsula), we estimate nation-specific water pollution abatement cost functions (based on management practice adoption) to determine and compare private (national) and social (trans-national) welfare maximizing rates of water pollution abatement. Results show that some private (national) welfare gains can be obtained through adoption of win-win practices, leading to a 12% reduction in the annual rate of water pollution and a 7% increase in annual regional income. Maximum social (international) welfare gains can, however, be obtained through adoption of win-win and lose-win practices across Spain and Portugal, leading to a 36% reduction in water pollution and a 14% increase in regional income. Non-cooperation in water pollution abatement would only lead to a 16%-32% reduction in water pollution and a 8%-13% increase in regional income. Hence, social (trans-national) welfare losses from non-cooperation between Spain and Portugal would equate to between 16 and 81 m€/yr

Os fatores determinantes da rotatividade externa dos enfermeiros: vínculo contratual, incentivos salariais ou reconhecimento profissional

Nos últimos anos as organizações de saúde, a profissão e a carreira de enfermagem sofreram um conjunto de alterações estruturais, processuais e políticas. Estas alterações influenciaram a dinâmica e a estabilidade do futuro dos enfermeiros contribuindo para a ocorrência de altas taxas de rotatividade -com impactos potencialmente negativos no grupo de trabalho e na organização. O estudo pretende identificar os fatores determinantes da rotatividade externa dos enfermeiros. A investigação baseia-se num questionário aplicado a uma amostra de 772 enfermeiros a desempenhar funções no Hospital de Santa Maria. As hipóteses formuladas no estudo foram analisadas através de testes não-paramétricos. Os resultados sugerem que a necessidade de adquirir novas competências profissionais e de desenvolver um trabalho mais desafiante constituem fatores relevantes na explicação da rotatividade em enfermagem. Os fatores contratuais e remuneratórios são de extrema importância para explicar o fenómeno em causa, especialmente, para o grupo de enfermeiros contratados.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio