CHILDREN THOUGHTS about BRANDS

The paper explores theoretically and empirically the brand concept among children. Group interviews were conducted to examine the children’s associations to this concept. The data analysis was organized according to a circular frame (the circept frame), which allowed a content analysis based on a sequence of analogical concepts. Children’s answers suggest that the concept of brand is apprehended by children of 6/8 years old, furthermore, that children of this age have skills to separate the brand from the product concept and described it as a source of guarantee, of identification and of promises vehicle.Brands, children, associations

Poverty Alleviation Programs: Monitoring vs. Workfare

The role of Poverty Alleviation Programs (PAP) in �ghting poverty and ensuring the satisfaction of basic economic needs is well known. How- ever, informational asymmetries create the need for adequate instruments to prevent fraud. This paper provides a static model of adverse selection where the gov- ernment (principal) aims to minimize the costs of a PAP that ensures that all individuals have access to an exogenously de�ned minimum in- come level. Agents may di¤er in their income-generating ability and disutility of labor. Under the di¤erent informational environments, we study the ef- fectiveness of workfare (that involves unpaid and unproductive work in the public sector) as a screening device, based on the comparison with standard monitoring. We �nd that when disutility of labor is the only unobservable variable, a workfare policy is ine¢ cient because it �crowds out�private sector work and signi�cantly increases the costs of the program. Under this informa- tional context, monitoring may be the best instrument for preventing fraud. When income-generating ability is the only unobservable variable, choosing between workfare and monitoring depends not only on the cost function associated with the latter, but also on income distribution. The analysis of this case would suggest that a workfare policy might be inef- �cient in the context of undeveloped countries where income distribution exhibits strong inequalities, but appropriate in developed ones. These conclusions suggest that a mixed policy combining workfare and monitor- ing may be optimal when both income-generating ability and disutility of labor are unknown.Poverty Alleviation Programs; fraud; monitoring; work- fare

A BRAND TRIANGLE MODEL to AVOID BRANDING MYOPIA

This article takes the metaphor of myopia to explain the most limited vision of brand, understood as the identifying sign of a product. As brand is a sign, we turn to semiotics, the science of signs, in order to apply a model which broadens the concept of brand to three dimensions: that of the identity sign itself, that of the object the sign refers to and that of the response of the market to the sign.Branding Semiotics, Brand Identity, Brand Marketing, Brand Response

Mascots, design characteristics and children: Does affective response match with cognitive response?

This research addresses the question of how mascots design characteristics affect children recognition and affective response of this type of brand sign. Regarding the literature, it was clear for us the important contribution in studying the short and long term recognition. It is found that the different design characteristics associated with the universal design principles (abstraction, figurativity, symmetric, asymmetric, round and angular forms) stimulated different levels of recognition and affection among the children. The study contributes to our understanding of which mascot design characteristics increase the effectiveness of non-verbal communication.Branding Semiotics, Brand Identity, Brand Marketing, Brand Response

Effect of aminoacid substitutions in alpha-gliadin peptids on theirs immunogenicity in celiac disease

Tese de mestrado, Biologia Humana e Ambiente, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2015A doença celíaca, ou intolerância ao glúten, e uma enteropatia cronica do intestino delgado mediada pelo sistema imunitário, que é activada pela presença de glúten na dieta em indivíduos geneticamente predispostos a ela. Na sua forma clássica, manifesta-se como uma inflamação na mucosa do intestino delgado que prejudica a arquitectura das vilosidades. Isto conduz a ma absorção e, por sua vez, a perda de peso, diarreia e/ou deficiências de nutrientes, levando ao aparecimento de anemia e osteoporose. As complicações a longo prazo incluem aumento do risco de desenvolvimento de doenças autoimunes e malignidade. A doença celíaca e tratada com uma dieta muito rigorosa isenta de glúten ao longo da vida do doente, o que envolve a eliminação de trigo, centeio e cevada da alimentação destes indivíduos. Alguns pacientes também são intolerantes a aveia. A prevalência e maior na Europa e na América do Norte, onde estima‐se que afete 1% da população. A maioria das pessoas que sofrem de intolerância ao glúten são positivas para o antígeno leucocitário humano (ALH) DQ2, enquanto que a minoria (5%) são ALH-DQ8 positivo. Moléculas ALH-DQ2 e DQ8 são um pré-requisito para a ligação e reconhecimento de péptidos de glúten. Estas moléculas favorecem resíduos de aminoácidos carregados negativamente em certas posições dos péptidos. Proteínas de glúten que integram gliadinas e gluteninas são toxicas para doentes celíacos. O tecido transglutaminase, uma molécula encontrada em vários tipos de tecidos e órgãos responsável por catalisar diferentes tipos de reacções, tem a capacidade de desaminar resíduos alvo de glutamina em péptidos de glúten, o que leva a conversão de glutamina neutra em acido glutâmico de carga negativa. Péptidos desaminados de glúten são melhores imunogénicos para as células T que se ligam com uma maior afinidade a moléculas de ALH‐ DQ2 e DQ8 no ligando peptídeo alterado. Por sua vez, estas moléculas apresentam os péptidos de glúten as células T. Em resposta a apresentação do antigénio, células T especificas CD4+ começam a proliferar e a segregar o interferão‐γ (IFN-γ). O ultimo induz o aumento do numero de células T citotóxicas na lamina própria. A doença celíaca e considerada como sendo uma enteropatia mediada por células T especificas de glúten. Celíacos não tratados tem um risco aumentado de desenvolverem doenças malignas e auto-imunes. Uma dieta rigorosa sem glúten, e então fundamental para a sua saúde. No entanto, a adesão a uma dieta isenta de glúten apresenta um grande desafio, já que a dieta e muito restritiva. O glúten esta presente em muitos alimentos processados (tais como sopas, molhos, doces, batatas fritas e pão) e alimentos sem glúten são menos agradáveis ao palato e mais caros, resultando numa insatisfação e desvantagem social dos pacientes com este tipo de intolerância. Estes factores, por sua vez, levam a uma baixa adesão a este tipo de dieta, que e essencial para o manejo clinico da doença. Com este trabalho tivemos o objectivo de testar a potencial toxicidade de dois péptidos de glúten (DQ2.5‐glia α3 simbolizado por α2a e DQ8‐glia αI simbolizado por α3I) encontrados no trigo e das suas versões modificadas (α2c e α3II, respectivamente) em pacientes diagnosticados com a doença celíaca. Para tal recorreu‐se ao uso de técnicas de cultura celular, nomeadamente de cultura de células T. Estas células foram isoladas a partir de biopsias do intestino de pacientes diagnosticados como celíacos, e foram mantidas em cultura durante varias semanas (entre duas e quatro semanas). Apos estimuladas com glúten ao longo das semanas e do número de células por cultura atingir um valor satisfatório (≈ 100x104 células), estas foram submetidas a um ensaio de proliferação na presença dos péptidos a testar e onde também se recorreu ao uso de radioactividade. A incorporação da radioactividade pelas células foi medida, os índices de estimulação (SI) calculados e as conclusões retiradas. Biopsias recolhidas de vinte e quatro pacientes foram usadas para cultura de células T, submetidas a um ensaio de proliferação e os SI foram calculados. Destas vinte e quatro, apenas seis produziram resultados positivos e de possível conclusão. Das seis amostras apenas uma mostrou a potencial toxicidade de dois dos péptidos testados, o α2a e o α2c, apresentando valores de SI superiores a dois. Os restantes péptidos testados com esta cultura tiveram SI2 para o péptido α2a, apresentando SI<2 para os restantes péptidos. As outras quatro culturas tiveram sempre resultados negativos independentemente do péptido testado. Os nossos resultados mostram que um dos péptidos testados, que resulta da substituição de vários aminoácidos de um péptido conhecido como toxico, poderá também ele ser toxico, levando a conclusão que estas substituições poderão não eliminar a 100% a toxicidade encontrada no péptido original. Apesar destes resultados, as conclusões tiradas estão longe de ser definitivas e novos testes e ensaios tem de ser realizados de modo a comprovar‐se o que neste estudo se concluiu.Coeliac disease (CD) is a chronic small intestinal immune-mediated enteropathy triggered by dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals.Most CD sufferers are positive for human leucocyte antigen (HLA) DQ2, whereas a minority (5%) are HLA‐DQ8 positive. HLA‐DQ2 and‐DQ8 molecules are a prerequisite forbinding of gluten peptides; majority of gluten proteins that comprise gliadins and glutenins are CD‐toxic. Tissue transglutaminase (tTG) deamidates target glutamine residues in gluten peptides, which leads to conversion of neutral glutamine to negatively charged glutamic acid. Deamidated gluten peptides are better immunogens for T cells as they bind with higher affinity to HLA‐DQ2 and‐DQ8 molecules on antigen presenting cells (APC). The aim of this study was to test the potential toxicity of two different wheat epitopes and their variants (labelled as α2a, α2c, α3I and α3II) for patients diagnosed with CD. Peptides were tested using small intestinal gluten sensitive T cells. Biopsies from twenty‐four CD patients were collected, T cells isolated and stimulation indices (SI) obtained. The cells were stimulated with gluten every week. After, they were submitted to proliferation assays using the different peptides. Radioactivity was injected to each assay and the amount incorporated in the cells measured and expressed as SI. From the twenty‐four samples, only six developed positive results. In one assay, α2a and α2c peptides resulted as CD‐toxic. The other tested peptides had SI below 2, which indicate they were no immunogenic. For the other cell lines, one of them also responded with SI above 2 for the peptide α2a but not for the remaining peptides. All the other four cell lines responded with SI below two for every peptide tested. Our results show that the substitutions made in the core of the epitope DQ2.5‐glia α3 (α2a) induces toxicity in some patients, which contradicts results from previous studies. On the other hand, the substitutions made to epitope DQ8‐glia α1 appeared to eliminate the CD‐ toxicity of this epitope. Despite these results, we can not take very strong conclusions and further tests and assays need to be made in order to completely ensure that our findings are correct

Neural correlates of concept typicality and category membership

Tese de mestrado, Ciência Cognitiva, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2022A tipicidade é uma dimensão chave no processamento de conceitos e refere-se ao grau em que um item é representativo da sua categoria. Itens típicos são processados mais facilmente em tarefas de categorização e de nomeação do que itens atípicos. O presente estudo tem como objetivo investigar as bases neuronais da categorização dos objetos e as regiões cerebrais envolvidas no processamento da tipicidade dos objetos. Estudos prévios centraram-se sobretudo na região do lobo temporal anterior e têm fornecido resultados contraditórios entre si. No presente estudo de fMRI, 26 jovens adultos realizaram uma tarefa de categorização, tendo sido manipulada a pertença à categoria e a tipicidade dos conceitos. Os resultados comportamentais e neuronais revelaram um efeito de interação. Objetos típicos foram categorizados mais rápida e acertadamente do que objetos atípicos, mas apenas quando pertenciam à categoria apresentada. A nível neuronal, verificou-se que quando os itens pertenciam à categoria, objetos típicos recrutaram o precuneus esquerdo associado à decisão com base na semelhança, enquanto os objetos atípicos elicitaram maior ativação no lobo frontal inferior esquerdo, que tem sido associado ao controlo semântico. Os resultados confirmam o papel central da tipicidade no processamento semântico e em particular na categorização e informam sobre as bases neuronais da variabilidade intra-categorial.Typicality is a key dimension in concept processing and refers to the extent to which an item is representative of its category. Typical items are processed more easily in categorization and naming tasks than atypical items. The present study aims to investigate the neural basis of object categorization and the brain regions involved in processing item typicality. Previous studies have mainly focused on the anterior temporal lobe region and have provided results that are contradictory to each other. In the present fMRI study, 26 young adults performed a categorization task, and category membership and concept typicality were manipulated. Behavioural and neuronal results revealed an interaction effect. Typical items were categorized more quickly and correctly than atypical objects, but only when they belonged to the shown category. At the neuronal level, it was found that when items belonged to the category, typical items recruited the left precuneus associated with similarity-based decision making, whereas atypical items elicited greater activation in the left inferior frontal lobe, which has been associated with semantic control. The results confirm the central role of typicality in semantic processing and in particular categorisation and inform about the neural basis of intra-category variability

SkILL - a Stochastic Inductive Logic Learner

Probabilistic Inductive Logic Programming (PILP) is a rel- atively unexplored area of Statistical Relational Learning which extends classic Inductive Logic Programming (ILP). This work introduces SkILL, a Stochastic Inductive Logic Learner, which takes probabilistic annotated data and produces First Order Logic theories. Data in several domains such as medicine and bioinformatics have an inherent degree of uncer- tainty, that can be used to produce models closer to reality. SkILL can not only use this type of probabilistic data to extract non-trivial knowl- edge from databases, but it also addresses efficiency issues by introducing a novel, efficient and effective search strategy to guide the search in PILP environments. The capabilities of SkILL are demonstrated in three dif- ferent datasets: (i) a synthetic toy example used to validate the system, (ii) a probabilistic adaptation of a well-known biological metabolism ap- plication, and (iii) a real world medical dataset in the breast cancer domain. Results show that SkILL can perform as well as a deterministic ILP learner, while also being able to incorporate probabilistic knowledge that would otherwise not be considered

A look into the cross-section of industry stock returns

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsAverage stock returns on industry portfolios are related to industry total market equity and industry market equity concentration. Small industries outperform large industries marginally, while high-concentration industries outperform low-concentration industries significantly. The industry concentration premium persists after controlling for firm size and book-to-market equity ratio. A three-factor model using risk factors associated to industry size and industry concentration compares well to the Fama-French three-factor model, capturing return variation of portfolios formed on industry size, concentration, book-to-market equity, debt-to-equity, dividend-to-price, and earnings-to-price. My results are consistent with traditional economic theory and industry strategic analysis

Children thoughts about brands

The paper explores theoretically and empirically the brand concept among children. Group interviews were conducted to examine the children’s associations to this concept. The data analysis was organized according to a circular frame (the circept frame), which allowed a content analysis based on a sequence of analogical concepts. Children’s answers suggest that the concept of brand is apprehended by children of 6/8 years old, furthermore, that children of this age have skills to separate the brand from the product concept and described it as a source of guarantee, of identification and of promises vehicle.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Empirical study of user satisfaction applied to Supply Chain logistics in the context of COVID-19

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceDesde que a pandemia COVID-19 começou, o mundo foi afectado não só em termos de saúde pública, como também enfrenta uma crise económica. Os impactos da pandemia têm sido sentidos globalmente e muitas empresas viram as suas realidades viradas do avesso. Para lidar com esta realidade as empresas tiveram de se adaptar: algumas mudaram o foco da sua produção, outras alteraram ou estenderam os seus negócios para o comércio electrónico. No entanto, estas alterações na supply chain trouxeram um esforço adicional na parte logística. A adopção do comércio electrónico como uma forma mais comum de fazer compras em Portugal veio pôr em evidência a logística envolvida no processo, daí surgiu a necessidade de estudar a satisfação do utilizador. Com a combinação do modelo Delone and McLean e a teoria do comportamento planeado, esperamos perceber melhor como é que as disrupções provocadas pelo COVID-19 afectaram a satisfação do consumidor associada à logística do e-commerce. Com base em 203 respostas de indivíduos portugueses, testámos empiricamente o modelo criado e conseguimos explicar 53.3% da variância da satisfação do utilizador.Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been affected not only in public health matters but also faces an economic crisis. Across the globe, the impacts of the pandemic have been being felt and many companies have seen their realities turned upside-down. To cope with this reality companies had to adapt: some shifted their production focus, others switched or extended their businesses to e-commerce. However, these alterations across supply chains (SC) put an added strain on logistics. The adoption of e-commerce as a more common way of shopping in Portugal has come to evidence the SC logistics involved, thus the need to study the users’ satisfaction arose. With a combination of the Delone & McLean model and theory of planned behaviour (TPB), we expect to gain a better understanding of how the disruptions caused by COVID-19 affected the consumer's satisfaction regarding the logistics associated with e-commerce. Based on the responses of 203 Portuguese individuals, we tested empirically our model and were able to explain 53.3% of the variance of user satisfaction