Equality of opportunity and educational achievement in Portugal

Portugal has one of the highest levels of income inequality in Europe, and low wages and unemployment are concentrated among low skill individuals. Education is an important determinant of inequality. However, there are large differences in the educational attainment of different individuals in the population, and the sources of these differences emerge early in the life-cycle when families play a central role in individual development. We estimate that most of the variance of school achievement at age 15 is explained by family characteristics. Observed school inputs explain very little of adolescent performance. Children from highly educated parents benefit of rich cultural environments in the home and become highly educated adults. Education policy needs to be innovative: (1) it needs to explicitly recognize the fundamental long run role of families on child development; (2) it needs to acknowledge the failure of traditional input based policies

Non-singular inflation with vacuum decay

On the basis of a semi-classical analysis of vacuum energy in an expanding spacetime, we describe a non-singular cosmological model in which the vacuum density decays with time, with a concomitant production of matter. During an infinitely long period we have an empty, inflationary universe, with H \approx 1. This primordial era ends in a fast phase transition, during which H and \Lambda decrease to nearly zero in a few Planck times, with release of a huge amount of radiation. The late-time scenario is similar to the standard model, with the radiation phase followed by a long dust era, which tends asymptotically to a de Sitter universe, with vacuum dominating again. An analysis of the redshift-distance relation for supernovas Ia leads to cosmological parameters in agreement with other current estimations.Comment: Work presented at IRGAC 2006, Barcelona, July 11-15 2006. To appear in a special issue of Journal of Physics

Deep Multi-instance Networks with Sparse Label Assignment for Whole Mammogram Classification

Mammogram classification is directly related to computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer. Traditional methods rely on regions of interest (ROIs) which require great efforts to annotate. Inspired by the success of using deep convolutional features for natural image analysis and multi-instance learning (MIL) for labeling a set of instances/patches, we propose end-to-end trained deep multi-instance networks for mass classification based on whole mammogram without the aforementioned ROIs. We explore three different schemes to construct deep multi-instance networks for whole mammogram classification. Experimental results on the INbreast dataset demonstrate the robustness of proposed networks compared to previous work using segmentation and detection annotations.Comment: MICCAI 2017 Camera Read

Evolution of density perturbations in decaying vacuum cosmology: The case of non-zero perturbations in the cosmological term

We extend the results of a previous paper where a model of interacting dark energy, with a cosmological term decaying linearly with the Hubble parameter, is tested against the observed mass power spectrum. In spite of the agreement with observations of type Ia supernovas, baryonic acoustic oscillations and the cosmic microwave background, we had shown previously that no good concordance is achieved if we include the mass power spectrum. However, our analysis was based on the ad hoc assumption that the interacting cosmological term is strictly homogeneous. Now we perform a more complete analysis, by perturbing such a term. Although our conclusions are still based on a particular, scale invariant choice of the primordial spectrum of dark energy perturbations, we show that a cosmological term decaying linearly with the Hubble parameter is indeed disfavored as compared to the standard model.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Vortex-line liquid phases: Longitudinal superconductivity in the lattice London model

We study the vortex-line lattice and liquid phases of a clean type-II superconductor by means of Monte Carlo simulations of the lattice London model. Motivated by a recent controversy regarding the presence, within this model, of a vortex-liquid regime with longitudinal superconducting coherence over long length scales, we directly compare two different ways to calculate the longitudinal coherence. For an isotropic superconductor, we interpret our results in terms of a temperature regime within the liquid phase in which longitudinal superconducting coherence extends over length scales larger than the system thickness studied. We note that this regime disappears in the moderately anisotropic case due to a proliferation, close to the flux-line lattice melting temperature, of vortex loops between the layers.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex, with eps figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Evidence of Two Distinct Dynamic Critical Exponents in Connection with Vortex Physics

The dynamic critical exponent $z$ is determined from numerical simulations for the three-dimensional (3D) lattice Coulomb gas (LCG) and the 3D XY models with relaxational dynamics. It is suggested that the dynamics is characterized by two distinct dynamic critical indices $z_0$ and $z$ related to the divergence of the relaxation time $\tau$ by $\tau\propto \xi^{z_0}$ and $\tau\propto k^{-z}$, where $\xi$ is the correlation length and $k$ the wavevector. The values determined are $z_0\approx 1.5$ and $z\approx 1$ for the 3D LCG and $z_0\approx 1.5$ and $z\approx 2$ for the 3D XY model. It is argued that the nonlinear $IV$ exponent relates to $z_0$, whereas the usual Hohenberg-Halperin classification relates to $z$. Possible implications for the interpretation of experiments are pointed out. Comparisons with other existing results are discussed.Comment: to appear in PR

Desenvolvimento do agroturismo em Cachoeiras de Macacu, RJ: subsídios ao planejamento da atividade agroturística associada à produção agropecuária de base familiar.

O Município de Cachoeiras de Macacu está situado numa região que exibe grande riqueza de atributos naturais, apresentando vocação para a exploração de atividades turísticas de cunho rural e ecológico, e ainda, por desenvolver agropecuária expressiva, apresenta potencial para explorar o segmento do turismo associado às atividades produtivas do meio rural (agricultura, pecuária e silvicultura), o agroturismo. Entretanto, para que a atividade seja sustentável, requer planejamento, sendo necessário um estudo prévio de viabilidade, que considere aspectos físicos, sociais, culturais, econômicos e ambientais. Face a isso, este estudo teve por objetivo fazer um levantamento diagnóstico sobre as potencialidades e limitações do Município de Cachoeiras de Macacu em relação ao agroturismo; e com base nisso, elaborar um plano preliminar para subsidiar o desenvolvimento da atividade. Para tanto, foram compilados dados secundários e primários. Os dados secundários consultados referem-se a resultados de pesquisas e estudos realizados nos últimos 10 anos na região pela Embrapa Solos e outras instituições de pesquisa e/ou ensino, e de projetos que complementam e integram temas de interesse comum. Os dados primários foram coletados junto aos atores locais (produtores rurais familiares e seus representantes, funcionários de instituições públicas, empreendedores rurais, proprietários de meios de hospedagem, entre outros), por meio de campanhas de campo realizadas entre 2012 e 2014, nas comunidades rurais produtivas com base na agricultura familiar. O conjunto de dados inventariados e a síntese do diagnóstico obtido serviram de base para a elaboração do plano preliminar. A presente versão intitulada: "Plano Preliminar para o Desenvolvimento do Agroturismo em Cachoeiras de Macacu, RJ" representa um primeiro passo para orientar o planejamento do agroturismo integrado à produção agropecuária de base familiar no município. Sua efetivação envolve os poderes públicos estaduais e municipais e deve ser impulsionado pela comunidade, para garantir que a atividade se desenvolva em harmonia com suas expectativas e anseios.bitstream/item/142637/1/BPD-244-Desenv-Agroturismo-Cach-Macacu.pd

Seed abortion in the sexual counterpart of Brachiaria brizantha apomicts (Poaceae).

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