Distinct fos-expressing neuronal ensembles in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediate food reward and extinction memories

In operant learning, initial reward-associated memories are thought to be distinct from subsequent extinction-associated memories. Memories formed during operant learning are thought to be stored in “neuronal ensembles.” Thus, we hypothesize that different neuronal ensembles encode reward- and extinction-associated memories. Here, we examined prefrontal cortex neuronal ensembles involved in the recall of reward and extinction memories of food self-administration.Wefirst trained rats to lever press for palatable food pellets for 7 d (1 h/d) and then exposed them to 0, 2, or 7 daily extinction sessions in which lever presses were not reinforced. Twenty-four hours after the last training or extinction session, we exposed the rats to either a short 15 min extinction test session or left them in their homecage (a control condition). We found maximal Fos (a neuronal activity marker) immunoreactivity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex of rats that previously received 2 extinction sessions, suggesting that neuronal ensembles in this area encode extinction memories. We then used the Daun02 inactivation procedure to selectively disrupt ventral medial prefrontal cortex neuronal ensembles that were activated during the 15 min extinction session following 0 (no extinction) or 2 prior extinction sessions to determine the effects of inactivating the putative food reward and extinction ensembles, respectively, on subsequent nonreinforced food seeking 2 d later. Inactivation of the food reward ensembles decreased food seeking, whereas inactivation of the extinction ensembles increased food seeking. Our results indicate that distinct neuronal ensembles encoding operant reward and extinction memories intermingle within the same cortical area

O discounted cash flow como o modelo de avaliação de empresas: estudo de caso da empresa GALP

Versão final (Esta versão contém as críticas e sugestões dos elementos do júri)The need to evaluate a company is, in general, an imperative since it is associated with significant changes and decision-making that may have a major impact on its success. Thus, the quality of the evaluation performed is decisive, and it must be based on solid methodologies and criteria. This study aims to analyze some of the most appropriate models that serve as a basis for business valuations, considering that there is no single and perfect model, but the most appropriate to the individual financial context of each company. It emerges as one of the themes that have proven to be quite significant in a business and social context, emotionally and financially affected by the crises of this millennium as well as, more recently, with the crisis originated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, these unprecedented challenges have caused successive methods of internal control and development of tools that have enabled more effective regulation of institutions. The main objective of this dissertation is the evaluation of the company GALP, positioned in the industrial and transformation activity sector, more specifically in the energy sector, which aims to reflect through dynamic guidelines, the development of profitable business and with sustainable practices that create value, to promote the welfare of its customers. Considering the company's financial history, based on publicly available information, between 2014 and 2020, the most appropriate valuation model was followed and applying the linear regression model, a conservative future projection of the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flows expected for the years 2021 to 2025 was established, thus anticipating possible scenarios, without forgetting to consider the external contexts that influence the business trend.A necessidade de avaliar uma empresa é, de um modo geral, um imperativo, visto que surge associada a mudanças significativas e tomada de decisões que poderão causar um grande impacto no sucesso da mesma. Assim, a qualidade da avaliação realizada é decisiva, devendo assentar em metodologias e critérios sólidos. Este estudo tem como propósito analisar alguns dos modelos mais adequados que servem de base às avaliações de empresas, tendo em consideração que não existe um modelo único e perfeito, mas sim o mais apropriado a um contexto financeiro individual de cada empresa. Surge como sendo um dos temas que se revelaram bastante significativos num contexto empresarial e social, emocionalmente e financeiramente afetado pelas crises deste milénio bem como, mais recentemente, com a crise originada pela pandemia COVID-19. Para além disso, estes desafios sem precedentes causaram sucessivos métodos de controlo interno e desenvolvimento de ferramentas que possibilitaram uma regulamentação mais eficaz das instituições. O principal objetivo desta dissertação é a avaliação da empresa GALP, posicionada no setor de atividade industrial e de transformação, mais concretamente no setor energético, que tem como propósito refletir por meio de linhas orientadoras dinâmicas, o desenvolvimento de negócios rentáveis e com práticas sustentáveis que criem valor, de modo a promover o bem-estar dos seus clientes. Tendo em conta o histórico financeiro da empresa, com base em informação publicamente disponível, entre 2014 e 2020, seguiu-se o modelo de avaliação mais adequado e aplicando o modelo de regressão linear, estabeleceu-se uma projeção futura conservadora da Demonstração de Resultados, do Balanço e dos Cash Flows esperados para os anos 2021 a 2025, antecipando assim possíveis cenários, sem esquecer de considerar os contextos externos que influenciam a tendência do negócio

Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services. Urban ecosystems

Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 requires member states to Map and Assess the state of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES). This report provides guidance for mapping and assessment of urban ecosystems. The MAES urban pilot is a collaboration between the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, volunteering Member States and cities, and stakeholders. Its ultimate goal is to deliver a knowledge base for policy and management of urban ecosystems by analysing urban green infrastructure, condition of urban ecosystems and ecosystem services. This report presents guidance for mapping urban ecosystems and includes an indicator framework to assess the condition of urban ecosystems and urban ecosystem services. The scientific framework of mapping and assessment is designed to support in particular urban planning policy and policy on green infrastructure at urban, metropolitan and regional scales. The results are based on the following different sources of information: a literature survey of 54 scientific articles, an online-survey (on urban ecosystems, related policies and planning instruments and with participation of 42 cities), ten case studies (Portugal: Cascais, Oeiras, Lisbon; Italy: Padua, Trento, Rome; The Netherlands: Utrecht; Poland: Poznań; Spain: Barcelona; Norway: Oslo), and a two-day expert workshop. The case studies constituted the core of the MAES urban pilot. They provided real examples and applications of how mapping and assessment can be organized to support policy; on top, they provided the necessary expertise to select a set of final indicators for condition and ecosystem services. Urban ecosystems or cities are defined here as socio-ecological systems which are composed of green infrastructure and built infrastructure. Urban green infrastructure (GI) is understood in this report as the multi-functional network of urban green spaces situated within the boundary of the urban ecosystem. Urban green spaces are the structural components of urban GI. This study has shown that there is a large scope for urban ecosystem assessments. Firstly, urban policies increasingly use urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions in their planning process. Secondly, an increasing amount of data at multiple spatial scales is becoming available to support these policies, to provide a baseline, and to compare or benchmark cities with respect to the extent and management of the urban ecosystem. Concrete examples are given on how to delineate urban ecosystems, how to choose an appropriate spatial scale, and how to map urban ecosystems based on a combination of national or European datasets (including Urban Atlas) and locally collected information (e.g., location of trees). Also examples of typologies for urban green spaces are presented. This report presents an indicator framework which is composed of indicators to assess for urban ecosystem condition and for urban ecosystem services. These are the result of a rigorous selection process and ensure consistent mapping and assessment across Europe. The MAES urban pilot will continue with work on the interface between research and policy. The framework presented in this report needs to be tested and validated across Europe, e.g. on its applicability at city scale, on how far the methodology for measuring ecosystem condition and ecosystem service delivery in urban areas can be used to assess urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions

E-Debitum: managing software energy debt

35th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering Workshops (ASEW ’20) - International Workshop on Sustainable Software Engineering (SUSTAIN-SE)This paper extends previous work on the concept of a new software energy metric: Energy Debt. This metric is a reflection on the implied cost, in terms of energy consumption over time, of choosing an energy flawed software implementation over a more robust and efficient, yet time consuming, approach. This paper presents the implementation a SonarQube tool called E-Debitum which calculates the energy debt of Android applications throughout their versions. This plugin uses a robust, well defined, and extendable smell catalogue based on current green software literature, with each smell defining the potential energy savings. To conclude, an experimental validation of E-Debitum was executed on 3 popular Android applications with various releases, showing how their energy debt fluctuated throughout releases.This work is financed by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project UIDB/50014/2020

Evaluación institucional 1998

El proyecto Educativo para jóvenes y adultos cumple cinco años prestando un servicio educativo a las poblaciones adultas de Santa Fe de Bogotá. El proyecto ha sido evaluado año por año. Para la evaluación de 1998 se utilizó el (APES) Análisis Perceptivo Estructural Sistemático y la Diagnostica Operativa de Aguilar. Conjuntamente con los Directores, Docentes y Estudiantes usuarios del proyecto se han detectado una serie de aspectos que se consideran como fortalezas y algunas debilidades, las cuales son retomadas en el planeamiento de 1999, bien sea para mantener y reforzar o para buscar alternativas de solución que mejoren la Calidad Educativa del proyecto el cual debe repercutir en el logro de los objetivos propuestos, para mejorar la calidad de vida de los usuarios

Assessment of algorithms for mitosis detection in breast cancer histopathology images

The proliferative activity of breast tumors, which is routinely estimated by counting of mitotic figures in hematoxylin and eosin stained histology sections, is considered to be one of the most important prognostic markers. However, mitosis counting is laborious, subjective and may suffer from low inter-observer agreement. With the wider acceptance of whole slide images in pathology labs, automatic image analysis has been proposed as a potential solution for these issues. In this paper, the results from the Assessment of Mitosis Detection Algorithms 2013 (AMIDA13) challenge are described. The challenge was based on a data set consisting of 12 training and 11 testing subjects, with more than one thousand annotated mitotic figures by multiple observers. Short descriptions and results from the evaluation of eleven methods are presented. The top performing method has an error rate that is comparable to the inter-observer agreement among pathologists