Internationalization strategy of reliance to Brazil

This Work Project was focused, firstly, in an internal analysis to assess the possible competitive advantage sources of the firm and to identify the key weakness that the firm should improve before advancing with the internationalization strategy. Completed the analysis was possible to verify that the source of sustainable competitive advantage of Relance is the use of specific raw materials and that its biggest weaknesses are the lack of capacity and the excessive dependence on key employees. Overall, it was possible to conclude that the firm is in position of competing in the international markets. Secondly, due to its crucial importance, the country selection was made with a deep objective analysis, resulting with the selection of Brazil as the country with the highest market potential. Regarding the strategy to actually enter in Brazil’s market, after the study of 12 modes of entry it was possible to conclude that there is no ideal mode. However, the study performed allowed to undertake the conclusion that in order to obtain long-term optimization on the process, the adaptation, to the firm´s situation, of the Uppsala model progressive stages is the ideal. At the course of this Work Project it was inferred that the critical success factors are the choice of the distributor and the promotion of Relance as a premium brand

Determinants of loan spread in project finance: An empirical study of geographic diversification of bank syndicates

I investigate the depth of geographic diversification of bank syndicates as a determinant of loan spread in the context of project finance, using a sample of 650 project finance syndicated loans worth $235 billion from 68 different countries over the period 2012-2021. I hypothesize that the depth of geographic diversification of bank syndicates signals the levels of political, legal and regulatory risk. In that case, ceteris paribus, greater depths of geographic diversification should command a price premium and result in higher loan spreads for the added risk protection. The findings from this research suggest that the levels of political, legal and regulatory risk of the host country have a significant effect on loan syndication and determine the depth of geographic diversification of the bank syndicate. However, and contrary to my expectations, in terms of total and inter-regional diversification the association occurs in the opposite direction expected. In terms of intra-regional diversification the association occurs in the direction expected. With regard to pricing, I do not find evidence that different depths of geographic diversification of the loan syndicate affect loan spreads in support of a trade-off and financial cost of structuring project finance loans with varying levels of insurance against sovereign interference. The results and the implications of the findings for the lenders and borrowers are discussed.Investigo a profundidade da diversificação geográfica do sindicato bancário enquanto determinante da margem de crédito em contexto de project finance, utilizando uma amostra de 650 empréstimos sindicados ao nível de project finance no valor de 235 mil milhões de dólares em 68 países diferentes durante o período 2012-2021. A hipótese que coloco considera que a profundidade de diversificação geográfica do sindicato bancário sinaliza os níveis de risco político, legal e regulamentar. Nesta situação, ceteris paribus, profundidades maiores de diversificação geográfica do sindicato bancário deverão acarretar um prémio de preço e resultar em margens de crédito mais elevadas pela protecção acrescida de risco que conferem. Os resultados decorrentes desta investigação sugerem que os níveis de risco político, legal e regulamentar do país onde o investimento é realizado têm um efeito significativo na sindicação do empréstimo e determinam a profundidade da diversificação geográfica do sindicato bancário. No entanto, e contrariamente às minhas expectativas, em termos de diversificação global e inter- regional a associação ocorre em sentido oposto ao esperado. Em termos de diversificação intra- regional a associação ocorre no sentido esperado. Sobre o efeito no preço, não encontro provas de que profundidades diferentes de diversificação geográfica do sindicato bancário influenciem as margens de crédito em sustento de um compromisso e custo financeiro decorrente da estruturação de empréstimos no contexto de project finance com níveis variados de protecção contra a interferência soberana. Os resultados e implicações das conclusões para os devedores e credores são discutidos

A call for action: understanding the new trends of a post-pandemic workplace and exploring strategies to address them

“The Great Resignation”, a term coined to describe the surge of employees leaving their jobs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, has sparked a renewed interest in the phenomenon of quiet quitting and quiet firing. This thesis examines the impact of these three related but distinct phenomena on the workplace, with a particular focus on their causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study analyzes survey data from employees who have experienced quiet quitting or quiet firing and conducts in-depth interviews with stakeholders to explore what they know about them, the causes and impacts of these phenomena. The findings suggest that the Great Resignation has led to an increase in both quiet quitting and quiet firing, with significant consequences for both employees and employers. This thesis argues that quiet quitting and quiet firing are symptoms of a broader problem in the workplace, namely, a lack of empathy, a human factor concern and communication between employees and employers. The study reveals that when employees feel undervalued or disengaged from their work, they are more likely to engage in quiet quitting or be subject to quiet firing. The implications of this study for organizations are significant. By creating a workplace culture that values transparency, communication, and trust, employers can reduce the risk of quiet quitting and quiet firing and promote employee engagement and retention. Additionally, organizations may need to rethink their talent management strategies in light of “The Great Resignation”, taking specific steps to attract and retain top talent in a highly competitive job market

The effect of literacy in the speech temporal modulation structure

The temporal modulation structure of adult-directed speech is conceptualised as a modulation hierarchy comprising four temporal bands, delta, 1 – 3 Hz, theta, 4 – 8 Hz, beta, 15 – 30 Hz, and low gamma, 30 – 50 Hz. Neuronal oscillatory entrainment to amplitude modulations (AMs) in these four bands may provide a basis for speech encoding and parsing the continuous signal into linguistic units (delta – syllable stress patterns, theta – syllables, beta – onset-rime units, low gamma – phonetic information). While adult-directed speech is theta-dominant and shows tighter theta-beta/low gamma phase alignment, infant-directed speech is delta-dominant and shows tighter delta-theta phase alignment. Although this change in the speech representations could be maturational, it was hypothesized that literacy may also influence the structure of speech. In fact, literacy and schooling are known to change auditory speech entrainment, enhancing phonemic specification and augmenting the phonological detail of the lexicon’s representations. Thus, we hypothesized that a corresponding difference in speech production could also emerge. In this work, spontaneous speech samples were recorded from literate (with lower and higher literacy) and illiterate subjects and their energy modulation spectrum across delta, theta and beta/low gamma AMs as well as the phase synchronization between nested AMs analysed. Measures of the participants’ phonology skills and vocabulary were also retrieved and a specific task to confirm the sensitivity to speech rhythm of the analysis method used (S-AMPH) was conducted. Results showed no differences in the energy of delta, theta and beta/low gamma AMs in spontaneous speech. However, phase alignment between slower and faster speech AMs was significantly enhanced by literacy, showing moderately strong correlations with the phonology measures and literacy. Our data suggest that literacy affects not only cortical entrainment and speech perception but also the physical/rhythmic properties of speech production.A modulação temporal do discurso dirigido a adultos é conceptualizado como uma hierarquia de modulações em quatro bandas temporais: delta, 1 – 3 Hz, theta, 4 – 8 Hz, beta, 15 – 30 Hz, e low gamma, 30 – 50 Hz. A sincronização das oscilações neuronais nestas quatro bandas pode providenciar a base para a codificação e análise de um sinal contínuo em unidades linguísticas (delta – força silábica, theta – sílabas, beta – arranque/rima, low gamma – informação fonética). Enquanto o discurso dirigido a adultos é de um ritmo predominantemente theta e mostra um forte alinhamento entre bandas theta e beta/low gamma, discurso dirigido a crianças é predominantemente de um ritmo delta e mostra maiores sincronizações entre bandas delta e theta. Apesar das diferenças nas representações do discurso poderem resultar de processos maturacionais, foi hipotetizado que a literacia também poderia influenciar as características rítmicas do discurso. De facto, a literacia afecta o processamento auditivo da linguagem, além de desenvolver a consciência fonémica e aumentar o detalhe fonológico das representações lexicais. Neste estudo foram gravadas amostras de discurso espontâneo de sujeitos letrados (alta e baixa escolarização) e iletrados. Os espectros de modulação de energia nas bandas de interesse foram analisados bem como a sincronização das bandas delta-theta e theta-beta/ low gamma. Foram recolhidas medidas de consciência fonológica e vocabulário e foi realizada também uma tarefa para confirmar a sensibilidade do modelo de análise (S-AMPH) ao ritmo do discurso. A análise revelou ausência de diferenças na energia nas modulações delta, theta ou beta/low gamma no discurso espontâneo. Contudo, a sincronização entre as bandas aumentou significativamente com a literacia, revelando uma correlação moderada com as medidas de fonologia, vocabulário e literacia. Sendo assim, a literacia afecta não só a sincronização cortical e à linguagem falada mas também as propriedades físicas e rítmicas da produção do discurso

Coprophagia and Entomophagia in a Patient with Alcohol Related Dementia

Coprophagia and entomophagia are two phenomena not commonly reported in the medical literature and their occurrence is usually associated with mental disorders. We present the case of a 59-year-old man with a history of alcohol abuse who was evaluated due to cognitive deterioration and disturbed eating habits including feces and living insects. Organic causes were ruled out and an important cognitive impairment became evident on neuropsychological formal test. The behavior remitted after antipsychotic pharmacologic therapy and alcohol detoxification, leaving the diagnostic impression of alcohol related dementia. This report shows a rare association of these two conditions in a patient with dementia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ontological approach for DSL development

This paper presents a project whose main objective is to explore the Ontological based development of Domain Specific Languages (DSL), more precisely, of their underlying Grammar. After reviewing the basic concepts characterizing Ontologies and DSLs, we introduce a tool, Onto2Gra, that takes profit of the knowledge described by the ontology and automatically generates a grammar for a DSL that allows to discourse about the domain described by that ontology. This approach represents a rigorous method to create, in a secure and effective way, a grammar for a new specialized language restricted to a concrete domain. The usual process of creating a grammar from the scratch is, as every creative action, difficult, slow and error prone; so this proposal is, from a Grammar Engineering point of view, of uttermost importance. After the grammar generation phase, the Grammar Engineer can manipulate it to add syntactic sugar to improve the final language quality or even to add specific semantic actions. The Onto2Gra project is composed of three engines. The main one is OWL2DSL, the component that converts an OWL ontology into a complete Attribute Grammar for the construction of an internal representation of all the input data. The two additional modules are Onto2OWL, converts ontologies written in OntoDL into standard OWL, and DDesc2OWL, converts domain instances written in the new DSL into the initial OWL ontology.This work has been supported by FCT Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Orientações curriculares para o ensino da estatística: Análise comparativa de três países

Em Portugal, a estatística é um tema recente do currículo, havendo diversas perspectivas para o seu ensino. Uns, valorizam, sobretudo, os aspectos matemáticos da estatística, outros, dão especial importância ao seu uso na análise e interpretação de dados, e outros, ainda, realçam o seu papel como linguagem de descrição da realidade. O presente artigo analisa os objectivos, conteúdos e orientações metodológicas relativamente a este tema e discute a sua importância curricular. Recorre a uma metodologia de análise documental, estudando as tendências internacionais e comparando o currículo português com o da Inglaterra e dos Estados Unidos da América. Esta comparação mostra que o currículo português confere proeminência aos aspectos matemáticos, nomeadamente os conceitos, cálculos e outros procedimentos e que o currículo inglês oficial e a organização americana do NCTM colocam em primeiro plano a análise de dados. Enquanto que, em Portugal, a estatística é vista como um capítulo da matemática, de importância menor, na Inglaterra e nos Estados Unidos ela é encarada como um tema autónomo que suporta a realização de investigações sobre problemas actuais. O artigo conclui que currículo português deveria assumir que a estatística é um elemento fundamental da formação para a cidadania, evitando centrar-se, sobretudo, nos aspectos representacionais e computacionais