Are we doing enough to discourage early retirement?

Increasing the effective retirement age contributes to the sustainability of pension systems.\ud However, oftentimes policies aiming at rising employment rates of older workers fall short in\ud delaying retirement. This seems to be the case with retirement age flexibility reforms in Portugal.\ud We analyze the recent Portuguese history of incentives to retire. For 1990-2006 we find that\ud individuals faced very high implicit taxes on working with the result that half the workers had already left the labour force before age 65. We then look at the Social Security reforms in 2007 and find that the incentives to continue working became even smaller than they already were.\ud We conclude that increasing the labour supply of older workers in a system with flexible\ud retirement age needs policies with more aggressive use of penalties and bonuses than what\ud decision makers were willing to accept

Programa "via verde do AVC" : análise do impacto sobre a mortalidade do AVC

ABSTRACT - The program ‘Via verde do AVC’ has been implemented in Portugal since 2005, with the objective of reducing mortality by stroke. Mortality rates from stroke have been decreasing, but no studies have been done measuring the link between this trend and ‘Via verde do AVC’. This study aims to assess whether the program has achieved significant health gains. We rely on two data sources: individual level hospital data on ischemic stroke admissions and regional level stroke mortality rates. For both types of data we find no evidence that ‘Via verde do AVC’ had a statistically significant impact on ischemic stroke mortality.RESUMO - O programa “Via verde do AVC” foi implementado em Portugal desde 2005, com o objetivo de reduzir a mortalidade por AVC. As taxas de mortalidade por AVC têm vindo a diminuir, mas nenhum estudo tentou medir a ligação entre esta tendência e a “Via verde do AVC”. Este estudo pretendeu avaliar se o programa conseguiu ganhos significativos de saúde. Contámos com 2 fontes de dados: dados hospitalares a nível individual de internamentos por AVC isquémico e taxas regionais de mortalidade por AVC. Para ambos os tipos de dados não encontrámos qualquer evidência de a “Via verde do AVC” ter um impacto estatisticamente significativo sobre a mortalidade do AVC isquémico.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Usage of convolutional neural networks for identifying marine mammal individuals

Identifying marine mammals is a common practice performed by whale-watching crew members. Typically, an experienced marine ecologist is the one who can identify not just the taxa, but also the individual. This process is however always done in the aftermath of data sampling, where the goal is to use photo identification and match the dorsal fins of individuals spotted at the different spatio-temporal scales. This dissertation provides the pipeline and addresses the chal lenges in the usage of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to discriminate marine mammal individuals, in this case (pilot whales) based on the dorsal fins. The dissertation uses as input the 1138 images dataset containing over 856 individuals, and through three experiments addresses the issues when discriminating such a high number of classes. In the first experiment, the dissertation studies the role of synthetic data augmentation in boosting model performance. In second, the dissertation benchmarks the existing state-of-the-art convolutional neural network architectures. In third, the dissertation focuses on discriminating other features from dorsal fins to identify indi viduals (scratches, nicks, roundness, wideness). The dissertation outlines the issues and proposes the guidelines for the next effort in discriminating marine mammal individuals.A identificação de mamíferos marinhos é uma prática comum realizada pelos tripulantes de ob servação de baleias. Normalmente, o ecologista marinho experiente é aquele que pode identificar não apenas os táxons, mas também o indivíduo. Este processo, é no entanto feito sempre após a amostragem de dados, onde o objetivo é usar a identificação por foto e combinar as barbatanas dorsais dos indivíduos localizados nas diferentes escalas espaço-temporais. Esta dissertação fornece o pipeline e aborda os desafios do uso de Redes Neurais Convolucionais (CNNs) para discriminar indivíduos de mamíferos marinhos, neste caso (baleias-piloto) com base nas barbatanas dorsais. A dissertação usa como input um dataset de 1138 imagens que contêm 856 indivíduos, e através de três experiências aborda os problemas de discriminar um número tão elevado de classes. Na primeira experiência, a dissertação estuda o papel do aumento de dados sintéticos no melhora mento do desempenho do modelo. Na segunda experiência, a dissertação avalia arquiteturas de redes neurais convolucionais de última geração existentes. Na terceira experiência, a dissertação foca-se em discrimar outras caraterísticas das barbatanas dorsais para identificar indivíduos (ar ranhões, cortes, redondeza, amplitude). A dissertação descreve os problemas e propõe as diretrizes para o próximo esforço em discriminar indivíduos de mamíferos marinhos

On the political economy of income taxation

The literatures dealing with voting, optimal income taxation, implementation, and pure public goods are integrated here to address the problem of voting over income taxes and public goods. In contrast with previous articles, general nonlinear income taxes that affect the labor-leisure decisions of consumers who work and vote are allowed. Uncertainty plays an important role in that the government does not know the true realizations of the abilities of consumers drawn from a known distribution, but must meet the realization-dependent budget. Even though the space of alternatives is infinite dimensional, conditions on primitives are found to assure existence of a majority rule equilibrium when agents vote over both a public good and income taxes to finance it

The Integration of the Hispanic/Latino Immigrant Workforce State of Nebraska Mexican American Commission Project Report

The main purpose of the study was to explore the degree to which Latino newcomers are being effectively and positively integrated into the economic, social, and political lives and institutions of the state and local communities. The project consisted of three phases. The first was based on analysis of Census 2000 figures, government documents, media archives, and published research. The second phase developed a survey questionnaire mailed to a wide array of agencies and organizations directly or indirectly charged with integrating newcomer populations. In the third phase we conducted focus groups with newcomers and key organizations in three Nebraska communities. This project represents an important step by Nebraska to address the serious dearth of research on the state’s Latino population. In January 2000, Legislative Bill 1363 was introduced to the Nebraska legislature by a group of seventeen state senators. The purpose of LB 1363 was to create the Task Force on the Productive Integration of the Immigrant Workforce Population. As part of its initiative, the Task Force held a series of public hearings that gave individual citizens across the state an opportunity to express their views and ideas about the opportunities and challenges oldtimers and new arrivals to Nebraska face as a result of an increasing immigrant workforce population in their respective communities. The second component of the initiative was to sponsor a research study on this same topic. The authors were selected by the State of Nebraska\u27s Mexican American Commission, the result of which is the above report

The impact of a "Minimum Guaranteed Income Program" in Portugal

The objective of this paper is to estimate the impact of the Portuguese Minimum Guaranteed Income Program (RMIG). We estimate its impact on the distribution of household incomes and poverty as well as the size of government expenditures necessary to finance the program. The baseline adopted is constructed under the assumption of no behavioural responses to the transfer mechanism and of total participation of all eligible households. The simulation shows that 4,8% of domestic households and 5,7% of the population are eligible to receive the RMIG. The Program has a small but positive impact in reducing inequality. However, taking labour supply effects into account results in a smaller gain in inequality reduction. Similarly, we have a small but positive impact on the poverty rate for individuals. This gain, however, is almost cancelled when labour supply reactions are taken into account. However the most important consequences of the RMIG are sharp gains in the measures of poverty severity and intensity. In these dimensions, taking into account the labour supply incentives of the RMIG does not reduce substantially the positive impacts of the Program

Vitamin K in hemodialysis patients

Os doentes hemodialisados por doença renal geralmente apresentam défices de vitamina K no sangue, provavelmente devido às dietas a que são sujeitos. De facto, devido à sua patologia, estes doentes devem reduzir a ingestão de produtos ricos em sódio e potássio, como queijos e vegetais verdes, que são ricos em vitamina K. Como esta vitamina atua como cofator da carboxilase dependente de vitamina K, as proteínas que dependem desta enzima, tais como a matrix Gla protein (MGP), osteocalcin (OC), growth arrest specific protein 6 (Gas6) e a Gla-rich protein (GRP), vão ficar descarboxiladas e inativadas. Isto resultará num conjunto de alterações, como alterações fenotípicas das células do endotélio vascular que se transformam em células osteocondrogénicas, processo apelidado de calcificação vascular. A calcificação vascular será depois responsável pelo aumento da rigidez dos vasos sanguíneos, músculo e válvulas cardíacas, e contribuirá também para o aceleramento do processo aterosclerótico. Compreende-se então que seja considerada um fator de risco sobretudo para a mortalidade e morbilidade cardiovascular. O elevado número de pacientes afetados por esta complicação resulta numa necessidade de procura de uma terapêutica capaz de tratar o défice de vitamina K e consequentemente retardar a evolução do processo de calcificação. A hipótese de suplementar estes doentes com vitamina K pode ser importante e protetora para o desenvolvimento da calcificação vascular. Assim, neste artigo de revisão pretendemos analisar vários estudos que têm sido realizados com este objetivo e perceber se o uso desta terapêutica pode ter utilidade na gestão e tratamento do doente hemodialisado.Hemodialysis patients with kidney disease usually have vitamin K deficits in their blood, probably due to their diets. In fact, due to their pathology, these patients must reduce their intake of products rich in sodium and potassium, such as cheeses and green vegetables, which are rich in vitamin K. As this vitamin acts as a cofactor for vitamin K-dependent carboxylase, proteins that depend on this enzyme, such as matrix Gla protein (MGP), osteocalcin (OC), growth arrest specific protein 6 (Gas6) and Gla-rich protein (GRP), will be decarboxylated and inactivated. This will result in a set of changes, such as phenotypic changes in the cells of the vascular endothelium that turn into osteochondrogenic cells, a process called vascular calcification. Vascular calcification will then be responsible for increasing the stiffness of blood vessels, muscle and heart valves, and will also contribute to the acceleration of the atherosclerotic process. So, this is considered a risk factor especially for cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. The high number of patients affected by this complication results in a need to search for a therapy capable of treating vitamin K deficiency and consequently delaying the evolution of the calcification process. The possibility of supplementing these patients with vitamin K may be important and protective for the development of vascular calcification. Thus, in this article review weintend to analyze several studies that have been carried out with this objective and to understand if the use of this therapy can be useful in the management and treatment of hemodialysis patients