Mind-life continuity: a qualitative study of conscious experience

There are two fundamental models to understanding the phenomenon of natural life. One is thecomputational model, which is based on the symbolic thinking paradigm. The other is the biologicalorganism model. The common difficulty attributed to these paradigms is that their reductive tools allowthe phenomenological aspects of experience to remain hidden behind yes/no responses (behavioraltests), or brain ‘pictures’ (neuroimaging). Hence, one of the problems regards how to overcome meth-odological difficulties towards a non-reductive investigation of conscious experience. It is our aim in thispaper to show how cooperation between Eastern and Western traditions may shed light for a non-reductive study of mind and life. This study focuses on the first-person experience associated withcognitive and mental events. We studied phenomenal data as a crucial fact for the domain of livingbeings, which, we expect, can provide the ground for a subsequent third-person study. The interventionwith Jhana meditation, and its qualitative assessment, provided us with experiential profiles based uponsubjects' evaluations of their own conscious experiences. The overall results should move towards anintegrated or global perspective on mind where neither experience nor external mechanisms have thefinal wor

A second-person model to anomalous social cognition

Reports of patients with schizophrenia show a fragmented and anomalous subjective experience. This pathological subjective experience, we suggest, can be related to the fact that disembodiment inhibits the possibility of intersubjective experience, and more importantly of common sense. In this paper, we ask how to investigate the anomalous experience both from qualitative and quantitative viewpoints. To our knowledge, few studies have focused on a clinical combination of both first- phenomenological assessment and third-person biological methods, especially for Schizophrenia, or ASD therapeutics and diagnosis. We will thus attempt to bring forward a second-person scientific design, accounting for both the first-person subjective experiential aspects, and respective third-person neurobiological correlates of embodied aesthetics in anomalous experience. From this proposal, we further explore the consequences to clinical and research practice

(Un)anticipated monetary policy in a DSGE model with a shadow banking system : [Version 21 Juni 2012]

Motivated by the U.S. events of the 2000s, we address whether a too low for too long interest rate policy may generate a boom-bust cycle. We simulate anticipated and unanticipated monetary policies in state-of-the-art DSGE models and in a model with bond financing via a shadow banking system, in which the bond spread is calibrated for normal and optimistic times. Our results suggest that the U.S. boom-bust was caused by the combination of (i) too low for too long interest rates, (ii) excessive optimism and (iii) a failure of agents to anticipate the extent of the abnormally favorable conditions

Earnings prediction using machine learning methods and analyst comparison

In the course of this dissertation we propose an experimental study on how technical, macroeconomic, and financial variables, alongside analysts’ forecasts, can be used to optimize the prediction for the subsequent quarter’s earnings results using machine learning, comparing the performance of the models to analysts’ forecasts. The dissertation includes three steps. In step one, an event study is conducted to test abnormal returns in firms’ stock prices in the day following earnings announcement, grouped by earnings per share (EPS) growth in classes of size 3, 6 and 9, computed for each quarter. In step two, several machine learning models are built to maximize the accuracy of EPS predictions. In the last step, investment strategies are constructed to take advantage of investors’ expectations, which are closely correlated with analysts’ predictions. In the backdrop of an exhaustive analysis on quarterly earnings predictions using machine learning methods, conclusions are drawn related to the superiority of the CatBoost classifier. All machine learning models tested underperform analyst predictions, which could be explained by the time and privileged information at analysts’ disposal, as well as their selection of firms to cover. Regardless, machine learning models can be used as a confirmation for analyst predictions, and statistically significant investment strategies are pursued with those fundamentals. Importantly, high confidence predictions by machine learning models are significantly more accurate than the average accuracy of forecasts.No decorrer desta dissertação, realiza-se um estudo experimental sobre a forma como análises técnicas, macroeconómicas, fundamentais e as previsões dos analistas podem ser utilizadas em conjunto para otimizar a previsão dos resultados de lucros do próximo trimestre de empresas A dissertação inclui três etapas. Na primeira etapa, é efetuado um estudo de evento para testar os retornos anormais nas ações no dia seguinte aos anúncios de lucros, sendo estes agrupados pelo crescimento do lucro por ação nas classes de 3, 6 e 9, calculado para cada trimestre. Na etapa dois, vários modelos de machine learning (ML) são concebidos para maximizar a precisão das previsões de crescimento de lucros de empresas. Na última etapa, estratégias de investimento são construídas para tirar proveito das expectativas do investidor, que estão relacionadas com as previsões dos analistas. Uma vez que um dos projetos de pesquisa mais exaustivos sobre previsões de lucros para o próximo trimestre, conclusões podem ser retiradas relacionadas com a superioridade do modelo CatBoost nas previsões de lucros. Todos os modelos de testados apresentam desempenho inferior às previsões dos analistas, o que pode ser explicado pelo tempo e pelas informações privilegiadas a que os analistas têm acesso, bem como pela escolha da empresa sob a qual as suas previsões incidem. Os modelos de podem ser utilizados como uma confirmação para as previsões dos analistas criando estratégias de investimento estatisticamente significativas. Além disso, as previsões com alta confiança por modelos de são mais precisas do que a precisão média das previsões dos analistas

The impact of career attitudes on developmental relationships

Organizations are currently facing a new work paradigm through global competition, restructuring, fast technological changes and restricted resources in which the constant change and adaptation has become a very important point (Hall, 1996; Dominguez & Hager, 2013). Therefore, not only the conceptualization of careers was transformed but also the mentoring literature has matured (Sullivan, 1999; Higgins & Kram, 2001). The new organizational environment is steadily gaining more and more importance, being the protean and the boundaryless considered as two popular career attitudes (Briscoe, Hall, & DeMuth, 2006). This cross-sectional study approaches how career attitudes impact developmental relationships and mentoring functions - career support, psychosocial support and role modeling. The data for this study was obtained through an online survey with a sample of 207 working professionals from different organizations and sectors. Overall, results did not verify the hypothesis proposed. However, a significant result revealed that individuals who have a boundaryless career attitude perceive to receive less career support. Thus, we discuss the implications of the findings for both theory and practice.Atualmente, as organizações encontram-se a lidar com um novo paradigma em contexto de trabalho através da concorrência global, restruturação, rápidas e constantes mudanças tecnológicas, e recursos limitados, pelo que a necessidade de constante mudança e adaptação se tem tornado um fator cada vez mais importante para as organizações (Hall, 1996; Dominguez & Hager, 2013). Desta forma, não só a conceptualização das carreiras se tem transformado, como também a literatura sobre o mentoring se tem consolidado (Sullivan, 1999; Higgins & Kram, 2001). O novo clima organizacional tem ganho constante importância pelo que as carreiras proteana e sem fronteiras têm vindo a ser consideradas como as atitudes de carreira mais estudadas (Briscoe, Hall, & DeMuth, 2006). Este estudo transversal aborda a forma como as atitudes de carreira podem ter impacto nas relações de desenvolvimento e nas funções do mentoring – suporte de carreira, suporte psicossocial e modelação de função. Os dados para o estudo foram obtidos através de um questionário online com uma amostra de 207 profissionais de diferentes organizações e sectores de atividade. Em geral, os resultados não verificaram as hipóteses propostas, no entanto, um resultado significativo revelou que indivíduos que têm uma atitude de carreira sem fronteiras consideram receber menos suporte de carreira. São discutidas as implicações dos resultados do estudo para a teoria e para a prática

Oral Cancer: from genomic landscape to tumor immunobiology

It is estimated that cancer will cause 9.6 million deaths and 18.1 million new patients diagnosed during 2018. Within this number, over 350 000 have oral tumors with tobacco and alcohol consumption identified as the biggest risk factors. Cancer research is still missing a comprehensive model that mimics human cancer as a whole. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse an experimental model that accurately mimics human cancer. To this end we treated mice with the carcinogen 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide in the drinking water for over 16 weeks. This allowed us to induce differently graded tumors in mice tongue oral cavity. We performed whole-exome sequencing of the tumors and the analysis confirmed similarities with human oral cancer genomic landscape. This study allowed us to gain new insight on the genomic progression of oral cancer and to explore an animal model that mimics not only the histological changes but also the genetic alterations observed in human oral cancer. Previous work has shown that knockout mice for keratin 76 are more susceptible to develop oral cancer due to increased and over-suppressive regulatory T cells in the absence of keratin 76. However, the link between the loss of keratin 76 and these changes in the immune system remains unknown. Keratin 76 is progressively more expressed in mice thymus with aging and there is a parallel with the Hassall’s corpuscles in human thymus. We showed that mice lacking keratin 76 present bigger thymic medullary regions and hypothesise one of the targets in the thymus to be Aire since its expression is reduced in the knockout. This study suggested an important role for keratin 76 in regulating the immune system

Tell Me How You Look Like And I’ll Tell You Where You Come From: Identification Of Bivalves Shells’ Origin

Tese de mestrado, Ecologia Marinha, 2022, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de CiênciasCerastoderma edule (Linnaeus 1768) and Cerastoderma glaucum (Bruguière 1799) are two sibling species of cockles that can occur in sympatry. They are ecologically and economically important, have a wide geographical distribution and are harvested all over Europe. In Portugal, cockles are commonly found along all coastal areas and were the bivalve species with the highest landings in the country between 2010 and 2020. This importance emphasises the need for unravelling the origin of an individual using traceability techniques, when the harvesting location is doubtful, identifying and verifying illegal fishing activity or benefiting consumers through the detection of mislabelled seafood products. Distinguishing cockles’ populations based on morphological characteristics is difficult due to their morphological similarities, however, species and geographic identification studies often use morphological characteristics as tools to acquire most of this bivalve’s information. Geometric morphometrics is one of the most successful methods based on morphometry, providing a visual representation of shape change and producing shape variables that can be analysed through statistics. The aim of this work was to study the geographical variation of the shell shape of Cerastoderma spp. common in Portuguese aquatic systems such as Ria de Aveiro, the Tagus and Sado estuaries, the Albufeira and Óbidos lagoons, etc. The possibility of inferring the origin of an individual using shell morphology and multiple landmark-based geometric morphometrics methodologies was explored alongside the possibility of using such methods as traceability techniques. This work supports the use of landmark-based geometric morphometrics methods, being easy, low cost and effective in the study of shell shape variation. Using these methods allowed the discrimination of cockle populations from different aquatic systems on the Portuguese coast. Such methodologies could be extended to other bivalve populations and aquatic systems, becoming beneficial for the traceability of other populations and a valuable asset in fisheries in general

A cactus group action on a shifted tableau crystal and a shifted Berenstein-Kirillov group

Gillespie, Levinson and Purbhoo recently introduced a crystal-like structure for shifted tableaux, called the shifted tableau crystal. This structure may be regarded as a directed acyclic weighted graph, with coloured double edges, having vertices the shifted semistandard tableaux. It decomposes into connected components, each one having unique source vertex, whose weight is a strict partition, and sink vertex, with reverse weight. The character of each connected component is the Schur Q-function indexed by the said strict partition. Following a similar approach as Halacheva, for crystals of finite-dimensional representations of the quantized universal enveloping algebra of a finite-dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra, we exhibit a natural internal action of the n-fruit cactus group on the shifted tableau crystal, realized by the restrictions of the shifted Schützenberger involution to all primed intervals of the underlying crystal alphabet. This includes the shifted crystal reflection operators, which agree with the restrictions of the shifted Schützenberger involution to single-coloured connected components, but unlike the case for type A crystals, these do not need to satisfy the braid relations of the symmetric group. In addition, we define a shifted version of the Berenstein–Kirillov group, by considering shifted Bender–Knuth involutions. Paralleling the works of Halacheva and Chmutov, Glick and Pylyavskyy for type A semistandard tableaux of straight shape, we exhibit another occurrence of the cactus group action on shifted tableau crystals of straight shape via the action of the shifted Berenstein–Kirillov group. We also conclude that the shifted Berenstein–Kirillov group is isomorphic to a quotient of the cactus group. Not all known relations that hold in the classic Berenstein–Kirillov group need to be satisfied by the shifted Bender–Knuth involutions, but the ones implying the relations of the cactus group are verified, thus we have another presentation for the cactus group in terms of shifted Bender–Knuth involutions. We also use the shifted growth diagrams due to Thomas and Yong, together with the semistandardization process of Pechenik and Yong, to provide an alternative proof concerning the mentioned cactus group action