Towards environmental impact of inward foreign direct investment: the moderating role of varieties of democracy

Purpose—This paper aims to clarify the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), democracy, and carbon intensity. It examines the influence of different types of democracy on the relationship between inward FDI and carbon intensity. For this purpose, it uses five varieties of democracy, including a composite democracy indicator, as moderating variables. Design/methodology/approach—This study applies the fixed-effects panel quantile regression approach, which considers unobserved heterogeneity and distributional heterogeneity using panel data from 160 countries during 1990–2020. To check the robustness of the results, an event study is conducted across various sub-samples of democracy, taking into account sudden changes in the volume of inward FDI. Findings – The results show that FDI has a significantly negative impact on the carbon intensity of the host country in the upper quantiles. In general, different types of democracy have a significant positive impact on carbon intensity across different quantiles. After considering the other factors, including industry intensity, trade openness, green technology, fossil fuel dependency and International Environmental Agreements, there is evidence that all types of democracy moderate the relationship between FDI and carbon intensity, thereby supporting the halo effect hypothesis. In addition, the interaction effects have a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of low- and high-carbon-intensive countries. Originality/value – This paper offers several contributions to the literature on the effect of FDI and democracy on carbon intensity. This study overcomes the limitations related to the conceptualisation and measurement of democracy found in the literature. While prior research has predominately concentrated on how democracy promotes the selection of FDI host-country locations, this study seeks to answer whether democracy type affects inward FDI, thus contributing to improving carbon intensity. Furthermore, this paper separately analyses the effect of interaction on carbon intensity in different countries with different carbon intensity levels

Auxiliares entomófagos capturados num olival da Terra Quente Transmontana

A valorização da acção dos factores de limitação natural dos inimigos das culturas e um dos princípios essenciais da Protecção Integrada e da Agricultura Biológica. Entre estes factores assume especial interesse a fauna auxiliar indígena, designadamente os parasitóides e predadores das espécies nocivas. Com o objectivo de contribuir para conhecer os principais elementos desta fauna associados a oliveira na Terra Quente Transmontana, realizaram-se amostragens quinzenais entre Julho de 1998 e Fevereiro de 1999, num olival situado em Valbom dos Figos, no concelho de Mirandela. As amostragens foram efectuadas pelo batimento de 50 ramos, através da técnica das pancadas usada em arboricultura. O material obtido foi separado em laboratório, a lupa binocular, tendo-se procedido, em cada data, ao registo do numero de indivíduos das ordens Araneae e Hymenoptera e das famílias Chrysopidae, Anthocoridae. Miridae, Coccinellidae e Formicidae por serem consideradas as de maior interesse na limitação das populações de espécies fitófagas da oliveira. As famílias mais representativas em termos de abundância, foram a Formicidae, com 520 exemplares, seguida da Coccinellidae, com 108 indivíduos. 0 maior numero de capturas, registou-se em Julho e Setembro

Velocity and structural model of the Lower Tagus Basin according to the study of environmental seismic noise

Along his history the Lower Tagus Valley (LTV) region was shaken by several earthquakes, some of them produced in large ruptures of offshore structures located southwest of the Portuguese coastline. Among these is the Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755 (M∼8.5-8.7), and other moderates earthquakes that were produced by local sources such as the 1344 (M6.0), 1531 (M7.1) and 1909 (M6.0) earthquakes. Previous simulations [1] have shown high velocity amplification in the region. The model used in the simulations was updated from low to high resolution using all the new available geophysical and geotechnical data on the area (seismic reflection, aeromagnetic, gravimetric, deep wells and geological outcrops) [2]. To confirm this model in the areas where it was derived by potential field methods we use broadband ambient noise measurements collected in about 200 points along seven profiles on the LTV basin, six perpendicular and one parallel to the basin axis. We applied the horizontal to vertical (H/V) spectral ratio method [3] to the seismic noise profiles in order to estimate the distribution of amplification in the basin. The H/V curves obtained reveals the existence of two low frequency peaks centered on 0.2 and 1 Hz [4]. These peaks are strongly related with the thickness of Cenozoic and alluvial sediments. The velocity model obtained by inversion of the H/V curves is in good agreement with borehole data, and results obtained using seismic reflection and gravimetric methods. However, aeromagnetic data overestimates the depth of the base of Cenozoic in the areas where it overlies directly the paleozoic basement, which we attribute either to the existence of Mesozoic units or higher magnetic susceptibilities than expected for the Paleozoic. References: [1] Bezzeghoud, M., Borges, J.F., M., Caldeira (2011). Ground motion simulations of the SW Iberia margin: rupture directivity and earth structure effects. Natural Hazards, pages 1–17. doi:10.1007/s11069-011-9925-2 [2] Torres, R.J.G., (2012). Modelo de velocidade da Bacia do Vale do Tejo: uma abordagem baseada no estudo do ruído sísmico ambiental, Master Thesis, Universidade de Évora, 83pp. [3] Nakamura, Y., 1989. A method for dynamic characteristics estimations of subsurface using microtremors on the ground surface, Quarterly Report, RTRI, Japan, v. 30, p. 25-33. [4] J.A. Furtado, Confirmação do modelo da estrutura 3D do Vale Inverior do Tejo a partir de dados de ruído sísmico ambiente, Master Thesis, Universidade de Évora, 136pp, 2010

Bases neurais da ansiedade matemática: implicações para o processo de ensino-aprendizagem

A ansiedade matemática é um fenômeno global e altamente prevalente, possuindo marcadores fisiológicos, cognitivos e comportamentais. No entanto, pouco se conhece sobre seus mecanismos neurais subjacentes. Fornecemos uma Revisão Sistemática de estudos que investigaram os correlatos neurais da Ansiedade Matemática (AM) na última década e discutimos suas implicações para o processo de ensino aprendizagem. Foram selecionadas pesquisas que avaliaram parâmetros fisiológicos da função cerebral de indivíduos com AM através de bancos de dados eletrônicos, atentando-se a critérios de inclusão e exclusão delineados. A qualidade da literatura foi analisada a partir dos 11 itens da escala de qualidade PEDro e conduzida pelo fluxograma de seleção de estudos PRISMA, resultando na inclusão de 14 estudos neurocientíficos. Em geral, a literatura vem sugerir que as redes neurais de medo e de dor são estimuladas antes e durante tarefas numéricas em indivíduos com alta AM. Além disso, há uma capacidade reduzida de Memória de Trabalho e déficit de atenção/inibição em indivíduos com alta AM. Eles também são mais propensos a cometer erros em tarefas matemáticas, tem representações menos precisas de magnitude numérica, abordam os problemas matemáticos de maneira diferente de seus pares menos ansiosos e tendem a elevar mais recursos de controle cognitivo para concluir objetivos com estímulos aversivos relacionados ao raciocínio matemático, podendo impactar a eficiência de processamento e gerar déficits de desempenho. Resultados suportam, ainda, que os efeitos da AM estão associados à uma menor ativação cortical já durante os estágios iniciais do processamento de estímulos numéricos, independente da complexidade da tarefa. Implicações para guiar a prática do professor que ensina Matemática são discutidas à luz das evidências

An atypical case of focal myositis

A 64-year-old woman presented with a 10-day history of painful progressive bilateral temporal and right retroauricular region tumefaction, dysphonia, and a body temperature of 37.5°C. She had been previously prescribed antibiotics assuming an oral infection, with no benefit. She had no other complaints and her past medical history and clinical exam were otherwise unremarkable. Her labs revealed high levels of CRP (11.7 mg/dl), ESR (52 mm/h), creatine kinase (CK 623 U/l), myoglobin (83 U/l), aspartate transaminase (56 U/l) and alanine transaminase (69 U/l). Serologies were negative for Treponema pallidum, human immunodeficiency, hepatitis B and C, and Epstein–Barr viruses; blood cultures and immunological study, including anti-nuclear antibodies and antibodies associated with inflammatory myopathies, were negative. A facial MRI revealed thickening and T2/FLAIR hypersignal of the temporal, masseter, and pterygoid muscles with signal intensification after gadolinium injection, suggesting myositis. A temporal muscle biopsy showed marked lymphocyte infiltration (predominantly lymphocyte T CD3), as well as the marking of multiple fibres with major histocompatibility complex class I products, which supported the diagnosis. Prednisolone 0.5 mg/kg/day (30 mg) was started, with marked clinical improvement and normalization of CRP, ESR, and CK.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio