Endogenous Versus Exogenous Growth Facing a Fertility Shock

This paper simulates the impact of a permanent fertility shock on economic growth, using endogenous versus exogenous growth OLG models. An endogenous growth model, with education as the engine of growth, dampens the negative impact of a decline in fertility on growth when compared with an exogenous growth model. This result stems from the rise in education levels brought about by the expectation of an increase in the discounted value of labour earnings.Human capital; education; fertility; endogenous growth; simulation

School Failure and Intergenerational “Human Capital” Transmission in Portugal

School Failure and Intergenerational Human Capital Transmission… ABSTRACT A new education reform is about to be passed into Law, in Portugal, the extension of compulsory education until the 12th grade being one of the main goals. Given huge value school failure indicators (e.g., illiteracy rates, drop-outs, retention rates) still exhibit for Portuguese education system, we keep large doubts on the effectiveness of such an aim. Moreover, education outcomes inertia between generations appears to be strong, in the light of some indirect indicators, although no recent specific research has been addressing such an issue. In this paper we therefore try to shed some light on the potential impact intergenerational school achievement would exert upon actual school failing and also control for possible endogeneity both with students' own previous trajectory indicators and school effect. For that purpose, we rely on 2003 data relative to Lisbon Metropolitan Area four schools as case studies (author abstract)School failure; father’s, mother’s education; students’ previous school trajectories; school effect; Portugal

O morgadio dos pobres : as doações, os beneméritos e a gestão dos recursos patrimoniais da Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Vila Franca do Campo (das origens a meados de setecentos)

Na Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Vila Franca do Campo, como, aliás, em todas as irmandades congéneres disseminadas pela metrópole, pelos arquipélagos atlânticos e demais territórios ultramarinos de ocupação portuguesa, são os recursos económicos provenientes dos legados e doações pias que sustentam o financiamento das práticas assistenciais, as actividades de culto e todos os encargos administrativos da irmandade. As quotas de admissão, as colectas, os peditórios, as receitas da tumba, o acompanhamento de funerais ou mesmo as oferendas alcançadas no decurso dos actos religiosos e outros donativos de reduzido valor constituem importantes meios de angariação de verbas, mas revelam-se sempre insuficientes para garantir os supremos desígnios da confraria. Nesta conjuntura, a irmandade da Misericórdia de Vila Franca do Campo organiza e desenvolve todo o seu labor assistencial em torno do património que lhe é doado por particulares – confrades ou não – ainda que se sinta na obrigação de canalizar boa parte destes proventos para áreas de intervenção estranhas à caridade e assistência públicas. A subsistência económico-financeira das confrarias – sejam elas de origem medieval ou moderna (como é o caso das Misericórdias) – é, aliás, um problema crónico no universo confraternal português. Sentem-no com maior acuidade as irmandades da Misericórdia por via do seu vasto raio de acção assistencial e caritativo, mas vivem-no persistentemente muitas das vetustas confrarias medievas do reino e as corporações de igual estrutura e semblante criadas nos Açores no decurso dos primeiros tempos de colonização. [...

G-quadruplex ligands for cancer therapy

DNA may fold into a diversity of structures and topologies such as duplexes and triplexes. Some specific guanine-rich DNA sequences may even fold into a higher order structures denominated guanine G-quadruplexes (G4). These G-quadruplex forming sequences have shown biological interest since were found in telomeres and in promoter region of oncogenes. Thus, these G4 forming sequences have been explored as therapeutic targets for cancer therapy, since G4 formation was demonstrated to inhibit RNA-polymerase and telomerase activity. However, the G4 structures are transient and are only formed under specific conditions. Hence the main objective of this work is to develop new G4-specific ligands which may potentially find applications in the therapeutic area. Several potential G4-binding ligands were synthesized and characterized. The synthesis of these compounds consisted on a procedure based on van Leusen chemistry and a cross-coupling reaction through C-H activation, affording phenanthroline compounds (Phen-1, 50%; Phen-2, 20%), phenyl (Iso-1, 61%; Iso-2, 21%; Ter-1, 85%; Ter-2, 35%), and quinolyl (Quin-1, 85%; Quin-2, 45%) compounds. Screening assays for selecting the potential G4 compounds were performed by FRET-melting, G4-FID, CD-melting and DSF. Qualitative biophysical studies were performed by fluorescence and CD spectroscopy. Two high-specific G-quadruplex ligands, Phen-1 and Phen-2, were found to effectively bind telomeric and c-myc G4 structures. Phen-1 was found to stabilize parallel telomeric 22AG and c-myc sequence by 4.1 and 4.3 ˚C, respectively. Phen-2 also displayed high affinity towards 22AG (=9.56×109 −1) and to c-myc (=3.55×106 −1), increasing their thermal stability by 15.0 (in K+) and 31.0 ˚C, respectively. The compounds were evaluated concerning their anti-proliferative effects on three cancer cell lines (MCF-7, LNCaP and U87) and normal cell line (NHDF), by MTT assay. Phen-2 and Quin-2 displayed strong anti-proliferative effects on LNCaP (IC50 = 0.40 and 39.14 μM, respectively) and MCF-7 (IC50 = 0.64 and 4.17 μM, respectively) cancer cell lines. Furthermore Quin-2 did not display cytotoxic effects on U87 and normal NHDF cells. Overall, this work explored new possibilities for finding new G4 ligands for cancer therapy

AspectGrid: Aspect-Oriented Fault-Tolerance in Grid Platforms

Migrating traditional scientific applications to computational Grids requires programming tools that can help programmers update application behaviour to this kind of platforms. Computational Grids are particularly suited for long running scientific applications, but they are also more prone to faults than desktop machines. The AspectGrid framework aims to develop methodologies and tools that can help Grid-enable scientific applications, particularly focusing on techniques based on aspect-oriented programming. In this paper we present the aspect-oriented approach taken in the AspectGrid framework to address faults in computational Grids. In the proposed approach, scientific applications are enhanced with fault-tolerance capability by plugging additional modules. The proposed technique is portable across operating systems and minimises the changes required to base applications

Envelhecimento e actividades na reforma: situação e satisfação com a vida dos reformados bancários: um estudo na ilha de São Miguel

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências Sociais, 20 de Maio de 2014, Universidade dos Açores.Este presente projecto de investigação propõe-se abordar a questão do envelhecimento, essencialmente nas suas implicações sociais e profissionais. Com ele pretende-se analisar a fase da vida na situação de reforma para os indivíduos reformados do sector bancário, procurando conhecer de que forma as suas actividades, ocupações, situação e o conjunto de papéis sociais que possuam, se relacionam com a satisfação com a vida durante a reforma. Pretende-se ainda saber se a satisfação com a vida sofre alterações em função do tempo de reforma, do género e do estado civil do indivíduo. Pretende-se igualmente saber se a envolvência em actividades produtivas e de utilidade social aumenta a satisfação com a vida, na reforma. O estudo incide sobre os indivíduos reformados bancários da ilha de São Miguel com 55 e mais anos que exerçam actividades ou, embora não as exercendo, possuam condições gerais de saúde favoráveis ao seu exercício. Procurou-se atingir o universo dos profissionais bancários reformados, sendo identificados 331 bancários reformados na ilha de São Miguel, numa paridade de 277 homens e 54 mulheres. Deste universo colaboraram na investigação152 sujeitos, o que representa uma percentagem de respondentes de cerca de 45%, face ao número total dos reformados bancários. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo mostram que a envolvência em actividades produtivas ou de utilidade social influencia a satisfação com a vida e que esta tende a diminuir com o aumento do tempo passado na reforma, confirmando certos estudos. Os casados estão mais satisfeitos com a vida do que os solteiros ou as pessoas que vivem sozinhas; corroborando certos estudos e outros não, as mulheres apresentam níveis de satisfação com a vida significativamente mais elevados do que os homens.ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the issue of aging, specially on its social and professional implications. In this sense, the main aim of this paper is to analyse the stage of life in retirement situation for individuals retired from the banking sector, trying to understand how their activities, occupations, status and set of social roles that they have, relate to life satisfaction after retirement. The aim is also to know whether life satisfaction changes depending on the time of retirement, gender and marital status of the individual. At the same time, the intention of this work is also to know whether the involvement in productive activities and social utility increases life satisfaction after retirement. This study has been applied to retired bank officers on the island of São Miguel with 55 and more years engaged or, while not exercising, with general health conditions favorable for its exercise. We tried to reach the world of retired banking professionals, and we identified 331 retired bank professionals on the island of São Miguel, 277 men and 54 women. In this research project were interviewed 152 professionals, representing 45 percent of respondents. The results of this study show that the involvement in productive activities or social utility influences life satisfaction and that this tends to decrease with increasing time spent in retirement, confirming some studies. Married people are more satisfied with life than singles or people who live alone, corroborating some studies and not others, women have levels of life satisfaction significantly higher than men

The determinants of capital structure of Portuguese firms

This paper investigates the determinants of capital structure based on a sample of 2,804 non-financial Portuguese firms, from 2000 to 2009. A standard capital structure model is estimated controlling for firm-specific and market factors commonly used in the literature. The model is further estimated for sub samples of firms based on size, growth opportunities and leverage, as well as for the time periods before and during the international financial crisis. The result show that firms’ capital structure decision seems to conform more with the pecking order theory, rather than with the tradeoff theory. This is also true for different groups of firms based on size, growth opportunities and leverage. Finally, the results suggest that firms have adjusted their leverage as the international 2008 crisis begun.N/

Boca do Rio (Budens, Vila do Bispo): novos dados de uma villa piscícola romana

O sítio da Boca do Rio é bem conhecido desde que o tsunami de 1755 colocou à vista, até hoje, as suas ruínas romanas. Cento e vinte anos depois iniciam-se um conjunto de campanhas arqueológicas, suscitadas, em grande parte, pela tentativa de resgatar da destruição pela ação marítima os bem conservados testemunhos da presença romana. Este artigo, apresentado nos Encontros de Arqueologia do Algarve de 2011, do qual nunca saíram atas, dá sobretudo conta de mais uma dessas campanhas com vista a salvar um mosaico do sítio, permitindo esta intervenção conhecer um pouco mais desta notável estação arqueológica e de propor uma interpretação do sítio no que concerne à sua organização funcional e à sua classificação como villa marítima de vocação produtiva, cujo “fundus” era o mar e a pars frumentaria as officinae salsamentariae.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The use of motion capture in non-realistic animation

The Use of Motion Capture in Non-realistic Animation explores the possibility of creating non-realistic animation through the use of motion capture. In this study we look to the particularities of cartoony/non-realistic animation while trying to as-certain if it is viable to create this type of animation through the process of motion capture. This dissertation will, firstly, expose the historical, theoretical, technical and artistic context. There will be a brief description of important landmarks and general overview of the history of animation. There will also be an explanation of how animators’ will to mimic real life motion, led to the invention of several technologies in order to achieve this goal. Next we will describe the several stages that compose the motion capture process. Lastly there will be a comparison be-tween key-frame animation and motion capture animation techniques and also the analysis of several examples of films where motion capture was used. Finally there will be a description of the production phases of an animated short film called Na-poleon’s Unsung Battle. In this film the majority of its animated content was obtained through the use of motion capture while aiming for a cartoony/non-realistic style of animation. There is still margin for improvement on the final results but there is also proof that it is possible to obtain a non-realistic style of animation while using motion capture technology. The questions that remain are: is it time effective and can the process be optimized for this less than common use