Escola e mudança social: recém-licenciados na área de informática em instituições de ensino superior localizadas na área metropolitana do Porto

This article is based on a Ph.D. in sociology research conducted at FLUP. It seeks to capture the continuities and transformations between levels of socialization and structure of habitus in a specific group of the Portuguese population: new graduates in computing in higher education institutions located in the metropolitan area of Porto. The data that are presented here refer to intergenerational courses in terms of class, putting the school in the heart of the problem of change and social reproduction. The aim of the research that underpins this article focused on the uptake of practices and representations of this particular group with the aim of concluding on the dynamics that characterize Portugal, a country in transition to a network society

Drivers of corporate bankruptcy and default : study concerning Portuguese Companies

My purpose with this dissertation is to investigate the relevance of financial and economic variables as predictors of corporate bankruptcy (default) in Portugal. Understanding the underlying issues behind corporate distress and failure is crucial for several areas particularly: granting (or not) a bank loan, managing credit risk and pricing debt. The present financial and economic crisis stimulated a growing interest on matters related to corporate default, ratings and scoring models. In this dissertation, I apply, to a sample of medium-large Portuguese companies, updated statistical models for identifying the fundamental variables that lead to bankruptcy (and default), and if they are mainly idiosyncratic and / or systematic, affecting simultaneously all firms. I also fit hazard model for studying hazard rates and survival-time, trying to disclose which variables can shield firms from a hazard event, in this case, bankruptcy. The sample was provided by COFACE, a known credit scoring company and included full annual financial statements, from years 2006 to 2011, adding additional requested information, namely, about bankruptcies and legal actions against firms due to payment default. My findings support the conclusion that some financial and economic variables do influence bankruptcy and default probability together with survival-time, which is perfectly anticipated by corporate finance analysis theory and practice. Nevertheless, I reached some conclusions that contradict others from similar studies

Development of in-vitro in-silico technologies for modelling and analysis of haematological malignancies

Worldwide, haematological malignancies are responsible for roughly 6% of all the cancer-related deaths. Leukaemias are one of the most severe types of cancer, as only about 40% of the patients have an overall survival of 10 years or more. Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a pre-leukaemic condition, is a blood disorder characterized by the presence of dysplastic, irregular, immature cells, or blasts, in the peripheral blood (PB) and in the bone marrow (BM), as well as multi-lineage cytopenias. We have created a detailed, lineage-specific, high-fidelity in-silico erythroid model that incorporates known biological stimuli (cytokines and hormones) and a competing diseased haematopoietic population, correctly capturing crucial biological checkpoints (EPO-dependent CFU-E differentiation) and replicating the in-vivo erythroid differentiation dynamics. In parallel, we have also proposed a long-term, cytokine-free 3D cell culture system for primary MDS cells, which was firstly optimized using easily-accessible healthy controls. This system enabled long-term (24-day) maintenance in culture with high (>75%) cell viability, promoting spontaneous expansion of erythroid phenotypes (CD71+/CD235a+) without the addition of any exogenous cytokines. Lastly, we have proposed a novel in-vitro in-silico framework using GC-MS metabolomics for the metabolic profiling of BM and PB plasma, aiming not only to discretize between haematological conditions but also to sub-classify MDS patients, potentially based on candidate biomarkers. Unsupervised multivariate statistical analysis showed clear intra- and inter-disease separation of samples of 5 distinct haematological malignancies, demonstrating the potential of this approach for disease characterization. The work herein presented paves the way for the development of in-vitro in-silico technologies to better, characterize, diagnose, model and target haematological malignancies such as MDS and AML.Open Acces

Construção de um índice municipal de desenvolvimento sustentável : o estudo de caso do Concelho de Alenquer

Trabalho de Projecto de MCAP apresentado à Universidade AbertaA promoção de um modelo de desenvolvimento sustentável é um compromisso assumido por decisores, organizações sociais e cidadãos em geral. A criação de mecanismos de monitorização e avaliação do desenvolvimento local assume particular importância para a concretização operacional dos princípios subjacentes à sustentabilidade. Este trabalho propõe uma metodologia para a construção de um Índice Municipal de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (IMDS). A metodologia apresentada é aplicada e validada no concelho de Alenquer, distrito de Lisboa. A metodologia apresenta um processo de seleção de um conjunto de 24 indicadoreschave, intercalibráveis e comparáveis com outros municípios, distribuídos homogeneamente pelos principais temas e dimensões do Desenvolvimento Sustentável, e com possibilidades de serem atualizados com dados anuais, provenientes de estatísticas oficiais. Os valores originais para cada indicador foram normalizados e indexados à média dos municípios do continente português. Os valores indexados de cada um dos indicadores foram posteriormente ponderados, sendo que o fator de ponderação foi obtido através da realização de um inquérito sobre a sua relevância, efetuado a diversos agentes locais das áreas económicas, ambientais, sociais e institucionais, considerados atores-chave. Procedeu-se a uma agregação dos valores indexados e ponderados, de modo a possibilitar a concentração de informação em 4 índices temáticos dimensionais. Nesta agregação foi utilizada a média aritmética ponderada. O IMDS obteve-se através da média aritmética dos 4 índices dimensionais. A aplicação feita ao concelho de Alenquer, com valores desde 2004, valida o valor indexado de cada indicador, os índices dimensionais e o IMDS como ferramentas úteis de aferição e de apoio à tomada de decisões, em matéria de políticas locais para promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável. Os resultados revelaram que os pontos fracos em termos de sustentabilidade do concelho estão na área económica e ambiental e que o IMDS de Alenquer é de 82 considerando o valor 100 para a média dos municípios do continente. Esta metodologia poderá ser aplicada qualquer outro concelho de Portugal.The promotion of a sustainable development framework is a commitment by policy makers, organizations and citizens. The establishment of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of local development, assumes particular importance to the achievement of operating principles for sustainability. This work proposes a methodology for the development of a Municipal Index for Sustainable Development (IMDS). The methodology is applied and validated in the municipality of Alenquer, on Lisbon district. The methodology provides a process for selecting a set of 24 key indicators, calibrate and comparable with other municipalities, equally distributed by the major themes and pillars of sustainable development, and possible to be updated with annual data from official statistics. The original values for each indicator were standardized and indexed to the average of the Portuguese mainland municipalities data. The weighting factor applied for each indicator indexed value, was obtained by conducting a survey on its relevance, made to stakeholders of the local economic, environmental, social and institutional areas. The indexed values were aggregated, to enable the concentration in 4 dimensional areas. This aggregation was made using the weighted arithmetic average. The IMDS value was obtained through the arithmetic mean of the four dimensional areas. The application to the municipality of Alenquer, with values ranging from 2004, validates the indexed value of each indicator, the thematic areas and the global IMDS, as useful tools for measuring and supporting decision making on policies to promote local sustainable development. The results revealed that sustainability weaknesses in the municipality are on economic and environmental levels and the Alenquer IMDS is 82 considering the value 100 for the average of the municipalities in the Portuguese mainland. This methodology can be applied to any municipality of Portugal

Impacto das políticas de reagrupamento familiar em Portugal

Publicação com o apoio do QREN/POP

Recuperação de transações em bases de dados NoSQL

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia InformáticaCom o amadurecimento e ampla utilização das bases de dados NoSQL tem havido um interesse crescente na adição de transações multi-linha, que proporcionem as propriedades ACID sem comprometer o desempenho e capacidade de escala destes sistemas. Apesar das propostas nesta área assentarem em técnicas bem conhecidas de bases de dados, como a multi-versão e a recuperação, a sua aplicação está agora enquadrada em pressupostos diferentes, não sendo claro que os compromissos tradicionais se mantenham. Neste contexto, este trabalho sistematiza os compromissos relacionados com a escolha de um mecanismo de recuperação, que garante que as alterações efetuadas por uma transação confirmada persistem atomicamente. Além de analisar qual o impacto na arquitetura do sistema da escolha do mecanismo de recuperação, comparamos experimentalmente as alternativas mais interessantes com diferentes cargas de trabalho.With the maturing and extensive use of NoSQL databases there has been a growing interest in adding multi-line transactions that provide ACID properties without compromising the performance and scalability of these systems. Although proposals in this area are based on traditional database techniques such as multi-version and recovery, their application is now framed in different assumptions, and it is not clear that traditional compromises remain. In this context, this work systematizes the compromises related to the choice of a recovery mechanism, which guarantees that the changes made by a commited transaction persist atomically. In addition to analyzing the impact on the system architecture of the choice of the recovery mechanism, we compared experimentally the most interesting alternatives with different workloads

BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CYBERSECURITY IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

The main objective was to examine the trajectory of scientific research in this domain, identify the most influential publications related to cybersecurity in autonomous vehicles and pinpoint research opportunities, supported by the PRISMA method. Additionally, the study explores cybersecurity themes in autonomous vehicles, emphasizing the significance of concepts like blockchain, machine learning, and deep learning essential in formulating business strategies. Furthermore, the research identifies influential scientific publications, predominant journals, the most productive countries, and authors with the most publications on cybersecurity in autonomous vehicles. It identifies research opportunities organized into two distinct clusters to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of research in this field and offer insights for companies and academics interested in contributing to future advancements in the cybersecurity of autonomous vehicles. The article demonstrates that cybersecurity is a fundamental area for the development and implementation of secure and reliable autonomous vehicles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Role of Radiology in Detecting Prosthetic Breast Implant-Related Complications

Given the growing number of breast implants, both for aesthetic and reconstructive purposes, it is imperative for the Radiologist, to know the different types of surgical procedures involved, as well as the various types of implants available. Several types of early or late complications can result from this. The prosthesis rupture represents one of the most frequent kinds of late complication and constitutes the foremost cause of its removal. Since its clinical manifestation may be absent in up to 50% of cases, Radiology plays a central role in its monitoring. In Portugal, MR surveillance is not recommended by the national health program. Ultrasound examination along with screening mammography is the usual preferred method.Thus, although breast implants imaging constitutes a low percentage of the day-to-day care activity of a Radiologist, the knowledge of the different imaging findings in the multimodality imaging used is crucial for early diagnosis of these complications and to provide the best patient care possible.