Popularity functions, partisan effects and support in Parliament

This paper analyzes the popularity of the main political entities in Portugal. After describing the recent evolution and structure of the Portuguese political system, we present estimations of popularity functions for the Assembly, Government, Prime Minister, and President using several estimation techniques to incorporate the timeseries and cross-equation aspects of the models. The results strongly favor the responsibility hypothesis, with unemployment, and to a lesser extent inflation, affecting popularity levels. There is also evidence that voters’ evaluations of incumbents’ economic performance depends on the ideology and support in Parliament of the latter. Finally, there is evidence of popularity erosion over consecutive terms and of honeymoon effects.

Political Business Cycles at the Municipal Level

This article tests for the existence of rational political business cycles models using a large and unexplored data set of Portuguese municipalities. The data set is well-suited for this purpose because it provides a high level of detail on expenditure items, because Portuguese municipalities are homogeneous with respect to policy instruments and institutions and follow an exogenously determined election schedule. Estimation results clearly reveal the existence of opportunistic behaviour by local governments. Expenditures increase in pre-election periods, especially on items that are highly visible to the electorate (e.g., highways and streets). This suggests an effort to signal competence and improve chances of re-election.Political business cycles, public finance, local governments.

Does Opportunism Pay Off?

This article tests the hypothesis that the opportunistic manipulation of financial accounts by mayors increases their chances of re-election. Working with a large and detailed dataset comprising all Portuguese mainland municipalities, which covers the municipal elections that took place from 1979 to 2001, we clearly show that increases in investment expenditures and changes in the composition of spending favouring highly visible items are associated with higher vote percentages for incumbent mayors seeking re-election. Our results also indicate that the political payoff to opportunistic spending increased after democracy became well-established in the country.Voting functions, opportunism, local governments, elections, Portugal.

The determinants of vote intentions in Portugal

This paper offers additional insights on the interactions between economics and politics in Portugal. We use an unexplored data set consisting of monthly polls on vote intentions for the main political parties in Portugal, since 1986. Results indicate that: (1) socialist governments had less electoral support than social democratic governments; (2) social democratic governments enjoyed a honeymoon period with the electorate while socialist governments did not; (3) vote intentions for incumbent parties tend to decrease with time in office; (4) voters hold incumbents responsible for the evolution of the economy; (5) the socialists are more penalized for rises in unemployment than are the social democrats.voting functions, responsibility hypothesis, Portugal, vote intentions.

Inequality, a scourge of the XXI century

Social and economic inequality is a plague of the XXI Century. It is continuously widening, as the wealth of a relatively small group increases and, therefore, the rest of the world shares a shrinking fraction of resources. This situation has been predicted and denounced by economists and econophysicists. The latter ones have widely used models of market dynamics which consider that wealth distribution is the result of wealth exchanges among economic agents. A simple analogy relates the wealth in a society with the kinetic energy of the molecules in a gas, and the trade between agents to the energy exchange between the molecules during collisions. However, while in physical systems, thanks to the equipartition of energy, the gas eventually arrives at an equilibrium state, in many exchange models the economic system never equilibrates. Instead, it moves toward a "condensed" state, where one or a few agents concentrate all the wealth of the society and the rest of agents shares zero or a very small fraction of the total wealth. Here we discuss two ways of avoiding the "condensed" state. On one hand, we consider a regulatory policy that favors the poorest agent in the exchanges, thus increasing the probability that the wealth goes from the richest to the poorest agent. On the other hand, we study a tax system and its effects on wealth distribution. We compare the redistribution processes and conclude that complete control of the inequalities can be attained with simple regulations or interventions

The influence of motivational involvement in physical activity level improving using formative evaluation procedures

The current work was planned to build up an original motivational involvement, based on Self-Determination Theory and Social Cognitive Theory, to improving physical activity in disadvantaged adolescents. The theoretical structure has three main issues: social context (perceived independence, perceived social sustain, input and enjoyment); cognitive mediators (perceived option and self-efficacy); and motivational course (intrinsic motivation, commitment and positive self-concept). Formative evaluation information was composed by organization through daily forms right through the 16-week program and during observational data completed, by independent trained observers, during 4 weeks. The results shown information concerning the meaning of the cognitive suitability of the physical activity and motivational actions, the environmental context for promoting relationships, strategies definition for increasing intrinsic rather than extrinsic reinforcement, and stimulate methods for preventing social gender conflicts to keep an appropriate level of social support by formative evaluation procedures

Performance change in the sprint test of women’s Basketball senior players

Basketball is a game of opposition and cooperation where the work undertaken by players goes from activities such as walking to running and high intensity sprints, making it relevant to study the explosive ability to perform actions, such as sprint. The goal set out with this study was to analyze the speed in basketball, its repeated sprints, to assess the progress in the speed of the athletes sprinting, determining the number of sprints that the players can make with maximum intensity until they reach the onset of fatigue, thus predicting their ability to perform repeated high intensity sprints during the competition. Two women's basketball senior athletes were used, to whom the sprint test was applied, with 10 repetitions of 25 m and change of direction. The principal findings achieved showed that in both athletes, there was a gradual increase in runtime in the initial phase of the test, which was followed by a subsequent decrease as a consequence of adaptation. From about the middle of the test, the athletes had higher execution times which were related to the fatigue. These values decreased again, remaining more or less stable until the end of the test

Election Results and Opportunistic Policies: An Integrated Approach

The literature on political business cycles suggests that politicians systematically manipulate economic and fiscal conditions before elections. The literature on vote and popularity functions suggests that economic conditions systematically affect election outcomes. This paper integrates these two strands of literature. We use Rogo? (1990)’s model of the rational political business cycle to derive the two-way relationship between the win-margin of the incumbent politician and the size of the opportunistic distortion of fiscal policy. This relationship is estimated, for a panel of 275 Portuguese municipalities (from 1979 to 2001), as a system of simultaneous equations (by GMM). The results clearly support the theoretical predictions: (1) opportunism pays o?, leading to a larger win-margin for the incumbent; (2) incumbents behave more opportunistically when they expect a close election race.Voting and popularity functions, opportunism, rational political business cycles, local government, system estimation, Portugal.

Oral complications of cancer treatment in patients with breast neoplasm : a retrospective observational study in a hospital setting

A incidência global de cancro, particularmente cancro da cama, tem vindo a aumentar nas últimas décadas, com a cavidade oral a ser um dos locais afectados por efeitos adversos, nomeadamente osteoquimionecrose, devido ao uso de fármacos como os bifosfonatos e mais recentemente anticorpos monoclonais. Objectivos: Analisar e caracterizar as complicações orais associadas ao tratamento oncológico em doentes com neoplasia da mama. Materiais e Métodos: Um estudo observacional retrospectivo foi realizado. Os registos clínicos de 32 pacientes a receberem quimioterapia e radioterapia no Hospital Santos Silva(Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia /Espinho). De seguida todos os pacientes serão submetidos a examinação intra-oral e a um questionário. Tipo de Tumor, Estadio Tumoral , Esquemas Terapeuticos e manifestações orais serão determinados e a análise estatistica realizada usando SPSS 21.0. Resultados : Foi obtida uma amostra de 32 pacientes, Carcinomas Invasivos foram os mais observados com uma incidência de 56.25% (n=18). Estadio IIIA foi o mais comum entre os vários estadios observados com uma incidência de 25% (n=8). FEC, 46.9% (n=15), foi o esquema terapêutico de quimioterapia mais utilizado. Disgeusia foi a manifestação oral mais frequente com uma incidência de 81.3%. Conclusão: O conhecimento deste tipo de complicações decorrentes do tratamento do cancro da mama por parte dos pacientes é bastante reduzido e desvalorizadas pelos mesmos. É da nossa opinião que mais estudos sobre a ocorrência destas complicações durante o tratamento oncológico sejam realizados pelas entidades competentes de modo a permitirem o aumento da qualidade de vida do doente oncológicoThe overall incidence of cancer, particularly breast cancer, has increased substantially over the last decades, with the oral cavity being one of the locations where side effects usually occur, namely osteochemonecrosis, as a consequence of the use of drugs such as bisphosphonates and, more recently, monoclonal antibodies. Purpose: To analyse and further characterise the main oral manifestations of cancer treatment associated with patients with breast neoplasm. Material and methods: A retrospective observational study as carried out. Records from 32 patients undergoing chemotherapy will be retrieved from the Hospital Santos Silva (CHVNG/E) files and reviewed. Patients will subsequently be observed and a questionnaire applied. Tumour type, stage, therapeutic regimens, and oral manifestations will be determined and a statistical analysis performed using SPSS 21.0. Results: A sample of 32 patients was obtained. Invasive Carcinoma were the most common breast neoplasm form with an incidence of 56.25% (n=18). Stage IIA was the most common with an incidence of 25 % (n=8). FEC, 46.9% (n=15), was the most employed therapeutic chemotherapy regimens. Dysgeusia was the most common oral complication observed with an incidence of 81.3% (n=26) Conclusion: The awareness for oral complications during breast neoplasm between patients is very low and undervalued by them. More study on the subject are necessary so that the quality of life for the oncological patient can be improved significantly