The influence of foreign equity and board membership on corporate strategy and management of internal costs in Portuguese banks

This study examines the influence of foreign equity and board membership on corporate strategy and the management of internal costs of banks headquartered in Portugal using proprietary data maintained by the Central Bank. The findings reveal that foreign equity reduces both total and operating costs, and foreign board membership reduces domestic banks’ dependence on revenues from traditional areas of business and enhances the potential for generating revenues from non-traditional areas of business. These results are controlled for a variety of standard accounting ratios used in the literature. We argue that foreign equity and board membership forces banks to redirect corporate strategy and to reduce internal costs.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Central Algarve tufa platforms, Southern Portugal. Geomorphological characterization and genesis.

Modern and fossil carbonate tufa outcrops exist in the Algarve (S Portugal), where climate is Mediterranean and all modern incrusting springs are intermittent and fed by Jurassic aquifers. The major Pleistocene tufa on the Algibre flexure southern slopes are in the Cadouço, São Lourenço and Rio Seco streams basins. There were identified fluvial barrier tufas and low energy fluvial tufas. The Algarve has three main geomorphological domains: the Paleozoic flysch mountains, the Meso-cenozoic karst hills and the littoral Plio-Pleistocene detrital platform.Located in the Eurasian-Nubian plates boundary, the whole system have been deformed by distensive and compressive tectonics, which give rise to a complex groundwater system. Neotectonical activity has been reported in many works. Feio (1952) identified Pliocene and Quaternary marine platforms up to 160 m a.s.l., but also mature levels at 200 m along with other plain surfaces. The largest tufa platforms lie in unconformity with the currentdrainage system, where outcrops are dominated by low gradient facies, v. g. detrital bedded lime muds. Machados platform is dominated by bryophytes and other rapid flow facies, and cemented riverbed upstream. These outcrops lie down on larger areas in Loulé and Lagos e Relva, at altitudes between 160-200 and 120-150 respectively. Environmentally conformal tufas occupy some sectors of the modern Cadouço, Rio Seco and São Lourenço streams. Modern tufa range from spring dominated mounds in Lagos eRelva and barrier and low gradient fluvial dominated tufas (v. g. São Lourenço and Loulé). The ocean proximity enables the formation of eustatic platforms, which provided substratum for tufa accumulations. Vertical movements, including salt tectonics, and lowstands promoted fluvial incision and later tufa developments in modern streams. Acknowledgments: Financed by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia PhD grant SFRH/BD/62323/2009

RELOAD/CoAP architecture with resource aggregation/disaggregation service

M2M communication is expected to occur at a global level and for this reason federations of device networks are also expected. In such large scale environments, a critical issue is how to discover the available resources in a scalable manner. For this purpose CoAP Usage for RELOAD, a generic self-organizing P2P overlay network service, has been proposed to be used as a lookup service, to store available resources and as a cache for sensor data. However, such approach alone does not allow building an aggregate resource hierarchy, a very relevant issue for an efficient organization of data in future IoT applications. Here we address this issue and propose an architecture incorporating a resource aggregation/disaggregation service

Arte Nova em Aveiro e sua relação com o Adobe

O movimento Art Nouveau surgiu no final do século XIX com o desenvolvimento da era industrial e traduz-se pela representação do movimento com recurso a elementos naturais para ornamentação. Foi um fenómeno súbito e de curta duração que se iniciou em Bruxelas e se propagou para outros países onde adquiriu um carácter distinto e particular adaptando-se às condições estéticas de cada país. Em Portugal, este estilo surgiu relativamente tarde, entre 1907 e 1909, numa altura em que praticamente tinha terminado nos restantes países da Europa, pela mão do Arquitecto Silva Rocha, natural de Aveiro. Hoje em dia, Aveiro é considerada a capital da Arte Nova em Portugal, com vários exemplares arquitectónicos magníficos deste estilo. A maior parte destas edificações apresenta um elevado estado de degradação, tendo até por vezes sérios problemas estruturais. No entanto, recentemente tem havido um esforço de preservação e reabilitação deste património com intervenções importantes já realizadas. Devido às técnicas de construção tradicionalmente utilizadas na zona e no período em que a Arte Nova surgiu, a maioria dos edifícios deste estilo da região de Aveiro foram construídos em alvenaria de blocos de adobe. Este tipo de construção exige cuidados particulares a ter em conta na sua manutenção e preservação. A reabilitação de edifícios deste tipo necessita de uma atenção especial relativamente aos aspectos relacionados com os materiais e soluções tradicionais. Este artigo debruça-se sobre a arquitectura de estilo Arte Nova que constitui um vasto património histórico na região de Aveiro, apresentando alguns dos exemplos existentes e com uma descrição sumária das suas características. As patologias e problemas estruturais comuns destas edificações serão enumerados, exemplificando com o caso de reabilitação já efectuada de um dos exemplares mais emblemáticos de Aveiro: a Casa Major Pessoa. Pretende-se assim contribuir para a preservação do legado arquitectónico histórico existente na região de Aveiro, bem como divulgar possíveis técnicas e soluções de reabilitação e manutenção de estruturas de adobe

Energy governance in Portugal

Portugal is in the middle of a major transformation of its energy supply, which has been shaped by internal resource constraints, growing environmental concerns, and the dynamics of European integration. Portugal’s past choices – the investment in hydropower and the refusal of nuclear energy – and the lack of an endowment of resources have constrained the Portuguese energy policy. With the accession to the European Union in 1986, environmental concerns moved up the Portuguese policy agenda. The EU’s push for a common electricity market influenced a set of policies oriented toward the liberalization of the energy market, which was centralized, monopolistic, and public owned. The investment in renewable energy gained momentum in the 2000s, led by the Portuguese government and EDP, the (then) publicly owned energy company, supported by a public discourse on climate change and energy policy imbued with economic rationality. The financial crisis that hit Portugal in 2010 led to a temporary stall in the promotion of the use of energy from renewable energy sources (RES), but new market-based support schemes, such as photovoltaic solar auctions, have fostered the recent new investment in renewables.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

La régulation des plateformes dans le secteur du transport de passagers au Portugal et en Espagne: Stratégies différentes, coalitions différentes

Digital Platform Work (DPW) is part of a new phase of capitalism, in which monopolistic digital platforms use algorithms to mediate labour supply and demand. As DPW grows, the share of atypical workers in the labour market increases and European Union states are pressed to regulate it, but the strategies adopted are different. This is the case with the regulation of DPW in the passenger transport sector approved by the governments of Portugal and Spain. This paper makes a comparative analysis of these case studies based on parliamentary debates and media reports. We argue that the centre-left parties which led the governments in both countries, adopted a distinct regulation strategy because they each have specific conceptions of solidarity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tuned liquid dampers simulation for earthquake response control of buildings

This paper is focused on the study of an earthquake protection system, the Tuned Liquid Damper (TLD), which can, if adequately designed, reduce earthquake demands on buildings. This positive effect is accomplished taking into account the oscillation of the free surface of a fluid inside a tank (sloshing). The behaviour of an isolated Tuned Liquid Damper, subjected to a sinusoidal excitation at its base, with different displacement amplitudes, was studied by finite element analysis. The efficiency of the TLD in improving the seismic response of an existing building, representative of modern architecture buildings in southern European countries was also evaluated based on linear dynamic analyses

Improving international attractiveness of higher education institutions based on text mining and sentiment analysis

Purpose: The increasing competition among higher education institutions (HEI) has led students to conduct a more in-depth analysis to choose where to study abroad. Since students are usually unable to visit each HEIs before making their decision, they are strongly influenced by what is written by former international students (IS) on the Internet. HEIs also benefit from such information online. This paper aims to provide an understanding of the drivers of HEIs success online. Design/methodology/approach: Due to the increasing amount of information published online, HEIs have to use automatic techniques to search for patterns instead of analyzing such information manually. The present paper uses text mining and sentiment analysis to study online reviews of IS about their HEIs. The paper studied 1938 reviews from 65 different business schools with AACSB accreditation. Findings: Results show that HEIs may become more attractive online if they financially support students cost of living, provide courses in English, and promote an international environment. Research limitations/implications Despite the use of a major platform with a broad number of reviews from students around the world, other sources focused on other types of HEIs may have been used to reinforce the findings in the current paper. Originality/value: The study pioneers the use of text mining and sentiment analysis to highlight topics and sentiments mentioned in online reviews by students attending HEIs, clarifying how such opinions are correlated with satisfaction. Using such information, HEIs’ managers may focus their efforts on promoting international attractiveness of their institutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The Effect of Bond-Slip in the Numerical Assessment of RC Frames Under Cyclic Loading

Bond-slip may have significant influence on the assessment, with numerical models, of reinforced concrete structures subjected to cyclic loadings, whether static or dynamic. Its influence is discussed with the correlation of experimental and analytical results, where two numerical models are considered, including a perfect bond fiber-section finite element formulation and a force-based fiber-section model including bond-slip in the vicinity of the frame joints, both exterior and interior. In this case, the model implemented makes it possible to consider the coupling effect of the response of the beams adjacent to the joint, and the models are constructed from the geometrical and material characteristics of the structure, without any calibration procedures. The experimental results are from a reinforced concrete column and a beam-column subassemblage, both subjected to static cyclic loadings, with predefined displacements sequences for the element-ends, and from a shaking table test of a one bay two-story reinforced concrete frame structure. The comparisons show that the considered bond-slip based model makes it possible to satisfactorily predict the response of reinforced concrete frames under both static and dynamic cyclic loadings. The influence of reinforcement slippage was evaluated by comparison of the previous results with those obtained with the perfect bond-based model. This made it possible to conclude that the accuracy of the model considering bond-slip is significantly superior to that of the perfect bond model. Furthermore, responses obtained with the previous model show the pinching effect, which is characteristic of reinforced concrete structures and significantly changes the hysteretic dissipated energy, not delivered by the latter model. This can also be seen in the effect of bond-slip in the response of the fibers which model the reinforcing rebars.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio