Differences of gender in oral and written communication apprehension of university students

Oral and written skills are increasingly considered to be essential tools in the job market for the success of any worker, and are thus called soft skills. Nevertheless, most graduates who enter the labor market experience di culties in the apprehension of communication, not only with regard to writing, but also in oral communication. These di culties are also noticeable in the classroom, for instance when students need to participate by expressing their doubts when they have to present research work within the curricular units they attend, or when they have to write their answers in assessment tests. In this paper, we explore the communication skills of students fromdi erent graduate degrees (n = 345) in order to understand how they prepare for oral and written communication. We made use of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA), validated by McCroskey, Beatty, Kearney, and Plax (1985), in order to understand students’ oral communication apprehension. To understand the levels of written communication apprehension, we applied the Daly–Miller Writing Apprehension Test (DMWA). We thus analyzed the communicational skills and the communication apprehension of students from social and human sciences courses in order to understand how they prepare for oral and writing communication, and whether there were di erences between genders and between di erent graduate courses regarding communication apprehension. The main results of this research confirm that the students experienced di culties with and fear of communication, especially for oral communication. Furthermore, the results indicate that female students showed more significant levels of anxiety with regard to oral and written communication than male students. This exploratory study also makes it possible to distinguish areas of communication apprehension according to the di erent genders, and even with regard to the degree courses students belonged to.This work is supported by national funds, through the FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UIDB/04011/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The fully kinetic Biermann battery and associated generation of pressure anisotropy

The dynamical evolution of a fully kinetic, collisionless system with imposed background density and temperature gradients is investigated analytically. The temperature gradient leads to the generation of temperature anisotropy, with the temperature along the gradient becoming larger than that in the direction perpendicular to it. This causes the system to become unstable to pressure anisotropy driven instabilities, dominantly to electron Weibel. When both density and temperature gradients are present and non-parallel to each other, we obtain a Biermann-like linear in time magnetic field growth. Accompanying particle in cell numerical simulations are shown to confirm our analytical results.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, + Supplementary materials (4 pages, 2 figures

To be Black, Queer and Radical: Centring the epistemology of Marielle Franco

The aim of this article is to pay tribute to Marielle Franco, a Brazilian LGBTQ+ Black activist from the favela who was brutally executed in March 14, 2018. Taking Marielle’s life and death as a case study, I will demonstrate how she embodied Black feminist theory and practice and how her execution can be better addressed by situating it within the context of spatialities of race and the necropolitical governance of Rio de Janeiro

Perceiving audiovisual synchrony as a function of stimulus distance

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia Experimental)Audiovisual perception is still an intriguing phenomenon, especially when we think about the physical and neuronal differences underlying the perception of sound and light. Physically, there is a delay of ~3ms/m between the emission of a sound and its arrival to the observer, whereas speed of light makes its delay negligible. On the other hand, we know that acoustic transduction is a very fast process (~1ms) while photo-transduction is quite slow (~50 ms). Nevertheless, audio and visual stimuli that are temporally mismatched can be perceived as a coherent audiovisual stimulus, although a sound delay is often required to achieve a better perception. A Point of Subjective Simultaneity (PSS) that requires a sound delay might point both to a perceptual mechanism that compensates for physical differences or to one that compensates for the transduction differences, in the perception of audiovisual synchrony. In this study we analyze the PSS as a function of stimulus distance to understand if individuals take into account sound velocity or if they compensate for differences in transduction time when judging synchrony. Using Point Light Walkers (PLW) as visual stimuli and sound of steps as audio stimuli, we developed presentations in a virtual reality environment with several temporal alignments between sound and image (-285ms to +300ms of audio asynchrony in steps of 30 ms) at different distances from the observer (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 25 meters) in conditions which differ in the number of depth cues. The results show a relation between PSS and stimulation distance that is congruent with differences in velocity of propagation between sound and light (Experiment 1). Therefore, it appears that perception of synchrony across several distances is made possible by the existence of a compensatory mechanism for the slower velocity of sound, relative to light. Moreover, the number and quality of depth cues appears to be of great importance in the triggering of such a compensatory mechanism (Experiment 2).A percepção audiovisual é um fenómeno curioso, especialmente quando consideramos as diferenças físicas e neuronais subjacentes à percepção do som e da luz. Fisicamente, há um atraso de cerca de 3 ms/m entre a emissão de um som e a sua chegada ao observador, enquanto a velocidade da luz torna o seu atraso negligenciável. Por outro lado, sabemos que a transdução de um estímulo sonoro é um processo muito rápido (~1 ms) enquanto que a foto-transdução é um processo relativamente lento (~50 ms). Apesar destas diferenças, sabemos que estímulos auditivos e visuais temporalmente desalinhados podem ser percebidos como um estímulo audiovisual coerente. No entanto, para que tal aconteça, um atraso do som em relação à imagem é frequentemente necessário. Um Ponto de Simultaneidade Subjectiva (PSS) que requer um atraso do som pode ser um indício da existência tanto de um mecanismo perceptual que compensa as diferenças físicas, como de um mecanismo perceptual que compense as diferenças neuronais, na percepção de sincronia audiovisual. Neste estudo analisamos o PSS em função da distância de estimulação para perceber se temos em conta a velocidade do som ou se compensamos as diferenças ao nível dos processos de transdução, quando estamos a julgar a sincronia entre um estímulo auditivo e um visual. Usando Point Light Walkers (PLW) como estímulo visual e som de passos como estímulo sonoro desenvolvemos apresentações em ambiente de realidade virtual, com diferentes alinhamentos entre som e imagem (de -285ms a +300ms, em passos de 30 ms, de assincronia do audio) e a várias distâncias do observador (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 25 metros), em condições que variavam segundo o número de pistas de profundidade apresentadas. Os dados mostram que há uma relação positiva entre PSS e distância de estimulação congruente com as diferenças entre som e luz, ao nível da velocidade de propagação (Experiência 1). Desta forma, parece-nos que a percepção de sincronia audiovisual ao longo de várias distâncias é possível através da existência de um mecanismo de compensação para a velocidade do som, mais lenta em relação à da luz. O número e qualidade das pistas de profundidade parecem também ter uma grande importância na activação deste mecanismo de compensação (Experiência 2)

Caracterização de Puccinia hemerocallidis causadora do primeiro surto de ferrugem de lírio-de-um-dia na Europa

Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.) is an ornamental plant widely used in gardens. Daylily rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia hemerocallidis, has disseminated through all continents only in the 21th century, except in Europe, where it has been considered a quarantine disease by the European Plant Protection Organisation. In Portugal, since November 2015, typical rust symptoms were observed in daylily plants in gardens in Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve and Madeira, attaining high prevalence, incidence and severity. The causal agent was identified as P. hemerocallidis and the Koch’s postulates were fulfilled. Phylogenetic data suggest that this fungus may have been introduced from North America. Using flow cytometry, the genome size of the P. hemerocallidis populations present in Portugal was estimated to be 345 Mbp (0.3533 pg DNA/1C). For such analysis Rhamnus alaternus was validated as a DNA standard, exhibiting a nuclear content of 0.680 pg DNA/2C. The identification of this disease in diverse locations in Portugal represents a threat to European breeding and nursery industries, since there are the appropriate conditions for inoculum maintenance and propagation from Portugal to the rest of Europeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Framework de Tomada de Decisão para Last-Mile Sustentável

The e-commerce growth, propelled by factors like globalization, urbanization, or the COVID-19 pandemic, has been raising the demand for logistic activities. This affects the entire supply chain, especially the last-mile, as it is considered the most ineffective part of the supply chain and a source of negative externalities. Although various solutions promise to alleviate these problems, understanding them and selecting the best has proven to be difficult due to conflicting criteria, multiple perspectives, and trade-offs. The vicissitudes of complex and sensitive urban contexts like historic centers also contribute to this difficulty. This work contributes an integrated framework that may assist the involved stakeholders in decision-making. To this end, this work is based on a three-part methodology. The extensive systematic literature review developed provided an integrated overview of this fragmented research area. This review confirmed the multidisciplinary nature of the topic, as there is an increasing number of studies conducted under very different perspectives. Furthermore, it was found that the economic dimension is the most considered; the most polluting countries contributed little to the research; and the solutions involve trade-offs. The literature review supported the definition of the hierarchical model that structures last-mile operations in historic centers. This model was evaluated by interviewing a group of experts. After integrating the experts’ feedback, the model was quantified by the same experts according to an AHP-TOPSIS approach. This quantification had as a case study the historic center of Porto, Portugal. The experts considered the three sustainability dimensions identically important. Air pollution was the most valued sub-criterion whereas Visual pollution was the least. All last-mile solutions considered in the model achieved similar results, therefore suggesting a combined distribution strategy. Nevertheless, the use of parcel lockers is the most favorable solution and seems adequate in Porto’s historic center.O crescimento do e-commerce, impulsionado por fatores como a globalização, a urbanização ou a pandemia de COVID-19, tem aumentado a procura por atividades logísticas. Isto afeta toda a cadeia de abastecimento, principalmente a última-milha, por ser considerada a parte mais ineficaz da cadeia de abastecimento e uma fonte de externalidades negativas. Embora existam várias soluções que prometem aliviar estes problemas, entendêlas e selecionar a melhor tem se provado difícil devido a critérios conflituosos, múltiplas perspetivas e trade-offs. As vicissitudes de contextos urbanos complexos e sensíveis como os centros históricos também contribuem para essa dificuldade. Este trabalho contribui um framework integrado que pode auxiliar os stakeholders envolvidos na tomada de decisão. Para este fim, este trabalho é baseado numa metodologia composta por três partes. A extensa revisão sistemática da literatura desenvolvida forneceu uma visão integrada desta área de investigação fragmentada. Esta revisão confirmou o caráter multidisciplinar do tema, pois há um número crescente de estudos conduzidos sob perspetivas muito diferentes. Além disso, verificou-se que a dimensão económica é a mais considerada; os países mais poluentes contribuíram pouco para a pesquisa; e as soluções envolvem trade-offs. A revisão da literatura suportou a definição do modelo hierárquico que estrutura as operações de última-milha em centros históricos. Este modelo foi avaliado entrevistando um grupo de experts. Após a integração do feedback dos experts, o modelo foi quantificado pelos mesmos de acordo com uma abordagem AHP-TOPSIS. Esta quantificação teve como caso de estudo o centro histórico do Porto, Portugal. Os experts consideraram as três dimensões da sustentabilidade identicamente importantes. O subcritério relativo à poluição atmosférica foi o mais valorizado, enquanto o menos foi o relativo à poluição visual. Todas as soluções de últimamilha consideradas no modelo alcançaram resultados semelhantes, sugerindo uma estratégia de distribuição combinada. No entanto, o uso de parcel lockers é a solução mais favorável e é aparentemente adequada para o centro histórico do Porto

The impact of securities regulation on the information environment around stock-financed acquisitions

WP 07/2021We investigate the effects of securities regulation, enacted by the European Union (EU) (namely, the Transparency Directive - TPD) to improve the quality of financial reporting and disclosure, on the information environment around stock-financed acquisition announcements. EU directives comprised in the Financial Services Action Plan aim to improve the information quality that flows to investors, which may help reduce the adverse selection discount when stock is used as the method of payment in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). We use a difference-in-differences methodology and document a significant increase in announcement returns of stock-paid acquisitions by European acquirers after the change in regulation. We also find that this result accrues essentially to companies with better firm-specific information quality and companies domiciled in EU countries with better institutional quality and shareholder protection. Our results highlight how the impact of the same regulation may differ depending on country and firm-level attributes associated with the information environment.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Gender Matters! Analyzing Global Cultural Gender Preferences for Venues Using Social Sensing

Gender differences is a phenomenon around the world actively researched by social scientists. Traditionally, the data used to support such studies is manually obtained, often through surveys with volunteers. However, due to their inherent high costs because of manual steps, such traditional methods do not quickly scale to large-size studies. We here investigate a particular aspect of gender differences: preferences for venues. To that end we explore the use of check-in data collected from Foursquare to estimate cultural gender preferences for venues in the physical world. For that, we first demonstrate that by analyzing the check-in data in various regions of the world we can find significant differences in preferences for specific venues between gender groups. Some of these significant differences reflect well-known cultural patterns. Moreover, we also gathered evidence that our methodology offers useful information about gender preference for venues in a given region in the real world. This suggests that gender and venue preferences observed may not be independent. Our results suggests that our proposed methodology could be a promising tool to support studies on gender preferences for venues at different spatial granularities around the world, being faster and cheaper than traditional methods, besides quickly capturing changes in the real world