Skewness in Financial Returns: Evidence from the Portuguese Stock Market (in English)

This paper addresses the issue of symmetry in financial returns. The return distributions of the major stocks traded on the Portuguese market and included in the PSI-20 Index are examined for periods from four to nine years. The results show that the symmetry of the returns is rejected against several alternative distributions. Statistically significant differences between returns below and above the mean are detected, which provides additional evidence of skewness in the return distributions. In addition, as observed in other studies, it is interesting to note that such results are similar to other low-capitalization and low-volume markets, which also exhibit asymmetric return distributions.stock markets, skewness, financial returns

Influence of overweight on routine parameters of renal function in dogs

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina VeterináriaObesity is one of the most common nutritional disorders in dogs and its prevalence has grown exponentially in recent years alongside with obesity in humans. It is from an accumulation of adipose tissue in such a way that it affects the patient health. In humans, a chronic increase of body weight is a risk factor to develop renal dysfunction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of weight gain on renal function in dogs. Renal function was determined using traditional markers of renal dysfunction (blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, urine specific gravity and urine protein-creatinine ratio). A total of 16 beagles were studied, 8 non-obese, which kept a stable ideal body weight, and the remaining 8, gradually increased weight for 24 weeks. Both groups were fed a commercial adult maintenance diet high in fat and protein. The obese group was fed 1.3 times more than the maintenance energy requirements, resulting in an average of 0.328 kg increase in weight per month. Renal markers were measured at times 1, 12 and 24 weeks and the results did not showed a significant difference between the groups. These results suggest that the degree of overweight that was achieved in this study did not cause renal dysfunction based on routine kidney markers.RESUMO - A INFLUÊNCIA DO EXCESSO DE PESO EM PARÂMETROS DE AVALIAÇÃO DA FUNÇÃO RENAL DE ROTINA - A obesidade, uma das doenças nutricionais mais comuns em cães tendo a sua prevalência crescido exponencialmente nos últimos anos, a par com a obesidade nos humanos. É uma doença crónica que advém do excesso de acumulação de tecido adiposo de tal forma que afeta a saúde. No homem, uma condição corporal aumentada é um fator de risco para disfunção renal. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar o efeito do aumento de peso sobre a função renal em cães. A função renal foi determinada através de marcadores renais convencionais de insuficiência renal (ureia e creatinina sérica, densidade urinária, rácio proteína-creatinina de urina). Um total de 16 beagles foram usados, 8 não obesos que mantiveram um peso corporal estável, e os 8 restantes, que aumentaram progressivamente o peso durante 24 semanas. Ambos os grupos foram alimentados com uma dieta comercial de manutenção, rica em gordura e proteína. Ao grupo obeso foi fornecido 1,3 vezes mais que os requisitos energéticos de manutenção, fazendo com que este grupo aumenta-se 0,328kg mais por mês. Os marcadores renais foram medidos às 1, 12 e 24 semanas em ambos os grupos, não tendo demonstrado diferenças significativas, sugerindo que o grau de excesso de peso obtido neste estudo não causa alterações na função renal.N/

Honey volatiles as a fingerprint for botanical origin: a review on their occurrence on monofloral honeys

Honeys have specific organoleptic characteristics, with nutritional and health benefits, being highly appreciated by consumers, not only in food but also in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Honey composition varies between regions according to the surrounding flora, enabling its characterization by source or type. Monofloral honeys may reach higher market values than multifloral ones. Honey's aroma is very specific, resulting from the combination of volatile compounds present in low concentrations. The authentication of honey's complex matrix, according to its botanical and/or geographical origin, represents a challenge nowadays, due to the different sorts of adulteration that may occur, leading to the search for reliable marker compounds for the different monofloral honeys. The existing information on the volatiles of monofloral honeys is scarce and disperse. In this review, twenty monofloral honeys and honeydews, from acacia, buckwheat, chestnut, clover, cotton, dandelion, eucalyptus, fir tree, heather, lavender, lime tree, orange, pine, rape, raspberry, rhododendron, rosemary, strawberry tree, sunflower and thyme, were selected for volatile comparison purposes. Taking into consideration the country of origin, the technique of isolation and analysis, the five main volatiles from each of the honeys are compared. Whereas some compounds were found in several types of monofloral honey, and thus not considered good volatile markers, some monofloral honeys revealed characteristic volatile compounds independently of their provenance.Funding: SFRH/BD/117013/2016, UID/AGR/00690/2019, UID/AMB/50017/2019, MED (UIDB/05183/2020), FEDER, PT2020 PACompete 2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Looking beneath the surface: how brands led to consumer engagement in social media

It is undeniable that the strong growth of social media and content generated in them is presented as a rising tide that came to stay! We are facing a change of structural nature, requiring brands to understand that shift and to adapt their strategies as they start looking at consumers as active partners, developing with them a close relationship, collaborative, deeply relational, reinforcing and strengthening the bond and an emotional connection. This fact led to an explosion of interest in consumer engagement. The opportunities presented by social media to help build close relationships with consumers seem to have attracted the increasing interest of practitioners in a wide variety of industries worldwide. Academic scholarship consumer engagement, however, has lagged practice and its theoretical foundation is relatively underdeveloped and a better understanding of the concept and their drivers is essential to develop accurate strategies. This paper seeks to address some of these issues. From the universe of brands, two popular fashion brands (Cubanas and Paez) were selected, based on RankUPT [1], a statistics website aimed at the analysis of Facebook’s activity in Portugal that makes a daily measurement of homepages, based on the number of fans. A qualitative netnographic study was conducted, through a non-interventionist observational technique, added with a collection of qualitative behavioral data which took place between March and December 2015, and also considering the use of secondary data for the descriptive analysis of the brands in question. Metrics used for measuring engagement were the most commonly used in other studies (e.g., likes, sharing, commenting), along with the de Vries, Gensler and Leeflang [2], Cvijiki and Michaheles [3], and Malhotra, Malhotra and See [4], criteria for the drivers of engagement. The results are discussed and the academic and business implications of the study are examined, in particular for branding and relationship marketing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social marketing through communication campaigns: the APAV case

Social responsability is gaining its momentum in the formulation of the strategy of the organizations, at the organizational, behavioral and communicational level, and for many organizations it is even considered a key differentiator and a proximity element to customers, whom are increasingly sensitive to individual and collective well-being (Carrol & Shabanna, 2010). Yet, welfare is not the prerogative only of companies, but also of non-profit organizations, which include it on their activity as a goal in itself. And for many of these, social causes are the main reason for their existence. This research focuses on one of these non-profit organizations - APAV - whose mission is the prevention, the combat and the protection of victims of domestic violence. Our object of study is one its recent mass media campaigns, that aim to alert and modify the behavior of the various actors involved in the process (victims, witnesses, society in general). A quantitative research has been conducted, operated by the application of questionnaire surveys to a sample of 134 subjects that seeks to assess to extent to which the emotions elicited by watching an APAV campaign influence behavior towards domestic violence, considering the mediating role of attitudes and subjective norms. The results measured by means of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), show the validation of only two working hypotheses under study, indicating that the attitude towards advertising has a positive effect on attitudes towards domestic violence influencing in turn, behavioral intention of subjects. The main social and academic contributions of this research are discussed.N/

Regulating lesbian motherhood: gender, sexuality and medically assisted reproduction in Portugal

This article analyses juridical discourses about Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR) in Portugal, focusing specifically on the access of lesbians to this type of intervention. Empirical data refer to an exploratory research that combined the analysis of legislation with non-directive interviews to five judges from Family and Juvenile Courts of Law of the Northern Region of Portugal. One argues that the representation of motherhood present in the law reinforces and reproduces normative sexuality and femininity while simultaneously justifies the exclusion of lesbians from MAR. As such, although Portuguese legislation emerges as a mechanism of partial deregulation of the gender regime since it appears to weaken the practical and causal association between sexuality and procreation, in fact, it ends up reinforcing dominant ideas of femininity and family. As for the judges who were interviewed, their representations of motherhood are broad enough to encompass medically assisted motherhood and/or motherhood accomplished within a lesbian couple. This is achieved through a process of normalisation of the lesbian and/or of lesbian motherhood, which may resort to five different assumptions: (i) parenthood as a desire inherent to every human being; (ii) motherhood as a defining element of femininity; (iii) motherhood as a project framed by a stable conjugal relationship; (iv) lesbian motherhood as something that can be accomplished through “natural” means; (v) parenthood as a mechanism of social reproduction of the gender regime. These assumptions are differently combined and support different positions regarding lesbian motherhood: although some judges seem to concur with the preservation of heteronormativity, most favour legal changes to encompass other models of sexuality and family

Social marketing through communication campaigns: the Portuguese Association for Victim Support Case (APAV)

A responsabilidade social tem vindo a crescer de importância na formulação estratégica das empresas ao nível organizacional, individual e comunicacional, sendo para muitas delas um elemento diferenciador e de proximidade ao cliente cada vez mais sensível ao bem-estar individual e coletivo (Carrol & Shabanna, 2010). Mas o bem-estar social não é apanágio apenas das empresas mas também das Organizações Não Lucrativas (ONG) que o integram na sua actividade como um objetivo em si mesmo. Para muitas destas é a causa social a razão da sua existência. Este estudo incide sobre uma destas organizações - a APAV - que tem como missão a prevenção, o combate e a protecção das vítimas. O objecto deste estudo é uma das mais recentes campanhas publicitárias da APAV que tem como principal objectivo alertar e modificar os comportamentos dos vários agentes (vitimas, testemunhas, sociedade no geral) para o drama social da violência doméstica. Para o efeito optou-se pela investigação quantitativa com base em inquéritos por questionário administrados a uma amostra de 134 participantes. Procurou-se avaliar o efeito das emoções desencadeadas ao assistir à campanha pré seleccionada da APAV na intenção de comportamento face à violência doméstica considerando o papel mediador de atitudes e normas subjetivas. Os resultados obtidos com base no modelo de equações estruturais (MEE) indicam que a atitude relativamente à publicidade tem um efeito positivo sobre as atitudes em relação à violência doméstica que influenciam por sua vez, a intenção comportamental face a esta. As principais contribuições sociais e académicas desta pesquisa são discutidas.ABSTRACT: Social responsibility is gaining its momentum in the formulation of the strategy of the organizations, at the organizational, individual and communicational level, and for many organizations it is even considered a key differentiator and a proximity element to customers, whom are increasingly sensitive to individual and collective well-being (Carrol & Shabanna, 2010). Yet, welfare is not the prerogative only of companies, but also of Non-Profit Organizations (NPO), which include it on their activity as a goal in itself. And for many of these, social causes are the main reason for their existence. This research focuses on one of these non-profit organizations - APAV - whose mission is the prevention, the combat and the protection of victims. Our object of study is one its recent mass media campaigns, that aim to alert and modify the behavior of the various actors involved in the process (victims, witnesses, society in general). A quantitative research has been conducted, operated by the application of questionnaire surveys to a sample of 134 subjects that seeks to assess to extent to which the emotions elicited by watching an APAV campaign influence behavior towards domestic violence, considering the mediating role of attitudes and subjective norms. The results measured by means of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), reveal that the attitude towards advertising has a positive effect on attitudes towards domestic violence influencing in turn, behavioral intention of subjects. The main social and academic contributions of this research are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Avaliação de Estratégias de Investimento com Opções

The financial literature has revealed that option strategies originate asymmetric return distributions, providing new investment opportunities, especially in the control and reduction of risk. In this way, it is important to evaluate the performance of investment strategies that result from the combination of stock and option positions. On the other hand, given the inadequacy of the measures based upon mean and variance, new evaluation methodologies have been developed and adapted to the context of such investment strategies, of which we highlight the work of Leland (1999), that proposes a modification of the traditional risk measure (beta) of CAPM to incorporate other moments of the return distributions. In this context, we applied the methodology of Leland on six dynamic hedging strategies with options on the Index FTSE 100 in the sense of evaluating its performance. The results indicate that the new risk measure is more statistical significant than the traditional beta of CAPM, for that the information supplied by the measure of the performance (modified alpha) seems to be more reliable. On the other hand, the values of modified alphas reveal that these dynamic strategies result in excess returns close to zero (as theoretically expected), denouncing that the market price of these options appears to be in equilibrium.risk management, skewness, option strategies

The ‘Urbanforest’ and ‘Green space’ Classification Model in the Spatial Arrangement of Registro-SP, Brazil

The necessity of handling green areas relating to urban settings has become one of the vital environmental challenges in view of several accumulated environmental problems in the last few decades. In United States and Canada, many investments are being made for new techniques and instruments that are needed in environmental planning involving urban forest researches both in the local and national scale. However, there are few reports on urban forest classification connecting spatial characteristics, physical structures involving pattern and process. With the objective to classify urban green areas for integrated approach, this research have focused on urban pattern for an effective understanding of urban forest concept, green areas and urban vegetation types. The urban morphology in consistency with the urban forest Focus Chat (FC) recently designed has been applied to characterize spatial categories of urban vegetation involved in the urban arrangement of Registro-SP. Method has integrated zones, patterns and processes for technical analyses to contemplate the urban dynamics, occupation and land use. Categories of urban forest and vegetation types were derived for the urban planning and system management. The resulting pattern can be technically monitored in the use of suitable GIS (Geographical Information System) software for physical and environmental records.

Is walk for COPD an effective educative strategy for the community?

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