Statistical Mechanics Characterization of Neuronal Mosaics

The spatial distribution of neuronal cells is an important requirement for achieving proper neuronal function in several parts of the nervous system of most animals. For instance, specific distribution of photoreceptors and related neuronal cells, particularly the ganglion cells, in mammal's retina is required in order to properly sample the projected scene. This work presents how two concepts from the areas of statistical mechanics and complex systems, namely the \emph{lacunarity} and the \emph{multiscale entropy} (i.e. the entropy calculated over progressively diffused representations of the cell mosaic), have allowed effective characterization of the spatial distribution of retinal cells.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, The following article has been submitted to Applied Physics Letters. If it is published, it will be found online at http://apl.aip.org

The alchemy of gold : interest rates, money stock, and credit in eighteenth-century Lisbon

This article addresses the partial equilibrium functioning of the short-term credit market in eighteenth-century Lisbon and its response to massive gold inflows from Brazil. Gold inflows were a colonial rent, and thus a source of income and a financial asset that increased the liquidity supply in a credit market populated by both (direct) participants and non-participants in the colonial trade or in mining. As a source of income it would induce a positive upward pressure on interest rates, while as a financial asset it would lead to the opposite. A method is developed to extract interest rates from notarized personal credit, unbundling the aggregate and the idiosyncratic components of risk pricing. The results show that interest rates in Lisbon did not differ critically from those observed in other cities at the core of the premodern European economy, which were spared from devastation by the earthquake that struck Lisbon in 1755. A simple model relating the market interest rate series to gold stock variations finds that the liquidity channel dominated over the endowment channel, which explains the downward trend in interest rates up until 1757 when the interest rates were freely settled. Mild credit rationing may have been introduced by a 5 per cent ceiling on interest rates that was imposed after 1757.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Notarial activity and credit demand in Lisbon during the eighteenth-century

The long-term financial effects of increased liquidity in the Portuguese economy in the 18th century are the subject of an ongoing study on the private credit market in Lisbon. The research project focuses interest rates variations and the 1755 earthquake’s impacts, integrating these topics into a broader approach on the Portuguese economy in a time when colonial Brazil contributed to gold money inflows. This article presents the methodological procedures followed to build up a representative sample of short-term loans that form the database for this project and describes the first results of the study considering the uses of credit. First results assure the minor role played by investment, whereas the main use of loans was personal credit for consumption. An extremely large proportion of this category, however, referred to contracts for the acquisition of durable goods (including the building of urban properties). The importance of rollover and restructuring of debts is the unanticipated information these short-term loans provided, and the earthquake did not show up as affecting particularly this feature of the structure of credit. The destruction of capital nevertheless accounted for the need of building and improving residential capital, and for that reason organisational investment to rebuild urban stores and rural equipment reached some representativeness among the overall uses of credit between 1756 and 1780

Social capital and economic performance: trust and distrust in eighteenth-century gold shipments from Brazil

This article discusses agency problems in a period of market boom. It takes Portuguese trade with Brazil as a case study to discuss the impact of colonial market expansion on social capital. The hypothesis is that social capital depletion prompted an uneven distribution of information and a limited access to honest individuals, who might afford a premium to certain forms of agency. Given the states’ inability to provide legal sanctioning in colonial regions, this article focuses on private-order mechanisms which were effective for selecting reputable individuals. The exploration of network analysis identifies the mechanism that responds to such an adverse environment and supports the argument that business organizations which counted on the geographical mobility of agents had comparative advantages. The approach followed in this article brings new insights on informal institutional arrangements and on itinerancy in contexts of low levels of social capital.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social capital and economic performance : trust and distrust in eighteenth-century gold shipments from Brazil

This article discusses agency problems in a period of market boom. It takes portuguese trade with Brazil as a case study to discuss the impact of colonial market expansion on social capital. The hypothesis is that social capital depletion prompted an uneven distribution of information and a limited access to honest individuals, who might afford a premium to certain forms of agency. Given the states' inability to provide legal sanctioning in colonial regions, this article focuses on private-order mechanisms which were effective for selecting reputable individuals. The exploration of network analysis identifies the mechanism that responds to such an adverse environment and supports the argument that business organizations which counted on the geographical mobility of agents had comparative advantages. The approach followed in this article brings new insights on informal institutional arrangements and on itinerancy in contexts of low levels of social capital

O impacto da contratualização no Sistema Nacional de Saúde

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências Económicas e Empresariais, especialização em Finanças, 3 abril de 2019, Universidade dos Açores.O trabalho de investigação analisa o impacto no desempenho económico dos Hospitais Portugueses face ao processo de contratualização. Na análise estatística utilizou-se o teste de diferença entre médias para verificar o comportamento do desempenho económico dos hospitais face à contratualização. Foram retirados dados dos relatórios e contas de uma amostra de quinze Hospitais Portugueses S.A. que passaram por este processo de contratualização, no período compreendido entre 2003 a 2017, a fim de calcular quatro indicadores como: a Rendibilidade do Ativo (ROA); a Rendibilidade dos Capitais Próprios (ROE); Economic Value Added (EVA) e Market Value Added (MVA). Neste estudo, para cada um destes indicadores, foram analisados e comparados os efeitos resultantes de dois anos antes e de dois anos após o processo de contratualização. Dos resultados obtidos, pode-se concluir que a contratualização teve pouco impacto no desempenho económico dos hospitais portugueses e o sentido deste impacto foi desfavorável.ABSTRACT: This research work aims to analyse the impact on the economic performance of Portuguese Hospitals according to the contracting process. In the statistical analyses it was used tests of differences between averages, to check the behavior of the economic performance of hospitals towards the contracting process. It was taken data of reports and accounts from a sample of fifteen Portuguese Hospitals S.A. that went through this contracting process from 2003 to 2017, in order to calculate the four indicators, such as: Return On Assets (ROA); Return On Equity (ROE); Economic Value Added (EVA) and the Market Value Added (MVA). In this study, for each of these indicators, were analysed and compared the resulted effects between the period of two years before and two years after the contracting process. From the obtained results, we can conclude that contracting process had little impact on the economic performance of Portuguese Hospitals and the resulting impact was not favorable

Strategic knowledge management : a conceptual framework

A conceptual model of Strategic Knowledge: Management (SKM) is presented as the main result of a research concluded in 2004, which aimed to develop a conceptual mode! of SKM. Thus, this paper, complete its model and establish the difference between Strategic Knowledge Management (SKM) and Knowledge Strategic Management (KSM). Using the inductive and deductive methods simultaneously, the methodology consisted of integrating general models of knowledge management with different strategic perspectives. Results seem to indicate a new topic of study in the organizational context, bringing together Business, Information Science and Psychology. In this regard, the model built up comprises three basic parts, namely: management features, kinds of knowledge and strategic issues. The research results point out the difference between SKM and KSM, based on its essence

Moda, Conservadorismo e Religião: Vestuário e expressão como fronteira entre o individual e o coletivo

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo primordial analisar o papel da moda no âmbito de culturas conservadoras, procurando compreender de que modo o vestuário conservador se constitui como símbolo, vínculo e fronteira entre moda, cultura e religião. Pretende-se igualmente compreender em que medida, em comunidades pautadas pela tradição e pela defesa da articulação entre valores e modo de vida, o uso do vestuário e da moda como veículo de expressão identitária é afetado por fatores como a política, a religião e a idade. A dissertação começa por abordar a dimensão simbólica do vestuário e o modo como conceitos como visibilidade e invisibilidade são trabalhados pelo mesmo, avançando em seguida para a análise da relação entre moda e conservadorismo a partir de noções como sociedade fechada e sociedade aberta. Metodologicamente, a dissertação avança com o resultado da realização de três entrevistas a indivíduos enquadrados por distintos contextos culturais e religiosos. A análise destes testemunhos revela-se um complemento pertinente para a investigação em estudo, sendo claro que a experiência de três pessoas será sempre uma amostra parcial (mas nem por isso menos relevante) da complexidade das circunstâncias mais amplas que as enquadram.The main purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the role of fashion within conservative cultures, seeking to understand how conservative clothing may constitute a symbol, link and border between fashion, culture, and religion. It is also intended to understand to what extent (in communities guided by tradition and the defense of the articulation between values and way of life) the use of clothing and fashion as a vehicle of identity expression is affected by factors such as politics, religion, and age. The dissertation begins by addressing the symbolic dimension of clothing and the way in which concepts such as visibility and invisibility are worked on by it, then moving on to the analysis of the relationship between fashion and conservatism based on notions such as closed society and open society. Methodologically, the dissertation continues with the result of three interviews with individuals from different cultural and religious backgrounds. The analysis of these testimonies proves to be a pertinent complement to the research under study, being clear that the experience of three people will always be a partial sample (even if no less relevant) of the complexity of the broader circumstances that frame them

O outro lado do paraíso: a naturalização da violência contra a mulher nas novelas brasileiras

O presente trabalho de conclusão de curso visa mostrar o processo da banalização da violência contra a mulher nas telenovelas brasileiras ao longo de 50 anos utilizando como estudo de caso a novela O Outro Lado do Paraíso (2017). O objetivo é jogar luz a um padrão construído da naturalização da agressão de gênero para entender o porquê desta normalização e o que é possível fazer para mudar este quadro. A metodologia inclui fazer uma revisão de cenas clássicas de violência contra o sexo feminino, analisar a reação em duas redes sociais, com públicos-alvo diferentes, e na mídia. Além disso, o estudo procura entender mulheres e sua representação nas telenovelas, a cultura da mídia e a cultura do estupro na sociedade contemporânea e o real impacto dos debates levantados na teledramaturgia a partir de um produto tão brasileiro. Ao final, ponderamse hipóteses para mudar o caminho traçado nas narrativas ficcionais televisivas até aqui