Consuming durable goods when stock markets jump: a strategic asset allocation approach

Agents derive their utilities from consumption over time. In this paper we consider an agent that invests in thefinancial market and in consumption goods. The agent has an infinite time horizon and a utility that depends on consumption at each point in time, consuming both a durable good and a perishable good. There are costs for transacting the durable good. We show that an agent who does not consider the impact of jumps in the return process of risky assets will make suboptimal decisions, not only regarding the fraction of wealth invested in the stock market, but also with respect to the timing for trading on the durable good.Optimal asset allocation, durable consumption good, transaction costs.

PhysicTV - Motion-based physical rehabilitation games for the Google-TV

O termo PhysicTV é composto por dois termos distintos. O primeiro (Physic - Físico) refere-se ao aspeto físico associado ao objetivo da plataforma e o segundo (TV - Televisão) refere-se ao aspeto tecnológico uma vez que os jogos a desenvolver vão ser jogados numa televisão.Enquanto plataforma, o PhysicTV contém duas tecnologias principais: XtionPRO e GoogleTV. Os principais objetivos deste projeto são a integração entre essas tecnologias e o desenvolvimento de jogos eletrónicos que possam ser utilizados para efeitos de reabilitação. O primeiro desses objetivos constituirá uma vertente inovadora e o segundo vai permitir ao fisioterapeuta uma ligeira mudança nas sessões com os seus pacientes, tornando-as mais dinâmicas e mantendo os pacientes mais motivados aquando da realização de exercícios. Com o XtionPRO e os seus sensores de movimento, é possível ao utilizador interagir com o sistema através dos movimentos dos braços, permitindo-lhe realizar exercícios e ir melhorando durante as sessões.PhysicTV as a concept is composed of two distinct terms. The first (Physic) relates to the physical aspect associated with the platform and the second (TV) relates to the technological component of the project since the games to developed will be played on a television screen.As a platform, PhysicTV contains two main technologies: XtionPRO and GoogleTV. The main goals of this project are the successful integration between those two technologies and the development of electronic games that can be used for rehabilitation purposes. The first goal will guarantee an inovative side and the second will allow the physioterapist to change a bit the sessions with his patients, making those sessions more dynamic and keeping the patients more motivated when doing the exercises. With the XtionPRO, that has motion sensors, it is possible for the user to interact with the system with arm movements, allowing him/her to do physical exercises and consequently keep improving during the sessions

Application of rules or policies in the ECB? Legal and institutional challenges impacting the climate transition

The paper argues that the ECB is far less an independent institution as Treaty provisions portray. This is due to the lack of institutional alternatives at the EU level to effectively and rapidly deal with complex situations make it the only credible solution, even if very imperfect. This state of affairs does not allow a comparative institutional analysis to be conducted, which is crucial to good public policy decisions. Significantly, the ECB has experienced two different periods: a frictionless and a complex one.The latter has been characterized by increasing monetary policy alignment with the European Council’s political decisions, having materialized in intervention in Member States’ bond markets during the financial and covid-19 crises. The overrelianceon the ECB has recently been consolidated, as it decided to address the issue of climate change from a monetary standpoint in order to speed up the climate transition. However, this trend may not be consistent with its primary mandate of maintaining price stability and, in different ways, may hinder its independence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Teachers\u27 experiences with disengagement in physical education classes at secondary school level in the Perth Metropolitan Area

Students’ disengagement from school has been one of the major concerns in educational research (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). According to researchers (Alexander et al., 1997; Finn & National Center for Education Statistics, 1993; Finn & Rock, 1997; Finn & Voelkl, 1993; Fredricks & Blumenfeld et al., 2004) the more disengaged the students are, the more likely they will be to fail academically and ultimately drop out. Although researchers have already identified several risk factors that can influence students’ engagement (Fulton, 2007; Lee & Burkam, 2003; Newmann, 1992), very few studies have explored teachers’ views of this educational issue. The same seems to be the case in Physical Education where the curriculum has been identified as one of the major factors that influences students’ enagagement (Alexander, 2008; Cothran & Ennis, 1998; Garn & Cothran 2006; Rikard & Banville, 2006; Salee, 2000; Supaporn & Griffin, 1998; Smith & Parr, 2007), However, few studies have given voice to teachers in this matter. Thus, this research sought to explore the way Physical Education teachers experience students’ disengagement at the class level and to ascertain their awareness of some of the educational issues addressed in the literature. This research used a qualitative approach within an interpretivist theoretical framework, studying a total of four public schools and fourteen PE teachers. The data collection was conducted through individual semi-structured interviews which were guided by a theme list and recorded in a digital format. The data analysis consisted of coding the transcripts into different categories, identifying meaningful patterns. The analysis of the data collected resulted in three main findings. Firstly, results showed that participants failed to recognize some of the factors identified in the literature that typically influence engagement. This compromised their interventions and therefore their ability to re-engage students in PE. Secondly, participants focused their pedagogical adjustments at the lesson level and not at the curriculum level. Thirdly, teachers were more focused on the processes of learning than on learning outcomes themselves. They were aware of their short- and long-term goals but acknowledged that they could not achieve either of them due to a range of factors, including curriculum limitations

Next Generation EU and the balancing of economic union through horizontalisation

The EU has developed a vertical relation with its Member States on economic and monetary policies as well as national parliaments. Next Generation EU arguably breaks with this verticalisation, by shifting the focus of the political process from Member State-coordination to EU-led fiscal funding. Facing complex events, such as the covid-19 pandemic and the current security and energy crises, the limits of inter-State coordination became clear. However, NGEU also represents continuity, as verticalisation endures, therefore blurring the transnational nature of the programme. In addition, NGEU pales in comparison with the US response to the pandemic. EU citizens increasingly demand Union-wide policies. However, Member States are not capable of delivering in the European Council, given that Heads of State or Government’s democratic mandate favour the adoption of policies with an eminent national nature. Hence, this participation mismatch needs to be addressed in order to better reflect majoritarian preferences over minoritarian bias as shown in the EU budgetary sagas on juste retour. Therefore, this paper argues that direct taxation of EU citizens is the least imperfect way to achieve it.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

AUV navigation and guidance in a moving acoustic network

This paper addresses the navigation and guidance of an AUV operating in a network of moving acoustic beacons. In this network, the vehicle position is obtained from acoustic signals exchanged between the vehicle and the beacons and is computed in a reference frame associated with the moving beacons. The paper describes the operation of the acoustic network, the mission specification and guidance system that computes the references for the vehicle controllers, and the navigation system that produces all the data required by the guidance system

Support tools for 3D game creation

Nowadays, tools for developing videogames are a very important part of the development process in the game industry. Such tools are used to assist game developers in their tasks, allowing them to create functional games while writing a few lines of code. For example, these tools allow the users to import the content for the game, set the game logic, or produce the source code and compile it. There are several tasks and components regarding the development of videogames that may become unproductive, therefore, it’s necessary to automate and/or optimize such tasks. For example, the programming of events or dialogs can be a task that consumes too much time in the development cycle, and a tedious and repetitive task for the programmer. For this reason, the use of tools to support these tasks can be very important to increase productivity and help on the maintenance of the various processes that involve the development of videogames. This dissertation aims to demonstrate the advantages of the use of these kind of tools during the development of videogames, presenting a case study involving the development of a Serious Game entitled Clean World.Atualmente, as ferramentas para o desenvolvimento de jogos são uma parte bastante importante de todo o processo de desenvolvimento. Estas ferramentas servem para assistir os criadores de jogos nas tarefas que realizam, permitindo-lhes a criação de jogos funcionais escrevendo poucas linhas de código. Desenvolver um videojogo sem a utilização de ferramentas especializadas é um processo complexo e que consome bastante tempo, daí a existência de ferramentas que permitem ao utilizador importar os conteúdos para o jogo, definir a lógica de jogo, produzir o código fonte e compilá-lo. Este tipo de software é normalmente utilizado por quem se dedica à criação de jogos como hobby, ou por profissionais que procuram otimizar o processo de desenvolvimento de jogos. Existem várias componentes ao nível do desenvolvimento de videojogos que se tornam pouco produtivas, se não forem automatizados e/ou otimizadas. Por exemplo, a programação de eventos ou de diálogos pode ser uma tarefa que consome demasiado tempo no ciclo de desenvolvimento, para além de ser uma tarefa entediante e repetitiva no ponto de vista do programador. Por este motivo, a utilização de ferramentas pode ser muito importante no que diz respeito ao aumento da produtividade e manutenção dos vários processos que envolvem o desenvolvimento de videojogos. Nesta dissertação pretendemos demonstrar as vantagens da utilização dessas mesmas ferramentas durante o desenvolvimento de videojogos, através da apresentação de um caso de estudo que envolve o desenvolvimento de um Serious Game intitulado Clean World. Em Clean World, foram identificadas determinadas tarefas que se mostraram demasiado repetitivas e entediantes quando programadas por inteiro, como é o caso da adição, modificação ou remoção de componentes como diálogos, quest ou items. Tendo em conta este problema concreto, foram criadas algumas ferramentas de forma a aumentar a produtividade no desenvolvimento do jogo, tornando tarefas repetitivas e entediantes em processos simples e intuitivos. O conjunto de ferramentas é constituído por: Item Manager, Quest Manager, Dialog Manager e Terrain Creator

Application to Security Testing

In a world where software gradually plays a key role daily, a failure may bring unpleasant consequences for its users. An example of a serious failure was the case Apple iCloud security exploit in 2014 where several private photos of celebrities have been accessed without permission[icl14a][icl14b]. Apart from economic and commercial implications, these faults lead to loss of trust in software by users, thus leading to the consequent search for an alternative and even result in leaving the old software for a new alternative. To address these shortcomings, the software industry started to use software testing to make sure that the software contains the minimum possible failures before is deployment. Software tests are used to analyse the program, namely to search some bugs. This analysis can be done without program execution (static analysis) or during execution (dynamic analysis). Static analysis tools can be used to check for potential execution of the program that have not been prematurely aborted due to unexpected event at runtime, not ensuring that the program will display the correct result. We studied some static analysis tools, JSFlow, JSPrime and TAJS, which analyse JavaScript code. These tools have been modified so they can be integrated into the Nibiru framework. Nibiru is a modular framework that aims to help in the implementation of software testing. It uses a micro-services architecture, enabling the use of multiple programming languages in his modules and has the ability to enable the implementation of its modules on multiple machines. So far the Nibiru has three operating modules and its ready to start growing with the community, so they can contribute in the construction of new modules or make small adjustments on the existing testing software to integrate the Nibiru framework.Num mundo onde cada vez mais o software tem um papel fundamental nas atividades do dia-a-dia, uma falha pode trazer consequências desagradáveis para os seus utilizadores. Como exemplo de uma falha grave, temos o caso Apple iCloud security exploit em 2014 [icl14a][icl14b], onde várias fotos de celebridades foram acedidas sem permissão. Para além de repercussões económicas e comerciais estas falhas levam à perca de confiança no software por parte dos utilizadores, levando assim à consequente procura de alternativas ao mesmo, podendo até resultar no abandono do software antigo. Para colmatar estas falhas, hoje em dia a indústria cada vez aposta mais nos testes de software para certificar-se que o software contém o mínimo de falhas possíveis antes de sair para o mercado. Os testes de software servem para analisar o programa, nomeadamente na obtenção de bugs. Esta análise pode ser feita sem execução do programa (análise estática) ou durante a sua execução (análise dinâmica). As ferramentas de análise estática são utilizadas para verificar se existem potenciais execuções do programa que possam falhar durante a sua execução devido a eventos inesperados, isto faz com que o programa apresente um resultado incorreto ou até mesmo bloqueie. Foram estudadas algumas ferramentas de análise estática, JSFlow, JSPrime e TAJS, que analisam código JavaScript. Estas ferramentas foram modificadas para serem integradas na framework Nibiru. O Nibiru é uma framework modular que tem como intuito ajudar na execução de testes de software. Esta utiliza uma arquitetura de micro-serviços, possibilitando o uso de múltiplas linguagens de programação nos seus módulos e tem a capacidade de possibilitar a execução dos seus módulos em várias máquinas. Até ao momento o Nibiru conta com três módulos operacionais, encontrando-se pronto para crescer com a comunidade informática, podendo esta contribuir na construção de novos módulos

Image Segmentation and Classification using Small Data: An Application on Friendly Statements - A Computer Vision and Document Intelligence Project

Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceInsurance companies face significant challenges in managing numerous physical documents containing critical information, resulting in considerable time and cost expenditures. Although Deep Learning models offer a promising solution, their implementation costs and data privacy concerns restrict widespread adoption, especially when dealing with confidential documents. This internship report presents a novel approach to address these challenges by developing a lightweight computer vision solution for accurately detecting and processing checkboxes from Portuguese friendly statements. The key objective was to demonstrate the feasibility of achieving high accuracy without relying on advanced Deep Learning techniques. By leveraging a small set of examples, we successfully extracted checkbox information while mitigating the high computational requirements associated with traditional Deep Learning models. The results highlight the practicality and cost-effectiveness of our approach, offering insurance companies a viable solution to streamline document management, enhance data security, and improve overall efficiency. This research contributes to the computer vision field by providing valuable insights into alternative methodologies that can be adopted to overcome the limitations of Deep Learning, facilitating broader accessibility and utilization among insurance providers