Instantaneous Gratification and Common Property Resource Games

Treballs Finals del Màster d'Economia, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2016-2017, Tutors : Jesús Marín Solano ; Jorge Navas RódenesWe compute the cooperative and noncooperative solutions for sophisticated agents with Instantaneous-Gratification discounting in infinite horizon, as an extension of the work of Harris & Laibson (2013) and Zou, Chen & Wedge (2014). This research contributes to the existing literature to the extent that we compute multi-agent sophisticated solutions with Instantaneous-Gratification discounting in infinite time, and we place the results of the Instantaneous-Gratification model in context of the management of renewable natural resources. The conclusions withdrawn are applicable for resources of any kind and are suitable for settings where the temporal horizon is unlimited, but the duration of the short-run is large enough to dodge the future. The discussion of this work is useful for policy implementation towards exploitation of renewable natural resources under different forms of ownership

Internship report at Magnolia Silver Jewellery

This internship report served as a case study, concentrating on the question of how Magnolia Silver Jewellery can improve their digital impact. Literature review showed how different digital marketing strategies and activities can lead to a strong online presence. Research studied the current Magnolia customers by an explorative inquiry and a confirmatory focus group. Findings in their user experience led to the identification of several aspects regarding Magnolia’s online channels that could be improved. As expected in this report, Magnolia customers prefer to purchase jewellery at a physical store rather than online, explaining Magnolia’s low volume in online sales. Furthermore it was confirmed that the customers are not being inspired by Magnolia’s presence on social media to shop online. It was concluded that Magnolia Silver Jewellery can use improvements for their website and social media management in order to improve their digital impact. Therefore this report ends with the proposal of 11 recommendations for Magnolia Silver Jewellery to consider

Dynamic behaviour of reinforced concrete

Tese de Mestrado Integrado. Engenharia Civil. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Department of Civil, Geomatic & Environment Engineering. University College London. 201

The role of inflammation in the coupling of atherosclerosis and osteoporosis

Tese de mestrado em Biologia Humana e Ambiente, apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa, através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2015A aterosclerose é uma doença crónica inflamatória que afecta as paredes dos vasos onde ocorre a formação de placas de ateroma. Estas placas de ateroma são o resultado da acumulação de lípidos, células inflamatórias, resíduos celulares e cálcio e, consequentemente há um aumento do risco para a ocorrência de eventos cardiovasculares. A aterosclerose inicia-se com a disfunção das células endoteliais e expressão de VCAM-1 (Vascular Cell-Adhesion Molecule 1) ao qual se ligam monócitos e células T que migram para o tecido arterial, aumentando a produção de citocinas, factores de crescimento, acumulação de lípidos, proliferação de células do músculo liso e aumento da secreção de moléculas de adesão. Estes eventos todos reunidos levam à formação de células espumosas pró-inflamatórias e culmina na formação das placas de aterosclerose. Os factores de risco para a ocorrência desta doença são vários, entre os quais destacam-se o aumento da idade, o sexo masculino, hábitos tabágicos, problemas de hipertensão, dislipidémia, outras doenças como a diabetes mellitus e também alterações genéticas próprias de cada indivíduo. O processo inflamatório está na base desta doença que é mediada por várias citocinas pró-inflamatórias, como a interleucina (IL-)1β, a IL-6, TNF (tumor necrosis factor) e a IL-17A, que vão desempenhar vários papéis no desenvolvimento da placa e também na deposição de cristais de cálcio na mesma. Todos estes factores levam a uma ossificação das placas, por processos ainda pouco esclarecidos e controversos: por um lado crê-se que esta ossificação possa ocorrer pela proliferação de células do tipo dos osteoblastos, por outro poderá ocorrer por um mecanismo semelhante à ossificação endocondral que ocorre na formação dos ossos, com expressão de um fenótipo semelhante ao dos condrócitos por parte das VSMCs (Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells). A Osteoporose (OP), importante causa de morbilidade e mortalidade, deriva da perturbação óssea esquelética. Revela-se na diminuição da resistência óssea, elevando assim o risco de fractura. Podemos encontrar dois tipos de osteoporose, a primária e a secundária. A primária é causada sobretudo pela perda de massa óssea derivada do aumento da idade e a secundária surge como consequência de outras patologias ou do uso de determinada medicação. A progressão e agravamento da doença dá-se não só derivado a fatores genéticos e hormonais, bem como a determinados estilos de vida ou doenças concomitantes. O osso é um tecido em constante remodelação ao longo da vida. Quando sofre danos, como no caso das fracturas, estes são reparados preservando a homeostase de cálcio e fósforo. O processo resulta da acção coordenada entre as células responsáveis pela reabsorção óssea, os osteoclastos e as células formadoras de osso, os osteoblastos, pelo que se torna essencial uma comunicação sincronizada entre os dois tipos de células. Para além da síntese e deposição proteica da matriz extracelular, os osteoblastos são também responsáveis pela síntese e secreção de moléculas que iniciam e controlam a diferenciação dos osteoclastos. A diferenciação de precursores de osteoclastos em osteoclastos multinucleados activados ocorre num processo denominado osteoclastogénese, que é regulado pelos osteoblastos e modulado por duas citocinas, o MCSF (Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor) e o RANKL (Receptor Activator of NF-kB Ligand), membro da família TNF que se liga ao seu recetor RANK (Receptor Activator of NF-kB). Outra citocina importante neste sistema é a osteoprotegerina (OPG), uma glicoproteína solúvel que pertence à família do TNF. Para que ocorra um correcto desenvolvimento do osso, o sistema RANK/RANKL/OPG tem de estar em homeostase. Contudo, apesar de caraterísticas do metabolismo ósseo estas moléculas foram já identificadas nos processos de desenvolvimento da aterosclerose. A nossa hipótese é que existem mecanismos comuns adjacentes às duas doenças que levarão ao desenvolvimento simultâneo e frequente das duas patologias no mesmo indivíduo. No sentido de dar resposta às nossas questões foi realizada a avaliação da expressão génica, no osso e na aorta de dadores cadáver, de moléculas inflamatórias ou envolvidas no metabolismo ósseo no sentido de perceber a possível relação entre estes dois tecidos, usando uma população representativa da heterogeneidade da população. As mesmas proteínas foram também doseadas no soro dos mesmos indivíduos com o intuito de compreender a existência de uma relação entre o que se passa ao nível dos tecidos com o que ocorre de forma sistémica. Como segundo objetivo deste trabalho pretendemos compreender a relação dos marcadores de inflamação e do metabolismo ósseo em placas de aterosclerose de doentes com aterosclerose avançada que foram submetidos a endarterectomia carotídea e tentar entender a relação com a densidade mineral óssea e outros dados clínicos dos mesmos indivíduos. Para além disso, também nestes doentes foram doseadas proteínas séricas, por ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay), no sentido de perceber os efeitos sistémicos no organismo. Os nossos resultados mostraram que existe alguma relação entre a expressão génica no osso e na aorta dos dadores cadáver para alguns marcadores do metabolismo ósseo, como o RANKL, a CTSK e o CBFA-1 e para os marcadores de inflamação IL-1β e IL-6. No entanto, estes resultados necessitam ser confirmados aumentando o número de amostras e deve ainda ser determinada a expressão génica destes mesmos marcadores noutro tecido, no sentido de confirmar se será específico destes dois tecidos ou se a mesma relação é encontrada também noutros tecidos independentes das patologias em estudo. Quanto aos doentes com aterosclerose, os níveis de cálcio sérico parecem estar relacionados com a presença de marcadores do metabolismo ósseo nas placas (RANKL, OPG e CBFA-1) e também com a citocina inflamatória IL-6. Também a relação entre níveis séricos de vitamina D e citocinas inflamatórias como a IL-6 e a IL-17A, e remodeladoras do osso, como o RANKL e P1NP sugerem o seu papel na regulação destes mediadores. Como era de esperar, a expressão de alguns dos marcadores de remodelação do osso revelou uma associação com a densidade mineral óssea e o T-score medido pelas densitometrias ósseas. Por fim, também os marcadores dos osteoblastos e osteoclastos apresentaram uma relação inversa com a idade, apoiado pelas mudanças que ocorrem nos percursores destas células com o avançar da idade. Apesar de estatisticamente não termos obtido resultados muito robustos, com coeficientes de correlação baixos, encontrámos algumas pistas sobre a relação entre as duas doenças. Primeiro, porque conseguimos determinar expressão génica de moléculas específicas do osso, tanto nos vasos de dadores cadáveres, como nas placas de aterosclerose dos doentes. Segundo, porque muitos destes factores mostraram relação com os níveis séricos de cálcio e vitamina D, conhecidos por terem um forte papel no osso e cuja desregulação pode levar a uma diminuição da densidade mineral óssea. Por último, a expressão de factores importantes na remodelação óssea (RANKL) e de marcadores de osteoblastos (CBFA-1 e COL-1) nas placas de aterosclerose, associados a alterações da densidade mineral óssea e ao aumento do risco de futuras fraturas, indicam que estes mecanismos poderão ser muito importantes na compreensão da relação entre as duas doenças, a aterosclerose e a osteoporose.Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease characterized by plaque formation, progressive diminishing of the calibre of arteries and increased risk of cardiovascular events. Osteoporosis (OP) is a bone disorder characterized by decreased bone mineral density and microarchitecture deterioration that leads to increased fracture risk. These two diseases are responsible for a high mortality and morbidity and usually coexist in the same individual. The existence of inflammatory mechanisms underlying both pathologies, evidenced by the presence of proinflammatory cytokines (such as IL-1, IL-6 or TNF) both locally and at systemic level, corroborates the hypothesis of a linkage between the two diseases. Additionally, dysregulation of RANK/RANKL/OPG system, fundamental in osteoclastogenesis, can contribute to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and simultaneously of OP. With this project we intend to determine pathophysiological processes common to both diseases that co-substantiate their relationship. Thus, gene expression of pro-inflammatory and bone metabolism related proteins were analysed both in artery and bone samples from cadaver donors and posteriorly, the relation between gene expression and protein seric levels were explored in patients with evolved atherosclerosis. Our results showed a relationship between gene expression in bone and aorta for both bone remodelling markers (RANKL, CTSK and CBFA-1) and inflammation markers (IL-1β and IL-6) in samples from cadaver donors. Further studies are needed to evaluate a larger number of samples and also to understand if these relations are specific of this tissues or if is extended to other tissues. In samples from patients with atherosclerosis, we found serum calcium levels to be associated with the presence of bone metabolism markers in plaques (RANKL, OPG and CBFA-1) and IL-6. The relationship between serum vitamin D levels and IL-6, IL-17A, RANKL and P1NP highlights its possible role in the regulation of these cytokines. Also, there was a relation between the expression of bone remodelling markers in plaques and the bone mineral density (BMD) and femoral neck T-score and markers for osteogenic cells were influenced by age. With our work we unveil a possible relation between the expression in bone and aorta of markers of bone remodelling and inflammation. In a context of evolved atherosclerosis, frequently associated with low BMD and consequent osteoporosis (although not always diagnosed), calcium and vitamin D influence inflammation and bone remodelling markers in the plaques and these bone remodelling markers determined in plaques are also associated with alterations in BMD. Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease characterized by plaque formation, progressive diminishing of the calibre of arteries and increased risk of cardiovascular events. Osteoporosis (OP) is a bone disorder characterized by decreased bone mineral density and microarchitecture deterioration that leads to increased fracture risk. These two diseases are responsible for a high mortality and morbidity and usually coexist in the same individual. The existence of inflammatory mechanisms underlying both pathologies, evidenced by the presence of proinflammatory cytokines (such as IL-1, IL-6 or TNF) both locally and at systemic level, corroborates the hypothesis of a linkage between the two diseases. Additionally, dysregulation of RANK/RANKL/OPG system, fundamental in osteoclastogenesis, can contribute to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and simultaneously of OP. With this project we intend to determine pathophysiological processes common to both diseases that co-substantiate their relationship. Thus, gene expression of pro-inflammatory and bone metabolism related proteins were analysed both in artery and bone samples from cadaver donors and posteriorly, the relation between gene expression and protein seric levels were explored in patients with evolved atherosclerosis. Our results showed a relationship between gene expression in bone and aorta for both bone remodelling markers (RANKL, CTSK and CBFA-1) and inflammation markers (IL-1β and IL-6) in samples from cadaver donors. Further studies are needed to evaluate a larger number of samples and also to understand if these relations are specific of this tissues or if is extended to other tissues. In samples from patients with atherosclerosis, we found serum calcium levels to be associated with the presence of bone metabolism markers in plaques (RANKL, OPG and CBFA-1) and IL-6. The relationship between serum vitamin D levels and IL-6, IL-17A, RANKL and P1NP highlights its possible role in the regulation of these cytokines. Also, there was a relation between the expression of bone remodelling markers in plaques and the bone mineral density (BMD) and femoral neck T-score and markers for osteogenic cells were influenced by age. With our work we unveil a possible relation between the expression in bone and aorta of markers of bone remodelling and inflammation. In a context of evolved atherosclerosis, frequently associated with low BMD and consequent osteoporosis (although not always diagnosed), calcium and vitamin D influence inflammation and bone remodelling markers in the plaques and these bone remodelling markers determined in plaques are also associated with alterations in BMD

Studying elements ofgenetic programming for multiclass classification

Tese de mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Interação e Conhecimento) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2018Although Genetic Programming (GP) has been very successful in both symbolic regression and binary classification by solving many difficult problems from various domains, it requires improvements in multiclass classification, which due to the high complexity of this kind of problems, requires specialized classifiers. In this project, we explored a multiclass classification GP-based algorithm, the M3GP [4]. The individuals in standard GP only have one node at their root. This means that their output space is in R. Unlike standard GP, M3GP allows each individual to have n nodes at its root. This variation changes the output space to Rn, allowing them to construct clusters of samples and use a cluster-based classification. Although M3GP is capable of creating interpretable models while having competitive results with state-of-the-art classifiers, such as Random Forests and Neural Networks, it has downsides. The focus of this project is to improve the algorithm by exploring two components, the fitness function, and the genetic operators’ selection method. The original fitness function was accuracy-based. Since using this kind of functions does not allow a smooth evolution of the output space, we tried to improve the algorithm by exploring two distance-based fitness functions as an attempt to separate the clusters while bringing the samples closer to their respective centroids. Until now, the genetic operators in M3GP were selected with a fixed probability. Since some operators have a better effect on the fitness at different stages of the evolution, the fixed probabilities allow operators to be selected at the wrong stages of the evolution, slowing down the learning process. In this project, we try to evolve the probability the genetic operators have of being chosen over the generations. On a later stage, we proposed a new crossover genetic operator that uses three individuals for the M3GP algorithm. The results obtained show significantly better results in the training set in half the datasets, while improving the test accuracy in two datasets

High-growth firms and their profile characteristics : evidence from Portugal

Mestrado em FinançasO presente trabalho pretende estudar a persistência das empresas de alto crescimento e as suas características, através da recolha de todas as empresas portuguesas presentes na base de dados Amadeus, durante um período de dez anos, dividimos o conceito de empresas de elevado crescimento em empresas de elevado crescimento de volume de negócios e empresas de elevado crescimento de empregados, para responder à pergunta se as empresas assim classificadas num determinado período do tempo, seriam capazes de manter taxas de crescimento elevado para vários períodos e se as suas características permaneceriam estáveis ao longo do tempo. O período de análise foi dividido em sete subperíodos. Notou-se que, a maioria das empresas que foram classificadas como de empresas de alto crescimento no primeiro período não foram capazes de manter este estatuto no período seguinte.The purpose of this work is to analyze the growth persistence of high-growth firms and their profile characteristics, by collecting data of all the Portuguese firms present on Amadeus database for a ten-year period (i.e. from 2006 to 2015), We divided the high-growth concept in two versions ("employment high-growth firms" and "turnover high-growth firms") to answer the question if firms that were qualified as high-growth firm in a certain period of time, would be able to maintain the high growth rates for multiple periods and whether their profile characteristics would remain stable over time. The analysis period was divided into seven sub-periods. It was noted that most companies that were classified as of high growth firms in the first period were not able to maintain this level in the following period.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Data Science Maturity Model Applied to Students' Modeling

Maturity models define a series of levels, each representing an increased complexity in information systems. Data Science appears in the Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA) literature. This work applies the _IABE maturity model, which includes two additional levels: Data Engineering (DE) at the bottom and Business Experimentation (BE) at the top. This study uses the _IABE model for students' modeling in the ModEst project. For this purpose, the Public Administration organism is the Directorate-General for Statistics of Education and Science (DGEEC) of the Portuguese Education Ministry. DGEEC provided vast data on two million students per year in the Portuguese school system, from pre-scholar to doctoral programs. This work presents the comprehensible _IABE maturity model to extract new knowledge from the DGEEC dataset. The method applied is _IABE, where after the DE level, wh-questions are formulated and answered with the most appropriate techniques at each maturity level. This work's novelty is applying the maturity model _IABE to a unique dataset for the first time. Wh-questions are stated at the BI level using data summarization; at the BA level, predictive models are performed, and counterfactual approaches are presented at the BE level. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-06-08 Full Text: PD

Scavenger Receptors: Promiscuous Players during Microbial Pathogenesis

Innate immunity is the most broadly effective host defense, being essential to clear the majority of microbial infections. Scavenger Receptors comprise a family of sensors expressed in a multitude of host cells, whose dual role during microbial pathogenesis gained importance over recent years. SRs regulate the recruitment of immune cells and control both host inflammatory response and bacterial load. In turn, pathogens have evolved different strategies to overcome immune response, avoid recognition by SRs and exploit them to favor infection. Here, we discuss the most relevant findings regarding the interplay between SRs and pathogens, discussing how these multifunctional proteins recognize a panoply of ligands and act as bacterial phagocytic receptors.This work received funding from Norte-01–0145-FEDER-000012– Structured program on bioengineered therapies for infectious diseases and tissue regeneration, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). R.P received an FCT Doctoral Fellowship [SFRH/BD/89542/2012] through FCT/MEC co-funded by QREN and POPH (Programa Operacional Potencial Humano). SS was supported by FCT Investigator program (COMPETE, POPH, and FCT)

O estudo sobre o salário emocional e os fatores psicosociais numa empresa multinacional

Mestrado em Gestão e EmpreendedorismoEsta dissertação visa estudar os Benefícios Não-Monetários e os Fatores Psicossociais (proxies para o Salário Emocional) e a sua relação com a Intenção de Saída, através da Motivação Extrínseca e Employee Empowerment dos colaboradores. Este estudo foi desenvolvido com base nos dados obtidos através do questionário online dirigido aos colaboradores da empresa Siemens, S.A., tendo sido obtidas 55 respostas válidas. A análise foi realizada através do método partial least squares structural equational modeling (PLS-SEM), usando o Smart-PLS. Os resultados do presente estudo mostram que os Benefícios Não-Monetários estão positivamente associados à Motivação Extrínseca e a Employee Empowerment, enquanto os Fatores Psicossociais estão positivamente associados a Employee Empowerment. Os resultados apresentam ainda relações negativas entre o Employee Empowerment e a Motivação Extrínseca, a Motivação Extrínseca e a Intenção de Saída e Employee Empowerment e Intenção de Saída.This dissertation aims to study Non-Monetary Benefits and Psychosocial Factors (proxies for Emotional Salary) and their relationship with Intention to Leave through Extrinsic Motivation and Employee Empowerment of employees. This study was based on data obtained through an online questionnaire addressed to employees of Siemens, S.A., with 55 valid responses. The analysis was carried out using the partial least squares structural equational modelling (PLS-SEM), using Smart-PLS. The results of this study show that Non-Monetary Benefits are positively associated with Extrinsic Motivation and Employee Empowerment, while Psychosocial Factors are positively associated with Employee Empowerment. The results also show negative relationships between Employee Empowerment and Extrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation and Intention to Leave, and Employee Empowerment and Intention to Leave.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Errors of identifiers in anonymous databases: impact on data quality

Data quality is essential for a correct understanding of the concepts they represent. Data mining is especially relevant when data with inferior quality is used in algorithms that depend on correct data to create accurate models and predictions. In this work, we introduce the issue of errors of identifiers in an anonymous database. The work proposes a quality evaluation approach that considers individual attributes and a contextual analysis that allows additional quality evaluations. The proposed quality analysis model is a robust means of minimizing anonymization costs.The authors would like to thank the FCT Projetct of Scientific Research and Technological Development in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration, 2018–2022 (DSAIPA/DS/0039/2018), for its support, and also acknowledge support by BioISI (UID/MULTI/04046/2103) and LASIGE Research Unit (UIDB/00408/2020, UIDP/00408/2020) center grants.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio