Determinants of exchange rates: an empirical analysis

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThis research focuses on the possible lag relationship among exchange rates. The period considered (2000-2013) comprises the Financial Crisis and therefore it was divided into two distinct periods: before and during the crisis. Before the crisis, the returns of Sweden and the Euro Zone seem to have impact on the British, Korean and Australian ones. During the crisis, there is evidence of the Euro and Sterling Pound influence on the Australian and New Zealand Dollar. Interestingly, the Swedish Krona is significant, in both periods, for the Korean Won, leading to deepen their common “technological profile” or the significance of major companies of both countries on Sweden’s returns. Carry trade is also presented as a possible justification for the Australian Dollar’s importance

La explotación de depósitos secundarios de rodados en el curso medio del Río Negro y el litoral marítimo pampeano

Fil: Bonomo, Mariano. Departamento Científico de Arqueología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La PlataFil: Prates, Luciano José María. Departamento Científico de Arqueología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plat

Effect of input variables uncertainty in free tube hydroforming process

Tube hydroforming (THF) is a plastic forming process that uses tubes with an initial circular cross section, in which pressurized fluid and axial feeds are applied for producing parts with various cross-sectional shapes. Despite of the complexity of THF process, a great progress in the automotive and aerospace industry has been made due to its advantages, such as, consolidation and weight reduction over conventional stamped and welded parts. The analysis of THF process is typically based on deterministic approaches, excluding scattering effects that influence the process reliability. Thus, robust design of tube hydroforming aims to vanish noise factors effects on process responses by considering the influence of process parameters variability. If this fluctuation is not monitored, then the fluctuation of the hydroformed parts quality may contribute to high scrap rates. In this work, the influence of variability in the THF material and process parameters (e.g. yield stress, strength coefficient, strain hardening exponent, plastic anisotropy, initial tube thickness and bulged length) on the bursting pressure is analyzed resorting to a response surface model. The statistically significant variables, which mostly influence the free bulge hydroforming process, are identified through an analysis of variance. Assuming that the input parameters variability follows the normal distribution, the probability distribution of the bursting pressure is evaluated by involving random process variables into the built response surface model. It was shown that the initial tube thickness is the most statistically significant variable, whereas the strain hardening exponent is the least statistically significant variable.publishe

Evidencias arqueológicas del holoceno tardío final en el curso medio del Río Colorado (Provincia de Río Negro) : sitio Don Aldo 1

Fil: Prates, Luciano José María. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, UNLPFil: Martínez, Gustavo A.. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (UNCPBA)Fil: Scabuzzo, Clara. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (UNCPBA

El poblamiento de América : Arqueología y bio-antropología de los primeros americanos

Fil: Politis, Gustavo Gabriel. División Arqueología; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Universidad Nacional de La PlataFil: Prates, Luciano José María. División Arqueología; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Universidad Nacional de La PlataFil: Pérez, Sergio Iván. División Antropología; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Universidad Nacional de La Plat

Combination of Mechanical/Physical Pretreatments with Trypsin or Pancreatin on Arthrospira platensis Protein Degradation

Research Areas: AgricultureABSTRACT - Arthrospira platensis contains high protein content and quality, which makes it a promising feed source for livestock animals. However, this microalga presents a recalcitrant peptidoglycan cell wall, and its main proteins form protein-pigment complexes attached to the algal thylakoid membrane. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of mechanical/physical pretreatments (bead milling, extrusion, freeze-drying, heating, microwave and sonication) combined with commercial enzymes (trypsin or pancreatin) on the degradation of A. platensis proteins. Protein degradation was assessed through the quantification of total protein and protein fractions (18–26 kDa, 40–48 kDa and others) on SDS-PAGE gels and the evaluation of the coefficient of protein degradation (CPD). The results showed that no significant differences were found among treatments for CPD values, except for an increase related to 18–26 kDa protein (phycocyanin subunits) with extrusion combined with pancreatin. In addition, extrusion and microwave caused a decrease of total protein in algal supernatant probably due to a denaturation/aggregation and reduction of solubility. Overall, extrusion is a promising pretreatment for A. platensis cell wall disruption and protein bioaccessibility. Further studies could elucidate how the effect of extrusion on protein solubility affects the activity of peptidases on protein degradationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Orientações normativas e instrumentos de diagnóstico e intervenção à escala local

A presente investigação fora desenvolvida com o propósito de determinar a complementaridade entre os Diagnósticos Locais de Segurança e a Prevenção Criminal através do Espaço Construído no sentido de robustecer a prevenção primária da segurança em meio urbano, partindo das Normas do Comitê Europeu de Normalização, de modo a capacitar a Guarda Nacional Republicana para uma possível disseminação de procedimentos para a prevenção local da criminalidade em meio urbano. Destarte, no que a metodologia diz respeito, optamos por seguir a lógica dedutiva e estabelecemos como estratégia de investigação o método misto. Após tal decisão, formaramse condições para a escolha do Estudo de Caso como desenho de investigação. Os resultados mais significados indicam que os órgãos de poder político autárquico, embora manifestam sensibilidade pela segurança aquando da qualificação do espaço público, não materializam essa preocupação de forma eficaz e estruturada. É de notar o interesse em conhecer os instrumentos em estudo neste trabalho, no entanto é necessário aumentar a confiança na constituição de equipas multidisciplinares neste e noutros processos de prevenção criminal. Com esta investigação conseguimos concluir que as Normas em estudo são em tudo compatíveis com os instrumentos de análise do espaço e das práticas criminais, e a sua complementaridade não só trará um melhor escrutínio de estratégias de prevenção criminal em meio urbano como dota a Guarda Nacional Republicana de argumentos para a disseminação de procedimentos na prevenção local da criminalidade.The present investigation was developed to determine the complementarity between the Local Safety Diagnostics and the Criminal Prevention through the Built Space in order to strengthen the primary prevention of urban safety based on the Standards of the European Committee for Standardization. to train the Republican National Guard for a possible dissemination of procedures for local crime prevention in urban areas. Therefore, as far as the methodology is concerned, we chose to follow the deductive logic and establish the mixed method as a research strategy. After this decision, conditions were established for the choice of the Case Study as a research design. The most significant results indicate that the autarchic political authorities, although they express security concerns when qualifying the public space, do not materialize this concern in an effective and structured way. It is important to note the interest in knowing the instruments being studied in this study, however, it is necessary to increase the trust in the creation of multidisciplinary teams in this and other criminal prevention processes. With this investigation, we can conclude that the Norms under study are in all cases compatible with the instruments of space analysis and criminal practices, and their complementarity will not only bring better scrutiny of urban crime prevention strategies, but also the Republican National Guard of arguments for the dissemination of procedures in local crime prevention

Prólogo en Prhistoria Sudameris. Sobre las múltiples migraciones humanas que poblaron Sudamérica al final del Pleistoceno en el contexto cronológico de la calibración radiocarbónica, Luis E. Salcedo Camacho

Fil: Prates, Luciano José María. División Arqueología. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentin

Orientações estratégicas de desenvolvimento para o associativismo desportivo do Concelho de Portalegre

O Movimento Associativo teve o seu inicio em Portugal no final do século XIX inicio do século XX, mas com um desenvolvimento mais acentuado após o 25 de Abril de 1974, onde o país saiu do regime do Estado Novo, dando ao povo português liberdade de livremente se expressar. Isto, levou ao aparecimento de novas associações desportivas de forma a fomentar o desporto nacional, dando a hipótese de milhares de portugueses ter uma pratica desportiva de forma gratuita e regular, que até então era quase um beneficio da classe social alta. Ao longo do desenvolvimento do associativismo, varias mudanças se sentiram, no final da década de 90 e principio do novo milénio começou a enaltecer a "crise” do associativismo, que segundo vários autores e aqui referimos Melo de Carvalho, A. o associativismo desportivo começou a sofrer da mercantilização desenfreada que vem a caracterizar a sociedade, e a perder as suas origens, o seu propósito inicial, e apresentar dificuldades e procurar o apoio do estado, do poder local, para resolver os seus problemas. Neste âmbito que desenvolvemos este trabalho, procurando no interior das associações do concelho de Portalegre as principais causas da crise. Na metodologia utilizamos uma entrevista semiestruturada a 25 associações, na pessoa do presidente ou responsável, que estão incluídas no Programa de Apoio ao Associativismo Desportivo (PAAD) da Câmara Municipal de Portalegre. Como principais conclusões, encontrámos: • Falta de empreendedorismo apesar de uma grande parte das associações serem jovens. • Os dirigentes não são pessoas idosas ou com défices de formação académica. Mas notasse falta de formação especifica do que é a gestão do desporto, de como se desenvolve o desporto. • O trabalho efectuado nas associações é muito realizado pela "carolice" dos "carolas" (dirigentes, principalmente só pelo presidente ou um responsável) • Não realizam na sua generalidade planificação com vista o futuro e desenvolvimento da associação e do desporto

Conjugated linoleic acid reduces permeability and fluidity of adipose plasma membranes from obese Zucker rats

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. July 2010; 398 (2): 199-204.Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a dietary fatty acid frequently used as a body fat reducing agent whose effects upon cell membranes and cellular function remain unknown. Obese Zucker rats were fed atherogenic diets containing saturated fats of vegetable or animal origin with or without 1% CLA, as a mixture of cis(c)9,trans(t)11 and t10,c12 isomers. Plasma membrane vesicles obtained from visceral adi- pose tissue were used to assess the effectiveness of dietary fat and CLA membrane incorporation and its outcome on fluidity and permeability to water and glycerol. A significant decrease in adipose membrane fluidity was correlated with the changes observed in permeability, which seem to be caused by the incor- poration of the t10,c12 CLA isomer into membrane phospholipids. These results indicate that CLA supple- mentation in obese Zucker rats fed saturated and cholesterol rich diets reduces the fluidity and permeability of adipose membranes, therefore not supporting CLA as a body fat reducing agent through membrane fluidification in obese fat consumers