Tax dividend evaluation of major urban renewal projects

This paper proposes a parsimonious methodology to evaluate the impact of large urban renewal projects on public revenues. The impact is largely endogenous, external to projects and may encompass a broad range of instruments, ranging from local to regional to central governments. We look at licence fees, user charges, piggyback levies, excise taxes, social security contributions, and taxation of property, corporate income, personal income, and sales or value added. All these revenues are labelled tax dividends for short. The evaluation of a project?s tax dividends may help governments on their licensing and, above all, on their co-financing decisions. However, the need for rigorous financial evaluations faces too many difficulties in practice, from modelling complexity to information shortages to time constraints to bureaucratic obstruction. The methodology in this paper aims precisely at delivering feasible, fast and reasonably sound assessments that can be computed before or after the projects? accomplishment. Revenue changes spring from the economic effects of renewal projects, which differ across space and time. Spatial effects are not restricted to the renewal site. Very often, they spill over to neighbouring city areas, and may also include region and nationwide outcomes. Most on-site effects are internalised by the developer but generate tax dividends too. The renewal project can also bring important benefits to adjacent city areas, because it either reduces a negative externality?pollution or crime, for example?or creates a positive externality?such as widely appraised amenities?for agents located therein. In the case of really large renewal projects, there may also be non-local effects to account for. In fact, the project?s own expenditure is likely to leak into regional and national suppliers, triggering macroeconomic consequences. Economic effects differ also on time, being temporary or permanent. The former come out of resource acquisition by the developer, and may include expenditure on planning, compulsory purchases, decontamination, demolition, and construction. Permanent effects on output occur because these projects increase the real value of capital in the economy. Real estate rents, on site and on neighbouring areas, capitalise the social net benefits of the renewal project. Hence, temporary effects are spatially diffuse and expand the economy in the short run. The methodology includes a tailored Mundell-Fleming design to quantify these effects. Permanent outcomes expand potential output, are normally restricted to an urban subspace and are quantifiable out of differential rents. The methodology is easily customisable to particular projects. As an example, we include an application to the large ongoing renewal project in Eastern Lisbon, Portugal, triggered by the 1998 world exhibition?Expo?98. Frequently, major renewal projects are prompted by a highly visible event, such as this exhibition or the Olympics. The event itself is likely to cause temporary effects, for example through its impact on the tourism sector? which is likely to boost within the city and its region. Our application shows also how to plug these effects into the analysis.

Conciliação da vida profissional e familiar: estudo de caso do teletrabalho na rede Europe Direct em Portugal

A conciliação da vida profissional e familiar é um dos grandes desafios que se apresentam à gestão das organizações. A organização do trabalho tem evoluído ao longo dos tempos. A busca pelo capital humano, pelo talento que acrescenta valor às organizações, depende crescentemente não só de aspetos remuneratórios mas também de aspetos que proporcionem qualidade de vida aos colaboradores das organizações. Com a crescente taxa de participação feminina no mercado de trabalho, que ocorreu nas últimas décadas, aliada ao número de agregados familiares com filhos, em que ambos os cônjuges trabalham, agregados familiares monoparentais e ao aumento da esperança média de vida que também tem ocorrido, implica que a população ativa tenha de acorrer a necessidades com os descendentes e com os ascendentes. A conciliação da vida profissional e familiar e a respetiva flexibilização da relação laboral é um dos aspetos que se pretende estudar neste trabalho, particularmente se o teletrabalho constitui uma ferramenta que poderá ser utilizada para este propósito. Através de um estudo de caso, com a rede Europe Direct Portugal, Centros de Informação Europeia, que têm uma vertente de prestação de serviços públicos, gratuitos, neste caso de informação aos cidadãos, empresas e instituições, de realização de eventos e de participação em eventos, o que implica um amplo trabalho de estabelecimento de contactos de preparação e de formação entre as partes interessadas, a rede Europe Direct Portugal, que está dispersa pelas várias regiões do País, constitui uma oportunidade para perceber se o teletrabalho constitui uma oportunidade, ou não, de facilitação da conciliação da vida profissional e familiar sem perda da concretização dos objetivos profissionais. Foi adotada uma metodologia qualitativa e quantitativa. Qualitativa, através de uma revisão da literatura sobre o tema, mas fundamentalmente quantitativa, através da realização de questionário aos colaboradores dos centros de informação Europe Direct em Portugal.The conciliation of professional and family life is one of the great challenges faced by the management of organizations. The organization of work has evolved over time. The search for human capital, for talent that adds value to organisations, increasingly depends not only on remuneration aspects but also on aspects that provide quality of life for organisations' employees. With the increasing rate of female participation in the labor market, which has occurred in recent decades, combined with the number of families with children, in which both spouses work, single-parent families and the average increase of life expectancy that has also occurred, implies that the active population has to face and resolve daily needs with descendants and ascendants. The conciliation of professional and family life and the respective flexibility of the employment relationship is one of the aspects that this work intends to study, particularly if teleworking is a tool that can be used for this purpose. Through a case study, with the Europe Direct Portugal network, European Information Centers that provide free public services, in this case information to citizens, companies and institutions, organizing events and participating in events, which involves extensive work to establish preparatory and training contacts between interested parts, the Europe Direct Portugal network, which is spread across the various regions of the country, is an opportunity to understand whether teleworking is an opportunity or not, facilitating the conciliation of professional and family life without losing the achievement of professional goals. A qualitative and quantitative methodology was adopted. Qualitative, through a review of the literature on the subject, but fundamentally quantitative, through a survey of employees at Europe Direct information centers in Portugal

Curriculum analysis process: Analysing fourteen industrial engineering programs

The fourth industrial revolution is demanding for new competences, thus requiring curricula redesign. A comprehensive analysis of current curricula contributes for the design of the new foreseen curricula. According to Hoffman (1999, p. 283): “the design of learning programs may be based on the inputs needed or the outputs demanded”. Thus, curriculum analysis is helpful to identify aspects that are working and those that need a change (Wolf, Hill, & Evers, 2006). This purpose is crucial in the context of Industry 4.0, in order to prepare future engineers to face the challenges of their practice. Considering that in Europe, in general, formal curriculum level presents the structural aspects (e.g. hours and number of courses) and the learning outcomes of each course, it is possible to identify the areas of knowledge and the competences students are expected to develop. This paper aims to make a curriculum analysis, based on areas of knowledge and learning outcomes. This was based on a process exploring information from the formal level of curriculum that can be replicated in other contexts. Additionally, the process was applied to fourteen European Industrial Engineering master programs. The results show that there is a high level of diversity regarding main areas of knowledge and technical competences of each program. Moreover, it showed an enormous lack of attention in terms of transversal competences in all programs.EU - European Commission(586137-EPP-1-2017-1-TH-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

Gold Medals, Silver Medals, Bronze Medals, and Total Medals: An Analysis of Summer Paralympic Games from 1992 to 2016

The Paralympic Games (PG) are considered one of the biggest events in the world, with increasing coverage by media and participation. The present study aimed to investigate the variation in the number of gold, silver, bronze, and totals medals in the Summer PG from 1992 to 2016. Data related to the results were extracted from the International Paralympic Committee to an SPSS database. Descriptive statistics and Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by ranks were used to check the differences across medals in seven editions of the Summer PG, with the correspondent effect sizes. There was a peak in the maximum number of any type of medal between the 1996 and 2000 Summer PG and a decrease until 2008. After that, the number of any kind of medals has been increasing again. There were also significant differences with intermediate to large effect sizes when comparing more distant PG with more recent events. Several external factors can influence performance indicators (e.g., the number of medals) in a negative or positive way. An increase in the number of participants and a greater and better investment by the countries may explain part of our results. The preparation of an athlete must be based on a multidisciplinary team, and future organizing countries must take into account reports of previous events.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The habenula as a critical node in chronic stress-related anxiety

The habenula is activated in response to stressful and aversive events, resulting in exploratory inhibition. Although possible mechanisms for habenula activation have been proposed, the effects of chronic stress on the habenular structure have never been studied. Herein, we assessed changes in volume, cell density and dendritic structure of habenular cells after chronic stress exposure using stereological and 3D morphological analysis. This study shows for the first time that there is a hemispherical asymmetry in the medial habenula (MHb) of the adult rat, with the right MHb containing more neurons than its left counterpart. Additionally, it shows that chronic stress induces a bilateral atrophy of both the MHb and the lateral habenula (LHb). This atrophy was accompanied by a reduction of the number of neurons in the right MHb and the number of glial cells in the bilateral LHb, but not by changes in the dendritic arbors of multipolar neurons. Importantly, these structural changes were correlated with elevated levels of serum corticosterone and increased anxious-like behavior in stressed animals. To further assess the role of the habenula in stress-related anxiety, bilateral lesions of the LHb were performed; interestingly, in lesioned animals the chronic stress protocol did not trigger increases in circulating corticosterone or anxious-like behavior. This study highlights the role of the habenula in the stress responses and how its sub-regions are structurally impacted by chronic stress with physiological and behavioral consequences.Prof. Sharif Taha formerly of University of Utah for providing training and technical expertise on habenula research; Ana Lima and Mónica Dias for histological processing of samples; and Diana Afonso and Ana Veloso for help with the stress protocol. LRJ was supported by fellowships: UMINHO/BPD/27/2013 funded by CCDR-N and Programa Operacional Região Norte (ON.2) from QREN/FEDER; 2014/CON3/CAN23 from Fundação Luso-Americana; and UMINHO/BPD/63/2015 from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian funded project (contract grant number P-139977). AN was supported by a fellowship from project ANR/NEU-OSD/0258/2012 funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). Financial support for this work was provided by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038; and by the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

exemplo de áreas estuarinas

UID/SOC/04647/2013A Reserva Natural do Estuário do Tejo (RNET), uma zona húmida com elevadas potencialidades biológicas, paisagísticas e económicas, com uma proximidade geográfica e estratégica à capital, só poderia ser considerada como um local de elevado valor e, assim, classificado com diversos níveis de proteção. Esses níveis de proteção são especialmente justificáveis pelas caraterísticas que ali se podem encontrar em termos de biodiversidade, de paisagem e de valores socioculturais relacionados com atividades tradicionais especialmente ligadas à agricultura e rapação de sal. O Turismo de Natureza é um produto oferecido em espaços privilegiados como este, sendo necessário criar instrumentos para regulamentar e compatibilizar as atividades de animação ambiental e de desporto de natureza com o objetivo de minimizar os seus impactes negativos. Como previsto nos artigos n.º77 e 78 da Lei n.º 30/2004, de 21 de julho, deve-se fomentar a prática desportiva ao ar livre, assim como a criação de Instrumentos de Gestão Territorial que prevejam a existência de locais apropriados para a sua prática. É, contudo, necessário ter em consideração os valores naturais, garantindo a sua conservação e a proteção da diversidade biológica, o que deve ser assegurado de forma descentralizada, equitativa e proporcional, pelos decisores políticos, assim como outros intervenientes, envolvidos no planeamento e ordenamento territorial. No âmbito deste projeto, para além de se pretender cumprir as disposições mencionadas, procurou-se construir normas para uma maior uniformização ao nível da representação cartográfica deste tipo de espaços. Como proposta, ou exemplo, de instrumento que aplicasse estas mesmas normas, foi concebida uma Carta de Desporto de Natureza, mas disponibilizada para que também tornasse a informação sobre a área protegida mais acessível junto dos interessados. Para além da intenção de promover junto da população a prática de um desporto natureza saudável em equilíbrio com o ambiente, houve também a preocupação em recorrer a soluções de Free Open Source Software (FOSS), para que o processo de utilização e disponibilização de informação SIG fosse mais simples e direto, tanto para as entidades envolvidas e interessadas em operar na área, como para o utilizador comum. The Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve (RNET), a wetland with high biological and economic potential, with a geographical and strategic proximity to the capital (Lisbon), could only be considered as a high value location with several protection levels. These levels are especially justified by the features that can be found there, like the landscape and socio-cultural values related to traditional activities especially related to agriculture and salt extraction. The Nature Tourism is a product offered in privileged spaces like this, it is necessary to create instruments to regulate and harmonize the environmental animation and sportive activities in order to minimize their negative impacts. Articles n.º77 and 78 of Law No. 30/2004, of July 21, say that promoting outdoors sports, as well as the creation of Territorial Management Instruments to support them, should be the rule. These processes must be ensured in a decentralized, equitable and proportional manner, by policy makers and other stakeholders involved in planning and territorial management. In this project we tried to build standards for stronger cartographic representation uniformity of such spaces, we proposed an instrument to apply these same standards (a Nature Sport Map), but we also made it available on-line, in order to turn the information about the protected area more accessible to the interested parts. Our main goal was promoting, among the population, a healthy practice in balance with the environment and also a demand for the use of Free Open Source Software, so GIS information access becomes a simpler process.publishersversionpublishe

Ordenamento territorial da União Europeia e o Programa Nacional da Politica de Ordenamento do Território (PNPOT) de Portugal

UID/SOC/04647/2013Este artigo inquire na ciência do Desenvolvimento Territorial e Regional, tendo como base a concepção e os conceitos sobre do Ordenamento Territorial (OT), de modo geral, a implantação na União Europeia e, particularmente, em Portugal. Também, destaca-se o Programa Nacional Da Politica De Ordenamento Do Território (PNPOT) que são, sobretudo, o suporte das discussões e concepções das ações da implantação do Ordenamento Territorial na União Europeia e, também, as Estratégias Portugal-2020, revindas para o desenvolvimento territorial.publishersversionpublishe

vantagens e desafios de uma implementação para o Inventário do Património Imóvel Municipal

UID/SOC/04647/2013No cumprimento das suas atribuições e competências, os municípios necessitam de conhecer com rigor o seu património imóvel para poder responder de forma eficiente e eficaz às necessidades, expetativas e aspirações da comunidade. A existência de um cadastro e inventário georreferenciado de bens imóveis completo, rigoroso e atualizado permite ao Município conhecer a natureza, o estado, a afetação e o valor dos bens imóveis do domínio público e privado, determinar o seu melhor aproveitamento e promover a sua conservação e gestão integrada. O cadastro e inventário é uma obrigação legal, uma necessidade para a boa gestão e proteção dos bens patrimoniais e uma importante ferramenta para a definição de políticas públicas, com repercussões no ordenamento do território e nas finanças das autarquias locais. Importa avaliar o contributo dos SIG no desenvolvimento de uma solução que permita a gestão integrada e partilhada do património imóvel municipal e refletir sobre as vantagens e desafios da solução proposta. In carrying out its duties and responsibilities, municipalities need to know with rigor its property assets to efficiently and effectively respond to the needs, expectations and community aspirations. The existence of a complete georeferenced real estate cadastre and inventory, rigorous and updated allows the municipality to know the nature, the state, the allocation and the value of real property in the public and private domain, determine its best use and promote conservation and integrated management. Cadastre and inventory are a legal obligation, a need for proper management and protection of assets and an important tool for the definition of public policies affecting spatial planning and finance of local authorities. It is important to assess the contribution of GIS to develop a solution that enables integrated and shared management of the municipal real property and consider on the advantages and challenges of the proposed solution.publishersversionpublishe

Exploring the Dynamics of Athletes’ Enjoyment and Self-Determined Motivation, and of the Motivational Climate in Youth Football: A Longitudinal Perspective

We aimed to explore a short period longitudinal interplay between athletes’ enjoyment and their self-determined motivation and motivational climate in youth football. We recruited 109 youth football athletes (79 males, 30 females) through a convenient sampling method. We included individuals within the 12–17-year-old age range, with a mean age of 14.31 (SD = 1.46) years. To examine these proposed associations, we performed hierarchical multiple regression analyses and found that enjoyment at pre-season assessment (T1) and self-determined motivation and a task-involving sport climate at mid-season (T2) were significant predictors of mid-season enjoyment (at T2). However, self-determined motivation and task-involving climate at T1 did not significantly contribute to the model. These findings emphasize the importance of initial enjoyment and an evolved self-determined motivation, and task-involving climate in understanding later enjoyment in sport. Coaches, practitioners, and policymakers should prioritize strategies that enhance intrinsic motivation, provide opportunities for autonomy, and cultivate a supportive and growth-oriented environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risco de pé diabético e níveis de autocuidado podológico nos cuidados de saúde primários da ilha de Santiago, Cabo-Verde

Introdução: A Diabetes mellitus (DM) constitui um problema de saúde pública a nível mundial. Em África a DM representa um crescente problema devido às suas complicações, onde as necessidades relacionadas com a doença permanecem praticamente não atendidas e as características incapacitantes do pé são agravadas pelas questões relacionadas com hábitos e comportamentos ao nível da higiene, cultural e de saúde. Objetivo: Caracterizar o risco de desenvolvimento de úlcera de Pé Diabético de acordo com a classificação do International Working Group on Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) – versão de 2015 e o nível de autocuidados podológicos. Material e Métodos: Estudo transversal, incluindo de forma consecutiva 586 de pessoas com DM que recorreram a 6 Centros de Saúde (CS) da cidade, periferia e interior da Ilha de Santiago (Agosto/2018 a Janeiro/2019). A recolha de dados foi feita por questionário estruturado aplicado por enfermeiros, incluindo variáveis sociodemográficas, clínicas e complicações relacionadas com a DM, caracterização podológica e observação da prática de autocuidados