Market Solutions in Poverty: The Role of Microcredit in Development Countries with Financial Restrictions

The creation of credit markets in poor countries is a crucial factor for their development. If well put into practice, people would be able to improve their quality of life. With the suitable support they will become educated and that will allow them to enlarge their business, to think by themselves and to appreciate that they have rights. Microfinance has seen great changes in the last 50 years and has become visibly known due to the success of some occurrence in developing countries and more recently in Europe through a number of schemes that have been implemented solving this key issue. In this article we discuss this experience, we evaluate the economic theory of microfinance and propose a alternative model. We conclude that microcredit can be see as a new approach in developing policies or as a scheme against unemployment.microfinance, microcredit, rate of interest, development, poverty, money.

Probing the primordial Universe with MeerKAT and DES

It is usually assumed that we will need to wait until next-generation surveys like Euclid, LSST and SKA, in order to improve on the current best constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity from the Planck experiment. We show that two contemporary surveys, with the SKA precursor MeerKAT and the Dark Energy Survey (DES), can be combined using the multi-tracer technique to deliver an accuracy on measurement of $f_{\rm NL}$ that is up to three times better than Planck.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. We now marginalise over the bias, and ensure that we exclude nonlinear scales, leading to small quantitative corrections. Version accepted by MNRA

Bridging Science to Economy: The Role of Science and Technologic Parks in Innovation Strategies in “Follower” Regions

The concept of Regional Innovation System (RIS) builds upon an integrated perspective of innovation, acknowledging the contribution of knowledge production subsystem, regulatory context and enterprises to a region’s innovative performance. Science and Technology parks can act as a platform to the production of knowledge and its transfer to the economy in the form of spin-offs or simple knowledge spillovers, enhanced by the co-location of R&D university centers and high technology enterprises on site. Although reflecting mainly a science push perspective, they may constitute central nodes in an infrastructural system of competitiveness that articulates other entrepreneurial location sites and bridges Universities to the economy in a more efficient and effective way, being crucial to increasing technology transfer and interchange speed, promoting the technological upgrading of the regional economy. In this paper we discuss the importance of Science and Technology Parks in the building up of a Regional Innovation System, promoting the technological intensification of the economy, a more effective knowledge transfer and sharing and the construction of competitive advantages, with particular importance in follower regions facing structural deficiencies. We oppose to the predominant closed paradigm, which understands science parks’ role in a narrow and “enclavist”, arguing in favor of an open and “integrative” paradigm where the interconnection to other infrastructures and agents boosts the park’s performance and upgrades the regional economies competitiveness infra-structures and innovation capability. We further stress the importance of science parks in signaling capabilities and hence attracting R&D external initiatives, namely, R&D FDI.Science Parks, New technology-based firms, Innovation, Regional Policy

Patient satisfaction in relation to nursing care at home

With regards to home care, primary care nurses should carry out their activities and performance with an emphasis on health education. Considering patient satisfaction in the relationship aspect of helping and communication can contribute to improving nursing care. This cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, whose aim is to assess the degree of patient satisfaction in relation to nursing care provided at home, particularly in the dimensions of relationships, communication and health education. To conduct this research an intentional non-probabilistic sample, consisting of 44 dependent patients, belonging to the area of a health centre in the central region of Portugal, who receive nursing care at home was selected. The data collection instrument used was a form, consisting of two parts: the first part to characterise the sample with 10 questions, one of which is subdivided and the second part consisting of 16 Likert type scale questions to obtain the patients’ opinions. From our results we stress that our sample had a very aged population, mostly residing in urban areas. Satisfaction was evaluated in three dimensions: relationships, communication and health education. With regard to relationships, older males (age range 88-98 years), who are more highly dependent, married, uneducated and living in rural districts are more satisfied. Regarding communication, older males (88-98 years), with a greater degree of dependency, bachelors, educated and living in urban parishes are most satisfied. As for the health education dimension, younger men (68-78 years), who are less dependent, married, educated and living in urban environments are more satisfied. The main conclusions inferred are that, in the overall assessment of all of the dimensions, the classification is very good, and it is suggested that organizational investments are made and to equip health centres with human and material resources

Efeito do treino combinado na citocina IL-17 em idosos institucionalizados

Dissertação de mestrado em Biocinética (Biocinética em Ciências do Desporto) apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física da Universidade de CoimbraIntrodução: O envelhecimento está diretamente associado ao aumento da inflamação sistémica, um processo denominado como "inflammaging". Uma das citocinas inflamatórias que tem merecido especial atenção é a IL-17, a qual possui concentração aumentada em diversos processos de doenças crônicas. O exercício físico já é considerado como um potente agente anti-inflamatório e, mesmo em idosos, parecem existir inúmeros benefícios físicos, imunitários e psicológicos oriundos da prática de exercício. Todavia, os efeitos de um programa de treino combinado sobre os parâmetros da citocina IL-17 ainda não foram investigados na população idosa. O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar os efeitos do treino combinado sobre os níveis de IL-17 em mulheres idosas institucionalizadas. Método: Um total de 25 idosas foram selecionadas e alocadas em dois grupos: treino combinado (n=13) e grupo controlo (n=12). Todas as participantes foram avaliadas antes e após 14 semanas de treino combinado. O treinamento consistia em 2 sessões semanais, e cada sessão foi composta por exercícios aeróbios, de treino de força e flexibilidade. Amostras de sangue foram recolhidas antes e após o período de intervenção para análise de hemograma e das concentrações plasmáticas de IL-17, bem como foram recolhidos dados referentes à teste de aptidão física funcional. Resultados: não existiram alterações significativas nos níveis de IL-17 em ambos grupos, e as variáveis do hemograma também foram inalteradas após o período de intervenção (p>0.05). Apesar de não significativas, o treino combinado promoveu um leve efeito sobre a melhoria dos níveis de aptidão física nas idosas submetidas ao exercício, o que não ocorreu no grupo controlo. Conclusão: apesar do treino combinado não promover alterações significativas nos níveis de IL-17 de idosas institucionalizadas, este tipo de exercício parece promover benefícios na capacidade física dessa população. Introduction: Aging is directly associated with the increase of systemic inflammation, a process known as “Inflammaging”.One of the pro inflammatory cytokines who has been broadly studied is the IL-17, which is widely present in several chronic diseases. Physical exercise is recognized as one powerful anti-inflammatory agent, and even in the elderly population it looks like there are many immune and psychologic benefits form the practice of regular physical activity. However, the effects of a multi-modal training program in the IL-17 parameters of an elderly population are still to be studied. The goal of this thesis is to examine the effects of multi-modal training in the levels of IL-17 of institutionalized elderly women. Methods: A total of 25 old women were selected and divided in two groups: multi modal training (n=13) and control group (n=12). All the participants were evaluated before and after 14 weeks of multi modal training. The training consisted in 2 weekly sessions, each one had aerobic, strength and flexibility exercises. Blood samples were collected before and after the intervention phase in order to perform hemogram and IL-17 plasmatic concentration analysis. It was also assessed the data of functional fitness. Results: there weren’t significant changes in IL-17 levels in both groups and the hemogram components were also inalterable after the intervention period (p>0.05). Although changes weren’t significant, multi modal training promoted a small effect in the improvement of functional fitness levels in the elderly women who participated in exercise sessions, something that didn’t happen in the control group. Conclusion: Despite the unchangeable levels of IL-17 in institutionalized elderly women submitted to multi modal training, this kind of exercise seems to promote benefits in the physical capacity of that population

A inclusão do aprendente com distúrbio de hiperactividade e défice de atenção: um estudo de caso

Projeto apresentado na Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico do Porto para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção da especialização em Educação EspecialOs alunos com Distúrbio Hiperactivo e Défice de Atenção (DHDA) revelam um comportamento imprevisível e inconstante, resultante da inibição de impulsos. A par deste tipo de comportamento, demonstram uma enorme imaturidade para a idade, no que se refere a relações sociais na escola, em casa e em diferentes contextos da comunidade de que fazem parte (Garcia, 2001). Esta investigação tem como objectivo principal analisar quais as representações que professores do 3o Ciclo do Ensino Básico duma turma com um aluno diagnosticado com DHDA têm relativamente: a) ao perfil comportamental do mesmo; b) às estratégias que usam no processo de ensino- aprendizagem. Utilizando questionários como instrumentos de recolha de dados, procurámos realizar uma análise estatística descritiva de forma a inventariar quais das estratégias assinaladas pelos docentes são promotoras inclusão escolar do aluno com DHDA

Cosmology with intensity mapping techniques using atomic and molecular lines

We present a systematic study of the intensity mapping technique using updated models for the different emission lines from galaxies and identify which ones are more promising for cosmological studies of the post reionization epoch. We consider the emission of ${\rm Ly\alpha}$, ${\rm H\alpha}$, H$\beta$, optical and infrared oxygen lines, nitrogen lines, CII and the CO rotational lines. We then identify that ${\rm Ly\alpha}$, ${\rm H\alpha}$, OII, CII and the lowest rotational CO lines are the best candidates to be used as IM probes. These lines form a complementary set of probes of the galaxies emission spectra. We then use reasonable experimental setups from current, planned or proposed experiments to access the detectability of the power spectrum of each emission line. Intensity mapping of ${\rm Ly\alpha}$ emission from $z=2$ to 3 will be possible in the near future with HETDEX, while far-infrared lines require new dedicated experiments. We also show that the proposed SPHEREx satellite can use OII and ${\rm H\alpha}$ IM to study the large-scale distribution of matter in intermediate redshifts of 1 to 4. We found that submilimeter experiments with bolometers can have similar performances at intermediate redshifts using CII and CO(3-2).Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables, published in MNRAS, typos correcte