Hedonic Prices Indexes for New Passenger Cars in Portugal (1997- 2001)

This paper evaluates the effects of quality change on the price index for new passenger cars in Portugal for the years 1997-2001. Hedonic regression models are studied, giving particular emphasis to the relation between the form of the price index and the specification of the hedonic equation and estimation method used. It is argued that when log-linear hedonic functions are used the effects of quality change should be evaluated using a method akin to the Oaxaca decomposition (Oaxaca R., 1973, "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets", International Economic Review, 14, 693-709), rather than using the traditional dummy variables method. The results of the empirical part of the paper indicate that the CPI component corresponding to the sales of new passenger cars may have been overestimated by as much as 2.2 percentage points per year. This corresponds to an overestimation of the overall CPI by about 0.15 percentage points per year. As a by- product of this analysis it is also possible to conclude that the quality of new cars sold in Portugal increased on average 4.8 percent per year during this period.CPI bias; Heteroskedasticity; Oaxaca decomposition.

A rare and threatening complication in a cirrhotic patient

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigation of Absolute Refractory Period Pacing to Prevent Lethal Arrhythmias in Humans

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major health issue, being the commonest cause of natural death in the industrialised world. SCD frequently results from the development of erratic heart rhythms which are usually preceded by repolarisation alternans (RA). Previous studies suggest that the abolishment of RA may prevent the onset of arrhythmia. In a recent swine study, absolute refractory period pacing (ARPP) showed promising results in RA modulation. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying this therapy and its efficiency in human patients remains unclear. Single cell in silico modelling showed that ARPP might be used to both increase or decrease action potential duration (APD) with the degree of modulation depending mainly on stimulus duration, magnitude and coupling interval. ICaL, IKr and IK1 were the main currents involved, and conductance of Ito and ICaL strongly influenced results. APD alternans was successfully reduced in a population of alternating models. In vivo results obtained using an epicardial sock during cardiac surgery showed significant changes in repolarisation when applying ARPP. However, elevated morphological signal alterations led to question the results’ validity. The investigation of signal processing methodology led to the acknowledgement of high-pass filter interference in signal morphology due to the ARPP artefact, resulting in altered markers. Further in vivo data showed no significant effect of ARPP on local RT at the whole heart level. Small effects on RT, spectral method and Tend markers close to the pacing site were observed, suggesting a localised effect. One dimensional in silico modelling showed a rapid decline of the ARPP effect, being limited to around 10mm from the pacing site, correlating with the in vivo results. These results provide important new knowledge regarding the effects of ARPP in the human ventricle at the cellular and organ level. It also provides relevant information for further development, analysis and translation of pacing based therapies

The cultural models in international business research: A bibliometric study of IB journals

Culture has been a widely researched topic in the International Business (IB) literature over the last decades. To better understand what culture actually means and its implication in firms? IB operations, several cultural models and taxonomies have been put forward. In this paper we seek to scrutinize the use of three well known cultural models - Hall?s (1976), Hofstede?s (1980a) and Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner?s (1993) - in the extant research. Using bibliometric techniques of the papers published in the top ranked IB journals, we performed a citation and co-citation analysis to find out the most influential model and to examine the possible linkages between models and to the issues being researched. We conclude that Hofstede?s (1980a) taxonomy is the most cited and his taxonomy has strong linkages to several streams of research. Nonetheless, we also find that there are noticeable differences on how research in different journals make use of the cultural models, probably reflecting not surprising disciplinary emphases.Cultural models, Hofstede, Trompenaars, Hall, bibliometric study

Tratamento de Superfície de Implantes Dentários e Seus Efeitos na Biomodulação Óssea

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências da Saúde. Odontologia.Implantes dentais são a vanguarda da odontologia quando o assunto é reposição de dentes perdidos. Existe hoje no mercado uma grande diversidade de sistema de implantes dentais que possuem as mais diversas características. O tratamento de superfície tem sido a modificação mais realizada, a fim de se obter uma superfície que gere uma resposta óssea mais rápida, eficaz e duradoura. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar algumas superfícies de implantes dentais disponíveis e verificar se estas geram uma melhor resposta óssea. Implantes com superfície usinada, ou seja, sem tratamento, estão cada vez mais em desuso e são utilizados, na maioria das vezes, apenas como controle nos estudos. Há ainda uma tendência à incorporação de materiais na superfície. Após a análise da literatura ficou claro que os tratamentos de superfícies de implantes são benéficos no que dizem respeito à resposta óssea e sobrevivência dos implantes a longo prazo.Dental implants are what is latest in dentistry when it comes to replacing missing teeth. Today a wide range of dental implant system that have the most diverse caracteristics are available on the market. The surface treatment has been performed in order to obtain a surface that triggers a faster, effective and lasting bone response. The objective of this study was to evaluate some available surfaces of dental implants and see if they generate a better bone response. A machined surface implant, ie, without treatment, are increasingly out of use and are used, in most cases, just as control in studies. There is still a tendency to incorporate material on the surface. After reviewing the literature it became clear that the surface treatment of dental implants are beneficial in regard to bone response and long term survival

A linguagem em crianças com perturbações do espectro do autismo: análise morfossintáctica

Mestrado em Ciências da Fala e da AudiçãoObjectivos: O presente trabalho tem o objectivo de caracterizar a linguagem de crianças com Perturbações do Espectro do Autismo (PEA), em termos de morfologia e sintaxe, analisando a sua variação de acordo com a faixa etária, grau de autismo e nível cognitivo. Métodos: Na primeira parte do estudo, foi efectuada a gravação do discurso de quatro crianças com PEA. Os registos áudio foram anotados e processados com um sistema automático de análise gramatical e os dados resultantes foram alvo de tratamento estatístico. Na segunda parte do estudo, foram seleccionadas 45 crianças a partir da base de dados da Consulta de Autismo do Hospital Pediátrico de Coimbra. As amostras de discurso recolhidas foram anotadas e processadas com o mesmo sistema de análise gramatical. Ambos os resultados foram alvo de tratamento estatístico e relacionados com a faixa etária, grau de autismo e nível cognitivo. Resultados e Conclusões: Ausência de ecolália e idiossincrasias regulares na maioria das crianças. Identificaram-se como classes morfológicas mais frequentes os nomes e verbos, seguidos de determinantes, preposições e advérbios. Apesar do reduzido uso de pronomes pessoais, foi possível verificar que o mais usado é o “eu”. No que respeita aos verbos, o tempo verbal mais utilizado é o Presente, seguido da forma não conjugada (Infinitivo), com uso reduzido das formas verbais no tempo Passado. As estruturas sintácticas são maioritariamente curtas e simples. O efeito do grau de autismo, mais evidente do que o da faixa etária, traduz-se em alterações mais graves de linguagem nos graus mais severos de autismo. A capacidade cognitiva das crianças apresenta também alguma influência nos seus desempenhos linguísticos. ABSTRACT: Objectives: This study aims to characterize the language of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), regarding its morphology and syntax and comparing the results with age, degree of autism and cognitive level. Methods: In the first part, the speech of four children with ASD was recorded, annotated and processed with an automatic system of grammatical analysis in which the resulting data was subject of statistical treatment. In the second part 45 children were selected from the database of Autism Consultation in Hospital Pediátrico de Coimbra. The speech samples collected were annotated and processed with the same system of grammatical analysis. Both results were subject of statistical treatment and related to age, degree of autism and cognitive level. Results and Conclusions: Absence of regular echolalia and idiosyncrasies in most children. The most frequent morphological classes are names and verbs, followed by determinants, prepositions and adverbs. Despite the reduced use of personal pronouns, it was possible to verify that the most used is “I”. The most used tense is the Present, followed by the Infinite, with reduced use of the Past. Syntactic structures are mostly short and simple. The effect of the degree of autism, more evident than age effect, results in more severe changes of language on the more severe degrees of autism. The cognitive ability of children also presents some influence on their language performance

Saberes encruzilhados: (de)colonialidade, racismo epistêmico e ensino de filosofia

O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar o debate acerca da modernidade/ colonialidade e sua crítica ao racismo epistêmico. Na análise são discutidos desde a perspectiva teórica do pensamento decolonial, os efeitos, os rastros, as estruturas persistentes da colonialidade na formação docente brasileira, e de modo especial, nos currículos de filosofia. Trata-se, ademais, de problematizar o descompasso entre as tendências acadêmicas hegemônicas de perspectiva eurocentradas, que desconsideram as determinações geopolíticas na construção do conhecimento, e os saberes e experiências de populações africanas, afrodiaspóricas, indígenas e latino-americanas. O texto argumenta, por fim, que o projeto ancorado nos valores da modernidade/colonialidade europeia opera pela subalternização e silenciamento dos conhecimentos produzidos a partir de outras matrizes corpo-políticas, invalidando-as pela via do epistemicídio. Pensar o ensino de filosofia em bases decoloniais e antirracistas exige, portanto, que se questionem as premissas ‘norteadoras’ deste projeto étnico, sexual e racialmente excludente