Does a federal country need federal transfers when it has labor mobility?

JEL Classification: H77, R23, C33.The United States is recognized as a country where labor mobility between states is high. Usually, when some states experience periods of economic difficulties, people move to other states that offer better perspectives, which may alleviate depressions. In spite of this flexibility in the labor market, the Federal Budget still grants some significative amount of aid to the states. Does this help to do any good or is it even necessary when labor mobility is significative? In this paper, we assess the efficiency of having federal transfers to states when workers’ mobility is high. We use data for the 50 states of the USA and perform panel data analysis. We reach positive effects of federal transfers and migration in the relative performance of each state and also in the convergence of the states’ income to the union’s average. However, we note that the positive effect of migration is seen in lagged differences (short-run effect) and the federal transfers’ effect is seen in lagged levels (long-run effect). Moreover, quantitatively, the federal transfers have more effects than outmigration

Prediction of the mechanical behavior of the Oporto granite using data mining techniques

The determination of mechanical properties of granitic rocks has a great importance to solve many engineering problems. Tunnelling, mining and excavations are some examples of these problems. The purpose of this paper is to apply Data Mining (DM) techniques such as multiple regressions (MR), artificial neural networks (ANN) and support vector machines (SVM), to predict the uniaxial compressive strength and the deformation modulus of the Oporto granite. This rock is a light grey, two-mica, medium-grained, hypidiomorphic granite and is located in Oporto (Portugal) and surrounding areas. Begonha (1997) and Begonha et al. (2002) studied this granite in terms of chemical, mineralogical, physical and mechanical properties. Among other things, like the weathering features, those authors applied correlation analysis to investigate the relationships between two properties either physical or mechanical or physical and mechanical. This study took the data published by those authors to build a database containing 55 rock sample records. Each record contains the free porosity (N48), the dry bulk density (d), the ultrasonic velocity (v), the uniaxial compressive strength (σc) and the modulus of elasticity (E). It was concluded that all the models obtained from DM techniques have good performances. Nevertheless, the best forecasting capacity was obtained with the SVM model with N48 and v as input parameters.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Azorean savings banks and the 1929 economic crisis

What sets the Azorean banking system apart in the Portuguese context is the concentration of Caixas Económicas or Savings Banks accounting for half of these financial institutions in Portugal.These saving banks were promoted and had as shareholders mainly small and medium local traders and landlords with export businesses. These small institutions were the only bank network covering most of the islands and preceded the expansion of a national network of agencies created mostly after the Second World War. This paper examines the effects of the 1929 crisis on the Azorean banking system which was generalized, and had deep and lon lasting effects, using unpublished data from the archive of Banco de Portugal. It is a case of contagion, typical of a banking crisis, affecting the credibility and confidence of all institutions and leadind to an interruption of payments for a period of two years. Bankruptcies are limited to Caixa Bancária Raposo de Amaral and Caixa económica Socorros Mútuos but the reestructuring spreads over a ten yera period.The contraction of monetary circulation caused by the banking crisis and the monetary integration are also major factors contributing to the long and deep economic crisis tham spread from 1929 to 1945

Azorean savings banks and the 1929 economic crisis

What sets the Azorean banking system apart in the Portuguese context is the concentration of Caixas Económicas or Savings Banks accounting for half of these financial institutions in Portugal.These saving banks were promoted and had as shareholders mainly small and medium local traders and landlords with export businesses. These small institutions were the only bank network covering most of the islands and preceded the expansion of a national network of agencies created mostly after the Second World War. This paper examines the effects of the 1929 crisis on the Azorean banking system which was generalized, and had deep and lon lasting effects, using unpublished data from the archive of Banco de Portugal. It is a case of contagion, typical of a banking crisis, affecting the credibility and confidence of all institutions and leadind to an interruption of payments for a period of two years. Bankruptcies are limited to Caixa Bancária Raposo de Amaral and Caixa económica Socorros Mútuos but the reestructuring spreads over a ten yera period.The contraction of monetary circulation caused by the banking crisis and the monetary integration are also major factors contributing to the long and deep economic crisis tham spread from 1929 to 1945

PIC-Score: Probabilistic Interpretable Comparison Score for Optimal Matching Confidence in Single- and Multi-Biometric (Face) Recognition

In the context of biometrics, matching confidence refers to the confidence that a given matching decision is correct. Since many biometric systems operate in critical decision-making processes, such as in forensics investigations, accurately and reliably stating the matching confidence becomes of high importance. Previous works on biometric confidence estimation can well differentiate between high and low confidence, but lack interpretability. Therefore, they do not provide accurate probabilistic estimates of the correctness of a decision. In this work, we propose a probabilistic interpretable comparison (PIC) score that accurately reflects the probability that the score originates from samples of the same identity. We prove that the proposed approach provides optimal matching confidence. Contrary to other approaches, it can also optimally combine multiple samples in a joint PIC score which further increases the recognition and confidence estimation performance. In the experiments, the proposed PIC approach is compared against all biometric confidence estimation methods available on four publicly available databases and five state-of-the-art face recognition systems. The results demonstrate that PIC has a significantly more accurate probabilistic interpretation than similar approaches and is highly effective for multi-biometric recognition. The code is publicly-available

Portrait of Portugal’s nut III regions in productive location clusters

The purpose of this article is to piece together a picture of Portuguese regions at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, the authors tried to group NUT III regions according to the location of productive activities bearing in mind employment and other economic and social indicators, namely productivity and purchasing power, as well as competitiveness and environmental quality indicators. Using clusters, it was possible to obtain a map of Portugal containing 6 cluster typologies. Clearly, at one end of these typologies are the regions where tertiary activities are predominant and where there is more purchasing power, productivity and competitiveness, causing, however, more damages to the environment, whereas at the other end are the rural less competitive regions with a lower purchasing power but environmentally more attractive. In between, there are other situations which are also looked into. © 2015 The Journal of Economic Theory

What can genetics tell us about the history of a human-mediated introduction of the golden-striped salamander south of its native range?

The golden-striped salamander is a streamside species endemic to the northwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. In the first half of the twentieth century, an undisclosed number of individuals of this species were reportedly captured in Buçaco, Central Portugal, and deliberately introduced in Sintra Mountains, 170 km south of its native distribution range. The discovery of a breeding population of this salamander in Sintra during 2015 prompted this work: we used neutral genetic markers, the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b (cytb), and seven microsatellite loci to elucidate on the relict/human-introduced nature of Sintra population, identify the potential source population, and infer the severity of founder effect. Our results support a human-mediated introduction. First, sequencing analysis of cytb showed the presence of a unique haplotype (h31) in Sintra, which was detected only in Buçaco and in two additional populations located close to Mondego river. Second, microsatellite analysis showed that Sintra is more closely related to populations in between Douro and Mondego rivers (Central Portugal), instead of its geographically closest populations (southernmost), as would be expected if Sintra was a relict population isolated in an interglacial refuge. Third, Sintra presents both reduced levels of genetic variability and effective population size when compared to native populations, particularly to those of Central Portugal. Consistent with an isolated population funded by a small number of individuals (inferred herein to be ca. 10–11 salamanders), Sintra forms a geographically coherent genetic unit that is significantly differentiated from the extant native C. lusitanica populations. Although our data provide supporting evidence for Buçaco as a likely source population, as documented in the literature, overall, we cannot unequivocally exclude other populations close to Mondego river as a potential source of the introduced individuals in Sintra.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Endoscopic pilonidal sinus treatment versus total excision with primary closure for sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus disease in the pediatric population

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Endoscopic Pilonidal Sinus Treatment (EPSiT) in the pediatric population and compare it with excision followed by primary closure (EPC) regarding intra- and postoperative outcomes. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all patients with chronic sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus submitted to EPSiT and EPC during a 12-month period in our institution was performed. Data concerning patients' demographics and surgical outcomes were collected and compared between the two groups. Results: We analyzed a total of 21 cases that underwent EPSiT and 63 cases of EPC, both groups with similar demographic characteristics. Operative time was similar for both groups (30 vs. 38 min; p > 0.05). No major intraoperative complications were reported. Wound infection rate was lower for EPSiT ((5.2% [n = 1] vs. 20.0% [n = 12]); p > 0.05). Healing time was similar for both groups (28 vs. 37.5 days). Recurrence occurred in 18,9% (n = 15), with 2 cases (10.5%) reported in the EPSiT group versus 13 (21.6%) in EPC. There were no differences between groups regarding postoperative complications, complete wound healing and recurrence rates or healing time (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that EPSiT is as viable as excision followed by primary closure in the management of sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus in the pediatric population

Lecturing skills as predictors of tutoring skills in a problem-based medical curriculum

Purpose: Recruitment of tutors to work in problem-based learning (PBL) programs is challenging, especially in that most of them are graduated from discipline-based programs. Therefore, this study aims at examining whether lecturing skills of faculty could predict their PBL tutoring skills. Methods: This study included evaluation of faculty (n=69) who participated in both tutoring and lecturing within particular PBL units at the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (CMMS), Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. Each faculty was evaluated by medical students (n=45±8 for lecturing and 8±2 for PBL tutoring) using structured evaluation forms based on a Likert-type scale (poor to excellent). The prediction of tutoring skills using lecturing skills was statistically analyzed using stepwise linear regression. Results: Among the parameters used to judge lecturing skills, the most important predictor for tutoring skills was subject matter mastery in the lecture by explaining difficult concepts and responding effectively to students' questions. Subject matter mastery in the lecture positively predicted five tutoring skills and accounted for 25% of the variance in overall effectiveness of the PBL tutors (F=22.39, P=0.000). Other important predictors for tutoring skills were providing a relaxed class atmosphere and effective use of audiovisual aids in the lecture. Conclusion: Predicting the tutoring skills based on lecturing skills could have implications for recruiting tutors in PBL medical programs and for tutor training initiatives

Towards a natural classification : the taxonomy and evolution of Xanthorrhoea

The ability to increase the filler content of paper without significantly sacrificing its mechanical strength is of high interest for papermakers. In this work, three samples of ground calcium carbonate (GCC), differing in size and in brightness, modified with silica via the sol-gel method, were used as fillers in papermaking. Handsheets were produced using a eucalyptus kraft pulp furnish and with a filler amount near 20%. It was found that not only were the strength properties of the handsheets produced with the modified GCCs always significantly better than those obtained with the unmodified GCCs (e.g., the tensile index exhibited improvements of 16 to 20%), but bulk also was increased (by 7 to 13%). Some decreases in the light scattering and opacity values were noted when using the modified GCC, but the brightness was roughly the same. The enhanced fiber-to-filler bonding may be attributed to the hydrogen bonding between the cellulosic fibers and the hydroxyl groups of the silica coating the calcium carbonate particles