Crime and punishment with habit formation

Moral concepts affect crime supply. This idea is modelled assuming that illegal activities is habit forming. We introduce habits in a intertemporal general equilibrium framework to illegal activities and compare its outcomes with a model without habit formation. The findings are that habit and crime presents a non linear relationship that hinges upon the level of capital and habit formation. It is possible to show that while the effect of habit on crime is negative for low levels o habit formation it becomes positive as habits goes up. Secondly habit reduces the marginal effect of illegal activities return on crime. Finally, the effect of habit on crime depends positively on the amount of capital. This could explain the relationship between size of cities and illegal activity.

Public investment in basic education and economic growth

The main objective of this paper was to visualize the relation between governmentspending on basic education and the human capital accumulation process, observingthe impacts of this spending on individual investments in higher education, and oneconomic growth. It is used an overlapping-generations model where the governmenttax the adult generation and spent it in basic education of the next generations. Itwas demonstrated that the magnitude of the marginal effect of government spendingin basic education on growth crucially depends on public budget constrains. The paperexplains why some countries with a lot of public investment in basic education growthat low rates. In that sense if a country has only a lot of public investment in basiceducation without investment in higher education it may growth at low rates becausethe taxation can cause distortions in the agents incentives to invest in higher education.

On the purchasing power parity for latin-american countries

The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis of long-run purchasingpower parity (PPP) for all Latin American countries. These countries sharesimilar economic history and contagious effects from currency crises, whichmight lead to comovements in their real exchange rates. New time series unitroot tests found evidence of PPP for the vast majority of countries. In thepanel data framework, tests for the null of unit root, null of stationarity, andunit root under multiple structural breaks indicated stationary real exchangerates. Thus, there is convincing evidence that PPP holds for Latin-Americancountries in the post-1980 period.

Sex differences and correlates of poor glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study in Brazil and Venezuela.

OBJECTIVE: Examine whether glycaemic control varies according to sex and whether the latter plays a role in modifying factors associated with inadequate glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Brazil and Venezuela. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a cross-sectional, nationwide survey conducted in Brazil and Venezuela from February 2006 to June 2007 to obtain information about glycaemic control and its determinants in patients with diabetes mellitus attending outpatient clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was measured by liquid chromatography, and patients with HbA1c ≥7.0% (53 mmol/mol) were considered to have inadequate glycaemic control. The association of selected variables with glycaemic control was analysed by multivariate linear regression, using HbA1c as the dependent variable. RESULTS: A total of 9418 patients with T2D were enrolled in Brazil (n=5692) and in Venezuela (n=3726). They included 6214 (66%) women and 3204 (34%) men. On average, HbA1c levels in women were 0.13 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24; p=0.015) higher than in men, after adjusting for age, marital status, education, race, country, body mass index, duration of disease, complications, type of healthcare, adherence to diet, adherence to treatment and previous measurement of HbA1c. Sex modified the effect of some factors associated with glycaemic control in patients with T2D in our study, but had no noteworthy effect in others. CONCLUSIONS: Women with T2D had worse glycaemic control than men. Possible causes for poorer glycaemic control in women compared with men include differences in glucose homeostasis, treatment response and psychological factors. In addition, sex modified factors associated with glycaemic control, suggesting the need to develop specific treatment guidelines for men and women

Avaliação por fMRI do córtex visual, motor e auditivo através de estimulação sensoriomotora e sonora em desportistas invisuais e desportistas sem deficiência visual

Mestrado em Radiações Aplicadas às Tecnologias da Saúde - Ramo de especialização: Imagem por Ressonância MagnéticaA Ressonância Magnética funcional (fMRI) é hoje uma ferramenta fundamental na investigação funcional do cérebro humano quer em indivíduos saudáveis quer em doentes com as mais diversas patologias. É um método de diagnóstico complexo que necessita de uma aplicação cuidada e rigorosa e uma compreensão dos mecanismos biofísicos a ele subjacentes, de modo a serem obtidos resultados fiáveis e com melhor aceitação clínica. O efeito dependente do nível de oxigenação do sangue (BOLD) é o método mais utilizado para medir e estudar a actividade cerebral e baseia-se nas alterações das propriedades magnéticas da molécula de hemoglobina do sangue. Esta investigação tem por objectivo principal verificar as diferentes respostas cerebrais, nas áreas da visão, audição e motora, em atletas de judo deficientes visuais e a sua comparação com judocas normovisuais As imagens foram adquiridas com recurso fMRI, realizada com o efeito BOLD, com diferentes paradigmas: sonoro, motor e sensório-motor. Foram estudados 12 atletas de judo, 6 com deficiência visual e 6 normovisuais. As imagens foram processadas com o auxílio do software FSL e mais propriamente com as seguintes ferramentas: MELODIC e FEAT (http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/). Foi observada a activação do córtex visual em ambos os grupos de voluntários (atletas de judo deficientes visuais e normovisuais) quando receberam um estímulo verbal associado a uma acção motora. O que leva a concluir que a perda de visão não leva à permanente inactivação do córtex visual. A cegueira leva, assim, à adaptação do córtex visual para a análise de informações de outros órgãos dos sentidos, em particular auditivas e tácteis (plasticidade cerebral). Esta investigação contribui, assim, para: o conhecimento e desenvolvimento de estudos na área da ressonância magnética funcional vocacionados para o apoio à prática desportiva de atletas com deficiência visual; orientar os clínicos nas decisões terapêuticas em casos de doenças indutivas de deficiência visual e; melhorar as metodologias de treino e a eficiência na comunicação entre os treinadores e os atletas com este handicap.ABSTRACT - Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is today an essential tool in human brain functional research, allowing us to study the brain of healthy individuals and patients. It is a complex technique that requires a careful and rigorous application and a knowledge of the biophysical mechanisms related to it, so that more reliable results are obtained as well as clinical acceptance. The Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) is the most used method to measure and to study brain activity via MRI and is based on changes in the magnetic properties of the hemoglobin molecule. The main aim of this project is to verify the different brain responses in vision, hearing and motor areas in blind judo athletes and compare them with sighted judo athletes. Images were acquired using fMRI, performed with the BOLD effect, in different paradigms: motor execution, motor imagery and sensory touch. We studied 12 judo athletes, 6 visually impaired and 6 sighted. The images were processed with aid of the FSL software and more specifically with the following tools: MELODIC and FEAT (http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/). In both groups of volunteers (sighted and blind athletes) the visual cortex was observed when they received a verbal stimulus associated with a motor action. This takes to the conclusion that vision loss does not lead to permanent inactivation of the visual cortex. Blindness leads to an adaptation of the visual cortex for analyzing information from other sense organs, particularly auditory and tactile (brain plasticity). Thus, this research contributes to: understanding and development of studies in functional MRI geared to support the sport for athletes with a visual impairment; guide clinical treatment decisions in cases of inductive diseases and visual impairment, and; improve training methodologies and effective communication between coaches and athletes with this handicap

A transição do hospital-casa para os pais do recém-nascido prematuro e o papel da parceria hospital-família-equipa de intervenção precoce

Conhecer as necessidades, a rede de apoio e o nível de stress dos pais de bebés prematuros é uma condição essencial para o desenvolvimento de práticas profissionais de qualidade no âmbito da intervenção precoce. Os programas de Intervenção Precoce centrados na família do recém-nascido prematuro, em que são delineados objetivos concretos orientados pelas necessidades evidenciadas pelas famílias, aumentam a possibilidade de melhorar os prognósticos de desenvolvimento destes bebés. Uma preparação efetiva da alta hospitalar deve pressupor objetivos concretos, nomeadamente o incremento das competências parentais e sentimentos de confiança que levem a uma diminuição do stress sentido neste momento de transição para casa. Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo determinar aquelas que são as principais perceções de uma amostra de pais de bebés prematuros (n=104) relativamente aos apoios recebidos e quais as necessidades, redes de apoio e stress, presentes no momento de transição do hospital para casa e ficar a conhecer as perceções dos profissionais (n=9) das Equipas Locais de Intervenção Precoce (ELI) relativamente ao papel da Intervenção Precoce no momento da transição para casa. Os resultados mostram que existem várias questões que não são discutidas com os pais no momento da preparação da alta, que os avós são a maior rede apoio informal e que as dificuldades em conciliar a vida pessoal com a profissional são as que os pais consideram mais stressantes. Em relação às ELI, os dados mostram que a articulação com as equipas do hospital não existe ou é muito rara. As ELI consideram pertinente e exequível a existência dessa articulaçã

Trato Fair: experience in design and solidarity economy

The Trato Fair was a classroom experience aimed at introducing solidarity economy and participative methodological approaches in design projects. As a theoretical basis, we worked with Vianna et al (2012), Centro Brasil Design (2014), Criando (2014) and Ribeiro e Santos (2017), as well as Business Model Generation, Project Model Canvas, Value Proposition Design, 4D Fluxonomy and Contact Points. The Fair took place at the Escola de Belas Artes da Universidade Federal da Bahia, on January 26 and 27, 2018. As a subject, the discipline allowed the application of approaches and methodologies such as design thinking and also an immersion in solidarity economy, together with the contact with different ways of thinking economy. This experience has allowed students and teachers a vision that overcomes the belief of inevitable limitations and scarcity of resources by creating a sense of collectivity and autonomy guided by a common goal.13º Congresso Brasileiro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Design, Univille, Joinville (SC)A Feira Trato foi uma experiência de sala de aula com objetivo de introduzir a economia solidária e abordagens metodológicas participativas em projetos de design. Como base teórica trabalhou-se com Vianna et al (2012), Centro Brasil Design (2014), Criando (2014) e Ribeiro e Santos (2017), além das ferramentas Business Model Generation, Project Model Canvas, Value Proposition Design, Fluxonomia 4D e Pontos de Contato. A Feira ocorreu na Escola de Belas Artes da Universidade Federal da Bahia, nos dias 26 e 27 de janeiro de 2018. Como aprendizado, a disciplina permitiu a aplicação de abordagens e metodologias como design thinking e também uma imersão em economia solidária, juntamente com o contato com diferentes formas de se pensar economia. Esta experiência possibilitou aos estudantes e professores uma visão que supera a crença de inevitáveis limitações e escassez de recursos criando um senso de coletividade e autonomia guiado por um objetivo comum

Annealed Ising model on hierarchical structures: a transfer matrix approach.

Spin systems in the presence of disorder are described by two sets of degrees of freedom, associated with orientational (spin) and disorder variables, which may be characterized by two distinct relaxation times. Disordered spin models have been mostly investigated in the quenched regime, which is the usual situation in solid state physics, and in which the relaxation time of the disorder variables is much larger than the typical measurement times. In this quenched regime, disorder variables are fixed, and only the orientational variables are duly thermalized. Recent studies in the context of lattice statistical models for the phase diagrams of nematic liquid-crystalline systems have stimulated the interest of going beyond the quenched regime. The phase diagrams predicted by these calculations for a simple Maier-Saupe model turn out to be qualitative different from the quenched case if the two sets of degrees of freedom are allowed to reach thermal equilibrium during the experimental time, which is known as the fully annealed regime. In this work, we develop a transfer matrix formalism to investigate annealed disordered Ising models on two hierarchical structures, the diamond hierarchical lattice (DHL) and the Apollonian network (AN). The calculations follow the same steps used for the analysis of simple uniform systems, which amounts to deriving proper recurrence maps for the thermodynamic and magnetic variables in terms of the generations of the construction of the hierarchical structures. In this context, we may consider different kinds of disorder, and different types of ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic interactions. In the present work, we analyze the effects of dilution, which are produced by the removal of some magnetic ions. The system is treated in a “grand canonical" ensemble. The introduction of two extra fields, related to the concentration of two different types of particles, leads to higher-rank transfer matrices as compared with the formalism for the usual uniform models. Preliminary calculations on a DHL indicate that there is a phase transition for a wide range of dilution concentrations. Ising spin systems on the AN are known to be ferromagnetically ordered at all temperatures; in the presence of dilution, however, there are indications of a disordered (paramagnetic) phase at low concentrations of magnetic ions