Novas cartas portuguesas: uma abordagem feminista

Publicado em 1972 e imediatamente confiscado pela censura, Novas cartas portuguesas apresentam uma simultaneidade temporal com o surgimento de movimentos feministas alicerçados, em grande medida, nas questões do corpo e da escrita das mulheres. Exploram-se alguns aspectos do livro à luz dos feminismos de segunda vaga que enformaram os anos 60 e 70 do séc. XX, embora realçando o carácter actual e perforrnativo da escrita de Novas Cartas Portuguesas na construção de outros modelos não dicotómicos de abordagem das questões de gênero

The differential effects of switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives on customer loyalty

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação.There is an increasing recognition among marketing scholars and practitioners of the importance of the influence of switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives in the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. To date, however, there is a lack of research about the process through which these variables influence the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. This dissertation aims to evaluate the importance of switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives in explaining customer loyalty. Using a revised model of the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI), applied to the banking industry, this study intends to include switching costs as perceived by customers and the attractiveness of alternatives as independent antecedents of customer loyalty and as moderators of the impact of satisfaction on loyalty. Both direct and moderating effects of switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives are tested, using a methodology based on structural equation models. The main findings of this study indicate that both constructs influence loyalty directly and the strength of the satisfaction-loyalty relationship

The new economy: essays in network economics and two-sided markets

Following the Introduction, which surveys existing literature on the technology advances and regulation in telecommunications and on two-sided markets, we address specific issues on the industries of the New Economy, featured by the existence of network effects. We seek to explore how each one of these industries work, identify potential market failures and find new solutions at the economic regulation level promoting social welfare. In Chapter 1 we analyze a regulatory issue on access prices and investments in the telecommunications market. The existing literature on access prices and investment has pointed out that networks underinvest under a regime of mandatory access provision with a fixed access price per end-user. We propose a new access pricing rule, the indexation approach, i.e., the access price, per end-user, that network i pays to network j is function of the investment levels set by both networks. We show that the indexation can enhance economic efficiency beyond what is achieved with a fixed access price. In particular, access price indexation can simultaneously induce lower retail prices and higher investment and social welfare as compared to a fixed access pricing or a regulatory holidays regime. Furthermore, we provide sufficient conditions under which the indexation can implement the socially optimal investment or the Ramsey solution, which would be impossible to obtain under fixed access pricing. Our results contradict the notion that investment efficiency must be sacrificed for gains in pricing efficiency. In Chapter 2 we investigate the effect of regulations that limit advertising airtime on advertising quality and on social welfare. We show, first, that advertising time regulation may reduce the average quality of advertising broadcast on TV networks. Second, an advertising cap may reduce media platforms and firms' profits, while the net effect on viewers (subscribers) welfare is ambiguous because the ad quality reduction resulting from a regulatory cap o¤sets the subscribers direct gain from watching fewer ads. We find that if subscribers are sufficiently sensitive to ad quality, i.e., the ad quality reduction outweighs the direct effect of the cap, a cap may reduce social welfare. The welfare results suggest that a regulatory authority that is trying to increase welfare via regulation of the volume of advertising on TV might necessitate to also regulate advertising quality or, if regulating quality proves impractical, take the effect of advertising quality into consideration. 3 In Chapter 3 we investigate the rules that govern Electronic Payment Networks (EPNs). In EPNs the No-Surcharge Rule (NSR) requires that merchants charge at most the same amount for a payment card transaction as for cash. In this chapter, we analyze a three- party model (consumers, merchants, and a proprietary EPN) with endogenous transaction volumes and heterogenous merchants' transactional benefits of accepting cards to assess the welfare impacts of the NSR. We show that, if merchants are local monopolists and the network externalities from merchants to cardholders are sufficiently strong, with the exception of the EPN, all agents will be worse o¤ with the NSR, and therefore the NSR is socially undesirable. The positive role of the NSR in terms of improvement of retail price efficiency for cardholders is also highlighted

Literary tourism. Olhão through Joao Lucio's perspective

Este artigo aborda a relação entre turismo e literatura, sob o pressuposto de que a valorização turístico-literária de um destino pode contribuir para o reforço da sua identidade e geniusloci. Paralelamente, assenta no estudo da vida e obra do poeta algarvio João Lúcio e constitui-se como uma reflexão exploratória sobre a possibilidade de desenvolvimento do turismo literário em Olhão

Padrões de habilidade cognitiva no processo da decisão clínica de enfermagem

Dissertação de Doutoramento em Ciências de Enfermagem apresentada ao Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar da Universidade do Port

A Cidade como Agente (não) Cuidador - Apropriações do espaço público com perspetiva de género na Covilhã: Praça do Município

Partir da ideia de que a cidade oferece igualdade de direitos, oportunidades e segurança entre mulheres e homens é por si só uma falsa suposição. Examinando a formação das sociedades ocidentais é inegável a carência de um efetivo pensamento para todas as pessoas nas políticas públicas que resultam no desenho das cidades. Isto conduziu à projeção de ambientes hierarquizados impulsionados pela lógica patriarcal, uma problemática que se estendeu até à contemporaneidade. Durante séculos, o papel da mulher como agente participativo de quem vivencia os espaços públicos, não tem tido o devido reconhecimento. Por isto, a contribuição da perspetiva de género na arquitetura e no urbanismo é imprescindível na mudança deste paradigma de modo a recaraterizar e reorientar os espaços vivenciados de forma humana e anticapitalista. Entre os espaços urbanos, a praça pode-se considerar tradicionalmente como um coração das cidades. Deste modo, pretende-se analisar a ocupação na Praça do Município, na cidade da Covilhã, sob a perspetiva de género. Esta escolha passa pela sua caraterização espacial, considerando-se um núcleo rico em interações sociais que abrange uma multiplicidade de setores comerciais, infraestruturas, acessibilidades e edifícios que marcam a urbe. Com isto, pretende-se uma avaliação da sua ocupação e das dinâmicas socio-espaciais de modo a perceber como se pode integrar o conceito de espaços cuidadores neste local em particular. Partindo deste contexto, a presente dissertação apoia-se num enquadramento teórico e metodológico de estudos e propostas que se têm dedicado a pensar o urbanismo e na reavaliação dos espaços, integrando o conceito de cidades cuidadoras. Estas contribuições têm demonstrado que a valorização da perspetiva de género permite resolver problemas das experiências vivenciadas pelas mulheres e raparigas na cidade, considerando o seu contexto social, urbano e cultural.Starting from the idea that the city offers equal rights, opportunities and security for women and men is in itself a false assumption. Examining the formation of western societies, the lack of effective thinking for all people in public policies that result in the design of cities is undeniable. This led to the projection of hierarchical environments driven by patriarchal logic, a problem that has extended to contemporary times. For centuries, the role of women as a participatory agent of those who experience public spaces has not had due recognition. For this reason, the contribution of the gender perspective in architecture and urbanism is essential in changing this paradigm in order to recharacterize and reorient the spaces experienced in a humane and anti-capitalist way. Among the urban spaces, the square can be considered traditionally like a heart of the cities. In this way, we intend to analyze the occupation in Praça do Município, in the city of Covilhã, from a gender perspective. This choice is based on its spatial characterization, considering it a center rich in social interactions that covers a multiplicity of commercial sectors, infrastructures, accessibility and buildings that mark the city. With this, we intend to assess their occupation and socio-spatial dynamics in order to understand how the concept of care spaces can be integrated in this particular location. Starting from this context, this dissertation is supported by a theoretical and methodological framework of studies and proposals that have been dedicated to thinking about urbanism and the reevaluation of spaces, integrating the concept of caring cities. These contributions have demonstrated that the valorization of the gender perspective allows to solve problems of the experiences lived by women and girls in the city, considering their social, urban and cultural context

Crime de incêndio urbano: características do incendiário urbano na Região Autónoma da Madeira

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de licenciado em CriminologiaO presente estudo tem como objetivo geral, avaliar que características do incendiário, apresentadas nos estudos sobre esta temática, prevalecem no “perfil” do incendiário urbano na Região Autónoma da Madeira, no período de 2011 a 2015, com base nas classificações do perfil do incendiário, resultantes do método de investigação de Profiling Criminal. Neste contexto, destacamos a classificação do Perfil do Incendiário apresentada por Douglas e colaboradores, e a tipologia portuguesa do comportamento do incendiário florestal, do Instituto Superior da Polícia Judiciária e Ciências Criminais, que identificam as categorias do incendiário de acordo com o motivo pelo qual o crime foi cometido (e.g., vandalismo, excitação, vingança) e as respetivas características sociodemográficas (e.g., género, faixa etária, situação profissional) e comportamentais (e.g., fontes de ignição, altura do crime). Para esta investigação enunciaram- se cinco objetivos específicos: 1) identificar o número de ocorrências de incêndio urbano na RAM; 2) calcular o número de incêndios que ocorreram em edifícios e em viaturas; 3) identificar o número de suspeitos, arguidos e detidos na RAM no período de 2011 a 2015; 4) identificar as características sociodemográficas, comportamentais e motivacionais do incendiário urbano na RAM; e 5) discriminar as diferenças e semelhanças, das características apuradas do estudo do incendiário urbano da RAM, com as presentes nos estudos sobre esta temática. Para o efeito procedeu-se à análise do conteúdo dos inquéritos da Polícia Judiciária, no período de 2011 a 2015, referentes aos 55 sujeitos constituídos arguidos pelo crime de incêndio. Os dados apurados revelam que este crime é cometido principalmente por homens (91%), adultos entre os 31 e 60 anos (56%), solteiros (65%), desempregados (67%), com antecedentes criminais (55%), sem prevalência de comportamentos aditivos no momento do crime (75%), sendo o principal motivo a vingança (81%).Estes resultados apontam para algumas discrepâncias relativamente às classificações acima referenciadas.This study has the general objective to assess that incendiary characteristics presented in the studies on this subject, prevail in the "profile" of urban incendiary in Madeira, in the period from 2011 to 2015, based on the profile rankings incendiary, resulting from the Criminal Profiling research method. In this context, we highlight the classification of Incendiary Profile by Douglas and employees, and the Portuguese type of forest incendiary behavior, the Higher Institute of the Judiciary and Criminal Science Police, which identify the arsonist of categories according to the reason the crime was committed (eg, vandalism, excitement, revenge) and the respective socio-demographic characteristics (eg, gender, age, employment status) and behavioral (eg, sources of ignition, crime height). For this investigation enunciated are five specific objectives: 1) to identify the number of urban fire occurrences in RAM; 2) calculate the number of fires that occurred in buildings and vehicles; 3) identify the number of suspects, accused and held in RAM in 2011-2015 period; 4) identify the sociodemographic, behavioral and motivational characteristics of urban incendiary in RAM; and 5) determine the differences and similarities of the characteristics determined in the study of urban incendiary RAM, with those present in the studies on this subject. For this purpose we proceeded to the analysis of the content of the surveys of the Judicial Police in the period 2011 to 2015, relating to 55 subjects made defendants by fire crime. The data collected show that this crime is mostly committed by men (91%), adults between 31 and 60 years (56%), single (65%), unemployed (67%), criminal records (55%), without prevalence of addictive behavior at the time of the crime (75%), and the main reason revenge (81%). These results suggest some discrepancies regarding the above referenced ratings

Acinetobacter baumannii : fatores de risco para infeções associadas a cuidados de saúde

Tese de mestrado, Farmácia Hospitalar, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia, 2012Objetivo: Identificar e caraterizar os fatores de risco para a infeção associada a cuidados de saúde por A. baumannii. Métodos: Estudo de cohort retrospetivo em doentes internados num hospital. Foram incluídos 127 doentes identificados a partir da base de dados de microbiologia do Serviço de Patologia Clínica. Todos os doentes com pelo menos um isolamento de A. baumannii durante o período do estudo foram selecionados. Foram recolhidas as seguintes variáveis: idade, sexo, padrão de suscetibilidade dos isolados, serviço de internamento, produto biológico de isolamento, internamento prévio, utilização prévia de antibióticos, residência em lar, dias de internamento até ao isolamento de A. baumannii, isolados polimicrobianos, procedimentos invasivos e comorbilidades do doente. A informação obtida foi introduzida, organizada e analisada através do software SPSS (v19). Como medidas de associação recorreu-se a testes não paramétricos. O nível de significância foi de α≤ 0,05 e IC 95%. Resultados: Dos 127 doentes, em 94,5% ocorreu Infeção Associada a Cuidados de Saúde (IACS) por A. baumannii e em 5,5% infeção da comunidade. A ocorrência de IACS por A. baumannii foi relacionada com todas as variáveis de interesse. A cateterização urinária demonstrou ser o único fator de risco para a ocorrência de IACS por A. baumannii (p=0,035). Conclusões: A. baumannii provoca fundamentalmente IACS em doentes idosos e do sexo masculino. Apresenta elevados padrões de resistência a todos antibióticos. Apenas a cateterização urinária demonstrou influenciar significativamente as IACS por A. baumannii. Nenhuma das comorbilidades influenciou significativamente as IACS por A. baumannii.Objective: Identify and characterize the risk factors related to healthcare associated infections (HCAI) by Acinetobacter baumannii. Methods: Retrospective cohort study in patients admitted to a hospital. We included 127 patients who were identified from the database of the Microbiology Department of Clinical Pathology Service. All patients with at least one isolate of A. baumannii during the study period were selected. The following variables were collected: age, sex, susceptibility pattern of isolates, hospital service, source of the A. baumannii isolates, previous hospitalization, prior antibiotics use, nursing homes residence, length of stay, polymicrobial isolation, invasive procedures and co-morbidities. The information obtained was introduced, organized and analyzed using SPSS software (v19). We applied parametric and nonparametric tests. The significance level was p ≤ 0.05 and 95%. Results: Of the 127 patients, 94.5% have HCAI by A. baumannii and 5.5% have infection of the community. The occurrence of HCAI by A. baumannii was tested by bivariate analysis with all other variables. The urinary catheterization demonstrated to be the only risk factor for the occurrence of HCAI by A. baumannii (p=0,035). Conclusions: HCAI by A. baumannii occurs mainly in elderly and male patients. A. baumannii presents high standards of resistance to all antibiotics. Just urinary catheterization demonstrated significantly influence HCAI by A. baumannii. None of co morbidities significantly affected HCAI by A. baumannii

Kinetics and Energetics of Fundamental Events in Peptide and Protein (Un)Folding

Tese de doutoramento em Química, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de CoimbraOne of the major challenges in the field of biophysical chemistry is the study of the mechanisms of protein folding, i.e., how an unstructured polypeptide chain can rapidly adopt an unique, densely packed, three-dimensional structure. Modifications in the folding kinetics and transitions to “misfolded” states are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of many diseases commonly known as conformational disorders, including cystic fibrosis, type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The global folding of proteins typically occurs in the millisecond to second time scale, but the underlying fundamental molecular events such as beta-hairpin or alpha-helix folding occur in the microsecond or faster time scale. The methods generally employed for studying folding or unfolding kinetics are typically limited to the time range of milliseconds or slower because the process usually involves mixing buffers in stopped-flow apparatus. A new generation of kinetic experiments has emerged to investigate the mechanisms of protein folding on the previously inaccessible sub-millisecond time scale. As a result, the earliest conformational events related to folding, occurring within microseconds or less may now be measured experimentally and interpreted. Laser-triggered fast initiation of the folding/unfolding reaction coupled with fast detection techniques provides the tools to probe these events in detail.As the native conformations of peptides and proteins are normally sensitive to pH, conformational changes can be initiated by a pH change. Here, we propose to use a laser-triggered pH change, which provides an interesting way to probe the early events in protein folding/unfolding. With this technique, the pH jump occurs in few a nanoseconds and lasts for several milliseconds. This fast proton gradient protonates/deprotonates ionizable residues of a protein or peptide producing different charged species, and consequently conformational changes. Photothermal methods, like time-resolved photoacoustic calorimetry (TR-PAC) have the ability to measure accurately enthalpy and molar volume changes for reactions occurring with lifetimes in the nanoseconds to tens of microsecond time range. TR-PAC is likely the technique of choice to study fast events in protein folding when a spectroscopic technique is not applicable either because the intermediates are “dark” or too short lived. In this work, we propose to use a pH-jump methodology to trigger the folding/unfolding events, coupled with TR-PAC to monitor the energetics and kinetics of pH-dependent folding/unfolding of peptides and proteins.Throughout this thesis, simple molecules such as amino acid models, an alpha-helical peptide and proteins were subjects of study to investigate protein folding, using a combination of pH-jump and TR-PAC detection, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Complementary equilibrium structural information was obtained by methodologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and circular dichroism (CD). In the first stage, the association of pH-jump and TR-PAC detection was used to investigate the protonation of amino acids models, which corresponds to the earliest step in protein or peptide pH-induced folding/unfolding events. On a second stage, a small peptide similar to the C-Peptide of RNase A, forming a stable alpha-helix in aqueous solution, was selected as a model system to explore the energetics and dynamics of alpha-helix formation. The C-Peptide analogue investigated was RN80 synthesized with specific side-chain interactions, namely a salt-bridge and a pi-stacking interaction that contributes to the alpha-helix stability. Finally, we propose the application of these methods to the study of proteins, searching for intermediate states during their folding/unfolding processes, such as molten globule states. As a protein system model, bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been selected because it undergoes partial unfolding transitions under acid conditions.In a parallel effort, the influence of refolding kinetics on amyloid formation by transthyretin (TTR) variants was studied. TTR is a homotetramer and one of the many proteins known to be involved in human amyloid diseases. Numerous studies showed that dissociation of the native tetrameric structure into partially unfolded monomeric species precedes amyloid formation. Since the small structural differences observed in the crystal structures of TTR variants do not seem to justify their varying amyloidogenic potential, a significant effort has been devoted to search for thermodynamic and kinetic factors that may play a critical role on TTR stability, in order to fully understand the molecular mechanism of amyloid formation by TTR. Here, we have performed refolding kinetics assays, using intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, with WT-TTR and its most common amyloidogenic variant V30M-TTR, to investigate the potential role of refolding kinetics on amyloid formation by TTR

A população e mercado turísticos no Algarve : estratégias de negócios para a dessazonalização

Mestrado em Gestãoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio