Internet sales as a new mode of internationalization

The way that organizations explore the Internet has been the focus of a substantial body of scientific studies and non-academic reflection. The main goal of this study is to analyze the potential of the internet as a mode of internationalization and the factors that influence the results of the adoption of this mean to access foreign markets. For this purpose, we examine the determinants of the level of international sales made via internet estimating an ordered probit model. The results show that the importance of previous experience in using the internet and developing international activity, together with the level of internet marketing budget , the level of investment on internet sophistication, the firm dimension, the business age and the type pf activity are variables that determine the results obtain in the international sales trough the internet.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Percepções de indivíduos portadores de diabetes mellitus sobre a doença.

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Departamento de Saúde Pública, Curso de Medicina, Florianópolis, 200

Quasi-Hadamard Full Propelinear Codes

In this paper, we give a characterization of quasi-Hadamard groups in terms of propelinear codes. We define a new class of codes that we call quasi-Hadamard full propelinear codes. Some structural properties of these codes are studied and examples are provided.Junta de Andalucía FQM-016Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-77918-

Wages and Job Satisfaction in Portugal

The interest in the analysis of job satisfaction has increased among economists. Indeed, reported levels of satisfaction have been seen as a good predictor of individual behaviour such as job turnover, productivity and absenteeism. Because of this, several studies have tried to identify the determinants of job satisfaction. This paper is concerned with job satisfaction in Portugal. For this purpose, we use the first six waves of the European Household Panel Data (ECHP). The panel nature of the data allows us to use a random effects estimator in order to control for unobservable individual heterogeneity. The results indicate that wages matter for job satisfaction but do not tell the whole story. In particular, having a good health status, a permanent contract and working the public sector influences positively the level satisfaction. We also find a great heterogeneity in satisfaction by regions, even in a small country as Portugal. These findings are valid for overall job satisfaction as well as for satisfaction with specific job domains such as pay, security, type of work and hours worked. Key words: job satisfaction, wages, regions, unobserved heterogeneity JEL Code: J28

A fine grained heuristic to capture web navigation patterns

In previous work we have proposed a statistical model to capture the user behaviour when browsing the web. The user navigation information obtained from web logs is modelled as a hypertext probabilistic grammar (HPG) which is within the class of regular probabilistic grammars. The set of highest probability strings generated by the grammar corresponds to the user preferred navigation trails. We have previously conducted experiments with a Breadth-First Search algorithm (BFS) to perform the exhaustive computation of all the strings with probability above a specified cut-point, which we call the rules. Although the algorithm’s running time varies linearly with the number of grammar states, it has the drawbacks of returning a large number of rules when the cut-point is small and a small set of very short rules when the cut-point is high. In this work, we present a new heuristic that implements an iterative deepening search wherein the set of rules is incrementally augmented by first exploring trails with high probability. A stopping parameter is provided which measures the distance between the current rule-set and its corresponding maximal set obtained by the BFS algorithm. When the stopping parameter takes the value zero the heuristic corresponds to the BFS algorithm and as the parameter takes values closer to one the number of rules obtained decreases accordingly. Experiments were conducted with both real and synthetic data and the results show that for a given cut-point the number of rules induced increases smoothly with the decrease of the stopping criterion. Therefore, by setting the value of the stopping criterion the analyst can determine the number and quality of rules to be induced; the quality of a rule is measured by both its length and probability

Descripción de los hábitos de práctica física y uso de videojuegos, en escolares, en función de su nivel de autoeficacia motriz y en videojuegos

Máster en Innovación, Evaluación y Calidad en Educación Físic

A música demoníaca de Adrian Leverkühn como síntese da danação romântica da arte moderna

Die zentrale Idee dieses Artikels ist es, die fundamentale Rolle einiger Aspekte des romantischen Denkens aufzuzeigen, die im Verständnis der Beziehung zwischen Künstler und Gesellschaft von Thomas Mann in seinem Roman Doktor Faustus kritisch exponiert werden. In dieser Perspektive wird erörtert, dass eine deformierende negative Überspannung der romantischen Tradition – auf die Weise, wie sie im Roman und in der Entwicklung des Protagonisten, des Musikers Adrian Leverkühn vorgestellt wird -, als Gemeinsamkeit zwischen der Beurteilung der sozialen Rolle des Künstlers durch Mann, dem hermetischen Charakter der modernen Ästhetik und der existentiellen und künstlerischen Dekadenz des Romanprotagonisten, ein entscheidender Aspekt für das Verständnis der Problematisierung der Beziehung zwischen Kunst und Gesellschaft, wie sie hier präsentiert wird, ist. Die Struktur des Artikels stellt das Verständnis der Relevanz dieses romantischen Einflusses in den Kontexten moderner Kunst ausgehend von drei verschiedenen und komplementären Sichtweisen vor. Genauer gesagt: die ästhetischen und politischen Betrachtungen des Intellektuellen Thomas Mann; die Beziehungen zwischen der Romantik und der Dissolution des tonalen Systems in der modernen Musik und, schließlich, der sterile und stumme Intellektualismus der Kunst von Leverkühn. Die Idee dieser Aufteilung ist es demnach anhand der sozio-politischen Dimension der kritischen Reflexion (Selbstbetrachtung des Autors) und anhand der ästhetischen Dimension (die Transformationen innerhalb des tonalen Systems der klassischen Musik) die zwei fundamentalen Elemente zu betrachten, die den Roman strukturieren und so das kritische Vermögen der literarischen Elaboration solcher Fragen stärker zu beleuchten.The central idea of this article is to point at the fundamental role of some aspects of the romantic intellectual tradition for the understanding of the relation between the artist and society critically exposed by Thomas Mann in his novel Doktor Faustus. In this perspective, it is considered that an exacerbation deforming the romantic tradition is – in the ways this is suggested in the novel and in the trajectory of the protagonist, the musician Adrian Leverkühn – a common point between Mann's evaluation of the social role of the artist, the hermetic character of modern aesthetics and of an existential and artistic decadence of the novel's protagonist, a decisive aspect for the understanding of the problematic relation between art and society here presented. The structure of the article proposes the understanding of the relevance of this romantic influence in modern art from the viewpoint of three different and complementary angles, i.e. the aesthetic and political considerations of the intellectual Thomas Mann; the relations between romanticism and the dissolution of the tonal system in modern music and, finally, the sterile and mute intellectualism of Leverkühn's art. The idea of this division is hence the contemplation of two fundamental elements that structure the novel by passing through the socio-political dimension of critical reflection (self-analysis of the author) and the aesthetical dimension (the transformations within the tonal system of erudite music) and, from this perspective, the article seeks to elucidate the critical proposal of a literary elaboration of such questions.A idéia central deste artigo é apontar o papel fundamental de alguns aspectos do pensamento romântico na compreensão da relação entre artista e sociedade, exposta criticamente por Thomas Mann em seu romance Doktor Faustus. Nessa perspectiva, considerase que uma exacerbação deformadora da tradição romântica - nos moldes em que ela é sugerida no romance e na trajetória do protagonista, o músico Adrian Leverkühn – é, enquanto ponto em comum da avaliação de Mann sobre o papel social do artista, sobre o caráter hermético da estética moderna e a decadência existencial e artística do protagonista do romance, um aspect decisivo para entendimento da problematização da relação entre arte e sociedade ali apresentada. A estrutura do artigo propõe o entendimento da relevância desta influência romântica nos rumos da arte moderna a partir de três ângulos distintos e complementares. Nomeadamente: as considerações estéticas e políticas do intelectual Thomas Mann; as relações entre o Romantismo e a dissolução do sistema tonal na música moderna e, por fim, o intelectualismo estéril e mudo da arte de Leverkühn. A idéia desta divisão é, pois, passando pela dimensão sócio-política da reflexão crítica (auto-avaliação do autor) e pela dimensão estética (as transformações dentro do sistema tonal da música erudita), contemplar os dois elementos fundamentais que estruturam o romance e vislumbrar mais nitidamente a proposição crítica da elaboração literária de tais questões

The Role of government debt on economic growth

Mestrado em EconomiaIn our research, we study the effect of public debt on economic growth for annual and 5-year average growth rates, as well as the existence of non-linearity effects of debt on growth for 14 European countries since 1970 until 2012. We also consider debt-to-GDP ratio interactions with monetary, public finance, institutional and macroeconomic variables. We conclude that debt has a negative impact of -0.01% for each increment of 1% of public debt, although debt service has a 10 times worse effect on growth. We reach average thresholds for annual and 5-year average of 75% and 74%, respectively. Belonging to Eurozone has a detrimental effect of at least -0.5% for real per capita GDP, and banking crisis is the most harmful crisis for the growth phenomena

Industrial Design Course in a Low-density region

A look at the international reference courses in the field of industrial design seems to reveal a significant concentration in developed regions with a high industrial and solid creative development, most usually in large cities, invigorated by a thriving business and supported in a dynamic cultural scene. This starting point implies the question of whether this context is mandatory or decisive to the existence of healthy higher education in industrial design. This article seeks to present, explain and analyze an industrial design university program in a peripheral, non-industrial region, with a fragile economy and an aged population, trying to debate scientific, pedagogical and university extension features, namely community relations, course strategy, so this program can provide quality learning for future industrial designers in the global context. This paper aims to question, discuss and help answer these doubts, using as a case study the 1st and 2nd cycle courses in industrial design, promoted at the University of Beira Interior, located in Covilhã, in the inland of Portugal. The characteristics of these courses will be presented and discussed, seeking to demonstrate how a clear definition of a strategy has become essential for the success of design education in peripheral regions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio