Industrial Clustering and Sectoral Growth: a Network Dynamics Approach

Cluster analysis has been widely used in an Input-Output framework, with the main objective of uncover the structure of production, in order to better identify which sectors are strongly connected with each other and choose the key sectors of a national or regional economy. There are many empirical studies determining potential clusters from interindustry flows directly, or from their corresponding technical (demand) or market (supply) coefficients, most of them applying multivariate statistical techniques. In this paper we follow a different strategy. Since it is expected that strongly (interindustry) connected sectors share a similar growth and development path, we will try to uncover clusters from sectoral dynamics, by applying a stochastic geometry technique, based on the yearly distances of industry outputs. An application is made, comparing these growth based cluster templates with interindustry based ones, using Portuguese input-output data. Identifying regional clusters and its dynamics can be a useful extension of the methods proposed in this paper.

On the classification of stationary electro-vacuum black holes

We obtain a classification of stationary, $I^+$--regular, non-degenerate and analytic electro-vacuum space-times in terms of Weinstein solutions. In particular, for connected horizons, we prove uniqueness of the Kerr-Newman black holes

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PURCHASE OF YOGURTS AND DAIRY DESSERTS OF PRIVATE LABEL

Private labels play a key role in Marketing strategy and they have been studied by several researchers. In order to respond to adaptations to the market, private labels are fundamental to the retailers’ strategies. These brands overlap with those of the manufacturers, as they are vital to improving the value proposition in terms of price, image and quality. With this research, focused on the private labels and the category of yogurt and desserts, we try to understand the factors that influence the purchase of yogurts and desserts. The study uses the Focus Group technique for the collection and treatment of data analysis of content. It was concluded that the category of yogurt and dairy desserts is at a crossroads because there are antagonistic factors influencing the purchase and consumption. The category appears to be positively driven by the promotional pace and the greater capacity to assume as a substitute for milk at some moments of consumption. On the other hand, the category is also being pressured by unfavorable communicational and opinionated phenomena related to the drawbacks associated with milk consumption. The marks of reference seem to have reduced or stabilized the competitiveness of the private labels by the effect of the permanent promotional cycles

Socioeconomic Complexity and the Sociological Tradition: New Wine in Old Bottles

Complexity is a purposeful integrating framework for interdisciplinary dialogue, namely between sociologists and economists. After presenting some properties of complex (social) systems, we consider the crucial role of the economic complexity research agenda in challenging the mainstream economic paradigm. This endeavor, we suggest, can greatly benefit from a neglected but relevant aspect, the concern regarding social complexity implicit in the sociological tradition, particularly the emphasis given by Durkheim to the idea of interdependence, a keystone of complexity studies nowadays. As we underline, instead of assuming interdependence/complexity and autonomy/simplicity in a tradeoff relationship, the French sociologist takes interdependence and autonomy as fundamentally complementary and positively correlated characteristics of modern societies. This fact suggests the convenience to conceptualize complexity as a broad socioeconomic, and not just a strict economic, phenomenon. Such a purpose is certainly more damaged than benefited by the existence of the economics/sociology academic divide.Socioeconomic complexity; interdependence; autonomy; sociological tradition; Durkheim

External dependency, value added generation and structural change: an inter-industry approach

The external dependency of many industries and the corresponding low value added generated in production, combined with a relatively weak export potential, create high external deficits and growing debt to GDP ratios in several open economies. In this paper we propose an empirical method to assess the evolution of these vulnerabilities, based on a new treatment of interindustry production multipliers. The (gross)output growth potential given by the column sums of the Leontief inverse matrix (backward linkage indicators) results from three terms: interindustry consumptions, value added and imported inputs. After a convenient arrangement of these terms, the evolution of backward linkage indicators can be used to detect structural changes, particularly quantifying a (net) growth effect (more value-added generation) and an external dependency effect (more imported inputs), and to classify the productive sectors accordingly. An application to the Portuguese Economy is made, using input-output tables for the years 1980, 1995 and 2005. This method can also be useful as a simple, but suggestive, device to compare the evolution of two or more economies, along their development processes in time.

External dependency, value added generation and structural change: an interindustry approach

The external dependency of many industries and the corresponding low value added generated in production create high external deficits and growing debt to GDP ratios in several open economies. In this paper we propose an empirical method to assess the evolution of these vulnerabilities, based on a new treatment of interindustry production multipliers. The (gross) output growth potential given by the column sums of the Leontief inverse matrix (backward linkage indicators) results from three terms: interindustry consumptions, value added and imported inputs. After a convenient arrangement of these terms, the evolution of backward linkage indicators can be used to detect structural changes, particularly quantifying a (net) growth effect (more value-added generation) and an external dependency effect (more imported inputs), and to classify the productive sectors accordingly. An application to the Portuguese Economy is made, using input-output tables for the years 1980, 1995 and 2005. This method can also be useful as a simple, but suggestive, device to compare the evolution of two or more economies, along their development processes in time.input-output linkages; external dependency; structural change; Portugal

National industry cluster templates and the structure of industry output dynamics: a stochastic geometry approach

Cluster analysis has been widely used in an Input-Output framework, with the main objective of uncover the structure of production, in order to better identify which sectors are strongly connected with each other and choose the key sectors of a national or regional economy. There are many empirical studies determining potential clusters from interindustry flows directly, or from their corresponding technical (demand) or market (supply) coefficients, most of them applying multivariate statistical techniques. In this paper, after identifying clusters this way, and since it may be expected that strongly (interindustry) connected sectors share a similar growth and development path, the structure of sectoral dynamics is uncovered, by means of a stochastic geometry technique based on the correlations of industry outputs in a given period of time. An application is made, using Portuguese input-output data, and the results do not clearly support this expectation.Clusters, Input-output analysis, Industry output dynamics

Induced pluripotent stem cells, a giant leap for mankind therapeutic applications

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) technology has propelled the field of stem cells biology, providing new cells to explore the molecular mechanisms of pluripotency, cancer biology and aging. A major advantage of human iPSC, compared to the pluripotent embryonic stem cells, is that they can be generated from virtually any embryonic or adult somatic cell type without destruction of human blastocysts. In addition, iPSC can be generated from somatic cells harvested from normal individuals or patients, and used as a cellular tool to unravel mechanisms of human development and to model diseases in a manner not possible before. Besides these fundamental aspects of human biology and physiology that are revealed using iPSC or iPSC-derived cells, these cells hold an immense potential for cell-based therapies, and for the discovery of new or personalized pharmacological treatments for many disorders. Here, we review some of the current challenges and concerns about iPSC technology. We introduce the potential held by iPSC for research and development of novel health-related applications. We briefly present the efforts made by the scientific and clinical communities to create the necessary guidelines and regulations to achieve the highest quality standards in the procedures for iPSC generation, characterization and long-term preservation. Finally, we present some of the audacious and pioneer clinical trials in progress with iPSC-derived cells.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Beliefs, values and attitudes of Portuguese population and their relationship with human and social capital

Studying economic values and beliefs and their relationship with attitudes and behavior has been common in most social sciences throughout the world, at least since the 1960s. However, Portugal remained very much outside this research program and, contrary to the majority of European countries or the United States, it still lacks a coherent an integrative research on economic values, beliefs and behaviors. On the other hand, the existing data (European and World Value Surveys, Eurobarometer or the Portuguese Statistics Institute) only offers a partial view of the individual’s relationship with the economic system, namely consumer confidence or general ideas of trust. The studies already developed on this subject are normally restricted to the association of economic values and beliefs with socio-demographic characteristics, failing to include both the analysis of behaviors and the impact all these variables may have on economic performance indicators. The current study is intended as a first step towards a deeper comprehension of these phenomena.

Realization of tangent perturbations in discrete and continuous time conservative systems

We prove that any perturbation of the symplectic part of the derivative of a Poisson diffeomorphism can be realized as the derivative of a $C^1$-close Poisson diffeomorphism. We also show that a similar property holds for the Poincar\'e map of a Hamiltonian on a Poisson manifold. These results are the conservative counterparts of the Franks lemma, a perturbation tool used in several contexts most notably in the theory of smooth dynamical systems.Comment: 18 pag