The Impact of an Old Fleet on the Demand for Air Transportation: The Case of VASP Brazilian Airlines

In 05/25/1982, the VASP aircraft broke in two after a hard landing killing 2 people. The pilot's misuse of rain repellant, caused an optical illusion leading to the hard landing. Since that day, VASP started to have constant problems. A brief history about VASP is discussed. After so many problems, VASP lost its market share and became the 4th airline of Brazil, VASP used to be second place. With financial problems, VASP could not buy new airplanes and its fleet was from the 70-80s. This paper aims to study if an old fleet could affect the demand for air transportation.Air Transportation, Airline, Demand, VASP, GOL, Brazil

Julião Sarmento’s Moving Images: Vision’s Perversity For The Maintenance of Desire

This article analyses an audiovisual essay created around the exhibition Julião Sarmento. Film Works, that took place in Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Porto in 2019. This exhibition reunited 10 works in film and video produced by the Portuguese artist in different moments of his career. Following the audiovisual essay’s structure, I will approach three thematic obsessions transversal to Julião Sarmento’s work, as a reflexive proposal about a gaze phenomenology (or a vision’s perversity), regarding dispositives that involve the moving image. Particularly, in what concerns the problematic of desire. These are: (1) The constant work of language (the real, the symbolic and the imaginary); (2) The fragmented body (the conscience/disassembling of voyeurism); (3) The rhythm (exposing the matter of time in favor of a deceptive aesthetics)

Local Development Initiatives: the case of São Paulo and ABCD Municipalities

MARQUES, B.P. (2008) “Local Development Initiatives: the case of São Paulo and ABCD Municipalities”, in Actas do 14.º Congresso da APDR, Tomar, pp. 253-279, ISBN 978-972-98803-9-1.It was only in 1930’s and, especially, in the 50’s, that São Paulo (and its Metropolitan Region) became the main industrial hub of Brazil. It was the “Plano de Metas” of President Juscelino Kubitschek that led to the introduction of mass manufacturing industries, with emphasis on the automobile industry, located in the southeast industrial periphery of São Paulo known as ABCD and corresponding to the municipalities of Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul, Diadema, Mauá, Ribeirão Pires and Rio Grande da Serra. São Paulo is the biggest city in Latin America and a “Global City”, nevertheless, it is also the “Metrópole das Desigualdades”, with a chaotic process of urbanization, a largely dilapidated housing and with high levels of poverty and social exclusion. With the oil crises, which occurred in the 70’s, the ABCD starts a process of productive restructuring that has led to some industries leaving the area. However, we believe that the conditions are met for the promotion of territorial development strategies based on local and endogenous factors, throughout measures where the local/regional political power interacts and establishes partnerships with other territorial actors: government, companies, financial institutions, business associations, cooperatives, non-governmental organizations and civic movements

From Strategic Planning to Development Initiatives: a first reflection on the situation of Lisbon and Barcelona

MARQUES, B.P. (2014) From Strategic Planning to Development Initiatives: a first reflection on the situation of Lisbon and Barcelona, in 20th APDR Congress Proceddings, APDR and UÉvora, Évora, pp. 850-857, ISBN 978-989-8780-01-0.Our object of study is a comparative analysis of local development processes on a metropolitan scale and our research focus are “city- regions” (cf. Scott, 1998; cf. Scott et al., 2002), understood as those metropolitan areas whose administrative and institutional boundaries do not always match with their political and economic identity and which are inserted in global processes of social and economic transformation. The main objectives of this work are the following: - Analyze and understand the competitive advantages that local and metropolitan political powers have in relation to Central State in creating favorable conditions for improving enterprises’ productivity and competitiveness; - Analyze new forms of democratic political participation, especially concerning territorial governance, in a global perspective of convergence between State and citizens interests; - Compare two different models of metropolitan organization and discuss its application to the Portuguese reality and, specifically, in Lisbon; - Reflect on the role of public policies and territorial strategic planning as support instruments for regional or local political powers, capable of promoting development in different metropolitan contexts; -Summarize the previously mentioned objectives throughout a comparative analysis between Lisbon and Barcelona metropolitan areas. Traditional planning processes, based on a normative spatial planning, continue to dominate the theories and practices of planning and promoting cities. Furthermore, even in territorial strategic planning, the emphasis is often placed in the realization of major cultural and sports events and the urban renewal of certain parts of cities. In this sense, the perspective that we want to carry out in this work will be more based on the promotion of local economic growth and will focus more on the analysis of strategic planning processes leading to local development initiatives in the fields of education, vocational training and entrepreneurship support, as opposed to a more “traditionalist” analysis of urban renewal and rehabilitation processes, in the perspective of what Peter Karl Kresel called “economic strategic planning” (cf. Kresel, 2007). Indeed, some theoretical approaches to regional and local development favor actions where municipalities interact and form alliances with other territorial actors (cf. Borja and Castells, 1997). Therefore, local political powers have gained considerable “leadership” in terms of economic growth and some authors talk about a “new type” of territorial management, designated by Ascher as “urban entrepreneurship”, by Harvey as “public urban management”, by Le Galès as “urban governing” or “local mercantilism” by Fainstein (cf. Salvador, 2006)

Por que reformar? Causas e consequências da regulação do autofinanciamento eleitoral no Brasil

Introduction: In this paper, I discuss the causes of the electoral financing reform in Brazil, carried out in 2019, which restricted the limits of candidates' self-financing, as well as its consequences in the 2020 municipal elections. Methodology: I use mixed methods, starting from analysis of the evolution of legislative changes related to the financing of elections in Brazil (from redemocratization to 2019). I use documents sources, parliamentary speeches in the Chamber of Deputies in times of reforms, roll-call voting data in the Chamber of Deputies and information on electoral funding of candidates in the 2016 and 2020 municipal elections. Consideration of the causes of change: H1 test, documents are used; in H2, parliamentary speeches and roll-call votes are considered (binary logistic regression analysis). Consideration of the consequences of change: both in testing H3 and H4, quantitative methods are used (linear regression, 2SLS and logistic regression). Results: of the four initially postulated hypotheses: (H1) the regulation of self-financing in Brazil is related to electoral results after the ban on business donations. (H2) The vote to tighten the limits on self-financing, through Law No. 13,878/2019, was mediated by the level of self-financing of federal deputies. (H3) The limitation of self-financing had a positive impact on electoral competition. Moreover, (H4) self-financing has become a less important resource for incumbents in 2020, when compared to 2016. Only H2 is not empirically confirmed. Discussion: The results denote, first, that the limitation of self-financing was a reaction to the increase of this type of resource in electoral competition; and that this change had a significant effect on increasing electoral competition.Introdução: o artigo discute as causas da reforma de financiamento eleitoral no Brasil, realizada em 2019, que restringiu os limites do autofinanciamento de candidatos, bem como suas consequências nas eleições municipais de 2020. Metodologia: o artigo utiliza uma mescla de métodos, partindo da análise da evolução das mudanças legislativas referentes ao financiamento de eleições no Brasil (da redemocratização até 2019), através de fontes documentais, discursos parlamentares na Câmara dos Deputados em momentos de reformas, dados de votação na Câmara dos Deputados e informações sobre prestações de contas de candidatos e eleitos nos pleitos municipais de 2016 e 2020. Consideração das causas da mudança: teste da H1 são utilizadas fontes documentais; na H2 considera-se discursos parlamentares e votos (análise de regressão logística binária). Consideração das consequências da mudança: tanto no teste da H3 quanto H3 são utilizados métodos quantitativos (regressão linear, 2SLS e regressão logística). Resultados: das quatro hipóteses postuladas inicialmente: (H1) a regulação do autofinanciamento no Brasil possui relação com os resultados eleitorais após a proibição de doações empresariais; (H2) a votação pelo recrudescimento dos limites ao autofinanciamento, através da lei nº 13.878/2019, foi mediada pelo nível de autofinanciamento dos deputados federais; (H3) a limitação do autofinanciamento impactou positivamente a competição eleitoral; e (H4) o autofinanciamento tornou-se um recursos menos importante para incumbentes em 2020, quando comparado a 2016; apenas a H2 não é confirmada empiricamente. Discussão: Os resultados denotam, primeiro, que a limitação do autofinanciamento foi uma reação ao aumento deste tipo de recurso na competição eleitoral; e que essa mudança teve efeito significativo no aumento da competição eleitoral

Machine Learning for the Early Detection of Acute Episodes in Intensive Care Units

In Intensive Care Units (ICUs), mere seconds might define whether a patient lives or dies. Predictive models capable of detecting acute events in advance may allow for anticipated interventions, which could mitigate the consequences of those events and promote a greater number of lives saved. Several predictive models developed for this purpose have failed to meet the high requirements of ICUs. This might be due to the complexity of anomaly prediction tasks, and the inefficient utilization of ICU data. Moreover, some essential intensive care demands, such as continuous monitoring, are often not considered when developing these solutions, making them unfit to real contexts. This work approaches two topics within the mentioned problem: the relevance of ICU data used to predict acute episodes and the benefits of applying Layered Learning (LL) techniques to counter the complexity of these tasks. The first topic was undertaken through a study on the relevance of information retrieved from physiological signals and clinical data for the early detection of Acute Hypotensive Episodes (AHE) in ICUs. Then, the potentialities of LL were accessed through an in-depth analysis of the applicability of a recently proposed approach on the same topic. Furthermore, different optimization strategies enabled by LL configurations were proposed, including a new approach aimed at false alarm reduction. The results regarding data relevance might contribute to a shift in paradigm in terms of information retrieved for AHE prediction. It was found that most of the information commonly used in the literature might be wrongly perceived as valuable, since only three features related to blood pressure measures presented actual distinctive traits. On another note, the different LL-based strategies developed confirm the versatile possibilities offered by this paradigm. Although these methodologies did not promote significant performance improvements in this specific context, they can be further explored and adapted to other domains.Em Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos (UCIs), meros segundos podem ser o fator determinante entre a vida e a morte de um paciente. Modelos preditivos para a previsão de eventos adversos podem promover intervenções antecipadas, com vista à mitigação das consequências destes eventos, e traduzir-se num maior número de vidas salvas. Múltiplos modelos desenvolvidos para este propósito não corresponderam às exigências das UCIs. Isto pode dever-se à complexidade de tarefas de previsão de anomalias e à ineficiência no uso da informação gerada em UCIs. Além disto, algumas necessidades inerentes à provisão de cuidados intensivos, tais como a monitorização contínua, são muitas vezes ignoradas no desenvolvimento destas soluções, tornando-as desadequadas para contextos reais. Este projeto aborda dois tópicos dentro da problemática introduzida, nomeadamente a relevância da informação usada para prever episódios agudos, e os benefícios de técnicas de Aprendizagem em Camadas (AC) para contrariar a complexidade destas tarefas. Numa primeira fase, foi conduzido um estudo sobre o impacto de diversos sinais fisiológicos e dados clínicos no contexto da previsão de episódios agudos de hipotensão. As potencialidades do paradigma de AC foram avaliadas através da análise de uma abordagem proposta recentemente para o mesmo caso de estudo. Nesta segunda fase, diversas estratégias de otimização compatíveis com configurações em camadas foram desenvolvidas, incluindo um modelo para reduzir falsos alarmes. Os resultados relativos à relevância da informação podem contribuir para uma mudança de paradigma em termos da informação usada para treinar estes modelos. A maior parte da informação poderá estar a ser erroneamente considerada como importante, uma vez que apenas três variáveis, deduzidas dos valores de pressão arterial, foram identificadas como realmente impactantes. Por outro lado, as diferentes estratégias baseadas em AC confirmaram a versatilidade oferecida por este paradigma. Apesar de não terem promovido melhorias significativas neste contexto, estes métodos podem ser adaptados a outros domínios

Application-Driven design to extend WSN lifetime

he lifetime of a WSN depends on the energy of the nodes. As soon as nodes run out of energy, they get disconnected from the WSN. This paper proposes an Application Driven solution that increases the WSN lifetime by limiting the routing and forwarding functions of the network mainly to nodes running the same applications. The solution is evaluated against AODV, and the results obtained show gains of about 30%info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Outsourcing dos Sistemas de Informação e Tecnologias de Informação nas Pequenas e Médias Empresas em Portugal

O aumento da necessidade dos Sistemas de Informação e Tecnologias de Informação (SI/TI) tem levado as empresas a recorrerem a entidades externas que disponibilizem um conjunto de serviços, com o intuito de melhorar os seus resultados ao nível económico e/ou financeiro, tecnológico, de negócio e político. Este estudo empírico pretende caracterizar o outsourcing no domínio dos SI/TI realizado pelas PME portuguesas. As principais conclusões revelam que as motivações tecnológicas e as económico-financeiras são as que estimulam as PME pela opção do outsourcing dos SI/TI, contribuindo para uma satisfação global das empresas quando recorrem a este tipo de contratação para os diversos serviços apresentados. Foi detetado que algumas motivações, embora interessantes, não resultam num contributo positivo da opção pelo outsourcing dos SI/TI nas empresas

Tools and Control Experiences using TCLab Arduino Kit

In this project, control experiments are made using a TCLab arduino kit using a wide range of traditional methods, P, PI, PD, PID and feedforward. Those experiments are conducted in various software environments ranging from Python, Matlab and Octave. Comparisons are made regarding the efficiency and cost of both the software applications used and the control methods as well. The experiments are documented in a way that facilitates their reproduction by the reader