Patterns of civil society after authoritarianism: a comparison of Portugal and Spain, 1970s-2000s. CES Papers - Open Forum #17, 2013-2014

In this paper we argue that patterns of civil society in post-authoritarian democracies are the result of divergent pathways to democracy. Through a comparison of contemporary Portugal (social revolution) and Spain (reform), we show that revolutionary pathways to democracy have a positive impact on the self-organizing abilities of popular groups, thus also contributing to a higher quality of democracy. There are three mechanisms in social revolutionary processes that contribute to this. The first stems from the fact that the masses are the key actor in the revolutionary transformation process, with the power to shape (at least partially) the new rules and institutions of the emerging democratic regime. This results in greater legal recognition and institutional embeddedness between civil society organizations and the state, making it easier, in turn, for resources to be transferred to those organizations. Secondly, as a result of changes to the social and economic structure, revolutions engender more egalitarian societies. Likewise, citizens are given more resources and capacities for collective action. Finally, revolutions tend to crystalize a political culture between elites and the masses in which the principles of egalitarian participation and social change through the action of the people are accepted. This all leads to greater opportunities, resources and legitimacy for the civic action of the common people during the subsequent democratic regime

Woolly hair nevus: case report and review of literature

Woolly hair nevus consists of a patch of curly and hypopigmented hair that is restricted to an area of the scalp. It is usually benign but it can be associated with other systemic findings. Trichoscopy and dermoscopy may be useful when analyzing this entity. The authors describe a case of woolly hair nevus in a 5-year-old boy and present a review of the literature of woolly hair nevus, including classification, histopathology, associated systemic findings, and the recent described genetic mutations

Patterns of Associational Life in Western Europe, 1800-2000

Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of Political and Social Science of the European University InstituteThis dissertation addresses the problem of the sources of associational life and civic engagement. I develop a new theory of the origins of associational life by a comparative historical study of popular sector/lower class associations of urban and rural populations in a set of Western European countries during the period of the 1870s-1970s. The countries under study are Sweden, Norway, Austria (strong civil society); Germany, Netherlands, Belgium (medium to high associatonal life); Britain (medium associational life); Italy, France, Spain and Portugal (weal to very weak associational life). Three political and institutional factors have shaped civil society: 1) Timing of state building and/or international status in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The latter the process of state building and/or the lower international status in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the stronger will be political parties and civil society organizations in the twentieth-century. In states that consolidated fully during the mid and late nineteenth-century and/or had been secondary states in the international system in the eighteenth-century, the pre-modern corporatist structures (e.g. guilds, religious corporate bodies) survived up to the early twentieth-century, because the pressures for resource extraction from state-builders were weaker. This in turn promoted a stronger popular sector organizational life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 2) State-capacity: the stronger state capacity, the stronger will be voluntary associations. States with high capacity are able to implement policies and establish goals autonomously decided by rulers. In the late nineteenthcentury, one of the main functions of the state became the promotion of economic development and nationalist mobilization. For this purpose states have established partnerships with associations. This has empowered associations, through two mechanisms. First, associations have received resources, legitimacy and public status from the State, being thus able to recruit more members through the distribution of selective benefits (welfare, pensions). Second, since high capacity states are m ore able to impose a uniform jurisdiction and control over a territory, this will make easier for associations to expand through the whole national territory, to connect different geographical areas and more easily develop encompassing peak associations. 3) Democratization: the stronger the degree of democratization of the regime between the 1880s and the 1930s, the stronger associational life. Democratization is measured by two dimensions: 3.1) the extension of rights of participation, debate, and assembly; 3.2) the degree of parliamentarization of the regime. This refers to the control by representative bodies of the formation, decisions, personnel and policies of the executive. The stronger the parliament, the more associational leaders will seek to influence and establish links with MPs and political parties and build their own agenda according to parliamentary cycles. Since strong parliaments represent the whole nation, associations will tend to become national in scope, and as such more coordinated through the territory, with associational leaders creating links and alliances that run through several regions of the country. Moreover, in a strongly parliamentarized system parties will be also more interested in creating permanent and not episodic links with associations in order to have a higher reach to the electorate

Revisiting interwar democracy and dictatorship

UID/CPO/04627/2013publishersversionpublishe

Deep learning para a classificação de ruídos transitórios e sinais nos detetores LIGO

In this work, data from the aLIGO detectores collected during the first two aLIGO and AdV observing runs (O1 and O2), in the form of spectrograms, were classified using Deep Learning models based on Convolutional Neural Networks. As well as training models from scratch, pre-trained models were also employed, and their performance compared. Initially, a brief theoretical introduction on gravitational wave detection was performed, focusing on the LIGO detectors. In addition, the foundations of Deep Learning and current best practices for the training of image classification models were also presented. The computational experiments showed that encoding information from different time windows in the different colour channels enhanced the performance of the models and that small architectures were capable of separating the 22 classes present in the Gravity Spy dataset. Moreover, transfer learning was able to accelerate the training process and achieve classifiers with competitive performance. The best models obtained a macro-averaged F1 score of 96.84% (fine-tuned model) and 97.18% (baseline trained from scratch), which are in line with the best results in the literature for the same dataset. In addition, these models were evaluated on real gravitational wave signals from Compact Binary Coalescences from the first two aLIGO and AdV observing runs, and they achieved recalls of 75% and 25%, respectively, while only having been trained with a small number of signals from gravitational wave simulations.Neste trabalho, dados dos detetores aLIGO recolhidos nos dois primeiros períodos de observação de LIGO e Virgo (O1 e O2), na forma de espectrogramas, foram classificados usando modelos de Deep Learning baseados em redes neuronais convolucionais. Além de serem usados modelos treinados do zero, também se testaram modelos pré-treinados, e os resultados foram comparados. Para isso, começou por se fazer uma breve introdução às ondas gravitacionais e sua deteção nos detetores de LIGO. Foram também introduzidos os fundamentos relacionados com algoritmos de Deep Learning e das boas práticas para o treino de modelos para a classificação de imagens. Verificou-se que usar os diferentes canais de cor das imagens para apresentar informação com diferentes janelas temporais melhora os resultados dos modelos e que, além disso, arquiteturas pequenas são capazes de separar eficazmente as 22 classes presentes no dataset Gravity Spy. Adicionalmente, a técnica de transfer learning permite acelerar a fase de treino e obter classificadores com um desempenho competitivo. Os melhores modelos obtiveram um F1-score médio (macro) de 96.84% para o modelo pré-treinado e de 97.18% para o modelo base treinado do zero. Estes resultados estão em linha com os melhores resultados encontrados na literatura para o mesmo dataset. Adicionalmente, os modelos foram testados em sinais reais de ondas gravitacionais de Coalescências Binárias Compactas detetadas por LIGO, obtendo sensibilidades de, respetivamente, 25% e 75%, apesar de terem sido treinados com um número reduzido de sinais provenientes de simulações de ondas gravitacionais.Mestrado em Engenharia Físic

The burden of the minimum wage : evidence from Portugal

This thesis examines the elasticity of employment and wages to changes in the minimum wage and the incidence of the costs of these changes between consumers and firm owners, using firm-level financial information linked to longitudinal employer-employee data from Portugal between 2008 and 2017. It exploits differences in firm exposure to changes in the minimum wage to uncover the sensitivity of employment and wages to this policy and the main margins of adjustment of firms. It finds that more exposed firms experience higher growth in average wage and a larger decline in employment. The employment elasticities with respect to average wages range from -0.48 to -0.56 over 2008–17. Subperiod analysis shows that the employment elasticity varies considerably, with the increases in the minimum wage resulting in larger negative effects on employment during the crisis period of 2010 to 2014, when firms were arguably less able to transfer the burden to consumers in the form of higher prices. During this period, the employment elasticity was -0.77. In terms of incidence, during the period of positive growth (2008–09), the increase in the margin between revenues and materials suggests that most of the costs of the minimum wage increases were borne by consumers. In the subsequent periods, the majority of the minimum wage costs was borne by firm owners, as firms suffer a decrease in profits that offset the increase in labor costs caused by the higher minimum wage.Esta tese analisa as elasticidades do emprego e salários a mudanças no salário mínimo e a sua incidência nos consumidores e empresários em Portugal entre 2008 e 2017. Através de uma base de dados longitudinal que combina informação de trabalhadores e empresas, esta tese explora as diferenças na exposição das empresas a um aumento do salário mínimo para estimar os efeitos deste no emprego, salários e nas principais margens das empresas. Os resultados indicam que empresas com maior exposição registam maior crescimento no salário médio e um declínio mais acentuado no emprego. As estimativas para a elasticidade do emprego relativa ao salário médio variam entre -0.48 e -0.56 para o período 2008-17. A análise de vários períodos mostra que estas elasticidades variam consideravelmente, sendo que o aumento do salário mínimo foi mais prejudicial para o emprego no período de crise 2010-14. Quando as empresas estavam menos aptas a transferir os custos do salário mínimo para os consumidores através de preços mais altos. Durante este período, a elasticidade do empego foi -0.77. Em termos de incidência, durante o período de crescimento económico 2008-09, o aumento das margens das empresas indica que a maioria dos custos do salário mínimo foram suportados pelos consumidores. Nos períodos seguintes, a maioria dos custos do salário mínimo foram suportado pelos empresários, sendo que a redução registada nos lucros compensou o aumento dos gastos com pessoal causados pelo aumento do salário mínimo

Understanding the mobile consumer: context of use in mobile data services

ProjectoEsta dissertação visa compreender de que forma o contexto influencia a utilização de serviços de dados móveis. Procura-se assim compreender o papel do contexto de utilização na forma como o utilizador percepciona os serviços e a forma como a experiencia de utilização destes é modificada em função desse mesmo contexto. O objectivo passa em parte por aferir do potencial dos serviços móveis de dados sensíveis ao contexto ao mesmo tempo que se procura estabelecer linhas orientadoras para futuras pesquisas sobre serviços de dados móveis e a sua relação com o contexto. Os resultados deste estudo apontam para uma relação incontornável entre o contexto de uso e a utilidade percebida dos serviços de dados móveis, confirmando que as tecnologias móveis são, por sua própria natureza, sensíveis ao contexto de utilização e que há do ponto de vista de mercado um potencial inexplorado nesse âmbito, dada a sua penetração baixa em Portugal em 2010. Confirma-se também que os diferentes aspetos do contexto de utilização tem impactos diferentes na utilidade percebida do utilizador, pelo que faz sentido abordar o tema do contexto de uma forma mais aprofundada, especialmente quando se trata de uma tecnologia intrinsecamente sensível ao contexto de utilização.This study examines context of use of mobile data services in order to better comprehend how context impacts perceived usefulness and actual usage of mobile data services. The goal is to provide a deeper understanding of the potential of context-aware mobile data services and give pointers of how future research on mobile data services should approach context of use. The results of this study point to an unavoidable relation between context of use and actual use of mobile data services, confirming that mobile technologies are, by their own nature, extremely sensitive to context of use and that there is indeed untapped potential in context-aware data services from a market perspective, given their low penetration in Portugal 2010. It is also confirmed that the different aspects of context of use have different impacts on the perceived usefulness of the user. This means that it makes sense to address the issue of context using a more thorough approach, especially when it comes to dealing with a kind of technology that is itself very sensitive to context of use

Game engine for location-based services

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

Projecto Gaming

Sumário Executivo Este plano de negócios descreve o projecto estratégico de uma futura start-up que terá como core business a promoção, organização e gestão de campeonatos profissionais de jogos electrónicos. A actividade da futura start-up está centrada na organização de campeonatos da vertente online de vários videojogos seleccionados e na primeira competição totalmente profissional e calendarizada ao longo do ano civil do segmento do pro gaming (designação dada aos jogadores que são patrocinados ou assalariados para jogar em competições remuneradas) e em toda a logística que estas envolvem, desde a estruturação, organização, gestão e realização de dois grandes eventos anuais que fecham as competições. Transversal à actividade core, a start-up irá criar uma estrutura profissional no segmento do pro gaming e uma estratégia de comunicação e marketing que visa alavancar todo o projecto e fomentar, numa primeira fase, o mercado do gaming em Portugal. Estas áreas são asseguradas por uma equipa multidisciplinar dos quadros da empresa. Este projecto é inovador porque não existe no mercado nacional ou internacional uma competição totalmente profissional e com ligação entre as diversas edições ou temporadas, tal como um campeonato de futebol – com campeão, descidas de divisão, apuramento para outras competições. O projecto engloba uma plataforma online, que irá ser a base de todas as competições e o hub de todos os jogadores; uma equipa de gestão das competições; uma equipa de gestão de eventos; uma equipa de jornalistas que fará a cobertura de toda a envolvente das competições em formato digital, papel e TV. Estrategicamente, no primeiro ano de actividade, a start-up irá apostar no mercado português para garantir massa crítica no que se refere ao número de jogadores essencial para a viabilidade do projecto. Para adquirir mercado junto dos jogadores e investidores contamos desenvolver várias acções virais de promoção das competições, numa primeira fase e antes do kick-off das competições oficiais