Discussing Chevalier’s data on the efficiency of tariffs for american and french canals in the 1830s

This article revisits Michel Chevalier’s work and discussions of tariffs. Chevalier shifted from Saint-Simonism to economic liberalism during his life in the 19th century. His influence was soon perceived in the political world and economic debates, mainly because of his discussion of tariffs as instruments of efficient transport policies. This work discusses Chevalier’s thoughts on tariffs by revisiting his masterpiece, Le Cours d’Économie Politique. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was conducted to test Chevalier’s hypothesis on the inefficiency of French tariffs. This work showed that Chevalier’s claims on French tariffs are not validated by DEA.

Organization of construction activity in medieval Portugal: a comparative approach

This paper aims to identify and characterize the organizational models of construction site and building activity in late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, through the analysis of specific Portuguese case studies, related with important buildings financed by the royal power. This paper also intends to develop a comparative analysis between those different organizational models, identifying the main features of each one, as well as their similarities and differences. In this sense, we intend to present a comparative analysis between the two main models of organization of the construction site, through a methodology of crossing different types of sources, including written ones, such as books of accounts, but also iconographic and material sources, as well as the buildings and monuments still preserved today. In terms of written sources, the construction site accounting books allow us to study several specific aspects of the construction process, but also allow us to infer the organizational models of the construction activity.

Application of wavelets to the study of political history

\The idea that social processes develop in a cyclical manner is somewhat like a `Lorelei'. Researchers are lured to it because of its theoretical promise, only to become entangled in (if not wrecked by) messy problems of empirical inference. The reasoning leading to hypotheses of some kind of cycle is often elegant enough, yet the data from repeated observations rarely display the supposed cyclical pattern. (...) In addition, various `schools' seem to exist which frequently arrive at di erent conclusions on the basis of the same data." (van der Eijk and Weber 1987:271). Much of the empirical controversies around these issues arise because of three distinct problems: the coexistence of cycles of di erent periodicities, the possibility of transient cycles and the existence of cycles without xed periodicity. In some cases, there are no reasons to expect any of these phenomena to be relevant. Seasonality caused by Christmas is one such example (Wen 2002). In such cases, researchers mostly rely on spectral analysis and Auto-Regressive Moving-Average (ARMA) models to estimate the periodicity of cycles.1 However, and this is particularly true in social sciences, sometimes there are good theoretical reasons to expect irregular cycles. In such cases, \the identi cation of periodic movement in something like the vote is a daunting task all by itself. When a pendulum swings with an irregular beat (frequency), and the extent of the swing (amplitude) is not constant, mathematical functions like sine-waves are of no use."(Lebo and Norpoth 2007:73) In the past, this di culty has led to two di erent approaches. On the one hand, some researchers dismissed these methods altogether, relying on informal alternatives that do not meet rigorous standards of statistical inference. Goldstein (1985 and 1988), studying the severity of Great power wars is one such example. On the other hand, there are authors who transfer the assumptions of spectral analysis (and ARMA models) into fundamental assumptions about the nature of social phenomena. This type of argument was produced by Beck (1991) who, in a reply to Goldstein (1988), claimed that only \ xed period models are meaningful models of cyclic phenomena".We argue that wavelet analysis|a mathematical framework developed in the mid-1980s (Grossman and Morlet 1984; Goupillaud et al. 1984) | is a very viable alternative to study cycles in political time-series. It has the advantage of staying close to the frequency domain approach of spectral analysis while addressing its main limitations. Its principal contribution comes from estimating the spectral characteristics of a time-series as a function of time, thus revealing how its di erent periodic components may change over time. The rest of article proceeds as follows. In the section \Time-frequency Analysis", we study in some detail the continuous wavelet transform and compare its time-frequency properties with the more standard tool for that purpose, the windowed Fourier transform. In the section \The British Political Pendulum", we apply wavelet analysis to essentially the same data analyzed by Lebo and Norpoth (2007) and Merrill, Grofman and Brunell (2011) and try to provide a more nuanced answer to the same question discussed by these authors: do British electoral politics exhibit cycles? Finally, in the last section, we present a concise list of future directions.

Comparative environmental life-cycle analysis of concretes using biomass and coal fly ashes as partial cement replacement material

Nowadays, the concrete production sector is challenged by attempts to minimize the usage of raw materials and energy consumption, as well as by environmental concerns. Therefore, it is necessary to choose better options, e.g. new technologies or materials with improved life-cycle performance. One solution for using resources in an efficient manner is to close the materials' loop through the recycling of materials that result either from the end-of-life of products or from being the by-product of an industrial process. It is well known that the production of Portland cement, one of the materials most used in the construction sector, has a significant contribution to the environmental impacts, mainly related with carbon dioxide emission. Therefore, the study and utilization of by-products or wastes usable as cement replacement in concrete can supply more sustainable options, provided that these type of concrete produced has same durability and equivalent quality properties as standard concrete. This work studied the environmental benefits of incorporating different percentages of two types of fly ashes that can be used in concrete as cement replacement. These ashes are waste products of power and heat production sectors using coal or biomass as fuels. The results showed that both ashes provide a benefit for the concrete production both in terms of environmental impact minimization and a better environmental performance through an increase in cement replacement. It is possible to verify that the incorporation of fly ashes is a sustainable option for cement substitution and a possible path to improve the environmental performance of the concrete industry.

Hand gesture recognition for human computer interaction : a comparative study of different image features

Hand gesture recognition for human computer interaction, being a natural way of human computer interaction, is an area of active research in computer vision and machine learning. This is an area with many different possible applications, giving users a simpler and more natural way to communicate with robots/systems interfaces, without the need for extra devices. So, the primary goal of gesture recognition research is to create systems, which can identify specific human gestures and use them to convey information or for device control. For that, vision-based hand gesture interfaces require fast and extremely robust hand detection, and gesture recognition in real time. In this study we try to identify hand features that, isolated, respond better in various situations in human-computer interaction. The extracted features are used to train a set of classifiers with the help of RapidMiner in order to find the best learner. A dataset with our own gesture vocabulary consisted of 10 gestures, recorded from 20 users was created for later processing. Experimental results show that the radial signature and the centroid distance are the features that when used separately obtain better results, with an accuracy of 91% and 90,1% respectively obtained with a Neural Network classifier. These to methods have also the advantage of being simple in terms of computational complexity, which make them good candidates for real-time hand gesture recognition.

Cost-effective and lightweight mobile units for MixAR: A comparative trial among different setups

Cultural heritage has arousing the interest of the general public (e.g. tourists), resulting in the increasing number of visitations to archaeological sites. However, many buildings and monuments are severely damaged or completely destroyed, which doesn’t allow to get a full experience of “travelling in time”. Over the years, several Augmented Reality (AR) approaches were proposed to overcome these issues by providing three-dimensional visualization of reconstructed ancient structures in situ. However, most of these systems were made available through heavy and expensive technological bundles. Alternatively, MixAR intends to be a lightweight and cost-effective Mixed Reality system which aims to provide the visualization of virtual ancient buildings reconstructions in situ, properly superimposed and aligned with real-world ruins. This paper proposes and compares different AR mobile units setups to be used in the MixAR system, with low-cost and lightweight requirements in mind, providing different levels of immersion. It was propounded four different mobile units, based on: a laptop computer, a single-board computer (SBC), a tablet and a smartphone, which underwent a set of tests to evaluate their performances. The results show that mobile units based on laptop computer and SBC reached a good overall performance while mobile units based on tablet and smartphone did not meet such a satisfactory result even though they are acceptable for the intended use.

Nonparametric estimation of the survival function for ordered multivariate failure time data: a comparative study

In longitudinal studies of disease, patients may experience several events through a follow-up period. In these studies, the sequentially ordered events are often of interest and lead to problems that have received much attention recently. Issues of interest include the estimation of bivariate survival, marginal distributions and the conditional distribution of gap times. In this work we consider the estimation of the survival function conditional to a previous event. Different nonparametric approaches will be considered for estimating these quantities, all based on the Kaplan-Meier estimator of the survival function. We explore the finite sample behavior of the estimators through simulations. The different methods proposed in this article are applied to a data set from a German Breast Cancer Study. The methods are used to obtain predictors for the conditional survival probabilities as well as to study the influence of recurrence in overall survival.

Antioxidant potential of two Apiaceae plant extracts: a comparative study focused on the phenolic composition

The present study aimed to characterize the extracts prepared from Pimpinella anisum L. (anise) and Coriandrum sativum L. (coriander) (Apiaceae plants) seeds in terms of phenolic composition, and to correlate the obtained profiles with the antioxidant activity. Anise gave the highest abundance in phenolic compounds (42.09± 0.11 mg/g extract), mainly flavonoids (28.08±0.17 mg/g extract) and phenolic acids (14.01±0.06 mg/g extract), and also the highest antioxidant potential, accessed for the ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation and -carotene bleaching, reducing power and free radical scavenger activity. Apigenin and luteolin derivatives, as also caffeoylquinic acid derivatives appear to be directly related with the higher in vitro antioxidant potential of the anise extract.. In contrast, the weak antioxidant potential of coriander seems to be due to their lower abundance in phenolic compounds (2.24±0.01 mg/g extract). Further studies are necessary to evaluate the in vivo antioxidant potential of the tested extracts, but the performed in vitro experiments highlight them as potential health promoters.

Representações sociais da história nacional: estudos comparativos em contexto lusófono

Neste artigo examinamos os resultados de um inquérito realizado junto de jovens em qu atro países de língua oficial portuguesa, situados em continentes diferentes: Angola, Brasil, Portugal e Timor-Leste. Em cada um desses países foram recolhidos dados com vista a examinar as representações sociais da história nacional e as emoções associadas aos acontecimentos considerados mais marcantes. Os resultados apontam para ambiguidades, ambivalências e contradições nas representações sociais da história que liga os países de língua portuguesa. De um modo geral observa-se um “desencontro” das memórias sobre o passado colonial. Esse desencontro das memórias sobre o “passado comum” é particularmente evidente quando comparamos as memórias históricas dos jovens angolanos e dos jovens portugueses.

Cognitive stimulation for portuguese older adults with cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled trial of efficacy, comparative duration, feasibility and experiential relevance

Although some studies point to cognitive stimulation as a beneficial therapy for older adults with cognitive impairments, this area of research and practice is still lacking dissemination and is underrepresented in many countries. Moreover, the comparative effects of different intervention durations remain to be established and, besides cognitive effects, pragmatic parameters, such as cost-effectiveness and experiential relevance to participants, are seldom explored. In this work, we present a randomized con- trolled wait-list trial evaluating 2 different intervention durations (standard 1⁄4 17 vs brief 1⁄4 11 sessions) of a cognitive stimulation program developed for older adults with cognitive impairments with or without dementia. 20 participants were randomly assigned to the standard duration intervention program (17 sessions, 1.5 months) or to a wait-list group. At postintervention of the standard intervention group, the wait-list group crossed over to receive the brief intervention program (11 sessions, 1 month). Changes in neuropsychological, functionality, quality of life, and caregiver outcomes were evaluated. Experience during intervention and costs and feasibility were also evaluated. The current cognitive stimulation programs (ie, standard and brief) showed high values of experiential relevance for both intervention durations. High adherence, completion rates, and reasonable costs were found for both formats. Further studies are needed to definitively establish the potential efficacy, optimal duration, cost-effectiveness, and experiential relevance for participants of cognitive intervention approaches.

Self-compacting concrete and conventional concrete in the arena Pernambuco: comparative study of durability indicators and economic feasibility

This study addressed the application, strength and durability of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in a large-scale construction site, comparing its performance with vibrated conventional concrete (CC) with similar characteristics, assessing its economic feasibility. The studies were undertaken in the Arena Pernambuco project and involved the concreting during May, June and July 2012, for data collection, accompanying the routine concrete control tests and performing specific strength and durability tests. The SCC compressive strength was on average 4.5% higher than the CC one, and its formwork reinforced to withstand greater lateral pressure of the fresh concrete. The durability indicators results were in favour of SCC, which cost was 13.5% higher than CC.

O ajustamento psicossocial de jovens com consumos de substâncias psicoativas em escolas profissionais do grande Porto

Tese de Doutoramento em Estudos da Criança (Área de Especialidade Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Educação)

Our place in history: young feminists at the margins

Feminisms in Portugal, as elsewhere, have been shaped historically. From the revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which ended monarchy and established a republican system, women have taken a stand. In the late 1970s, after 48 years of dictatorship during which feminist issues were effectively silenced, feminist groups began to appear in Portugal. It was then, in 1976, that UMAR (Unia˜o de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta [‘Union of Women for Alternatives and Answers’]) began its fight against discrimination and violence against women.

Comparative genomics reveals adaptations of a halotolerant thaumarchaeon in the interfaces of brine pools in the Red Sea

The bottom of the Red Sea harbors over 25 deep hypersaline anoxic basins that are geochemically distinct and characterized by vertical gradients of extreme physicochemical conditions. Because of strong changes in density, particulate and microbial debris get entrapped in the brine-seawater interface (BSI), resulting in increased dissolved organic carbon, reduced dissolved oxygen toward the brines and enhanced microbial activities in the BSI. These features coupled with the deep-sea prevalence of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the global ocean make the BSI a suitable environment for studying the osmotic adaptations and ecology of these important players in the marine nitrogen cycle. Using phylogenomic-based approaches, we show that the local archaeal community of five different BSI habitats (with up to 18.2% salinity) is composed mostly of a single, highly abundant Nitrosopumilus-like phylotype that is phylogenetically distinct from the bathypelagic thaumarchaea; ammonia-oxidizing bacteria were absent. The composite genome of this novel Nitrosopumilus-like subpopulation (RSA3) co-assembled from multiple single-cell amplified genomes (SAGs) from one such BSI habitat further revealed that it shares [sim]54% of its predicted genomic inventory with sequenced Nitrosopumilus species. RSA3 also carries several, albeit variable gene sets that further illuminate the phylogenetic diversity and metabolic plasticity of this genus. Specifically, it encodes for a putative proline-glutamate 'switch' with a potential role in osmotolerance and indirect impact on carbon and energy flows. Metagenomic fragment recruitment analyses against the composite RSA3 genome, Nitrosopumilus maritimus, and SAGs of mesopelagic thaumarchaea also reiterate the divergence of the BSI genotypes from other AOA.

Childhood history of abuse and child abuse potential: the role of parent’s gender and timing of childhood abuse

It has been suggested that being physically abused leads to someone becoming a perpetrator of abuse which could be associated to parents' gender, timing of the physical abuse and specific socio-demographic variables. This study aims to investigate the role the parents' gender, timing of childhood abuse and socio-demographic variables on the relationship between parents' history of childhood physical abuse and current risk for children. The sample consisted of 920 parents (414 fathers, 506 mothers) from the Portuguese National Representative Study of Psychosocial Context of Child Abuse and Neglect who completed the Childhood History Questionnaire and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. The results showed that fathers had lower current potential risk of becoming physical abuse perpetrators with their children than mothers although they did not differed in their physical victimization history. Moreover, the risk was higher in parents (both genders) with continuous history of victimization than in parents without victimization. Prediction models showed that for fathers and mothers separately similar socio-demographic variables (family income, number of children at home, employment status and marital status) predicted the potential risk of becoming physical abuses perpetrators. Nevertheless, the timing of victimization was different for fathers (before 13 years old) and mothers (after 13 years old). Then our study targets specific variables (timing of physical abuse, parents' gender and specific socio-demographic variables), which may enable professionals to select groups of parents at greater need of participating in abuse prevention programs.