Market trends and dilemmas of parenthal participation in schools

Este artigo descreve e analisa o impacto da definição e implementação de um novo modelo de gestão dos estabelecimentos de ensino não superior (Dec-lei nº115_A/98) nos padrões de cidadania e equidade do ensino público Português. A institucionalização deste modelo representa uma mudança na matriz centralista e burocrática do referido ensino público e sugere uma aproximação às concepções neo-gerencialistas e neo-liberais que, desde meados dos anos 80, têm dominado a agenda política de muitos países desenvolvidos e de alguns organismos internacionais. Os resultados da pesquisa sugerem que a implementação do novo modelo de gestão contribuiu para reforçar os padrões de diferenciação social no ensino básico (1ºciclo) e, mais especificamente, para preservar as .vantagens competitivas. da classe média na escola pública Portuguesa.

Arquivo documental: relativo à Lei do Cinema e do Audiovisual, criação do FICA e transformação do ICAM em ICA (2003-2007)

O projecto “Principais tendências no cinema português contemporâneo” nasceu no Departamento de Cinema da ESTC, com o objectivo de desenvolver investigação especializada a partir de um núcleo formado por alunos da Licenciatura em Cinema e do Mestrado em Desenvolvimento de Projecto Cinematográfico, a que se juntaram professores-investigadores membros do CIAC e convidados. O que agora se divulga corresponde a dois anos e meio de trabalho desenvolvido pela equipa de investigação, entre Abril de 2009 e Novembro de 2011. Dada a forma que ele foi adquirindo, preferimos renomeá-lo, para efeitos de divulgação, “Novas & velhas tendências no cinema português contemporâneo”.

Return premiums of sustainable companies listed on the Spanish stock market

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether companies with a greater commitment to corporate social responsibility (SRI companies) perform differently on the stock market compared to companies that disregard SRI. Over recent years, this relationship has been taken up at both a theoretical and practical level, and has led to extensive scientific research of an empirical nature involving the examination of the relationships existing between the financial and social, environmental and corporate governance performance of a company and the relationship between SRI and investment decisions in the financial market. More specifically, this work provides empirical evidence for the Spanish market as to whether or not belonging to a group of companies the market classes as sustainable results in return premiums that set them apart from companies classed as conventional, and finds no differences in the stock market performance of companies considered to be SRI or conventional.

Is stock market volatility persistent? A fractionally integrated approach

This paper seeks to study the persistence in the G7’s stock market volatility, which is carried out using the GARCH, IGARCH and FIGARCH models. The data set consists of the daily returns of the S&P/TSX 60, CAC 40, DAX 30, MIB 30, NIKKEI 225, FTSE 100 and S&P 500 indexes over the period 1999-2009. The results evidences long memory in volatility, which is more pronounced in Germany, Italy and France. On the other hand, Japan appears as the country where this phenomenon is less obvious; nevertheless, the persistence prevails but with minor intensity.

What drives corporate default risk premia? Evidence from the CDS market

This paper studies the evolution of the default risk premia for European firms during the years surrounding the recent credit crisis. We employ the information embedded in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and Moody’s KMV EDF default probabilities to analyze the common factors driving this risk premia. The risk premium is characterized in several directions: Firstly, we perform a panel data analysis to capture the relationship between CDS spreads and actual default probabilities. Secondly, we employ the intensity framework of Jarrow et al. (2005) in order to measure the theoretical effect of risk premium on expected bond returns. Thirdly, we carry out a dynamic panel data to identify the macroeconomic sources of risk premium. Finally, a vector autoregressive model analyzes which proportion of the co-movement is attributable to financial or macro variables. Our estimations report coefficients for risk premium substantially higher than previously referred for US firms and a time varying behavior. A dominant factor explains around 60% of the common movements in risk premia. Additionally, empirical evidence suggests a public-to-private risk transfer between the sovereign CDS spreads and corporate risk premia.

Evidence of portuguese stock market abnormal returns

According to the stock market efficiency theory, it is not possible to consistently beat the market. However, technical analysis is more and more spread as an efficient way to achieve abnormal returns. In fact there is evidence that momentum investing strategies provide abnormal returns in different stock markets, Jegadeesh, N. and Titman, S. (1993), George, T. and Hwang, C. (2004) and Du, D. (2009). In this work we study if like other markets, the Portuguese stock market also allows to obtain abnormal returns, using a strategy that consists in picking stocks according to their past performance. Our work confirms the results of Soares, J. and Serra, A. (2005) and Pereira, P. (2009), showing that an investor can get abnormal returns investing in momentum portfolios. The Portuguese stock market evidences momentum returns in short term, exhibiting reversal in long term.

Industry concentration and market volatility

In this paper our aim is to gain a better understanding of the relationship between market volatility and industrial structure. As conflicting results have been documented regarding the relationship between market industry concentration and market volatility, this study investigates this relationship in the time series. We have found that this relationship is only significant and positive for Spain. Our results suggest that we cannot generalize across different countries that market industrial structure (concentration) is a significant factor in explaining market volatility.

The role of an illiquidity factor in the Portuguese stock market

This study examines the role of illiquidity (proxied by the proportion of zero returns) as an additional risk factor in asset pricing. We use Portuguese monthly data, covering the period between January 1988 and December 2008. We compute an illiquidity factor using the Fama and French [Fama, E. F., and K. R. French (1993), "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds", Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 33, Nº. 1, pp. 3-56] procedure and analyze the performance of CAPM, Fama-French three-factor model and illiquidity-augmented versions of these models in explaining both the time-series and the cross-section of returns. Our results reveal that the effect of characteristic liquidity is subsumed by the models considered, but the risk of illiquidity is not priced in the Portuguese stock market.

Short-term electricity prices forecasting in a competitive market by a hybrid PSO-ANFIS approach

In this paper, a novel hybrid approach is proposed for electricity prices forecasting in a competitive market, considering a time horizon of 1 week. The proposed approach is based on the combination of particle swarm optimization and adaptive-network based fuzzy inference system. Results from a case study based on the electricity market of mainland Spain are presented. A thorough comparison is carried out, taking into account the results of previous publications, to demonstrate its effectiveness regarding forecasting accuracy and computation time. Finally, conclusions are duly drawn. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A risk-averse optimization model for trading wind energy in a market environment under uncertainty

In this paper, a stochastic programming approach is proposed for trading wind energy in a market environment under uncertainty. Uncertainty in the energy market prices is the main cause of high volatility of profits achieved by power producers. The volatile and intermittent nature of wind energy represents another source of uncertainty. Hence, each uncertain parameter is modeled by scenarios, where each scenario represents a plausible realization of the uncertain parameters with an associated occurrence probability. Also, an appropriate risk measurement is considered. The proposed approach is applied on a realistic case study, based on a wind farm in Portugal. Finally, conclusions are duly drawn. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

João Romano Torres e Cia: hermenêutica social de uma editora

Em 29 de Outubro de 1885 era publicado o primeiro número d’O Recreio, Publicação Semanal, Litteraria e Charadistica, criado e dirigido por Ignacio Moreira. No número 26, de 9 de Agosto de 1886, na primeira página, sob o título “Expediente”, dá-se conta aos leitores e aos colaboradores que “d’este numero em deante toda a correspondencia deve ser dirigida a João Romano Torres, rua Nova de S. Mamede, aos Caldas, 26, 3.º - Lisboa” (p. 201). Para João Romano Torres, que acabara de adquirir a publicação, trata-se de um acto refundacional, que significará para o editor o início de um percurso editorial através do qual se dará origem a uma editora cuja actividade chegará ao último quartel do século seguinte, estabelecendo um catálogo que a tornou reconhecível e reconhecida no espaço do livro em Portugal. Desta editora se falará aqui apenas de um período situado entre o ano de 1885 e o fim da primeira década de 1900. ABSTRACT - On the 29th October 1885, the first issue of O Recreio, Publicação Semanal, Litteraria e Charadística (proposed English translation: The Playground, Weekly, Literary and Charades Publication) was published, created and headed by Ignacio Moreira. On the 26th issue, issued on the 9th August 1886, in the front page, under the headline “Dispatch”, it is imparted with readers and collaborators that “from this issue forward, all correspondence should be addressed to João Romano Torres, Nova de S. Mamede street, at Caldas, 26, 3rd - Lisbon” (p. 201). For João Romano Torres, who had just acquired the publication, this was a re-foundational act, which will represent for this publisher the beginning of a publishing trajectory through which a new publishing house will emerge, whose activity will reach the final quarter of the next century, establishing a catalogue which made it recognizable and recognized in the book field in Portugal. This publishing house will be addressed here regarding only the period spanning from the year 1885 to the end of the first decade of the 1900s.

Short-term electricity prices forecasting in a competitive market by a hybrid intelligent approach

In this paper, a hybrid intelligent approach is proposed for short-term electricity prices forecasting in a competitive market. The proposed approach is based on the wavelet transform and a hybrid of neural networks and fuzzy logic. Results from a case study based on the electricity market of mainland Spain are presented. A thorough comparison is carried out, taking into account the results of previous publications. Conclusions are duly drawn. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Translation termination and protein folding pathway genes are not correlated in gastric cancer

Background: The eukaryotic release factor 3 (eRF3) has been shown to affect both tubulin and actin cytoskeleton, suggesting a role in cytoskeleton assembly, mitotic spindle formation and chromosome segregation. Also, direct interactions between eRF3 and subunits of the cytosolic chaperonin CCT have been described. Moreover, both eRF3a and CCT subunits have been described to be up-regulated in cancer tissues. Our aim was to evaluate the hypothesis that eRF3 expression levels are correlated with the expression of genes encoding proteins involved in the tubulin folding pathways. Methods: Relative expression levels of eRF1, eRF3a/GSPT1, PFDN4, CCT2, CCT4, and TBCA genes in tumour samples relative to their adjacent normal tissues were investigated using real time-polymerase chain reaction in 20 gastric cancer patients. Results: The expression levels of eRF3a/GSPT1 were not correlated with the expression levels of the other genes studied. However, significant correlations were detected between the other genes, both within intestinal and diffuse type tumours. Conclusions: eRF3a/GSPT1 expression at the mRNA level is independent from both cell translation rates and from the expression of the genes involved in tubulin-folding pathways. The differences in the patterns of expression of the genes studied support the hypothesis of genetically independent pathways in the origin of intestinal and diffuse type gastric tumours.

Modulation of translation factor's gene expression by histone deacetylase inhibitors in breast cancer cells

The histone deacetylase inhibitors sodium butyrate (NaBu) and trichostatin A (TSA) exhibit anti-proliferative activity by causing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. The mechanisms by which NaBu and TSA cause apoptosis and cell cycle arrest are not yet completely clarified, although these agents are known to modulate the expression of several genes including cell-cycle- and apoptosis-related genes. The enzymes involved in the process of translation have important roles in controlling cell growth and apoptosis, and several of these translation factors have been described as having a causal role in the development of cancer. The expression patterns of the translation mechanism, namely of the elongation factors eEF1A1 and eEF1A2, and of the termination factors eRF1 and eRF3, were studied in the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction after a 24-h treatment with NaBu and TSA. NaBu induced inhibition of translation factors' transcription, whereas TSA caused an increase in mRNA levels. Thus, these two agents may modulate the expression of translation factors through different pathways. We propose that the inhibition caused by NaBu may, in part, be responsible for the cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induced by this agent in MCF-7 cells.

Produção de sentido na linguagem audiovisual através da montagem

Este texto é sobre os problemas e as soluções associadas com a produção de sentido de modo cinematográfico nos discursos audiovisuais. O enfoque centra-se na resposta à pergunta de como o texto e leitor criam o sentido e não tanto em qual é o significado do texto. Associado a este objectivo propomos identificar os limites expressivos do discurso cinematográfico que não recorre à verbalização e as capacidades que a linguagem cinematográfica tem vindo a desenvolver para exprimir conceitos cada vez mais complexos apesar de a representação visual estar limitada ao registo visual de objectos, pessoas e acções. Este estudo insere-se no campo da retórica visual e da literacia visual que se dedicam ao estudo dos processos através dos quais se produz, manipula e interpreta sentido através das imagens. No entanto porque estamos a estudar um discurso que se organiza no tempo e que contêm a imagem, palavra e som podemos inserir este estudo na disciplina da Retórica cinematográfica que é uma área científica contida dentro da semiótica e que se dedica ao estudo sobre porquê e como é que o discurso audiovisual produz sentido. O motivo que deu origem a este estudo tem origem no ensino de cadeiras sobre linguagem audiovisual a alunos universitários que tiveram doze anos de alfabetização mas nunca reflectiram sobre como se exprimem ideias sem o uso da palavra uma vez que o principal objectivo da escolaridade é tornar os alunos capazes de saberem interpretar e expressarem-se através da linguagem verbal. A consequência deste processo de aprendizagem é que quando se pede a uma pessoa com formação literária para se expressar num discurso audiovisual deparamos com filmes onde o sentido do discurso é feito com base no texto que é verbalizado numa voz off ou nos diálogos que são ditas por personagens de uma ficção.