Le Crétacé inférieur de la marge atlantique portugaise: biostratigraphie, organization séquentielle, evolution paléogéographique

This paper gives a short description of main stratigraphic unities from the early Cretaceous in Estremadura and Algarve, with their lithological, sedimentological and paleontological characteristics. The distribution of facies enable to propose a paleogeographic frame including eroded high areas and sedimentary low areas roughly parallel to the present coast. The early Cretaceous from Estremadura is splited up into three megasequences each one with regressive then transgressive tendencies: this fact must be connected with the leading action of distensive, slow or sudden, movements. Beyond the hercynian fault of Messejana, Algarve presents a different sedimentary evolution during the early Cretaceous.

Practices and trends of telework in the Portuguese industry: the results of surveys in the textile, metal and software sectors

The aim of the TeleRisk Project on labour relations and professional risks within the context of teleworking in Portugal – supported by IDICT – Institute for Development and Inspection of Working Conditions (Ministry of Labour), is to study the practices and forms of teleworking in the manufacturing sectors in Portugal. The project chose also the software industry as a reference sector, even though it does not intend to exclude from the study any other sector of activity or the so-called “hybrid” forms of work. However, the latter must have some of the characteristics of telework. The project thus takes into account the so-called “traditional” sectors of activity, namely textile and machinery and metal engineering (machinery and equipment), not usually associated to this type of work. However, telework could include, in the so-called “traditional” sectors, other variations that are not found in technologically based sectors. One of the evaluation methods for the dynamics associated to telework consisted in carrying out surveys by means of questionnaires, aimed at employers in the sectors analysed. This paper presents some of the results of those surveys. It is important to mention that, being a preliminary analysis, it means that it does not pretend to have exhausted all the issues in the survey, but has meant that it shows the bigger tendencies, in terms of teleworking practices, of the Portuguese industry.

Assessment of climate change statistical downscaling methods: Application and comparison of two statistical methods to a single site in Lisbon

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente

Geoambiente e indústria das rochas ornamentais

The essential aspects of the conflict between the traditional extractive industry, particularly that related to ornamental stones, and the recent priorities of environmental protection required by the contemporary society are described. Within the legal framework of the problem, various criteria for evaluating environmental impacts in the ornamental rock sector are analyzed, as well as the landscape rehabilitations required to quarry owners,thus leading to a conclusion that harmonization of those tendencies with the Portuguese reality is an essential necessity.

Recommending media content based on machine learning methods

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Body and transcendence in Virginia Woolf and Clarice Lispector = Corpo e transcendência em Virgínia Woolf e Clarice Lispector

Virginia Woolf and Clarice Lispector belong to quite different historical, political and cultural contexts. Beyond its antecedents and roots in European modernism, Brazilian modernism developed according to peculiar patterns and lines, cultivating, for example, more clearly political, nationalist and regionalist tendencies than happened in the British area. Molly Hite’s essay “Virginia Woolf’s Two Bodies” suggests the existence of two kinds of body represented and perhaps experienced by Virginia Woolf: “one kind was the body for others, the body cast in social roles”, the other, the “visionary body”, a second physical presence, which brings into play new perspectives on the female modernist body and new strategies of political and aesthetic representation. It is this “visionary body”, that, in many moments, intersects with transcendence. These two kinds of body are also present in Clarice Lispector’s work, structured, of course, around other complexities and gradations, explained by a different temporal context, but still touching common seminal questions. In Lispector, it is through the body cast in social roles that you reach the “visionary body” and transcendence. The movement is not a flight, as in Woolf, on the contrary it is a necessity, a condition to get to the essence.

Spiteful Strategies. The ontogeny and the practice of spite in human interaction: an experimental game theory approach and empirical applications

As estratégias de malevolência implicam que um indivíduo pague um custo para infligir um custo superior a um oponente. Como um dos comportamentos fundamentais da sociobiologia, a malevolência tem recebido menos atenção que os seus pares o egoísmo e a cooperação. Contudo, foi estabelecido que a malevolência é uma estratégia viável em populações pequenas quando usada contra indivíduos negativamente geneticamente relacionados pois este comportamento pode i) ser eliminado naturalmente, ou ii) manter-se em equilíbrio com estratégias cooperativas devido à disponibilidade da parte de indivíduos malevolentes de pagar um custo para punir. Esta tese propõe compreender se a propensão para a malevolência nos humanos é inerente ou se esta se desenvolve com a idade. Para esse efeito, considerei duas experiências de teoria de jogos em crianças em ambiente escolar com idades entre os 6 e os 22 anos. A primeira, um jogo 2x2 foi testada com duas variantes: 1) um prémio foi atribuído a ambos os jogadores, proporcionalmente aos pontos acumulados; 2), um prémio foi atribuído ao jogador com mais pontos. O jogo foi desenhado com o intuito de causar o seguinte dilema a cada jogador: i) maximizar o seu ganho e arriscar ter menos pontos que o adversário; ou ii) decidir não maximizar o seu ganho, garantindo que este não era inferior ao do seu adversário. A segunda experiência consistia num jogo do ditador com duas opções: uma escolha egoísta/altruísta (A), onde o ditador recebia mais ganho, mas o seu recipiente recebia mais que ele e uma escolha malevolente (B) que oferecia menos ganhos ao ditador que a A mas mais ganhos que o recipiente. O dilema era que se as crianças se comportassem de maneira egoísta, obtinham mais ganho para si, ao mesmo tempo que aumentavam o ganho do seu colega. Se fossem malevolentes, então prefeririam ter mais ganho que o seu colega ao mesmo tempo que tinham menos para eles próprios. As experiências foram efetuadas em escolas de duas áreas distintas de Portugal (continente e Açores) para perceber se as preferências malevolentes aumentavam ou diminuíam com a idade. Os resultados na primeira experiência sugerem que (1) os alunos compreenderam a primeira variante como um jogo de coordenação e comportaram-se como maximizadores, copiando as jogadas anteriores dos seus adversários; (2) que os alunos repetentes se comportaram preferencialmente como malevolentes, mais frequentemente que como maximizadores, com especial ênfase para os alunos de 14 anos; (3) maioria dos alunos comportou-se reciprocamente desde os 12 até aos 16 anos de idade, após os quais começaram a desenvolver uma maior tolerância às escolhas dos seus parceiros. Os resultados da segunda experiência sugerem que (1) as estratégias egoístas eram prevalentes até aos 6 anos de idade, (2) as tendências altruístas emergiram até aos 8 anos de idade e (3) as estratégias de malevolência começaram a emergir a partir dos 8 anos de idade. Estes resultados complementam a literatura relativamente escassa sobre malevolência e sugerem que este comportamento está intimamente ligado a preferências de consideração sobre os outros, o paroquialismo e os estágios de desenvolvimento das crianças.************************************************************Spite is defined as an act that causes loss of payoff to an opponent at a cost to the actor. As one of the four fundamental behaviours in sociobiology, it has received far less attention than its counterparts selfishness and cooperation. It has however been established as a viable strategy in small populations when used against negatively related individuals. Because of this, spite can either i) disappear or ii) remain at equilibrium with cooperative strategies due to the willingness of spiteful individuals to pay a cost in order to punish. This thesis sets out to understand whether propensity for spiteful behaviour is inherent or if it develops with age. For that effect, two game-theoretical experiments were performed with schoolboys and schoolgirls aged 6 to 22. The first, a 2 x 2 game, was tested in two variants: 1) a prize was awarded to both players, proportional to accumulated points; 2), a prize was given to the player with most points. Each player faced the following dilemma: i) to maximise pay-off risking a lower pay-off than the opponent; or ii) not to maximise pay-off in order to cut down the opponent below their own. The second game was a dictator experiment with two choices, (A) a selfish/altruistic choice affording more payoff to the donor than B, but more to the recipient than to the donor, and (B) a spiteful choice that afforded less payoff to the donor than A, but even lower payoff to the recipient. The dilemma here was that if subjects behaved selfishly, they obtained more payoff for themselves, while at the same time increasing their opponent payoff. If they were spiteful, they would rather have more payoff than their colleague, at the cost of less for themselves. Experiments were run in schools in two different areas in Portugal (mainland and Azores) to understand whether spiteful preferences varied with age. Results in the first experiment suggested that (1) students understood the first variant as a coordination game and engaged in maximising behaviour by copying their opponent’s plays; (2) repeating students preferentially engaged in spiteful behaviour more often than maximising behaviour, with special emphasis on 14 year-olds; (3) most students engaged in reciprocal behaviour from ages 12 to 16, as they began developing higher tolerance for their opponent choices. Results for the second experiment suggested that (1) selfish strategies were prevalent until the age of 6, (2) altruistic tendencies emerged since then, and (3) spiteful strategies began being chosen more often by 8 year-olds. These results add to the relatively scarce body of literature on spite and suggest that this type of behaviour is closely tied with other-regarding preferences, parochialism and the children’s stages of development.

Cerebral vasculopathy in children with sickle cell disease A study of genetic modulators of the disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder with recessive transmission, caused by the mutation HBB:c.20A>T. It originates hemoglobin S that forms polymers inside the erythrocyte, upon deoxygenation, deforming it and ultimately leading to premature hemolysis. The disease presents with high heterogeneity of clinical manifestations, the most devastating of which, ischemic stroke, occurs in 11% of patients until 20 years of age. In this study, we tried to identify genetic modifiers of risk and episodes of stroke by studying 66 children with SCD, grouped according to the degree of cerebral vasculopathy (Stroke, Risk and Control). Association studies were performed between the three phenotypic groups and hematological and biochemical parameters of patients, as well as with 23 polymorphic regions in genes related to vascular cell adhesion (VCAM-1, THBS-1 and CD36), vascular tonus (NOS3 and ET-1) and inflammation (TNF-α and HMOX-1). Relevant data was collected from patient’s medical records. Known genetic modulators of SCD (beta-globin cluster haplotype and HBA and BCL11A genotypes) and putative genetic modifiers of cerebral vasculopathy were characterized. Differences in their distribution among groups were assessed. VCAM-1 rs1409419 allele C and NOS3 rs207044 allele C were associated to stroke events, while VCAM-1 rs1409419 allele T was found to be protective. Alleles 4a and 4b of NOS3 27 bp VNTR appeared to be respectively associated to stroke risk and protection. HMOX-1 longer STRs seemed to predispose to stroke. Higher hemoglobin F levels were found in Control group, as a result of Senegal haplotype or of BCL11A rs11886868 allele T, and higher lactate dehydrogenase levels, marker of hemolysis, were found in Risk group. Molecular mechanisms underlying the modifier functions of the relevant genetic variants are discussed.

MarketOpolis: A market simulation based on investors decisions

This study aims to replicate Apple’s stock market movement by modeling major investment profiles and investors. The present model recreates a live exchange to forecast any predictability in stock price variation, knowing how investors act when it concerns investment decisions. This methodology is particularly relevant if, just by observing historical prices and knowing the tendencies in other players’ behavior, risk-adjusted profits can be made. Empirical research made in the academia shows that abnormal returns are hardly consistent without a clear idea of who is in the market in a given moment and the correspondent market shares. Therefore, even when knowing investors’ individual investment profiles, it is not clear how they affect aggregate markets.

Estratégias de classificação dos arquivos familiares e pessoais contemporâneos: o exemplo do arquivo da família Benito Maçãs

A presente dissertação aborda a problemática teórica e metodológica da classificação de arquivos familiares e pessoais. Centrando-se no arquivo da família Benito Maçãs, produzido entre o final do século XVIII e o início do século XXI, são analisadas algumas das tendências recentes da classificação destes arquivos, sobretudo as que demonstram a sobrevalorização do enfoque orgânico e informativo. Através da caraterização das circunstâncias de produção e utilização do referido fundo, do aprofundamento dos principais conceitos operatórios subjacentes à classificação arquivística, bem como da análise de modelos classificativos teóricos e práticos, este estudo procura compreender as metodologias para a contextualização de arquivos familiares e pessoais. Os resultados demonstram a inexequibilidade da aplicação normalizada de modelos teóricos ou de critérios pré-definidos na contextualização de arquivos familiares e pessoais. Revelam, ainda, que as metodologias para a observação dos contextos não devem sobrepor-se à realidade documental, nem às especificidades da entidade produtora.