SIN 319 AND VOSKR 27 AND THE TRIODION CYCLE IN THE LITURGICAL PRAXIS IN RUSSIA DURING THE STUDITE PERIOD

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Social and Human Science of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology

Undrestanding postoperative cognitive dysfunction: novel insights

ABSTRACT: Background: Sleep is integral to biological function and sleep disruption can result in both physiological and psychological dysfunction. The acute cognitive consequences of sleep loss has been an active field of recent investigation, evidence suggests that sleep disruption in critically ill older adults can result in acute decrements in cognitive functioning. Surgery activates the innate immune system, inducing neuroinflammatory changes that interfere with cognition. The fact that patients with sleep disorders have an increased likelihood of exhibiting postoperative delirium encourages us to investigate the contribution of perioperative SF to the neuroinflammatory and cognitive responses of surgery. Methods: The effects of 24h sleep fragmentation (SF) and surgery were explored on adult C57BL/6J male mice. SF procedure started at 7 am with the home-cages being placed on a large platform orbital shaker cycled every 120 seconds (30 sec on/90 sec off). This procedure lasted for 24h. Stabilized tibia fracture was performed either before or after the 24h SF procedure. Separate cohorts of mice were tested for systemic and hippocampal inflammation and cognition. Results: Twenty-four hours of SF induced non-hippocampal memory dysfunction and increase in systemic IL-6. SF and surgery caused hippocampal-dependent memory impairment, although memory impairment was not exacerbated by combining SF with surgery. One day after either SF or surgery there was a significant increase in IL6 mRNA and TNF-alpha mRNA. These increments were more pronounced when either pre or post operative SF was combined with surgery. Conclusions: We show that while SF and surgery can independently produce significant memory impairment, perioperative SF significantly increased hippocampal inflammation without further cognitive impairment. The dissociation between neuroinflammation and cognitive decline may relate to our use of a sole memory paradigm that does not capture other aspects of cognition, especially learning.

Portuguese commercial banking: An assessment of competition in the 1960-2013 period

Strong consolidation is one of the most evident developments of banking markets around the world in recent decades. This change is raising questions on how and to what an extent competition is affected by the expansion of the largest banks. The aim of the present study is to measure the degree of competition in the Portuguese commercial banking market in the long-run, during the period ranging from1960 to 2013, by using the non-structural model developed by Panzar and Rosse. The main findings are that the Portuguese banking system, despite the legal restrictions in place, operated mostly in a market with some degree of competition and, at some points in time, presented some interesting competitive features. More recently, it has evolved into functioning as a cartel.

Portuguese stagnation in the 2001-2012 period

The 2001-2012 period has been one of very low growth for Portugal. This work project tries to find reasons for this slowdown. Growth in real GDP will be explained by several variables ranging from education, capital, government and world markets. Compensation of employees, capital per worker and the exports of competitors seem to explain a significant part of the slowdown. The ratio of non-tradables to tradables is also included but not significant, maybe due to a poor sample size. Stagnation then seems to be caused both by low growth in input accumulation and productivity as predicted by Amador and Coimbra in 2007.

Anatomy of the portuguese stock market risk and return in the 1977-2012 period

This paper analyses the Portuguese stock market since it reopened in 1977, with a special focus on the evolution of the statistic and stochastic characteristics of the market return throughout this 36 year period. The market return for the period of time between 1977 and 2012 (September 28th) is estimated and then compared with the return that would have been achieved with Government bonds and treasury bills, which allows us to confirm that the hierarchy of return / risk across the different financial instruments is verified. The market risk premium for this 36 year period is also estimated and a comparison with other markets is performed, suggesting that the Portuguese market’s risk has not been compensated by an adequate return. The study also examines the evolution of the Portuguese market’s volatility in the 1977-2012 period and compares it with other markets, showing the existence of extremely high peaks during the first 11 years, but indicating a downwards trend throughout the whole period under analysis. Finally, the correlation between market returns for Portugal and for other countries and the degree of integration are estimated and their evolution throughout time is assessed, leading to the conclusion that the performance of the Portuguese stock market has become increasingly correlated with major European markets – correlation with some markets close to 0.70 from 2000 onwards-, but that country-specific risk factors are still relevant.