A comparative review of risk based portfolio allocations: An empirical study throughout rising yields

Since the financial crisis, risk based portfolio allocations have gained a great deal in popularity. This increase in popularity is primarily due to the fact that they make no assumptions as to the expected return of the assets in the portfolio. These portfolios implicitly put risk management at the heart of asset allocation and thus their recent appeal. This paper will serve as a comparison of four well-known risk based portfolio allocation methods; minimum variance, maximum diversification, inverse volatility and equally weighted risk contribution. Empirical backtests will be performed throughout rising interest rate periods from 1953 to 2015. Additionally, I will compare these portfolios to more simple allocation methods, such as equally weighted and a 60/40 asset-allocation mix. This paper will help to answer the question if these portfolios can survive in a rising interest rate environment.

Invited review: Models for the optimization of regional wastewater treatment systems

European Journal of Operational Research, nº 73 (1994)

Public private collaboration: Potentials for spatial data infrastructure development in developing countries - A caste study of Nigeria

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

How effective are brief interventions in smoking cessation: project of a cohort study in a family health care unit

ABSTRACT: Tobacco use remains the most significant modifiable cause of disability, death and illness1. In Portugal, 19,6% of the population aged ten years or more smoke3. A Cochrane review of 20087 concluded that a brief advice intervention (compared to usual care) can increase the likelihood of a smoker to quit and remain nonsmoker 12 months later by a further 1 to 3 %. Several studies have shown that Primary Care Physicians can play a key role in these interventions8,9,10. However we did not find studies about the effectiveness of brief interventions in routine consultations of Family Doctors in Portugal. For this reason we designed a Cohort Study to make an exploratory study about the effectiveness of brief interventions of less than three minutes in comparison with usual care in routine consultations. The study will be implemented in a Family Healthcare Unit in Beja, during six months. Family Doctors of the intervention group should be submitted for an educational and training program before the study begin. Quit smoking sustained rates will be estimated one year after the first intervention in each smoker. If, as we expect, quit smoking rates will be higher in the intervention group than in the control group, this may change Portuguese Family Doctors attitudes and increase the provision of brief interventions in routine consultations in Primary Healthcare Centers.

Fluvial system restoration – case study: river Tua

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, Perfil de Engenharia de Sistemas Ambientais

Lime mortars with heat treated clays and ceramic waste: A review

The formulation and use of lime mortars with ceramic particles has, in the past, been a very common technique. Knowledge of such used techniques and materials is fundamental for the successful rehabilitation and conservation of the built heritage. The durability that these mortars have shown encourages the study of the involved mechanisms, so that they may be adapted to the current reality. The considerable amount of waste from old ceramics factories which is sent for disposal might present an opportunity for the production of reliable improved lime mortars. In this paper a number of studies that characterize old building mortars containing ceramic fragments are reviewed. The most important research undertaken on laboratory prepared mortars with several heat treated clays types is presented, specifically with incorporated ceramic waste. Some studies on the pozzolanicity of heat treated clays are examined and the heating temperatures that seem most likely to achieve pozzolanicity are presented. It was verified that some heating temperatures currently used by ceramic industries might correspond to the temperatures that will achieve pozzolanicity.

Assessment by doppler ultrasound of entheseal lesions in spondyloarthritis : a longitudial study to determine structural damage and disease activity lesions

RESUMO: Enthesitis is the hallmark of spondyloarthritis (SpA), and is observed in all subtypes. Wide information on SpA abnormalities, including synovitis, tendinitis and enthesitis, can be efficiently perceived by Doppler ultrasound. Furthermore, several studies on imaging of enthesis showed that imaging techniques are better than clinical examination to detect enthesis alterations; and vascularized enthesitis detected by Doppler ultrasound appears to be a valuable diagnostic tool to confirm SpA diagnosis. However, data published until now concerning entheseal elementary alterations that characterize SpA enthesitis (enthesis inflammatory activity) or enthesopathy (permanent structural changes) reflect rather the authors’ empiric opinion than a methodological validation process. In this sense it seems crucial to identify elementary entheseal lesions associated with activity or damage, in order to improve monitoring and treatment response in SpA patients. The development of better assessment tools is today a challenge and a need in SpA. The first study of this thesis focused on the analysis of the reliability of inter-lector and inter-ultrasonography equipment of Madrid sonography enthesitis index (MASEI). Fundamental data for the remaining unrolling project validity. In the second and third studies we concerned about two entheseal elemental lesions: erosions and bursa. In literature erosions represent a permanent structural damage, being useful for monitoring joint injury, disease activity and therapeutic response in many rheumatic diseases; and to date, this concept has been mostly applied in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Unquestionably, erosion is a tissue-related damage and a structural change. However, the hypothesis that we decided to test was if erosions represent a permanent structural change that can only grow and worsen over time, as occurs in RA, or a transitory alteration. A longitudinal study of early SpA patients was undertaken, and the Achilles enthesis was used as a model. Our results strongly suggested that previously detected erosions could disappear during the course of the disease, being consistent with the dynamic behavior of erosion over time. Based on these striking results it seems reasonable to suggest that the new-bone formation process in SpA could be associated with the resolution of cortical entheseal erosion over time. These results could also be in agreement with the apparent failure of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapies to control bone proliferation in SpA; and with the relation of TNF-α, Dickkopf-related protein 1 (Dkk-1) and the regulatory molecule of the Wnt signaling pathway in the bone proliferation in SpA. In the same model, we then proceeded to study the enthesis bursa. Interestingly, the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) enthesopathy definition does not include bursa as an elementary entheseal lesion. Nonetheless, bursa was included in 46% of the enthesis studies in a recently systematic literature review, being in agreement with the concept of “synovio-entheseal complex” that includes the link between enthesitis and osteitis in SpA. It has been clarified in recent data that there is not only a close functional integration of the enthesis with the neighboring bone, but also a connection between enthesitis and synovitis. Therefore, we tried to assess the prevalence and relevance of the bursa-synovial lesion in SpA. Our findings showed a significant increase of Achilles bursa presence and thickness in SpA patients compared to controls (healthy/mechanical controls and RA controls). These results raise awareness to the need to improve the enthesopathy ultrasonographic definition. In the final work of this thesis, we have explored new perspectives, not previously reported, about construct validity of enthesis ultrasound as a possible activity outcome in SpA. We performed a longitudinal Achilles enthesis ultrasound study in patients with early SpA. Achilles ultrasound examinations were performed at baseline, six- and twelve-month time periods and compared with clinical outcome measures collected at basal visit. Our results showed that basal erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are higher in patients with Doppler signal in enthesis, and even that higher basal ESR, CRP and Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) predicted a higher Doppler signal (an ultrasound alteration accepted as representative of inflammation) six months later. Patients with very high disease activity assessed by ASDAS (>3.5) at baseline had significantly higher Achilles total ultrasound score verified at the same time; and ASDAS <1.3 predicted no Doppler signal at six and twelve months. This seems to represent a connection between classical biomarkers and clinical outcomes associated with SpA activity and Doppler signal, not only at the same time, but also for the following months. Remarkably, patients with inactive disease (ASDAS < 1.3) at baseline had no Doppler signal at six and twelve months. These findings reinforce the potential use of ultrasound related techniques for disease progression assessment and prognosis purposes. Intriguingly, Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) didn’t show significant differences between different cut-offs concerning ultrasound lesions or Doppler signal, while verified with ASDAS. These results seem to indicate that ASDAS reflects better than BASDAI what happens in the enthesis. The work herein discussed clearly shows the potential utility of ultrasound in enthesis assessment in SpA patients, and can be important for the development of ultrasound activity and structural damage scores for diagnosis and monitoring purposes. Therefore, local promotion of this technique constitutes a medical intervention that is worth being tested in SpA patients for diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis purposes.

Importance of decision-making in a purchasing context – DPS Case Study

This work project has the objective of exploring the importance of making good decisions on supplier selection, so that the purchasing department can contribute to the success of a company. For that it is presented a short bibliography review of the latest insights that were found relevant, on the subjects of purchasing, technology, outsourcing, supplier selection and decision-making techniques. For a better understating on how to deal with a decision-making situation, a case study is also presented: Digital Printing Solutions (DPS) is a Portuguese company that provides complete and integrated printing solutions and has been planning to contract a software supplier. DPS has no formal supplier-selection model and it has to choose between 2 suppliers. The case study was solved using the M-MACBETH software. I have found that complex decisions-making situations can be easily overcome by using the M-MACBETH decision model. Moreover, the usage of a model, instead of decision that follows no formal procedure, provides the decision maker with insights that can be useful to negotiate with the supplier.

Why aren't brand names regognized as intangible assets in the financial Statements? A study of the subjectivity of brand valuation

The goal of this paper is to determine and to quantify how subjective brand valuation is. To do so, we review the different valuation methods and apply the Hirose model to a sample of 20 US companies from the technology sector. Even if the results vary in function of the rankings we choose as a comparison, we may identify the trend that brands are usually overvalued in those rankings. It explains why internally generated goodwill (which includes brand names) is not recognized as an intangible asset in the financial statements.

The determinants of mutual fund performance: A cross-country study

We use a new data set to study the determinants of the performance of open–end actively managed equity mutual funds in 27 countries. We find that mutual funds underperform the market overall. The results show important differences in the determinants of fund performance in the USA and elsewhere in the world. The US evidence of diminishing returns to scale is not a universal truth as the performance of funds located outside the USA and funds that invest overseas is not negatively affected by scale. Our findings suggest that the adverse scale effects in the USA are related to liquidity constraints faced by funds that, by virtue of their style, have to invest in small and domestic stocks. Country characteristics also explain fund performance. Funds located in countries with liquid stock markets and strong legal institutions display better performance.