Machine learning Gaussian short rate

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Estatística e Gestão do Risco

Ourivesaria popular: Arte, sociabilidade e património das gentes do Minho

Revista do IHA, N.3 (2007), pp.222-237

O sonho inventa o caminho: estudo sobre o papel do grupo do teatro experimental de artes na consolidação de uma cultura popular no teatro brasileiro

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo central analisar a influência da ‘Cultura Popular’ nas artes cénicas do Brasil. Conceito que foi amplamente difundido no teatro brasileiro no início da segunda metade do Século XX pelos intelectuais e artistas que compuseram o Movimento de Cultura Popular (MCP) e o Centro Popular de Cultura (CPC), instituições que vislumbraram nas artes cénicas um meio para contribuir como o desenvolvimento social e cultural do indivíduo. No recorte desta investigação evidencia-se a atuação do grupo Teatro Experimental de Artes- coletivo emergente dos fundamentos estabelecidos pelo MCP e CPC- tentando perceber qual a principal função do Teatro Experimental de Artes no teatro brasileiro do Século XX.

A Mediatização da Justiça num Jornal Popular: o caso da secção “Portugal” do Correio da Manhã

Partindo do pressuposto de que existe uma tendência para a cobertura intensiva e emocionalizada de casos criminais, sobretudo por parte dos órgãos de comunicação social sensacionalistas, e tendo em conta o papel e o poder dos media numa sociedade democrática, torna-se importante refletir sobre o assunto. Este trabalho pretende alimentar essa reflexão e, além de explorar a forma como um jornal sensacionalista português constrói as suas narrativas criminais, aborda ainda, entre outras coisas, os problemas provenientes da emocionalização desses discursos. Entre outros, a possibilidade de criar ou de alimentar perceções públicas distorcidas e negativas acerca da realidade, e em particular do sistema de justiça criminal, ou, inclusive, a perda da credibilidade e essência do próprio jornalismo.

Automatic delimitation of the clinical region of interest in ultra-wide field of view images of the retina

Retinal ultra-wide field of view images (fundus images) provides the visu-alization of a large part of the retina though, artifacts may appear in those images. Eyelashes and eyelids often cover the clinical region of interest and worse, eye-lashes can be mistaken with arteries and/or veins when those images are put through automatic diagnosis or segmentation software creating, in those cases, the appearance of false positives results. Correcting this problem, the first step in the development of qualified auto-matic diseases diagnosis programs can be done and in that way the development of an objective tool to assess diseases eradicating the human error from those processes can also be achieved. In this work the development of a tool that automatically delimitates the clinical region of interest is proposed by retrieving features from the images that will be analyzed by an automatic classifier. This automatic classifier will evaluate the information and will decide which part of the image is of interest and which part contains artifacts. The results were validated by implementing a software in C# language and validated through a statistical analysis. From those results it was confirmed that the methodology presented is capable of detecting artifacts and selecting the clin-ical region of interest in fundus images of the retina.

Festas de Inverno no Nordeste de Portugal - património, mercantilização e aporias da "cultura popular"

Esta obra interpela máscaras e mascarados do ciclo do Inverno, em Trás-os-Montes, na sua projeção e exportação. Resulta de um trabalho de campo iniciado nos anos '80 e que se prolonga até à atualidade, evidenciando quatro fases nas alterações do contexto em que emergem, bem como as dimensões adquiridas fora dele. O argumento central baseia-se nas apropriações da cultura popular em situações diferenciadas e contemporâneas, com a coexistência e a transição entre dois tipos de conexão com as celebrações: das etnografias que sinalizam as cerimónias de Inverno como ocasiões para a crítica, através da pândega e da galhofa, num contexto circunscrito, até às frações festivas transformadas em mercadorias, que paradoxalmente se reportam a uma sociedade anterior ao formato mercantil, remetendo para a autenticidade, a antiguidade e a tradição.

Popular music exhibitions in Portugal: practices of representation from 2007 to 2013

This thesis focuses on the representation of Popular Music in museums by mapping, analyzing, and characterizing its practices in Portugal at the beginning of the 21st century. Now that museums' ability to shape public discourse is acknowledged, the examination of popular music's discourses in museums is of the utmost importance for Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies as well as for Museum Studies. The concept of 'heritage' is at the heart of this processes. The study was designed with the aim of moving the exhibiting of popular music in museums forward through a qualitative inquiry of case studies. Data collection involved surveying pop-rock music exhibitions as a qualitative sampling of popular music exhibitions in Portugal from 2007 to 2013. Two of these exhibitions were selected as case studies: No Tempo do Gira-Discos: Um Percurso pela Produção Fonográfica Portuguesa at the Museu da Música in Lisbon in 2007 (also Faculdade de Letras, 2009), and A Magia do Vinil, a Música que Mudou a Sociedade at the Oficina da Cultura in Almada in 2008 (and several other venues, from 2009 to 2013). Two specific domains were observed: popular music exhibitions as instances of museum practice and museum professionals. The first domain encompasses analyzing the types of objects selected for exhibition; the interactive museum practices fostered by the exhibitions; the concepts and narratives used to address popular music discursively, as well as the interpretative practices they allow. The second domain, focuses museum professionals and curators of popular music exhibitions as members of a group, namely their goals, motivations and perspectives. The theoretical frameworks adopted were drawn from the fields of ethnomusicology, popular music studies, and museum studies. The written materials of the exhibitions were subjected of methods of discourse analysis methods. Semi-structured interviews with curators and museum professional were also conducted and analysed. From the museum studies perspective, the study research suggests that the practice adopted by popular music museums largely matches that of conventional museums. From the ethnomusicological and popular music studies stand point, the two case studies reveal two distinct conceptual worlds: the first exhibition, curated by an academic and an independent researcher, points to a mental configuration where popular music is explained through a framework of genres supported by different musical practices. Moreover, it is industry actors such as decision makers and gatekeepers that govern popular music, which implies that the visitors' romantic conception of the musician is to some extent dismantled; the second exhibition, curated by a record collector and specialist, is based on a more conventional process of the everyday historical speech that encodes a mismatch between “good” and “bad music”. Data generated by a survey shows that only one curator, in fact that of my first case study, has an academic background. The backgrounds of all the others are in some way similar to the curator of the second case study. Therefore, I conclude that the second case study best conveys the current practice of exhibiting Popular Music in Portugal.

Banco popular: Equity research

UNL - NSBE

Structured products in the current low interest rate environment

Directed Research Internship

Detection of arboviruses of public health interest in free-living New World primates (Sapajus spp.; Alouatta caraya) captured in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Introduction A sero-epidemiological survey was undertaken to detect the circulation of arboviruses in free-living non-human primates. Methods Blood samples were obtained from 16 non-human primates (13 Sapajus spp. and three Alouatta caraya) that were captured using terrestrial traps and anesthetic darts in woodland regions in the municipalities of Campo Grande, Aquidauana, Jardim, Miranda and Corumbá in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The samples were sent to the Instituto Evandro Chagas (IEC) in Ananindeua, Pará, Brazil, to detect antibodies against 19 species of arboviruses using a hemagglutination inhibition test (HI). Results Of the 16 primates investigated in the present study, five (31.2%) were serologically positive for an arbovirus. Of these five, two (12.5%) exhibited antibodies to the Flavivirus genus, one (6.2%) exhibited a monotypic reaction to Cacipacoré virus, one (6.2%) was associated with Mayaro virus, and one (6.2%) was positive for Oropouche virus. Conclusions Based on the positive serology observed in the present study, it was possible to conclude that arboviruses circulate among free-living primates. The viruses in the areas studied might have been introduced by infected humans or by primates from endemic or enzootic areas. Studies of this nature, as well as efficient and continuous surveillance programs, are needed to monitor viral activities in endemic and enzootic regions.

Invenção latino-americana através da expressão audiovisual a partir da Oficina Popular de Audiovisual Latino-americano

Este projeto de tese traça uma percepção etnográfica sobre a Oficina Popular de Audiovisual Latino-americano, projeto de aproximação audiovisual a jovens imigrantes latino-americanos residentes na cidade de São Paulo, através do seu acompanhamento e da filmagem partilhada das suas sessões, ocorridas durante os meses de junho, julho, agosto e setembro de 2014, realizadas no espaço do Cineclube latino-americano, sediado no Memorial da América Latina. Parte-se das premissas de que a latinoamericanidade é um imaginário identitário integracionista continuamente inventado e reinventado por vários agentes, ressignificado ininterruptamente por outros imaginários transregionais e locais, e de que entre as muitas vias da sua contínua reinvenção o audiovisual se dá como expressão estética mediadora de impressões locais e transregionais e como potencializador da reflexão coletiva sobre a existência social de cada um e a partilhada. Descreve-se em forma de relatório e de ensaio audiovisual etnográfico, a intersecção de imaginários identitários migrantes e latino-americanos mediados pelo audiovisual, a envolvência dos jovens com os temários da deslocação e da latinoamericanidade através da Oficina, da recepção de filmes latino-americanos contemporâneos e da criação coletiva de dois curtas-metragens.

Covered interest parity

This report aims to study the evolution of the Covered Interest Rate Parity (CIP) over the course of the last years. With the 2007 financial crisis many fundamental relationships changed, and CIP was not an exception. To infer whether or not this was an isolate event, the behaviour of the CIP during the European Sovereign debt crisis was studied. Currency pairs such as EURUSD showed significant CIP deviations during both crises. This work shows that currently, spreads are mostly explained by counterparty risk and market sentiment factors, which are extremely different factors from the ones explaining the spread during 2003-06. Key

Evaluation of arboviruses of public health interest in free-living non-human primates (Alouatta spp., Callithrix spp., Sapajus spp.) in Brazil

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence of arboviruses from the Flavivirus genus in asymptomatic free-living non-human primates (NHPs) living in close contact with humans and vectors in the States of Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. METHODS: NHP sera samples (total n = 80, Alouatta spp. n = 07, Callithrix spp. n = 29 and Sapajus spp. n = 44) were screened for the presence of viral genomes using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and 10% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis techniques. RESULTS: All of the samples were negative for the Flavivirus genome following the 10% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis. CONCLUSIONS: These negative results indicate that the analyzed animals were not infected with arboviruses from the Flavivirus genus and did not represent a risk for viral transmission through vectors during the period in which the samples were collected.