Does a Tougher Competition Policy Reduce or Promote Investment?

The question of how interventions from the Competition Authority (CA) affect investment is not a straightforward one: a tougher competition policy might, by reducing the ability to exert market power, either stimulate firms to invest more to counter the restrictions on their actions, or make firms invest less because of the reduced ability to have a return on investment. This tension is illustrated using two models. In one model investment is own-cost-reducing whereas in the other investment is anti-competitive. Anti-competitive investments are defined as investments that increase competitors’ costs. In both models the optimal level of investment is reduced with a tougher competition policy. Furthermore, while in the case of an anti-competitive investment a tougher authority necessarily leads to lower prices, in the case of a cost- reducing investment the opposite may happen when the impact of the investment on cost is sufficiently high. Results for total welfare are ambiguous in the cost- reducing investment model, whereas in the anti-competitive investment model welfare unambiguously increases due to a tougher competition polic

TOXOCARIASIS: SEROLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS BY INDIRECT ANTIBODY COMPETITION ELISA

Toxocariasis is caused by infection of man by Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati larvae, the common roundworm of dogs and cats. Because larvae are difficult to detect in tissues, diagnosis is mostly based on serology. Non specific reactions are observed mainly due to cross-reactivity with Ascaris sp antigens. This investigation aimed at developing and evaluating an indirect antibody competition ELISA (IACE) employing a specific rabbit IgG anti-Toxocara canis excretory-secretory antigens as the competition antibody, in order to improve indirect ELISA specificity performed for toxocariasis diagnosis. For that, the rabbit IgG was previously absorbed by Ascaris suum adult antigens. Sensitivity and specificity of IACE were first evaluated in 28 serum samples of mice experimentally infected with T. canis embryonated eggs. Adopting cut-off value established in this population before infection, sensitivity and specificity were 100% after 20 days post-inoculation. For human population IACE was evaluated using sera from 440 patients with clinical signs of toxocariasis and the cut-off value was established with 60 serum samples from apparently healthy individuals. Using as reference test the indirect ELISA performed by Adolfo Lutz Institute, sensitivity was 60.2%, specificity was 98% and concordance was 77.3%. Repeatability of IACE was evaluated by the inter-reactions variation coefficient (2.4%).

Sistema de Gestão Integrado da Qualidade e Segurança do trabalho numa IPSS

Dissertação de Mestrado em Gestão Integrada da Qualidade, Ambiente e Segurança

Quantity-setting competition under uncertain demand

We consider a quantity-setting duopoly model, and we study the decision to move first or second, by assuming that. the firms produce homogeneous goods and that. there is some demand uncertainty. The competitive phase consists of two periods, and in either period, the firms can make a production decision that is irreversible. As far as the firms are allowed to choose (non-cooperatively) the period they make the decision, we study the circumstances that favour sequential rather than simultaneous decisions.

Pseudo Phase Plane and Fractional Calculus Modelling of Western Global Economic Downturn

This paper applies Pseudo Phase Plane (PPP) and Fractional Calculus (FC) mathematical tools for modeling world economies. A challenging global rivalry among the largest international economies began in the early 1970s, when the post-war prosperity declined. It went on, up to now. If some worrying threatens may exist actually in terms of possible ambitious military aggression, invasion, or hegemony, countries’ PPP relative positions can tell something on the current global peaceful equilibrium. A global political downturn of the USA on global hegemony in favor of Asian partners is possible, but can still be not accomplished in the next decades. If the 1973 oil chock has represented the beginning of a long-run recession, the PPP analysis of the last four decades (1972–2012) does not conclude for other partners’ global dominance (Russian, Brazil, Japan, and Germany) in reaching high degrees of similarity with the most developed world countries. The synergies of the proposed mathematical tools lead to a better understanding of the dynamics underlying world economies and point towards the estimation of future states based on the memory of each time series.

Analysis of World Economic Variables Using Multidimensional Scaling

Waves of globalization reflect the historical technical progress and modern economic growth. The dynamics of this process are here approached using the multidimensional scaling (MDS) methodology to analyze the evolution of GDP per capita, international trade openness, life expectancy, and education tertiary enrollment in 14 countries. MDS provides the appropriate theoretical concepts and the exact mathematical tools to describe the joint evolution of these indicators of economic growth, globalization, welfare and human development of the world economy from 1977 up to 2012. The polarization dance of countries enlightens the convergence paths, potential warfare and present-day rivalries in the global geopolitical scene.

Hymenoptera.

We present the fi rst review of Hymenoptera alien to Europe. Our study revealed that nearly 300 species of Hymenoptera belonging to 30 families have been introduced to Europe. In terms of alien species diversity within invertebrate orders, this result ranks Hymenoptera third following Coleoptera and Hemiptera. Two third of alien Hymenoptera are parasitoids or hyperparasitoids that were mostly introduced for biological control purposes. Only 35 phytophagous species, 47 predator species and 3 species of pollinators have been introduced. Six families of wasps (Aphelinidae, Encyrtidae, Eulophidae, Braconidae, Torymidae, Pteromalidae) represent together with ants (Formicidae) about 80% of the alien Hymenoptera introduced to Europe. Th e three most diverse families are Aphelinidae (60 species representing 32% of the Aphelinid European fauna), Encyrtidae (55) and Formicidae (42) while the Chalcidoidea together represents 2/3 of the total Hymenoptera species introduced to Europe. Th e fi rst two families are associated with mealybugs, a group that also included numerous aliens to Europe. In addition, they are numerous cases of Hymenoptera introduced from one part of Europe to another, especially from continental Europe to British Islands. Th ese introductions mostly concerned phytophagous or gall- maker species (76 %), less frequently parasitoids. Th e number of new records of alien Hymenoptera per year has shown an exponential increase during the last 200 years. Th e number of alien species introduced by year reached a maximum of 5 species per year between 1975 and 2000. North America provided the greatest part of the hymenopteran species alien to Europe (96 species, 35.3%), followed by Asia (84 species, 30.9%) and Africa (49 species, 18%). Th ree Mediterranean countries (only continental parts) hosted the largest number of alien Hymenoptera: Italy (144 spp.), France (111 spp.) and Spain (90 spp.) but no correlation was found with the area of countries. Intentional introduction, mostly for biological control, has been the main pathway of introduction for Hymenoptera. Consequently, the most invaded habitats are agricultural and horticultural as well as greenhouses. To the contrary, Hymenoptera alien in Europe are mostly associated with woodland and forest habitats. Ecological and economic impacts of alien Hymenoptera have been poorly studied. Ants have probably displaced native species and this is also true for introduced parasitoids that are suspected to displace native parasitoids by competition, but reliable examples are still scarce. Th e cost of these impacts has never been estimated.

Implementação do Sistema de Gestão de Qualidade NP EN ISO 9001:2008

Com as dificuldades económicas que se fazem sentir nos últimos anos, tanto em Portugal como no resto do mundo, em qualquer área de negócio, a qualidade tornou-se um dos fatores de sucesso. Com um mercado cada vez com mais concorrência, os clientes procuram frequentemente a melhor qualidade do produto ou do serviço da empresa. Para isso as empresas cada vez mais apostam em fornecer um produto de qualidade através de um sistema da qualidade bem delineado, bem gerido e certificado. O presente trabalho que foi desenvolvido nesta dissertação de Mestrado consistiu na conceção e acompanhamento da Implementação do Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade (SGQ) segundo a norma NP EN ISO 9001:2008 realizada numa indústria de componentes de calçado, designada NEWCOMP, Componentes para Calçado, LDA. (NCP), localizada em S. João da Madeira. Será uma ferramenta bastante útil e estratégica para a empresa a certificação, com inúmeras vantagens e benefícios para a sua imagem. As principais razões que levaram a empresa a interessar-se pela certificação do SGQ foi, principalmente, a melhoria da qualidade dos seus produtos, satisfação dos clientes e alcançar novos mercados. A documentação elaborada do SGQ inclui a política e objetivos da qualidade, esquemas dos principais processos, manual de funções entre outros documentos considerados necessários, para utilização de todas as partes envolvidas.

Asymmetric taxation in a competition between nonprofit and for-profit firms

This paper considers a Cournot competition between a nonprofit firm and a for-profit firm in a homogeneous goods market, with uncertain demand. Given an asymmetric tax schedule, we compute explicitly the Bayesian-Nash equilibrium. Furthermore, we analize the effects of the tax rate and the degree of altruistic preference on market equilibrium outcomes.

Quantity competition in a differentiated duopoly

In this paper, we consider a Stackelberg duopoly competition with differentiated goods, linear and symmetric demand and with unknown costs. In our model, the two firms play a non-cooperative game with two stages: in a first stage, firm F 1 chooses the quantity, q 1, that is going to produce; in the second stage, firm F 2 observes the quantity q 1 produced by firm F 1 and chooses its own quantity q 2. Firms choose their output levels in order to maximise their profits. We suppose that each firm has two different technologies, and uses one of them following a certain probability distribution. The use of either one or the other technology affects the unitary production cost. We show that there is exactly one perfect Bayesian equilibrium for this game. We analyse the variations of the expected profits with the parameters of the model, namely with the parameters of the probability distributions, and with the parameters of the demand and differentiation.

Asymmetric dynamic price competition with uncertainty

We consider a dynamic setting-price duopoly model in which a dominant (leader) firm moves first and a subordinate (follower) firm moves second. We suppose that each firm has two different technologies, and uses one of them according to a certain probability distribution. The use of either one or the other technology affects the unitary production cost. We analyse the effect of the production costs uncertainty on the profits of the firms, for different values of the intercept demand parameters.

Cournot duopoly with competition in the R&D expenditures

We present a new R&D investment in a Cournot Duopoly model and we analyze the different possible types of Nash R&D investments. We observe that the new production costs region can be decomposed in three economical regions, depending on the Nash R&D investment, showing the relevance of the use of patents in new technologies.

Enteroparasitosis and their ethnographic relationship to food handlers in a tourist and economic center in Paraná, Southern Brazil

This study reports on the occurrence of enteroparasites based on data from an ethnographic study of food handlers in the city of Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil. Fecal material from 343 food handlers of both sexes, between 14 and 75 years of age, was analyzed using Lutz, modified Ritchie and Ziehl-Neelsen techniques. Ethnographic relationships were investigated by means of specific questionnaires. Positive fecal samples were found for 131 (38.2%) handlers. Endolimax nana (67.9%) was the predominant species, followed by Entamoeba coli (35.9%), Blastocystis hominis (28.2%), Entamoeba histolytica/dispar (10.1%) and Giardia duodenalis (8.4%). Protozoan infections were more common than helminth infections (p = 0.00). The positive results for some parasites were associated with the male sex, professional category, and the performance of other activities (p < 0.05). The high overall occurrence of enteroparasites found indicates improper hygiene and sanitation conditions. Effective educational measures should be implemented to prevent the transfer of pathogenic organisms to food via handling.

Unemployment, technological revolution and competition from developing countries

Unemployment is probably the most important social problem of our times in the rich industrial world. There are 35 million people unemployed in OECD countries(about 8,5%): the situation however differs between the USA and Europe. In this paper we will discuss the reasons for suche a difference.

An assessment of the social and economic cohesion aspects of the development of the information society in Europe

Neste trabalho pretende consolidar-se a contribuição portuguesa para o estudo comunitário “Na Assessment of the Social and Economic Cohesion Aspects of the Development of the Information Society in Europe” elaborado por um consórcio europeu liderado pela Nexus Europe e em que intervém o ISEGI- Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação, da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, como parceiro nacional português.