Context costs and comparative advantages in the telecommunications sector in Portugal and China

This Work Project aims to discuss the Context Costs and Comparative Advantages of the Telecommunications sector both in Portugal and China. The work was built mostly on primary research by interviews with relevant people (business persons, University Professors and Agencies directors), and by economic data publicly available. A list of context costs and comparative advantages was drawn for each country and possible resolutions suggestions were made in the end. The context costs depend heavily on the economic situation of the countries and it should be taken into account when assessing the degree of magnitude of each cost of context. The competitive advantages of each country were drawn in comparison with one another. Some key results stand out: firstly, Portugal’s costs of context depend mainly on governmental decisions, uncertainties and instability and China’s cost of context depend primarily on cultural norms, mainly the Guanxi; second, the telecommunications sector shares most of its context costs and advantages with other sectors; third, China as an economic power could use the telecommunications sector as a way to further develop and boost its economy.

On the standardization of the fishing effort

In this note we demonstrate that the use of an index to standardize the fishing effort using the cpue of a standard vessel or gear is mistaken, once the cpues- catch per unit of total effort after standardization is similar to cpues - catch per unit of effort of the standard vesel or gear arbitrarily chosen.

Strategies of the small-scale fisheries on the Central Amazon floodplain

A multivariate approach was applied to data of small-scale fisheries developed in Central Amazon, using information about catch composition, environment, fishing gear and season of the hydrological cycle. The correspondence analysis demonstrated to be a good tool for the analysis related multispecies fisheries. The analysis identified patterns of use of fisheries resources by the riverine communities, showing the correlation between the environmental factors and the fishing strategy for the capture of target fish species, indicating the high level of empiric knowledge about the environment and fisheries.

Characterization of the commercial fish production landed at Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil

The present work aims to update a series of information about the regional fishing production, by presenting and characterizing the contribution of the different sub-systems of the Amazon basin to the catch landed at the main fishing market of Manaus, Brazil, from 1994 to 1996. Collectors specifically hired for this function registered key information on the fisheries. Thirty nine types or groups of fish were found in the fishing production landed. Jaraqui (Semaprochilodus spp.), curimatã (Prochilodus nigricans), pacu (Myleinae), matrinchã (Brycon cephalus), sardine (Triportheus spp.), aracu (Anostomidae) and tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) were the most important items during three consecutive years. In 1994 these items summed up 91.6% of the total production; in 1995 and 1996 these values were, respectively, 85.3% and 86.4% of the total production. Tambaqui landed decreased remarkably during the period 1976-1996. There was a strong seasonal component in the production of the main species; jaraqui and matrinchã were mostly landed between April and June, while curimatã, pacu, and sardine were mostly landed during the dry season. Other important items showed a strong inter-annual variation in their production. The fishing production landed came mostly from the sub-system of the Purus River (around 30% of the total production). The subsystem of the Medium-Solimões contributed with an average of 15% and the sub-systems of the Madeira, Lower-Solimões, Upper-Amazon and Juruá, together contributed with 11.5% of the total production landed. Finally, the remaining sub-systems contributed with only 7.6% of the production.

Avaliação do desempenho de fundos de investimento de ouro nos EUA: influência dos diferentes regimes de mercado na seletividade e market-timing

Dissertação de mestrado em Finanças

Plataforma para suporte ao ciclo de vida de organizações virtuais e seleção dinâmica de parceiros e fornecedores

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia Industrial e de Sistemas

Designing cnc knit for hybrid membrane and bending active structures

Recent advances in computation allow for the integration of design and simulation of highly interrelated systems, such as hybrids of structural membranes and bending active elements. The engaged complexities of forces and logistics can be mediated through the development of materials with project specific properties and detailing. CNC knitting with high tenacity yarn enables this practice and offers an alternative to current woven membranes. The design and fabrication of an 8m high fabric tower through an interdisciplinary team of architects, structural and textile engineers, allowed to investigate means to design, specify, make and test CNC knit as material for hybrid structures in architectural scale. This paper shares the developed process, identifies challenges, potentials and future work.

Uma teoria da justiça libertarista: contribuições de Nozick e Steiner

Dissertação de mestrado em Filosofia Política

A breakthrough on Amanita phalloides poisoning: an effective antidotal effect by polymyxin B

Amanita phalloides is responsible for more than 90 % of mushroom-related fatalities, and no effective antidote is available. a-Amanitin, the main toxin of A. phalloides, inhibits RNA polymerase II (RNAP II), causing hepatic and kidney failure. In silico studies included docking and molecular dynamics simulation coupled to molecular mechanics with generalized Born and surface area method energy decomposition on RNAP II. They were performed with a clinical drug that shares chemical similarities to a-amanitin, polymyxin B. The results show that polymyxin B potentially binds to RNAP II in the same interface of a-amanitin, preventing the toxin from binding to RNAP II. In vivo, the inhibition of the mRNA transcripts elicited by a-amanitin was efficiently reverted by polymyxin B in the kidneys. Moreover, polymyxin B significantly decreased the hepatic and renal a-amanitin-induced injury as seen by the histology and hepatic aminotransferases plasma data. In the survival assay, all animals exposed to a-amanitin died within 5 days, whereas 50 % survived up to 30 days when polymyxin B was administered 4, 8, and 12 h post-a-amanitin. Moreover, a single dose of polymyxin B administered concomitantly with a-amanitin was able to guarantee 100 % survival. Polymyxin B protects RNAP II from inactivation leading to an effective prevention of organ damage and increasing survival in a-amanitin-treated animals. The present use of clinically relevant concentrations of an already human-use-approved drug prompts the use of polymyxin B as an antidote for A. phalloides poisoning in humans.

Brachyuran crustaceans from the bycatch of prawn fisheries at the mouth of the Amazon river

The present paper is a pioneering study on the Brachyura bycatch associated with the artisan prawn fisheries at the mouth of the Amazon River. The study was conducted at four collection sites distributed along the mouth of the Amazon River between the months of January/2009 and January/2010. The animals were caught using handcrafted traps called "matapi", which are used by prawn fisherman in the region. Twenty matapis were used at each collection site. A total of 145 specimens were captured and six species were identified, all belonging to the Trichodactylidae family - Sylviocarcinus maldonadoensis, S. pictus, S. devillei, Valdivia serrata, Dilocarcinus septemdentatus and D. pagei. The most representative species, S. maldonadoensis, S. pictus and S. devillei were classified as regular. Regarding the composition of the capture, there were three specimens of D. pagei , only one male specimen of D. septemdentatus, forty-eight specimens of S. maldonadoensis, sixty-eight specimens of S. pictus, twenty-two specimens of S. devillei and three specimens of V. serrata. In all months, the brachyuran fauna showed a considerably lower biomass when compared to the prawns, representing only 5% of the catch, in a ratio of 1:0.06. For most species, the number of males was always higher than the number of females in almost all collection months.

Estudo comparativo entre indicadores de desempenho da JCI e do Contrato Programa Cirurgia Segura

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão da Qualidade

Assessing the suitability of the minimum capture size and protection regimes in the gooseneck barnacle shellfishery

The suitability of a total-length-based, minimum capture-size and different protection regimes was investigated for the gooseneck barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes shellfishery in N Spain. For this analysis, individuals that were collected from 10 sites under different fishery protection regimes (permanently open, seasonally closed, and permanently closed) were used. First, we applied a non-parametric regression model to explore the relationship between the capitulum Rostro-Tergum (RT) size and the Total Length (TL). Important heteroskedastic disturbances were detected for this relationship, demon- strating a high variability of TL with respect to RT. This result substantiates the unsuitability of a TL-based minimum size by means of a mathematical model. Due to these disturbances, an alternative growth- based minimum capture size of 26.3 mm RT (23 mm RC) was estimated using the first derivative of a Kernel-based non-parametric regression model for the relationship between RT and dry weight. For this purpose, data from the permanently protected area were used to avoid bias due to the fishery. Second, the size-frequency distribution similarity was computed using a MDS analysis for the studied sites to evaluate the effectiveness of the protection regimes. The results of this analysis indicated a positive effect of the permanent protection, while the effect of the seasonal closure was not detected. This result needs to be interpreted with caution because the current harvesting based on a potentially unsuitable mini- mum capture size may dampen the efficacy of the seasonal protection regime.

A relação entre jornalistas e leitores no online: análise do feedback do público durante a experiência de estágio no P3

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Informação e Jornalismo)

Os social media como parte integrante da comunicação empresarial

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização Publicidade e Relações Públicas)

As particularidades do jornalismo online ao serviço das preferências dos leitores: análise dos elementos multimédia no site Maisfutebol

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Informação e Jornalismo)