Strategic adoption in a two-sided market : a study of college applications in Brazil

This paper measures the importance of indirect network effects in the adoption by colleges and students of ENEM, a standardized exam for high-school students in Brazil that can be used in college application processes. We estimate network effects and find that they are economically significant. Students are more likely to take ENEM the larger the number of colleges adopting it. Similarly, colleges are more likely to adopt it the larger the number of students taking the exam. Moreover, we find evidence that colleges play strategically and that heterogeneity determines their decisions. A college is less likely to adopt ENEM the larger the number of competitors adopting it. Colleges’ characteristics such as ownership and organization affect adoption decisions. In a counterfactual exercise we compare colleges’ adoption decisions under competition and under joint colleges’ payoffs maximization. Adoption rates are significantly reduced when colleges internalize the competitive effect, i.e., the effect of their decisions on other colleges’ payoffs. On the other hand, they increase when indirect network effects - the effect of students’ response to their decisions on other colleges’ payoffs - are also internalized. Competitive adoption rates are found to exceed joint optimum rates by a small difference. These results suggest that, without considering students’ welfare, adoption rates are excessive, but close to the joint optimum.

The effects of a centralized college admission mechanism on migration and college enrollment: evidence from Brazil

No Brasil, a recente reformulação do Exame Nacional de Ensino Médio (ENEM) e a criação do Sistema de Seleção Unificada (SISU), um mecanismo de admissão centralizado que aloca os alunos às instituições, promoveram mudanças relevantes no Ensino Superior. Neste artigo, investigamos os efeitos da introdução do SISU na migração e evasão dos alunos ingressantes a partir dos dados do Censo de Educação Superior. Para tal, exploramos a variação temporal na adesão das instituições ao SISU e encontramos que a adoção do SISU está associada a um aumento da mobilidade entre municípios e entre estados dos alunos ingressantes em 3.8 pontos percentuais (p.p) e 1.6 p.p., respectivamente. Além disso, encontramos um aumento da evasão em 4.5 p.p. Nossos resultados indicam que custos associados à migração e comportamento estratégico são importantes determinantes da evasão dos alunos.

Diálogos da Alma: uma outra história da loucura

The tesis intends to awake a new way of looking at madness. It presents as reference the Psychiatric Hospital Doctor João Machado (Natal/RN) and histories of life and narratives of four intern residents. The research in an ethical horizon, intends to give back to the subjects the voices long silented behind the institutions walls by their families and society in general. As well as to open the interpretations of science to receive and to dialogue with other itineraries of thought that, if on one hand does not restitute the explanation of the Real, on the other hand expresses other forms to see the world. Dislocated of the bigger social environment, the people identified as insane, construct their histories endowed with autonomy and displacements in relation to the social rules and structures that characterize our society, as much as in relation to the logical principles of thought that assume an objective and rational reality. As well as a remnants bedspread configured in a complex and unfinished object, the break up of histories of life of the interns, interviews with medical on psychiatrists to the Doctor João Machado Hospital, documents of the institution and depositions of that house, were the raw material to construct, with this tesis, another chapter of the 'history of madness'. In elapsing of the work innumerable voices have been heard. Some that study the phenomenon of madness, others that live this 'state of the being' in the world. We opt to detaching the first of an open conception on the theme through intellectuals as: João da Costa Machado, Ulysses Pernambucano, Nise da Silveira and Boris Cyrulnik. They express ethics compromised to the humanity of the being

Segredos da alma: a dádiva da assistência de Enfermagem

The present study is an analysis of interpersonal relationships between the nursing staff and the patients under their care. Its objectives are to analyze ties/links that may possibly exist in such relationships and to describe, based on the experience of the patients, how they are received by the nursing staff, and what is the extent of their reliability on the nursing staff within the hospital. This investigation is analytical in nature and qualitative in approach, having as its leading thought Marcel Mauss s gift-exchange theory. The study involved eighteen in-patients, eight of them from government institutions, at a large hospital school and ten others from a private specialty hospital; both in the city of Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Data were collected between January and March 2006. Results point to ties being created between the nursing staff and patients irrespective of their social status, involving especially the development of friendship and reliability. We have noticed that in both services the interpersonal relationship is associated with the circulation of the symbolic goods mentioned in the patients discourse, such as attention, loving care and concern, among others, marking the formation of ties during hospital stay. Likewise, reliability is also present in close relationship with the technical competence of the professional. Patient hospitality is associated with the manner in which the patients were treated on being admitted to the hospital, although they also refer to hospitality at later moments, during the course of their treatment. Finally, we are in a position to say that there are ties/links between in-patients and nursing staff, irrespective of the patient s social status and class divide. It is thus evident that the antiutilitarian symbolism of gift to give, receive, give back -, which shapes the setting of social ties also takes place in today s utilitarian, individualistic and competitive societies. Thus, human beings whose existence is dependent on mutual relationships try to save their humanity, especially those who are fragile and dependent as is the case of the hospital in-patient

O medo da morte e os temores infundados: uma investigação acerca da natureza da alma em Lucrécio.

Lucrèce, penseur latin du siècle I, avant J.C., écrire que le peur de la mort imputé par la religion et la superstition, nourrit le souhait à la richesse, l'ambition du pouvoir et les actes insensés, dont les conséquences se reflètent dans les maladies de l'âme. La terreur qui s'installe chez l'homme, à l'être confronté au décès, est aussi un obstacle à la liberté et à la vie équilibrée. Les craintes sans fondement seulement seraient surmonter, avec la compréhension de la nature et du mouvement de l'âme, en percevant leur génération, corporéité et finitude. Pour cela, la compréhension des atomes et du vide, les éléments primordiaux de la nature se basent tout la connaissance de l'âme. L'objectif de ce travail est enquêter la nature de l'âme dans Lucrèce, en présentant une réflexion sur les craintes sans fondement et la peur de la mort, comme une manière de percevoir le mouvement de la vie elle-même, et de que manière sa philosophie affronte à la crainte de la mort.

A natureza da alma e o clinamen: ação e liberdade em Lucrécio

The concept of freedom and his presupposition, the free will or libera voluntas in Lucretius relies on the notion of clinamen (declination), an occasional and random motion of atoms, inaccessible to experience. It is endowed with a complex movement provided by spontaneity, without the need for mechanical causes. The action of perceiving (sensus) is selfconsciousness, according to which this will, illuminated by previous experiences (sensory, intellectual or emotional) of the soul, takes advantage of the freedom and own spontaneity of atomic motions to drive them to a perceived direction and chosen. On the other hand, if we consider that the declination has a predominant role for the acts of will, we are facing other problems and questions. There is always the choice of a determined action and, therefore, even if the individual is facing a need to act, is possible choose to do not continue finish this action. Thereby, the will is related to conditions that are originate, ultimately, from the images formed randomly in space and impress the soul: the simulacra of desire and pleasure. The declination itself is a very important notion in this research, in order to emphasize the relationship between the freedom and the kinetic of elements. The approach developed in this work had as main objective to investigate the philosophy of nature and the soul in Lucretius, their constituents and movement, as well as demonstrating how the notion of clinamen articulates with the concepts of image, desire and pleasure, proposing a possible interpretation for the declination as an indeterminate and ethical foundation of freedom

Ulisses e Narciso: as faces da alma humana através do discurso mítico nas Enéadas de Plotino

This dissertation, witch studies the myth in Plotinus, attempts to set an approach to the comprehension of the mythic discourse as image related to the ethical process in the Enneads. In order to achieve it, the analysis of the mythic narrative will be employed in the philosophical context that has as a starting point a revisit of the platonic poetic conception. As central questions the notable mythological figures of Narcissus and Ulysses will be utilized to put into context the notion of the Plotinian soul and its endeavor of returning to the originary unity. Therefore, by following the course of both figures in their respective narratives, it conceives a possible relation of ascension and fall of the soul. The first part of this study intends to show Plato s interpretation on the myth and Plotinus standpoint in regard to it. Moreover, it observes Plato s criticism on poetry in the context of the Greek Paideia and the notion of the myth as image of the henological structure in Plotinus, who perceives in the myth its exemplifying nature. The second part attempts to structure Plotinus philosophy, contrasting Henology and Ontology, therefore exposing the three hypostases and the comprehension of the intelligible. The third part endeavors to display the sense of the myth, the idea of the myth as image in Plotinus and the roles of the mythical figures in the Enneads

Argumentos sobre a imortalidade da alma no Fédon de Platão

Cette recherche a pour but d étudier l immortalité de l âme dans le Phédon de Platon. Le problème central consiste dans l affirmation de l immortalité de l âme. Pour la justifier, Platon fait une démonstration dialectique basée sur la Théorie des Formes. La trame des arguments philosophiques articulés dans ce Dialogue sera mise en dissertation. Ces arguments sont: l argument des contraires, l argument de l Anamnese et l argument sur la cause de la génération et de la corruption

A união substancial corpo-alma no âmbito da nova ciência cartesiana

As dificuldades enfrentadas por Descartes para pensar a união substancial corpo/alma, já que partiu da distinção real das duas substâncias. Uma tentativa de pensar essa união conflitante em termos de uma oposição por complementaridade.

The Pediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organization American-College-of-Rheumatology provisional criteria for the evaluation of response to therapy in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus: Prospective validation of the definition of improvement

Objective. To use the Pediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organization (PRINTO) core set of outcome measures to develop a validated definition of improvement for the evaluation of response to therapy in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods. Thirty-seven experienced pediatric rheumatologists from 27 countries, each of whom had specific experience in the assessment of juvenile SLE patients, achieved consensus on 128 patient profiles as being clinically improved or not improved. Using the physicians' consensus ratings as the gold standard measure, the chi-square, sensitivity, specificity, false-positive and false-negative rates, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and kappa level of agreement for 597 candidate definitions of improvement were calculated. Only definitions with a kappa value greater than 0.7 were retained. The top definitions were selected based on the product of the content validity score multiplied by its kappa statistic.Results. The definition of improvement with the highest final score was at least 50% improvement from baseline in any 2 of the 5 core set measures, with no more than 1 of the remaining worsening by more than 30%.Conclusion. PRINTO proposes a valid and reproducible definition of improvement that reflects well the consensus rating of experienced clinicians and that incorporates clinically meaningful change in core set measures in a composite end point for the evaluation of global response to therapy in patients with juvenile SLE. The definition is now proposed for use in juvenile SLE clinical trials and may help physicians to decide whether a child with SLE responded adequately to therapy.

The influence of study schedules and work on the sleep-wake cycle of college students

College students usually exhibit an irregular sleep-wake cycle characterized by great phase delays on weekends and short sleep length on weekdays. As the temporal organization of social activities is an important synchronizer of human biological rhythms, we investigated the role played by study's schedules and work on the sleep-wake cycle. Three groups of female college students were investigated: (1) no-job morning group, (2) no-job evening group, (3) job evening group. The volunteers answered a sleep questionnaire in the classroom. The effects of day of the week and group on the sleep schedules and sleep length were analyzed by a two way ANOVA for repeated measures. The three groups showed delays in the wake up time on weekends. No-job evening and morning groups also delayed bedtime, but the job evening group slept at the same time on weekdays as on weekends. Sleep length increased on weekends for morning group and job evening group, whereas the no-job evening group maintained the amount of sleep from weekdays to weekends. This survey showed that the tendency of phase delay on weekends was differently expressed according to study's schedules and work.