Oitenta anos de produção e comercialização dos vinhos do Dão

Mestrado em Economia

Analysing intention and action in mobile banking services

Technological advances at the level of mobile devices are transforming the world. Banking users are able to conduct banking services at any place, and at any time, with m-banking. The purpose of this research is to analyse intention and action in m-banking services. A research model was developed and PLS was used to test the causalities in the proposed model. Our proposal extends the existing models with an assessment of the actual usage of m-banking and of how behavioural intention translates into action. This study found that the main determinants of behavioural intention for m-banking are social influence and relative advantage. Furthermore, perceived risk, lack of information and usage barriers have a negative effect on m- banking behavioural intention. Perceived risks, e-banking use, and behaviour intention are found to be significant antecedents of m-banking use. Gender has a positive and significant influence on m-banking usage, but not on the construction of behavioural intention.

Eficiencia energética en el sector residencial de la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador

El estudio se centra en el sector residencial de la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador. El objetivo es determinar hasta donde se puede reducir el consumo de energía a la vez que se obtengan óptimas condiciones de confort, estableciendo un indicador de eficiencia energética. Para ello se determina la demanda de energía eléctrica y los factores principales de consumo, mediante una metodología de investigación mixta tanto cualitativa como cuantitativa, pues el consumo energético se ve influenciado por diferentes elementos como la eficiencia de los equipos, diseño y hábitos de uso de los habitantes, entre otros. Se realizan encuestas a una muestra de 280 hogares del sector residencial de Cuenca y por otro lado se mide el consumo y calidad lumínica del ambiente interior de 6 viviendas mediante equipos, simulaciones y encuestas. Posteriormente se analizan los resultados obtenidos y se los compara con los estándares de eficiencia nacional e internacional, se proponen estrategias básicas para la reducción del consumo de energía eléctrica y finalmente el estudio define una clasificación de indicadores de consumo mínimo.

A eficiência técnica dos portos e terminais públicos e privados brasileiros marítimos no período de 2010 a 2014

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Civil e Ambiental, 2016.

Ciclos económicos, capital bancario y nuevas opciones de política económica

El objetivo de este trabajo es utilizar algunos hechos estilizados de la "Gran recesión", específicamente la drástica caída en el nivel de capitalización bancario, para analizar la relación entre los ciclos financieros y los ciclos reales, así como la efectividad de la política monetaria no convencional y las políticas macroprudenciales. Para esto, en el primer capítulo se desarrolla una microfundamentación de la banca a partir de un modelo de Costly State Verification, que es incluido posteriomente en distintas especificaciones de modelos DSGE. Los resultados muestran que: (i) los ciclos financieros y los ciclos económicos pueden relacionarse a partir del deterioro del capital bancario; (ii) Las políticas macroprudenciales y no convencionales son efectivas para moderar los ciclos económicos, pero son costosas en términos de recursos e inflación.

Changes in trophic ecology of fish assemblages after no take Marine Protected Area designation in the southwestern coast of Portugal.

Changes in fish assemblage structure caused by human activities, such as fishing, can alter trophic relations in fish assemblages. In this context, Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are efficient tools for habitat recovery and ideal environments for evaluating changes on the trophic structure resulting from human activities. The present work targeted fish assemblages from two no-take MPAs from the northern half of South Alentejo and Costa Vicentina Marine Park, established in 2011. Previous works reported positive effects on local fish assemblages after no-take MPA designation, and it is therefore important to further study its impact on local fish assemblages, especially concerning trophic interactions. Local fish assemblages were sampled (summer 2011, winter 2012, summer 2013 and winter 2013) using trammel nets. Diets were characterized and digestive tract contents of the 10 most abundant fish species were compared between the no take MPAs (treatment) and adjacent areas (controls), and changes evaluated as a function of time since protection. Results revealed significant differences between the diets of fish from protected and non protected areas, with crabs being the preferential prey in both protected and control areas but being more ingested outside the no-take areas. However, these differences were evident since the beginning of the study. Fish assemblages from the northern area presented significantly larger niche breadth and significantly increasing with time. This way, the main effects of no-take MPA implementation were directly visible on the niche breadth but did not directly impact the diet composition of the sampled fish assemblages, contributing however to reinforce the already naturally existent differences. This work provides important information regarding the effect of changes in the fish assemblage caused by MPA designation on the trophic ecology of fish.