Let's go to work

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A mechanical design approach to testing fluid turbulence over a rough surface

Senior thesis written for Oceanography 444

Disappearing acts : making things + making things go away

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2014

Testing the weak-form market efficiency and the day of the week effects of some African countries

The aims of this work are twofold. On the one hand, it aims to find evidence supporting the presence of the weak form efficiency of several emerging African stock markets by using both parametric as well as non parametric tests. The results indicate that none of the markets are characterised by random walks with the exception of the South African stock market. On the other hand, this study aims to detect the presence of the day of the week effects of these African stock markets. Results show the existence of day of the week effects, that is the typical negative Monday and Friday positive effects in several stock markets.

Quantifying diet-induced metabolic changes of the human gut microbiome

The human gut microbiome is known to be associated with various human disorders, but a major challenge is to go beyond association studies and elucidate causalities. Mathematical modeling of the human gut microbiome at a genome scale is a useful tool to decipher microbe-microbe, diet-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Here, we describe the CASINO (Community And Systems-level INteractive Optimization) toolbox, a comprehensive computational platform for analysis of microbial communities through metabolic modeling. We first validated the toolbox by simulating and testing the performance of single bacteria and whole communities in vitro. Focusing on metabolic interactions between the diet, gut microbiota, and host metabolism, we demonstrated the predictive power of the toolbox in a diet-intervention study of 45 obese and overweight individuals and validated our predictions by fecal and blood metabolomics data. Thus, modeling could quantitatively describe altered fecal and serum amino acid levels in response to diet intervention.

Should I stay or should I go? Sibling effects in household formation

This paper analyzes peer effects among siblings in the decision to leave parental home. Estimating peer effects is challenging because of problems of refection, endogenous group formation, and correlated unobservables. We overcome these issues using the exogenous variation in siblings' household formation implied by the eligibility rules for a Spanish rental subsidy. Our results show that sibling effects are negative and that these effects can be explained by the presence of old or ill parents. Sibling effects turn positive from older to younger close-in-age siblings, when imitation is more likely to prevail. Our findings indicate that policy makers who aim at fostering household formation should target the household rather than the individual and combine policies for young adults with policies for the elderly.

Perceptual user interface framework for immersive information retrieval environments (An experimental framework for testing and rapid iteration)

The use of perceptual inputs is an emerging area within HCI that suggests a developing Perceptual User Interface (PUI) that may prove advantageous for those involved in mobile serious games and immersive social network environments. Since there are a large variety of input devices, software platforms, possible interactions, and myriad ways to combine all of the above elements in pursuit of a PUI, we propose in this paper a basic experimental framework that will be able to standardize study of the wide range of interactive applications for testing efficacy in learning or information retrieval and also suggest improvements to emerging PUIs by enabling quick iteration. This rapid iteration will start to define a targeted range of interactions that will be intuitive and comfortable as perceptual inputs, and enhance learning and information retention in comparison to traditional GUI systems. The work focuses on the planning of the technical development of two scenarios, and the first steps in developing a framework to evaluate these and other PUIs for efficacy and pedagogy.

Effect of plug-filling, Testing velocity and temperature on the tensile strength of strap repairs on aluminium structures

In this work, an experimental study was performed on the influence of plug-filling, loading rate and temperature on the tensile strength of single-strap (SS) and double-strap (DS) repairs on aluminium structures. Whilst the main purpose of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of plug-filling for the strength improvement of these repairs, a parallel study was carried out to assess the sensitivity of the adhesive to external features that can affect the repairs performance, such as the rate of loading and environmental temperature. The experimental programme included repairs with different values of overlap length (L O = 10, 20 and 30 mm), and with and without plug-filling, whose results were interpreted in light of experimental evidence of the fracture modes and typical stress distributions for bonded repairs. The influence of the testing speed on the repairs strength was also addressed (considering 0.5, 5 and 25 mm/min). Accounting for the temperature effects, tests were carried out at room temperature (≈23°C), 50 and 80°C. This permitted a comparative evaluation of the adhesive tested below and above the glass transition temperature (T g), established by the manufacturer as 67°C. The combined influence of these two parameters on the repairs strength was also analysed. According to the results obtained from this work, design guidelines for repairing aluminium structures were

Massive shift in the pneumococcal nasopharyngeal flora after the 7-valent conjugate vaccine: epidemiological studies and testing pathogenic potential in animal models

Dissertation presented to obtain the PhD degree in Biology/Molecular Biology by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica

HIV Voluntary Testing among Portuguese Women Attending Family Planning Clinics: Implications for HIV Prevention Education and Testing

Objectives: The aim of this article is to analyze the factors associated with HIV testing among 767 sexually active women. Methods: Participants were administered several self-report questionnaires that assessed behavioral and psychosocial measures. Results: Overall, 59.8% of the participants reported ever having tested for HIV. Results show that higher levels of education, being pregnant or having been pregnant, concern about AIDS, AIDS knowledge, self-efficacy in condom negotiation and perception of no risk in partner significantly predicted the likelihood of testing among women. Attending the mass was negatively associated with HIV testing. Conclusions: These findings provide information that can be used in the development of a focused gender sensitive HIV prevention program to increase HIV testing.

Impact of Syncope on Quality of Life: Validation of a Measure in Patients Undergoing Tilt Testing

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Recurrent syncope has a significant impact on quality of life. The development of measurement scales to assess this impact that are easy to use in clinical settings is crucial. The objective of the present study is a preliminary validation of the Impact of Syncope on Quality of Life questionnaire for the Portuguese population. METHODS: The instrument underwent a process of translation, validation, analysis of cultural appropriateness and cognitive debriefing. A population of 39 patients with a history of recurrent syncope (>1 year) who underwent tilt testing, aged 52.1 ± 16.4 years (21-83), 43.5% male, most in active employment (n=18) or retired (n=13), constituted a convenience sample. The resulting Portuguese version is similar to the original, with 12 items in a single aggregate score, and underwent statistical validation, with assessment of reliability, validity and stability over time. RESULTS: With regard to reliability, the internal consistency of the scale is 0.9. Assessment of convergent and discriminant validity showed statistically significant results (p<0.01). Regarding stability over time, a test-retest of this instrument at six months after tilt testing with 22 patients of the sample who had not undergone any clinical intervention found no statistically significant changes in quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that this instrument is of value for assessing quality of life in patients with recurrent syncope in Portugal.

Testing for volatility persistence change: The effect of the credit crisis on the Portuguese banks

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

TIMWE: IPO go or no go?

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Empirically testing the dimensions of consumer trust in e-commerce

In the fields of marketing and general management, many are the contributions of literature relating trust and e‐commerce. Trust is perceived as an issue that concerns the consumers’ intention to purchase. As so, in this research, a path model is empirically tested in order to develop solutions for Internet vendors on how to deal with consumers and increase their trust. The path model measures how the dimensions of trust, named as competence, integrity and benevolence positively influence the overall trust of the consumers and at the same time how the sources of trust – consumer characteristics, firm characteristics, website infrastructure and interactions influence those dimensions. The data used to test the model was collected in Portugal, through 365 valid cases. Findings revealed that consumers, which have high level of overall trust, are more likely to intent to purchase online.