Appreciating the power of words and imaginative organizing: A triadic model of ethics practiced in everyday conversations

This thesis provides an alternative framework to analyze power and ethics practiced in everyday conversations, which constitute processes of organizing. Drawing upon narrative frameworks, the analyses of messages posted on an online message board demonstrate people’s imaginative capacity to create relevant stories, in respect of their precise grasp of factual understandings, contextual relevance and evaluative/moral appropriateness, by appropriating others’ words. Based on the empirical analyses, the thesis indicates that studies on power and ethics in organizations can be re-oriented towards appreciating irremediable power imbalances by offering alternative ways of member’s denoting experiences of power.

Capital requirements and loan market conditions insight into Portuguese Banking system (2004-2011)

Capital Requirements have been gaining importance in the current macroeconomic and financial environment and Portugal is no exception. Nonetheless, despite the several media articles on this subject, the associations with Loan Market Conditions, namely availability and pricing are still unstudied. Thus, this project adds to the existing literature a characterization of Portuguese four biggest banks on capital reporting and requirements fulfillment. It is concluded that banks under analysis need to increase capital and that there is an association between the variables under study: Share Capital is negatively correlated with Credit Volume, and it is positively correlated with Net Commercial Income.

Mental health and neuroscience. A perspective from the magazine market

Mental health awareness has been rising worldwide, motivated by its social and economic costs. Despite the investment in research in neuroscience in the recent years, little is known about the underlying mechanisms in the brain that are correlated with psychiatric conditions. This project, through two feature articles suitable to be published in magazines, provides perspectives onto mental health research. First it presents an example where psychiatry joins forces with neuroscience and computer science in an interdisciplinary effort to improve the life of those affected by mental disorders. The second article gathers opinions which claim that mental health research priorities should be set by patients themselves, or even that people with lived experience of mental health issues should have an active role in that research. This project was planned and researched while I was an Erasmus student at Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom.

Universal banks and corporate control: Evidence from the global syndicated loan market

We investigate the effects of bank control over borrower firms whether by representation on boards of directors or by the holding of shares through bank asset management divisions. Using a large sample of syndicated loans, we find that banks are more likely to act as lead arrangers in loans when they exert some control over the borrower firm. Bank-firm governance links are associated with higher loan spreads during the 2003-2006 credit boom, but lower spreads during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Additionally, these links mitigate credit rationing effects during the crisis. The results are robust to several methods to correct for the endogeneity of the bank- firm governance link. Our evidence, consistent with intertemporal smoothing of loan rates, suggests there are costs and benefits from banks’ involvement in firm governance.

Experimental determination of bone cortex holding power of orthopedic screw

Cylindrical specimens of bone measuring 15 mm in diameter were obtained from the lateral cortical layer of 10 pairs of femurs and tibias. A central hole 3.2 mm in diameter was drilled in each specimen. The hole was tapped, and a 4.5 mm cortical bone screw was inserted from the outer surface. The montage was submitted to push-out testing up to a complete strip of the bone threads. The cortical thickness and rupture load were measured, and the shear stress was calculated. The results were grouped according to the bone segment from which the specimen was obtained. The results showed that bone cortex screw holding power is dependent on the bone site. Additionally, the diaphyseal cortical bone tissue is both quantitatively and qualitatively more resistant to screw extraction than the metaphyseal tissue.

Historic and potential technology transition paths of grid battery storage: Co-evolution of energy grid, electric mobility and batteries

Scarcity of fuels, changes in environmental policy and in society increased the interest in generating electric energy from renewable energy sources (RES) for a sustainable energy supply in the future. The main problem of RES as solar and wind energy, which represent a main pillar of this transition, is that they cannot supply constant power output. This results inter alia in an increased demand of backup technologies as batteries to assure electricity system safety. The diffusion of energy storage technologies is highly dependent on the energy system and transport transition pathways which might lead to a replacement or reconfiguration of embedded socio-technical practices and regimes (by creating new standards or dominant designs, changing regulations, infrastructure and user patterns). The success of this technology is dependent on hardly predictable future technical advances, actor preferences, development of competing technologies and designs, diverging interests of actors, future cost efficiencies, environmental performance, the evolution of market demand and design and evolution of our society.

Switching mode power amplifier for bluetooth applications

Modern fully integrated transceivers architectures, require circuits with low area, low cost, low power, and high efficiency. A key block in modern transceivers is the power amplifier, which is deeply studied in this thesis. First, we study the implementation of a classical Class-A amplifier, describing the basic operation of an RF power amplifier, and analysing the influence of the real models of the reactive components in its operation. Secondly, the Class-E amplifier is deeply studied. The different types of implementations are reviewed and theoretical equations are derived and compared with simulations. There were selected four modes of operation for the Class-E amplifier, in order to perform the implementation of the output stage, and the subsequent comparison of results. This led to the selection of the mode with the best trade-off between efficiency and harmonics distortion, lower power consumption and higher output power. The optimal choice was a parallel circuit containing an inductor with a finite value. To complete the implementation of the PA in switching mode, a driver was implemented. The final block (output stage together with the driver) got 20 % total efficiency (PAE) transmitting 8 dBm output power to a 50 W load with a total harmonic distortion (THD) of 3 % and a total consumption of 28 mW. All implementations are designed using standard 130 nm CMOS technology. The operating frequency is 2.4 GHz and it was considered an 1.2 V DC power supply. The proposed circuit is intended to be used in a Bluetooth transmitter, however, it has a wider range of applications.

A wave of change: Labor market and social security impacts of the EU refugee inflow

The recent massive inflow of refugees to the European Union (EU) raises a number of unanswered questions on the economic impact of this phenomenon. To examine these questions, we constructed an overlapping-generations model that describes the evolution of the skill premium and of the welfare benefit level in relevant European countries, in the aftermath of an inflow of asylum-seekers. In our simulation, relative wages of skilled workers increase between 8% and 11% in the period of the inflow; their subsequent time path is dependent on the initial skill premium. The entry of migrants creates a fiscal surplus of about 8%, which can finance higher welfare benefits in the subsequent periods. These effects are weaker in a scenario where refugees do not fully integrate into the labor market.