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Publications

Publications by LIAAD

2019

Digital Piracy: Factors that Influence the Intention to Pirate - A Structural Equation Model Approach

Authors
Meireles, R; Campos, P;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION

Abstract
Faster Internet connections are breaking most of the geographic barriers. At the same time, the huge digital content that have been generated in last years is motivating new forms of digital piracy. We know that piracy of copyrighted digital material has a huge impact on countries' economy, being a major issue for the whole society and not only for content creators. The purpose of this paper is to investigate digital piracy intention. For that purpose, we have expanded the framework of the theory of planned behavior using the utility theory, the deterrence theory and other relevant constructs. Using data from students of a Portuguese university and high school, a sample of 590 questionnaires has been collected. Two models were developed and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The first considers the full sample (Full Model), while the second considers only those who had pirated (Pirate Model). The pirate model confirmed the existence of a significant and strong relation between past behavior and intention toward digital piracy.

2019

Innovation and Employment: An Agent-Based Approach

Authors
Neves, F; Campos, P; Silva, S;

Publication
JASSS-THE JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL SIMULATION

Abstract
While the effects of innovation on employment have been a controversial issue in economic literature for several years, this economic puzzle is particularly relevant nowadays. We are witnessing tremendous technological developments which threaten to disrupt the labour market, due to their potential for significantly automating human labour. As such, this paper presents a qualitative study of the dynamics underlying the relationship between innovation and employment, using an agent-based model developed in Python. The model represents an economy populated by firms able to perform either Product Innovation (leading to the discovery of new tasks, which require human labour) or Process Innovation (leading to the automation of tasks previously performed by humans). The analysis led to three major conclusions, valid in this context. The first takeaway is that the Employment Rate in a given economy is dependent on the automation potential of the tasks in that economy and dependent on the type of innovation performed by firms in that economy (with Product Innovation having a positive effect on employment and Process Innovation having a negative effect). Second, in any given economy, if firms' propensity for product and process innovation, as well as the automation potential of their tasks are stable over time, the Employment Rate in that economy will tend towards stability over time. The third conclusion is that higher levels of Process Innovation and lower levels of Product Innovation, lead to a more intense decline of wage shares and to a wider gap between employee productivity growth and wage growth.

2019

Centrality and community detection: a co-marketing multilayer network

Authors
Fernandes, A; Goncalves, PCT; Campos, P; Delgado, C;

Publication
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL MARKETING

Abstract
Purpose Based on the data obtained from a questionnaire of 595 people, the authors explore the relative importance of consumers, checking whether socioeconomic variables influence their centrality, detecting the communities within the network to which they belong, identifying consumption patterns and checking whether there is any relationship between co-marketing and consumer choices. Design/methodology/approach A multilayer network is created from data collected through a consumer survey to identify customers' choices in seven different markets. The authors focus the analysis on a smaller kinship and cohabitation network and apply the LART network community detection algorithm. To verify the association between consumers' centrality and variables related to their respective socioeconomic profile, the authors develop an econometric model to measure their impact on consumer's degree centrality. Findings Based on 595 responses analysing individual consumers, the authors find out which consumers invest and which variables influence consumers' centrality. Using a smaller sample of 70 consumers for whom they know kinship and cohabitation relationships, the authors detect communities with the same consumption patterns and verify that this may be an adequate way to establish co-marketing strategies. Originality/value Network analysis has become a widely used technique in the extraction of knowledge on consumers. This paper's main (and novel) contribution lies in providing a greater understanding on how multilayer networks represent hidden databases with potential knowledge to be considered in business decisions. Centrality and community detection are crucial measures in network science which enable customers with the highest potential value to be identified in a network. Customers are increasingly seen as multidimensional, considering their preferences in various markets.

2019

EvoPPI: A Web Application to Compare Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) from Different Databases and Species

Authors
Vazquez, N; Rocha, S; Lopez Fernandez, H; Torres, A; Camacho, R; Fdez Riverola, F; Vieira, J; Vieira, CP; Reboiro Jato, M;

Publication
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS

Abstract
Biological processes are mediated by protein-protein interactions (PPI) that have been studied using different methodologies, and organized as centralized repositories - PPI databases. The data stored in the different PPI databases only overlaps partially. Moreover, some of the repositories are dedicated to a species or subset of species, not all have the same functionalities, or store data in the same format, making comparisons between different databases difficult to perform. Therefore, here we present EvoPPI (http://evoppi.i3s.up.pt), an open source web application tool that allows users to compare the protein interactions reported in two different interactomes. When interactomes belong to different species, a versatile BLAST search approach is used to identify orthologous/paralogous genes, which to our knowledge is a unique feature of EvoPPI.

2019

EvoPPI 1.0: a Web Platform for Within- and Between-Species Multiple Interactome Comparisons and Application to Nine PolyQ Proteins Determining Neurodegenerative Diseases

Authors
Vazquez, N; Rocha, S; Lopez Fernandez, H; Torres, A; Camacho, R; Fdez Riverola, F; Vieira, J; Vieira, CP; Reboiro Jato, M;

Publication
INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES-COMPUTATIONAL LIFE SCIENCES

Abstract
Protein-protein interaction (PPI) data is essential to elucidate the complex molecular relationships in living systems, and thus understand the biological functions at cellular and systems levels. The complete map of PPIs that can occur in a living organism is called the interactome. For animals, PPI data is stored in multiple databases (e.g., BioGRID, CCSB, DroID, FlyBase, HIPPIE, HitPredict, HomoMINT, INstruct, Interactome3D, mentha, MINT, and PINA2) with different formats. This makes PPI comparisons difficult to perform, especially between species, since orthologous proteins may have different names. Moreover, there is only a partial overlap between databases, even when considering a single species. The EvoPPI (http://evoppi.i3s.up.pt) web application presented in this paper allows comparison of data from the different databases at the species level, or between species using a BLAST approach. We show its usefulness by performing a comparative study of the interactome of the nine polyglutamine (polyQ) disease proteins, namely androgen receptor (AR), atrophin-1 (ATN1), ataxin 1 (ATXN1), ataxin 2 (ATXN2), ataxin 3 (ATXN3), ataxin 7 (ATXN7), calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha1 A (CACNA1A), Huntingtin (HTT), and TATA-binding protein (TBP). Here we show that none of the human interactors of these proteins is common to all nine interactomes. Only 15 proteins are common to at least 4 of these polyQ disease proteins, and 40% of these are involved in ubiquitin protein ligase-binding function. The results obtained in this study suggest that polyQ disease proteins are involved in different functional networks. Comparisons with Mus musculus PPIs are also made for AR and TBP, using EvoPPI BLAST search approach (a unique feature of EvoPPI), with the goal of understanding why there is a significant excess of common interactors for these proteins in humans.

2019

Empowering Distributed Analysis Across Federated Cohort Data Repositories Adhering to FAIR Principles

Authors
Rocha, A; Ornelas, JP; Lopes, JC; Camacho, R;

Publication
ERCIM NEWS

Abstract
Novel data collection tools, methods and new techniques in biotechnology can facilitate improved health strategies that are customised to each individual. One key challenge to achieve this is to take advantage of the massive volumes of personal anonymous data, relating each profile to health and disease, while accounting for high diversity in individuals, populations and environments. These data must be analysed in unison to achieve statistical power, but presently cohort data repositories are scattered, hard to search and integrate, and data protection and governance rules discourage central pooling.

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