Vir sapiens dominabitur astris: astrological knowledge and practices in the Portuguese medieval court (king João I to king Afonso V)

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em História Medieval

A study on reducing digital piracy: an analytical network process approach with benefits, opportunities, costs and risks analysis

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Knowledge and practices of general practitioners of district Peshawar about schizophrenia

ABSTRACT: Schizophrenia with its disabling features has been placed in the top ten of global burden of disease and is associated with long-term decline in functional ability. General Practitioners not only have an important role in treating patients with an established diagnosis of schizophrenia but they can also contribute significantly by identifying people in early stages of psychosis as they are the first hand medical help available and the duration of untreated psychosis is a good indicator of patient’s prognosis. This cross sectional survey, conducted at the clinics of General Practitioners, was designed to assess the knowledge and practices of general practitioners in Peshawar on diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia. A semi structured questionnaire was used to assess their knowledge and practices regarding schizophrenia. The Knowledge/Practice was then categorized as good or poor based on their responses to the questions of the administered questionnaire. Overall, the results showed that the knowledge and practices of general practitioners of district Peshawar were poor regarding schizophrenia and may be responsible for delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment and poor prognosis.

What is the best accounting method for financial assets?

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

What is the best accounting policy for gains and losses in pensions?

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

Controlo de qualidade interno: elaboração de um programa de Controlo de Qualidade Interno segundo as boas práticas da Qualidade

RESUMO: Esta dissertação pretende apresentar uma proposta para um programa de Controlo de Qualidade interno das hormonas tiroideias, segundo as boas práticas da qualidade. Para que se comprove o rigor e fiabilidade dos seus resultados analíticos, condição indispensável para que estes possam servir de base às mais diversas tomadas de decisão, toda a filosofia que envolve a qualidade assume um papel preponderante. Neste contexto a elaboração de um programa de controlo de qualidade adequado é muito importante e imprescindível. A realização do controlo de qualidade permite monitorizar o desempenho de todos os materiais, equipamentos, instrumentos e métodos analíticos bem como criar sinais de alerta para prevenir a emissão de resultados não-conformes e indicar a necessidade de ações corretivas. Permite também indicar a necessidade de melhorias em processos e em atividades ligadas aos operadores e consciencializar o pessoal de que o controlo da qualidade é um dever para com o cliente e tem a função de gerar confiança nos resultados obtidos. O controlo de qualidade interno abrange todos os procedimentos assumidos por um laboratório para avaliação contínua do seu trabalho. A sua finalidade é assegurar a consistência dos resultados diários e a sua conformidade com critérios definidos, avaliando a precisão dos ensaios e dando indicação do momento para se promoverem ações corretivas quando surge uma não conformidade. Segundo as melhores práticas da qualidade, serão calculados os valores do controlo de qualidade interno para as hormonas tiroideias, os seus limites e critérios (regras) de aceitabilidade, com base na relação entre o desempenho analítico e o Erro Máximo Admissível. Pretende-se assim, otimizar o desempenho do Controlo de Qualidade Interno, aperfeiçoando a capacidade de identificação do erro.-------- ABSTRACT: This paper intends to submit a proposal for a thyroid hormones internal quality Control program, according to the best quality practices. The whole philosophy involving quality plays a central role in order to prove the accuracy and reliability of the analytical results, a basic prerequisite for decision making. In this context the elaboration of an appropriate quality control program is essential and very important. Quality control allows the motorization of the performance of all materials, equipment, instruments and analytical methods, as well as the creation of warning signals indicating the need for corrective actions, to prevent the release of non-compliant results. It also indicates the need for improvements in the processes and operating activities as well as making the staff aware that quality control is a duty to the client and promotes confidence in the results. The internal quality control covers all procedures undertaken by a laboratory for a continuous evaluation of its performance. Its purpose is to ensure the consistency of the daily results and compliance with defined criteria, assessing the accuracy of the tests and indicating the moment to promote corrective actions when nonconformity appears. According to the best quality practices, the values of the internal quality control for the thyroid hormones, their limits and criteria (rules) of acceptability will be calculated, based on the relationship between analytical performance and the maximum allowable error. Thus, the aim is to optimize the performance of the Internal Quality Control, improving the ability for error detection and identification.

Supply chain integration model: practices and customer values

Dissertation to obtain PhD in Industrial Engineering

Impact of the HRM content (i.e. practices) and process (i.e. strength) on individual and organizational outcomes, in the hotel industry

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

CSR practices and labor retention: How can these variables be related?

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

The impact of high involvement human resources practices on resistance to change: The mediator effect of commitment to change and the influence of ethical leadership

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

O contributo da farmácia comunitária no envelhecimento ativo

RESUMO: A população mundial está a envelhecer de forma sustentada. O setor das farmácias em Portugal está a passar por um conjunto de alterações que conduzirá a uma ação mais interventiva ao nível da prestação de cuidados de saúde. Deste modo delineou-se um estudo descritivo, transversal e exploratório sem intervenção, de carácter qualitativo e quantitativo que compara diferentes grupos etários com o objectivo de compreender melhor o papel do farmacêutico no âmbito do envelhecimento das populações. Pretendemos assim optimizar práticas e serviços que podem ser realizados nas farmácias e alertar os utentes, para gerir melhor a sua condição de saúde, sensibilizando-os para o próprio processo de envelhecimento. Como principais resultados destacamos o papel de intervenção crucial da farmácia, quer pela sua acessibilidade quer pela contribuição que pode ter para a condição de saúde das populações. Pela amostra estudada em 100% das farmácias são feitos despistes e controlo da hipertensão arterial e hipercolesterolemia, factores fundamentais no controlo da aterosclerose e das doenças cardiovasculares. Podemos ainda concluir que a farmácia pode ser o elemento de otimização, revisão e reconciliação das terapêuticas dos resistentes em lares e ao domicílio, junto da população 65+. Em termos das pessoas idosas, o nosso estudo indicia que, apesar da crise sócio económica dos últimos anos, continuam a tomar os medicamentos mais essenciais, o que se relaciona com a política do medicamento implementada. Este trabalho pretende também, contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma rede de competências da farmácia ao nível do envelhecimento ativo, podendo ser uma oportunidade futura.--------------ABSTRACT: World population is getting older in a sustained way. Portuguese community pharmacies are going through a change process, leading to a higher intervention in healthcare delivery. The study designed is descriptive, transversal and exploratory, with no intervention, with a qualitative and quantitative component that compares different age groups. The purpose is to better understand pharmacists’ role in population aging. One of our main goals is to optimize practices and services with potential to be performed in pharmacies and aware patients to better manage their health, becoming more conscious of their aging process. As main results we highlight the intervention of pharmacies, not only by its accessibility but also sustained on the unique contribution pharmacies deliver in the best benefit of populations’ health condition. In the sample studied, 100% of pharmacies perform screening and vigilance of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, essential for the control of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. We may also determine the importance of pharmacies intervention over therapeutics optimization, revision and reconciliation in nursing homes and in domicile, mostly focusing patients over 65. In what concerns to elderly population our study indicates that, despite social and economic crises of recent years, the elderly keeps taking its essential medicines, which is related with medicines politics implemented at the present moment. This project intends to pay a relevant contribution to the development of a group of core competencies in pharmacies, related to the promotion of an active and healthy aging process, which represents an important future opportunity for Portuguese Pharmacies.

Bits, Atoms, and Information Sharing: new opportunities for participation

The particular characteristics and affordances of technologies play a significant role in human experience by defining the realm of possibilities available to individuals and societies. Some technological configurations, such as the Internet, facilitate peer-to-peer communication and participatory behaviors. Others, like television broadcasting, tend to encourage centralization of creative processes and unidirectional communication. In other instances still, the affordances of technologies can be further constrained by social practices. That is the case, for example, of radio which, although technically allowing peer-to-peer communication, has effectively been converted into a broadcast medium through the legislation of the airwaves. How technologies acquire particular properties, meanings and uses, and who is involved in those decisions are the broader questions explored here. Although a long line of thought maintains that technologies evolve according to the logic of scientific rationality, recent studies demonstrated that technologies are, in fact, primarily shaped by social forces in specific historical contexts. In this view, adopted here, there is no one best way to design a technological artifact or system; the selection between alternative designs—which determine the affordances of each technology—is made by social actors according to their particular values, assumptions and goals. Thus, the arrangement of technical elements in any technological artifact is configured to conform to the views and interests of those involved in its development. Understanding how technologies assume particular shapes, who is involved in these decisions and how, in turn, they propitiate particular behaviors and modes of organization but not others, requires understanding the contexts in which they are developed. It is argued here that, throughout the last century, two distinct approaches to the development and dissemination of technologies have coexisted. In each of these models, based on fundamentally different ethoi, technologies are developed through different processes and by different participants—and therefore tend to assume different shapes and offer different possibilities. In the first of these approaches, the dominant model in Western societies, technologies are typically developed by firms, manufactured in large factories, and subsequently disseminated to the rest of the population for consumption. In this centralized model, the role of users is limited to selecting from the alternatives presented by professional producers. Thus, according to this approach, the technologies that are now so deeply woven into human experience, are primarily shaped by a relatively small number of producers. In recent years, however, a group of three interconnected interest groups—the makers, hackerspaces, and open source hardware communities—have increasingly challenged this dominant model by enacting an alternative approach in which technologies are both individually transformed and collectively shaped. Through a in-depth analysis of these phenomena, their practices and ethos, it is argued here that the distributed approach practiced by these communities offers a practical path towards a democratization of the technosphere by: 1) demystifying technologies, 2) providing the public with the tools and knowledge necessary to understand and shape technologies, and 3) encouraging citizen participation in the development of technologies.