Regulation of autoimmune neuroinflammation by stress-responsive genes

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

Regulation and function of the cell wall polymer lipoteichoic acid in staphylococcus aureus

A thesis submitted for the Degree of Master in Medical microbiology

Economic analysis in health care regulation : three essays

ABSTRACT - It is the purpose of the present thesis to emphasize, through a series of examples, the need and value of appropriate pre-analysis of the impact of health care regulation. Specifically, the thesis presents three papers on the theme of regulation in different aspects of health care provision and financing. The first two consist of economic analyses of the impact of health care regulation and the third comprises the creation of an instrument for supporting economic analysis of health care regulation, namely in the field of evaluation of health care programs. The first paper develops a model of health plan competition and pricing in order to understand the dynamics of health plan entry and exit in the presence of switching costs and alternative health premium payment systems. We build an explicit model of death spirals, in which profitmaximizing competing health plans find it optimal to adopt a pattern of increasing relative prices culminating in health plan exit. We find the steady-state numerical solution for the price sequence and the plan’s optimal length of life through simulation and do some comparative statics. This allows us to show that using risk adjusted premiums and imposing price floors are effective at reducing death spirals and switching costs, while having employees pay a fixed share of the premium enhances death spirals and increases switching costs. Price regulation of pharmaceuticals is one of the cost control measures adopted by the Portuguese government, as in many European countries. When such regulation decreases the products’ real price over time, it may create an incentive for product turnover. Using panel data for the period of 1997 through 2003 on drug packages sold in Portuguese pharmacies, the second paper addresses the question of whether price control policies create an incentive for product withdrawal. Our work builds the product survival literature by accounting for unobservable product characteristics and heterogeneity among consumers when constructing quality, price control and competition indexes. These indexes are then used as covariates in a Cox proportional hazard model. We find that, indeed, price control measures increase the probability of exit, and that such effect is not verified in OTC market where no such price regulation measures exist. We also find quality to have a significant positive impact on product survival. In the third paper, we develop a microsimulation discrete events model (MSDEM) for costeffectiveness analysis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus treatment, simulating individual paths from antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation to death. Four driving forces determine the course of events: CD4+ cell count, viral load resistance and adherence. A novel feature of the model with respect to the previous MSDEMs is that distributions of time to event depend on individuals’ characteristics and past history. Time to event was modeled using parametric survival analysis. Events modeled include: viral suppression, regimen switch due virological failure, regimen switch due to other reasons, resistance development, hospitalization, AIDS events, and death. Disease progression is structured according to therapy lines and the model is parameterized with cohort Portuguese observational data. An application of the model is presented comparing the cost-effectiveness ART initiation with two nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) plus one non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor(NNRTI) to two NRTI plus boosted protease inhibitor (PI/r) in HIV- 1 infected individuals. We find 2NRTI+NNRTI to be a dominant strategy. Results predicted by the model reproduce those of the data used for parameterization and are in line with those published in the literature.

Management Structure and Work Team Processes; Responsibilities and Responsiveness

This paper explores the management structure of the team-based organization. First it provides a theoretical model of structures and processes of work teams. The structure determines the team’s responsibilities in terms of authority and expertise about specific regulation tasks. The responsiveness of teams to these responsibilities are the processes of teamwork, in terms of three dimensions, indicating to what extent teams indeed use the space provided to them. The research question that this paper addresses is to what extent the position of responsibilities in the team-based organization affect team responsiveness. This is done by two hypotheses. First, the effect of the so-called proximity of regulation tasks is tested. It is expected that the responsibility for tasks positioned higher in the organization (i.e. further from the team) generally has a negative effect on team responsiveness, whereas tasks positioned lower in the organization (i.e. closer to the team) will have a positive effect on the way in which teams respond. Second, the relationship between the number of tasks for which the team is responsible with team responsiveness is tested. Theory suggests that teams being responsible for a larger number of tasks perform better, i.e. show higher responsiveness. These hypotheses are tested by a study of 109 production teams in the automotive industry. The results show that, as the theory predicts, increasing numbers of responsibilities have positive effects on team responsiveness. However, the delegation of expertise to teams seems to be the most important predictor of responsiveness. Also, not all regulation tasks show to have effects on team responsiveness. Most tasks do not show to have any significant effect at all. A number of tasks affects team responsiveness positively, when their responsibility is positioned lower in the organization, but also a number of tasks affects team responsiveness positively when located higher in the organization, i.e. further from the teams in the production. The results indicate that more attention can be paid to the distribution of responsibilities, in particular expertise, to teams. Indeed delegating more expertise improve team responsiveness, however some tasks might be located better at higher organizational levels, indicating that there are limitations to what responsibilities teams can handle.

Une vision systémique de la formation continue universitaire

Res-Systemica, Volume N°5, Numéro Spécial

Treasury stocks: Evidence from Portuguese listed companies in 2010

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

Proposta de abordagem para gestão de ocorrências em Serviços de Sangue

RESUMO: A gestão de ocorrências, sendo um requisito, quer legal, ao nível da regulação, quer normativo, tal como surge na ISO 9001, é um componente crítico para garantir a melhoria contínua um Serviço de Sangue, dado ter como objetivo a satisfação contínua dos requisitos dos dadores e recetores. A gestão eficaz, mas com eficiência, depende, também da eficácia da abordagem para gestão de ocorrência, nomeadamente, através da geração de correções, ações corretivas e ações preventiva eficazes. Esta dissertação discute a relevância, propondo um modelo de abordagem de gestão da qualidade conforme com os requisitos da lei fundamental da regulação de Serviços de Sangue, DL 267/2007, e com a norma global para sistemas de gestão da qualidade, ISO 9001. Esta abordagem usada descreve as várias etapas para a gestão eficaz de ocorrências, desde o seu relato, à sua classificação, tratamento com medição e análise risco associado e verificação da eficácia das ações tomadas. A eficácia do modelo teórico proposto foi verificado através da sua passagem para algoritmo informático num software comercial. Foi evidenciado neste software o cumprimento dos requisitos da abordagem teórica, pelo que a aplicação informática está conforme com os requisitos estabelecidos num procedimento documentado. Foi evidenciado, também, a rastreabilidade dos dados ao longo e toda a metodologia. A utilização de uma ferramenta informática também acrescentou valor ao modelo teórico, dado o acesso a toda a informação ser mais célere e de fácil acesso, quando comparado com o uso em suporte de papel.---------ABSTRACT: The issues management is a law requirement intended for regulation of “Blood Banks” and a quality management global requirement from ISO 9001. It is a critical activity, intended to to ensure continuous improvement on “Blood Bank”. Its goal is the continuous satisfaction of blood donors and transfusion recipients. Effective management and efficiency also depend on the effectiveness of the management of occurrence approach, namely in successful corrections, corrective actions and preventive actions. This paper discusses the relevance and it proposes a model approach to quality management according to the requirements of the fundamental law of regulation of “Blood Bank”, DL 267/2007, and according to the global standard for quality management systems, ISO 9001. This approach describes the various steps for effective management of incidents, such as his account, its classification, measurement and treatment using risk analysis and verification of the effectiveness of actions taken. The efficiency of the proposed theoretical model was verified through its transition to a computer algorithm trading software. It was demonstrated in this software that the requirements of the theoretical approach has been fulfilled by the computer application, which complies with the requirements established in a documented procedure. It was also evident that traceability of data across the methodology. The use of a software tool also added value to the theoretical model due to the access to all information to be faster and more easily accessible, when compared to paper.

Post-transcriptional regulation of HFE gene expression

Thesis presented to obtain the Ph.D. degree in Biology (Molecular Genetics), by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia.

Characterization and regulation of a bacterial sugar phosphatase of the haloalkanoate dehalogenase superfamily, AraL, from Bacillus subtilis

FEBS journal, Volume 278, Issue 14, pages 2511-2524, July 2011

Impulsive buying and self-regulation: the impact of hetero-impulsivity on consumers buying behavior

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação.

On the track of β-lactam resistance: Studies on the regulation of methicillinresistance in Staphylococcus aureus

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Biologia

Regulation of PLK4 levels and activity to ensure centriole number control

Dissertation presented to obtain a Ph.D degree in Cellular Biology

Yeast as a model system to study genetic and post-translational regulation of metabolic pathways in mammals

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

Basel III: The impact of an increase in regulation in a recession framework

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

The tight grip of a debt based global economy: A study on banking regulation and the implementation of the Basel II Accord in Portugal

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