Innovation through virtual communities of practice: motivations and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

This paper appears in International Journal of Projectics. Vol 4(1), pp. 39-49

Adesão ao regime terapêutico na pessoa com enfarte agudo do miócardio: contributo dos enfermeiros no internamento hospita

RESUMO: O Enfarte Agudo do Miocárdio (EAM) representa um dos principais problemas de saúde pública em Portugal. A rápida intervenção nos factores de risco determinantes da saúde cardíaca pode ter um impacto positivo em vários indicadores de saúde. O objectivo final dessa intervenção passa por capacitar a pessoa, para que, autonomamente, adopte um conjunto de comportamentos de saúde, baseados em estilos de vida protectores da saúde cardíaca, que favorecem positivamente o processo de reabilitação. Esta procura e aquisição do comportamento de saúde, adesão ao regime terapêutico, deve ser desenvolvido em parceria com os profissionais de saúde. O hospital representa a porta de entrada da pessoa com EAM no sistema de saúde. É neste contacto que se inicia uma intervenção de sensibilização e promoção da adesão ao regime terapêutico. Sendo os enfermeiros um grupo profissional que estabelece uma relação continua com a pessoa, importa conhecer um conjunto de dimensões do desempenho dos enfermeiros na promoção da adesão ao regime terapêutico. Breve referência ao desenho de estudo. Foram incluídas no estudo 143 enfermeiros de 9 serviços hospitalares da Região de Saúde de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo. Os dados foram obtidos através de um questionário auto-preenchido. Os dados mostraram que a população de enfermeiros é jovem (M= 30,5: dp= 8,0), 49% têm uma idade £ 26 anos e apresenta pouca experiência profissional (M=7,7; dp= 7,6), 48,2% exerce a profissão há menos de 3 anos. A antiguidade no serviço actual é reduzida (M= 4,7; dp= 4,6), 48,9% estão no serviço há menos de 2 anos. Os enfermeiros acreditam que deviam intervir com mais frequência nos factores de risco fisiológicos e comportamentais que nos factores psicossociais e ambientais; a confiança que têm nas capacidades para intervir nos factores de risco fisiológicos e comportamentais é maior que nos factores psicossociais e ambientais e no último ano, intervieram mais frequentemente nos factores de risco fisiológicos e comportamentais que nos psicossociais e ambientais. O “ensaio” da validação da escala de Will scale de Anderson et al (2004), sobre a capacidade de intervenção na saúde cardíaca, mostrou que o teste de Esfericidade de Bartlett e Medida de adequação da amostragem de Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin (KMO) permitiram a realização da análise factorial em componentes principais (AFCP). Da AFCP emergiram 16 factores, os mesmos que no estudo original de Anderson et al (2004), que revelaram boa consistência interna, com valores de alpha de Cronbach que variaram entre 0,71 a 0,98. Os resultados revelam a necessidade de sensibilizar os enfermeiros para valorizar a intervenção no âmbito dos factores de risco psicossociais e ambientais para promover a adesão ao regime terapêutico. Sugerem ainda que a intervenção baseada na evidência pode ser potenciada de forma a melhorar as práticas de cuidados dos enfermeiros. ABSTRACT: Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most important problems in public health in Portugal. A prompt intervention in cardiac health determinants means a positive impact in health outcomes, individually and collectively. The main purpose of this intervention lays on patient’s empowerment so he or she becomes able to choose healthy behaviours, based on heart health protective life styles, and therefore to manage his/hers therapeutic regime. This search and acquisition of health behaviours leading to therapeutic regime adherence may positively have an influence on the whole rehabilitation process and it must be developed in partnership with health workers. MI patients’ first contact with the Health System usually happens at the Hospital. Here the first steps are taken to start an intervention in order to promote therapeutic regime adherence. Nurses are a group of health workers who establish a unique and continuous relation with patients, so it matters to have knowledge of their performance skills that can actually promote a healthy behaviours and increase therapeutic regime adherence. Short Study design The study sample includes 143 nurses working on 9 different hospital wards, belonging to the Lisboa and Tejo’s Valley Health Region, in the district of Lisbon. Data were collected trough a self-administered questionnaire. It revealed that the nurses sample is a young population (M=30,5; dp=8,0), 49% of whom are aged less than 26 years old and has little professional experience (M=7,7; dp= 7,6); 48,2% work has nurses for less than 3 years. There’s a low percentage of seniority (M=4,7; dp=4,6), 48,9% of nurses work in these wards for less than 2 years. Nurses believe they should have intervene more frequently in physiological and behaviour risk factors than in psychological, social and environmental factors; they have greater confidence in their ability to intervene in physiological and behaviour risk factors than to intervene in psychological, social and environmental factors. In last year they took interventions more frequently in physiological and behaviour risk factors than in the other health determinants. The Scale Validation “essay” on Will Scale (Anderson et al, 2004), about heart health intervention capacity, revealed that the Bartlett’s test sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin’s (KMO) appropriate sample measure allowed the factorial analysis on main components (FAMC). From FAMC emerged 16 factors, the same number found on Anderson’s et al (2004) study, revealing good internal consistence, with Cronbach’s alpha values that varied between 0,71 and 0,98. The results point a need for nurses to attribute bigger value to other health determinants intervention - such as psychological, social and environmental determinants - so they’ll take part in promoting therapeutic regime adherence. The results also suggest t

Changing environmental behaviors through smartphone-based augmented experiences

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestrado em Engenharia de Informática

Mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector: An empirical review of the impact of merger announcement on abnormal returns

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

Merger between Zon Multimedia and Sonaecom: Revisiting the consolidation scenario

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

Corporate social responsibility and its effect on image and reputation: The case of L’Oréal and its acquisition of The Body Shop

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 merger of Total Portugal and CEPSA

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

Vodafone - Kabel Deutschland Merger

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 Farrell and Shapiro condition revisited

The purpose of this paper is to study the consequences of using the Farrell and Shapiro (1990) sufficient condition for merger approval to sectors in which a downstream horizontal merger may also affect upstream firms. As will be shown below, in some circumstances the sign of the relevant external effect can no longer be established by considering the merger as a sequence of in finitesimal mergers, each corresponding to a marginal change in output.

How to Measure the Deterrence Effects of Merger Policy: Frequency or Composition?

We show that the number of merger proposals (frequency-based deterrence) is a more appropriate indicator of underlying changes in merger policy than the relative anti-competitiveness of merger proposals (composition-based deterrence). This has strong implications for the empirical analysis of the deterrence effects of merger policy enforcement, and potential implications regarding how to reduce anti-competitive merger proposals.

Dynamic and interaction of cytochrome c with Pf1 virus

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em BioOrgânica

Positive Epistasis Drives the Acquisition of Multidrug Resistance

The evolution of multiple antibiotic resistance is an increasing global problem. Resistance mutations are known to impair fitness, and the evolution of resistance to multiple drugs depends both on their costs individually and on how they interact-epistasis. Information on the level of epistasis between antibiotic resistance mutations is of key importance to understanding epistasis amongst deleterious alleles, a key theoretical question, and to improving public health measures. Here we show that in an antibiotic-free environment the cost of multiple resistance is smaller than expected, a signature of pervasive positive epistasis among alleles that confer resistance to antibiotics. Competition assays reveal that the cost of resistance to a given antibiotic is dependent on the presence of resistance alleles for other antibiotics. Surprisingly we find that a significant fraction of resistant mutations can be beneficial in certain resistant genetic backgrounds, that some double resistances entail no measurable cost, and that some allelic combinations are hotspots for rapid compensation. These results provide additional insight as to why multi-resistant bacteria are so prevalent and reveal an extra layer of complexity on epistatic patterns previously unrecognized, since it is hidden in genome-wide studies of genetic interactions using gene knockouts.

User friendly knowledge acquisition system for medical devices actuation

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Biomédica