Illness perception, knowledge and self-care about cervical cancer

Prevention plays a central role in early detection of cervical cancer. Common Sense Model proposes that the nature and organization of illness representations can guide actions related to health and how self-care is exercised. The aim of this study was to describe and compare illness perception, knowledge and self-care in women with and without cancer precursor lesions. Participants were 92 women (aged 18-59) from primary care unity divided into two groups: women with and without premalignant lesion. Measures for illness perception, knowledge and self-care were used. There was no statistically signifi cant difference (t test e chi-square test) between groups in the variables analyzed. Despite the risk for cervical cancer, women with precursor lesions do not adjust their illness perceptions, knowledge and self-care to the situation. These data show the need to warn women against the cervical cancer risks, because their distorted perceptions and lack of knowledge about the disease may hamper the screening and control of cervical cancer.

Dengue in Brazil and Colombia: a study of knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Introduction This study was conducted in Brazil and Colombia,where dengue is endemic and vector control programs use chemical insecticides. Methods We identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices about dengue and determined the infestation levels of Aedes aegypti in one Brazilian and four Colombian communities. Results The surveys show knowledge of the vector, but little knowledge about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Vector infestation indices show Brazil to have good relative control, while Colombia presents a high transmission risk. Conclusions Given the multidimensionality of dengue control, vertical control strategies are inadequate because they deny contextualized methods, alternative solutions, and local empowerment.

Basel III new capital requirements, impacts and bank behavior

For some years, researchers could not find a clear effect of capital adequacy on the risk profile of banks, as shareholders could increase the riskiness of the assets (qualitative effect), crowding-out the effect of reduced leverage (volume effect). Some shareholders might have the will to increase the riskiness of the assets, but they may lack the power to do so. Considering only ”powerful” shareholders, definitive conclusions were drawn but with constant ownership profile. In this paper I investigate whether there is a significant change in the type of shareholders in response to regulatory capital shocks and, if so, will the banking system be in the hands of more “desired” shareholders. I find that ownership profile responds to a regulatory shock, changing the risk appetite of the ruling power at the bank. I find more banks and the government in the ownership of undercapitalised banks and much less institutional shareholders and free float. I claim that these new shareholders may not the desired ones, given the objective of the regulatory change, as they are associated with a preference for more leverage. One possible explanation for this crowding-out effect is that regulators are trying to contain idiosyncratic risk (more linked to the riskiness of the assets) with a rule that contains systematic risk (capital adequacy). This has a distorting effect on ownership. Another insight can be drawn from the tests: supervisors should be aware of significant ownership movements that cause the crowding-out.

Congenital and maternal syphilis in the capital of Brazil

INTRODUCTION: ​This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of congenital and maternal syphilis in the Brazilian Federal District in 2010. ​ METHODS: ​A retrospective descriptive study was conducted on the basis of the cases recorded in the System of Notifiable Disease Information. RESULTS: ​The study population comprised 133 cases of congenital syphilis; of these, 116 (52.6%) mothers received prenatal care, and 70 (60.4%) were diagnosed with syphilis during pregnancy. Only 1 mother was adequately treated, and 100 (75.2%) of the pregnant women's partners did not undergo treatment for syphilis. ​ CONCLUSIONS: Although mothers attended prenatal care, not all were diagnosed during pregnancy or received adequate treatment for syphilis, as their partners did not undergo treatment for syphilis.

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.

O impacto nos requisitos de capital de uma seguradora através da implementação de uma nova politica de resseguro

Neste projeto pretende-se explicar qual a importância que uma política de resseguro, adotada por uma empresa de seguros, no contexto do Solvência II. O desenvolvimento dessa política pretenderá ajudar a Seguradora a escolher os parâmetros contratuais de resseguro mais favoráveis à empresa, assim como definir quantos e por quais Resseguradores deverá optar nos tratados de resseguro, procurando criar uma nova política de resseguro que tenha um impato diminuto nos riscos de subscrição e de contraparte, ao mesmo tempo que garanta um retorno adequado para Companhia. A escolha das melhores soluções de resseguro serão efetuadas tendo em conta o menor custo na sua contratação e a otimização nos requisitos de capital face à necessidade de subscrição de novos negócios. Será neste ponto que se irá abordar o efeito que o risco de subscrição terá nos requisitos de capital através da criação de cenários, que terão por base a alteração de vários parâmetros. Esta análise mais específica será efetuada pela primeira vez nesta Seguradora. Os cenários criados terão em vista vários aspetos para a Seguradora, desde a otimização do custo de resseguro ao crescimento da sua carteira face ao seu apetite ao risco, através da alteração nos seus tratados de resseguro, mais especificamente nos seus parâmetros. Estas novas alterações pretendem ter impato mais favorável na sua margem de solvência face às anteriores políticas de resseguro implementadas. Em suma, pretende-se desenvolver uma nova política de resseguro que ajude a Seguradora a otimizar os seus riscos de subscrição e de contraparte, tendo em conta as análises e conclusões identificadas por cada cenário e determinar qual será o efeito nos requisitos de capital no âmbito do Solvência II.

O tempo da ruptura do mundo: "Antropoceno" e capital

A emergência do conceito Antropoceno, uma nova proposta de periodização geológica que coloca o “humano” enquanto referente causal do aquecimento global, suscita múltiplos campos de problematização. No centro da hipótese estão entendimentos particulares do “humano” e da “natureza” que são dispostos enquanto pressupostos de uma estrutura de medidas e considerações económicas, sociais e políticas. O processo de validação científica do termo assenta numa argumentação que, de modo paralelo, estabelece uma ontologia dos elementos em jogo e separa dela as questões do impacto transformativo do capital, identificando os seus modos, processos e elementos com a própria “natureza humana”. A par da emergência do conceito Antropoceno surgiram também perspectivas críticas que referem explicitamente as limitações dos pressupostos históricos, económicos e políticos que lhe servem de base: o capitaloceno, o aceleracionismo e a comunização. Procuramos ver de que modo estes campos críticos e teóricos interrogam não apenas as problemáticas da periodização geológica e ambiental mas também as aporias do seu tempo. A pesquisa é concluída com a sugestão de que questões políticas, subjectivas e técnicas saem reformuladas pelas problemáticas abordadas.

Development of process control strategies exploiting knowledge from systems biology: application to MDCK suspension cells

Madine Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cell lines have been extensively evaluated for their potential as host cells for influenza vaccine production. Recent studies allowed the cultivation of these cells in a fully defined medium and in suspension. However, reaching high cell densities in animal cell cultures still remains a challenge. To address this shortcoming, a combined methodology allied with knowledge from systems biology was reported to study the impact of the cell environment on the flux distribution. An optimization of the medium composition was proposed for both a batch and a continuous system in order to reach higher cell densities. To obtain insight into the metabolic activity of these cells, a detailed metabolic model previously developed by Wahl A. et. al was used. The experimental data of four cultivations of MDCK suspension cells, grown under different conditions and used in this work came from the Max Planck Institute, Magdeburg, Germany. Classical metabolic flux analysis (MFA) was used to estimate the intracellular flux distribution of each cultivation and then combined with partial least squares (PLS) method to establish a link between the estimated metabolic state and the cell environment. The validation of the MFA model was made and its consistency checked. The resulted PLS model explained almost 70% of the variance present in the flux distribution. The medium optimization for the continuous system and for the batch system resulted in higher biomass growth rates than the ones obtained experimentally, 0.034 h-1 and 0.030 h-1, respectively, thus reducing in almost 10 hours the duplication time. Additionally, the optimal medium obtained for the continuous system almost did not consider pyruvate. Overall the proposed methodology seems to be effective and both proposed medium optimizations seem to be promising to reach high cell densities.

Knowledge and practices related to dengue and its vector: a community-based study from Southeast Brazil

Abstract INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the knowledge of users of primary healthcare services living in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, about dengue and its vector. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 605 people was conducted following a major dengue outbreak in 2013. RESULTS: Participants with higher levels of education were more likely to identify correctly the vector of the disease. CONCLUSIONS: The results emphasize the relevance of health education programs, the continuous promotion of educational campaigns in the media, the role of the television as a source of information, and the importance of motivating the population to control the vector.

The World Health Organization Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum : implementation of key modules and its impact on patient safety knowledge, skills, and attitudes of medical students at the University of Algarve

ABSTRACT - Objectives: We attempted to show how the implementation of the key elements of the World Health Organization Patient Safety Curriculum Guide Multi-professional Edition in an undergraduate curriculum affected the knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards patient safety in a graduate entry Portuguese Medical School. Methods: After receiving formal recognition by the WHO as a Complementary Test Site and approval of the organizational ethics committee , the validated pre-course questionnaires measuring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to patient safety were administered to the 2nd and3rd year students pursuing a four-year course (N = 46). The key modules of the curriculum were implemented over the academic year by employing a variety of learning strategies including expert lecturers, small group problem-based teaching sessions, and Simulation Laboratory sessions. The identical questionnaires were then administered and the impact was measured. The Curriculum Guide was evaluated as a health education tool in this context. Results: A significant number of the respondents, 47 % (n = 22), reported having received some form of prior patient safety training. The effect on Patient Safety Knowledge was assessed by using the percentage of correct pre- and post-course answers to construct 2 × 2 contingency tables and by applying Fishers’ test (two-tailed). No significant differences were detected (p < 0.05). To assess the effect of the intervention on Patient Safety skills and attitudes, the mean and standard deviation were calculated for the pre and post-course responses, and independent samples were subjected to Mann-Whitney’s test. The attitudinal survey indicated a very high baseline incidence of desirable attitudes and skills toward patient safety. Significant changes were detected (p < 0.05) regarding what should happen if an error is made (p = 0.016), the role of healthcare organizations in error reporting (p = 0.006), and the extent of medical error (p = 0.005). Conclusions: The implementation of selected modules of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum was associated with a number of positive changes regarding patient safety skills and attitudes, with a baseline incidence of highly desirable patient safety attitudes, but no measureable change on the patient safety knowledge, at the University of Algarve Medical School. The significance of these results is discussed along with implications and suggestions for future research.

An agent based architecture to support monitoring in plug and produce manufacturing systems using knowledge extraction

In recent years a set of production paradigms were proposed in order to capacitate manufacturers to meet the new market requirements, such as the shift in demand for highly customized products resulting in a shorter product life cycle, rather than the traditional mass production standardized consumables. These new paradigms advocate solutions capable of facing these requirements, empowering manufacturing systems with a high capacity to adapt along with elevated flexibility and robustness in order to deal with disturbances, like unexpected orders or malfunctions. Evolvable Production Systems propose a solution based on the usage of modularity and self-organization with a fine granularity level, supporting pluggability and in this way allowing companies to add and/or remove components during execution without any extra re-programming effort. However, current monitoring software was not designed to fully support these characteristics, being commonly based on centralized SCADA systems, incapable of re-adapting during execution to the unexpected plugging/unplugging of devices nor changes in the entire system’s topology. Considering these aspects, the work developed for this thesis encompasses a fully distributed agent-based architecture, capable of performing knowledge extraction at different levels of abstraction without sacrificing the capacity to add and/or remove monitoring entities, responsible for data extraction and analysis, during runtime.

Basel III: The impact of new capital requirements on profitability of Portuguese Banks

This empirical study aims to explore the impact of increased capital ratio requirements, on the ROE of the Portuguese banking sector. The paper employs both a quantitative- and qualitative approach, with the qualitative approach as the main method of research. The method adopted to conduct the qualitative research was semi structured elite interviews with banking executives. Higher capital requirements decrease the ROE of banks in Portugal, but huge impairments charges, macroeconomic factors and increased costs of deposits are clearly the dominant reasons for the reduced levels of ROE the past years. Among the measures taken to increase capital ratios, reduction of RWAs and non-core assets have been the main focus, but the issuance of CoCos is regarded as the most expensive measure due to high interest payments. However, the CoCos will not have any effect on the ROE in the long term. It is difficult to draw any conclusions on the impact of more equity in the balance sheet on the ROE of Portuguese banks, as many banks currently don’t generate enough money to pay back on shareholders´ investments.

Towards a knowledge society

Economies are moving towards competitive stadiums based on knowledge and innovation. The changing environment and the level of globalization demand important efforts in order to sustain competitive advantages. Portugal has experienced a remarkable evolution since its adhesion to the European Union in several fields: economic development, Research & Development (R&D) consolidation, health parameters and social cohesion. As other developed economies, Portugal started its journey towards a knowledge-based economy and has been consolidating an innovation system during the last 35 years. The following report aims to analyze the evolution of a system since its creation to its last transformation within a globalized context. Challenges such as the lack of maturity of the system, the economic crisis, the European paradox, and closing the gap with other European countries are addressed in the next chapters. Likewise, recommendations on these points are provided by the end of the report as potential solutions.

Capital humano

Neste trabalho procurou-se investigar a relação entre a formação académica e as taxas salariais aplicáveis no sector da banca e da hotelaria, assumindo-se que a formação teria um impacto mais forte no sector bancário, em especial, no subsector da banca de investimento. Procedeu-se a uma análise empírica e a hipótese foi confirmada, sendo que, a formação tem efectivamente impacto na determinação salarial em todos os sectores estudados - apesar de modesto - com clara supremacia da variável qualificação - sendo certo que e precisamente na banca de investimento que o seu impacto e mais forte, conforme intuitivamente se previa. Para alem disso foram analisados os impactos diferenciados de várias variáveis na determinação salarial alargando assim o espectro proposto pelo modelo neo-cIássico das teorias do capital humano como tentativa de explicação das diferenças salariais entre trabalhadores Na verdade, os resultados apurados fornecem alguma consistência à visão do capital humano como uma área de investimentos potenciais por parte dos indivíduos e das empresas, cujas decisões se fundamentarão na analise das relações custos-benefícios associadas a essas aplicações. Nesse contexto, a habilitação (educação/formação) parece ser a mais determinante daquelas variáveis neo-cIássicas. Sem embargo, este não ajustamento total por parte do modelo neo-cIássico não lhe retira a importante posição que ocupa, na medida em que os resultados empíricos obtidos no nosso trabalho, à semelhança dos encontrados em muitos outros estudos, confirmam a relevância das variáveis do capital humano na explicação da realidade salarial o que alias e consistente com o ênfase atribuído a esta teoria no quadro da literatura sobre 0 tema. Em conclusão, a remuneração dos indivíduos parece depender mais dos seus próprios atributos produtivos mas também das características da unidade produtiva a que pertencem e do próprio sector onde essa unidade se insere.

Aprendizagem, mobilidade e convergência digital no ambiente formativo da Portugal Telecom

Com o desenvolvimento das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, as mesmas têm permitido dotar as pessoas de conhecimentos, através de formas mais rápidas e eficientes como é o caso da formação em e-learning. O número de organizações a apostar na formação em e-learning é cada vez maior, tornando-se importante perceber em que medida é que o método é eficaz e quais as vantagens que proporciona à organização, bem como o seu impacto no capital humano. Assim e visando averiguar como esta situação é vivenciada na prática decidiu-se pela realização de um estágio, na PT PRO pertencente Grupo Portugal Telecom. Para a construção deste relatório de estágio foi preciso para além da consulta e análise documental de aquivos internos e intranet, reuniões tidas com os elementos do departamento da Gestão de Formação, onde decorreu o estágio, visando dar uma resposta mais cabal à questão de partida que norteia o estágio: “Qual o impacto gerado pelas ações de e-learning, sua aplicabilidade e satisfação dos colaboradores face às mesmas na PT PRO?” O método utilizado neste estudo foi do tipo quantitativo, tendo sido aplicado um inquérito por questionário construído para o efeito. Face aos resultados obtidos, concluímos que na PT PRO, os colaboradores encontram-se globalmente satisfeitos com o conhecimento gerado e acima de tudo com a aplicabilidade do mesmo nas suas funções de trabalho.