RCAAP Repository

The paper presents a Cloud-based architecture for Ubiquitous and Cloud Manufacturing as a multilayer communicational architecture designated as the Communicational Architecture. It is characterised as (a) rich client interfaces (Rich Internet Application) with sufficient interaction to allow user agility and competence, (b) multimodal, for multiple client device classes support and (c) communicational to allow pragmatics, where human-to-human real interaction is completely supported. The main innovative part of this architecture is sustained by a semiotic framework organised on three main logical levels: (a) device level, which allows the user ‘to use’ pragmatics with the system, (b) application level which results for a set of tools which allows users pragmatics-based interaction and (c) application server level that implements the Pragmatics renderer, a pragmatics supporting engine that supports all pragmatics services. The Pragmatics renderer works as a communication enabler, and consists of a set of integrated collaboration technology that makes the bridge between the user/devices and the ‘system’. A federated or community cloud is developed using a particular cloud RESTful Application Programming Interface that supports (cloud) services registration, composition and governance (pragmatics services behaves as SaaS in the cloud).

Globalisation and increased competition pushes companies to grow outside political and geographical boundaries, frequently forcing them to increase product diversification and optimise their relation with potential and effective partners and customers. In this scenario, implementing agile collaboration networks with business partners is a requirement. In this article the authors propose a collaborative framework based on a model for Historical, Present and Future evaluations, which in turn is based on a Dynamic Multi-criteria Decision Method using software agents and the Cloud for Collaborative Networked and Virtual Organization Synthesis. The model uses a dynamic decision approach for supplier and business partner evaluation, enabling software agents to autonomously capture business opportunities, select business partners/suppliers, award and process associated orders.

On-line shopping is nowadays is a highly frequent action but there are several critical factors that have to be considered for enabling websites and platforms to be able to offer all necessary requisites for guaranteeing user friendly, secure and also enjoyable shopping experiences to clients, offering them exactly what they expect to buy, and quickly find, among a huge offer available on-line. In this paper a set of considered critical success factors are analysed on a set of top ranked websites, about luxurious furniture, to understand to what extent these critical factors are satisfied. The results can be taken into consideration for implementing a successful businesses through e-commerce from herein analysed perspectives.

Innovative processes become available due to the high processing capacity of emergent infrastructures, such as cloud and ubiquitous computing and organizational infrastructures and applications. However, these intense computation processes are difficult to follow, where co-decision is required, for which the existence of disruptive visualization and collaboration tools that offer a visual tracing capacity with integrated decision supporting tools, are critical for its sustainable success. This project proposes: a) a set of immersive and disruptive visualization tools, supported by virtual and augmented reality, that enables a global perspective of any production agents; b) a data analytics tool to complement and assist the decision making; c) a resource federated network that allows the brokering and interaction between all existing resources; and d) a dynamic context-aware dashboard, to improve the overall productive process and contribute to intelligent manufacturing systems. The application domain addressed is Zero-Defects Diagnostics in manufacturing as well as in Industry 4.0 in general.

Resumo: o dever de formação na prevenção da criminalidade económica e social e da corrupção é fundamental para os gestores e economistas. A globalização do crime é um problema mundial. As escolas de gestão têm o dever fundamental de aprofundar este dever de formação. A gravidade das fraudes ao nível do mundo e da corrupção não deixa margem para dúvidas. Casos de fraude fiscal, branqueamento de capitais, abuso de informação privilegiada ou manipulação do mercado, apenas para falar nalguns dos casos, tomaram dimensões globais, fazendo da corrupção em sentido amplo uma das principais razões da pobreza a nível mundial, incluindo as disparidades cada vez maiores entre pobres e ricos. /// Abstract: the duty of training in the prevention of economic and social crime and corruption is fundamental for managers and economists. The globalization of crime is a worldwide problem. Management schools have a fundamental duty to deepen this training obligation. The seriousness of world-wide fraud and corruption leaves no room for doubt. Cases of tax fraud, money laundering, insider trading or market manipulation, just to speak in a few cases, have taken on global dimensions, making corruption in the broad sense one of the main reasons for worldwide poverty, including ever-widening disparities. Between the poor and the rich.

Prefácio: Foi com uma honra ímpar que aceitamos o convite do Senhor Professor Doutor Ivan Martins Motta, Doutor e Mestre pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, bem como da Senhora Professora Doutora Regina Vera Villas Bôas, Doutora e Mestre pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo e também Pós-Doutora em Democracia e Direitos Humanos pela Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra-Ius Gentium Conimbrigae, para fazer o Prefácio deste excelente Manual do ponto de vista juríco-científico e, nomeadamente, desde uma perspectiva de Direito Penal. Além do mais dois Seres Humanos e Humanistas que tive o privilégio de conhecer pessoalmente nas arenas académicas e sociais, na Utopia da Academia, cheia de Anjos e Algozes, como de resto reflectindo a sociedade. SINOPSE Esta obra é fruto da experiência pessoal de dois profissionais formados pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo – PUC-SP. Voltada primordialmente aos estudantes universitários de Direito, sendo concebida como uma primeira leitura em seus estudos acadêmicos na área penal. Pensamos que o principal objetivo de um professor é despertar o entusiasmo dos alunos nas disciplinas ministradas. Entendemos que não deve ter ele a pretensão de esgotar o assunto, missão impossível em nossa realidade estudantil. Procuramos reunir neste trabalho os três ingredientes básicos ao exercício de uma profícua atividade docente: conteúdo a ser transmitido; didática na realização das atividades acadêmicas; e experiência acumulada. Nesta obra procuramos abordar, com linguagem acessível, o estudo de assuntos, alguns mais simples e outros mais complexos (por exemplo, imputação do resultado típico à conduta; dupla natureza jurídica do cumprimento de deveres e do exercício de direitos; elemento subjetivo nas excludentes da ilicitude; concurso aparente de normas, entre outros), todos, porém, necessários à condução do discente ao efetivo aprendizado. Temos a convicção de que o aluno que tiver a determinação de estudar o presente Manual, certamente não sairá desapontado, pois nele traduzimos nossa experiência acadêmico-didática adquirida em décadas de magistério. Os Autores Preface: It was with unique honor that we accepted the invitation of Professor Ivan Martins Motta, Doctor and Master by the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, as well as by Professor Regina Vera Villas Bôas, PhD and Master by the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and as well as a Post-Doctorate in Democracy and Human Rights from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra-Ius Gentium Conimbrigae, to make the Preface of this excellent Manual from a juridical-scientific point of view and, in particular, from a Criminal Law perspective. In addition, two Human and Humanistic Beings that I had the privilege of personally meeting in the academic and social arenas, in the Utopia of the Academy, full of Angels and Algozes, as in the rest of society.                                     SYNOPSIS                                        This work is the result of the personal experience of two professionals trained by the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - PUC-SP. Primarily focused on university law students, it was conceived as a first reading in their academic studies in the criminal area. We think that the main objective of a teacher is to arouse the enthusiasm of the students in the disciplines taught. We understand that he should not have the pretension of exhausting the subject, mission impossible in our student reality. We try to combine in this work the three basic ingredients to the exercise of a proficient teaching activity: content to be transmitted; didactic activities in the accomplishment of the academic activities; and accumulated experience. In this work we try to approach, with accessible language, the study of subjects, some simpler and others more complex (for example, imputation of the typical result to the conduct, dual legal nature of the fulfillment of duties and the exercise of rights; illicitness, apparent competition of rules, among others), all of which are necessary for the student to be led to effective learning. We are convinced that a student who is determined to study this Manual will certainly not be disappointed, as we translate our academic-didactic experience acquired in decades of teaching. The authors

Although the medicinal use of Cannabis sativa derivatives is well known since antiquity, the study of their properties expanded recently with the discovery of an endogenous cannabinoid system, which comprises the endogenous cannabis-like ligands (endocannabinoids), the cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) and the enzymes involved in their metabolism. Since the discovery of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), the scientific community focused on research of its clinical use and achieved important findings during the last decade. In some countries, cannabis derivatives are a pharmacological option for appetite stimulation and pain treatment. However, the first ECS-based drug rimonabant (a CB1 antagonist), approved for the treatment obesity with associated risk factors, was withdrawn due to safety concerns. Nowadays, based on the growing evidences resulting from preclinical and clinical studies of ECS modulators, these drugs are currently pointed out as novel therapeutic approaches for several pathophysiological conditions. Here, we review the potential role of (endo)cannabinoid system in therapeutics and the recent designed strategies for the development of drugs that target this system. 

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells, which display an extraordinary capacity to induce and regulate T-cell responses. Because of their immunoregulatory capacities and because very small numbers of activated DCs are highly efficient in generating immune responses against antigens, DCs have been extensively used in clinical trials in order to elicit or amplify immune responses against cancer. While clinical trials provide evidence that dendritic cells vaccines are safe and elicit immunological responses in most patients, few complete tumor remissions have been reported. To improve the clinical efficacy, it is mandatory to design novel and improved strategies that can boost adaptive immunity to cancer helping to overcome regulatory T cells and allowing the breakdown of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The association of DCs vaccines with conventional chemo- and radiotherapy protocols could enhance DCs activation and antigen cross-presentation, selectively eliminating immunosuppressive cells, thus reverting the immunosuppression state caused by cancer, suggesting that relevant chemoimmunotherapy associa- tions could fully exploit DC capacity to trigger anticancer responses. 

Although drugs are developed with therapeutics intentions, sometimes some substances are used for purposes other than those the pharmacologist had in mind. The word “drug” also involves psychoactive substances that can be used for medicinal or non-medicinal purposes in which it is included substances that are legal or illegal. The use of drugs for intentions other than their therapeutic purposes has become a growing public concern making their study very important from the toxicological standpoint. When alleged victims report that they were robbed or assaulted while incapacitated by a drug, toxicological chemical analysis is imperative to help substantiate the victim’s claim. These criminal offenses are known as drug facilitated crimes.The branch of science dedicated to toxicology studies has two application fields, forensic and analytical toxicology, that are interdisciplinary and that comprise all the scientific facts related with crimes committed through the use of drugs. Most often, the cases of crimes facilitated by drugs involve substances that have strong central nervous system depressant effects that are availed to easily render victims to robberies or sexual assaults. As new drugs are continuously being synthetized and new methods are used for drugging victims without their knowledge or consent it is important to develop new analytical methods that can assist in the investigation for figuring out all the details about this sort of crimes or enable ways of their prevention. For example, one way of drugging victims without being aware of is through drink spiking in social entertainment places, during parties, raves, etc. In these cases, the spiked beverages are the “crime weapons”. In this paper, it will be presented the relation of drug facilitated crimes and the toxicology science and also a review focused on the available analytical methods for the detection of adulterated beverages with drugs. 

In the last years, much has been published on the development of new clinical pharmacist services. However, uncertainty persists as to which services show better results or can be successfully implemented by pharmacists. Furthermore, the diversity of designations available hinders practice standardization among practitioners and professional organizations. The aim of this study was to describe clinical pharmacist services assessed by systematic reviews and to qualitatively identify the main categories of the pharmacist intervention. We searched Medline for systematic reviews compiling evidence of the impact of clinical services on patient health outcomes published between 2000 and 2010, following the recommendations of the Cochrane collaboration. The search returned a total of 343 potentially relevant citations, of which 49 studies were included after the selection process. We identified eight categories of clinical services, which were grouped according to their main goals: patient counselling, risk factors prevention and control, adherence/compliance, medication review, pharmacotherapy follow-up, medication reconciliation, information to physicians or the health care team and prescription of new treatments. In general, all services focus on the improvement of the process of use of medicines as well as clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes. 

The prevalence of chronic diseases increases with age, and the constant growth of the overall population makes adherence to therapy a major challenge. A solution to the problem of non-adherence to therapy prescribed by the physician population is the implementation, in community pharmacy, of stock monitoring and pharmacist intervention. We evaluated 54 elderly patients treated with at least 3 drugs with an autonomous life. Adherence to drugs prescription was observed by monitoring the patients, counting of medications not administered and historical progress of the lipid profile, blood glucose, blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in the beginning and end of the study. The purpose of this study was achieved in general, since the pharmaceutical intervention contributed to the adherence to therapy, thereby reducing the impact of risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, and contribute to the promotion of quality of life for the elderly patients. 

Ter a capacidade de obter conhecimentos a partir de dados existentes é dos fatores críticos de negócio mais importante para as empresas de hoje em dia. A estatística de tráfego de dados representa um exemplo claro disso. O Business intelligence (BI) contém ferramentas que permitem a construção de sistemas de exploração analítica dos dados consolidados da organização, onde usa tecnologias como OLAP, relatórios e Data Mining. Com o grande crescimento do BI, torna-se cada vez mais importante para as empresas, que consigam ter recursos de forma a analisar os dados e utilizá-los de forma útil para o maior crescimento das empresas. Apesar de análise de dados ter uma grande importância para as empresas, as soluções comerciais disponíveis de BI são bastante dispendiosas. Para ultrapassar esse problema, as ferramentas open source podem constituir uma alternativa mais barata, mantendo a fiabilidade e funcionalidade. A realização do projecto é em parceria com a Queo, uma empresa da área das tecnologias de informação, com sede no Porto. A Queo propõe o uso de recursos tecnológicos modernos que minimizam o impacto econômico nas soluções desenvolvidas. As competências são orientadas ao uso de técnicas ágeis e tecnologias de código aberto, permitindo a criação de soluções robustas e flexíveis. O desenvolvimento da aplicação django para registar e gerir eventos representa uma plataforma para obter dados e estatísticas sobre eles, bem como, a aplicação deve ser desenvolvida de acordo com métodos que permitem o seu encapsulamento para torná-lo um módulo reutilizável em vários produtos da Queo, como newsletters, sistemas de SMS ou sistemas de subscrição.

Uma das definições de qualidade nos cuidados de saúde é ‘fazer a coisa certa, para a pessoa certa, no momento certo, com o menor custo’, sendo, portanto, uma definição que parece estar mais voltada para as acções individuais dos profissionais de saúde (Woodward, 2000). Por outro lado, a humanização está associada à qualidade dos cuidados, que inclui o aperfeiçoamento dos profissionais e o reconhecimento dos direitos dos doentes (Moreira et al., 2015). Daí que seja fundamental aferir se a humanização é ou não um factor de qualidade nos serviços de saúde. Para o efeito, foi utilizada uma metodologia quantitativa, tendo-se construído e validado o Questionário de Avaliação da Humanização nos Cuidados de Saúde (QAHCS), que foi implementado, nos serviços de Cirurgia e Ortopedia de um Hospital português acreditado, juntamente com o Inquérito de Satisfação do Utente do Internamento (ISUI), em uso no referido Hospital. O QAHCS foi construído com base na literatura e na “Carta dos Direitos do Doente Internado” e devidamente validado, tendo apresentado altos níveis de fiabilidade interna, bem como boa validade de constructo. Os resultados da implementação de ambos os questionários demonstraram que há uma associação positiva, significativa, entre a humanização dos cuidados hospitalares (nomeadamente no que diz respeito aos aspectos relacionais, à autonomia, à confidencialidade e à limpeza) e a qualidade dos internamentos (nomeadamente no que concerne à satisfação global dos doentes internados relativamente aos profissionais de saúde), o que permite afirmar que a humanização é um factor de qualidade nos hospitais.

The HIV primary infection is defined as the phase that follows the initial events that leads to an HIV infection and precedes the onset of host immune response. This period is associated with a massive increase in viral load (the viremia could reach 108 copies of viral RNA/mL of plasma), a viral dissemination to several body compartments and lymphoid tissues, and also with a major depletion of T-CD4+ lymphocytes. Particularly in the GALT (gut-associated lymphoid tissue), the massive destruction of memory T-cells is basically irreversible and has major consequences in the immunological and pathogenic outcome of HIV infection and in AIDS progression. Accordingly, a therapeutic intervention during this period, enabling the reduction of viral load and the CD4+ T-cells depletion, is currently assumed as being of paramount importance. This concept could be summarized as follows: the earlier the treatment given after infection, the more beneficial it will be on the preservation of the immune system and in the outcome of the disease. However, in order to accomplish this, is crucial that HIV infection during acute phase could be identified by means of an adequate diagnosis. Furthermore, this early diagnosis is also important to prevent new infections during the acute phase of HIV infection, due to the high levels of viral load characteristically present in all the recently infected patients. 

Purpose: Evaluate the results of a master class of pharmaceutical advice, namely in what concerns knowledge increase and satisfaction. Methodology: Longitudinal analytical study without control group. 56 pharmacists enrolled in the 1st Post-graduation course in Pharmaceutical Care of Secção Regional do Porto da Ordem dos Farmacêuticos. Master class taught by Berbés group. In the first phase the students received the theoretical material, an initial evaluation test of 14 questions and case studies. 12 days afterm following a second class, students were trained with role play cas studies and repeated the initial test, solved 5 case studies and filled a satisfaction questionair. Results: Average Age 30,6 (SD= 7,5), years of practice 5,4 (DW= 6,0), 92,2% women. The number of correct answers in the knowledge test increased 13,9% (SD=14,1%) and was statisti- cally significant (p< 0,001). The average result for the case-studies solving was 6.6/10 (SD=1,2). Satisfaction was 3.6/4 (SD=1,2). The most appreciated question was “the course is usefull for the daily profesional activity” (3,9) and “Role-play is useful for learning” (3,9), while the least apreciated was “the number of class hours of the course is adequate” (3,0). No significant relation was found between the other tested variables. Discussion: Knowledge increase, case study solving and satisfaction level can be considered satisfactory. The students seem to find positive and pleasant the methodology used during the teaching module, therefore it can be inferred that it may have an important impacto on the pharmacist performance in the community pharmacy. 

The definition of the various concepts needed to assess analytical methods performance used in the evaluation of drug residues in foods, namely CCα (decision limit) and CCβ (detection capability), as well as its calculating and the interpretation of obtained results are described in detail. The present overview aims to improve the implementation of Decision No. 2002/617/EC in the Portuguese speaker countries in the food safety field, as well as at the international trade of food of animal origin. 

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Many benefits of the contraceptive pill are recognized in healthy women: regular cycles, without heavy bleeding, without dysmenorrhea and without premenstrual syndrome. But the contraceptive pill can be used for specific therapeutic objectives: treatment of polycystic ovaries, endometriosis, vaginal bleeding disorders and in long term acne, seborrhea, hirsutism and alopecia therapy (contraceptive pills containing ethinyl estradiol and a progestogen with antiandrogenic activity). There is still scientific evidence that the contraceptive pill reduces the risk of appearance of tumors or cysts in the ovary or endometrium.However the contraceptive pill also has its risks. These being dependent on the dose, it is estimated that in modern low-dose oral contraceptives, they are much less frequent and intense than in the early days of their marketing, but do not fail to manifest themselves. The most common are those that lead to a decrease in physical and / or psychological well-being of women. There is also some scientific evidence that hormonal contraceptives may be involved in the onset / development of benign liver tumors as well as increased risk of gallstones. But the most serious adverse effects are cardiovascular effects: increased risk of thromboembolic disease, onset / worsening of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and glucose intolerance, and the consequent increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Finally, the literature refers that hormonal contraceptives increase the risk of developing certain cancers, especially in the cervix and breast.As with any drug, the risk-benefit ratio must always be taken into account when prescribing one contraceptive pill, and the principle of therapeutic individualization should be based on scientific and clinical but also personal and socio-economic criteria. Also in regard to contraception we should follow evidence-based medicine: use all the scientific information and make it available to the woman so that she, in the biopsychosocial context in which it appears, can make an informed decision regarding her fertility.

Dramatic global population ageing has brought new demands to improve older people’s health by adding “quality” to their extended lives. Nowadays, there is an increase in the proportion of older adults, many of whom are at risk for developing non-communicable chronic health conditions and severe functional limitations. Additionally, older adults are generally very inactive, that cause additional health and functional problems. In opposition, there is evidence from high quality studies to strongly support the positive association between increased levels of physical activity, exercise participation and improved health in older adults. So, it is imperative to develop a strong commitment to improving physical activity levels in older adults. Exercise, performed regular and adjusted in an individual based according to exercise capacity and specific health risks for limitations, should be performed by older adults being as such, taking into account its great benefits, considered as a determinant non-pharmacological strategy to successful aging.

Inhibitors of Tumor Necrosis Factor (iTNF) (infliximab (IFX), adalimumab, etanercept, certolizumab pegol and golimumab), prove to be very useful in the therapeutic approach to chronic inflammatory diseases. The initial response to treatment with these drugs is acceptable for approximately 60-70% of patients. However, there is a significant percentage of patients who do not respond to this therapy. These non-responders can be due to an inadequate concentration of the drug in plasmatic samples and/ or presence of anti-drug antibodies in circulation.This study was design to determine, in patients undergoing therapy with IFX, the % of those who had sub-therapeutic concentration of the drug and the % of those that evidenced the presence of antiinfliximab antibodies (AcIFX).177 plasmatic samples were evaluated for determination of IFX and 146 for determination of AcIFX. The results show that 22% of the samples have sub-therapeutic levels of IFX. The prevalence of AcIFX obtained was 23% with 7.5% of these samples with optimal level of IFX. The implementation of a laboratory monitoring program of these drugs is based on the need to ensure the effectiveness of treatment with these drugs, and provide the rational use of these therapeutic drugs, that are very expensive.