Otis II: light at the end of the tunnel for damages indirectly caused by competition law infringements

Abstract: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) culminated a particularly fruitful year (2019) in private enforcement rulings with an important one in terms of “who” is entitled to be compensated for damages caused by competition law infringements: the Otis of 12 December 2019 (C-435/18). It ruled that any damage which has a causal connection with an infringement of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) must be capable of giving rise to compensation even if the injured party does not operate in the market affected. Despite the abstract character of this statement, which leaves a large margin of application for national courts – and therefore of legal uncertainty –, the ECJ is (once again) coming out in defense of the principle of the effectiveness of EU competition rules and taking over the competence to determine the substantive part of private enforcement, i.e., the liability requirements.   Keywords: Private enforcement; competition infringement; compensation; causal relationship; indirect damages.Abstract: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) culminated a particularly fruitful year (2019) in private enforcement rulings with an important one in terms of “who” is entitled to be compensated for damages caused by competition law infringements: the Otis of 12 December 2019 (C-435/18). It ruled that any damage which has a causal connection with an infringement of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) must be capable of giving rise to compensation even if the injured party does not operate in the market affected. Despite the abstract character of this statement, which leaves a large margin of application for national courts – and therefore of legal uncertainty –, the ECJ is (once again) coming out in defense of the principle of the effectiveness of EU competition rules and taking over the competence to determine the substantive part of private enforcement, i.e., the liability requirements.   Keywords: Private enforcement; competition infringement; compensation; causal relationship; indirect damages

The EU Antitrust Damages Directive: Transposition in the Member States - Barry Rodger, Miguel Sousa Ferro, and Francisco Marcos

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Leadership: impact on the satisfaction of public administration workers in Portugal

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the role of leadership in the local public administration workers' satisfaction level. This is a study case carried out with workers from the Municipality of Penafiel. A questionnaire was made, based on the European framework model of self-assessment CAF (Common Assessment Framework). With a total of 72 questions, supported by a Likert scale, we were able to get a final sample of 407 valid answers, out of 665 employees. Data indicates the existence of a positive and statistically significant correlation between leadership and motivation, involvement, and workers' participation. It was also possible to see the impact of leadership on the workers' perception of justice, equal opportunities, rewards and career development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Legendagem de vídeos de promoção institucional do ISCAP

Versão final (Esta versão contém as críticas e sugestões dos elementos do júri)O objetivo deste trabalho de projeto é a legendagem de vídeos de promoção institucional do ISCAP e procura complementar o trabalho de promoção já realizado pelos diretores de cada curso ou responsáveis de serviços, como forma de o tornar mais abrangente e permitir que seja percetível também ao público internacional. Com este projeto procuro colocar em prática os conteúdos abrangidos pelo Mestrado em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas. De modo a melhor enquadrar o processo tradutivo, a metodologia e o trabalho levado a cabo, desenvolvi uma breve abordagem teórica à comunicação institucional no meio digital e à sua relação com a tradução, em especial a tradução audiovisual, dando particular atenção à legendagem e a todos os processos necessários para a sua boa execução. Tendo por base esta análise, apresento a metodologia adotada durante o desenvolvimento do projeto até à obtenção do produto final, a proposta de tradução e legendagem, que passa pela escolha e visualização dos vídeos, transcrição do seu conteúdo, análise do discurso, tradução do mesmo para a língua inglesa e a respetiva legendagem. Descrevem-se também as dificuldades sentidas e a metodologia seguida na sua resolução. Para validar a legendagem e verificar a sua adequação e qualidade foi pedida a participação dos responsáveis pela criação e edição de cada vídeo, nomeadamente diretores de curso e de serviços do ISCAP. Finalmente, é desenvolvida uma reflexão sobre o projeto e todas as mais-valias que com ele adquiri assim como todas as competências obtidas ao longo dos dois anos de mestrado.The aim of this project is the subtitling of ISCAP’s institutional promoting videos. Its goal is to complement the marketing work already carried out by each degree’s director or responsible department, reinforcing their work and giving it the opportunity to reach international public. With this project I intend to put into practice all the programme content covered by the Master's in Specialized Translation and Interpreting. Therefore, as a framework of the translation process, the methodology and the work carried out through this project, I developed a theoretical approach to the institutional communication in the digital world and its relation to translation, in specific, audio-visual translation, giving particular attention to subtitling and all the procedures needed for it to be done in the better way possible. Based on this analysis, I introduce the methodology adopted throughout the development of this project to get to the final product, the translation and subtitling proposal. This process is composed by the choice and visualisation of the videos, its transcription and text analysis, the translation of the text into English and the respective subtitling. The difficulties encountered and their solutions are also described. To validate the subtitles and check its adequacy and quality, the participation of those responsible for the creation and editing of each video, namely ISCAP’s course and services’ directors, was requested. Finally, a reflection upon the project and everything I gained with it as well as all the skills obtained over the last two years is developed

A gestão de risco de crédito no processo de vendas: estudo de caso: pequenas e médias empresas do distrito do Porto

Esta versão não contém as críticas e sugestões dos elementos do júriO elevado número de pequenas e médias empresas no tecido empresarial português e as suas dificuldades estruturais em matéria de prazos excessivos de recebimentos representam um dos fatores mais críticos de falta de competitividade do mercado (Machado-da-Silva & Barbosa, 2002). Daí que o objetivo da presente dissertação tenha sido o de tentar perceber de que forma é realizada a gestão do risco de crédito no processo de vendas nas pequenas e médias empresas do distrito do Porto. Esta dissertação foi dividida em duas partes: a revisão da literatura e o estudo empírico. A revisão da literatura começou pela abordagem do conceito de gestão de risco e a problemática da gestão dos riscos de negócio, a sua aplicação ao processo de concessão de crédito de uma empresa, e termina com a identificação dos parâmetros que definem uma pequena e média empresa. De acordo com Kock (1993), a análise de crédito consiste essencialmente na análise do risco de incumprimento no pagamento, na qual o analista de crédito se esforça por avaliar a capacidade e o desejo que o cliente tem para pagar a dívida. A opção metodológica foi escolhida com o intuito de obter resultados para a realização do estudo. Assim, por um lado, a metodologia quantitativa foi utilizada de forma a obter resultados concretos e fiáveis. Por outro lado, o método qualitativo pretendeu complementar e comprovar a metodologia quantitativa. Os resultados obtidos transmitem a ideia de que o risco de crédito é uma das principais preocupações da pequena e média empresa, e que o estabelecimento de critérios no processo de aceitação de novos clientes e/ou de encomendas pode ajudar à diminuição do mesmo. Uma grande parte das empresas afirmou possuir políticas de crédito e reconheceram que a existência de políticas de crédito adequadas, pode ajudar à concretização dos objetivos.The large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Portuguese business fabric and their structural difficulties regarding the excessive receipt deadlines represent one of the most critical factors of the market’s lack of competitiveness (Machado-da-Silva & Barbosa, 2002). As such, the purpose of the present dissertation is to understand how credit risk management is carried out in the sales process of small and medium-sized enterprises in the district of Porto. This dissertation is divided into two parts: the literature review and the empirical study. The literature review begins exploring the concept of risk management and the issue of business risk management, its application to the credit process of a firm, and ends up clarifying the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises. According to Kock (1993), the credit analysis consists essentially in the analysis of the default risk in payment, in which the credit analyst strives to evaluate the client’s capacity and desire to pay the debt. The methodological option was chosen in order to obtain results for the study. Thus, on one hand, the quantitative methodology was used in order to obtain concrete and reliable results. On the other hand, the qualitative methodology sought to complement and prove the quantitative one. The results obtained conveyed the idea that the credit risk is one of the main concerns of a small and medium-sized enterprise, and that establishing criteria for the process of accepting new clients and orders can help to reduce it. A significant share of firms affirms to have credit policies, correctly defined according to the sector where they operate. Firms consider that having adequate credit policies can help to achieve goals

Evaluation of the cytotoxicity (HepG2) and chemical composition of polar extracts from the ruderal species Coleostephus myconis (L.) Rchb.f.

Coleostephus myconis (L.) Rchb.f. (Asteraceae) is a highly disseminated plant species with ruderal and persistent growth. Owing to its advantageous agronomic properties, C. myconis might have industrial applications. However, this species needs to be comprehensively characterized before any potential use. In a previous study, the phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of different C. myconis tissues were characterized. This investigation was extended to examine the cytotoxic potential of selected plant tissues (flowers and green parts) using a HepG2 cell line by utilizing the lysosomal neutral red uptake assay or mitochondrial (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. In addition, the macronutrients content, lipophilic compounds (fatty acids, tocopherols), and amino acids were also determined. C. myconis flowers were used in the senescence stage, which was previously identified as the stage that presented maximal phenolic content and highest antioxidant activity. In contrast, stems and leaves were employed due to their high biomass proportion. Regarding cytotoxicity, mitochondrial and lysosomal damage was only significant when HepG2 cells were exposed to the highest extract concentrations (stems and leaves, 0.9 mg/ml; senescent flowers, 0.3 mg/ml). Chemically, the senescent flowers were mostly characterized by their high levels of fat, amino acids (especially threonine), oleic acid, ß-, and ?-tocopherol, while stems and leaves contained high concentrations of carbohydrates, linolenic acid, and a-tocopherol. In general, these results provide information regarding the threshold concentrations of C. myconis extracts that might be used in different applications without toxicity hazards.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to REQUIMTE (PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2014) and to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013). J.C.M. Barreira, Carla Costa, and Filipa B. Pimentel thank FCT, POPH-QREN, and FSE for their grants (SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, SFRH/BPD/96196/2013 and SFRH/BD/109042/2015, respectively).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

3D digital breast cancer models with multimodal fusion algorithms

Breast cancer image fusion consists of registering and visualizing different sets of a patient synchronized torso and radiological images into a 3D model. Breast spatial interpretation and visualization by the treating physician can be augmented with a patient-specific digital breast model that integrates radiological images. But the absence of a ground truth for a good correlation between surface and radiological information has impaired the development of potential clinical applications. A new image acquisition protocol was designed to acquire breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and 3D surface scan data with surface markers on the patient's breasts and torso. A patient-specific digital breast model integrating the real breast torso and the tumor location was created and validated with a MRI/3D surface scan fusion algorithm in 16 breast cancer patients. This protocol was used to quantify breast shape differences between different modalities, and to measure the target registration error of several variants of the MRI/3D scan fusion algorithm. The fusion of single breasts without the biomechanical model of pose transformation had acceptable registration errors and accurate tumor locations. The performance of the fusion algorithm was not affected by breast volume. Further research and virtual clinical interfaces could lead to fast integration of this fusion technology into clinical practice.publishersversionpublishe

Antimicrobial functionalized genetically engineered spider silk

Genetically engineered fusion proteins offer potential as multifunctional biomaterials for medical use. Fusion or chimeric proteins can be formed using recombinant DNA technology by combining nucleotide sequences encoding different peptides or proteins that are otherwise not found together in nature. In the present study, three new fusion proteins were designed, cloned and expressed and assessed for function, by combining the consensus sequence of dragline spider silk with three different antimicrobial peptides. The human antimicrobial peptides human neutrophil defensin 2 (HNP-2), human neutrophil defensins 4 (HNP-4) and hepcidin were fused to spider silk through bioengineering. The spider silk domain maintained its self-assembly features, a key aspect of these new polymeric protein biomaterials, allowing the formation of b-sheets to lock in structures via physical interactions without the need for chemical crosslinking. These new functional silk proteins were assessed for antimicrobial activity against Gram e Escherichia coli and Gram þ Staphylococcus aureus and microbicidal activity was demonstrated. Dynamic light scattering was used to assess protein aggregation to clarify the antimicrobial patterns observed. Attenuated-total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) were used to assess the secondary structure of the new recombinant proteins. In vitro cell studies with a human osteosarcoma cell line (SaOs-2) demonstrated the compatibility of these new proteins with mammalian cells.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Bolsa de doutoramento (SFRH/BD/28603/2006); Chimera project (PTDC/EBB-EBI/109093/2008); NIH and Tissue Engineering Resource Center EB003210, P41 EB002520, DE017207