Transferência e utilização do conhecimento em turismo: o estado da arte

Reconhecendo um papel cada vez mais determinante do Conhecimento na competitividade organizacional, o presente artigo procede à revisão bibliográfica da investigação publicada sobre transferência e utilização do conhecimento em turismo, no contexto da gestão do conhecimento. Através da pesquisa bibliográfica das referências e citações de um conjunto inicial de artigos científicos, selecionou-se um conjunto de artigos empíricos e de revisão de literatura, que foram objeto de análise documental. Os resultados alcançados confirmam os diagnósticos anteriores quanto à insipiência e falta de sofisticação metodológica, sugerindo três focos temáticos nos artigos empíricos: i) disseminação e perceções sobre o conhecimento académico; ii) transferência de conhecimento ao nível interorganizacional; e iii) condicionantes da transferência de conhecimento em contexto intraorganizacional. A finalizar, discutem-se os resultados, suas implicações e limitações, sugerindo-se direções de pesquisa futura.Recognizing the increasingly decisive role of knowledge in organizational competitiveness, this article reviews the published research on transfer and utilization of knowledge in tourism, within the context of knowledge management. Stemming from references and citations of an initial set of academic papers, the articles selected (both empirical and literature reviews) were subject to documentary analysis. The results confirm previous diagnosis about the immaturity and lack of methodological sophistication o n the issue, suggesting three thematic foci in the empirical articles: i) dissemination and perceptions about academic knowledge; ii) transfer of knowledge between organizations; and iii) determinants of knowledge transfer within organizations. The article concludes discussing the results, its implications and limitations, suggesting directions for future research

Antisocial rewarding in structured populations

Cooperation in collective action dilemmas usually breaks down in the absence of additional incentive mechanisms. This tragedy can be escaped if cooperators have the possibility to invest in reward funds that are shared exclusively among cooperators (prosocial rewarding). Yet, the presence of defectors who do not contribute to the public good but do reward themselves (antisocial rewarding) deters cooperation in the absence of additional countermeasures. A recent simulation study suggests that spatial structure is sufficient to prevent antisocial rewarding from deterring cooperation. Here we reinvestigate this issue assuming mixed strategies and weak selection on a game-theoretic model of social interactions, which we also validate using individual-based simulations. We show that increasing reward funds facilitates the maintenance of prosocial rewarding but prevents its invasion, and that spatial structure can sometimes select against the evolution of prosocial rewarding. Our results suggest that, even in spatially structured populations, additional mechanisms are required to prevent antisocial rewarding from deterring cooperation in public goods dilemmas

Diversification relatedness and economic performance: does the resource plasticity channel matter?

In this paper, we examine the link between corporate diversification relatedness and economic performance through the resource plasticity channel. In order to do so, we estimate a dynamic panel on a data set of 2,396 diversified firms from the euro area over the 2010-2017 period. Our empirical research documents that a percentage point increase in the level of unrelated diversification is significantly associated with a 1.52 percent improvement in performance and vis-à-vis related diversification with a 1.09 percent increase in performance, considering the sensitivity of these relationships to resource plasticity. These findings contribute to the literature by documenting that diversification relatedness positively impacts performance. Furthermore, evidence is also consistent with the proposition that this relationship is sensitive to resource plasticity. Our results hold after controlling for endogeneity bias and are robust to alternative variable specifications

Immobilization of Therapeutic Deep Eutectic Solvents within fibers for drug delivery applications

The search for effective drug delivery systems has been subject of research over the last decades. Due the body´s many physiological barriers and the urgent need for increased bioavailability of active pharmaceutic ingredients (APIs), the efficient administration and therapeutic effect of a drug has become a great and important challenge nowadays. Transdermal drug delivery has recently gained attention in this field being mostly limited by the though barrier of the stratum corneum. Many studies have been conducted in order to enhance skin permeation of a drug and many transdermal patches are now available for commercial use due to its commodity and non-evasive properties. In this work, a therapeutic eutectic system designed to be effective at delivering ibuprofen through the skin was incorporated into a polymeric fibrous membrane produced by the Solution Blow Spinning method. An optimization of the fibrous membranes production was made, the impact of the Solution Blow Spinning parameters in fiber diameter was studied, retention capacity of the drug was evaluated as well as UV crosslinking efficiency and mechanical strength of the obtained membranes. The Solution Blow Spinning method showed to be simple and efficient at producing micrometric fibers with mean diameters ranging from 1 to 5 μm. The obtained membranes showed to be capable of retaining the eutectic drug but they were quite fragile and an overtime-controlled release was not achieved due to the polymer high solubility in water

Organization and management of maintenance indexed to risk factors in healthcare environment

Currently, in a similar way to the policies adopted by the organizations, the hospitals lay an enormous effort in the search of the maximum efficiency of the organizational flows. This results in the improvement of the provided services and patient safety, taking into account the profitability of the physical resources and economic conditions. To achieve these goals, it is necessary not only to increase the efficiency of medical equipment throughout their life cycle, but also to prevent the risks associated with their handling, with emphasis on patient safety. The concepts of maintenance management and risk assessment have been evolving towards the adequacy of the policies most adapted to the nature of the facilities and equipment, whether by economic, functional or other classification. The concept of risk in a hospital environment is very diverse. There are physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial risks. Although all risks are important for the safety and well-being of patients, this dissertation/project focuses mainly on biological risks (infections due to viruses, fungi, bacteria and parasites), and physical risks with a special focus on electrical risk. These risks can be partially indexed to the organization and management of the maintenance of hospital facilities and equipment, as this can help to prevent risks; However, with a good evaluation and management of these, maintenance costs can be reduced and unexpected interventions can be avoided. In this context, this article analyzes the main electrical and biological risks, in order to establish a cause-effect relationship with the maintenance policies carried out by the institutions

Phenotypic Characterization with Software Development for Analysis of the Visual System in Animal Models of Neurodevelopmental Diseases

A neurofibromatose tipo 1 (NF1) é uma perturbação do desenvolvimento neurológico com implicações cognitivas adultas. Provoca anomalias do sistema nervoso central e afeta 1 em 3000 indivíduos em todo o mundo. Contudo, pouco se sabe sobre os efeitos no sistema visual e como estes podem estar associados a défices cognitivos e preveem a sua progressão. Neste trabalho, avalia-se as potenciais alterações na fisiologia da retina num modelo genético de murgalho de NF1, utilizando uma técnica neurofisiológica não invasiva, o eletroretinograma (ERG), para determinar o seu potencial diagnóstico. Como um indicador fiável da função da retina em resposta à luz, o ERG tem a capacidade de ajudar a nossa interpretação da fisiopatologia das perturbações do neurodesenvolvimento e neurodegenerativas. Os principais objetivos desta tese são a caracterização fenotípica do sistema visual num modelo animal de NF1 e o desenvolvimento de ferramentas informáticas (MATLAB e Phyton) para processamento de sinais, análise de forma de onda, extração de características, e classificação. Verificou-se que os parâmetros ERG relacionados principalmente com a atividade oscilatória inibitória revelam alterações subtis dependentes do sexo. Para vários potenciais oscilatórios, machos e fêmeas exibem alterações opostas associadas ao genótipo mutante. Além disso, as características do ERG foram utilizadas para formar um classificador de aprendizagem de máquina baseado nos aglomerados significativos encontrados para algumas interações entre indivíduos, um classificador que se destina a ser capaz de receber um sinal e devolver o provável diagnóstico.Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with adult cognitive implications. It causes central nervous system anomalies and affects 1 in 3000 individuals worldwide. However, little is known about the effects on the visual system circuitry and how these may be associated with cognitive deficits and predicts its progression. In this work, it was evaluated the potential alterations in retinal physiology in a genetic mouse model of NF1, using a non-invasive neurophysiological technique, the electroretinogram (ERG), to ascertain its diagnostic potential. As a reliable indicator of retinal function in response to light, the ERG has the ability to aid our interpretation of the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The main objectives of this thesis are the phenotypic characterization of the visual system in an animal model of NF1 and the development of computer tools (MATLAB and Phyton) for signal processing, waveform analysis, feature extraction, and classification. This work found that ERG parameters mainly related to inhibitory oscillatory activity reveal subtle sex-dependent alterations. For various oscillatory potentials males and females exhibit opposite changes associated with the transgenic background. Furthermore, the ERG features were used to form a machine learning classifier based on the significant clusters found for some interactions between individuals, a classifier that is meant to be able to receive a signal and return the likely diagnosis

Algorithmic skeleton framework for the orchestration of GPU computations

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaThe Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is gaining popularity as a co-processor to the Central Processing Unit (CPU), due to its ability to surpass the latter’s performance in certain application fields. Nonetheless, harnessing the GPU’s capabilities is a non-trivial exercise that requires good knowledge of parallel programming. Thus, providing ways to extract such computational power has become an emerging research topic. In this context, there have been several proposals in the field of GPGPU (Generalpurpose Computation on Graphics Processing Unit) development. However, most of these still offer a low-level abstraction of the GPU computing model, forcing the developer to adapt application computations in accordance with the SPMD model, as well as to orchestrate the low-level details of the execution. On the other hand, the higher-level approaches have limitations that prevent the full exploitation of GPUs when the purpose goes beyond the simple offloading of a kernel. To this extent, our proposal builds on the recent trend of applying the notion of algorithmic patterns (skeletons) to GPU computing. We propose Marrow, a high-level algorithmic skeleton framework that expands the set of skeletons currently available in this field. Marrow’s skeletons orchestrate the execution of OpenCL computations and introduce optimizations that overlap communication and computation, thus conjoining programming simplicity with performance gains in many application scenarios. Additionally, these skeletons can be combined (nested) to create more complex applications. We evaluated the proposed constructs by confronting them against the comparable skeleton libraries for GPGPU, as well as against hand-tuned OpenCL programs. The results are favourable, indicating that Marrow’s skeletons are both flexible and efficient in the context of GPU computing.FCT-MCTES - financing the equipmen

Positive or negative? : the impact of anti-takeover legislation on R&D investment

Anti-takeover laws are laws designed to protect target companies from hostile activity by making the bidder’s attempt of acquisition more expensive and/or time consuming, as there are three different types anti-takeover laws. The aim of this dissertation is analyzing the impact of different kind of antitakeover laws (fair price laws, control share acquisition laws, and business combination laws) on firm R&D expenditures. In order to do so, this study uses data about U.S. public firms between 1970 and 2011. The empirical findings indicate that fair Price laws increase R&D activities because of the possibility of increasing the expected takeover premium for managers, whereas control share acquisition laws and business combination laws decrease it by reducing the external pressure, which is the biggest incentive for firm managers to remain competitive in the market. Alongside, Business Combination laws seem not to have a significant impact on firm’s R&D expenditures