A perspectiva dos consumidores portugueses sobre os medicamentos de marca vs medicamentos genéricos

Os medicamentos são considerados a principal “ferramenta” terapêutica para a prevenção, recuperação ou manutenção das condições de saúde pública1. Existem inúmeros medicamentos destinados para o mesmo fim, por este motivo, compete à Indústria Farmacêutica desenvolver alternativas de mercado, suficientemente capazes de competir com os outros medicamentos pré-existentes. Um medicamento genérico é um medicamento com a mesma substância activa, forma farmacêutica, dosagem e a mesma indicação terapêutica que o medicamento original, de marca, que serviu de referência, sendo identificados pela sigla (MG). Os medicamentos genéricos para além da mesma qualidade, têm igual, eficácia, segurança, biodisponibilidade e bioequivalência, mas a um preço inferior ao do medicamento original

Do goal orientations really influence performance?

Purpose: The creativity of retail employees seems to be of the utmost importance for ensuring the performance of organizations in service settings. This paper contributes to the existing theory by investigating the direct and indirect effects of goal orientations on the creativity and performance of retail employees. The authors propose a framework depicting the relationships between goal orientations and employee creativity and performance, including the intervening effects of self-efficacy and customer orientation. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted with retail frontline employees of a large retail bank in Portugal. The sample consists of 267 valid responses. Structural equations are used by applying the maximum likelihood method to test the conceptual framework. Findings: Results are broadly supportive of the hypotheses. Learning orientation is, directly and indirectly, related to creativity, but only indirectly to performance. As to performance orientation, it is indirectly related to creativity through self-efficacy and customer orientation, and directly as well as indirectly, to performance. The authors investigate the extent to which the effects of goal orientations on creativity and performance are mediated by self-regulatory mechanisms, namely self-efficacy, and customer orientation. Originality/value: The results recognize that learning and performance goals are neither mutually exclusive nor contradictory, which collide with past empirical evidence showing that learning goals are generally associated with more favorable outcomes and performance goals with more negative or equivocal ones. These outcomes underscore the need and relevance for managers to foster both goal orientations to promote the creativity and performance of retail employees, representing a particularly salient issue in retail businesses characterized by significant interpersonal interactions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Cloud terminals for ticketing systems

In this research work, we introduce the concept of a thin device implemented on a cloud platform for terminal devices on the front end of ticketing systems. Therefore, we propose the evolution of the traditional architecture of ticketing for a cloud based architecture in which the core processes of ticketing are offered through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, which can be subscribed by transport operators that pay-per-use. Ticketing terminal devices (e.g., gates, validators, vending machines) are integrated in the cloud environment creating the concept for a ‘thin’ device. This approach is achieved by moving business logic from terminals to the cloud. Each terminal is registered to be managed by each own operator, configuring a multi-tenancy implementation which is vendor hardware independent, allowing to address elasticity and interoperability issues. The elasticity of the cloud will support the expansion/implosion of small (transport) operators business around electronic ticketing. In the near future, this ticketing solution will promote collaboration between operators

Do the Small Numbers in the Quark Mixing arise from New Physics?

We put forward the conjecture that the small numbers in the $V_\text{CKM}$ matrix, are generated by physics beyond the Standard Model. We identify as small numbers $V_{ub}$ and the strength of CP violation, measured by $|\text{Im}Q|$, where $Q$ stands for a rephasing invariant quartet of $V_\text{CKM}$. We illustrate how the conjecture can be realised in the context of an extension of the Standard Model where an up-type vector-like quark is introduced leading to a realistic spectrum of quark masses and an effective $V_\text{CKM}$ in agreement with experiment.Comment: 15 pages, 1 tabl

Enhancing locality in Java based irregular applications

Improving locality of memory accesses in current and future multi-core platforms is a key to efficiently exploit those platforms. Irregular applications, which operate on pointer-based data structures, are hard to optimize in modern computer architectures due to their intrinsic unpredictable patterns of memory accesses. In this paper we explore a memory locality-driven set of data-structures in order to attenuate the memory bandwidth limitations from typical irregular algorithms. We identify the inefficiencies in the standard Java implementation of a priority-queue as one of the main memory limitations in Prim’s Minimal Spanning Tree algorithm. We also present a priority-queue using the data layout inspired in Van Emde Boas for ordering heaps. We also implement optimizations in the graph data-structure and explore ways to efficiently combine it with the memory-efficient priority-queue. In order to improve efficiency in both case studies we had to transform the data-structures in the form of array of pointer into arrays of structures or structure of arrays

Taas – ticketing as a service

The goal of this research work is to introduce the concept of a lower cost flexible system for ticketing purposes implemented on a cloud platform. We propose therefore the evolution of the traditional architecture of ticketing for a cloud based architecture in which the core processes of ticketing are offered through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, which can be subscribed by operators that pay-per-use. Ticketing terminal equipment (e.g. gates, validators, vending machines) are integrated in the cloud environment. This approach is achieved by moving business logic from terminals to the cloud. Each terminal is registered to be managed by each own operator, configuring a multi-tenant implementation which is vendor hardware independent, allowing to address elasticity and interoperability issues. The elasticity of the cloud will support the expansion/implosion of small (transport) operators business around electronic ticketing. In the near future, this ticketing solution will promote collaboration between transport operators

Assessing the time-frequency co-movements among the five largest engineering consulting companies: A wavelet-base metrics of contagion and VaR ratio

Diversification in a portfolio is an important tool for the systematic risk management that is inherent to different asset classes. The composition of a portfolio with domestic and international assets is seen as one of the main alternatives for building a diversified portfolio, as this approach tends to reduce portfolio return exposure depending on country factors. However, in scenarios where industry factors are predominant, international diversification can increase systematic risk in a portfolio centered on a single asset class. This study is a pioneer in using wavelet-based methods to identify intersectoral co-movements, based on a portfolio of shares of the world’s top five consulting engineering companies, providing an innovative way to be applied to this phenomenon. Our evidence indicates that companies share a strong pattern of co-movements among themselves, especially in cycles of 32 to 64 days, suggesting a higher exposure to risk for portfolios with an investment horizon in long-term cycles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Time-resolved ferromagnetic resonance in epitaxial Fe1-xCox films

Magnetodynamics in epitaxial Fe1-xCox films on GaAs (100) are studied using time-resolved ferromagnetic resonance, in which the free precession of the magnetization after an impulsive excitation is measured using the polar Kerr effect. The sample is rotated with respect to the static and pulsed field directions, providing a complete mapping of the free energy surface and characteristic relaxation times. The magnetic response can be simulated with a simple coherent rotation model except in the immediate vicinity of switching fields. Bulk and surface anisotropies are identified, and unusual dynamics associated with the coexistence of cubic and uniaxial anisotropies are observed.Comment: PDF - 4 figure

Photocatalytic Bi2O3/TiO2:N thin films with enhanced surface area and visible light activity

Bi2O3 nanocone films functionalized with an overlayer of TiO2 were deposited by d.c. reactive magnetron sputtering. The aforementioned nanocone structures were formed via a vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) growth, starting from a catalytic bismuth seed layer. The resultant nanocones exhibit an improved surface area, measured by atomic force microscopy, when compared to non-VLS deposition of the same metal oxide. X-ray diffraction texture analysis enabled the determination of the crystallographic β-phase of Bi2O3. A very thin TiO2 overlayer (6 nm thick), undoped and doped with nitrogen, was deposited onto the nanocones template, in order to functionalize these structures with a photocatalytic, self-cleaning, cap material. N-doped TiO2 overlayers increased the selective absorption of visible light due to nitrogen doping in the anatase cell, thus, resulting in a concomitant increase in the overall photocatalytic efficiency.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the project “NANOPURIFY—Development of photocatalytic panels for air treatment units, Vieira & Lopes Lda.”, with the reference 024121, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (COMPETE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement. Filipe C. Correia acknowledges the financial support from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the Ph.D grant SFRH/BD/111720/2015

CP-odd and CP-even Weak-Basis Invariants in the Presence of Vector-Like Quarks

We propose a minimal set of weak-basis invariants in an extension of the SM where one up-type isosinglet vector-like quark is introduced, which allows us to obtain all the physical content of the CKM matrix. We present CP-odd invariants of lower order in mass than the one in the SM, which may have important consequences for Baryogenesis. We study the extreme chiral limit, where the two lightest generations have vanishing mass, showing that in this extension, contrary to the SM, CP violation can be observed in collisions much above the electroweak scale.Comment: 18 page