Strategic supplier management: from contractual models to engagement partnerships

Nowadays, it is essential to establish a good relationship between a company and its suppliers because otherwise, this relationship cannot last long. In the understanding of recent literature and empirical studies, there is still a lack of collaboration among customers and suppliers. There is a vision for short-term profit in big companies and less attention to the quality of services provided to them. The main objective of this study is to find mechanisms that make companies in the same supply chain thrive together. To this end, 15 companies that provide services to big companies in Portugal were interviewed to assess the problems and needs that exist in relation to this type of customer. The interviewed companies provided valuable information for this study. This allowed the design of two models of good practice in order to support companies in their relations with business partners.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Pereira market scan

The increasing competitiveness of market search related with information needs led to several companies to invest in new forms of decision making and models applied to scientific methods to position them as market leaders and to extract added value. This study was conducted with the propose of developing a market tool to allow a deeper and more pragmatic analysis to clients value and clients life cycle in order to contribute to the competitiveness of companies with relevant outputs and increase the market share of his company in a more conscious, objective way. The findings of this study allowed to quickly identify and to mitigate the type of problems which affect the organization and thus provide benefits to all the stakeholders that are in interaction with organizations.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

On Unitary Time Evolution in Gowdy T3T^3 Cosmologies

A non-perturbative canonical quantization of Gowdy $T^3$ polarized models carried out recently is considered. This approach profits from the equivalence between the symmetry reduced model and 2+1 gravity coupled to a massless real scalar field. The system is partially gauge fixed and a choice of internal time is performed, for which the true degrees of freedom of the model reduce to a massless free scalar field propagating on a 2-dimensional expanding torus. It is shown that the symplectic transformation that determines the classical dynamics cannot be unitarily implemented on the corresponding Hilbert space of quantum states. The implications of this result for both quantization of fields on curved manifolds and physically relevant questions regarding the initial singularity are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, latex file; references added, a proof included. Final version to appear in IJMP

Management consulting business models a perspective of sustainability

In a world characterised by distorted information, Management Consulting is one of the fastest growing activities that has been questioned since its first appearance. Doubts have been floating around the limits of the industry, the role and utility of its practitioners and the consequent implicit value-added to the clients’ firms. As such the main objective of this research is to investigate the business models of consulting companies to understand the way they operate and how they contribute to attain a sustainable competitive advantage in the industries where they are present. This investigation was done by conducting interviews in 2015 and collecting personal testimonies through from top consultants of eight consulting firms. The findings suggest that all organisations that participated in the research possess a unique combination of interrelated mechanisms and approaches towards organisational structure, clients, consultants and projects, which indicates their concern to maintain and augment a sustained superior performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A rare manifestation of neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopaenia

Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopaenia (NAIT) results from a fetomaternal incompatibility with maternal sensitisation against a fetal human platelet antigen (HPA) and antibodies transfer to the fetal circulation, leading to platelet destruction. The clinical presentation is variable and isolated intraocular haemorrhage is rare. We present the case of a male newborn, with intrauterine growth restriction, born at 29 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. He presented proptosis of the left eye, hyphaema and elevated intraocular pressure, with no other signs of haemorrhage. Severe thrombocytopaenia was found (27×10(9)/L). Perinatal infection and maternal thrombocytopaenia were excluded. Positive anti-HPA-1a and antihuman leucocyte antigen class I alloantibodies were found in the mother. Platelet crossmatch between the father's platelets and mother's plasma was positive. Platelet transfusions and intravenous immunoglobulin were given with favourable response. This case highlights an unusual presentation of NAIT, which should be suspected in the presence of severe thrombocytopaenia in the first 24-72 h of life

Renovascular hypertension: a case with atypical neurological signs

Secondary hypertension is the most frequent form of hypertension in children. Renovascular disease accounts for 5-10% of all childhood hypertension and should be suspected in the presence of severe hypertension found difficult to manage with medical therapy. Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to severe target organ damage. We describe the case of a 13-month-old baby boy with failure to thrive, recent muscular weakness of the lower extremities and irritability. Hypertension was detected and he was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit with a refractory hypertensive emergency, despite multiple antihypertensive therapies. Bilateral renal artery stenosis was diagnosed through renal angiography and balloon dilation was performed, leading to lower blood pressure. He is currently withdrawing from antihypertensive medication, and slowly gaining weight and recovering from target organ damage. However, weakness of the lower extremities persists and he has been diagnosed with a neurogenic bladde

Urinary extracellular vesicles as potential biomarkers for urologic cancers: An overview of current methods and advances

Urologic cancers are a heterogeneous group of tumors, some of which have poor progno-sis. This is partly due to the unavailability of specific and sensitive diagnostic techniques and monitoring tests, ideally non-or minimally invasive. Hence, liquid biopsies are promising tools that have been gaining significant attention over the last decade. Among the different classes of bi-omarkers that can be isolated from biofluids, urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs) are a promising low-invasive source of biomarkers, with the potential to improve cancer diagnosis and disease man-agement. Different techniques have been developed to isolate and characterize the cargo of these vesicles; however, no consensus has been reached, challenging the comparison among studies. This results in a vast number of studies portraying an extensive list of uEV-derived candidate biomarkers for urologic cancers, with the potential to improve clinical outcome; however, without significant validation. Herein, we review the current published research on miRNA and protein-derived uEV for prostate, bladder and kidney cancers, focusing on different uEV isolation methods, and its implications for biomarker studies.The APC was funded by CI-IPOP-PI27-FB-GEBC and TRIMARKCHIP (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030831 and PTDC/BTM-TEC/30831/2017). VC received the support of a fellowship from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is LCF/BQ/DR20/11790013

From sustainable HRM to employee performance : a complex and interwined road

Sustainable HRM is an emerging field that underpins the successful implementation of corporate sustainability initiatives. Grounded on the ability-motivation-opportunity theory, this study examines the effect of sustainable HRM on employee performance. To do so, we use a mediating model to explain the underlying mechanisms in sustainable HRM and its effect on employee performance. The results show that the road to achieving sustainable HRM from employees’ performance is not straightforward but intertwined with a double-mediation effect of the perceived organizational rationale for sustainability and organizational identification. These findings indicate that an organization needs to find a match or congruency between sustainable HRM practices and employees’ inner dispositions, in order to achieve a positive effect on employees’ performance. Sustainable HRM practices should be congruent with the sustainability orientation of the organization, and its employees need to perceive this rationale in order to create stronger identification and thus to become more engaged and to better performinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Green perceptions or green practices : What are the strongest influences on work engagement?

Green practices promoted in terms of people management, and which embody a Green Human Resources Management, are important tools for establishing a workforce which understands, values and practices green initiatives, which in turn will enable the organizations to attain their sustainability objectives. Workers also need to perceive that their organizations are concerned with and values sustainability, a phenomenon known as the organisational rationale for sustainability, and when they experience a close psychological connection with the organization, workers adopt its organizational objectives and targets for themselves, showing higher levels of organizational identification and work engagement. This paper analyses which factors most influence levels of work engagement in an organizational framework of pro-sustainability actions and concerns. Based on a sample of 275 workers from different organizations, economic sectors and occupations, the results show that implementing HRM green practices, especially in recruitment and selection and compensation (and, to a lesser extent, training), and reinforcing organizational identification are stronger determinants of greater work engagement than the perception that workers have of the importance which their organization attaches to sustainability..info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio