Exploring the links between human resource management and knowledge management: Organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing in Portuguese public organizations

Organizational commitment, defined as the individual attitude towards the organization, is related to a whole set of behaviors, including knowledge sharing behaviors, product from the organizational process where individuals mutually exchange their - implicit and explicit – knowledge and jointly create new knowledge, and organizational citizenship behaviors, defined as behaviors that, while not formally required by job tasks, decisivelly contribute to organizational success. In present research, we try to find the relationships between organizational commitment, knowledge sharing attitudes and organizational citizenship behaviors in portuguese public administration specific framework, exploring the links between Human Resource Management and Knowledge Management. To achieve the proposed goal, we performed a study based on a quantitative methodology, using for this purpose a sample of workers from three local portuguese public organizations. The survey questionnaire was an auto-response questionnaire, composed by items from the three different scales that operationalize the constructs explored in our theoretical research. The municipalities, portuguese local administration units, are a particular reality in portuguese public management context, with well defined particularities and evident boundaries - a delimited surface, a clearly defined intervention spectrum and a whole of available human, material and financial resources. In present Master’s Degree Dissertation in Business Administration, we were able to conclude that, despite the lack of a knowledge-sharing culture in portuguese public organization management strategies, portuguese public sector workers are willing to exhibit affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors, required attitudes for successful knowledge sharing. Proving that public administration workers exhibit those related behaviors and attitudes should be the starting point to transforming relatively uncompetitive public sector organizations into dynamic and knowledge-intensive learning organizations.O comprometimento organizacional, entendido como a atitude do indivíduo para com a organização, encontra-se intimamente relacionado com todo um conjunto de comportamentos, entre os quais se incluem os comportamentos de partilha do conhecimento, produto do processo organizacional em que os indivíduos mutuamente partilham o seu conhecimento – implícito e explícito – e conjuntamente criam novo conhecimento, e comportamentos de cidadania organizacional, entendidos como os comportamentos que, apesar de não requeridos formalmente pelas tarefas de trabalho, contribuem para o sucesso organizacional. Na presente investigação, procuramos perceber as relações entre o comprometimento organizacional, as atitudes de partilha de conhecimento e os comportamentos de cidadania organizacional no contexto específico da administração pública portuguesa, alicerçando assim os “links” entre a Gestão de Recursos Humanos e Gestão do Conhecimento. Para a prossecução do objectivo proposto, foi realizado um estudo assente numa metodologia quantitativa, recorrendo para o efeito a uma amostra de colaboradores de três autarquias locais portuguesas, aos quais foi aplicado um questionário de auto-resposta, composto por itens das três diferentes escalas que operacionalizam os construtos que ancoram a investigação. Os municípios, unidades administrativas do sector público local português, constituem uma realidade única no contexto da gestão pública portuguesa, com particularidades bem assentes e fronteiras bem definidas – uma área territorial delimitada, um espectro de intervenção claramente definido e uma significativa quantidade de recursos humanos, materiais e financeiros disponíveis. A presente Dissertação de Mestrado em Gestão permitiu concluir que, apesar da falta de uma cultura de partilha de conhecimento nas estratégias de gestão das organizações públicas portuguesas, existe predisposição para a exibição de comprometimento organizacional afectivo e comportamentos de cidadania organizacional entre os trabalhadores da administração local portuguesa, atitudes necessárias para uma bem sucedida partilha de conhecimento. A demonstração de que os trabalhadores da administração pública exibem este tipo de comportamentos e atitudes, interrelacionados entre si, constitui o ponto de partida para a transformação das relativamente pouco competitivas organizações públicas em verdadeiras organizações aprendentes

Taming Uncertainty in the Assurance Process of Self-Adaptive Systems: a Goal-Oriented Approach

Goals are first-class entities in a self-adaptive system (SAS) as they guide the self-adaptation. A SAS often operates in dynamic and partially unknown environments, which cause uncertainty that the SAS has to address to achieve its goals. Moreover, besides the environment, other classes of uncertainty have been identified. However, these various classes and their sources are not systematically addressed by current approaches throughout the life cycle of the SAS. In general, uncertainty typically makes the assurance provision of SAS goals exclusively at design time not viable. This calls for an assurance process that spans the whole life cycle of the SAS. In this work, we propose a goal-oriented assurance process that supports taming different sources (within different classes) of uncertainty from defining the goals at design time to performing self-adaptation at runtime. Based on a goal model augmented with uncertainty annotations, we automatically generate parametric symbolic formulae with parameterized uncertainties at design time using symbolic model checking. These formulae and the goal model guide the synthesis of adaptation policies by engineers. At runtime, the generated formulae are evaluated to resolve the uncertainty and to steer the self-adaptation using the policies. In this paper, we focus on reliability and cost properties, for which we evaluate our approach on the Body Sensor Network (BSN) implemented in OpenDaVINCI. The results of the validation are promising and show that our approach is able to systematically tame multiple classes of uncertainty, and that it is effective and efficient in providing assurances for the goals of self-adaptive systems

Síntese e testes in vitro de novas pirimido[5,4-d] pirimidinas em células resistentes do cancro coloretal

Dissertação de mestrado em Química MedicinalO cancro coloretal é a terceira causa de morte, associado a doenças oncológicas, em todo o mundo. O seu aparecimento, principalmente em países desenvolvidos, está relacionado com um estilo de vida sedentário e os maus hábitos alimentares. O diagnóstico de cancros resistentes aos fármacos utilizados tem, contribuído para a necessidade de desenvolvimento de novos compostos com atividade anticancerígena, que consigam vencer a resistência adquirida dos tumores. Neste trabalho, novos derivados de pirimido[5,4-d]pirimidinas foram sintetizados por reação da 8-hidrazinil-N-fenilpirimido[5,4-d]pirimidina-4-amina com diferentes aldeídos e anidridos cíclicos. As reações foram realizadas em DMSO, com ou sem catálise ácida, respetivamente. A reatividade entre a 8-hidrazinil-N-fenilpirimido[5,4-d]pirimidina-4-amina com diferentes ésteres e imidato foi igualmente estudada, verificando-se uma diferença com os estudos previamente efetuados. A atividade biológica dos compostos foi avaliada in vitro na linha celular HCT-116 (p53-wt). Neste trabalho foi efetuado um estudo do efeito dos diferentes substituintes na posição C4, do anel de pirimidina, mantendo-se o substituinte em C8 fixo (R=Ph). Os derivados que apresentaram uma percentagem de inibição de viabilidade celular superior a 50% foi determinado o seu IC50. Os derivados com grupos planares, com substituintes em posições específicas, revelaram ser os mais ativos.Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. It is diagnosed, mainly in developed countries where sedentary lifestyles and poor eating habits are common. The diagnosis of drug resistant cancers, has contributed a need for the development of new anticancer compounds which could combat the acquired resistance of tumours. Herein, pyrimido[5,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives were synthetized by reacting 8-hydrazinyl-N-phenylpyrimido[5,4-d]pyrimidin-4-amine with aldehydes and anhydrides. The reactivity between 8-hydrazinyl-N-phenylpyrimido[5,4-d]pyrimidin-4- amine with different esters and imidate was also investigated, in which differences in reactivity were observed. All the synthesized compounds were fully characterized by physical and spectroscopic techniques (1H and 13C NMR), infra-red, elemental analysis and melting points. The biological activity of these newly synthetized compounds along with other pyrimido[5,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives, was evaluated in the cellular line type, HCT 116 (p53-wt). The new derivatives, with substituents in specific positions, in the aryl group in the R1 position, revealed to be the most active. SAR studies showed that the activity was related with the substituent in position C4 and C8 of the pyrimido pyrimidine core ring. The IC50 values of derivatives that showed an inhibition percentage greater than 50% of the cellular viability had their IC50 determined. The derivatives with planar substituents in specific positions prove to be the most active

Perkinsus Atlanticus – desenvolvimento de um método de diagnóstico para detecção de infecção em moluscos bivalves

Diferentes espécies do género Perkinsus, um protozoário parasita pertencente ao novo phylum Perkinsea, podem ser encontradas mundialmente e constituem uma séria ameaça aos moluscos bivalves como as ostras, amêijoas, abalones e vieiras, os quais têm um papel importante não só do ponto de vista comercial, mas também ecológico

Outcomes of lenvatinib therapy in poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Funding Information: Ricardo Rodrigues was granted with a PhD scholarship by iNOVA4Health Research Unit (UIDP/04462/2020; UI/BD/154256/2022). The remaining authors did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-for-profit sectors. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 the author(s) Published by Bioscientifica Ltd.Background and objective: Lenvatinib showed promising results in a subgroup of patients with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC) in the SELECT trial. Our aim was to report the effectiveness and tolerability of lenvatinib in our series of PDTC patients. Methods: Medical records of eight consecutive patients with PDTC treated with lenvatinib in a single center between January 2019 and October 2022 were retrospectively reviewed. Inclusion criteria were PDTC diagnosis based on Turin criteria and evidence of disease progression in the previous 6 months. Results: Eight PDTC patients received an average dose of lenvatinib of 18.1 mg for a median duration of treatment of 10.3 months. The baseline Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status was ≥2 in 50% of patients. Two patients had unresectable primary tumor. Seven patients showed extrathyroidal disease, particularly mediastinal lymph nodes (85.7%), lung (71.4%), and bone (71.4%). The disease control rate was 100%, with partial response and stable disease in 12.5 and 87.5%, respectively. The median time to best overall response was 3 months, and the median duration of response was 7.5 months. Median progression-free survival was 12 months and median overall survival was not reached. At 6, 12, and 18 months, overall survival was 87.5, 71.4, and 57.1%, respectively. All patients experienced drug-related adverse effects (AEs). Four (50%) had dose reductions and two (25%) had temporary treatment interruptions. Lenvatinib was stopped in two patients due to grade ≥3 AEs. Conclusion: Lenvatinib is an effective treatment for real-world PDTC patients. Adequate management of comorbidities and AEs increases treatment tolerability and minimizes dose reductions.publishersversionpublishe

A hybrid approach combining control theory and AI for engineering self-adaptive systems

Control theoretical techniques have been successfully adopted as methods for self-adaptive systems design to provide formal guarantees about the effectiveness and robustness of adaptation mechanisms. However, the computational effort to obtain guarantees poses severe constraints when it comes to dynamic adaptation. In order to solve these limitations, in this paper, we propose a hybrid approach combining software engineering, control theory, and AI to design for software self-adaptation. Our solution proposes a hierarchical and dynamic system manager with performance tuning. Due to the gap between high-level requirements specification and the internal knob behavior of the managed system, a hierarchically composed components architecture seek the separation of concerns towards a dynamic solution. Therefore, a two-layered adaptive manager was designed to satisfy the software requirements with parameters optimization through regression analysis and evolutionary meta-heuristic. The optimization relies on the collection and processing of performance, effectiveness, and robustness metrics w.r.t control theoretical metrics at the offline and online stages. We evaluate our work with a prototype of the Body Sensor Network (BSN) in the healthcare domain, which is largely used as a demonstrator by the community. The BSN was implemented under the Robot Operating System (ROS) architecture, and concerns about the system dependability are taken as adaptation goals. Our results reinforce the necessity of performing well on such a safety-critical domain and contribute with substantial evidence on how hybrid approaches that combine control and AI-based techniques for engineering self-adaptive systems can provide effective adaptation

Extração de taninos de Acacia sp. com potencial uso na coagulação: um contributo para a bioeconomia

Coagulation-flocculation is one of the most important steps in water treatment. In Water Treatment Plants, pre-polymerized inorganic coagulants are traditionally used; however, recent studies have shown the potential of condensed tannins for the production of natural coagulants as an alternative to chemical coagulants. In this context, the present work intends to highlight the importance of the development of nature-based solutions that can be alternative to conventional processes, due to the environmental, social and economic benefits they can provide. The study focused on optimizing condensed tannin extraction process from Acacia dealbata barks, as a strategy for valuing forest residues, promoting the territory bioeconomy and sustainability. In the tested extraction conditions, the best yield was obtained at a temperature of 40 oC, using 50% ethanol (v/v) as the solvent, without stirring and an extraction time of 30 min. The highest concentrations of condensed tannins and phenolic compounds were observed in samples of Acacia sp. with higher vegetative development (trunk perimeter of 20 cm), corresponding to 246,2 ± 9,4 miligrams per gram of dry extract (mg ges-1) and 706,2 ± 27,2 mg ges-1, respectively.Este trabalho foi desenvolvido no âmbito do projeto TECH - Tecnologia, Ambiente, Criatividade e Saúde, Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000043, cofinanciado pelo Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE 2020), através do Portugal 2020 e do Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER). Leonel Nunes foi apoiado pela proMetheus - Unidade de Investigação & Desenvolvimento em Materiais, Energia e Ambiente para a Sustentabilidade- UIDP/05975/2020, financiado por fundos nacionais através de FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O ensino do voleibol com recurso à abordagem tática: o exemplo do smashball

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SimProgramming : the development of an integrated teaching approach for computer programming in higher education

Conferência realizada em Valência de 7-9 de março de 2016Computer programming courses in higher education tend to have high rates of academic failure and students struggle, particularly so in the transition from entry-level programming to advanced programming. Some of the reasons given in the literature relate to the type of teaching approach and the strategies used by students and their attitudes towards computer programming. The literature also mentions that educational approaches are not always appropriate to the needs of students and to the development of skills required in the job market. We developed a teaching approach to try to address some of these issues and support students learning computer programming in the transition from entry-level to advanced computer programming: the SimProgramming approach. This approach was introduced at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal), within the scope of the course “Programming Methodologies III”, part of the second curricular year of the programmes of studies in Informatics Engineering and in Information & Communication Technologies. We present in detail the origins of the SimProgramming approach, starting from the first trials that introduced, in two iterations, learning activities based on problem-based learning, and up to the third iteration where the current SimProgramming approach was implemented. We describe the reasoning, design and implementation of these three iterations, to show how the approach evolved. The SimProgramming approach is based in four conceptual foundations: business-like learning environment, self-regulated learning, co-regulated learning and formative assessment. For each of these conceptual foundations, we explain the teaching strategies adopted. In SimProgramming, the learning activity process develops in four phases, and students have specific tasks in each phase. We analyse interview data regarding student perceptions about the SimProgramming approach, and registration grids data on team work dynamics and final assessment of the assignment, noting the impact of SimProgramming in student grades. The application of SimProgramming revealed promising evidences in the overall results of student learning in the activities proposed in this approach. The average grades improved, and did the number of students regularly submitting their tasks on schedule. The perceptions of students regarding the SimProgramming approach are very positive: they recommend using it in the following years, and provided some suggestions to improve the approach. We conclude with reflections and recommendations for subsequent development of the SimProgramming approach in its application to the teaching of computer programming and potential for using it in other educational contexts.FC