Using the fuzzy linguistic computing in the evaluation of the value creation in an innovative product

Although innovation usually involves the assumption of high risk levels, it assumes itself as a vital tool for growth, enhancing value creation representing a competitive advantage. The aim of this chapter is to propose a methodology to evaluate the potential for value creation in innovation of a new product, relatively to intangible and tangible assets. For intangible assets the proposed methodology combines a multiple criteria decision-making method with an adaptation of Tai and Chen (2009) model using 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach. This methodology was applied to the EToll product developed by the Portuguese company Brisa Innovation and Technology. It was concluded that the benefits that most contributed to value creation are the development and entrepreneurship of national companies and a better cooperation with suppliers and partners. The EToll also allowed a significant reduction in operating costs in the company. The originality of this study is based in the challenge for business managers to assess the real impact of new products based not only on financial reports, but also in terms of intangible assets and also, how to consider the more appropriate qualitative dimensions to evaluate the performance of intangible assets resulting from innovation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploring the antibacterial properties of honey and its potential

Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, São Paulo, BrazilInst Butantan, Ctr Toxinol Aplicada CAT CEPID, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP EPM, Dept Farmacol, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP EPM, Dept Farmacol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Parallel

In this paper we present Parallel, a videogame with a powerful story of mystery, suspense and puzzle-solving. Parallel provides an interactive storyline where the actions players take throughout the game will define the course of the story and alter events. The environment created in the game is unique and it was improved from testing with several subjects on a prototype of the tutorial. Parallel’s main potential is the sense of immersion it can provide with its obscure environment, dynamic dialogs using an artificial intelligent agent and its interactive storyline.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Evaluation of weed flora changes in Portugal in a 10 year basis

The aim of this study was to assess the composition of weed communities starting from a rainfed farming system (1997), to the early period of transformation in agricultural systems with the adoption of irrigation (2007). The assessments were made within a 10-year interval and the floristic surveys were conducted in the same georeferenced plots. In 1997, the surveys were mostly performed in winter cereals (wheat, oat, barley), while in 2007, considering the same georeferenced plots, there were winter cereals and also irrigated olive groves, parcels of fallow, pasture and pine forest. Weed flora was determined by means of relative frequency, abundance and weed infestation degree. The effect of time was also evaluated by applying the methodology of variance analysis on the values of Shannon-Wiener Index. Canonical Correspondence Analysis was used to complement this information only for 2007 to know how the flora was distributed by the different cultures. Our results revealed that in both cases weed flora was of high diversity (229 and 264 species in 1997 and 2007, respectively), with the most representative families being always the same, namely Asteraceae, Poaceae and Fabaceae. The number of weeds that could be of concern for the farmers revealed to be relatively low. Our study confirmed that despite of the intensification of the agricultural production system, biodiversity increased over time. In both years, Lolium rigidum was present at high densities

Sarconesin: Sarconesiopsis magellanica Blowfly Larval Excretions and Secretions With Antibacterial Properties

Larval therapy (LT) is an alternative treatment for healing chronic wounds; its action is based on debridement, the removal of bacteria, and stimulating granulation tissue. The most important mechanism when using LT for combating infection depends on larval excretions and secretions (ES). Larvae are protected against infection by a spectrum of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs); special interest in AMPs has also risen regarding understanding their role in wound healing since they degrade necrotic tissue and kill different bacteria during LT. Sarconesiopsis magellanica (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is a promising medically-important necrophagous fly. This article reports a small AMP being isolated from S. magellanica ES products for the first time; these products were obtained from third-instar larvae taken from a previously-established colony. ES were fractionated by RP-HPLC using C18 columns for the first analysis; the products were then lyophilised and their antimicrobial activity was characterized by incubation with different bacterial strains. These fractions' primary sequences were determined by mass spectrometry and de novo sequencing; five AMPs were obtained, the Sarconesin fraction was characterized and antibacterial activity was tested in different concentrations with minimum inhibitory concentrations starting at 1.2 mu M. Potent inhibitory activity was shown against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli D31, E. coli DH5 alpha, Salmonella enterica ATCC 13314, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 27853) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, S. epidermidis ATCC 12228, Micrococcus luteus A270) bacteria. Sarconesin has a significant similarity with Rho-family GTPases which are important in organelle development, cytoskeletal dynamics, cell movement, and wound repair. The data reported here indicated that Sarconesin could be an alternative candidate for use in therapeutics against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial infections. Our study describes one peptide responsible for antibacterial activity when LT is being used. The results shown here support carrying out further experiments aimed at validating S. magellanica AMPs as novel resources for combating antibacterial resistance

Psychosocial factors as predictors of quality of life in chronic Portuguese patients

BACKGROUND: Chronic illnesses are diseases of long duration and generally of slow progression. They cause significant quality of life impairment. The aim of this study was to analyse psychosocial predictors of quality of life and of subjective well-being in chronic Portuguese patients. METHODS: Chronic disease patients (n = 774) were recruited from central Portuguese Hospitals. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires assessing socio-demographic, clinical, psychosocial and outcome variables: quality of life (HRQL) and subjective well-being (SWB). MANCOVA analyses were used to test psychosocial factors as determinants of HRQL and SWB. RESULTS: After controlling for socio-demographic and clinical variables, results showed that dispositional optimism, positive affect, spirituality, social support and treatment adherence are significant predictors of HRQL and SWB. Similar predictors of quality of life, such as positive affect, treatment adherence and spirituality, were found for subgroups of disease classified by medical condition. CONCLUSIONS: The work identifies psychosocial factors associated with quality of life. The predictors for the entire group of different chronic diseases are similar to the ones found in different chronic disease subgroups: positive affect, social support, treatment adherence and spirituality. Patients with more positive affect, additional social support, an adequate treatment adherence and a feel-good spirituality, felt better with the disease conditions and consequently had a better quality of life. This study contributes to understanding and improving the processes associated with quality of life, which is relevant for health care providers and chronic diseases support.This study was supported by a grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PTDC/PSI/71635/2006, PTDC/PSI/ 73175/2006, SFRH/PROTEC/49284/2008

Optimism on quality of life in Portuguese chronic patients: moderator/mediator?

OBJECTIVE: optimism is an important variable that has consistently been shown to affect adjustment to quality of life in chronic diseases. This study aims to clarify if dispositional optimism exerts a moderating or a mediating influence on the personality traits-quality of life association, in Portuguese chronic patients. METHODS: multiple regression models were used to test the moderation and mediation effects of dispositional optimism in quality of life. A sample of 729 patients was recruited in Portugal's main hospitals and completed self-reported questionnaires assessing socio-demographic and clinical variables, personality, dispositional optimism, quality of life (QoL) and subjective well-being (SWB). RESULTS: the results of the regression models showed that dispositional optimism did not moderate the relationships between personality traits and quality of life. After controlling for gender, age, education level and severity of disease perception, the effects of personality traits on QoL and in SWB were mediated by dispositional optimism (partially and completely), except for the links between neuroticism/openness to experience and physical health. CONCLUSION: dispositional optimism is more likely to play a mediating, rather than a moderating role in personality traits-quality of life pathway in Portuguese chronic patients, suggesting that "the expectation that good things will happen" contributes to a better quality of life and subjective well-being

Development of an integrated messenger RNA manufacturing process using thermoreversible aqueous biphasic systems

The promising potential of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines as effective approaches to contain the dissemination of infectious diseases was fully disclosed during the combat to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over conventional vaccines, mRNA-based vaccines exhibit improved safety and efficacy profiles, and the possibility of repeatedly administration [1]. However, the manufacturing of mRNA vaccines is complex, costly and requires multi-step purification strategies to produce high quality products. If properly designed, ionic liquids (ILs) can act as RNA stabilizing agents [2] and enhance the selectivity of purification processes when used to form aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) [3]. Aiming to improve mRNA manufacturing, this work proposes the use of thermoreversible ABS based on ILs to integrate the production and clarification steps, further simplifying subsequent purification steps. Up to date, we have achieved the production of mRNA by in vitro transcription and its purification using conventional methods and gathered insights on mRNA stability and integrity in several structurally distinct ILs. According to these previous results, current attention is being placed on the identification of the best thermoreversible IL-based ABS to integrate production and clarification steps. Overall, the proposed integrated production-clarification platform is expected to tackle current challenges of mRNA manufacturing, especially by improving the cost-efficiency and technological simplicity of existing manufacturing processes and enhancing the stability and yield of the final product.publishe

Aplicação da sequenciação de nova geração ao diagnóstico genético do cancro da mama hereditário

Introdução: O cancro da mama hereditário (CMH) constitui 5-10% dos casos de cancro da mama, dos quais cerca de 30% se devem a mutações germinais de elevada penetrância nos genes BRCA1 e BRCA2. Embora tenham sido identificadas mutações noutros genes de suscetibilidade para cancro da mama, estas são raras, pelo que a análise sequencial de múltiplos genes se torna ineficaz e dispendiosa pelos métodos convencionais(1,2). A determinação da causa genética subjacente ao CMH permite não só identificar os indivíduos com risco aumentado de cancro da mama, como oferecer uma medicina personalizada, mais eficaz na redução da incidência de cancro da mama assim como da morbilidade e mortalidade associadas(3). A sequenciação de nova geração (NGS) veio possibilitar a pesquisa de mutações em múltiplos genes em simultâneo, permitindo um diagnóstico molecular rápido, eficaz e com custo inferior ao da sequenciação de Sanger. Objetivos: Otimizar o diagnóstico molecular do CMH através da implementação de um protocolo de NGS baseado num painel abrangente de genes de suscetibilidade para cancro da mama. A 1ª fase de concretização deste objetivo consistiu em validar a utilização da NGS na deteção de mutações nos genes BRCA1, BRCA2 e TP53. Material e métodos: Foram analisadas por NGS 12 amostras de doentes com cancro da mama, previamente sequenciadas pelo método de Sanger para os genes BRCA1, BRCA2 e TP53. As bibliotecas de sequências-alvo foram preparadas a partir de DNA genómico pelo método de captura por hibridação, num protocolo que integrou o Trusight Cancer Sequencing Panel e o kit TruSight Rapid Capture (Illumina), e sequenciadas numa plataforma MiSeq com leituras paired-end de 150 bp. A análise bioinformática incluiu os softwares MiSeq Reporter, VariantStudio e Isaac Enrichment (Illumina). Resultados: Foram detetadas por NGS um total de 97 variantes de sequência nos genes BRCA1, BRCA2 e TP53, das quais 35 são variantes únicas (33 single nucleotide variants e 2 deleções), numa concordância de 100% com a sequenciação de Sanger. Conclusões: Estes resultados preliminares comprovam a eficiência da NGS na deteção de variantes em 3 genes de elevada penetrância para cancro da mama e abrem caminho para a oferta de um painel de genes de suscetibilidade para cancro da mama que permitirá um diagnóstico molecular do CMH mais abrangente, rápido e com custos reduzidos relativamente à sequenciação de Sanger. Bibiografia 1. Tung N, Batteli C, Allen B et al. (2015). Frequency of mutations in individuals with breast cancer referred for BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing using next-generation sequencing with a 25-gene panel. Cancer, 121: 25-33. 2. Apostolou P, Fostira F (2013). Hereditary breast cancer: the era of new susceptibility genes. BioMed Res Int, 2013: 747318. 3. Ellsworth R, Decewicz D, Shriver C, Ellsworth D (2010). Breast cancer in the personal genomics era. Curr Genomics, 11: 146-161