The impact of knowledge transfer on innovation in multinational corporations: exploring the contingent effects

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThis direct research explores the contingencies of the relation between knowledge transfer and new product outcomes in Multinational companies. Indeed, in a MNC context, “the conditions under which such knowledge transfer can serve to induce positive outcomes remain unclear.”(Lee, 2008, p 1) After a deep literature review of knowledge transfer and new product outcomes literature, an exploratory study was conducted to understand which factors can influence the impact of knowledge transfer in new product outcomes, with the purpose to give insights about the way to approach a further study. We propose the following three internal contingencies: network strength, absorptive capacity, customer orientation and an external one: technological turbulence, through a semi structured interview guide conducted with 12 top managers. Globally, the exploratory study has provided confirmation for the variables proposed

Programmes de soutien par les pairs dans les domaines de la médecine et des sciences infirmières : recension systématique et revue narrative

Peer-provided services exist in many different domains and professions. However, there is a knowledge gap in the existing programs’ descriptions and grouping that hinders creating new high-quality peer support programs. The objectives of this article are two-fold in describing existing peer support programs published in the literature in the medical field and evaluating their descriptive quality. Six electronic databases, grey literature, and reference lists were systematically searched. Studies reporting the existence of a support program delivered by peers and its description or methodology were included. Studies targeting patients and children were excluded. 11 articles were included in the qualitative synthesis and explored in detail. A total of 2155 peers participated in support programs in the fields of medicine, nursing, or both. Programs in other professional fields were not found. Programs were described in five different countries. Three methods of peer support delivery were found: in person, online, and mixed varying in their goals, duration, peer training supervision and participant demographics and number. Program descriptions were rated as good, fair, or poor using a verified rating scale.  There are numerous well-described programs varying in their methodology and type of delivery. Thus, the emergence of new programs can be based on such models that have been well-described in the literature.Les services fournis par les pairs existent dans de nombreux domaines et professions. Cependant, les connaissances en matière de description et de regroupement des programmes existants sont lacunaires, entravant ainsi la création de nouveaux programmes de soutien par les pairs de qualité. Le présent article vise d’une part à décrire les programmes actuels de soutien par les pairs dont fait état la littérature médicale et d’autre part à évaluer leur qualité descriptive. Une recherche systématique a été effectuée dans six bases de données électroniques, dans la littérature grise et dans les listes de références. Toutes les études présentant un programme de soutien fourni par des pairs et sa description ou sa méthodologie ont été incluses. Les études ciblant les patients et les enfants ont été exclues. Onze articles ont été inclus dans la synthèse qualitative et explorés en détail. Au total, 2155 pairs ont participé à un programme de soutien en médecine, en sciences infirmières ou dans les deux domaines. Aucun programme n’a été trouvé dans d’autres domaines professionnels. Les programmes décrits proviennent de cinq pays différents. Trois méthodes de soutien par les pairs ont été trouvées : en personne, en ligne et mixte. Les objectifs, la durée, la supervision de la formation par les pairs, les données démographiques des participants et leur nombre varient d’un programme à l’autre. Les descriptions de programmes ont été évaluées selon une échelle d’évaluation validée comme bonnes, acceptables ou médiocres. Il existe de nombreux programmes, bien décrits, qui varient en termes de méthodologie et de type de prestation. Aussi, la création de nouveaux programmes pourra s’appuyer sur les modèles qui sont bien décrits dans la littérature

Primary osteoblast-like cells from patients with end-stage kidney disease reflect gene expression, proliferation, and mineralization characteristics ex vivo.

Osteocytes regulate bone turnover and mineralization in chronic kidney disease. As osteocytes are derived from osteoblasts, alterations in osteoblast function may regulate osteoblast maturation, osteocytic transition, bone turnover, and skeletal mineralization. Thus, primary osteoblast-like cells were cultured from bone chips obtained from 24 pediatric ESKD patients. RNA expression in cultured cells was compared with RNA expression in cells from healthy individuals, to RNA expression in the bone core itself, and to parameters of bone histomorphometry. Proliferation and mineralization rates of patient cells were compared with rates in healthy control cells. Associations were observed between bone osteoid accumulation, as assessed by bone histomorphometry, and bone core RNA expression of osterix, matrix gla protein, parathyroid hormone receptor 1, and RANKL. Gene expression of osteoblast markers was increased in cells from ESKD patients and signaling genes including Cyp24A1, Cyp27B1, VDR, and NHERF1 correlated between cells and bone cores. Cells from patients with high turnover renal osteodystrophy proliferated more rapidly and mineralized more slowly than did cells from healthy controls. Thus, primary osteoblasts obtained from patients with ESKD retain changes in gene expression ex vivo that are also observed in bone core specimens. Evaluation of these cells in vitro may provide further insights into the abnormal bone biology that persists, despite current therapies, in patients with ESKD

Reator biológico com membrana (MBR) aplicado ao tratamento de esgotos gerados por unidades residenciais unifamiliares

Dissertação (mestrado) — Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Civil e Ambiental, 2016.A escolha da tecnologia apropriada para o tratamento de esgoto doméstico tem sido uma preocupação crescente devido ao interesse em proporcionar um efluente de melhor qualidade, tanto para manutenção da qualidade ambiental como para produzir água para reúso. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi o de avaliar a aplicabilidade do processo de Reator Biológico com Membrana (MBR) a sistemas provenientes de unidades residenciais unifamiliares de esgotos no Brasil e as condições em que esse processo seria recomendado. Por isso, propôs-se um sistema MBR adaptado às condições existentes nos sistemas de esgotos sanitários provenientes de unidades residenciais unifamiliares. Em seguida, para avaliar o sistema MBR proposto, foi desenvolvida uma metodologia simplificada de avaliação tecnológica de processos de tratamento de esgotos unifamiliares com uma abordagem de análise de decisão multiobjetivo e multicritério, por meio da utilização dos métodos ELECTRE III e TOPSIS. Essa metodologia foi utilizada para realizar a avaliação tecnológica dos seguintes processos e operações unitárias: (A1) Tanque séptico; (A2) Tanque séptico seguido de filtro anaeróbio; (A3) Tanque séptico seguido de Wetlands; (A4) UASB seguido por biofiltro aerado submerso; (A5) Reator UASB acompanhado por lodo ativado convencional; e (A6) Tanque séptico acompanhado por reator biológico com membrana. Esses processos foram avaliados em três cenários brasileiros: (1) Nível do lençol freático baixo e com alta permeabilidade e com risco epidemiológico e ambiental pequeno; (2) Nível do lençol freático alto e/ou com capacidade de infiltração baixa com risco epidemiológico e ambiental grande; e (3) Realização de reúso direto não potável da água em área urbana e rural. Foram estabelecidos dez critérios, subdividindo-os em quatro dimensões da Tecnologia: técnica, econômica, ambiental e social. Uma das conclusões do emprego da metodologia de análise tecnológica foi que, embora a tecnologia MBR ainda seja muito cara devido a sua complexidade e por ainda estar em fase de desenvolvimento no Brasil, ela se mostrou adequada para ser instalada em locais que sofrem com a escassez hídrica e necessitam de utilizar o efluente tratado de esgoto sanitário. Evidenciou-se que os altos custos de implantação e manutenção da tecnologia MBR influenciaram na análise tecnológica realizada. Porém, quando se tratou da possibilidade de se realizar o reúso de água, a análise demonstrou que somente o sistema MBR tem condições de atender aos critérios exigidos pelas normas e legislação vigentes.The choice of appropriate technology for the treatment of sewage has been a growing concern due to the interest in providing a better quality effluent, both for environmental quality maintenance as to produce water for reuse. The objective of this research was to evaluate the applicability of the membrane biological reactor (MBR) process for treating sewage from single-family households in Brazil and the conditions under which this process would be recommended. Therefore, an MBR system adapted to these conditions prevailing in sewage systems from single-family households was proposed. Then, to evaluate the MBR system proposed, a simplified method for technology assessment of decentralized sewage treatment processes was developed, having a multiobjective and multi-criteria decision analysis approach by using ELECTRE III and TOPSIS methods. This methodology was used to evaluate the following technological processes and unit operations: (A1) septic tank; (A2) septic tank followed by anaerobic filter; (A3) septic tank followed by Wetlands; (A4) UASB reactor followed by submerged aerated biofilter; (A5) UASB reactor accompanied by conventional activated sludge; and (A6) septic tank accompanied by membrane bioreactor MBR. These processes were evaluated in three Brazilian scenarios: (1) Low water table level and soil with high permeability and small epidemiological and environmental risk; (2) The level of the water table high and/or low soil infiltration capacity with great epidemiological and environmental risk; and (3) nonpotable direct water reuse in urban and rural areas. Ten criteria were established, subdividing them into four technological dimensions: technical, economic, environmental and social. One of the conclusions of the use of technology analysis methodology was that although the MBR technology is still very expensive, due to its complexity, and to be still under development in Brazil, it was adequate to be installed in places that suffer from water scarcity and that need to use effluent from sewage treatment. It was evident that the high implementation and maintenance costs of the MBR technology influenced the technological analysis. However, when considering the possibility of performing water reuse, the analysis showed that the MBR is the only alternative able to meet the criteria required by actual standards and law

Probabilistic semantically reliable multicast

Traditional reliable broadcast protocols fail to scale to large settings. The paper proposes a reliable multicast protocol that integrates two approaches to deal with the large-scale dimension in group communication protocols: gossip-based probabilistic broadcast and semantic reliability. The aim of the resulting protocol is to improve the resiliency of the probabilistic protocol to network congestion by allocating scarce resources to semantically relevant messages. Although intuitively it seems that a straightforward combination of probabilistic and semantic reliable protocols is possible, we show that it offers disappointing results. Instead, we propose an architecture based on a specialized probabilistic semantically reliable layer and show that it produces the desired results. The combined primitive is thus scalable to large number of participants, highly resilient to network and process failures, and delivers a high quality data flow even when the load exceeds the available bandwidth. We present a summary of simulation results that compare different protocol configurations

X-Chromosome Inactivation and Autosomal Random Monoallelic Expression as “Faux Amis”

Funding: The work of NK and VMB was funded by iNOVA4Health – UIDB/Multi/04462/2020 and UIDP/Multi/04462/2020, a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)/Ministério da Educação e Ciência through national funds, and the FCT grant PTDC/BEX-BCM/5900/2014. CFA-P has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 752806. A-VG was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through an assistant research contract (CEECIND/02085/2018) and the project grant PTDC/MEDOUT/4301/2020 IC&DT.X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) and random monoallelic expression of autosomal genes (RMAE) are two paradigms of gene expression regulation where, at the single cell level, genes can be expressed from either the maternal or paternal alleles. X-chromosome inactivation takes place in female marsupial and placental mammals, while RMAE has been described in mammals and also other species. Although the outcome of both processes results in random monoallelic expression and mosaicism at the cellular level, there are many important differences. We provide here a brief sketch of the history behind the discovery of XCI and RMAE. Moreover, we review some of the distinctive features of these two phenomena, with respect to when in development they are established, their roles in dosage compensation and cellular phenotypic diversity, and the molecular mechanisms underlying their initiation and stability.publishersversionpublishe

Assisting Nova SBE in developing an international placement strategic action plan: how to approach the French, Swiss and Italian job markets

Benefits of an international work experience are widely recognized. As students’ desire in pursuing an international career increases, it is of the universities’ interest to provide students with tools to accomplish this. The purpose of this work project is to develop placement recommendations for the French, Italian and Swiss job markets. The objective is to expand Nova’s placement range. Conclusions were achieved through the study of career services best practices from business schools present in three different rankings. Lastly, attractive job opportunities in these markets were assessed and practical recommendations on students’ curriculum and school practices were made

Application of chemometric tools for the comparison of volatile profile from raw and roasted regional and foreign almond cultivars (Prunus dulcis)

In almonds, volatile compounds are major contributors to flavour, being scarce the current knowledge about their volatile profile. Hence, this work intended to characterize the volatile profile, using headspace solidphase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, in raw and roasted almond cultivars (regional cvs. Amendoa˜o, Bonita, Casanova, Molar and Pegarinhos and foreign cvs. Ferragne`s and Glorieta). Overall, 35 compounds were identified, with major chemical classes being alcohols and aldehydes. In raw fruits, benzaldehyde and 3-methyl-1-butanol were key compounds, with roasting changing volatile profiles, increasing release of compounds, with predominance of hexanal and benzaldehyde. Cultivars Glorieta and Molar didn’t show significant increase in aldehyde content after roasting, which may indicate higher resistance to heat-caused oxidation. The use of linear discriminant analysis and principal components analysis permitted the recognition of patterns in the volatile profiles, that can be useful for cultivars identification. This work allowed the characterization and monitoring changes caused by roasting of volatile components of less studied almond cultivars, identifying some that can withstand roasting procedures with reduced formation of compounds associated with off-flavours.Ivo Oliveira is grateful to FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for the Post-doctoral Fellowship SFRH/BPD/111005/2015. This work is supported by: European Investment Funds by FEDER/ COMPETE/POCI—Operational Competitiveness and Internacionalization Programme, under Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958 and National Funds by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the Project UID/AGR/04033/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Caracterização química e avaliação das atividades antioxidante e anticolinesterásica de extratos do cultivar BRS Porã

As Bromeliaceaes são consideradas a segunda maior família de monocotiledôneas epífitas. As espécies desta família apresentam grande importância na utilização como fonte de fibras, alimentos, forragens, ornamentais e medicamentos. O Brasil abriga cerca de 40% do total de espécies das Bromeliaceae, sendo 40 gêneros registrados no território nacional (FORZZA, 2005)