How to fight the shrinking of the premium industrial fashion brands category: the case of the brand Guess?

Premium Industrial Brands, very successful in the past, have recently started to suffer with consumer empowerment and with upper and lower fashion segments increasing the attraction of their business models, in a tendency called the shrinking of the middle market. This work project attempts to understand how a brand can survive this tendency by focusing on the case of GUESS?. With the structure of a case study and built from a thorough analysis of both the company and the market, it analyses the history, challenges and opportunities the brand faces and questions GUESS?’s new strategy, providing students with the tools to strategize towards middle market brands’ survival

Epidemiology and Etiology of Schizophrenia

The present landscape of therapy options for schizophrenia includes a large number of well-established atypical antipsychotic drugs. These medicines may assist in the management of positive symptoms of the condition, such as hallucination, delusion, and disordered speech. On the other hand, this is only successful in treating a subset of individuals. In addition, the influence of antipsychotic medicine that is currently on the market has a little effect on the cognitive plus negative schizophrenia symptoms. As a consequence of this, the market for schizophrenia requires treatments that use innovative mechanisms of action. At the present, every atypical antipsychotic medicine target dopaminergic transmission, and as a result, they all have a comparable effectiveness profile when it comes to lessening the intensity of psychotic actions and thoughts. The protection profiles of these two options vary from one another in only very minor ways. Unfortunately, not all patients respond well to atypical antipsychotic medication

Editorial: Positive Technology: Designing E-experiences for Positive Change

While there is little doubt that our lives are becoming increasingly digital, whether this change is for the better or for the worse is far from being settled. Rather, over the past years concerns about the personal and social impacts of technologies have been growing, fueled by dystopian Orwellian scenarios that almost on daily basis are generously dispensed by major Western media outlets. According to a recent poll involving some 1,150 experts, 47% of respondents predict that individuals’ well-being will bemore helped than harmed by digital life in the next decade, while 32% say people’s well-being will bemore harmed than helped. Only 21% of those surveyed indicated that the impact of technologies on people well-being will be negligible compared to now (Pew Research Center, 2018)

Gold nanoparticulate systems for new anticancer compounds delivery

My master studies have resulted in the following publication: Martins P, Rosa D, Fernandes AR, Baptista PV. 2014. Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Systems: Recent Patents and Applications in Nanomedicine. Recent Patents in Nanomedicine. 3(2):105-118

Bringing the biorefinery concept to the health-care facilities: use of industrial by-products against multi-drug resistant bacteria

Multi-drug resistant bacteria (MDRB) are a public health issue worldwide, being alternatives to the conventional failing antibiotherapy required. This fact has turned attention to bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity features. These bioactives can be extracted from several biomasses sources, namely industrial by-products, within a biorefinery concept. The main objective of this Thesis was the design of a novel antiseptic formulation (AF), based on natural plant extracts, obtained from forest/agriculture industries by-products. The antimicrobial activities of three extracts from different sources were studied: Eucalyptus nitens total bark (ENTB) extract, Cynara cardunculus leaves (CcL) extract and dry olive pomace (DOP) extract. Those that presented better antibacterial activity were chosen to be included in the AF. Studies regarding formulation design and its antibacterial performance were made. ENTB extract was the one with better anti-MDRB performance, particularly against Staphylococcus spp., with minimal inhibitory concentrations between 64 and 2048 μg/mL, being included in the AF. The antibacterial activity of ENTB extract-based-AF presented promising results, achieving a 97±2% bacterial growth inhibition after exposure to 45% of AF. In conclusion, the developed AF presents potential to be further investigated, namely for hand sanitation within healthcare environment, but additional adjustments should be executed, namely in order to turn it more appellative to users

Fishery indicators for the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) caught by the portuguese pelagic longline fishery in the Atlantic: nominal CPUEs, catch-at-size and at-haulback mortality

This paper provides an overview of fishery indicators for the shortfin mako shark captured by the Portuguese pelagic longline fishery in the Atlantic, in terms of catch-at-size, nominal CPUEs and at-haulback mortality. The analysis is based on data from fishery observers, port sampling and skippers logbooks (self sampling), from 1997-2015. In general, there was a large variability in the nominal CPUE trends for the north Atlantic, with a slight increase during the period. For the catch-at-size there were no major trends in the time series, but the sizes tended to be larger in the South Atlantic and with a larger variability. The at-haulback mortality was similar between sexes, with a trend for decreasing mortality rates with increasing specimen size. The data presented in this working document should be considered preliminary and is presented in preparation for the 2017 shortfin mako stock assessment in the Atlantic Ocean.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Progress report for SRDCP on the Atlantic-wide study on the age and growth of shortfin mako shark

The ICCAT Shark Research and Data Collection Program (SRDCP) aims to develop and coordinate science and science-related activities needed to support provision of sound scientific advice for the conservation and management of pelagic sharks in the Atlantic. This Program was developed in 2013-2014 by the Sharks Species Group, and framed within the 2015-2020 SCRS Strategic Plan. Within this Program, a specific study on the age and growth of shortfin mako in the Atlantic was developed, with the purpose of contributing to the 2017 ICCAT SMA stock assessment. In the paper, we provide an update of the project, including preliminary growth models for the North Atlantic Ocean.Project "LL-Sharks: Mitigação das capturas de tubarões na pescaria de palangre de superfície (Ref: 31-03-05-FEP-44, funded by PROMAR)", Project "MAKO-WIDE - "A wide scale inter-hemispheric and inter-disciplinary study aiming the conservation of the shortfin mako shark in the Atlantic Ocean (Ref: FAPESP/19740/2014)", funded by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) and FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil), and Project SAFEWATERS SC7 (The provision of advice on the conservation of pelagic sharks associated to fishing activity under EU Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements in the Atlantic Ocean) under the Framework Contract MARE/2012/21, funded by the European Commission. Additional satellite tags were acquired by NOAA in US-Uruguay and US-Portugal-Uruguay collaboration initiatives. Rui Coelho is supported by an Investigador-FCT contract from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) supported by the EU European Social Fund and the Programa Operacional Potencial Humano (Ref: IF/00253/2014). Catarina C. Santos is supported by an FCT Doctoral grant (Ref: SFRH/BD/139187/2018).info:eu-repo/semantics/draf