Philipp Cimiano; Christian Chiarcos; John P. McCrae; Jorge Gracia (2020). Linguistic Linked Data. Representation, Generation and Applications. Springer International Publishing

Recensão de: Philipp Cimiano; Christian Chiarcos; John P. McCrae; Jorge Gracia (2020). Linguistic Linked Data. Representation, Generation and Applications. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-030-30225-

The paradox between sustainability and fashion:Implementation of sustainable education in the fashion industry

The fashion industry is the fourth most damaging industry in the world and the detriment to the environment is going as fast as the industry is growing, making it critical to explore sustainable practices to cut the problem at the root, the consumers. Hence, this dissertation aims to understand the possibility of implementing sustainable education in the fashion industry for the Gen Z of the Portuguese market. This research uses a qualitative approach done with thirteen interviews which were interpreted with a content analysis to identify and analyze the perceptions of Gen Z consumers on fashion brands and sustainable practices in the industry. This work was designed from the concept of consumer education to provide insights of Gen Z consumers on how it can be adapted for sustainability purposes to help fashion businesses become greener. To do such implementation this study also set out to identify the type of consumer present in the sample for an optimate outcome. Results showed a lack of knowledge from Gen Z about sustainability as well as an absence of curiosity if not for personal gain, there was also a global judgment of deceitfulness by brands on the matter of green practices. Lastly, Type 1: Consumer Information, Protection and Advocacy and Type 3: Critical Approach for Self-interest were identified within the sample of Gen Z Portuguese consumers, given that the latter was less prominent. Overall, the introduction of sustainable education seems promising for this generation’s improvement as well as a mutual dialogue between fashion brands and consumers to reach a better and more sustainable future

Playing against the rules : how a digital strategy can enhance a luxury business : the case of Burberry

This dissertation studies the case of Burberry: a luxury brand that saw its reputation deteriorate due to some decisions that were made as to carry out a global expansion that went against some of the fundamentals of a luxury business model. Although profitable, the brand diluted its value, and its image as a luxury brand was highly compromised. Burberry has managed to turn around by playing, once again, “against the rules” of luxury. Although many academics and other luxury brands saw digital as an anathema to luxury, Angela Ahrendts, Burberry’s CEO from 2006 to 2014, was able to see its potential as a strategic tool to spread brand content and create symbolic value, while targeting a new generation: the millennials. This time, the “dreaded” tool was used in service of luxury’s fundamentals. The main goal in this study is to understand that, although digital’s essence is the opposite to luxury’s, a digital strategy can coexist with a luxury one, as long as the former respects the fundamentals of the latter. Therefore, it is important to deeply understand the concepts and fundamentals of a luxury business model and what may happen if they are not respected. The theoretical perspectives on this matter are extensively discussed in this paper in order to understand how a digital strategy can leverage a luxury brand’s performance.Esta dissertação estuda o caso da Burberry: uma marca de luxo que viu a sua reputação deteriorar-se devido a algumas decisões tomadas com o intuito de expandir a marca mundialmente e que desrespeitaram alguns dos fundamentos do modelo de negócio de luxo. Embora se tenha conseguido manter lucrativa, o valor da marca diluiu e sua imagem de luxo foi altamente comprometida. A Burberry conseguiu dar a volta à situação, jogando, mais uma vez, "contra as regras” do luxo. Embora muitos académicos e outras marcas de luxo vejam no digital uma ameaça para a estratégia de luxo, Angela Ahrendts, CEO da Burberry entre 2006 e 2014, conseguiu ver o seu potencial como ferramenta estratégica para espalhar o conteúdo da marca e criar valor simbólico, focando-se, também, num novo público alvo: os millennials. Desta vez, a “temida” ferramenta foi usada ao serviço dos fundamentos do luxo. O principal objetivo deste estudo é perceber que, embora a essência do digital seja oposta à do luxo, uma estratégia digital pode coexistir com uma de luxo, desde que a primeira respeite os fundamentos da segunda. Assim sendo, é importante compreender profundamente os conceitos e fundamentos de um modelo de negócio de luxo e o que pode acontecer se eles não forem respeitados. As perspetivas teóricas sobre estes temas são amplamente discutidas neste estudo, a fim de perceber como é que uma estratégia digital pode alavancar a performance de uma marca de luxo

ISO-DR-core plugs into ISO-dialogue acts for a cross-linguistic taxonomy of discourse markers

The present paper proposes an interoperable taxonomy to represent the meaning of discourse markers based on ISO DR-core (ISO 24617-8) but with a plug-in to ISO-dialogue acts (ISO 24617-2). The proposed taxonomy encompasses two dimensions: the semantic, with values regarding the discourse relations signalled by discourse markers, and the pragmatic, with values concerning the communicative function realized by discourse markers. We present a proof of concept for this twodimensional taxonomy in a multilingual parallel dataset in three languages, English, European Portuguese and Bulgarian, comprising 165 textual segments with multiword discourse makers obtained from publicly available TED Talk transcripts. We show that the two-dimensional taxonomy can successfully annotate cross-linguistically the meaning of discourse markers and discuss linguistic evidence where extension of the proposed taxonomy can be relevant

Implantable defibrillator and prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients with cardiomyopathies and channelopathies

BACKGROUND: sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a dramatic and usually unexpected event in young patients with cardiomyopathies and channelopathies including Brugada syndrome (BS). Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is the only proven life-saving therapy in these patients, able to reduce mortality by interrupting VF. However, ICD is not free from complications and markedly affects quality of life, particularly in young and active subjects. Markers of increased arrhythmic risk are strongly needed to identify those patients who most benefit from ICD therapy. It has been reported a high incidence of BS in a Japanese population with a progressive neuromuscular disorder, the Kennedy’s disease (KD). Whether the same prevalence of Brugada ECG is found in the Italian patients with KD and it represents a predictor of malignant arrhythmic outcome remains to be established. AIMS: we aimed to: 1) found predictors of major arrhythmic events in BS, by assessing the prognostic value of clinical and electrocardiographic parameters; 2) evaluate the risk/benefit ratio of ICD in young patients (≤35 years old) with cardiomyopathies and channelopathies including BS; 3) to determine the prevalence of the Brugada ECG pattern in a large Italian cohort of patients with KD. METHODS: we performed three different studies. First, we conducted a prospective study on 272 patients with a diagnostic (type 1) Brugada ECG either spontaneous or drug-induced. The primary end-point of the study was a combined endpoint including SCD, cardiac arrest, and appropriate ICD interventions. Second, we enrolled 96 consecutive patients with cardiomyopathies and channelopathies who were 18–35 years old at the time of ICD implantation. The study end points were cardiac mortality, appropriate ICD intervention, inappropriate ICD intervention and device-related complication. Third, we analysed 73 ECG tracings of Italian patients with KD. RESULTS: the main results for each study were as follows: 1) during a mean follow-up of 85±44 months, 17 patients (6.3%) experienced ≥1 major arrhythmic events (annual rate 0.9%) such as appropriate ICD intervention (N=13) and SCD (N=4). History of syncope or cardiac arrest, type 1 ECG pattern and first-degree atrio-ventricular (AV) block were associated with major arrhythmic events; 2) during a mean follow-up of 72.6±53.3 months, 20 patients (20.8%) had a total of 38 appropriate ICD interventions (4%/year) and 26 patients (27.1%) experienced a total of 49 adverse ICD-related events (5.4%/year), including 23 inappropriate ICD interventions occurring in 9 patients (9.4%) and 26 device-related complications requiring surgical revision occurring in 20 patients (20.8%). One patient with end-stage hypertrophic cardiomyopathy died because of acute heart failure, and 11 patients underwent heart transplantation. Underweight status was an independent predictor of device-related complications; 3) only three patients (4%) had Brugada-like ECG changes and no patients experienced symptoms or arrhythmic events. CONCLUSIONS: In young patients with cardiomyopathies and channelopathies ICD therapy provided life-saving protection by effectively terminating life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. However, because ICD-related adverse events are common, the risk/benefit ratio should be carefully assessed when considering ICD implantation in young people. In addition to traditional risk predictors such as previous syncope/cardiac arrest and spontaneous type 1 pattern, we found that first-degree AV block was independently associated with a worse outcome in BS. Finally, we didn’t confirm the high incidence of Brugada ECG-abnormalities previously found in a Japanese population with KD

Bragança an aging district and neurodegenerative diseases”

The territory is considered low density due to criteria related to demographic, economic, urban, institutional and relational aspects [2]. The total number of elderly people in the district is 124121 [4]. A marked loss of population and a continuous and marked aging has occurred in this district. To compare the aging index in Bragança district with the national one and identify the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases in the district. Descriptive statistics were used to synthesize the demographic data collected from INE [3] and the epidemiological ones of neurodegenerative diseases active diagnoses provided by the Northeast Local Health Unit [5].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Some issues on quantification in consecutive clauses

FR:Les phrases aux propositions consécutives constituent un problème complexe en raison de leur statut syntaxique et de leur interprétation sémantique, celles-ci donnant lieu à des analyses très différentes. Notre but, dans cet article, est de proposer une analyse sémantique des phrases subordonnées consécutives finies en Portugais Européen fondée sur des critères de quantification. En effet, nous conclurons que la quantification joue un rôle très important dans les phrases consécutives en ce qui concerne leur interprétation. Les données observées suggèrent l'existence de trois types différents de phrases consécutives - celles quantifiant sur des individus (objets), celles quantifiant sur des situations et celles quantifiant sur des propriétés. Cette tripartition nous aide à expliquer quelques restrictions importantes relatives aux différents marqueurs linguistiques dans les phrases consécutives. Elle peut expliquer aussi quelques restrictions sur les classes de mots, la nature des classes aspectuelles des situations de la proposition principale et le type de prédicats nominaux compris dans la quantification.The sentences with consecutive clauses have been a controversial topic because not only their syntactic status but also their semantic interpretation are confronted with many problems which give rise to different analysis. Our aim in this paper is to propose a semantic analysis of finite subordinate consecutive sentences in European Portuguese grounded on quantificational issues. In fact, quantification in consecutive sentences plays a very important role regarding their interpretation. The data suggest the existence of three different types of quantificational consecutive sentences corresponding to quantification over individuals (objects), quantification over situations and quantification over properties. This division helps to explain some relevant restrictions related to the sort of linguistic 'triggers' of consecutive structures and, in some cases, related to the classes of words that can occur with these, to the nature of aspectual classes of situations of the main clause and to the type of nominal predicates involved in the quantificatio

Role of Common-Gamma Chain Cytokines in NK Cell Development and Function: Perspectives for Immunotherapy

NK cells are components of the innate immunity system and play an important role as a first-line defense mechanism against viral infections and in tumor immune surveillance. Their development and their functional activities are controlled by several factors among which cytokines sharing the usage of the common cytokine-receptor gamma chain play a pivotal role. In particular, IL-2, IL-7, IL-15, and IL-21 are the members of this family predominantly involved in NK cell biology. In this paper, we will address their role in NK cell ontogeny, regulation of functional activities, development of specialized cell subsets, and acquisition of memory-like functions. Finally, the potential application of these cytokines as recombinant molecules to NK cell-based immunotherapy approaches will be discussed