Elements of Bankruptcy Law and Business Rescue in Brazil

Culminating more than a decade of debates, the Brazilian government enacted the Nova Lei de Falências e Recuperação de Empresas, Law N° 11,101 (“Brazilian Bankruptcy Law” or “BBL”), which was published on 9 February 2005 and came into effect on 9 June 2005. It was the first major overhaul of Brazil’s corporate insolvency laws in sixty years. The BBL replaced the previous bankruptcy law, i.e. Decree-Law 7,661 (“Prior Bankruptcy Law”), which had been in force since 1945. The BBL represents a significant change in the principles and in the form of activity of the various players involved in bankruptcy and reorganisation processes in Brazil. Most ancient practices are now abandoned as society increasingly adapts itself to the new stimuli incorporated into the Brazilian legal system by the BBL, which has completed a decade in 2015

Empreendedorismo e desenvolvimento regional: o caso “DNA Cascais”

Comunicação apresentada no 14.º Workshop APDR – Empreendedorismo e Desenvolvimento RegionalOs conceitos de empreendedorismo e desenvolvimento regional são pouco consensuais, em termos académicos. Pretendemos, por isso, através da revisão da literatura, contribuir para a sua clarificação, escalpelizando, ainda, a sua interdependência. O objetivo central deste artigo é a descrição e análise do caso “DNA Cascais”, que coloca na prática a interligação entre o empreendedorismo e o desenvolvimento local, ao mesmo tempo que se discutem as razões porque se pode considerar um exemplo de boas práticas no plano nacional e até internacional. A DNA Cascais é uma agência de promoção e desenvolvimento do empreendedorismo em geral, dirigida ao concelho de Cascais, que incide particularmente no empreendedorismo jovem e no empreendedorismo social. No que respeita ao âmbito de atuação, além de todos os serviços de apoio conducentes à criação de empresas, importa realçar a educação para o empreendedorismo, incidindo sobre os jovens (a idade é crítica para a aquisição/alteração de valores) e sobre os professores. A sigla DNA (Desenvolvimento de Novas Atitudes) reflete o carácter multifacetado da sua intervenção remetendo não apenas para os resultados (criação de empresas), mas muito particularmente para o processo (formação, apoio e mitigação de riscos). A sua criação teve duas motivações: a primeira relacionada com uma falha de mercado no apoio a empreendedores e, a segunda, com a necessidade de dar resposta a níveis de desemprego elevados, especialmente entre os jovens. O principal fator diferenciador do DNA é constituir uma resposta integrada à problemática do empreendedorismo, denominado “ecossistema empreendedor”, premiado em termos nacionais e europeus e que será devidamente detalhado. Os resultados dos diferentes projetos revelam já um impacto significativo no desenvolvimento local não só pelo número de actores locais envolvidos, mas também pelos resultados das empresas criadas, que permitem antever já o retorno do investimento realizado e, ainda, pela visibilidade do projecto tanto a nível nacional como internacional. Trata se, pois, de um caso ilustrativo da relação entre empreendedorismo e desenvolvimento local, em que se aposta na concretização de ideias da população local e na criação de uma atitude mais favorável ao empreendedorismo, atuando sobre os valores da população mais jovem que, além dos resultados já alcançados, presumimos terá repercussões significativas a médio/longo prazo. Palavras chave: empreendedorismo, desenvolvimento local, ecossistema empreendedor, criação de novas atitudesGenerally speaking, entrepreneurship and regional development are two concepts that are oftenmisunderstood. In this sense, the purpose of the literature review is toprovide a better understanding of these two concepts which are deeply related and interdependent. This article aims at providing further clarification on these two concepts, focusing on a case study named as “DNACascais”. In terms of local development, “DNA Cascais” is considered to be a role model forlocal development in Portugal and also abroad, acting as a liaison between local developmentand entrepreneurship. “DNA Cascais” refers to a anagency aiming at the promotion and development of entrepreneurship, with a focus on youth and social entrepreneurshipdeveloped in the city of Cascais, Portugal. Apart from all supporting services related to the creation ofenterprises, it also contribute to provide a better understanding of entrepreneurship toboth young people and teachers, since these are more open to new ideas. The acronym “DNA”(or NAD) which refers to “New AttitudesDevelopment”, pretends to be goal orientedthrough the creation of enterprise although it also follow up the whole process (orientation, support and risk management). Its creation came from, a lack of support to entrepreneurs andother business developers that wanted to start their own business. Also the high unemployment rates and the actual economic context led to a need of exploring new ways of developing ideas and business projects, and then create jobs. What makes DNA different is thefact that it approaches entrepreneurship as an interdependent network, known as “entrepreneur ecosystem”, which has been rewarded as a case study both within the country andinternationally. The outcomes from the different projects reveal that asignificant impact has beennoticed in the local development, not only because of the actors involved on this project but also for the financial results of the enterprises already created, which enhances its imageand support the viability of this project. Briefly, this case will explore the relation betweenentrepreneurship and local development, based on preliminary ideas from the locals and thecreation of a better attitude in relation to entrepreneurship, focused on the youth, which willreflect on long term results

Importance of Entrepreneurship in the Organizational Performance of Higher Education Institutions

The traditional mission of higher education institutions (HEIs) are training, research, and the transfer of knowledge to society. Nowadays, the third mission has been gaining importance, considering the increasing relevance given to the creation of value by HEIs for society. Entrepreneurial activity is one of the components with more impacts that value creation, but it is still seen as an activity parallel to the main missions of HEIs, where training still takes on special importance. At the same time, the general ized movement of analysis of the organizational performance of HEIs, associated to its strategy but es sentially associated with national agencies for accreditations and the rankings, have been direct impacts on its external image and the capacity to obtain students and financing. For the entrepreneurial activity to move from an activity parallel to a prominent activity within HEIs, it must firstly have a strategic framework, but also have measurement mechanisms, based on indicators, that allow to understand the evolution of performance in this area.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

IN VITRO AND IN VIVO REMOVAL OF ORAL ANTIDIABETIC AGENTS (METFORMIN) USING ACTIVATED CARBONS

Diabetes is the most worldwide common chronic disease, according the International Diabetes Federation [1], more than 32 million citizens living in the European Union have diabetes, representing nearly 10% of the population, to which we should add equal number of people suffering from impaired glucose tolerance. Diabetes prevalence is growing at alarming rate worldwide, being of particular relevance the type 2 diabetes. Nowadays 285 million people worldwide live with diabetes and it is expected that this numbers will increase by 20% until 2030 due to obesity and the ageing of the population [1]. This growth leads to an increasing consumption of drugs such as oral antidiabetics. Metformin is one of the active principles most commonly used for this purpose being among the pharmaceuticals with the highest production numbers worldwide to treat type 2 diabetes because is cheap, has high level of tolerance and when used in the prescribed dosage is very secure with minimal side effects. However, in case of overdose of metformin upon a ingestion of more than 10 times the prescribed dosage, accidentally or on propose, lactic acidosis and low blood pressure can occur. Overdoses with metformin are relatively uncommon, but may have serious consequences, if medical attention is not given on time, it may lead to coma and ultimately death Because of its spread use another problem must be taken into consideration, which needs to be addressed, the occurrence of metformin residues in sewage and surface waters due to improper discharge of the non-used tablets to regular garbage [2]. This situation is becoming a serious problem of environmental pollution and public health. This paper reports the use of activated carbon produced from biomass for the removal of metformin in 2 different settings. On one hand, from aqueous solutions and, in another hand, from simulated biological fluids (gastric and intestinal) conjugated with in vivo testing

Capital humano e desempenho das spin-offs académicas

Trabalho apresentado nas XXVII Jornadas Hispano-Lusas de Gestión Científica, 1 a 4 fevereiro de 2017, Alicante, EspanhaAs spin-offs académicas (ASO) são um fenómeno complexo, multidimensional, de elevado risco e cuja sobrevivência e desempenho são influenciados por fatores de natureza distinta. Entre a fase de investigação e a entrada no mercado têm que enfrentar uma grande diversidade de desafios e de riscos entre os quais um dos mais importantes é assegurar os recursos adequados para o seu desenvolvimento. Este artigo analisa a influência do capital humano das equipas de fundadores no desempenho das ASO, constructo multidimensional que integra nove fatores relacionados com a qualificação, formação, experiência e dimensão das equipas. Através de uma combinação de dados recolhidos por questionário em 42 spin-offs portuguesas criadas entre os anos de 2005 e 2008, foram testadas oito hipóteses. Os resultados permitiram encontrar suporte empírico para a correlação positiva entre o capital humano das equipas de fundadores e o desempenho das ASO nos anos iniciais após a sua criação.Academic spin-offs (ASO) are a complex and multidimensional phenomenon with high risk and whose survival and performance are influenced by different factors. Between research and market entry the ASO have to face a wide range of challenges and risks, and the most important is to ensure the resources for its development. This paper analyzes the influence of human capital of founding teams in the performance of ASO, a multidimensional construct which integrates eight factors related to the qualifications, training, experience and size of the teams. Through a combination of data collected by questionnaire in 42 Portuguese Spin-offs, created between the years 2005 and 2008, eight hypotheses were tested. The results have shown empirical support to the positive correlation between the human capital of the founding team and the performance of ASO in the early years after its creation.N/

A genetic algorithm approach for the single machine scheduling problem with linear earliness and quadratic tardiness penalties

In this paper, we consider the single machine scheduling problem with linear earliness and quadratic tardiness costs, and no machine idle time. We propose a genetic approach based on a random key alphabet. Several genetic algorithms based on this approach are presented. These versions differ on the generation of the initial population, as well as on the use of local search. The proposed procedures are compared with the best existing heuristic, as well as with optimal solutions for the smaller instance sizes. The computational results show that the performance of the proposed genetic approach is improved by the addition of a local search procedure, as well as by the insertion of simple heuristic solutions in the initial population. Indeed, the genetic versions that include either or both of these features not only provide significantly better results, but are also much faster. The genetic versions that use local search are clearly superior to the best existing heuristic, and the improvement in performance increases with both the size and difficulty of the instances. These procedures are also quite close to the optimum, and provided an optimal solution for most of the test instances.scheduling, single machine, linear earliness, quadratic tardiness, genetic algorithms