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Tam, C., Loureiro, A., & Oliveira, T. (2020). The individual performance outcome behind e-commerce: Integrating information systems success and overall trust. Internet Research, 30(2), 439-462. [Advanced online publication on 22 october 2019]. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-06-2018-0262 ; Purpose: While most e-commerce studies focus on the understanding of online customer behaviour, mainly adoption and purchase behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between e-commerce and individual performance. The authors test the role of systems, information and service quality in e-commerce use and user satisfaction. Trust may become an important aspect for a consumer's decision making, based on this the authors identify the effect of the role of trust on e-commerce use, user satisfaction and its impact on individual performance. This research has theoretical and managerial implications, since the protagonism of e-commerce is increasing in both academia and industry. Design/methodology/approach: The authors apply a research model that integrates information systems success dimensions and user behaviour in the form of trust. The empirical approach was based on an online survey questionnaire of 437 individuals from Portugal. Findings: The results reveal that overall quality and overall trust are important to explain use and user satisfaction in the context of e-commerce, which further leads to individual performance. The findings indicate that a higher level of use and user satisfaction increase individual performance. Originality/value: The authors integrate information systems success dimensions and overall trust to understand the significance of e-commerce individual performance. The authors expect the results to enrich the understanding of the importance of considering both technological and behavioural factors to increase the success of e-commerce. ; authorsversion ; published

Les politiciens parlent-ils de "habitudes alimentaires"? Et à propos de quoi et comment en parlent-ils exactement? Dans ce travail nous nous proposons de contribuer à l'étude des représentations du concept de " habitudes alimentaires" dans le discours parlementaire portugais. Partant d'un ensemble de donnés empiriques, obtenues à partir du Corpus de Référence du Portugais Contemporain (CLUL), notre objectif est double: d'une part, identifier les contextes (syntaxiques et sémantiques) où les occurrences de l'expression hábitos alimentares ("habitudes alimentaires") ont place, et, par là, d'autre part, essayer de cerner leurs statuts discursifs. ; Os políticos falam de "hábitos alimentares"? E a que propósito e como o fazem? Neste trabalho propomo-nos contribuir para o estudo das representações do conceito de "hábitos alimentares" no discurso parlamentar português. Partindo de um conjunto de dados empíricos, obtidos a partir do Corpus de Referência do Português Contemporâneo (CLUL), o nosso objetivo é duplo: (i) por um lado, identificar os contextos (sintáticos e semânticos) de ocorrência da expressão hábitos alimentares; e (ii) por outro, tentar identificar os estatutos discursivos que lhe são atribuídos. ; 9911-B355-9772 | Ana Loureiro ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This work explores the emotional activation (anxiety, fear, and anger) resulting from the cognitive-emotional process related to the perception of climate change: a) when climate change is considered the result of human action (anthropogenic) and b) when climate change is considered the result of the planet's natural activity. An experimental study was conducted with 104 participants exposed to two types of messages about the causes of climate change. The results showed that exposure to the anthropogenic influence led to greater perception of threat to humans. Moreover, the participants in the anthropogenic sample expressed more anxiety and anger (negative emotions) than did the participants believing that climate change was due to the planet's natural activity. Fear was not significant. Additionally, we verified the differential role of emotions, depending on the type of future behavior intention: emotions act as mediators between the perception of future climate threats and future collective pro-environmental behavior action, while the perception of threat acts directly on future individual pro-environmental behavior intention.
Keywords: Global warming, negative emotions, threat perception, pro-environmental behavior intention.

Awareness raising for the inclusion of the citizen with Trisomy 21 has been increasing slowly thanks to a series of measures and actions taken at national and European level. The European Parliament adopted a declaration on children with Down syndrome in 2012, encouraging the Commission, the Council and the Member States to contribute to their social inclusion through awareness-raising campaigns. The EU also promotes its inclusion in society through the European disability strategy, but much more can and must be done. The work in this area is still mainly carried out by non-profit organizations and social entities with very few resources. Thus, the project T21 aims to make a positive difference in the area of support for children such as Down syndrome. ; A sensibilização para a inclusão do cidadão com Trissomia 21 tem vindo a aumentar lentamente graças a uma série de medidas e ações adotadas a nível nacional e europeu. O Parlamento Europeu adotou uma declaração sobre as crianças com síndrome de Down em 2012, encorajando a Comissão, o Conselho e os Estados-membros a contribuírem para a sua inclusão social através de campanhas de sensibilização. A UE promove também a sua inclusão na sociedade através da estratégia europeia de incapacidade, mas pode e tem de ser feito muito mais. O trabalho nesta área é ainda, principalmente, realizado por organizações sem fins lucrativos e entidades sociais com muito poucos recursos. Deste modo, o projeto T21 visa fazer uma diferença positiva na área de apoio a crianças como síndrome de Down.

Awareness raising for the inclusion of the citizen with Trisomy 21 has been increasing slowly thanks to a series of measures and actions taken at national and European level. The European Parliament adopted a declaration on children with Down syndrome in 2012, encouraging the Commission, the Council and the Member States to contribute to their social inclusion through awareness-raising campaigns. The EU also promotes its inclusion in society through the European disability strategy, but much more can and must be done. The work in this area is still mainly carried out by non-profit organizations and social entities with very few resources. Thus, the project T21 aims to make a positive difference in the area of support for children such as Down syndrome.

"Discourse Marker Desde Logo as a "Concretization and Exemplifica¬tion Operator". This study analyses the use of discourse marker desde logo in Contemporary European Portuguese as an example marker (EM), sharing semantic-discursive properties and contexts with other items, such as "por exemplo", "concretamente", "sobretudo", "principalmente", etc. Exemplification is a very frequent and important operation in discourse, involving typically the relationship between two main elements, the exemplifying one and the general one ("general element", EM "exemplifying element"). Example markers are also frequently combined with each other and with other discourse strategies, reinforcing or specifying the pragmatic meaning. On the other hand, there are fuzzy borders between exemplifica¬tion and other pragmatic functions, like reformulation, information ordering or some epistemic values. Based on the analysis of a contemporary corpus, the first results show that (i) desde logo can be used in the same typical contexts as other EM, (ii) desde logo has more similarities with EM like "sobretudo", "principalmente" and "antes de mais nada" and (iii) due to conflict with other discursive functions, desde logo has some contextual constraints. Keywords: "desde logo", discourse markers, example markers, Contemporary European Portuguese, written discourse "

Awareness raising for the inclusion of the citizen with Trisomy 21 has been increasing slowly thanks to a series of measures an d actions taken at national and European level. The European Parliament adopted a declaration on children with Down syndrome in 2012, encouraging the Commission, the Council and the Member States to contribute to their social inclusion through awareness - raising campaigns. The EU also promotes its inclusion in society through the European disability strategy, but much more can and must be done. The work in this area is still mainly carried out by non-profit organizations and social entities with very few resources. Thus, the project T21 aims to make a positive difference in the area of support for children such as Down syndrome. ; A sensibilização para a inclusão do cidadão com Trissomia 21 tem vindo a aumentar lentamente graças a uma série de medidas e ações adotadas a nível nacional e europeu. O Parlamento Europeu adotou uma declaração sobre as crianças com síndrome de Down em 2012, encorajando a Comissão, o Conselho e os Estados-membros a contribuírem para a sua inclusão social através de campanhas de sensibilização. A UE promove também a sua inclusão na sociedade através da estratégia europeia de incapacidade, mas pode e tem de ser feito muito mais. O trabalho nesta área é ainda, principalmente, realizado por organizações sem fins lucrativos e entidades sociais com muito poucos recursos. Deste modo, o projeto T21 visa fazer uma diferença positiva na área de apoio a crianças como síndrome de Down. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Poloxamer 407 (P407)-based nanoparticles were produced by the high pressure homogenization method for the encapsulation and delivery of methotrexate (MTX), aiming intravenous therapeutic applications. The surface of these nanoparticles was functionalized by conjugation of P407 with folic acid (FA) or with MTX, which served as targeting ligand agents. MTX-P407 conjugate was also developed to increase the final drug cargo. Two hydrophobic derivatives of MTX, MTX di-ethylated ester (MTX-OEt) and the ionic complex MTX-dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide (MTX-DODAB) were produced and entrapped onto P407-based nanoparticles. All formulations developed revealed a monodisperse character comprising small and narrow nanoparticles (<100 nm). P407 nanoparticles (functionalized with FA) and MTX-P407 nanoparticles, both loaded with MTX-OEt, demonstrated a slow drug release profile. The effect of lipase from Aspergillus oryzae on the hydrolysis of the linkage between the P407 and MTX, and consequent MTX release profile, was also evaluated. We observed a controlled and slow release of MTX (<50% of release after 11 days) in the presence of enzyme. These MTX-P407 nanoparticles loaded with MTX-OEt induced a great effect against Caco-2 cancer cells (40% of cell death after 72 h of incubation), demonstrating higher efficiency than the free MTX at the same concentration. ; This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors also thanks to FCT for funding their scholarship: Jennifer Noro (SFRH/BD/121673/2016) and Carla Silva (SFRH/IF/00186/2015). This work has also received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement NMP-06-2015-683356 FOLSMART. ...

Bacterial cellulose (BC) was obtained by static cultivation using commercial BC gel from scoby. BC membranes (oven dried and freeze-dried) were swelled with 8% NaOH, in absence and in presence of ultrasound (US), for 30, 60 and 90 min. The influence of swelling conditions on both physico-chemical properties and molecules entrapment was evaluated. Considering the highest levels of entrapment, an optimum swelling procedure was established: 8% NaOH for 30 min. at room temperature in the presence of US. Native and PEGylated laccase from Myceliophthora Thermophila was immobilized on BC membranes and a different catalytic behaviour was observed after immobilization. Native laccase presented activity values similar to published reports (5-7 U/gBC) after immobilization whereas PEGylated enzymes showed much lower activity (1-2 U/gBC). BC swelled membranes are presented herein as a potential support for the preparation of immobilized enzymes for industrial applications, like phenolics polymerization. ; The authors would like to acknowledge Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors would like also to acknowledge the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), which was funded by the Ministry of Education (2015R1D1A1A01060747). This work also received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement NMP-06-2015-683356 FOLSMART. ...

Polyoxyethanyl--tocopheryl sebacate (PTS) is an amphiphilic compound with self-emulsifying properties known to form micelles. In this work, we report the production of PTS micelles for the encapsulation and delivery of a hydrophobic derivative of methotrexate, MTX di-ethylated (MTX-OEt). We optimized the micelles production by testing two different techniques: auxiliary solvent and sonication. Small and homogeneous micelles ( 40 nm) were obtained through the auxiliary solvent method performed at 30 °C and using 15 mg/mL of PTS. The produced micelles with the most promising physicochemical properties did not induce cytotoxicity when tested in normal human cells (BJ5ta cells), being considered for the encapsulation of MTX-OEt. This prodrug was achieved by Fisher esterification using ethanol, being isolated in good yield (= 68 %). MTX-OEt was efficiently encapsulated onto the produced micelles which preserved their physicochemical properties. The PTS micelles loaded with MTX-OEt, free MTX-OEt and free unmodified MTX revealed similar biological effect against cancer cells (Caco-2 cells). These results demonstrated that the biological activity of MTX is not altered after modification. The developed PTS micelles revealed a promising intracellular delivery performance with potentiality for cancer therapy. ; This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/ BIO/04469/2019 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 – Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors thanks to FCT for funding their scholarship: Jennifer Noro (SFRH/BD/121673/2016) and Carla Silva (SFRH/IF/00186/ 2015). This work has also received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement NMP-06-2015-683356 FOLSMART. ...

Liposomes are one of the most important and extensively studied drug delivery system due to their ability to encapsulate different kinds of drugs. Exploiting the advantages of 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometry, we established a rapid and easy method for quantification of drugs encapsulated in liposomes. An internal standard, pyridine, was used for quantitative determination of drug concentration. Two different drugs were involved in this work, one hydrophilic, methotrexate disodium salt, and another hydrophobic, tamoxifen. The specificity and selectivity of the suggested method were evaluated by the absence of overlapping of at least one signal of each drug with pyridine in the NMR spectrum. The accuracy and precision of the method were assessed by adding a known amount of each drug to unloaded liposomes. Results obtained by quantitative NMR (qNMR) were validated and confirmed by comparing with two other traditional techniques, Ultraviolet - Visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). It was found that the results were consistent with the ones obtained from our proposed qNMR method. Considering all the experiments conducted in this study, we deliberate that qNMR can be a suitable tool for the determination of drugs encapsulated in liposomes. ; This work has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research andinnovation programme undergrantagreement NMP06-2015-683356 FOLSMART. This study was also supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Diana Guimarães (SFRH/BD/140321/ 2018) and Jennifer Noro (SFRH/BD/121673/2016) holds a scholarship from FCT. SFRH/BD/121673/2016 ...

Methotrexate (MTX) is a common drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Due to the excessive side effects, encapsulation of MTX in liposomes is considered an effective delivery system, reducing drug toxicity, while maintaining its efficacy. The ethanol injection method is an interesting technique for liposome production, due to its simplicity, fast implementation, and reproducibility. However, this method occasionally requires the extrusion process, to obtain suitable size distribution, and achieve a low level of MTX encapsulation. Here, we develop a novel pre-concentration method, based on the principles of the ethanol injection, using an initial aqueous volume of 20% and 1:1 ratio of organic:aqueous phase (v/v). The liposomes obtained present small values of size and polydispersity index, without the extrusion process, and a higher MTX encapsulation (efficiency higher than 30%), suitable characteristics for in vivo application. The great potential of MTX to interact at the surface of the lipid bilayer was shown by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies, revealing mutual interactions between the drug and the main phospholipid via hydrogen bonding. In vivo experiments reveal that liposomes encapsulating MTX significantly increase the biological benefit in arthritic mice. This approach shows a significant advance in MTX therapeutic applications. ; This work has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement NMP-06-2015-683356 FOLSMART. This study was also supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Diana Guimarães (SFRH/BD/140321/2018) and Jennifer Noro (SFRH/BD/121673/2016) hold a scholarship from FCT. ...

Novel nanoparticles based on Poloxamer 407 and vegetable oil were produced by high pressure homogenization. Functionalization of those nanoparticles was made by incorporation of folic acid (FA)-Poloxamer 407 conjugate. These nanoparticles showed suitable characteristics for intravenous therapeutic applications similarly to PEGylated albumin-based nanoparticles, previously described by our research group. Here, we found that the absence of albumin at the interface of Poloxamer 407-based nanoparticles improves the overall process of in vitro cellular uptake and nanoparticles disruption inside cancer cells (folate receptor, FR, positive cells). The results present here suggests that interfacial composition of those nanoparticles is of paramount importance for drug trafficking inside cancer cells. ; This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. This work has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement NMP-06-2015-683356 FOLSMART. Diana Soares da Costa thanks Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for funding her scholarship SFRH/BPD/85790/2012. ...