Suchergebnisse

This case study aims to describe the impacts created on Banco Português de Investimento's governance when supervision of the largest 120 European banks switched from National Banks to the European Central Bank. When this occurred, BPI was informed that its exposure to Angola, through one of its subsidiaries- Banco de Fomento Angolano-, surpassed the limit of the large risks imposed by the ECB in €3 billion. The urge for solutions to avoid daily sanctions by the ECB triggered a fight for control between the bank's key shareholders, La Caixa and Santoro Finance, given that Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola's president, was a key shareholder both in BPI and in Banco de Fomento Angolanothrough a company named Unitel. The Governance of the Bank comprising a shareholders voting rights limit, the number of Shareholder's evolution, the negotiation process that included a Portuguese Government intervention, the sale of part of BFA to Unitel and the tender offer launched by La Caixa in order to control BPI are discussed in detail to provide the reader all the information required to assess on whether or not all good Governance principles were followed throughout the process.

Mapas de cobertura da terra constituem uma importante fonte de dados para a elaboração de diagnóstico, ordenamento e gestão do território, sendo fundamentais em projetos de zoneamentos, estudos de impactos ambientais, mapeamentos de áreas de riscos, entre outras aplicações. Em geral, são elaborados com base na interpretação de imagens aerotransportadas ou orbitais e/ou na análise de documentos cartográficos, conjugadas a trabalhos de campo. As técnicas tradicionais de classificação de imagens baseiam-se na análise pixel a pixel ou por regiões, enfocando as diferenças espectrais para extração de informações. A abordagem de análise de imagens baseada em objeto (OBIA), embora se utilize de regiões, representa um avanço em relação às classificações tradicionais por regiões, pois pressupõe necessariamente a existência de um modelo de conhecimento (rede semântica) atrelado ao processo de interpretação da cena, que explicita o conhecimento do intérprete, aproximando-se dos processos cognitivos humanos de interpretação. Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a classificação de cobertura da terra feita a partir de imagens orbitais por meio de OBIA. Foram utilizados atributos estatísticos e texturais extraídos de imagens ALOS/AVNIR fusionadas com imagens ALOS/PRISM e de dados de relevo do banco de dados geomorfométricos TOPODATA. A área de estudo foi o município de Nova Friburgo, situado na região serrana do Rio de Janeiro. Para a validação da classificação, foi utilizado o índice Kappa, que confronta amostras classificadas com a verdade de campo. O valor do Kappa obtido neste trabalho alcançou 0,85, sendo superior aos encontrados em trabalhos similares que utilizam técnicas tradicionais de classificação.

AbstractThis paper uses an organizational identity perspective to investigate similarities and differences between public, private, and nonprofit organizations. The analysis is focused on three interrelated identity domains: the content used by members to define their organizations; the orientation of the organizational identity (individualistic, relational, and collectivistic); the nature of members' attachment to their organizations (identification, neutral identification, ambivalent identification, disidentification). Using a sample of 256 members of organizations belonging to these three sectors we found that: the content used to describe public, private, and nonprofit organizations, although sharing numerous elements, also contains sector‐specific meanings, especially in nonprofit organizations; concerning the organizational identity orientation, private organizations are seen as more individualistic and more relational than public and nonprofit ones, while public organizations score high in the collectivistic orientation; regarding the nature of members' attachment, although members of the three types of organizations exhibit the same levels of organizational identification and neutral identification, nonprofit organizations generate more disidentification and ambivalent identification among their members than public and private ones. Overall, organizational elements revealing operational practices tend to be similar, while those elements representing organizational identity tend to be different.

Child poverty is a problem firmly recognized in the industrialized world. In the EU nearly one in every five children was poor in 2008 (for the population as a whole the risk of poverty was around 17 per cent). The dimension of the problem and its consequences point out for the importance of knowing the processes behind it. This paper aims to investigate how labour market issues and public policies have been impact on child poverty, over recent years. Based on microdata gathered by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU_SILC) for the period 2004-08 we give a portrait of child income poverty in European Southern countries such as: Italy, Portugal and Spain and also in Poland. Moreover, we investigate the major changes in social policies that could impact on child poverty such benefits target on family and child allowances. The international comparison will allow the identification of children's poverty profile and pattern across the countries analysed and also design the different compositions between labour market elements / public policies in such countries. This exercise of comparison also enables a first test of the efficiency of these policies. The methodological framework used varies from descriptive methods to econometric models in order to sustain the discussion of the subject under study.

"Digital technologies are a major sector to invest and research in new models of health management. Future health scenarios are constituted by technologies in health, and clinical decision-making systems. This book provides unique multidisciplinary approach for exploring the potential contribution of AI and digital technologies in enabling global healthcare systems to respond to urgent 21st century challenges. Deep analysis has been made regarding telemedicine using big data, deep learning, robotics, mobile and remote applications. Features: Focusses on prospective scenarios in health to foresight possible futures. Addresses the urgent needs of the key population, socio-technical, and health themes. Covers health innovative practices as 3D models for surgeries, big data to treat rare diseases, AI robot for heart treatments. Explores telemedicine using big data, deep learning, robotics, mobile and remote applications. Reviews public health based on predictive analytics and disease trends. This book is aimed at researchers, professionals and graduate students in computer science, artificial intelligence, decision support, healthcare technology management, biomedical engineering, and robotics"--

Funding Information: The authors wish to acknowledge the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union—Phoenix Joint doctoral program on Dynamics of Health and Welfare, Fraunhofer AICOS, and the Foundation for Science and Technology (individual research grant 2020.09045.BD)—for supporting CMS. The authors thank all participants and Elsa Oliveira and Ana Alves for their assistance with data collection and early analysis. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 JMIR Publications Inc. All right reserved. ; Background: Despite the potential of digital mental health to provide cost-effective mental health care, its adoption in clinical settings is limited, and little is known about the perspectives and practices of mental health professionals regarding its implementation or the factors influencing these perspectives and practices. Objective: This study aims to characterize in depth the perspectives and practices of mental health professionals regarding the implementation of digital mental health and explore the factors affecting such perspectives and practices. Methods: A qualitative study using in-depth semistructured interviews with Portuguese mental health professionals (N=13)-psychologists and psychiatrists-was conducted. The transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed. Results: Mental health professionals deemed important or engaged in the following practices during the implementation of digital mental health: indication evaluation, therapeutic contract negotiation, digital psychological assessment, technology setup and management, and intervention delivery and follow-up. Low-threshold accessibility and professionals' perceived duty to provide support to their clients facilitated the implementation of digital mental health. Conversely, the lack of structured intervention frameworks; the unavailability of usable, validated, and affordable technology; and the absence of structured training programs inhibited digital mental health implementation by mental health professionals. Conclusions: The publication of practice ...

Funding Information: The authors wish to acknowledge the Erasmus+ program of the European Union: Phoenix Joint Doctoral Program on Dynamics of Health and Welfare, Fraunhofer Portugal Assistive Information and Communication Solutions, and Foundation for Science and Technology (individual research grant 2020.09045.BD) for supporting CMS. The authors thank Linköping University for covering the open-access publication fees. The authors thank all participants, as well as Elsa Oliveira and Ana Alves for their assistance in the data collection. Publisher Copyright: © Cristina Mendes-Santos, Francisco Nunes, Elisabete Weiderpass, Rui Santana, Gerhard Andersson. Originally published in JMIR Cancer (https://cancer.jmir.org), 15.02.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Cancer, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://cancer.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. ; Background: Despite the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in minimizing psychosocial morbidity in breast cancer survivors (BCSs), intervention delivery across survivorship is limited by physical, organizational, and attitudinal barriers, which contribute to a mental health care treatment gap in cancer settings. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop iNNOV Breast Cancer (iNNOVBC), a guided, internet-delivered, individually tailored, acceptance and commitment therapy–influenced cognitive behavioral intervention program aiming to treat mild to moderate anxiety and depression in BCSs as well as to improve fatigue, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, and health-related quality of life in this group. This study also aims to evaluate the usefulness, usability, and preliminary feasibility of iNNOVBC. Methods: iNNOVBC ...

The combination of projected increases in the expenditure of the public pension scheme and low rates of private saving constitutes a policy challenge in Portugal. Policy debate embrace pension reform and the redoubling of household saving efforts. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the determinants of household saving in order to inform the debate with research findings, employing a constructed public pension wealth variable in a life cycle consumption/saving model pioneered by Feldstein (1974). We use time series techniques and data from 1983 to 2012. The findings show that an increase in the public pension wealth variable does not boost saving suggesting that concerns with saving to cope with the length of the life expectancy at the retirement age are not enough to reject the view that the public pension benefit is a substitute for household wealth. The other results are consistent with expectations: increases in disposable income positively impact saving; there is a significant negative propensity to save out of household wealth increase; and improvement in the government balance engender significant saving decrease.

This article discusses whether transition to retirement may be associated with a greater probability of becoming poor. Having recourse to the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) for Portugal, the analysis is focused on a sample of individuals who retired in the period 1994-2001. Longitudinal analysis focuses upon income changes upon entering retirement. We relate the dynamics of household income changes for people who retire to personal and household characteristics. A multivariate probit model of the probability of low income at the time of retirement, conditional on not having a low income prior to retirement, is then put forward.

Objectives: Given the impact of the global economic crisis, delivering better health care with limited finance grows more challenging. Through the lens of institutional theory, this paper explores pressures experienced by hospital leaders to improve quality and constrain spending, focusing on how they respond to these often competing demands. Methods: An in-depth, multilevel analysis of health care quality policies and practices in five European countries including longitudinal case studies in a purposive sample of ten hospitals. Results: How hospitals responded to the financial and quality challenges was dependent upon three factors: the coherence of demands from external institutions; managerial competence to align external demands with an overall quality improvement strategy, and managerial stability. Hospital leaders used diverse strategies and practices to manage conflicting external pressures. Conclusions: The development of hospital leaders' skills in translating external requirements into implementation plans with internal support is a complex, but crucial, task, if quality is to remain a priority during times of austerity. Increasing quality improvement skills within a hospital, developing a culture where quality improvement becomes embedded and linking cost reduction measures to improving care are all required. ; SAGE Choice article (Open Access)

BACKGROUND: Conceptualization of quality of care - in terms of what individuals, groups and organizations include in their meaning of quality, is an unexplored research area. It is important to understand how quality is conceptualised as a means to successfully implement improvement efforts and bridge potential disconnect in language about quality between system levels, professions, and clinical services. The aim is therefore to explore and compare conceptualization of quality among national bodies (macro level), senior hospital managers (meso level), and professional groups within clinical micro systems (micro level) in a cross-national study. METHODS: This cross-national multi-level case study combines analysis of national policy documents and regulations at the macro level with semi-structured interviews (383) and non-participant observation (803 hours) of key meetings and shadowing of staff at the meso and micro levels in ten purposively sampled European hospitals (England, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway). Fieldwork at the meso and micro levels was undertaken over a 12-month period (2011-2012) and different types of micro systems were included (maternity, oncology, orthopaedics, elderly care, intensive care, and geriatrics). RESULTS: The three quality dimensions clinical effectiveness, patient safety, and patient experience were incorporated in macro level policies in all countries. Senior hospital managers adopted a similar conceptualization, but also included efficiency and costs in their conceptualization of quality. 'Quality' in the forms of measuring indicators and performance management were dominant among senior hospital managers (with clinical and non-clinical background). The differential emphasis on the three quality dimensions was strongly linked to professional roles, personal ideas, and beliefs at the micro level. Clinical effectiveness was dominant among physicians (evidence-based approach), while patient experience was dominant among nurses (patient-centered care, enough time to talk with patients). Conceptualization varied between micro systems depending on the type of services provided. CONCLUSION: The quality conceptualization differed across system levels (macro-meso-micro), among professional groups (nurses, doctors, managers), and between the studied micro systems in our ten sampled European hospitals. This entails a managerial alignment challenge translating macro level quality definitions into different local contexts. ; This study is part of the EU FP7 project Quality and Safety in European Union Hospitals (QUASER)