Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017-10-01"
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- Tell me who, and I’ll tell you how fair: a model of agent bias in justice reasoningPublication . Cojuharenco, Irina; Marques, Tatiana; Patient, DavidA salient and underresearched aspect of un/fair treatment in organizations can be the source of justice, in terms of a specific justice agent. We propose a model of agent bias to describe how and when characteristics of the agent enacting justice are important to justice reasoning. The agent bias is defined as the effect on overall event justice perceptions of specific agent characteristics, over and above the effect via distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. For justice recipients to focus on agent characteristics rather than on the event being evaluated in terms of fairness is an unexplored bias in justice judgments. Agent warmth, competence, and past justice track record (entity justice) are identified as agent characteristics that influence justice judgments. Agent characteristics can influence overall event justice perceptions positively or negatively, depending on the ambiguity in terms of justice of the event and on its expectedness from a particular justice agent. Finally, we propose that agent bias is stronger when justice recipients use intuitive versus analytic information processing of event information. Our model of agent bias has important theoretical implications for theories of organizational justice and for other literatures, as well as important practical implications for organizations and managers.
- Commitment decisions: is the sky the limit? - commentary to Judgment of the General Court (Eighth Chamber) of 15 September 2016, Case T-76/14, Morningstar, Inc. v European CommissionPublication . Vasconcelos, Rita LeandroIn its judgment of 15 September 2016, the General Court ruled on whether the commitments offered by Thompson Reuters to the European Commission during an investigation of a possible abuse of dominant position were sufficient to address the competition concerns identified by the Commission. This is only the second time the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Commission decisions rendering binding the commitments offered by an undertaking Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. With regard to standing, the General Court ruled the appeal lodged by a competitor admissible. As for substance, the General Court generally confirmed the previous case law. It ruled on the commitments meet the competition concerns identified by the institution, the different proportionality standard in Article 9 decisions as compared to Article 7 Regulation 1/2003 decisions (formal decision finding an infringement), and the limited scope of judicial review of the Court of Justice of the European Union in these appeals.
- How and why conversational value leads to happiness for experiential and material purchasesPublication . Bastos, Wilson; Brucks, MerrieThis work presents convergent evidence that experiential purchases are more conducive to interpersonal conversations than are material purchases- that is, experiences have higher conversational value, which helps explain why they afford consumers greater happiness than do objects (Van Boven and Gilovich 2003). Further, two experiments demonstrate that factors known to differ between experiential and material purchases-closeness to the self, social approval, and purchase uniqueness-help explain why experiences are preferred as a topic of conversation over objects, and suggest a social motivation for talking more about experiences. Indeed, when the motivation to build a relationship with the conversation partner is removed, the preference to share about experiences (vs. objects) disappears. Together, these findings add to and help integrate the growing literature on the relation between purchase type (material vs. experiential) and purchase-related happiness.
- The cost of illness of heart failure in PortugalPublication . Fiorentino, F.; Ascenção, R.; Gouveia, M.; Costa, J.; Broeiro, M.; Fonseca, G.; Borges, M.Objectives: To estimate direct and indirect costs associated to adult Portuguese patients with heart failure (HF) in 2014.MethOds: A prevalence-based approach was adopted to estimate costs associated to HF. Prevalence in 2014 by the New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification was estimated using micro-data from a previously conducted national community-based epidemiological survey. Only patients at NYHA classes II-IV were considered to have costs and it was conservatively assumed that patients were either followed in hospital ambu-latory care or in primary care. Primary care costs were estimated using a data-base covering a large population, with records of medications, medical visits and medical tests or diagnostic procedures for 25,337 patients with a HF diagnosis in 2014. Hospital resource consumption was estimated using national DRG microdata. Resource utilization in hospital ambulatory care and in emergency department (ED) episodes was estimated according to experts’ opinion and the national lit-erature, respectively. Unit costs were based on the official NHS tariffs. The indirect costs associated to patients’ absenteeism and early exit from the labour force were based on national sources and conservative assumptions.Results: The class II-IV prevalence rate in the population aged 25+ was estimated at 3.4%, corresponding to 249,592 patients in 2014. HF patients have about 1.1 million medical visits, over 36,000 hospitalizations and approximately 53,000 ED episodes. In 2014, the overall direct and indirect costs were estimated at €289.4M with an average annual cost per patient of €1,159. Medication, medical visits, exams/diagnostic procedures, hospitalization and ED episodes accounted for 29%, 20%, 21%, 26% and 2% of the €244.9M direct costs, respectively. The indirect costs associated to absenteeism and premature exit from the labour market were estimated at €16.4M and €28.1M, respectively.cOnclusiOns: Heart failure is a costly condition and should receive adequate attention from the Portuguese health policy makers.
- The impact of ageing on the future costs and burden of heart failure in PortugalPublication . Gouveia, M.; Ascenção, R.; Fiorentino, F.; Costa, J.; Broeiro, P.; Fonseca, C.; Borges, M.Objectives: To estimate, the impact of population ageing on the costs and burden of Heart Failure (HF) in Portugal over a twenty-year horizon, between 2014 and 2034. MethOds: HF costs were estimated using a prevalence-based approach. Costs and disability were assumed zero for patients in class I of the New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification. The prevalence rate was estimated using microdata from a previous epidemiological survey. Average direct costs per patient were estimated using: 1) a primary care national database with records of 25,337 patients registered with HF; 2) National DRG microdata; 3) expert panel; 4) national literature, reports and legislation. Indirect costs associated to patients’ absenteeism and early exit from the labour force were considered. The burden was measured in Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) resulting from the sum of Years Lost due to Disability (YLD) and Years of Life Lost (YLL) due to premature death. For YLL, mortality rates reported in the European Detailed Mortality Database were considered. For YLD, disease duration and the overall incidence were estimated using the software DisMod II. Disability weights were retrieved from published literature. Population ageing was carried out by a shift-share analysis using the official demographic projections. Results: Considering only population ageing on a 20-year horizon, HF prevalence (class II-IV) is expected to increase by 25%, reaching over 312,000 patients in 2034. Total costs in 2014 and 2034 are estimated, respectively, at €289M and €364M (at today’s prices), with an increase in the costs per inhabitant of 34%. In 2034, total DALY are expected to be 25% higher than in 2014, from 21,162 to 26,521. The contribution of YLL will increase from 54% to 61%. cOnclusiOns: Population ageing will substantially increase the burden of HF in Portugal. Health policy makers should consider new strategies to deal with this problem.
- EditorialPublication . Pais, Sofia Oliveira
- Tomato marc’s impact upon probiotic organism’s survival: an alternative functional ingredient for fermented productsPublication . Silva, Sara; Costa, Eduardo M.; Aldeia, Cláudia; Serôdio, Alexandra; Coelho, Marta; Pintado, Manuela M.The consumption of dietary fiber (non-digestible carbohydrates that may be used as a carbon source by microorganisms has been shown to play an important role in the modulation of gut microbiota, inducing not only changes in it’s microbial composition but also changing the profile of metabolites produced by it. Tomato is one of the most widely consumed fruits. Besides being consumed fresh, there are several industries that focuses on the transformation of tomato into several other products (e.g. canned tomato, tomato pulp or ketchup) yielding the tomato peel and seeds (here referred to as tomato marc), as a by-product. The castaway tomato marc presents itself as an interesting source of bioactive materials such as carotenes and fibers, which in turn may allow for the valorisation of this product. Moreover, as this residue is comprised, in ca. 56%, of fibres, it is interesting to contemplate it’s usage as a food additive to matrixes with a low fiber content. Therefore, the present work aimed to evaluate the impact of dry tomato marc upon 4 commercially available probiotic microorganisms (Lactobacillus rhamnosus R11, Lactobacillus plantarum 299v, Bifidobacterium animalis Bo and Bifidobacterium longum BG3) while also contextualizing with the digestive process and evaluating if the impact of the removal of some bioactive constituents (phenolic compounds and carotenoids).