Jorge Pereira

CRUDi framework proposal: financial industry application

The alignment of information systems with the business goals of an organisation, although a topic of great importance, is not always properly valued or taken into consideration. In general, managers have different opinions to chief information officers (CIOs) in relation to IS, especially with regard to their importance and value to the business and also in terms of investment needs. Here, we discuss and study new approaches to methods and tools for assessing the relative importance of each information system to business, focusing on the financial sector including banks and insurance companies. We suggest the introduction of new key indicators for better decision support and to identify investment priorities, and present results regarding the relative importance of each process to support the business strategy. The primary goal for the inherent research project is to analyse the main problems and difficulties encountered by IS and IT managers, featuring different players and how they relate. The main contributions of this work are the CRUDi framework as a tool to improve alignment between business and IS strategies and the CRUDi survey and its results qualifying the financial sectors opinion regarding the relative importance of processes and investments.

How Ill Is Online Health Care? An Overview on the Iberia Peninsula Health Care Institutions Websites Accessibility Levels

The current urge on using Internet for both social and professional tasks, alongside with the existence of over 80 million European citizens with some sort of disability as led to the need for an accessible Web [1]. Given, the also increasing thrive for searching the web for health related information and the assumption of heath care institutions as the creators of this type of information, a research study was developed in order to evaluate the accessibility levels of the Iberian health care institutions. From this study, that used ACESSWEB as the evaluation platform, it was possible to perceive that none of the evaluated websites was WCAG 2.0 compliant and that, despite the poor results, Spanish websites presented more accessibility concerns than the Portuguese. Hence, the situation is critical and a significant effort must be done in order to allow citizens with disabilities to have access to the much needed health related information.

Promoting e-Commerce Software Platforms Adoption as a Means to Overcome Domestic Crises: The Cases of Portugal and Spain Approached from a Focus-Group Perspective

Focus group interactions led to a set of strategic recommendations with regards to how to improve e-Commerce adoption levels in Iberian enterprises, essential in times of crises. Suggestions include: (1) Create actions to influence the governments of the Iberian Peninsula to re-evaluate the legislation that regulates e-Commerce; (2) Encourage venture capitalists, banks and business angels to create financing lines with better access; (3) Encourage European institutions of higher education to create partnerships with Iberian enterprises in a way that the technical know-how in these enterprises could be mixed with the scientific knowledge of those institutions; (4) Create, alongside with training organizations and universities, a set of new training courses directed at Iberian enterprises focusing on concepts such as Web 2.0 capabilities and the maintaining of a coherent online organizational identity. Increases in e-Commerce transactions may bring changes in mentality and greater prosperity to nations such as Portugal and Spain.

Cardiac 123I-MIBG scintigraphy and arrhythmic risk in left ventricular noncompaction

Left ventricular noncompaction is an unusual but increasingly recognized cardiomyopathy, the etiology of which is still not definitely established. Clinical presentation includes a wide spectrum of scenarios, including heart failure, thromboembolism and malignant arrhythmias, with half of deaths occurring suddenly. Early detection of LVNC is therefore essential to prevent sudden cardiac death. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the presence of cardiac sympathetic nervous dysfunction, assessed by 123iodine-metaiodobenzylguanidine myocardial scintigraphy, in a patient with LVNC, preserved left ventricular systolic function and exercise-induced nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. This finding may be related to the increased arrhythmic risk observed in this cardiomyopathy, giving a new insight into the pathophysiology of LVNC.

Wunderlich’s Syndrome, or Spontaneous Retroperitoneal Hemorrhage, in a Patient with Tuberous Sclerosis and Bilateral Renal Angiomyolipoma

Patient: Female, 33 Final Diagnosis: Renal angiomyolipoma Symptoms: Abdominal discomfort Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Surgery Objective: Rare disease Background: Wunderlich’s syndrome, or spontaneous non-traumatic retroperitoneal hemorrhage, can be a life-threatening event. Renal angiomyolipoma is a rare benign tumor that can occur sporadically, or in association with tuberous sclerosis. A case of spontaneous retroperitoneal hemorrhage in a patient with tuberous sclerosis and bilateral renal angiomyolipoma is presented. Case Report: A 33-year-old female Caucasian patient, with a known medical history of tuberous sclerosis, was admitted to hospital as an emergency, with right-sided abdominal pain. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) imaging showed bilateral renal tumors, consistent with bilateral renal angiomyolipoma. The larger tumor, involving the enlarged right kidney (24.0 cm in length), had a diameter of 21.0 cm and was associated with hemoperitoneum and retroperitoneal hemorrhage, and contrast ‘blush’ on CT confirmed arterial bleeding. An initial urgent exploratory laparotomy with renal packing was initially performed, but right nephrectomy was required for hemorrhage control. The patient was discharged from hospital on the 23rd postoperative day, without further complications. Conclusions: This report describes a case of Wunderlich’s Syndrome, or spontaneous retroperitoneal hemorrhage, in a patient with tuberous sclerosis and bilateral renal angiomyolipoma, presenting as an emergency. An early diagnosis and timely treatment are important in cases of retroperitoneal hemorrhage to prevent life-threatening complications.

Creativity as a Key Ingredient of Information Systems

Resorting to creativity technique and their use to help innovation in the area of information systems had a growing interest. In fact, the global competitiveness and the organizations ability to make effective use of information technology and to focus on innovation and creativity are recognized as being important. So, the perspective of using creativity techniques seems to be promising. In this research work we argue that is possible in all IS areas to take advantages of the use of creative processes. We give a pragmatic reasoning and examples for the introduction of creative processes in all the main IS areas.

Bone scintigraphy in tophaceous gout

We present the case of a 72-year-old man with a documented history of gouty arthritis and prostate cancer who was referred for whole-body bone scintigraphy for prostate cancer staging. The whole-body scan was performed 3 h after intravenous injection of Tc-HDP (925 MBq) into the left arm. The images show multifocal uptake close to the joints and expanding into the periarticular soft tissues (mainly in the joints of the elbows, the left sternoclavicular, metacarpal and interphalangeal joints of both hands, the knees, and the tibiotarsal and tarsometatarsal joints of both feet). There is also soft tissue uptake (legs and buttock). The findings are consistent with chronic tophaceous gout, and there were no images suggesting bone metastases. Nowadays, because of the effective treatment of gout, such tophi are rarely encountered, making these images unusual in the daily routine of Nuclear Medicine. Despite its low specificity, Bone scan [1, 2] can still help determine the extent and location of the lesions.

Accessibility and Visually Impaired Users

Internet accessibility for the visually impaired community is still an open issue. Guidelines have been issued by the W3C consortium to help web designers to improve web site accessibility. However several studies show that a significant percentage of web page creators are still ignoring the proposed guidelines. Several tools are now available, general purpose, or web specific, to help visually impaired readers. But is reading a web page enough? Regular sighted users are able to scan a web page for a particular piece of information at high speeds. Shouldn’t visually impaired readers have the same chance? This paper discusses some features already implemented to improve accessibility and presents a user feedback report regarding the AudioBrowser, a talking browser. Based on the user feedback the paper also suggests some avenues for future work in order to make talking browsers and screen readers compatible.

CRUDi Framework Application – Bank Company Case Study

The top management view of organizations tends not to reach consensus on the prioritization of investments in Information Systems, particularly when they must prioritize their impact on overall performance and budget constraints. This paper presents the results of applying CRUDi Framework to a bank. This allows to obtain new indicators to support the decision and alignment of investment priorities in the processes that support the business strategy. The Framework introduces a new method and tools that allow us to gauge the relative importance of Information Systems to the organizations’ businesses.

Wilkie’s syndrome: a case report of favourable minimally invasive surgery

Abstract Wilkie’s syndrome, or superior mesenteric artery syndrome (SMAS), is a rare clinical entity caused by compression of the third portion of the duodenum between the abdominal aorta and superior mesenteric artery, leading to duodenal obstruction and severe malnutrition. The authors report a case of a female patient with years of chronic intestinal obstruction with abdominal pain, vomits and weight loss. Contrast intestinal series showed dilation of stomach and duodenum. Abdominal computed tomography study revealed findings compatible with SMAS. After initial nutritional support, she was successfully treated by laparoscopic duodenojejunostomy. Surgical treatment of SMAS may be necessary in most cases with chronic symptoms or conservative treatment failure. A minimally invasive approach can be considered a safe surgical option with favourable outcomes. Clinical details, diagnostic studies and treatment are discussed.