Competitiveness of the tourism sector in Portugal: the case of Baixo Mondego and Baixo Vouga

Our main objective is to analyze how a great, diverse tourism offer in a quite limited geographic area, corresponding to the Baixo Mondego and Baixo Vouga, can make it more competitive. We propose to identify the territorial factors that can increase competitiveness of the tourism sector, both regionally and nationally. We intend to identify the region‟s most valued aspects by visitors, as well as its least praised ones; additionally, we will pinpoint existing and potential outbound travel markets, and identify those that are characterized by higher levels of wealth and touristic demand. A quantitative approach will be complemented by a qualitative analysis, based on interviews of entrepreneurial, academic and institutional entities. Deeper knowledge of the regional tourism sector will allow us to contribute to the adaptation of tourism oriented policies and strategies that would promote the role of tourism in the regional economical development. An economic impact analysis will assess the contribution of tourism activity on the region

Idades preliminares U-Pb, ID-TIMS, das Ilhas Berlengas, Portugal = Preliminary ID-TIMS, U-Pb ages of the Berlengas Islands, Portugal

Apresentam-se os resultados provisórios das idades U-Pb de duas amostras das ilhas do grupo das Berlengas. No Farilhão Grande uma amostra de granito de duas micas com silimanite foi recolhida de um complexo metamórfico. Esta amostra ofereceu três fracções de monazite com idade 377+-1 Ma, interpretada como metamórfica, enquanto uma fracção de zircões de concórdia 483 Ma sugeriu uma idade Tremadoc. Esta última fracção é herdada, provavelmente do volumoso magmatismo do Ordovícico Inferior existente na Ibéria. Na Berlenga Grande o granito apresenta fracções de monazite e zircão concordantes de 307,4+-0,8 Ma.

Applications in Regenerative and Predictive Medicine

Work in the laboratories of the authors is funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and national funds by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/BTM-SAL/29297/2017, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029297, PTDC/MED-FAR/29391/2017, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029391, IF/01182/2015 and UIDB/04539/2020). iNOVA4Health-UID/Multi/04462/2013, a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério da Educação e Ciência, through national funds and co-funded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement, is acknowledged. Guida Bento is the recipient of a Ph.D. fellowship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (PD/BD/114119/2015). AKS and AAR were funded by the subsidy allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment in the sphere of scientific activities. Kazan Federal University was supported by the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth.Despite being a biological waste, human urine contains a small population of cells with self-renewal capacity and differentiation potential into several cell types. Being derived from the convoluted tubules of nephron, renal pelvis, ureters, bladder and urethra, urine-derived stem cells (UDSC) have a similar phenotype to mesenchymal stroma cells (MSC) and can be reprogrammed into iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells). Having simple, safer, low-cost and noninvasive collection procedures, the interest in UDSC has been growing in the last decade. With great potential in regenerative medicine applications, UDSC can also be used as biological models for pharmacology and toxicology tests. This review describes UDSC biological characteristics and differentiation potential and their possible use, including the potential of UDSC-derived iPSC to be used in drug discovery and toxicology, as well as in regenerative medicine. Being a new cellular platform amenable to noninvasive collection for disease stratification and personalized therapy could be a future application for UDSC.publishersversionpublishe

Specification and control synthesis for networked vehicle systems

A framework for the representation, formal specification,and control synthesis for networked vehicle systemsis presented. From dynamic optimization, this framework hasinherited the concepts and theories of optimality, reach setcomputation and control, and the motivation to improve theperformance of increasingly complex physical processes. Fromset theory, this framework borrowed the representational powerof the language of sets to capture the relations among vehiclesand controllers in a way that is consistent with control design.The ANTEX-M project is described to illustrate the challengesposed by networked vehicle systems and to illustrate how theframework addresses these challenges

Sports participation in higher education: an exploratory study on golf

The Eurobarometer Sport and Physical Activity (2014) presents a Portuguese sports participation (36%) distant from the European average. In golf the national trend keeps up, observing a national participation rate among the lowest in Europe, less than 0.2% (KPMG, 2015). However, Portugal is systematically considered as a reference destination when it comes to golf tourism (KPMG, 2015). In this context, it is essential to study these asymmetries. In this case we decided to explore the golf among the higher education community. The choice is justified by the potential impact on participation associated with the expected buying power. Data collection was conducted through self-determined questionnaire (Theodorakis, Alexandris, Rodriguez, & Sarmento, 2004). The invitation to participate was sent via email and resulted in 258 valid responses [55% male, age (18- 57)]. The descriptive analysis of the, convenience, sample established that sport participation rate is 84.8% (one or more times per week). The intensity practice is mostly considered to be "moderate" (28.2%) to "high" (22.8%). Football (41.5%) and running (38.8%) are the most widely practiced. The main constraints to the practice are the "lack of time" (70.5%) and "lack of infrastructure near the residence" (20.9%). At the same time, 68.2% of respondents the desire for more regular sports activities. Among the not practiced, the modalities ski/snowboarding (22.9%) and tennis (19%) appear as the preferred. In the case of golf a insignificant rate is observed (1.2%), yet a significant potential demand, 6.6%. When asked specifically about the possibility to practice golf, 34.6% of respondents indicate that is likely or very likely to practice this sport in the time frame of 3 to 5 years. It is concluded that sports participation rate of the sample is high, but the same was not true for golf. The study shows that golf has a high potential demand which must be considered by managers and academics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PICALM modulates autophagy activity and tau accumulation.

Genome-wide association studies have identified several loci associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), including proteins involved in endocytic trafficking such as PICALM/CALM (phosphatidylinositol binding clathrin assembly protein). It is unclear how these loci may contribute to AD pathology. Here we show that CALM modulates autophagy and alters clearance of tau, a protein which is a known autophagy substrate and which is causatively linked to AD, both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, altered CALM expression exacerbates tau-mediated toxicity in zebrafish transgenic models. CALM influences autophagy by regulating the endocytosis of SNAREs, such as VAMP2, VAMP3 and VAMP8, which have diverse effects on different stages of the autophagy pathway, from autophagosome formation to autophagosome degradation. This study suggests that the AD genetic risk factor CALM modulates autophagy, and this may affect disease in a number of ways including modulation of tau turnover.We are grateful for funding from a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship (D.C.R.), a Wellcome Trust/MRC Strategic Grant on Neurodegeneration (D.C.R., C.J.O’.K.), a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award to Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Wellcome Trust Studentship (E.Z.), the Alzheimer’s disease Biomedical Research Unit and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, the Tau Consortium, a fellowship from University of Granada (A.L.R.), a V Foundation/Applebee’s Research Grant (D.S.W.) and NCI R01 CA 109281 (D.S.W.).This is the final published version. It is also available from Nature Publishing at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140922/ncomms5998/full/ncomms5998.html

An annotated cDNA library of juvenile Euprymna scolopes with and without colonization by the symbiont Vibrio fischeri

BACKGROUND: Biologists are becoming increasingly aware that the interaction of animals, including humans, with their coevolved bacterial partners is essential for health. This growing awareness has been a driving force for the development of models for the study of beneficial animal-bacterial interactions. In the squid-vibrio model, symbiotic Vibrio fischeri induce dramatic developmental changes in the light organ of host Euprymna scolopes over the first hours to days of their partnership. We report here the creation of a juvenile light-organ specific EST database. RESULTS: We generated eleven cDNA libraries from the light organ of E. scolopes at developmentally significant time points with and without colonization by V. fischeri. Single pass 3' sequencing efforts generated 42,564 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of which 35,421 passed our quality criteria and were then clustered via the UIcluster program into 13,962 nonredundant sequences. The cDNA clones representing these nonredundant sequences were sequenced from the 5' end of the vector and 58% of these resulting sequences overlapped significantly with the associated 3' sequence to generate 8,067 contigs with an average sequence length of 1,065 bp. All sequences were annotated with BLASTX (E-value < -03) and Gene Ontology (GO). CONCLUSION: Both the number of ESTs generated from each library and GO categorizations are reflective of the activity state of the light organ during these early stages of symbiosis. Future analyses of the sequences identified in these libraries promise to provide valuable information not only about pathways involved in colonization and early development of the squid light organ, but also about pathways conserved in response to bacterial colonization across the animal kingdom

Genome-wide association and HLA fine-mapping studies identify risk loci and genetic pathways underlying allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis is the most common clinical presentation of allergy, affecting 400 million people worldwide, with increasing incidence in westernized countries1,2. To elucidate the genetic architecture and understand the underlying disease mechanisms, we carried out a meta-analysis of allergic rhinitis in 59,762 cases and 152,358 controls of European ancestry and identified a total of 41 risk loci for allergic rhinitis, including 20 loci not previously associated with allergic rhinitis, which were confirmed in a replication phase of 60,720 cases and 618,527 controls. Functional annotation implicated genes involved in various immune pathways, and fine mapping of the HLA region suggested amino acid variants important for antigen binding. We further performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) analyses of allergic sensitization against inhalant allergens and nonallergic rhinitis, which suggested shared genetic mechanisms across rhinitis-related traits. Future studies of the identified loci and genes might identify novel targets for treatment and prevention of allergic rhinitis

Using High-Pressure Technology to Develop Antioxidant-Rich Extracts from Bravo de Esmolfe Apple Residues

Bravo de Esmolfe (BE) is a traditional Portuguese apple highly appreciated by consumers due to its peculiar flavor and aroma. This apple contains higher concentration of phenolic compounds than other cultivars and is thus considered a rich source of antioxidants. Its sensorial and functional properties have attracted farmers' associations to increase BE production. However, a large quantity of apples is wasted due to storage/transportation procedures that impact BE's quality attributes. In this work, we applied high-pressure extraction methodologies to generate antioxidant-rich fractions from BE residues aiming at adding high value to these agro-food by-products. We performed a first extraction step using supercritical CO2, followed by a second extraction step where different CO2 + ethanol mixtures (10-100% v/v) were tested. All experiments were carried out at 25 MPa and 50 °C. Extracts were characterized in terms of global yield, phenolic content and antioxidant activity using chemical (ORAC, HOSC, HORAC) and cell-based assays (CAA). We demonstrated that, although the pressurized 100% ethanol condition promoted the highest recovery of phenolic compounds (509 ± 8 mg GAE/100 g BE residues), the extract obtained with 40% ethanol presented the highest CAA (1.50 ± 0.24 µmol QE/g dw) and ORAC (285 ± 16 µmol TEAC/g dw), as well as HOSC and HORAC values, which correlated with its content of epicatechin and procyanidin B2. Noteworthy, this fraction inhibited free radical production in human neurospheroids derived from NT2 cells, a robust 3D cell model for neuroprotective testing