Banco Portugês do Investimento: equity research 2013

The objective of this dissertation is to value one of the biggest Portuguese banks. A detailed valuation methodology was done based on the light of the most reliable academic literature. Inside the theme, was done also a detailed review of the business and the sectors where the bank operates. In the end, it was achieved an accurate equity valuation.O grande objetivo deste trabalho prende-se com a avaliação de um grande banco Português neste período de crise. Os bancos são considerados a principal razão da crise essencialmente pela sua falha de avaliação de risco e pela forma alavancada com que seguiam a sua atividade e negocio. Nesta óptica, os bancos portugueses têm sido forçados a remodelar todo o seu negócio para de certa forma conseguirem sobreviver nos tempos de hoje e por outro lado, tentar mover e alimentar a economia portuguesa. Falando do BPI, este é um banco que sempre teve políticas de negócio muito conservadoras no que toca a cedência de crédito daí, nos tempos de hoje ser o banco com melhor índice de qualidade de ativos. No entanto, esta rubrica, vê-se ainda sem tempos de mudança, visto que anualmente se mantem em declínio. É difícil escolher qual o melhor método de avaliação nestes tempos adversos, visto que o momento é de tal incerteza, que tentar prever o futuro se pode tornar errado. Contudo, o autor escolher três formas de avaliação, onde obteve resultados distintos. Nas três assumiu de forma coerente e ponderada os drivers para chegar aos resultados finais. Dentro dos resultados obtidos, o autor escolheu o método dos múltiplos como a melhor forma atual para chegar ao preço da ação do BPI para 2013, considerando o valor refletido na ação o mais plausível e real. No que toca aos outros métodos, foram encontrados valores um pouco discrepantes daquilo que é a realidade, os motivos por trás do mesmo, prendem-se com o que o autor referiu anteriormente que, de certa forma, afetaram as estimativas e diluíram o valor da ação

A comprehensive assessment of the transcriptome of cork oak (Quercus suber) through EST sequencing

Background: Cork oak (Quercus suber) is one of the rare trees with the ability to produce cork, a material widely used to make wine bottle stoppers, flooring and insulation materials, among many other uses. The molecular mechanisms of cork formation are still poorly understood, in great part due to the difficulty in studying a species with a long life-cycle and for which there is scarce molecular/genomic information. Cork oak forests are of great ecological importance and represent a major economic and social resource in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. However, global warming is threatening the cork oak forests by imposing thermal, hydric and many types of novel biotic stresses. Despite the economic and social value of the Q. suber species, few genomic resources have been developed, useful for biotechnological applications and improved forest management. Results: We generated in excess of 7 million sequence reads, by pyrosequencing 21 normalized cDNA libraries derived from multiple Q. suber tissues and organs, developmental stages and physiological conditions. We deployed a stringent sequence processing and assembly pipeline that resulted in the identification of ~159,000 unigenes. These were annotated according to their similarity to known plant genes, to known Interpro domains, GO classes and E.C. numbers. The phylogenetic extent of this ESTs set was investigated, and we found that cork oak revealed a significant new gene space that is not covered by other model species or EST sequencing projects. The raw data, as well as the full annotated assembly, are now available to the community in a dedicated web portal at http://www.corkoakdb.org. Conclusions: This genomic resource represents the first trancriptome study in a cork producing species. It can be explored to develop new tools and approaches to understand stress responses and developmental processes in forest trees, as well as the molecular cascades underlying cork differentiation and disease response.Peer Reviewe

Viral genetic clustering and transmission dynamics of the 2022 mpox outbreak in Portugal

Pathogen genome sequencing during epidemics enhances our ability to identify and understand suspected clusters and investigate their relationships. Here, we combine genomic and epidemiological data of the 2022 mpox outbreak to better understand early viral spread, diversification and transmission dynamics. By sequencing 52% of the confirmed cases in Portugal, we identified the mpox virus sublineages with the highest impact on case numbers and fitted them into a global context, finding evidence that several international sublineages probably emerged or spread early in Portugal. We estimated a 62% infection reporting rate and that 1.3% of the population of men who have sex with men in Portugal were infected. We infer the critical role played by sexual networks and superspreader gatherings, such as sauna attendance, in the dissemination of mpox virus. Overall, our findings highlight genomic epidemiology as a tool for the real-time monitoring and control of mpox epidemics, and can guide future vaccine policy in a highly susceptible population.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Urbs e civitas: a formação dos espaços e territórios urbanos nas minas setecentistas

O presente artigo procura situar a evolução das abordagens acerca da cidade colonial mineira dentro da perspectiva mais ampla dos estudos sobre o urbanismo colonial português. A análise privilegia os trabalhos que, em vez de se aterem aos aspectos ligados à estética urbana, procuraram relacioná-los às questões fundiárias e à constituição das redes e hierarquias urbanas.This article seeks to situate the evolution of approaches to the study of the colonial towns of Minas Gerais placing them in the broader perspective of studies on the Portuguese colonial urbanism. Instead of restricting our approach to questions of urban aesthetics, the analysis focuses on the works that tried to relate these questions to aspects of land ownership and to the establishment of networks and urban hierarchies

Chemical characteristics, aerobic stability, and microbiological counts in corn silage re-ensiled with bacterial inoculant

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os efeitos da reensilagem e do uso de inoculante bacteriano sobre a qualidade da silagem de milho. O experimento foi realizado em delineamento fatorial 2x2, com o uso ou não de inoculante (associação de Lactobacillus plantarum e Propionibacterium acidipropionici), e reensilagem após 36 horas de exposição aeróbia ou somente com ensilagem da planta inteira de milho 'BRS 1055'. Avaliaram-se a qualidade fermentativa, os parâmetros nutricionais, as perdas de matéria seca, a estabilidade aeróbia e a contagem microbiológica das silagens. A reensilagem causou o aumento do pH e das concentrações dos ácidos acético e propiônico, assim como dos teores de matéria seca (MS), proteína bruta, fibra em detergente neutro e fibra em detergente neutro corrigida quanto a cinzas e proteínas. Em contrapartida, houve redução da concentração de carboidratos não fibrosos e da digestibilidade in vitro da matéria seca no material reensilado. Todas as alterações foram explicadas pela maior produção de efluentes e pela perda de MS do material reensilado, que foi submetido a duas compactações. A microbiologia não foi alterada pelos tratamentos. A utilização de inoculante alterou o teor de cinzas do material, mas não influiu nos demais parâmetros. No entanto, a reensilagem, após 36 horas de exposição aeróbia, provocou redução do valor nutritivo da silagem de milho e acentuou as perdas de MS.The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of re-ensiling and bacterial inoculation on the quality of corn silage. The experiment was carried out in a 2x2 factorial design with or without inoculant (association of Lactobacillus plantarum and Propionibacterium acidipropionici), and with re-ensiling after 36 hours of aerobic exposure or only ensiling of the whole plant of 'BRS 1055' corn. The fermentative quality, nutritional parameters, dry matter losses, aerobic stability, and microbiological counts of silages were evaluated. Re-ensiling caused an increase of pH and in acetic acid and propionic acid concentrations, as well as in the dry matter (DM), crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, and neutral detergent fiber crude protein contents. Conversely, there was a reduction in the nonfiber carbohydrates concentration and in in vitro dry matter digestibility for the re-ensiled material. All changes were explained by the higher-effluent production and DM loss of re-ensiled material that was subjected to two compactions. Microbiology was not altered by the treatments. The use of inoculant altered ash content, but it did not influence other parameters. In contrast, re-ensiling after 36 hours of aerobic exposure caused a reduction in the nutritive value of corn silage and accentuated the DM losses

Viral genetic clustering and transmission dynamics of the 2022 mpox outbreak in Portugal.

Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the engagement and willingness of all participants to share information critical to the investigation. We are grateful to the authors and laboratories that originated and submitted the genetic sequences released in GenBank. The acquisition of equipment associated with whole-genome sequencing used in this study (including the Illumina NextSeq 2000) was funded by the HERA (Human and Environmental Risk Assessment) project (Grant/2021/PHF/23776), supported by the European Commission through the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and partially funded by the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 (Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI)), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020) under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT). This study was also supported by the ERINHA-Advance project (funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation program, grant agreement no. 824061) and benefited from co-funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement no. 773830 (One Health European Joint Programme), in particular by the co-funding of the post-doctoral fellowships of J.S.D. and V.M. and the development of INSaFLU. We also thank M. Pinheiro (iBiMED at the Universidade de Aveiro) for his continuous support in updating the INSaFLU platform and the Infraestrutura Nacional de Computação Distribuída (INCD) for providing computational resources for testing it. INCD was funded by the FCT and FEDER under the project 22153-01/SAICT/2016. M.P.D. is funded by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship (no. OPP1144). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. The GAT-Intendente team also thanks A. Vasques, L. Fortuna, J. Moreira, I. Correia and Á. Baginha.Pathogen genome sequencing during epidemics enhances our ability to identify and understand suspected clusters and investigate their relationships. Here, we combine genomic and epidemiological data of the 2022 mpox outbreak to better understand early viral spread, diversification and transmission dynamics. By sequencing 52% of the confirmed cases in Portugal, we identified the mpox virus sublineages with the highest impact on case numbers and fitted them into a global context, finding evidence that several international sublineages probably emerged or spread early in Portugal. We estimated a 62% infection reporting rate and that 1.3% of the population of men who have sex with men in Portugal were infected. We infer the critical role played by sexual networks and superspreader gatherings, such as sauna attendance, in the dissemination of mpox virus. Overall, our findings highlight genomic epidemiology as a tool for the real-time monitoring and control of mpox epidemics, and can guide future vaccine policy in a highly susceptible population