The great escape? The contribution of the empire to Portugal’s economic growth, 1500-1800

Newly assembled macroeconomic statistics for early modern Portugal reveal one of Europe’s most vigorous colonial traders and at the same time one of its least successful growth records. Using an estimated model in the spirit of Allen (2009) we conclude that intercontinental trade had a substantial and increasingly positive impact on economic growth. In the heyday of colonial expansion, eliminating the economic links to empire would have reduced Portugal’s per capita income by roughly a fifth. While the empire helped the domestic economy it was not sufficient to annul the tendency towards decline in relation to Europe’s advanced core which set in from the 17th century onwards. We conclude that the explanation for Portugal’s long-term backwardness must be sought primarily in domestic condition

Supporting Content Discovery and Management in a Research Infrastructure

LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022139The ROSSIO Infrastructure aims at aggregating, organis-ing and contextualising digital objects whose metadata descriptions areprovided by a consortium of Portuguese academic, public andprivatesector institutions in the domains of social sciences, artsand humanities.ROSSIO is the Portuguese representative of DARIAH, the Europeanresearch infrastructure for arts and humanities. A platform is being de-veloped to provide search and content curation services forresearchersand the general public, namely digital collections, digital exhibitions anda virtual research environment. The ROSSIO Thesaurus is being devel-oped to support content discovery and management in the platform. Thethesaurus is being modelled as a SKOS concept scheme, and it leverageson existing unstructured vocabularies, such as subject headings and the-sauri, produced by the ROSSIO data providers. This paper describes themodelling process of the ROSSIO Thesaurus, its integrationand role inthe infrastructure, its publication as Linked Open Data, and the resultsof this work after 6 months of development.publishersversionpublishe

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, e o PSD e a evolução da democracia portuguesa: o XI Governo Constitucional, 1987-1991

Esta dissertação de mestrado em Ciência Política apresenta como objetivo nuclear o estudo da obra realizada pelo XI Governo Constitucional (1987-1991), liderado por Aníbal Cavaco Silva, e o seu reflexo na evolução da democracia portuguesa. Com efeito, ultrapassadas as fases da transição e da consolidação democrática, inicia-se um novo ciclo, de forte estabilização política, com Cavaco Silva e o PSD a centrarem a sua atenção na melhoria da eficiência e da qualidade da democracia, sustentando que essa melhoria depende, expressivamente, da prossecução do processo de modernização do país e da obtenção de um crescimento económico duradouro, as quais implicam a concretização de uma série de reformas estruturais e o aproveitamento das condições vantajosas resultantes da adesão de Portugal à CEE.This master degree dissertation in Political Science has as main purpose the study of the work performed by XI Constitutional Government (1987-1991), led by Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and its reflection in the evolution of Portuguese democracy. Indeed, outdated stages of transition and democratic consolidation, begins a new cycle of strong political stabilization, with Cavaco Silva and PSD focusing their attention on improving the efficiency and quality of democracy, arguing that this improvement depends, significantly, on the continuation of the modernization process of the country and achieving a sustainable economic growth, which involve the implementation of a series of structural reforms and the use of the advantageous conditions resulting from the accession of Portugal to the EEC

El pensamiento crítico en la construcción de soluciones creativas: contribuciones del proyecto Prolearn4all

Introduction: The Learning Products for ALL (ProLearn4ALL) is a project which aims to make children aware of difference in the primary schools, with accessible multiform products, developed by higher education students. This process, which is founded on Problem Based Learning (PBL) methodologies, has asits main phases: the conceptualization of products and prototypes; pilot test; revision, reformulation and validation of products; and, finally the production and dissemination of a pedagogical kit. Objectives: The paper presents the PBL methodology as an active process used to develop critical thinking through the use of proposed prototype solutions to solve non-routine problems. Methods: Applying PBL methodology, the process started with the theoretical contextualization of the four main domains of disability (hearing, intellectual, motor, visual) and with the creation of prototypes, by students in the areas of Social Sciences and Education, to highlight the characteristics of each domain. Subsequently, Arts and Design students were asked to create playful and accessible products, based on the prototypes that were previously built. Results: Students were challenged to put themselves in the places of people with disability by using specific restrictions, created as thematic introductions to the proposed challenges. In this sense, the products were made with higher level of awareness, as students were simultaneously producers and users. Conclusion: The multiple reflections, during and after the production of the resources, allowed a constant process of research, validation and exclusion of solutions to occur, which progressively led to the construction of the final Pedagogical Kit.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reserva Ecológica Nacional: Esquema Nacional de Referência

De acordo com os números 3 e 4 do artigo 7º do regime jurídico da Reserva Ecológica Nacional (Decreto-Lei n.º 166/2008, de 22 de Agosto), o Esquema Nacional de Referência da REN acompanha as orientações estratégicas de âmbito nacional e regional e “inclui a identificação gráfica das principais componentes de protecção dos sistemas e processos biofísicos, dos valores a salvaguardar e dos riscos a prevenir”. O Esquema Nacional de Referência da REN é, assim, uma representação cartográfica elaborada com o propósito de constituir uma ilustração simplificada da Reserva Ecológica Nacional. A informação incluída neste esquema cobre todas a generalidade das tipologias e áreas integradas na REN (com excepção de faixas de protecção, sem expressão a esta escala ), é proveniente de diversas fontes e foi produzida a partir de critérios, níveis de detalhe e de precisão diversos. Considerando o seu processo de criação/produção podemos enunciar dois grandes grupos de informação geográfica utilizada na elaboração deste esquema: - Informação fornecida pelas diversas equipas de consultores que colaboraram na elaboração das orientações estratégicas de âmbito nacional, resultante da selecção de informação produzida por organismos da administração central; - Informação produzida especificamente para a elaboração deste Esquema, resultante de processos de identificação e classificação periciais e da aplicação de processos de modelação geográfica. Porque a informação integrada neste Esquema foi objecto de processos de generalização e de estudos de representação cartográfica diversos, não pode ser considerada válida para caracterizações ou outro tipo de trabalhos com o nível de detalhe exigido pelos processos de ordenamento e gestão do território, em que se inclui, obviamente, a delimitação da REN a nível municipal. Este relatório descreve sucintamente a origem e as características da informação utilizada, bem como o modo como foi tratada para ser representada à escala 1:1000000

Applying an integrated landscape characterization and evaluation tool to small islands (Pico, Azores, Portugal)

Each landscape is determined and can be characterised by two types of environmental factors: stable biophysical characteristics and manageable land use patterns. The consideration of both these characterisation domains allows the definition of a homogeneous system of reference (the stable characteristics) with which every possible land use pattern can be compared through the use of common evaluation algorithms. The Integrated Landscape Assessment (ILA) concept builds a framework for data retrieval and evaluation processing that maximizes the following advantages: through the use of a stable reference system, it allows the comparative simulation of different land use scenarios, as well as the permanent availability of the same reference system, independently from the intensity of land use changes throughout the years. It also allows the use of different evaluation algorithms according to different evaluation contexts or paradigms, without having to repeat or adapt the characterisation process. The present paper illustrates the basic concepts on which ILA is based and developed as well as its application to ecological planning and systematic conservation planning in the Pico Island (Azores Archipelago)

Translocating the blood-brain barrier using electrostatics

Copyright © 2012 Ribeiro,Domingues, Freire,Santos and Castanho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.Mammalian cell membranes regulate homeostasis, protein activity, and cell signaling. The charge at the membrane surface has been correlated with these key events. Although mammalian cells are known to be slightly anionic, quantitative information on the membrane charge and the importance of electrostatic interactions in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics remain elusive. Recently, we reported for the first time that brain endothelial cells (EC) are more negatively charged than human umbilical cord cells, using zeta-potential measurements by dynamic light scattering. Here, we hypothesize that anionicity is a key feature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and contributes to select which compounds cross into the brain. For the sake of comparison, we also studied the membrane surface charge of blood components—red blood cells (RBC), platelets, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).To further quantitatively correlate the negative zeta-potential values with membrane charge density, model membranes with different percentages of anionic lipids were also evaluated. From all the cells tested, brain cell membranes are the most anionic and those having their lipids mostly exposed, which explains why lipophilic cationic compounds are more prone to cross the blood-brain barrier.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia — Ministério da Educação e Ciência (FCT-MEC, Portugal) is acknowledged for funding (including fellowships SFRH/BD/42158/2007 to Marta M.B. Ribeiro, SFRH/BD/41750/2007 to Marco M. Domingues and SFRH/BD/70423/2010 to João M. Freire) and project PTDC/QUI-BIQ/119509/2010. Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (European Commission) is also acknowledged for funding (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-3-1-IAPP, Project 230654)

The biological balance and ecological infrastructure of the vineyard landscape

The vineyard landscapes that are known today, almost everywhere, result fundamentally from the technical requirements of consumption and markets, and therefore production factors. This condition, corresponding to the productive function of the landscape, must be reconciled with its other functions - conservation of resources and recreation. This article aims to reflect on the principles of design, planning and management associated with this productive system, considering strategies to increase the landscape’s biodiversity and ecological infrastructure, which contributes to greater environmental sustainability. It considers problems linked to climate change, and valuation of the landscape where the economic, social, ecological, and affective dimensions are integrated. The main features and concepts associated with sustainable wine production are integrated production or biologic production. The geomorphological, soil and microclimate features – expressed in the terroir - and the plant species most suitable for sustainable production and protection of these landscapes include systems, infrastructures, and patterns in each landscape. The reflection is supported by one case-study in the Alentejo region of Portugal – the Borba wine sub-region

Da “The European Library” à “Europeana” – Um percurso com impulsos nacionais

Este artigo descreve o percurso a nível Europeu que levou à iniciativa TEL e desta à realidade emergente da Europeana. Neste percurso, equipas de engenharia do Instituto Superior Técnico e do INESC-ID aliadas à competência da Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal têm desempenhado um papel de grande relevo que nem sempre tem sido público. Faz-se assim também uma descrição desse envolvimento, numa perspectiva principalmente tecnológica