156 research outputs found
The role of China in the portuguese speaking african countries : The case of Mozambique
Due to the Reform and Open Door Policies initiated in 1978, China recorded a fast sustainable economic growth with an estimated average GDP growth rate of 9.7% in the period of 1980-2008, turning China-- in 2009 - into the world's second largest economy, just after USA. With an export oriented economic model, highly supported by FDI, mostly from developed countries, China is, since 2002, the most attractive developing country for FDI flows, both at short and long terms, becoming not only the world's factory, but also its number one exporter, after surpassing Germany in 2009. With the biggest current account surplus balance, China has been able to achieve a foreign exchange reserve of US$ 2.2 trillion -- the world's largest reserve currency. Around 50% of this huge reserve is being applied in American bonds, while the remaining supports Chinese health and social security systems, Chinese banks' solvability, internationalization of the Chinese economy, investment in geostrategic positioning to guarantee energy independence and making foreign aid available to other developing countries. During 2008's global crisis, China was able to resist better than the major world economies even benefitting from this downturn to implement policies to reduce its economic imbalances. One of these imbalances is the gap between Chinese FDI and OFDI which is now progressively narrowing. In fact, in the near future, OFDI is expected even be larger than FDI. Mostly two types of Chinese OFDI can be distinguished: trade-oriented investment and resource-seeking investment. Governmental backing, including official developments assistance (ODA) has been crucial for the resource-seeking investment. Although the Chinese investment is nowadays more oriented to mature economies, its bulk is mainly directed to the other developing countries mainly to Latin American countries and now also to African countries. Following the Beijing Consensus, Chinese planners are pushing partnerships with African countries and within those, the Chinese government identified one strategic group worth to cooperate and invest, the Portuguese Speaking African Countries which are linked through a network of language and culture between themselves and also to other geostrategic economic spaces; to Europe via Portugal, to Latin America via Brazil and to Asia via Macau. These African countries have high expectations on the Chinese cooperation and our research questions are. (a) Should this investment be consider ODA or OFDI; (b) How far can Chinese finance flows contribute to the development of these countries in terms of employment, exports, technology transfer; (c) is this investment seen as an opportunity or a threat by local people, is it fulfilling the created expectations or not? In this paper our empirical case is researching the perception of Mozambique government on the ODA and OFDI Chinese investment there, and the conclusions were reached by analyzing the Mozambique government high officials opinions publically expressed or resulting from their answers to media inquires. We also will try to find secondary data with information on the perception of the population on China presence in Mozambique through secondary data
New silk road : trade and investment. perspectives for eu and new partnerships
China has already given a fundamental contribution to the present globalization process and have also highly benefited from it by integrating becoming the final stage of the Global Chains Production networks in Asia. This process in China was the result of a survival economic strategy that saw in the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment in intensive low cost workmanship oriented to exports, a fundamental condition to overpass it´s millenary delay. This strategy accepted that the add value that remain in China, although very small was very important to give jobs to millions of Chinese and take them out of the absolute poverty line where they were in 1978 when Deng Xiao Ping launch the 4 Modernizations and the Open Door Policies. Other policies token during the first 30 years of the China Economic Reform, like the Grasp the Big Let Go the Small, the Socialist Market Economy, the Go West and the Go Global were equally important transforming Chinese economy in the second world biggest one. This first globalization stage had its big push in 2001 when China joined the WTO we can say that a new world economic order had begun in that date, placing China in the center of the world
The global value chains and the evolution of chinese economic model
According to the Word Bank in the first 38 years of China Economic Reform took 700 million people out poverty line in China at same time benefiting the Global South economy due to the integration of the Transnational Enterprises Global Value Chains with China. Chinese government understood the economic rational of Global Value Chains, Flying Geese Model and Foreign Direct Investment Theories and introduced policies to attract foreign capital, technology, production, and foreign buyers, placing China as the final stage of the production networks in Asia and also transforming China in the biggest buying market of many resources and energy suppliers from less developed countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
But a new model of Chinese economic development even more interconnected and interdependent with the world is now on move. Even quite before the world acknowledge the protectionist mindset of the US in Trump era, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013 a very ambitious initiative under the name of “One Road One Belt the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” to enhance a new stage of world globalization, which together with two complimentary initiatives the “International Production Cooperation” and “Third-country Market Cooperation” and in complementarity with the “Made in China 2025” and “Internet Plus” plans will lead China to develop Global Value Chains leaded by Chinese companies and integrating countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Is the logistics sector in China still a constraint to supplying its domestic market?
China is a market ripe with opportunities for those who dare challenge its vastness; its alluring promise of an outstanding growth possibility thanks to its immense and growing internal market presents itself to companies as a place of both enormous challenges but also of potentially great rewards. The logistics sector is considered to be one essential vector of competitiveness for the development of consumer market supply. Logistics plays a tremendously important role in a company’s activity. Poor logistics can lead to lost opportunities and unsatisfied customers, among other things, while having a good logistics system in place might work as a source of competitive advantage. Ilhéu (2006) research concluded that the Chinese logistics and distribution system was one of the myriad problems Portuguese companies encountered when trying to establish a presence in China; poor infrastructure and a generalized lack of value-added services in Chinese logistics companies were some of the widespread problems faced. The highly fragmented nature of the current Chinese market, high road tolls or uneven taxes between provinces, all contribute to the maintenance of an inefficient system that imposes a disproportionately high cost of logistics in the country. A new era for logistics is being ushered in by China since competitiveness and e-commerce requires the modernization of infrastructures as a global mindset management. Some research questions then arise: are Chinese logistics still a burden to the efficiency of Chinese domestic market? How has the Chinese logistical sector progressed in the last eleven years? Is the lack of value-added services still perceived by foreign companies as a constraint to entering the Chinese market?info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The chinese 'go global' policy and the portuguese kinship
With the objective of promoting trade and investment and implement common projects in various domains between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (PSCs), the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation was created by the Chinese government in 2003. This Forum based in Macao, follow the theoretical rational that internationalization is largely driven by networks of relationships, very often based in a share culture and language and that the network relationships of a firm is capable of providing the context for its international activities. Being part of the soft power diplomatic approach to the Portuguese Speaking Countries - considering that some of these markets are very important for Chinese economic development, due to the need to expand its foreign markets and, most importantly, to guarantee the supply of critical raw-materials and sources of energy - this charm offensive utilizes as persuasive tools the cooperation for development, humanitarian aid, cultural ties, bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, and the OFDI. In order to be effective, this model of global cooperation requires that every participant perceives it as being mutually beneficial, i.e., a “win-win” situation for all. Therefore to be a positive contributor to the Chinese “Go Global” policy this Portuguese kinship network should have the perception that Macao Forum activities contribute to the development of its business objectives - increase exports, investment growth, and other business with positive economic results - with China, Macao and between themselves. Our research was aimed at Portuguese companies (exporting and/or investing in China, Macao and HK) in order to get a clearer idea of their opinion about their perception of the Forum and its potential.
Within this set of conclusions, we can consider that Macao Forum can do better for the perception of positive benefits for the Portuguese companies participating in its activities thus creating the perception of a “win-win” situation, reinforcing its utility in the increase of exports to China, growth of FDI in China, Macao and PSCs, the increase of business networks between companies of these economic spaces and the increase of business economic results in other kind of business rather than exports or investment. In the future we intend to conduct similar research on the perceptions of companies of other PSCs
Delicate empiricism and romance in education for sustainability
The education for sustainability must start with the awareness of our relationship with the natural world. The absence of direct and sensorial experience with the natural world, leads to a narrow understanding of environmental phenomena and a weak awareness of their relationship with human life. In this article we explore the concepts and methods of Goethe’s “delicate empiricism” and Whitehead’s “romance”, which we applied in the project Education for Sustainability - ID-Natura (University of Évora). This project, involving teachers, researchers and pupils (from pre-school to secondary level education) from schools in Évora, Portugal, is based on the idea that experience in proximity with the natural world is an important basis of knowledge processes and of the development of environmental awareness. The testimonies of the pupils resonate with “romance” and “delicate empiricism”. Their lived experiences and reflections portray the interconnected intellectual and sensory dimensions of an educational path to gain knowledge that recognizes the values that are fundamental to the caring for the Earth, our common home
A computational pipeline to identify phenotypic manifestations related to genes
Tese de Mestrado, Bioinformática e Biologia computacional, 2022, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de CiênciasUma proporção de pacientes com doenças de neuro desenvolvimento, tem uma mutação
genética diretamente ligada à sua doença. A Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo (PEA) é uma
patologia de neuro desenvolvimento com apresentação clínica muito heterogênea (Cummings et
al., 2005). PEA é caracterizada por ter padrões de ações ou interesses repetitivos,
dificuldades/limitações em interações sociais e comunicação que se manifestam desde a infância.
Estes sintomas afetam mais homens que mulheres e podem variar em severidade. Talvez o maior
avanço em perceber a fisiopatologia do PEA é ter sido reconhecido a contribuição genética para
a etiologia do PEA com a ajuda do aparecimento de métodos NGS e WES (Daniel H. Geschwind,
2011; Asif et al., 2018). Há vários genes e mutações associados com o PEA o que aponta a uma
origem heterogenia da doença. A combinação de uma arquitetura genética complexa e pouco
compreendida, heterogeneidade fenotípica e o envolvimento de múltiplos loci que interagem entre
si dificulta a descoberta dos genes com mutações específicas que levam ao PEA.
Consequentemente, a etiologia genética dos distúrbios relacionados ao PEA permanece em
grande parte desconhecida (Gupta et al., 2006). Vários estudos demonstraram que duplicações ou
deleções de segmentos do genoma denominados de Variantes de Número de Cópias (CNVs),
polimorfismos de nucleotídeo único (SNPs) e variantes de nucleotídeo único (SNVs)
provavelmente têm um papel causal na PEA (Chang et al., 2014; Soler et al., 2018). O
estabelecimento da relação entre os diferentes genes com as variantes do fenótipo do PEA pode
facilitar o diagnóstico dos pacientes e, assim, possibilitar que os pacientes obtenham o tratamento
mais eficiente e específico numa idade mais jovem.
Devido aos recentes avanços nas tecnologias genómicas, os estudos genéticos em larga escala
estão a revelar um grande número de variantes genéticas que potencialmente contribuem para o
risco de doenças. O objetivo global deste trabalho foi propor um pipeline para identificar a
manifestação fenotípica de variantes genéticas putativas causadoras de doenças. Para isso, foram
estabelecidos dois objetivos específicos:
• Identificação de clusters de genes funcionalmente semelhantes;
• Inferir o fenótipo da doença para cada cluster separadamente.
Para alcançar estes objetivos, neste estudo foi usado um dataset que contem 3707 genes de
pacientes diagnosticados com PEA. A este dataset são aplicadas ferramenta como o DishIn e
GoSemSim para calcular o valor da semelhança semântica em pares de genes, obtendo no fim
uma matriz quadrada de semelhança semântica. Este valor é obtido pelas ferramentas ao
quantificar a informação partilhada entre dois termos GO, associados a cada gene, como o
conteúdo de informação do ancestral comum mais informativo de dois termos. As medidas para
calcular a semelhança semântica do conteúdo de informação usadas neste trabalho são Lin, Jiang
& Conrath e Rel. Através da matriz de semelhança semântica é calculada a matriz de distâncias à
qual são aplicados os algoritmos de clustering DBSCAN, Kmeans e hierárquico, de modo a obter
grupos de genes que sejam funcionalmente semelhantes.
Após a análise dos resultados, foi possível concluir que variantes genéticas podem ser
agrupados usando cálculos de semelhança semântica. Demonstrou-se que os genes que foram
agrupados são funcionalmente semelhantes, estavam inseridos em redes de interação genética e
podem levar a diferentes grupos de fenótipos de PEA. Os genes agrupados foram enriquecidos
para diferentes pathways e sub fenótipos relacionados ao PEA.In most neurodevelopmental diseases, a proportion of patients carries a known gene mutation
directly linked to their illness. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental
pathology with very heterogeneous clinical presentation (Cummings et al., 2005). ASD is
characterized by symptoms of repetitive patterns of actions or interests, difficulties/limitations in
social interactions and communication that appear since childhood. These symptoms affect more
men than women and can vary in severity.
Perhaps the greatest advance in understanding the pathophysiology of ASD is the recognition
of the genetic contribution to the etiology of ASD with the help of the emergence of NGS and
WES methods (Daniel H. Geschwind, 2011; Asif et al., 2018). There are several genes and
mutations associated with ASD which point to a heterogeneous origin of the disease. A
combination of a complex and poorly understood genetic architecture, phenotypic heterogeneity
and the involvement of multiple loci interacting with one another hinder efforts to discover the
genes with specific mutations that lead to ASD. Consequently, the genetic etiology of disorders
related to ASD remains largely unknown (Gupta et al., 2006). Several studies demonstrated that
duplications or deletions of genome segments called Copy Number Variants (CNVs), single
nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and single nucleotide variants (SNVs) are likely to have a
causal role in ASD (Chang et al., 2014; Soler et al., 2018). The establishment of the relationship
between different genes to the ASD phenotype variants may facilitate the diagnosis of patients
and thus enable patients to obtain the correct treatment at a younger age.
Due to recent advances in genomic technologies, the large-scale genetic studies are
unraveling large numbers of genetic variants potentially contributing to disease risk. The global
objective of this work was to propose a pipeline to identify the phenotypic manifestation of
putative disease-causing genetic variants. For this purpose, two specific objectives were pursued:
• Identification of clusters of functionally similar genes;
• Inferring the disease phenotype for each cluster separately.
To achieve these goals in this study, a dataset containing 3707 genes from patients diagnosed
with ASD was used. Tools such as DishIn and GoSemSim are applied to this dataset to calculate
the value of semantic similarity in pairs of genes, obtaining in the end a square matrix of semantic
similarity. This value is obtained by the tools by quantifying the pairwise GO term semantic
similarity through the amount of information shared between two terms, such as the information
content of the most informative common ancestor of two terms. The measures to calculate the
similarity of information content used in this work are Lin, Jiang & Conrath and Rel. Through the
matrix of the semantic similarity matrix, the distance matrix is calculated to which the DBSCAN,
Kmeans and hierarchical clustering algorithms are applied, to obtain functionally similar clusters
of genes.
After analyzing the results, it was possible to conclude that genes that were disrupted by
genetic variants in patients can be clustered using semantic similarity measures. Clustered genes
were functionally similar, also indicated by gene interaction networks and can lead to different
ASD sub-phenotype. Genes clusters were enriched for different pathways and phenotype that
were related to ASD subtypes
The role of special economic zones in african countries development and the chinese FDI
The Chinese Government’s policy of “going out” encourages Chinese companies to pay more attention to invest in the new markets, like Latin America, especially Africa. It promotes the establishment of more and more Chinese overseas industrial and trade zones. They not only help increase demand for Chinese-made machinery and equipment, reduce investment entry and operating costs, but also assist China’s efforts to boost industrial restructuring at home and nurture companies to move up the value chain. They also provide a stage for less experienced small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) overseas. For the African countries, they can learn from the experience and lessons from the Special Economic Zones (SEZs)established in China. The SEZs have proved to be particularly relevant for Chinese development in the past 35 years, since they were created in 1979, they played a decisive role for development of places like Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, Shantou, Hainan and Shanghai.
.Apoio da FC
Royal Dutch Shell PLC balancing oil with energy transition
This Equity Research aims to value Royal Dutch Shell, a major Oil & Gas company, as of December 2020. The valuation integrates both the current and future prospects for the industry, incorporating expected energy transition features and how these will change Shell’s value creation process. A Discounted Cash Flow valuation is performed, using Weighted Average Cost of Capital as the discount factor. These results, together with a multiples analysis, suggest that Shell is undervalued, which creates an investment opportunity
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