As opções efectuadas pelo Luxemburgo no quadro do art. 5º do Reg. 1606/2002-CE

Mestrado em Contabilidade - AuditoriaA temática contabilística tem estado na ordem do dia pelas piores razões: a crise dos mercados financeiros. O controlo político da Normalização Contabilística é uma das principais características do Sistema Contabilístico Continental, podendo afirmar-se que as Directivas foram um dos instrumentos políticos para criar o mercado comunitário de livre circulação de capitais na prossecução dos objectivos do Tratado de Roma. Nas décadas de 70 e 80 do século XX as Directivas caracterizaram o processo inicial de convergência contabilística na Europa. O período de reflexão dos anos 90 sobre o impacto das Directivas face aos novos desafios do mercado global, clarificou a necessidade de mudança no Sistema Contabilístico Europeu para o tornar compatível com a globalização dos mercados e com as novas tecnologias. Abriu-se caminho para a adopção das Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade (IAS) pelo processo de comitologia. O “Regulamento” nº 1606/2002 apresentou-se como o instrumento jurídico mais eficaz para a aplicação directa e imediata das IAS às contas consolidadas das empresas cotadas em bolsa, facilitando-lhes o acesso ao mercado de capitais Europeu e global. A presente dissertação incide sobre a aplicação do regulamento no Luxemburgo, país onde a regulamentação contabilística tem por base as directivas europeias. Tradicionalmente flexível com relação às questões relacionadas com a Contabilidade, o Luxemburgo tem optado por deixar para o fim a sua tomada de posição quer na transposição das directivas, quer na adopção do regulamento IAS. No sentido de facilitar o trabalho dos profissionais da contabilidade e de agradar aos investidores oriundos de países tão diferentes económica, politica, cultural e socialmente como os Estados Unidos, a Inglaterra, a França, a Suiça ou o Japão, o Luxemburgo aproveitou sempre ao máximo as opções permitidas pelas Directivas e pelo Regulamento nº 1606/2002.The accounting issue has been on the agenda for the worse reasons: the crisis in financial markets. Political control of the Accounting Standards is a major feature on Continental Accounting System, using the Directives as political instruments to create the free movement of capital on Community Market pursuing Rome Treaty aims. In the 70’s and 80’s of the twentieth century, Directives characterized the initial convergence of accounting in Europe. The reflection period of the 90’s on the impact of the Directives on new global market challenges, clarified the changes needs in the Continental Accounting System to make it compatible with the market globalization and new technologies. The adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS) was the chosen path, using the comitology process. The Regulation (CE) nº 1606/2002 appears as the juridical instrument for direct and immediate IAS application on consolidated accounts of listed companies, enable them to achieve financial resources on European and Global capital markets. This dissertation is about the application of that regulation in Luxembourg, a country where accounting is based on European directives. Traditionally flexible with respect to issues related to Accounting, Luxembourg has been opted to leave his decision to the deadline both in the transposition of directives or the adoption of the IAS Regulation. In order to facilitate the work of the accounting profession and to please investors from countries as diverse economic, political, cultural and social as the United States, Britain, France, Switzerland or Japan, Luxembourg always takes all options allowed by the Directives and by the Regulation nº 1606/2002

Computer-Aided Solvent Screening for Biocatalysis

A computer-aidedsolventscreening methodology is described and tested for biocatalytic systems composed of enzyme, essential water and substrates/products dissolved in a solvent medium, without cells. The methodology is computationally simple, using group contribution methods for calculating constrained properties related to chemical reaction equilibrium, substrate and product solubility, water solubility, boiling points, toxicity and others. Two examples are provided, covering the screening of solvents for lipase-catalyzed transesterification of octanol and inulin with vinyl laurate. Esterification of acrylic acid with octanol is also addressed. Solvents are screened and candidates identified, confirming existing experimental results. Although the examples involve lipases, the method is quite general, so there seems to be no preclusion against application to other biocatalyst

Molecular dynamics simulation studies of the interactions between ionic liquids and amino acids in aqueous solution

Although the understanding of the influence of ionic liquids (ILs) on the solubility behavior of biomolecules in aqueous solutions is relevant for the design and optimization of novel biotechnological processes, the underlying molecular-level mechanisms are not yet consensual or clearly elucidated. In order to contribute to the understanding of the molecular interactions established between amino acids and ILs in aqueous media, classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed for aqueous solutions of five amino acids with different structural characteristics (glycine, alanine, valine, isoleucine, and glutamic acid) in the presence of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl imide. The results from MD simulations enable to relate the properties of the amino acids, namely their hydrophobicity, to the type and strength of their interactions with ILs in aqueous solutions and provide an explanation for the direction and magnitude of the solubility phenomena observed in [IL + amino acid + water] systems by a mechanism governed by a balance between competitive interactions of the IL cation, IL anion, and water with the amino acids

Towards understanding directed evolution: more than half of all amino acid positions contribute to ionic liquid resistance of Bacillus subtilis lipase A

Ionic liquids (ILs) are attractive (co-)solvents for biocatalysis. However, in high concentration (>10 % IL), enzymes usually show decreased activity. No general principles have been discovered to improve IL resistance of enzymes by protein engineering. We present a systematic study to elucidate general engineering principles by site saturation mutagenesis on the complete gene bsla. Screening in presence of four [BMIM]-based ILs revealed two unexpected lessons on directed evolution: 1) resistance improvement was obtainable at 50–69 % of all amino acid positions, thus explaining the success of small sized random mutant libraries; 2) 6–13 % of substitutions led to improved resistance. Among these, 66–95 % were substitutions by chemically different amino acids (e.g., aromatic to polar/aliphatic/charged amino acids), thus indicating that mutagenesis methods introducing such changes should, at least for lipases like BSLA, be favored to improve IL resistance