EU enlargement and the portuguese economy

Ten states, primarily from Central and Eastern Europe, will be admitted to the EU in 2004. The present paper assesses the competitiveness implications of this enlargement for Portugal. Four specific topics are considered: the trade and industry effects, the implications for Portugal's ability to attract FDI, the likely levels and consequences of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe and the implications for Portugal's budgetary relations with the rest of the EU.Financial support of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia /MCT under SFRH/BD/6412/2001 (supported by the European Social Fund)

Time Evolution of tunneling and decoherence: soluble model

Decoherence effects associated to the damping of a tunneling two-level system are shown to dominate the tunneling probability at short times in strong coupling regimes in the context of a soluble model. A general decomposition of tunneling rates in dissipative and unitary parts is implemented. Master equation treatments fail to describe the model system correctly when more than a single relaxation time is involved

Fluorescence studies on new potential antitumoral 1,3-diarylurea derivatives of thieno[3,2-b]pyridines in solution and in nanoliposomes

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), QREN and FEDER through CFUM, CQ/UM and Project PTDC/QUI/81238/2006 cofinanced by FCT and program FEDER/COMPETE (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007467)

Propagating Torsion in 3D-Gravity and Dynamical Mass Generation

In this paper, fermions are minimally coupled to 3D-gravity where a dynamical torsion is introduced. A Kalb-Ramond field is non-minimally coupled to these fermions in a gauge-invariant way. We show that a 1-loop mass generation mechanism takes place for both the 2-form gauge field and the torsion. As for the fermions, no mass is dynamically generated: at 1-loop, there is only a mass shift proportional to the Yukawa coupling whenever the fermions have a non-vanishing tree-level mass.Comment: 13 pages, latex file, no figures, some corrections adde

Systematics of electronic and magnetic properties in the transition metal doped Sb2_2Te3_3 quantum anomalous Hall platform

The quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) has recently been reported to emerge in magnetically-doped topological insulators. Although its general phenomenology is well established, the microscopic origin is far from being properly understood and controlled. Here we report on a detailed and systematic investigation of transition-metal (TM)-doped Sb$_2$Te$_3$. By combining density functional theory (DFT) calculations with complementary experimental techniques, i.e., scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), resonant photoemission (resPES), and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), we provide a complete spectroscopic characterization of both electronic and magnetic properties. Our results reveal that the TM dopants not only affect the magnetic state of the host material, but also significantly alter the electronic structure by generating impurity-derived energy bands. Our findings demonstrate the existence of a delicate interplay between electronic and magnetic properties in TM-doped TIs. In particular, we find that the fate of the topological surface states critically depends on the specific character of the TM impurity: while V- and Fe-doped Sb$_2$Te$_3$ display resonant impurity states in the vicinity of the Dirac point, Cr and Mn impurities leave the energy gap unaffected. The single-ion magnetic anisotropy energy and easy axis, which control the magnetic gap opening and its stability, are also found to be strongly TM impurity-dependent and can vary from in-plane to out-of-plane depending on the impurity and its distance from the surface. Overall, our results provide general guidelines for the realization of a robust QAHE in TM-doped Sb$_2$Te$_3$ in the ferromagnetic state.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figure

New 1,3-diarylureas linked by C-C Suzuki coupling to the methyl 3-aminothieno[3,2-b]pyridine-2-carboxylate moiety: synthesis and fluorescence studies in solution and in lipid membranes

New six fluorescent 1,3-diarylureas linked by C-C Suzuki coupling to the 6-position of the methyl 3-aminothieno[3,2-b]pyridine-2-carboxylate moiety were prepared by reaction of the amino groups on the ortho or meta positions relative to the C-C bond of the Suzuki coupling products, with different para-substituted arylisocyanates (H, OMe, CN), in high to excellent yields. The fluorescence properties of the 1,3-diarylureas in solution and in lipid membranes of egg-yolk phosphatidylcholine (Egg-PC), dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC), dipalmitoyl phosphatidylglycerol (DPPG) or dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB), with or without cholesterol (Ch), were studied. The six 1,3-diarylureas have reasonable fluorescence quantum yields in several solvents (between 0.02 and 0.69) and present a moderately solvent sensitive emission, but are not fluorescent in alcohols and water. The compounds bearing the arylurea moiety in the meta position relative to the C-C bond, especially with the OMe and CN substituents, present the better solvatochromic properties. Incorporation of the six compounds in lipid membranes indicates that all the compounds are deeply located in the hydrophobic region of the lipid bilayers, feeling the transition between the rigid gel phase and fluid phases.To the Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for inancial support to the NMR portuguese network (PTNMR, Bruker Avance III 400-Univ. Minho). To the FCT and FEDER (European Fund for Regional Development)-COMPETE-QREN-EU for financial support to the Research Centres, CQ/UM [PEst-C/QUI/UI0686/2011 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022716)] and CFUM [PEst-C/FIS/UI0607/2011 (F-COMP-01-0124-FEDER-022711)], and to the research projects PTDC/QUI/81238/2006 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007467) (photophysical studies) and PTDC/QUI-QUI/111060/2009 (F-COMP-01-0124-FEDER-015603) (organic synthesis)

Association of apolipoprotein B and adiponectin receptor 1 genes with carcass, bone integrity and performance traits in a paternal broiler Line.

Apolipoprotein B (APOB) and Adiponectin Receptor 1 (ADIPOR1) are related to the regulation of feed intake, fat metabolism and protein deposition and are candidate genes for genomic studies in birds. In this study, associations of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) g.102A>T (APOB) and g.729C>T (ADIPOR1) with carcass, bone integrity and performance traits in broilers were investigated. Genotyping was performed on a paternal line of 1,454 broilers. The SNP detection was carried out by PCR-RFLP technique using the restriction enzymes HhaI for the SNP g.729C>T and MslI for the SNP g.102A>T. The association analyses of the two SNPs with 85 traits were performed using the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) and Generalized Quasi-Likelihood Score (GQLS) methods. For REML the model included the random additive genetic effect of animal and fixed effects of sex, hatch and SNP genotypes. In the GQLS method, a logistic regression was used to associate the genotypes with phenotypes adjusted for fixed effects of sex and hatch. The SNP g.729C>T in the ADIPOR1 gene was associated with thickness of the femur and breast skin yield. Thus, the ADIPOR1 gene seems implicated in the metabolism and/or fat deposition and bone integrity in broilers

Biological processes related to ribosome and mitochondrial functions might be involved in the osteochondrosis latens manifestation in gilts.

Abstract: The articular osteochondrosis (OC) is a disturbance of endochondral ossification occurring in humans and livestock animals. In pigs, OC is one of the major causes of leg weakness, leading to economic losses and reducing the animal welfare. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differential gene expression related to OC latens in femoral articular cartilage in swine. Thus, samples of MS115 5-months-old gilts, normal (control group) and affected with OC latens (affected group), were collected and submitted to histopathological and gene expression analysis. A total of 1,734 genes was differentially expressed (DE) between the two groups. Several biological processes (BP) were enriched including those already known as involved with OC, such as hypoxia, cartilage and bone development. Furthermore, new BP related to initiation of transcription and ribosome biogenesis were associated to this condition. The disruption of mitochondria and ribosome functions may contribute to the development of cartilage and bone disorders, including osteochondrosis and osteoarthritis. The activation of transcription factors (TFs), required to the cartilage and chondrocyte maturation since embrionary life, might also affect the expression of many extracellular matrix genes related to cartilage. The downregulation of TFs ATOH8 and SOX5 in the affected group would delay the chondroblast differentiation, hindering the cartilage formation and endochondral ossification. Besides the DE genes, three genes (DAG1, SC16A and SPAG9) had different isoforms expressed between the normal and affected groups. In this study, new genes and biological processes were described to be possibly involved in the manifestation of OC latens in gilts. Resumo: A osteocondrose articular (OC) é uma perturbação da ossificação endocondral que ocorre em humanos e animais de criação. Em suínos, o OC é uma das principais causas de fraqueza nas pernas, levando a perdas econômicas e reduzindo o bem-estar animal. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a expressão gênica diferencial relacionada ao OC latens na cartilagem articular do fêmur em suínos. Assim, amostras de leitoas MS115 com 5 meses de idade, normais (grupo controle) e afetadas com OC latens (grupo afetado), foram coletadas e submetidas à análise histopatológica e de expressão gênica. Um total de 1.734 genes foi diferencialmente expresso (DE) entre os dois grupos. Vários processos biológicos (BP) foram enriquecidos, incluindo aqueles já conhecidos como envolvidos com CO, como hipóxia, cartilagem e desenvolvimento ósseo. Além disso, novas PA relacionadas ao início da transcrição e biogênese do ribossomo foram associadas a essa condição. O rompimento das funções das mitocôndrias e dos ribossomos pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento de doenças cartilaginosas e ósseas, incluindo osteocondrose e osteoartrite. A ativação de fatores de transcrição (TFs), necessários à maturação da cartilagem e dos condrócitos desde a vida embrionária, também pode afetar a expressão de muitos genes da matriz extracelular relacionados à cartilagem. O downregulation dos TFs ATOH8 e SOX5 no grupo afetado atrasaria a diferenciação do condroblast, dificultando a formação da cartilagem e a ossificação endocondral. Além dos genes DE, três genes (DAG1, SC16A e SPAG9) apresentaram diferentes isoformas expressas entre os grupos normal e afetado. Neste estudo, novos genes e processos biológicos foram descritos como possivelmente envolvidos na manifestação de OC latens em leitoas