The Contribution of Technological Change on EU’s Exports Performance

AbstractThe competitiveness of European countries is a constant concern in an environment dominated by the globalization of markets. Export competitiveness is an important dimension of a country's competitiveness. On top of that, in support to competitiveness, innovation is considered as a strong variable according to the Schumpeterian framework. This paper explores the relationship between technological change and international trade according to the OECD technological classification and the United Nations International System of Industrial Classification third revision for the 2 and 3 digit divisions of the manufacturing sector industry. An exploratory analysis is carried out on four European countries, namely on Belgium, France, Germany and Italy, over the period 2000-2007. The comparative analysis reveals stylized evidence based on annual growth rates of the share of exports in production, and the share of R&D intensity in production. The inferred conclusions from this preliminary inspection point towards a link between technological change and exports, although the conclusions cannot be generalized

Characterization of HIV-2 chimeric viruses unable to use CCR5 and CXCR4 coreceptors

We have previously shown the existence of primary human immunodeficiency virus type 2 isolates (MIC97 and MJC97) unable to use major coreceptors to entry into peripheral blood mononuclear cells, including CCR5 and CXCR4. We have now created a set of chime. - EU Program EVA/MRC [QLK2-CT-1999-00606]; UK Medical Research Council ; Fundacao da Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [POCI/SAU-IMI/55726/2004]. - We are grateful to Dr. K. Peden for the kindly gift of pROD10 plasmid. We also wish to acknowledge Drs. Littman and KewalRamani and the Centralized Facility for AIDS Reagent for the GHOST cell lines, Drs. Littman and Deng for U87 cell lines, Dr. J. Hoxi

The effect of two clinical criteria in the assessment of caries lesions around restorations in children (CARDEC-03): study protocol for a diagnostic randomized clinical trial

ntroduction: The detection of caries lesions around restoration can be challenging. Therefore, the use of some criteria has been proposed in order to give more objectivity to the diagnosis process. Two of them are the International Dental Federation (FDI) and the Caries Associated with Restorations and Sealants (CARS) criteria. Both methods have a different approach to caries, and it is not possible to know which one of them is the best to use in clinical practice to assess restorations in children. Thus, the present protocol aims to evaluate the effect of the use of the FDI and CARS criteria in the assessment of caries lesions around restorations in primary teeth on outcomes related to oral health in children and costs resulting from the assessments. Methods and analysis: A total of 626 restorations of children from three to 10 years were randomly assessed and are being treated following the FDI criteria (FDI group) or CARS criteria (CARS group). Participants will be followed-up after six, 12, 18, and 24 months. The primary outcome will be the need for a new intervention in the evaluated restorations. This outcome consists of several components, and each of these events will be analyzed separately as secondary outcomes. The changes in children’s oral health-related quality of life and the cost of the restoration dental treatments will also be analyzed as secondary outcomes. The methods will be compared using the Cox regression model with shared frailty. A significance level of 5% will be adopted for all statistical analyses. Discussion: This will be the first randomized clinical study carried out regarding the detection of caries lesions around restorations in primary teeth