Global Answers to Global Problems: Health as a Global Public Good. 1/2007

Address by Jorge Sampaio, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis and former President of Portugal, on the occasion of the 8th Hendrik Brugmans Memorial Lecture to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hendrik Brugmans, sponsored by the College of Europe, the Madariaga Foundation and the Alumni Association of the College of Europe, Brussels City Hall, 14 December 2006

Structurally Primed Phage display Libraries

"Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are one of the main drivers of revenue of the pharmaceutical market. Regardless of the origin and platform used, monoclonal antibodies generated against a given target may have room for improvement. Using in vitro affinity maturation libraries aims to surpass the throughput limitations of classical X-ray crystallography affinity maturation approaches, by providing a generalizable approach (or blind) that can be applied to many candidates. The current blind methods do not always assure that synergistic mutations are found and may not respect the structural constraints of the IgG molecule in question. Ideally, innovative affinity maturation methods should be generalizable to provide high-throughput results while maintaining a certain degree of specificity towards the antibody structure being considered. As such they require attention to be paid to specific regions, such as the ones likely to be in contact with the antigen, or regions that influence the antibodies’ structural integrity and overall developability.(...)"N/

Caraterização de vírus específicos de insetos: análise da sua diversidade genética e relação com outros vírus

Os arbovírus são responsáveis por doenças com impacto significativo na saúde humana, sendo transmitidos a humanos e outros animais por insetos e outros vetores invertebrados. Entre estes últimos, os mosquitos representam um dos mais importantes vetores conhecidos por servirem de vetores a arbovírus patogénicos para os humanos, de que são exemplos os vírus da dengue e Zika. Por muito tempo, a pesquisa de vírus foi impulsionada pelo impacto que estes agentes impõem à saúde humana/animal/plantas, mas os desenvolvimentos nas últimas décadas nos domínios das tecnologias de sequenciação de alto rendimento e bioinformática permitiram melhorias nas estratégias de descoberta de vírus, o que, por sua vez, levou a um aumento no número de vírus peculiares que vieram a ser descobertos em rastreios virológicos, alguns com replicação restrita em células de vertebrados. Acredita-se que esses vírus, designados vírus específicos de insetos, tenham impacto nulo ou baixo na saúde animal e, provavelmente por isso mesmo, tenham permanecido à sombra de arbovírus patogénicos. No entanto, nas últimas décadas eles tornaram-se no foco da nossa atenção, não apenas pela sua extensa diversidade e estratégias incomuns de replicação restrita nalguns hospedeiros, mas também pelo seu potencial de interferir na replicação de arbovírus. Desde então, diversos vírus específicos de insetos foram descobertos em várias famílias de vírus, com vírus específicos de mosquitos associados especialmente às famílias Flaviviridae, Mesoniviridae e Parvoviridae. Neste projeto procurou-se detetar e analisar novas sequências de vírus específicos de insetos dessas três famílias virais em mosquitos coletados em Portugal, Angola e Moçambique. A diversidade genética, reconstrução filogenética e avaliações filodinâmicas foram então executadas, usando tanto sequências genómicas geradas de novo, bem como de sequências disponíveis em bases de dados públicas. Novas sequências de flavivírus específicos de insetos ditos "clássicos" (cISF) foram detetadas em pools de mosquitos das três regiões geográficas, e diferentes sub-linhagens de cISF foram caracterizadas. A sua análise filodinâmica sugeriu que a dispersão de cISF no espaço e no tempo deverá ser recente e bastante dinâmica. Por outro lado, embora dados insuficientes não tenham permitido uma análise filodinâmica completa com base em sequências de mesonivírus, foi realizada uma extensa revisão taxonómica, que incluiu a análise de sequências semelhantes a mesonivírus (meson-like viruses) recentemente detetadas em outros organismos que não mosquitos. Por fim, também procurámos analisar entre os parvovírus de invertebrados aqueles que têm sido incluídos no género Brevihamaparvovirus, cuja distribuição até ao momento parece ser restrita a algumas espécies de mosquitos. Os seus genomas parecem evoluir sob forte seleção negativa e também são caracterizados por baixa entropia, tal como foi igualmente observado para flavivírus e mesonivírus. Também realizámos uma revisão taxonómica do táxon (o primeiro para brevihamaparvovírus) e efetuámos a sua primeira reconstrução filodinâmica.Arboviruses are responsible for impactful viral diseases and are transmitted to humans and other animals by insect and other arthropod vectors. Among the latter, mosquitoes pose as one of the most important hematophagous vectors known to carry pathogenic arboviruses for humans, like dengue and Zika. For a long while, virus research was driven by the negative impact viruses impose on human/animal/plant health, but recent developments in next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics have allowed for improvements on virus discovery strategies. In turn, these have led to an increase in the number of peculiar viruses detected in viral screening-based studies, some of which display restricted replication in vertebrate cells. These viruses, designated insect-specific viruses, are thought to have none-to-low impact on animal health and have endured in the shadow of pathogenic arboviruses. However, in the last decades they have become the focus of our attention, not only due to their extensive diversity and unusual host-restriction strategies, but also because of their potential to interfere with the replication of arboviruses. Insect-specific viruses have since been discovered in multiple virus families, with mosquito-specific viruses especially associated with the Flaviviridae, Mesoniviridae and Parvoviridae families. In this project we sought to detect and analyze new insect-specific virus sequences from these three viral families in mosquitoes collected in Portugal, Angola and Mozambique. Genetic diversity, phylogenetic reconstruction and phylodynamic assessments were then executed, using both new generated sequences and sequences available in public databases. New classical insect-specific flavivirus (cISF) sequences were detected in mosquito pools from these three geographic regions, and different sub-lineages inside the cISF cluster were characterized. Phylodynamics analyses suggested that cISF dispersion over space and time could be recent and quite dynamic. On the other hand, while insufficient data did not allow for a full phylodynamic analysis based on mesonivirus sequences, an extensive taxonomy revision was performed, that also included the analysis of sequences similar to mesoniviruses (meson-like viruses) recently detected in organisms other than mosquitoes. Finally, we also sought to analyze among the parvoviruses of invertebrates those included in the Brevihamaparvovirus genus, that have been restricted (so far) to a few mosquito species. Their genomes seem to evolve under strong purifying selection and are also characterized by low entropy, as also observed for flaviviruses and mesoniviruses. We also performed a taxonomic revision of the taxon (the first ever for brevihamaparvoviruses), and attempted their first ever phylodynamic reconstruction

Fariseu: new chronological evidence for open-air Palaeolithic art in the Côa valley (Portugal)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A evolução da ameaça terrorista no discurso político transâtlantico

Este estudo analisa a evolução da narrativa política transatlântica sobre a ameaça terrorista radical islâmica. A interpretação do terrorismo islamista como uma das principais ameaças contemporâneas tem vindo a ser construída ao longo do tempo. Não só o próprio fenómeno se tem vindo a alterar como a também a narrativa que lhe está associada. A data de 11 de setembro de 2001 é considerada um ponto de viragem na abordagem elaborada pelo mundo ocidental, e marca o ponto de partida desta análise. A hipótese avançada considera que, nos 14 anos seguintes, o terrorismo islamista se tornou uma ameaça prioritária e existencial, o que equivale a afirmar que se tornou uma ameaça securitizada. O processo de securitização ilustra a deslocação de um fenómeno da esfera da gestão política para a gestão securitária, que supõe um estado de exceção e a implementação de medidas extraordinárias. Essa alteração tem início numa dimensão discursiva, nomeadamente, de âmbito político, por corresponder ao ator responsável pela garantia de segurança da população, e da opinião pública depender a sua legitimidade. O contexto transatlântico analisado compõe-se por quatro atores estatais, Estados Unidos, Espanha, Reino Unido e França, e dois institucionais, a União Europeia e a Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte. De forma complementar à análise, são expostos os antecedentes de cada um dos atores no que toca à sua experiência com a ameaça terrorista. É também apresentada uma síntese da evolução do conceito de terrorismo e do método islamista, com ênfase na trajetória do grupo al-Qaeda. O objetivo do estudo é alcançado pela análise crítica da narrativa transatlântica, reunindo comunicações de reação a atentados, com discursos anuais generalistas, e documentos de orientação estratégica sobre segurança nacional e terrorismo em particular. A análise discursiva evidencia o contexto como fator decisivo para o posicionamento da ameaça terrorista islamista numa perspetiva politizada ou securitizada. A circunstância dos atentados despoleta o discurso securitário, cuja influência no contexto transatlântico difere de Estado para Estado. Contudo, esse discurso não se mantém ao longo do tempo, revelando-se ritmos diferentes – europeu e norte-americano – no contexto transatlântico.This study analyses the evolution of the political transatlantic narrative on the radical Islamic terrorist threat. The interpretation of the islamist terrorism as one of the main contemporary threats has been built over time: not only the phenomenon itself has changed but also has the narrative associated with it. September 11th 2001 is considered a turning point of the western world approach and therefore marks the beginning of this analysis. The hypothesis put forward considers that, on the 14 years that followed, islamist terrorism became an existential and primary threat, which is to say is became a securitized threat. The process of securitization, which illustrates the shift of a phenomenon from the politics management to the security management, supposes a state of exception and the employment of extraordinary measures. This change arises on a discursive dimension, namely that of political scope, seeing as it belongs to the actor responsible for the population’s warranty of safety and its validity depends on the public opinion. The transatlantic context that was studied is made up of four state actors (the United States of America, Spain, the United Kingdom and France) and two institutional actors (the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Complementary to the analysis are exposed each actor’s antecedents in regards to their experience with the terrorist threat. A synthesis of the evolution of the concept of terrorism and its Islamic method is also presented, highlighting the al-Qaeda group. The purpose of this study is reached by the critical analysis of the transatlantic narrative, assembling together reaction declarations to attacks and general annual speeches, as well as strategic orientation documents regarding national security and, specifically, terrorism. This discursive analysis emphasizes context as the decisive factor for placing an islamist threat on a more politicized or securitized perspective. The circumstances in which the attacks take place trigger the security discourse, the influence of which differs from state to state in the transatlantic context. However, this type of discourse does not remain over time, exposing different rhythms – the European and the North American – in the transatlantic setting

Constructing Reliable Computing Environments on Top of Amazon EC2 Spot Instances

Cloud provider Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) gives access to resources in the form of virtual servers, also known as instances. EC2 spot instances (SIs) offer spare computational capacity at steep discounts compared to reliable and fixed price on-demand instances. The drawback, however, is that the delay in acquiring spots can be incredible high. Moreover, SIs may not always be available as they can be reclaimed by EC2 at any given time, with a two-minute interruption notice. In this paper, we propose a multi-workflow scheduling algorithm, allied with a container migration-based mechanism, to dynamically construct and readjust virtual clusters on top of non-reserved EC2 pricing model instances. Our solution leverages recent findings on performance and behavior characteristics of EC2 spots. We conducted simulations by submitting real-life workflow applications, constrained by user-defined deadline and budget quality of service (QoS) parameters. The results indicate that our solution improves the rate of completed tasks by almost 20%, and the rate of completed workflows by at least 30%, compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms, for a worse-case scenarioinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the quality of the drainage network cartographic representation

One of the most important features of topographic maps is the stream network. Its accurate representation is essential for several applications. This work evaluates the quality of the stream network representation of Brazil and Portugal's official topographic maps. These maps were produced using different scales (1:10,000, 1:25,000, and 1:50,000) and methods (photo interpretation and automatic drainage network extraction). The intention of this analysis is to focus on quality data analysis, optimization and reduction of management costs, and the achievement of better planning. To assess the completeness and positional quality, two actions were taken. The first, concerning the completeness assessment, used the methodology proposed by ISO 19157. The second is related to positional quality analysis using the Buffer Overlay Statistical Method. Results show that completeness and positional errors can appear at different locations, intensities, and scales and may promote changes in the extent and direction of mapped watercourses, drainage density, and consequently the size of the watersheds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Notas sobre o marcellismo

Para el salazarismo, la estabilidad consistía en erradicar de la sociedad la elección de alternativas, esto es el conflicto. Ese orden comenzó a desmoronarse sobre todo desde los años 60, como consecuencia de los cambios socioeconómicos y culturales que acentuaban los factores de información y de concurrencia en la sociedad portuguesa. Ante este nuevo panorama, el éxito de Marcelo Caetano sólo era posible mediante un compromiso con los nuevos actores sociales y con las nuevas fuerzas políticas empeñadas en la instauración de la democracia. Sin embargo el Presidente del Consejo no quiso o no pudo asumir ese compromiso, viéndose obligado al cabo de un tiempo a volver sobre sus iniciales pasos aperturistas.The social and political stability under salazarism was contemplated as a result of alternatives choice and conflicts suppression. That order was mainly eroding along the decade of sixteenth as a consequence of social, economic and cultural changes that were accentuating information and concurrence factors in Portuguese society. Facing this new stage, the success of Marcelo Caetano’s reformism was depending on his capacity of commitment with the new social actors and the opposition political forces solidly engage in democratic goal. However, the President wasn’t capable —or wasn’t allowed— to assume this commitment, even reversing after the first hopeful times his initial reformist trends