From Governmental Accounting to National Accounting: Implications on the Portuguese Central Government Deficit

Based on the relevant differences between Governmental Accounting (GA/microeconomic perspective) and National Accounting (NA/macroeconomic perspective) this paper examines the main adjustments made in Portugal to the General Government Sector data required to convert Governmental Accounts into National Accounts. It also assesses the impact of those adjustments on the Central Government deficit, the largest share in the Portuguese public deficit. Following mostly a qualitative research methodology, the empirical study is based on interviews to officials preparing NA and on several documental sources. The purpose is to validate the major data adjustments from GA into NA regarding Central Government, while, in addition, assessing their impact using data from April 2008 Excessive Deficit Procedure notification, covering the 2004-2007 period. The main findings indicate that differences concerning the accounting basis are the most relevant and that the subsequent adjustments have a considerable impact on the Portuguese Central Government deficit. This research points therefore to the need for more convergence between GA and NA, namely with respect to the transactions recognition criteria in order to use a common accounting basis, and for a complete and coherent reporting information system in GA.

IPSAS conceptual framework and views on selected national frameworks

This chapter is about conceptual frameworks in public sector accounting, particularly addressing the IPSAS conceptual framework. While taking this as a reference, the chapter also offers brief views on selected national frameworks from a group of European countries–namely the UK, Finland, Austria, Germany and Portugal–, as illustrative examples of how conceptual frameworks can approximate or diverge from that of IPSASB. The explanations enable an understanding of the role of a conceptual framework underlying public sector accounting standards, as well as the main issues normally included in it

An all-over corded Bell Beaker in northern Portugal : Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numão (Vila Nova de Foz Côa) : some remarks

A Bell Beaker sherd with an ‘all-over corded’ type of decoration is presented; the piece was found at the prehistoric site of Castelo Velho, near Freixo de Numão (Vila Nova de Foz Côa, northern Portugal). The importance of this discovery is briefly discussed in the context of other beaker vessels from the north of Portugal and of AOC-type pottery in the Iberian Peninsula

Enhanced CO2 Methanation by New Microstructured Reactor Concept and Design

A novel multichannel minireactor with channel internal diameter in the range of millimeters has been conceptually designed and constructed. Its configuration confers to the new concept reactor some features and advantages compared to conventional fixed-bed reactors g.e. better mass-transfer, avoid hot-spots formation, increased performance (10–20%). Consequently, this new reactor concept is ideal to be applied to exothermic reactions such as the Sabatier reaction that demands continuous removal of the heat produced to avoid hot-spot formation and the sintering of the catalyst. Thanks to its configuration, this reactor could control effectively the heat generated by the reaction and several tests were carried out to validate the reactor features. The results obtained demonstrate that the catalysts activity in the reaction is improved with the application of the novel reactor respect the conventional fixed- and fluidized-bed ones and neither catalyst sintering, nor pressure drop was appreciated during the catalytic tests. At the best reaction conditions, Tecnalia’s multichannel minireactor can handle 820 Nm3/h of CO2 per square meter of channel section showing the enormous potential of the new reactor concept.The authors gratefully acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) funding under the project RENOVAGAS (RTC-2014-2975-3). Likewise, the authors want to acknowledge the valuable contribution of other colleagues from other entities participating in the project

Substrato cultural das etnias pré-romanas do Norte de Portugal

Este trabalho pretende equacionar o contributo e validade de diferentes tipos de fontes (escritas. epigráfiicas. linguisticas e arqueologicas) na definição de possíveis fronteiras culturais e étnicas na Proto-História (Bronze Final / Idade do Ferro) do Norte de Portugal. Após uma análise das fontes disponiveis, conhecidas para a região, estas são analisadas separadamente. É apresentado a quadro do povoamento sugerido pelas fonles escritas, sendo igualmente discutidos os contributos da linguíslica na formulação do quadro étnico desta área da Península. Tendo por base os resullados fornecidos pela investigação arqueológica mais recente (estudos realizados na década de 80) é apresentada uma proposta para a evolução cultural da Idade du Bronze Final e da Idade do Ferro. Nesta proposta são valorizados vários aspectos da cultura material, o habitat, a metalurgia e a cerâmica, que dispõe presentemente de quadros cronológicos de referência mais seguros. Finalmente, as autoras discutem os problemas que se colocam à articulação da informação sugerida por fontes diferenciadas, colocando a tónica na dificuldade de correlacionar a realidade arqueológica com a formulação de unidades sociais, étnicas e linguísticas

Generation and analysis of an Eucalyptus globulus cDNA library constructed from seedlings subjected to low temperature conditions

Indexación: ScieloEucalyptus globulus is the most important commercial temperate hardwood in the world because of its wood properties and due to its characteristics for biofuel production. However, only a very low number of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are publicly available for this tree species. We constructed a cDNA from E. globulus seedlings subjected to low temperature and sequenced 9,913 randomly selected clones, generating 8,737 curated ESTs. The assembly produced 1,062 contigs and 3,879 singletons forming a Eucalyptus unigene set. Based on BLASTX analysis, 89.3% of the contigs and 88.5% of the singletons had significant similarity to known genes in the non-redundant database of GenBank. The Eucalyptus unigene set generated is a valuable public resource that provides an initial model for genes and regulatory pathways involved in cell wall biosynthesis at low temperature.Financial support: This work was partially funded by Universidad Andrés Bello (DI Proyect: 04-05/1) and MIFAB (Proyect: P04-071-F) and by the Microsoft Joint Research Program

Absolute chronology of Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numão (Northern Portugal): data and problems

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Absolute chronology of Castelo Velho de Freixo Numão (Northern Portugal) : data and problems

The authors present and discuss the radiocarbon dates obtained until now for the prehistoric site of Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numão. These results, associated with stratigraphic analysis, indicate that the site was mainly occupied between 3000 and 1300 BC

Deciphering the interplay of molecular alterations underpinning renal cell carcinoma by label-free mass spectrometry and clinical proteomics: A systems medicine approach for precision diagnosis

Renal neoplasia is the 14th most common tumor type diagnosed worldwide. With a vast heterogeneity, renal neoplasia encompasses different subtypes. 90% of the neoplasms arise from the epithelial layer of the nephron and vary from benign renal masses (renal oncocytoma, RO) to more indolent or aggressive cancers (renal cell carcinomas, RCC). As RCC subtypes, clear cell (ccRCC) subtype is the most predominant subtype, followed by papillary (pRCC) and chromophobe (chRCC). Despite the different outcomes, some overlapped histological and morphological features difficult their differentiation and diagnosis. Therefore, new approaches for a clear and accurate diagnosis are still needed. To achieve this goal, renal tissue biopsies diagnosed with ccRCC (n = 7), pRCC (n = 5), chRCC (n = 5), RO (n = 5) and normal adjacent tissue (NAT, n= 5) were enrolled in this study. As a very resourceful tool for proteome analysis and biomarker discovery, mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods were used to interrogate the proteome of each tumor in order to undisclosed differences trough which to develop faster and accurate diagnostics. The results achieved with this doctoral thesis include i) the accomplishment of an effective ultrasonic workflow to recover the proteome of optimal cutting temperature (OCT)-embedded tissues, ii) a novel analytical approach based on MALDI-MS profiling to distinguish chRCC from RO, iii) a 109-protein panel to discriminate between chRCC and RO and NAT, iv) a top 24-protein panel to diagnose ccRCC, pRCC, chRCC and RO based on absolute concentration values, v) the translation and validation of three promising biomarkers by immunohistochemical analysis, and vi) an approach for phosphopeptide enrichment. This work brings new insights into the different mechanisms underlying formation of these tumors as well as it provides valuable information to improve clinical diagnosis by opening new avenues for immunohistochemistry and mass spectrometry-based approaches