China's belt and road initiative in Portuguese speaking countries: Portuguese and Angolan perspectives

The rapid economic growth in China has always been one of the most controversial issues in the world economy, where the role of the Belt and Road Initiative has been highlighted as strategic. This study aims at knowing and analyzing the implementation and motivation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) strategy in Portuguese speaking countries, with Portuguese and Angolan perspectives. The focus of this research is to understand the mutual motivations and interests between China and Portuguese speaking countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, CPLP in short) in the BRI. It is further aimed at examining the BRI impact on China-Portuguese speaking countries relations and exploring whether a win-win cooperation in these countries. This study used both a second hand data from existing publication and database and first hand data collected through interviews of five Portuguese and five Angolan. The key findings study suggests the followings. First of all, BRI as a global strategy of China is both market-driven and resource-driven. Second, BRI not only plays a vital role in China’s integration into the global economy, but also help boosting both economic and social development between China and Portuguese-speaking countries in the BRI framework. Lastly, although BRI so far leads to win-win results in Portugal and Angola, it’s difficult to judge the long-term effects.O rápido crescimento económico na China foi sempre uma das questões mais controversas na economia mundial, onde o papel da Iniciativa do Cinturão e Rota foi destacado como estratégico. Este estudo visa conhecer e analisar a implementação e motivação da estratégia da China Iniciativa do Cinturão e Rota (BRI) nos países lusófonos, com perspetivas portuguesas e angolanas. O foco desta pesquisa é compreender as motivações e interesses mútuos entre a China e os países de língua portuguesa (a Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, em resumo, a CPLP) no BRI. Pretende-se ainda examinar o impacto da BRI nas relações entre os países da CPLP e a China e explorar a possibilidade de uma cooperação em que todos saiam ganhando. Este estudo utilizou dados de segunda mão de publicações e bases de dados existentes e dados em primeira mão recolhidos através das entrevistas a cinco portugueses e cinco angolanos. O estudo das principais descobertas sugere os seguintes. Em primeiro lugar, a BRI como estratégia global da China é impulsionada pelo mercado e pelos recursos. Em segundo lugar, o BRI não apenas desempenha um papel vital na integração da China à economia global, mas também ajuda a impulsionar o desenvolvimento económico e social entre a China e os países de língua portuguesa na estrutura da BRI. Por último, embora o BRI até agora conduza a resultados ganha-ganha em Portugal e Angola, é difícil avaliar os efeitos a longo prazo

Calculating the Free Energy of Association of Transmembrane Helices

AbstractA large number of experimental studies have been devoted to quantifying the interaction between transmembrane (TM) helices in detergent micelles and, more recently, in bilayers. Theoretical calculation of association free energy of TM helices would be useful for predicting the propensity of given sequences to oligomerize and for understanding the difference between association in micelles and in bilayers. In this article, the theoretical foundation for calculating the standard association free energy of TM helices is laid out and is applied to glycophorin A in both micelles and bilayers. The standard association free energy is decomposed into the effective energy, translational, rotational, and conformational entropy terms. The effective energy of association is obtained by molecular dynamics simulations in an implicit membrane model. The translational and rotational entropy of association is calculated from the probability distribution of the translational and rotational degrees of freedom obtained from the molecular dynamics simulations. The side-chain conformational entropy of association is estimated from the probability distribution obtained by rigid rotation of all side-chain dihedral angles. The calculated standard association free energy of glycophorin A in N-dodecylphosphocholine micelles is in good agreement with the experimental value. The translational entropy cost is larger, whereas the rotational entropy cost is smaller in bilayers than in micelles. The standard association free energy in 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine bilayers is calculated to be ∼1.3 kcal/mol more favorable than in N-dodecylphosphocholine micelles, consistent with available experimental data