O Golfo da Guiné e a segurança energética dos EUA e da China

O objetivo deste estudo centra-se na análise e na comparação do contributo do petróleo do golfo da Guiné para a segurança energética dos EUA e da China no período 1990-2000, tendo presente a afirmação recente da região africana num quadro de escassez da matéria-prima. Foram elaborados três case studies visando caracterizar as potencialidades e riscos associados à região produtora e analisar o crescente envolvimento dos EUA e da China, através da implementação de políticas públicas conducentes à obtenção dos resultados visados e mediante o reforço da exposição da vertente empresarial. Os resultados obtidos traduziram-se no reforço do abastecimento dos EUA, mantendo uma posição ímpar perante o maior fornecedor regional, a Nigéria, enquanto a China assumiu posição de crescente relevância na região e sedimentou uma relação de grande preponderância face ao outro grande produtor, Angola. A existência de nexos de causalidade entre níveis de segurança energética e o recurso a instrumentos de políticas públicas é um domínio complexo, sendo de referir que o recurso ao economic statecraft pelos EUA, não afigura hipótese fundamentada enquanto fator explicativo das performances alcançadas por este país na região.

Hepatitis B: epidemiological, immunological, and serological considerations emphasizing mutation

The global prevalence of hepatitis B virus is estimated to be 350 million chronic carriers, varying widely from low (<2%, as in Western Europe, North America, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan) to high (>8% as in Africa, Southeast Asia, and China). The overall prevalence in Brazil is about 8%. There are currently 7 genotypic variations, from A to G, and also 4 main surface antigen subtypes: adw, ayw, adr, and ayr. There has been great interest in identifying the geographic distribution and prognosis associated with the various genotypes and subtypes. Although the serologic test is highly sensitive and specific, it does not detect cases of mutant hepatitis B, which is increasingly common worldwide due to resistance and vaccine escape, antiviral therapy, and immunosuppression, among other causes. Alterations in surface, polymerase, X region, core, and precore genes have been described. The main mutations occur in surface and in core/precore genes, also known as occult hepatitis, since its serologic markers of active infection (HBsAg) and viral replication (HBeAg) can be negative. Thus, mutation should be suspected when serologic tests to hepatitis B show control of immunity or replication coincident with worsened clinical status and exclusion of other causes of hepatitis.

A arte têxtil bordada na China: panorâmica de uma tradição milenar

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Fundação Millennium bcp, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda

Tropical lowland mosses disjunct between Africa and the Americas, including Calyptothecium planifrons (Ren. & Par.) Argent, new to the Western Hemisphere

Calyptothecium planifrons (Ren. & Par.) Argent is reported new to the Western Hemisphere based on two recent collections from Brazilian Amazonia, in Pará and Rondônia; C. planifrons was originally described from Madagascar. Forteen Other species of mosses with apparently disjunct distributions between tropical Africa and tropical America are also discussed. It is likely that mos or all of this species discussed will prove to have wider distributions in the tropics when world-wide revisions are carried out.

O Elvis de Macau. Relatos de uma distopia na China

A explosão de Macau nos últimos dez anos deve-se a um conjunto de factores, que este texto procura descrever, propondo uma necessária reflexão. Depois da liberalização do jogo em 2001/2002, o Sands Macau inaugura, em 2004, como o primeiro casino da nova vaga. Em 2005, Macau é Património Mundial da Humanidade pela UNESCO. O Cotai é inicialmente um projecto da administração portuguesa como uma nova cidade para 150 000 habitantes. O Cotai Strip nasce de uma epifania de Sheldon Adelson, chairman da Las Vegas Sands Corporation, em 2003. Em 2007, o Venetian inaugura como “flagship” do Cotai Strip e, em 2011, o Galaxy amplia a dimensão delirante da arquitectura do jogo. No pós-Portugal, a condição de Macau como espaço híbrido, colonizado, transitório, aumenta exponencialmente enquanto “Região Administrativa Especial” da República Popular da China. Macau é hoje uma distopia suave, corporizada nos casinos; uma vida subterrânea que se expressa no skyline.

A comunicação intercultural ao nível da intervenção pedagógica no ensino do português como língua estrangeira a alunos chineses na China

A globalização aproxima os povos: o mundo chinês e o mundo português nunca tiveram uma relação tão estreita como a atual. Apesar de os portugueses terem ido os primeiros ocidentais a entrar na China com a chegada de Jorge Álvares a uma ilha chinesa, em 1513, e os últimos ocidentais a deixar o governo de um território chinês, com a transferência da administração portuguesa de Macau para a China a 20 de dezembro de 1999, nunca haviam sido registados, nos últimos séculos, grandes contatos ou intercâmbios comerciais e culturais entre a China e Portugal e entre o mundo chinês e o mundo lusófono, em comparação com os contatos entre o mundo chinês e outros mundos ocidentais: como o inglês, o francês, o alemão e o espanhol. Os objetivos gerais desta investigação são três: 1 - Reconhecer o papel do desenvolvimento da competência omunicativa intercultural no contexto do ensino-aprendizagem do português como LE na China. 2 - Promover o desenvolvimento da competência comunicativa intercultural dos alunos chineses no processo de aprendizagem da língua portuguesa na China. 3 - Analisar os métodos pedagógicos e de integração curricular para apoiar e desenvolver um ensino mais eficaz do português como LE na China. O desenvolvimento do nosso trabalho articula-se em duas áreas científicas: Ciências da Linguagem e Ciências da Educação. A abordagem metodológica utilizada é o estudo de caso, com recolha de dados primários realizada através de questionários, entrevistas e observação participante em profundidade, que permitiu a confirmação e/ou refutação das hipóteses levantadas, privilegiando a metodologia qualitativa. Os resultados permitem estabelecer uma relação significativa, do ponto de vista pedagógico, entre a comunicação intercultural na educação e as práticas pedagógicas desenvolvidas no ensino do português como língua estrangeira na China. Contudo e de acordo com a nossa pesquisa, o maior problema que impede as práticas pedagógicas para desenvolver as competências comunicativas no ensino, é a falta de materiais didáticos com estrutura para elaborar um programa de atividades coerentes e complementares nas aulas.

Context costs and comparative advantages in the telecommunications sector in Portugal and China

This Work Project aims to discuss the Context Costs and Comparative Advantages of the Telecommunications sector both in Portugal and China. The work was built mostly on primary research by interviews with relevant people (business persons, University Professors and Agencies directors), and by economic data publicly available. A list of context costs and comparative advantages was drawn for each country and possible resolutions suggestions were made in the end. The context costs depend heavily on the economic situation of the countries and it should be taken into account when assessing the degree of magnitude of each cost of context. The competitive advantages of each country were drawn in comparison with one another. Some key results stand out: firstly, Portugal’s costs of context depend mainly on governmental decisions, uncertainties and instability and China’s cost of context depend primarily on cultural norms, mainly the Guanxi; second, the telecommunications sector shares most of its context costs and advantages with other sectors; third, China as an economic power could use the telecommunications sector as a way to further develop and boost its economy.

Mosaic maternal ancestry in the Great Lakes region of East Africa

The Great Lakes lie within a region of East Africa with very high human genetic diversity, home of many ethno-linguistic groups usually assumed to be the product of a small number of major dispersals. However, our knowledge of these dispersals relies primarily on the inferences of historical, linguistics and oral traditions, with attempts to match up the archaeological evidence where possible. This is an obvious area to which archaeogenetics can contribute, yet Uganda, at the heart of these developments, has not been studied for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation. Here, we compare mtDNA lineages at this putative genetic crossroads across 409 representatives of the major language groups: Bantu speakers and Eastern and Western Nilotic speakers. We show that Uganda harbours one of the highest mtDNA diversities within and between linguistic groups, with the various groups significantly differentiated from each other. Despite an inferred linguistic origin in South Sudan, the data from the two Nilotic-speaking groups point to a much more complex history, involving not only possible dispersals from Sudan and the Horn but also large-scale assimilation of autochthonous lineages within East Africa and even Uganda itself. The Eastern Nilotic group also carries signals characteristic of West-Central Africa, primarily due to Bantu influence, whereas a much stronger signal in the Western Nilotic group suggests direct West-Central African ancestry. Bantu speakers share lineages with both Nilotic groups, and also harbour East African lineages not found in Western Nilotic speakers, likely due to assimilating indigenous populations since arriving in the region ~3000 years ago.

Consumption, wealth, stock and housing returns: evidence from emerging markets

We test the predictive ability of the transitory deviations of consumption from its common trend with aggregate wealth and labour income, cay, for both future equity and housing risk premia in emerging market economies. Using quarterly data for 31 markets, our country-level evidence shows that forecasting power of cay vis-à-vis stock returns is high for Brazil, China, Colombia, Israel, Korea, Latvia and Malaysia. As for housing returns, the empirical evidence suggests that financial and housing assets are perceived as complements in the case of Chile, Russia, South Africa and Thailand, and as substitutes in Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico and Taiwan. Using a panel econometric framework, we find that the cross-country heterogeneity observed in asset return predictability does not accrue to regional location, but can be attributed to differences in the degree of equity market development and in the level of income.

60,000 years of interactions between Central and Eastern Africa documented by major African mitochondrial haplogroup L2

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup L2 originated in Western Africa but is nowadays spread across the entire continent. L2 movements were previously postulated to be related to the Bantu expansion, but L2 expansions eastwards probably occurred much earlier. By reconstructing the phylogeny of L2 (44 new complete sequences) we provide insights on the complex net of within-African migrations in the last 60 thousand years (ka). Results show that lineages in Southern Africa cluster with Western/Central African lineages at a recent time scale, whereas, eastern lineages seem to be substantially more ancient. Three moments of expansion from a Central African source are associated to L2: (1) one migration at 70-50 ka into Eastern or Southern Africa, (2) postglacial movements (15-10 ka) into Eastern Africa; and (3) the southward Bantu Expansion in the last 5 ka. The complementary population and L0a phylogeography analyses indicate no strong evidence of mtDNA gene flow between eastern and southern populations during the later movement, suggesting low admixture between Eastern African populations and the Bantu migrants. This implies that, at least in the early stages, the Bantu expansion was mainly a demic diffusion with little incorporation of local populations.

Diversity of non-clinical Acinetobacter species in a sub-saharan Africa region: evidence of carbapenem-hydrolysing class D-β-lactamase producers

[Excerpt] Although Acinetobacter baumannii has been the main agent for healthcare infections, recent reports suggest that some Acinetobacter environmental species should be considered as a potential cause of disease. In Angola, there are no previous data on its environmental reservoirs and resistance features. We aimed to unveil the occurrence and diversity of Acinetobacter species and the presence of resistance mechanisms in different non-clinical settings in Angola.