Carlos M. Monteiro

A multivariate methodology to uncover regional disparities: A contribution to improve European Union and governmental decisions

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology to classify the levels of socio-economic development of a country’s territory, in order to support regional development policy. This classification is obtained through the use of multivariate statistical methods – factor and cluster analysis, and is based on a wide number of demographic, economic, health, education, employment and culture indicators. The Portuguese continental territory is used as the working example. Results lead to the identification of nine axes of socio-economic characterisation, and the division of the Portuguese territory into four regions with differing degrees of development, reflecting the well-known asymmetry between coastal and inland zones. The ‘socio-economic regions’ uncovered with this methodology allow a much more useful characterisation of the Portuguese territory, for policy making, than does the NUTS-2 classification scheme used by the European Union.

The European regional policy and the socio-economic diversity of European regions: A multivariate analysis

Abstract There are significant differences among the European Union regions, which have been heightened due to the most recent enlargement in 2004. This paper aims to analyse this diversity and to propose a classification of European regions that is adjusted to the different axes of socio-economic development and, simultaneously, is useful for European regional policy purposes. Multivariate statistical techniques allow the identification of clusters of socio-economic similarity, which are contrasted with the classes considered in the financial proposal of the European Commission (EC) for the period 2007–2013.

Cyclopropenes: a new tool for the study of biological systems

The development of novel bioorthogonal reagents for biological applications has increased considerably in the last decade. Of these tools, the modification of biological entities by metabolic labelling strategies employing chemical mini-tags has allowed the study of these entities within biological samples. Following this strategy, apart from azides, cyclopropene units have recently emerged as potential alternative mini-tags that react quickly in tetrazine and photoclick ligation reactions. Herein the most recent advances in bioorthogonal chemistry, covering the synthesis, stability and reactivity of cyclopropenes, as well its applications in biological systems, are reviewed.

Reactivity of Diterpenoid Quinones: Royleanones.

Naturally occurring abietane diterpenoids have been studied over the years and have shown to display a wide range of biological activities. This review covers three main aspects of the abietane-type diterpenoids with hydroxy-p-quinone C ring, designated as royleanones. An overview of 1) the naturally occurrence, 2) chemical features and 3) the biological activities of this abietane group of compounds, including rearranged derivatives, is here explained. Likewise, hemisynthetic and total synthetic procedures to obtain royleanones will be reviewed. Thus, the chemistry of these bioactive compounds will be emphasized as well as their potential impact in the discovery of new macromolecular targets and novel therapeutic drugs. This review contains about 190 references covering the years from 1962 to 2014 on royleanone studies.

Studies on the dynamic resolution of Crizotinib intermediate

Crizotinib is an anti-cancer agent approved for treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma. Retrosynthetic analysis revels 1-(2,6-dichloro-3-fluorophenyl)ethanol as an important intermediate, which can be made available by different biocatalytic approaches. Herein we report our results on the kinetic and dynamic resolution towards the desired chiral intermediate for Crizotinib synthesis. The results obtained show that very good conversions and high selectivity could be obtained for the kinetic resolution (45% conv. and E>200) while dynamic kinetic resolution under continuous-flow conditions afforded the desired product in 57% conversion and 98% e.e.

User Centered Design of an Autonomous Mobile Robot Vending Machine Concept

In this paper a new Autonomous Mobile Robot Vending Machine concept is developed for food and beverages distribution in beaches. The concept was developed and submitted to end users appraisal, in order to capture their perceptions and preferences, and the resulting knowledge guides future developments towards the real implementation of the robot. This methodology, which uses multivariate statistics, is important to bring the product closer to the market. Nowadays this analysis becomes particularly relevant since it increases the Technology Readiness Levels of a new product far beyond those achieved with a technical prototype.

Anticancer properties of the abietane diterpene 6,7-dehydroroyleanone obtained by optimized extraction

AIM 6,7-dehydroroyleanone (DHR) is a cytotoxic abietane present in the essential oil of Plectranthus madagascariensis. METHODS/RESULTS Different extraction parameters were tested, and its extraction optimization was accomplished with a Clevenger apparatus-based hydrodistillation. After isolation, its effect on microtubules, P-glycoprotein and caspases was assessed on several cell lines and the compound was coupled with hybrid nanoparticles. The results show that DHR does not interfere with microtubule formation, but evades the resistance mechanisms of P-glycoprotein. Strong activation of caspases-3 and -9 indicates that DHR is able to induce apoptosis by triggering the intrinsic cell death pathway. Moreover, the assembly of DHR with hybrid nanoparticles was able to potentiate the effect of DHR in cancer cells. CONCLUSION DHR seems to be a promising starting material with anticancer properties to further be explored.