Sónia Pereira

A Pan-European Study of the C9orf72 Repeat Associated with FTLD: Geographic Prevalence, Genomic Instability, and Intermediate Repeats

We assessed the geographical distribution of C9orf72 G4C2 expansions in a pan‐European frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) cohort (n = 1,205), ascertained by the European Early‐Onset Dementia (EOD) consortium. Next, we performed a meta‐analysis of our data and that of other European studies, together 2,668 patients from 15 Western European countries. The frequency of the C9orf72 expansions in Western Europe was 9.98% in overall FTLD, with 18.52% in familial, and 6.26% in sporadic FTLD patients. Outliers were Finland and Sweden with overall frequencies of respectively 29.33% and 20.73%, but also Spain with 25.49%. In contrast, prevalence in Germany was limited to 4.82%. In addition, we studied the role of intermediate repeats (7–24 repeat units), which are strongly correlated with the risk haplotype, on disease and C9orf72 expression. In vitro reporter gene expression studies demonstrated significantly decreased transcriptional activity of C9orf72 with increasing number of normal repeat units, indicating that intermediate repeats might act as predisposing alleles and in favor of the loss‐of‐function disease mechanism. Further, we observed a significantly increased frequency of short indels in the GC‐rich low complexity sequence adjacent to the G4C2 repeat in C9orf72 expansion carriers (P < 0.001) with the most common indel creating one long contiguous imperfect G4C2 repeat, which is likely more prone to replication slippage and pathological expansion.

Nanostructured silicon and its application to solar cells, position sensors and thin film transistors

This paper reports the performance of small area solar cells, 128 linear integrated position sensitive detector arrays and thin film transistors based on nanostructured silicon thin films produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique, close to the onset of dusty plasma conditions, within the transition region from amorphous to microcrystalline. The small area solar cells, produced in a modified single chamber reactor, exhibited very good electrical characteristics with a conversion efficiency exceeding 9%. The 128 integrated position sensitive detector arrays, based on a similar pin structure, allow real-time 3D object imaging with a resolution higher than 90 l p/mm. The thin film transistors produced exhibited field effect mobility of 2.47 cm2/V/s, threshold voltage of 2 V, on/off ratio larger than 107 and sub-threshold slopes of 0.32 V/decade, which are amongst the best results reported for this type of device.

Replacement migration and changing preferences: immigrant workers in cleaning and domestic service in Portugal

This paper analyses processes of replacement faced by immigrant workers in the labour market by looking at the two most relevant economic activities for the integration of immigrant women: cleaning and domestic service. For most of its immigration history, Portugal relied on immigrants from Lusophone African (PALOP) countries—mostly from Cape Verde—to supply the workforce necessary to complement native workers in these activities. However, as the immigration scenario changed at the end of the 1990s with the arrival of Eastern European and Brazilian women, so did the hiring options available to employers. At the same time, immigration from PALOP countries underwent a consolidation process, with implications for the immigrants’ own working preferences and integration processes. The objective of this paper is to address the changes that occurred in the integration of immigrant workers in these two low-skilled activities between 1998 and 2006 and in the light of both employers’ and workers’ preferences and their respective labour market strategies. The underlying hypothesis is that the prevailing working conditions in each of these activities condition both employers’ and workers’ preferences and their implementation, thereby producing different outcomes in terms of processes of replacement migration and the substitution of workers.

Immigrant workers’ (im)mobilities and their re‐emigration strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to challenge the idea of the immobile immigrant worker, trapped in the bottom segments of the labour market, by exploring how immigrants and their descendants (sometimes designated second generation immigrants) develop re‐emigration strategies in their first country of settlement in Europe when faced with structural or conjunctural barriers to the advancement of their socio‐economic situation.Design/methodology/approach – Empirical evidence was collected through structured interviews aimed at capturing labour market and residential trajectories of workers of African origin and their descendants in Portugal, with a particular emphasis on the period between 1998 and 2006.Findings – Findings suggest that in some cases, immigrants draw on social networks available to them to engage in processes of continued intra‐European mobility. International re‐emigration emerges as a work‐space mobility strategy for migrant workers and their descendants when there was no significant...

Amorphous Silicon Position Sensitive Detector Array for Fast 3-D Object Profiling

A 32/128 linear array of 1-D amorphous silicon position sensitive detectors (PSD) was integrated into a self constructed suitable and portable data acquisition prototype system. The system is comprised by a commercially available existing electronics module suitable for photodiode data acquisition operations and by another adapter module, which allows for removal and replacement of the 32/128 PSD based sensor. This system is applied for imaging 3-D objects using the triangulation principle with a sheet-of-light laser. The sensor array response obtained from the reflected light of the object was fed into an electronic readout system and the corresponding signals were analyzed using the relevant data algorithm. The obtained results show a sensor nonlinearity of about 4%-7%, a wide sensor/system dynamic range and a 3-D profile spatial resolution supplied by each sensor strip of 339 μm, which can easily be reduced to 8.5 μm and even further with appropriate software modifications.

Migração, retorno e circularidade: evidência da Europa e Estados Unidos

Return is part of the migratory project, however, while some migrants return others remain. The recent economic crisis is one of the factors that intensified return. This article illustrates the return dynamics of Brazilian immigrants in the United States and four European countries - Portugal, UK, the Netherlands and Norway -, including processes of estrangement, circularity and adaptation over time. The data allow us to conclude that conditions in the destination country are a decisive contribution to migration strategies. Returnees face difficulties of (re) adaptation in the origin country. The return due to the crisis produces perverse effects both in subject and in the territory.

Os efeitos da crise económica na situação laboral dos imigrantes: o caso dos brasileiros em Portugal

Apos um periodo de crescimento economico que potenciou o aumento dos fluxos migratorios para Portugal, o pais entrou, apos 2008, numa forte crise economica com impactos muito negativos no emprego e em sectores que empregavam um grande numero de imigrantes como a construcao civil. Pela incorporacao diferenciada dos imigrantes nos varios segmentos do mercado de trabalho e importante analisar em profundidade a extensao e a abrangencia destes efeitos, designadamente tendo em conta a origem geografica dos imigrantes. Os brasileiros constituem o maior contingente estrangeiro em Portugal desde meados dos anos 2000 e e sobre os efeitos da crise nestes imigrantes que queremos centrar-nos neste artigo. Abordamos duas questoes principais: o impacto da crise nos fluxos Portugal-Brasil e o impacto na situacao laboral dos que se encontravam em Portugal entre 2012-2015. Paralelamente, procuramos tambem averiguar os niveis de satisfacao com a experiencia migratoria em Portugal.

Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Nanostructured Arrays Prepared by Microwave-Assisted Solvothermal Method

The use of metal-oxide-semiconductor nanostructures as photocatalytic materials has been an area of intense research over the last decade, and in this field, titanium dioxide (TiO2) receives much attention. TiO2 is an attractive material since it is stable, insolu‐ ble, non-toxic, resistant to corrosion and relatively inexpensive. In this chapter, we will demonstrate the influence of different solvents on the synthesis of TiO2 nanostruc‐ tures considering a solvothermal method assisted by microwave radiation and their photocatalytic behaviour. The TiO2 nanostructured arrays were synthesized on seeded polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates with different solvents: water, 2 – propa‐ nol, ethanol and methanol. TiO2 thin films deposited by spin-coating were used as seed layer for the nanostructures growth. Structural characterization of the microwave synthesized materials has been carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The optical properties have also been investigated. The TiO2 nanostructures arrays were tested as photocatalytic agents in the degradation of pollutant dyes like methylene blue (MB) in the presence of UV radiation. Expressive differences between the different solvents were detected, in which methanol demon‐ strated higher MB degradation for the conditions tested.

New Roles for Social Networks in Migration? Assistance in Brazilian Migration to Portugal and the Netherlands

The crucial role played by social networks as facilitators of migration has been well established in migration theory (Massey et al., 1993; Massey et al., 1998; Gurak and Caces, 1992; Fawcett, 1989; Tsuda, 1999; Pellegrino, 2004). They have been conceptualised as the ties that link potential migrants in the place of origin to current or previous migrants in the destination countries (Curran and Rivero-Fuentes, 2003, p. 289). Migrant networks are the ‘sets of interpersonal ties that connect migrants, former migrant and non-migrants in origin and destination areas through ties of kinship, friendship and shared community origin’ (Massey et al., 2005, p. 42). Important feedback mechanisms are generated within these networks in the form of information, resources and support that reduce the costs and risks of migration, thereby contributing to facilitate it. Through these feedback mechanisms, migration becomes ‘a path-dependent process because inter-personal relations across space facilitate subsequent migration’ (de Haas, 2010, p. 1589). According to the DiMaggio-Garip typology used by Garip and Asad (2013, pp. 6–7) and presented in Bakewell, Kubal and Pereira (Chapter 1), it is especially through the social mechanism they define as social facilitation or social learning that ‘network peers (typically family or community members) provide useful information or assistance that reduces the costs associated with migration or increases the benefits that might be expected from it’.

Migration of Ukrainian Nationals to Portugal: The Visibility of a New Migration Landscape

Immigration from Ukraine to Portugal began at the end of the 1990s without any previous relevant relationship between the two countries. It was sudden, intense, took Portuguese society by surprise and attracted a lot of attention from the media, policy makers and academia. In 2014, Ukrainians constituted the third-largest group of foreign nationals registered in the country’s official statistics. The present chapter draws on secondary data and primary data collected through interviews and surveys to offer insights into the constitution of this migratory movement and the settlement patterns of Ukrainian migrants in Portugal. In addition, it provides recommendations for a future research agenda on this topic.