  We use the Local Density Approximation in combination with the Dynamical Mean
Field Theory to carry out a comparative investigation of a typical electron
doped and a typical hole doped copper oxide, NCCO and LSCO respectively. The
parent compounds of both materials are strongly correlated electron systems in
the vicinity of the metal to charge transfer insulator transition. In NCCO the
magnetic long range order is essential to open a charge transfer gap, while
Mott physics is responsible for the gap in LSCO. We highlights the role of the
apical oxygens in determining the strength of the correlations and obtaining
overall good agreement between theory and several experimentally determined
quantities. Results for optical conductivity, polarized X-ray absorption and
angle resolved photoemission are presented and compared with experiments.
