The market value of SMEs: a comparative study between private and listed firms in alternative stock markets

This study aims to compare the market value of private firms and publicly listed small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in alternative stock markets through a private discount approach with estimates of value based on discounted cash flow projections and along with a comparable multiples approach. The valuation methodology applied in this study yielded a final sample that included 232 observations between public and private companies in the Spanish market. To calculate the discount, we apply the different approaches of discounted cash flow and multiples, such as valuation, earnings, book value, and revenue. Our results conclude there is no private discount, instead, the outcomes of this article suggest a premium over public firms for some ratios (...

Evaluation of parameters which influence voluntary ingestion of supplements in rats

Drug safety and efficacy studies frequently use oral gavage, but repetitive usage may cause problems. Administration through voluntary ingestion represents an opportunity for refinement. We aimed to develop a protocol for voluntary ingestion of gelatin-based supplements in rats, assessing the influence of age, sex, fasting (4 h), and additives (vanilla, VF; sucralose, S), and to test it in lactating dams. Three-week-old and 5-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats were placed individually in an empty cage containing a gelatin cube and trained daily (5 days/week), recording the day the whole cube was consumed (latency). Rats trained prior to gestation were offered a gelatin containing 250 mg/kg cocoa shell extract (CSE) during lactation. Rats that did not eat the cube after 8 training days were considered non-habituated, with a proportion similar in young males (7.1%), young females (11.1%), and adult females (10.3%), but significantly higher in adult males (39.3%). Excluding non-habituated rats, latency was 2–3 days, without differences between young and adult rats (p = 0.657) or between males and females (p = 0.189). VF or VF + S in the gelatin did not modify latency, while fasting significantly reduced it in females (p = 0.007) but not in males (p = 0.501). During lactation, trained females ate the CSE-gelatin within 1–5 min without litter problems. Conclusions: Acceptance of a gelatin-based supplement is negatively influenced by male sex, facilitated by fasting, and not modified by additives. Training is remembered after 2 months and does not interfere with lactation. Gelatin-based voluntary ingestion is suitable to administer drugs that need to pass through the digestive system, ensuring adequate dosage, and is important to detect non-habituated rats prior to the study. The current protocol may be implemented by training the rats in their own cageRTI 2018-097504-B-I0

Quantitative evaluation of patient-specific conforming hexahedral meshes of abdominal aortic aneurysms and intraluminal thrombus generated from MRI

A novel method for generating patient-specific high quality conforming hexahedral meshes is presented. The meshes are directly obtained from the segmentation of patient magnetic resonance (MR) images of abdominal aortic aneu-rysms (AAA). The MRI permits distinguishing between struc-tures of interest in soft tissue. Being so, the contours of the lumen, the aortic wall and the intraluminal thrombus (ILT) are available and thus the meshes represent the actual anato-my of the patient?s aneurysm, including the layered morpholo-gies of these structures. Most AAAs are located in the lower part of the aorta and the upper section of the iliac arteries, where the inherent tortuosity of the anatomy and the presence of the ILT makes the generation of high-quality elements at the bifurcation is a challenging task. In this work we propose a novel approach for building quadrilateral meshes for each surface of the sectioned geometry, and generating conforming hexahedral meshes by combining the quadrilateral meshes. Conforming hexahedral meshes are created for the wall and the ILT. The resulting elements are evaluated on four patients? datasets using the Scaled Jacobian metric. Hexahedral meshes of 25,000 elements with 94.8% of elements well-suited for FE analysis are generated

Actitudes ante la discapacidad en el alumnado universitario matriculado en materias afines

Este trabajo, pretende identificar y valorar las actitudes ante las personas con discapacidad en los alumnos de las materias que se imparten en las facultades de Psicología y Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Sevilla (España), materias relacionadas con la atención educativa de las personas con dificultades del aprendizaje y con discapacidad mental, sensorial, motórica y otras

A method for incorporating residual stresses into patient-specific finite element simulations of arteries with an example on AAAs

Through progress in medical imaging, image analysis and finite element (FE) meshing tools it is now possible to extract patient-specific geometries from medical images of abdominal aortic aneurysms(AAAs), and thus to study clinically-relevant problems via FE simulations. Such simulations allow additional insight into human physiology in both healthy and diseased states. Medical imaging is most often performed in vivo, and hence the reconstructed model geometry in the problem of interest will represent the in vivo state, e.g., the AAA at physiological blood pressure. However, classical continuum mechanics and FE methods assume that constitutive models and the corresponding simulations begin from an unloaded, stress-free reference condition

Novel Pole Photogrammetric System for Low-Cost Documentation of Archaeological Sites: The Case Study of “Cueva Pintada”

19 p.Close-range photogrammetry is a powerful and widely used technique for 3D reconstruction of archaeological environments, specifically when a high-level detail is required. This paper presents an innovative low-cost system that allows high quality and detailed reconstructions of indoor complex scenarios with unfavorable lighting conditions by means of close-range nadir and oblique images as an alternative to drone acquisitions for those places where the use of drones is limited or discouraged: (i) indoor scenarios in which both loss of GNSS signal and need of long exposure times occur, (ii) scenarios with risk of raising dust in suspension due to the proximity to the ground and (iii) complex scenarios with variability in the presence of nooks and vertical elements of different heights. The low-altitude aerial view reached with this system allows high-quality 3D documentation of complex scenarios helped by its ergonomic design, self-stability, lightness, and flexibility of handling. In addition, its interchangeable and remote-control support allows to board different sensors and perform both acquisitions that follow the ideal photogrammetric epipolar geometry but also acquisitions with geometry variations that favor a more complete and reliable reconstruction by avoiding occlusions. This versatile pole photogrammetry system has been successfully used to 3D reconstruct and document the “Cueva Pintada” archaeological site located in Gran Canaria (Spain), of approximately 5400 m2 with a Canon EOS 5D MARK II SLR digital camera. As final products: (i) a great quality photorealistic 3D model of 1.47 mm resolution and ±8.4 mm accuracy, (ii) detailed orthophotos of the main assets of the archaeological remains and (iii) a visor 3D with associated information on the structures, materials and plans of the site were obtained.S

Flood Hazard Assessment Supported by Reduced Cost Aerial Precision Photogrammetry

1566 p.Increasing flood hazards worldwide due to the intensification of hydrological events and the development of adaptation-mitigation strategies are key challenges that society must address. To minimize flood damages, one of the crucial factors is the identification of flood prone areas through fluvial hydraulic modelling in which a detailed knowledge of the terrain plays an important role for reliable results. Recent studies have demonstrated the suitability of the Reduced Cost Aerial Precision Photogrammetry (RC-APP) technique for fluvial applications by accurate-detailed-reliable Digital Terrain Models (DTMs, up to: 100 point/m2; vertical-uncertainty: 0.06 m). This work aims to provide an optimal relationship between point densities and vertical-uncertainties to generate more reliable fluvial hazard maps by fluvial-DTMs. This is performed through hydraulic models supported by geometric models that are obtained from a joint strategy based on Structure from Motion and Cloth Simulation Filtering algorithms. Furthermore, to evaluate vertical-DTM, uncertainty is proposed as an alternative approach based on the method of robust estimators. This offers an error dispersion value analogous to the concept of standard deviation of a Gaussian distribution without requiring normality tests. This paper reinforces the suitability of new geomatic solutions as a reliable-competitive source of accurate DTMs at the service of a flood hazard assessment.S

Application of time-controlled critical point in pressure reducing valves: a case study in North Spain

Potable water utilities are currently making great efforts to reduce leakage rates and assure long-term supply to the population due to the challenges of climate change, growing population and water shortage scenarios that have been on them over the last years. One of the most employed methods to reduce leakage includes the installation of pressurereducing valves along the water distribution network and the utilization of pressure management schemes. Pressure management includes different types of control models, which are applied according to the requirements of each site. The most advanced and sophisticated scheme is critical point control, which relies on a flow signal from a measuring device or online communication between the critical point and the valve. This paper proposes the utilization of a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average, or the SARIMA model, to correlate pressure at the outlet of the valve and pressure on the critical point of the area supplied, aiming to set a fixed pressure in the critical point. The SARIMA model is developed according to historical data logged in the field and then validated. Later, the SARIMA model was tested on a real location in the village of Noja, Spain. The analysis of the field test results prove that the proposed model is feasible to be used since there is no significance difference between the target values set in the critical point and the real values measured in the field. The research proves that the SARIMA model can be used as an alternative for critical point control in water distribution networks when no flow signal is available or when communication between the critical point and the pressure reducing valve is not an option

Procedimiento general para la caracterización de residuos sólidos no peligrosos en la Escuela Colombiana de Carreras Industriales (ECCI)

19p