The impact of private equity-backed firms on their peers

Reconhecendo a crescente importância do mercado de private equity, a presente tese tem como objectivo principal estudar a dimensão competitiva desta indústria. Recorrendo a amostras de empresas americanas e canadianas, pretende-se saber se as transacções em private equity têm algum impacte ao nível das concorrentes das empresas participadas. Em particular, considera-se a compensação total do CEO e analisa-se de forma independente cada uma das suas componentes, a fixa e a variável. A estrutura de capital e as características do Conselho de Administração são também alvo de estudo. De acordo com os resultados, a compensação total do CEO diminui perante a existência de investimentos em private equity na indústria. Analisando individualmente a componente fixa e a variável, conclui-se que, muito provavelmente, aquele decréscimo ocorre por via da parte variável da remuneração, já que esta, de acordo com os dados finais, é também reduzida. O salário não sofre alterações. Relativamente à estrutura de capital, identifica-se uma relação entre a ocorrência de investimentos em private equity e um maior nível de endividamento das concorrentes. Não existe evidência de que as variáveis do Conselho de Administração, isto é, a sua dimensão e estrutura, sejam afectadas pela presença de empresas participadas por private equity.Given the growing importance of the private equity market, in this thesis we study the competitive dimension of this industry. By using samples of American and Canadian companies we analyse whether private equity transactions have any effect on the competitors of the invested companies. In particular, we consider the total CEO compensation and its fixed and variable components. We are also interested in the capital structure and in board variables. We provide evidence supporting a reduction in the total CEO compensation of competitors when an investment in private equity occurs. In order to better understand this result we run the model with the fixed component and the variable one. We then show that the variable compensation is very likely the main responsible for that reduction. Concerning the capital structure, the findings suggest an association between private equity transactions and a higher debt level of competitors. According to the results, the board variables, which consist of the size and the structure of the board of directors, are not affected by the presence of private equity investments

Changes in inflation compensation and oil prices : short‑term and long‑term dynamics

This paper investigates the relationship between changes in euro area short-term and long-term market-based inflation expectations from January 2005 to September 2018, also devoting special attention to the relevance of the oil market. The full sample is split into three subsets related to different economic and financial landscapes. To model the conditional mean and the variance–covariance structure, a VAR-CCC-GARCH specification with oil effects in the volatility proves to be a preferable approach compared to other multivariate GARCH models. In general, the conditional correlation between changes in short-term and long-term inflation compensation appears as constant and relatively low in each subset, though increasing since mid-2014. Furthermore, there are no signs of fundamental deviations in how changes in short-term inflation expectations affect changes in longer-term expectations and vice versa. There is evidence that changes in short-term inflation expectations tend to respond to the movements of oil prices over time, while changes in longer-term ones started responding to crude dynamics after mid-2008. On the whole, these findings are relevant for analysts, investors and especially for the policymakers who charged with ensuring price stability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influenza seroprotection correlates with predominant circulating viruses during 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons in Portugal

Rede Portuguesa de Laboratórios para o Diagnóstico da GripeBACKGROUND: Population immune profile for influenza is highly affected by circulating influenza viruses, thus changing the risk of infection for influenza. This study aims to assess influenza immunity in the Portuguese population by age groups, during 2014 and 2015 and establish a relationship between seroprotection and circulating influenza viruses in 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons. METHODS: Two cross-sectional studies were developed based on a convenience serum sample collected in June 2014 (n=626) and July 2015 (n=675) in hospitals from mainland and Azores and Madeira.Serums equally represent all age groups. Antibody titers were evaluated by HI assay for strains recommended for seasonal influenza vaccine northern hemisphere,2014/15 and 2015/2016. Seroprevalences were estimated for each strain by age group and the association with seasonal cumulative influenza-like illness (ILI) rates for influenza virus during both seasons was analised. RESULTS: In June 2014 the highest seroprotection was observed for influenza A(H3) (39.0%; 95% CI: 36.2-43.8%) and A(H1)pdm09 (29.7; 95% CI: 26.3-33.4%), with higher levels in children 5-14 years old. In 2014/2015 a dominant circulation of influenza B/Yamagata was observed with high incidence rates in individuals under 65 years old, the ones that had lower seroprotection. Although before the start of the season high protection for A(H3) was observed, the circulation of the new drift A(H3) strains had gained an immunological advantage,in accordance with A(H3) elevated incidence rates observed during 2014/15. In July 2015 the highest seroprotection was observed for influenza B/ Yamagata (55.1%; 95% CI: 51.4-58.9%), 2.4 times the estimated 2014.This increase was even more pronounced in younger (≤ 4 years old), 6.3 times increase in 2015.This fact is in agreement with the predominant influenza B virus detected and the high ILI incidence rate observed in children during 2014/2015 epidemic. Seroprotection levels for influenza A in July 2015 were not significantly different from 2014.During 2015/16 season, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 was predominant, with high incidence rate in < 65 year old. Influenza B/Victoria lineage,although detected at low levels increased in frequency, in agreement with the lowest level of seroprotection detected in the general population before the start of 2015/2016 season (21.8%; 95% CI: 18.7-24.0%). CONCLUSIONS There was a correlation between virus circulation, incidence rates for each age group and the previous seroprotection for seasonal influenza viruses.Our study highlights the value of measuring the serological profile for influenza to establishe risk groups for infection for which an increase preventive measures, including vaccination, should be fostered.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost