Mergers and acquisitions : the case of Zon Multimédia and Sonaecom

The possible merger between Zon and Sonaecom is something that has been discussed on the market in the last years, and this dissertation aimed to make a thorough analysis of the companies and whether there is value creation with the completion of the merger. The telecommunications market in Portugal is reaching a stage of maturity, and the country's economic situation together with the intense competition makes it difficult for companies to have a high organic growth. Instead, in recent years companies had results below expectations mainly due to lower private consumption that is taking place in the country, and its market value significantly devalued. Therefore, a merger between the companies would allow the rapid creation of value for Zon and Sonaecom’s shareholders because of both cost and revenue synergies, along with the fact that the merged company would become a stronger business and would be able to compete with the main competitor, Portugal Telecom. Thus, according to the methodology explained in the literature review, I calculated the Sonaecom standalone value and the synergies from the merger, and the Sonaecom’s last closing price is found to be undervalued, with 5% upside potential, and synergies are estimated at around 131% of Sonaecom’s market capitalization1. It is therefore concluded that Zon must make a tender offer to Sonaecom offering a price of 1.21€ per share plus a premium that covers the total or partial value of synergies

Fermentative capacity of baker’s yeast exposed to hyperbaric stress

Baker’s yeast suspensions were incubated at different pressures (from 1 bar to 6 bar) and different gases [air, O2 and a mixture of 8% (v/v) CO2, 21% O2 and N2]. Raising the air pressure from 1 bar to 6 bar stimulated cell growth but had no effect on leavening ability or viability of the cells. A 50% reduction of the CO2 produced in dough occurred with 6 bar O2 which also stopped growth. The fermentative capacity of the cells was stimulated by the cells exposure to increased CO2 partial pressure up to 0.48 bar

Alternativas epistemológicas desde la Corporación Ciudad Comuna en Medellín. Análisis de las experiencias desde una perspectiva decolonial dentro de la Escuela de Comunicación

[ES] El siguiente trabajo se presenta como un análisis crítico bajo una mirada decolonial donde se hace una lectura de las diferentes experiencias vividas dentro de los procesos de la Escuela de Comunicación de la Corporación Ciudad Comuna. El planteamiento de este análisis se ha hecho a partir de las prácticas del máster universitario en Cooperación al Desarrollo realizadas en la corporación durante los meses de septiembre de 2007 y marzo 2019 y fruto de un interés común por trabajar desde un enfoque decolonial tal y como expresan en su acción política. Este interés personal por seguir profundizando en la idea de la subjetividad del conocimiento y otras formas de producir saberes, aportó sentido a la vinculación de mis prácticas dentro de la Escuela de Comunicación con la posibilidad de trabajar en el marco del pensamiento decolonial. Este análisis se centra en los espacios generados por la corporación, resaltando todas aquellas prácticas que permiten la apropiación y el empoderamiento del conocimiento, rompiendo con las lógicas imperantes de conocimiento de la academia y de lo científico dando paso a la coproducción del saber desde lo popular y comunitario. Pretende reflexionar sobre las prácticas colonizadoras que se han llevado a cabo a lo largo de la historia y, concretamente en el ámbito del conocimiento, poniendo en valor diferentes alternativas epistémicas y deconstruyendo procesos hegemónicos de la producción del saber. Para ello se ha seguido una ruta metodológica en la que, en un primer momento se realizó una aproximación al contexto y a la corporación a través del análisis documental para posteriormente definir la estructura y el eje del proceso de sistematización. Por último, para la obtención de la información se han llevado a cabo entrevistas semiestructuradas y grupos focales. Finalmente, lo que se pretende con este trabajo es un análisis de las experiencias vividas dentro de los procesos de la Escuela de Comunicación, con el fin de extraer unas conclusiones y elaborar unas recomendaciones que puedan servir de guía a las personas que participan y están involucradas en Ciudad Comuna para que mejoren los procesos de cara al futuro.[EN] The following work is presented as a critical analysis under a decolonial view where a reading is made of the different experiences lived within the processes of the School of Communication of the Ciudad Comuna Corporation. The approach of this analysis has been based on the practices of the university master's degree in Development Cooperation carried out in the corporation during the months of September 2007 and March 2019 and the result of a common interest to work from a decolonial approach as they express in his political action. This personal interest in continuing to deepen the idea of ¿¿the subjectivity of knowledge and other ways of producing knowledge, contributed meaning to the linking of my practices within the School of Communication with the possibility of working within the framework of decolonial thinking. This analysis focuses on the spaces generated by the corporation, highlighting all those practices that allow the appropriation and empowerment of knowledge, breaking with the prevailing logic of knowledge of the academy and the scientific giving way to the co-production of knowledge from the popular and community. It aims to reflect on the colonizing practices that have been carried out throughout history and, specifically in the field of knowledge, valuing different epistemic alternatives and deconstructing hegemonic processes of knowledge production. For this, a methodological route has been followed in which, at first, an approach to the context and the corporation was made through documentary analysis to later define the structure and axis of the systematization process. Finally, to obtain the information, semi-structured interviews and focus groups have been carried out. Finally, what is intended with this work is an analysis of the experiences lived within the processes of the School of Communication, in order to draw conclusions and develop recommendations that can guide the people who participate and are involved in Ciudad Comuna to improve processes for the future.Santos Campelo, A. (2019). Alternativas epistemológicas desde la Corporación Ciudad Comuna en Medellín. Análisis de las experiencias desde una perspectiva decolonial dentro de la Escuela de Comunicación. Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/130497TFG

Comportamiento del consumidor de alimentos ecológicos=Consumer behavior of organic foods

Objetivo: Conocer los factores que influyen en la decisión de compra de los consumidores de alimentos ecológicos. Segmentar dichos consumidores según su estilo de vida y analizar sus motivaciones y comportamiento. Metodología: Fuentes secundarias para desarrollar el marco teórico y fuentes primarias para el análisis de los datos de la investigación. Dichas fuentes son tanto de carácter cualitativo como cuantitativo. Respecto a las cualitativas, se lleva a cabo entrevistas en profundidad para posteriormente diseñar el cuestionario online, con el que se obtiene una muestra de 345 encuestados. Para el análisis de los datos obtenidos se ha utilizado diferentes técnicas estadísticas: Alfa de Cronbach, Análisis Factorial de Componentes Principales, Análisis Cluster, Análisis Discriminante y, finalmente, Tablas de Contingencia. Resultados: Según el estilo de vida del consumidor de alimentos ecológicos se pueden diferenciar tres segmentos: Consumidores dietéticos, consumidores ecologistas y consumidores seguidores de tendencias. Cada uno de ellos muestra un grado de implicación con el cuidado de la salud y medio ambiente. Limitaciones: La muestra no resulta suficientemente representativa, debido a que uno de los métodos de muestreo utilizado ha sido el de bola de nieve y muestra por conveniencia y, por lo tanto, el estudio es de carácter exploratorio. Propuestas: A través de canales online, las empresas deben lanzar mensajes que transmitan todo tipo de información acerca del sector de los alimentos ecológicos, para transmitir mayor seguridad y confianza a los consumidores sobre éstos. Se deben realizar diferentes propuestas de Marketing-Mix diferenciadas para cada uno de los segmentos

Insight into the Lytic Functions of the Lactococcal Prophage TP712

The lytic cassette of Lactococcus lactis prophage TP712 contains a putative membrane protein of unknown function (Orf54), a holin (Orf55), and a modular endolysin with a N-terminal glycoside hydrolase (GH_25) catalytic domain and two C-terminal LysM domains (Orf56, LysTP712). In this work, we aimed to study the mode of action of the endolysin LysTP712. Inducible expression of the holin-endolysin genes seriously impaired growth. The growth of lactococcal cells overproducing the endolysin LysTP712 alone was only inhibited upon the dissipation of the proton motive force by the pore-forming bacteriocin nisin. Processing of a 26-residues signal peptide is required for LysTP712 activation, since a truncated version without the signal peptide did not impair growth after membrane depolarization. Moreover, only the mature enzyme displayed lytic activity in zymograms, while no lytic bands were observed after treatment with the Sec inhibitor sodium azide. LysTP712 might belong to the growing family of multimeric endolysins. A C-terminal fragment was detected during the purification of LysTP712. It is likely to be synthesized from an alternative internal translational start site located upstream of the cell wall binding domain in the lysin gene. Fractions containing this fragment exhibited enhanced activity against lactococcal cells. However, under our experimental conditions, improved in vitro inhibitory activity of the enzyme was not observed upon the supplementation of additional cell wall binding domains in. Finally, our data pointed out that changes in the lactococcal cell wall, such as the degree of peptidoglycan O-acetylation, might hinder the activity of LysTP712. LysTP712 is the first secretory endolysin from a lactococcal phage described so far. The results also revealed how the activity of LysTP712 might be counteracted by modifications of the bacterial peptidoglycan, providing guidelines to exploit the biotechnological potential of phage endolysins within industrially relevant lactococci and, by extension, other bacteria

Potencial da 2-deoxy-D-glucose como agente terapêutico no melanoma - revisão sistemática

O melanoma maligno é um cancro agressivo e, por esse motivo, apresenta uma grande tendência para ocorrência de metástases na fase inicial da doença. Neste caso, as opções de tratamento são limitadas e existe ainda uma grande necessidade de desenvolver estratégias adicionais para otimizar a resposta terapêutica, tais como a descoberta de novos fármacos ou redirecionamento de moléculas já existentes. Segundo o “Efeito Warburg”, as células cancerígenas, mesmo em condições aeróbias, preferem o metabolismo glicolítico para produção de ATP, ao invés da via da fosforilação oxidativa. Uma vez que, a molécula 2-deoxy-D-glucose é um análogo da glucose com potencial na inibição da glicólise, sendo capaz de conduzir as células cancerígenas à apoptose, quando isolada ou em combinação, esta molécula representa um promissor agente anticancerígeno. O foco desta monografia foi avaliar o potencial terapêutico da molécula 2-deoxy-D-glucose no tratamento do melanoma, elaborando a primeira revisão sistemática que teve como principal objetivo a recolha e análise de toda a informação existente acerca deste tema. Em primeiro lugar foi estabelecida a questão de investigação e elaborado o protocolo de investigação onde foram definidos os critérios de inclusão e exclusão, os termos de pesquisa e as bases de dados a utilizar. Foram incluídos 17 estudos publicados entre 1998 e 2019. A 2-deoxy-D-glucose demonstrou aumentar principalmente o stress do retículo endoplasmático e autofagia e inibir a glicólise, proliferação, migração e invasão celular, bem como diminuir a viabilidade celular. Foi capaz de potenciar o efeito dos agentes terapêuticos N-dodecilimidazol, cisplatina, imiquimod, TRAIL, coronatina e metiljasmonato. A 2-deoxy-D-glucose apresenta potencial anticancerígeno, no entanto a sua combinação com outros agentes terapêuticos contribui para um maior sucesso no tratamento do melanoma.The malignant melanoma is an aggressive cancer and, for that reason,has a huge tendency to occur metastasis in the initial fase of the disease. In this case, the treatment options are limited and still exists an huge necessity to develop additional strategies in order to optimize the therapeutic response, such as the discovery of new drugs or the redirection of pre-existing molecules. According to the “Warburg Effect”, cancer cells, even under aerobic conditions, prefer glycolytic metabolism for the production of ATP, instead the oxidative phosphorylation route. Once that the 2-deoxy-D-glucose molecule is a glucose analogue with the potential to inhibit glycolysis, by being able to lead the cancer cells to apoptosis, when isolated or in combination, this molecule represents a promising anticancer agent. The main focus of this monograph was to evaluate the therapeutic potencial of the 2-deoxy-D-glucose molecule in the melanoma treatment, by elaborating the first systematic revision that had as main goal gathering and analyzing all the information that exists about this subject. Firstly, it was established the investigation question and elaborated the investigation protocole where it was defined the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the research terms and the used data bases. Were included 17 studies published between 1998 and 2019. The 2-deoxy-D-glucose has been shown to increase mainly the endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagy and to inhibit glycolysis, proliferation, migration and cell invasion, as well as to decrease cell viability. It was possible to potentiate the effects of the therapeutic agents N-dodecylimidazole, cisplatin, imiquimod, TRAIL, coronatin and methyljasmonate. The 2-deoxy-D-glucose presents anti-cancer potential, however its combination with other therapeutic agents contributes to a bigger success in the melanoma treatment. Key words: 2-deoxy-D-glucose, melanoma, glycolysis inhibition, therapeutic combination

Aportes para la constucción de la Comunidad Educativa

Este cuadernillo incluye un marco conceptual en el cual se desarrollan los diferentes conceptos a partir de los cuales poder analizar el lugar de los adultos frente a los niños y jóvenes. Asimismo ofrece una propuesta de actividades destinadas a favorecer la reflexión conjunta sobre los diferentes aspectos que hacen al lugar de los adultos