Human Capital's importance in Initial Coin Offerings' (ICOs) success

The Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are an emerging topic in the literature with several gaps still to fulfill. The ICOs have increased its importance not only due to the interest they have been raising but also due to the capital amounts involved in the projects, the innovative solutions they offer and the challenges they pose to regulators. There is some research on the ICOs' success factors but there is still no common measure of success as well as not many researches focused on the human capital importance for the projects success. In our research we will perform a literature review on the ICOs' topic and develop an econometric model with a database composed by 3158 profiles and 340 ICO projects in the banking/financial sector. We will be focusing on the human capital importance in these projects and propose three measures for project's success. With our research we intend to complement the literature on the ICOs projects and shed some light on the factors driving their success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human capital's importance in Initial Coin Offerings' (ICOs) success

The Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are an emerging topic in the literature with several gaps still to fulfill. The ICOs have increased its importance not only due to the interest they have been raising but also due to the capital amounts involved in the projects, the innovative solutions they offer and the challenges they pose to regulators. There is some research on the ICOs' success factors but there is still no common measure of success as well as not many researches focused on the human capital importance for the projects success. In our research we will perform a literature review on the ICOs' topic and develop an econometric model with a database composed by 3158 profiles and 340 ICO projects in the banking/financial sector. We will be focusing on the human capital importance in these projects and propose three measures for project's success. With our research we intend to complement the literature on the ICOs projects and shed some light on the factors driving their success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Initial coin offerings (ICOs): Why do they succeed?

Recent literature has addressed initial coin offering (ICO) projects, which are an innovative form of venture financing through cryptocurrencies using blockchain technology. Many features of ICOs remain unexplored, leaving much room for additional research, including the success factors of ICO projects. We investigate the success of ICO projects, with our main purpose being to identify factors that influence a project’s outcome. Following a literature review, from which several potential variables were collected, we used a database comprising 428 ICO projects in the banking/financial sector to regress several econometric models. We confirmed the impacts of several variables and obtained particularly valuable results concerning project and campaign variables. We confirmed the importance of a well-structured and informative whitepaper. The proximity to certain markets with high availability of financial and human capital is also an important determinant of the success of an ICO. We also confirm the strong dependency on cryptocurrency and the impact of cryptocurrency valuations on the success of a project. Furthermore, we confirm the importance of social media in ICO projects, as well as the importance of human capital characteristics. Our research contributes to the ICO literature by capturing most of the success factors previously identified and testing their impacts based on a large database. The current research contributes to the building of systems theory and signaling theory by adapting their frameworks to the ICO environment. Our results are also important for regulators, as ICOs are mainly unregulated and have vast future potential, and for investors, who can benefit from our analysis and use it in their due diligence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Success Factors of Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects

The Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) concept has been an emerging topic in the literature as well as their success factors. We will build up on the current literature and explore several success factors divided into categories, namely, project, campaign, social network and team’s characteristics. The preliminary econometric model developed was built on data from a database composed of 428 ICO projects in the banking/financial sector which allowed us to collect a diverse range of independent variables identified recurring to the existent literature. After proceeding to a literature review, we will analyze the results of the econometric model allowing us to identify the relevant variables and their impact on project’s success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The race of ecological vehicles: Consumer behavior and generation impact in the Portuguese market

The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly severe and noticeable. Consumers are becoming more cognizant of the environmental challenges that affect the planet. A major contributor to carbon emissions and the resulting warming climate and pollution is transportation. As a result, the selection of environmentally friendly options in this industry is becoming a pressing matter. This study aims to examine the reasons that motivate consumers to choose eco-friendly vehicles. The study specifically aims to understand what factors drive consumers to purchase such vehicles. A questionnaire was administered to the Portuguese population to determine which factors influence the decision to purchase eco-friendly vehicles, and what type of vehicles are preferred. The study includes all types of eco-friendly vehicles, including early-stage solutions such as fuel cell vehicles. Furthermore, the study examines whether there is any difference in purchasing habits between generations. The study is based on several theories, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), Norm Activation Model (NAM), and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Our research concludes that attitude (influenced by the advantages, compatibility, and non-complexity) and personal norms (influenced by the efficiency) are the two factors that affect positively and significantly the intention of purchase. The preferred eco-friendly vehicle among participants was found to be the hybrid electric vehicle, and the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle was also considered. The study did not find a significant impact of generation on purchasing decisions, but different generations were found to value different factors when making a vehicle purchase.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Poisson hierarchical modelling approach to detecting copy number variation in sequence coverage data.

BACKGROUND: The advent of next generation sequencing technology has accelerated efforts to map and catalogue copy number variation (CNV) in genomes of important micro-organisms for public health. A typical analysis of the sequence data involves mapping reads onto a reference genome, calculating the respective coverage, and detecting regions with too-low or too-high coverage (deletions and amplifications, respectively). Current CNV detection methods rely on statistical assumptions (e.g., a Poisson model) that may not hold in general, or require fine-tuning the underlying algorithms to detect known hits. We propose a new CNV detection methodology based on two Poisson hierarchical models, the Poisson-Gamma and Poisson-Lognormal, with the advantage of being sufficiently flexible to describe different data patterns, whilst robust against deviations from the often assumed Poisson model. RESULTS: Using sequence coverage data of 7 Plasmodium falciparum malaria genomes (3D7 reference strain, HB3, DD2, 7G8, GB4, OX005, and OX006), we showed that empirical coverage distributions are intrinsically asymmetric and overdispersed in relation to the Poisson model. We also demonstrated a low baseline false positive rate for the proposed methodology using 3D7 resequencing data and simulation. When applied to the non-reference isolate data, our approach detected known CNV hits, including an amplification of the PfMDR1 locus in DD2 and a large deletion in the CLAG3.2 gene in GB4, and putative novel CNV regions. When compared to the recently available FREEC and cn.MOPS approaches, our findings were more concordant with putative hits from the highest quality array data for the 7G8 and GB4 isolates. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the proposed methodology brings an increase in flexibility, robustness, accuracy and statistical rigour to CNV detection using sequence coverage data

Organizational resilience factors of startups: An exploratory case study

In an increasingly competitive environment subject to uncontrollable risks, the continuity of organizations can be severely threatened, and the decision-making process takes place under circumstances of great uncertainty. Therefore, it is necessary to develop strategies and competencies that allow the business to thrive. Startups, particularly technology-based ones, are an essential source of innovation. However, several studies indicate that approximately 60% of Startups fail in the first five years of business. To succeed, startups need to develop skills that allow them to rapidly evaluate their decisions and options, and to identify what is vital for the survival of their business. Thus, organizational resilience becomes of paramount importance to those companies. The term resilience is used in different areas of knowledge, but all the definitions share common ground regarding the concept: it describes the ability of an element to return to its normal state after a period of stress and crisis. The main objective of this exploratory research developed in Portugal is to identify the resilience factors of technological Startups. It is also intended to contribute to the design and development of instruments which promote organizational resilience in technological ecosystems. The current research follows the case study methodology based on a sample of 10 technological startups collected from the Startup Leiria ecosystem (Portugal). The Startup Leiria is an incubator of startup ventures which makes it a prime source of data and knowledge. The main findings point out the necessity to develop agility skills in Startup ecosystems. It was concluded that resilient organizations are characterized by having the ability to anticipate, respond, adapt, and recover from a disruptive event. The uniqueness of this study concerns its contribution to stimulate data-driven discussions regarding the necessity to implement programs for the reskilling of Startups in the context of their ecosystems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Optimizing Illumina next-generation sequencing library preparation for extremely AT-biased genomes.

BAckground: Massively parallel sequencing technology is revolutionizing approaches to genomic and genetic research. Since its advent, the scale and efficiency of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) has rapidly improved. In spite of this success, sequencing genomes or genomic regions with extremely biased base composition is still a great challenge to the currently available NGS platforms. The genomes of some important pathogenic organisms like Plasmodium falciparum (high AT content) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (high GC content) display extremes of base composition. The standard library preparation procedures that employ PCR amplification have been shown to cause uneven read coverage particularly across AT and GC rich regions, leading to problems in genome assembly and variation analyses. Alternative library-preparation approaches that omit PCR amplification require large quantities of starting material and hence are not suitable for small amounts of DNA/RNA such as those from clinical isolates. We have developed and optimized library-preparation procedures suitable for low quantity starting material and tolerant to extremely high AT content sequences. Results: We have used our optimized conditions in parallel with standard methods to prepare Illumina sequencing libraries from a non-clinical and a clinical isolate (containing ~53% host contamination). By analyzing and comparing the quality of sequence data generated, we show that our optimized conditions that involve a PCR additive (TMAC), produces amplified libraries with improved coverage of extremely AT-rich regions and reduced bias toward GC neutral templates. Conclusion: We have developed a robust and optimized Next-Generation Sequencing library amplification method suitable for extremely AT-rich genomes. The new amplification conditions significantly reduce bias and retain the complexity of either extremes of base composition. This development will greatly benefit sequencing clinical samples that often require amplification due to low mass of DNA starting material

estMOI: estimating multiplicity of infection using parasite deep sequencing data.

Individuals living in endemic areas generally harbour multiple parasite strains. Multiplicity of infection (MOI) can be an indicator of immune status and transmission intensity. It has a potentially confounding effect on a number of population genetic analyses, which often assume isolates are clonal. Polymerase chain reaction-based approaches to estimate MOI can lack sensitivity. For example, in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, genotyping of the merozoite surface protein (MSP1/2) genes is a standard method for assessing MOI, despite the apparent problem of underestimation. The availability of deep coverage data from massively parallizable sequencing technologies means that MOI can be detected genome wide by considering the abundance of heterozygous genotypes. Here, we present a method to estimate MOI, which considers unique combinations of polymorphisms from sequence reads. The method is implemented within the estMOI software. When applied to clinical P.falciparum isolates from three continents, we find that multiple infections are common, especially in regions with high transmission

Fatores de sucesso das Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs): A importância do capital humano

As Inital Coin Offerings (ICOs) ou em português, Ofertas Iniciais de Moedas, têm ganho relevância pela sua novidade, pelos valores de capital envolvidos nos projetos, bem como pela tecnologia e métodos disruptivos utilizados. As ICOs são uma forma disruptiva de financiar novos projetos de risco e altamente tecnológicos. Esta forma de financiamento de um projeto foi comparada com outras, nomeadamente, crowdfunding, capital de risco ou Ofertas Públicas Iniciais. No entanto, as ICOs têm características muito específicas que as tornam únicas. Neste estudo desenvolvemos uma revisão da literatura sobre este tema. Com base na Teoria do Capital Humano (TCH), também estudámos a importância dada à equipa empreendedora e o seu impacto no sucesso dos projetos. Este estudo vem preencher a lacuna existente na literatura sobre este tópico, desenvolvendo um modelo econométrico que mede o impacto das características da equipa empreendedora no sucesso de um projeto. A base de dados é composta por 3158 perfis e 340 projetos. Concluímos que as variáveis relacionadas com a equipa contribuem significativamente para o sucesso do projeto. Os dados utilizados sugerem que a localização das equipas contribui para o sucesso dos projetos, bem como a existência de uma extensa rede de contactos dos empreendedores. Os ratings atribuídos por agentes externos ao projeto também são indicadores de sucesso. Várias variáveis de controlo, como a existência de limites para o financiamento, o número de moedas aceites, a plataforma em que o projeto é desenvolvido, a oferta de bónus e o ano do projeto, foram consideradas estatisticamente significativas, tendo igualmente impacto no sucesso do projeto.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio