A theory on merger timing and announcement returns

This paper develops a dynamic model for the timing and terms of mergers and acquisitions. In contrast to other models, we show that firms agree about the timing independently from how the merger surplus is shared. Firms agree on the timing and discuss the sharing rule of the merger surplus according to their bargaining power or some other exogenous factor. We also show that, under asymmetric information, the combination of surprises regarding merger timing and merger terms, can produce either negative or positive abnormal returns for the merging firms.COMPETE, QREN, FEDER, FC

Bargaining merger terms and the effect on the announcement returns

This paper develops a dynamic model for the timing and terms of mergers. In contrast to other models, we show that firms agree about the timing independently from how the merger surplus is shared or their bargaining power. We show that, under asymmetry of information, the combination of surprises on the merger timing and the merger terms, can produce negative or positive abnormal announcement returns for the merging firms. The abnormal returns are also possible under perfect information, even if the announcements are expected by the market, and occur as a result of the event-study methodology.- This research has been financed by the European Regional Development Fund through COMPETE 2020 -Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacho (POCI) and by Portuguese public funds through FCT in the framework of the projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (Artur Rodrigues) and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006890 (Paulo J. Pereira). We thank Alcino Azevedo, Bart Lambrecht, Dean Paxson, Elmar Lukas, Luis Aguiar-Conraria, Rosa Branca-Esteves, and participants of the 2015 Annual Real Options Conference for their helpful comments. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors

Investing in a random start American option under competition

In this paper we develop a model to determine the value of the opportunity to invest in a random start American real option. In contrast to a typical American option, the random start option only exists if an exogenous event occurs materializing the American option to invest. In addition, the effect of competition is also considered in the model. A higher risk of competition and a higher probability of the exogenous event promotes investment. Uncertainty has a non-monotonic effect on investment timing.- This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference n. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (Artur Rodrigues) and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006890 (Paulo J. Pereira), FCT/MEC's (Fundacao pars a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization - COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement

Demonstration-based help: a case study

The usability of today’s applications is of utmost importance, and to fully achieve it some changes are yet to be adopted. Help systems are part of the applications and allow users to understand it and use it. However, this is one of the fields that some corporates still neglect. Moreover, every system has its characteristics and customizations and being able to explain how something works on a generic but efficient way is a major challenge. Studies have been conducted and applications, especially on a daily-use context, are still cause of frustration to its users. Contextual and demonstration-based strategies are examples of beneficial approaches to improve the status. Additionally, current technologies like picture-driven computing and automation are enablers facilitating the interaction with “closed” applications, whose source codes are not available, and allowing for the process to be reproduced automatically on any platform. Our solution deploys fast easy learning. It allows users to learn how to perform tasks by watching them get done on their own system. This was done by the manual creation of picture-driven scripts with the use of a tool named Sikuli. This paper presents our tool and a preliminary case-study. A preliminary evaluation with users was made and positive results were shown. When tracking metrics relative to a first interaction with a system/realization of a specific tasks, users achieved the goal five times faster with the demonstration-based help tool. On second time executions, the performance from users that used our tool and users that learned through exploration and manual readings were similar, indicating that learning by observation does not detract the learning process. The solution is now to be implemented in a technology corporation where problematic tasks and platforms will be identified, automation scripts developed, and an evaluation with its employees will be conducted. From this evaluation, the usability of the tool will be measured, as learning improvements and increased task performance will be tracked. The availability to help other users, developing and sharing scripts is also one of the research points.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Automatic tracking of red blood cells in micro channels using OpenCV

The present study aims to developan automatic method able to track red blood cells (RBCs) trajectories flowing through a microchannel using the Open Source Computer Vision (OpenCV). The developed method is based on optical flux calculation assisted by the maximization of the template-matching product. The experimental results show a good functional performance of this method.(undefined

Integration of Flight Simulator 2002 with an epidemic multicast protocol

Multi-player games are increasingly popular in the Internet. This growing interest results in the need to support a high number of participants, which raises the issue of scalability, namely in what regards the ability to offer good performance in such a large-scale setting. This paper addresses the issue of designing middleware solutions to support large-scale multi-player applications. In particular, we are interested in studying the feasibility of using epidemic multicast protocols for information dissemination in multi-player games based on a peer-to-peer architecture. We have integrated a comercial multiplayer game, the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, with an epidemic multicast protocol appropriate to this kind of applications, the NEEM. The paper describes how this integration was achieved and presents evaluation results of the resulting prototype

Inversión de los patrones estacionales de la absorción de carbono en un stand de eucalipto en Portugal

This paper summarizes results between 2002 and 2010 from eddy covariance measurements of carbon uptake in the 12 month annual growing period eucalypt site of Espirra in Southern Portugal (38° 38’N, 8° 36’ W) . This site, aimed for pulp production is part of an intensively 300 ha eucalypt coppice, with about 1100 trees ha–1. The climate is of Mediterranean type. During the measurement period (2002-2010) two main events changed the annual sink pattern of the forest: a drought period of two years (2004-2005) and a tree felling (November and December 2006). Before the felling, annual net ecosystem exchange (NEE) diminished from 865.56 gCm–2 in 2002 to 356.64 gCm–2 in 2005 together with a deep decrease in rainfall from 748 mm in 2002 to 378.58 mm and 396.64 mm in 2004 and 2005, respectively. The eucalypt stand recovered its carbon sink ability in June 2007 with a cumulated NEE of 151 gCm–2 from January to September 2010. A quantitative approach using generalized estimating equations (GEEs) was made to relate monthly NEE, gross primary production (GPP) and soil moisture with the main meteorological variables. Seasonal patterns of carbon uptake were almost opposite in the periods before and after the felling with maxima in April and August, respectively, and this seasonal change is gradually reversing to the pattern before 2006. Drought was the main meteorological driver of these temporal tendencies in carbon uptake.Este documento resume los resultados entre 2002 y 2010 a partir de mediciones de covarianza turbulenta de la absorción de carbono en los 12 meses anuales a los sitios de crecimiento de eucalipto período de Espirra en el sur de Portugal (38° 38’N, 8° 36’ W). Este sitio, con el objetivo para la producción de celulosa es parte de un monte bajo de intensidad 300 hectáreas de eucaliptos, con cerca de 1.100 árboles ha–1. El clima es de tipo mediterráneo. Durante el período de medición (2002-2010) dos eventos principales cambiado el patrón fregadero anual de la selva: un período de sequía de dos años (2004-2005) y la tala de árboles (noviembre y diciembre de 2006). Antes de la tala, el intercambio anual neta de los ecosistemas (NEE) se redujo de 865,56 g cm–2 en 2002 a 356,64 g cm–2 en 2005, junto con una disminución profunda de las precipitaciones de 748 mm en 2002 a 378,58 mm y 396,64 en 2004 y 2005, respectivamente. El eucalipto de pie recupera su capacidad de sumidero de carbono en junio de 2007 con un acumulado de 151 gcm NEE–2 de enero a septiembre de 2010.Una aproximación cuantitativa mediante ecuaciones de estimación generalizada (GEES) se hizo para relacionar mensual NEE, la producción primaria bruta (GPP) y la humedad del suelo con las variables meteorológicas principales.Los patrones estacionales de la absorción de carbono eran casi opuestas en los períodos antes y después de la tala, con máximos en abril y agosto, respectivamente, y este cambio de temporada se va de marcha atrás para el patrón antes de 2006. La sequía fue el principal impulsor de estas tendencias meteorológicas temporal en la absorción de carbono

Mechanical thrombectomy in patients with acute basilar occlusion using stent retrievers

Early arterial recanalisation with stent retrievers (SR) has been recently demonstrated to improve clinical outcome of patients with large-vessel occlusion of the anterior circulation. However, the benefit of SR thrombectomy in the setting of acute basilar artery occlusion (BAO) has not been proven yet. This study evaluated a series of consecutive patients with BAO treated with SR, focusing on the efficacy, safety and clinical results