Structured finance and the boundaries of the firm: the case of project finance

We examine the factors that influence public firms’ choice between project finance over internally organized investment projects. Using a large sample of syndicated deals closed between 2000 and 2020 in conjunction with Datastream data, we find that economies of scale, agency costs of debt, and information asymmetry arguments affect the choice of on- versus off-balance-sheet funding. As project finance deals have higher borrowing costs than comparable corporate financing deals, we show that other firm-level countervailing benefits play a key role in the sponsoring firms’ choice: borrowers choose project over corporate financing when they are relatively larger, less profitable and creditworthy, and seek long-term financing; and switchers resorting to project finance tend be more levered and to have larger growth opportunity sets.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Active methodologies in incoming programming classes

Innovative approaches in teaching programming have been required to improve the success of incoming programming students. This work presents the initial results of a teaching strategy implemented in the Algorithms subject of a Computer Science course. Ninety-five students, enrolled in this subject during the first semester of the course, participated in the research. The reported activity is related with active methodologies of teaching and Problem-Based Learning, being developed on the first day of class in groups of up to five students. The activity was based in two actions: 1) answering a questionnaire associating computing elements to daily life routines; and, 2) even without programming concepts knowledge, develop a smartphone application. Each group received a questionnaire containing 19 questions, divided into four blocks. What can be perceived with the accomplishment of this work, was the enthusiasm, motivation and engagement of the students who, even being unknown from each other, organized themselves in the groups and researched the necessary strategies to complete the challenge. The teacher acted as an advisor in the teaching process, conducting the experiment in order to lead students to find the solution.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Projects Scopes: UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDB/00319/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of inoculum, particle size and inoculum-substrate ratio on CH4 production from Ulex sp.

The performance of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) of solids wastes is affected by several factors. Most of them are related to each other. Currently, publish studies about AD only care about the individual influence of these variables, discarding possible interaction. A response surface experimental design was used to determine the most important variables and possible interactions – influence of inoculum type (anaerobic suspended sludge and granula sludge), Ulex sp. particle diameter (dp) and inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR) – on the Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) and the maximum initial methane production rate (k). BMP and k of Ulex sp. varied between 153-308 L CH4 kg-1 VS and 14-49 L CH4 kg-1 VS d-1, respectively. Higher ISR and a mixture of granular and suspended sludge had a positive effect on the biodegradability of waste. A dp of 1.85 mm were defined as the optimal condition to simultaneously maximize the BMP and k

Co-digestion of Sargassum sp. with glycerol and waste frying oil following a design of experiments

A response surface methodology was adopted to assess the optimal conditions for methane production from the macroalgae Sargassum sp. co-digested with glycerol (Gly) and waste frying oil (WFO). Three variables were tested: % total solids of algae (%TSSargassum sp.), co-substrate concentration (gGly/WFO L-1); and, co-substrate type (Gly or WFO). The Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) of Sargassum sp. was 181±1 L CH4 kg-1 COD. The co-digestion with Gly and WFO increased the BMP by 56% and 46%, respectively. The methane production rate (k), showed similar behaviour as the BMP, increasing 38% and 19% with Gly and WFO, respectively. The higher BMP (283±18 L CH4 kg-1 COD) and k (65.9±2.1 L CH4 kg-1 COD d-1) was obtained in the assay with 0.5% TS and 3.0 gGly L-1. Co-digestion with Gly or WFO is a promising process to enhance the BMP from the macroalgae Sargassum sp.

Co-digestion of Sargassum sp. with glycerol and waste frying oil: optimization of the biomethane production using a design of experiments

A response surface methodology was adopted to assess the optimal conditions for methane production from the macroalgae Sargassum sp. Three variables were tested: % total solids of algae (%TSsargassum); co-substrate concentration (gwaste L-1); and, co-substrate type (glycerol or waste frying oil (WFO)). The Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) of Sargassum sp. was 300 ± 3 L CH4 kg-1 COD. The co-digestion with glycerol and WFO increased the BMP by 72% and 68% respectively. The methane production rate (k), showed similar behavior as the BMP, increasing 45% and 29% with glycerol and WFO, respectively. The higher BMP (517 ± 13 L CH4 kg-1 COD) and k (78± 4 d-1) was obtained in the assays with 0.5% TS and 3.0 g glycerol L-1. Co-digestion with glycerol or WFO is a promising process to enhance the BMP from the macroalgae Sargassum sp

Enhancement of biomethane production from the anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and macroalgae by continuous and intermittent addition of glycerol

Anaerobic digestion(AD) is a multifunctional bioprocess that allows nutrient recycling and reduction, production of biogas, and a sustainable bioenergy carrier. AD of macroalgae presents a promising source of bioenergy in the future. Macroalgae have high concentration of carbohydrates, making it suitable for biogas production, not competing with food crops for arable land and irrigation water. This work aimed to enhance the methane (CH4) production from the anaerobic co- digestion of a mixture of sewage sludge (SS from a wastewater treatment plant) and Ulva sp. (Ulv macroalgae), with continuous and intermittent addition of crude glycerol (cGly from vegetable oils), in a semi-continuous system. Three 5 L stirred tank reactors (R1, R2 and R3) were fed with SS and Ulv (85/15 in total solids). The reactors were operated at 37 °C, with a 4 L working volume and inoculated with anaerobic granular sludge from a brewery industry. Until day 179, the reactors were fed only with SS, while the hydraulic retention time (HRT) has been continuously decreasing from 40 d to 20 d. After reaching stabilization at HRT of 20 d, Ulv and cGly were added to feed (until day 241). R1 was the control, without cGly. In R2, cGly was continuously supplemented, 2 % (w) of the mixture of SS and Ulv. In R3, pulses of cGly were applied once a week, with same amount introduced in R2 since the last pulse. The AD of SS with an organic loading rate (g of COD of substrate per L of reactor and time) of 3.33 g L-1 d-1 achieved a CH4 production (MP, expressed in L of CH4 produced per kg of chemical oxygen demand (COD) of substrate fed L kg-1)) of 166 L kg-1 with 39 % of volatile solid (VS) reduction. The addition of Ulv (R1) decreased the MP in 20%. The continuous introduction of cGly (R2) improved significantly the MP, reaching 204 L kg-1 (51 % of VS reduction). Noteworthy, the intermittent addition of cGly (R3) showed the best results in terms of MP, 251 L kg-1 achieving 56 % of VS reduction

Children and Young People’s Participation in decision-making in Foster Care

Children’s participation in decisions about their lives is a crucial point of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the basis of child welfare and protection worldwide. Despite these clear guidelines, there is evidence that children’s voices may be heard but often with little impact on the decisions made by professionals in the childcare system. This study seeks to ascertain whether the voice of children living in foster care is considered and respected when making decisions that concern them, whether the children effectively exercise it, and what factors impact their participation. A systematic scoping review was performed to clarify concepts and unveil research gaps, using eleven scientific databases and publishers that allowed us to identify twelve recent studies in critical journals. In the light of the Bouma et al., (2018) model, the findings showed that there is, in general, a lack of effective children’s participation, namely in terms of information, listening, and involvement. Children’s voices still have a minimum impact on the decisions made in the childcare system. It will be necessary to avoid the bureaucratic assumption that there is an age cut-off point to promote participation. More, it is stressed the importance of a trusting, sincere and confidential relationship between the child and the social worker and the need to ensure training for professionals who intervene in review/statutory meetings or judicial proceedings, namely in the court of law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Graphical simulation of numerical algorithms : an approach based on code instrumentation and Java technologies

We want to create a working tool for mathematics teachers and a corresponding learning tool for students, namely a graphical simulator of mathematical algorithms (GraSMa). To achieve it we try two different strategies. We started by annotate manually the original algorithm with inspector functions. Now we are testing a new approach that aims to automatically annotate the original code with inspector functions. To achieve this we are developing a language translator module that enables to comment automatically any code written in Octave language. The run of the annotated code gated by one of these two ways, records in a XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file everything that happened during the execution. Subsequently, the XML file is parsed by a Java application that graphically represents the mathematic objects and their behaviour during execution. The final application will be accessed on-line through a website (WebGraSMa) which is currently under development. In this paper we report and discuss about the procedures followed and present some intermediate results