An Empirical Analysis on Board Monitoring Role and Loan Portfolio Quality Measurement in Banks

This paper aims to analyze the effectiveness of the board monitoring role on specific loan portfolio quality measures in banks (default rate, recovery rate and provisioning rate). We use a sample comprises a totality of Italian-based banks, listed at Borsa Italiana SpA in 2006-2008 and a number of accounting proxies to express the loan portfolio quality of a bank. The results of the analysis show an overall weakness of the board role (expressed by Independents and Audit Committee on board) in monitoring loan portfolio quality of the bank, with the subsequent damage of the interests of stakeholders. A positive contribution of board monitoring, even if partial, is highlighted in two cases: Independents seems improve recovery rate, while the Audit committee enhances provisioning rate in banks. With reference to default rate, a total negative effect of board monitoring is reported. On the base of these results, some managerial implications are proposed

Spotting intruders: Species distribution models for managing invasive intertidal macroalgae

Invasive macroalgae represent one of the major threats to marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and structure, as well as being important drivers of ecosystem services depletion. Many such species have become well established along the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the lack of information about the distribution of the invaders and the factors determining their occurrence make bioinvasions a difficult issue to manage. Such information is key to enabling the design and implementation of effective management plans. The present study aimed to map the current probability of presence of six invasive macroalgae: Grateloupia turuturu, Asparagopsis armata, Colpomenia peregrina, Sargassum muticum, Undaria pinnatifida, and Codium fragile ssp. fragile. For this purpose, an extensive field survey was carried out along the coast of the north-western Iberian Peninsula. Species distribution models (SDMs) were then used to map the presence probability of these invasive species throughout the study region on the basis of environmental and anthropogenic predictor variables. The southern Galician rias were identified as the main hotspots of macroalgal invasion, with a high probability of occurrence for most of the species considered. Conversely, the probability of presence on the Portuguese coast was generally low. Physico-chemical variables were the most important factors for predicting the distribution of invasive macroalgae contributing between 57.27 and 85.24% to the ensemble models. However, anthropogenic factors (including size of vessels, number of shipping lines, distance from ports, population density, etc.) considerably improved the estimates of the probability of occurrence for most of the target species. This study is one of the few to include anthropogenic factors in SDMs for invasive macroalgae. The findings suggest that management actions aimed at controlling these species should strengthen control and surveillance at ports, particularly in southern Galician rias. Early detection should be of main concern for risk assessment plans on the Portuguese coast.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Proyecto integracastanea: resultados de la colaboración inter-empresarial en la cadena monte industria del castaño en Galicia.

En 2013, cuatro empresas de diferentes ámbitos de la economía del castaño, presentaron un proyecto al programa FEDER-INNTERCONECTA del CDTI. El objetivo era aunar sinergias para incrementar el conocimiento, y disponer de mejores materiales de castaño, para su utilización en diferentes ámbitos: extracción de metabolitos, producción de fruto y trasformación de la madera de calidad. TRAGSA desarrolló un sistema de micropropagación basado en el cultivo fotoautotrófico para la producción a gran escala de planta con calidad y bajo costo; BOIBEL FORESTAL se centró en plantaciones de alta densidad para la extracción de taninos, y optimizó este proceso estudiando sus efectos sobre el silo y la producción de leche. ALIBÓS se centró en el cultivo, analizando la competencia con la vegetación espontánea, necesidades hídricas, abonado y poda; y EXFOPINO seleccionó fenotipos por calidad de madera y desarrolló prototipos de elementos constructivos empleando madera de castaño: una loseta maciza, una fachada tras ventilada, un muro cortina y un portal de cierre. La interacción entre empresas además ha generado: una colección de clones de alta calidad de madera; 6 genes marcadores de resistencia a tinta; conocimiento sobre clones con mayor biomasa para obtención de extractos; sobre compatibilidad variedad-portainjerto; y sobre recría de la planta biotecnológicamente producida.Peer reviewe