Gli hedge funds azionisti di società quotate

The thesis «Gli hedge funds azionisti di società quotate» discusses the role of activist hedge funds (“activists”). These are funds, the legal nature of which is rather complex, that acquire minority interests in listed companies (“targets”) and try to exert an influence over the target’s insiders through requests for governance, financial and strategic changes in the policies of the target so as to gain a profit therefrom. To be sure, hedge funds’ activism matters from an economic and financial standpoint. The most recent available estimates indicates that activist hedge funds, although they represent no more than 4% of the aggregate number of hedge funds worldwide, have assets under management (“a.u.m.”) approximately equal to $100 billion. In the cover story of its issue of February 7, 2015, The Economist depicted activist hedge funds as «Capitalism’s unlikely heroes», arguing «Why activist investors are good for the public company». In the last decade the number of activists’ interventions increased at a remarkable pace, often triggering long and contentious campaigns, in the United States as well as in Italy (although proportionally to the size of their capital markets). Similarly, hedge funds’ activism matters from a legal standpoint. Activism triggers a number of complex legal issues across multiple fields of the law, including financial regulation, corporate and securities laws. The relatively recent emergence of hedge funds’ activism, coupled with a lack of legal precedents and studies, renders the analysis even more troublesome. The thesis tackles the matter along a research path structured in three phases, each of which approximately represents a separate goal of the research (and a chapter of the thesis). The first goal of the research, discussed in the first chapter, deals with the legal qualification and nature of hedge funds. The complex legal features of hedge funds, the intricacies associated with their underlying economics and the lack of a single, readily available legal regime applicable to them suggest to carry out a preliminary analysis on hedge funds. This analysis should clarify what a hedge fund is (and, within the hedge funds’ family, what an activist hedge fund is); what an activist hedge fund does, and how it exerts influence over the target’s insiders; and what the economic consequences, and side-effects, of hedge funds’ activism are. This should also allow to identify and describe the legal regime applicable to hedge funds. The second goal of the research, discussed in the second chapter, deals with the possible correlation between the degree of activism of hedge funds and the regulatory regime applicable to them in an environment, such as Italy, where the ownership of listed companies is largely concentrated.5 In this context I will first identify and discuss the regulatory factors that, potentially, are capable of sustaining the emergence of activists. I will then assess whether, and to which extent, the reforms of Italian corporate law adopted in the 2004-2014 period had an impact (and, if so, of what sort) on hedge funds’ activism. Hardly is this the first time that a legal scholar attempts to assess the impact of such reforms. It is however the first time, at least to my knowledge, that a similar task is performed in the context and through the methodology I decided to follow. Notably, I will assess the impact of these reforms: (i) in relation to the possible, either supportive or depressing, effects they had on the emergence of hedge funds’ activism in Italy; and (ii) based on data, and not only on qualitative legal analysis, that I partly hand-collected and largely obtained courtesy of the authors, to whom I am deeply grateful, of a number of empirical studies on the Italian securities market supported by Georgeson/LUISS Ceradi/Fondazione Bruno Visentini. The third goal of the research is to touch upon the legal consequences of hedge funds’ activism on the target companies they select. On the one hand, I will discuss whether hedge funds’ activism needs to be halted (assuming this is legally doable) or otherwise curbed by newly-approved statutes. On the other hand, I will delve into Italian corporate law to understand whether targets may use any existing corporate tools or devices to fend off activists. The aim of this analysis is, ultimately, to understand whether hedge funds activism might prove to be harmful or beneficial for the corporate governance of companies with a highly concentrated ownership structure.The thesis «Gli hedge funds azionisti di società quotate» discusses the role of activist hedge funds (“activists”). These are funds, the legal nature of which is rather complex, that acquire minority interests in listed companies (“targets”) and try to exert an influence over the target’s insiders through requests for governance, financial and strategic changes in the policies of the target so as to gain a profit therefrom. To be sure, hedge funds’ activism matters from an economic and financial standpoint. The most recent available estimates indicates that activist hedge funds, although they represent no more than 4$ 100 billion. In the cover story of its issue of February 7, 2015, The Economist depicted activist hedge funds as «Capitalism’s unlikely heroes», arguing «Why activist investors are good for the public company». In the last decade the number of activists’ interventions increased at a remarkable pace, often triggering long and contentious campaigns, in the United States as well as in Italy (although proportionally to the size of their capital markets). Similarly, hedge funds’ activism matters from a legal standpoint. Activism triggers a number of complex legal issues across multiple fields of the law, including financial regulation, corporate and securities laws. The relatively recent emergence of hedge funds’ activism, coupled with a lack of legal precedents and studies, renders the analysis even more troublesome. The thesis tackles the matter along a research path structured in three phases, each of which approximately represents a separate goal of the research (and a chapter of the thesis). The first goal of the research, discussed in the first chapter, deals with the legal qualification and nature of hedge funds. The complex legal features of hedge funds, the intricacies associated with their underlying economics and the lack of a single, readily available legal regime applicable to them suggest to carry out a preliminary analysis on hedge funds. This analysis should clarify what a hedge fund is (and, within the hedge funds’ family, what an activist hedge fund is); what an activist hedge fund does, and how it exerts influence over the target’s insiders; and what the economic consequences, and side-effects, of hedge funds’ activism are. This should also allow to identify and describe the legal regime applicable to hedge funds. The second goal of the research, discussed in the second chapter, deals with the possible correlation between the degree of activism of hedge funds and the regulatory regime applicable to them in an environment, such as Italy, where the ownership of listed companies is largely concentrated.5 In this context I will first identify and discuss the regulatory factors that, potentially, are capable of sustaining the emergence of activists. I will then assess whether, and to which extent, the reforms of Italian corporate law adopted in the 2004-2014 period had an impact (and, if so, of what sort) on hedge funds’ activism. Hardly is this the first time that a legal scholar attempts to assess the impact of such reforms. It is however the first time, at least to my knowledge, that a similar task is performed in the context and through the methodology I decided to follow. Notably, I will assess the impact of these reforms: (i) in relation to the possible, either supportive or depressing, effects they had on the emergence of hedge funds’ activism in Italy; and (ii) based on data, and not only on qualitative legal analysis, that I partly hand-collected and largely obtained courtesy of the authors, to whom I am deeply grateful, of a number of empirical studies on the Italian securities market supported by Georgeson/LUISS Ceradi/Fondazione Bruno Visentini. The third goal of the research is to touch upon the legal consequences of hedge funds’ activism on the target companies they select. On the one hand, I will discuss whether hedge funds’ activism needs to be halted (assuming this is legally doable) or otherwise curbed by newly-approved statutes. On the other hand, I will delve into Italian corporate law to understand whether targets may use any existing corporate tools or devices to fend off activists. The aim of this analysis is, ultimately, to understand whether hedge funds activism might prove to be harmful or beneficial for the corporate governance of companies with a highly concentrated ownership structure.LUISS PhD Thesi

Proteomics Characterization of Outer Membrane Vesicles from the Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli ΔtolR IHE3034 Mutant

Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli are the cause of a diverse spectrum of invasive infections in humans and animals, leading to urinary tract infections, meningitis, or septicemia. In this study, we focused our attention on the identification of the outer membrane proteins of the pathogen in consideration of their important biological role and of their use as potential targets for prophylactic and therapeutic interventions. To this aim, we generated a DeltatolR mutant of the pathogenic IHE3034 strain that spontaneously released a large quantity of outer membrane vesicles in the culture supernatant. The vesicles were analyzed by two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry. The analysis led to the identification of 100 proteins, most of which are localized to the outer membrane and periplasmic compartments. Interestingly based on the genome sequences available in the current public database, seven of the identified proteins appear to be specific for pathogenic E. coli and enteric bacteria and therefore are potential targets for vaccine and drug development. Finally we demonstrated that the cytolethal distending toxin, a toxin exclusively produced by pathogenic bacteria, is released in association with the vesicles, supporting the recently proposed role of bacterial vesicles in toxin delivery to host cells. Overall, our data demonstrated that outer membrane vesicles represent an ideal tool to study Gram-negative periplasm and outer membrane compartments and to shed light on new mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis

U-CHANGE Project: a multidimensional consensus on how clinicians, patients and caregivers may approach together the new urothelial cancer scenario

IntroductionAdvanced urothelial carcinoma remains aggressive and very hard to cure, while new treatments will pose a challenge for clinicians and healthcare funding policymakers alike. The U-CHANGE Project aimed to redesign the current model of care for advanced urothelial carcinoma patients to identify limitations (“as is” scenario) and recommend future actions (“to be” scenario).MethodsTwenty-three subject-matter experts, divided into three groups, analyzed the two scenarios as part of a multidimensional consensus process, developing statements for specific domains of the disease, and a simplified Delphi methodology was used to establish consensus among the experts.ResultsRecommended actions included increasing awareness of the disease, increased training of healthcare professionals, improvement of screening strategies and care pathways, increased support for patients and caregivers and relevant recommendations from molecular tumor boards when comprehensive genomic profiling has to be provided for appropriate patient selection to ad hoc targeted therapies.DiscussionWhile the innovative new targeted agents have the potential to significantly alter the clinical approach to this highly aggressive disease, the U-CHANGE Project experience shows that the use of these new agents will require a radical shift in the entire model of care, implementing sustainable changes which anticipate the benefits of future treatments, capable of targeting the right patient with the right agent at different stages of the disease

Improvements of sintered YBCO samples by citrate pyrolysis and ozone annealing

YBCO sintered samples have been fabricated by the citrate pyrolysis method. The annealing, with the usual thermal processes, but using a mixture of oxygen and ozone, generates large microcrystals. Samples fabricated with this process have been characterized by measuring the a.c. susceptibility. Low field measures show a very narrow transition width, while high field measures performed both at 50 and 100 Gauss denote the higher strength of the intergranular junctions in the ozone made samples

Multi-model inference analysis of toxicological responses and levels of heavy metals in soft tissue of land snail Cornu aspersum caged in proximity to an industrial setting

The use of indicator species has become a standard monitoring approach in environmental risk assessment; however, pollutant bioavailability and its geographical distribution as well as species-sensitiveness could be affected by different factors. The present study investigated the potential use of the land snail Cornu aspersum as bioindicator of industrial air pollution by using cytological and biochemical responses and trace element levels in individuals caged in proximity to an industrial setting. Eleven sites were selected based on wind direction and distance. Snails were placed in holed plastic cages, transplanted to each site and maintained for 30 days fed at libitum and under constant humidity. Several oxidative stress responses including catalase (CAT) and glutathione-s-transferase (GST) activities, levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and total metallothioneins (MTs) content were determined in snail hepatopancreas while lysosomal membrane stability (LMS) and loss of DNA integrity through micronuclei frequency (MN) were assessed in haemocytes. Trace elements were also analysed in snail whole soft tissues. Multi-model inference used to predict snail’s biological responses in relation to trace elements levels and distance from the industrial setting was able to disentangle the relative contributions of different influencing predictors and could be successfully applied in environmental risk assessment by using land snail as bioindicator species