A Smart Beta Approach to Fama-French and Profitability

The Fama and French five-factor model is molded into a smart beta investment strategy with strong exposure to the profitability factor. This constructed portfolio outperforms the market significantly despite an unintentional negative correlation with profitability that can be attributed to the intra-factor return correlations. The second portfolio, constructed by investing directly in profitability as represented by gross profit over total assets, outperforms both the market and the first portfolio

Conectar Igualdad como política pública del siglo XXI

El trabajo hace un repaso sobre la política pública Conectar Igualdad como forma de apropiacion de bienes y dispositivos tecnológicos en una época en donde los mismos se vuelven clave para la sociabilidad en general. De esta manera se intenta poner el foco en la Brecha Digital que existe entre las disparidades de acceso a los mismos y el rol del estado como agente propulsor para mermar dicha brecha.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

Electronic structure of defected polyethylene for Schottky emission

Polyethylene is one of the most used solid state insulators in electrical power industry. It is particularly used to electrically insulate high-voltage cables. Under the stresses associated with AC power supplies, this material undergoes ageing, which is often associated with treeing. It is thought that this phenomenon starts from gaseous defects embedded in the insulator bulk, leading to the formation of a cluster of cavities. Treeing is able to dig the matrix until complete breakdown of the insulating components. Cavities are generated by a sequence of partial discharges. Each discharge is triggered by an electron emission from the surface at the interface with gas. The Schottky effect is believed to be the most likely mechanism able to cause this electron emission.Our DFT modelling has suggested that electron emission is highly unlikely to occur if the surface is neutral. DOS analysis has revealed that the Schottky effect is also related to chemical defects. The latter must exhibit electronic states slightly under the conduction band. Furthermore, these sites must be able to act as a trap for negative charge excess. A polyethylene system with an excess electron, combined with specific oxidative groups, has proved to be consistent with experimental data

Current-aligned dewatering sheets and ‘enhanced’ primary current lineation in turbidite sandstones of the Marnoso-arenacea Formation

Turbidite sandstones of the Miocene Marnoso-arenacea Formation (northern Apennines, Italy) display centimetre to decimetre long, straight to gently curved, 0.5 to 2.0 cm regularly spaced lineations on depositional (stratification) planes. Sometimes these lineations are the planform expression of sheet structures seen as millimetre to centimetre long vertical ‘pillars’ in profile. Both occur in the middle and upper parts of medium-grained and fine-grained sandstone beds composed of crude to well-defined stratified facies (including corrugated, hummocky-like, convolute, dish-structured and dune stratification) and are aligned sub-parallel to palaeoflow direction as determined from sole marks often in the same beds. Outcrops lack a tectonic-related fabric and therefore these structures may be confidently interpreted to be sedimentary in origin. Lineations resemble primary current lineation formed by the action of turbulence during bedload transport under upper stage plane bed conditions. However, they typically display a larger spacing and micro-topography compared to classic primary current lineation and are not associated with planar-parallel, finely-laminated sandstones. This type of ‘enhanced lineation’ is interpreted to develop by the same process as primary current lineation, but under relatively high near-bed sediment concentrations and suspended load fallout rates, as supported by laboratory experiments and host facies characteristics. Sheets are interpreted to be dewatering structures and their alignment to palaeoflow (only noted in several other outcrops previously) inferred to be a function of vertical water-escape following the primary depositional grain fabric. For the Marnoso-arenacea beds, sheet orientation may be genetically linked to the enhanced primary current lineation structures. Current-aligned lineation and sheet structures can be used as palaeoflow indicators, although the directional significance of sheets needs to be independently confirmed. These indicators also aid the interpretation of dewatered sandstones, suggesting sedimentation under a traction-dominated depositional flow – with a discrete interface between the aggrading deposit and the flow – as opposed to under higher-concentration grain or hindered settling dominated regimes

A Submarine Journey: The Pyrrole-Imidazole Alkaloids †

In his most celebrated tale “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Oscar Wilde stated that “those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril”. This sentence could be a prophetical warning for the practitioner who voluntarily challenges himself with trying to synthesize marine sponge-deriving pyrrole-imidazole alkaloids. This now nearly triple-digit membered community has been growing exponentially in the last 20 years, both in terms of new representatives and topological complexity – from simple, achiral oroidin to the breathtaking 12-ring stylissadines A and B, each possessing 16 stereocenters. While the biosynthesis and the role in the sponge economy of most of these alkaloids still lies in the realm of speculations, significant biological activities for some of them have clearly emerged. This review will account for the progress in achieving the total synthesis of the more biologically enticing members of this class of natural products

Trigo versus erva-mate: o intercâmbio Argentina-Brasil e a questão regional de Misiones (1920-1945)

Since the last years of the XIX^ Century the main part of the Argentine-Brazilian commercial exchange rested on a "wheat per yerba mate" formula; this harmonic relation turned critical when Argentina's yerbales began to produce during the twenties. Our paper analyses the economic causes and consequences of this conflictive international situation, as well as Argentina's interregional struggles — the yerba producer Misiones region against the wheat producer Pampa Humeda region - that this process provoked. The latter subject is focused through a new interpretation of Argentine State politics, concerning the military and civil military governments during the thirties.Desde fins do século XIXm a maior parte do intercâmbio comercial entre Argentina e Brasil foi articulada em base de reciprocidade "trigo versus erva-mate", relação esta que se tornou crítica ao entrar em produção os ervais de cultivo argentino durante os anos 20. Este trabalho procura analisar as causas e consequências econômicas dessa situação internacional conflitiva, assim como as rivalidades interregionais geradas dentro da Argentina (a região ervateira misionera contra a trigal da Pampa Humeda). Este último aspecto é focalizado a partir de uma reinterpretação da concepção política do Estado argentino — militar e cívico-militar — da década de 193

A sensor for vector electric field measurements through a nonlinear anisotropic optical crystal

Electrical applications require the development of electric field sensors that can reproduce vector electric field waveforms with a very large spectral width ranging from 50 Hz to at least 70 MHz. This makes it possible to measure both the normal operation modes of electrical components and abnormal behaviors such as the corona emission and partial discharges. In this work, we aim to develop a fully dielectric sensor capable of measuring two components of the electric field using a wide class of optical crystals including anisotropic ones, whereas most of the efforts in this field have been devoted to isotropic crystals. We report the results of the measurements performed at 50 Hz and with a lightning impulse, to validate the sensor

Poly(amidoamine)-BSA conjugates synthesised by Michael addition reaction retained enzymatic activity

Polymer-protein conjugates are key to overcome some of the therapeutic protein limitations, including inefficient intracellular delivery. Poly(amidoamine)s are bioresponsive polyelectrolytes, which can form complexes with proteins and promote their delivery into the cytosol of cells. To investigate if conjugation would affect the activity of the protein, two poly(amidoamine)-BSA conjugates were synthesised using a “grafted to” method and Michael addition reaction. Following purification, the conjugates were characterised by electrophoresis, size exclusion chromatography (Mn(C1) = 140.7 kDa ; Mn(C2) = 218.6 kDa) and light scattering (Dh(C1) = 37.5 nm ; Dh(C2) = 75.1 nm). As a result of the conjugation with the cationic polymer, the conjugates had a positive zeta potential (?(C1) = +15.4 mV; ?(C2) = +20.2 mV). TNBS assays demonstrated that 16% to 25% of the protein amine groups were modified and HPLC analysis indicated that the amount of protein in the conjugate was 0.76 mg of BSA/mg of PAA (C1) and 0.43 mg of BSA /mg of PAA (C2). Enzymatic assays indicated the conjugates displayed an esterase activity similar (C1) or reduced ~ 35% (C2) compare to BSA. Altogether the results demonstrated that the conjugation of poly(amidoamine)s to a model protein can lead to the formation of bioconjugates that retain the enzymatic activity of the native protein. Such conjugates could have some application in protein delivery and enzyme engineering for biocatalysis and biosensors