Preface: recent developments in financial modelling and risk management

In the last decade, a wide range of innovative financial instruments has taken by storm the financial markets. In 2015 for instance, the European Commission (EC) introduced the definition of “innovative financial instruments” as instruments that are complementary to grants or subsidies and as part of a move towards a smarter “funding mix”. Loans, equity and quasi-equity instrument and guarantees are considered as a particularly effective way to increase and enhance the impact of EU funding while compared to the traditional grant-based system (EC, 2015), therefore, they represent a way to further promote a more responsible, result-oriented use of European funds by the corporate world

Total Cost of Ownership of Digital vs. Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Architectures for 5G Fronthauling

The article analyzes the total cost of ownership (TCO) of 5G fronthauling solutions based on analog and digital radio-over-fiber (RoF) architectures in cloud radio access networks (C-RANs). The capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX, OPEX) are assessed, for a 10-year period, considering three different RoF techniques: intermediate frequency analog RoF (IF-A-RoF), digital signal processing (DSP) assisted analog RoF (DSP-A-RoF), and digital RoF (D-RoF) based on the common public radio interface (CPRI) specifications. The greenfield deployment scenario under exam includes both fiber trenching (FT) and fiber leasing (FL) options. The TCO is assessed while varying (i) the number of aggregated subcarriers, (ii) the number of three-sector antennas located at the base station, and (iii) the mean fiber-hop length. The comparison highlights the significance that subcarrier aggregation has on the cost efficiency of the analog RoF solutions. In addition, the analysis details the contribution of each cost category to the overall CAPEX and OPEX values. The obtained results indicate that subcarrier aggregation via DSP results in high cost efficiency for a mobile fronthaul network, while a CPRI-based architecture together with FL brings the highest OPEX value

Hygienization performances of innovative sludge treatment solutions to assure safe land spreading

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Quantitative image analysis for the characterization of microbial aggregates in biological wastewater treatment : a review

Quantitative image analysis techniques have gained an undeniable role in several fields of research during the last decade. In the field of biological wastewater treatment (WWT) processes, several computer applications have been developed for monitoring microbial entities, either as individual cells or in different types of aggregates. New descriptors have been defined that are more reliable, objective, and useful than the subjective and time-consuming parameters classically used to monitor biological WWT processes. Examples of this application include the objective prediction of filamentous bulking, known to be one of the most problematic phenomena occurring in activated sludge technology. It also demonstrated its usefulness in classifying protozoa and metazoa populations. In high-rate anaerobic processes, based on granular sludge, aggregation times and fragmentation phenomena could be detected during critical events, e.g., toxic and organic overloads. Currently, the major efforts and needs are in the development of quantitative image analysis techniques focusing on its application coupled with stained samples, either by classical or fluorescent-based techniques. The use of quantitative morphological parameters in process control and online applications is also being investigated. This work reviews the major advances of quantitative image analysis applied to biological WWT processes.The authors acknowledge the financial support to the project PTDC/EBB-EBI/103147/2008 and the grant SFRH/BPD/48962/2008 provided by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (Portugal)

Nutraceutical therapies for atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting large and medium arteries and is considered to be a major underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although the development of pharmacotherapies to treat CVD has contributed to a decline in cardiac mortality in the past few decades, CVD is estimated to be the cause of one-third of deaths globally. Nutraceuticals are natural nutritional compounds that are beneficial for the prevention or treatment of disease and, therefore, are a possible therapeutic avenue for the treatment of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this Review is to highlight potential nutraceuticals for use as antiatherogenic therapies with evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, the current evidence from observational and randomized clinical studies into the role of nutraceuticals in preventing atherosclerosis in humans will also be discussed

Fundamental ratios as predictors of ESG scores: a machine learning approach

Sustainable and responsible finance incorporates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into business decisions and investment strategies. In recent years, investors have rushed to Sustainable and Responsible Investments in response to growing concerns about the risks of climate change. Asset managers look for some assessment of sustainability for guidance and benchmarking, for instance, $30 trillion of assets are invested using some ESG ratings. Several studies argue that good ESG ratings helped to prop up stock returns during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (Lins et al. J Finance 72(4):1785-1824, 2017). The ESG score represents a benchmark of disclosures on public and private firms, it is based on different characteristics which are not directly related to the financial performance (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, ESG reports and ratings:what they are, why they matter. , 2017). The role of ESG ratings and their reliability have been widely discussed (Berg et al. Aggregate confusion: the divergence of ESG ratings, MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 5822-19, 2019). Sustainable investment professionals are unsatisfied with publicly traded companies' climate-related disclosure. This negative sentiment is particularly strong in the USA, and within asset managers who do not believe that markets are consistently and correctly pricing climate risks into company and sector valuations. We believe that ESG ratings, when available, still affect business and finance strategies and may represent a crucial element in the company's fundraising process and on shares returns. We aim to assess how structural data as balance sheet items and income statements items for traded companies affect ESG scores. Using the Bloomberg ESG scores, we investigate the role of structural variables adopting a machine learning approach, in particular, the Random Forest algorithm. We use balance sheet data for a sample of the constituents of the Euro Stoxx 600 index, referred to the last decade, and investigate how these explain the ESG Bloomberg ratings. We find that financial statements items represent a powerful tool to explain the ESG score