The Determinants of Leverage. Differences between Quoted and Non Quoted Firms

The design of capital structure in quoted companies has received much attention in the academic literature. Using panel data from quoted as well as non quoted Belgian companies, this paper investigates not only the determinants of capital structure, but also the influence of a stock listing on the relationship between these determinants and leverage. Overall our empirical results are in line with previous studies and support mainly the Pecking Order theory. Also in line with the predictions of the Pecking Order theory, quoted companies are less levered, even when controlling for other determinants of capital structure. Furthermore we find that the determinants of capital structure differ to some extend between quoted and non quoted companies.

The Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Finance

This paper argues that institutional investors may have a positive effect on stock prices. This effect realizes through different mechanisms: institutional investors reduce information asymmetries between firms and (other) investors, contribute to the liquidity of the company’s stock and improve its corporate governance. We conjecture that firms, understanding the benefits of having institutional investors in their ownership, may do efforts to attract them. We apply this idea in the context of IPOs. Using data on Belgian IPOs over the period 1984-2000, we find that firms using the stock market as a financing vehicle and firms less likely to be monitored by corporate blockholders are more likely to pre-allocate shares to institutional investors at IPO-time. Finally, pre-allocating shares to institutional investors is shown to reduce underpricing and enhance post-IPO liquidity.

Penerapan Kampanye Penggalangan Dana oleh Perusahaan Penyiaran Televisi untuk Mendukung Kegiatan Kemanusiaan (Studi Deskriptif Kulitatif Program Jembatan Asa Sctv)

Turut berkontribusi terhadap masa depan masyarakat agar menjadi lebih baik merupakan salah satu kewajiban Perusahaan, tak terkecuali Perusahaan yang bergerak dalam bidang industri penyiaran. Penelitian ini membahas kampanye penggalangan dana oleh PT Surya Citra Televisi (SCTV) melalui program Jembatan Asa, sebuah program kemanusiaan untuk membangun jembatan rusak di berbagai daerah di Indonesia. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui penerapan kampanye penggalangan dana kemanusiaan Program Jembatan Asa oleh SCTV dengan menggunakan model kampanye Nowak dan Warneryd. Pada model ini terdapat delapan elemen kampanye yang harus diperhatikan: efek yang diharapkan; persaingan komunikasi; obyek komunikasi; populasi target dan kelompok penerima; saluran; pesan; komunikator/pengirim pesan; efek yang dicapai. Pendekatan penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif, dengan sifat penelitian deskriptif. Prosedur pengumpulan data melalui dokumentasi iklan dan berita serta wawancara mendalam dari key informan, yakni Ketua Penyelenggara program CSR Jembatan Asa, Manajer Produksi Berita, Produser Program Liputan 6 dan Video Journalist di Divisi Pemberitaan SCTV. Hasil dan analisis temuan data memperlihatkan bahwa kampanye dilakukan dengan menggandeng stakeholder internal SCTV yaitu departemen pemberitaan, programming, promosi, IT dan media online www.liputan6.com. Sedangkan dari pihak eksternal dilakukan kerja sama dengan Yayasan Relawan Kampung dan Kementerian Sosial Republik Indonesia. Target khalayak yang dituju mengalami Perubahan dari awalnya masyarakat ekonomi kelas A,B,C, diperluas menjadi kelas D dan E, serta kaum muda yang memanfaatkan media online dan media sosial dalam keseharian. Media yang digunakan dalam kampanye terdiri dari traditional media dan new media. Traditional media yang digunakan yaitu program berita Liputan 6, program infotainmen Was-was dan Halo Selebriti, serta program hiburan Inbox yang semuanya tayang di SCTV. Kampenye melalui new media, dilakukan dengan cara publikasi di media online, www.liputan6.com dan www.sctv.co.id. Sedangkan publikasi media sosial dilakukan melalui facebook https://www.facebook.com/Surya.Citra.TV dan twitter @SCTV_. Dengan menggunakan kampanye tersebut, SCTV mampu memperoleh sumbangan dana masyarakat sebesar Rp 4.546.241.368, yang digunakan untuk membangun 10 jembatan, melebihi target awal kampanye yang direncanakan hanya membangun 3 jembata

Cyclodextrin-Based Nanofibers and Membranes: Fabrication, Properties and Applications

Cyclodextrin (CD)-based electrospun nanofibers have become critical role players in the water treatment arena due to their high porosities, small diameters, high surface area-to-volume ratio and other unique properties they exhibit. Investigations demonstrate that nanofibers containing CD molecules can be facially blended with other polymeric species and/or photocatalytic and magnetic nanoparticles to enhance their rates of adsorption, inclusion complexation and selective photodegradation. These properties make them excellent candidates for the removal of water pollutants. On the other hand, the electrospinning process has become the method of choice in the fabrication of various types of CD nanofibrous mats due to its versatility, cost-effectiveness and its potential for the mass production of uniform nanofibers. CDs and CD-derivatives have also found application in membrane technologies, particularly in mixed matrix and thin film composite membranes. CD-blended membranes display improved performances in terms of selectivity, rejection, permeation and flux with reduced fouling propensities and can be used for drinking water purification and removal of emerging micropollutants. This chapter critically reviews CD-based electrospun nanofibers looking at their production, characterization methods and various applications. The use of CDs as membrane materials and how they can be fully explored in water treatment are also investigated

Natural pigments and biogas recovery from microalgae grown in wastewater

This study assessed the recovery of natural pigments (phycobiliproteins) and bioenergy (biogas) from microalgae grown in wastewater. A consortium of microalgae, mainly composed by Nostoc, Phormidium, and Geitlerinema, known to have high phycobiliproteins content, was grown in photobioreactors. The growth medium was composed by secondary effluent from a high rate algal pond (HRAP) along with the anaerobic digestion centrate, which aimed to enhance the N/P ratio, given the lack of nutrients in the secondary effluent. Additionally, the centrate is still a challenging anaerobic digestion residue since the high nitrogen concentrations have to be removed before disposal. Removal efficiencies up to 52% of COD, 86% of NH4+-N, and 100% of phosphorus were observed. The biomass composition was monitored over the experimental period in order to ensure stable cyanobacterial dominance in the mixed culture. Phycocyanin and phycoerythrin were extracted from harvested biomass, achieving maximum concentrations of 20.1 and 8.1 mg/g dry weight, respectively. The residual biomass from phycobiliproteins extraction was then used to produce biogas, with final methane yields ranging from 159 to 199 mL CH4/g VS. According to the results, by combining the extraction of pigments and the production of biogas from residual biomass, we would not only obtain high-value compounds, but also more energy (around 5-10% higher), as compared to the single recovery of biogas. The proposed process poses an example of resource recovery from biomass grown in wastewater, moving toward a circular bioeconomy

State-of-the-art of design and operation of power systems with large amounts of wind power, summary of IEA Wind collaboration

An international forum for exchange of knowledge of power system impacts of wind power has been formed under the IEA Implementing Agreement on Wind Energy. The task “Design and Operation of Power Systems with Large Amounts of Wind Power” is analysing existing case studies from different power systems.There are a multitude of studies made and ongoing related to cost of wind integration. However, the results are not easy to compare. This paper summarises the results from 15 case studies

Impact of asthma on the brain: evidence from diffusion MRI, CSF biomarkers and cognitive decline

Chronic systemic inflammation increases the risk of neurodegeneration, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Part of the challenge in reaching a nuanced understanding is the presence of multiple risk factors that interact to potentiate adverse consequences. To address modifiable risk factors and mitigate downstream effects, it is necessary, although difficult, to tease apart the contribution of an individual risk factor by accounting for concurrent factors such as advanced age, cardiovascular risk, and genetic predisposition. Using a case-control design, we investigated the influence of asthma, a highly prevalent chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, on brain health in participants recruited to the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (31 asthma patients, 186 non-asthma controls, aged 45-90 years, 62.2% female, 92.2% cognitively unimpaired), a sample enriched for parental history of Alzheimer's disease. Asthma status was determined using detailed prescription information. We employed multi-shell diffusion weighted imaging scans and the three-compartment neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging model to assess white and gray matter microstructure. We used cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers to examine evidence of Alzheimer's disease pathology, glial activation, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. We evaluated cognitive changes over time using a preclinical Alzheimer cognitive composite. Using permutation analysis of linear models, we examined the moderating influence of asthma on relationships between diffusion imaging metrics, CSF biomarkers, and cognitive decline, controlling for age, sex, and cognitive status. We ran additional models controlling for cardiovascular risk and genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease, defined as a carrier of at least one apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele. Relative to controls, greater Alzheimer's disease pathology (lower amyloid-β42/amyloid-β40, higher phosphorylated-tau-181) and synaptic degeneration (neurogranin) biomarker concentrations were associated with more adverse white matter metrics (e.g. lower neurite density, higher mean diffusivity) in patients with asthma. Higher concentrations of the pleiotropic cytokine IL-6 and the glial marker S100B were associated with more salubrious white matter metrics in asthma, but not in controls. The adverse effects of age on white matter integrity were accelerated in asthma. Finally, we found evidence that in asthma, relative to controls, deterioration in white and gray matter microstructure was associated with accelerated cognitive decline. Taken together, our findings suggest that asthma accelerates white and gray matter microstructural changes associated with aging and increasing neuropathology, that in turn, are associated with more rapid cognitive decline. Effective asthma control, on the other hand, may be protective and slow progression of cognitive symptoms

Identifying brain changes related to cognitive aging using VBM and visual rating scales

Aging is often associated with changes in brain structures as well as in cognitive functions. Structural changes can be visualized with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) using voxel-based grey matter morphometry (VBM) and visual rating scales to assess atrophy level. Several MRI studies have shown that possible neural correlates of cognitive changes can be seen in normal aging. It is still not fully understood how cognitive function as measured by tests and demographic factors are related to brain changes in the MRI. We recruited 55 healthy elderly subjects aged 50–79 years. A battery of cognitive tests was administered to all subjects prior to MRI scanning. Our aim was to assess correlations between age, sex, education, cognitive test performance, and the said two MRI-based measures. Our results show significant differences in VBM grey matter volume for education level (≤ 12 vs. > 12 years), with a smaller amount of grey matter volume in subjects with lower educational levels, and for age in interaction with education, indicating larger grey matter volume for young, higher educated adults. Also, grey matter volume was found to be correlated with working memory function (Digit Span Backward). Furthermore, significant positive correlations were found between visual ratings and both age and education, showing larger atrophy levels with increasing age and decreasing level of education. These findings provide supportive evidence that MRI-VBM detects structural differences for education level, and correlates with educational level and age, and working memory task performance.</p

A genetically informed study of the associations between maternal age at childbearing and adverse perinatal outcomes

We examined associations of maternal age at childbearing (MAC) with gestational age and fetal growth (i.e., birth weight adjusting for gestational age), using two genetically informed designs (cousin and sibling comparisons) and data from two cohorts, a population-based Swedish sample and a nationally representative United States sample. We also conducted sensitivity analyses to test limitations of the designs. The findings were consistent across samples and suggested that, associations observed in the population between younger MAC and shorter gestational age were confounded by shared familial factors; however, associations of advanced MAC with shorter gestational age remained robust after accounting for shared familial factors. In contrast to the gestational age findings, neither early nor advanced MAC was associated with lower fetal growth after accounting for shared familial factors. Given certain assumptions, these findings provide support for a causal association between advanced MAC and shorter gestational age. The results also suggest that there are not causal associations between early MAC and shorter gestational age, between early MAC and lower fetal growth, and between advanced MAC and lower fetal growth.NonePublishe