Directors' dealings: an analysis of their predictive power

openThis thesis conducts an in-depth examination of directors’ dealings, specifically exploring the potential for predicting future fluctuations in share prices based on the nature of these transactions. Directors’ dealings are analysed in isolation as well as in conjunction with buybacks and transactions executed by prominent investors. A comprehensive dataset of 1,773,971 dealings are crawled from various online sources, employing techniques ranging from a basic web request to rudimentary Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods. Building upon an existing database of buybacks, it is proved that there is a surge in dealings immediately after the announcement date of a buyback. Subsequently, an assessment is made on whether directors’ dealings confer an advantage for traders following them, comparing share price movements over a two-year period against the MSCI World index. Due to the challenge of comparing companies with very different market capitalizations, alternative indexes are introduced, each serving as a benchmark for companies in a different market capitalization range. In the majority of instances, the median of the percentage points of out-performance relative to the respective indexes proves that a majority of dealings produces an advantage for the director, particularly in the case of share purchases, especially over the long term (two years post-dealing). Conversely, sales of shares by a director yield less conclusive results, with some cases exhibiting a median below zero, indicating that a significant portion of directors are not selling at the right moment. An analogous analysis is conducted, focusing on dealings executed in the thirty days after a buyback announcement. In this scenario, it is observed that the percentage points of outperformance generally fall below the values observed when considering all directors’ dealings. After splitting the dealings by country, an examination to identify the country where directors tend to achieve the most significant gains is conducted. Purchases executed by directors in the United States and Honk Kong emerge as particularly favourable. Finally, a research is conducted to identify the top-performing directors who stand out in both purchases and sales, possibly leading to a list of names that, if closely monitored, could have potentially yielded substantial returns.This thesis conducts an in-depth examination of directors’ dealings, specifically exploring the potential for predicting future fluctuations in share prices based on the nature of these transactions. Directors’ dealings are analysed in isolation as well as in conjunction with buybacks and transactions executed by prominent investors. A comprehensive dataset of 1,773,971 dealings are crawled from various online sources, employing techniques ranging from a basic web request to rudimentary Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods. Building upon an existing database of buybacks, it is proved that there is a surge in dealings immediately after the announcement date of a buyback. Subsequently, an assessment is made on whether directors’ dealings confer an advantage for traders following them, comparing share price movements over a two-year period against the MSCI World index. Due to the challenge of comparing companies with very different market capitalizations, alternative indexes are introduced, each serving as a benchmark for companies in a different market capitalization range. In the majority of instances, the median of the percentage points of out-performance relative to the respective indexes proves that a majority of dealings produces an advantage for the director, particularly in the case of share purchases, especially over the long term (two years post-dealing). Conversely, sales of shares by a director yield less conclusive results, with some cases exhibiting a median below zero, indicating that a significant portion of directors are not selling at the right moment. An analogous analysis is conducted, focusing on dealings executed in the thirty days after a buyback announcement. In this scenario, it is observed that the percentage points of outperformance generally fall below the values observed when considering all directors’ dealings. After splitting the dealings by country, an examination to identify the country where directors tend to achieve the most significant gains is conducted. Purchases executed by directors in the United States and Honk Kong emerge as particularly favourable. Finally, a research is conducted to identify the top-performing directors who stand out in both purchases and sales, possibly leading to a list of names that, if closely monitored, could have potentially yielded substantial returns

Experimental and Numerical Comparison of Internal Insulation Systems for Building Refurbishment

AbstractIn order to increase the knowledge of both local builders and designers about the energy efficiency of internal insulation a test chamber has been realized at the Edilmaster site. The test system features two isothermal chambers separated by the specimen under test. The controlled temperatures guarantee a constant temperature difference in order to measure the heat flux with thermofluximeter techniques. In this paper the uninsulated system is a brick wall of about 50cm thickness which represents a typical solution found in Trieste. Two internal insulation systems, with wooden and metallic studs, have been tested. The measurements highlighted the different thermal behavior between the area covered by the insulation material and the thermal bridges due to studs. The experimental results have been compared with solutions obtained with numerical and analytical methods

Analysis of the coupled effect of steel studs and surface emissivity on internal insulation systems performance

Many kinds of insulation systems have been developed and applied over the years to all the constructive elements of the building, but the two most used strategies remain the external and internal insulation of vertical walls. However, about the latter often a significant issue is neglected: the overestimation of the thermal performance by disregarding the contribution of construction elements. Usually a uniform stratigraphy of the wall is considered and the evaluation of the performance of a non-uniform one leads to erroneous results about the overall behavior of the system. In this paper, we developed a different approach considering the presence of the steel studs used to attach this package to the existing wall and their influence on the thermal behavior of the structure. Through both experimental and numerical analysis, the possible application of low-e sheets inside the air cavity in various configurations and with different thicknesses of insulation is also taken into account. Results showed that neglecting the presence of the steel studs leads to an erroneous evaluation of the conductance of the refurbished wall with errors reaching up to 28.0% in low-e high-insulated cases. This work highlights how careful the designers have to be when using standard formulas to compute the thermal resistance of internal insulation wall systems

Digital transformation e Robotic Process Automation in un Istituto Bancario

Nel prossimo futuro, la crescita del fenomeno del digital labor e il sempre maggiore utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie di Intelligent Automation avranno importanti impatti sulle aziende, sia dal punto di vista organizzativo, sia per quanto concerne il tema della gestione delle risorse umane. Numerose imprese hanno già avviato programmi ed iniziative per automatizzare alcune attività aziendali, ma spesso in un contesto di sistemi informativi molto frammentati ed ancora non definiti. In molti casi persiste una generalizzata incertezza nel definire gli ambiti applicativi di queste iniziative, quando avviarle e, soprattutto, come e quanto investire. Tra tutte le tecnologie di Intelligent Automation, oggi quella di maggiore interesse è la Robotic Process Automation. I benefici della RPA sono diversi: dalla riduzione dei costi, alla maggiore velocità dei tempi di esecuzione delle attività, dalla migliore qualità dei dati, fino al miglioramento delle condizioni di lavoro, con operatori più soddisfatti grazie a carichi di lavori più leggeri. Come spesso accade per gli elementi che portano una forte disruption all’in- terno delle organizzazioni, oltre a numerosi benefici esistono sfide importanti da affrontare. I progetti di RPA non sono complessi da sviluppare dal punto di vista tecnologico, ma devono essere accompagnati da importanti valutazioni. Spesso, sull’onda dell’entusiasmo, le aziende avviano progetti di RPA individuando una serie di attività ripetitive che possono essere automatizzate, senza interrogarsi sulla reale fattibilità del progetto. È necessario capire, prima di tutto, quali sono gli obiettivi di queste progettualità e, in secondo luogo, valutare l’applicabilità dell’automazione alle diverse attività individuate. Questo percorso non è solamente una mera scelta di attività e processi, bensì uno studio che deve essere affrontato seriamente con metodologie ed un approccio replicabile e robusto, accompagnato da analisi di processi in ottica di digitalizzazione

genetic optimization for economic feasibility of refurbishment in buildings

Abstract This paper investigates the possibility to enhance the thermal characteristics of a building fabric taking into account the economic feasibility in order to avoid useless expensive interventions. The problem consists in realizing an internal insulation system for a single apartment located in Trieste. A genetic optimization has been implemented in order to search a large number of solutions with multiple objects and constraints. EnergyPlus has been used for dynamic building and plant simulation and modeFRONTIER for optimization loop setup. The objectives are the used heating energy consumption and the life cycle refurbishment cost, using a net present value approach. An additional objective has been added in order to guarantee the maximization of the interior useful floor area, which is directly influenced by the internal insulation thickness. Different approaches have been compared, considering actions dealing with opaque surfaces only or considering the replacement of existing windows. The paper demonstrates that an automatic optimization approach can help designers to identify the best suited intervention for building refurbishment

Model development and validation for a tank in tank water thermal storage for domestic application

5noThe hot water tanks are the typical thermal storage systems in Solar Domestic Hot Water (SDHW) plants. In this paper a new model for ESP-r has been developed, in order to simulate a tank in tank heat storage. The tank in tank system is made up of two tanks in which the smaller, storing potable hot water, is contained in a larger buffer filled with heating-circuit water. The developed model is an enhanced version of a component already available in ESP-r. Experimental results are used to identify some parameters and to perform the validation of the developed code.openopenPadovan, Roberta; Manzan, Marco; Zandegiacomo De Zorzi, Ezio ; Gullì, Giuseppe; Frazzica, AndreaPadovan, Roberta; Manzan, Marco; ZANDEGIACOMO DE ZORZI, Ezio; Gullì, Giuseppe; Frazzica, Andre

Soil, humipedon, forest life and management

In recent years, three sections (Humipedon, Copedon and Lithopedon) were recognized in the soil profile. It was then possible to link the first and most biologically active section to the characteristics of the environment and soil genesis. In particular, it is now possible to distinguish organic horizons, mainly produced by arthropods and enchytraeids in cold and acidic or dry and arid environments, from organo-mineral horizons produced by earthworms in more temperate and mesotrophic environments. Each set of horizons can be associated with a humus system or form, with important implications for forestry. Anecic/endogeic earthworms and Mull or Amphi systems are more abundant in the early and late stages of sylvogenesis; by completely recycling litter, earthworms accelerate the availability of organic and inorganic soil nutrients to roots and pedofauna. On the other hand, arthropods and Moder or Tangel systems characterize the intermediate stages of sylvogenesis, where thickening in the organic horizons and the parallel impoverishment/reduction in the underlying organo-mineral horizons are observed. Recognizing the humus system at the right spatial and temporal scale is crucial for the biological management of a forest. This article includes a data review, new data from a doctoral thesis, and recent comparisons of Italian and French investigation

Potential of thermal storage for hot potable water distribution in cruise ships

Hot potable water preparation in ships requires lots of energy from the power plant; this is particularly true in modern cruise ships with a high demand of potable water for people, restaurants, spa and pools. Usually the required amount of hot water is instantly produced using a number of different energy sources available on board. However, the use of direct heaters on peak demand conditions increases fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially important in the case of ship in port configuration, due to the reduced number of active engines and therefore the reduced amount of waste heat from the cooling line usually employed for this task. This paper investigates possible solutions to size a hot water thermal storage in order to compensate the mismatch between heat generation during cruise and heat required during ship in port configuration. The performances of different solutions are compared using dynamic thermal simulations of the ship’s hot water distribution system with different regimes and time dependent heat requirements. Moreover it will be introduced the use of PCM materials with the aim to further improve system’s performance

Potential of thermal storage for hot potable water distribution in cruise ships

Hot potable water preparation in ships requires lots of energy from the power plant; this is particularly true in modern cruise ships with a high demand of potable water for people, restaurants, spa and pools. Usually the required amount of hot water is instantly produced using a number of different energy sources available on board. However, the use of direct heaters on peak demand conditions increases fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially important in the case of ship in port configuration, due to the reduced number of active engines and therefore the reduced amount of waste heat from the cooling line usually employed for this task. This paper investigates possible solutions to size a hot water thermal storage in order to compensate the mismatch between heat generation during cruise and heat required during ship in port configuration. The performances of different solutions are compared using dynamic thermal simulations of the ship\u2019s hot water distribution system with different regimes and time dependent heat requirements. Moreover it will be introduced the use of PCM materials with the aim to further improve system\u2019s performance