Does the Use of Foreign Currency Derivatives Affect Colombian Firms’ Market Value?

Classic financial theory relies on the absolute perfection of capital markets, which results in one of the milestones of theoretical corporate finance: the firm’s value is invariant to the choice of capital structure. As an extension to the aforementioned proposition by Modigliani and Miller (1958), corporate risk management is also futile. Nevertheless, it is clear that capital markets do not work with absolute perfection. There exist frictions which make risk management decisions essential for the firm’s value. Moreover, derivatives’ market vast importance is a good proxy of the relevance of hedging decisions for corporate finance. There is a remarkable volume of literature which tests the effects of risk management and hedging decisions for the value of the firm, mainly for the US corporate market. However, there is little effort on this subject for markets which work even farther from absolute perfection. This document undertakes such task for the Colombian market. Focused on non-financial firms and the local’s most liquid derivatives market, we find that for a panel of eight large Colombian corporations, the growth rate of Tobin´s Q depends significantly on firm´s size and hedging. Our results suggests that, after controlling for relevant financial variables such as firm´s profitability and leverage, and other variables such as firm´s age, an increase in hedging leads to a higher growth in the firm´s value.Modigliani-Miller, risk management, hedging, firm value, emerging market, Tobin´s Q. Classification JEL: G32, G30, L25.

Evaluación de la diversidad de Quirópteros en el Paisaje Terrestre Protegido Mesas de Moropotente.

Se describe y compara la riqueza y diversidad de murciélagos en los bosques de carbón, bosque de roble, bosque de galería y huerto caseros (clasificado como un sistema agroforestal simultánea) en el Paisaje terrestre Protegido Mesas de Moropotente en el Departamento de Estelí. Comparando dos épocas del año (Invierno- Verano) en diferentes estaciones de muestreos. Se capturaron un total de 323 especímenes, pertenecientes a tres familias, 16 géneros y 25 especies. Las especies más abundante fueron Artibeus jamaicensis, Dermanura phaeotis, Desmodus rotundus y Artibeus lituratus. De acuerdo con sus hábitos alimenticios se encontraron cuatro gremios tróficos: murciélagos frugívoros, insectívoros, nectarívoros, y hematófagos. Diversidad α el valor más alto fue en la época de invierno en la estación 1 bosque con dominancia de la especie del carbón (Acacia pennatual) (H’= 2.061). Mostró baja semejanza entre los tipos de bosque, lo cual podría deberse a las condiciones en los sitios de captur

A comparison between the soft X-ray and [O III] morphologies of active galactic nuclei

Several studies of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) have shown that the soft X-ray emission presents a size and morphology that resembles that of the narrow-line region (NLR) traced by [O III]. Since the NLR is mainly constituted by gas photoionised by the AGN, it seems logical to assume that this is also the primary source of the soft X-ray emission. However, these results are based on individual sources or small samples, particularly focused on type-2 Seyfert galaxies. Very little has been said concerning other types of AGN. The purpose of this work is to compare the circumnuclear morphologies of soft X-ray and [O III] images to test whether they match in different optical classes of AGN. Our sample is composed of 27 AGN: nine type-1 Seyferts, 10 type-2 Seyferts, and eight low ionisation nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs). We find a good match in 100% of the type-2 Seyferts in our sample. This correspondence is less frequent in type-1 Seyferts (22%) and it is not seen in LINERs. The good resemblance in type-2 Seyferts constitutes an evidence for a common physical origin. We argue that the lack of correspondence in type-1 Seyferts might be due to the line of sight perpendicular to the accretion disk. Based on the morphologies of the eight LINERs in our sample, we discard a common origin for the soft X-ray and [O III] emissions in these objects. Regarding the X-ray properties, both high column density and hard X-ray luminosity are associated with matched morphologies.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 20 pages, 9 figure

A transferrin receptor-binding mucoadhesive elastin-like recombinamer: In vitro and in vivo characterization

Producción CientíficaThe development of mucoadhesive materials is of great interest and is also a major challenge. Being adsorption sites, mucosae are suitable targets for drug delivery, but as defensive barriers they are complex biological surfaces to interact with, mainly due to their protective mucus layer. As such, first- and second-generation mucoadhesives focused on material-mucus interactions, whereas the third generation of mucoadhesives introduced structural motifs that are able to interact with the cells beneath the mucus layer. The combination of different prerequisites (water solubility, soft gel formation at body temperature and able to interact with the mucus) in a single molecule is easily achieved using elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs) given their multiple block design. Moreover, we have been able to introduce a short amino-acid sequence known as T7 that is able to bind to transferrin receptors in the epithelial cell layer. The T7 sequence enhances the cell-binding properties of the mucoadhesive ELR (MELR), as demonstrated using a Caco-2 epithelial cell model. In vivo experiments confirmed the mucoadhesive properties found in vitro.2021-02-192021-02-19Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Projects PCIN-2015-010, MAT2015-68901-R, MAT2016-78903-R, MAT2016-79435-R)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA015U16)European Commission (NMP-2014-646075

On the development of a MODEM for data transmission and control of electrical household appliances using the low-voltage power-line

This paper presents a CMOS 0,6μm mixed-signal MODEM ASIC for data transmission on the low-voltage power line. The circuit includes all the analog circuitry needed for input interfacing and modulation/demodulation (PLL-based frequency synthesis, slave filter banks with PLL master VCO for tuning, decision circuitry, etc.) plus the logic circuitry needed for control purposes. The circuit operates correctly in the whole industrial temperature range, from -45 to 80°C, under 5% variations of the 3.3V supply voltage.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología FD97-1611(TIC)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC200 1-092

Eliciting smile and laughter during intraoperative electrical stimulation of the cingulum: Surgical scenario

Laughter has a major role in daily social interactions; consequently, its biologic bases have been previously studied. Nevertheless, its cerebral representation remains unclear. The most accepted hypothesis has postulated that laughter has 2 components: mirth, related to the temporal and frontal neocortical areas, and motor aspect, related to the limbic system and brainstem. Furthermore, in prior studies, laughter has been elicited during electric stimulation with depth electrodes in the supplementary motor area and the cingulum. This Video 1 reports resection of a right superior frontal gyrus diffuse astrocytoma (isocitrate dehydrogenase mutant, World Health Organization grade II) with awake intraoperative electric cortical and subcortical stimulation mapping. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography, including all the tracts in relation to the tumor, was obtained preoperatively and postoperatively. Stimulation of the cingulum medially and inferiorly to the tumor elicited a patient's smile and laugh without mirth or merriment. Also, this point correlated with the reconstructed cingulum in the intraoperatively navigated DTI tractography. In conclusion, these findings support the anatomic subdivision of the laughter's mechanism and the role of the cingulum in its motor component. Furthermore, smiles and laughter could be useful functional landmarks to identify the cingulum during subcortical mapping. Although it remains unclear whether pursuing resection beyond this point would have caused permanent postoperative deficits, considering laughter's role in social interaction and other emotion-processing functions associated with the cingulum, in the future it could be potentially considered a functional limit of the resection of intrinsic tumors

CMOS mixed-signal MODEM for data transmission and control of electrical household appliances using the low-voltage power-line

This paper presents a CMOS 0.6μm mixed-signal MODEM ASIC for data transmission using the low-voltage power line. This circuit includes all the analog blocks needed for input interfacing and modulation/demodulation (PLL-based frequency synthesis, slave filter banks with PLL master VCO for tuning, and decision circuitry) plus the logic circuitry needed for control purposes. The circuit operates correctly within the industrial temperature range, from -45 to 80°C, under 5% variations of the 3.3V supply voltage.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología 1FD97-1611(TIC)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2001-092

Pair-Wise Approach to Test the Regional Convergence Hypothesis in Mexico

This paper assesses the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita convergence of the 32 Mexican States in the period 1940-2010 through the method proposed by Pesaran (2007), which is based on the convergence stochastic criterion. One of the main advantages of this method is not only on a model of leading economy, also on a pair-wise approach that considers all possible gap pairs of per capita logarithms of all the Mexican States analyzed in the sample. According to this method, all the differences or output gaps of the States must be stationary around a constant mean. Most results provide evidence against the hypothesis of convergence especially for the total sample from 1940 to 2010 and the first period from 1940 to 1985. However, mixed evidence of this hypothesis was observed in the second period from 1986 to 2010. Additionally, the test results applied to a set of States considered as the richest suggest these findings are not due to the unique behavior of these States