Understanding the Effect of Advertising on Stock Returns and Firm Value: Theory and Evidence From a Structural Model

This paper brings structural modeling to the literature on financial research in marketing. I propose a dynamic investment-based model to understand the impact of advertising expenditures on stock returns and firm value. In addition, by interpreting advertising expenditures as an investment in brand capital, the approach in this paper provides a novel way to measure brand equity grounded in economic theory. Using the Euler equations from the firm’s maximization problem, I derive closed-form expressions for the firm’s equilibrium stock returns and market value, which depend on observable firm characteristics. I test the model’s predictions by the generalized method of moments and data from a large cross section of publicly traded firms. The model is able to match simultaneously the pattern of average stock returns and firm values of portfolios sorted on advertising expenditures that standard asset pricing models cannot. The estimation results also show that brand equity accounts for a substantial fraction of firm market value (about 23%), and that this value varies substantially across industries. Implications of the findings for research at the intersection of marketing and finance are discussed

Efficiency Gains from Removing Entry and Price Controls: Evidence from a Change in Regulation

This paper investigates empirically the role of Portuguese deregulation in shaping the structure of local markets for driving instruction and competition among driving schools. We develop a framework that integrates quality and price competition among horizontally and vertically differentiated driving schools. We estimate the model using detailed data on the market structure, firm attributes and prices, and consumer preferences for 593 schools in 117 local markets. We use the estimated parameters of our model to predict the effect that the 1998 easing of price and entry restrictions governing the sector had on firm profits and consumer welfare. We also explore the effect of new regulations currently being considered

Drip Pricing When Consumers Have Limited Foresight: Evidence from Driving School Fees

This paper empirically investigates the add-on or drip pricing behavior of firms. We present a model in which consumers purchase a base product and, with some probability, an add-on product from the same firm, but are not always attentive to their possible need for the add-on product. We show that a loss leader pricing strategy emerges whereby firms price the base product below, and the add-on above, standalone pricing levels. We test the implications of the model in the Portuguese market for driving instruction where students frequently pay for repeat driving exams and additional lessons upon failing their initial exam. Relying on a detailed, nationwide data set on student characteristics and preferences, school attributes including fees and costs, and market demographics for a cross-section of local markets with differing numbers of school competitors, we find evidence in support of the model predictions. Most notably, prices for the base course of instruction, but not the add-on repeat courses, decline in the number of competitors a firm faces. We complement these results with survey evidence on possible sources of consumer inattention that the observational data does not speak to. The consumer survey suggests that approximately one quarter of students are inattentive to repeat fees when making their school choice driven both by an underestimation of fail propensities and an unawareness of the actual cost of a repeat exam. This result has important policy implications regarding the cross-subsidization of students who are aware of the add-on by those who are not

THEKA Projecto Gulbenkian de Formação de Professores para Desenvolvimento de Bibliotecas Escolares

Apresentação do projecto em curso, que até 2006 já envolve dezenas de professores, bibliotecas escolares , escolas e agrupamentos de escolas em diversas regiões de Portugal Continental.Lançado pela Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian como estratégia de desenvolvimento das bibliotecas escolares, pela promoção de competências de gestão de projectos neste domínio em docentes da educação pré-escolar e dos 3 ciclos do ensino básico, tem vindo a integrar contributos de especialistas nacionais e internacionais e produtos de reflexão sobre as práticas de formandos e tutores, num modelo construtivista de formação de profissionais e de produção de conhecimento.Visualizando alguns dos pontos mais importantes da experiência, desafios e obstáculos que vimos registando, pretende-se contribuir para o debate em curso sobre os profissionais da área específica das bibliotecas escolares e centros de recursos educativos e sobre as bibliotecas na Escola enquanto Comunidade de Aprendizagens

Medical electronic prescription for home respiratory care services (PEM-CRD) at a Portuguese university tertiary care centre (2014–2018) : a case study

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Home respiratory care (HRC) is the provision of healthcare services at the place of residence of patients or their families, with the aim of meeting needs mainly resulting from chronic respiratory conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. In 2016, an innovative electronic prescription system, PEM-CRD, was fully implemented for HRC services in Portugal. To date, no study has addressed the impact of the execution of this digital innovation. For this purpose, we carried out an analysis of the prevalence and number of prescriptions for people with chronic respiratory diseases receiving HRC in the Lisbon metropolitan area, during 2014–2018, using the information obtained from the PEM-CRD database. The data analysis shows that while the number of patients receiving HRC treatment with a prescription has remained stable over the last four years, the number of prescriptions has significantly dropped since 2016 (2016–2018), with consequent paper and processes efficiency. The implementation of the digital Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care tool (PEM-CRD) and consequent dematerialization of these processes has increased the efficiency of prescribing in HRC. Additionally, the possibility of obtaining data through the PEM-CRD allows the monitoring of the evolving prevalence of therapies, improving the health services optimization and allowing reporting on data other than medicines.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Could Gut Microbiota Make a Difference?—“BiotaCancerSurvivors”: A Case-Control Study

In this first analysis, samples from 23 BC survivors (group 1) and 291 healthy female controls (group 2) were characterised through the V3 and V4 regions that encode the “16S rRNA” gene of each bacteria. The samples were sequenced by next-generation sequencing (NGS), and the taxonomy was identified by resorting to Kraken2 and improved with Bracken, using a curated database called ‘GutHealth_DB’. The α and β-diversity analyses were used to determine the richness and evenness of the gut microbiota. A non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was applied to assess differential abundance between both groups. The Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio was calculated using a Kruskal-Wallis chi-squared test. The α-diversity was significantly higher in group 1 (p = 0.28 × 10−12 for the Chao index and p = 1.64 × 10−12 for the ACE index). The Shannon index, a marker of richness and evenness, was not statistically different between the two groups (p = 0.72). The microbiota composition was different between the two groups: a null hypothesis was rejected for PERMANOVA (p = 9.99 × 10−5) and Anosim (p = 0.04) and was not rejected for β-dispersion (p = 0.158), using Unifrac weighted distance. The relative abundance of 14 phyla, 29 classes, 25 orders, 64 families, 116 genera, and 74 species differed significantly between both groups. The F/B ratio was significantly lower in group 1 than in group 2, p < 0.001. Our study allowed us to observe significant taxonomic disparities in the two groups by testing the differences between BC survivors and healthy controls. Additional studies are needed to clarify the involved mechanisms and explore the relationship between microbiota and BC survivorship.publishersversionpublishe

Check list para identificar distorsiones cognitivas en víctimas de violencia conyugal (DCVC)

Curso de Especial InterésSe pretende diseñar un check list para identificar distorsiones cognitivas en víctimas de violencia conyugal, para el uso en entidades judiciales como la Fiscalía o Comisarías de familia, que posibilite una ruta de atención para orientar la intervención en restablecimiento de derechos en las víctimas. El instrumento está compuesto por 20 ítems distribuidos en seis categorías relacionados a tipos de distorsiones cognitivas.RESUMEN INTRODUCCIÓN PLANTEAMIENTO DEL PROBLEMA JUSTIFICACIÓN FUNDAMENTACIÓN TEÓRICA EL PERPETRADOR DE LA VIOLENCIA DE PAREJA, 30, 31 MARCO ÉTICO MARCO LEGAL OBJETIVOS MÉTODO RESULTADOS CONCLUSIONES REFERENCIASPregradoPsicólog

Prevalência do diagnóstico de enfermagem Volume de líquidos excessivo em pacientes submetidos à hemodiálise*

Objective: To identify the prevalence of nursing diagnosis of fluid volume excess and their defining characteristics in hemodialysis patients and the association between them. Method: Cross-sectional study conducted in two steps. We interviewed 100 patients between the months of December 2012 and April 2013 in a teaching hospital and one hemodialysis clinic. The inference was performed by diagnostician nurses between July and September 2013. Results: The diagnostic studied was identified in 82% of patients. The characteristics that were statistically associated: bounding pulses, pulmonary congestion, jugular vein distention, edema, change in electrolytes, weight gain, intake greater than output and abnormal breath sounds. Among these, edema and weight gain had the highest chances for the development of this diagnostic. Conclusion: The analyzed diagnostic is prevalent in this population and eight characteristics presented significant association.
Objetivo: Identificar a prevalência do diagnóstico de enfermagem Volume de líquidos excessivo e de suas características definidoras em pacientes submetidos à hemodiálise e verificar a associação entre ambos. Método: Pesquisa transversal realizada em duas etapas. Foram entrevistados 100 pacientes, entre os meses de dezembro de 2012 e abril de 2013, em um hospital universitário e em uma clínica de hemodiálise. A inferência foi realizada por enfermeiros diagnosticadores, entre julho e setembro de 2013. Resultados: O diagnóstico estudado foi identificado em 82% dos pacientes. As características que apresentaram associação estatística foram: agitação, congestão pulmonar, distensão de jugular, edema, eletrólitos alterados, ganho de peso, ingestão maior que o débito e ruídos adventícios. Dentre estas, edema e ganho de peso apresentaram as maiores chances para o desenvolvimento desse diagnóstico. Conclusão: O diagnóstico analisado é prevalente nesta clientela e oito características apresentaram associação significante.
Objetivo: Identificar la prevalencia del diagnóstico de enfermería Exceso de volumen de líquidos y sus características definitorias en pacientes sometidos a hemodiálisis y verificar la asociación entre ambos. Método: Estudio transversal, realizado en dos etapas. Se entrevistaron 100 pacientes, entre los meses de diciembre de 2012 y abril de 2013, de un hospital universitario y de una clínica de hemodiálisis. La inferencia diagnóstica fue realizada por enfermeros diagnosticadores, entre julio y septiembre de 2013. Resultados: El diagnóstico estudiado fue identificado en 82% de los pacientes. Las características que presentaron asociación estadística fueron: agitación, congestión pulmonar, distensión de la yugular, edema, electrolitos alterados, aumento de peso, ingesta mayor a las pérdidas y sonidos adventicios. Entre estos, el edema y el aumento de peso presentan mayor relación para la formulación del diagnóstico. Conclusión: Se concluye que el diagnóstico analizado es prevalente en esta población y que presentó asociación significativa con ocho características.

Protocolo de angioplastia pulmonar de balão num centro de referência nacional em hipertensão pulmonar

© 2021 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Introduction: Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) has emerged as a promising therapeutic option for patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) who are not eligible for pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PEA) or who have recurrent or persistent pulmonary hypertension after surgery. There is no standardized technique for BPA and, its complexity and high risk of severe complications, requires skills and appropriate training and should be reserved for expert CTEPH centers, as a complementary intervention to medical and surgical therapy. Objective: The purpose of this document is to describe the BPA protocol used at a high-volume center nationwide, validated by its results. Methods: The present protocol includes technical details, definition of outcomes and complications, as well as patient full diagnostic work-up and treatment algorithm, before and after BPA. Results: The technical, hemodynamic, and clinical results of the application of this protocol will be subject of a later publication where they will be described in detail. In conclusion, we present a percutaneous intervention protocol in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension in the context of chronic pulmonary thromboembolism, validated by its clinical, hemodynamic, and technical results.Introdução: A angioplastia da artéria pulmonar com balão (APB) é uma opção terapêutica promissora para doentes com hipertensão pulmonar tromboembólica crónica (HPTEC), não elegíveis para tromboendarterectomia pulmonar ou que apresentam hipertensão pulmonar recorrente ou persistente após cirurgia. Não existe uma técnica padronizada para APB, a sua complexidade e seu elevado risco de complicações severas requerem competências e um treino apropriado e deve ser reservada para centros especializados em HPTEC e como uma intervenção complementar à terapêutica médica e cirúrgica. Objetivo: Divulgar um protocolo de APB usado num centro com elevado volume a nível nacional, validado pelos seus resultados. Métodos: O presente protocolo inclui detalhes técnicos, definição atual de resultados e complicações, bem como o algoritmo de avaliação diagnóstica e tratamento do doente antes e depois da APB. Resultados: Os resultados técnicos, hemodinâmicos e clínicos da aplicação deste protocolo serão alvo de uma publicação posterior, na qual serão descritos em detalhe. Conclusão: Apresentamos um protocolo de intervenção percutânea no tratamento de hipertensão pulmonar em contexto de tromboembolismo pulmonar crónico, validado pelos seus resultados clínicos, hemodinâmicos e técnicosinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio