The impact of family control on firm's return

Family firm is a field of growing interest. The aim of this article is to understand whether CEOs identity impacts family firm’s stock returns. From a sample of Portuguese and Spanish family firms findings show that who manages the firms result in significantly different risk exposure. Moreover, we find that the abnormal return found by Fahlenbrach (2009) to founder-controlled firms disappear when we use valueweighted portfolios and include two new factors: market aggregate illiquidity and debt intensity to the four-factor Carhart model. Finally, our results explain why the majority of family firm is controlled by its founder.

Órgãos de governo da família empresária Governing bodies of family business

RESUMO A importância das empresas familiares nas economias modernas exige que sejam melhor conhecidos os processos de tomada de decisão nas mesmas, nomeadamente, aqueles que têm origem no seio das famílias que as detêm ou controlam. A separação do património da família e do património afecto ao negócio é uma condição necessária para um bom relacionamento entre estes dois subsistemas. À semelhança dos órgãos de administração da empresa familiar também a família empresária tem os seus órgãos de governo: reunião de família, assembleia de família, conselho familiar, comissões familiares ad-hoc, protocolo familiar e family office. São estes órgãos que vão ser apresentados. ABSTRACT The importance that family firms have in today’s economy requires that one understands the decision making process in these types of firms, particularly the decision making process that stem from within the family circle that controls the firm. In order to understand these processes and the relationship between the two “subsystems of decision-making” one must separate the family’s resources from the family’s resources that has been engaged in the business. The family businesses, likewise the family firm, also have its own bodies of administration, such as family assemblies, family councils, family commissions and meetings, family’ protocols, as well as family office.

Cholesterol 24S-Hydroxylase overexpression inhibits the liver X receptor (LXR) pathway by activating small guanosine triphosphate-binding proteins (sGTPases) in neuronal cells

The neuronal-specific cholesterol 24S-hydroxylase (CYP46A1) is important for brain cholesterol elimination. Cyp46a1 null mice exhibit severe deficiencies in learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation, suggested to be caused by a decrease in isoprenoid intermediates of the mevalonate pathway. Conversely, transgenic mice overexpressing CYP46A1 show an improved cognitive function. These results raised the question of whether CYP46A1 expression can modulate the activity of proteins that are crucial for neuronal function, namely of isoprenylated small guanosine triphosphate-binding proteins (sGTPases). Our results show that CYP46A1 overexpression in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells and in primary cultures of rat cortical neurons leads to an increase in 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase activity and to an overall increase in membrane levels of RhoA, Rac1, Cdc42 and Rab8. This increase is accompanied by a specific increase in RhoA activation. Interestingly, treatment with lovastatin or a geranylgeranyltransferase-I inhibitor abolished the CYP46A1 effect. The CYP46A1-mediated increase in sGTPases membrane abundance was confirmed in vivo, in membrane fractions obtained from transgenic mice overexpressing this enzyme. Moreover, CYP46A1 overexpression leads to a decrease in the liver X receptor (LXR) transcriptional activity and in the mRNA levels of ATP-binding cassette transporter 1, sub-family A, member 1 and apolipoprotein E. This effect was abolished by inhibition of prenylation or by co-transfection of a RhoA dominant-negative mutant. Our results suggest a novel regulatory axis in neurons; under conditions of membrane cholesterol reduction by increased CYP46A1 expression, neurons increase isoprenoid synthesis and sGTPase prenylation. This leads to a reduction in LXR activity, and consequently to a decrease in the expression of LXR target genes.

Burn wood influence on outdoor air quality in a small village: Foros de Arrão, Portugal

One Plus Sequential Air Sampler—Partisol was placed in a small village (Foros de Arrão) in central Portugal to collect PM10 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter below 10 μm), during the winter period for 3 months (December 2009–March 2010). Particles masses were gravimetrically determined and the filters were analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis to assess their chemical composition. The water-soluble ion compositions of the collected particles were determined by Ion-exchange Chromatography. Principal component analysis was applied to the data set of chemical elements and soluble ions to assess the main sources of the air pollutants. The use of both analytical techniques provided information about elemental solubility, such as for potassium, which was important to differentiate sources.

Evaluation of the respiratory motion effect in small animal PET images with GATE Monte Carlo simulations

The rapid growth in genetics and molecular biology combined with the development of techniques for genetically engineering small animals has led to increased interest in in vivo small animal imaging. Small animal imaging has been applied frequently to the imaging of small animals (mice and rats), which are ubiquitous in modeling human diseases and testing treatments. The use of PET in small animals allows the use of subjects as their own control, reducing the interanimal variability. This allows performing longitudinal studies on the same animal and improves the accuracy of biological models. However, small animal PET still suffers from several limitations. The amounts of radiotracers needed, limited scanner sensitivity, image resolution and image quantification issues, all could clearly benefit from additional research. Because nuclear medicine imaging deals with radioactive decay, the emission of radiation energy through photons and particles alongside with the detection of these quanta and particles in different materials make Monte Carlo method an important simulation tool in both nuclear medicine research and clinical practice. In order to optimize the quantitative use of PET in clinical practice, data- and image-processing methods are also a field of intense interest and development. The evaluation of such methods often relies on the use of simulated data and images since these offer control of the ground truth. Monte Carlo simulations are widely used for PET simulation since they take into account all the random processes involved in PET imaging, from the emission of the positron to the detection of the photons by the detectors. Simulation techniques have become an importance and indispensable complement to a wide range of problems that could not be addressed by experimental or analytical approaches.

Leptonic mixing, family symmetries, and neutrino phenomenology

Tribimaximal leptonic mixing is a mass-independent mixing scheme consistent with the present solar and atmospheric neutrino data. By conveniently decomposing the effective neutrino mass matrix associated to it, we derive generic predictions in terms of the parameters governing the neutrino masses. We extend this phenomenological analysis to other mass-independent mixing schemes which are related to the tribimaximal form by a unitary transformation. We classify models that produce tribimaximal leptonic mixing through the group structure of their family symmetries in order to point out that there is often a direct connection between the group structure and the phenomenological analysis. The type of seesaw mechanism responsible for neutrino masses plays a role here, as it restricts the choices of family representations and affects the viability of leptogenesis. We also present a recipe to generalize a given tribimaximal model to an associated model with a different mass-independent mixing scheme, which preserves the connection between the group structure and phenomenology as in the original model. This procedure is explicitly illustrated by constructing toy models with the transpose tribimaximal, bimaximal, golden ratio, and hexagonal leptonic mixing patterns.

Geometric picture of generalized-CP and Higgs-family transformations in the two-Higgs-doublet model

In the two-Higgs-doublet model (THDM), generalized-CP transformations (phi(i) -> X-ij phi(*)(j) where X is unitary) and unitary Higgs-family transformations (phi(i) -> U-ij phi(j)) have recently been examined in a series of papers. In terms of gauge-invariant bilinear functions of the Higgs fields phi(i), the Higgs-family transformations and the generalized-CP transformations possess a simple geometric description. Namely, these transformations correspond in the space of scalar-field bilinears to proper and improper rotations, respectively. In this formalism, recent results relating generalized CP transformations with Higgs-family transformations have a clear geometric interpretation. We will review what is known regarding THDM symmetries, as well as derive new results concerning those symmetries, namely how they can be interpreted geometrically as applications of several CP transformations.

Adaptive mutations in bacteria: high rate and small effects

Evolution by natural selection is driven by the continuous generation of adaptive mutations. We measured the genomic mutation rate that generates beneficial mutations and their effects on fitness in Escherichia coli under conditions in which the effect of competition between lineages carrying different beneficial mutations is minimized. We found a rate on the order of 10–5 per genome per generation, which is 1000 times as high as previous estimates, and a mean selective advantage of 1%. Such a high rate of adaptive evolution has implications for the evolution of antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity.

Determinação de propriedades mecânicas através de ensaios de provetes miniatura, "Small Punch"

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

O envolvimento das famílias nas actividades de sala de aula de 1.º ciclo

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção de grau de mestre em Ensino do 1.º e do 2.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Domesticating portuguese television

This chapter discusses the role of television within Portuguese family life. In particular, it examines how the domestication of television within the home is influenced by the social context in which different types of families live. The research is framed around the theory of domestication and based on 50 semi-structured interviews.1 “Domestication” is the process by which the household and its surroundings (both private and the public), together with the moral and formal or objective economy, are related to each other and become mutually constitutive (Silverstone, Hirsch and Morley 1999). The metaphor of “domestication” originally comes from the taming of wild animals, but has been usefully applied to the “domestication” of information communication technology (ICT), including television, within the home. Silverstone et al. (1999) have developed a range of concepts to capture this process, of which the best known are: “appropriation”, “objectification”, “incorporation” and “conversion”. These categories describe how the entry of ICT into the home is managed; how artefacts are physically (and symbolically) placed within the home; how they are adapted into everyday routines; and how they are displayed to others (Haddon 2007, 26). These four key concepts will be used in this chapter to discuss the importance of television within Portugal as an example of a small country in which there has been little research using this particular theoretical approach. Most studies on Portuguese television have focused on televisual history or come from research into trends in television consumption. The domestication theory is a holistic framework, useful to explain the meaning of television in Portuguese homes in all the stages of its presence in daily life. This forms part of a larger international project entitled Digital Inclusion and Participation: Comparing the Trajectories of Digital Media Use by Majority and Disadvantage Groups in Portugal and in the USA (UT Austin/Portugal Program).

Inherently chiral calix[4]arenes with planar chirality: two new entries to the family

The synthesis of two new inherently chiral calix[4]arenes (ICCs, 1 and 2), endowed with electron-rich concave surfaces, has been achieved through the desymmetrization of a lower rim distal-bridged oxacyclophane (OCP) macrocycle. The new highly emissive ICCs were resolved by chiral HPLC, and the enantiomeric nature of the isolated antipodes proved by electronic circular dichroism (CD). Using time-dependent density functional calculations of CD spectra, their absolute configurations were established. NMR studies with (S)-Pirkle's alcohol unequivocally showed that the host-guest interactions occur in the chiral pocket comprehending the calix-OCP exo cavities and the carbazole moieties.

Invariant integrals applied to nematic liquid crystals with small Ericksen number and topological defects

Invariant integrals are derived for nematic liquid crystals and applied to materials with small Ericksen number and topological defects. The nematic material is confined between two infinite plates located at y = -h and y = h (h is an element of R+) with a semi-infinite plate at y = 0 and x < 0. Planar and homeotropic strong anchoring boundary conditions to the director field are assumed at these two infinite and semi-infinite plates, respectively. Thus, a line disclination appears in the system which coincides with the z-axis. Analytical solutions to the director field in the neighbourhood of the singularity are obtained. However, these solutions depend on an arbitrary parameter. The nematic elastic force is thus evaluated from an invariant integral of the energy-momentum tensor around a closed surface which does not contain the singularity. This allows one to determine this parameter which is a function of the nematic cell thickness and the strength of the disclination. Analytical solutions are also deduced for the director field in the whole region using the conformal mapping method. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reactivity of bulky tris(Phenylpyrazolyl) methanesulfonate copper(I) complexes towards small unsaturated molecules

Reaction of the tris(3-phenylpyrazolyl)methane sulfonate species (Tpms(Ph))Li with the copper(I) complex [Cu(MeCN)(4)][PF6] affords [Cu(Tpms(Ph))(MeCN)] 1. The latter, upon reaction with equimolar amounts of cyclohexyl-(CyNC) or 2,6-dimethylphenyl (XylNC) isocyanides, or excess CO, furnishes the corresponding Cu(I)complexes [Cu(Tpms(Ph))(CNR)] (R = Cy 2, Xyl 3) or [Cu(Tpms(Ph))(CO)] 4. The ligated isocyanide in 2 or 3 (or the acetonitrile ligand in 1)is displaced by 3-iminoisoindolin-1-one to afford 5, the first copper(I) complex containing an 3-iminoisoindolin-1-one ligand. The ligated acetonitrile in 1 undergoes nucleophilic attack by methylamine to give the amidine complex [Cu(Tpms(Ph)){MeC(NH)NHMe}] 6, whereas only the starting materials were recovered from the attempted corresponding reactions of 2 and 3 with methylamine. Complexes 1 or 6 form the trinuclear hydroxo-copper(II)species [(mu-Cu){Cu(mu-OH) (2)(Tpms(Ph))}(2)] 7 upon air oxidation in moist methanol. In all the complexes the scorpionate ligand facially caps the metal in the N,N,O-coordination mode.

Plano de negócios: UpBiz

Trabalho de projeto apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Publicidade e Marketing.