Earnings management and stock price crashes post-crossdelisting

We test whether cross-delisted firms from the major U.S. stock exchanges experience an increase in crash risk associated with earnings management. Consistent with our prediction, we find that earnings management have a greater positive impact on stock price crash risk post-cross-delisting when compared to a sample of still cross-listed firms. Moreover, our results suggest that this effect is more pronounced for crossdelisted firms from countries with weaker investor protection and poorer quality of their information environment. We further examine whether managers’ ability to manipulate earnings increases post-cross-delisting around seasoned equity offerings. Our evidence shows that cross-delisted firms that engage in earnings management to inflate reported earnings prior to a seasoned equity offering are more likely to observe a subsequent stock price crash.

Post-operating performance of cross-delisted firms from U.S. stock exchanges

We investigate the long-term performance of cross-delisted firms from U.S. stock markets. Using a sample of foreign firms listed and delisted from U.S. stock exchange markets over 2000-2012, we examine the operating performance and the long-run stock returns performance of firms post-cross-delisting. Our results suggest that cross-delisted firms have less growth opportunities than matched cross-listed firms in the long run. Moreover, firms that cross-delist after the passage of Rule 12h-6 of 2007 exhibit a significant decline in operating performance. In contrast, before the adoption of the Rule 12h-6, cross-delisted firms seem to be affected by the cost of a U.S. listing in the precross -delisting period. In addition, we provide evidence that cross-delisted firms underperform their cross-listed peers; cross-delisted firms experience negative average abnormal returns, especially in the post-delisting period.

Growth rate of a terra firme rain forest in Brazilian Amazonia over an eight-year period in response to logging

This paper deals with growth rates of trees > 5cm dbh over an eight-year period from 257 species at the Tapajós National Forest. The discussion is centred on the behaviour of the forest after logging. Permanent sample plots were established in 1981 and measured at the first time. The area was logged in 1982. Measurements after logging occurred in 1983, 1987 and 1989. Considering all species together, diameter increment was similar for both intensities of logging until five years after logging. Light-demanding species showed significantly higher growth rates than shade-tolerant species in the logged forest, with greater increment in the heavier treatment intensity. Commercial species also had higher growth rates in the heavier logged area, although those were significantly different only in the period from one to five years after logging. In the undisturbed forest, growth rates increased with increasing dbh size. At species level, growth rate varied between and within treatments, as well as between trees within species, depending mainly on degree of canopy opening. The logging favoured the growth of commercial species, chiefly the light-demanders. Therefore, if the same growth conditions continue being given, for example by silvicultural treatments, to those species of commercial interest, the forest would reach a stock available for harvesting around year 30 after logging. However, the high variation in increment rates indicates that an eight-year period is not sufficient to allow predictions on cutting cycles or polycyclic management systems for the study forest.

Global warming in Amazonia: impacts and Mitigation

Global warming has potentially catastrophic impacts in Amazonia, while at the same time maintenance of the Amazon forest offers one of the most valuable and cost-effective options for mitigating climate change. We know that the El Niño phenomenon, caused by temperature oscillations of surface water in the Pacific, has serious impacts in Amazonia, causing droughts and forest fires (as in 1997-1998). Temperature oscillations in the Atlantic also provoke severe droughts (as in 2005). We also know that Amazonian trees die both from fires and from water stress under hot, dry conditions. In addition, water recycled through the forest provides rainfall that maintains climatic conditions appropriate for tropical forest, especially in the dry season. What we need to know quickly, through intensified research, includes progress in representing El Niño and the Atlantic oscillations in climatic models, representation of biotic feedbacks in models used for decision-making about global warming, and narrowing the range of estimating climate sensitivity to reduce uncertainty about the probability of very severe impacts. Items that need to be negotiated include the definition of "dangerous" climate change, with the corresponding maximum levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Mitigation of global warming must include maintaining the Amazon forest, which has benefits for combating global warming from two separate roles: cutting the flow the emissions of carbon each year from the rapid pace of deforestation, and avoiding emission of the stock of carbon in the remaining forest that can be released by various ways, including climate change itself. Barriers to rewarding forest maintenance include the need for financial rewards for both of these roles. Other needs are for continued reduction of uncertainty regarding emissions and deforestation processes, as well as agreement on the basis of carbon accounting. As one of the countries most subject to impacts of climate change, Brazil must assume the leadership in fighting global warming.

Sustentabilidade no Design: uma abordagem aos resíduos limpos das indústrias do calçado

Dissertação de mestrado em Design e Marketing

Aplicação de técnicas e procedimentos Lean Production numa empresa da indústria automóvel

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Implementação de um sistema de gestão e monitorização de embalagens retornáveis em ambiente industrial

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia de Sistemas

Desenvolvimento de um Módulo Habitacional “embrionário” “Plug-in” de habitação unifamiliar

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Arquitectura

Consumption, wealth, stock and housing returns: evidence from emerging markets

We test the predictive ability of the transitory deviations of consumption from its common trend with aggregate wealth and labour income, cay, for both future equity and housing risk premia in emerging market economies. Using quarterly data for 31 markets, our country-level evidence shows that forecasting power of cay vis-à-vis stock returns is high for Brazil, China, Colombia, Israel, Korea, Latvia and Malaysia. As for housing returns, the empirical evidence suggests that financial and housing assets are perceived as complements in the case of Chile, Russia, South Africa and Thailand, and as substitutes in Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico and Taiwan. Using a panel econometric framework, we find that the cross-country heterogeneity observed in asset return predictability does not accrue to regional location, but can be attributed to differences in the degree of equity market development and in the level of income.

Investor sentiment and the cross-section of stock returns in the French stock market

Dissertação de mestrado em Finanças

Moradias sobredimensionadas dos anos 70‐90 na periferia de Braga: processo de transformação

According to the latest census (2011) covering the Portuguese housing stock, there is a considerable number of sub-occupied buildings and most of them were built before the first Portuguese Thermal Code (RCCTE). In view of the objectives of the European Union (20-20-20), it is necessary to contribute to the rehabilitation of existing buildings by promoting the densification of oversized houses, while complying with up-to-date comfort standards and codes. In this sense, this research is aimed to analyse this problem at the outskirts of Braga, by identifying the type-morphology of oversized buildings, assessing the degree of satisfaction and expectations of both owners and inhabitants and developing and testing a systematic design tool. Through the development of an intervention kit, wich systematizes and priorizes design strategies and solutions, the design team can have the necessary decision-making support tool to improve the spacial design of the building whilst considering energy efficency, sustainability and improvemente of interior environmental quality.

Development of sandwich panels of customized functionalities for the rehabilitation of the built patrimony

Dissertação de International Master in Sustainable Built Environment

Cutting balloon angioplasty for intrastent restenosis treatment

We describe here two patients with angiographic diagnosis of intrastent restenosis and regional myocardial ischemia. One stent restenosis was located in a native coronary artery and the other in a vein graft. Both were treated with cutting balloon angioplasty (CBA), inflated at low pressures. Angiographic success was obtained and both patients were discharged in the day after the procedure. Cutting balloon angioplasty using low inflation pressures achieved important luminal gains, in these two cases of intrastent restenosis. Further studies are necessary before the effectiveness of this procedure can be precisely defined.

Relative information entropy in cosmology: The problem of information entanglement

The necessary information to distinguish a local inhomogeneous mass density field from its spatial average on a compact domain of the universe can be measured by relative information entropy. The Kullback-Leibler (KL) formula arises very naturally in this context, however, it provides a very complicated way to compute the mutual information between spatially separated but causally connected regions of the universe in a realistic, inhomogeneous model. To circumvent this issue, by considering a parametric extension of the KL measure, we develop a simple model to describe the mutual information which is entangled via the gravitational field equations. We show that the Tsallis relative entropy can be a good approximation in the case of small inhomogeneities, and for measuring the independent relative information inside the domain, we propose the R\'enyi relative entropy formula.

Fathers’ emotional involvement with the neonate: impact of the umbilical cord cutting experience

Aims. This paper is a report on a study analysing the effect of the umbilical cord cutting experience on fathers’ emotional involvement with their infants. Background. Participation in childbirth offers an opportunity for father and mother to share the childbirth experience, so it is vital that midwives improve the fathers’ participation in this event. Design. A quasi-experimental study with a quantitative methodology was implemented. Methods. One hundred and five fathers were recruited as part of a convenience sample in a Maternity Public Hospital in a Metropolitan City in Portugal, between January and May of 2008. The Bonding Scale, the Portuguese version of the ‘Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale’ was used to evaluate the fathers’ emotional involvement with the neonate at different moments: before childbirth, first day after childbirth and first month after childbirth. After childbirth, the fathers were divided into three separate groups depending on their umbilical cord cutting experience. Results. The results demonstrate that the emotional involvement between father and child tends to increase during the first days after childbirth and to decrease when evaluated 1 month after birth, for fathers who did not cut the umbilical cord. However, fathers who cut the umbilical cord demonstrate an improvement in emotional involvement 1 month later. Conclusion. Results suggest that the umbilical cord cutting experience benefits the father’s emotional involvement with the neonate, supporting the benefits of his participation and empowerment in childbirth.