Corporate Social Responsibility in the Oil and Gas Industry: Environmental Management Systems as a Source of Sustainable Development

The environmental aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) expressed through the process of the EMS implementation in the oil and gas companies is identified as the main subject of this research. In the theoretical part, the basic attention is paid to justification of a link between CSR and environmental management. The achievement of sustainable competitive advantage as a result of environmental capital growth and inclusion of the socially responsible activities in the corporate strategy is another issue that is of special significance here. Besides, two basic forms of environmental management systems (environmental decision support systems and environmental information management systems) are explored and their role in effective stakeholder interaction is tackled. The most crucial benefits of EMS are also analyzed to underline its importance as a source of sustainable development. Further research is based on the survey of 51 sampled oil and gas companies (both publicly owned and state owned ones) originated from different countries all over the world and providing reports on sustainability issues in the open access. To analyze their approach to sustainable development, a specifically designed evaluation matrix with 37 indicators developed in accordance with the General Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for non-financial reporting was prepared. Additionally, the quality of environmental information disclosure was measured on the basis of a quality – quantity matrix. According to results of research, oil and gas companies prefer implementing reactive measures to the costly and knowledge-intensive proactive techniques for elimination of the negative environmental impacts. Besides, it was identified that the environmental performance disclosure is mostly rather limited, so that the quality of non-financial reporting can be judged as quite insufficient. In spite of the fact that most of the oil and gas companies in the sample claim the EMS to be embedded currently in their structure, they often do not provide any details for the process of their implementation. As a potential for the further development of EMS, author mentions possible integration of their different forms in a single entity, extension of existing structure on the basis of consolidation of the structural and strategic precautions as well as development of a unified certification standard instead of several ones that exist today in order to enhance control on the EMS implementation.

Nested-PCR for the detection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae in bronchial alveolar swabs, frozen tissues and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded swine lung samples: comparative evaluation with immunohistochemical findings and histological features

The diagnosis of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae infection is often performed through histopathology, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or a combination of these techniques. PCR can be performed on samples using several conservation methods, including swabs, frozen tissue or formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue. However, the formalin fixation process often inhibits DNA amplification. To evaluate whether M. hyopneumoniae DNA could be recovered from FFPE tissues, 15 lungs with cranioventral consolidation lesions were collected in a slaughterhouse from swine bred in herds with respiratory disease. Bronchial swabs and fresh lung tissue were collected, and a fragment of the corresponding lung section was placed in neutral buffered formalin for 48 hours. A PCR assay was performed to compare FFPE tissue samples with samples that were only refrigerated (bronchial swabs) or frozen (tissue pieces). M. hyopneumoniae was detected by PCR in all 15 samples of the swab and frozen tissue, while it was detected in only 11 of the 15 FFPE samples. Histological features of M. hyopneumoniae infection were presented in 11 cases and 7 of these samples stained positive in IHC. Concordance between the histological features and detection results was observed in 13 of the FFPE tissue samples. PCR was the most sensitive technique. Comparison of different sample conservation methods indicated that it is possible to detect M. hyopneumoniae from FFPE tissue. It is important to conduct further research using archived material because the efficiency of PCR could be compromised under these conditions.

RCAAP: Building and maintaining a national repository network

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Involvement of hippocampal NMDA receptors in retention of shuttle avoidance conditioning in rats

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the role of hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in acquisition and consolidation of memory during shuttle avoidance conditioning in rats. Adult male Wistar rats were surgically implanted with cannulae aimed at the CA1 area of the dorsal hippocampus. After recovery from surgery, animals were trained and tested in a shuttle avoidance apparatus (30 trials, 0.5-mA footshock, 24-h training-test interval). Immediately before or immediately after training, animals received a bilateral intrahippocampal 0.5-µl infusion containing 5.0 µg of the NMDA competitive receptor antagonist aminophosphonopentanoic acid (AP5) or vehicle (phosphate-buffered saline, pH 7.4). Infusion duration was 2 min per side. Pre-training infusion of AP5 impaired retention test performance (mean ± SEM number of conditioned responses (CRs) during retention test session was 16.47 ± 1.78 in the vehicle group and 9.93 ± 1.59 in the AP5 group; P<0.05). Post-training infusion of AP5 did not affect retention (mean ± SEM number of conditioned responses during retention test session was 18.46 ± 1.94 in the vehicle group and 20.42 ± 2.38 in the AP5 group; P>0.10). This impairment could not be attributed to an effect on acquisition, motor activity or footshock sensitivity since AP5 affected neither training session performance measured by the number of CRs nor the number of intertrial crossings during the training session. These data suggest that NMDA receptors in the hippocampus are critical for retention of shuttle avoidance conditioning, in agreement with previous evidence showing a role of NMDA receptors in fear memory.

The brain decade in debate: VII. Neurobiology of sleep and dreams

This article is a transcription of an electronic symposium held on February 5, 2001 by the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC) during which eight specialists involved in clinical and experimental research on sleep and dreaming exposed their personal experience and theoretical points of view concerning these highly polemic subjects. Unlike most other bodily functions, sleep and dreaming cannot, so far, be defined in terms of definitive functions that play an ascribable role in maintaining the organism as a whole. Such difficulties appear quite clearly all along the discussions. In this symposium, concepts on sleep function range from a protective behavior to an essential function for maturation of the nervous system. Kleitman's hypothesis [Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (1974), 159: 293-294] was discussed, according to which the basal state is not the wakeful state but sleep, from which we awake to eat, to protect ourselves, to procreate, etc. Dreams, on the other hand, were widely discussed, being considered either as an important step in consolidation of learning or simply the conscious identification of functional patterns derived from the configuration of released or revoked memorized information.

Social Solidarity and Fear of Crime - Community and Individual Approaches in Responses to Mass Violence after School Shootings

The aim of this study was to examine community and individual approaches in responses to mass violence after the school shooting incidents in Jokela (November 2007) and Kauhajoki (September 2008), Finland. In considering the community approach, responses to any shocking criminal event may have integrative, as well as disintegrative effects, within the neighborhood. The integration perspective argues that a heinous criminal event within one’s community is a matter of offence to collectively held feelings and beliefs, and increases perceived solidarity; whereas the disintegration perspective suggests that a criminal event weakens the social fabric of community life by increasing fear of crime and mistrust among locals. In considering the individual approach, socio-demographic factors, such as one’s gender, are typically significant indicators, which explain variation in fear of crime. Beyond this, people are not equally exposed to violent crime and therefore prior victimization and event related experiences may further explain why people differ in their sensitivity to risk from mass violence. Finally, factors related to subjective mental health, such as depressed mood, are also likely to moderate individual differences in responses to mass violence. This study is based on the correlational design of four independent cross-sectional postal surveys. The sampling frames (N=700) for the surveys were the Finnish speaking adult population aged 18–74-years. The first mail survey in Jokela (n=330) was conducted between May and June 2008, approximately six months from the shooting incident at the local high-school. The second Jokela survey (n=278) was conducted in May–June of 2009, 18 months removed from the incident. The first survey in Kauhajoki (n=319) was collected six months after the incident at the local University of Applied Sciences, March– April 2009, and the second (n=339) in March–April 2010, approximately 18 months after the event. Linear and ordinal regression and path analysis are used as methods of analyses. The school shootings in Jokela and Kauhajoki were extremely disturbing events, which deeply affected the communities involved. However, based on the results collected, community responses to mass violence between the two localities were different. An increase in social solidarity appears to apply in the case of the Jokela community, but not in the case of the Kauhajoki community. Thus a criminal event does not necessarily impact the wider community. Every empirical finding is most likely related to different contextual and event-specific factors. Beyond this, community responses to mass violence in Jokela also indicated that the incident was related to a more general sense of insecurity and was also associating with perceived community deterioration and further suggests that responses to mass violence may have both integrating and disintegrating effects. Moreover, community responses to mass violence should also be examined in relation to broader social anxieties and as a proxy for generalized insecurity. Community response is an emotive process and incident related feelings are perhaps projected onto other identifiable concerns. However, this may open the door for social errors and, despite integrative effects, this may also have negative consequences within the neighborhood. The individual approach suggests that women are more fearful than men when a threat refers to violent crime. Young women (aged 18–34) were the most worried age and gender group as concerns perception of threat from mass violence at schools compared to young men (aged 18–34), who were also the least worried age and gender group when compared to older men. It was also found that concerns about mass violence were stronger among respondents with the lowest level of monthly household income compared to financially better-off respondents. Perhaps more importantly, responses to mass violence were affected by the emotional proximity to the event; and worry about the recurrence of school shootings was stronger among respondents who either were a parent of a school-aged child, or knew a victim. Finally, results indicate that psychological wellbeing is an important individual level factor. Respondents who expressed depressed mood consistently expressed their concerns about mass violence and community deterioration. Systematic assessments of the impact of school shooting events on communities are therefore needed. This requires the consolidation of community and individual approaches. Comparative study designs would further benefit from international collaboration across disciplines. Extreme school violence has also become a national concern and deeper understanding of crime related anxieties in contemporary Finland also requires community-based surveys.

Alloxan-induced diabetes delays repair in a rat model of closed tibial fracture

A closed fracture was performed on the left tibia of 3-month-old Wistar rats weighing 250 to 350 g that were either healthy (N = 24) or made diabetic with alloxan (N = 24) to investigate the effect of alloxan-induced diabetes on the course of bone fracture healing. Histomorphometric analysis of the fracture site was performed at 7, 14, 25, and 35 days. After 7 days, diabetic rats had significantly less cartilage (P = 0.045) and greater fibrous connective (P = 0.006) tissue formation at the fracture site compared to controls. In contrast, marked callus formation was seen in diabetic rats with significant osteogenesis (P = 0.011, P = 0.010, P = 0.010, respectively, for 14, 25, and 35 days) and chondrogenesis (P = 0.028, P = 0.033, P = 0.019) compared to controls. Radiographic analysis revealed a displaced fracture with poor bone fragment alignment and delayed consolidation at these times in the diabetic group. The levels of alkaline phosphatase were significantly higher in diabetic rats at 25 days (P = 0.009). These results suggest that the initial excessive formation of fibrous connective tissue associated with delay in chondrogenesis and osteogenesis may not provide suitable stability of the fractured site, contributing to the inappropriate alignment of fragments and an increase in the volume of callus in later stages of repair. The resulting displaced fracture in diabetic rats requires long periods for remodeling and complete bone consolidation.

L-histidine reduces inhibitory avoidance in Carassius auratus submitted to cerebellar ablation

The effect of post-training treatment with L-histidine (LH) on the memory consolidation of inhibitory avoidance was investigated in Carassius auratus submitted to cerebellar ablation. The inhibitory avoidance procedure included 3 days: one habituation day, one training day (5 trials, T1-T5) and one test day. On the training day, each fish was placed individually in a white compartment separated from a black compartment by a sliding door. When the fish crossed into the black compartment, a weight was dropped in front of it (aversive stimulus) and the time to cross was recorded. Saline or LH (100 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally 10 min after the trials. Data were log10 transformed and analyzed by ANOVA and the Student-Newman-Keuls test (P < 0.05). In T5, all groups [ablation/LH (N = 15; 189.60 ± 32.52), ablation/saline (N = 14; 204.29 ± 28.95), sham/LH (N = 14; 232.36 ± 28.15), and sham/saline (N = 15; 249.07 ± 25.82)] had similar latencies that were significantly higher than T1 latencies [ablation/LH (89.33 ± 20.41), ablation/saline (97.00 ± 25.16), sham/LH (73.86 ± 18.42), and sham/saline (56.71 ± 17.59)], suggesting acquisition of inhibitory avoidance. For the test, there was a significant reduction in latencies of ablation/LH (61.53 ± 17.70) and sham/saline (52.79 ± 25.37) groups compared to the ablation/saline (213.64 ± 29.57) and sham/LH (199.43 ± 24.48) groups, showing that cerebellum ablation facilitated retention of inhibitory avoidance and LH reversed the effect of ablation. The results support other evidence that LH impairs memory consolidation and/or reduces the interpretation of aversion value.

The influence of stress on fear memory processes

It is well recognized that stressful experiences promote robust emotional memories, which are well remembered. The amygdaloid complex, principally the basolateral complex (BLA), plays a pivotal role in fear memory and in the modulation of stress-induced emotional responses. A large number of reports have revealed that GABAergic interneurons provide a powerful inhibitory control of the activity of projecting glutamatergic neurons in the BLA. Indeed, a reduced GABAergic control in the BLA is essential for the stress-induced influence on the emergence of associative fear memory and on the generation of long-term potentiation (LTP) in BLA neurons. The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) subfamily of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway in the BLA plays a central role in the consolidation process and synaptic plasticity. In support of the view that stress facilitates long-term fear memory, stressed animals exhibited a phospho-ERK2 (pERK2) increase in the BLA, suggesting the involvement of this mechanism in the promoting influence of threatening stimuli on the consolidation fear memory. Moreover, the occurrence of reactivation-induced lability is prevented when fear memory is encoded under intense stressful conditions since the memory trace remains immune to disruption after recall in previously stressed animals. Thus, the underlying mechanism in retrieval-induced instability seems not to be functional in memories formed under stress. All these findings are indicative that stress influences both the consolidation and reconsolidation fear memory processes. Thus, it seems reasonable to propose that the emotional state generated by an environmental challenge critically modulates the formation and maintenance of long-term fear memory.

H1 but not H2 histamine antagonist receptors mediate anxiety-related behaviors and emotional memory deficit in mice subjected to elevated plus-maze testing

This study investigated the role of H1 and H2 receptors in anxiety and the retrieval of emotional memory using a Trial 1/Trial 2 (T1/T2) protocol in an elevated plus-maze (EPM). Tests were performed on 2 consecutive days, designated T1 and T2. Before T1, the mice received intraperitoneal injections of saline (SAL), 20 mg/kg zolantidine (ZOL, an H2receptor antagonist), or 8.0 or 16 mg/kg chlorpheniramine (CPA, an H1 receptor antagonist). After 40 min, they were subjected to the EPM test. In T2 (24 h later), each group was subdivided into two additional groups, and the animals from each group were re-injected with SAL or one of the drugs. In T1, the Student t-test showed no difference between the SAL and ZOL or 8 mg/kg CPA groups with respect to the percentages of open arm entries (%OAE) and open arm time (%OAT). However, administration of CPA at the highest dose of 16 mg/kg decreased %OAE and %OAT, but not locomotor activity, indicating anxiogenic-like behavior. Emotional memory, as revealed by a reduction in open arm exploration between the two trials, was observed in all experimental groups, indicating that ZOL and 8 mg/kg CPA did not affect emotional memory, whereas CPA at the highest dose affected acquisition and consolidation, but not retrieval of memory. Taken together, these results suggest that H1 receptor, but not H2, is implicated in anxiety-like behavior and in emotional memory acquisition and consolidation deficits in mice subjected to EPM testing.

Low-dose thioperamide injected into the cerebellar vermis of mice immediately after exposure to the elevated plus-maze impairs their avoidance behavior on re-exposure to the apparatus

The present study investigated the effect of thioperamide (THIO), an H3 histaminergic receptor antagonist, microinjected into the cerebellar vermis on emotional memory consolidation in male Swiss albino mice re-exposed to the elevated plus-maze (EPM). We implanted a guide cannula into the cerebellar vermis using stereotactic surgery. On the third day after surgery, we performed behavioral tests for two consecutive days. On the first day (exposure), the mice (n=10/group) were exposed to the EPM and received THIO (0.06, 0.3, or 1.5 ng/0.1 µL) immediately after the end of the session. Twenty-four hours later, the mice were re-exposed to the EPM under the same experimental conditions, but without drug injection. A reduction in the exploration of the open arms upon re-exposure to the EPM (percentage of number of entries and time spent in open arms) compared with the initial exposure was used as an indicator of learning and memory. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Duncan post hoc test was used to analyze the data. Upon re-exposure, exploratory activity in the open arms was reduced in the control group, and with the two highest THIO doses: 0.3 and 1.5 ng/0.1 µL. No reduction was seen with the lowest THIO dose (0.06 ng/0.1 µL), indicating inhibition of the consolidation of emotional memory. None of the doses interfered with the animals' locomotor activity. We conclude that THIO at the lowest dose (0.06 ng/0.1 µL) microinjected into the cerebellum impaired emotional memory consolidation in mice.

Nichesourcing The Uralic Languages For The Benefit Of Linguistic Research And Lingual Societies

The emerging technologies have recently challenged the libraries to reconsider their role as a mere mediator between the collections, researchers, and wider audiences (Sula, 2013), and libraries, especially the nationwide institutions like national libraries, haven’t always managed to face the challenge (Nygren et al., 2014). In the Digitization Project of Kindred Languages, the National Library of Finland has become a node that connects the partners to interplay and work for shared goals and objectives. In this paper, I will be drawing a picture of the crowdsourcing methods that have been established during the project to support both linguistic research and lingual diversity. The National Library of Finland has been executing the Digitization Project of Kindred Languages since 2012. The project seeks to digitize and publish approximately 1,200 monograph titles and more than 100 newspapers titles in various, and in some cases endangered Uralic languages. Once the digitization has been completed in 2015, the Fenno-Ugrica online collection will consist of 110,000 monograph pages and around 90,000 newspaper pages to which all users will have open access regardless of their place of residence. The majority of the digitized literature was originally published in the 1920s and 1930s in the Soviet Union, and it was the genesis and consolidation period of literary languages. This was the era when many Uralic languages were converted into media of popular education, enlightenment, and dissemination of information pertinent to the developing political agenda of the Soviet state. The ‘deluge’ of popular literature in the 1920s to 1930s suddenly challenged the lexical orthographic norms of the limited ecclesiastical publications from the 1880s onward. Newspapers were now written in orthographies and in word forms that the locals would understand. Textbooks were written to address the separate needs of both adults and children. New concepts were introduced in the language. This was the beginning of a renaissance and period of enlightenment (Rueter, 2013). The linguistically oriented population can also find writings to their delight, especially lexical items specific to a given publication, and orthographically documented specifics of phonetics. The project is financially supported by the Kone Foundation in Helsinki and is part of the Foundation’s Language Programme. One of the key objectives of the Kone Foundation Language Programme is to support a culture of openness and interaction in linguistic research, but also to promote citizen science as a tool for the participation of the language community in research. In addition to sharing this aspiration, our objective within the Language Programme is to make sure that old and new corpora in Uralic languages are made available for the open and interactive use of the academic community as well as the language societies. Wordlists are available in 17 languages, but without tokenization, lemmatization, and so on. This approach was verified with the scholars, and we consider the wordlists as raw data for linguists. Our data is used for creating the morphological analyzers and online dictionaries at the Helsinki and Tromsø Universities, for instance. In order to reach the targets, we will produce not only the digitized materials but also their development tools for supporting linguistic research and citizen science. The Digitization Project of Kindred Languages is thus linked with the research of language technology. The mission is to improve the usage and usability of digitized content. During the project, we have advanced methods that will refine the raw data for further use, especially in the linguistic research. How does the library meet the objectives, which appears to be beyond its traditional playground? The written materials from this period are a gold mine, so how could we retrieve these hidden treasures of languages out of the stack that contains more than 200,000 pages of literature in various Uralic languages? The problem is that the machined-encoded text (OCR) contains often too many mistakes to be used as such in research. The mistakes in OCRed texts must be corrected. For enhancing the OCRed texts, the National Library of Finland developed an open-source code OCR editor that enabled the editing of machine-encoded text for the benefit of linguistic research. This tool was necessary to implement, since these rare and peripheral prints did often include already perished characters, which are sadly neglected by the modern OCR software developers, but belong to the historical context of kindred languages and thus are an essential part of the linguistic heritage (van Hemel, 2014). Our crowdsourcing tool application is essentially an editor of Alto XML format. It consists of a back-end for managing users, permissions, and files, communicating through a REST API with a front-end interface—that is, the actual editor for correcting the OCRed text. The enhanced XML files can be retrieved from the Fenno-Ugrica collection for further purposes. Could the crowd do this work to support the academic research? The challenge in crowdsourcing lies in its nature. The targets in the traditional crowdsourcing have often been split into several microtasks that do not require any special skills from the anonymous people, a faceless crowd. This way of crowdsourcing may produce quantitative results, but from the research’s point of view, there is a danger that the needs of linguists are not necessarily met. Also, the remarkable downside is the lack of shared goal or the social affinity. There is no reward in the traditional methods of crowdsourcing (de Boer et al., 2012). Also, there has been criticism that digital humanities makes the humanities too data-driven and oriented towards quantitative methods, losing the values of critical qualitative methods (Fish, 2012). And on top of that, the downsides of the traditional crowdsourcing become more imminent when you leave the Anglophone world. Our potential crowd is geographically scattered in Russia. This crowd is linguistically heterogeneous, speaking 17 different languages. In many cases languages are close to extinction or longing for language revitalization, and the native speakers do not always have Internet access, so an open call for crowdsourcing would not have produced appeasing results for linguists. Thus, one has to identify carefully the potential niches to complete the needed tasks. When using the help of a crowd in a project that is aiming to support both linguistic research and survival of endangered languages, the approach has to be a different one. In nichesourcing, the tasks are distributed amongst a small crowd of citizen scientists (communities). Although communities provide smaller pools to draw resources, their specific richness in skill is suited for complex tasks with high-quality product expectations found in nichesourcing. Communities have a purpose and identity, and their regular interaction engenders social trust and reputation. These communities can correspond to research more precisely (de Boer et al., 2012). Instead of repetitive and rather trivial tasks, we are trying to utilize the knowledge and skills of citizen scientists to provide qualitative results. In nichesourcing, we hand in such assignments that would precisely fill the gaps in linguistic research. A typical task would be editing and collecting the words in such fields of vocabularies where the researchers do require more information. For instance, there is lack of Hill Mari words and terminology in anatomy. We have digitized the books in medicine, and we could try to track the words related to human organs by assigning the citizen scientists to edit and collect words with the OCR editor. From the nichesourcing’s perspective, it is essential that altruism play a central role when the language communities are involved. In nichesourcing, our goal is to reach a certain level of interplay, where the language communities would benefit from the results. For instance, the corrected words in Ingrian will be added to an online dictionary, which is made freely available for the public, so the society can benefit, too. This objective of interplay can be understood as an aspiration to support the endangered languages and the maintenance of lingual diversity, but also as a servant of ‘two masters’: research and society.

The effects of fiscal policy after the global recession: assessing the evidences

This paper offers a commented review of the most recent empirical studies of the effects of fiscal contraction on economic growth, which have helped underpin the prescription that fiscal policy should be expansionary in coming years in order to contain economic semi-stagnation in the developed countries. The paper shows that there is ample literature showing that fiscal expansion helps the economy grow, and that fiscal contraction tends to reduce output and employment in the short term.

Democracia consolidada e tamanho do Estado

Consolidated democracy and size of the State. Common sense suggests that the more consolidated democracies and advanced economies tend to be more efficient and produce smaller States. What is observed in practice, however, is a positive correlation between "democratic consolidation" and "tax burden" (as a proxy for"size of Government"). This finding, while not expressing any causal relationship between the two variables, is an evidence that a more republican and democratic State, as defined in Bresser-Pereira, must be able to provide, effectively and efficiently, broader public services with better quality. This is, in consolidated democracies, the State should not be small.

The Impact of Acquisitions on Share Pricing and Long Term Performance – Empirical Evidence from the Global Automotive Industry

Automotive industry has faced intense consolidation pressure, which has lead to increasing number of M&As. However, empirical evidence has given controversial results suggesting that most of M&As are value destructive for acquiring companies and for acquiring companies’ shareholders. The objective of this master’s thesis is to examine how acquiring companies’ shareholders react to acquisition announcement and is the reaction in line with the long-term performance. This study uses empirical evidence from automotive industry, which has been characterized as an industry that holds large amount of vertical and horizontal synergies. Transaction data consists of 65 acquisitions made by publicly listed companies between 2008-2010. The short-term impact is tested by applying event study methodology while the long term operative performance is examined with accounting study methodology. The event study results indicate that during the three days after acquisition (t= 0-2), the acquiring firms’ stocks generate an abnormal return of 1.22% on average across all acquisitions. When long term performance is studied it is evident that acquiring companies perform better than the industry median pre- and post-transaction but there is no statistically significant evidence that the performance has increased. The only performance ratio indicating statistically significant decrease is Return on Equity (ROE). On long-term horizontal acquisitions seem to outperform conglomerate ones but otherwise deal characteristics do not have any statistically significant impact.