Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) family in arthropods : Cloning and expression analysis of two MIF and one D-dopachrome tautomerase (DDT) homologues in Mud crabs, Scylla paramamosain

Acknowledgements This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31172438 and U1205123), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2012J06008 and 201311180002) and the projects-sponsored by SRF. TW received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPostprin

A Class of Diagonally Preconditioned Limited Memory Quasi-Newton Methods for Large-Scale Unconstrained Optimization

The focus of this thesis is to diagonally precondition on the limited memory quasi-Newton method for large scale unconstrained optimization problem. Particularly, the centre of discussion is on diagonally preconditioned limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (L-BFGS) method. L-BFGS method has been widely used in large scale unconstrained optimization due to its effectiveness. However, a major drawback of the L-BFGS method is that it can be very slow on certain type of problems. Scaling and preconditioning have been used to boost the performance of the L-BFGS method. In this study, a class of diagonally preconditioned L-BFGS method will be proposed. Contrary to the standard L-BFGS method where its initial inverse Hessian approximation is the identity matrix, a class of diagonal preconditioners has been derived based upon the weak-quasi-Newton relation with an additional parameter. Choosing different parameters leads the research to some well-known diagonal updating formulae which enable the R-linear convergent for the L-BFGS method. Numerical experiments were performed on a set of large scale unconstrained minimization problem to examine the impact of each choice of parameter. The computational results suggest that the proposed diagonally preconditioned L-BFGS methods outperform the standard L-BFGS method without any preconditioning. Finally, we discuss on the impact of the diagonal preconditioners on the L-BFGS method as compared to the standard L-BFGS method in terms of the number of iterations, the number of function/gradient evaluations and the CPU time in second

First Investigations of In Situ Electrical Properties of Limestone Blocks of Ancient Monuments

International audienceIn situ rapid electrostatic investigations on calcareous stones of monuments provide information that strongly correlates with the geological characteristics of the stone and proves to be efficient for provenance identification and successive restoration. With a portable device, it is now possible to scan several thousand blocks on a face of a monument in a few hours. The evolution of the religious building construction practices between the 13th and the 17th centuries is studied. From the petrophysics point of view, the results clearly indicate a marked linear correlation between electrical conductivity and dielectric permittivity. This fact, which agrees with Maxwell–Wagner polarization modelling, confirms the part played by the clay content in the electric properties of the dry carbonate rocks constituting the monument stones. A first test using X-ray scattering analysis shows the part played by the relative content of illite, which is correlated with a decrease of the resistivity

Effects of Consolidation on Banks Performance in Nigeria

The study evaluated the effect of consolidation on bank performance in Nigeria. Data were collected from secondary sources. Two hypotheses were tested using ordinary least squares regression method. The implication of the findings showed that the consolidation of banks through mergers and acquisition has significantly influenced banks’ earnings; and that consolidation has not led to increase in capital adequacy ratio of banks. The study recommends that bank regulatory authorities should increase its oversight role so as to ensure that none of the banks has weak corporate governance and that there should be strong enforcement and effective regulatory oversight. Keywords: Consolidation, NDIC, CBN, ROA, RO

Sisäisen luottoprosessin kehittäminen case yritykselle

Tämän opinnäytetyön aiheena on sisäisen luottoprosessin kehittäminen case yritykselle. Tarkoituksena on perehtyä myyntisaamisten hallintaan luottotoiminnan näkökulmasta. Lisäksi perehdytään yrityksien luottokelpoisuuden määrittämiseen ja luottoriskienhallintaan. Opinnäytetyön ensimmäisenä tavoitteena on selvittää teoreettisen viitekehyksen pohjalta, mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat case yrityksen yritysasiakkaiden luottokelpoisuuden määrittämiseen. Toisena tavoitteena on luoda toimintasuunnitelma sisäisen luottoprosessin tueksi case yritykselle. Toimintasuunnitelman tarkoituksena on toteuttaa selkeä malli yritysasiakkaiden luottoluokittamiseen ja määritellä olennaisimmat tekijät sisäisen luottoprosessin etenemisestä sekä luottoriskeistä case yrityksessä. Opinnäytetyö toteutetaan toiminnallisena opinnäytetyönä ja tutkimusmenetelmänä käytetään kvalitatiivista tapaustutkimusta. Teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu luottopolitiikasta, luottokelpoisuuden määrittelystä, myyntisaamisten rahoituksesta ja luottoriskien hallinnasta sekä perinnästä. Teoriapohja on muodostettu akateemisesta kirjallisuudesta, verkkojulkaisuista ja aiemmista tutkimuksista. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä on, että tehokas myyntisaamisten hallinta ja luotonvalvonta sekä huolellinen asiakaskartoitus ovat avaintekijöitä yrityksen tehokkaalle liiketoiminnalle ja myynnin kasvattamiselle. Tutkimuksen tuloksena kehitettiin kokonaisvaltainen toimintasuun-nitelma ja selkeä prosessikuvaus sisäisen luottoprosessin tueksi case yritykselle.The purpose of this thesis is to define and establish an internal credit procedure for a case company and also to find out at how to manage trade creditors form the point of view of credit activity. This thesis will further take a look at how to evaluate the creditworthiness of a company and how companies manage credit risk. Based on a theoretical framework, the first objective is to find out which indicators determine the creditworthiness of the case company’s corporate clients. The secondary objective is to create a plan for the case company to help the company establish an internal credit procedure. The objective of the plan is to define a clear credit process on how to evaluate the creditworthiness of a company and describe the basic elements of a quality internal credit process and managing of credit risks in the case company. The thesis will be conducted as a practice based research and the empirical framework consists of a qualitative case study. The theoretical framework consists of credit policy, evaluating credit worthiness, managing of trade creditors, managing credit risk and collections. The basis for the theoretical framework lies in the academic literature, previous research and online sources. The conclusions of the thesis are that an effective management of the trade creditors and an effective credit management procedure, together with a thorough analysis of the company’s client’s creditworthiness is crucial for an company and for the company’s ability to run an effective business and increase sales. As a result of the study a comprehensive action plan and a clear process for the internal credit procedure was developed as support for the case company

POTENTIAL USE OF PROTEASE ENZYMES IN LIQUID DIETS FOR PIGS

A programme of study was undertaken to assess the effect of pretreating raw soya bean and processed full fat soyabean meals with protease enzymes prior to use in liquid feed for grower and finisher pigs. A series of laboratory studies was undertaken to examine the efficacy of three microbial proteases (P2, P3 and P4) in partially hydrolysing soya protein and in reducing the levels of trypsin inhibitors in raw soyabean. Pretreatment consisted of steeping ground soyabean for 24 h at 20° C in the absence (control) or presence of 20 000 units gˉ¹ N of P2, P3 or P4. Pretreating raw soyabean (RSB) with P2, P3 and P4 significantly (P < 0.05) reduced trypsin inhibitor levels from 28.53 to 19.98, 17.17 and 18.35 (s.e.m.1.14) mg trypsin inhibited gˉ¹ soya respectively. Pretreating RSB, micronized (MIC) or autoclaved (AUT) soyabean meal with P2, P3 or P4 resulted in increases in soluble a.-amino nitrogen of 5.22, 7.08, and 6.58 (RSB), 5.11, 5.57 and 4.32 (MIC) and 3.56, 7.03 and 6.18 (s.e.d. 0.06) mg gˉ¹ soya respectively and in vitro digestibility of nitrogen of 7.6 %, 9.9 %and 6.4 % (RSB), 4.9 %, 8.3 % and 2.8 % (MIC) and 11 %, 8 % and 12.2 % (AUT) respectively compared with the appropriate controls. Feeding trials were conducted in which pretreated soya was added to a basal cereal diet. Pretreatment of RSB with P4 resulted in a significant (P < 0.05) increase in ADG of 0.08 kg pigˉ¹ dˉ¹ (s.e.d. 0.04) in grower pigs (33.5 ± 4 kg) over the 6 week duration of the trial but had no significant effect on FCR. Pretreatment of AUT with P4 did not significantly improve performance. In a feeding trial with grower/finisher pigs pretreatment of RSB with P3 resulted in significant (P < 0.05) improvements of 0.10 (s.e.d. 0.04) kg pigˉ¹ dˉ¹ in ADG and 0.476 (s.e.d. 0.19) in FCR. Pretreatment of MIC with P3 resulted in a significant reduction (P < 0.05) of 4 d (s.e.d. 1. 7) in the time taken for pigs to attain slaughter weight

Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested

There are no comprehensive statistics available on problems with police integrity, and no government entity collects data on all criminal arrests of law enforcement officers in the United States. Police crimes are those crimes committed by sworn law enforcement officers with the general powers of arrest. These crimes can occur while the officer is either on- or off-duty and include offenses committed by officers employed by state and local law enforcement agencies. This study provides a wealth of data on a phenomena that relates directly to police integrity— data that previously did not exist in any usable format. The first goal of the study is to determine the nature and extent of police crime in the United States. The objective for this goal is to determine the incidence and prevalence of officers arrested. A second goal is to determine what factors influence how an agency responds to arrests of its officers. Objectives for this goal are to determine whether certain factors influence agency response and employment outcomes: (a) severity of crimes for which officers are arrested; (b) level of urbanization for each employing agency; (c) geographic location for each employing agency; (d) length of service and age of arrested officers; and, (e) criminal case outcomes. A final goal is to foster police integrity by exploring whether officer arrests correlate with other forms of police misconduct. Objectives for this goal are to determine whether arrested officers were also named as a civil defendant in any 42 U.S.C. §1983 federal court actions during their careers, and to inform practitioners and policymakers of strategies that will better identify problem officers and those at risk for engaging in police crime and its correlates. The advent of nationwide, objective, and verifiable data on the law-breaking behavior of sworn officers and provides potential benefits to law enforcement agencies that connect the technical expertise of researchers to criminal justice policymakers and practitioners. These data 2 provide direct guidance in three areas. First, the study provides agencies information on the types of crime that are most frequently perpetrated by police officers. Second, the research provides information on the relationship between police crimes and other types of misbehavior that collectively comprise the problem officer. Third, nationwide data on police crimes and the manner in which arrested officers are organizationally sanctioned provides points of comparison for law enforcement agencies that confront these problems, as well as information on the degree to which law enforcement agencies tend to sanction or ignore certain crimes committed by officers. This is a quantitative content analysis study of archived records reporting several thousand arrests of police officers during the years 2005-2011. The primary information source is the Google News search engine and its Google Alerts email update service. Chi-Square was used to measure the statistical significance of the association between two variables measured at the nominal level. Cramer’s V was utilized to measure the strength of the Chi-Square association. Stepwise binary logistic regression was used to determine which of the predictor variables are statistically significant in multivariate models. Classification tree analysis was utilized to uncover the causal pathways between independent predictors and outcome variables. The Google News searches resulted in the identification of 6,724 cases in which sworn law enforcement officers were arrested during the years 2005 through 2011. The cases involved the arrests of 5,545 individual sworn officers employed by 2,529 nonfederal state and local law enforcement agencies located in 1,205 counties and independent cities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The findings indicate that nonfederal law enforcement officers were arrested nationwide during 2005-2011 at a rate of 0.72 officers arrested per 1,000 officers, and at a rate of 1.7 officers arrested per 100,000 population nationwide