IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CRISIS ON CONSTRUCTION FIRM`S COST OF CAPITAL

The average cost of debt is negatively related with size, tangibility, firm growth, the leverage ratio, and the ratio of long- to short-term debt and positively to profitability. We find that the recent international crisis did have a significant impact on the set of firms in our sample, but affected the way in which leverage and the interest to debt ratio relate to firm fundamentals. In this article, we want to study the impact of financial crisis on the cost of capital using a sample of construction companies.asset pricing cost of capital, financial crisis,CAPM

Optimization of Hermetia illucens (L.) egg laying under different nutrition and light conditions

The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is gaining growing interest as a tool for the valorisation of bio-waste in a circular economy perspective. Although a wide variety of studies are available for larvae rearing, the indoor breeding of adults still presents a great challenge for industrial purposes. This study was designed to assess the simultaneous influence of 3 different light sources (the Mix of LED UV:blue:green 1:1:3, White LED, Neon light) and 3 types of nutrition (sugar and water, only water, no sugar no water) on adult performances, obtaining different egg production parameters that included the number and weight of the egg masses and single eggs laid by the females, the duration of pre-oviposition and oviposition period, the adult life span, the hatchability of the eggs. Our results showed that production parameters are influenced mainly by nutrition rather than light factor, although light plays an important secondary role. Moreover, the presence of sugar positively affects the egg production (12,93-27,10 mg eggs/female) and increases oviposition period (18,2-31,8 days) and adult lifespan (20,79-27,11 days). Light sources also affect egg production parameters, with the exposure to the Mix of LEDs resulting in the best performance of flies. Results obtained from this study are very useful for the design and management of an efficient industrial black soldier fly mass rearing process

Functional properties and essential amino acid composition of proteins extracted from black soldier fly larvae reared on canteen leftovers

This study investigated the functional properties and essential amino acid composition of proteins extracted from black soldier fly larvae which represent a good source of proteins (30.12% dry matter). The proteins extracted in alkaline conditions (pH 11) were then isolated using two different recovery methods, (i) ultrafiltration, and (ii) isoelectric precipitation. Ultrafiltration provided higher purity of proteins (96.42%) but a lower extraction yield (24.30%) compared to isoelectric precipitation which provided a protein purity of 76.02% and higher extraction yield (37.22%). All essential amino acids were present in adequate quantities for human requirements. The fraction of proteins obtained by ultrafiltration had significantly higher oil holding capacity and foaming capacity than isoelectrically precipitated proteins. The protein fractions obtained by ultrafiltration and isoelectric precipitation had oil holding capacity of 125.8% and 81.6%, while the foaming capacity was 141.9% and 114.3%, respectively. These technological functionalities can be used to improve human food characteristics, thus resulting in enhanced consumer acceptance