Effects of corporate governance practices on firm performance

Corporate governance is mainly focused on ensuring that managers act in shareholders'interest. Therefore, this concept has emerged as essential to minimize conflicts in the company and todiscourage managers to take leverage decisions that enhance their own benefits, to the detriment ofshareholders. The degree to which managers can deviate from optimal behavior critically depends onthe strength of corporate governance. Therefore, one can hypothesize that there must be a relationshipbetween leverage financial performance of the enterprise and corporate governance quality. The aimof this paper is precisely to test this hypothesis and support the idea that firms with better governancesystem are more profitable and with a higher market value. It is also concerned the link betweenbusiness results, quality of governance, costs of accumulating experience by managers and thereforethe degree of performance and market value

Considerations about the normalization of national accounting

A country's economy becomes more complex, by emphasizing the interdependences of its structural. National accounting represents a tool for aggregating the information provided by accounting firms and other systems and providing data about the development of national economy. The twentieth century was the period of maximum development, marked by leading figures from economics and accounting. So far there have been developed five major systems of national accounts in the context of accounting harmonization and normalization. It remains current the debate between national and private accounting, a way of mediation being to establish new international accounting standards (IAS/IFRS)

Cancelling Harmonic Power Line Interference in Biopotentials

Biopotential signals, like the electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyogram (EMG), and so on, contain vital information about the health state of human body. The morphology and time/frequency parameters of the biopotentials are of interest when diagnostic information is extracted and analyzed. The powerline interference (PLI), with the fundamental PLI component of 50 Hz/60 Hz and its harmonics, is one of the most disturbing noise sources in biopotential recordings that hampers the analysis of the electrical signals generated by the human body. The aim of this chapter is to review the existing methods to eliminate harmonics PLI from biopotential signals and to analyze the distortion introduced by some of the most basic approaches for PLI cancelation and whether this distortion affects the diagnostic performance in biopotentials investigations

Painful tonic spasms and brainstem involvement in a patient with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory-demyelinating disease of the central nervous system classically characterized by optic neuritis and severe myelitis. New diagnostic criteria defined neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder as limited forms of NMO or diverse neurologic presentations in the presence of specific antiaquaporin-4 antibodies. We report the case of a 57-year-old woman admitted in our department for recurrent attacks of optic neuritis, tetraparesis with severe painful tonic spasms of the left limbs and brainstem involvement. Painful tonic spasms have been described as movement disorders associated with multiple sclerosis, but a growing number of reports describe them in cases of NMO

A large abandoned cellar as roost for bats in western Romania

Background and Purpose: Artificial structures and shelters are in some cases important for bats. In Romania there are many data about the natural roosts used by bats, which are generally related with mountains, where caves shelter large colonies. The information about artificial roosts is brief. Materials and Methods: Field observations were made in the winter of the years 2015 / 2016, in an abandoned wine cellar, near Mocrea locality, western Romania. The bats were directly observed and numbered. The cellar was identified accidentally. Results: Miniopterus schreibersii, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum and Myotis myotis were found in 2015 / 2016 winter in an abandoned wine cellar from Mocrea. M. schreibersii has the largest colony. The number and location of bat species and individuals in the cellar changed during the winter. Conclusions: The three cave dwelling bat species identified in the cellar use this artificial roost because in the region there are no natural caves. Even in a country with many natural roosts, artificial underground habitats can be important for cave dwelling bats

Synthesis and electrochemical characterization of substituted indolizine carboxylates

This work is devoted to the synthesis and characterization of new indolizine derivatives. Particular attention was paid to the electrochemical investigations by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. The redox processes for each compound were established, analyzed and assessed to the particular functional groups at which they take place. This assessment was based on detailed comparison between the electrochemical behaviour of the compounds, similarities in their structure, as well as substituent effects

SCREENING FOR IODINE DEFICIENCY – MORE THAN A MEDICAL APPROACH

Working as a team began more and more important in many fields, including medicine. After an era of fragmentation, when the need of deepen the knowledge led to supra-specialization, we witness now the reassembly of these distinct parts, in order to obtain a comprehensive view. This is true not only for research, but also for the clinical practice. We present the building of a team who started with a screening and continued with other evaluations in a city from the eastern part of Romania. The goal of the study was to evaluate the iodine status in a former iodine deficient area. Two parameters were necessary, evaluation of thyroid volume and urinary iodine in a representative group of children. The initial pure endocrinological team increased by adopting new members: medical (nurses, epidemiologist, biochemist) and non-medical (schoolteachers). The results induced new studies and the team had growth and proved the utility of interdisciplinarity

Electroactive properties of a new azulene thioxo-imidazolidin-4-one ligand for modified electrodes

The electrochemical characterization of a new synthesized azulene compound (Z)-5-((5-isopropyl-3,8-dimethylazulen-1-yl)methylene)-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one (L) using cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and rotating disk electrode is presented. Chemically modified electrodes were obtained by successive scanning or by controlled potential electrolysis using different electrode potentials or charges. The new modified electrodes were tested in solutions containing different concentrations of the following heavy metals: cadmium, lead, mercury and copper. A good analytical response was obtained for Pb2+

DFT calculations and electrochemical studies on azulene ligands for heavy metal ions detection using chemically modified electrodes

A computational study on three related derivatives of 5-[(azulen-1-yl)methylene]-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one was conducted using density functional theory by calculating a series of molecular descriptors and properties of their optimized geometries (electrostatic and local ionization potentials, molecular frontier orbitals, etc.). Thermodynamic properties (zero-point energy, enthalpy, constant volume heat capacity, entropy and Gibbs energy) for these derivatives have been calculated and related to ligands electrochemical behavior. Reduction and oxidation potentials have been correlated to their calculated energy levels for LUMO and HOMO orbitals. Chemically modified electrodes based on these derivatives have been tested in view of heavy metal ions recognition, and their detection limits have been correlated to the calculated values of electron affinity

In Vitro Hypoxic Preconditioning of Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Triggers ERK-Mediated Signaling and Growth of L363 Myeloma Cells Celulele stromale ale măduvei hematopoietice precondiţionate la hipoxie in vitro induc proliferarea celulelor mielomatoase L363

Abstract Multiple myeloma (MM