The Impact of Corporate Governance and Risk Management on Bank Performance in UK

Risk management and corporate governance are very vital for a bank as the success or failure of the bank relies on the conclusive roles played by the two roles. This research therefore aimed at investigating the impact of corporate governance and risk management in the performance of banks in the UK. This dissertation has conducted a cross-section survey of 75 banks in the UK. Secondary data relating to the 75 banks’ corporate governance, risk management and financial performance by abstracting this information from financial and corporate governance reports of the banks as published in their financial reports and in other trusted financial databases. Data collected was entered in excel for sorting and arrangement and then entered in SPSS for analysis. Using multiple regression analysis, the impact of components of corporate governance and risk management on banks’ performance was determined. The results showed that multiple regression model had an R-Square of .784 meaning that the independent variables determine to about 78.4% of the dependent variables. The model had a low F statistic (34) and a Sig =.000<.05 and hence we conclude that the independent variables significantly predict the dependent variables. Components of corporate governance (ND, Age, ID, and AE) significantly determined the performance of banks (sig.<.05) and hence we partially accept the first null hypothesis that corporate governance significantly influences the performance of banks in the UK. All the, components of risk management significantly determined (Sig. <.05) the performance of banks in the UK and thus we accept the second null hypothesis that risk management significantly influence the performance of banks in the UK. Therefore, corporate governance and risk management significantly determines the performance of banks in the UK. Finally, this dissertation makes a recommendation to the banks to prioritize corporate governance and risk management efficiency in sustaining high performance

Robust Audio-Codebooks for Large-Scale Event Detection in Consumer Videos

Abstract In this paper we present our audio based system for detecting &quot;events&quot; within consumer videos (e.g. You Tube) and report our experiments on the TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection (MED) task and development data. Codebook or bag-of-words models have been widely used in text, visual and audio domains and form the state-of-the-art in MED tasks. The overall effectiveness of these models on such datasets depends critically on the choice of low-level features, clustering approach, sampling method, codebook size, weighting schemes and choice of classifier. In this work we empirically evaluate several approaches to model expressive and robust audio codebooks for the task of MED while ensuring compactness. First, we introduce the Large Scale Pooling Features (LSPF) and Stacked Cepstral Features for encoding local temporal information in audio codebooks. Second, we discuss several design decisions for generating and representing expressive audio codebooks and show how they scale to large datasets. Third, we apply text based techniques like Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to learn acoustictopics as a means of providing compact representation while maintaining performance. By aggregating these decisions into our model, we obtained 11% relative improvement over our baseline audio systems

The Impact of Corporate Governance and Risk Management on Bank Performance in UK

Risk management and corporate governance are very vital for a bank as the success or failure of the bank relies on the conclusive roles played by the two roles. This research therefore aimed at investigating the impact of corporate governance and risk management in the performance of banks in the UK. This dissertation has conducted a cross-section survey of 75 banks in the UK. Secondary data relating to the 75 banks’ corporate governance, risk management and financial performance by abstracting this information from financial and corporate governance reports of the banks as published in their financial reports and in other trusted financial databases. Data collected was entered in excel for sorting and arrangement and then entered in SPSS for analysis. Using multiple regression analysis, the impact of components of corporate governance and risk management on banks’ performance was determined. The results showed that multiple regression model had an R-Square of .784 meaning that the independent variables determine to about 78.4% of the dependent variables. The model had a low F statistic (34) and a Sig =.000<.05 and hence we conclude that the independent variables significantly predict the dependent variables. Components of corporate governance (ND, Age, ID, and AE) significantly determined the performance of banks (sig.<.05) and hence we partially accept the first null hypothesis that corporate governance significantly influences the performance of banks in the UK. All the, components of risk management significantly determined (Sig. <.05) the performance of banks in the UK and thus we accept the second null hypothesis that risk management significantly influence the performance of banks in the UK. Therefore, corporate governance and risk management significantly determines the performance of banks in the UK. Finally, this dissertation makes a recommendation to the banks to prioritize corporate governance and risk management efficiency in sustaining high performance

The association between perfectionism and academic procrastination among undergraduate nursing students: The role of self‐efficacy and resilience

Abstract Aims This study aimed to investigate the associations between perfectionism and undergraduate nursing students' academic procrastination, the mediating effects of self‐efficacy and the moderating role of resilience. Design A cross‐sectional survey. Methods The survey was conducted from March to May 2022 with a sample of 587 undergraduate nursing students in two undergraduate universities in China. A descriptive statistical approach, Pearson's correlation analysis and the Hayes' PROCESS Macro model 4 and 14 were used to analyse the available data. Results Adaptive perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism negatively and positively predicted academic procrastination in nursing undergraduates, respectively. Self‐efficacy played a partially mediating role in the association between adaptive perfectionism and academic procrastination. Furthermore, resilience played a moderating role in the association between adaptive perfectionism and academic procrastination. Conclusions Maladaptive perfectionism and low levels of resilience and self‐efficacy may increase the risk of academic procrastination among nursing undergraduates. Nursing educators can take measures to decrease the risk of academic procrastination among nursing undergraduate students by guiding them to cultivate adaptive perfectionism tendencies and improve their self‐efficacy and resilience. Impact The findings of this study can be used to develop targeted coping and prevention measures for nursing educators to reduce the incidence of academic procrastination among nursing undergraduates. Patient or Public Contribution Five hundred eighty‐seven undergraduate nursing students from two undergraduate universities participated in the study and responded to questions on perfectionism and academic procrastination, etc

Canagliflozin attenuates lipotoxicity in cardiomyocytes and protects diabetic mouse hearts by inhibiting the mTOR/HIF-1α pathway

Summary: Lipotoxicity plays an important role in the development of diabetic heart failure (HF). Canagliflozin (CAN), a marketed sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor, has significantly beneficial effects on HF. In this study, we evaluated the protective effects and mechanism of CAN in the hearts of C57BL/6J mice induced by high-fat diet/streptozotocin (HFD/STZ) for 12 weeks in vivo and in HL-1 cells (a type of mouse cardiomyocyte line) induced by palmitic acid (PA) in vitro. The results showed that CAN significantly ameliorated heart functions and inflammatory responses in the hearts of the HFD/STZ-induced diabetic mice. CAN significantly attenuated the inflammatory injury induced by PA in the HL-1 cells. Furthermore, CAN seemed to bind to the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and then inhibit mTOR phosphorylation and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression. These results indicated that CAN might attenuate lipotoxicity in cardiomyocytes by inhibiting the mTOR/HIF-1α pathway and then show protective effects on diabetic hearts

<i>SQSTM1/p62</i> Knockout by Using the CRISPR/Cas9 System Inhibits Migration and Invasion of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Migration and invasion play crucial roles in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Analysis of clinical samples indicates that SQSTM1/p62 is highly expressed in HCC and seriously affects the prognosis of patients. Subsequently, we showed that SQSTM1/p62 knockout using the CRISPR/Cas9 system led to impaired migration and invasion of HCC, upregulated Keap1, and promoted the inhibitory effect of Keap1 on Nrf2. Then, the inactivation of Nrf2 inhibited the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), thus attenuating the migration and invasion of HCC. We also found that SQSTM1/p62 knockout significantly inhibited migration and invasion in a lung metastasis model of nude mice with HCC. Furthermore, we found that cisplatin not only significantly inhibited the expression of SQSTM1/p62 but also slowed down the migration and invasion of HCC, while the inflammatory microenvironment accelerated the migration and invasion of HCC. These results suggest for the first time that SQSTM1/p62 knockout inhibits the migration and invasion of HCC through the Keap1/Nrf2/MMP2 signaling pathway. SQSTM1/p62 may be developed into a key drug target to regulate the migration and invasion of HCC cells

Hepatoprotective Effects of Antrodia cinnamomea: The Modulation of Oxidative Stress Signaling in a Mouse Model of Alcohol-Induced Acute Liver Injury

In the present study, the components of A. cinnamomea (AC) mycelia were systematically analyzed. Subsequently, its hepatoprotective effects and the underlying mechanisms were explored using a mouse model of acute alcohol-induced liver injury. AC contained 25 types of fatty acid, 16 types of amino acid, 3 types of nucleotide, and 8 types of mineral. The hepatoprotective effects were observed after 2 weeks of AC treatment at doses of 75 mg/kg, 225 mg/kg, and 675 mg/kg in the mouse model. These effects were indicated by the changes in the levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, several oxidation-related factors, and inflammatory cytokines in serum and/or liver samples. AC reduced the incidence rate of necrosis, inflammatory infiltration, fatty droplets formation, and cell apoptosis in liver detecting via histological and TUNEL assay. In addition, AC reduced the expression of cleaved caspase-3, -8, and -9 and the levels of phosphor-protein kinase B (Akt) and phosphor-nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in the liver samples. Collectively, AC-mediated hepatoprotective effects in a mouse model of acute alcohol-induced liver injury are the result of reduction in oxidative stress. This may be associated with Akt/NF-κB signaling. These results provide valuable evidence to support the use of A. cinnamomea as a functional food and/or medicine

Effects of Genistein on Common Kidney Diseases

Genistein is a naturally occurring phytoestrogen (soy or soybean products) that is classified as an isoflavone, and its structure is similar to that of endogenous estrogens; therefore, genistein can exert an estrogen-like effect via estrogen receptors. Additionally, genistein is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which enables it to block abnormal cell growth and proliferation signals through the inhibition of tyrosine kinase. Genistein is also an angiogenesis inhibitor and an antioxidant. Genistein has effects on kidney cells, some of the kidney&rsquo;s physiological functions, and a variety of kidney diseases. First, genistein exerts a protective effect on normal cells by reducing the inflammatory response, inhibiting apoptosis, inhibiting oxidative stress, inhibiting remodeling, etc., but after cell injury, the protective effect of genistein decreases or even has the opposite effect. Second, genistein can regulate renin intake to maintain blood pressure balance, regulate calcium uptake to regulate Ca2+ and Pi balances, and reduce vasodilation to promote diuresis. Third, genistein has beneficial effects on a variety of kidney diseases (including acute kidney disease, kidney cancer, and different chronic kidney diseases), such as reducing symptoms, delaying disease progression, and improving prognosis. Therefore, this paper reviews animal and human studies on the protective effects of genistein on the kidney in vivo and in vitro to provide a reference for clinical research in the future

Robust Audio-Codebooks for Large-Scale Event Detection in Consumer Videos

<p>In this paper we present our audio based system for detecting "events" within consumer videos (e.g. You Tube) and report our experiments on the TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection (MED) task and development data. Codebook or bag-of-words models have been widely used in text, visual and audio domains and form the state-of-the-art in MED tasks. The overall effectiveness of these models on such datasets depends critically on the choice of lowlevel features, clustering approach, sampling method, codebook size, weighting schemes and choice of classifier. In this work we empirically evaluate several approaches to model expressive and robust audio codebooks for the task of MED while ensuring compactness. First, we introduce the Large Scale Pooling Features (LSPF) and Stacked Cepstral Features for encoding local temporal information in audio codebooks. Second, we discuss several design decisions for generating and representing expressive audio codebooks and show how they scale to large datasets. Third, we apply text based techniques like Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to learn acoustic-topics as a means of providing compact representation while maintaining performance. By aggregating these decisions into our model, we obtained 11% relative improvement over our baseline audio systems.</p

Injectable and Thermosensitive Hydrogel Containing Liraglutide as a Long-Acting Antidiabetic System

Diabetes, a global epidemic, has become a serious threat to public health. The present study is aimed at constructing an injectable thermosensitive PEG–polyester hydrogel formulation of liraglutide (Lira), a “smart” antidiabetic polypeptide, in the long-acting treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. A total of three thermosensitive poly­(ε-caprolactone-<i>co</i>-glycolic acid)-poly­(ethylene glycol)-poly­(ε-caprolactone-<i>co</i>-glycolic acid) (PCGA–PEG–PCGA) triblock copolymers with similar molecular weights but different ε-caprolactone-to-glycolide (CL-to-GA) ratios were synthesized. The polymer aqueous solutions exhibited free-flowing sols at room temperature and formed in situ hydrogels at body temperature. While the different bulk morphologies, stabilities of aqueous solutions, and the varying in vivo persistence time of hydrogels in ICR mice were found among the three copolymers, all of the Lira-loaded gel formulations exhibited a sustained drug release manner in vitro regardless of CL-to-GA ratios. The specimen with a powder form in the bulk state, a stable aqueous solution before heating, and an appropriate degradation rate in vivo was selected as the optimal carrier to evaluate the in vivo efficacy. A single injection of the optimal gel formulation showed a remarkable hypoglycemic efficacy up to 1 week in diabetic db/db mice. Furthermore, three successive administrations of this gel formulation within one month significantly lowered glycosylated hemoglobin and protected islets of db/db mice. As a result, a promising once-weekly delivery system of Lira was developed, which not only afforded long-term glycemic control but also significantly improved patient compliance