1,354,736 research outputs found
“DEBETS PLUS” LTD economic activity assessment and future opportunities of action.
No full textBakalaura darba autore ir Elīna Oliņa. Bakalaura darba tēma ir “SIA “Debets Plus” saimnieciskās darbības izvērtējums un turpmākās darbības iespējas”. Uzņēmuma darbības novērtēšanai un analīzei ir nozīmīga loma uzņēmuma vadīšanā, jo tā ir viena no uzņēmuma pārvaldīšanas funkcijām, kuras mērķis ir izprast uzņēmuma darbības rezultātus un, salīdzinot tos ar iepriekšējiem darbības periodiem, uzņēmums var prognozēt turpmākās darbības iespējas, virzīties uz attīstību. Bakalaura darba mērķis ir, pamatojoties uz teorētiskās literatūras aspektiem, izvērtēt SIA “Debets Plus” saimniecisko darbību un turpmākās attīstības iespējas. Bakalaura darba struktūra sastāv no četrām daļām. Pirmajā daļā ir izpētīti saimnieciskās darbības un analīzes jēdziena skaidrojums ekonomiskajā literatūrā. Otrajā daļā raksturota SIA “Debets Plus” saimnieciskā darbība, uzņēmuma galvenie darbības principi, struktūra, uzņēmuma iekšējās un ārējās vides ietekmējošie faktori, analizēti uzņēmuma konkurenti un raksturoti klienti. Trešajā daļā analizēti SIA “Debets Plus” finansiālās darbības rādītāji, izmantojot finanšu pārskatu vertikālo un horizontālo analīzi, finanšu rādītāju aprēķinus. Ceturtajā daļā izvērtēti SIA “Debets Plus” klientu un darbinieku aptaujas rezultāti, kā arī izstrādi turpmākās darbības veicināšanas pasākumi. Bakalaura darbs tika veidots izmantojot dažādu autoru grāmatas, LR likumus un MK noteikumus, interneta resursus un uzņēmuma nepublicētos materiālus. Visi faktiskie materiāli ir ņemti no SIA “Debets Plus” gada pārskatiem, tādēļ atsauces darba tekstā par tiem nav dotas. Bakalaura darbs izstrādāts uz 78 lpp., tajā ir 27 attēli, 20 tabulas, 4 pielikumi. Bakalaura darba veikšanai izmantoti 46 avoti, no kuriem 7 svešvalodā. Atslēgvārdi: SIA “Debets Plus”, saimnieciskā darbība, uzņēmuma iekšējā un arējā vide, konkurence, finansiālās darbības rādītāju analīze, klientu un darbinieku aptauja, turpmākās darbības iespējas.The author of this bachelor's thesis is Elīna Oliņa. Theme of the bachelor's thesis is “Debets Plus” Ltd. economic activity assessment and future opportunities of action. Evaluation and analysis of company’s operations has a significant role in the business management, because it is one of the business management functions that has a purpose to realize company performance indicators and to compare them with previous activity periods, the company can project further activity opportunities, move forward to development. Aim of the bachelor's thesis is on the basis of theoretical literature aspects to evaluate economic activity and further operational perspectives of “Debets Plus” Ltd. Structure of the bachelor's thesis consists of four parts. In the first part of the bachelor's thesis the author has studied the explanation of economic activity and analysis concept in the economic literature. In the second part the author has described the economic activity of “Debets Plus” Ltd., company’s main principles of operation, structure, factors that affect the company’s internal and external environment, has analysed the company’s competitors and characterized clients. In the third part the author has analysed financial performance indicators of “Debets Plus” Ltd., by using vertical and horizontal analysis of financial statements, financial performance calculations. In the fourth part the author has evaluated “Debets Plus” Ltd. client and employee survey results, as well as delivered measures to further develop the economic activity. For the production of the bachelor's thesis the author has used books of different authors, laws of the Republic of Latvia and Cabinet regulations, internet resources and unpublished documents of the company. All the factual materials has been taken from to annual reports of “Debets Plus” Ltd., therefore references on them in the text of this paper has not been given. The bachelor's thesis consists of 78 pages, including 27 images, 20 tables, 46 used literature and sources, out of which 7 in foreign language and 4 appendices. Key words: “Debets Plus” Ltd., economic activity, internal and external environment, competition, financial indicator analysis, client and employee surveys, further economic activity perspectives
Contribution to the elucidation of the mechanism of hepatic porphyria induced by hexachlorobenzene and related polyhalogenated hydrocarbons
No full textPolyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons are known to cause hepatic porphyria in man and in various species of animals. This disorder in porphyrin metabolism is attributed to a defect in the activity of the intermediary enzyme uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase in the heme biosynthetic parhway and leads to an accumulation (in the liver) and excretion (in urine and feces) of large amounts of mainly uroporphyrin. However, the mechanism underlying this block in the hepatic heme biosynthesis is not known.The present studies have been carried out to further elucidate the mechanism of action of polyhalogenated aromatic compounds (PHAs) on the hepatic heme biosynthesis. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB),. a member of this group of foreign chemicals, was used as a model compound in our investigations.Chapter 1 gives a review of literature data on those aspects of the toxicology, pharmacokinetics and biotransformation of PHAs that are relevant to explain their effects on the hepatic heme synthesis. Special emphasis is given to HCB.Chapter 2 describes the effects of pentachlorophenol (one of the main metabolites of HCB) on the induction of hepatic porphyria and mixed function oxygenases in female rats administered HCB. The porphyrinogenic effect of HCB was enhanced by simultaneous treatment with pentachlorophenol. whereas rats receiving pentachlorophenol alone developed no symptoms of hepatic porphyria. Pentachlorophenol showed a high affinity for membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum (see also Chapter 4) and it was found to destroy cyrochrome P-450 in vitro. From these results it is concluded that pentachlorophenol is not the metabolite that ultimately causes hepatic porphyria. However. pentachlorophenol may contribute indirectly to the porphyrinogenic action of HCB by stimulating the heme biosynthesis as a result of an accelerated breakdown of cytochrome P-450 heme. The concomitant increased production of heme exacerbates the porphyria caused by the defect of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase.Chapter 3 deals with the effects of several compounds interfering with the biotransformation reactions of PHAs on the accumulation of porphyrins in primary cultures of chick embryo liver cells treated with PHAs. Pre-induction of the enzyme system involved in the biotransformation of PHAs markedly enhanced the porphyrinogenic effect of PHAs in chick embryo liver cells. Inhibition of the induction of δ-aminolevulinic acid synthase with increasing concentrations of hemin could not prevent PHA-induced porphyrin accumulation. inhibition of the mixed function oxygenase system or addition of elec trophile-trapping agents protected chick embryo liver cells against the porphyrinogenic effect of PHAs. A decrease of the level of intracellular glutathione with glutathione-depleting agents led to an enhancement of the cytotoxicity of PHAs in chick embryo liver cell cultures. It is suggested that a reactive intermediate, formed by biotransformation of the PHA, reacts with the catalytic SH-containing part of the uroporphyrinogen decarboxylating enzyme in the cytoplasm of the liver cells.Chapter 4 gives a report of the effects of combined administration of HCB with either phenobarbital or 3-methylcholanthrene on female rat liver. The results presented in this Chapter and in Chapter 2 show that HCB induces a pattern of hepatic mixed function oxygenases which shares characteristics of the enzyme pattern induced by both phenobarbital and 3-methylcholanthrene. Simultaneous treatment with HCB and phenobarbital, but not with HCB and 3-methylcholanthrene, markedly enhanced the porphyrinogenic effect of HCB in female rats. These results suggest a key role for the phenobarbital-inducible form of cytochrome(s) P-450 in the biotransformation of HCB and the induction of hepatic porphyria.Chapter 5 shows that HCB is metabolized in chick embryo liver cell cultures. The HCB-metabolites identified in chick embryo liver cell culture are the same as those found in HCB-treated rats. Since none of the major phenolic- and sulfur-containing metabolites of HCB were able to cause porphyrin accumulation in chick embryo liver cell culture, an unstable reactive intermediate capable of reacting with SH-groups of proteins is suspected to be responsible for the inhibition of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase and the onset of hepatic porphyria. In liver cell cultures treated with [ 14C] HCB some radioactivity became irreversibly bound to cell protein. Addition of the monooxygenase- inhibitor piperonyl butoxide or ascorbic acid reduced the protein binding of 14C-metabolites. Based on the results, it appears that the rate of biotransformation of HCB has to be above a critical level before the enzyme uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase becomes inhibited and hepatic porphyria develops.In Chapter 6 a comparison is made of the effects of dietary antioxidants on the biotransformation and porphyrinogenic action of HCB in two strains of female rats, which differ in their susceptibility to HCB. Female Agus rats were much more susceptible to the porphyrinogenic effect of HCB than female rats of the Wistar strain. The following differences between the Wistar and Agus strains of rats in their responses to HCB were noticed: (1) HCB induced in Agus rats a higher mixed function oxygenase activity than in Wistar rats. In addition, the biotransformation rate of HCB appeared to be higher in the Agus rats. (2) Glutathione-S-transferase activity was less induced in HCB-treated Agus rats than in correspondingly treated Wistar rats. (3) Agus rats had significantly lower levels of glutathione in their livers than the Wistar rats. These differences may be responsible for the increased susceptibility of the Agus strain to the porphyrinogenic effect of HCB. Moreover, these findings support the hypothesis that binding of reactive intermediates of HCB biotransformation to functional SH-groups of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase forms the key process in the disturbance of the hepatic heme biosynthesis. The observation that HCB was excreted in this experiment for almost 60% as sulfur- containing metabolites again confirmed the affinity of intermediate metabolic products of HCB for SH-groups.In contrast to the results obtained with primary chick embryo liver cell cultures (Chapter 3), dietary antioxidants could not protect against the porphyrinogenic effect of HCB in vivo. Some possible explanations for this discrepancy are given in the discussion of the final Chapter
Genetic analysis of Aspergillus niger
No full textDit proefschrift handelt over genetische analyse van de voor de biotechnologie belangrijke schimmel Aspergillusniger . A.niger is een imperfecte schimmel, met andere woorden A.niger heeft geen geslachtelijk stadium, en mist daardoor meiotische recombinatie. Toch is genetisch onderzoek aan imperfecte schimmels mogelijk en wel op basis van af en toe optredende mitotische recombinatie in heterozygote diploiden. Twee typen recombinanten zijn hierbij van belang. Ten eerste kunnen door opeenvolgende non-disjunctie gebeurtenissen haploiden ontstaan die recombinant zijn als gevolg van hergroepering van chromosomen. Dergelijke recombinanten geven informatie omtrent de koppelingsgroep ('chromosoom') waartoe een bepaald gen behoort. Ten tweede kunnen door overkruisingen tussen homologe chromosomen diploide recombinanten ontstaan. Deze recombinanten kunnen worden gebruikt voor het in kaart brengen van genen die tot dezelfde koppelingsgroep behoren. De belangrijkste vereisten voor de genetische analyse van A.niger zijn: (1) De aanwezigheid van genetische markers. (2) Mogelijkheid tot selectie van de (zeldzame) recombinanten. (3) De mogelijkheid tot karakterisering van de recombinanten. Het primaire doel van het hier beschreven onderzoek was het ontwikkelen en toepassen van genetische technieken voor de constructie van een genetische kaart van A.niger . De genetische kaart kan vervolgens worden gebruikt voor genetisch onderzoek en bij de veredeling van stammen. De gevolgde strategie was tweeledig. Allereerst zijn methoden (verder) ontwikkeld waarmee genetische analyse op grond van de reeds aanwezige markergenen mogelijk is. Daarnaast zijn nieuwe markers geintroduceerd door mutatie en transformatie.In hoofdstuk 2 wordt een procedure beschreven voor de verrijking van auxotrofe recombinanten. De methode is gebaseerd op selectieve afdoding van geimmobiliseerde kiemende conidiosporen door celwand afbrekende enzymen (Novozym 234). De optimale condities voor deze 'Novozym-verrijking' zijn in simulatie experimenten bepaald. De methode is gebruikt voor het in kaart brengen van auxotrofe markers ten opzichte van het centromeer op chromosoom V.Hoofdstuk 3 beschrijft de isolatie en karakterisatie van chloraatresistente mutanten alsmede het gebruik ervan voor genetische analyse van A.niger . Deze resistentie mutaties behoren tot negen verschillende complementatiegroepen (plus één overlappende). De mutanten zijn onderverdeeld in drie klassen op grond van groei op verschillende stikstofbronnen. De chloraatresistentie genen liggen verspreid over zes koppelingsgroepen. Drie van deze markers bleken ongekoppeld met markers van de zes tot dan toe bekende koppelingsgroepen en leverden bewijs voor het bestaan van nog twee chromosomen in A.niger (n=8). De recessieve resistentie markers bleken zeer geschikt voor directe selectie van mitotische recombinanten. Ze zijn gebruikt voor het schatten van recombinatie-frequenties. Tevens is de lineaire volgorde van enkele markers op chromosoom VI bepaald aan de hand van direct selecteerbare overkruisingsprodukten. Enkele nitraatreductase mutaties zijn door transformatie met het A.nigernia D +gen gecomplementeerd. Van tien transformanten is de mitotische stabiliteit bepaald, en enkele zijn moleculair nader geanalyseerd.Hoofdstuk 4 beschrijft de genetische analyse van amd S transformanten van A.niger . Het A.nidulans amd S gen (coderend voor een aceetamidase) is door transformatie geintroduceerd in A.niger . De transformerende sequentie bleek in elk van de twaalf geanalyseerde transformanten in één koppelingsgroep geïntegreerd te zijn, waarschijnlijk in elke transformant op een unieke plaats. In totaal is op zeven van de acht chromosomen een amd S insertie gevonden. Onze (niet getransformeerde) A.niger stammen groeien niet op aceetamide en zijn minder gevoelig voor fluor-aceetamide dan de transformanten. Hierdoor is het mogelijk om naar twee kanten te selecteren: transformanten kunnen worden geselecteerd als groeiers op aceetamide, terwijl verlies van het AmdS +fenotype leidt tot fluoro-aceetamide resistentie. Diploiden die ontstaan zijn uit een transformant en een niet- transformant zijn hemizygoot voor de amd S insertie en zijn fenotypisch Amd +. De mitotische stabiliteit van het Amd +fenotype van transformanten en hemizygote diploiden is gekwantificeerd. De positie van het geïntegreerde plasmide ten opzichte van andere markers op het chromosoom bleek eenvoudig te bepalen.In hoofdstuk 5 is een genetische kaart van A.niger beschreven. Voor het bepalen van de ligging van 60 markers ten opzichte van het centromeer op de acht chromosomen is voornamelijk gebruik gemaakt van de genetische markers en technieken die in de hoofdstukken 2,3 en 4 beschreven zijn. Tevens is voor de genetische analyses gebruik gemaakt van amd S transformanten. Daartoe is de vermoedelijke positie van de amd S insertie van negen transformanten bepaald. In de meeste gevallen bleek de amd S marker distaal van de andere markers te liggen. Daardoor zijn de amd S transformanten zeer geschikt voor het in kaart brengen van (niet selecteerbare) recessieve markers omdat ze aan de volgende eisen voldoen:(1) Amd S transformanten zijn betrekkelijk eenvoudig te isoleren.(2) In hemizygote diploiden kan geselecteerd worden op recombinanten die de amd S marker kwijt zijn geraakt. De frequentie waarmee dergelijke recombinanten door overkruising ontstaan is afhankelijk van de relatieve afstand van de amd S marker tot het centromeer.(3) De analyse van recombinanten is eenvoudig: het genotype kan direct van het fenotype worden afgeleid.(4) De amd S marker kan op vele plaatsen in het genoom worden geïntegreerd, zodat in principe voor elke chromosoomarm een transformant met een distaal gelegen amd S marker kan worden verkregen.In hoofdstuk 6 is een electroforetisch karyotype van A. niger beschreven. Met behulp van 'pulsed-field' gel electroforese zijn de chromosomen van A.niger in vier banden gescheiden. Zeven van de acht koppelingsgroepen konden worden toegekend aan een specifieke chromosomale band. Hiervoor zijn zeven transformanten gebruikt die elk op een ander chromosoom de amd S marker dragen. De grootte van de chromosomen is geschat en varieert van 3,5 tot 6,6 megabasen. Electroforetische karyotypering is toegepast voor het idealiseren van A genen en voor het schatten van de grootte van de insertie bij een transformant met vele copien van het amd S plasmide.Hoofdstuk 7 tenslotte bevat een samenvatting en een algemene discussie.</p
Cytokine antagonists and their potential therapeutic use
No full textNew and exciting developments in the understanding of the interaction between cytokines and their receptors, and the clinical application of cytokine antagonists, were discussed at a recent meeting. Here, Reno Debets and Huub Savelkoul revisit this progress
Identification of the het-r vegetative incompatibility gene of Podospora anserina as a member of the fast evolving HNWD gene family
No full textIn fungi, vegetative incompatibility is a conspecific non-self recognition mechanism that restricts formation of viable heterokaryons when incompatible alleles of specific het loci interact. In Podospora anserina, three non-allelic incompatibility systems have been genetically defined involving interactions between het-c and het-d, het-c and het-e, het-r and het-v. het-d and het-e are paralogues belonging to the HNWD gene family that encode proteins of the STAND class. HET-D and HET-E proteins comprise an N-terminal HET effector domain, a central GTP binding site and a C-terminal WD repeat domain constituted of tandem repeats of highly conserved WD40 repeat units that define the specificity of alleles during incompatibility. The WD40 repeat units of the members of this HNWD family are undergoing concerted evolution. By combining genetic analysis and gain of function experiments, we demonstrate that an additional member of this family, HNWD2, corresponds to the het-r non-allelic incompatibility gene. As for het-d and het-e, allele specificity at the het-r locus is determined by the WD repeat domain. Natural isolates show allelic variation for het-
Humboldt Made Fair – Michelle Wyler and Jacqueline Debets
No full textThis year (July 2011) the name of the Redwood Acres Fair changed to the Humboldt Made Fair and the focus is on products Made in Humboldt. Buy Fresh Buy Local representative Michelle Wyler and the Humboldt County Economic Development Department’s Jacqueline Debets teamed up to tell us what was happening in this new fair. One new element that I found intriguing was a Taste of Place dinner featuring local foods — so easy to do in Humboldt County because there are very few things we don’t have available here (of course July is tricky since we still didn’t have the heat for all those warm weather crops).
Hopefully — this concept will catch on in a big way in the future
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
No full text“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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