Studies in selectivity of lipases in preparation of cyanohydrins, sugar conjugates and secondary alcohols

Biocatalysis can be applied in organic synthetic chemistry to counter challenges posed by increased demands towards chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity, not forgetting the need for greener chemistry. During the last 30 years, biocatalysis with the use of enzymes as chiral catalysts has become more common in chemistry laboratories and industrial processes. In this thesis, the use of lipases as versatile biocatalysts in the acylation of alcohols is examined both in the light of literature examples and four original publications. In the first part of the work presented in this thesis lipases were utilized in two examples concerning secondary alcohols. First, the kinetic resolution of heterocyclic aromatic secondary alcohols through transesterification was thoroughly examined including the studies of competing hydrolysis and esterification reactions. In another example, lipases were utilized in the formation of a dynamic systemic resolution (DSR) process which in turn was used as a developmental tool in the optimization of the dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of five heterocyclic aromatic cyanohydrins in one pot for the preparation of cyanohydrin esters as single enantiomers. In the second part of the work, the regio- and stereoselectivity of lipases was used to form sugar conjugates of glyceric and β-amino acids. The primary hydroxyl groups of methyl α-D-galacto-, -gluco- and -mannopyranosides were now acylated trough lipasecatalyzed transesterification and enantioselective lipase-catalyzed ring-opening of β- lactams, respectively.

Entrepreneurship Education in Basic and Upper Secondary Education – Measurement and Empirical Evidence

The starting point of this study is to direct more attention to the teacher and those entrepreneurship education practices taking place in formal school to find out solutions for more effective promotion of entrepreneurship education. For this objective, the strategy-level aims of entrepreneurship education need to be operationalised into measurable and understandable teacher-level practices. Furthermore, to enable the effective development of entrepreneurship education in basic and upper secondary level education, more knowledge is needed of the state of affairs of entrepreneurship education in teaching. The purpose of the study is to increase the level of understanding of teachers’ entrepreneurship education practices, and through this to develop entrepreneurship education. This study builds on the literature on entrepreneurship education and especially those elements referring to the aims, resources, benefits, methods, and practises of entrepreneurship education. The study comprises five articles highlighting teachers’ role in entrepreneurship education. In the first article the concept of entrepreneurship and the teachers role in reflection upon his/hers approaches to entrepreneurship education are considered. The second article provides a detailed analysis of the process of developing a measurement tool to depict the teachers’ activities in entrepreneurship education. The next three articles highlight the teachers’ role in directing the entrepreneurship education in basic and upper secondary level education. Furthermore, they analyse the relationship between the entrepreneurship education practises and the teachers’ background characteristics. The results of the study suggest a wide range of conclusions and implications. First, in spite of many outspoken aims connected to entrepreneurship education, teachers have not set any aims for themselves. Additionally, aims and results seem to mix. However, it is possible to develop teachers’ target orientation by supporting their reflection skills, and through measurement and evaluation increase their understanding of their own practices. Second, applying a participatory action process it is possible to operationalise teachers’entrepreneurship education practices. It is central to include the practitioners’ perspective in the development of measures to make sure that the concepts and aims of entrepreneurship education are understood. Third, teachers’ demographic or tenure-related background characteristics do not affect their entrepreneurship education practices, but their training related to entrepreneurship education, participation in different school-level or regional planning, and their own capabilities support entrepreneurship education. Fourth, a large number of methods are applied to entrepreneurship education, and the most often used methods were different kinds of discussions, which seem to be an easy, low-threshold way for teachers to include entrepreneurship education regularly in their teaching. Field trips to business enterprises or inviting entrepreneurs to present their work in schools are used fairly seldom. Interestingly, visits outside the school are more common than visitors invited to the school. In line, most of the entrepreneurship education practices take place in a classroom. Therefore it seems to be useful to create and encourage teachers towards more in-depth cooperation with companies (e.g. via joint projects) and to network systematically. Finally, there are plenty of resources available for entrepreneurship education, such as ready-made materials, external stakeholders, support organisations, and learning games, but teachers have utilized them only marginally.

Predicting bankruptcy of Finnish limited liability companies from historical financial statements

This master’s thesis studies the probability of bankruptcy of Finnish limited liability companies as a part of credit risk assessment. The main idea of this thesis is to build and test bankruptcy prediction models for Finnish limited liability companies that can be utilized in credit decision making. The data used in this thesis consists of historical financial statements from 2112 Finnish limited liability companies, half of which have filed for bankruptcy. A total of four models are developed, two with logistic regression and two with multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA). The time horizon of the models varies from 1 to 2 years prior to the bankruptcy, and 14 different financial variables are used in the model formation. The results show that the prediction accuracy of the models ranges between 81.7% and 88.9%, and the best prediction accuracy is achieved with the one year prior the bankruptcy logistic regression model. However the difference between the best logistic model and the best MDA model is minimal. Overall based on the results of this thesis it can be concluded that predicting bankruptcy is possible to some extent, but naturally the results are not perfect.

The role of auditors in the Finnish limited liability companies as to solvency test in the context of asset distribution

Suomen osakeyhtiölain mukaan varoja ei saa jakaa, jos jaosta päätettäessä tiedetään tai pitäisi tietää yhtiön olevan maksukyvytön tai jaon aiheuttavan maksukyvyttömyyden. Ongelmallista on, että maksukykyä ei ole selvästi määritelty laissa tai hallituksen esityksessä. Tilintarkastuslain mukaan tilintarkastajan on siten huomautettava, jos maksukykytestiä on rikottu, mutta tilintarkastaja joutuu yleensä määrittelemään tällaiset huomauttamista vaativat tilanteet itse. Maksukykytestistä on kirjoitettu suomalaisessa yhtiöoikeuden ja laskentatoimen kirjallisuudessa melko kattavasti. Kuitenkin tilintarkastajaa koskeva näkökulma on saanut osakseen suhteellisen vähän huomiota. Tästä näkökulmasta on kirjoitettu vain joitakin korkeakoulujen tutkielmia sekä lyhyehköjä ammatillisia seminaariesityksiä. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on ollut koota laaja yleiskuva siitä, miten tilintarkastajat itse kokevat asemansa ja tehtävänsä yllä kuvatuissa tilanteessa. Tutkielmassa on käyty läpi aikaisempaa yhtiöoikeuden ja laskentatoimen kirjallisuudessa ja seminaariesityksissä esitettyä aineistoa. Lisäksi tutkielmaa varten tehtiin suomalaisille tilintarkastajille kohdennettu Internet-pohjainen kysely. Tutkielma selkeyttää kuvaa siitä, miten tilintarkastajat toimivat yllä kuvatussa tilanteessa ja miten he ovat sopeuttaneet toimiaan yhteiskunnan institutionaalisen asetelman muututtua. Kirjallisuuden pohjalta tapahtuva teoreettinen analyysi on yhdistetty kyselyyn siitä, miten tilintarkastajat käytännössä toimivat. Tutkimuksen perustana olevaa tietoa on analysoitu pääosin kyselytutkimuksen menetelmin, mutta myös tilastollisen tutkimuksen menetelmiä on käytetty. Tutkielman tuloksena tutkielmassa selvitetään tilintarkastajan tehtäviä maksukykytestin yhteydessä. Tuloksena voidaan myös todeta, että tilintarkastaja ei suorita varojenjaossa tarvittavan maksukyvyn arvioinnin kannalta keskeisiä tarkastustoimenpiteitä ainoastaan tilikauden päättymisen jälkeen. Päinvastoin, tällaisia tarkastustoimenpiteitä suoritetaan enemmän tai vähemmän koko tilintarkastuksen aikana. Lisäksi vaikuttaisi siltä, että tilintarkastajan oma suhtautuminen maksukykytestiin on ainakin jossain määrin merkityksellinen sen kannalta, kuinka paljon tarkastustoimenpiteitä tehdään ja kuinka paljon maksukyvystä ja siihen liittyvistä puutteista raportoidaan yhtiön johdolle.

Parental and Successor Liability in EU Competition Law Infringements

Under EU competition law, parent companies may be held jointly and severally liable for the competition law infringements committed by their subsidiaries. The possibility of holding parent companies liable demonstrates a significant exception from the idea of separate legal entities. However, it is not the only deviation developed under EU competition law. In cases, where the legal entity responsible for the anti-competitive conduct has changed its form, liability can be attributed to the new operator, in particular, to its successor. The principles of legal certainty and legitimate expectations are issues that surround the doctrines of parental and successor liability. The aim of this thesis is to present a comprehensive comparative analysis of the parental and successor liability doctrines and to clarify the conditions under which it is possible to attribute liability for the infringements of EU competition law. The main purpose is therefore to demonstrate the problems related to the allocation of liability and to discuss whether these liability principles, established to assure the effective enforcement of the EU competition rules, are good solutions. The research methods used in this thesis are the legal dogmatic approach and the comparative law approach. The former enables the possibility of using the case law and legislation as a framework in which the difficulties concerning the application of parental and successor liability can be discussed while the latter ensures the comparison of the characteristics and judgments. The doctrines of parental and successor liability are both well established, but the application practice has caused several difficulties. These problems derive from, inter alia, the broadness and disjointed developed of the doctrines. There has been much recent case law dealing with these issues and having the potential to open up a considerable risk and to allocate strict liability for parent and successor companies.