This research project investigates the influence of a number of economic and financial variables on the profitability of Greek enterprises from 2006 to 2013, namely: annual revenue, exports as a binary variable, number of employees, sectoral composition, investments and founding year. Three models were tested using linear stepwise regression as well as logistic regression. The fit to the data is low, indicating that other important factors, in addition to those tested, influence the development of corporate profits more. Running the models for individual years we see that in the years 2010 and 2011 mark a shift in the direction of the relation of several of our variables to profits (such as the age of the enterprise and the number of employees). The full application of austerity policies because of the crisis may be the explanation for that, indicating that the crisis did not have a unified influence on profitability. More importantly statistically significant results are observed in relations which conflict with economic theory, namely exports are negatively correlated to profitability (Model 1) or not correlated at all (Model 2). Our models do not contribute to understanding the determinants of profitability but rather the difficulties to identify smooth profitability patterns at times of crisis and austerity. The research is still in progress as we strive to improve the explanatory power of the models, by expanding the number of variables and using additional statistical methods.

Real-time quantitative-PCR has been a priceless tool for gene expression analyses. The reaction, however, needs proper normalization with the use of housekeeping genes (HKGs), whose expression remains stable throughout the experimental conditions. Often, the combination of several genes is required for accurate normalization. Most importantly, there are no universal HKGs which can be used since their expression varies among different organisms, tissues or experimental conditions. In the present study, nine common HKGs (RPL19, tbp, ubx, GAPDH, α-TUB, β-TUB, 14-3-3zeta, RPE and actin3) are evaluated in thirteen different body parts, developmental stages and reproductive and olfactory tissues of two insects of agricultural importance, the medfly and the olive fly. Three software programs based on different algorithms were used (geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper) and gave different ranking of HKG stabilities. This confirms once again that the stability of common HKGs should not be taken for granted and demonstrates the caution that is needed in the choice of the appropriate HKGs. Finally, by estimating the average of a standard score of the stability values resulted by the three programs we were able to provide a useful consensus key for the choice of the best HKG combination in various tissues of the two insects.