bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Trade Generation, Reputation, and Sell‐Side Analysts
Authors: JACKSON ANDREW R. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the trade‐generation and reputation‐building incentives facing sell‐side analysts. Using a unique data set I demonstrate that optimistic analysts generate more trade for their brokerage firms, as do high reputation analysts. I also find that accurate analysts generate higher reputations. The analyst therefore faces a conflict between telling the truth to build her reputation versus misleading investors via optimistic forecasts to generate short‐term increases in trading commissions. In equilibrium I show forecast optimism can exist, even when investment‐banking affiliations are removed. The conclusions may have important policy implications given recent changes in the institutional structure of the brokerage industry.
The Geography of Equity Analysis
Authors: MALLOY CHRISTOPHER J. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTI provide evidence that geographically proximate analysts are more accurate than other analysts. Stock returns immediately surrounding forecast revisions suggest that local analysts impact prices more than other analysts. These effects are strongest for firms located in small cities and remote areas. Collectively these results suggest that geographically proximate analysts possess an information advantage over other analysts, and that this advantage translates into better performance. The well‐documented underwriter affiliation bias in stock recommendations is concentrated among distant affiliated analysts; recommendations by local affiliated analysts are unbiased. This finding reveals a geographic component to the agency problems in the industry.
Wealth Destruction on a Massive Scale? A Study of Acquiring‐Firm Returns in the Recent Merger Wave
Authors: MOELLER SARA B. , SCHLINGEMANN FREDERIK P. , STULZ RENÉ M. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTAcquiring‐firm shareholders lost 12 cents around acquisition announcements per dollar spent on acquisitions for a total loss of $240 billion from 1998 through 2001, whereas they lost $7 billion in all of the 1980s, or 1.6 cents per dollar spent. The 1998 to 2001 aggregate dollar loss of acquiring‐firm shareholders is so large because of a small number of acquisitions with negative synergy gains by firms with extremely high valuations. Without these acquisitions, the wealth of acquiring‐firm shareholders would have increased. Firms that make these acquisitions with large dollar losses perform poorly afterward.
Lifting the Veil: An Analysis of Pre‐trade Transparency at the NYSE
Authors: BOEHMER EKKEHART , SAAR GIDEON , YU LEI 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTWe study pre‐trade transparency by looking at the introduction of NYSE's OpenBook service that provides limit‐order book information to traders off the exchange floor. We find that traders attempt to manage limit‐order exposure: They submit smaller orders and cancel orders faster. Specialists' participation rate and the depth they add to the quote decline. Liquidity increases in that the price impact of orders declines, and we find some improvement in the informational efficiency of prices. These results suggest that an increase in pre‐trade transparency affects investors' trading strategies and can improve certain dimensions of market quality.
Do Domestic Investors Have an Information Advantage? Evidence from Indonesia
Authors: DVOŘÁK TOMÁŠ 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTUsing transaction data from Indonesia, this paper shows that domestic investors have higher profits than foreign investors. In addition, clients of global brokerages have higher long‐term and smaller medium (intramonth) and short (intraday) term profits than clients of local brokerages. This suggests that clients of local brokerages have a short‐lived information advantage, but that clients of global brokerages are better at picking long‐term winners. Finally, domestic clients of global brokerages have higher profits than foreign clients of global brokerages, suggesting that the combination of local information and global expertise leads to higher profits.
Managers, Workers, and Corporate Control
Authors: PAGANO M. , VOLPIN P. F. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTIf management has high private benefits and a small equity stake, managers and workers are natural allies against takeover threats. Two forces are at play. First, managers can transform employees into a “shark repellent” through long‐term labor contracts and thereby reduce the firm's attractiveness to raiders. Second, employees can act as “white squires” for the incumbent managers. To protect their high wages, they resist hostile takeovers by refusing to sell their shares to the raider or by lobbying against the takeover. The model predicts that wages are inversely correlated with the managerial equity stake, and decline after takeovers.
Optimal Life‐Cycle Asset Allocation: Understanding the Empirical Evidence
Authors: GOMES FRANCISCO , MICHAELIDES ALEXANDER 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTWe show that a life‐cycle model with realistically calibrated uninsurable labor income risk and moderate risk aversion can simultaneously match stock market participation rates and asset allocation decisions conditional on participation. The key ingredients of the model are Epstein–Zin preferences, a fixed stock market entry cost, and moderate heterogeneity in risk aversion. Households with low risk aversion smooth earnings shocks with a small buffer stock of assets, and consequently most of them (optimally) never invest in equities. Therefore, the marginal stockholders are (endogenously) more risk averse, and as a result they do not invest their portfolios fully in stocks.
Does Idiosyncratic Risk Really Matter?
Authors: BALI TURAN G. , CAKICI NUSRET , YAN XUEMIN (STERLING) , ZHANG ZHE 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTGoyal and Santa‐Clara (2003) find a significantly positive relation between the equal‐weighted average stock volatility and the value‐weighted portfolio returns on the NYSE/AMEX/Nasdaq stocks for the period of 1963:08 to 1999:12. We show that this result is driven by small stocks traded on the Nasdaq, and is in part due to a liquidity premium. In addition, their result does not hold for the extended sample of 1963:08 to 2001:12 and for the NYSE/AMEX and NYSE stocks. More importantly, we find no evidence of a significant link between the value‐weighted portfolio returns and the median and value‐weighted average stock volatility.
Hedging or Market Timing? Selecting the Interest Rate Exposure of Corporate Debt
Authors: FAULKENDER MICHAEL 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTThis paper examines whether firms are hedging or timing the market when selecting the interest rate exposure of their new debt issuances. I use a more accurate measure of the interest rate exposure chosen by firms by combining the initial exposure of newly issued debt securities with their use of interest rate swaps. The results indicate that the final interest rate exposure is largely driven by the slope of the yield curve at the time the debt is issued. These results suggest that interest rate risk management practices are primarily driven by speculation or myopia, not hedging considerations.
Can Managers Forecast Aggregate Market Returns?
Authors: BUTLER ALEXANDER W. , GRULLON GUSTAVO , WESTON JAMES P. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTPrevious studies have found that the proportion of equity in total new debt and equity issues is negatively correlated with future equity market returns. Researchers have interpreted this finding as evidence that corporate managers are able to predict the systematic component of their stock returns and to issue equity when the market is overvalued. In this article we show that the predictive power of the share of equity in total new issues stems from pseudo‐market timing and not from any abnormal ability of managers to time the equity markets.
Partial Privatization and Firm Performance
Authors: GUPTA NANDINI 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTMost privatization programs begin with a period of partial privatization in which only non‐controlling shares of firms are sold on the stock market. Since management control is not transferred to private owners it is widely contended that partial privatization has little impact. This perspective ignores the role that the stock market can play in monitoring and rewarding managerial performance even when the government remains the controlling owner. Using data on Indian state‐owned enterprises we find that partial privatization has a positive impact on profitability, productivity, and investment.
Is Debt Relief Efficient?
Authors: ARSLANALP SERKAN , HENRY PETER BLAIR 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTWhen developing countries announce debt relief agreements under the Brady Plan, their stock markets appreciate by an average of 60% in real dollar terms—a $42 billion increase in shareholder value. There is no significant stock market increase for a control group of countries that do not sign Brady agreements. The stock market appreciations successfully forecast higher future resource transfers, investment, and growth. Since the market capitalization of U.S. commercial banks with developing country loan exposure also rises—by $13 billion—the results suggest that both borrower and lenders can benefit from debt relief when the borrower suffers from debt overhang.
Effects of Tryptophan Starvation on Levels of the
trp
RNA-Binding Attenuation Protein (TRAP) and Anti-TRAP Regulatory Protein and Their Influence on
trp
Operon Expression in
Bacillus subtilis
Authors: Yang Wen-Jen , Yanofsky Charles 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

The anti-TRAP protein (AT), encoded by the
rtpA
gene of
Bacillus subtilis
, can bind to and inhibit the tryptophan-activated
trp
RNA-binding attenuation protein (TRAP). AT binding can prevent TRAP from promoting transcription termination in the leader region of the
trp
operon, thereby increasing
trp
operon expression. We show here that AT levels continue to increase as tryptophan starvation becomes more severe, whereas the TRAP level remains relatively constant and independent of tryptophan starvation. Assuming that the functional form of AT is a trimer, we estimate that the ratios of AT trimers per TRAP molecule are 0.39 when the cells are grown under mild tryptophan starvation conditions, 0.83 under more severe starvation conditions, and approximately 2.0 when AT is expressed maximally. As the AT level is increased, a corresponding increase is observed in the anthranilate synthase level. When AT is expressed maximally, the anthranilate synthase level is about 70% of the level observed in a strain lacking TRAP. In a nutritional shift experiment where excess phenylalanine and tyrosine could potentially starve cells of tryptophan, both the AT level and anthranilate synthase activity were observed to increase. Expression of the
trp
operon is clearly influenced by the level of AT.
Characterization of Novel
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
and
Mycobacterium smegmatis
Mutants Hypersusceptible to β-Lactam Antibiotics
Authors: Flores Anthony R. , Parsons Linda M. , Pavelka Martin S. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

Our laboratory previously constructed mutants of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
and
Mycobacterium smegmatis
with deletions in the genes for their major β-lactamases, BlaC and BlaS, respectively, and showed that the mutants have increased susceptibilities to most β-lactam antibiotics, particularly the penicillins. However, there is still a basal level of resistance in the mutants to certain penicillins, and the susceptibilities of the mutants to some cephalosporin-based β-lactams are essentially the same as those of the wild types. We hypothesized that characterizing additional mutants (derived from β-lactamase deletion mutants) that are hypersusceptible to β-lactam antibiotics might reveal novel genes involved with other mechanisms of β-lactam resistance, peptidoglycan assembly, and cell envelope physiology. We report here the isolation and characterization of nine β-lactam antibiotic-hypersusceptible transposon mutants, two of which have insertions in genes known to be involved with peptidoglycan biosynthesis (
ponA2
and
dapB
); the other seven mutants have insertions which affect novel genes. These genes can be classified into three groups: those involved with peptidoglycan biosynthesis, cell division, and other cell envelope processes. Two of the peptidoglycan-biosynthetic genes (
ponA2
and
pbpX
) may encode β-lactam antibiotic-resistant enzymes proposed to be involved with the synthesis of the unusual diaminopimelyl linkages within the mycobacterial peptidoglycan.
Percolation of the Phd Repressor-Operator Interface
Authors: Zhao Xueyan , Magnuson Roy David 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

Transcription of the P1 plasmid addiction operon, a prototypical toxin-antitoxin system, is negatively autoregulated by the products of the operon. The Phd repressor-antitoxin protein binds to 8-bp palindromic Phd-binding sites in the promoter region and thereby represses transcription. The toxin, Doc, mediates cooperative interactions between adjacent Phd-binding sites and thereby enhances repression. Here, we describe a homologous operon from
Salmonella enterica
serovar Typhimurium which has the same pattern of regulation but an altered repressor-operator specificity. This difference in specificity maps to the seventh amino acid of the repressor and to the symmetric first and eighth positions of the corresponding palindromic repressor-binding sites. Thus, the repressor-operator interface has coevolved so as to retain the interaction while altering the specificity. Within an alignment of homologous repressors, the seventh amino acid of the repressor is highly variable, indicating that evolutionary changes in repressor specificity may be common in this protein family. We suggest that the robust properties of the negative feedback loop, the fuzzy recognition in the operator-repressor interface, and the duplication and divergence of the repressor-binding sites have facilitated the speciation of this repressor-operator interface. These three features may allow the repressor-operator system to percolate within a nearly neutral network of single-step mutations without the necessity of invoking simultaneous mutations, low-fitness intermediates, or other improbable or rate-limiting mechanisms.
Helical Disposition of Proteins and Lipopolysaccharide in the Outer Membrane ofEscherichia coli
Authors: Ghosh Anindya S. , Young Kevin D. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTIn bacteria, several physiological processes once thought to be the products of uniformly dispersed reactions are now known to be highly asymmetric, with some exhibiting interesting geometric localizations. In particular, the cell envelope ofEscherichia colidisplays a form of subcellular differentiation in which peptidoglycan and outer membrane proteins at the cell poles remain stable for generations while material in the lateral walls is diluted by growth and turnover. To determine if material in the side walls was organized in any way, we labeled outer membrane proteins with succinimidyl ester-linked fluorescent dyes and then grew the stained cells in the absence of dye. Labeled proteins were not evenly dispersed in the envelope but instead appeared as helical ribbons that wrapped around the outside of the cell. By staining the O8 surface antigen ofE. coli2443 with a fluorescent derivative of concanavalin A, we observed a similar helical organization for the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) component of the outer membrane. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching indicated that some of the outer membrane proteins remained freely diffusible in the side walls and could also diffuse into polar domains. On the other hand, the LPS O antigen was virtually immobile. Thus, the outer membrane ofE. colihas a defined in vivo organization in which a subfraction of proteins and LPS are embedded in stable domains at the poles and along one or more helical ribbons that span the length of this gram-negative rod.
Aminoglycosides Are Captured from both Periplasm and Cytoplasm by the AcrD Multidrug Efflux Transporter of
Escherichia coli
Authors: Aires Julio Ramos , Nikaido Hiroshi 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

To understand better the mechanisms of resistance-nodulation-division (RND)-type multidrug efflux pumps, we examined the
Escherichia coli
AcrD pump, whose typical substrates, aminoglycosides, are not expected to diffuse spontaneously across the lipid bilayer. The hexahistidine-tagged AcrD protein was purified and reconstituted into unilamellar proteoliposomes. Its activity was measured by the proton flux accompanying substrate transport. When the interior of the proteoliposomes was acidified, the addition of aminoglycosides to the external medium stimulated proton efflux and the intravesicular accumulation of radiolabeled gentamicin, suggesting that aminoglycosides can be captured and transported from the external medium in this system (corresponding to cytosol). This activity required the presence of AcrA within the proteoliposomes. Interestingly, the increase in proton efflux also occurred when aminoglycosides were present only in the intravesicular space. This result suggested that AcrD can also capture aminoglycosides from the periplasm to extrude them into the medium in intact cells, acting as a “periplasmic vacuum cleaner.”
SpoIIE Regulates Sporulation but Does Not Directly Affect Solventogenesis in
Clostridium acetobutylicum
ATCC 824
Authors: Scotcher Miles C. , Bennett George N. 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

Using gene expression reporter vectors, we examined the activity of the
spoIIE
promoter in wild-type and
spo0A
-deleted strains of
Clostridium acetobutylicum
ATCC 824. In wild-type cells, the
spoIIE
promoter is active in a transient manner during late solventogenesis, but in strain SKO1, where the sporulation initiator
spo0A
is disrupted, no
spoIIE
promoter activity is detectable at any stage of growth. Strains 824(pMSpo) and 824(pASspo) were created to overexpress
spoIIE
and to decrease
spoIIE
expression via antisense RNA targeted against
spoIIE
, respectively. Some cultures of strains 824(pMSpo) degenerated during fermentations by losing the pSOL1 megaplasmid and hence did not produce the solvents ethanol, acetone, and butanol. The frequent degeneration event was shown to require an intact copy of
spoIIE
. Nondegenerate cultures of 824(pMSpo) exhibited normal growth and solvent production. Strain 824(pASspo) exhibited prolonged solventogenesis characterized by increased production of ethanol (225%), acetone (43%), and butanol (110%). Sporulation in strains harboring pASspo was significantly delayed, with sporulating cells exhibiting altered morphology. These results suggest that SpoIIE has no direct effect on the control of solventogenesis and that the changes in solvent production in
spoIIE
-downregulated cells are mediated by effects on the cell during sporulation.
Menaquinone-Specific Prenyl Reductase from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon
Archaeoglobus fulgidus
Authors: Hemmi Hisashi , Takahashi Yoshihiro , Shibuya Kyohei , Nakayama Toru , Nishino Tokuzo 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

Four genes that encode the homologues of plant geranylgeranyl reductase were isolated from a hyperthermophilic archaeon
Archaeoglobus fulgidus
, which produces menaquinone with a fully saturated heptaprenyl side chain, menaquinone-7(14H). The recombinant expression of one of the homologues in
Escherichia coli
led to a distinct change in the quinone profile of the host cells, although the homologue is the most distantly related to the geranylgeranyl reductase. The new compounds found in the profile had successively longer elution times than those of ordinary quinones from
E. coli
, i.e., menaquinone-8 and ubiquinone-8, in high-performance liquid chromatography on a reversed-phase column. Structural analyses of the new compounds by electron impact-mass spectrometry indicated that their molecular masses progressively increase relative to the ordinary quinones at a rate of 2 U but that they still contain quinone head structures, strongly suggesting that the compounds are quinones with partially saturated prenyl side chains. In vitro assays with dithionite as the reducing agent showed that the prenyl reductase is highly specific for menaquinone-7, rather than ubiquinone-8 and prenyl diphosphates. This novel enzyme noncovalently binds flavin adenine dinucleotide, similar to geranylgeranyl reductase, but was not able to utilize NAD(P)H as the electron donor, unlike the plant homologue.
Modulation of mRNA Stability Participates in Stationary-Phase-Specific Expression of Ribosome Modulation Factor
Authors: Aiso Toshiko , Yoshida Hideji , Wada Akira , Ohki Reiko 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

The expression of ribosome modulation factor (RMF) is induced during stationary phase in
Escherichia coli
. RMF participates in the dimerization of 70S ribosomes to form the 100S ribosome, which is the translationally inactive form of the ribosome. To elucidate the involvement of the control of mRNA stability in growth-phase-specific
rmf
expression, we investigated
rmf
mRNA stability in stationary-phase cells and cells inoculated into fresh medium. The
rmf
mRNA was found to have an extremely long half-life during stationary phase, whereas destabilization of this mRNA took place after the culture was inoculated into fresh medium. RMF and 100S ribosomes disappeared from cells 1 min after inoculation. In addition to control by ppGpp-dependent transcription, these results indicate that the modulation of
rmf
mRNA stability is also involved in the regulation of growth-phase-specific
rmf
expression. Unexpectedly, the postinoculation degradation of
rmf
mRNA was suppressed by the addition of rifampin, suggesting that de novo RNA synthesis is necessary for degradation. This degradation was also suppressed in both a poly(A) polymerase-deficient and an
rne-131
mutant strain. We cloned and sequenced the 3′-proximal regions of
rmf
mRNAs and found that most of these 3′ ends terminated at the ρ-independent terminator with the addition of a one- to five-A oligo(A) tail in either stationary-phase or inoculated cells. No difference was observed in the length of the poly(A) tail between stationary-phase and inoculated cells. These results suggest that a certain postinoculation-specific regulatory factor participates in the destabilization of
rmf
mRNA and is dependent on polyadenylation.
Function and Expression of an
N
-Acetylneuraminic Acid-Inducible Outer Membrane Channel in
Escherichia coli
Authors: Condemine Guy , Berrier Catherine , Plumbridge Jacqueline , Ghazi Alexandre 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACT

The
Escherichia coli yjhA
(renamed
nanC)
gene encodes a protein of the KdgM family of outer membrane-specific channels. It is transcribed divergently from
fimB
, a gene involved in the site-specific inversion of the region controlling transcription of the fimbrial structural genes but is separated from it by one of the largest intergenic regions in
E. coli
. We show that
nanC
expression is induced by
N
-acetylneuraminic acid and modulated by
N
-acetylglucosamine. This regulation occurs via the NanR and NagC regulators, which also control
fimB
expression.
nanC
expression is also activated by the regulators cyclic AMP-catabolite activator protein, OmpR, and CpxR. When the NanC protein was reconstituted into liposomes, it formed channels with a conductance of 450 pS at positive potential and 300 to 400 pS at negative potential in 800 mM KCl. The channels had a weak anionic selectivity. In an
ompR
background, where the general porins OmpF and OmpC are absent, NanC is required for growth of
E. coli
on
N
-acetylneuraminic acid as the sole carbon source. All these results suggest that NanC is an
N
-acetylneuraminic acid outer membrane channel protein.