bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
THE EFFECTS OF ALTITUDE ON FRUIT QUALITY AND COMPRESSION LOAD FOR CRACKING OF WALNUTS (Juglans regia L.)
Authors: KOYUNCU MEHMET ALI , EKINCI KAMIL , GUN AYŞE 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT Nuts of walnut (Juglans regia L.), cultivated in the district of Denizli (altitude of 300 m) and Cameli (altitude, 1200 m) in the Aegean region of Turkey, were used to determine the effects of altitude on fruit quality and the force and energy required to crack the nuts. The varieties used were Bilecik, Sebin, Yalova‐1, Yalova‐3 and Yalova‐4. For all cultivars, walnut trees grown at the higher altitude produced small size nuts with thick shells. Based on the average for all cultivars, kernel removal quality decreased with high altitude. The nuts obtained from the high‐altitude location were lighter‐colored and required more force to fracture the nuts than those harvested at the low altitude. The amount of energy required to crack the nuts was higher for the nuts grown at the low‐altitude location except for the cultivar, Sebin.
Beyond Financial Reporting An Integrated Approach to Disclosure
Authors: Hutton Amy 
Published: February 2005

A company's market value is a key determinant of its future success, affecting its ability to raise capital, recruit and retain key employees, and make strategic acquisitions. Confident, well‐informed investors are necessary for achieving and maintaining accurate valuation of a company's stock. But standard disclosure practice has left many companies releasing a great deal of data while conveying only limited understanding to outsiders.This article presents the outline of an integrated approach to corporate disclosure in which each of the three major elements–required financial reports, supplemental disclosure, and interactions with investors and intermediaries–are consistent and mutually reinforcing. Such an approach begins with required reports that refiect as closely as possible the economic reality of a company's business. But if GAAP income statements and balance sheets are often useful for communicating current and past performance, they are not designed to convey management's strategic vision and the company's prospects for creating value. To achieve and maintain accurate valuation, management must supplement mandated financial reporting with voluntary communication that highlights value drivers and helps investors understand both the company's strategic goals and management's progress in meeting those goals. Finally, management must interact with investors and capital market intermediaries in ways that provide them with a clear and compelling picture of the company's prospects, which should help both analysts and institutional investors become more effective monitors of the firm's performance.Through consistent communication that goes well beyond the sell side's focus on quarterly earnings per share, management will discover that it has the power to set the agenda for how the company's performance is evaluated by the market. In the process, companies are also likely to find that their investors (and analysts) are more patient than they thought, while their operating managers feel less pressure to take shortsighted steps to boost EPS. Both of these expected benefits of an integrated disclosure policy should end up increasing a company's value.
Making Financial Goals and Reporting Policies Serve
Authors: King Tom , Stewart Bennett 
Published: February 2005

The main. nancial goal of Progressive Insurance, the third largest underwriter of auto insurance in the U.S., has remained the same since the late 1960s. Expressed in three words, “96 and grow,” the goal tells the company's managers to pursue all growth opportunities while maintaining a “combined ratio” no higher than 96, or what amounts to a minimum 4% spread between revenues (premiums) and costs (including expected losses). Thanks in part to the clarity of mission provided by this goal, the company has produced an average 15% rate of growth in revenues and earnings, along with a remarkably stable 15% return for its shareholders, since going public in 1971.Progressive's simplicity and clarity of mission is also partly responsible for another of the company's distinctive policies: product pricing that, while disciplined, is aggressive and highly decentralized. Having invested some $500 million per year developing statistical models for pricing individual customer risks and acquisition costs, the company was among the. rst in its industry to underwrite “non‐standard” risks. And aided by sophisticated pricing models, each of Progressive's 100 or so local product managers are charged with adapting those models to come up with premiums for their own regions.To go along with its strategic and organizational innovations, Progressive also has an innovative disclosure policy. Apart from SEC reports, the company's communications seldom mention earnings or earnings per share, and the company has never provided earnings guidance. With the passage of Reg. FD in late 2000, the company brie. y considered offering guidance. But in the spring of 2001, the board decided instead to provide monthly releases of its realized combined ratio. Since adoption of this new disclosure policy, Progressive has seen a 50% drop in the volatility of its stock price.
Identifying and Attracting the “right” Investors: Evidence on the Behavior of Institutional Investors
Authors: Bushee Brian 
Published: February 2005

This article summarizes the findings of research the author has conducted over the past seven years that aims to answer a number of questions about institutional investors: Are there significant differences among institutional investors in time horizon and other trading practices that would enable such investors to be classified into types on the basis of their observable behavior? Assuming the answer to the first is yes, do corporate managers respond differently to the pressures created by different types of investors– and, by implication, are certain kinds of investors more desirable from corporate management's point of view? What kinds of companies tend to attract each type of investor, and how does a company's disclosure policy affect that process?The author's approach identifies three categories of institutional investors: (1) “transient” institutions, which exhibit high portfolio turnover and own small stakes in portfolio companies; (2) “dedicated” holders, which provide stable ownership and take large positions in individual firms; and (3) “quasi‐indexers,” which also trade infrequently but own small stakes (similar to an index strategy).As might be expected, the disproportionate presence of transient institutions in a company's investor base appears to intensify pressure for short‐term performance while also resulting in excess volatility in the stock price. Also not surprising, transient investors are attracted to companies with investor relations activities geared toward forward‐looking information and “news events,” like management earnings forecasts, that constitute trading opportunities for such investors. By contrast, quasi‐indexers and dedicated institutions are largely insensitive to shortterm performance and their presence is associated with lower stock price volatility. The research also suggests that companies that focus their disclosure activities on historical information as opposed to earnings forecasts tend to attract quasi‐indexers instead of transient investors.In sum, the author's research suggests that changes in disclosure practices have the potential to shift the composition of a firm's investor base away from transient investors and toward more patient capital. By removing some of the external pressures for short‐term performance, such a shift could encourage managers to establish a culture based on long‐run value maximization.
Where M&A Pays and Where It Strays: A Survey of the Research
Authors: Bruner Robert 
Published: February 2005

This article uses a large and growing body of academic studies to refute the popular notion that corporate mergers and acquisitions generally fail to increase productivity and end up reducing shareholder value. A careful review of the evidence starts by con. rming the obvious–namely, that the shareholders of selling firms earn large returns from M&A–and goes on to demonstrate an economic reality that is not widely understood: shareholders of acquirers generally earn about the required rate of return on investment, and hence M&A is at least a value‐maintaining proposition.Of greatest interest to corporate practitioners, however, is the very large dispersion of outcomes that underlies the average returns. Closer inspection of this variability shows that certain circumstances and company characteristics are reliably associated with value‐increasing M&A. In particular, acquisitions of related companies tend to be better received by the market and to produce higher post‐merger operating returns than diversifying transactions (though there are a number of successful instances of the latter). Other fairly reliable indicators of value‐increasing M&A are transactions involving mergers of equals or smaller, private targets (where the bidding competition is less intense) and deals structured as earnouts and financed primarily with cash rather than stock.
In Defense of Incentive Compensation: Its Effect on Corporate Acquisition Policy
Authors: Datta Sudip , Iskandar‐Datta Mai , Raman Kartik 
Published: February 2005

Financial economists have long recognized that compensation design, particularly the use of equity‐based compensation, can provide strong motivation for corporate managers to make value‐maximizing decisions. But the perception of excesses in equity‐based pay for U.S. executives has become pervasive and has led many to question its efficacy. The fundamental problem is one of measurement–while it is relatively easy to measure the cost of equity‐based compensation, it is difficult to determine the extent to which equitybased compensation actually causes managers to direct corporate resources into value‐maximizing ventures.The authors of this article focus on corporate acquisition policy and argue that if equity‐based pay is an effective motivator, it should limit management's inclination to overpay for acquisitions and to make unwise acquisitions. In their study of 1,719 mergers and tender offers over the period 1993–1998, the authors found that bidding companies with higher proportions of equity‐based pay paid lower takeover premiums, acquired targets with stronger growth opportunities, and undertook acquisitions that were received more favorably by the market both upon announcement and over time.
Reappearing Dividends
Authors: Julio Brandon , Ikenberry David L. 
Published: February 2005

During the last two decades of the 20th century, the propensity of U.S. companies to pay cash dividends declined significantly. The trend away from dividends accelerated during the late 1990s, leading some economists to conclude that dividend policy was shifting in a very fundamental way. But there was a sharp reversal in this trend starting in 2000.This article investigates five possible explanations why dividends are reappearing. Given the explosion of new companies during the 1990s, the authors find that part of this rebound can be explained by the “maturity hypothesis”– by the need for such companies to pay out their excess “free cash fiow” to reassure investors that it will not be wasted on value‐destroying investments. The authors also report evidence that some companies have chosen to use dividends in part to restore investor confidence about the “quality” of corporate earnings in the wake of concerns over corporate governance. Third, the authors' findings suggest that U.S. companies have responded to the recent dividend tax cut, as one might expect, although the rebound in dividends started well before tax reform became a widely discussed possibility. Finally, the study finds little support for behavioralist explanations in which managers “cater” to irrational investor preferences for dividends. Although the authors hesitate to read too much into the recent rebound, their evidence is consistent with the idea that corporate payout policy has shifted back in favor of conventional cash dividends.
Antiadenovirus Activities of Several Classes of Nucleoside and Nucleotide Analogues
Authors: Naesens L. , Lenaerts L. , Andrei G. , Snoeck R. , Van Beers D. , Holý Antonin , Balzarini Jan , De Clercq Erik 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT

The absence of any formally licensed antiadenovirus drugs and the increasing incidence of life-threatening adenovirus infections in immunosuppressed patients warrant the development of effective antiadenovirus compounds. A detailed study was performed on the antiadenovirus activities of several classes of nucleoside and nucleotide analogues in human embryonic lung fibroblast cells. The antiadenovirus activities were evaluated by three methods, viz., evaluating the adenoviral cytopathic effect, monitoring cell viability by a colorimetric assay, and real-time PCR quantitation of viral DNA as a direct parameter for virus replication. The most active and selective compounds were the acyclic nucleoside phosphonate analogues cidofovir, its adenine analogue (
S
)-9-(3-hydroxy-2-phosphonylmethoxypropyl)adenine [(
S
)-HPMPA], and the new derivative (
S
)-2,4-diamino-6-[3-hydroxy-2-(phosphonomethoxy)propoxy]pyrimidine [(
S
)-HPMPO-DAPy]; the N7-substituted acyclic derivative 2-amino-7-(1,3-dihydroxy-2-propoxymethyl)purine (S-2242); and the 2′,3′-dideoxynucleoside analogues zalcitabine and alovudine. No antiadenovirus activity was observed for the antiviral drugs ribavirin, foscarnet, acyclovir, penciclovir, and brivudin, while ganciclovir displayed modest activity. However, in human osteosarcoma cells transfected with herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase, ganciclovir demonstrated highly potent antiadenovirus activity, suggesting that the efficacy of ganciclovir against adenovirus is limited by inefficient phosphorylation in adenovirus-infected cells, rather than by insufficient inhibition at the viral DNA polymerase level. Collectively, our antiviral data show that the adenovirus DNA polymerase exhibits sensitivity to a relatively broad spectrum of inhibitors and should be studied further as an antiviral target in antiadenovirus drug development programs.
c-di-GMP (3′-5′-Cyclic Diguanylic Acid) Inhibits
Staphylococcus aureus
Cell-Cell Interactions and Biofilm Formation
Authors: Karaolis David K. R. , Rashid Mohammed H. , Chythanya Rajanna , Luo Wensheng , Hyodo Mamoru , Hayakawa Yoshihiro 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT

Staphylococcus aureus
is an important pathogen of humans and animals, and antibiotic resistance is a public health concern. Biofilm formation is essential in virulence and pathogenesis, and the ability to resist antibiotic treatment results in difficult-to-treat and persistent infections. As such, novel antimicrobial approaches are of great interest to the scientific, medical, and agriculture communities. We recently proposed that modulating levels of the cyclic dinucleotide signaling molecule, c-di-GMP (cyclic diguanylate [3′,5′-cyclic diguanylic acid], cGpGp), has utility in regulating phenotypes of prokaryotes. We report that extracellular c-di-GMP shows activity against human clinical and bovine intramammary mastitis isolates of
S. aureus
, including methicillin-resistant
S. aureus
(MRSA) isolates. We show that chemically synthesized c-di-GMP is soluble and stable in water and physiological saline and stable following boiling and exposure to acid and alkali. Treatment of
S. aureus
with extracellular c-di-GMP inhibited cell-to-cell (intercellular) adhesive interactions in liquid medium and reduced (>50%) biofilm formation in human and bovine isolates compared to untreated controls. c-di-GMP inhibited the adherence of
S. aureus
to human epithelial HeLa cells. The cyclic nucleotide analogs cyclic GMP and cyclic AMP had a lesser inhibitory effect on biofilms, while 5′-GMP had no major effect. We propose that cyclic dinucleotides such as c-di-GMP, used either alone or in combination with other antimicrobial agents, represent a novel and attractive approach in the development of intervention strategies for the prevention of biofilms and the control and treatment of infection.
Activity of Gemifloxacin against Quinolone-Resistant
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Strains In Vitro and in a Mouse Pneumonia Model
Authors: Azoulay-Dupuis E. , Bédos J. P. , Mohler J. , Moine P. , Cherbuliez C. , Peytavin G. , Fantin B. , Köhler T. 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT

Gemifloxacin is a novel fluoronaphthyridone quinolone with enhanced in vitro activity against
Streptococcus pneumoniae
. We investigated the activities of gemifloxacin and trovafloxacin, their abilities to select for resistance in vitro and in vivo, and their efficacies in a mouse model of acute pneumonia. Immunocompetent Swiss mice were infected with 10
5
CFU of a virulent, encapsulated
S. pneumoniae
strain, P-4241, or its isogenic
parC
,
gyrA
,
parC gyrA
, and efflux mutant derivatives (serotype 3); and leukopenic mice were infected with 10
7
CFU of two poorly virulent clinical strains (serotype 11A) carrying either a
parE
mutation or a
parC
,
gyrA
, and
parE
triple mutation. The drugs were administered six times every 12 h, starting at either 3 or 18 h postinfection. In vitro, gemifloxacin was the most potent agent against strains with and without acquired resistance to fluoroquinolones. While control mice died within 6 days, gemifloxacin at doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg of body weight was highly effective (survival rates, 90 to 100%) against the wild-type strain and against mutants harboring a single mutation, corresponding to area under the time-versus-serum concentration curve at 24 h (AUC
24
)/MIC ratios of 56.5 to 113, and provided a 40% survival rate against a mutant with a double mutation (
parC
and
gyrA
). A total AUC
24
/MIC ratio of 28.5 was associated with poor efficacy and the emergence of resistant mutants. Trovafloxacin was as effective as gemifloxacin against mutants with single mutations but did not provide any protection against the mutant with double mutations, despite treatment with a high dose of 200 mg/kg. Gemifloxacin preferentially selected for
parC
mutants both in vitro and in vivo.
Transcriptional Analysis of the
vanC
Cluster from
Enterococcus gallinarum
Strains with Constitutive and Inducible Vancomycin Resistance
Authors: Panesso Diana , Abadía-Patiño Lorena , Vanegas Natasha , Reynolds Peter E. , Courvalin Patrice , Arias Cesar A. 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT

The
vanC
glycopeptide resistance gene cluster encodes enzymes required for synthesis of peptidoglycan precursors ending in
d
-Ala-
d
-Ser.
Enterococcus gallinarum
BM4174 and SC1 are constitutively and inducibly resistant to vancomycin, respectively. Analysis of peptidoglycan precursors in both strains indicated that UDP-MurNAc-tetrapeptide and UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide[
d
-Ser] were synthesized in
E. gallinarum
SC1 only in the presence of vancomycin (4 μg/ml), whereas the “resistance” precursors accumulated in the cytoplasm of BM4174 cells under both inducing and noninducing conditions. Northern hybridization and reverse transcription-PCR experiments revealed that all the genes from the cluster,
vanC-1
,
vanXY
C
,
vanT
,
vanR
C
, and
vanS
C
, were transcribed from a single promoter. In the inducible SC1 isolate, transcriptional regulation appeared to be responsible for inducible expression of resistance. Promoter mapping in
E. gallinarum
BM4174 revealed that the transcriptional start site was located 30 nucleotides upstream from
vanC-1
and that the −10 promoter consensus sequence had high identity with that of the
vanA
cluster. Comparison of the deduced sequence of the
vanS
C
genes from isolates with constitutive and inducible resistance revealed several amino acid substitutions located in the X box (R200L) and in the region between the F and G2 boxes (D312N, D312A, and G320S) of the putative sensor kinase proteins from isolates with constitutive resistance.
CmeR Functions as a Transcriptional Repressor for the Multidrug Efflux Pump CmeABC in
Campylobacter jejuni
Authors: Lin Jun , Akiba Masato , Sahin Orhan , Zhang Qijing 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT

CmeABC, a resistance-nodulation-division (RND) type of efflux pump, contributes to
Campylobacter
resistance to a broad spectrum of antimicrobial agents and is also essential for
Campylobacter
colonization of the animal intestinal tract by mediation of bile resistance. As one of the main systems for
Campylobacter
adaptation to different environments, CmeABC is likely subject to control by regulatory elements. We describe the identification of a transcriptional repressor for CmeABC. Insertional mutagenesis of
cmeR
, an open reading frame immediately upstream of the
cmeABC
operon, resulted in overexpression of
cmeABC
, as determined by transcriptional fusion (P

cmeABC-lacZ

) and immunoblotting with CmeABC-specific antibodies. Overexpression of the efflux pump was correlated with a moderate increase in the level of resistance of the
cmeR
mutant to several antimicrobials. In vitro, recombinant CmeR bound specifically to the promoter region of
cmeABC
, precisely, to the inverted repeat sequences in the
cmeABC
promoter. A single nucleotide deletion between the two half sites of the inverted repeat reduced the level of CmeR binding to the promoter sequence and resulted in overexpression of
cmeABC
. Together, these findings indicate that
cmeR
encodes a transcriptional repressor that directly interacts with the
cmeABC
promoter and modulates the expression of
cmeABC
. Mutation either in CmeR or in the inverted repeat impedes the repression and leads to enhanced production of the MDR efflux pump.
Simocyclinone D8, an Inhibitor of DNA Gyrase with a Novel Mode of Action
Authors: Flatman Ruth H. , Howells Alison J. , Heide Lutz , Fiedler Hans-Peter , Maxwell Anthony 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACT

We have characterized the interaction of a new class of antibiotics, simocyclinones, with bacterial DNA gyrase. Even though their structures include an aminocoumarin moiety, a key feature of novobiocin, coumermycin A
1
, and clorobiocin, which also target gyrase, simocyclinones behave strikingly differently from these compounds. Simocyclinone D8 is a potent inhibitor of gyrase supercoiling, with a 50% inhibitory concentration lower than that of novobiocin. However, it does not competitively inhibit the DNA-independent ATPase reaction of GyrB, which is characteristic of other aminocoumarins. Simocyclinone D8 also inhibits DNA relaxation by gyrase but does not stimulate cleavage complex formation, unlike quinolones, the other major class of gyrase inhibitors; instead, it abrogates both Ca
2+
- and quinolone-induced cleavage complex formation. Binding studies suggest that simocyclinone D8 interacts with the N-terminal domain of GyrA. Taken together, our results demonstrate that simocyclinones inhibit an early step of the gyrase catalytic cycle by preventing binding of the enzyme to DNA. This is a novel mechanism for a gyrase inhibitor and presents new possibilities for antibacterial drug development.