The intraindustry effects of going concern audit reports

This paper investigates the effect of a going concern opinion (GCO) on the equity value of the announcing firm’s competitors. On average, GCOs increase the value of a value-weighted portfolio of rivals by 0.37% at the event date. This positive effect is significantly larger when the announcing firm is relatively more profitable, the industry is more concentrated, and when rivals and event firms have distinct assets in place and growth opportunities. Additional tests reveal that such competitive effect is not a mere short-term phenomenon as investors can earn up to 1.54% on a risk-adjusted basis over the first postGCO month. This finding is especially interesting as we show that for the industry rivals the one-year and six-month preGCO riskadjusted equity returns are, on average, strongly negative. Our results highlight the impact of mandatory accounting information on market prices at both the firm and industry levels.Audit reports; Going concern; Competitive effect; Contagion effect.

Transmission fingerprints in quasiperiodic magnonic multilayers

AbstractIn this paper we investigated the influence of mirror symmetry on the transmission spectra of quasiperiodic magnonic multilayers arranged according to Fibonacci, Thue–Morse and double period quasiperiodic sequences. We consider that the multilayers composed of two simple cubic Heisenberg ferromagnets with bulk exchange constants JA and JB and spin quantum numbers SA and SB, respectively. The multilayer structure is surrounded by two semi-infinite slabs of a third Heisenberg ferromagnetic material with exchange constant JC and spin quantum number SC. For simplicity, the lattice constant has the same value a in each material, corresponding to epitaxial growth at the interfaces. The transfer matrix treatment was used for the exchange-dominated regime, taking into account the random phase approximation (RPA). Our numerical results illustrate the effects of mirror symmetry on (i) transmission spectra and (ii) transmission fingerprints

On the Potential of the Excluded Volume and Auto-Correlation as Neuromorphometric Descriptors

This work investigates at what degree two neuromorphometric measurements, namely the autocorrelation and the excluded volume of a neuronal cell can influence the characterization and classification of such a type of cells. While the autocorrelation function presents good potential for quantifying the dendrite-dendrite connectivity of cells in mosaic tilings, the excluded volume, i.e. the amount of the surround space which is geometrically not accessible to an axon or dendrite, provides a complementary characterization of the cell connectivity. The potential of such approaches is illustrated with respect to real neuronal cells.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Genome-wide identification, characterization and expression profiling of the ubiquitin-proteasome genes in biomphalaria glabrata

Biomphalaria glabrata is the major species used for the study of schistosomiasis-related parasite-host relationships, and understanding its gene regulation may aid in this endeavor. The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) performs post-translational regulation in order to maintain cellular protein homeostasis and is related to several mechanisms, including immune responses. The aims of this work were to identify and characterize the putative genes and proteins involved in UPS using bioinformatic tools and also their expression on different tissues of B. glabrata. The putative genes and proteins of UPS in B. glabrata were predicted using BLASTp and as queries reference proteins from model organism. We characterized these putative proteins using PFAM and CDD software describing the conserved domains and active sites. The phylogenetic analysis was performed using ClustalX2 and MEGA5.2. Expression evaluation was performed from 12 snail tissues using RPKM. 119 sequences involved in the UPS in B. glabrata were identified, which 86 have been related to the ubiquitination pathway and 33 to proteasome. In addition, the conserved domains found were associated with the ubiquitin family, UQ_con, HECT, U-box and proteasome. The main active sites were lysine and cysteine residues. Lysines are responsible and the starting point for the formation of polyubiquitin chains, while the cysteine residues of the enzymes are responsible for binding to ubiquitin. The phylogenetic analysis showed an organized distribution between the organisms and the clades of the sequences, corresponding to the tree of life of the animals, for all groups of sequences analyzed. The ubiquitin sequence was the only one with a high expression profile found in all libraries, inferring its wide range of performance. Our results show the presence, conservation and expression profile of the UPS in this mollusk, providing a basis and new knowledge for other studies involving this system. Due to the importance of the UPS and B. glabrata, this work may influence the search for new methodologies for the control of schistosomiasis114CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ479890/2013-

A IMPORTÂNCIA DA INFORMAÇÃO FINANCEIRA NAS EMPRESAS PORTUGUESAS: O JUSTO VALOR DO ATIVO FIXO TANGÍVEL

RESUMO Motivação: A União Europeia preconizou, através do Regulamento 1606/2002, a obrigatoriedade da adoção das normas do IASB nas contas consolidadas de todas as empresas cotadas em bolsas europeias, a partir de 1 de Janeiro de 2005. A transição para as IAS/IFRS em 2005 na Europa proporciona uma oportunidade única para estudar forças e fatores explicativos das práticas contabilísticas, particularmente na adoção do justo valor. O modo de mensuração tradicionalmente adotado pelas empresas europeias, no relato financeiro, é o custo histórico, enquanto as normas do IASB apresentam-se mais próximas do critério do justo valor. Objetivo do estudo: O presente estudo investiga a importância da informação financeira para investidor, nomeadamente o justo valor nas empresas portuguesas cotadas em bolsa de valores, no que concerne aos ativos fixos tangíveis. Assumindo que as escolhas contabilísticas são influenciadas por um conjunto de variáveis e que as empresas ponderam e reconhecem a importância da informação financeira, procurou-se neste estudo identificar se a informação sobre o valor do ativo fixo tangível, endividamento, o resultado líquido e o ganho de revalorização está incorporado no preço das ações. Metodologia: O presente estudo empírico baseia-se em empresas cotadas portuguesas, incluídas na Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa, tendo sido analisado o período de 1995 a 2014. Para o efeito, utilizamos a base de dados Thomson Worldscope Database. Para identificar se a informação financeira está incorporada no preço das ações, utilizamos o modelo de avaliação de Ohlson (1995). Resultados / Contribuições: No geral, os resultados obtidos vão de encontro às nossas expectativas. Eles indicam que, tanto antes da adoção das IFRS, como após a adoção das IFRS, a informação representada no valor das ações pelas empresas, é influenciada, de modo significativo, pelo valor dos ativos, o nível de endividamento e o resultado líquido. Palavras-chave: Ativo Fixo Tangível, Justo Valor, IFRS, Portuga

Reducing discards in a demersal purse-seine fishery

Fisheries bycatches and discards constitute a significant problem in many fisheries worldwide. Unlike the pelagic purse-seine, the demersal purse seine usually targets high commercial value demersal species such as sea breams ( e. g., Diplodus spp., Pagellus spp., Sparus aurata) and the European sea bass ( Dicentrarchus labrax), while discards consist mainly of pelagic species and juveniles of the above mentioned species. In order to evaluate the efficiency of a selectivity device in reducing bycatch and consequently of discards in a demersal purse seine fishery, experimental deployments were carried out. The bycatch reducing device (BRD) consisted in the use of a panel of diamond-shaped mesh netting of 70 mm stretched mesh in the posterior part of the purse seine. Data from 61 experimental fishing trials allowed the evaluation of discards, with Scomber japonicus, Boops boops, Sardina pilchardus, Diplodus bellottii and Belone belone being the main discarded species. The mean discard ratio per set was 0.49 (+/- 0.30 standard deviation). The causes for discarding were also identified, with low commercial value being the most important reason. The results of the trials with BRD, were promising, with an average of 49% (+/- 24%) of the fish escaping per set, especially from those species that are most discarded. Overall, the use of this method for reducing discards can be considered positive for the following reasons: there is no need for structural modification of the fishing gear, the BRD is easy to deploy, and it is efficient in terms of species, sizes and quantities of fish that manage to escape. It therefore has significant benefits for the demersal purse seine fishery and possibly for other "metiers" as well

DNA-PKcs modulates progenitor cell proliferation and fibroblast senescence in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Published online: 29 August 2019BACKGROUND: Recent studies have highlighted the contribution of senescent mesenchymal and epithelial cells in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), but little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms that regulate the accumulation of senescent cells in this disease. Therefore, we addressed the hypothesis that the loss of DNA repair mechanisms mediated by DNA protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) in IPF, promoted the accumulation of mesenchymal progenitors and progeny, and the expression of senescent markers by these cell types. METHODS: Surgical lung biopsy samples and lung fibroblasts were obtained from patients exhibiting slowly, rapidly or unknown progressing IPF and lung samples lacking any evidence of fibrotic disease (i.e. normal; NL). The expression of DNA-Pkcs in lung tissue was assessed by quantitative immunohistochemical analysis. Chronic inhibition of DNA-PKcs kinase activity was mimicked using a highly specific small molecule inhibitor, Nu7441. Proteins involved in DNA repair (stage-specific embryonic antigen (SSEA)-4+ cells) were determined by quantitative Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of transcriptomic datasets (GSE103488). Lastly, the loss of DNA-PKc was modeled in a humanized model of pulmonary fibrosis in NSG SCID mice genetically deficient in PRKDC (the transcript for DNA-PKcs) and treated with Nu7441. RESULTS: DNA-PKcs expression was significantly reduced in IPF lung tissues. Chronic inhibition of DNA-PKcs by Nu7441 promoted the proliferation of SSEA4+ mesenchymal progenitor cells and a significant increase in the expression of senescence-associated markers in cultured lung fibroblasts. Importantly, mesenchymal progenitor cells and their fibroblast progeny derived from IPF patients showed a loss of transcripts encoding for DNA damage response and DNA repair components. Further, there was a significant reduction in transcripts encoding for PRKDC (the transcript for DNA-PKcs) in SSEA4+ mesenchymal progenitor cells from IPF patients compared with normal lung donors. In SCID mice lacking DNA-PKcs activity receiving IPF lung explant cells, treatment with Nu7441 promoted the expansion of progenitor cells, which was observed as a mass of SSEA4+ CgA+ expressing cells. CONCLUSIONS: Together, our results show that the loss of DNA-PKcs promotes the expansion of SSEA4+ mesenchymal progenitors, and the senescence of their mesenchymal progeny.David M. Habiel, Miriam S. Hohmann, Milena S. Espindola, Ana Lucia Coelho, Isabelle Jones, Heather Jones, Richard Carnibella, Isaac Pinar, Freda Werdiger and Cory M. Hogaboa