International Accounting Standards Board: An examination of the main financial and accounting topics addressed in the literature related to the COVID-19 pandemic

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) conducts very demanding and complex work to setting accounting standards. The outputs produced by this board and their acts have been scrutinized over the years, by practitioners and academics. This study aims to contribute to the knowledge on the role of IASB by unveiling the research trends address­ing this group of accounting experts and its publications. Through the anal­ysis of the bibliometric data related to COVID-19 issues, this study identifies the main topics addressed in the literature during this pandemic. The results contribute to assessing the research conducted in this field and for creating the future research agenda on addressing the role and impact of the IASB during health, social and economic crises.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

COVID-19 research streams emerging in International Financial Reporting Standards related studies

Interpretation for the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) became to be challenging for organizations. Over time, these standards are changed to accommodate the improvements identified in accounting rules. COVID-19 pandemic impacted accounting reporting considering that contingencies and risks arising from this health crisis should be reported to stakeholders. In order to provide empirical evidence of the most important COVID-19 related practical and academic issues and challenges addressed by academics when reporting under IFRS, this study applies an automated computer-aided analysis for clustering the bibliometric data published concerning IFRS and COVID-19. The results support academic studies and practitioners by identifying the COVID-19 research streams that received the most attention in 2020. This study also suggests guidelines for future research that derive from past academic contributions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trends in the management accounting research: A review of the literature published during the COVID-19 pandemic

Management accounting theory aims to contribute to managers using accounting reports for supporting their management decisions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, such insights would be essential for supporting decisions during lockdowns and other policy makers’ rules imposed by this health crisis. To unveil how academic literature addresses management accounting challenges arising from the COVID-19 specific context, this study conducts an automated computer analysis of the bibliometric data addressing financial issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exposição de Tilápia do Nilo (Oreochromis niloticus) ao herbicida de cana-de-açúcar hexazinona + diuron.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a exposição de tilápias do Nilo ao hexazinona + diuron em duas etapas

The 2020 oil price war has increased integration between G7 stock markets and crude oil WTI

This paper aims to examine whether the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has increased integration between the Crude Oil WTI Spot oil index and the G7 stock markets, namely France (CAC 40), Germany (DAX 30), USA (DOW JONES), UK (FTSE 100), Italy (FTSE MID), Japan (Nikkei 225), Canada (S&P TSX), from January 2018 to January 2021. The results show that in the period before the oil price war, the G7 stock markets and the WTI index had 29 integrations (out of 56 possible). The WTI index is integrated with the UK stock markets (FTSE 100), and Japan (NIKKEI 225), and is integrated into the Japanese market. In the period of the oil price war, the G7’s stock markets and the Crude Oil WTI Spot index had 43 integrations (out of 56 possible), namely the WTI, Dow Jones, and Nikkei 225 indexes, with all their peers (7 out of 7 possible). When comparing the period before and during the 2020 oil crash, we found that integrations increased significantly from 29 to 43 (out of 56 possible); we also found that the Crude Oil WTI Spot index is no longer a safe haven for portfolio diversification in G7 stock markets. These findings validate our research issue, i.e., the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia had increased integrations, and this evidence could question portfolio diversification.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the mechanical, thermoelectric, and excitonic properties of Tetragraphene monolayer

Two-dimensional carbon allotropes have attracted much attention due to their extraordinary optoelectronic and mechanical properties, which can be exploited for energy conversion and storage applications. In this work, we use density functional theory simulations and semi-empirical methods to investigate the mechanical, thermoelectric, and excitonic properties of Tetrahexcarbon (also known as Tetragraphene). This quasi-2D carbon allotrope exhibits a combination of squared and hexagonal rings in a buckled shape. Our findings reveal that tetragraphene is a semiconductor material with a direct electronic bandgap of 2.66 eV. Despite the direct nature of the electronic band structure, this material has an indirect exciton ground state of 2.30 eV, which results in an exciton binding energy of 0.36 eV. At ambient temperature, we obtain that the lattice thermal conductivity for tetragraphene is approximately 118 W/mK. Young's modulus and the shear modulus of tetragraphene are almost isotropic, with maximum values of 286.0 N/m and 133.7 N/m, respectively, while exhibiting a very low anisotropic Poisson ratio value of 0.09

A kinetic model of the central carbon metabolism for acrylic acid production in Escherichia coli

Acrylic acid is an economically important chemical compound due to its high market value. Nevertheless, the majority of acrylic acid consumed worldwide its produced from petroleum derivatives by a purely chemical process, which is not only expensive, but it also contributes towards environment deterioration. Hence, justifying the current need for sustainable novel production methods that allow higher profit margins. Ideally, to minimise production cost, the pathway should consist in the direct bio-based production from microbial feedstocks, such as Escherichia coli, but the current yields achieved are still too low to compete with conventional method. In this work, even though the glycerol pathway presented higher yields, we identified the malonyl-CoA route, when using glucose as carbon source, as having the most potential for industrial-scale production, since it is cheaper to implement. Furthermore, we also identified potential optimisation targets for all the tested pathways, that can help the bio-based method to compete with the conventional process.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology(FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit. This article is also a result of the project 22231/01/SAICT/2016: “Biodata.pt – Infraestrutura Portuguesa de Dados Biolo´gicos”, by Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Alexandre Oliveira holds a doctoral fellowship (2020.10205.BD) provided by the FCT. Oscar Dias acknowledge FCT for the Assistant Research contract obtained under CEEC Individual 2018. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Automated workflow for analyzing thermodynamic stability in polymorphic perovskite alloys

In this first-principles investigation, we explore the polymorphic features of pseudo-cubic alloys, focusing on the impact of mixing organic and inorganic cations on their structural and electronic properties, configurational disorder, and thermodynamic stability. Employing an automated cluster expansion within the generalized quasichemical approximation (GQCA), our results reveal how the effective radius of the organic cation (rMA = 2.15 Å, rFA = 2.53 Å) and its dipole moment (μMA = 2.15 D, μFA = 0.25 D), influences Glazer’s rotations in the A 1−xCsxPbI 3 (A = MA, FA) sublattice, with MA-based alloy presenting a higher critical temperature (527 K) and being stable for x > 0.60 above 200 K, while its FA analog has a lower critical temperature (427.7 K) and is stable for x < 0.15 above 100 K. Additionally, polymorphic motifs magnify relativistic effects, impacting the thermodynamic behavior of the systems. Our methodology leverages the SimStack framework, an automated scientific workflow that enables the nuanced modeling of polymorphic alloys. This structured approach allows for comprehensive calculations of thermodynamic properties, phase diagrams, optoelectronic insights, and power conversion efficiencies while meticulously incorporating crucial relativistic effects like spinorbit coupling (SOC) and quasi-particle corrections. Our findings advocate for the rational design of thermodynamically stable compositions in solar cell applications by calculating power conversion efficiencies using a spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency model, from which we obtained high efficiencies of about 28% (31–32%) for MA 1−xCsxPbI 3 with 0.50 < x < 1.00 (FA 1−xCsxPbI 3 with 0.0 < x < 0.20) as thermodynamically stable compositions at room temperature. The workflow’s significance is highlighted by a Colab-based notebook, which facilitates the analysis of raw data output, allowing users to delve into the physics of these complex systems. Our work underscores the pivotal role of composition and polymorphic degrees in determining the stability and optoelectronic properties of MHP alloys. It demonstrates the effectiveness of the SimStack workflow in advancing our understanding of these materials

Steroid Hormone Signaling Is Essential to Regulate Innate Immune Cells and Fight Bacterial Infection in Drosophila

Coupling immunity and development is essential to ensure survival despite changing internal conditions in the organism. Drosophila metamorphosis represents a striking example of drastic and systemic physiological changes that need to be integrated with the innate immune system. However, nothing is known about the mechanisms that coordinate development and immune cell activity in the transition from larva to adult. Here, we reveal that regulation of macrophage-like cells (hemocytes) by the steroid hormone ecdysone is essential for an effective innate immune response over metamorphosis. Although it is generally accepted that steroid hormones impact immunity in mammals, their action on monocytes (e.g. macrophages and neutrophils) is still not well understood. Here in a simpler model system, we used an approach that allows in vivo, cell autonomous analysis of hormonal regulation of innate immune cells, by combining genetic manipulation with flow cytometry, high-resolution time-lapse imaging and tissue-specific transcriptomic analysis. We show that in response to ecdysone, hemocytes rapidly upregulate actin dynamics, motility and phagocytosis of apoptotic corpses, and acquire the ability to chemotax to damaged epithelia. Most importantly, individuals lacking ecdysone-activated hemocytes are defective in bacterial phagocytosis and are fatally susceptible to infection by bacteria ingested at larval stages, despite the normal systemic and local production of antimicrobial peptides. This decrease in survival is comparable to the one observed in pupae lacking immune cells altogether, indicating that ecdysone-regulation is essential for hemocyte immune functions and survival after infection. Microarray analysis of hemocytes revealed a large set of genes regulated at metamorphosis by EcR signaling, among which many are known to function in cell motility, cell shape or phagocytosis. This study demonstrates an important role for steroid hormone regulation of immunity in vivo in Drosophila, and paves the way for genetic dissection of the mechanisms at work behind steroid regulation of innate immune cells.FCT fellowships: (SFRH/BPD/44613/2008, SFRH/BD/51175/2010), EMBO: (ALTF 178-2009), Gulbenkian Institute PhD Program

Systematic assessment of template-based genome-scale metabolic models created with the BiGG Integration Tool

Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) are essential tools for in silico phenotype prediction and strain optimisation. The most straightforward GEMs reconstruction approach uses published models as templates to generate theinitial draft, requiring further curation. Such an approachis used by BiGG Integration Tool (BIT), available for merlin users. This tool uses models from BiGG Models database as templates for the draft models. Moreover, BIT allows the selection between different template combinations. The main objective of this study is to assess the draft models generated using this tool and compare them BIT, comparing these to CarveMe models, both of which use the BiGG database, and curated models. For this, three organisms were selected, namely Streptococcus thermophilus, Xylella fastidiosa and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The models’ variability was assessed using reactions and genes’ metabolic functions. This study concluded that models generated with BIT for each organism were differentiated, despite sharing a significant portion of metabolic functions. Furthermore, the template seems to influence the content of the models, though to a lower extent. When comparing each draft with curated models, BIT had better performances than CarveMe in all metrics. Hence, BIT can be considered a fast and reliable alternative for draft reconstruction for bacteria models.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit. A. Oliveira (DFA/BD/10205/2020), E. Cunha (DFA/BD/8076/2020), F. Cruz (SFRH/BD/139198/2018), J. Sequeira (SFRH/BD/147271/2019), and M. Sampaio (SFRH/BD/144643/2019) hold a doctoral fellowship provided by the FCT. J. Ribeiro hold a fellowship provided by the University of Minho (UMI-NHO/BIM/2020/68). Oscar Dias acknowledge FCT for the Assistant Research contract obtained under CEEC Individual 2018.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio