The valuation of European financial firms

We extend the recent literature concerning accounting based valuation models to investigate financial firms from six European countries with substantial financial sectors: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. Not only are these crucial industries worthy of study in their own right, but unusual accounting practices, and inter-country differences in those accounting practices, provide valuable insights into the accounting-value relationship. Our sample consists of 7,714 financial firm/years observations from 1,140 companies drawn from 1989-2000. Sub-samples include 1,309 firm/years for banks, 650 for insurance companies, 1,705 for real estate firms, and 3,239 for investment companies. In most countries we find that the valuation models work as well or better in explaining cross-sectional variations in the market-to-book ratio for financial firms as they do for industrial and commercial firms in the same countries, although Switzerland is an exception to this generalization. As expected, the results are sensitive to industrial differences, accounting regulation and accounting practices. In particular, marking assets to market value reduces the relevance of earnings figures and increases that of equity

d-Cystine di(m)ethyl ester reverses the deleterious effects of morphine on ventilation and arterial blood gas chemistry while promoting antinociception

We have identified thiolesters that reverse the negative effects of opioids on breathing without compromising antinociception. Here we report the effects of d-cystine diethyl ester (d-cystine diEE) or d-cystine dimethyl ester (d-cystine diME) on morphine-induced changes in ventilation, arterial-blood gas chemistry, A-a gradient (index of gas-exchange in the lungs) and antinociception in freely moving rats. Injection of morphine (10 mg/kg, IV) elicited negative effects on breathing (e.g., depression of tidal volume, minute ventilation, peak inspiratory flow, and inspiratory drive). Subsequent injection of d-cystine diEE (500 μmol/kg, IV) elicited an immediate and sustained reversal of these effects of morphine. Injection of morphine (10 mg/kg, IV) also elicited pronounced decreases in arterial blood pH, pO2 and sO2 accompanied by pronounced increases in pCO2 (all indicative of a decrease in ventilatory drive) and A-a gradient (mismatch in ventilation-perfusion in the lungs). These effects of morphine were reversed in an immediate and sustained fashion by d-cystine diME (500 μmol/kg, IV). Finally, the duration of morphine (5 and 10 mg/kg, IV) antinociception was augmented by d-cystine diEE. d-cystine diEE and d-cystine diME may be clinically useful agents that can effectively reverse the negative effects of morphine on breathing and gas-exchange in the lungs while promoting antinociception. Our study suggests that the d-cystine thiolesters are able to differentially modulate the intracellular signaling cascades that mediate morphine-induced ventilatory depression as opposed to those that mediate morphine-induced antinociception and sedation

Cyclic compression increases F508 DEL CFTR expression in ciliated human airway epithelium

The mechanisms by which transepithelial pressure changes observed during exercise and airway clearance can benefit lung health are challenging to study. Here, we have studied 117 mature, fully ciliated airway epithelial cell filters grown at air-liquid interface grown from 10 cystic fibrosis (CF) and 19 control subjects. These were exposed to cyclic increases in apical air pressure of 15 cmH2O for varying times. We measured the effect on proteins relevant to lung health, with a focus on the CF transmembrane regulator (CFTR). Immunofloures-cence and immunoblot data were concordant in demonstrating that air pressure increased F508Del CFTR expression and maturation. This effect was in part dependent on the presence of cilia, on Ca2+ influx, and on formation of nitrogen oxides. These data provide a mechanosensory mechanism by which changes in luminal air pressure, like those observed during exercise and airway clearance, can affect epithelial protein expression and benefit patients with diseases of the airways

Broad-spectrum aptamer inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase closely mimic natural substrates

A detailed understanding of how aptamers recognize biological binding partners is of considerable importance in the development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. For antiviral nucleic acid aptamers, current models predict a correlation between broad-spectrum inhibition of viral proteins and suppression of emerging viral resistance, but there is little understanding of how aptamer structures contribute to recognition specificity. We previously established that two independent single-stranded DNA aptamers, R1T and RT1t49(−5), are potent inhibitors of reverse transcriptases (RTs) from diverse branches of the primate lentiviral family, including HIV-1, HIV-2 and SIV(cpz). In contrast, class 1 RNA pseudoknots, such as aptamer T1.1, are specific for RTs from only a few viral clades. Here, we map the binding interfaces of complexes formed between RT and aptamers R1T, RT1t49(−5) and T1.1, using mass spectrometry-based protein footprinting of RT and hydroxyl radical footprinting of the aptamers. These complementary methods reveal that the broad-spectrum aptamers make contacts throughout the primer-template binding cleft of RT. The double-stranded stems of these aptamers closely mimic natural substrates near the RNase H domain, while their binding within the polymerase domain significantly differs from RT substrates. These results inform our perspective on how sustained, broad-spectrum inhibition of RT can be achieved by aptamers

Bacterial cellulose production by Gluconacetobacter xylinus by employing alternative culture media

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is used in different fields as a biological material due to its unique properties. Despite there being many BC applications, there still remain many problems associated with bioprocess technology, such as increasing productivity and decreasing production cost. New technologies that use waste from the food industry as raw materials for culture media promote economic advantages because they reduce environmental pollution and stimulate new research for science sustainability. For this reason, BC production requires optimized conditions to increase its application. The main objective of this study was to evaluate BC production by Gluconacetobacter xylinus using industry waste, namely, rotten fruits and milk whey, as culture media. Furthermore, the structure of BC produced at different conditions was also determined. The culture media employed in this study were composed of rotten fruit collected from the disposal of free markets, milk whey from a local industrial disposal, and their combination, and Hestrin and Schramm media was used as standard culture media. Although all culture media studied produced BC, the highest BC yield60 mg/mLwas achieved with the rotten fruit culture. Thus, the results showed that rotten fruit can be used for BC production. This culture media can be considered as a profitable alternative to generate high-value products. In addition, it combines environmental concern with sustainable processes that can promote also the reduction of production cost.The authors would like to acknowledge the Brazil National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq, FAPESP, and CAPES), the financial support from FAPESP 2009/14897-7, and Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT)/Portugal through the project PTDC/EBB-EBI/112170/2009 for the financial support and scholarship. Special thanks to Talita Almeida Vicentin for technical support

Learning about protein folding via potential functions

Over the last few years we have developed an empirical potential function that solves the protein structure recognition problem : given the sequence for an n -residue globular protein and a collection of plausible protein conformations, including the native conformation for that sequence, identify the correct, native conformation. Having determined this potential on the basis of only some 6500 native/nonnative pairs of structures for 58 proteins, we find it recognizes the native conformation for essentially all compact, soluble, globular proteins having known native conformations in comparisons with 10 4 to 10 6 reasonable alternative conformations apiece. In this sense, the potential encodes nearly all the essential features of globular protein conformational preference. In addition it “knows” about many additional factors in protein folding, such as the stabilization of multimeric proteins, quaternary structure, the role of disulfide bridges and ligands, pro proteins vs. processed proteins, and minimal strand lengths in globular proteins. Comparisons are made with other sorts of protein folding problems, and applications in protein conformational determination and prediction are discussed. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38520/1/340200206_ftp.pd

Strategies to control product characteristics in simultaneous crystallization of NaCl and KCl from aqueous solution: Seeding with NaCl and KCl

In this work we developed an approach for the simultaneous crystallization of NaCl and KCl from their aqueous solution by concomitantly seeding both salts. Experiments were designed based on the ternary system phase diagram. The mother liquor concentration was chosen near the eutonic condition at its boiling temperature. The seeds for each compound had different sizes but the amounts were calculated to provide nearly equal surface areas for each material. Elementary phenomena were assessed and the chemical composition in different particle size ranges within the products was analysed. Despite the presence of seeds from each component in the suspension under crystallization, the formation of mixed composition polycrystalline particles was observed. A seeding protocol involving much larger KCl than NaCl seeds resulted in an easily separable product with two distinct populations. In general, segregation of the salts through the size ranges followed the trend induced by seeding, highlighting the possibility of retrieving relatively pure solid fractions of each salt