The Impact of Brand Quality on Shareholder Wealth

This study examines the impact of brand quality on three components of shareholder wealth: stock returns, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. The study finds that brand quality enhances shareholder wealth insofar as unanticipated changes in brand quality are positively associated with stock returns and negatively related to changes in idiosyncratic risk. However, unanticipated changes in brand quality can also erode shareholder wealth because they have a positive association with changes in systematic risk. The study introduces a contingency theory view to the marketing-finance interface by analyzing the moderating role of two factors that are widely followed by investors. The results show an unanticipated increase (decrease) in current-period earnings enhances (depletes) the positive impact of unanticipated changes in brand quality on stock returns and mitigates (enhances) their deleterious effects on changes in systematic risk. Similarly, brand quality is more valuable for firms facing increasing competition (i.e., unanticipated decreases in industry concentration). The results are robust to endogeneity concerns and across alternative models. The authors conclude by discussing the nuanced implications of their findings for shareholder wealth, reporting brand quality to investors, and its use in employee evaluation

Atrial fibrillation genetic risk differentiates cardioembolic stroke from other stroke subtypes

AbstractObjectiveWe sought to assess whether genetic risk factors for atrial fibrillation can explain cardioembolic stroke risk.MethodsWe evaluated genetic correlations between a prior genetic study of AF and AF in the presence of cardioembolic stroke using genome-wide genotypes from the Stroke Genetics Network (N = 3,190 AF cases, 3,000 cardioembolic stroke cases, and 28,026 referents). We tested whether a previously-validated AF polygenic risk score (PRS) associated with cardioembolic and other stroke subtypes after accounting for AF clinical risk factors.ResultsWe observed strong correlation between previously reported genetic risk for AF, AF in the presence of stroke, and cardioembolic stroke (Pearson’s r=0.77 and 0.76, respectively, across SNPs with p &lt; 4.4 × 10−4 in the prior AF meta-analysis). An AF PRS, adjusted for clinical AF risk factors, was associated with cardioembolic stroke (odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation (sd) = 1.40, p = 1.45×10−48), explaining ∼20% of the heritable component of cardioembolic stroke risk. The AF PRS was also associated with stroke of undetermined cause (OR per sd = 1.07, p = 0.004), but no other primary stroke subtypes (all p &gt; 0.1).ConclusionsGenetic risk for AF is associated with cardioembolic stroke, independent of clinical risk factors. Studies are warranted to determine whether AF genetic risk can serve as a biomarker for strokes caused by AF.</jats:sec

8-Chloro-4-[1-(phenylsulfonyl)indol-3-yl]-3a,4,5,9b-tetrahydro-3H-cyclopenta[c]quinoline

In the title compound,$C_{26}H_{21}ClN_{2}O_{2}S$, the tetrahydropyridine ring adopts a sofa conformation and the cyclopentene ring adopts an envelope conformation. In the crystal, centrosymmetrically related molecules exist as N–H...O and C– H...O hydrogen-bonded dimers, and the molecular packing is stabilized by C–$\pi$ and van der Waals interaction

Isolation of a novel Pseudomonas species SP2 producing vitamin B-12 under aerobic condition

Vitamin B-12 is a complex biomolecule that acts as a cofactor for a variety of enzymes in microbial metabolism. Pseudomonas denitrificans is exclusively used as an industrial strain for the production of vitamin B-12 under aerobic conditions. However, only a few strains of Pseudomonas have been reported to possess the capability of producing this vitamin and they are strongly patent-protected. To improve the applicability of the vitamin B-12-producing microorganisms, a new isolate was obtained from municipal waste samples and characterized for its biological properties. The new isolate, designated as SP2, was identified to be a Pseudomonas species based on the sequence homology of its 16S rDNA. Pseudomonas species SP2 had essential genes for vitamin B-12 synthesis such as cobB and cobQ and produced a similar amount of vitamin B-12 (10.6 +/- 0.05 mu g/mL) as P. denitrificans ATCC 13867 in 24 h flask culture. SP2 grew well under aerobic condition with the maximum specific growth rate (A mu (max) ) of 0.91 +/- 0.03/h, but showed a poor growth under micro-aerobic conditions. SP2 was resistant to antibiotics like streptomycin, carbenicillin, ampicillin, cefpodoxime, colistin, nalidixic acid and sparfloxacin. The ability of SP2 to grow faster and produce vitamin B-12 under aerobic conditions makes it a promising host for the production of some biochemicals requiring a coenzyme B-12-dependent enzyme, such as glycerol dehydratase