CEO GENDER AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

Based on data collected from the Execucomp database concerning S&P 1,500 U.S. firms over the period 1992 to 2013, we evaluate whether CEO gender affects firm performance. We also examine CEO performance in terms of company risk. Our research reveals that on average the gender of the CEO has no significant effect on firm performance. Specifically, our research shows that the gender of CEO does not affect the firm risk level, and in terms of stock return, the difference is not significant between female and male CEOs. Furthermore, We divide firms into high risk and low risk groups based on their β, where β greater than one is considered high risk and β less than one is considered low risk. As a result of this analysis there is no evidence that CEO gender has a significant impact on firm performance regardless of the company risk level

Web Service Reputation Evaluation Based on QoS Measurement

In the early service transactions, quality of service (QoS) information was published by service provider which was not always true and credible. For better verification the trust of the QoS information was provided by the Web service. In this paper, the factual QoS running data are collected by our WS-QoS measurement tool; based on these objectivity data, an algorithm compares the difference of the offered and measured quality data of the service and gives the similarity, and then a reputation evaluation method computes the reputation level of the Web service based on the similarity. The initial implementation and experiment with three Web services' example show that this approach is feasible and these values can act as the references for subsequent consumers to select the service

Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer × Panax quinquefolius L. Leaves and Parental Lines

Heterosis refers to the superior performance of heterozygous F1 hybrid plants with respect to those of their genetically distinct parents. Despite its wide use in crops, heterosis is seldom applied in the Panax genus, and its molecular basis remains unclear. Thus, this study is aimed to obtain hybrid F1s and identify the proteins associated with heterosis. Hybrid F1 plants and parental inbred lines were obtained using the embryo rescue technique, and the proteomes of their leaves were analyzed using two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis. A total of 236 differentially expressed proteins were found, among which 84 nonadditive proteins indicated a heterosis pattern in the hybrid. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, and protein and amino acid synthesis were the most abundant classes of nonadditive proteins. Of the proteins in these categories, 10, 6, and 4 proteins, respectively, showed above high parent expression in the hybrid leaves. These results imply that the increment in photosynthetic capacity, carbohydrate decomposition, and nitrogen fixation might be related to the heterosis of the hybrid biomass and ginsenoside production in the hybrid leaves. This study could provide a basis for hybrid breeding of the Panax genus

Regulatory Effect of High-Protein Diet on Circadian Rhythm of Lipid Metabolism in Obese Mice

This study aimed to investigate the regulatory effect of high-protein diet on circadian rhythm disturbances of lipid metabolism in obese mice induced by high-fat diet. Totally 120 specific pathogen-free (SPF)-grade C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into normal, high-fat and high-fat/high-protein groups. The metabolic status of mice was monitored at the 4th and 12th week of intervention, and mice were sacrificed at 2, 8, 14, and 20 o’clock after completion of feeding. Lipid levels in blood and liver, the expression of genes related to fat anabolism and catabolism and the expression of circadian rhythm-related genes were measured, and circadian rhythm changes were analyzed. The results showed that high-fat feeding caused an increase in body mass and obesity index and a decrease in voluntary activity and caloric expenditure during the active period. The changes were accompanied by dyslipidemia and an abnormal increase in liver lipid levels, manifested by continuous gene expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase, key enzymes involved in fat anabolism in liver, at high levels during the active and resting periods, a slow increase in the gene expression of sensitive lipase and acetyl-CoA oxidase, key enzymes involved in fat catabolism in liver, and changes in the diurnal variation pattern. Compared with high-fat intervention, high-protein intervention significantly increased the amount of voluntary activity and energy expenditure during the active period, restored the expression rhythm of fat synthase that was higher during the active period and lower during the rest period, and resulted in high-level expression of ACOX, a key enzyme gene involved in fat catabolism, after ingestion, showing obvious circadian rhythms. Further analysis showed that the improvement effects of high-protein intervention on circadian rhythm disorders of lipid metabolism caused by high-fat diet were closely related to the regulation of the expression of two clock genes in liver, circadian locomotor output cycle kaput (CLOCK) and brain and muscle-Arnt-like protein 1 (BMAL1). In conclusion, high-protein diets can alleviate biological clock disorders in liver induced by high-fat diets and ameliorate hepatic lipid metabolism disorders in mice by stabilizing circadian rhythms

HIV-1 Membrane-Proximal External Region Fused to Diphtheria Toxin Domain-A Elicits 4E10-Like Antibodies in Mice.

The production of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) is a major goal in the development of an HIV-1 vaccine. The membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of gp41, which plays a critical role in the virus membrane fusion process, is highly conserved and targeted by bNAbs 2F5, 4E10, and 10E8. As such, MPER could be a promising epitope for vaccine design. In this study, diphtheria toxin domain A (CRM197, amino acids 1-191) was used as a scaffold to display the 2F5 and 4E10 epitopes of MPER, named CRM197-A-2F5 and CRM197-A-4E10. Modest neutralizing activities were detected against HIV-1 clade B and D viruses in the sera from mice immunized with CRM197-A-4E10. Monoclonal antibodies raised from CRM197-A-4E10 could neutralize several HIV-1 strains, and epitope-mapping analysis indicated that some antibodies recognized the same amino acids as 4E10. Collectively, we show that 4E10-like antibodies can be induced by displaying MPER epitopes using an appropriate scaffold. These results provide insights for HIV-1 MPER-based immunogens design

Observation of a charged charmoniumlike structure in e+e−→(D∗Dˉ∗)±π∓e^+e^- \to (D^{*} \bar{D}^{*})^{\pm} \pi^\mp at s=4.26\sqrt{s}=4.26GeV

We study the process $e^+e^- \to (D^{*} \bar{D}^{*})^{\pm} \pi^\mp$ at a center-of-mass energy of 4.26GeV using a 827pb$^{-1}$ data sample obtained with the BESIII detector at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider. Based on a partial reconstruction technique, the Born cross section is measured to be $(137\pm9\pm15)$pb. We observe a structure near the $(D^{*} \bar{D}^{*})^{\pm}$ threshold in the $\pi^\mp$ recoil mass spectrum, which we denote as the $Z^{\pm}_c(4025)$. The measured mass and width of the structure are $(4026.3\pm2.6\pm3.7)$MeV/c$^2$ and $(24.8\pm5.6\pm7.7)$MeV, respectively. Its production ratio $\frac{\sigma(e^+e^-\to Z^{\pm}_c(4025)\pi^\mp \to (D^{*} \bar{D}^{*})^{\pm} \pi^\mp)}{\sigma(e^+e^-\to (D^{*} \bar{D}^{*})^{\pm} \pi^\mp)}$ is determined to be $0.65\pm0.09\pm0.06$. The first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; version accepted to be published in PR

Precision measurement of the branching fractions of J/psi -> pi+pi-pi0 and psi' -> pi+pi-pi0

We study the decays of the J/psi and psi' mesons to pi+pi-pi0 using data samples at both resonances collected with the BES III detector in 2009. We measure the corresponding branching fractions with unprecedented precision and provide mass spectra and Dalitz plots. The branching fraction for J/psi -> pi+pi-pi0 is determined to be (2.137 +- 0.004 (stat.) +0.058-0.056 (syst.) +0.027-0.026 (norm.))*10-2, and the branching fraction for psi' -> pi+pi-pi0 is measured as (2.14 +- 0.03 (stat.) +0.08-0.07 (syst.) +0.09-0.08 (norm.))*10-4. The J/psi decay is found to be dominated by an intermediate rho(770) state, whereas the psi' decay is dominated by di-pion masses around 2.2 GeV/c2, leading to strikingly different Dalitz distributions.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in inclusive charged dipion production in e+e−e^+e^- annihilations at s\sqrt{s} = 3.65 GeV

We present a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetries of two charged pions in the inclusive process $e^+e^-\rightarrow \pi\pi X$ based on a data set of 62 $\rm{pb}^{-1}$ at the center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=3.65$ GeV collected with the BESIII detector. These asymmetries can be attributed to the Collins fragmentation function. We observe a nonzero asymmetry, which increases with increasing pion momentum. As our energy scale is close to that of the existing semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering experimental data, the measured asymmetries are important inputs for the global analysis of extracting the quark transversity distribution inside the nucleon and are valuable to explore the energy evolution of the spin-dependent fragmentation function.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure