ALBERT

Notes: Financial analysis at international level has to overcome a lot of obstacles that increase the uncertainty which the financial analyst is used to handling. It is commonly argued by accounting regulators, academics, and so on, that different accounting standards are one of these handicaps. For this reason European listed companies will be required in year 2005 to elaborate consolidated financial statements according to International Accounting Standards. Will it be a solution for the handicaps that face financial analysts? The objective of this study is to see how accounting diversity can be resolved and what are the conclusions of financial analysts in capital markets. The prior hypotheses will be: first, that accounting diversity is not what introduces the most important uncertainty in the international financial analysis, and second, that accounting diversity is avoided instead of being corrected. It is evidenced that the most important factors of diversity are strategies of the company and that analysts try to reduce the impact of accounting diversity, for example, using less biased ratios such as Enterprise Value/EBITDA.

Notes: An experiment was carried out with Cichlasoma urophthalmus (Günther) juveniles to determine the phosphorus requirement and its interaction with dietary calcium. Twelve isoenergetic and isoproteic diets were prepared using a basal artificial diet containing vitamin-free casein, dextrin, starch, corn oil, fish oil, vitamin mixture and a mineral mixture free of calcium and phosphorus. Calcium and phosphorus levels were determined in the casein. To the basal diets were added different concentrations of phosphorus as potassium monophosphate (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.5 g kg–1) and calcium as calcium carbonate (0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 g kg–1). These concentrations resulted in varying Ca–P ratios (1:1, 1.33:1, 1.5:1, 1.6:1 and 2.0:1). Calcium and phosphorus concentrations in the water were 84 mg kg–1 and 0.003 mg kg–1, respectively. The diet with 0.5 g kg–1 phosphorus resulted in deficiency signs such as reduced growth, high conversion ratio, high fat content and low bone mineralization. Increased levels of dietary calcium and phosphorus both gave improved growth and mineralization. Mineralization continued to increase with dietary phosphorus levels above that required for maximum growth. The optimum level of phosphorus in the diet was 1.5 g kg–1, the optimum calcium level was 1.8 g kg–1 and the optimum Ca–P ratio was 1.3. Carcass lipid levels were inversely related to dietary phosphorus.

Notes: After analysing a sample of 442 of the Spanish biggest manufacturing companies, some evidence about the influence of total quality management (TQM) on the companies' operating performance has been obtained. However, companies applying TQM together with the ISO 9000 standards did not show positive results. This fact leads to the consideration that, despite the beliefs about ISO 9000 as a good first step in the way of implementing TQM, once implemented, some of the ISO 9000 principles are contradictory with TQM philosophy. These not congruent systems applied together would drive the company to obtain less benefits than the use of only one of them. The study concludes that when ISO 9000 and TQM are applied simultaneously, the resultant benefits to the company are not better than those experienced if either system were applied in isolation.

Notes: The effect of the proportion of Calluna vulgaris cover on diet composition, intake and performance of sheep grazing hill vegetation communities in northern Spain is examined. A total of 591 non-lactating Gallega ewes grazed for five consecutive grazing seasons (June to September) on replicated plots of hill pastures (1700 m.a.s.l.) composed principally of Festuca, Agrostis, Nardus and Calluna spp. but with different proportions of Calluna vulgaris cover, either 0·3 (C0·3) or 0·7 (C0·7) of the total area. In 1 year, twenty-eight ewes suckling single lambs also grazed the plots. The mean stocking density over the 5 years was 8·7 ewes ha–1. On treatment C0·3, daily liveweight gains (33 g d–1) of non-lactating ewes were significantly (P 〈 0·001) greater than on treatment C0·7 (12 g d–1). Likewise in lactating ewes the difference in mean daily liveweight change was 40 g d–1 (–5 vs. –45 g d–1 for C0·3 and C0·7 treatments respectively; P 〈 0·001). Liveweight gains of lambs were only 80–100 g d–1 from June to August and lambs only maintained live weight during August and September. The effect of lactational status on liveweight changes was not significant. Liveweight gains of non-lactating ewes increased significantly (P 〈 0·001) from the first to the last year of the experiment on both treatments.The composition of the diet was significantly affected by treatment (P 〈 0·001), with a higher proportion of grass species on the C0·3 treatment and a higher digestibility of the diet in the first half of the grazing season (P 〈 0·001). The proportion of C. vulgaris in the diet was significantly (P 〈 0·001) higher on the C0·7 treatment and increased significantly (P 〈 0·001) from July to September on both treatments. There were no significant differences in the composition of the diet selected by lactating and non-lactating ewes.The results demonstrate that on hill vegetation communities, in which the grass components (Festuca rubra, Agrostis capillaris, and Nardus stricta) cover at least 0·3 of the area and on which the preferred grass component (Festuca and Agrostis spp.) is maintained at a sward height of at least 2·5 cm, non-lactating ewes can increase their live weight and body condition, but this increase is influenced by the proportion and quantity of species of grass in the diet, which is affected in turn by the species of grass available and their nutritive quality. However, ewes suckling lambs were not able to maintain their live weight and body condition except when Calluna cover was 0·3 and grass height was more than 3·5 cm.It is concluded that these indigenous vegetation communities can be used in sheep production systems to complement the use of improved pastures at other times of year. In particular, they can be utilized during the non-lactating period (summer) to increase body condition before the beginning of the mating period in autumn.

Notes: Nitrogen metabolism in Aspergillus nidulans is regulated by AREA, a member of the GATA family of transcription factors. One mechanism that modulates AREA activity involves the rapid degradation of the areA transcript when sufficient NH4+ or Gln are available. This signalling mechanism has been shown to require a region of 218 nucleotides within the 3′ untranslated region of areA mRNA. We demonstrate that this region functions independently in a heterologous transcript and acts to accelerate degradation of the poly(A) tail, which in turn leads to rapid transcript degradation in response to the addition of NH4+ or Gln to the growth medium. areA transcript degradation is inhibited by cycloheximide, but this is not a general consequence of translational inhibition. We believe that this is the first reported example in which specific physiological signals, acting through a defined sequence within a transcript, have been shown to promote accelerated poly(A) degradation, which in turn triggers transcript degradation.

Notes: Saccharomyces cerevisiae PAU genes constitute the largest multigene family in yeast, with 23 members located mainly in subtelomeric regions. The role and regulation of these genes were previously unknown. We detected PAU gene expression during alcoholic fermentation. An analysis of PAU gene regulation using PAU–lacZ fusions and Northern analyses revealed that they were regulated by anaerobiosis. PAU genes display, however, different abilities to be induced by anaerobiosis and this appears to be related to their chromosomal localization; two subtelomeric copies are more weakly inducible than an interstitial one. We show that PAU genes are negatively regulated by oxygen and repressed by haem. Examination of PAU gene expression in rox1Δ and tup1Δ strains indicates that PAU repression by oxygen is mediated by an unknown, haem-dependent pathway, which does not involve the Rox1p anaerobic repressor but requires Tup1p. Given the size of the gene family, PAU genes could be expected to be important during yeast life and some of them probably help the yeast to cope with anaerobiosis.

Notes: 1. A year-round study was conducted in a mesotrophic reservoir to determine the dynamics of zooplankton populations as a function of food availability (edible phytoplankton), nutrient concentration, temperature and hydraulic regime.2. Rotifer biomass was correlated with soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentration. The abundance of the rotifers Keratella cochlearis and Anuraeopsis fissa were not correlated with food availability (measured by chlorophyll and cell counts) but showed a strong dependence on P availability. Another rotifer, Synchaeta oblonga, and crustacean species were not related to nutrient availability but seemed to be dependent on food concentrations, especially of some phytoplankton taxa.3. In this field study, rotifers seemed more susceptible than Daphnia or copepods to P-limitation. Among rotifer species, Keratella seemed to be more susceptible than Anuraeopsis to P limitation. Different susceptibilities of zooplankton species to nutrient limitation may be important in explaining the dynamics of these organisms in natural situations. Further analyses are warranted to clarify the interactions between nutrient limitation and energy limitation among zooplankton.