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This article examines the concept of quality as a factor commonly used in portfolio management. Although value and momentum are fairly well-established constructs, the third major factor in many models, quality, is not so well articulated. This research aggregates the most common components of quality into a parsimonious, well-defined factor (QAL) using the data reduction technique known as partial least square. The authors show that their factor has power independent of the other factors and significant return in excess of common risk models. Moreover, their QAL factor possesses favorable downside risk properties and works as a superior hedge during turbulent market performance periods, which they contend is the main feature one would expect of assets with high quality. Additionally, adding the authors' QAL to an opportunity set consisting of other factors, as well as a traditional 60/40 equity/fixed-income portfolio, increases the Sharpe ratio and improves downside protection simultaneously because of its diversifying effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silibinin is a natural flavonoid with anti-diabetic activity. Glucagon-like peptide−1 (GLP−1), an intestinal hormone mainly secreted from L cells, which regulates insulin production and sensitivity, appears to be a potential therapeutic strategy for T2DM. The current study aims to determine the protective effect of silibinin against palmitic acid (PA)-induced damage in GLUTag cells. The results revealed that PA triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and apoptosis in GLUTag cells, while silibinin attenuated PA-induced lipotoxicity. Based on the estrogen-like effects of silibinin and the role of estrogen receptors in regulating glycolipid metabolism, the involvement of estrogen receptors in the protective effects of silibinin in GLUTag cells was further investigated. The results showed that estrogen receptor α- and β-specific inhibitors reversed the inhibitory impact of silibinin on ER stress. Our study demonstrated that silibinin protects GLUTag cells from PA-induced injury by decreasing ER stress under the regulation of estrogen receptors α and β. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf surface fertilization with liquid fertilizer produced from amino acids constitutes a potentially important source of nitrogen and is important for plant production. However, few reports have focused on the plant growth promotion by novel liquid fertilizers created by new amino acid resources, let alone the influence on leaf microbiota. In this study, the effects of liquid fertilizer, created by amino acids hydrolyzed from animal hairs with or without the PGPR strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SQR9, on crop yield and leaf microbiota were investigated. The results showed that leaves sprayed with amino acid liquid fertilizer (AA) and liquid biological fertilizer (AA9) persistently increased cowpea yields compared to the control amended with chemical fertilizer (CF). Fertilization with amino acid fertilizer showed no significant difference in microbial composition compared with the CF treatment; however, the introduction of functional microbes altered the microbial composition. Pearson correlation analysis, VPA analysis and SEM models all revealed that the amino acids liquid fertilizer application, but not the functional strain or the altered microbiota, performed as the direct driver attributing to yield enhancement. We conclude that leaf fertilization with a novel amino acid liquid fertilizer can greatly enhance the crop yield and that the addition of beneficial microbes may perform the role in further altering the composition of leaf microbiota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we empirically investigate whether and to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) may affect firm liquidity risk. We define liquidity risk as the covariance between market-wide liquidity shocks and individual firms' stock returns and employ two methods to estimate firm liquidity risk. We find a negative association between CSR and firm liquidity risk after controlling for various firm characteristics, i.e., year and industry fixed effects. Our results are robust to possible endogeneity issues when we adopt two-stage lease square estimator and dynamic GMM estimator. In addition, we document that the negative relation between CSR and firm liquidity risk is more pronounced when firms have higher reliance on external financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant-beneficial microbes improve while pathogens reduce plant performance. When introduced in soils, such microbes can induce entire microbiome changes. However, the impact of those microbial introductions on protists – key predators within the soil microbiome – remain unknown. Here, we tracked how soil protists respond to bacterial (Bacillus and Ralstonia) and fungal (Trichoderma and Fusarium) introductions, with both microbial groups represented by one beneficial and one pathogenic taxon. We found that plant-beneficial Bacillus bacteria change the protist community structure. This community-shift was likely induced by an increased fungi/bacteria ratio, supported by a negative correlation of the fungi/bacteria ratio with the relative abundance of phagotrophic protists across all treatments. Our results indicate that microbial introductions can impact protist communities, thereby altering microbiome-derived multi-functionality. • We tested how bacterial and fungal species introductions affect soil protists. • Introduced Bacillus bacteria changed the protist community. • Phagotrophic protists were negatively correlated with the fungi/bacteria ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]