business ethics, financial reporting quality, accruals, conservatism, corporate governance,

business ethics, ethical commitment, ethical commitment index, financial performance, valuation, Korea,

analysts’ forecasts, business ethics, corporate governance, cost of capital, valuation,

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An aquatic phage, designated F20, was characterized and its physico-chemical characteristics studied. F20 was specifically virulent to only two strains of Enterobacter aerogenes (ATCC 13048 and the multi-drug-resistant strain K113) among other species tested (n515). It was classified in the family Siphoviridae of T1-like viruses and contained a linear dsDNA genome estimated to be 51.5 kbp enclosed by an isometric capsid of 50±2 nm in diameter and a tail of 150±3 nm in length. F20 was able to survive in a broad pH range between 4 and 11, showed potential for future animal trials using oral solution and resisted chloroform and ethanol. It exhibited remarkable stability between room temperature and 70 6C for up to 150 min, and even up to 6 months at room temperature. Knowledge of this phage belonging to the widespread T1-like viruses might be helpful for adopting therapeutic strategies against E. aerogenes.

Sequence analysis of the 330-kb genome of chlorella virus PBCV-1 revealed an open reading frame, A464R, which encodes a protein with 30-35% amino acid identity to ribonuclease III (RNase III) from many bacteria. The a464r gene was cloned and the protein was expressed in Escherichia coli using the chitin-binding intein system. The recombinant PBCV-1 RNase III cleaves model dsRNA substrates, in a Mg(2+)-dependent manner, into a defined set of products. The substrate cleavage specificity overlaps, but is nonidentical to that of E. coli RNase III. The a464r gene is expressed very early during PBCV-1 infection, within 5-10 min p.i. The RNase III protein appears at 15 min p.i. and disappears by 120 min p.i. The a464r gene is highly conserved among the chlorella viruses. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the PBCV enzyme is most closely related to Mycoplasma pneumoniae RNase III.

Both Japan and Korea have suffered painful economic recession and a series of corporate misconducts and scandals over the last decade. In the meantime, people's interests in business ethics and corporate social responsibility have remarkably increased. This study examines (1) Japanese and Korean managers' perceptions of business ethics, (2) the similarities and differences between the two countries in comparison with the US, and (3) the evolution of business ethics over the ten-year period. The study reveals that Japanese and Korean companies have made remarkable progress in making systematic measures to establish corporate ethics, but the managers' perceptions of ethics in both countries have not changed significantly over the last decade. The study also shows that Korean managers' way of perceiving ethics is a specific mixture of those of the US and Japanese managers.

No abstract