San Francisco State University

About: San Francisco State University is a education organization based out in San Francisco, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Planet. The organization has 5669 authors who have published 11433 publications receiving 408075 citations. The organization is also known as: San Francisco State & San Francisco State Normal School.

Reputation and Decision Making under Ambiguity: A Study of U.S. Venture Capital Firms' Investments in the Emerging Clean Energy Sector

Abstract: This study examines the role of reputation on decision making under ambiguity. Drawing on social cognition and behavioral theories, we propose that a firm's reputation exerts dual pressures on its decision making under ambiguity. On the one hand, a firm's reputation increases its aspirations for future performance and promotes its engagement in risky strategies to achieve them. On the other hand, preserving the already established reputation requires a firm to deliver consistent performance over time, which promotes greater use of risk reduction strategies. Our analyses of the U.S. venture capital firms' investments in the clean energy sector from 1990 to 2008 demonstrate that while reputable firms are more likely to invest in the emerging sector, they also employ risk reduction strategies more extensively. The sector's legitimation further influences these firms' investment decisions both directly and through its interaction with firm reputation.

Evolutionary expansion, gene structure, and expression of the rice wall-associated kinase gene family.

Abstract: The wall-associated kinase (WAK) gene family, one of the receptor-like kinase (RLK) gene families in plants, plays important roles in cell expansion, pathogen resistance, and heavy-metal stress tolerance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Through a reiterative database search and manual reannotation, we identified 125 OsWAK gene family members from rice (Oryza sativa) japonica cv Nipponbare; 37 (approximately 30%) OsWAKs were corrected/reannotated from earlier automated annotations. Of the 125 OsWAKs, 67 are receptor-like kinases, 28 receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases, 13 receptor-like proteins, 12 short genes, and five pseudogenes. The two-intron gene structure of the Arabidopsis WAK/WAK-Likes is generally conserved in OsWAKs; however, extra/missed introns were observed in some OsWAKs either in extracellular regions or in protein kinase domains. In addition to the 38 OsWAKs with full-length cDNA sequences and the 11 with rice expressed sequence tag sequences, gene expression analyses, using tiling-microarray analysis of the 20 OsWAKs on chromosome 10 and reverse transcription-PCR analysis for five OsWAKs, indicate that the majority of identified OsWAKs are likely expressed in rice. Phylogenetic analyses of OsWAKs, Arabidopsis WAK/WAK-Likes, and barley (Hordeum vulgare) HvWAKs show that the OsWAK gene family expanded in the rice genome due to lineage-specific expansion of the family in monocots. Localized gene duplications appear to be the primary genetic event in OsWAK gene family expansion and the 125 OsWAKs, present on all 12 chromosomes, are mostly clustered.

On the Use and Misuse of Downside Risk

Abstract: 94132). W hen the first article on downside risk , was published (see Sortino and " '" '" Hopelain [1980]), there were no applications of downside risk in the investment community. .Now, "a"growing number of practitioners are using downside risk in various portfolio management"applications. We want to ,support this movement, but we would like to call attention to some critical problems that we find in our continued research on the subject. Balzer [1994] and Harlow [1991] have examined various ways to conceptualize 'downside risk. Both conclude that deviations below some set value that must be ,'.. . earned at a minimumIn order to prevent bad outcomes are preferred to.downside probability or shortfall risk. We concur with this finding and will focus here on the problems atteA4an~ to estimating and calculating downside deviation'(DD)':m: asset allocation and performance measurement applic~tions. For the remainder of the article, downsiderisk Will be synonymous with DO.

More evidence for the universality of a contempt expression

Abstract: Since its publication in 1986, Ekman and Friesen's (1986) discovery of a universal facial expression unique to contempt has received considerable attention (e.g., see Ekman & Friesen, 1988; Ekman & Heider, 1988; Ekman, O'Sullivan, & Matsumoto, 1991a, 1991b; Izard & Haynes, 1988; Russell, 1991a, 1991b; Ricci Bitti, Brighetti, Garotti, Boggi-Cavallo, 1989). Actually, much of this argument began before there was adequate sampling of contempt photographs across many cultures. In order to address this concern, this study reports judgment data on all 12 photos used in previous studies depicting the contempt expression from four non-American cultures. The data provide a strong replication of Ekman and Friesen's (1986) and Ekman and Heider's (1988) findings for a universal expression of contempt.

Buoyancy Regulation and the Potential for Vertical Migration in the Oceanic Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium

Abstract: Diel protein and carbohydrate content in Trichodesmium thiebautii was measured to evaluate the relationship to buoyancy status. Carbohydrate:protein ratio was the best predictor of buoyancy and fit a cosine curve with increasing values during the day and decreasing values at night in cycles that paralleled observed diel buoyancy patterns. This ratio also increased in short-term experiments as a function of light and increased in parallel with decreasing positive buoyancy. We used changes in this ratio to estimate the potential for vertical migration. Whereas limited vertical excursions in the upper 70 m are possible, deeper migrations appear unlikely unless respiration rates decrease significantly. N:P ratios in sinking and floating colonies were used to test for the P acquisition at depth (vertical migration). We noted that pooled N:P ratios were not significantly different between sinking and ascending colonies (N:P = 65.6 and 66.3, respectively) collected along the northern Australian coast, much like published results from north of Hawaii. Highly significant differences (p <0.0001) were observed in the western Gulf of Mexico between sinking and ascending colonies (N:P = 87.0 and 43.5, respectively) and provide the best direct evidence to date of vertical migration for P acquisition. Our physiological data on compositional changes during buoyancy reversals suggest a complex relationship between light and nutrients. It appears likely that light and P metabolism interact to regulate the vertical extent of migrations, with deep vertical migration regulated by P metabolism superimposed on a mixed-layer light-driven migration. The variability in N:P ratios suggests that care should be taken in assuming buoyancy reversals always result in P acquisition in this oceanic cyanobacterium.