The traditional idea of symbiosis—long-term interactions between two organisms—is that the participants mutually benefit each other. However, researchers have debated whether the interests of the symbionts always line up with the hosts they inhabit, or whether genes that benefit symbionts might come at the expense of their hosts. A new study investigates this question through genomic sequencing and infecting plant hosts with their microbial symbionts.

"It's become obvious that crop health and our own health is governed by the microbes that we interact with. In agriculture, for example, there's a big movement to try to engineer microbes to make happier plants," said Katy Heath (IGOH), an associate professor of plant biology. "Our approach is a little different because we can measure all the genomic variations in a natural population of symbionts that have been interacting with their host for a long time to see what genes in nature are doing."

"There's this idea that microbes that interact with humans or plants are automatically beneficial because they have been living with them for a long period of time," said Rebecca Batstone, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. "However, a lot of work has shown that the interests of the symbionts don't always align with that of the host they inhabit. We wanted to ask, at the genomic level, how much alignment there is between hosts and symbionts versus how much conflict."

In their study, the researchers examined naturally occurring 191 strains of the microbial symbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti, paired with its host Medicago truncatula, a clover-like plant that is native to the Mediterranean region. The microbe resides in the root nodules of the plant and supplies it with nitrogen. The group paired each microbial strain with an individual plant and also used a mix of different strains and infected the same plant, a competitive situation that often occurs in nature.

"In our experiments, we measured how well the plant does with the particular microbial strain," Batstone said. "In addition to measuring plant growth, we also looked at microbial fitness by counting the number of nodules that were packed with these microbes and measured the nodule size."

The researchers also sequenced the genomes of the microbial strains, and using a technique called genome-wide association, they were able to compare which bacterial genes are associated with plant growth.

"If there is an association, for example one gene of interest is strongly associated with plant growth, then it's indicative that the gene might be important for controlling that trait," Batstone said.

When they compared how many symbiont genes align with the host's interest, the researchers found that almost 80% of the genes that they identified seemed to be associated with alignment.

"In competitive environments you might expect that there will be a decoupling between the interests of the host and symbionts because the symbionts are also competing with one another," Batstone said. "This is a striking result because it shows that even though the symbionts are not evolving in order to benefit their hosts, it often pays for them to be beneficial."

Although they worked with over 2000 plants, the group would like to look at more hosts to see whether this trend still holds true with a larger sample of plant types. They would also like to test these interactions under different environmental conditions.

"We did everything under low nitrogen conditions because the plants are getting nitrogen from their symbionts. You can imagine that if you add nitrogen to the system, maybe you see more conflict," Batstone said.

Investors are often guided by the idea of discovering 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story stocks' without any revenue, let alone profit. Sometimes these stories can cloud the minds of investors, leading them to invest with their emotions rather than on the merit of good company fundamentals. Loss making companies can act like a sponge for capital - so investors should be cautious that they're not throwing good money after bad.

So if this idea of high risk and high reward doesn't suit, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Clime Investment Management (ASX:CIW). Even if this company is fairly valued by the market, investors would agree that generating consistent profits will continue to provide Clime Investment Management with the means to add long-term value to shareholders.

See our latest analysis for Clime Investment Management

How Quickly Is Clime Investment Management Increasing Earnings Per Share?

If you believe that markets are even vaguely efficient, then over the long term you'd expect a company's share price to follow its earnings per share (EPS) outcomes. That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. Impressively, Clime Investment Management has grown EPS by 27% per year, compound, in the last three years. If the company can sustain that sort of growth, we'd expect shareholders to come away satisfied.

It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. Clime Investment Management shareholders can take confidence from the fact that EBIT margins are up from 3.5% to 14%, and revenue is growing. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in our book.

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. To see the real numbers, click on the chart.

Since Clime Investment Management is no giant, with a market capitalisation of AU$36m, you should definitely check its cash and debt before getting too excited about its prospects.

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Are Clime Investment Management Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

Investors are always searching for a vote of confidence in the companies they hold and insider buying is one of the key indicators for optimism on the market. That's because insider buying often indicates that those closest to the company have confidence that the share price will perform well. However, small purchases are not always indicative of conviction, and insiders don't always get it right.

It's good to see Clime Investment Management insiders walking the walk, by spending AU$336k on shares in just twelve months. This, combined with the lack of sales from insiders, should be a great signal for shareholders in what's to come. It is also worth noting that it was Founder & Non-Independent Executive Chairman John Abernethy who made the biggest single purchase, worth AU$47k, paying AU$0.60 per share.

Does Clime Investment Management Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?

If you believe that share price follows earnings per share you should definitely be delving further into Clime Investment Management's strong EPS growth. Not only is that growth rate rather juicy, but the insider buying adds fuel to the fire. So on this analysis, Clime Investment Management is probably worth spending some time on. Before you take the next step you should know about the 5 warning signs for Clime Investment Management (2 are a bit unpleasant!) that we have uncovered.

Keen growth investors love to see insider buying. Thankfully, Clime Investment Management isn't the only one. You can see a a free list of them here.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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“We are seeing the proportion of men versus women increasing ... the male segment is increasing at a higher rate. This is jokingly referred to as ‘brotox,'" said facial plastic surgeon Dr. Jacon D. Steiger. (Photo: D-Keine via Getty Images)

First introduced to the general public in the late 1980s, Botox has now become a billion-dollar industry that has challenged our relationship with beauty, wellness, plastic surgery, ageism and even gender ― it’s not just women who are getting the procedure.

According to the 2020 plastic surgery statistics report by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, in 2020, women received about 4 million Botox-type treatments while men underwent just over 250,000 procedures of the kind.

Although there’s still a large difference in number of treatments between the two genders, experts are quick to note that, in the past few years, there has been a sharp increase in desire for the muscle-freezing, wrinkle-reducing injection among a range of people.

“While Botox is and has traditionally been more popular among women, various sources have demonstrated that it has been growing in popularity among men, as well,” said Dr. Samuel Lin, a board-certified plastic surgeon and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Facial plastic surgeon Dr. Jacob D. Steiger has also noticed the trend. “We are seeing the proportion of men versus women increasing,” he noted, “meaning the male segment is increasing at a higher rate. This is jokingly referred to as ‘brotox.’”

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, “brotox” is the No. 1 cosmetic procedure requested by men, with a 400% increase in treatments administered since 2000.

Overall, men and women seem to concentrate on the same area of the face when undergoing treatment: the forehead.

In the past, “people preferred a more total effect to the point that they looked expressionless,” explained Dr. Bruce Hermann, a board-certified plastic surgeon. “Today, I find that the majority of women prefer the maximal effect possible without having a frozen forehead. For men, I find that in general they prefer an effect similar to women but a bit more subtle on the forehead.”

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Male vs. Female Botox

Although men and women tend to seek Botox treatments on similar areas of the face, experts note that the procedures differ based thegender one was assigned at birth. As a general statement, given their larger muscle mass in the facial musculature, men need more Botox than women do to obtain similar effects.

“For example, in the glabellar area [the skin between your eyebrows], for a similar effect, I start women with about 15 units of Botox and go up as needed to achieve the desired result,” Hermann shared. “For men, I would normally recommend starting with 20 units and adjusting from there.”

The expert is quick to note that the approach gets more complex when dealing with patients’ foreheads. “Men commonly prefer a more subtle effect in the area,” he said. “So I’ll use a higher dosage per area in men but inject a smaller surface area.”

As long as the dosage is adjusted, the frequency of injection is the same for men and women, Steiger said. For most patients, results last about four months.

In general, given their larger muscle mass in the facial musculature, men need more Botox than women do to obtain similar effects. (Photo: FG Trade via Getty Images)

Anatomical variations in skin composition can also potentially lead to gender-specific differences in terms of reactions and complications. “Men typically have thicker skin with higher collagen composition compared to women,” Lin explained. “Male skin also tends to be more vascular, which carries a higher complication rate of bleeding and bruising when injecting Botox.”

Although based on anecdotal evidence, some physicians also believe that Botox wears off faster in men given their metabolism. However, Lin explained that this should be discussed directly between a patient and doctor, because it’s not easy to generalize “given broad differences in human metabolism.” 

In short: Men and women look to address similar facial issues when getting Botox, but the dosages needed to reach similar results can vary.

The Future Of Botox 

Experts, including Hermann, believe the overall trends will stay the same in the future: Men and women will continue seeking to tackle similar facial issues through the treatment. Although more women than men are likely to undergo the procedure, “the percentage of men getting Botox will increase slightly each year,” Hermann predicted.

The surgeon specifically calls out ageism in the workforce. Although ageism was once an issue commonly mentioned by women in the workforce, it affects men as well.

Case in point: In 2019, Google settled an age discrimination lawsuit concerning its hiring practices. As a result, over 200 job seekers over the age of 40 who had applied for positions at the company received a settlement of $11 million.

COVID-19 also changed things. “The ‘Zoom effect’ is a phenomenon brought on by the pandemic whereby people working from home saw themselves more frequently on camera and started to notice things that made them look more aged,” Hermann said. “A study by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in 2020 showed an increase in interest in plastic surgery or non-surgical procedures like Botox to look younger in 11-35% of women surveyed that were using Zoom or similar platforms.”

If you’re ever considering a Botox treatment, here’s how to find a reputable provider.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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(Bloomberg) -- When Blackstone Inc. recruited Ivy League endowment manager Joe Dowling to make its lumbering hedge fund division more competitive last year, it took pains to minimize any appearance of drama.

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Within a year, Dowling’s co-head atop the unit left. So, too, have other senior staff, by choice or pushed out, as Dowling made big hires. Clients including pensions noticed all the turnover, and some have raised questions.

What’s afoot is an effort by a new generation of Blackstone leaders to overhaul an $80 billion corner of the firm that has long operated in the shadows of its gargantuan private equity and real estate operations. The division known as BAAM -- for Blackstone Alternative Asset Management -- ranks as the world’s biggest hedge fund investor, yet its performance hasn’t measured up for the firm’s leaders.

Clients pulled money in each of the past three years. With other parts of Blackstone swelling, the unit’s assets under management made up just 9% of the firm’s total in the first quarter, down from about 22% a decade ago.

“This should be a much larger business than where it is today,” Blackstone President Jon Gray said in an interview.

Gray has enlisted Dowling, 58, to jolt returns, an assignment that looks all the more formidable amid this year’s market slump, with the S&P 500 clocking its worst first-half loss since 1970.

Yet BAAM’s biggest business -- creating packages of hedge funds for clients -- is so far defying that trend. It eked out a 1.3% gain, its biggest outperformance of markets since the 1990s, according to people with knowledge of the matter. And since the start of 2021, around the time that Dowling arrived, the division has notched an 8.6% net gain, beating both the S&P’s 3% total return as well as benchmarks tracking hedge funds, which are underwater.

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With the spotlight on Dowling, the next test will be whether the team he’s building can continue the streak through turbulent markets. If he succeeds, it will bolster the clout of a new generation of Blackstone leaders.

This account is based on conversations with more than 20 current and former employees, investors and others close to the New York-based firm, many of whom asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

In Dowling, Gray saw an unconventional money manager who transformed Brown University’s underdog endowment into the top performer in the Ivy League by the time he stepped down about two years ago. He’s a sports enthusiast with a fondness for self-improvement books. At Brown, Dowling gained a reputation for his unusually aggressive approach to going beyond the numbers when vetting outside managers, getting to know their families and personal lives.

At Blackstone, he’s reshaping a business that’s more than 10 times larger. Its mainstay is assembling portfolios of hedge funds, but it also seeds new hedge funds, buys stakes in private equity firms, runs a mutual fund and invests in deals alongside other money managers.

He’s trying to do it amid treacherous markets that have humbled once-high-flying firms including Tiger Global Management, D1 Capital Partners and Melvin Capital Management -- all three of which held money from BAAM.

This year’s swings may provide opportunities for hedge funds, and “could be an incredible investment environment for BAAM,” Gray said.

‘Not Satisfied’

The hedge-fund unit wasn’t originally designed to serve customers. Blackstone established it in 1990 to manage executives’ money. But as clients clamored for access, the firm relented, letting in pensions, endowments, family offices and wealthy individuals. For years, the division kept amassing assets and pulling in fees under former Lehman Brothers co-Chief Executive Officer Tom Hill, the wheeler and dealer-turned-billionaire who’s credited with inspiring the look of Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street.”

Despite that image, BAAM’s executives tended to shun the sort of high-profile transactions that regularly drew headlines about Blackstone’s other divisions. Executives viewed their main offering as a replacement for bonds, where steady gains are prized above sizzling returns -- a throwback to the original meaning of “hedge” fund.

Hill stepped back from running the business in early 2018 and John McCormick assumed his duties. Gray, 52, succeeded Tony James as president weeks later, taking a more hands-on approach to BAAM. He encouraged the division to be less hidebound, more active and ramp up direct investing. He also pushed it to adopt Blackstone’s embrace of “megathemes,” such as life sciences and technology, to capitalize on fast-growing parts of the economy, as well as favored sectors such as housing and travel.

When searching for a new investment chief a few years later, Gray told potential candidates that BAAM wasn’t growing as quickly as expected and needed to take better advantage of the firm’s intellectual capital.

After practicing a newspaper article on Dowling’s unconventional approach to picking hedge funds at Brown, the pair met at a restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side two years ago. The candidate, once co-captain of Harvard’s squash team, struck a different tone from his short-time co-head, McCormick, a former McKinsey consultant with a dry sense of humor.

“This is someone who is clearly not satisfied with the status quo,” Gray recalled.

Since arriving at Blackstone, Dowling’s competitive streak has become well known around the office. He has compared sleep statistics collected from his smart ring with David Blitzer, the firm’s head of tactical opportunities, to see who rests better at night.

Dowling is also known for his enthusiasm for sports analogies. Investing, he said in an interview, is like scoring points.

“You are going to miss some shots,” he said. “But you are going to hopefully make more shots than you miss and win the game at the end of the day.”

Shifting Bets

Dowling is taking a lot more shots. He added dozens of outside hedge funds to the firms’ roster, reducing concentration. He placed money, for example, with Atreides Management, a “crossover” investor in public and private markets, and Islet Management, a small firm known for block trading, an area of finance that has come under regulatory scrutiny. He also ramped up co-investing with other Blackstone units, dialed down various portfolios’ credit exposure and layered on more equities.

Some of BAAM’s bets haven’t panned out. Equity hedge funds that gained last year are down in 2022. And growth equity, which makes up about 8% of Blackstone’s portfolios of hedge funds, has fallen particularly hard in this year’s tech selloff.

BAAM invested in Gabe Plotkin’s Melvin Capital after that hedge fund was crushed by a short squeeze during the meme-stock mania of early 2021. In May, with losses continuing to mount, Plotkin opted to close the firm -- and Blackstone executives fielded investor questions about lessons learned.

Horizon, a new Blackstone-run crossover fund that bets on public and private growth companies, was down about 17% as of April, fueled in part by declines in China-based firms JD Logistics Inc. and Didi Global Inc., the ride-hailing giant under scrutiny by Beijing.

The fund was meant to initiate a push into growth products. But Blackstone, concerned about lofty valuations, didn’t make new private investments from July to December last year, and it has deployed just half of the $2 billion committed so far. Investors expect the firm to use the rest of that dry powder to take advantage of the market swoon and recoup losses.

Conceding they came into growth at the top of the market, executives told Horizon investors in accurate months they will wait until private company valuations reset before they get comfortable investing more there. Going forward, Blackstone will continue to pursue opportunities in China, but be mindful it needs to be compensated for regulatory risk.

Gray and CEO Steve Schwarzman, 75, have both put money in Horizon.

Employee Exits

Since January, Gray and Dowling have made BAAM a part of Blackstone’s Monday meetings with the company’s most senior management -- a ritual featuring debate and pointed questions from the top. Schwarzman, whose golden rule is “don’t lose money,” is present to keep tabs, and every other week Dowling moderates a brisk conversation about BAAM. The division’s employees and those in supporting roles -- about 400 people -- can tune in. Most do.

“That’s transparency,” Dowling said. “They can see what Steve’s asking, what Jon’s asking.”

In the same spirit, he recently moved the desks of the team that seeds hedge funds to encourage communication, and he’s convened internal roundtables.

It has been a rocky adjustment for some staff.

A third of BAAM’s roughly dozen partners left since the start of last year, and so have personnel, taking advantage of an era of job openings across Wall Street. Some departing staffers were encouraged to go. Others disagreed with the direction of the unit, the focus on thematic investing or the frequency of meetings with senior management. Some questioned whether Blackstone had strayed too much from its view of hedge fund of funds as a replacement for bonds.

The view inside the C-suite hasn’t changed, people familiar with the matter said.

The most high-profile exit came in late 2021, when Dowling’s co-head, McCormick, a 17-year-veteran at Blackstone who helped grow fee streams and products at BAAM, shocked associates by saying he wanted to focus on teaching and do something more entrepreneurial. Other departures included Min Htoo, head of special situations investing, and Michael Pierog, who led hedge fund seeding.

R.V. Kuhns & Associates, a pension adviser, recommended vigilance.

“RVK would not be surprised to see additional turnover within BAAM over the next several quarters as individuals who may have been loyal to prior leadership or who feel marginalized by new leadership seek out other opportunities,” the consultant wrote in a note to clients.

In June, the City of Norwalk Municipal Employees’ Pension Board grilled Blackstone about whether to expect more turnover. Afterward, the pension decided it wasn’t comfortable with the changes and asked to redeem $20 million from an equity hedge fund strategy.

New Playbook

Meanwhile, Dowling has been recruiting. Since his arrival, BAAM has added 20% more investment professionals. The division’s headcount is now higher than ever.

He installed David Ben-Ur as investment chief for the group’s hedge fund of funds. Ben-Ur brought over his team from CAM Capital, as well as the firm’s client, Bruce Kovner’s family office. Ben-Ur has been dialing up macro, commodities and quant hedge funds, strategies seen as less reliant on markets rising.

Atish Nigam, tapped from David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management, now leads the special situations business and has been cutting back on risk.

Gray said BAAM’s performance speaks for the unit’s ability to deliver steady returns through up or down markets.

The stress of the job and the changes aren’t for everyone, Dowling said. “That goes with a high-performance culture.”

The most important goal, he said, is to achieve a high-quality return. “If you handle that, everything else takes care of itself.”

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