Choice between alternative routes to go public: backdoor listing versus IPO

Going public is the dream of many private companies. It represents a major milestone in the development of a firm. The listing status brings a lot of advantages to a firm. Some of these advantages include (1) access to capital markets and lower cost of capital; (2) enhanced company reputation and profile; (3) providing liquidity for owners to cash out; and (4) use of stock to pay for acquisitions, among others. However, going public is also a costly process. The out-of-pocket costs for an IPO typically involve fees paid for investment banks, accountants, auditors, lawyers, other experts, underwriters and brokers. The IPO firm will also have to pay for the printing of a prospectus and listing fees and other compliance costs. Other hidden costs entail underpricing, more stringent disclosure and regulatory requirements and the time spent by senior management in preparing the company for public listing

Extending backcalculation to analyse BSE data.

We review the origins of backcalculation (or back projection) methods developed for the analysis of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) incidence data. These techniques have been used extensively for >15 years to deconvolute clinical case incidence, given knowledge of the incubation period distribution, to obtain estimates of past HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection incidence and short-term predictions of future AIDS incidence. Adaptations required for the analysis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) incidence included: stratification of BSE incidence by age as well as birth cohort; allowance for incomplete survival between infection and the onset of clinical signs of disease; and decomposition of the age- and time-related infection incidence into a time-dependent feed risk component and an age-dependent exposure/susceptibility function. The most recent methodological developments focus on the incorporation of data from clinically unaffected cattle screened using recently developed tests for preclinical BSE infection. Backcalculation-based predictions of future BSE incidence obtained since 1996 are examined. Finally, future directions of epidemiological analysis of BSE epidemics are discussed taking into account ongoing developments in the science of BSE and possible changes in BSE-related policies

Different epigenetic states define syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast nuclei in the trophoblast of the human placenta.

INTRODUCTION: The syncytiotrophoblast (STB) epithelial covering of the villous tree in the human placenta is a multi-nucleated syncytium that is sustained by continuous incorporation of differentiating cytotrophoblast (CTB) cells. STB nuclei display a variety of morphologies, but are generally more condensed in comparison to CTB nuclei. Here, we consider whether this condensation is a feature of epigenetic regulation of chromatin structure. METHODS: Semi-quantitative immunohistochemical investigations of a panel of histone modifications were performed to determine the relative proportions in CTB and STB nuclear populations. We also investigated the patterns of DNA methylation and distribution of DNA methyltransferases enzymes in these populations. RESULTS: Unexpectedly DNA methylation, and H3K9me3 and H3K27me3, which are modifications associated with heterochromatin, are present at lower levels in STB nuclei compared to CTB, despite the intensive condensation in the former nuclear population and the progenitor state of the latter. By contrast, STB nuclei are enriched for H4K20me3, which is also associated with repressive states. 5'hydroxymethylcytosine immunoreactivity is higher in STB, with intense staining observed in the highly condensed nuclei within syncytial knots. DISCUSSION: Cell-type specific epigenetic states exist within the trophoblast populations potentially regulating their different functions and developmental properties and suggesting non-canonical epigenetic states associated with the properties of these cells.This work was funded by a studentship from the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The study was also supported by the Centre for Trophoblast Research.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143400415009248

Managing and reducing uncertainty in an emerging influenza pandemic

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The Open Access Advantage

Hong Kong Open Access Committeepublished_or_final_versio

Cavity-mediated coherent coupling of magnetic moments

We demonstrate the long range strong coupling of magnetostatic modes in spatially separated ferromagnets mediated by a microwave frequency cavity. Two spheres of yttrium iron garnet are embedded in the cavity and their magnetostatic modes probed using a dispersive measurement technique. We find they are strongly coupled to each other even when detuned from the cavity modes, and investigate the dependence of the magnet-magnet coupling on the cavity detuning. Dark states of the coupled magnetostatic modes of the system are observed, and ascribed to mismatches between the symmetries of the modes and the drive field.We would like to acknowledge support from Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, EPSRC Grant No. EP/K027018/1 and ERC Grant No. 648613. A.J.F. is supported by a Hitachi Research Fellowship. A.C.D. is supported by the ARC via the Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS), Project No. CE110001013.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Physical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.93.02180

The Open Access Advantage Revisited

This paper is a revision of one that appeared in 2008, incorporating the many developments and changes that have happened since then.published_or_final_versio

Non-CG DNA methylation is a biomarker for assessing endodermal differentiation capacity in pluripotent stem cells.

Non-CG methylation is an unexplored epigenetic hallmark of pluripotent stem cells. Here we report that a reduction in non-CG methylation is associated with impaired differentiation capacity into endodermal lineages. Genome-wide analysis of 2,670 non-CG sites in a discovery cohort of 25 phenotyped human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines revealed unidirectional loss (Δβ=13%, P<7.4 × 10(-4)) of non-CG methylation that correctly identifies endodermal differentiation capacity in 23 out of 25 (92%) hiPSC lines. Translation into a simplified assay of only nine non-CG sites maintains predictive power in the discovery cohort (Δβ=23%, P<9.1 × 10(-6)) and correctly identifies endodermal differentiation capacity in nine out of ten pluripotent stem cell lines in an independent replication cohort consisting of hiPSCs reprogrammed from different cell types and different delivery systems, as well as human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. This finding infers non-CG methylation at these sites as a biomarker when assessing endodermal differentiation capacity as a readout.We thank Kerra Pearce (UCL Genomics) for array processing, and Tim Fell and Jonathan Best (CellCentric), Jason Wray (UCL) and Rosemary Drake (TAP Biosystems) for discussions. We also thank Minal Patel, Chris Kirton, Anja Kolb-Kokocinski, Willem H. Ouwehand, Richard Durbin and Fiona M. Watt on behalf of the Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Initiative (HipSci) funded by grant WT098503 from the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, for sharing data and materials. This work was supported in part by a TSB/EPSRC grant (TS/H000933/1). The Vallier lab is supported by the Cambridge Hospitals National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center and an ERC Starting Grant (Relieve IMDS). F.A.C.S. is funded by a PhD studentship from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/69033/2010). The Ferguson-Smith lab is supported by grants from the MRC and Wellcome Trust, and EU-FP7 projects EPIGENESYS (257082) and BLUEPRINT (282510). The Beck lab is supported by the Wellcome Trust (084071), a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (WM100023), and EU-FP7 projects EPIGENESYS (257082) and BLUEPRINT (282510).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1045

Backdoor Listings in Australia

We study a large sample of Australian backdoor listings (BDLs) over the period from 1994 to 2014. BDLs account for roughly 13 per cent of all firms going public on the Australian Securities Exchange and are popular among hi-tech firms and those with foreign-domiciled assets. We find that the BDL market is likely influenced by the sentiment in the initial public offering (IPO) market, with the number of BDLs announced in a year being negatively (positively) correlated with the number of IPOs lodged (the percentage of IPOs withdrawn) in the prior year. Contrary to common belief, BDL transactions take longer to complete than IPOs, since they typically combine both a reverse takeover and the public listing process. Roughly three quarters of our sample raised equity capital as part of the BDL process