International Success of British Companies

This paper examines the international success of British companies in a matrix combining global market share and international revenues. We identify those industry segments in which British companies are most successful internationally, and also investigate whether these are attractive industries in terms of profitability and growth. We find that the industries with the largest global market shares for British companies are Mining, Casinos (and Gaming), Oil Companies (Major), Distillers & Brewers, and Water Utilities. Four of the top ten might be considered to be “sin” industries. The industries with the highest international revenues are Precious Metals, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial (Diversified), Oil Companies (Secondary), and Mining. We also find that virtually all of the largest British firms average over a 10% global market share, in the “British Winners” segment of our matrix. However, we find the second measure, the extent of internationalization, to be ambiguous. The manufacturing (product-based) firms tried to be highly internationalized, as they compete globally, but the largest British services firms (financials, retailers) tend to have low internationalization, and therefore appear to benefit from a still somewhat regulated home market. In addition, British companies have done a good job of building up global market shares in higher growth industries. We provide recommendations for managers as to how British companies with different combinations of global market share and extent of internationalisation can improve their positions. Our methodology can also be applied to analyzing companies from other nations.

Adipocyte-specific protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B deletion increases lipogenesis, adipocyte cell size and is a minor regulator of glucose homeostasis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of $Q^2$. The \xpom dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a~=~1.30~\pm~0.08~(stat)~^{+~0.08}_{-~0.14}~(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q^2$. In the measured $Q^2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q^2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Predictors of Occurrence and Severity of First Time Low Back Pain Episodes: Findings from a Military Inception Cohort

Primary prevention studies suggest that additional research on identifying risk factors predictive of low back pain (LBP) is necessary before additional interventions can be developed. In the current study we assembled a large military cohort that was initially free of LBP and followed over 2 years. The purposes of this study were to identify baseline variables from demographic, socioeconomic, general health, and psychological domains that were predictive of a) occurrence; b) time; and c) severity for first episode of self-reported LBP. Baseline and outcome measures were collected via web-based surveillance system or phone to capture monthly information over 2 years. The assembled cohort consisted of 1230 Soldiers who provided self-report data with 518 (42.1%) reporting at least one episode of LBP over 2 years. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that gender, active duty status, mental and physical health scores were significant predictors of LBP. Cox regression revealed that the time to first episode of LBP was significantly shorter for Soldiers that were female, active duty, reported previous injury, and had increased BMI. Multivariate linear regression analysis investigated severity of the first episode by identifying baseline predictors of pain intensity, disability, and psychological distress. Education level and physical fitness were consistent predictors of pain intensity, while gender, smoking status, and previous injury status were predictors of disability. Gender, smoking status, physical health scores, and beliefs of back pain were consistent predictors of psychological distress. These results provide additional data to confirm the multi-factorial nature of LBP and suggest future preventative interventions focus on multi-modal approaches that target modifiable risk factors specific to the population of interest

Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction events with a large rapidity gap at HERA

Events with a large rapidity gap and total transverse energy greater than 5 GeV have been observed in quasi-real photoproduction at HERA with the ZEUS detector. The distribution of these events as a function of the $\gamma p$ centre of mass energy is consistent with diffractive scattering. For total transverse energies above 12 GeV, the hadronic final states show predominantly a two-jet structure with each jet having a transverse energy greater than 4 GeV. For the two-jet events, little energy flow is found outside the jets. This observation is consistent with the hard scattering of a quasi-real photon with a colourless object in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Assimilation of phytate-phosphorus by the extracellular phytase activity of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is affected by the availability of soluble phytate

Phytate, the major organic phosphorus in soil, is not readily available to plants as a source of phosphorus (P). It is either complexed with cations or adsorbed to various soil components. The present study was carried out to investigate the extracellular phytase activities of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum variety GeXin No.1) and its ability to assimilate external phytate-P. Whereas phytase activities in roots, shoots and growth media of P i-fed 14-day-old seedlings were only 1.3-4.9% of total acid phosphatase (APase) activities, P starvation triggered an increase in phytase secretion up to 914.9 mU mg -1 protein, equivalent to 18.2% of total APase activities. Much of the extracellular phytase activities were found to be root-associated than root-released. The plants were not able to utilize phytate adsorbed to sand, except when insoluble phytate salts were preformed with Mg 2+ and Ca 2+ ions for supplementation. Tobacco grew better in sand supplemented with Mg-phytate salts (31.9 mg dry weight plant -1; 0.68% w/w P concentration) than that with Ca-phytate salts (9.5 mg plant -1; 0.42%), presumably due to its higher solubility. We conclude that insolubility of soil phytate is the major constrain for its assimilation. Improving solubility of soil phytate, for example, by enhancement of citrate secretion, may be a feasible approach to improve soil phytate assimilation. © Springer 2006.postprin