Exotic smooth structures on 4-manifolds with zero signature

For every integer $k\geq 2$, we construct infinite families of mutually nondiffeomorphic irreducible smooth structures on the topological $4$-manifolds $(2k-1)(S^2\times S^2)$ and (2k-1)(\CP#\CPb), the connected sums of $2k-1$ copies of $S^2\times S^2$ and \CP#\CPb.Comment: 6 page

Founders versus Descendants: The Profitability, Growth and Efficiency Characteristics Comparison in the UK Small and Medium Sized Family Businesses

Family businesses and business families existed long before the genesis of historians and economists. In most economies, family business is estimated to represent over two–thirds of all enterprises and accounts for about half of the economic activity and private employment contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Over the last two decades, family business studies have gathered momentum, which is reflected not only in terms of the number of published papers and publication outlets, but also in research support provided by agents and foundations. This article proffers researchers and practitioners empirical evidence of variations in financial performance of family businesses mastered by different generations. The article commences with a literature review of theories associated with business performance and family business governance, for example, agency theory, altruism and business lifecycle. This is followed by a description of the research methods adopted in this study. Statistical analyses are then conducted in two phases. Phase A employs univariate analyses to depict business demographic features. Phase B further investigates the differences of financial performance between family businesses marshalled by owner–managers in different generations. In summary, the article concludes with a set of tentative recommendations. It is anticipated that this study will bring to the surface the debate on issues surrounding the practice of family business management and widen awareness of the critical factors shaping business performance

Low-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility

Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF=1.4%) with lower FG (β=-0.09±0.01mmoll-1, P=3.4 × 10-12), T2D risk (OR[95%CI]=0.86[0.76-0.96], P=0.010), early insulin secretion (β=-0.07±0.035pmolinsulin mmolglucose-1, P=0.048), but higher 2-h glucose (β=0.16±0.05mmoll-1, P=4.3 × 10-4). We identify a gene-based association with FG at G6PC2 (p SKAT =6.8 × 10-6) driven by four rare protein-coding SNVs (H177Y, Y207S, R283X and S324P). We identify rs651007 (MAF=20%) in the first intron of ABO at the putative promoter of an antisense lncRNA, associating with higher FG (β=0.02±0.004mmoll-1, P=1.3 × 10-8). Our approach identifies novel coding variant associations and extends the allelic spectrum of variation underlying diabetes-related quantitative traits and T2D susceptibility. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved