The (Non)Performance Of Kiplinger?s Expert Recommendations

We examine the performance of 1,572 stock recommendations published over the past 10 years by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.  Kiplinger’s picks earned a risk-adjusted mean abnormal monthly return of -2.58% over the 6-month post-pick period.  Our analysis indicates that the recommended firms were larger than average, and that the non-risk-adjusted returns of these stocks exceeded market returns prior to being selected.  The poor post-pick performance cannot be attributed to a small subset of stocks or to a particular time frame.  Instead, the experts appear to significantly underperform throughout much of the period examined.  Our findings suggest that the experts of some popular investment periodicals may bias their analyses in favor of hot stocks to appeal to the interests of naïve subscribers

Predicting First-Year Returns Of Health Care IPOs

Prior empirical work shows that IPOs generally earn positive excess first-day returns yet subsequently underperform. Many researchers examine the determinants of post-first-day IPO success, however, these studies do not test for first-year IPO return predictability due to unavailability of pre-IPO data with which to predict first-year performance. In this study we utilize strictly pre-IPO financial data manually obtained from corporate IPO registrations to predict the first-year post-IPO performance of health care firms. We do so by utilizing firm size, free cash flows, discretionary accruals, and Altman’s Z. Results suggest that each metric is a significant determinant of first-year raw cumulative and excess cumulative returns, and we are able to reliably identify which firms will be in the top and bottom performance quartiles 30 days, 6 months, and 12 months after the IPO

Discovery Systems: Analyzing the Gap Between Professors\u27 Expectations and Student Behavior

Professors want their students to develop habits of mind that empower them to cross the gap that separates opportunistic searchers from thoughtful, purposive researchers. The marketing of discovery systems (e.g., Proquest/Serials Solutions’ Summon, EBSCO Discovery Service, etc.) to academic libraries suggests that even neophytes will be able to easily maximize their research skills using these tools. These multifaceted search tools certainly do provide rich and accessible initial search results. But observation shows great disparities between search results that students submit as satisfactory and relevant and what their professors want them to select. Perhaps, pedagogically speaking, discovery systems are too rich, too multifaceted, and too beguiling for many students’ own good as they are guided through the transition from searcher to researcher. Focusing on the question of how students understand and apply the idea of relevance among articles identified by Summon, this presentation updates preliminary findings we presented at last year’s Charleston Conference. Our ongoing research finds strikingly similar research-skills deficits in students’ use of Summon to discover and select related journal articles. Spanning several academic terms, our qualitative and quantitative results reveal: (1) that students’ perceptions of relations among articles are often cued by discovery systems more than by the actual content of articles and (2) this deficit requires professors to adapt instruction (including assignments) to compensate

Is the Library Ready for an Emerging Field? The Case of Veterans Studies

How can libraries and archives prepare for emerging scholarly fields that have not yet emerged? How do we know when such a “discipline” is emerging, and how might we support it? An archivist at Special Collections and the history/social science librarian at the Virginia Tech Libraries saw signs of research interest about veterans on their campus and elsewhere. With an interest in supporting what might be considered an emerging field, both were aware of the risks of investing in materials that do not attract users. This presentation will examine their process of evaluating those risks while assessing evidence of a growing need. After a review of existing holdings, they began to survey the research landscape for indications of the subjects, disciplines, methods, and constituencies that might consolidate as a discrete field of veterans studies. Further, given the absence of indicators that mark established fields—regular conferences, journals, academic programs—they turned towards a strategy of actively “seeding the need” by engaging in interdisciplinary conversations on the matter of veterans studies and gauging reaction and participation. As a consequence of this work, both librarian and archivist have become active in projects that are creating the very indicators that suggest veterans studies may emerge as a field of academic inquiry requiring library support. At this session, this process and its results to date will be discussed, along with the project\u27s implications for special and circulating collections and, more broadly, the library\u27s scholarly communications initiatives

An Epidemiology of Information: Data Mining the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

An Epidemiology of Information: Data Mining the 1918 Influenza Pandemic seeks to harness the power of data mining techniques with the interpretive analytics of the humanities and social sciences to understand how newspapers shaped public opinion and represented authoritative knowledge during this deadly pandemic. This project makes use of the more than 100 newspaper titles for 1918 available from Chronicling America at the United States Library of Congress and the Peel’s Prairie Provinces collection at the University of Alberta Library. The application of algorithmic techniques enables the domain expert to systematically explore a broad repository of data and identify qualitative features of the pandemic in the small scale as well as the genealogy of information flow in the large scale. This research can provide methods for understanding the spread of information and the flow of disease in other societies facing the threat of pandemics

A randomized, placebo-controlled, phase II study of obeticholic acid for primary sclerosing cholangitis

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A Soluble Guanylate Cyclase–Dependent Mechanism Is Involved in the Regulation of Net Hepatic Glucose Uptake by Nitric Oxide in Vivo

OBJECTIVE We previously showed that elevating hepatic nitric oxide (NO) levels reduced net hepatic glucose uptake (NHGU) in the presence of portal glucose delivery, hyperglycemia, and hyperinsulinemia. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of a downstream signal, soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), in the regulation of NHGU by NO. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Studies were performed on 42-h–fasted conscious dogs fitted with vascular catheters. At 0 min, somatostatin was given peripherally along with 4× basal insulin and basal glucagon intraportally. Glucose was delivered at a variable rate via a leg vein to double the blood glucose level and hepatic glucose load throughout the study. From 90 to 270 min, an intraportal infusion of the sGC inhibitor 1H-[1,2,4] oxadiazolo[4,3-a] quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ) was given in −sGC (n = 10) and −sGC/+NO (n = 6), whereas saline was given in saline infusion (SAL) (n = 10). The −sGC/+NO group also received intraportal SIN-1 (NO donor) to elevate hepatic NO from 180 to 270 min. RESULTS In the presence of 4× basal insulin, basal glucagon, and hyperglycemia (2× basal ), inhibition of sGC in the liver enhanced NHGU (mg/kg/min; 210–270 min) by ∼55% (2.9 ± 0.2 in SAL vs. 4.6 ± 0.5 in −sGC). Further elevating hepatic NO failed to reduce NHGU (4.5 ± 0.7 in −sGC/+NO). Net hepatic carbon retention (i.e., glycogen synthesis; mg glucose equivalents/kg/min) increased to 3.8 ± 0.2 in −sGC and 3.8 ± 0.4 in −sGC/+NO vs. 2.4 ± 0.2 in SAL (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS NO regulates liver glucose uptake through a sGC-dependent pathway. The latter could be a target for pharmacologic intervention to increase meal-associated hepatic glucose uptake in individuals with type 2 diabetes

Exenatide once weekly treatment maintained improvements in glycemic control and weight loss over 2 years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The once-weekly (QW) formulation of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist exenatide has been demonstrated to improve A1C, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), body weight, serum lipid profiles, and blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes through 52 weeks of treatment. In this report, we describe the 2-year results of the open-label, open-ended extension to the DURATION-1 trial of exenatide QW for type 2 diabetes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A 2-stage protocol was used: patients received either exenatide QW (2 mg) or exenatide twice daily for 30 weeks (5 μg for the first 4 weeks and 10 μg thereafter), followed by 1.5 years of treatment with exenatide QW (2 mg), for a total of 2 years (104 weeks) of exenatide treatment. Of the 295 (intent-to-treat [ITT]) patients who entered the trial, 73% (n = 216) completed 2 years of treatment (completer population). Baseline characteristics (mean ± SE) for these patients were: A1C, 8.2 ± 0.1%; FPG, 168.4 ± 43.0 mg/dL; body weight, 101.1 ± 18.7 kg; and diabetes duration, 7 ± 5 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the completer population, significant improvements (LS mean ± SE [95% CI]) were maintained after 2 years of treatment in A1C (-1.71 ± 0.08% [-1.86 to -1.55%]), FPG (-40.1 ± 2.9 mg/dL [-45.7 to -34.5 mg/dL]), and body weight (-2.61 ± 0.52 kg [-3.64 to -1.58 kg]) compared with baseline. The percentages of patients who achieved an A1C of <7.0% and ≤6.5% at 2 years were 60% and 39%, respectively. A significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP; -3.0 ± 1.0 mmHg [-4.9 to -1.1 mmHg]) was maintained through 2 years of treatment. Serum lipid profiles were also significantly improved, including triglycerides (geometric LS mean change from baseline, -15 ± 2.7% [-21% to -10%]), total cholesterol (-8.6 ± 2.8 mg/dL [-14.0 to -3.1 mg/dL]), and low-density lipoproteins (-4.5 ± 2.2 mg/dL [-8.9 to -0.01 mg/dL]). Changes in A1C, body weight, FPG, SBP, and lipids in the ITT population were similar to those seen in the completer population. Nausea (predominantly mild in intensity) was the most common adverse event, although the frequency and intensity of nausea decreased over time. No severe hypoglycemia was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Exenatide QW was well tolerated during the 2-year treatment period. This study demonstrated sustained glucose control and weight loss throughout 2 years of treatment with exenatide QW.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00308139">NCT00308139</a></p

Paracellular Absorption: A Bat Breaks the Mammal Paradigm

Bats tend to have less intestinal tissue than comparably sized nonflying mammals. The corresponding reduction in intestinal volume and hence mass of digesta carried is advantageous because the costs of flight increase with load carried and because take-off and maneuverability are diminished at heavier masses. Water soluble compounds, such as glucose and amino acids, are absorbed in the small intestine mainly via two pathways, the transporter-mediated transcellular and the passive, paracellular pathways. Using the microchiropteran bat Artibeus literatus (mean mass 80.6±3.7 g), we tested the predictions that absorption of water-soluble compounds that are not actively transported would be extensive as a compensatory mechanism for relatively less intestinal tissue, and would decline with increasing molecular mass in accord with sieve-like paracellular absorption. Using a standard pharmacokinetic technique, we fed, or injected intraperitonealy the metabolically inert carbohydrates L-rhamnose (molecular mass = 164 Da) and cellobiose (molecular mass = 342 Da) which are absorbed only by paracellular transport, and 3-O-methyl-D-glucose (3OMD-glucose) which is absorbed via both mediated (active) and paracellular transport. As predicted, the bioavailability of paracellular probes declined with increasing molecular mass (rhamnose, 90±11%; cellobiose, 10±3%, n = 8) and was significantly higher in bats than has been reported for laboratory rats and other mammals. In addition, absorption of 3OMD-glucose was high (96±11%). We estimated that the bats rely on passive, paracellular absorption for more than 70% of their total glucose absorption, much more than in non-flying mammals. Although possibly compensating for less intestinal tissue, a high intestinal permeability that permits passive absorption might be less selective than a carrier-mediated system for nutrient absorption and might permit toxins to be absorbed from plant and animal material in the intestinal lumen