Gravity gradient boom stabilization system for the Applications Technology Satellite /ATS-E/, volume 1 Final report

Gravity gradient boom stabilization system for ATS

Do the home field, global advantage, and liability of unfamiliarness hypotheses hold? empirical evidence from Malaysia

The study explores the home field, global advantage, and liability of unfamiliarness hypotheses in the Malaysian banking sector. The results indicate that Malaysian banks have exhibited productivity progress mainly attributed to technological progress. The authors find negative relationship between foreign and government ownership and bank productivity. Likewise, the publicly listed banks have been relatively less productive compared to private banks, thus rejecting the market discipline hypothesis. The empirical findings suggest that foreign banks from the North American countries to be the least productive banking group lending support to the home field advantage and the limited form of the global advantage hypotheses

A pantothenate suxotroph of BCG rxpressing Gag confers enhanced HIV-specific immunogenicity compared to wildtype and perfingolysin expressing strains

In tuberculosis vaccine studies, perfingolysin expressing strains (pfo) of recombinant Mycobacterium bovis (rBCG) have been shown to enhance immunogenicity as compared to wildtype strains whilst pantothenate auxotrophic strains (ΔpanCD) have been shown to be safer and more immunogenic. Our group has recently shown that rBCGΔpanCD expressing HIV-1 Gag is more immunogenic than the wildtype Pasteur strain of BCG in the murine model. In this study, a wild type strain, a ΔpanCDstrain, a pfo strain and a ΔpanCD strain expressing perfringolysin (ΔpanCDpfo) of Danish BCG were used as vectors to express HIV-1 subtype C Gag. Gag specific immune responses induced by a prime with each rBCG-Gag vaccine and boost with modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) were compared

Microcytosis as a risk marker of cancer in primary care: a cohort study using electronic patient records

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Royal College of General Practitioners via the DOI in this recordBackground: Microcytosis, smaller than normal red blood cells, has previously been identified as a possible early risk marker for some cancers. The role of microcytosis across all cancers has not been fully investigated. Aim: To examine cancer incidence in a cohort of patients with microcytosis, with or without accompanying anaemia Design and setting: Cohort study of patients aged ≥40 years using UK primary care electronic patient records. Methods: The 1-year cancer incidence was compared between cohorts of patients with a mean red cell volume of < 85fL (low) or 85fL-101fL (normal). Further analyses examined gender, age-group and cancer site, and haemoglobin values. Results: 497 out of 12,289 patients with microcytosis had a new cancer diagnosis within 1 year (4.0%, 95% confidence interval 3.7 to 4.4), compared to 1,465 of 73,150 without microcytosis (2.0%, CI 1.9 to 2.1). In males, 298 out of 4,800 with microcytosis developed cancer (6.2%, CI 5.5 to 6.9), compared to 940 out of 34,653 without (2.7%, CI 2.5 to 2.9). In females with microcytosis, 199 out of 7,489 developed cancer (2.7%, CI 2.3 to 3.1), compared to 525 out of 38,497 without (1.4%, CI 1.3 to 1.5). In patients with microcytosis but normal haemoglobin, 86 out of 2,637 males (3.3%, CI 2.6 to 4.0) and 101 out of 5,055 females (2.0%, CI 1.6 to 2.4) were diagnosed with cancer. Conclusions: Microcytosis is a predictor of underlying cancer even if haemoglobin is normal. Although a benign explanation is more likely, clinicians in primary care should consider simple testing for cancer in unexplained microcytosis, particularly in males.Cancer Research UKNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

Input aggregation bias in technical efficiency with multiple criteria analysis

We extend the Tauer (2001) and Färe et al. (2004) analyses of aggregation bias in technical efficiency measurement to multiple criteria decision analysis. We show input aggregation conditions consistent with multiple criteria evaluation of overall efficiency in conjunction with variation in aggregation bias

Comparisons of deposit types and implications of the financial crisis: Evidence for U.S. banks

This paper makes three diverse contributions. First, whereas the extant literature estimates a single elasticity of substitution/complementarity from an input distance function, we calculate a range of elasticities. Second, we make a substantive contribution to the literature on bank input substitution/complementarity because somewhat surprisingly there has been very little work on this issue. Third, our analysis of the substitutability/complementarity of deposit types for U.S. banks in 2008–2015 (crisis and beyond), vis‐à‐vis 1992–2007 (pre‐crisis), is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to consider the effect of structural change on elasticities of substitution/complementarity. To account for the extent of the heterogeneity in the U.S. banking industry we estimate random coefficients models, as opposed to standard fixed parameter models. The key empirical findings are the changes in the substitutability/complementarity of the quantities of particular pairs of deposit types between the two sample periods, which points to changes in depositors' preferences across banks' deposit portfolios. To illustrate, for savings deposits, which are characterized by flexibility and liquidity, and time deposits, which are less so and thus have higher interest rates, we find significantly lower quantity complementarity in 2008–2015. From this finding, we can conclude that savings and time deposits have become more distinct, which we suggest should be reflected in banks' strategic management of their deposit portfolios

In adult onset myositis, the presence of interstitial lung disease and myositis specific/associated antibodies are governed by HLA class II haplotype, rather than by myositis subtype

The aim of this study was to investigate HLA class II associations in polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM), and to determine how these associations influence clinical and serological differences. DNA samples were obtained from 225 UK Caucasian idiopathic inflammatory myopathy patients (PM = 117, DM = 108) and compared with 537 randomly selected UK Caucasian controls. All cases had also been assessed for the presence of related malignancy and interstitial lung disease (ILD), and a number of myositis-specific/myositis-associated antibodies (MSAs/MAAs). Subjects were genotyped for HLA-DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1. HLA-DRB1*03, DQA1*05 and DQB1*02 were associated with an increased risk for both PM and DM. The HLA-DRB1*03-DQA1*05-DQB1*02 haplotype demonstrated strong association with ILD, irrespective of myositis subtype or presence of anti-aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetase antibodies. The HLA-DRB1*07-DQA1*02-DQB1*02 haplotype was associated with risk for anti-Mi-2 antibodies, and discriminated PM from DM (odds ratio 0.3, 95% confidence interval 0.1–0.6), even in anti-Mi-2 negative patients. Other MSA/MAAs showed specific associations with other HLA class II haplotypes, irrespective of myositis subtype. There were no genotype, haplotype or serological associations with malignancy. The HLA-DRB1*03-DQA1*05-DQB1*02 haplotype associations appear to not only govern disease susceptibility in Caucasian PM/DM patients, but also phenotypic features common to PM/DM. Though strongly associated with anti-Mi-2 antibodies, the HLA-DRB1*07-DQA1*02-DQB1*02 haplotype shows differential associations with PM/DM disease susceptibility. In conclusion, these findings support the notion that myositis patients with differing myositis serology have different immunogenetic profiles, and that these profiles may define specific myositis subtypes