LAGGED IDIOSYNCRATIC RISK AND ABNORMAL RETURN

According to financial theory, idiosyncratic risk is eliminated within a diversified portfolio andtherefore should not be related to expected return. However, in the last decade financial economistshave started to debate and provide evidence that showed that either idiosyncratic risk is positivelyor negatively related to future abnormal return.Our paper follows these recent studies and examines the relationship between idiosyncraticvolatility and abnormal return in the following year. Hence, our measure of idiosyncratic volatilityis an annual measure, and we use it to predict the abnormal return in the following year. We dividecompanies into five tranches of idiosyncratic volatility level each year, and then analyse andcompare their abnormal return in the following year.Our result suggests that stock returns are negatively related to the one-year lagged idiosyncraticvolatilities. Most important, it seems that most of the explanatory power is derived from the highestidiosyncratic volatility level stocks as they yield the most negative abnormal returns in thefollowing year

Identification and Functional Evaluation of Anti-Cancer Ilmmunomodulators from Physalis peruviana (Poha)

Our Creative Inquiry team is researching the anti-tumor potential of compounds isolated from Physalis peruviana (poha) fruit. CellTiter 96 Aqueous Non-radiative Cell Proliferation Assays (Promega, 2012) were performed to screen the inhibitory activity of the compounds on human lung carcinoma A549 cells and breast cancer MDA-MB- 231 cells with the corresponding non-tumorigenic epithelial cell line NL20 and MCF-10A as controls. The cells were treated with compounds at concentrations of 0μg/ml, 2μg/ml, 5μg/ml, and 20μg/ml and incubated for 24, 48, and 72 hours

Precise Measurements of Branching Fractions for Ds+D_s^+ Meson Decays to Two Pseudoscalar Mesons

We measure the branching fractions for seven $D_{s}^{+}$ two-body decays to pseudo-scalar mesons, by analyzing data collected at $\sqrt{s}=4.178\sim4.226$ GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The branching fractions are determined to be $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K^+\eta^{\prime})=(2.68\pm0.17\pm0.17\pm0.08)\times10^{-3}$, $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to\eta^{\prime}\pi^+)=(37.8\pm0.4\pm2.1\pm1.2)\times10^{-3}$, $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K^+\eta)=(1.62\pm0.10\pm0.03\pm0.05)\times10^{-3}$, $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to\eta\pi^+)=(17.41\pm0.18\pm0.27\pm0.54)\times10^{-3}$, $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K^+K_S^0)=(15.02\pm0.10\pm0.27\pm0.47)\times10^{-3}$, $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K_S^0\pi^+)=(1.109\pm0.034\pm0.023\pm0.035)\times10^{-3}$, $\mathcal{B}(D_s^+\to K^+\pi^0)=(0.748\pm0.049\pm0.018\pm0.023)\times10^{-3}$, where the first uncertainties are statistical, the second are systematic, and the third are from external input branching fraction of the normalization mode $D_s^+\to K^+K^-\pi^+$. Precision of our measurements is significantly improved compared with that of the current world average values

Fusion Proteins of NKG2D/NKG2DL in Cancer Immunotherapy

NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) is an important activating receptor in natural killer (NK) cells and some T cells. NKG2D ligands (NKG2DLs) are specifically expressed on most tumor cells. The engagement of these ligands on tumor cells to NKG2D on NK cells will induce cell-mediated cytotoxicity and have target cells destroyed. This gives NKG2D/NKG2DLs great potential in cancer therapeutic application. The creation of NKG2D/NKG2DL-based multi-functional fusion proteins is becoming one of the most promising strategies in immunotherapy for cancer. Antibodies, cytokines, and death receptors have been fused with NKG2D or its ligands to produce many powerful fusion proteins, including NKG2D-based chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). In this article, we review the recent developments of the fusion proteins with NKG2D/NKG2DL ligands in cancer immunotherapy