2,606 research outputs found

    A panel analysis of UK industrial company failure

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    We examine the failure determinants for large quoted UK industrials using a panel data set comprising 539 firms observed over the period 1988-93. The empirical design employs data from company accounts and is based on Chamberlain’s conditional binomial logit model, which allows for unobservable, firm-specific, time-invariant factors associated with failure risk. We find a noticeable degree of heterogeneity across the sample companies. Our panel results show that, after controlling for unobservables, lower liquidity measured by the quick assets ratio, slower turnover proxied by the ratio of debtors turnover, and profitability were linked to the higher risk of insolvency in the analysis period. The findings appear to support the proposition that the current cash-flow considerations, rather than the future prospects of the firm, determined company failures over the 1990s recession

    CD20 and CD19 targeted vectors induce minimal activation of resting B lymphocytes

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    B lymphocytes are an important cell population of the immune system. However, until recently it was not possible to transduce resting B lymphocytes with retro- or lentiviral vectors, making them unsusceptible for genetic manipulations by these vectors. Lately, we demonstrated that lentiviral vectors pseudotyped with modified measles virus (MV) glycoproteins hemagglutinin, responsible for receptor recognition, and fusion protein were able to overcome this transduction block. They use either the natural MV receptors, CD46 and signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM), for cell entry (MV-LV) or the vector particles were further modified to selectively enter via the CD20 molecule, which is exclusively expressed on B lymphocytes (CD20-LV). It has been shown previously that transduction by MV-LV does not induce B lymphocyte activation. However, if this is also true for CD20-LV is still unknown. Here, we generated a vector specific for another B lymphocyte marker, CD19, and compared its ability to transduce resting B lymphocytes with CD20-LV. The vector (CD19ds-LV) was able to stably transduce unstimulated B lymphocytes, albeit with a reduced efficiency of about 10% compared to CD20-LV, which transduced about 30% of the cells. Since CD20 as well as CD19 are closely linked to the B lymphocyte activation pathway, we investigated if engagement of CD20 or CD19 molecules by the vector particles induces activating stimuli in resting B lymphocytes. Although, activation of B lymphocytes often involves calcium influx, we did not detect elevated calcium levels. However, the activation marker CD71 was substantially up-regulated upon CD20-LV transduction and most importantly, B lymphocytes transduced with CD20-LV or CD19ds-LV entered the G1b phase of cell cycle, whereas untransduced or MV-LV transduced B lymphocytes remained in G0. Hence, CD20 and CD19 targeting vectors induce activating stimuli in resting B lymphocytes, which most likely renders them susceptible for lentiviral vector transduction

    First measurement of Ξc0\Xi_{\rm c}^0 production in pp collisions at s\mathbf{\sqrt{s}} = 7 TeV

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    The production of the charm-strange baryon Ξc0\Xi_{\rm c}^0 is measured for the first time at the LHC via its semileptonic decay into e+Ξ−Μe^+\Xi^-\nu_{\rm e} in pp collisions at s=7\sqrt{s}=7 TeV with the ALICE detector. The transverse momentum (pTp_{\rm T}) differential cross section multiplied by the branching ratio is presented in the interval 1 << pTp_{\rm T} << 8 GeV/cc at mid-rapidity, ∣y∣|y| << 0.5. The transverse momentum dependence of the Ξc0\Xi_{\rm c}^0 baryon production relative to the D0^0 meson production is compared to predictions of event generators with various tunes of the hadronisation mechanism, which are found to underestimate the measured cross-section ratio.Comment: 22 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/412

    Energy dependence of exclusive J/ψJ/\psi photoproduction off protons in ultra-peripheral p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 5.02 TeV

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    The ALICE Collaboration has measured the energy dependence of exclusive photoproduction of J/ψJ/\psi vector mesons off proton targets in ultra-peripheral p-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN=5.02\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02 TeV. The e+^+e−^- and ÎŒ+Ό−\mu^+\mu^- decay channels are used to measure the cross section as a function of the rapidity of the J/ψJ/\psi in the range −2.5<y<2.7-2.5 < y < 2.7, corresponding to an energy in the Îł\gammap centre-of-mass in the interval 40<WÎłp<55040 < W_{\gamma\mathrm{p}}<550 GeV. The measurements, which are consistent with a power law dependence of the exclusive J/ψJ/\psi photoproduction cross section, are compared to previous results from HERA and the LHC and to several theoretical models. They are found to be compatible with previous measurements.Comment: 25 pages, 3 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 19, published version, figures at http://alice-publications.web.cern.ch/node/455

    Measurement of the production of charm jets tagged with D0^{0} mesons in pp collisions at s\sqrt{s}= 7 TeV

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    The production of charm jets in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s=7\sqrt{s}=7 TeV was measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 6.236.23 nb−1{\rm nb}^{-1}, collected using a minimum-bias trigger. Charm jets are identified by the presence of a D0^0 meson among their constituents. The D0^0 mesons are reconstructed from their hadronic decay D0→^0\rightarrowK−π+^{-}\pi^{+}. The D0^0-meson tagged jets are reconstructed using tracks of charged particles (track-based jets) with the anti-kTk_{\mathrm{T}} algorithm in the jet transverse momentum range 5<pT,jetch<305<p_{\rm{T,jet}}^{\mathrm{ch}}<30 GeV/c{\rm GeV/}c and pseudorapidity ∣ηjet∣<0.5|\eta_{\rm jet}|<0.5. The fraction of charged jets containing a D0^0-meson increases with pT,jetchp_{\rm{T,jet}}^{\rm{ch}} from 0.042±0.004 (stat)±0.006 (syst)0.042 \pm 0.004\, \mathrm{(stat)} \pm 0.006\, \mathrm{(syst)} to 0.080±0.009 (stat)±0.008 (syst)0.080 \pm 0.009\, \rm{(stat)} \pm 0.008\, \rm{(syst)}. The distribution of D0^0-meson tagged jets as a function of the jet momentum fraction carried by the D0^0 meson in the direction of the jet axis (z∣∣chz_{||}^{\mathrm{ch}}) is reported for two ranges of jet transverse momenta, 5<pT,jetch<155<p_{\rm{T,jet}}^{\rm{ch}}<15 GeV/c{\rm GeV/}c and 15<pT,jetch<3015<p_{\rm{T,jet}}^{\rm{ch}}<30 GeV/c{\rm GeV/}c in the intervals 0.2<z∣∣ch<1.00.2<z_{||}^{\rm{ch}}<1.0 and 0.4<z∣∣ch<1.00.4<z_{||}^{\rm{ch}}<1.0, respectively. The data are compared with results from Monte Carlo event generators (PYTHIA 6, PYTHIA 8 and Herwig 7) and with a Next-to-Leading-Order perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics calculation, obtained with the POWHEG method and interfaced with PYTHIA 6 for the generation of the parton shower, fragmentation, hadronisation and underlying event.Comment: 29 pages, 8 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 24, published version, figures at http://alice-publications.web.cern.ch/node/525
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