Private Placement and Share Price Reaction: Evidence from the Australian Biotechnology and Health Care Sector

This paper analyses Private Placements for the Australian biotechnology sector. Private placement is one of the favoured methods of secondary equity offering around the world. However, it is also the least studied corporate financing mechanism. A major issue around private placement is the impact of issuance to a selected group of institutional and/or high net worth sophisticated investors and the high direct costs of doing so. We first employ en event study methodology to separate out the large and small placement effects and short and long run effects. Given Australia’s weaker regulatory environment, we find significant negative cumulative abnormal return following private placements in the short term supporting the price pressure hypothesis with our main sample and with large private placement issues. Consistent with current empirical studies, mixed evidence regarding the directional impact was also observed as small issue exhibited positive price effects. We then hypothesize a model to measure and test the key factors identified in the literature. The model captures and explains strong medium term cumulative abnormal return effects and these effects are quite different between small and large placements.private placement, event study, price effect, price pressure

Further decrease in glycated hemoglobin following ingestion of a LoBAG30 diet for 10 weeks compared to 5 weeks in people with untreated type 2 diabetes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We previously determined that a weight-maintenance, non-ketogenic diet containing 30% carbohydrate (CHO), 30% protein, 40% fat, (30:30:40) (LoBAG₃₀) decreased glycated hemoglobin (%tGHb) from 10.8 to 9.1% over a 5 week period in subjects with untreated type 2 diabetes. Both the fasting glucose and postprandial glucose area were decreased. Our objective in the present 10-week study was to determine: 1) whether the above results could be maintained, or even improved (suggesting a metabolic adaptation) and 2) whether the subjects would accept the diet for this longer time period. In addition, protein balance, and a number of other blood and urine constituents were quantified at 5 and at 10 weeks on the LoBAG₃₀diet to address metabolic adaptation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eight men with untreated type 2 diabetes were studied over a 10-week period. Blood was drawn and urine was collected over a 24 hour period at the beginning of the study with subjects ingesting a standard diet of 55% CHO, 15% protein, 30% fat, and at the end of 5 and 10 weeks following ingestion of a LoBAG₃₀diet.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Body weight was stable. Fasting glucose decreased by 19% at week 5 and 28% at week 10; 24-h total glucose area decreased by 27% at week 5 and 35% at week 10 compared to baseline. Insulin did not change. Mean %tGHb decreased by 13% at week 5, 25% at week 10, and was still decreasing linearly, indicating that a metabolic adaptation occurred. Serum NEFA, AAN, uric acid, urea, albumin, prealbumin, TSH, Total T₃, free T₄, B₁₂, folate, homocysteine, creatinine, growth hormone and renin did not differ between weeks 5 and 10. IGF-1 increased modestly. Urinary glucose decreased; urinary pH and calcium were similar.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A LoBAG₃₀diet resulted in continued improvement in glycemic control. This improvement occurred without significant weight loss, with unchanged insulin and glucagon profiles, and without deterioration in serum lipids, blood pressure or kidney function. Extending the duration of time on a LoBAG₃₀diet from 5 to 10 weeks had little or no further effect on the hormones and metabolites measured, i.e. a metabolic equilibrium was established.</p

Control of blood glucose in type 2 diabetes without weight loss by modification of diet composition

BACKGROUND: Over the past several years our research group has taken a systematic, comprehensive approach to determining the effects on body function (hormonal and non-hormonal) of varying the amounts and types of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the diet. We have been particularly interested in the dietary management of type 2 diabetes. Our objective has been to develop a diet for people with type 2 diabetes that does not require weight loss, oral agents, or insulin, but that still controls the blood glucose concentration. Our overall goal is to enable the person with type 2 diabetes to control their blood glucose by adjustment in the composition rather than the amount of food in their diet. METHODS: This paper is a brief summary and review of our recent diet-related research, and the rationale used in the development of diets that potentially are useful in the treatment of diabetes. RESULTS: We determined that, of the carbohydrates present in the diet, absorbed glucose is largely responsible for the food-induced increase in blood glucose concentration. We also determined that dietary protein increases insulin secretion and lowers blood glucose. Fat does not significantly affect blood glucose, but can affect insulin secretion and modify the absorption of carbohydrates. Based on these data, we tested the efficacy of diets with various protein:carbohydrate:fat ratios for 5 weeks on blood glucose control in people with untreated type 2 diabetes. The results were compared to those obtained in the same subjects after 5 weeks on a control diet with a protein:carbohydrate:fat ratio of 15:55:30. A 30:40:30 ratio diet resulted in a moderate but significant decrease in 24-hour integrated glucose area and % total glycohemoglobin (%tGHb). A 30:20:50 ratio diet resulted in a 38% decrease in 24-hour glucose area, a reduction in fasting glucose to near normal and a decrease in %tGHb from 9.8% to 7.6%. The response to a 30:30:40 ratio diet was similar. CONCLUSION: Altering the diet composition could be a patient-empowering method of improving the hyperglycemia of type 2 diabetes without weight loss or pharmacologic intervention

Temporal Course of the Tourette Syndrome Clinical Triad

Background: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a disorder characterized by childhood onset of motor and phonic tics, often with improvement of tic symptoms by young adult years. The temporal course of tics and commonly comorbid behavioral symptoms is still not well characterized. Methods: In order to clarify the time course of tics and comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in TS, we administered a brief survey regarding the course of symptoms at a single point in time to 53 TS patients aged 13–31 years. Results: Mean age (±SD) at symptom onset was 7.9 (±3.6) years for tics, 7.9 (±3.5) for ADHD, and 9.2 (±5.0) for OCD. Age at peak symptom severity was 12.3 (±4.6) years for tics, 10.8 (±3.8) for ADHD, and 12.6 (±5.5) for OCD. Tics, ADHD, and OCD were reported to be no longer present in 32.0%, 22.8%, and 21.0% of subjects, respectively. Decline in symptom severity began at age 14.7 (±3.7) years for tics, 13.9 (±2.9) for ADHD, and 15.1 (±5.0) for OCD. Remission of symptoms occurred at age 17.4 (±3.8) years for tics, 17.4 (±1.3) for ADHD, and 15.6 (±2.3) for OCD. Discussion: Our data confirm and expand previously reported TS spectrum symptom milestones and may guide design of future research aimed at improving the course of TS. Keywords: Tourette, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, tic Citation: Shprecher DR, Rubenstein LA, Gannon K, et al. Temporal course of the Tourette syndrome clinical triad. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov. 2014; 4. doi: 10.7916/D8HD7SV

Health sciences librarians in academic libraries: a brief review of their developing role

Information relating to health has been gathered since ancient times. Physicians often gathered their own books which were sometimes donated to create early medical libraries. The explosion of information, the demands of qualification accrediting bodies and technological developments have also helped to promote the work of health libraries. The professionalisation of health occupations has tended to move their library support from hospitals into academic settings. Librarians are increasingly concerned with promoting their services and teaching patrons to use library resources. While some health sciences librarians see the availability of health information on the internet as a threat, to those that can see ways to exploit it, it may serve to enhance their role

Bayesian parameter estimation in the oral minimal model of glucose dynamics from non-fasting conditions using a new function of glucose appearance

Background and objective The oral minimal model (OMM) of glucose dynamics is a prominent method for assessing postprandial glucose metabolism. The model yields estimates of insulin sensitivity and the meal-related appearance of glucose from insulin and glucose data after an oral glucose challenge. Despite its success, the OMM approach has several weaknesses that this paper addresses. Methods A novel procedure introducing three methodological adaptations to the OMM approach is proposed. These are: (1) the use of a fully Bayesian and efficient method for parameter estimation, (2) the model identification from non-fasting conditions using a generalised model formulation and (3) the introduction of a novel function to represent the meal-related glucose appearance based on two superimposed components utilising a modified structure of the log-normal distribution. The proposed modelling procedure is applied to glucose and insulin data from subjects with normal glucose tolerance consuming three consecutive meals in intervals of four hours. Results It is shown that the glucose effectiveness parameter of the OMM is, contrary to previous results, structurally globally identifiable. In comparison to results from existing studies that use the conventional identification procedure, the proposed approach yields an equivalent level of model fit and a similar precision of insulin sensitivity estimates. Furthermore, the new procedure shows no deterioration of model fit when data from non-fasting conditions are used. In comparison to the conventional, piecewise linear function of glucose appearance, the novel log-normally based function provides an improved model fit in the first 30 min of the response and thus a more realistic estimation of glucose appearance during this period. The identification procedure is implemented in freely accesible MATLAB and Python software packages. Conclusions We propose an improved and freely available method for the identification of the OMM which could become the future standardard for the oral minimal modelling method of glucose dynamics