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Human Behavior

What makes people tick – The Daily News of Newburyport

At the age of 16, I went to a summer camp in the Berkshires to work as a waiter.

It was my first extended solo trip away from home. Soon after my arrival, I developed a crush on a beautiful girl named Cindy and I began courting her. Much to my dismay, I had a rival for her affections Howard.

One starry night, Cindy agreed to leave the canteen with me and take a walk along the camps lake. This was a big league move for me.

We strolled for a while, enjoyed easy conversation, and then found a couple of rickety Adirondack chairs a few yards from the shoreline. I deftly moved the chairs close together and once seated, our hands met on her armrest.

Just as our fingers started moving rhythmically, I heard the awful sound of Howards voice behind us: Hi Cindy, Hi Richie; what are you all doing down here?

He pranced to a spot directly in front of us and said to Cindy watch this and proceeded to demonstrate his superior athleticism by doing a handstand and a couple of cartwheels. Then, he silently strutted away with a smug smile on his toothy face as if to say, Bet you cant do that, Ross. I could not.

Cindy shrugged her shoulders and declared Howard to be a showoff. Our excursion ended with a quick kiss on my cheek at her cabins door.

Lying in my bunk that night, I thought more about Howards antics than Cindys dry kiss. Was that a stunt performed by an immature, insecure fool with no other means to get Cindys attention?

Or was it a confident move by an athletic guy who knew girls liked that kind of stuff? Either way, that event is what started me thinking about human behavior, and specifically, what makes people tick. I was oblivious until then.

It is often difficult to figure out what motivates a persons behavior. The context often helps but there are always unknown or unknowable factors. Is it an overbearing parent, emotional insecurity, a physical impediment, fear of failure?

In a world where the end justifies the means, it may not matter. In a more reflective world, the answer to the why question is a mapping system for human behavior. Learning about someones motivation to commit a murder or lead a life of crime can be as interesting as knowing what drove Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey to achieve their extraordinary success.

The criminals mind is a detectives workplace and is fascinating as a form of entertainment as evidenced by the plethora of crime dramas on television and in literature. But the forces powering Gates and Winfrey to their heights might serve as inspiration for our achievements or the way we raise our children.

We have all heard of the Napoleonic complex, which is a reference to short men who are some combination of false machismo, domineering social behavior and disproportionate aggression. The theory is that some short men have feelings of insecurity and inferiority resulting from their height that causes them to overcompensate behaviorally.

I had a friend who was a very successful businessman who only cared about making money. He never had or wanted children. No matter how much money he had, it was never enough.

Although I knew him to have a good heart, his obsession with money made it difficult for him to have friends; yet that never concerned him.

One night over drinks, he confided that he lived in constant fear of waking up one morning to a changed world and all of his money was gone. He explained that he grew up heavily influenced by a grandfather who repeatedly told him stories of the Great Depression and the Holocaust, and that having a lot of money was the only way to be safe if those events, or anything like them, occurred again.

In the context of current events, do we know what forces drive President Trumps persona? A psychologist might explore an enduring need to prove he is bigger and better than his successful father.

From this laymans perspective, it seems that Mr. Trump is driven primarily by an insatiable need for applause, adoration and money. While these forces work well for reality TV stars and real estate developers, I am not alone in wondering whether they are suitable for a president.

I never made it beyond first base with Cindy that summer, but neither did Howard.

Richard Ross resides in Amesbury and mediates business- and real estate-related disputes. http://www.rossmediationservices.com.

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What makes people tick - The Daily News of Newburyport

Genetics

Human Genetics Studies Reveal New Targets to Reduce Heart Disease – Newswise (press release)

Newswise Again and again, its the rare among humans that help the rest of us. The exploration of human genetics is revealing new targets to combat heart disease among atypical variants. Mutations in genes that play a role in heart health are the inspiration for a cluster of new heart drugs. One of the best examples is the discovery of mutations in the PCSK9 gene. People with a variant of this enzyme have lower LDL levels (the bad cholesterol), which protects them against heart disease. The discovery led to the development of a new class of heart medications called PCSK9 inhibitors, which markedly reduce LDLs in people with out-of-control levels. At the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology this past spring, researchers announced that these inhibitors reduced the combined risk of having a heart attack or stroke or dying from cardiovascular disease in high-risk patients by 15 percent.

Other investigators are extending the hunt for how these mutations affect risk to tackle other aspects of heart disease. For instance, people whose LDL levels are under control but have elevated triglycerides are still at risk for continued plaque buildup in their arteries. Individuals with mutations in genes that play a role in breaking down excess triglycerides in the blood are pointing geneticists to other ways to protect at-risk people. In fact, a recent New York Times article describes a trio of papers about these rare mutations in people with extremely low triglyceride levels. These studies followed a previous discovery that mutations in the APOC3 gene naturally cause extra-low triglyceride levels. Normally, the APOC3 gene instructs cells to make a molecule that inhibits the breakdown of triglycerides.

Daniel Rader, MD, chair of Genetics, and other Penn Medicine researchers, were coauthors on these recent human-genetic studies, as well as others earlier this year. All of the APOC3 variants are associated with low triglycerides, independent of LDL cholesterol levels. The findings represent a potential new and separate line of attack for lowering risk of heart disease.

If we could harness the protective aspects of these APOC3 variants to develop therapies that act similarly and lower triglycerides and heart disease risk, these could theoretically work alongside existing LDL-lowering drugs, Rader said.

He adds that its hard to say how many people have normal LDL but high triglycerides, but its clearly in the millions, not a small number. There are currently no proven therapies to further reduce risk in these individuals.

Studies of large groups of people with one disabled APOC3 gene have led to its characterization as a highly validated therapeutic target for reducing the risk of heart disease. In other words, these studies have shown that diminished function of APOC3 is consistently associated with lower triglyceride levels and reduced risk of heart disease in large populations across the world.

One new therapy targeting APOC3 is showing promise: an antisense oligonucleotide, which is essentially a small stretch of DNA that binds to the APOC3 RNAs to block the protein from being made. This antisense drugs, which is administered subcutaneously, has shown substantial reductions in triglyceride levels in humans, further proving that disabling the APOC3 protein works the way the researchers had hoped.

Therapeutic antibodies engineered molecules that bind to specific proteins on cell surfaces are an established way to inhibit or inactivate circulating proteins to treat disease, and Rader notes that creating antibodies to the AP0C3 protein may be another useful strategy. The recently approved antibody to the PCSK9 protein is one example of this approach in action for lowering LDL and reducing heart disease.

In the newest human genetics study from the Rader lab, the team studied people with one disabled copy of the APOC3 gene (found by searching the over 50,000 participants in the Penn Medicine Biobank) and mice expressing the same human variant and showed that both had markedly reduced levels of APOC3 protein and triglycerides in their blood. From this, they showed that an antibody targeting the APOC3 protein could accelerate the breakdown of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in the mice, mimicking the effects of this natural mutation.

The APOC3 protein antibody was developed by the biotech firm Argenx in collaboration with Staten Biotechnology. Rader says this approach is currently being developed by Staten and could be in clinical trials within the next two years.

This new translational genetics study, Rader said, adds one more check in the win column for the value of studying rare human genetic variants to inform our understanding of common conditions.

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Human Genetics Studies Reveal New Targets to Reduce Heart Disease - Newswise (press release)

Genetics

Seattle Genetics to Present at Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference – Business Wire (press release)

BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) announced today that management will present at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, September 12, 2017 at 2:05 p.m. EDT. The presentation will be webcast live and available for replay from the Investors section of the Seattle Genetics website at http://www.seattlegenetics.com.

About Seattle Genetics

Seattle Genetics is an innovative biotechnology company that develops and commercializes novel antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer. The companys industry-leading antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology harnesses the targeting ability of antibodies to deliver cell-killing agents directly to cancer cells. ADCETRIS (brentuximab vedotin), the companys lead product, in collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, is the first in a new class of ADCs and is commercially available globally in 67 countries for relapsed classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and relapsed systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (sALCL). Seattle Genetics is also advancing enfortumab vedotin, an ADC in a planned pivotal trial for metastatic urothelial cancer, in collaboration with Astellas and tisotumab vedotin, an ADC in a phase 1/2 trial for solid tumors, in collaboration with Genmab. Headquartered in Bothell, Washington and with European and international operations in Zug, Switzerland, Seattle Genetics has a robust pipeline of innovative therapies for blood-related cancers and solid tumors designed to address significant unmet medical needs and improve treatment outcomes for patients. The company has collaborations for its proprietary ADC technology with a number of companies including AbbVie, Astellas, Bayer, Celldex, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. More information can be found at http://www.seattlegenetics.com.

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Seattle Genetics to Present at Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference - Business Wire (press release)

Neuroscience

Texas Brain & Spine Institute host 11th neuroscience symposium – KBTX

The Texas Brain and Spine Institute is set to host the 11th annual Neuroscience Symposium on September 25 in the Hall of Champions at Kyle Field.

The goal of the symposium is to help the average person understand their brain better. In previous years the main topics covered in the symposium have been dementia, strokes, brain tumors, concussions and Parkinson's disease.

The headline speaker this year is Iain Mcgilchrist who has spent his career studying how different parts of the brain work together to be able to function in a complex world. His training is as a psychiatrist and he is from Oxford in Great Britain.

There are two basic parts of the symposium. The first part are three simultaneous mini-courses lasting 15 minutes each that are offered to the participants to understand better factors that affect your brain and then our main speaker, Dr. Mcgilchrist will give his talk.

To register you can go to txbsi.com/symposium or call 979.776.8896 but it isn't required.

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Texas Brain & Spine Institute host 11th neuroscience symposium - KBTX

Human Behavior

Wild dogs in Africa engage in unmistakable voting behavior – Ars Technica

Wild dogs in Botswana are an endangered species, and they offer us a rare window into undomesticated dog behavior. Researchers followed five packs of them for a year, recording their social interactions.

Neil Jordan

When they greet each other, wild African dogs often jump around, bark, and touch each other playfully. This is called a "rally."

Andrew King

One of the major reasons for dog rallies is to gather up pack members and start on a new hunting mission. Researchers found that the dogs were "voting" on whether to hunt again by making a sneezing noise.

Andrew King

The more "sneezes" the researchers recorded, the more likely it was that the pack would move along and start hunting. If a pack leader initiated the rally, fewer sneezes were needed to get started.

Andrew King

Though humans like to think of themselves as the only creatures on Earth who vote on what to do, they aren't. Many social animals engage in consensus-seeking behavior, from meerkats to honeybees to Capuchin monkeys. In these species and more, members of the group weigh in about what their next move should be.

Now, a new study of African wild dogs in Botswana adds another animal to the voting pool. It turns out that these endangered, undomesticated dogs "vote" on whether to start hunting by making noises that sound just like sneezes.

Neil Jordan, a fellow at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, worked with a team to follow five packs of these dogs for roughly 11 months, observing their behavior and recording the sounds they made. Based on previous research, he and his colleagues were fairly certain that the dogs had to reach a consensus before setting out on a collective hunt. The scientists already knew that the dogs had a very specific social pattern, called a "rally," wherein the pack would come together and boisterously greet each other. Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Jordan and his team describe how they figured out that rallies were generally initiated by one dog, who "rose from rest in the distinctive initiation posture: head lowered, mouth open, and ears folded back."

After witnessing several rallies, the researchers noticed something strange. They started hearing patterns of sneezes. Jordan said in a release that they "noticed the dogs were sneezing while preparing to go." So the researchers went over recordings of 68 rallies and "couldn't quite believe it when our analyses confirmed our suspicions... The more sneezes that occurred, the more likely it was that the pack moved off and started hunting. The sneeze acts like a type of voting system."

You can hear some sneeze votes in this video.

Even more interesting, however, is that dog democracy is as imperfect as the human version. When a dominant male or female dog called the rally, fewer sneezes were needed to start the hunt. Study co-author Reena Walker added, "If the dominant pair were not engaged, more sneezes were neededapproximately 10before the pack would move off." In other words, some votes count more than others.

Walker told The New York Times that the noise they called "sneezes" isn't really like a human sneeze. There's no inhalation, just an "audible, rapid forced exhalation through the nose." We also aren't sure that this noise is involuntary, like a sneeze, or more like a person making a grunt of assent. What is certain is that the more of these sounds you hear during a dog vote, the more likely they are to move along to do some dog business together.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2017. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0347 (About DOIs).

Listing image by Andrew King

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Wild dogs in Africa engage in unmistakable voting behavior - Ars Technica

Embryology

‘Yayasan scholarships to do Masters and PhD by research’ – The Borneo Post

KUCHING: Sarawakians are encouraged to apply for scholarships from Yayasan Sarawak to do Masters and PhD by research.

SUPP Youth chief Tan Kai said the state government recently announced that the foundation would offer scholarships to several courses related to research.

We are supportive of the move and feel that young Sarawakians should grab this opportunity, he said at a press conference here yesterday.

Tan, who is also a political secretary to the Chief Minister, said the fields of research included cell structure/biology (cytology), biochemistry, embryology, genetics (molecular genetics/genomics), micro-biology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, bioprocess engineering, biorobotics and biomorphic robotics.

The others are instrumentation control engineering, image processing, sensors and actuator, mechatronic, storage, cloud computing, cognitive info communication, artificial intelligence/machine learning, cybersecurity, networking, software engineering, data analytics, big data and telemetry, and human-computer interaction (HCI).

Tan believed that these research-based courses would help produce the necessary human capital to accelerate the states development.

Our Chief Minister has a big plan to digitise Sarawaks economy and eventually turn Sarawak into a developed state, he said.

Interested applicants are advised to contact officers Zamahari Saidi at zamahari@yayasansarawak.org.my or Eliza Fazliyaton Alias at eliza@yayasansarawak.org.my.

For more information, visit http://www.yayasansarawak.org.my or email ys@yayasansarawak.org.my or call 082-441686 or WhatsApp (017-700 1971).

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'Yayasan scholarships to do Masters and PhD by research' - The Borneo Post

Embryology

Aberdeenshire young farmer hails SAYFC trip to Canada – Press and Journal

Amy Ingram

A well-known young farmer from the north-east has hailed a recent trip to Canada as a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet other young farmers from across the world.

Amy Ingram, whose family are well-known sheep breeders at Logie Durno, near Pitcaple, Inverurie, attended the 4H Summit in Ottawa thanks to financial support from the Gregor Award Trust.

Ms Ingram, who is currentlying studying embryology and developmental biology at university, said: From a very young age the Canadian Rockies and the cowboy lifestyle has always fascinated me.

This summer I was lucky enough to be selected with two other Scottish Association of Young Farmers Club (SAYFC) members to represent Scotland in the 4H summit in Ottawa and to visit Canada.

She said the trip not only gave her the chance to meet her peers from across the globe, but also improve her presentation skills. Myself and the other Scottish delegates presented a 90-minute talk on SAYFCs mental health campaign, Are Ewe Okay, in association with Scottish Association of Mental Health, said Ms Ingram.

She said the trip has inspired her to look into the possibility of going back to Canada next summer to work on a ranch. When she is not studying, Ms Ingram works full-time on the family farm helping take animals around the summer show circuit and preparing for the familys on-farm tup sale.

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Aberdeenshire young farmer hails SAYFC trip to Canada - Press and Journal

Embryology

Older wombs linked to complications in pregnant mice – Medical Xpress

A fluorescent microscopy image of the womb of an elderly mouse. The areas in green show cells which respond to pregnancy hormones. As a mouse ages, the womb becomes less sensitive to hormones, as shown by the uneven, patchy areas of green. This is reflected in the developmental problems we see in the offspring from these older mothers. Credit: Ms. Laura Woods

Deciding to start a family later in life could be about more than just the age of your eggs. A new study in mice suggests the age of a mother's womb may also have a part to play. This work, led by Dr Myriam Hemberger at the Babraham Institute and the Centre for Trophoblast Research in Cambridge, UK, is one of the first to look at the effects of age on womb health and it is expected to lead to new research into human pregnancies.

The risks of complications during pregnancy all increase with age. A woman in her late 30s is twice as likely as a younger woman to have a stillbirth, she is also 20% more prone to giving birth prematurely and more likely to experience conditions such as pre-eclampsia. Many of these effects have been linked to the deteriorating quality of ageing egg cells. Yet, this new research, published in Nature Communications, reveals that older wombs also have more trouble adapting to pregnancy.

By examining first pregnancies in aged mice, the team showed that, for mice as for humans, the risk of complications increases with age. Closer examination revealed that the wombs of older mothers are less able to support the growth of a placenta, meaning the developing young have poor blood supply, which slows their growth and can cause birth defects.

The co-first authors were Ms Laura Woods and Dr Vicente Perez-Garcia. Speaking about the findings, Ms Woods said: "We wanted to enhance our understanding of the increased risks of pregnancy in older mothers. When we compared mice who have their first litter in middle age to their younger counterparts, we found that the lining of the uterus does not respond as well to pregnancy hormones and this delays placenta formation. By identifying the key pathways affected by age in mice we have a better idea of what to look for in humans."

Understanding the potential risks of pregnancy with age is an increasingly important issue. In the UK, more and more women are starting families later and in 2015, 53% of UK births were to women aged 30 or over. A 2016 report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority showed that freezing eggs for later use is also growing in popularity. In 2001, just 29 women opted for the treatment, rising to 816 by 2014.

Lead author, Dr Hemberger, Group Leader in Epigenetics at the Babraham Institute, said: "Overall, our study highlights the importance of the ageing uterine environment as a cause of reproductive decline in female mice. This is one of the first times that the considerable impact of age on pregnancy has been studied in detail beyond the effects of egg fitness. More research will be needed to establish if and how our results translate to humans."

The shorter lifespan of mice means that they are useful for studying the effects of age on pregnancy but these results cannot always be directly applied to human pregnancies. These new results will help to guide long-term studies in humans but it is not yet clear what the implications of these findings will mean for family planning and human healthcare. It is clear that other factors besides egg quality may need to be considered when planning a family.

As a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Ashley Moffett, Professor of Reproductive Immunology at the University of Cambridge and expert on placenta formation, said: "We know that the so-called Great Obstetrical Syndromes, in particular pre-eclampsia are more common in older women but it's still not clear why. Although more work is needed to demonstrate this effect in humans, this study could help advance research into these important questions".

Explore further: Weight gain between pregnancies linked to increased risk of gestational diabetes

More information: Laura Woods et al, Decidualisation and placentation defects are a major cause of age-related reproductive decline, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00308-x

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Older wombs linked to complications in pregnant mice - Medical Xpress

Cell Biology

Split-brain fruit fly research at UNR gives insight into autism – Northern Nevada Business Weekly

A better understanding of the cause of autism may come from an unlikely source, neurological studies of the fruit fly. Neuroscientists working in the biology department at the University of Nevada, Reno have identified a new genetic mechanism they believe is responsible for disruption of the brain pathways connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain; which has separately been linked to autism.

"This is an exciting find," Thomas Kidd, associate professor in the Universitys biology department, said. "In the one striking mutant, called commissureless or comm, there are almost no connections between the two sides of the fruit fly's nervous system."

The fruit fly nervous system research was conducted in Kidd's lab over several years. Fruit flies have brains and nerve cords that form using molecules surprisingly similar to those in human brains and spinal cords. The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics, shows that the human gene, called PRRG4, functions the same way as the fruit fly Comm at the molecular level, regulating which signals neurons can respond to in their environment.

"The Comm gene was thought to be unique to insects but our work shows that it is not," Elizabeth Justice, lead author of the PLOS Genetics article and a former postdoctoral neuroscience researcher in Kidd's lab, said.

Comm is required for nerve fiber guidance and synapse formation in the fly, so PRRG4 could contribute to the autistic symptoms of WAGR by disturbing either of these processes in the developing human brain.

"PRRG4 appears very likely to control how nerve fibers link the two sides of the nervous system in humans, and this is being actively tested," Sarah Barnum, a former undergraduate researcher in the Kidd lab who worked on the project, said.

The fruit fly has no left-right connections when two copies of the gene are missing. In humans there is a condition called WAGR syndrome in which a group of genes are missing on one chromosome. When the gene Kidd's team is interested in, the PRRG4 gene, is missing, autistic symptoms are observed.

"The function of the gene was obscure but we now show that it can regulate whether key proteins make it to the cell surface when neuronal wiring is navigating," Kidd said. "This would tie it to our colleague Jeff Hutsler's work that indicates autistic changes start in utero."

Jeffrey Hutsler, in the department of Psychology, and the Cognitive and Brain Sciences Program and also in the University's neuroscience program, is an expert on autism and split-brain patients.

Split brain patients have the connections between the left and right brain hemispheres severed, usually to relieve epilepsy symptoms. The disrupted structure is called the corpus callosum, a bridge consisting of millions of nerve fibers that allows constant exchange of information between the two sides of the brain. The corpus callosum forms during pregnancy and subtle disruptions to the structure are associated with developing autism.

Hutsler, who was not involved in the study, is also very excited by the work.

"We know that brain wiring is altered in autism spectrum disorders and our own work has found similarities in the way visual information is integrated between the two brain hemispheres of split-brain patients and autistic individuals," Hutsler said. "It is therefore very plausible that PRRG4 will be found to play a part in the altered formation of the corpus callosum in individuals with autism."

The journal which published the study, PLOS Genetics, commissioned a perspective on the article because of its significance.

"Understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying the assembly of brain circuits is likely to be essential to the design of new diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)," Jimena Berni wrote in the perspective, explaining that the study "links the genetic alterations and neural circuitry development revealing a novel role for the PRRG4 gene as a regulator."

The University of Nevada, Reno study will inspire members of several diverse fields and drive research forward in several ways, including:

Axon (nerve fibers) guidance a range of physical interactors have been identified for PRRG proteins and these provide promising new avenues for investigation in all axon guidance systems.Vertebrate brain development and Human Genetics the PRRG genes are expressed during brain development and in adults, but detailed surveys of expression patterns are lacking. Examination of key midline crossing structures such as the floor plate of the spinal cord and the corpus callosum is an obvious next step, but many other brain structures should be examined.Yeast protein trafficking The findings offer the intriguing possibility that yeast genetics can be used to identify the mechanisms by which Rcr/Comm/PRRG proteins regulate protein trafficking to the cell surface.The PLOS Genetics article is available on the Public Library of Science website.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The Kidd lab was part of a $10 million Center for Biomedical Research Excellence Project in Cell Biology of Signaling at the University, which is funded by the National Institute of Healths Institute of General Medical Sciences. Kidd is also a fellow in the University's Research and Innovation Office.

Both Jeff Hutsler Kidd are part of the University's Integrative Neuroscience program. In 2010, Hutsler received the Slifka-Ritvo Award for Innovation in Autism Research from International Society for Autism Research.

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Split-brain fruit fly research at UNR gives insight into autism - Northern Nevada Business Weekly

Genetics

Earnings Clues on NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK), Oasis Petroleum Inc. (OAS) Analyst’s Predictions – StockNewsJournal

NewLink Genetics Corporation (NASDAQ:NLNK) plunged -4.06% with the closing price of $7.79. The overall volume in the last trading session was 1.15 million shares.

Company Growth Evolution:

ROI deals with the invested cash in the company and the return the investor realize on that money based on the net profit of the business. Investors who are keeping close eye on the stock of NewLink Genetics Corporation (NASDAQ:NLNK) established that the company was able to keep return on investment at in the trailing twelve month while Reuters data showed that industrys average stands at 4.85 and sectors optimum level is 15.02.

NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK) have shown a high EPS growth of 0.30% in the last 5 years and has earnings decline of -108.00% yoy. Analysts have a mean recommendation of 2.20 on this stock (A rating of less than 2 means buy, hold within the 3 range, sell within the 4 range, and strong sell within the 5 range). The stock appeared $25.17 above its 52-week highs and is up 16.97% for the last five trades. MA ended last trade at $7.79 a share and the price is up more than -24.22% so far this year. The company maintains price to book ratio of 0.00 vs. an industry average at 0.59. Its sales stood at 80.40% a year on average in the period of last five years. A P/B ratio of less than 1.0 can indicate that a stock is undervalued, while a ratio of greater than 1.0 may indicate that a stock is overvalued.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS)ended its day at $7.39 with the rising stream of 1.23% and its total traded volume was 6.39 million shares less than the average volume.

Returns and Valuations for Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS)

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), maintained return on investment for the last twelve months at -, higher than what Reuters data shows regarding industrys average. The average of this ratio is 4.85 for the industry and sectors best figure appears 15.02. Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), at its latest closing price of $7.39, it has a price-to-book ratio of 0.00, compared to an industry average at 0.59. A lower P/B ratio could mean that the stock is undervalued. This ratio also gives some idea of whether youre paying too much for what would be left if the company went bankrupt immediately.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), stock is trading $17.08 above the 52-week high and has displayed a high EPS growth of -28.70% in last 5 years. The 1 year EPS growth rate is -328.10% . Its share price has decline -24.28% in three months and is up 2.07% for the last five trades. The average analysts gave this company a mean recommendation of 2.10.

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Earnings Clues on NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK), Oasis Petroleum Inc. (OAS) Analyst's Predictions - StockNewsJournal