A broad array of water-insoluble compounds has displayed therapeutically relevant properties toward a spectrum of medical and physiological disorders, including cancer and inflammation. However, the continued search for scalable, facile, and biocompatible routes toward mediating the dispersal of these compounds in water has limited their widespread application in medicine. Here we demonstrate a platform approach of water-dispersible, nanodiamond cluster-mediated interactions with several therapeutics to enhance their suspension in water with preserved functionality, thereby enabling novel treatment paradigms that were previously unrealized. These therapeutics include Purvalanol A, a highly promising compound for hepatocarcinoma (liver cancer) treatment, 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT), an emerging drug for the treatment of breast cancer, as well as dexamethasone, a clinically relevant anti-inflammatory that has addressed an entire spectrum of diseases that span complications from blood and brain cancers to rheumatic and renal disorders. Given the scalability of nanodiamond processing and functionalization, this novel approach serves as a facile, broadly impacting and significant route to translate water-insoluble compounds toward treatment-relevant scenarios.

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We examine whether conflicts of interest with investment banking and brokerage businesses induce sell-side analysts to issue optimistic stock recommendations and, if so, whether investors are misled by such biases. Using quantitative measures of potential conflicts constructed from a novel data set containing revenue breakdowns of analyst employers, we find that recommendation levels are indeed positively related to conflict magnitudes. The optimistic bias stemming from investment banking conflicts was especially pronounced during the late-1990s stock market bubble. However, evidence from the response of stock prices and trading volumes to upgrades and downgrades suggests that the market recognizes analysts' conflicts and properly discounts analysts' opinions. This pattern persists even during the bubble period. Moreover, the 1-year stock performance following revised recommendations is unrelated to the magnitude of conflicts. Overall, our findings do not support the view that conflicted analysts are able to systematically mislead investors with optimistic stock recommendations. (c) 2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved..

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