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Healthcare: Neurology
Ataxia
Alzheimer's Patient Care and Counseling
Treatment Alzheimers Disease
Alzheimer's Conditions
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Clinic
Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy
Eaton-Lambert Syndrome
Hereditary Neuropathies
Inclusion Body Myositis
Metabolic Myopathies
Diagnostics and Procedures
Muscle Biopsy
Nerve Biopsy
Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders
Atypical Parkinsonism
Blepharospasm
Corticobasal Syndrome
Hemifacial Spasm
Myoclonus
Psychogenic Movement Disorders
Vascular Parkinsonism
Dopamine Depleting Drugs
Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders
MyChart is a patient-accessible website that enables you to interact with your Baylor Medicine healthcare team.
Ataxia describes a condition characterized by poor coordination of movements. Ataxia may cause involuntary eye movements (nystagmus), incoordination of hands, difficulty with fine motor tasks (such as eating or writing), slurring of speech, and an unsteady walk. It may make the person appear "drunk." Ataxic patients are unable to walk in a straight line and tend to bump into things. In advanced stages, they may need a walker or even a wheelchair. Patients may also have difficulties with vision due to eye movement abnormalities. Damage or degeneration in the back part of the brain called the cerebellum results in ataxia. It can also occur because of problems with the sensory system (abnormal perception of a position of a body part in space) and vestibular system (abnormal balance). A neurologist can usually differentiate between the two types of ataxia: motor and sensory.
There are about 150,000 patients affected by some form of ataxia in the United States.
The diagnosis of ataxia is made after a careful, detailed clinical examination by a neurologist. Once the presence of ataxia has been determined, the cause is determined based on the time course and other neurological features (described below). Several laboratory tests can help aid diagnosis. MRI and spinal fluid analysis can also be helpful. In many cases, genetic testing is required.
There are many causes of ataxia but most can be categorized as sporadic (no specific cause), genetic (also referred to as hereditary or running in families) or secondary to a medical illness, certain drugs, or an injury to the brain.
Congenital ataxias occur in children, and they are most commonly due to structural abnormalities in the brain that occur before or during birth. These include cerebral palsy (often associated with brain injury at birth due to lack of oxygen or blood supply), hydrocephalus (increased pressure caused by blockage or buildup of cerebrospinal fluid), brain tumors, and other injuries to the brain.
Ataxia can occur suddenly (acute), over weeks (subacute), or slowly progressive over months to years (chronic). In acute cases, the most common cause is either stroke or hemorrhage in or around the cerebellum. Patients usually have headaches, vomiting, neck stiffness, or loss of consciousness.
In children, bacterial or viral infections can cause acute ataxia and this usually improves with time. They develop fever, problems with walking, and slurred speech over a period of hours to days and recover over weeks. Subacute onset of ataxia is usually seen in paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration. This is a condition in which cancer in the breast, lungs, ovaries, or other areas in the body produces antibodies that affect the cerebellum and cause ataxia.
Hereditary or genetic ataxias occur because of gene mutations that lead to abnormal proteins making neurons function abnormally. You may inherit this from one parent and be affected (autosomal dominant inheritance, 50% chance of transmission to children) or from both parents (autosomal recessive inheritance, 25% chance of transmission to children if both parents carry the gene mutation and do not have symptoms). Sometimes there may be no clear family history.
Autosomal dominant ataxias include the spinocerebellar ataxias and episodic ataxias. Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA) represent the most common form of chronic progressive ataxia in adults. They result from the degeneration of pathways between the spinal cord and cerebellum. There are many types (SCA 1 to 37 have been recognized) and the number continues to grow based on new research. All patients with these disorders must undergo genetic counseling. SCA-2 is most common in the US and SCA-3 is most common in Japan, Germany, Portugal, and France. The typical age of onset of these syndromes is 4-60 years with an average of 40 years. Patients can become disabled by five years, bedridden by ten years and death occurs anywhere between 10-20 years after the onset of disease. The common clinical problems in SCA are gait ataxia, eye movement abnormalities (nystagmus or jerkiness and double vision), and dysarthria (speech difficulty). Some of the SCAs (SCA1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8) also cause peripheral neuropathy (damage to the peripheral nerves which causes the patient to have numbness or tingling in the hands and feet). Some SCA's can result in blindness by causing damage to the retina and the macula in the eye (SCA 7).
Episodic ataxia (EA) is a disorder with intermittent spells of ataxia with complete recovery between episodes. The best-characterized are types 1 and 2. They are caused by genetic mutations within a voltage-gated potassium channel gene (KCNA1 on chromosome 12) and the cerebral P/Q type calcium channel gene (CACNL1A4 on chromosome 19) respectively. Patients have spells of walking difficulty, dysarthria (difficulty with speech), and nystagmus (abnormal eye movements) with complete recovery between episodes. They may be triggered by stress, being startled, or a sudden movement. EA type 1 involves brief episodes lasting seconds or minutes. EA type 2 episodes are longer, lasting minutes to hours. EA types 3 through 7 are also recognized. Genetic episodic ataxias are responsive to medical treatment. Drug ingestion, multiple sclerosis, and other causes can also lead to episodic ataxia in some cases.
Friedrich's ataxia is an example of autosomal recessive ataxia. It is a disorder due to excessive repeats of nucleotides GAA in the DNA. Patients have ataxia along with spasticity, speech problems, nystagmus, weakness of lower extremities, and sensory problems. Patients with Friedreich's ataxia also may develop scoliosis (curvature of the spine), cardiomyopathy (enlargement of the heart), and diabetes, and bowel and bladder dysfunction. This is a slow, progressive disorder but most patients become wheelchair-bound within 10-20 years after onset. There is marked variability in the presentation and progress of the disease.
Other recessively inherited ataxias include vitamin-E deficiency, ataxia telangiectasia, ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type I and II, and infantile-onset spinocerebellar ataxia among others.
There are other inherited disorders that can cause ataxia, including DRPLA (dentatorubro-pallidoluysian atrophy). This is a rare neurodegenerative disorder that causes difficulties with walking, problems with speech, dementia, chorea (involuntary writhing type of movements), and jerkiness of muscles (myoclonus). Some of the younger patients have seizures.
Ataxia can be a part of Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS). This is a genetic disorder with a gene located on X-chromosome (female sex chromosome). It affects mainly males but can occur in female carriers of the mutation. The clinical spectrum of FXTAS includes progressive ataxia, tremor, cognitive decline and other features.
Other causes of chronic progressive ataxia include several disorders like degeneration of cerebellum due to alcohol, vitamin E or copper deficiency. Vitamin B12 deficiency causes sensory ataxia in addition to muscle weakness.
Of all the movement disorders, ataxia is among the most resistant to medical therapy. Clonazepam may help tremor and balance problems. It has side effects such as sedation, fatigue or loss of libido among others. Other medications such as buspirone or 5-hydroxytryptophan have been studied but they have not been shown to be very beneficial. Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant, is useful for some episodic ataxias. Acetazolamide is useful in some of the rare forms of episodic ataxias.
Genetic ataxias do not have any definitive treatments. Some of the disorders have been reported to be slowed by taking antioxidants such as vitamins A, E, B12, idebenone, and coenzyme Q10. Vitamin E is the treatment of choice in ataxia caused by vitamin E deficiency. Vitamin B12 or copper supplements are used to treat ataxia related to vitamin B12 or copper deficiency respectively. When associated with parkinsonism, such as seen in the cerebellar form of multiple system atrophy, levodopa may be helpful.
Weakness and spasticity contribute to the difficulties the patient may experience in ataxia. Physical therapy to maximize strength and flexibility are helpful. General physical therapy and regular exercise are highly recommended. Early therapy may help patients avoid developing contractures. Patients with ataxia can benefit from gait training during the earlier stages of the disease. Adaptive devices such as canes, wheelchairs and communication aids can help. Adjustments at home can be discussed with the occupational therapist. Speech therapy can be helpful for some patients.
Care of the bed-ridden patient in advanced stages of progressive ataxia is very important. Skincare and eventual placement of PEG tube (feeding tube) in patients with swallowing difficulties will help prevent lung infections.
Gauquelin L, Hartley T, Tarnopolsky M, et al. Channelopathies are a frequent cause of genetic ataxias associated with cerebellar atrophy. Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2020;7(8):940-949.
Jankovic J, Hallett M, Okun M, Comella C, Fahn S. Principles and Practice of Movement Disorders, Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA, 2021 (in press).
Kwei KT, Kuo SH. An Overview of the Current State and the Future of Ataxia Treatments. Neurol Clin. 2020;38(2):449-467.
Pandolfo M. Neurologic outcomes in Friedreich ataxia: Study of a single-site cohort. Neurol Genet. 2020;6(3):e415.
Piarroux J, Riant F, Humbertclaude V, et al. FGF14-related episodic ataxia: delineating the phenotype of Episodic Ataxia type 9. Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2020;7(4):565-572.
Zesiewicz TA, Hancock J, Ghanekar SD, Kuo SH, Dohse CA, Vega J. Emerging therapies in Friedreich's Ataxia. Expert Rev Neurother. 2020;20(12):1215-1228.
Healthwise Credits
©2021 Joseph Jankovic, M.D.


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Mughal Rule in India:
The Mughals began to rule parts of India from 1526, and by 1700 ruled most of the sub-continent. After that, they declined rapidly, but nominally ruled territories until the 1850s.
The sultanate Rule began to decline after Muhammad Tughlaq.
The Delhi Sultanate broke down completely and new kingdoms emerged in North, Central, and South India.
The traditional military system of Indian Rulers in the medieval period was not capable of facing the onslaught of new challenges.
Taking advantage of this, Mughals established their rule in India.
In the beginning of the 16th century, the political condition in India was somewhat disturbed. The Sultanate rule had begun to decline after Muhammad Tughluq. The Delhi Sultanate broke down completely and many new independent kingdoms emerged in the North, Central, and South India. The Bahamani kingdom got divided into five branches. The prosperous Vijaynagar empire was destroyed by the five Islamic ruling houses in the South. During the same period, the Portuguese began to settle on the western coast of India. The traditional military system of the Indian rulers in the mediaeval period was not capable of facing the onslaught of new challenges. The Indians were not familiar with modern weaponry. Taking advantage of all this, the Mughals established their rule in India.
Ibrahim Lodi:
Ibrahim Khan Lodi (died 21 April 1526) became the Sultan of Delhi 1517 after the death of his father Sikander Lodi. He was the last ruler of the Lodi Dynasty, reigning for nine years between 1517 until being defeated and killed at the Battle if Panipat by Babur's invading army in 1526, giving way to the emergence of the mughal empire in India. The grand army of Ibrahim Lodi could not survive in front of Babur in the battle of Panipat. Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi on the strength of configuration skills, strong artillery, the system of secret intelligence, and strong leadership. Babur established his rule in Delhi.
Babur:
Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 CE and founded the Mughal empire. He faced opposition from Rana Sangha, who at first promised to help Babur defeat Ibrahim Lodi; however, he later backed out upon realizing that Babur had plans to stay in India. The Rana prepared an army of Rajputs and Afghans to force Babur out of India, however, the Rana was defeated in the Battle of Khanwa (1527) after which he was poisoned to death (1528) by his own men. Babur's elder son Humayun ascended the throne after Babur. But Humayun was deprived of the kingdom due to the defeat at the hands of Shershah Sur of Bihar.
Shershah Sur:
Sher Shah Sur was the founder of the Suri Empire in the northern part of the Indian Subcontinent with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He introduced the currency of the Rupee. Shershah Sur made some reforms in the administrative setup. He brought together the Afghan sardars scattered in North India and established the Afghan rule. The descendants of Shershah were not efficient. Hence after the death of Shershah, Humayun regained his lost kingdom. After Humayun, his son Akbar ascended the throne. He proved to be the greatest Mughal Emperor because of his qualities such as high intelligence, tolerance, firmness, and courage.
Akbar:
The kingdom established by Babur was transformed into a great empire by Akbar. He established his rule from Kabul to Bengal and Kashmir to Varhad-Khandesh. During this period, Rana Pratap, the ruler of Mewar, put up a strong resistance against Akbar. Akbar could never win a war with Rana Pratap. Hence for the expansion of the empire, he adopted the strategy of persuasion with the Rajputs. Akbar had realized that if the Mughal rule has to be strengthened in India then he had to adopt non-offensive policies, which would be popular.
After Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan, and Aurangzeb ruled efficiently. Aurangzeb attempted to expand his empire in the Deccan with prolonged campaigns. Aurangzeb's reign is notable for his wars in frontier provinces, his political policies in North and south India, staunch religious policies, and the Mughal- Maratha conflict. This period is marked by the expansion of the Maratha kingdom, interference by the Europeans in the political affairs of India, and the decline of Mughal power. Finally, the aftermath of the struggle of Independence in 1857 C.E., saw the end of the Mughal rule under Bahadur Shah.
ConceptMughal Rule in India

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: JS | Highlight Duplicates in String Is there a way to highlight (color or bold) duplicates in a string.
Applied only to substrings followed by the characters "QD"
PMC.12547QD/25874QD/26548QD/13254QD/45412QD.T05
PMC.12454QD/19457QD/00035QD/25874QD/17354QD.T05
PMC.00025QD/15454QD.T02

all text is located in a textarea.

A: This is a fun little problem (finding and marking the duplicates, that is - you'll have to figure out the rest), so I gave it a whirl.
The way I'd do it is in two passes: first to count the number of occurrences of each matched string, and then a second pass to actually wrap the strings. While we're at it, let's make it a general function where you can pass in the match pattern and wrapping strings.
Both passes use input.replace(), but the first pass uses it only for the side effect that it can call a function on each match. This function doesn't even bother returning anything, because the code discards whatever value input.replace() returns.
The second pass does the actual replacements and returns the resulting string.
var testString =
    'PMC.12547QD/25874QD/26548QD/13254QD/45412QD.T05\n' +
    'PMC.12454QD/19457QD/00035QD/25874QD/17354QD.T05\n' +
    'PMC.00025QD/15454QD.T02';

var output = wrapDuplicates( testString, /\d+QD/g, '{', '}' );
console.log( output );

function wrapDuplicates( input, pattern, open, close ) {
    var counts = {};
    input.replace( pattern, function( match ) {
        counts[match] = ( counts[match] || 0 ) + 1;
    });
    return input.replace( pattern, function( match ) {
        return counts[match] > 1 ? open + match + close : match;
    });
}

This logs:
PMC.12547QD/{25874QD}/26548QD/13254QD/45412QD.T05
PMC.12454QD/19457QD/00035QD/{25874QD}/17354QD.T05
PMC.00025QD/15454QD.T02

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Down The Line is the most popular Trap discipline in the UK and the second most popular shooting discipline shot in the UK, with Sporting being the most popular.
14.63m in front of stand 3 and 71 – 91cm above the level of the stand.
In Down The Line a first barrel hit scores three points, a second barrel hit scores two points, and a miss scores zero points.
Five targets are taken at each stand.
More information can be found in the CPSA's Clay Target Shooters Handbook, page 7-1 (page 66 of PDF document), and Booklet Number 7 Technical Rules, pages 3-6.


text:
Home Space Solar Storm The true Great Reset: Magnetic Pole Shift and Solar Minimum
Solar Storm
The true Great Reset: Magnetic Pole Shift and Solar Minimum
Magnetic Pole Shift and Solar Minimum: They are the true Great Reset!
As featured on Electroverse, even the Guardian has awoken to the "cataclysmic" threat that is the combo of low solar activity and a weakening magnetic field:
"The flipping of the Earth's magnetic poles together with a drop in solar activity 42,000 years ago could have generated an apocalyptic environment that lead to the extinction of megafauna and to the end of the Neanderthals," reports a new scientific article.
The Science paper entitled "a global environmental crisis" discusses the temporary flip of the poles 42,000-or-so years ago, known as the Laschamp excursion, which lasted for about 1,000 years.
The Guardian article continues: "Previous work found little evidence that the event had a profound impact on the planet, possibly because the focus had not been on the period during which the poles were actually shifting. Now scientists say the flip, together with a period of low solar activity, could have been behind a vast array of climatic and environmental phenomena with dramatic ramifications."
"It probably would have seemed like the end of days," said Turney.
In my newsletter article: Are you prepared for the Endtimes?, I wrote:
"The flipping of the Earth's magnetic poles together with a drop in solar activity 42,000 years ago could have generated an apocalyptic environment that may have played a role in a major events ranging from the extinction of megafauna to the end of the Neanderthals.
By the way, our poles are flipping right now and we are in the deepest solar minimum in decades… Read the text above again… Are we going to end like the Neanderthals?"
Yes, the mainstream has failed to draw any comparisons with the events of today.
As shown in the table below, the Laschamp excursion is just one of many magnetic excursions that have occurred in "recent" times… And they seem to come back cyclically every 12,000 years:
Years Ago Magnetic Excursion Ice Event Extinctions
~12,000 Gothenburg Younger Dryas Global Disaster
~24,000 Lake Mungo Heinrich 2 Eurasia
~35-37,000 Mono Lake Heinrich 4 N. America
~40-47,000 Laschamp Heinrich 5 Global Disaster
~60,000 Vostok/Greenland Heinrich 6 Australia
~72,000 Toba Heinrich 7a Global Disaster
Simplified breakdown of past magnetic excursions on Earth.
Every 12,000 years –or there abouts– our planet suffers a magnetic excursion during which its north and south magnetic poles "wander" and eventually "flip" — this process results in a waning of Earth's magnetosphere which in turn fuels serious climatic events and mid-level extinction events on the ground.
The devastation of these events is truly "cataclysmic," because these events are much more than climatic, they also result in a bombardment of cosmic energy on the lower atmosphere as our shield against the Sun fails.
Dangerous levels of radiation also impact the mantle, which can affect silica-rich magma viscosity.
We've seen accelerated magnetic field loss in recent years (driven by our wandering poles–visualized above) — and this a key indication that the excursion is winding up, that the poles are readying to flip.
In the mid-1800s, after millennia of stability, the field began waning and has been doing so ever-since — accelerated losses were officially reported as 10 percent in the year 2000, and then, just a decade later, as 15 percent in 2010. 2015 and 2017 accelerations were only announced to the world in 2020 and 2021, and they detected significant shifts in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).
We are indeed due for the next climatic and environmental disaster.
Cataclysms are what magnetic excursions/reversals coupled with low solar activity do: they blanch the planet of life and set things up anew.
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Previous articleThe solar wind is here and a CME is coming – Now watch up for vivid auroras
Next article200 coffins drift in the Golfo Paradiso after Italian cemetery collapses into the sea
UFO by the Sun? Dangerous cold and coronal holes
Remember and prepare because it will happen again… 21 years ago the skies over Central Europe glowed bright red and violet and auroras covered...
Cracks are appearing in Earth's magnetic field as the equinox approaches
Unexpected solar storm with 'disruptive potential' slams into Earth
Wild solar weather is causing satellites to plummet from orbit and it's only going to get worse
'No need to panic?' Sunspot with potential for solar flares doubles in size overnight
Get ready for more powerful solar storms, radio blackouts, earthquakes and eruptions! Solar Cycle 25 is exceeding predictions and sunspot numbers in May 2022...
Powerful X-Class solar flare erupts from the sun and triggers strong M6.8 earthquake in Argentina
The sun has erupted non-stop ALL MONTH and there are more giant flares coming
Ancient ice reveals mysterious and extreme solar storm near solar minimum – and scientists are concerned
The zarostrianist Feb 23, 2021 At 6:37 pm
Well as all four magnetic limbs are out of phase since solar cycle 25 started plus the North Atlantic current has been interrupted from October last and now the overcirculating air that provides the gulf jet stream to Europe is disapating, as the north pole continues to wander some 550 miles east southeast of its position in 2000ad as the south pole keeps trying to move north toward India, I'd say it's game on alright, it's even got a name coined the eddy super grand solar minimum 😀
leon lunsford Feb 23, 2021 At 12:36 pm
It's all BS formed in the minds of a bunch of lunatic scientists who don't know they're behinds from a hole in the ground. Billions and billions of years don't and never have existed. Talk about mad scientists, well we got 'em.
markw Feb 24, 2021 At 4:48 am
try looking up the GSM where in the 1600 and 1800 deep freeze mini ice age hit the planet. It lasted like 40 years
.50cal Feb 23, 2021 At 10:07 am
Been reading about this scenario for years.
.50cal Feb 23, 2021 At 12:45 pm
Can't sit around in fear waiting for a cataclysmic event to happen. Best a man can do is prepare, and pray. Whatever does happen, if you believe in Jesus, then in the blink of an eye, you will be in heaven with Our Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.


Undoubtedly, no one can be more truthful and honest than the Messengers of Allahﷺ . Prophet Muhammad proved by his living example that he was the most truthful and honest person of his age. Everyone was impressed by his honesty and truthfulness. He was a poor orphan, who had started trading with his uncle, but in a very short time, owing to his honest and fair dealings with all people, he became well-known and respected. He was known as Al-Sadiq (the Truthful) and Al-Amin (the Faithful). Every Makkan, rich or poor called him by these names. When the dispute arose, among the various tribes of Makkah, as to who should lay the Black Stone in its proper place, in the Ka'bah, they decided that the one who entered the Ka'bah first next morning would place it. Prophet Muhammad was the first to enter the Ka'bah that morning and when the people saw him they were all very happy that Al-Amin and Al-Sadiq had come and would be the one to lay the Black Stone in its proper position.
Once the chiefs of the Quraish were sitting and talking about him. Nadhar bin Harith, the most experienced of them all, said, "O Quraish! You have not been able to find any plan to meet the calamity that has fallen upon you. Muhammad ﷺ grew up from childhood in your presence. He was the most liked, honest and faithful among you. Now when he has grown to maturity and has presented these things to you, you say, he is a magician, a soothsayer, a poet, a mad man. By Allah! I have heard his Message, he is none of these things. A new calamity has fallen upon you."
When he gathered together all the Quraish near the Mount of Safa and asked them, "O Quraish! If I say that an army is advancing on you from behind the mountains, will you believe me?" All said in one voice, "Yes; because we have never heard you telling a lie." All the people of Makkah, without any exception swore to his truthfulness and honesty, for he had lived an unblemished and extremely pious life among them for forty years.
He had lived his whole life in purity and virtue among them and this was acknowledged even by his most staunch enemies. They knew that he was the most honest and truthful person among them. The Qur'an therefore appealed to them to look at his life and try to understand. How could he tell lies against Allah, when he did not tell lies against human beings! When the Qaiser of Rome received a letter from the Prophet ﷺ inviting him and his followers to Islam, he called the Arab traders who were then visiting his country. He asked Abu Sufyan, their leader, "Did you ever find Muhammad telling a lie before his claim to Prophethood?" He replied that he had not. Then the Qaiser. said, "I asked you if he had ever told a lie and you replied that he had not. I am sure, if he had spoken unjustly against Allah, he would not have abstained from speaking falsely against human-beings." The Qaiser then questioned him about the Prophet's general behaviour and conduct with people. Abu Sufyan replied "Muhammad is nobly born; is honest and truthful, and has never broken a pledge. He enjoins his followers to worship none but One Allah and to pray to Him alone. He preaches kindness, piety and tolerance towards all and his followers are on the increase."
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ practiced honesty in his life and preached honesty and truthfulness to others. Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri reported Allah's Messenger ﷺ as saying, "Let not respect for men prevent any of you from speaking the Truth when he knows it."


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About a month ago, I wrote about the attractive historical performance of negative enterprise value stocks. This week, I'd like to illustrate some of the challenges of investing in negative EV stocks by delving into some recent opportunities.
Negative EV stocks are almost definition unloved by the markets and discarded in the trash heap. As such, they are not easy to find. Most popular web-based screeners, such as Yahoo's, Google's and FinViz offer few fundamental screening criteria. The ones that do are usually limited to simple ratios such as price/book value. I could find no screener that offered enterprise value as a screening or sorting criteria. Even Bloomberg's stock screening functionality (EQS), very popular among professional investors, is curiously stunted in this area, since the enterprise value field is only populated if it is positive. Negative enterprise values are shown as erroneous or "Not available" and therefore can't be easily employed as a criterion in a screen. I finally settled on a free screen provided by Old School Value which in turn is based on Portfolio123.
Editor's Note: This table was generated before August 2nd, 2013.
SCMR: Sycamore Networks used to be a high-flying telecom company in the (first) dot com bubble. After returning a large amount of cash to shareholders, it decided to liquidate. OSV shows the company as having an eye-popping EV of -$50m. However, the most recent quarterly balance sheet from April 2013 shows cash of $20.6m and a liquidation reserve of $10.6m, so net cash is only $10m. This is significantly lower than SCMR's market cap of $15m. In other words, SCMR's EV is actually positive. When SCMR decided to liquidate, it switched its accounting from a "going concern" to a "liquidation" basis. The last "going concern" set of financials was filed in July 2012, over a year ago. I suspect that is the source of the discrepancy.
GNVC: GenVec, a small biotech company, is another liquidation story: Genvec's board voted to liquidate on May 24th, 2013 after the company's experimental HIV vaccine failed in a clinical trial. GNVC's last available balance sheet, from April 2013 (before the liquidation) shows $12m in cash and investment versus no long term debt. GNVC's market cap is $5.7m, so its EV is about -$6m. However, GNVC has been spending about $3m per quarter on its research effort, and will have to spend some money to terminate employee, leases and contracts as it downsizes. If it can quickly ramp down spending and keep liquidation costs to a minimum, there may be some value in the stock, but it doesn't seem like a bet with a large margin of safety.
NURO: With a market capitalization under $3m, NeuroMetrix is too small for most investors out there. The negative EV reported by OSV seems to be correct, but NURO has been losing about $2m per quarter. If they continue, they will burn through their cash in about a year. Worse, NURO issued $4.5m in equity so far in 2013. This is a big red flag in my view: If management thought the stock was cheap and the spending could be curbed, they would be buying back shares instead.
TSPT: Transcept makes Intermezzo, a new drug to treat insomnia. Intermezzo has not been selling well, which is one of the reasons the stock is cheap. TSPT's latest quarterly report bears out the negative EV reported in OSV. However, TSPT lost over $17m in four quarters ending 2013Q1. At this rate, TSPT's equity will last another 4-5 years, not bad. Further, there is some hope TSPT's expenses moving forward may be lower than they were over the last year: It will probably not need to spend as much on clinical trials for Intermezzo, for one thing. The big concern with Transcept is corporate governance: If TSPT's management were primarily concerned with shareholder value, they would simply liquidate the company and the stock would jump. Instead, they have recently voted for more generous compensation for themselves (in the form of better severance benefits). It appears they are looking for another drug or company to acquire with their excess cash, and their track record at TSPT is less than inspiring. TSPT was written up in January 2013 on ValueInvestorsClub.com, a prestigious online investment club. The writeup cited the stock's negative EV. The stock has dropped 42% since that writeup. Nonetheless, I believe it is one of the more promising candidates on the list, well deserving of a second look.
I could go on, but the point is that each negative EV stock has something very wrong with it. Some only show up on the list because of a data error. Most are downright frightening once you start digging into them. This is why they available for sale for less than the cash on their balance sheets. However, despite the fear they inspire, and perhaps because of it, we know that – as a group and over time – they tend to generate highly attractive returns.
Alon Bochman, CFA, is a partner in Genpact's (NYSE: G) capital markets consulting practice, based in New York. He works with asset managers and banks to help them make better decisions with data. Previously, he spent two years managing an equity portfolio for SC Fundamental. Bochman began his career as a programmer by co-founding a social networking software firm eventually acquired by Thomson-Reuters. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from the University at Albany.
Thank you for using Old School Value for the screen.
One thing I want to point out is that the screen includes additional criteria to try and filter for value type ideas.
May be late, but I pulled out the latest list of purely negative EV stocks as of Aug 15. The list contains 104 stocks in the spreadsheet. If you wish, I will be more than happy to send it your way to post as a reference to this article.
The list was scary to say the least. You need heart of steel to invest your hard owned money into such stocks. I have a gut feel that US may not be place for this investment idea unless you are in 2008-09 kind situation. I guess emerging markets that tend to be some what less efficient…and in even those…small cap universe may be target for this investment idea. But then liquidity can be huge issue. If it can be an issue in US then imagine in country like India what would be the problems. This strategy seems to be good for individual investors who want to keep aside part of their assets to generate alpha using this strategy.