Negative Equity, Veiled Value, and the Erosion of Price-to-Book

By Travis Fairchild
April 2018

The price-to-book ratio has a problem. More and more U.S. companies report negative book value, the result of accounting rules and structural changes in the market. This creates broad confusion and problems for the famous value factor, and indexes or strategies which rely on it as a measure of cheapness. Negative equity companies are often written off as distressed, but after reporting negative equity, most of them survive for years and have, as a group, outperformed the market 57% of the time.1 There are currently 118 companies in the U.S. market with negative equity. These companies have had negative equity for an average of over three and a half years, and 25% have had negative equity for over five years. One example is Domino’s Pizza which has had negative equity since their 2004 IPO but has outperformed the S&P 500 by a cumulative 1,442%.2 McDonalds, H&R Block, Yum Brands, HP, Motorola, Denny’s, AutoZone, and Wayfair are also on the list of those with negative book value.

One of the more interesting side effects of this phenomenon is that these companies are often categorized as growth stocks instead of value because they are considered expensive by price-to-book standards. But many of these companies look very cheap by other metrics, like earnings, sales, or cash flow. These distortions in reported financials have a ripple effect that can be seen in the holdings of active value strategies which tend to be underweight these stocks, thereby driving some portion of relative performance of value vs. growth styles.

A solution: reported book values can be adjusted for underlying biases to reduce some of these adverse effects. We show that an improved understanding of the origins of these distortions and their corresponding adjustments can lead to better investment decisions.

There are two groups of companies that help illustrate these growing dislocations on balance sheets. The first is the overall group of companies with negative equity and the second is a group we will call “Veiled Value” stocks, which are companies that rank in the most expensive 33% by price-to-book but the Cheapest 33% by other valuation metrics.3 Think about Veiled Value stocks as the opposite of a value trap because they are companies that look expensive through the lens of price-to-book but are actually great values in disguise.

The extreme growth of these groups is a recent phenomenon. In 1988, there were only 13 companies with negative equity with a combined market cap of $15 billion (inflation adjusted) and now there are over 118 which combine to represents $843 billion dollars in market cap. Veiled Value stocks were relatively rare as well: only 60 names and a market cap of $91 billion in 1988. Today, there are over 258 representing over $3.9 trillion of market value. Put in perspective, $3.9 trillion market cap of Veiled Value stocks are larger than the market cap of the FANG stocks combined.4

For value investors, some points to consider: companies with negative equity have historically outperformed the market and the Veiled Value stocks have performed even better (See Figure 2). Both groups have also outperformed very consistently over the last 25 years. Negative equity outperformed in almost 60% of rolling three-year periods and Veiled Value names in over 90%.5 An investment process that continually avoids investment in these companies is likely to suffer as a result.

To measure the impact of these balance sheet distortions we begin by reviewing the holdings of style indexes. Over 90% of the Veiled Value group of stocks are defined as growth stocks by Russell’s methodology, even though they rank in the cheapest third of U.S. stocks using metrics other than book value (See Figure 3). Given that these stocks have outperformed the market their absences from the value benchmark is shifting return from value into growth.

To gauge how much this is affecting actively managed portfolios we pulled the holdings for the largest twentyfive Large Cap Value funds and compared their average allocations to Veiled Value names vs the market index.6 These twenty-five managers represent $817 billion in assets under management (AUM). All but two of the managers were underweight the Veiled Value stocks relative to the index. The average large cap value manager was underweight these names by 5.7% and some even had a near zero percent weight to these companies. There may be an overreliance on price-to-book in actively managed portfolios; whether directly though selection decisions based on the factor or indirectly by using the Russell style index as a starting universe.

Balance sheets prepared under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are doing an increasingly poor job of reflecting the value of shareholders equity. Recent trends have tended to bias assets well below market value which has led to the increased frequency of negative equity and Veiled Value stocks. Those tend to fall into three main categories, that we will cover in detail:

1) Understated Intangible Assets: brand names, human capital, advertising, and research and development (R&D) are rarely represented on the balance sheet

2) Understated Long Term Assets: assets are often depreciated faster than their useful lives

3) Buybacks and Dividends: when buybacks and dividends exceed net income, they create a decrease in equity which can accelerate distortions

Most of the understatement in intangible assets are directly tied to the decision of what constitutes an operating expense vs a capital expense. This distinction is not at all trivial and will affect the balance sheet in very different ways. Operating expenses are meant to provide benefits in only the current period and are therefore a onetime expense. Capital expenses create value over multiple periods and are capitalized, creating an asset that is depreciated until it no longer adds any value to the company.

This is a rational way to split up expenses because in theory it matches the cost to the period it contributes to operating profits. However, some expenses that do create value are required by GAAP to be treated as an operating cost which means this value doesn’t get recorded on the books as an asset. The two largest examples are R&D expenses and advertising expenses. The value that companies create through these investments in brands, patents, intellectual capital, technologies and processes is often held at $0 on the balance sheet. As an example, the $90 billion that Coca-Cola has spent on advertising in its history has no value that is shown on balance sheet. Similarly, Boeing has spent over $100 billion designing aircrafts and all that investment does not create an asset.

Prior to 1975 companies could capitalize R&D but the SFAS 2 accounting rule changed that and companies are no longer allowed to do so. Treating R&D as an operating expense is significantly undervaluing the book values of firms that are reliant on these activities. Firms with substantial R&D expenses are common negative book value and Veiled Value companies.

Compounding the downward bias on book value, the average company today spends much more on R&D than in 1975. Sectors with high R&D represent a much larger portion of the market. Health Care and IT companies have higher R&D than any other sector and their weight has more than tripled, growing from 12% of the market in 1975 to 38% today.8 Also, companies in general are spending a lot more on R&D than they used to. Consumer discretionary, for example, looks nothing like it did in 1975. Companies like Amazon, Netflix and Tesla blur the lines between consumer discretionary and technology and even Dominos and Walmart are experimenting with drones for delivery services. This has led to the average company’s R&D investment to be about two and a half times what it was in 1975 (Figure 5).

Also, there has been a shift from tangibles dominating a company’s total investment to intangibles being a more equal investment. Some researchers estimate that total intangible investments have surpassed investment in tangibles. Just looking at total R&D and advertising expense vs. total capital expenditure we see that the spend on these intangibles is converging with total tangible investments.

Similar to R&D, advertising expense creates a valuable asset in the form of a brand, but often brands have no value on the balance sheet. The only place brand can show up as an asset on the financials is goodwill and it will only show a value when the brand is acquired, brands grown internally and organically are held at $0. According to balance sheets the Netflix brand is worth $0, Tesla’s brand is worth less than $60 million and the Nike brand (which is the most valuable asset Nike has) is worth less than $139 million. Let’s revisit the Domino’s example. Fourteen years have passed since their IPO with negative equity and not only is Domino’s not bankrupt, but they substantially outperformed the market. How much was their brand worth at the time of their IPO? In 2004, they had been building their brand for 43 years, they were the number one pizza delivery restaurant in the country, owned 20% of the market, and had spent $1.2 billion dollars in advertising in the recent five years but their goodwill was only $20 million. Domino’s intangible assets were understated in this case and therefore so was shareholder’s equity; every $1 that their brand is understated also understates book value by an equal amount. McDonalds is similar, they are one of the most valuable brands in the world, estimated to be worth $42 billion, but their brand is carried on their balance sheet less than $2 billion.10

A few companies like Interbrand try to estimate the dollar value of each company’s brand and the gaps between the market value and the book value is often measured in the billions of dollars (Table 1 has a sample). The balance sheet values for these brands will have adverse effects for any valuation based on book value. Advertising builds brand and brand is a valuable intangible asset.

In addition, there are recent accounting rules causing intangible assets to be lower than in past years that has also contributed to increased trend in negative equity. In 2001, FAS 142 was implemented which changed accounting standards in a way that biased book value lower. Before 2001 companies used to amortize goodwill over forty years and now impairment tests are required annually. Because these intangible assets can only be written down and not marked to market for increased valuations that puts downward pressure on total intangible assets.11

R&D expenses are not operating expenses and the value of brands increase with advertising. You can offset these missing intangible assets by creating a capitalized value for each on the balance sheet. We will call these the research asset and the brand asset. We will add these assets to reported book values as the first step in correcting the biases on the balance sheet. We will call this adjusted metric “Enhanced Book Value”.

Intangible assets are not the only reason that total assets are increasingly becoming undervalued on balance sheets. Long term assets are often held well below market value as well and real estate is one of the better examples. Assets like equipment, machinery, office furniture and computers all clearly have a finite life that is predictable. But most corporate real estate does not predictably depreciate and rarely loses its full value. Our office, for example, is a building that is over 100 years old and given its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places there are systems in place to make sure it is well-preserved and maintained. That does not stop companies from depreciating similar buildings to zero in just a couple decades which leads to assets that hold no value on the balance sheet but are still productive assets.

There are several examples of companies with balance sheets that are nowhere close to reflecting the true value of their real estate owned. Macy’s is a popular example; some people value their real estate assets at multiples of their total market cap.12 The New York location alone valued at $3.3 billion would represent more than 50% of Macy’s market cap.

McDonalds is a name we have already mentioned. It is a newly minted member of the negative equity club and in addition to brand its’ real estate is well below market value on the balance sheet. The once CFO of McDonald’s, Harry J. Sonneborn said, “We’re not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell fifteen-cent hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants can pay us our rent.” This quote highlights the fact that, yes, McDonalds sells a lot of burgers (“Billions Served”) but they also own a lot of valuable real estate. That real estate is worth billions of dollars more than its book value. They depreciate their properties using the straight-line method over the shorter of the lease term or 40 years. Their typical lease is 20 years so much of what they bought prior to 1998 and leased to franchisees is held on the books at $0. Even if those buildings were carried at cost and not depreciated at all, inflation would make them worth multiples of what they were purchased for, and in most cases real estate values have outpaced inflation.

These individual examples make the point but there is an even larger example: The growth of a whole industry that is built on corporate real estate, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). With regulatory changes in the early 1990s this sector has seen its total market cap soar. REITs represented just $5.5 billion of the market in 1990 but as of February 2018 that had grown to $1.03 trillion. Currently many analysts feel REITs are trading at a discount to the market value (net asset value) of the underlying assets. Analyst opinions aside, I mention that to make the point that we can use market cap as a ballpark estimate of the market value of the underlying corporate real estate. This helps us get a feel for just how understated these assets are on the balance sheet. The total assets are currently at $739 billion, meaning if we assume market cap is a good proxy for current value they are underrepresented by roughly $291 billion. This is of course a very simplified calculation with a lot of assumptions, but we can look at Public Storage for a practical example.

Public Storage is a $34 billion dollar self-storage REIT with a book value of only $4.9 billion, this book value is low mainly due to the underpriced assets on its balance sheet which are held at $9 billion. For one, their estimated useful life of buildings never exceeds 25 years so anything they acquired prior to 1993 is held near $0. They report the gross and net values of their facilities broken down by city, and you can see on their financials that some cities with multiple locations are depreciated and held at less than 20% of their purchase price. We can also do some very rough calculations to get in the ballpark of how undervalued these assets are. The average facility they own is held at $3.4 million dollars, over the last three years they acquired 94 facilities at an average cost of $8 million dollars. Also, their average book value per square foot is roughly $52; in 2017 they developed an additional 4.6 million square feet at an average cost of $133 a square foot. These are very rough calculations, but both imply the assets are undervalued by over 55-60% of replacement cost. It is likely they are undervalued even more than that amount but even adjusting for that much of a discount would increase book value by 250%

Other REITs of note are Simon Property and SBA Communications. Simon Property is the second largest REIT with an MCAP of $49 billion dollars, but their book value of equity is only $4.2 billion. SBA Communications is an $18 billion dollar REIT but it has a negative book value of -$2.2 billion. These distorted book values are mainly biased lower by the holding value of their real estate assets.

Corporate real estate is the next adjustment we make in the process of building our Enhanced Book Value, to offset the biases caused by the undervalued real estate of REITS and other real estate heavy companies we can estimate the net asset value (i.e. market value) of their real estate assets instead of using their book value. We can increase our Enhanced Book Value calculation for any difference in NAV and book value of real estate assets to get a more accurate picture of equity value.

Buybacks and dividends can also distort book value but in a different way, they do not undervalue total assets in the way aggressive depreciation and failing to capitalize intangible assets would, but they can exaggerate and speed up the problem. My colleague Chris Meredith discusses this in detail in his paper “Price-to-Books Growing Blind Spot.” If a company is generating a ton of cash used to pay dividends and buyback shares then there is an asset allowing them to generate those profits: a patent, a brand, intellectual capital or some other advantage. The problem arises when assets are undervalued to the point book value of equity is biased well below the market cap, a company in this situation that is also distributing cash to shareholders will see its book value rapidly decrease.

When a company has a price-to-book ratio that is above 1 then any buyback or dividend will decrease book value of equity by a larger percentage than it will decrease market value. To illustrate, take the simple example of two companies.

Each has cash of $20 million they want to return to shareholders and the only other asset each owns is one of two identical hotels on the same block, both with a market value of $80 million. But company A just bought their building and company B has depreciated theirs down to $20 million.

Company A has a price-to-book of 1: Market Value / Book Value = 100 / 100 = 1

Company B has a price-to-book of 2.5: Market Value / Book Value = 100 / 40 = 2.5

If both companies use the $20 million to buyback 20% of their shares, then company A’s book value and market value will both go down by 20% and it will still have a price-to-book ratio of 1 (80 / 80 = 1). Company B’s market value will also go down 20% but its book value will get cut by 50%, exaggerating company B’s already depressed book value and ending with a price-to-book ratio of 80/20 = 4. Company B’s identical buyback program decreased the size of its equity by two and half times the percentage as company A and made company B look more expensive by price-to-book, all because its assets were not accurately represented on the balance sheet.13 Recall that these companies have identical assets but company B looks 4 times as expensive because of how their real estate is depreciated.

Returning cash to shareholders wouldn’t show this kind of distortion if assets were shown at an accurate market value.

Let’s revisit Veiled Value. Recall that every company in this group is in most expensive third by price-to-book. The smallest price-to-book ratio in the most expensive third has historically had an average price-to-book of 2.5, matching company B. So that means the minimum added distortion this group will experience is equal to that of company B.

Figure 7 shows the minimum amount that book value would decrease for Veiled Value names at different levels of shareholder yield through time. For example, in 2000 a 5% shareholder yield would decrease equity by 37% and a 20% shareholder yield would completely wipe out all the equity and move the company into negative book value territory. Today a 20% shareholder yield would decrease book value of any Veiled Value stock by at least 78%.

A company returning cash the equivalent of 20% their total market cap to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks is an aggressive distribution policy but it is not uncommon, over the last ten years there has been an average of 42 companies a year with shareholder yields above 20%. H&R Block is a recent example, and that large yield wiped out the already low equity on their balance sheet, now they report negative book value.

Boeing is a company right on the edge of negative equity with a total book value of $412 million. That puts their price-to-book at over 540 and they are firmly considered a growth company even in years they rank among the cheapest by P/E. Their assets are undervalued because of both brand and R&D. Just Boeing’s dividend yield of 2.1% is enough to push them into negative equity territory but Boeing also announced an $18 billion buyback program which locks in their path towards wiping out their book value entirely. Boeing has been in the Veiled Value group consistently over the last few years and is almost certain to join the negative equity group in the coming quarters.

Adjusting for shareholder yield will be our final adjustment to “Enhanced Book Value.” For this adjustment we will use a multifactor approach and composite shareholder yield with the book value that is already adjusted for the research asset, brand asset and real estate NAV.

Accurately accounting for all these biases would be difficult task but a very valuable outcome. If you could correctly price intangible assets, long term assets, and adjust for buybacks you would create an unbiased book value of equity and a much clearer picture of which stocks are great values. Making all the alterations recommended in the section above will get closer to that goal, not a perfect book value but an Enhanced Book Value; a much-improved version over what gets reported on financials

To summarize the adjustments to create this version of Enhanced Book Value:

1) Create a Research Asset

a) We will capitalize all R&D expenses and depreciate them over a 10-year productive life (straight line)

2) Create a Brand Asset

a) This is meant to capture what goodwill does not, the brand grown organically and internally through advertising expense

b) We will capitalize advertising expenses and depreciate them over a 10-year productive life

3) Adjust Real Estate Values to Get Closer to Market Value

a) Where net asset value data is available we will add the difference of NAV and book value of real estate to the balance sheet

b) If NAV is not available and real estate assets data is we will add back in accumulated depreciation on corporate real estate.

c) On average this will still understate the value of most real estate assets, but it is closer to market value than the reported book value of these assets

4) Buybacks and Dividends

a) We will use a factor that combines dividends and buybacks called shareholder yield

b) Shareholder yield will be used in combination with the adjusted book value from steps one through three to create a multifactor score

This list of adjustments is in no way a perfect or a final solution, we only view this version of book value as a step in the right direction. The rough 80/20 rule applies, this beta version of Enhanced Book Value is 80% of the benefit and 20% of the work, getting the next 20% of Enhanced Book Value complete will create even better excess returns but it will require a lot of resources to get done. Even with its imperfections we feel this version should be preferred to reported book value as it rectifies many of the distortions we have laid out and the improvement in stock selection is statistically significant (See Table 2). Your alpha selecting cheap stocks doubles in both all stocks and large stocks universes, consistency of outperformance improves, and your quintile spread between cheapest and most expensive increases by 78% in all stocks and 107% in large stocks.

Here is a look at the quintile returns for the longest time period we are able to compare price-to-book and priceto-enhanced book value.

Recent accounting rules, the growth of R&D expense, the growing underrepresentation of brands, the increased size of real estate heavy industries, and buybacks/dividends have combined to start a trend in negative book value companies that is likely to continue. More and more inaccuracies are rendering book value a less and less useful metric. For the reasons laid out in this paper, we would caution against the use of reported book value in investment decisions, but some portfolios still rely heavily on reported book value; it is an input into passive indexes, smart beta products and may also be in the holdings of actively managed portfolios. We are confident that the distortions in book value of equity will grow in both size and frequency, but adjustments can be made to lessen the effect they have on your portfolio.

1 Negative book value companies have outperformed in 57% of rolling 3 years periods from 1993 to 2017. Further, companies considered the most expensive 33% by book value but the cheapest 33% by other value metrics outperformed in 91% of rolling 3-year periods.

2 Dominos is up 1,595% as of the close on March 16th and the S&P is up 153% over that same period.

3 For the other valuation factors, we use Price to Sales, Price to Earnings, EBITDA to Enterprise Value, Free Cash Flow Yield, and Shareholder Yield.

4 FANG: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.

5 All Stocks is an equally weighted universe. Negative Equity and Veiled Value portfolios are rebalanced monthly and holdings held for 12 months, similar to the process used in What Works on Wall Street.

6 We pulled the Top 25 Value strategies by AUM according to the eVestment database, as of 12/31/2017. This represented 54% of the Large Cap Value Assets in eVestment’s database. We used the Russell 1000 holdings as of 12/31/2017 for the market holdings.

7 There are many more reasons biasing assets below market value, but they are outside the scope of this paper.

8 Measured by the Russell 3000, 1/1/1978 to 1/1/2018.

9 Based on All Stocks Universe average.

10 The only way that brand is valued on their balance sheet is when they acquire a franchisee and roll them into the corporate owned restaurants, $2 Billion is from their 2017 10 K. Intrabrand estimated the McDonalds Brand to be worth $42 billion.

11 Wayman, Rick “Accounting Rules Could Roil the Markets”.

12 Corkey, Michael “Grand Buildings Help Keep Macy’s Afloat: The Company’s real estate is now worth more than its market value” The New York Times. 11/22/2017.

13 This would be identical if it were dividends instead of buybacks.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

pH values of some common substances
pH values of some common substances

In chemistry, pH (/pˈ/) is a scale used to specify how acidic or basic a water-based solution is. Acidic solutions have a lower pH, while basic solutions have a higher pH. At room temperature (25°C or 77°F), pure water is neither acidic nor basic and has a pH of 7.

The pH scale is logarithmic and inversely indicates the concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution (a lower pH indicates a higher concentration of hydrogen ions). This is because the formula used to calculate pH approximates the negative of the base 10 logarithm of the molar concentration[a] of hydrogen ions in the solution. More precisely, pH is the negative of the base 10 logarithm of the activity of the hydrogen ion.[1]

At 25 °C, solutions with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic. The neutral value of the pH depends on the temperature, being lower than 7 if the temperature increases. The pH value can be less than 0 for very strong acids, or greater than 14 for very strong bases.[2]

The pH scale is traceable to a set of standard solutions whose pH is established by international agreement.[3] Primary pH standard values are determined using a concentration cell with transference, by measuring the potential difference between a hydrogen electrode and a standard electrode such as the silver chloride electrode. The pH of aqueous solutions can be measured with a glass electrode and a pH meter, or a color-changing indicator. Measurements of pH are important in chemistry, agronomy, medicine, water treatment, and many other applications.

The concept of pH was first introduced by the Danish chemist Søren Peder Lauritz Sørensen at the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1909[4] and revised to the modern pH in 1924 to accommodate definitions and measurements in terms of electrochemical cells. In the first papers, the notation had the H as a subscript to the lowercase p, as so: pH.

The exact meaning of the p in pH is disputed, as Sørensen did not explain why he used it.[5] He describes a way of measuring it using potential differences, and it represents the negative power of 10 in the concentration of hydrogen ions. All the words for these start with p in French, German and Danish, all languages Sørensen published in: Carlsberg Laboratory was French-speaking, German was the dominant language of scientific publishing, and Sørensen was Danish. He also used "q" in much the same way elsewhere in the paper. So the "p" could stand for the French puissance, German Potenz, or Danish potens, meaning "power", or it could mean "potential". He might also just have labelled the test solution "p" and the reference solution "q" arbitrarily; these letters are often paired.[6] There is little to support the suggestion that "pH" stands for the Latin terms pondus hydrogenii (quantity of hydrogen) or potentia hydrogenii (power of hydrogen).

Currently in chemistry, the p stands for "decimal cologarithm of", and is also used in the term pKa, used for acid dissociation constants[7] and pOH, the equivalent for hydroxide ions.

Bacteriologist Alice C. Evans, famed for her work's influence on dairying and food safety, credited William Mansfield Clark and colleagues (of whom she was one) with developing pH measuring methods in the 1910s, which had a wide influence on laboratory and industrial use thereafter. In her memoir, she does not mention how much, or how little, Clark and colleagues knew about Sørensen's work a few years prior.[8]:10 She said:

In these studies [of bacterial metabolism] Dr. Clark's attention was directed to the effect of acid on the growth of bacteria. He found that it is the intensity of the acid in terms of hydrogen-ion concentration that affects their growth. But existing methods of measuring acidity determined the quantity, not the intensity, of the acid. Next, with his collaborators, Dr. Clark developed accurate methods for measuring hydrogen-ion concentration. These methods replaced the inaccurate titration method of determining acid content in use in biologic laboratories throughout the world. Also they were found to be applicable in many industrial and other processes in which they came into wide usage.[8]:10

The first electronic method for measuring pH was invented by Arnold Orville Beckman, a professor at California Institute of Technology in 1934.[9] It was in response to local citrus grower Sunkist that wanted a better method for quickly testing the pH of lemons they were picking from their nearby orchards.[10]

Definition and measurement

For example, for a solution with a hydrogen ion activity of 5×10−6 (at that level, this is essentially the number of moles of hydrogen ions per liter of solution) there is 1/(5×10−6) = 2×105, thus such a solution has a pH of log10(2×105) = 5.3. For a commonplace example based on the facts that the masses of a mole of water, a mole of hydrogen ions, and a mole of hydroxide ions are respectively 18 g, 1 g, and 17 g, a quantity of 107 moles of pure (pH 7) water, or 180 tonnes (18×107 g), contains close to 1 g of dissociated hydrogen ions (or rather 19 g of H3O+ hydronium ions) and 17 g of hydroxide ions.

Note that pH depends on temperature. For instance at 0 °C the pH of pure water is 7.47. At 25 °C it's 7.00, and at 100 °C it's 6.14.

This was the original definition of Sørensen in 1909,[12] which was superseded in favor of pH in 1924. [H] is the concentration of hydrogen ions, denoted [H+] in modern chemistry, which appears to have units of concentration. More correctly, the thermodynamic activity of H+ in dilute solution should be replaced by [H+]/c0, where the standard state concentration c0 = 1 mol/L. This ratio is a pure number whose logarithm can be defined.

The difference between p[H] and pH is quite small. It has been stated[14] that pH = p[H] + 0.04. It is common practice to use the term "pH" for both types of measurement.

pH indicators

Chart showing the variation of color of universal indicator paper with pH
Chart showing the variation of color of universal indicator paper with pH

Extremes of pH

Runoff from mines or mine tailings can produce some very low pH values.[17]

Non-aqueous solutions

Unified absolute pH scale

The concept of "unified pH scale" has been developed on the basis of the absolute chemical potential of the proton. This model uses the Lewis acid–base definition. This scale applies to liquids, gases and even solids.[20] In 2010, a new "unified absolute pH scale" has been proposed that would allow various pH ranges across different solutions to use a common proton reference standard.[21]

pH in soil

Classification of soil pH ranges

Nutritional elements availability within soil varies with pH. Light blue color represents the ideal range for most plants.
Denomination pH range
Ultra acidic < 3.5
Extremely acidic 3.5–4.4
Very strongly acidic 4.5–5.0
Strongly acidic 5.1–5.5
Moderately acidic 5.6–6.0
Slightly acidic 6.1–6.5
Neutral 6.6–7.3
Slightly alkaline 7.4–7.8
Moderately alkaline 7.9–8.4
Strongly alkaline 8.5–9.0
Very strongly alkaline > 9.0

In Europe, Topsoil pH is influenced by soil parent material, erosional effects, climate and vegetation. A recent map [23] of topsoil pH in Europe shows the alkaline soils in Mediterranean, Hungary, East Romania, North France. Scandinavian countries, Portugal, Poland and North Germany have more acid soils.

pH in nature

The pH of seawater is typically limited to a range between 7.5 and 8.4.[24] It plays an important role in the ocean's carbon cycle, and there is evidence of ongoing ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide emissions.[25] However, pH measurement is complicated by the chemical properties of seawater, and several distinct pH scales exist in chemical oceanography.[26]

An alternative scale, the 'free scale', often denoted 'pHF', omits this consideration and focuses solely on [H+]F, in principle making it a simpler representation of hydrogen ion concentration. Only [H+]T can be determined,[28] therefore [H+]F must be estimated using the [SO2−
] and the stability constant of HSO
, K*

] / K*

However, it is difficult to estimate K*

] + [HF]

The following three equations summarise the three scales of pH:

pHF = − log [H+]F
] ) = − log [H+]T

Living systems

pH in living systems[29]
Compartment pH
Gastric acid 1.5-3.5[30]
Lysosomes 4.5
Human skin 4.7[31]
Granules of chromaffin cells 5.5
Urine 6.0
Cytosol 7.2
Blood (natural pH) 7.34–7.45
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 7.5
Mitochondrial matrix 7.5
Pancreas secretions 8.1

Calculations of pH

with a dissociation constant, Kw defined as

Strong acids and bases

Weak acids and bases

  • Step 1:
  • Step 2: Set up the quadratic equation.
  • Step 3: Solve the quadratic equation.

General method

Some systems, such as with polyprotic acids, are amenable to spreadsheet calculations.[33] With three or more reagents or when many complexes are formed with general formulae such as ApBqHr,the following general method can be used to calculate the pH of a solution. For example, with three reagents, each equilibrium is characterized by an equilibrium constant, β.

See also

  1. ^ Measured in units of moles per liter.

  2. ^ Lim, Kieran F. (2006). "Negative pH Does Exist". Journal of Chemical Education. 83 (10): 1465. Bibcode:2006JChEd..83.1465L. doi:10.1021/ed083p1465.
  4. ^ Sørensen, S. P. L. (1909). "Über die Messung und die Bedeutung der Wasserstoffionenkonzentration bei enzymatischen Prozessen". Biochem. Zeitschr. 21: 131–304. Two other publications appeared in 1909, one in French and one in Danish.
  5. ^ Francl, Michelle (August 2010). "Urban legends of chemistry". Nature Chemistry. 2 (8): 600–601. doi:10.1038/nchem.750. ISSN 1755-4330. PMID 20651711.
  6. ^ Myers, Rollie J. (2010). "One-Hundred Years of pH". Journal of Chemical Education. 87 (1): 30–32. Bibcode:2010JChEd..87...30M. doi:10.1021/ed800002c.
  7. ^ Nørby, Jens (2000). "The origin and the meaning of the little p in pH". Trends in Biochemical Sciences. 25 (1): 36–37. doi:10.1016/S0968-0004(99)01517-0. PMID 10637613.
  8. ^ a b Evans, Alice C. (1963). "Memoirs" (PDF). NIH Office of History. National Institutes of Health Office of History. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  9. ^ "ORIGINS: BIRTH OF THE PH METER". CalTech Engineering & Science Magazine. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  10. ^ Tetrault, Sharon (June 2002). "The Beckmans". Orange Coast. Orange Coast Magazine. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Carlsberg Group Company History Page". Archived from the original on 18 January 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  13. ^ Rossotti, F.J.C.; Rossotti, H. (1965). "Potentiometric titrations using Gran plots: A textbook omission". J. Chem. Educ. 42 (7): 375–378. Bibcode:1965JChEd..42..375R. doi:10.1021/ed042p375.
  17. ^ Nordstrom, D. Kirk; Alpers, Charles N. (March 1999). "Negative pH, efflorescent mineralogy, and consequences for environmental restoration at the Iron Mountain Superfund site, California". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 96 (7): 3455–62. Bibcode:1999PNAS...96.3455N. doi:10.1073/pnas.96.7.3455. PMC 34288. PMID 10097057.
  21. ^ Himmel, Daniel; Goll, Sascha K.; Leito, Ivo; Krossing, Ingo (16 August 2010). "A Unified pH Scale for All Phases". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 49 (38): 6885–6888. doi:10.1002/anie.201000252. ISSN 1433-7851. PMID 20715223.
  22. ^ Soil Survey Division Staff. "Soil survey manual.1993. Chapter 3, selected chemical properties". Soil Conservation Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook 18. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  23. ^ Ballabio, Cristiano; Lugato, Emanuele; Fernández-Ugalde, Oihane; Orgiazzi, Alberto; Jones, Arwyn; Borrelli, Pasquale; Montanarella, Luca; Panagos, Panos (2019). "Mapping LUCAS topsoil chemical properties at European scale using Gaussian process regression". Geoderma. 355: 113912. doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.113912.
  25. ^ Royal Society (2005). Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (PDF). ISBN 978-0-85403-617-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2010.
  27. ^ Hansson, I. (1973). "A new set of pH-scales and standard buffers for seawater". Deep-Sea Research. 20 (5): 479–491. Bibcode:1973DSROA..20..479H. doi:10.1016/0011-7471(73)90101-0.
  30. ^ Marieb EN, Hoehn K (2010). Human anatomy & physiology. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings. ISBN 978-0-8053-9591-4.
  32. ^ Maloney, Chris. "pH calculation of a very small concentration of a strong acid". Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.

External links

This page was last edited on 2 January 2020, at 22:25


4 ways to empower your brand videos with music

empower your brand videos with music

To create an emotional impact, brands need to establish a link between the visible brand persona and the call to action through music.

Since videos now make up over half of the on-demand music consumption across the globe, the marketing ROI on unified visuals and audio content is more evident than ever. This alliance not only helps to bring forth the wanted emotions but also reaches more people than ever. However, leaving the musical choices as an afterthought won’t cut the chase anymore.

The DNA of engaging content consists of credibility, authenticity, relevance, and urgency. Translating these qualities into music is necessary for the visuals to strike an emotional chord. This calls for a design approach for music that truly fits the visual storyline and brand guidelines. If you need further proof, ask Oxford professor Charles Spence and his team. They’ll tell you that the proper unification of sound and visuals enhance the emotional impact of the message by an astounding 1207%!

Credibility = Variety

Online streaming has allowed video advertising to evolve from concise TV spots into 5-10 minute short films. While the 6-second ads remain a valid introduction window for brands, storytelling offers a deeper insight to their values. In order to convince, branded videos have to take their viewers on an extended emotional ride with music. Rather than resorting to the repetition of a narrow range of musical content, instead consider spreading your brand sounds over these newly extended 5-10 minute storylines. In addition to short audio clips, expand your outreach with a catalog of brand theme songs linked by a common melody, instrumentation, production style or genre.

Developing a larger scope of branded soundscapes helps narrow the gap between rigid ‘corporate’ music and more approachable ‘commercial’ music. Corporate advertising is typically associated with short repetition, whereas artists create demand and following by displaying diverse human emotions in their work. Be more like the artist, and develop a range of emotional musical content to better connect with your target audience. Deriving content from this artistic approach promotes honesty, which is the ultimate soft value a brand can convey.

We do offer this caveat, make sure there is consistency across your musical choices! Some branding does still need to be present to tie all of this music together. Much like the ancient Greek King Theseus, who found his way out of the labyrinth, you must find your red thread to connect your brand to these musical themes.

Authenticity = Bold Moves

In order for your brand to sound original, you must first examine your sounds in relation to your competitors. Get objective by disassembling music into bits and pieces. Ingredients like tempo, melody and acoustic or electronic instrumentation serve the overall melodic dish. By doing so you will be able to compare the assets of your current brand sound with the industry benchmark.

Are you literally tooting the same horn or strumming the same acoustic guitar as your competitors?

By separating the musical wheat from the chaff you will learn whether your sound truly differs from your competitors. What’s more, it forms you the basis from which to develop your brand sound. Bear in mind that this is not an end in itself. Your brand identity should form the guidelines, from which the theme initially develops.

Eventually, the further your content stands apart, the clearer will your brand values shine through.

Relevance = Nostalgia

Stirring up memories from the past stands a good chance of tapping into emotions. I myself get instantly nostalgic after hearing the old PlayStation 1 intro. It’s certainly not a musical masterpiece, but it sends me back to my childhood, to unboxing and firing up my console for the very first time. The soundscape helps me relive that exact moment of excitement and pure joy, which are common in human nature.

The music we heard as children are the emotional restore points for brands to meet in their content. Think about your target audience. What TV series, cartoons, sports, products or other pop-culture phenomena were they buzzing for in their youth? What role did sounds play in them? More to the point, nostalgia can stretch over generations. For example, generation Z can enjoy the 8-bit Nintendo game music as much as the 80’s kids.

Urgency = Syncing

Creating a sense of urgency with music alone is challenging. Urgent tunes can mean, among many other things, fast tempos, arpeggios, and subdivided notations. What’s more, blasting music continuously at full speed only helps the content to fall flat in the long run.

Therefore, the musical event horizon should be synchronized with other sensory calls-to-action. A sudden tempo or volume change, the introduction of new instruments, vocals, and voice-overs, or any departure from the main tonal narrative does the trick with a timely visual cue.

Give music its own chapter in your brand book

To drive conversion in modern, multisensory brand experiences, leaving music as an afterthought simply isn’t enough. If music is left as a mere accessory, the brand message becomes inconsistent between what we see, hear and feel. What’s worse, it renders the audible content inconsequential and a wasted potential branding channel. It would be like printing your company business cards without a logo. The essential content and information are present, but it could be much stronger, more coherent and professional appearing if the branding is included.

A brand’s music content should be based on clear guidelines, the same way as text, images and videos already follow visual guidelines. Superimposed, stock music is the “I love you” that lost its meaning. Taking an analytical approach to sound allows your brand to speak from the heart, and turn the impact dial from minor to major.

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NMAT by GMAC Answer Key 2019

Nupur Kaushik Updated On: 15 Jan, 2020 13:51 IST

Want updates on NMAT by GMAC

NMAT by GMAC 2019 Answer Key

Graduation Management Admission Council (GMAC) does not officially release the NMAT by GMAC 2019 answer key. Candidates, however, can check for the answer key released unofficially by different sites and coaching centers. The answer key of NMAT by GMAC contains the answers of the questions asked in the entrance exam. There will be answers divided section-wise for candidates to calculate marks of each section. The answer key will help the candidates to calculate their marks as per their performance in the entrance examination. This will also help them in analyzing their position in the next level test.

It is important for candidates to remember that the answer key released unofficially is not the authentication of the marks that candidates might score in the main examination. The released answer key can be treated as an example to figure out an assumption of the marks before the declaration of NMAT by GMAC result. On the basis of the NMAT by GMAC answer key, you can also predict the chances of making it to the top 10 colleges accepting NMAT by GMAC score here.

Marking Scheme of NMAT by GMAC 2019 Answer Key

Below is the marking scheme of NMAT by GMAC 2019 answer key:

  • Three marks will be awarded for every right answer.

  • There is no negative marking in the entrance exam.

  • Total time duration to answer all the sections is 120 minutes.

Type of Answer

For Correct Answer

+3 Marks

For Wrong answer

No Negative Marking

Want to know which colleges you can apply to with your NMAT by GMAC score ?

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warm front

noun Meteorology.

a transition zone between a mass of warm air and the colder air it is replacing.

Origin of warm front

First recorded in 1920–25

British Dictionary definitions for warm front

warm front

meteorol the boundary between a warm air mass and the cold air above which it is rising, at a less steep angle than at the cold frontCompare cold front, occluded front

Scientific definitions for warm front

warm front

The forward edge of an advancing mass of warm air that rises over and replaces a retreating mass of cooler air. As it rises, the warm air cools and the water vapor in it condenses, usually forming steady rain, sleet, or snow. On a weather map, a warm front is depicted as a red line with half circles whose curved sides point in the direction in which the warm air is moving. Compare cold front occluded front. See illustration at front.


Building The Tech Workforce Beyond Silicon Valley

Post written by

Sabrina Parsons

As company founders and entrepreneurs look to start and build companies outside of Silicon Valley, one of the biggest challenges they often face is an accessible tech workforce. Different geographic regions across the U.S. are tackling this issue in order to attract more high tech companies and become the next “best place to start a tech company.” Everything from “externships” to high school credit programs to more traditional internships can all work together to create a more dynamic workforce.

Teaching The Teachers

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, computing jobs are among the highest-paying for new college graduates. Despite this, less than 3% of college students graduate with a degree in computer science, and only 8% of STEM graduates are in computer science. This is why it’s become more critical to introduce students to STEM and tech-related skill development while they are still in school -- the earlier, the better.

This need is being met in part by public-private partnerships. Areas like Lane County in Oregon have invested in programs like Elevate Lane County, an “externship” program that provides work and training for educators over the summer. This approach allows for multiple positive outcomes: Mid-career high school educators are able to re-tool and add to their skills and students are exposed to a tech education with real applications in the workplace. Participating tech companies experience major benefits, too: They get to directly influence curriculum taught to students and build relationships with the future workforce.

Starting Early

It's been found that Oregon students who complete career technical education (CTE) programs increase their graduation rates by more than 10%. Some of these students also then enter internship programs with local tech companies.

In the Spring of 2017, Palo Alto Software welcomed our own cohort of high school students who were seeking exposure to tech jobs and training. The students came into the program without much prior knowledge of coding or tech-focused job opportunities, and we were able to provide them with academic credits for their work.

"As a high school student, I didn't have access to computer science skill-building opportunities that were up to date and also provided some real-world experience,” says Isa Richter, a participant in the program. “My internship exposed me to job functions that I would never have known about previously.”

Bridging Gaps For Transitioning Professionals

As artificial intelligence increasingly threatens jobs in certain sectors, re-skilling opportunities for mid-career workers is also a potential area for growth, especially in light of a rapidly evolving tech economy that continues to feel the void of skilled tech workers.

As the workforce evolves, we'll continue to see more and more mid-career employees take a step back from their industry and look at the possibility of entering into a more tech-focused role. To make this transition, workers need training -- but for many, taking time off to go back to school isn’t a reasonable option due to the expense, family responsibilities or any other number of constraints.

An increasingly popular compromise for this demographic is an apprenticeship-style program. Candidates are accepted into a training program (sometimes paid for through the state department of labor) and begin a contract with a tech company at a lower pay rate for a set amount of time -- six or 12 months, for example). The candidate then has the option of joining the company at the full market rate after all training has been completed. A successful example of this model is the Apprenti program -- adopted initially in Washington State and then launched in Oregon just this year.

Building Community Through Workforce Development

Leaders at tech companies have a unique opportunity to contribute to local economic development efforts in a way that ultimately benefits their company. Workforce development initiatives not only help to ensure that local companies will have access to the talent they need -- they also foster a more meaningful relationship between local companies and their communities as they work together to propel economic development. As local economies are supported through shared efforts, the companies themselves benefit from top candidates in fields that are normally strained for talent.


Insight: Head of products, BBVA Open Platform, on the future of payments, CX and Banking as a Service.

OpenBankingExpo | ,

Open Banking Expo Magazine recently caught up with Susan French, head of products at BBVA Open Platform. Here’s what she had to say on the future of payments, customer experience and Banking as a Service.

Banking-as-a-Service will be the Belle of the Ball in 2020

Consumer experience hasn’t been enough to drive change, until now

Big tech may dominate the headlines, but smaller fintechs will gain strength

Digital payments will streamline

The US government will struggle to keep pace with payments

In 2019 I predicted that the US government will work to catch up with the rest of the world on its real time payments infrastructure. This proved true, with the government announcing “FedNow” in August, a system that will allow real-time bank-to-bank payments, all day every day, with a launch date expected in 2023 or 2024.

The good news is that the technology is already available, used in countries around the world including Australia, Singapore and across Europe. However, the US government has struggled to keep pace with innovation and by the time the system is ready to go live, its very likely technology will have moved forward.  In the meantime, card-based payment systems will continue to aggressively promote push payments as an option that is available here-and-now. Finally, consumers will increasingly warm to real-time person-to-person (P2P) networks such as Zelle, Apple Cash, Venmo, Square Cash, PayPal and others.


Chapter 9. Trees and Networks

This chapter describes facilities to arrange entire collections of graph elements simultaneously while taking into account certain constraints between them and with regard to their relative placement. First, we will deal with hierarchical data sets and the tree-like graphs that express their specific topology. Then we will deal with sets of data points subject to more general constraints, such as networks.

Trees and Hierarchical Data Structures

Hierarchical, tree-like data structures occur frequently, and D3 includes a number of different layouts to represent them as graphs. As explained in Chapter 5, layouts ingest a data set, calculate the appropriate sizes and positions, and add them to the input data set in the form of additional member variables. But layouts don’t create any graphical elements; it is up to the calling code to make use of the information added by the layout.

Preparing the Data

The D3 hierarchical layouts require the data to be represented as a tree of D3 Node instances (see Tables 9-1 and 9-2).1 If the data is in a hierarchical format already, it can be converted immediately using d3.hierarchy(). The only requirement is that every node in the original data structure has knowledge about its own children. If the data is instead provided as a tabular set of links between parent and child nodes, then d3.stratify() can construct the required tree of Node instances (check the D3 Reference Documentation).

Table 9-1. Methods of D3 ...

Get D3 for the Impatient now with O’Reilly online learning.


Birth date 14 Dec 1966 (53 years)
Nationality United States United States
Position Power Forward
Team history
Milwaukee Bucks 2001 - 2003

Anthony George Douglas MasonAnthony Mason> is a retired American NBA player who played for many major teams like New York Knicks, the New Jersey Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks.

In his entire career in basketball, he averaged 10.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. His career best time was in mid 1990s, when he earned the title of NBA Sixth Man of the year award in 1995 and also the All-NBA and NBA All-Defensive team award. At six feet seven inches, Mason played primarily as the power forward athlete and was known for shaving logos and words into his hair.

His college education was done from the Tennessee State University, from where he also pursued the basketball passion and played in Turkey, the Continental Basketball Association, Venezuela and the United States Basketball League. He was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 at the third round of the 53rd overall.

Career Highlights

Anthony won the Sixth Man of the Year (1995). He was honored with the NBA minutes played leader in 1995-96 and in 1996-97 season. He received the All-NBA in 1997, 3rd team and the All-Defensive Team (1997, 2nd team). Anthony won the All-Star title in 2001.


To the Editor:

Like lead, mold, and contaminated drinking water, current start times are unhealthy. Let's move past debating science and direct our energies towards solutions that work for our community. The Superintendent must lead our district in active problem-solving. The BOE must decide which start times are acceptable and examine homework policy, length of the school day, and the negotiation of a favorable, new bus contract. The HS Athletic Director must look at practice times, length of practice, and travel time. The logistics consultant needs to provide a cost-effective scenario with reasonable start times for all.

There’s a reason 400+ districts across the country have done this work, including our neighbors Greenwich, Wilton and Newtown, and that New Canaan, Westport and Norwalk are also planning. The reason is that health is more important than schedules.

The National PTA passed a resolution stating “evidence proves that implementation of later school start times for adolescents affords students the opportunity to obtain optimal levels of sleep, thereby improving physical and mental health, safety, academic performance, and quality of life.” I am hopeful that Ridgefield’s PTAs will support this responsible resolution.

We must unite to protect the health of ALL students. Other districts have successfully worked out the details, and we can too. The model for success is to first pick a workable scenario, and then adapt programs and schedules accordingly. There are an unlimited number of options and opportunities. There is nothing--no schedule or policy--that cannot be altered to protect the health of our children.

Gigi Christel

Ridgefield, Sept. 18


The Correct Way To Write A Research Paper

What is a research paper? It is one of the most essential elements of the academic curriculum. Even when you are already a professor, you must still learn how to write a research paper. There are various things you need to remember whenever you’re writing it.

For one, it’s thought to be very simple for college students to start out composing a research paper. Many students already have a degree and as such, they can work on write essay online research papers with a hard time considering it. This really is a great benefit to them, since it provides them a wonderful buffer to handle academic studies.

What is even better for pupils to have is an excellent understanding on the topic matter they’d like to compose. They also know what they are looking for and the things they wish to compose. Sothis will truly help them a lot when they are studying because of their newspapers.

Besides this, they also know how to collect a research paper. This is vital since they should have the ability to explain each and every part of the findings. This is particularly true for advice, they’ll be sharing with the reader. This information also needs to be coordinated and easily understandable so the reader is able to absorb the information they simply read.

There are a lot of factors which ought to be taken under account when composing a research paper. Some of these are: structure, subjects, data, etc.. However, these factors ought to be taken with a grain of salt as they’re subject to change. The major thing is that the research ought to be in a position to be useful to your reader.

Additionally, there are general rules which needs to be followed when writing a research paper. To start with, you must select the type of paper that you’re going to write. You may pick the subject of your paper based on the topic that you researched. This will let you write a research paper that is not just interesting but also related to your area of research.

Writing a research paper can be very daunting as there are so many facets that you need to take under account. Though you may be having difficulty in composing your own paper, you have to bear in mind it is the first time doing it. Consequently, you will need to make sure you don’t rush and finish it on time.

Last but not least, you need to be positive when you compose your own paper. This is particularly so if you’re attempting to be a published writer. Your writing abilities should be polished so your papers will be well-received from the readers.


I use active voice for cover letter and while doing that I end up with too many "I" and most of the sentences in my letter also begin with "I". This makes my letter quite boring. I would appreciate if you share your suggestion/tips to avoid this while writing a cover letter.

Since cover letter is the first thing that the potential employer notices, I want to write a concise and attractive cover letter. It will be also helpful if you share a link of a well-written cover letter.

  • 2
    This could be a good question for English language & usage as well. – Peter Jansson Oct 3 '13 at 9:22
  • @Peter, thanks for the useful suggestion. Is there any way to link my question to that forum? – rana Oct 3 '13 at 9:26
  • It is up to the moderators if the question should be migrated. I think it is a good question and keen to see the answers. – Peter Jansson Oct 3 '13 at 9:28
  • 4
    @CharlesMorisset to be more accurate, cross-posting is forbidden if you post the exact same question on both sites. But you can post two slightly different questions, one here focussing on the academic issues (”should I avoid it? if so, how to?”), and a more generic one on English. You won't get the same type of answers on both sites! – F'x Oct 3 '13 at 10:08
  • 1
    @F'x: Very good point. I was mostly mentioning it for the benefit of rana, who seems to be quite a new user, in order to avoid the question to cross-posted as such on ELU. But a different question would be of course just fine! – user102 Oct 3 '13 at 10:11

Because it's a cover letter, I think it's quite natural that you say a lot about you in it. That's actually not to be avoided, because you want to give the addressee a good idea of your background, your motivations, your interests, etc. In short, you want to show them who you are, so they want to work with you. This is a totally different exercise than usual academic writing.

Now, regarding the redundancy of I, it is a matter of writing style. It probably wouldn't bother me much, but if you want to diminish it for some reasons, here are worthy alternatives:

  • Instead of starting your sentence with I, just push it somewhere down in some sentences. That way, you avoid the pattern of I as the first word of every sentence.

    Looking at your group's wide range of research, I must confess a certain attraction for your recent groundbreaking work on the correlation between beer-drinking and publication rate.

  • Use constructions that, while retaining the first person, shift from the subject pronoun to other cases:

    It has been my intention for a few years now to shift my research interests from pure psychology to experimental psychohistory, and I have thus taken in 2009 a post-doc position at the University of Trentor (group of prof. Seldon)

    instead of “I decided a few years ago to move to the field of psychohistory…”. Similarly, you could say

  • The standard techniques of academic writing… introduce the pronoun once, then shift the discuss to avoid being the actor, e.g. using passive voice.

    During my thesis, I introduced a new data reduction technique called XXZ. This algorithm, when applied to large datasets, was used to univocally establish whether data was being manipulated. In particular, results obtained on the 2000 election showed systematic bias against a specific candidate, highlighting its power as a diagnostic tool for real-life applications.

Be aware that there are downsides, though: most of these alternatives are longer than a direct sentence starting with I, which means overusing them could make you sound windy.

| improve this answer | |
  • thanks for the detailed discussion. I like to avoid passive voice and the introductory phases at the beginning of each sentence as these somehow dilute the importance/purpose of the sentence. So I prefer to use active voice and end up with many "I"! I think I should use a proper balance of active/passive voice and don't overuse any of these! Again, do you have example/link that might be useful? – rana Oct 3 '13 at 10:18
  • 3
    While the link doesn't work for me, +1 for the link to the Grim study. – StrongBad Oct 3 '13 at 14:08
  • @DanielE.Shub link fixed (DOI changed since the ASAP version I had on my hard drive) – F'x Oct 3 '13 at 14:36
  • Speak like Yoda, you can. – Rolf Jul 31 '19 at 18:55

One possibility is to use "my" now and then: instead of "I am experienced in ...", write "My fields of experience include ...". Another possibility is to use references to previous sentences: instead of writing "I developed the method of ... . I applied it to the problem of ... ." write "I developed ... . Its application to ... resulted in ... .". Also, instead of writing "I'm interested in the position because ...", write "This position will allow me to ... and benefit my ...". The idea is always the same: look at all other words in the sentence and think of whether one of them can be made the subject without changing the meaning or diluting the "importance" of the sentence. If it can, do it. If not, resort to passive voice and other techniques suggested in this thread. If it is still not satisfactory for some reason, just use "I" and go to the next sentence.

| improve this answer | |


Custom size Arcade Marquee. Please leave a description of which marquee you’d like, and the specific size you’d like upon checkout. Please note, changing the size of a marquee might require ‘bars’ on the top or bottom of your marquee depending on the desired size. Printed on polyester based back lit material. Material is flexible, durable, and can be cut down to size with a razor or scissors. Our max size for printing is 35 inches wide. If you’re marquee space is larger than that, black tape often does the trick to block light.

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Abacavir HLA-B*57:01 tolerance and genetic variation within the MHC.

Elizabeth Phillips, MD

Institute for Immunology & Infectious Diseases
Murdoch University
Murdoch, WA

29 January 2015

The discovery of HLA-B*5701 has been successfully translated into primary HIV clinical practice as a genetic marker that can predict and prevent abacavir hypersensitivity reaction. This unprecedented clinical success in personalised medicine was predicated by the inherent biological properties and pathogenic mechanisms underlying abacavir hypersensitivity. Although it is known that HLA-B*57:01 is necessary for development of abacavir hypersensitivity, it is not sufficient and approximately 45% of subjects carrying HLA-B*57:01 will tolerate abacavir. We have previously studied factors leading to the abrogation of abacavir hypersensitivity using a candidate gene approach with indication that these factors lie outside of the MHC and may involve genes important in innate immune response. Abacavir, in fact may differ from other drugs in its ability to activate innate immune responses and hence provide the danger signals necessary to trigger a hypersensitivity reaction. Abrogation of Hsp70 redistribution in the presence of 4-MP which block ADH-mediated abacavir metabolism provides some clues that a reactive aldehyde metabolite may be important in this process. Processes leading to abrogation of drug hypersensitivity, SCAR and other serious immunologically mediated drug reactions have not been defined, however are clearly important. For most drugs associated with drug hypersensitivity, SCAR and drug-induced liver disease for instance such as allopurinol, carbamazepine (and other aromatic amine anticonvulsants) and flucloxacillin only a very small percentage of those carrying a given class I MHC genetic marker will go on to develop the adverse drug reaction in question (Table 1). This greatly impacts on both the ability of these HLA alleles to be used as predictive markers in clinical practice but also highlights our lack of understanding of the complete picture of innate and adaptive immunologic factors and non-immunologic factors that are critical contributors to the clinical manifestation of these adverse drug reactions. In this context abacavir is an ideal candidate to study and model this effect in that 1) a specific marker (patch testing) exists that defines the presence of true immunologically mediated abacavir hypersensitivity 2) carriage of HLA-B*5701 is common in Caucasian populations (6-8%) and 3) the positive predictive value for the development of hypersensitivity is high (55%) relative to that of other drugs which allows the extreme phenotypes of abacavir hypersensitivity and tolerance to be studied which would not be feasible for other drugs. 4) The phenotypes of HLA-B*5701 positive abacavir hypersensitivity and tolerance are static over time 5) There are no other identified epidemiological or environmental factors other than race, which is a marker of HLA-B*57:01 carriage, that predict development of abacavir hypersensitivity.

[{ "PostingID": 1375, "Title": "VIIV-CNA106030", "Description": "A phase IV, randomised, multicentre, double-blind, study to evaluate the clinical utility of prospective genetic screening (HLA-B*5701) for susceptibility to abacavir hypersensitivity

Medicine: abacavir, Condition: Infection, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Phase: 4, Clinical Study ID: CNA106030, Sponsor: ViiV" }]

Statistical Analysis Plan

The publication citation will be added after the research is published.


Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

EVENT |  Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

WHERE | Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France

COST | 50 euros

ABOUT | This excursion will start with lunch at the Chateau followed by a train ride to Saint Jean Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera. Upon arrival in town you may join us on a 30-45 minute photogenic walk to the Villa (15 minutes or so are uphill) or you may arrange alternate transportation to the Villa on your own.

The villa was designed by the French architect Aaron Messiah, and constructed between 1905 and 1912 by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild (1864–1934). The sea-side villa is surrounded by nine gardens, each on a different theme: Florentine, Spanish, Garden à la française, exotic, a stone garden, a Japanese garden, a rose garden, Provençal and a garden de Sèvres. They were created between 1905 and 1912 under the direction of landscape architect Achille Duchêne. The Baroness filled the rose colored mansion with antique furniture, Old Master paintings, sculptures, objets d’art, and assembled an extensive collection of rare porcelain. The gardens are classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France.