International market selection: Developing a model from Australian case studies

This paper develops a theory that firms seek out new country markets on the basis of expected commercial returns. These expectations depend on judgements about the attractiveness of the market and the firm's competitive position in it, which in turn are influenced by informants. It is the number and strengths of these informants that will underlie the probability of a country being identified and assessed as a new market by any firm.

Papillomavirus research update: highlights of the Barcelona HPV 2000 international papillomavirus conference

The 18th international papillomavirus conference took place in Barcelona, Spain in July 2000. The HPV clinical workshop was jointly organised with the annual meeting of the Spanish Association of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy. The conference included 615 abstracts describing ongoing research in epidemiology, diagnosis/screening, treatment/prognosis, immunology/human immunodeficiency virus, vaccine development/trials, transformation/progression, replication, transcription/translation, viral protein functions, and viral and host interactions. This leader summarises the highlights presented at the conference (the full text of the abstracts and lectures can be found at www.hpv2000.com). Relevant material in Spanish can be found at www.aepcc. org.

The reliability of immunohistochemistry as a prescreening method for the diagnosis of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) - Results of an international collaborative study

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome (HNPCC) is an autosomal dominant condition accounting for 2–5% of all colorectal carcinomas as well as a small subset of endometrial, upper urinary tract and other gastrointestinal cancers. An assay to detect the underlying defect in HNPCC, inactivation of a DNA mismatch repair enzyme, would be useful in identifying HNPCC probands. Monoclonal antibodies against hMLH1 and hMSH2, two DNA mismatch repair proteins which account for most HNPCC cancers, are commercially available. This study sought to investigate the potential utility of these antibodies in determining the expression status of these proteins in paraffin-embedded formalin-fixed tissue and to identify key technical protocol components associated with successful staining. A set of 20 colorectal carcinoma cases of known hMLH1 and hMSH2 mutation and expression status underwent immunoperoxidase staining at multiple institutions, each of which used their own technical protocol. Staining for hMSH2 was successful in most laboratories while staining for hMLH1 proved problematic in multiple labs. However, a significant minority of laboratories demonstrated excellent results including high discriminatory power with both monoclonal antibodies. These laboratories appropriately identified hMLH1 or hMSH2 inactivation with high sensitivity and specificity. The key protocol point associated with successful staining was an antigen retrieval step involving heat treatment and either EDTA or citrate buffer. This study demonstrates the potential utility of immunohistochemistry in detecting HNPCC probands and identifies key technical components for successful staining.