Private equity industry: Southwest firms draw on regional expertise

Neiman Marcus, Harrah’s, Petco, J. Crew—these well-known names are among the holdings of companies owned or co-owned by private equity (PE) firms in the Federal Reserve’s Eleventh District. The region is home to more than 175 PE firms, including the world’s third-largest, Fort Worth-based TPG Capital.[1] Together, these entities have raised more than $109 billion over the past 10 years and sit on$31 billion pending investment. ; While the PE business model goes back to the times of early seafaring enterprises funded by limited private partners, its modern U.S. iteration dates back to the 1950s and the first venture capital funds. More recently, the industry and its sometimes opaque operations have come under increased regulatory scrutiny amid concern about their riskiness and systemic importance to the financial system. Although detailed data are hard to come by, regionally based PE firms are distinguished from their counterparts nationwide by the sectors they favor.Investments ; Venture capital

Growing Scale-Free Simplices

Abstract The past two decades have seen significant successes in our understanding of networked systems, from the mapping of real-world networks to the establishment of generative models recovering their observed macroscopic patterns. These advances, however, are restricted to pairwise interactions and provide limited insight into higher-order structures. Such multi-component interactions can only be grasped through simplicial complexes, which have recently found applications in social, technological and biological contexts. Here we introduce, study, and characterize a model to grow simplicial complexes of order two, i.e. nodes, links and triangles. Specifically, through a combination of preferential and/or non preferential attachment mechanisms, the model constructs networks with a scale-free degree distribution and an either bounded or scale-free generalized degree distribution. Allowing to analytically control the scaling exponents we arrive at a highly general scheme by which one is able to construct ensembles of synthetic complexes displaying desired statistical properties.</jats:p

Growing scale-free simplices

AbstractThe past two decades have seen significant successes in our understanding of networked systems, from the mapping of real-world networks to the establishment of generative models recovering their observed macroscopic patterns. These advances, however, are restricted to pairwise interactions and provide limited insight into higher-order structures. Such multi-component interactions can only be grasped through simplicial complexes, which have recently found applications in social, technological, and biological contexts. Here we introduce a model to grow simplicial complexes of order two, i.e., nodes, links, and triangles, that can be straightforwardly extended to structures containing hyperedges of larger order. Specifically, through a combination of preferential and/or nonpreferential attachment mechanisms, the model constructs networks with a scale-free degree distribution and an either bounded or scale-free generalized degree distribution. We arrive at a highly general scheme with analytical control of the scaling exponents to construct ensembles of synthetic complexes displaying desired statistical properties.</jats:p

Association of p75NTR and α9β1 integrin modulates NGF-dependent cellular responses

Direct interaction of α9βl integrin with nerve growth factor (NGF) has been previously reported to induce pro-proliferative and pro-survival activities of non-neuronal cells. We investigated participation of p75(NTR) in α9βl integrin-dependent cellular response to NGF stimulation. Using selective transfection of glioma cell lines with these receptors, we showed a strong, cation-independent association of α9 integrin subunit with p75(NTR) on the cellular membrane by selective immunoprecipitation experiments. Presence of the α9/p75(NTR) complex increases NGF-dependent cell adhesion, proliferation and migration. Other integrin subunits including β1 were not found in complex with p75(NTR). FRET analysis indicated that p75(NTR) and α9 integrin subunit are not closely associated through their cytoplasmic domains, most probably because of the molecular interference with other cytoplasmic proteins such as paxillin. Interaction of α9βl integrin with another ligand, VCAM-1 was not modulated by the p75(NTR). α9/p75(NTR) complex elevated NGF-dependent activation of MAPK Erk1/2 arty for integrin that may create active complexes with other types of receptors belonging to the TNF superfamily