Three-dimensional ex vivo system

Disclosed are three-dimensional (3D) systems as may be utilized for ex vivo tissue or cell growth and development. A system generally includes a base material and at least one wicking fiber embedded therein through which a liquid can be spontaneously drawn by capillary action. Wicking fibers can define a plurality of colinear channels along the exterior surface of the axial length of the fiber. Wicking fibers can be present in disclosed systems as individual fibers or in bundles. Disclosed systems can be useful in various scientific studies, including, but not limited to, drug discovery, vaccine development, cell biology studies, and biomaterial development

Anchored multi-phasic osteochondral construct

Disclosed are osteochondral constructs that can be utilized to encourage both bone and articular cartilage tissue repair in synovial joints. Disclosed constructs are composites including a hydrogel portion for implant in a cartilage defect site and an adjacent portion for implant in a bone defect site. The portion to be implanted in a bone defect site can include a polymeric/ceramic composite material. Disclosed constructs also include a polymeric anchor that can secure the construct at the desired site. Disclosed constructs can also include capillary channeled fibers within the bone portion of the construct that can provide improved nutrient flow to and waste flow from cells growing and developing on and in the construct

Uptake of the <em>Fusarium</em> Effector Avr2 by Tomato Is Not a Cell Autonomous Event

Pathogens secrete effector proteins to manipulate the host for their own proliferation. Currently it is unclear whether the uptake of effector proteins from extracellular spaces is a host autonomous process. We study this process using the Avr2 effector protein from Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol). Avr2 is an important virulence factor that is secreted into the xylem sap of tomato following infection. Besides that, it is also an avirulence factor triggering immune responses in plants carrying the I-2 resistance gene. Recognition of Avr2 by I-2 occurs inside the plant nucleus. Here, we show that pathogenicity of an Avr2 knockout Fusarium (FolΔAvr2) strain is fully complemented on transgenic tomato lines that express either a secreted (Avr2) or cytosolic Avr2 (ΔspAvr2) protein, indicating that Avr2 exerts its virulence functions inside the host cells. Furthermore, our data imply that secreted Avr2 is taken up from the extracellular spaces in the presence of the fungus. Grafting studies were performed in which scions of I-2 tomato plants were grafted onto either a ΔspAvr2 or on an Avr2 rootstock. Although the Avr2 protein could readily be detected in the xylem sap of the grafted plant tissues, no I-2-mediated immune responses were induced suggesting that I-2-expressing tomato cells cannot autonomously take up the effector protein from the xylem sap. Additionally, ΔspAvr2 and Avr2 plants were crossed with I-2 plants. Whereas ΔspAvr2/I-2 F1 plants showed a constitutive immune response, immunity was not triggered in the Avr2/I-2 plants confirming that Avr2 is not autonomously taken up from the extracellular spaces to trigger I-2. Intriguingly, infiltration of Agrobacterium tumefaciens in leaves of Avr2/I-2 plants triggered I-2 mediated cell death, which indicates that Agrobacterium triggers effector uptake. To test whether, besides Fol, effector uptake could also be induced by other fungal pathogens the ΔspAvr2 and Avr2 transgenic lines were inoculated with Verticillium dahliae. Whereas ΔspAvr2 plants became hyper-susceptible to infection, no difference in disease development was found in the Avr2 plants as compared to wild-type plants. These data suggest that effector uptake is not a host autonomous process and that Fol and A. tumefaciens, but not V. dahliae, facilitate Avr2 uptake by tomato cells from extracellular spaces

The Phase Space and Stellar Populations of Cluster Galaxies at z ~ 1: Simultaneous Constraints on the Location and Timescale of Satellite Quenching

We investigate the velocity vs. position phase space of z ~ 1 cluster galaxies using a set of 424 spectroscopic redshifts in 9 clusters drawn from the GCLASS survey. Dividing the galaxy population into three categories: quiescent, star-forming, and poststarburst, we find that these populations have distinct distributions in phase space. Most striking are the poststarburst galaxies, which are commonly found at small clustercentric radii with high clustercentric velocities, and appear to trace a coherent ``ring" in phase space. Using several zoom simulations of clusters we show that the coherent distribution of the poststarbursts can be reasonably well-reproduced using a simple quenching scenario. Specifically, the phase space is best reproduced if satellite quenching occurs on a rapid timescale (0.1 < tau_{Q} < 0.5 Gyr) after galaxies make their first passage of R ~ 0.5R_{200}, a process that takes a total time of ~ 1 Gyr after first infall. We compare this quenching timescale to the timescale implied by the stellar populations of the poststarburst galaxies and find that the poststarburst spectra are well-fit by a rapid quenching (tau_{Q} = 0.4^{+0.3}_{-0.4} Gyr) of a typical star-forming galaxy. The similarity between the quenching timescales derived from these independent indicators is a strong consistency check of the quenching model. Given that the model implies satellite quenching is rapid, and occurs well within R_{200}, this would suggest that ram-pressure stripping of either the hot or cold gas component of galaxies are the most plausible candidates for the physical mechanism. The high cold gas consumption rates at z ~ 1 make it difficult to determine if hot or cold gas stripping is dominant; however, measurements of the redshift evolution of the satellite quenching timescale and location may be capable of distinguishing between the two.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the Ap

Full counting statistics in a disordered free fermion system

The Full Counting Statistics (FCS) is studied for a one-dimensional system of non-interacting fermions with and without disorder. For two unbiased $L$ site lattices connected at time $t=0$, the charge variance increases as the natural logarithm of $t$, following the universal expression $\approx \frac{1}{\pi^2}\log{t}$. Since the static charge variance for a length $l$ region is given by $\approx \frac{1}{\pi^2}\log{l}$, this result reflects the underlying relativistic or conformal invariance and dynamical exponent $z=1$ of the disorder-free lattice. With disorder and strongly localized fermions, we have compared our results to a model with a dynamical exponent $z \ne 1$, and also a model for entanglement entropy based upon dynamical scaling at the Infinite Disorder Fixed Point (IDFP). The latter scaling, which predicts $\propto \log\log{t}$, appears to better describe the charge variance of disordered 1-d fermions. When a bias voltage is introduced, the behavior changes dramatically and the charge and variance become proportional to $(\log{t})^{1/\psi}$ and $\log{t}$, respectively. The exponent $\psi$ may be related to the critical exponent characterizing spatial/energy fluctuations at the IDFP.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures; fixed typos; added references; added IDFP scaling based upon reference [1]; added finite bias section; fixed typo

Evidence for the inside-out growth of the stellar mass distribution in galaxy clusters since z ~ 1

International audienceWe study the radial number density and stellar mass density distributions of satellite galaxies in a sample of 60 massive clusters at 0.04 <z< 0.26 selected from the Multi-Epoch Nearby Cluster Survey (MENeaCS) and the Canadian Cluster Comparison Project (CCCP). In addition to ~10 000 spectroscopically confirmed member galaxies, we use deep ugri-band imaging to estimate photometric redshifts and stellar masses, and then statistically subtract fore- and background sources using data from the COSMOS survey. We measure the galaxy number density and stellar mass density distributions in logarithmically spaced bins over 2 orders of magnitude in radial distance from the BCGs. For projected distances in the range 0.1 <R/R200< 2.0, we find that the stellar mass distribution is well-described by an NFW profile with a concentration of c = 2.03 ± 0.20. However, at smaller radii we measure a significant excess in the stellar mass in satellite galaxies of about 1011M⊙ per cluster, compared to these NFW profiles. We do obtain good fits to generalised NFW profiles with free inner slopes and to Einasto profiles. To examine how clusters assemble their stellar mass component over cosmic time, we compare this local sample to the GCLASS cluster sample at z ~ 1, which represents the approximate progenitor sample of the low-z clusters. This allows for a direct comparison, which suggests that the central parts (R< 0.4 Mpc) of the stellar mass distributions of satellites in local galaxy clusters are already in place at z ~ 1, and contain sufficient excess material for further BCG growth. Evolving towards z = 0, clusters appear to assemble their stellar mass primarily onto the outskirts, making them grow in an inside-out fashion

Translithospheric Mantle Diapirism: Geological Evidence and Numerical Modelling of the Kondyor Zoned Ultramafic Complex (Russian Far-East)

We report new structural, microstructural, petrological, and major- and trace-element data on ultramafic rocks from the Kondyor zoned ultramafic complex in Far-East Russia. The ultramafic rocks are subdivided into three subconcentric lithologies, from core to rim: (1) a metasomatic domain where generally phlogopite-rich dykes pervasively intrude dunite; (2) a main dunite core; (3) a pyroxenite rim. The ultramafic rocks have nearly vertical contacts with the surrounding Archaean basement (gneisses, quartzites and marbles) and hornfelsed Riphean sediments. The hornfelsed sediments show a relatively steep (> 60°), outward dipping layering, which rapidly flattens to horizontal away from the inner contact. Although the Riphean sediments define a dome-like structure, the inward, shallow dipping foliation of the dunites indicates a synformal structure. Detailed petro-structural investigations indicate that the Kondyor dunites were deformed by solid-state flow under asthenospheric mantle conditions. The outward textural change from coarse- to fine-grained equigranular dunite and the outward-increasing abundance of subgrains and recrystallized olivine grains suggest dynamic recrystallization while fluid circulation was channelized within the core metasomatic zone, with a decreasing melt fraction from core to rim, and also suggest that solid-state deformation induced grain-size reduction towards the cooling border of the Kondyor massif. Based on their geochemistry, the dunites are interpreted as mantle rocks strongly affected by reaction with melts similar to the Jurassic-Cretaceous Aldan Shield lamproites. Rim pyroxenites were formed by a melt-consuming peritectic reaction, implying the existence of at least a small, conductive thermal gradient around the dunite body while the latter was still at near-solidus temperature conditions. This suggests that the zoned structure of Kondyor was initiated at mantle depths, most probably within the subcontinental lithosphere. Upon cooling, the lamproitic melts were progressively focused in the central part of the massif and drained into vein conduits where they reacted with the wall-rock dunite. Two-dimensional numerical modelling based on finite-differences with a marker-in-cell technique incorporates temperature-dependent rheologies for both molten and non-molten host rocks. The modelling consolidates the structural, petrological and geochemical interpretations, which show that the dunites represent the synformal, flat-lying apex of an asthenospheric mantle diapir, triggered by fluid pressure channelized in the core, which nearly reached the Earth's surface. We conclude that translithospheric mantle diapirism is an important mode of mass transfer in theEart