Expression patterns of chondrocyte genes cloned by differential display in tibial dyschondroplasia

AbstractTibial dyschondroplasia (TD) appears to involve a failure of the growth plate chondrocytes within growing long bones to differentiate fully to the hypertrophic stage, resulting in a mass of prehypertrophic chondrocytes which form the avascular TD lesion. Many biochemical and molecular markers of chondrocyte hypertrophy are absent from the lesion, or show reduced expression, but the cause of the disorder remains to be identified. As differentiation to the hypertrophic state is impaired in TD, we hypothesised that chondrocyte genes that are differentially expressed in the growth plate should show altered expression in TD. Using differential display, four genes, B-cadherin, EF2, HT7 and Ex-FABP were cloned from chondrocytes stimulated to differentiate to the hypertrophic stage in vitro, and their differential expression confirmed in vivo. Using semi-quantitative RT-PCR, the expression patterns of these genes were compared in chondrocytes from normal and TD growth plates. Surprisingly, none of these genes showed the pattern of expression that might be expected in TD lesion chondrocytes, and two of them, B-cadherin and Ex-FABP, were upregulated in the lesion. This indicates that the TD phenotype does not merely reflect the absence of hypertrophic marker genes, but may be influenced by more complex developmental mechanisms/defects than previously thought

Evidence of traffic-related pollutant control in soil-based Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)

SUDS are being increasingly employed to control highway runoff and have the potential to protect groundwater and surface water quality by minimising the risks of both point and diffuse sources of pollution. While these systems are effective at retaining polluted solids by filtration and sedimentation processes, less is known of the detail of pollutant behaviour within SUDS structures. This paper reports on investigations carried out as part of a co-ordinated programme of controlled studies and field measurements at soft-engineered SUDS undertaken in the UK, observing the accumulation and behaviour of traffic-related heavy metals, oil and PAHs. The field data presented were collected from two extended detention basins serving the M74 motorway in the south-west of Scotland. Additional data were supplied from an experimental lysimeter soil core leaching study. Results show that basin design influences pollutant accumulation and behaviour in the basins. Management and/or control strategies are discussed for reducing the impact of traffic-related pollutants on the aqueous environment

Construction Mortgage Financing in Ohio

This article consists of a review and analysis of the Yarborough decision and the open-end mortgage statute and an assessment of their probable impact upon current construction loan lending procedures. In addition, the authors offer various observations regarding the form in which disbursing agreements and construction mortgage deeds should be drafted. The structure of the article may be briefly described as follows: First, attention will be given to the three methods by which a mortgagee can preserve the priority of its mortgage lien over liens of mechanics men which attach to the mortgaged premises after the recording of the mortgage but before any disbursements are made thereunder. Special consideration will be given to the manner in which the Yarborough decision affects each method. Second, the writers will discuss the manner in which openend mortgages relate to: (1) non-statutory construction mortgages and (2) mechanics\u27 and other types of liens which attach to the mortgaged premises after the recording of an open-end mortgage but before any optional disbursements are made thereunder. In this connection, the use of open-end mortgages to secure construction loans will be considered. Third, the advisability of drafting an open-end mortgage which incorporates the provisions of § 1311.14 of the Mechanic\u27s Lien Statute will be examined. Fourth, the authors will discuss a proposed method by which a mortgagee can reasonably assure that its mortgage lien will take priority over any vendees\u27 liens which exist on the date of the recording of the mortgag

An application of bilinear integration to quantum scattering

Scattering theory has its origin in Quantum Mechanics. From the mathematical point of view it can be considered as a part of perturbation theory of self-adjoint operators on the absolutely continuous spectrum. In this work we deal with the passage from the time-dependent formalism to the stationary state scattering theory. This problem involves applying Fubini's Theorem to a spectral measure integral and a Lebesgue integral of functions that take values in spaces of operators. In our approach, we use bilinear integration in a tensor product of spaces of operators with suitable topologies and generalize the results previously stated in the literature. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and FEDER, under Grant #MTM2012-36740-c02-02.García-Raffi, LM.; Jefferies, B. (2014). An application of bilinear integration to quantum scattering. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications. 415(1):394-421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmaa.2014.01.055S394421415

Theory of Networked Minority Games based on Strategy Pattern Dynamics

We formulate a theory of agent-based models in which agents compete to be in a winning group. The agents may be part of a network or not, and the winning group may be a minority group or not. The novel feature of the present formalism is its focus on the dynamical pattern of strategy rankings, and its careful treatment of the strategy ties which arise during the system's temporal evolution. We apply it to the Minority Game (MG) with connected populations. Expressions for the mean success rate among the agents and for the mean success rate for agents with $k$ neighbors are derived. We also use the theory to estimate the value of connectivity $p$ above which the Binary-Agent-Resource system with high resource level goes into the high-connectivity state.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Superflares on Ordinary Solar-Type Stars

Short duration flares are well known to occur on cool main-sequence stars as well as on many types of `exotic' stars. Ordinary main-sequence stars are usually pictured as being static on time scales of millions or billions of years. Our sun has occasional flares involving up to $\sim 10^{31}$ ergs which produce optical brightenings too small in amplitude to be detected in disk-integrated brightness. However, we identify nine cases of superflares involving $10^{33}$ to $10^{38}$ ergs on normal solar-type stars. That is, these stars are on or near the main-sequence, are of spectral class from F8 to G8, are single (or in very wide binaries), are not rapid rotators, and are not exceedingly young in age. This class of stars includes many those recently discovered to have planets as well as our own Sun, and the consequences for any life on surrounding planets could be profound. For the case of the Sun, historical records suggest that no superflares have occurred in the last two millennia.Comment: 16 pages, accepted for publication in Ap