On the isotropic‐liquid crystal phase separation in a solution of rodlike particles of different lengths

The Onsager theory for the isotropic-anisotropic phase separation in a solution of rodlike particles is extended to the case of mixtures of such particles with different lengths. The concentration, composition, order parameters and orientation dependent thermodynamic quantities of the coexisting phases are calculated for the case of a mixture of rods of two different lengths for different length ratios. It is found that there is a significantly higher mole fraction of the longer rods in the anisotropic phase than in the isotropic phase. The order parameter of the longer rods is higher than in the one component case, whereas the order parameter of the shorter rods first increases and then decreases as the mole fraction of the longer rods is increased. All these features are accentuated as the length ratio of the two kinds of rods increases

Four particle cluster approximation for the Maier-Saupe model of the isotropic-nematic phase transition

The cluster variation theory for the Maier-Saupe model of the isotropic-nematic phase transition is extended to the four-particle level. As in the case of the Heisenberg ferromagnet, the irregularities of the three-particle cluster approximation applied to cubic lattices, where there are no triangles of nearest neighbors, disappear. The extension from three- to four-particle clusters yields improved values of all quantities, characteristic for the phase transition

From planning the port/city to planning the port-city : exploring the economic interface in European port cities

In last three decades, planning agencies of most ports have institutionally evolved into a (semi-) independent port authority. The rationale behind this process is that port authorities are able to react more quickly to changing logistical and spatial preferences of maritime firms, hence increasing the competitiveness of ports. Although these dedicated port authorities have proven to be largely successful, new economic, social, and environmental challenges are quickly catching up on these port governance models, and particularly leads to (spatial) policy ‘conflicts’ between port and city. This chapter starts by assessing this conflict and argue that the conflict is partly a result of dominant—often also academic—spatial representations of the port city as two separate entities. To escape this divisive conception of contemporary port cities, this chapter presents a relational visualisation method that is able to analyse the economic interface between port and city. Based on our results, we reflect back on our proposition and argue that the core challenge today for researchers and policy makers is acknowledging the bias of port/city, being arguably a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hence, we turn the idea of (planning the) port/city conflicts into planning the port-city’s strengths and weaknesses

TDAG51 is an ERK signaling target that opposes ERK-mediated HME16C mammary epithelial cell transformation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Signaling downstream of Ras is mediated by three major pathways, Raf/ERK, phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), and Ral guanine nucleotide exchange factor (RalGEF). Ras signal transduction pathways play an important role in breast cancer progression, as evidenced by the frequent over-expression of the Ras-activating epidermal growth factor receptors EGFR and ErbB2. Here we investigated which signal transduction pathways downstream of Ras contribute to EGFR-dependent transformation of telomerase-immortalized mammary epithelial cells HME16C. Furthermore, we examined whether a highly transcriptionally regulated ERK pathway target, PHLDA1 (TDAG51), suggested to be a tumor suppressor in breast cancer and melanoma, might modulate the transformation process.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cellular transformation of human mammary epithelial cells by downstream Ras signal transduction pathways was examined using anchorage-independent growth assays in the presence and absence of EGFR inhibition. TDAG51 protein expression was down-regulated by interfering small hairpin RNA (shRNA), and the effects on cell proliferation and death were examined in Ras pathway-transformed breast epithelial cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Activation of both the ERK and PI3K signaling pathways was sufficient to induce cellular transformation, which was accompanied by up-regulation of EGFR ligands, suggesting autocrine EGFR stimulation during the transformation process. Only activation of the ERK pathway was sufficient to transform cells in the presence of EGFR inhibition and was sufficient for tumorigenesis in xenografts. Up-regulation of the PHLDA1 gene product, TDAG51, was found to correlate with persistent ERK activation and anchorage-independent growth in the absence or presence of EGFR inhibition. Knockdown of this putative breast cancer tumor-suppressor gene resulted in increased ERK pathway activation and enhanced matrix-detached cellular proliferation of Ras/Raf transformed cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that multiple Ras signal transduction pathways contribute to mammary epithelial cell transformation, but that the ERK signaling pathway may be a crucial component downstream of EGFR activation during tumorigenesis. Furthermore, persistent activation of ERK signaling up-regulates TDAG51. This event serves as a negative regulator of both Erk activation as well as matrix-detached cellular proliferation and suggests that TDAG51 opposes ERK-mediated transformation in breast epithelial cells.</p

The same ELA class II risk factors confer equine insect bite hypersensitivity in two distinct populations

Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is a chronic allergic dermatitis common in horses. Affected horses mainly react against antigens present in the saliva from the biting midges, Culicoides ssp, and occasionally black flies, Simulium ssp. Because of this insect dependency, the disease is clearly seasonal and prevalence varies between geographical locations. For two distinct horse breeds, we genotyped four microsatellite markers positioned within the MHC class II region and sequenced the highly polymorphic exons two from DRA and DRB3, respectively. Initially, 94 IBH-affected and 93 unaffected Swedish born Icelandic horses were tested for genetic association. These horses had previously been genotyped on the Illumina Equine SNP50 BeadChip, which made it possible to ensure that our study did not suffer from the effects of stratification. The second population consisted of 106 unaffected and 80 IBH-affected Exmoor ponies. We show that variants in the MHC class II region are associated with disease susceptibility (praw = 2.34 × 10−5), with the same allele (COR112:274) associated in two separate populations. In addition, we combined microsatellite and sequencing data in order to investigate the pattern of homozygosity and show that homozygosity across the entire MHC class II region is associated with a higher risk of developing IBH (p = 0.0013). To our knowledge this is the first time in any atopic dermatitis suffering species, including man, where the same risk allele has been identified in two distinct populations

Evaluating Effects of Divided Hemispheric Processing on Word Recognition in Foveal and Extrafoveal Displays: The Evidence from Arabic

Background: Previous studies have claimed that a precise split at the vertical midline of each fovea causes all words to the left and right of fixation to project to the opposite, contralateral hemisphere, and this division in hemispheric processing has considerable consequences for foveal word recognition. However, research in this area is dominated by the use of stimuli from Latinate languages, which may induce specific effects on performance. Consequently, we report two experiments using stimuli from a fundamentally different, non-Latinate language (Arabic) that offers an alternative way of revealing effects of split-foveal processing, if they exist. Methods and Findings: Words (and pseudowords) were presented to the left or right of fixation, either close to fixation and entirely within foveal vision, or further from fixation and entirely within extrafoveal vision. Fixation location and stimulus presentations were carefully controlled using an eye-tracker linked to a fixation-contingent display. To assess word recognition, Experiment 1 used the Reicher-Wheeler task and Experiment 2 used the lexical decision task. Results: Performance in both experiments indicated a functional division in hemispheric processing for words in extrafoveal locations (in recognition accuracy in Experiment 1 and in reaction times and error rates in Experiment 2) but no such division for words in foveal locations. Conclusions: These findings from a non-Latinate language provide new evidence that although a functional division i