Temporal trends in pregnancy weight gain and birth weight in Bavaria 2000-2007: slightly decreasing birth weight with increasing weight gain in pregnancy

Aims: To assess temporal trends in birth weight and pregnancy weight gain in Bavaria from 2000 to 2007. Methods: Data on 695,707 mother and infant pairs (singleton term births) were available from a compulsory reporting system for quality assurance, including information on birth weight, maternal weight at delivery and at booking, maternal smoking, age, and further anthropometric and lifestyle factors. Pregnancy weight gain was defined as: weight prior to delivery minus weight at first booking minus weight of the newborn. Results: Although mean weight gain during pregnancy increased considerably from 10.10 to 10.73 kg in seven years, the mean birth weight in mature singletons decreased slightly from 3433 to 3414 g. These trends could not be explained by concurrent changes in the rates of primiparity, smoking and gestational diabetes. Conclusions: These German data confirm an increased weight gain during pregnancy with adjustment for potential confounders

The Liability of Corporations and Shareholders for the Capitalization and Obligations of Subsidiaries under German Law

The Federal Republic of Germany, one of the United States\u27 main trading partners, has a rather different approach to the liability of a parent corporation for the debts of its subsidiaries. In the United States, the affiliated enterprises doctrine is generally viewed as a subcategory of the piercing the corporate veil doctrine. Under German law, there is a sharp distinction between the general rules on piercing the corporate veil, which may also be applied to a parent-subsidiary relationship, and the special legal framework governing the Konzernrecht (law of affiliated enterprises). German corporation law is based on the assumption that in an independent corporation there is an equilibrium and common interest among shareholders which automatically makes the corporation\u27s best interest a guide for both management and shareholder decisions. This common interest is intended to serve as an indirect protection of the creditors. When one or several shareholders acquire a majority interest, the danger arises that they might take undue advantage of their influence

The role of the transcription factor JAGGED in early floral organogenesis

Initiation of organ primordia from pools of undifferentiated cells requires coordinated cytoplasmic growth, oriented cell wall extension, and cell cycle progression. It is debated which of these processes are primary drivers for organ morphogenesis and directly targeted by developmental regulators. The single zinc finger transcription factor JAGGED (JAG) is a direct target of several floral organ identity genes and is expressed in early organ primordia (Dinneny et al., 2004; Ohno et al., 2004; Gomez et al., 2005; Kaufmann et al., 2009). Loss of function jag mutants have narrow floral organs with reduced distal growth. Quantitative 3D imaging has revealed that JAG is required for the transition from meristematic to organ primordium cell behaviour. The transition involves an increase in the rates of cell division and cell growth, a shift from isotropic to anisotropic growth, and modifications in cell size homeostasis in primordia (Schiessl et al., 2012). In this project, ChIP-Seq was combined with transcriptome analysis to identify global direct target genes of JAG. Consistent with the roles of JAG during organ initiation and organ growth, I found that JAG directly repressed genes involved in meristem development, such as the TALE PROTEIN BELL1 and genes involved in organ boundaries specification such as PETAL LOSS. In addition, JAG directly regulated genes involved in growth regulatory pathways, tissue polarity, cell wall modification, and cell cycle progression. For example, JAG directly repressed the cell cycle inhibitors KIP RELATED PROTEIN 2 and 4 (KRP2/4). The krp2 and krp4 mutations suppressed jag loss of function defects in organ growth and cell type patterning. In particular, loss of KRP4 rescued the defects of cell size homeostasis in the primordia of the jag loss of function mutant. In summary, this work revealed that JAG directly coordinates organ patterning with cellular processes required for tissue growth