Single Dominance Research Articles

Lepton flavor violating quarkonium decays

We argue that lepton flavor violating (LFV) decays $M \to \ell_1 \overline \ell_2$ of quarkonium states $M$ with different quantum numbers could be used to put constraints on the Wilson coefficients of effective operators describing LFV interactions at low energy scales. We note that restricted kinematics of the two-body quarkonium decays allows us to select operators with particular quantum numbers, significantly reducing the reliance on the single operator dominance assumption that is prevalent in constraining parameters of the effective LFV Lagrangian. We shall also argue that studies of radiative lepton flavor violating $M \to \gamma \ell_1 \overline \ell_2$ decays could provide important complementary access to those effective operators.

Massive dispersal of Coxiella burnetii among cattle across the United States.

Q-fever is an underreported disease caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii, which is highly infectious and has the ability to disperse great distances. It is a completely clonal pathogen with low genetic diversity and requires whole-genome analysis to identify discriminating features among closely related isolates. C. burnetii, and in particular one genotype (ST20), is commonly found in cow’s milk across the entire dairy industry of the USA. This single genotype dominance is suggestive of host-specific adaptation, rapid dispersal and persistence within cattle. We used a comparative genomic approach to identify SNPs for high-resolution and high-throughput genotyping assays to better describe the dispersal of ST20 across the USA. We genotyped 507 ST20 cow milk samples and discovered three subgenotypes, all of which were present across the entire country and over the complete time period studied. Only one of these sub-genotypes was observed in a single dairy herd. The temporal and geographic distribution of these sub-genotypes is consistent with a model of large-scale, rapid, frequent and continuous dissemination on a continental scale. The distribution of subgenotypes is not consistent with wind-based dispersal alone, and it is likely that animal husbandry and transportation practices, including pooling of milk from multiple herds, have also shaped the patterns. On the scale of an entire country, there appear to be few barriers to rapid, frequent and large-scale dissemination of the ST20 subgenotypes.

Closeness of Competition from an Economic Perspective: Table 1.

The 2004 EC Merger Regulation (EUMR) introduced the Significant Impediment to Effective Competition (SIEC) test for the assessment of the compatibility of mergers with the common market by the European Commission.1 The SIEC test allows the European Commission to address competition issues raised by mergers in oligopolistic markets that do not fall under the traditional dominance concept (either single firm dominance or collective dominance). ... Today – more than a decade after the introduction of the SIEC test – the Commission routinely investigates such concerns in mergers. By far the most frequent category of concerns identified are non-coordinated concerns in horizontal mergers. Recent examples of cases in which such concerns were raised include the series of 4-to-3 merger cases in mobile telecommunications mergers in Austria, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, and the UK, as well as other recent high profile cases such as GE/Alstom.2 Moreover, industries in which such mergers lead to interventions under the SIEC test can often be characterised as tight oligopolies with a small number of (typically four or less) full-fledged competitors and (very) high barriers to entry. In such cases, changes in market structure will likely have permanent or at least long-lasting effects.

Quantitative ethnomedicinal survey of medicinal plants given for cardiometabolic diseases by the non-institutionally trained siddha practitioners of Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, India

Ethnobotanical relevanceThe burden of cardiometabolic diseases such as dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, hypertension, visceral obesity and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases and the use of traditional medicine for the management of such diseases are high in India; hence there is a need to document and analyze such therapies. Aim of the studyThis study documented and analyzed the medicinal plants prescribed for cardiometabolic diseases by the non-institutionally trained siddha practitioners of Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, India. MethodologyThe field survey was conducted between December 2014 to November 2015. Successive free listing assisted with field-walks was used to interview the informants. After assessing the sampling sufficiency using rarefaction curve analysis, indices such as Informant Consensus Factor (Fic) and Index of Agreement on Remedies (IAR) were calculated for the data. The indicators of informant's medicinal plant knowledge such as Shannon's index, equitability index, etc., were regressed with the demographic profile of the informants. ResultsFor this study 70 non-institutionally trained Siddha medical practitioners were approached; the data from 36 practitioners who were treating cardiometabolic diseases were documented. This study recorded the use of 188 species which were used to prepare 368 formulations to treat illnesses categorized under cardiometabolic diseases. In this, 53.04% claims were singletons. Regression analysis showed that single species dominance was reduced and the diversity of medicinal plants was increased with the increase in the age and experience. Increase in the years of formal education increased the equitability in the uses. The plants such as Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. (cardiovascular diseases), Allium sativum L. (dyslipidemia), Cuminum cyminum L. (hypertension), Macrotyloma uniflorum Verdc. (obesity) and Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (type 2 diabetes) were the highly cited medicinal plants. ConclusionThis survey has identified the plants most commonly used by Siddha practitioners of Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, India for cardiometabolic diseases. The prevalence of chronic, non-communicable metabolic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and obesity are increasing worldwide due to the rapid changes in the lifestyle. These ailments require a life-long care and in such instances, people tend to use complementary therapies in most cases, alongside with conventional therapies. In view of the high use of traditional therapies for treating cardiometabolic illnesses, this study supports the need for more research to evaluate the potential benefits of the treatments and to identify any safety concern.

Understanding Source Market of Chinese Outbound Travel at Regional Level

This study concerns the tourist source market of Chinese outbound travel by justifying a geographic market segmentation approach and examining regional levels of the development. Two different empirical regularities used in urban geography were employed to measure the changes between larger and smaller tourist-generating places from 1997 to 2014. Research findings imply that 1) the tourist volume has been growing over time for all places under investigation with regional diversities; 2) as the scale of mega region (in terms of tourist volume) becomes larger, the small and medium regions respond rapidly to this change, imposing a shift on the whole market from a single dominance to a promising decentralized pattern. The purpose in this paper is to propose different models to account for this evolution. Understanding these implications may help western providers deliver suitable goods and services to China market in different cultural contexts.

Persistence of the Losing Unit Following Double Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant: Finding the Unseen

Background: After double cord blood transplantation (dCBT), long-term hematopoietic dominance of a single cord blood (CB) donor graft is established in the majority of patients. As measured by standard clinical testing for chimerism (usually by single tandem repeat polymorphism STR), the "losing" unit usually becomes undetectable within the first month after transplantation. However, anecdotal cases in which the losing unit reemerges and contributes to hematopoiesis suggest long-term persistence of the losing unit in a quiescent state. In this study, we sought to determine whether, in the clinical setting of complete single CB unit dominance after dCBT, detection of very low levels (microchimerism, "Mc") of the losing unit could be demonstrated using a sensitive technique developed for microchimerism analysis.Methods: We studied 15 patients who underwent myeloablative dCBT with either high dose TBI (13.2 Gy) (n=8) or treosulfan based conditioning regimens (n=7). Patients were included if an HLA polymorphism unique to the losing CB unit could be identified and targeted using a panel of HLA-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) assays developed for microchimerism testing (sensitivity approximately 1 cell per 20,000). Of the 15 subjects, 14 were selected to demonstrate single CB unit dominance by clinical STR testing. Samples were tested blinded to clinical information and one subject had been included with stable mixed unit-unit chimerism. We studied bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) samples on days 28, 80, and 1 year after CB transplantation. From PB, cell lineage subsets (CD3+, CD33+, and CD56+) were sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorting at the time of the blood draw. For each subject, DNA was extracted from bone marrow and cell subsets, and detection of the losing unit was evaluated using QPCR targeting the non-shared HLA polymorphism unique to the losing unit. Results are expressed as detection or not of the losing unit, as well as quantitative measurement of the concentration expressed as genome equivalents (GEq) of DNA from the losing unit per total GEq of DNA tested.Results: The median age was 35.7 years (range, 10.1-61.7) and weight 72.2 kg (range, 32.5-107). The median follow-up was 1,163 days (range,138-2269). Disease status pre-transplant included acute myeloid leukemia (n=10), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n=3), myelodysplastic syndrome (n=1), and myeloproliferative disorder (n=1). No patients experienced primary graft failure. For the overall study population (n=15), the median time to engraftment was 22.5 days (range 14-44). Of the 14 subjects with clinical single unit dominance, absence of the losing unit by standard clinical STR testing was confirmed at a median time of 20.1 days (range 11-28). The subject with clinical mixed-unit chimerism that had been included in the blinded testing gave positive results as expected. QPCR testing results are shown in Table 1. Overall, QPCR testing showed detection of the losing unit in 11/14 (79%) subjects. In the CD3 subset 4/13 (31%), 7/13 (54%), and 3/12 (25%) of evaluable patients showed detection of the losing unit at days 28, 80, and 365, respectively. In the CD33 subset, 6/12 (50%), 4/14 (29%), and 2/11 (18%) of evaluable patients showed detection of the losing unit at days 28, 80, and 365, respectively. In the CD56 subset, 4/13 (31%), 2/14 (14%), and 3/11 (27%) evaluable patients showed detection of the losing unit at days 28, 80, and 365, respectively. In the BM samples, 6/14 (43%), 1/14 (7%), and 1/10 (10%) of evaluable patients showed detection of the losing unit at days 28, 80, and 365, respectively. In the sorted cell subset samples, the median amount of GEq tested was 3.4x103 (range 2.5x102 - 5.0x104). In the BM samples, the median amount of GEq tested was 1.0x105 (range 1.5x104 - 1.7x105).Conclusions: Using a highly sensitive panel of polymorphism-specific QPCR assays, we have demonstrated persistent detection of the losing CB unit after dCBT, despite single unit dominance by clinically standard STR-based testing. Demonstration of losing unit reemergence in each subset suggests a dynamic phenomenon. We are currently extending the numbers of study subjects to determine whether the pattern of detection of the losing unit correlates with clinical outcomes after dCBT. [Display omitted] DisclosuresDelaney:medac: Research Funding; Novartis: Other: Chair, DSMB; Biolife Solutions: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

Use of dual donor T-cell chimerism to predict prognosis after double cord blood allogeneic transplantation.

7093 Background: Double cord blood transplantation (dCBT) is an important strategy to overcome dose limitation of single CBT. By day 21, over 80% of patients (pts) have single unit dominance mainta...

How does single party dominance influence civil society organisations' engagement strategies? Exploratory analysis of participative mainstreaming in a 'regional' European polity.

A raft of United Nations Treaties, European Union Directives and domestic laws oblige governments in 180 + countries to apply the Participative Democratic Model of mainstreaming equalities to public administration by involving those targeted by equality initiatives at all stages in their design and delivery. Notwithstanding Participative Democratic Model’s deeply political nature, extant work has overlooked how governing party turnover influences civil society organisations’ (CSOs) strategies. Here, this lacuna is addressed using a negative ‘extreme case study’ research design involving qualitative accounts from civil society organisations in Wales, a ‘regional’ European polity characterised by one-party dominance. The findings reveal how the absence of turnover distorts the Participative Democratic Model in relation to diverse factors including: strategic bridging, extraparliamentary politics, cognitive locks and party institutionalisation. Inter alia, the wider contribution of this analysis lies in showing the importance of turnover to effective engagement, the ‘pathologies’ associated with one-party dominance and the need for adaptive civil society strategies tailored to prevailing electoral politics and governing party turnover in liberal democracies.

Combinatorial Complexity in a Transcriptionally Centered Signaling Hub in Arabidopsis

A subfamily of four Phytochrome (phy)-Interacting bHLH transcription Factors (PIFs) collectively promote skotomorphogenic development in dark-grown seedlings. This activity is reversed upon exposure to light, by photoactivated phy molecules that induce degradation of the PIFs, thereby triggering the transcriptional changes that drive a transition to photomorphogenesis. The PIFs function both redundantly and partially differentially at the morphogenic level in this process. To identify the direct targets of PIF transcriptional regulation genome-wide, we analyzed the DNA-binding sites for all four PIFs by ChIP-seq analysis, and defined the genes transcriptionally regulated by each PIF, using RNA-seq analysis of pif mutants. Despite the absence of detectable differences in DNA-binding-motif recognition between the PIFs, the data show a spectrum of regulatory patterns, ranging from single PIF dominance to equal contributions by all four. Similarly, a broad array of promoter architectures was found, ranging from single PIF-binding sites, containing single sequence motifs, through multiple PIF-binding sites, each containing one or more motifs, with each site occupied preferentially by one to multiple PIFs. Quantitative analysis of the promoter occupancy and expression level induced by each PIF revealed an intriguing pattern. Although there is no robust correlation broadly across the target-gene population, examination of individual genes that are shared targets of multiple PIFs shows a gradation in correlation from strongly positive, through uncorrelated, to negative. This finding suggests a dual-layered mechanism of transcriptional regulation, comprising both a continuum of binding-site occupancy by each PIF and a superimposed layer of local regulation that acts differentially on each PIF, to modulate its intrinsic transcriptional activation capacity at each site, in a quantitative pattern that varies between the individual PIFs from gene to gene. These findings provide a framework for probing the mechanisms by which transcription factors with overlapping direct-target genes integrate and selectively transduce signals to their target networks.

Whisker-related circuitry in the trigeminal nucleus principalis: Topographic precision

Single whiskers are topographically represented in the trigeminal (V) nucleus principalis (PrV) by a set of cylindrical aggregates of primary afferent terminals and somata (barrelettes). This isomorphic pattern is transmitted to the thalamus and barrel cortex. However, it is not known if terminals in PrV from neighboring whiskers interdigitate so as to violate rules of spatial parcellation predicted by barrelette borders; nor is it known the extent to which higher order inputs are topographic. The existence of inter-whisker arbor overlap or diffuse higher order inputs would demand additional theoretical principles to account for single whisker dominance in PrV cell responses. In adult rats, first, primary afferent pairs responding to the same or neighboring whiskers and injected with Neurobiotin or horseradish peroxidase were rendered brown or black to color-code their terminal boutons. When collaterals from both fibers appeared in the same topographic plane through PrV, the percentage of the summed area of the two arbor envelopes that overlapped was computed. For same-whisker pairs, overlap was 5 ± 6% (mean ± SD). For within-row neighbors, overlap was 2 ± 5%. For between-row neighbors, overlap was 1 ± 4%. Second, the areas of whisker primary afferent arbors and their corresponding barrelettes in the PrV were compared. In the transverse plane, arbor envelopes significantly exceeded the areas of cytochrome oxidase-stained barrelettes; arbors often extended into neighboring barrelettes. Third, bulk tracing of the projections from the spinal V subnucleus interpolaris (SpVi) to the PrV revealed strict topography such that they connect same-whisker barrelettes in the SpVi and PrV. Thus, whisker primary afferents do not exclusively project to their corresponding PrV barrelette, whereas higher order SpVi inputs to the PrV are precisely topographic.

Probing L-violating coupling via sbottom resonance production at the LHeC

We investigate the resonant production of the lighter sbottom at the proposed Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) and its subsequent decay into e- + jet final state, under the single coupling dominance hypothesis in the framework of the R-parity-violating (RPV) minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). It is concluded that the LHeC running at the high electron beam energy configuration of Ee = 150 GeV would provide excellent opportunities to search for the sbottom resonance and probe the lepton-number-violating [Formula: see text]-type Yukawa interaction. With about 1 fb-1 integrated luminosity expected in Ee = 150 GeV e-p collision at the LHeC, either the lighter sbottom RPV resonance could be directly detected up to 1 TeV, or the L-violating coupling [Formula: see text] could be constrained at an unprecedented level of precision compared with all the knowledge derived from indirect measurements.

Fine mapping of brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stål) resistance gene Bph28(t) in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The brown planthopper (BPH; Nilaparvata lugens Stal) is one of the most destructive insect pests of rice (Oryza sativa L.) throughout the Asian rice-growing countries. DV85 is a BPH-resistant indica variety. A single dominance gene conferring resistance in DV85 was previously mapped on the long arm of chromosome 11. The objectives of this study were to investigate feeding behaviors of BPH on DV85 plants and fine-map the BPH resistance gene, here designated Bph28(t). A seedling bulk test was conducted to identify resistant plant reactionsvg to BPH feeding. The results showed that the resistance of DV85 functions by means of tolerance during BPH attack, rather than non-preference and antibiosis. For fine mapping, two F2 populations were developed by crossing DV85 with the susceptible japonica variety Kinmaze and indica 9311. A high-resolution genetic map harboring Bph28(t) was constructed and Bph28(t) was finally physically defined to an interval of 64.8 kb between markers Indel55 and Indel66. The fine-mapped Bph28(t) gene will facilitate marker-assisted gene pyramiding for BPH resistance.

Morphological characteristics and gene mapping of a dense panicle (dp2) mutant in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

A dense panicle mutant (dp2) derived from the Oryza sativa ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare through ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenesis was used in present study. Compared to the wild type, the panicle of dp2 mutant exhibited more branches and denser grains. Further more, the number of spikelets per panicle, number of primary branches and secondary branches of dp2 mutant were significantly increased while the panicle length, and 1,000-grain weight were significantly decreased. The results from the genetic analysis indicated that the dense panicle phenotype was controlled by a single dominance nuclear gene. Polymorphic analysis of SSR and InDel markers demonstrated that the DP2 gene was located at the long arm of chromosome 2, which was further mapped between SSR markers RM341 and RM13356 in a physical region of 398 kb. Within this region, the RCN2 (LOC_Os02g32950) gene which was annotated relating to the development of rice panicle was found. Compared to the wild type, the sequence of RCN2 gene in the dp2 mutant showed that two SNPs replacement had taken place in the promoter region (G–A) and the intron region (A–T), respectively. The dp2 mutant could be a novel mutant of RCN2 gene and this novel mutant might be useful for further studies on this gene.

Looking towards Europe: Regulation of Dominance in Nigerian Telecommunications

Nigeria is yet to enact generally applicable competition laws. However, in the telecommunications sector, sector-specific competition rules were enacted with the regulator taking steps including determination of dominance in selected markets to enforce these rules. These developments are important in Nigeria as they could provide good domestic references for future application of both general competition law in Nigeria and sector-specific application of competition rules in other network industries in the country. Furthermore, with regulatory determinations of dominance relatively rare in national communications sectors of African countries, Nigerian regulatory decisions are likely to be of interest to operators and regulators in other countries within the Sub-Saharan Africa region. This article critically analyzes regulation of dominant positions in the Nigerian telecommunications sector. It identifies the relevant legal provisions on dominant positions in Nigerian telecommunications and shows that while the Nigerian Communications Commission's (NCC) approach in this area appears to be influenced by European Union (EU) law, the Nigerian rules have developed and are applied in a way different from the application of comparable EU rules. Furthermore, the article also identifies a need for revision of the applicable regulations to stipulate the basis for market selection and refine criteria for identification of the relevant market for purposes of dominance analysis. The article further identifies specific issues with the NCC's application of criteria for single dominance assessment including; an apparent misapplication of the market shares criterion; very little of the NCC's assessment is backed by available data and supporting evidence; and the entire assessment focused on application of its six criteria to the retail aspects of the mobile markets with the wholesale market is completely ignored. With regards to International Internet Connectivity market, this article argues that NCC's decision to rely only on ex-post regulatory intervention in line with the practice in other jurisdictions failed to appreciate the differences in the legal basis for regulatory action between Nigeria and the EU for instance. The EU has separate provisions for sector-specific ex ante regulation and general ex post competition laws, while Nigeria only has sector-specific prescriptive regulations governing dominant positions. This entails that reliance only on as yet nonexistence ex post basis for regulatory intervention would leave Nigerian service providers without a remedy.

Abuse of Collective Dominance: The Need for a New Approach

The purpose of this article is to discuss the application of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) Article 102 to abuse of collective dominance. We demonstrate that while the concept of collective dominance has developed in line with a sound economic approach focusing on coordinated effects, no genuine concept of abuse in such situations has been established. Instead, the concept of abuse has been closely linked to the abuse concept in single dominance cases. We argue that there is a need to adapt the concept of abuse to the particular challenges posed by collective dominance and that Article 102 TFEU should primarily focus on conduct having as its object or effect the strengthening of the collective dominant position by reinforcing the oligopolistic interdependence and the tightening of the oligopoly. In this respect, Article 102 represents an as yet underdeveloped tool.

FLORISTIC DIVERSITY OF WOODY PERENNIALS IN THE HAKGALA STRICT NATURE RESERVE

Sampling by the "gradsect " method found that there were 88 Woody plant species belonging to 65 genera and 36families. The trees were of six fantilics:Lauraceae, Theaceae. Symplocaceae, Myrtaceae, Elaeocarpaceae andRubiaceae. There was no evidence (!l single species dominance in trees. No major tree communities were observed at the lower elevations. but near the peak there is a community at canopy level ol Syzygium umbrosum. Eugeniamabaeoides, and Callophyllum walkeri. There are four dominant species (?lsaplings: Psychotria zevlanica, P. nigra. Maesa perrottetiana, and Lasianthcsoliganthes. of which P. zeylanica appears sometimes to be a dominant singlespecies. The dominant [antilles among the saplings are the Rubiaceae andMyrsinaccae, while the seedlings are dominated by Rubiaceae. Biologicaldiversify is high. and endemism was put at -1-/% ol the total species enumerated.It is an ecologically critical area, which includes 2 endangered species, 2vulnerable, 7 rare, and'; intermediate. This nature reserve, therefore, has ahigh conservation value. Its small size and isolation may jeopardize its longtermviability ifmeasures are not takenfor its complete protection.

Large chromosome deletions, duplications, and gene conversion events accumulate with age in normal human colon crypts

Little is known about the types and numbers of mutations that may accumulate in normal human cells with age. Such information would require obtaining enough DNA from a single cell to accurately carry out reliable analysis despite extensive amplification; and complete genomic coverage under these circumstances is difficult. We have compared colon crypts, which are putatively clonal and contain ~2000 cells each, to determine how much somatic genetic variation occurs in vivo (without ex vivo cell culturing). Using high-density SNP microarrays, we find that chromosome deletions, duplications, and gene conversions were significantly more frequent in colons from the older individuals. These changes affected lengths ranging from 73 kb to 46 Mb. Although detection requires progeny of a single mutant stem cell to reach niche dominance over neighboring stem cells, none of the deletions appear likely to confer a selective advantage. Mutations can become fixed randomly during stem cell evolution through neutral drift in normal human crypts. The fact that chromosomal changes are detected in individual crypts with increasing age suggests that either such changes accumulate with age or single stem cell dominance increases with age, and the former is more likely. This progressive genome-wide divergence of human somatic cells with age has implications for aging and disease in multicellular organisms.

Simulations of Long-Term Community Dynamics in Coral Reefs - How Perturbations Shape Trajectories

Tropical coral reefs feature extraordinary biodiversity and high productivity rates in oligotrophic waters. Due to increasing frequencies of perturbations – anthropogenic and natural – many reefs are under threat. Such perturbations often have devastating effects on these unique ecosystems and especially if they occur simultaneously and amplify each other's impact, they might trigger a phase shift and create irreversible conditions.We developed a generic, spatially explicit, individual-based model in which competition drives the dynamics of a virtual benthic reef community – comprised of scleractinian corals and algae – under different environmental settings. Higher system properties, like population dynamics or community composition arise through self-organization as emergent properties. The model was parameterized for a typical coral reef site at Zanzibar, Tanzania and features coral bleaching and physical disturbance regimes as major sources of perturbations. Our results show that various types and modes (intensities and frequencies) of perturbations create diverse outcomes and that the switch from high diversity to single species dominance can be evoked by small changes in a key parameter.Here we extend the understanding of coral reef resilience and the identification of key processes, drivers and respective thresholds, responsible for changes in local situations. One future goal is to provide a tool which may aid decision making processes in management of coral reefs.

Increased Relapse Associated with Mixed Donor-Donor Chimerism Following Double Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation (dUCBT)

AbstractAbstract ▪358▪This icon denotes a clinically relevant abstractWe previously showed lower rates of relapse in recipients of dUCBT, compared to patients treated with single UCBT (Verneris, Blood, 2009). One unit predominates by D+100 in ∼90% of patients and recent studies show that single unit dominance is associated with T cell recognition of the rejected unit (Gutman, Blood, 2010). In addition, higher rates of acute graft-vs-host disease (aGVHD) have been observed after dUCBT compared to single UCBT, regardless of age (MacMillian, Blood, 2009). Thus, we hypothesized that graft vs. graft interactions that occur during dUCBT may drive both GVL and GVHD reactions. To test this hypothesis, we reviewed the records of patients with hematological malignancies transplanted with a dUCBT from 2000 to 2011 at the University of Minnesota. Myeloablative (MA) conditioning was with cyclophosphamide (Cy 120 mg/kg), fludarabine (Flu 75 mg/m2) and total body irradiation (TBI 13.2 Gy) (n=178) and non-MA conditioning was with Cy (50 mg/kg), Flu (200 mg/m2) and TBI (2 Gy) (n=282). Acute GVHD prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine and mycophenolic acid. At D+100 316 patients were evaluable and had either BM (n=273) and/or PB (n=178) donor engraftment data. Engraftment was assessed using short tandem repeat analysis. “Mixed donor-recipient chimerism” was defined as >5% host cells and “dual chimerism” was defined as complete donor chimerism (donor 1 + donor 2), with a minimum contribution of 5% by each unit (5% is the lower limit of detection for this clinical test). As expected, patients with evidence of mixed donor-recipient chimerism in the blood or marrow at D+100 (n=35) had high rates of relapse (69% [95% CI, 49–89%] at 2 years) and were excluded from further analysis. Of the patients with evaluable peripheral blood chimerism data, 90.4% (n=161) had hematopoiesis derived from a single unit, while 9.6% (n=17) showed dual chimerism after dUCBT. In multivariate analysis, dual chimerism at D+100 was associated with higher relapse (HR=1.97 [95% CI, 1.08–3.59], p=0.01), less grade II-IV aGVHD (HR=0.36 [95% CI, 0.17–0.78], p=0.01) and a trend toward worse DFS (HR=1.68 [95% CI, 0.9–3.13], p=0.1). Dual chimerism was not associated with age (p=0.32), nor non-MA conditioning (p=0.15). Recipients of two HLA 6/6 matched units (with each other and the recipient), were more likely to have dual chimerism (p<0.01). Nearly identical results were obtained in a separate model examining BM engraftment (single (n=247) and dual chimerism (n=26)) and transplant outcomes. While these findings should be confirmed in a separate dataset, they suggest that an unexpected consequence of selecting well matched units for dUCBT is higher mixed donor-donor chimerim, less aGVHD and more relapse. Further study of dUCBT and GVL is needed. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Looking Towards Europe: Regulation of Dominance in Nigerian Telecommunications

Nigeria is yet to enact generally applicable competition laws. However in the telecommunications sector, sector specific competition rules were enacted with the regulator taking steps including determination of dominance in selected markets to enforce these rules. These developments are important in Nigeria as they could provide good domestic references for future application of both general competition law in Nigeria and sector specific application of competition rules in other network industries in the country. Furthermore with regulatory determinations of dominance relatively rare in the national communications sectors in Africa, Nigerian regulatory decisions are likely to be of interest to operators and regulators in other countries within the West African sub-region specifically and Africa in general.This article critically analyses regulation of dominant positions in the Nigerian telecommunications sector. It identifies the relevant legal provisions on dominant positions in Nigerian telecommunications and shows that while the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) approach in this area appears to be influenced by European Union (EU) law, the Nigerian rules have developed and are applied in a way different from the application of comparable EU rules. These differences in application manifest in a number of areas. For instance, while the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) approach in this area appears to be influenced by EU law, the differences between the differentiated sources of rules applicable to market power or dominance in telecommunication markets within EU law when juxtaposed with a common source of applicable rules in Nigeria appear to create problems. This is especially so when NCC appears to be following positions laid down in ex post EU competition case law while implementing a legal framework that is substantially influenced by EU ex ante sector specific regulation. Furthermore, NCC and at least one of the leading operators appear to adopt the view that regulation of dominance should be predicated on a finding of abuse of dominant position. This article argues that a finding of anticompetitive conduct is neither required in the Nigerian legal framework nor a pre-requisite in EU sector specific regulation, for the imposition of obligations on a firm that is in a position of dominance.In addition to these, the article also identifies a need for revision of the applicable regulations to stipulate the basis for market selection and refine criteria for the related concept of identification of the relevant market for purposes of dominance analysis. These steps are necessary not simply because comparable provisions are found in the EU regulatory framework which substantially influenced the development of the Nigerian legal framework; they ensure that identification of relevant markets in Nigeria is in line with international best practice and more accurately reflects local circumstances.The article further identifies specific issues with the NCC’s application of criteria for single dominance assessment. Firstly, there appears to be a misapplication of the market shares criterion. Secondly, on the determination pertaining to the mobile telephone market, the full range of actual competitors was not utilised in the assessment, furthermore very little of the NCC’s assessment is backed by available data and supporting evidence, and the entire assessment focused on application of its six criteria to the retail aspects of the mobile markets with the wholesale market completely ignored contrary to European application of rules from which the Nigerian criteria were derived. Thirdly, the article called for the commission’s adoption of a holistic view to the application of its regulations and recognition of the fact that decisions on dominant positions have important implications for services providers’ access to each other’s networks. With regards to the International Internet Connectivity market, the article argued that the NCC’s decision to rely only on ex-post regulatory intervention in line with the practice in other jurisdictions failed to appreciate the differences in the legal basis for regulatory action between Nigeria and the EU for instance. The EU has separate provisions for sector specific ex ante regulation and general ex-post competition laws, while Nigeria only has sector specific prescriptive regulations governing dominant positions. This entails that reliance only on as yet nonexistence ex-post basis for regulatory intervention would leave Nigerian service providers without a remedy.The manuscript posted here is an author original version of an article that was published in (2013) Competition and Regulation in Network Industries 14(4) 338-364.