Injury suppresses Ras cell competitive advantage through enhanced wild-type cell proliferation

Healthy skin is a tapestry of wild-type and mutant clones. Although injury can cooperate with Ras mutations to promote tumorigenesis, the consequences in genetically mosaic skin are unknown. Here, we show that wild-type cells prevent oncogenic Ras-induced aberrant growth after injury. Although HrasG12V/+ and KrasG12D/+ cells outcompete wild-type cells in uninjured, mosaic tissue, their competitive advantage is suppressed after injury due to a selective increase in wild-type cell proliferation. EGFR inhibition abolishes the competitive advantage of wild-type cells after injury of HrasG12V/+-mosaic skin. Global loss of the cell cycle inhibitor p21 increases wild-type cell proliferation even without injury, suppressing the competitive advantage of HrasG12V/+ cells. Thus, injury plays an unanticipated role in switching the competitive balance between oncogenic and wild-type cells in genetically mosaic skin.

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Nutrition Determine the Outcome of Competition Between Lolium multiflorum and Trifolium subterraneum

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may affect competitive plant interactions, which are considered a prevalent force in shaping plant communities. Aiming at understanding the role of AMF in the competition between two pasture species and its dependence on soil nutritional status, a pot experiment with mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal Lolium multiflorum and Trifolium subterraneum was conducted, with manipulation of species composition (five levels), and nitrogen (N)- and phosphorus (P)- fertilization (three levels). In the non-mycorrhizal state, interspecific competition did not play a major role. However, in the presence of AMF, Lolium was the strongest competitor, with this species being facilitated by Trifolium. While N-fertilization did not change the competitive balance, P-fertilization gave Lolium, a competitive advantage over Trifolium. The effect of AMF on the competitive outcome may be driven by differential C-P trade benefits, with Lolium modulating carbon investment in the mycorrhizal network and the arbuscule/vesicle ratio at the cost of Trifolium.

Player Mobility and Competitive Balance Regulation in Professional Sports Leagues

Competitive balance regulation is more widespread in North American than in Europan sports leagues. The present paper addresses the question whether this observation can be explained with the help of differences in the degree of player mobility. Using an extended version of the workhorse contest model of sports leagues, the paper shows that the answer depends on the kind of competitive balance regulation. While player mobility may help to explain the difference with respect to salary regulation (e.g., salary caps), the choice of revenue sharing schemes turns out to be independent of player mobility.

The multi-dimensionality of competitive balance: evidence from European football

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the problem of designing league regulatory mechanisms given the multi-dimensionality of competitive balance and the proliferation of empirical measures.Design/methodology/approachA three-stage approach is adopted. Firstly, a taxonomy of empirical measures of competitive balance is proposed, identifying two fundamental dimensions – win dispersion and performance persistence. Secondly, a simple two-team model of league competitive balance is used to explore the dispersion–persistence relationship. Third, correlation and regression analysis of seven empirical measures of competitive balance for the 18 best-attended top-tier domestic football leagues in Europe over the 10 seasons, 2008–2017, are used to (1) validate the proposed categorisation of empirical measures into two dimensions; and (2) investigate the nature of the dispersion–persistence relationship across leagues.FindingsThe simple model of league competitive balance implies a strong positive dispersion–persistence relationship when persistence effects increase for big-market teams relative to those for the small-market teams. However, the empirical evidence indicates that while leagues such as the Spanish La Liga exhibit a strong positive dispersion–persistence relationship, other leagues show little or no relationship, and some leagues, particularly, the English Premier League and top-tier divisions in Belgium and Netherlands, have a strong negative dispersion–persistence relationship. The key policy implication for leagues is the importance of understanding the direction and impact of dispersion and persistence effects on the demand for league products.Originality/valueThe variability in the strength and direction of the dispersion–persistence relationship across leagues is an important result that undermines the “one-size-fits-all” approach to designing league regulatory mechanisms.

Formalization of Regional Strategies with Allowance for the Long-Term Consequences of the Interaction between Internal and External Components of Regional Socio-Economic Systems

Aim. The presented study aims to define a methodological approach to the formalization of regional strategies with allowance for the prospective benefits from the interaction between internal and external components of regional socio-economic systems for the national economy.Tasks. The authors determine the essence of strategic management of regional development by analyzing the internal processes of the interaction between subsystems, components, and elements of the region as a complex socio-economic system; compare the specific features of the functioning and interaction of administrative divisions in a planned and market economy; substantiate the principles of mutually beneficial interregional interaction and the need to improve supra-regional economic efficiency in view of the allowance made for the projected effects of interregional interaction in rational strategic planning; define the concept of strategic management of regional socio-economic systems and formulate an approach to the formation of the management process.Methods. This study use general scientific methods, including systems analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction, detalization and generalization, modelling.Results. The process of formation and coordination of regional strategies is conceptualized as a basic element of the organizational mechanism of strategic management of the functioning and development of regional socio-economic systems. A system diagram is provided that makes allowance for three hierarchical levels of management (federal, interregional, regional), each acting on the appropriate level of abstraction and introducing its inherent critical aspects of rational planning of national spatial development. It is shown that strategic planning of interregional interaction at the supra-regional level makes it advisable to develop multi-regional, multi-sectoral computer models that would help to achieve a state of interaction close to economic equilibrium, thus ensuring future functioning of the national economy based on the planning principle applied in a brand new way.Conclusions. The system of strategic management of regional development and interregional interaction should be a multilevel, hierarchically ordered mechanism for the formation and implementation of a strategic plan for the spatial development of the country. Such a system should be aimed at functionally maintaining social and economic, planned and competitive balance between national expediency determined by state strategic priorities and independent regional development guidelines without degenerating into bureaucratic formalism when creating regional development concepts on the one hand and without turning into a constant competitive struggle of divergent interests of the regions on the other. It is advisable to develop an integrated (supra-regional) approach to the strategic management of regions as regional socio-economic systems based on the conceptual organizational-managerial mechanism for their functioning and development. This approach should be aimed at achieving the planned supra-regional efficiency (socio-economic balance) using not-yet-manifested projected interregional synergetic and agglomeration effects from the use of interregional (national) infrastructure, scientifically based implementation of absolute and relative regional advantages in the process of determining and planning future regional specialization at the federal level, deployment and development of the territorial cores of intersectoral clusters serving as the starting points of growth for an optimally balanced crystal lattice of spatial development on the national scale, implementation of interregional interaction of expected quantity and quality, mathematically justified with allowance for the needs of interregional and intersectoral exchange, intra- and intersystem structures, elements, communicative relationships, dynamics and stages of the life cycle of industries, organizations, the ability to adapt to changes in the external environment of the regions included in the system.

Domestic League Competitive Balance and UEFA Performance

This paper investigates the relationship between European football league competitive balance and the performance of that league’s participants in UEFA competitions. The evidence suggests that competitive balance measured using performance points fits the performance coefficients of countries participating in the Champions League and Europa League and that a reciprocal model fits the data best. The evidence suggests that marginal improvements in competitive balance can lead to increase of one-third a win for a league’s participants in the Champions League. The increased rewards for UEFA success suggest policies that promote competitive balance have both public and private benefits for clubs.

Moments of Competitive Balance in Major League Soccer

In this paper, we investigate competitive balance in Major League Soccer and compare balance across talent acquisition policy regimes with a bias-corrected measure from 1996 to 2019. We evaluate multiple moments of the league talent distribution, and we add to past work by using multiple levels of aggregation that reveal heterogeneous results with respect to the distribution of talent within and across seasons. We show that there has been little improvement in competitive balance over the league's history, though there has been an increase in year-to-year stability in balance and a lower propensity for teams at the extremes of performance.

Saltwater spawning grounds of sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) in tidal waters of a major Norwegian river

Sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) have a highly phenotypically plastic life history that allows them to be effective colonizers and competitors in freshwater. This paper documents a previously unknown spawning behaviour in a brackish, tidally influenced estuary 14 km from the mouth of the Vosso River, a major Atlantic salmon- and sea-run brown trout–producing river in western Norway. Putative spawning gravel was observed, and sea-run brown trout deposited eggs that hatched in April. Survival of recruits was high (> 95%) in the tidal spawning gravel. These areas are strongly tidally influenced with a peak of 23.17 psu recorded at the lowest spawning ground. The observation of spawning so far from the river mouth may be unique in such a system with a long estuary but provides important insight into the biology of sea trout. Invasion of pink salmon, also known to spawn in estuaries, may negatively affect the competitive balance of sea trout with other salmonids in rivers where sea trout populations rely on recruitment from these relatively extreme spawning areas. Restoration of estuaries that have been modified by dredging or channelization may be important to ensure quality and heterogenous habitat for sea trout spawning given that haline spawning grounds could contribute to population resilience.