Fragile X syndrome is caused by a mutation in the FMR1 gene leading to absence of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). Reports that patients and adult FMR1 knock-out mice have abnormally long dendritic spines of increased density suggested that the disorder might involve abnormal spine development. Because spine length, density, and motility change dramatically in the first postnata...

It is well known that in dynamic general equilibrium economic models equilibrium may be indeterminate. Indeterminacy means that there is a continuum of equilibrium trajectories converging to the same steady state. Very often, the same mechanisms that are responsible for indeterminacy, like increasing returns to scale or market imperfections, lead to existence of multiple steady states, and deve...

UNLABELLED Intellectual disability is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired intellectual and adaptive functioning. Both environmental insults and genetic defects contribute to the etiology of intellectual disability. Copy number variations of SORBS2 have been linked to intellectual disability. However, the neurobiological function of SORBS2 in the brain is unknown. The ...

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are a new policy instrument designed to help the poor save and accumulate assets. IDAs provide matches for savings used for home purchase, post-secondary education, or microenterprise. IDAs cannot help participants, however, if they drop out. What determines drop-out, and what can be done to help participants to stay in? Three findings emerge from an analy...

We investigated how the knowledge capabilities of industry incumbents affected the generation, development, and performance of “spin-outs” (entrepreneurial ventures of ex-employees). Analyses of 1977–97 data from the disk drive industry supported our hypothesis that incumbents with both strong technological and market pioneering know-how generate fewer spin-outs than firms with strength in only...

The spinal cord integrates and relays somatosensory input, leading to complex motor responses. Research over the past couple of decades has identified transcription factor networks that function during development to define and instruct the generation of diverse neuronal populations within the spinal cord. A number of studies have now started to connect these developmentally defined populations...

A recent study found that dyslexic children trained on action video games show significant improvements on basic measures of both attention and reading ability, suggesting future directions for the study of dyslexia intervention paradigms.

Lineage decisions in development are thought to be primarily due to differential activation of transcription factors. However, cell position and subcellular organization of signalling also play a role. New studies of the Hippo pathway in the early mouse embryo show how.