A possible solution to the chronic shortage of allografts is xenotransplantation, the use of tissue from an animal donor. Most experts believe that the pig will provide the most suitable solid organs for use in human beings. Although porcine organs are rapidly rejected by a process called hyperacute rejection (HAR), there is hope that several novel therapeutic strategies, already tested in animal

Tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) is one of the main regulators of the tissue factor (TF) pathway of coagulation. To tether human TFPI to the cell surface, full length or truncated TFPI lacking the third Kunitz domain were fused with domains three and four and the carboxy-terminal sequence of human CD4. Constructs were transfected into a mouse fibroblast cell line and individual clones were c

Repeated administration of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) directed against the CD4 lymphocyte receptor may induce specific, long-lasting unresponsiveness to fully MHC-mismatched cardiac allografts in rats without additional immunosuppression. We assessed the effect of a single dose of murine anti-rat depleting anti-CD4 mAb (OX-38) on allograft survival in high- and low-responder rat strain combinatio

Type 2 diabetes can often be managed by healthier diet and exercise in early stages of the disease, but as it progresses oral medication is needed and later on the patients will require insulin to survive. Vitamin K is a fat soluble vitamin that is a cofactor in gamma-carboxylation and activation of coagulation proteins produced in the liver. There are also extrahepatic proteins named Gla proteins

Catchy slogans about tourism’s peace-promoting qualities abound—‘passport to peace’, ‘a vital force for peace’, and ‘the peace industry’, to name but a few. Yet, despite the critical scrutiny of the peace–tourism nexus in recent decades, its historical origins remain unexplored. This article traces the historical roots of the idea that tourism can help advance peace and international understanding

"Fright moulting" has been recorded in several orders of birds and interpreted as a way of escaping a predator when already caught. Two observations suggest that the behaviour may have another function, viz. when an aerial predator chases the prey. By shedding body feathers in the air the bird creates a cloud behind it; this might confuse the predator in the same way as the ink of octopuses confus

In a population of Blue Tits, Parus caeruleus, we performed two different food provisioning experiments; one starting before clutch initiaition and one starting when the first eggs were laid. We assessed the effect of these feeding experiments on four fitness—related factors, viz., laying date, clutch size, egg mass, and onset of incubation. Given that breeding birds are food and energy constraine

The frequency of laying gaps was studied in a nestbox breeding population of Blue Tits Parus caeruleus during the breeding season of 1990. In as many as 27% of the 55 clutches studied, laying was interrupted for at least one day. It is concluded that the interruption of egg laying depends on food availability since the frequency of laying gaps decreased in clutches laid by females experimentally p

In this work, we propose a novel measure of distance for quantifying dissimilarities between signals observed on a graph. Building on a recently introduced optimal mass transport framework, the distance measure is formed using the second-order statistics of the graph signals, allowing for comparison of graph processes without direct access to the signals themselves, while explicitly taking the dyn

There is a scarcity of work examining the relationship between culture and pain-related caregiver behaviors. Moreover, no pediatric pain studies have examined the relationship between caregiver cultural values and pain-related caregiver behaviors nor discern if this process is mediated by caregiver parenting styles and moderated by ecosocial context. Based on cross-cultural developmental theories,

In this work, we propose to utilize a recently developed covariance matrix interpolation technique in order to improve noise reduction in multi-microphone setups in the presence of a moving, localized noise source. Based on the concept of optimal mass transport, the proposed method induces matrix interpolants implying smooth spatial displacement of the noise source, allowing for physically reasona

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