The left atrial auricle (LAA) is the main source of intracardiac thrombi, which contribute significantly to the total number of stroke cases. It is also considered a major site of origin for atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing ablation procedures. The LAA is known to have a high degree of morphological variability, with shape and structure identified as important contributors to thrombus fo

Purpose: To investigate the impact of Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) on vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) in patients with glaucoma. Design: Cross-sectional cohort study. Participants: Twenty-four patients with CBS and 42 matched controls without CBS out of 337 patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) with visual field (VF) loss. Methods: A matching technique was used to identify control patien

Introduction: A nationwide multicenter study was performed to examine short- and long-term effects of irreversible electroporation (IRE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRCLM). IRE is an alternative method when thermal ablation is contraindicated because of risk for serious thermal complications. Methods: All consecutive patients in Sweden treated with IR

We prove linear convergence for a new family of modified Dirichlet–Neumann methods applied to quasilinear parabolic equations, as well as the convergence of the Robin–Robin method. Such nonoverlapping domain decomposition methods are commonly employed for the parallelization of partial differential equation solvers. Convergence has been extensively studied for elliptic equations, but in the case o

AbstractRecent research in the wider archaeological landscape of Great Zimbabwe recovered moreevidence of metallurgical tuyeres fused in varied multiples indicative of their use in natural draft iron smelting technologies. We report the first detailed chemical, microstructural and thermal analyses of these ceramic materials most likely associated with large-scale iron production at the zenith of tWe report the first detailed chemical, microstructural and thermal analyses of a growing corpus of metallurgical tuyeres from the wider archaeological landscape of Great Zimbabwe in southern Africa. Of note is the fusion of the tuyeres in multiples, suggestive of widespread use of natural draft iron smelting technologies for large-scale production of iron most likely during the zenith period of Gr

Laboratory mice are typically housed under extremely clean laboratory conditions, far removed from the natural lifestyle of a free-living mouse. There is a risk that this isolation from real-life conditions may lead to poor translatability and misinterpretation of results. We and others have shown that feral mice as well as laboratory mice exposed to naturalistic environments harbor a more diverse

A screen of cell surface markers differentially expressed during peripheral B cell differentiation identified that the CD45RB epitope detected by the mAb MEM-55 was highly expressed on CD27+ memory B cells and absent on CD27- naïve B cells. IgG+CD27- memory and a previously unacknowledged CD27- population in blood also expressed high levels of CD45RBMEM55. Naïve and memory B cells from tonsils fol

Background To accurately interpret COVID-19 seroprevalence surveys, knowledge of serum-IgG responses to SARS-CoV-2 with a better understanding of patients who do not seroconvert, is imperative. This study aimed to describe serum-IgG responses to SARS-CoV-2 in a cohort of patients with both severe and mild COVID-19, including extended studies of patients who remained seronegative more than 90 days

Adjuvants have traditionally been appreciated for their immunoenhancing effects, whereas their impact on immunological memory has largely been neglected. In this paper, we have compared three mechanistically distinct adjuvants: aluminum salts (Alum), Ribi (monophosphoryl lipid A), and the cholera toxin A1 fusion protein CTA1-DD. Their influence on long-term memory development was dramatically diff

Promoter region sequences of human and mouse Igk-V genes were aligned and found to be conserved for about 200-300 base pairs (bp) within subgroups/families. No promoter similarity was found between IGKV promoters from different human subgroups. Related mouse Igk-V gene families were conserved in the promoter region but no similarity was evident when promoters from unrelated Igk-V gene families wer

Recruitment of immune cells to tumors is a complex process crucial for both inflammation-driven tumor progression and specific anti-tumor cytotoxicity. Chemokines control the directed migration of immune cells, and their actions are partly controlled by nonsignaling chemokine decoy receptors. The role of the receptors such as D6, Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines and ChemoCentryx chemokine rec

Our understanding of how class-switch recombination (CSR) to IgA occurs in the gut is still incomplete. Earlier studies have indicated that Tregs are important for IgA CSR and these cells were thought to transform into follicular helper T cells (Tfh), responsible for germinal center formation in the Peyer’s patches (PP). Following adoptive transfer of T-cell receptor-transgenic (TCR-Tg) CD4 T cell

Background: In many studies it would be advantageous if blood samples could be collected and analyzed using flow cytometry at a later stage. Ideally, sample collection should involve little hands-on time, allow for long-term storage, and minimally influence the samples. Methods: Here we establish a flow cytometry antibody panel that can be used to determine granulocytes, monocytes, and lymphocyte

Inspired by the work of Paul Sinclair we yearn for the publication of a guidebook to provide an inventory of Zimbabwe Sites (Sinclair 1987, 1989, 1993, 2010). These sites are the tangible archaeological espression and hence vital evidence of the anatomy of the precolo-nial state in Zimbabwe (Pikirayi 1993, 2001; Pwiti 1996, Mudenge 2011, Beach 1980). The precolonial history of Zimbabwe may be rend

Whereas gut IgA responses to the microbiota may be multi-centered and diverse, little is known about IgA responses to T-cell-dependent antigens following oral immunizations. Using a novel approach, gut IgA responses to oral hapten (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl-cholera toxin (NP-CT) conjugates were followed at the cellular and molecular level. Surprisingly, these responses were highly synchronize

Somatic hypermutation and isotype switch recombination occur in germinal center B cells, are linked to transcription, and are similarly affected by deficiency in MutS homologue (MSH)2. Class-switch recombination is abrogated by disruption of genes encoding components of the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK(cs))/Ku complex and likely involves nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ

Most antibodies produced in the body are of the IgA class. The dominant cell population producing them are plasma cells within the lamina propria of the gastrointestinal tract, but many IgA-producing cells are also found in the airways, within mammary tissues, the urogenital tract and inside the bone marrow. Most IgA antibodies are transported into the lumen by epithelial cells as part of the muco

A novel Ets protein was isolated by yeast one-hybrid screening of a cDNA library made from lipopolysaccharide-stimulated mouse splenic B cells, using the SP6 κ promoter κY element as a bait. The novel Ets protein was most closely related to PU.1 and Spi-B within the DNA binding Ets domain and was therefore named Spi-C. However, Spi-C may represent a novel subgroup within the Ets protein family, as

Neuroblastoma is the most commonly diagnosed extracranial tumor in the first year of life. Approximately 9% of neuroblastoma patients present germline or somatic aberrations in the gene encoding for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). This increases in high-risk neuroblastomas, which have a 14% frequency of ALK aberrations at the time of diagnosis and show increasing numbers at relapse. Abrogating A

Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an immunological treatment that has been used for more than 40 years to cure a variety of diseases. The procedure is associated with serious side effects, due to the severe impairment of the immune system induced by the treatment. After a conditioning regimen with high-dose chemotherapy, sometimes in combination with total body irradiation, haemat