Background: A medical treatment for urethral stricture (US) is not yet available. Objective: To evaluate if local injection of human adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hADSC) prevents urethral fibrosis in a rat model of US. Design, setting, and participants: Male rats were divided into three groups: sham, US, and hADSC (n = 12 each). Sham rats received a vehicle injection in the urethral wall. US

Since the Ukraine conflict began in 2014, there has been an increased awareness of the threat to EU interests posed by Russia. In early 2015, the EEAS created the East StratCom Team to respond by promoting the EU’s soft power, strengthen media resilience, and catalogue disinformation. This article categorizes several examples of Russian disinformation in order to conceptualize the conduct of digit

BACKGROUND: Empirical knowledge around palliative care provision and needs of people with intellectual disabilities is extremely limited, as is the availability of research resources, including expertise and funding. This paper describes a consultation process that sought to develop an agenda for research priorities for palliative care of people with intellectual disabilities in Europe.METHODS: A

Streptococcus pneumoniae commonly inhabits the nasopharynx as a member of the commensal biofilm. Infection with respiratory viruses, such as influenza A virus, induces commensal S. pneumoniae to disseminate beyond the nasopharynx and to elicit severe infections of the middle ears, lungs, and blood that are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Current preventive strategies, includ

Market making and optimal portfolio liquidation in the context of electronic limit order books are of considerably practical importance for high frequency (HF) market makers as well as more traditional brokerage firms supplying optimal execution services for clients. In general, the two problems are based on probabilistic models defined on certain reference probability spaces. However, due to unce

A low power CMOS charge pump (CP) is proposed utilizing a new combination of charge transferring switches for a faster start-up, higher efficiency and lower reverse charge sharing. A low cost feedback mechanism observes the output voltage level and automatically switches off the clock after passing a threshold, which reduces energy dissipation by 62%. It is shown that by using one capacitor per st

Investigations of past climate dynamics rely on accurate and precise chronologies of the employed climate reconstructions. The radiocarbon dating calibration curve (IntCal13) and the Greenland ice core chronology (GICC05) represent two of the most widely used chronological frameworks in paleoclimatology of the past 1/4 g50g000 years. However, comparisons of climate records anchored on these chrono

Cloud computing has dramatically simplified the deployment of new software and, indeed, the number of applications that are hosted by cloud providers every day is increasing. The data center owner should provide computing capacity to a set of customers, each of them powering up and down virtual machines dynamically, to handle variations in the incoming requests. Cloud providers, however, should al

Background: Transient tachypnea of the newborn is characterized by tachypnea and signs of respiratory distress. Transient tachypnea typically appears within the first two hours of life in term and late preterm newborns. Although transient tachypnea of the newborn is usually a self limited condition, it is associated with wheezing syndromes in late childhood. The rationale for the use of salbutamol

Possibilities to develop human monoclonal antibody specificities have recently been much facilitated by improvements of human hybridoma technology but even more so by the emerging phage-display technique. However, until recently very little has been known about the characteristics at the molecular level of the induced, T cell-dependent human antibody response, frequently targeted by these techniqu

Recombinant DNA technology has made it possible to produce specific Fab and scFv antibody (Ab) fragments in prokaryotic host cells. Using vectors designed for periplasmic expression of encoded Ab fragments, we have been studying how the sequence and genetic localization of the light chain (L-chain) variable region gene of a mouse Ab (CB-Nm.1) determined the level of Ab production. The variable reg

High mobility (III-V) materials have long been anticipated to replace Si MOSFETs. But only recently [1] were scaled InAs MOSFETs reported to outperform Si devices. However, high-performing III-V devices are typically fabricated on InP substrates which are not compatible with large-scale chip manufacturing. While various III-V on Si fabrication approaches have been reported to overcome this issue,

The complexity of modern interdisciplinary health care practices, where different specialties work together to solve complex problems, challenges traditional approaches to organizational development and quality improvement. An example of this is surgery. This article describes and evaluates an action-oriented method to facilitate organizational development and innovation at an operating unit, cent

The fight against antibiotic resistance is one of the most significant challenges to public health of our time. The inevitable development of resistance following the introduction of novel antibiotics has led to an urgent need for the development of new antibacterial drugs with new mechanisms of action that are not susceptible to existing resistance mechanisms. One such compound is HAMLET, a natur