Tracheal stenosis (TS) is a fibrosis originated by prolonged inflammation and increased transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) expression and collagen deposition (CD) in the tracheal wound. Several wound-healing modulators (WHMs) have been used to modulate the tracheal healing process and prevent TS, but they have failed, justifying the need to evaluate alternative WHM. The pirfenidone (PFD...

BACKGROUND HLAMatchmaker is a computer algorithm that determines human leukocyte antigen (HLA) compatibility at the level of polymorphic amino acid triplets in antibody-accessible sequence positions. Recent studies have shown that HLA-DR-matched kidney transplant recipients with zero to two triplet mismatches had almost identical graft survival rates as those with zero HLA-A,B,DR antigen mismat...

Constipation is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder, with prevalence in the general population of approximately 20%. In the elderly population the incidence of constipation is higher compared to the younger population, with elderly females suffering more often from severe constipation. Treatment options for chronic constipation (CC) include stool softeners, fiber supplements, osmotic ...

The three standard products (the Cartesian, the direct and the strong product) of undirected graphs have been wellinvestigated, unique prime factor decomposition (PFD) are known and polynomial time algorithms have been established for determining the prime factors. For directed graphs, unique PFD results with respect to the standard products are known. However, there is still a lack of algorith...

The problem of acquiring high-resolution images deep into biological samples is widely acknowledged. In air-filled tissue such as the spongy mesophyll of plant leaves or vertebrate lungs further difficulties arise from multiple transitions in refractive index between cellular components, between cells and airspaces and between the biological tissue and the rest of the optical system. Moreover, ...

We introduce the class of anti-coordination games, including the hawk-dove game as a special case. A symmetric two-player game is said to have the anti-coordination property if any worst response to a mixed strategy is in the support of that mixed strategy. Every anti-coordination game has a unique interior Nash equilibrium. We investigate stability of the static equilibrium under several dynam...

Introduction Radiotherapy planning systems require many percentage depth dose (PDD) and profile measurements and there are various dosimeters that can be used to obtain these scans. As dose perturbation is particularly troublesome in smaller photon fields, using a low-perturbation, unshielded electron field diode (EFD) in these fields is of interest. The aim of this work was to investigate the ...

This paper presents a Low power phase frequency detector with charge pump for low power phase lock loop. The phase frequency detector with dead zone compensation has been proposed. The paper contains the detailed circuit diagram of PFD and charge pump with 1.8v power supply and 500MHz input frequency. The design has been realized using 0.18um CMOS technology. Keywords— Low Power, PLL, PFD, CP

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis [Link] Schneider) is an important crop in desert climates. A relatively high frequency of periods of chilling and high photon flux density (PFD) in this environment makes photoinhibition likely, resulting in a reduction of assimilation capacity in overwintering leaves. This could explain the low net photosynthesis found in shoots from the field (4-6 micromoles per s...

BACKGROUND Oxidative stress is one of the important factors involved in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The equilibrium of Nuclear factor-erythroid-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/[BTB (broad-complex, tramtrack and bric-a-brac) and CNC (cap'n'collar protein) homology 1, Bach1] determines the expression level of antioxidant factors, further regulating the function of oxidation/a...