Parrots are frequently cited for their sophisticated problem-solving abilities, but cases of habitual tool use among psittacines are scarce. We report the first evidence, to our knowledge, of tool use by greater vasa parrots (Coracopsis vasa). Several members of a captive population spontaneously adopted a novel tool-using technique by using pebbles and date pits either (i) to scrape on the inner

The extent to which humans help each other is extraordinary in itself, and difficult to explain from an evolutionary perspective. Therefore, there has been a recent surge in studies investigating the evolution of prosocial behavior using a comparative approach. Nevertheless, most of these studies have focused on primates only, and little is known about other animal orders. In a previous study, com

CTLA-4 is important to down-regulating T cell responses and has been implicated in type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes mellitus in both linkage and association studies. The aim of our study was to relate the polymorphic (AT)(n) microsatellite in the 3' untranslated sequence of the CTLA-4 gene to diabetes risk. We studied 616 consecutively diagnosed 0-34 year-old Swedish patients and 502 matched co

Does the provision of after-school care promote maternal employment and thus help to foster gender equality in labor supply? We address this question by exploiting variation in cantonal (state) regulations of after-school care provision in Switzerland. To establish exogeneity of cantonal regulations with respect to employment opportunities and preferences of the population, we restrict our analysi

Efficient direct electron transfer (DET) between a cellobiose dehydrogenase mutant from Corynascus thermophilus (CtCDH C291Y) and a novel glassy carbon (GC)-modified electrode, obtained by direct electrodeposition of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was realized. The electrode was further modified with a mixed self-assembled monolayer of 4-aminothiophenol (4-APh) and 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA), by u

Basal colonic crypt stem cells are long lived and play a role in colon homeostasis. Previous evidence has shown that high-calorie diet (HCD) enhances colonic stem cell numbers and expansion of the proliferative zone, an important biomarker for colon cancer. However, it is not clear how HCD drives dysregulation of colon stem cell/colonocyte proliferative kinetics. We used a human-relevant pig model

The role of K396 in the enzymatic catalysis and the antigenicity of the 65 kDa isoform of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65) was analyzed using the K396R GAD65 mutant. GAD65 is a major autoantigen in Type 1 diabetes and autoantibodies directed to GAD65 are widely used markers for this disease. We found that (1) recombinant human GAD65 is fully enzymatically active; (2) the K396R mutation abolished GA

Background: Patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) have elevated risk for periodontitis (PD) relative to subjects without diabetes. Whether refractory PD in IDDM patients is related to autoimmunity as indicated by serum glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody GAD Ab levels or to host bacterial immunity as reflected by serum antibody titers to periodontal pathogens is unknown. Ai

OBJECTIVE - Ketosis-prone diabetes (KPD) is an emerging, heterogeneous syndrome. A sound classification scheme for KPD is essential to guide clinical practice and pathophysiologic studies. Four schemes have been used and are based on immunologic criteria, immunologic criteria and insulin requirement, BMI, and immunologic criteria and β-cell function (Aβ classification). The aim of the present stud

The smaller isoform of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65) is a major autoantigen in type 1 diabetes (TID). Its hydrophobic character requires detergent to keep the protein in solution, which complicates studies of antigen processing and presentation. In this study an attempt was made to replace detergent with human serum albumin (HSA) for in vitro antigen presentation. Different preparations of recom

Distributed algorithms for solving coupled semidefinite programs (SDPs) commonly require many iterations to converge. They also put high computational demand on the computational agents. In this paper we show that in case the coupled problem has an inherent tree structure, it is possible to devise an efficient distributed algorithm for solving such problems. The proposed algorithm relies on predic

Obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are two prevalent chronic diseases that have become a major public health concern in industrialized countries. T2D is characterized by hyperglycemia and islet beta cell dysfunction. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) promotes β cell proliferation and neogenesis and has a potent insulinotropic effect. Leptin receptor deficient male rats are obese and diabetic and prov

Baculovirus-insect cell expression system has become one of the most widely used eukaryotic expression systems for heterologous protein production in many laboratories. The availability of robust insect cell lines, serum-free media, a range of vectors and commercially-packaged kits have supported the demand for maximizing the exploitation of the baculovirus-insect cell expression system. Naturally

För 300 år sedan fanns väldiga skogar med rik biologisk mångfald i Nordamerika. Tre pionjärer som dokumenterat denna idag till stora delar försvunna värld var Mark Catesby, Alexander Wilson och John James Audubon.

In the past couple of decades, major efforts were made to increase reliability of metabolic assessments by magnetic resonance methods. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has been valuable for providing in vivo evidence and investigating biomarkers in neuropsychiatric disorders, namely schizophrenia. Alterations of glutamate and glutamine levels in brains of schizophrenia patients relative to he

This study investigates the implicit sequence learning abilities of dyslexic children using an artificial grammar learning task with an extended exposure period. Twenty children with developmental dyslexia participated in the study and were matched with two control groups—one matched for age and other for reading skills. During 3 days, all participants performed an acquisition task, where they wer

We study spacing distribution for the eigenvalues of a random normal matrix, in particular at points on the boundary of the spectrum. Our approach uses Ward’s (or the “rescaled loop”) equation—an identity satisfied by all sequential limits of the rescaled one-point functions.