HLA class II associations with rheumatic heart disease among clinically homogeneous patients in children in Latvia

Genetic control of immune reactions has a major role in the development of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) and differs between patients with rheumatic fever (RF). Some authors think the risk of acquiring RHD is associated with the HLA class II DR and DQ loci, but other views exist, due to the various HLA-typing methods and ways of grouping cases. Our goal was to determine the relations between HLA class II alleles and risk of or protection from RF in patients with relatively homogeneous clinical manifestations. A total of 70 RF patients under the age of 18 years were surveyed in Latvia. HLA genotyping of DRB1*01 to DRB1*18 and DQB1*0201-202, *0301-305, *0401-402, *0501-504, and *0601-608 was performed using polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers. Data for a control group of 100 healthy individuals typed for HLA by the same method were available from the databank of the Immunology Institute of Latvia. Of the RF patients, 47 had RHD and 8 had Sydenham's chorea. We concluded that HLA class II DRB1*07-DQB1*0401-2 and DRB1*07-DQB1*0302 could be the risk alleles and HLA class II DRB1*06 and DQB1*0602-8, the protective ones. Patients with mitral valve regurgitation more often had DRB1*07 and DQB1*0401-2, and patients with multivalvular lesions more often had DRB1*07 and DQB1*0302. In Sydenham's chorea patients, the DQB1*0401-2 allele was more frequent. Genotyping control showed a high risk of RF and RHD in patients with DRB1*01-DQB1*0301-DRB1*07-DQB1*0302 and DRB1*15-DQB1*0302-DRB1*07-DQB1*0303

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Assessment of Spring Barley Populations in Comparison to Homogenous Varieties

The necessity to increase genetic diversity in agriculture has been widely discussed during the last decades. Heterogeneous populations is one of the ways to increase genetic diversity in varieties of self-pollinating cereals. The aim of this research was to compare grain yield, its stability, foliar diseases severity and competitiveness against the weeds of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare) populations and homogenous varieties. Field trials consisting of three types of populations (simple, complex and composite cross populations – CCP) containing different levels of diversity and three check varieties were carried out during 2015-2018 under organic and conventional farming systems. No one of the populations had a significantly higher average yield than any of the check varieties. CCP1 showed a tendency to be more productive under organic growing conditions and can be characterized as widely adaptable to various growing conditions with a significantly higher yield as the average overall environments. One of the complex populations showed adaptability to favorable growing conditions and yield insignificantly higher than overall average. Other studied populations can be characterized with wide adaptability and various yield levels. For most of the populations under organic and conventional conditions, a significantly lower net blotch (caused by Pyrenophora teres) severity was observed in comparison with the most susceptible variety; infection with powdery mildew (caused by Blumeria graminis) lower than for check varieties was observed under organic growing conditions, whereas such trend was not observed under conventional conditions. All populations had a significantly lower crop ground cover and slightly lower competiveness against weeds than the variety with the best competitiveness

E-payment products and value-added services: Moving towards an innovative European internal market

Central banks analyse issues concerning retail payments - or just payments - to be able to promote optimal means of payment. Over the years, electronic payments - i.e. payments initiated and settled electronically - have gradually replaced manual paper-based payments on the grounds of convenience, security and efficiency. Moreover, payments become more efficient when services are offered to customers both before and after payment. These so-called value-added services (VAS) are fully electronic services such as e-invoicing and e-reconciliation, which bring time and cost-savings for all participants, as paper-based services and manual work are replaced. In this paper we prove a clear-cut distinction between electronic payment products (e-payments) and VAS. We use the so-called Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) project as a case study and discuss its current state of fatigue. Based on practical experience in Europe we conclude that the SEPA fatigue can be overcome by real-time settlement for payments and VAS supporting end-to-end (e2e) straight-through processing (STP)

"Libraries designed for users". Nowadays concept of library architecture and interior

The aim of the study was to emphasize the importance of library building as community asset. All – location of the library, architecture, layout, equipment and functions – matters when we talk about the place where users come to acquire knowledge, communicate, socialize and take a rest. Six library building projects (three Latvian library projects – the National Library of Latvia (the Castle of Light), the branch library “Vidzeme” (branch of the Riga Central Library), Pārventa Library (branch of the Ventspils Library), and three foreign library projects – the National Library of Belarus, the New Library of Alexandria (the New Bibliotheca Alexandrina), the National Library of the Czech Republic (the Eye above Prague)) were chosen to compare architectural solutions for the library needs. Several libraries were chosen to compare modern interior design approaches: the Art, Design and Media (ADM) Library at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, the Taipei Public Library in Taiwan, the Strozier Library at Florida State University, the Engineering Library of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the Coventry’s Arena Park Library in United Kingdom and the Library & Learning Resources (LLR) at the University of Borås in Sweden. The importance and interest of the study is to show that such issues as interior design and architectural solutions can be important in creating appropriate and friendly place for library users