Atlanticism In Visegrad: Understanding the Relationship between Central Europe and the U.S. after 1989

This thesis seeks to explore the relationship of the countries of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia (together known as the Visegrad Group or Visegrad 4 [V4]) with the US after the fall of communism, and how this relationship helped them to transform their political and economic systems. This study will primarily focus on the years between 1989-2000, as this was the period during which US-V4 relations were at their peak. After the conclusion of the Clinton presidency, US foreign policy refocused its priorities as the US saw Central Europe as finally part of the Atlantic world and therefore able to handle its affairs on its own. This close relationship between these Central European countries and the US can be defined in terms of Atlanticism, the idea that both Europe and North America prosper when working together to build stronger political and economic ties; a relationship which in many ways was integral to the success of the countries in the Visegrad group as it was earlier for Western Europe under the Marshall Plan. In this thesis, I argue that it is this relationship based on Atlanticism, in combination with the united regional front that these countries presented in coordinating their foreign policy approaches in the last decade of the twentieth century, which enabled them to successfully integrate into the economic and political structures of Europe, and in a broader sense, the Atlantic world

A holistic approach to enhance the use of neglected and underutilized species: the case of Andean grains in Bolivia and Peru

The IFAD-NUS project, implemented over the course of a decade in two phases, represents the first UN-supported global effort on neglected and underutilized species (NUS). This initiative, deployed and tested a holistic and innovative value chain framework using multi-stakeholder, participatory, inter-disciplinary, pro-poor gender- and nutrition-sensitive approaches. The project has been linking aspects often dealt with separately by R&D, such as genetic diversity, selection, cultivation, harvest, value addition, marketing, and final use, with the goal to contribute to conservation, better incomes, and improved nutrition and strengthened livelihood resilience. The project contributed to the greater conservation of Andean grains and their associated indigenous knowledge, through promoting wider use of their diversity by value chain actors, adoption of best cultivation practices, development of improved varieties, dissemination of high quality seed, and capacity development. Reduced drudgery in harvest and postharvest operations, and increased food safety were achieved through technological innovations. Development of innovative food products and inclusion of Andean grains in school meal programs is projected to have had a positive nutrition outcome for targeted communities. Increased income was recorded for all value chain actors, along with strengthened networking skills and self-reliance in marketing. The holistic approach taken in this study is advocated as an effective strategy to enhance the use of other neglected and underutilized species for conservation and livelihood benefits

Donor species complement after liver xenotransplantation: The mechanism of protection from hyperacute rejection

Hamster hearts transplanted into stable rat recipients of hamster livers (OLT rats) were hyperacutely rejected after transfer with unaltered rat antihamster hyperimmune serum (HS). This was followed by immediate liver xenograft rejection in 4 of 5 rats. In contrast, simple heat inactivation of the rat HS resulted in prolonged survival of hamster hearts to 25 days without deterioration effect in the liver xenografts. This effect was species-specific because third-party mouse heart grafts in OLT rats were hyperacutely rejected in minutes if either active or heat inactivated antimouse HS was given. In cytotoxicity experiments, the complement in OLT serum produced weak lysis of hamster lymphocytes, while efficiently doing so with mouse cell targets. Because normal hamster serum caused no lysis at all of hamster target cells, the residual low-grade lysis of OLT serum was possibly being mediated by extrahepatic sources of rat C. In conclusion, the homology of C and target cells represents a mechanism of protection that the liver confers to other organs, and that is most easily seen in xenografts but may be allospecifically operational with allografts as well within the limits of MHC restriction. © 1994 by Williams and Wilkins

Humoral and cellular immunopathology of hepatic and cardiac hamster-into-rat xenograft rejection: Marked stimulation of IgM^++bright/IgD^+dull splenic B cells

Normal Lewis rat serum contains antibodies (IgM > IgG) that bind to hamster leukocytes and endothelial cells. Transplantation of either the heart or liver from hamster rat results in release of hamster hematolymphoid cells from the graft, which lodge in the recipient spleen (cell migration), where recipient T- and B-cell populations initiate DNA synthesis within one day. There is marked stimulation of splenic IgM++(bright)/IgD+(dull) B cells in the marginal zone and red pulp, which account for 48% of the total splenic blast cell population by 4 days after liver transplantation. CD4+ predominant T-cell proliferation in the splenic periarterial lymphatic sheath and paracortex of peripheral lymph nodes occurs almost simultaneously. The effector phase of rejection in cardiac recipients is dominated by complement-fixing IgM antibodies, which increase daily and result in graft destruction in 3 to 4 days, even in animals treated with FK506. In liver recipients, combined antibody and cellular rejection, associated with graft infiltration by OX8+ natural killer, and fewer W3/25+ (CD4) lymphocytes, are responsible for graft failure in untreated recipients at 6 to 7 days. FK506 inhibits the T-cell response in liver recipients and significantly prolongs graft survival, but does not prevent the rise or deposition of IgM antibodies in the graft. However, a single injection of cyclophosphamide 10 days before transplantation effectively depletes the splenic IgM++(bright)/IgD+(dull) cells and in combination with FK506, results in 100% survival of both cardiac and hepatic xenografts for more than 60 days. Although extrapolation of morphological findings to functional significance is fraught with potential problems, we propose the following mechanisms of xenograft rejection. The reaction initially appears to involve primitive host defense mechanisms, including an IgM-producing subpopulation of splenic B cells and natural killer cells. Based on the reaction and distribution of OX8+ and W3/25+ cells, antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity and delayed-type hypersensitivity responses seem worthy of further investigation as possible effector mechanisms. Effective control of xenograft rejection is likely to require a dual pharmaceutical approach, one to contain T-cell immunity and another to blunt the primitive B-cell response

Effects of a Focused Breathing Mindfulness Exercise on Attention, Memory, and Mood: The Importance of Task Characteristics

Previous research has shown that long-Term mindfulness training has beneficial effects on cognitive functioning and emotional regulation, but results are mixed regarding single mindfulness exercises, especially on attention and memory tasks. Thus, the present study aimed to analyse the effects of the Focused Breathing Exercise (FB) on cognitive performance, using standardised tests. Forty-six healthy undergraduate students were randomly assigned either to a FB or a Control condition. Two cognitive tasks (the Concentrated Attention task of the Toulouse-Pierron Factorial Battery and the Logical Memory Subtest I from the Wechsler Memory Scale III), along with mood evaluations (the Positive and Negative Affect Scale), were implemented both before and after the interventions. Results showed no significant differences for the attention task and mood evaluations. Nonetheless, the FB enhanced performance for the memory task significantly more than the Control exercise. The findings highlight that mindfulness does not affect equally all types of cognitive performances. Task characteristics may be important and their analysis can help to disentangle how mindfulness interferes with cognitive processes