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BIT

Do you respect wood?

What do you stand for? If you are Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), you vehemently respect wood in all its varieties: pine, walnut, oak, and more. How does one respect would you ask? With a coaster. No beverage, be it hot, cold, or room temperature, shall touch the bare surface of wood furniture. Larry David believes in a world without any ring stains. Do you?

BASE PAIR

HLA and human partnership

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are a key genetic component of the immune system. The main HLA classes are class I (HLA-A, -B, -C) and class II (HLA-DR, -DP, -DQ). The heavy chain of HLA can be detected in bodily fluids, such as saliva and sweat. In a 1995 study, women (n = 49) preferred the body odor (from a T-shirt worn for 2 nights) of HLA dissimilar men.

Because HLA is co-dominantly expressed, heterozygosity (dissimilarity) confers greater resistance to diverse pathogens. Therefore, in their study, Kromer et al, examined if HLA was associated with partnership satisfaction in 254 couples. They found that overall HLA class I dissimilarity, for both men and women, is associated with higher partnership satisfaction.

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