C&A

C&A is an international Dutch chain of fashion retail clothing stores, with its European head offices in Vilvoorde, Belgium, and Düsseldorf, Germany. It has retail stores in many countries in Europe, Central America and South America. Its brands include Angelo Litrico, Canda, Clockhouse, Here+There, Palomino, Rodeo (ski and snowboard clothes), Westbury, Yessica, Yessica Pure, and Your Sixth Sense.

The company was founded by brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer in 1841 as a Dutch textile company, taking its company name from their initials. In 1906 Clemen's son, Bernard Joseph, started discounting in Amsterdam (Rekenen in Centen, in plaats van Procenten) and by 1910 there were ten stores in the Netherlands. They were from the German Brenninkmeyer family which traded in linen and textiles since the 17th century from its hometown of Mettingen, Germany.

For many years, C&A retail clothing stores were a major presence on high streets throughout the United Kingdom. C&A also opened stores in a number of out-of-town locations, most notably its store at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands, which opened in November 1989. The company's strategy of selling budget clothes from high-rent city-centre retail stores made it vulnerable to a new breed of competitors operating in cheaper, out-of-town locations, including Matalan and the rapidly expanding clothing operations of supermarket food chains such as Tesco and Asda, and to expanding high street names such as H&M, Zara, and Topshop.

Côa River

The Côa River is a tributary of the Douro River, in central and northeastern Portugal. It is one of the few Portuguese rivers that flows south to north. It flows through the municipalities of Sabugal Municipality, Almeida Municipality, Pinhel Municipality, Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo Municipality and Vila Nova de Foz Côa Municipality, all located in the Guarda District.

Thousands of ancient carvings in stone were discovered in the Côa Valley in the 1980s and 1990s. These are of particular interest due to the high concentration of Paleolithic art, and because these carvings are found outside of caves, on rocks in plain sight: Jean Clottes, a prominent French prehistorian, had confirmed that "is the biggest open air site of paleolithic art in Europe, if not in the world".

The drawings attracted worldwide attention when plans to build a hydroelectric dam across the Côa Valley threatened to submerge them. Although hydroelectric development was already well underway, outcry from locals, the scientific community and the media led to dam construction being halted in 1995 after a change in the national government following elections. A significant proportion of the drawings in the Canada do Inferno area were already underwater by that time. The Côa Valley Archaeological Park, opened in 1996 , was declared a protected UNESCO world heritage site in 1998.

Complement component 4

Complement component 4 is a protein involved in the complement system.

It is cleaved into proteins 4a and 4b; 4b can be further cleaved into 4c and 4d.

Clinical significance

It is responsible for the Chido Rodgers blood group system.

C4d has been identified as a biomarker for systemic lupus erythematosus.

The gene that codes for C4 is being investigated for the role it may play in schizophrenia risk and development.

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