Present trends in the mainstream adoption of educational technology coupled to the increased acceptance and adoption of openness in terms of sharing resources and open access force higher education into a radical rethink of its structures and educational strategies. This article examines the current shift in focus from the simple production and sharing of open educational resources (OER) towards w

Compound 3, a model system for communesin F, was approached by using a Diels-Alder reaction for the introduction of the vicinal quaternary stereocentres. Subsequent introduction of A/B-ring system followed by D/E-ring closure gave hexacyclic system 22. All attempts to reduce this material to give compound 3 were, however, unproductive.

The deficiency or abnormal function of von Willebrand factor (VWF) causes von Willebrand disease (VWD), the most frequent inherited bleeding disorder. The laboratory diagnosis of VWD can be difficult as the disease is heterogeneous and an array of assays is required to describe the phenotype. Basic classification of quantitative (type 1 and 3) and qualitative (type 2) VWD variants requires determi

Abstract Background. It has been debated whether or not heparin infusion before or after non-heart-beating donors are declared dead improves the quality of pulmonary grafts. In clinical lung transplantation with heart-beating donors (HBDs) heparin is routinely infused prior to organ harvesting since it is believed to improve pulmonary grafts by minimizing thrombosis formation in the pulmonary graf

Septal systolic motion is towards the left ventricle (LV) in healthy hearts. Patients with pulmonary regurgitation (PR) and right ventricular (RV) volume overload have systolic septal motion toward the RV. This may affect the longitudinal contribution from atrioventricular plane displacement (AVPD) and septal and lateral contribution to stroke volume (SV). The study aimed to quantify these contrib

In this paper, we discuss the effects of jumps in data on causation pattern both in mean and variance. Our data consist of daily stock returns of four countries: the US, the UK, Japan and Sweden and used for empirical investigation. A test proposed by Cheung and Ng (1996) and Hong (2001) is used for testing volatility spillover. We find significant evidence of jump spillover. It is shown that the

We previously reported the occurrence of Lewy bodies in grafted human fetal mesencephalic neurons in two patients with Parkinson's disease. Here, we have used immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy to characterize the development of Lewy bodies in one of these cases. This patient was operated in putamen on both sides at 12 or 16 years before death, respectively. We demonstrate that 2% of the

Human embryonic stem cells offer a potential unlimited supply for functional hepatocytes, since they can differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells displaying a characteristic hepatic morphology and expressing various hepatic markers. These cells could be used in various applications such as studies of drug metabolism and hepatotoxicity, which however, would require a significant expression of drug

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate how adult patients experience and cope with the anesthesia induction period, that is, before and during total intravenous induction. Design: Grounded theory, based on the Charmaz framework, was used to explore what it is that characterizes patients' thoughts and feelings in this situation and how they handle the time period up to loss of consciousn

Background In ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), distal embolization of thrombus material often precludes restoration of normal coronary artery flow. Small-scaled studies have demonstrated that intracoronary thrombus aspiration improves flow and myocardial perfusion, but only one larger randomized single-center study has suggested a survival benefit. Thrombus aspiration is widely used in

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. The pathogenesis of AD involves skin barrier defects and dysregulation of innate and adaptive immunity. Some environmental factors such as stress, infections, and allergens are associated with aggravation of AD. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between skin barrier function, skin colonization of Staphylococcus a

Myoglobin (Mb) binds diatomic ligands, like O2, CO, and NO, in a cavity that is only transiently accessible. Crystallography and molecular simulations show that the ligands can migrate through an extensive network of transiently connected cavities but disagree on the locations and occupancy of internal hydration sites. Here, we use water (2)H and (17)O magnetic relaxation dispersion (MRD) to chara

PURPOSE: Systemic peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) respond poorly to conventional therapy. To evaluate the efficacy of a dose-dense approach consolidated by upfront high-dose chemotherapy (HDT) and autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) in PTCL, the Nordic Lymphoma Group (NLG) conducted a large prospective phase II study in untreated systemic PTCL. This is the final report, with a 5-year m

In this paper, we consider 3D wave-packet transform that is useful in 3D data processing. This transform is computationally intensive even though it has a computational complexity of O(N3 log N). Here we present its implementation on GPUs using NVIDIA CUDA technology. The code was tested on different types of graphical processors achieving the average speedup up to 46 times on Tesla M2050 compared

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is associated with a poor prognosis and predicting outcome is complex with neurophysiological testing and repeated clinical neurological examinations as key components of the assessment. In this study we examine the association between different electroencephalography (EEG) patterns and mortality in a clinical cohort of OHCA-patients.

Objective: Whether distal inflammation in asthmatics also leads to structural changes in the alveolar parenchyma remains poorly examined, especially in patients with uncontrolled asthma. We hypothesized that patients who do not respond to conventional inhaled corticosteroid therapy have a distinct tissue composition, not only in central, but also in distal lung. Methods: Bronchial and transbronchi

A new vessel for simultaneous isothermal calorimetry and respirometry (calorespirometry) on terrestrial (non-aqueous) samples has been developed. All types of small (