Monthly Archives: November 2016

When sulfur meet RuO2: enhancing polysulfide redox reaction for advanced Li–S batteries

The ever – growing demand for energy – driven by steady population and economic growth as well as continuous advancements in lifestyle – presents serious challenges for today’s global societies. Strong efforts have been made to reduce

Perlecan HS produces TGF-β1 deficiency in mutant skin

The skin is the largest organ in the human body and one of it’s most dynamic. Skin has a large surface area and protects the body from the external environment and is challenged by many poisonous substances

When is the vascular healing complete after the drug eluting stent implantation?

Currently, drug eluting stent (DES) is one of the most important medical devices for percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with coronary artery disease. 1st generation DES decreased the frequency of restenosis compared to bare metal stent, but

Mutual trust between managers and their teams is hard to find: can we increase it?

It is not easy for managers and their teams to trust each other. In their study, Brower et al. (2009) observed that, in the hotel and resort industry, only 26% of teams showed both a high level

How to model a “real” tumour outside the body

Cancer is a highly complex disease, which causes high mortality and suffering and remains incompletely understood. In fact, cancer is viewed by many not as a single disease but a collection of diseases with distinct features, pathways

Neurons the decision makers

This work is concerned with understanding the synthesis of electric signals in the neural system based on making pairwise comparisons. Fundamentally, every person and every animal is born with the biological talent to compare stimuli from homogeneous

Egr-1, an inducible switch in the cardiovascular response to injury

The vascular system normally facilitates the passage of blood, nutrients and oxygen throughout the body whilst maintaining a non-thrombogenic surface. Our blood vessels therefore play a key role in homeostasis. In response to vascular injury however there

Nursing students’ perceptions of community care

The increase in extramural healthcare leads to a need for more well-educated community nurses. The number of nursing students who see this healthcare field as interesting for their future career, however, is limited. Many students tend to

Mutations in the SHOX2 gene contribute to irregular heartbeats

Heart rhythm disorders contribute significantly to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and represent a major health issue. Developing approaches towards disease prediction and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias is therefore an important topic in healthy aging. Atrial fibrillation (AFib)

The moving lines of electron spectra: emergence or artifact?

As known, positions and specific shapes of spectral lines characterize a nature and properties of chemical elements and their compounds. But what is meaning a changeable position of any spectral line? When some lines displace continuously within

MYD88 mutation is associated with an unfavorable outcome of Primary Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

Malignant lymphoma is a cancer of lymphocytes. This is actually a disease group consisting of multiple subtypes, among which diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is characterized by diffuse proliferation of large B lymphoid cells. Primary DLBCL of

Implantable heart pumps improve functional independence in patients with advanced heart failure

The syndrome of advanced heart failure (AHF) occurs when the muscle of the heart loses its ability to effectively pump blood to the body. This results in poor delivery of oxygen and other nutrients to many organs,

Fungal-derived oligoglucosides protect Candida albicans from the immune system attack

Platelets play a crucial role in hemostasis, thrombosis, and pathogen clearance. Many pathogenic fungi can interact with platelets in circulating blood. This interaction between the fungus and the host occurs at the level of the fungal cell

How hard can a cell push?

Growth is a fundamental phenomenon in biological systems. It happens daily around us, such as growth of grasses and babies. Microscopically, the growth occurs at the single cell level. The volume of cells is approximately doubled from

Thymus and surgeon: an attractive and challenging gland

The thymus is a small gland sited in the anterior-superior  mediastinum, approximately in the midline. It has  an h-shape  presenting two upper and two lower horns. It lies on the anterior surface of the pericardium starting from

Heat treatment of curdlan enhances enzymatic production of bioactive β-(1,3)-glucan oligosaccharides

Curdlan is a water insoluble linear β-(1,3)-glucan, which is industrially produced from bacterium. This polysaccharide displays irreversible gelation by heating, which has been applied in the food industry as stabilizers and food textures. However, those properties are

A new perspective on guided bone regeneration in foot surgery with heterologous materials

Guided bone regeneration (GBR), developed in 1976 by Melcher, is a surgical procedure used to increase the amount of bone volume. It uses barrier membranes with or without particulate bone grafts or/and bone substitutes. The basic principle

Big tasks for small flies: signaling cascades may help insects to detect faint odor traces

Have you ever wondered how a tiny vinegar fly manages to find its way to a ripened fruit in your kitchen? As many other insects flies possess a very keen sense of smell, which allows them to

Money is not enough for our health, but greater knowledge on how to spend it

It is well known that a low socioeconomic status is a major risk factor for health. Actually, deprived people do experience higher death rates and that is partly because of poor health behaviours (smoking, low exercise, poor

Reducing the failure rate of hip resurfacing in dysplasia patients

Arthritis secondary to developmental hip dysplasia often mandates implant surgery at a relatively young age. Hip resurfacing arthroplasty (HRA), compared with standard stemmed total hip arthroplasty (THA), affords a more active lifestyle including extreme-motion activities but stimulates