Yearly Archives: 2016
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
Barriers to implementing person-centered recovery planning in the public mental health system
Person-centered care is one of the six aims of healthcare quality established by the Institute of Medicine (2001). Person-centered recovery planning (PCRP) is a relatively new initiative in mental health care that refers to a process by
Comparing conservation metrics in a case study of lemurs
Deciding to which areas or species conservation actions should be allocated is, unfortunately, a very difficult process. On the one hand, time, money and resources are limited. On the other hand, it is unclear which points of
Who are easily to develop flood-related bacillary dysentery?
Climate change has already brought and will continue to bring about challenges to public health on a global scale. In particular, it is estimated that floods have affected 2.8 billion people and killed 200,000 during the past
