BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Quality indicators serve as standards of care by which performance of individual hospitals is measured. Although several audits for monitoring quality of stroke care have been established in Europe, there is currently no consensus on quality indicators for acute stroke care or for methodology for collecting information on these measures. METHODS: An up-to-date inventory on

Benchmarking är en själv-värderingsmetod som gör det möjligt för organisationer att jämföra sig med andra gällande vissa prestanda- och utförandeaspekter. Syftet är att finna goda exempel, sätt att förbättra nuvarande situation samt förstå i vilket tillstånd den egna organisationen befinner sig i vad gäller dessa aspekter. Benchmarking handlar om förändring för kvalitetsutveckling men också om ide

In this paper, a penalty function is designed and used in the computation of multitapers which correspond to the Wigner and Choi-Williams distributions. The resulting multitaper spectrogram will approximately fulfill the concentration of the distribution but will additionally suppress the cross-terms outside a predetermined Doppler-lag bandwidth. The specific region as well as the amount of cross-

The receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) has been implicated in several pathophysiological processes relevant to Alzheimer's disease (AD), including transport and synaptotoxicity of AD-associated amyloid beta (A beta) peptides. A recent Chinese study (Li et al. in J Neural Transm 117:97-104, 2010) suggested an association between the 82S allele of the functional single nucleotide po

We examined the distribution of quantitative heel ultrasound (QUS) parameters in population samples of European men and looked at the influence of lifestyle factors on the occurrence of these parameters. Men aged between 40 and 79 years were recruited from eight European centers and invited to attend for an interviewer-assisted questionnaire, assessment of physical performance, and quantitative ul

We present a practical algorithm for sampling the product of environment map lighting and surface reflectance. Our method builds on wavelet-based importance sampling, but has a number of important advantages over previous methods. Most importantly, we avoid using precomputed reflectance functions by sampling the BRDF on-the-fly. Hence, all types of materials can be handled, including anisotropic and

Cellular replacement therapy has emerged as a novel strategy for the treatment of heart failure. The aim of our study was to determine the fate of injected mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and whole bone marrow (BM) cells in the infarcted heart. MSCs were purified from BM of transgenic mice and characterized using flow cytometry and in vitro differentiation assays. Myocardial infarctions were generat

With the aim to improve our understanding of the structural basis for protein self-association and aggregation, in particular in relationship to protein refolding and amyloid formation, folding-related processes for human cystatin C have been studied. Using NMR spectroscopy together with chromatographic and electrophoretic methods, a self-association process resulting in dimer formation for protei

Objective. To delineate a perceived association of estradiol versus estradiol plus norethisterone hormone therapy on the prevalence of colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women. Methods. The Women's Health in the Lund Area (WHILA) project covers 10 766 women aged 50-60 years, living in the Lund area, Sweden. Out of this population, 6908 (64%) women completed questionnaires, underwent physical and

The role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) localized in dendritic spines has become a subject of intense interest because of its potential functions in local protein synthesis and signal transduction. Although it is recognized from electron microscopic studies that not all spines contain ER, little is know of its dynamic regulation or turnover. Here, we report a surprising degree of turnover of ER

Twenty-six years ago it was found that the common soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens is capable of extraordinary feats of interkingdom genetic transfer. Since this discovery, A. tumefaciens has served as a model system for the study of type IV bacterial secretory systems, horizontal gene transfer and bacterial-plant signal exchange. It has also been modified for controlled genetic transforma

We reported seven compounds isolated from mycelial cultures of Chilean Basidiomycetes. The compound structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Two polyacetylenes were isolated from Gymnopilus spectabilis: hepta-4,6-diyn-3-ol (1) and 7-chloro-hepta-4,6-diyn-3 ol (2). We isolated the aromatic compounds p-anisaldehyde (3) and 3-chloro-p-anisaldehyde (4) from Hypholoma capnoides. H. fascicul

Background: In acquired heart disease, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-Teminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are increasingly used as diagnostic and prognostic markers. In adult Congenital heart disease, the abnormal anatomy and physiology complicate assessment of cardiac function. We Studied the clinical correlates of measurement of natriuretic peptides (NP) in adults with a rig

Background and purpose: The purpose of this work was a comparison of realistic IMRT plans based on the same CT-image data set and a common predefined set of dose objectives for the planning target volume and the organs at risk. This work was part of the larger European QUASIMODO IMRT verification project. Materials and methods: Eleven IMRT. plans were produced by nine different European groups, ea

Using the resource-based view, we present a set of propositions related to enterprise resource planning (ERP) development, reflections on competitive advantage and the different roles that stakeholders play in the value-chain. This has the goal of building a foundation for future research on ERPs and how stakeholders' desire to achieve competitive advantage influence ERP development, especially wh

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) is characterized metabolically by defects in both insulin secretion and insulin action, resulting in hyperglycemia. Histopathologically, DM2 is characterized by depositions of protein in the pancreatic islets. This 'islet amyloid' is present in > 90% of patients with DM2, as well as in monkeys and cats with DM2. The pathogenesis of DM2 is heterogeneous and multifacto