Narrowing down dimensions of e-learning readiness in continuing vocational education - perspectives from the adult learner.

Although e-learning has become an important feature to promote learning experience, still little is known about the readiness of adult learners for e-learning in continuing vocational education. By exploring perceived challenges and benefits, it was our aim to identify dimensions that define e-learning readiness. Therefore, we conducted a study design with qualitative and quantitative components.

Converging Development of English as Foreign Language Listening and Reading Comprehension Skills in German Upper Secondary Schools.

Receptive skills in English as a second language are important for students on the verge of entering higher education as this student group (aged 17-19) is expected to apply English regularly in their later life. Previous research in this age group in Germany already implied an increasing overlap between both skills in this age group, although robustness of this effect across student groups with different learning experiences was not tested. We used language assessment data collected from upper secondary schools (i.

Improved survival of head and neck cancer patients in Greenland.

Previously, head and neck cancer (HNC) patients in Greenland have had significant diagnostic delay and poor survival rates. From 2005-2009 several initiatives have been made to ensure faster diagnosis and better survival. The aim of this study was to compare the prognosis before and after these initiatives were introduced.

[Renal cell carcinoma metastasis to the thyroid gland 15 years after nephrectomy].

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) metastasis to the thyroid gland is rare and can mimic primary thyroid carcinoma leading to diagnostic difficulties. We present a case of a 55-year-old female with RCC metastasis to the thyroid gland 15 years after nephrectomy. Diagnosis was made after total thyroidectomy.

Applying the Rasch sampler to identify aberrant responding through person fit statistics under fixed nominal α-level.

Testing hypotheses on a respondent's individual fit under the Rasch model requires knowledge of the distributional properties of a person fit statistic. We argue that the Rasch Sampler (Verhelst, 2008), a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for sampling binary data matrices from a uniform distribution, can be applied for simulating the distribution of person fit statistics with the Rasch model in the same way as it used to test for other forms of misfit. Results from two simulation studies are presented which compare the approach to the original person fit statistics based on normalization formulas.

Genome sequence and phenotypic analysis of a first German Francisella sp. isolate (W12-1067) not belonging to the species Francisella tularensis.

Background: Francisella isolates from patients suffering from tularemia in Germany are generally strains of the species F. tularensis subsp. holarctica.

Oligonucleotide microarray chip for the quantification of MS2, ΦX174, and adenoviruses on the multiplex analysis platform MCR 3.

Pathogenic viruses are emerging contaminants in water which should be analyzed for water safety to preserve public health. A strategy was developed to quantify RNA and DNA viruses in parallel on chemiluminescence flow-through oligonucleotide microarrays. In order to show the proof of principle, bacteriophage MS2, ΦX174, and the human pathogenic adenovirus type 2 (hAdV2) were analyzed in spiked tap water samples on the analysis platform MCR 3.

Surveillance of adenoviruses and noroviruses in European recreational waters.

Exposure to human pathogenic viruses in recreational waters has been shown to cause disease outbreaks. In the context of Article 14 of the revised European Bathing Waters Directive 2006/7/EC (rBWD, CEU, 2006) a Europe-wide surveillance study was carried out to determine the frequency of occurrence of two human enteric viruses in recreational waters. Adenoviruses were selected based on their near-universal shedding and environmental survival, and noroviruses (NoV) selected as being the most prevalent gastroenteritis agent worldwide.

[A case of possibly life-threatening abscess formation in cervical lymph node tuberculosis].

Abscess formation in the cervical lymph nodes is a well-known clinical manifestation. Special care should be taken in atypical cases. In this article we describe the case of a young foreign male with tuberculosis-induced cervical abscess formation where surgery revealed a large connecting mediastinal abscess.

Platelet factor 4 inhibits proliferation and cytokine release of activated human T cells.

Platelet factor 4 (PF-4), a platelet-derived CXC chemokine, has been shown to induce the differentiation of monocytes into a subset of macrophages that lack the expression of HLA-DR Ag. This suggests a potential role for PF-4 in the modulation of monocyte-dependent T cell activation. Using an Ag-specific stimulation model in which T cells were cocultured with monocytes in the presence of recall Ags, we could show that under these conditions PF-4-treatment caused a strong decrease of T cell proliferation as well as of IFN-gamma release.

Intracellular survival of Leishmania major in neutrophil granulocytes after uptake in the absence of heat-labile serum factors.

The role of polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocytes (PMN) in defense against the intracellular parasite Leishmania is poorly understood. In the present study, the interaction of human PMN with Leishmania major promastigotes was investigated in vitro. In the presence of fresh human serum, about 50% of PMN phagocytosed the parasites within 10 min and the parasite uptake led to PMN activation, resulting in the killing of most ingested parasites.