Influenza A virus (IAV) is a common respiratory pathogen infecting many hosts including humans, pigs (swine influenza virus or SIV), and birds (avian influenza virus or AIV). Monitoring swine and avian influenza viruses in the wild, farms, and live poultry markets is of great significance for human and veterinary public health. A portable, sensitive, and quantitative immunoassay device will be ...

The last decade’s advancements in computer technology have facilitated a growing interest in the development of interactive sports-training equipment. This development has provided athletes and coaches with measurement and training tools, with performance analysis or skill improvement as purpose. However, most of these tools are created with a single goal, either to measure or train, and are of...

Learning to perform a complex motor task requires the optimization of specific behavioral features to cope with task constraints. We show that when mice learn a novel motor paradigm they differentially refine specific behavioral features. Animals trained to perform progressively faster sequences of lever presses to obtain reinforcement reduced variability in sequence frequency, but increased va...

This paper describes a multi-methodology approach used to reveal feedback dynamics operating in supply of, and demand for, skilled information and communications technology (ICT) employees. It describes how a large public service organization has had difficulty in adapting to rapid technological change, and how this has been exacerbated by employee shortages. The impacts of changing demographic...

The GMA committee for dentistry of the German Society for Medical Education (GMA) considers its' main purpose the representation and interconnection of all aspects of dentistry with and within the GMA. Teaching and assessing practical skills during training is traditionally of great importance in dental education. This is also reflected in the National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Obj...

Numerous studies have documented a high propensity for self-employment and business formation among return migrants relative to non-migrants. The literature points to the importance of remitted savings, migration duration, and number and types of jobs abroad for business formation upon return. Implicit in this scholarship is the assumption that migrants acquire not only financial capital, but a...

Abstract: This paper describes the architecture of a scalable Internet-based teaching and learning system (SKILL) currently developed at the University of Essen, Germany. The system will be developed first with the focus to the department Information Systems and Software Technologies, but is designed as a scalable architecture for a much wider scope. The primary objective of SKILL is to provide...

AIMS The aim was to examine whether specific skills required for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could be taught using a computerised training paradigm with people who have intellectual disabilities (IDs). Training aimed to improve: a) ability to link pairs of situations and mediating beliefs to emotions, and b) ability to link pairs of situations and emotions to mediating beliefs. METHOD...

Motor skill learning involves a practice-induced improvement in the speed and/or accuracy of a discrete movement. It is often thought that paradigms involving repetitive practice of discrete movements performed in a fixed sequence result in a further enhancement of skill beyond practice of the individual movements in a random order. Sequence-specific performance improvements could, however, ari...

Agility is important for sport performance and potentially injury risk; however, factors affecting this motor skill remain unclear. Here, we evaluated the extent to which lower extremity dexterity (LED) and muscle performance were associated with agility. Fourteen male and 14 female soccer athletes participated. Agility was evaluated using a hopping sequence separately with both limbs and with ...