In this randomised, controlled trial for patients with penetrating abdominal injuries, IBS led to a significant reduction in allogeneic blood usage with no discernable effect on rates of postoperative infection or mortality.

Dialogue is arguably one of the most important components of any learning process. However, as student numbers increase and more emphasis is given to electronic delivery of courses, opportunities for effective dialogue may be missed. The technology to support e-learning dialogue is readily available, but design of the dialogue structures and understanding of learners' online communication behaviour requires further research. This paper reports on a study of the use of asynchronous discussion forums to support online dialogue in undergraduate learning and teaching in two groups of students. Initial empirical evidence, obtained from online communication behaviour data and assessment results, is presented to support a positive association between students' participation in e-learning dialogues and learning outcomes. Other factors that could influence effective exploitation of e-learning dialogues such as tutor intervention, students' perceptions, dialogue quality and learning outcomes are discussed, along with implications for the design of such systems.

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Abstract: Since their inception in the early 1980s electronic books have grown substantially in popularity, mainly due to their usefulness in distributing large volumes of interactive multimedia information in the form of text, pictures and sound. This paper describes the basic nature of electronic books and the philosophy underlying their use. A basic taxonomy of electronic books is then presented and a description is given of the various techniques involved intheir design and fabrication. The paper concludes with a description of some application case studies and an outline of some possible future directions of development.