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Few breakthroughs in preclinical research have translated into meaningful benefits, either in clinical terms or quality of life, for patients with advanced colorectal cancer, despite important preclinical discoveries regarding aberrant biological pathways associated with disease development and progression. The many reasons for the slow progress are diverse, ranging from the failure to codevelop biomarkers and targeted therapies, the regulatory burdens imposed on academic investigators, and the failure to collect serial tumor biopsies during clinical trials. This review discusses promising translational research that could help reduce the disparity between preclinical discovery and patient benefit, and advocate the concentration of efforts and resources on the most promising therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer, such as EGFR, VEGF and Fcγ receptor.

We present 23 cosmogenic surface exposure ages from 10 localities in southern Sweden. The new Be ages allow a direct correlation between the east and west coasts of southern Sweden, based on the same dating technique, and provide new information about the deglaciation of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet in the circum-Baltic area. In western Skåne, southernmost Sweden, a single cosmogenic surface exposure sample gave an age of 16.8±1.0ka, whereas two samples from the central part of Skåne gave ages of 17.0±0.9 and 14.1±0.8ka. Further northeast, in southern Småland, two localities gave ages ranging from 15.2±0.8 to 16.9±0.9ka (n=5) indicating a somewhat earlier deglaciation of the area than has previously been suggested. Our third locality, in S Småland, gave ages ranging from 10.2±0.5 to 18.4±1.6ka (n=3), which are probably not representative of the timing of deglaciation. In central Småland one locality was dated to 14.5±0.8ka (n=3), whereas our northernmost locality, situated in northern Småland, was dated to 13.8±0.8ka (n=3). Samples from the island of Gotland suggest deglaciation before 13ka ago. We combined the new Be ages with previously published deglaciation ages to constrain the deglaciation chronology of southern Sweden. The combined deglaciation chronology suggests a rather steady deglaciation in southern Sweden starting at c.17.9cal. ka BP in NW Skåne and reaching northern Småland, ∼200km further north, c.13.8ka ago. Overall the new deglaciation ages agree reasonably well with existing deglaciation chronologies, but suggest a somewhat earlier deglaciation in Småland.

The Signal Processing Department (ASB) at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) has created two online lab workbenches, one for electrical experiments and one for mechanical vibration experiments, mimicking and supplementing workbenches in traditional labo-ratories. Since some years, the workbenches are used concurrently with on-site ones in regular supervised lab sessions. The students are also free to use them on their own around the clock e.g. for preparation. The electronic workbench can be used simultane-ously by many students. The aim of a project known as VISIR (Virtual Systems in Reality) founded by ASB at the end of 2006, is disseminating the online lab workbenches using open source technologies. The goal is to create a template for a grid laboratory where the nodes are workbenches for electrical ex-periments, located at different universities. This paper focuses on standards, pedagogical aspects, and measurement procedure requirements.