Voorkom vliegen, voordat je ze ziet vliegen!

Vliegen in de stal zijn hinderlijk en kunnen gezondheidsproblemen bij varkens veroorzaken. Wageningen UR Livestock Research heeft het afgelopen jaar de vliegenoverlast en bestrijdingsmethoden geïnventariseerd op biologische varkensbedrijven. Nu is het onderzoek gericht op het voorkomen en weren van vliegen. Dit bioKennisbericht geeft een overzicht van ontwikkelingsplaatsen van vliegen in de stal en tips om vliegenoverlast te voorkome

Bescherm je longen tegen stof

Biologische varkenshouders werken vaak lange uren in de stal, vanwege de grote zorg voor de dieren. Daarnaast is strooisel een vereiste in de biologische varkenshouderij. Hierdoor zouden biologische varkenshouders aan hoge stofconcentraties bloot kunnen staan. In opdracht van Bioconnect onderzocht Wageningen UR Livestock Research samen met biologische varkenshouders hoe hoog de stofbelasting is en hoe de veehouders zich tegen het stof kunnen bescherme

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

De (inter)nationale wereld der universiteiten gonst van beleidsinitiatieven met betrekking tot de wetenschappelijke voetafdruk op de maatschappij. Complexe evaluatiesystemen worden opgezet om impact in kaart te brengen en te meten. Buzzwords als Grand Challenges, Engagement en Stakeholders vliegen ons om de oren. Maar wat zijn de drijfveren achter dit discours? Hoe kunnen universiteiten met hun onderzoek meer dan ooit een sleutelfunctie vervullen in de maatschappij? En belangrijker, op welke manier laten we dit oprecht leven bij onze onderzoekers? Welke weg slaan we in om de maatschappelijke valorisatie van onderzoek te stimuleren

Recurrence of rectal cancer : a study on patients with rectal cancer referred to Sir Paul Boffa Hospital during 2001-2003

Surgery is the mainstay of treatment of rectal cancer. One third of all treatment failures are secondary to local recurrence usually leading to a painful and distressing death. Radiotherapy has been shown to decrease local recurrence rates and overall survival. The results of a local retrospective study are discussed, identifying and describing the recurrence rates in rectal cancer. Our management pathways are also reviewed and compared to current evidence-based medicine and published clinical trials.peer-reviewe

A simple screening method for determining knowledge of the appropriate levels of activity and risk behaviour in young people with congenital cardiac conditions

Objective: To assess a novel method for assessing risk and providing advice about activity to children and young people with congenital cardiac disease and their parents. Design and setting: Questionnaire survey in outpatient clinics at a tertiary centre dealing with congenital cardiac disease, and 6 peripheral clinics. Interventions: Children or their parents completed a brief questionnaire. If this indicated a desire for help, or a serious mismatch between advised and real level of activity, they were telephoned by a physiotherapist. Main measures of outcome: Knowledge about appropriate levels of activity, and identification of the number exercising at an unsafe level, the number seeking help, and the type of help required. Results: 253/258 (98.0%) questionnaires were returned, with 119/253 (47.0%) showing incorrect responses in their belief about their advised level of exercise; 17/253 (6.7%) had potentially dangerous overestimation of exercise. Asked if they wanted advice 93/253 (36.8%) said “yes”, 43/253 (17.0%) “maybe”, and 117/253 (46.2%) “no”. Of those contacted by phone to give advice, 72.7% (56/77) required a single contact and 14.3% (11/77) required an intervention that required more intensive contact lasting from 2 up to 12 weeks. Of the cohort, 3.9% (3/77) were taking part in activities that put them at significant risk. Conclusions: There is a significant lack of knowledge about appropriate levels of activity, and a desire for further advice, in children and young people with congenital cardiac disease. A few children may be at very significant risk. These needs can be identified, and clinical risk reduced, using a brief self-completed questionnaire combined with telephone follow-up from a suitably knowledgeable physiotherapist

Shadows on the past : Does neonatal morphine use foreshadow neuropsychological functioning, stress response and pain sensitivity at primary school age?

Critically ill newborns often need to undergo invasive procedures that may bring discomfort and pain. This is very worrying because at newborn age the brain undergoes, in a relatively short time, an extreme growth and transformation, which makes the brain more susceptible to perturbation than at any other time of life. From a study performed in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) – at the Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s hospital Rotterdam, the Netherlands – we learned that patients on average experienced an astonishingly high number of 14 painful procedures per day. Up to 65% of these patients did not receive appropriate analgesic therapy. At the time of that study, some ten years ago, pain treatment generally consisted of opioids as these had been proven effective for postoperative pain relief in preterm born infants. However, there was no evidence that they would be equally effective for other types of pain than postoperative pain. To learn more about the effects of morphine administration to critically ill newborns we set up a next study together with the Isala Clinics Zwolle. This randomized controlled trial (RCT), in which 150 neonates on ventilatory support received either continuous morphine or placebo, demonstrated no beneficial effect of continuous morphine on neurological outcome or pain and was therefore not recommended as ‘standard of care’ in this vulnerable population. This was later confirmed by a larger RCT, the so-called NEOPAIN trial3, and a meta-analysis