Het paviljoen van porselein : Nederlandse literaire chinoiserie en het westerse beeld van China (1250-2007)

The thesis analyses the development of Western images of China from the first Franciscan missions to the Mongol court (c. 1250) up to 2007 and against that background discusses the development of Dutch views on China expressed in literary works (prose, poetry and theatre) and their relationship with the history of Western-Chinese relations and the development of Western knowledge about China. From 17th century plays by Joost van den Vondel and J. Antonides van der Goes inspired on the fall of the Ming-dynasty (1644), Dutch literary chinoiserie took many different forms and produced a wide variety of distorted views on the Middle Kingdom and its people and culture, views that tell us more about Western concerns and perceptions than about China itself. Within Dutch chinoiserie the discovery of Chinese poetry through translations into French, German and English stands out as a major trend between the two World Wars, inspiring translations and adaptations by many Dutch and Flemish poets which show a growing interest in Chinese philosophy and experiments with poetical forms with expressionist and Imagist tendencies inspired by (translated) Chinese poetry.LEI Universiteit LeidenColonial and Global Histor

Combustion of Ligaments and Droplets Expelled after the End of Injection in a Multi-hole Diesel Injector

Experimental investigations were carried out to study the end of injection spray characteristics using a number of production grade multi-hole common-rail injectors. These injectors were taken from light-duty diesel vehicles that are currently in operation on the UK roads and have done different mileages. All the production injectors suffered expulsions of ligaments and droplets after the end of injection(aeoi). It is shown that injector age/mileage has very little effect on the amount of ligaments and droplets ejected from production injectors compared to injection-to-injection variations in the amount of post-injection expulsions. Brand new production injectors also show the presence of these post-injection expulsions after every injection, which is not a desired feature of the modern solenoid actuated common-rail fuel injection system. Subsequent combustion of these post-injection ligaments and droplets lasted up to 25ms after the end of fuel injection in our high pressure, high temperature experiments, and this would contribute to engine-out soot and unburned hydrocarbon (ubhc) emissions in a firing engine.This work has been sponsored by shell Global Solutions (UK) and EPSRC

OC-0052: Late toxicity in the randomized phase III Dutch Hypofractionation Trial for prostate cancer patients (HYPRO)

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HUBUNGAN SISTEM BAGI HASIL DI LEMBAGA KEUANGAN SYARIAH TERHADAP KEINGINAN NASABAH UNTUK BERINVESTASI Survei di Baitul Maal wat Tamwil (BMT) Safinah Klaten Suyatmin dan Atwal Arifin

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the profit sharing system of Syari'ah Financial Organizatio

The effect of on-line position correction on the dose distribution in focal radiotherapy for bladder cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to determine the dosimetric effect of on-line position correction for bladder tumor irradiation and to find methods to predict and handle this effect.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>For 25 patients with unifocal bladder cancer intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with 5 beams was planned. The requirement for each plan was that 99% of the target volume received 95% of the prescribed dose. Tumor displacements from -2.0 cm to 2.0 cm in each dimension were simulated, using 0.5 cm increments, resulting in 729 simulations per patient. We assumed that on-line correction for the tumor was applied perfectly. We determined the correlation between the change in D_99%and the change in path length, which is defined here as the distance from the skin to the isocenter for each beam. In addition the margin needed to avoid underdosage was determined and the probability that an underdosage occurs in a real treatment was calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Adjustments for tumor displacement with perfect on-line position correction resulted in an altered dose distribution. The altered fraction dose to the target varied from 91.9% to 100.4% of the prescribed dose. The mean D_99%(± SD) was 95.8% ± 1.0%. There was a modest linear correlation between the difference in D_99%and the change in path length of the beams after correction (R²= 0.590). The median probability that a systematic underdosage occurs in a real treatment was 0.23% (range: 0 - 24.5%). A margin of 2 mm reduced that probability to < 0.001% in all patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>On-line position correction does result in an altered target coverage, due to changes in average path length after position correction. An extra margin can be added to prevent underdosage.</p

Peptide exchange on MHC-I by TAPBPR is driven by a negative allostery release cycle.

Chaperones TAPBPR and tapasin associate with class I major histocompatibility complexes (MHC-I) to promote optimization (editing) of peptide cargo. Here, we use solution NMR to investigate the mechanism of peptide exchange. We identify TAPBPR-induced conformational changes on conserved MHC-I molecular surfaces, consistent with our independently determined X-ray structure of the complex. Dynamics present in the empty MHC-I are stabilized by TAPBPR and become progressively dampened with increasing peptide occupancy. Incoming peptides are recognized according to the global stability of the final pMHC-I product and anneal in a native-like conformation to be edited by TAPBPR. Our results demonstrate an inverse relationship between MHC-I peptide occupancy and TAPBPR binding affinity, wherein the lifetime and structural features of transiently bound peptides control the regulation of a conformational switch located near the TAPBPR binding site, which triggers TAPBPR release. These results suggest a similar mechanism for the function of tapasin in the peptide-loading complex

Melanoma NOS1 expression promotes dysfunctional IFN signaling.

In multiple forms of cancer, constitutive activation of type I IFN signaling is a critical consequence of immune surveillance against cancer; however, PBMCs isolated from cancer patients exhibit depressed STAT1 phosphorylation in response to IFN-α, suggesting IFN signaling dysfunction. Here, we demonstrated in a coculture system that melanoma cells differentially impairs the IFN-α response in PBMCs and that the inhibitory potential of a particular melanoma cell correlates with NOS1 expression. Comparison of gene transcription and array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) between melanoma cells from different patients indicated that suppression of IFN-α signaling correlates with an amplification of the NOS1 locus within segment 12q22-24. Evaluation of NOS1 levels in melanomas and IFN responsiveness of purified PBMCs from patients indicated a negative correlation between NOS1 expression in melanomas and the responsiveness of PBMCs to IFN-α. Furthermore, in an explorative study, NOS1 expression in melanoma metastases was negatively associated with patient response to adoptive T cell therapy. This study provides a link between cancer cell phenotype and IFN signal dysfunction in circulating immune cells