Respiratory fluid mechanics

This article covers several aspects of respiratory fluid mechanics that have been actively investigated by our group over the years. For the most part, the topics involve two-phase flows in the respiratory system with applications to normal and diseased lungs, as well as therapeutic interventions. Specifically, the topics include liquid plug flow in airways and at airway bifurcations as it relates to surfactant, drug, gene, or stem cell delivery into the lung; liquid plug rupture and its damaging effects on underlying airway epithelial cells as well as a source of crackling sounds in the lung; airway closure from “capillary-elastic instabilities,” as well as nonlinear stabilization from oscillatory core flow which we call the “oscillating butter knife;” liquid film, and surfactant dynamics in an oscillating alveolus and the steady streaming, and surfactant spreading on thin viscous films including our discovery of the Grotberg–Borgas–Gaver shock

Designing a research infrastructure (RI) on food behaviour and health: Balancing user needs, business model, governance mechanisms and technology

Background: a better understanding of food-related behaviour and its determinants can be achieved through harmonisation and linking of the various data-sources and knowledge platforms.Scope: we describe the key decision-making in the development of a prototype of the Determinants and Intake Platform (DI Platform), a data platform that aims to harmonise and link data on consumer food behaviour. It will be part of the Food Nutrition Health Research Infrastructure (FNH-RI) that will facilitate health, social and food sciences.Approach: the decision-making was based on the evidence of user needs and data characteristics that guided the specification of the key building blocks of the DI Platform. Eight studies were carried out, including consumer online survey; interview studies of key DI Platform stakeholders; desk research and workshops.Key findings: consumers were most willing to share data with universities, then industry and government. Trust, risk perception and altruism predicted willingness to share. For most other stakeholders non-proprietary data was most likely to be shared. Lack of data standards, and incentives for sharing were the main barriers for sharing data among the key stakeholders. The value of various data types would hugely increase if linked with other sources. Finding the right balance between optimizing data sharing and minimizing ethical and legal risks was considered a key challenge.Conclusions: the development of DI Platform is based on careful balancing of the user, technical, business, legal and ethical requirements, following the FAIR principles and the need for financial sustainability, technical flexibility, transparency and multi-layered organisational governance

The Netherlands : from diversity celebration to a colorblind approach

This chapter offers a systematic review of sociological research in the Netherlands on the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational inequality between 1980 and 2017. Six major research traditions are identified: (1) political arithmetic; (2) racism and ethnic discrimination; (3) school characteristics; (4) school choice; (5) family background and (6) an institutional approach, with research on ‘family background’ and ‘political arithmetic’ being the most dominant research traditions. Most of the research conducted in the Netherlands focuses on explaining ‘underachievement’ in relationship to ‘Turkish’, ‘Moroccan’ and ‘Surinamese’ minority students and is characterized by the use of quantitative research methods and a more positivistic approach to social sciences. This rich body of research is written mainly in Dutch and developed in a context characterized by a close collaborative relationship between educational sociologists and the government in conducting research in this area and a shift in policy that emphasises assimilation over multiculturalism