De invloed van de eigen verantwoordelijkheid van de werknemer op de werkgeversaansprakelijkheid voor arbeidsongevallen en beroepsziekten

In deze scriptie wordt de vraag behandeld of een vergaande bescherming van de werknemer nog wel past bij de huidige maatschappelijke inzichten waarbij de eigen verantwoordelijkheid van de werknemer een grotere rol lijkt te gaan spelen

Exploring women's priorities for the potential consequences of a gestational diabetes diagnosis: a pilot community jury

Background: There is no international diagnostic agreement for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). In 2014, Australia adopted a new definition and testing procedure. Since then, significantly more women have been diagnosed with GDM but with little difference in health outcomes. We explored the priorities and preferences of women potentially impacted by a GDM diagnosis. Method: We recruited 15 women from the Gold Coast, Australia, to participate in a pilot community jury (CJ). Over two days, the women deliberated on the following: (a) which important consequences of a diagnosis of GDM should be considered when defining GDM?; (b) what should Australian health practitioners call the condition known as GDM? Results: Eight women attended the pilot CJ, and their recommendations were a consensus. Women were surprised that the level of risk for physical harms was low but emotional harms were high. The final ranking of important consequences (high to low) was as follows: women's negative emotions; management burden of GDM; overmedicalized pregnancy; minimizing infant risks; improving lifestyle; and macrosomia. To describe the four different clinical states of GDM, the women chose three different labels. One was GDM. Conclusions: The women from this pilot CJ prioritized the consequences of a diagnosis of GDM differently from clinicians. The current glucose threshold for GDM in Australia is set at a cut-point for adverse risks including macrosomia and neonatal hyperinsulinaemia. Definitions and guideline panels often fail to ask the affected public about their values and preferences. Community voices impacted by health policies should be embedded in the decision-making process

Amphiphilic beads as depots for sustained drug release integrated into fibrillar scaffolds

Native extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex fibrous structure loaded with bioactive cues that affects the surrounding cells. A promising strategy to mimicking native tissue architecture for tissue engineering applications is to engineer fibrous scaffolds using electrospinning. By loading appropriate bioactive cues within these fibrous scaffolds, various cellular functions such as cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation can be regulated. Here, we report on the encapsulation and sustained release of a model hydrophobic drug (dexamethasone (Dex)) within beaded fibrillar scaffold of poly(ethylene oxide terephthalate)-poly(butylene terephthalate) (PEOT/PBT), a polyether-ester multiblock copolymer to direct differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The amphiphilic beads act as depots for sustained drug release that is integrated into the fibrillar scaffolds. The entrapment of Dex within the beaded structure results in sustained release of the drug over the period of 28days. This is mainly attributed to the diffusion driven release of Dex from the amphiphilic electrospun scaffolds. In vitro results indicate that hMSCs cultured on Dex containing beaded fibrillar scaffolds exhibit an increase in osteogenic differentiation potential, as evidenced by increased alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, compared to the direct infusion of Dex in the culture medium. The formation of a mineralized matrix is also significantly enhanced due to the controlled Dex release from the fibrous scaffolds. This approach can be used to engineer scaffolds with appropriate chemical cues to direct tissue regenerationAKG, SMM, LM and AK conceived the idea and designed the experiments. AKG and SMM fabricated electrospun scaffolds and performed the structural (SEM, FTIR), mechanical, and in vitro studies. AAK and AKGperformedDex release study. AKGand AP performed thermal analysis. AKG analyzed experimental data. AKG, SMM, LMand AK wrote the manuscript. ADL and CvB provided the polymers and corrected the manuscript. AKK, AP, MG and RLR revised the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. Authors would like to thank Shilpaa Mukundan, Poornima Kulkarni and Dr. Arghya Paul for help with image analysis, drug release modeling and technical discussion respectively. AKG would like to thank Prof. Robert Langer for access to equipment and acknowledge financial support from MIT Portugal Program (MPP-09Call-Langer-47). SMMthanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the personal grant SFRH/BD/42968/2008 (MIT-Portugal Program). This research was funded by the office of Naval Research Young National Investigator Award (AK), the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (AK), the NIH (EB009196; DE019024; EB007249; HL099073; AR057837), the National Science Foundation CAREER award (DMR 0847287; AK), and the Dutch Technology Foundation (STW # 11135; LM, CvB, and AD)

Ectopic bone formation in cell-seeded poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(butylene terephthalate) copolymer scaffolds of varying porosity

Scaffolds from poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(butylene terephthalate), PEOT/PBT, with a PEO molecular weight of 1,000 and a PEOT content of 70 weight% (1000PEOT70PBT30) were prepared by leaching salt particles (425–500 μm). Scaffolds of 73.5, 80.6 and 85.0% porosity were treated with a CO2 gas plasma and seeded with rat bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs). After in vitro culture for 7 days (d) in an osteogenic medium the scaffolds were subcutaneously implanted for 4 weeks in nude mice. Poly(d, l-lactide) (PDLLA) and biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) scaffolds were included as references. After 4 weeks (wks) all scaffolds showed ectopic formation of bone and bone marrow. For the scaffolds of different porosities, no significant differences were observed in the relative amounts of bone (7–9%) and bone marrow (6–11%) formed, even though micro computed tomography (μ-CT) data showed considerable differences in accessible pore volume and surface area. 1000PEOT70PBT30 scaffolds with a porosity of 85% could not maintain their original shape in vivo. Surprisingly, 1000PEOT70PBT30 scaffolds with a porosity of 73.5% showed cartilage formation. This cartilage formation is most likely due to poorly accessible pores in the scaffolds, as was observed in histological sections. μ-CT data showed a considerably smaller accessible pore volume (as a fraction of the total volume) than in 1000PEOT70PBT30 scaffolds of 80.6 and 85.0% porosity. BMSC seeded PDLLA (83.5% porosity) and BCP scaffolds (29% porosity) always showed considerably more bone and bone marrow formation (bone marrow formation is approximately 40%) and less fibrous tissue ingrowth than the 1000PEOT70PBT30 scaffolds. The scaffold material itself can be of great influence. In more hydrophobic and rigid scaffolds like the PDLLA or BCP scaffolds, the accessibility of the pore structure is more likely to be preserved under the prevailing physiological conditions than in the case of hydrophilic 1000PEOT70PBT30 scaffolds. Scaffolds prepared from other PEOT/PBT polymer compositions, might prove to be more suited

A Subject Bibliography of the Second World War: Books in English 1939.1974

A vast number of books have already been published on the Second World War and the publication explosion on this subject has still not been exhausted as can be seen from the continuous flood of new titles which appear almost daily

The past is another country, Rhodesia 1890-1979

Hierdie boek voorsien in 'n leemte betreffende die politieke gebeure in Rhodesie vanaf die hysing van die Union Jack aan 'n krom msasapaal naby Harare op 13 Septem ber 1890 tydens die besetting van Mashonaland in die naam van die Britse koningin tot die oggend van 1 Junie 1979 toe Biskop Abel Muzorewa sy eerste werksdag as Eerste Minister van Rhodesie begin het

Boekbesprekings/Book Reviews

No Abstract

Robust multi-H2 output-feedback approach to aerial refuelling automation of large aircraft via linear matrix inequalities

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In recent years the aviation industry has shown an interest in the airborne refuelling of large transport aircraft to enable increased payload mass at take-off and to extend aircraft range. Due to the large volume of fuel to be transferred, a boom and receptacle refuelling system with a larger fuel transfer rate is employed. The refuelling operation is particularly difficult and strenuous for the pilot of the receiver aircraft, because the position of the receptacle relative to the tanker aircraft must be maintained within a narrow window for a relatively long period of time. The airborne refuelling of a large aircraft is typically much more difficult than that of a fighter aircraft, since the large aircraft is more sluggish, takes much longer to refuel, and has a relatively large distance between its refuelling receptacle and its centre of mass. These difficulties provide the motivation for developing flight control laws for Autonomous In-Flight Refuelling (AIFR) to alleviate the workload on the pilot. The objective of the research is to design a flight control system that can regulate the receptacle of a receiver aircraft to remain within the boom envelope of a tanker aircraft in light and medium turbulence. The flight control system must be robust to uncertainties in the aircraft dynamic model, and must obey actuator deflection and slew rate limits. Literature on AIFR shows a wide range of approaches, including Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), μ-synthesis and neural-network based adaptive control, none of which explicitly includes constraints on actuator amplitudes, actuator rates and regulation errors in the design/synthesis. A new approach to designing AIFR flight control laws is proposed, based on Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) optimisation. The relatively new LMI technique enables optimised regulation of stochastic systems subject to time-varying uncertainties and coloured noise disturbance, while simultaneously constraining transient behaviour and multiple outputs and actuators to operate within their amplitude, saturation and slew rate limits. These constraints are achieved by directly formulating them as inequalities.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die lugvaart industrie toon huidiglik ’n belangstelling in die brandstof oordrag tussen twee groot vervoervliegtuie gedurende vlug, met die doel om die maksimum opstyggewig kapasiteit sowel as die maksimum ononderbroke vlugafstand vermoë van die hervulde vliegtuig te vermeerder. ’n Boom hervulling-stelsel word geïmplementeer om die hoë spoed van brandstof oordrag te voorsien. Die verrigting van vluggebonde hervulling van ’n groot, trae vliegtuig is moeiliker en meer veeleisend as bv. van ’n vegvliegtuig, veral vir die vlieënier van die hervulde vliegtuig, wat sy boom-skakel moet reguleer binne ’n relatiewe klein boom bewegingsruimte vir ’n relatiewe lang tydperk. Die kinematika betrokke speel ook ’n groter rol in ’n groot hervulde vliegtuig a.g.v. die langer afstand tussen die boom-skakel en die massa middelpunt/ draaipunt. Hierdie bied die motivering om ’n beheerstelsel te ontwikkel wat die taak outomaties uitvoer. Die doel van die navorsing is om ’n beheerstelsel te ontwerp wat die boom-skakel van die hervulde vliegtuig outomaties reguleer binne die bewegingsruimte van die boom, gedurende ligte en matige turbulensie. Daar word van die beheerder vereis om robuust te wees teen onsekerhede in die vliegtuig se meganika, sowel as om die beheer oppervlaktes en turbines van die vliegtuig binne hul defleksie-, wringkrag- en sleurtempo-perke te hou. Daar bestaan reeds ’n groot verskeidenheid van benaderings tot die outomatisering van luggebonde hervulling, onder andere LQR, μ-sintese en neurale-netwerk gebaseerde aanpasbare beheer, waarvan geeneen perke op aktueerders en regulasie foute direk in die ontwerp insluit nie. ’n Nuwe benadering word voorgestel wat gebaseer is op Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) optimering. Die LMI tegniek is relatief nuut in die gebruik van beheerstelsel ontwerp. Dit stel die ontwerper in staat om ’n stogastiese stelsel, onderworpe aan tydvariante-stelsel-variasie en gekleurde ruis versteurings, optimaal te reguleer, terwyl aktueerders en stelsel gedrag direk beperk word