Hitchhiking nanoparticles: reversible coupling of lipid-based nanoparticles to cytotoxic T lymphocytes

A

Cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular risk assessment in professional divers

Background: The professional diver’s activity implies body cardiovascular stress. Little data on cardiovascular risk factors is available. Some studies report a high prevalence of tobacco consumption. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cardiovascular risk factors of professional divers and calculate the predicted 5-year risk and the predicted 10-year risk of an acute coronary event. Materials and methods: In one medical centre, data on dives and cardiovascular risk factors were analysed on Epidata® software, by Pearson c2 test or by Fisher’s exact test, by analysis of variance test or by Kruskal-Wallis test, and by Spearman correlation coefficient. Cardiovascular risk scores at 5 and 10 years were calculated using SCORE. Results: A total 200 professional divers were included. Of these, 31% were smokers or had stopped smoking for less than 3 years; 40% had an abnormal body mass index; 50% had raised total cholesterol levels; 11% had an advanced age; 6.5% had high blood pressure; 81% had at least one risk factor; 66% had an alterable risk factor; 25.5% had a 5-year risk greater than that of the general population of the same age; 2.5% had a high cardiovascular risk at 10 years; and 34% were at intermediate risk. Conclusions: The majority of divers had at least one cardiovascular risk factor. Cardiovascular risk scores were lower than that of the general population. However, some of this population is at high risk. One third of the divers had an intermediate risk, which should lead to the consideration of conducting additional biological examinations to better assess their risk

Phosphorus Versus Arsenic: Role of the Photodiode Doping Element in CMOS Image Sensor Radiation-Induced Dark Current and Random Telegraph Signal

This work the role of the phosphorus doping element in the radiation-induced dark current in a CMOS image sensor (CIS) photodiode. The neutron and proton irradiations on shallow arsenic-based photodiode CISs and deep phosphorus-based photodiodes CISs have been performed. The results highlight the applicability of the same dark current increase and random telegraph signal (RTS) models. Already verified on other photodiode structures, these results further extend the universality of these analytic tools. Moreover, it emphasizes that the phosphorus element does not play a significant role either in the radiation-induced dark current increase or in the dark current RTS. The results on RTS after annealing reveal the same recovery dynamic than those already observed in irradiated image sensors, suggesting that the phosphorus element does not play a significant role after annealing. Therefore, this work is a piece of experimental evidence supporting the idea that RTS induced by displacement damage is principally due to defect clusters mainly constituted of intrinsic silicon defects such as clusters of vacancies and interstitials

Losing memory, losing meaning? Towards a deeper understanding of meaning in life in older adults with Alzheimer's disease

Within psychological science, the concept of meaning in life is understood as the subjective experience that one's life makes sense, has a purpose, and is worth living. Burgeoning empirical evidence shows the benefits of experiencing meaning in life for physical and mental health across different populations, including older adults. However, current views of meaning in life assume that complex cognitive abilities are needed to develop a sense of meaning. This triggers the question of how meaning can be understood for older adults who experience cognitive decline due to dementia. The current dissertation therefore provides an in-depth examination of meaning in life in older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD). More specifically, we discuss how these older adults understand and experience meaning in life from a qualitative perspective (Part 1; Chapter 1-2), and how meaning in life and key aspects of psychological and cognitive functioning are related to each other quantitatively (Part 2; Chapter 3-7). In Chapter 1, we use a top-down directed content analysis approach to explore the correspondence between scholarly views on meaning in life and the lay conceptions of older adults with AD. The results show that the descriptions of participants with AD largely accorded with current views in the literature but also offer new insights for the conceptualization of meaning, such as the differentiation between felt and cognitive coherence and between future-oriented and fulfilled purpose, and the entanglement of the experience of meaning with aspects of hedonic well-being. In Chapter 2, in-depth interviews are analyzed using a bottom-up phenomenological reflective life-world approach. The essential meaning of the experience of meaning in life for older adults with Alzheimer's disease is formulated as 'continuing to participate in the dance of life as oneself.' This essence is further illuminated by describing its intertwining constituents: feeling connected and involved with others and the world, continuing normal everyday life as yourself, calmly surrendering and letting go, and desiring freedom, growth, and invigoration. Chapter 3 focuses on sources of well-being for older adults with and without AD in nursing homes. We find that for both groups, personal growth is related to higher levels of meaning in life and family is related to higher life satisfaction. For the older adults with AD, society and community is also related to meaning in life. In Chapter 4, we show using cross-sectional data that nursing home residents with AD who endorse higher levels of meaning in life also report lower levels of depressive symptoms and higher levels of life satisfaction, while controlling for demographics, cognitive status, and clustering within nursing homes. Chapter 5 focuses on the relation between quality of life and cognitive functioning for nursing home residents with AD. The results show that residents rate their own quality of life higher than their professional caregivers do. Furthermore, the residents' self-reports are not related to their cognitive status. In contrast, caregivers give lower quality of life ratings to residents who have lower cognitive status. In Chapter 6, we examine the relations between purpose in life, subjective memory beliefs, and memory performance. As a background investigation to the following chapter, this study focuses on a large sample of adults in middle to late adulthood without dementia using two-wave longitudinal data. Cross-lagged panel analyses show that adults with higher sense of purpose are more likely to have higher subjective memory beliefs nine years later. In Chapter 7, finally, we examine the longitudinal relationship between meaning in life and psychological and cognitive functioning in nursing home residents with AD over three waves. Cross-lagged panel analyses show that older adults who report higher levels of meaning in life are more likely to have less depressive symptoms one year later. We find no evidence for a strong relation between cognitive functioning and meaning in life, challenging the strong cognitive assumptions of current psychological conceptualizations of meaning in life. In sum, this dissertation highlights the relevance of meaning in life for older adults with AD, as their personal accounts as well quantitative analyses show the importance of meaning for their psychological health.status: publishe

Invited symposium presentation: Zingeving en ouder worden: een theoretisch, empirisch en klinisch perspectief

status: publishe