There Was a Full Report of a Sermon That Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte Had Preached on I Samuel 14:1-15 Published in De Grondwet

There was a full report of a sermon that Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte had preached on I Samuel 14:1-15. It is assumed that the sermon was preached in the First Reformed Church or Pillar Church of which he was pastor. The victory at Gettysburg was a cause for great thanksgiving. He noted the surrender of Vicksburg. Van Raalte spent some time on the issue of slavery and showed how slavery in Old Testament times was quite different than slavery in America. Slavery was a godless, cursed institution.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1860s/1183/thumbnail.jp

Palliative care in Dutch hospitals: A rapid increase in the number of expert teams, a limited number of referrals

Background: Palliative care expert teams in hospitals have positive effects on the quality of life and satisfaction with care of patients with advanced disease. Involvement of these teams in medical care is also associated with substantial cost savings. In the Netherlands, professional standards state that each hospital should have a palliative care team by 2017. We studied the number of hospitals that have a palliative care team and the characteristics of these teams. Methods: In April 2015, questionnaires were mailed to key palliative care professionals in all general, teaching and academic hospitals in the Netherlands. Out of 92 hospitals, 74 responded (80 %). Results: Seventy-seven percent of all participating hospitals had a palliative care team. Other services, such as outpatient clinics (22 %), palliative care inpatient units (7 %), and palliative day care facilities (4 %) were relatively scarce. The mean number of disciplines that were represented in the teams was 6,5. The most common disciplines were nurses (72 %) and nurse practitioners (54 %), physicians specialized in internal medicine (90 %) or anaesthesiology (75 %), and spiritual caregivers (65 %). In most cases, the physicians did not have labeled hours available for their work as palliative care consultant, whereas nurses and nurse practitioners did. Most teams (77 %) were only available during office hours. Twenty-six percent of the teams could not only be consulted by healthcare professionals but also by patients or relatives. The annual number of consultations for inpatients per year ranged from 2 to 680 (median: 77). On average, teams were consulted for 0.6 % of all patients admitted to the hospitals. Conclusion: The number of Dutch hospitals with a palliative care team is rapidly increasing. There are substantial differences between teams regarding the disciplines represented in the teams, the procedures and the number of consultations. The development of quality standards and adequate staffing of the teams could improve the quality and effectiveness of the teams

Chloroquine Administration in Breastfeeding Mothers Associates with Increased HIV-1 Plasma Viral Loads

Chloroquine (CQ) and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been proposed to be effective at treating COVID-19 patients. We, and others, have previously reported on the capacity of CQ to reduce HIV-1 replication in vitro. We tested CQ administration in post-partum mothers on influencing HIV-1 viral loads in human milk as a means of lowering mother to child transmission. A Phase I/II, randomized, placebo-controlled study to evaluate chloroquine administration to reduce HIV-1 RNA levels in human milk: the CHARGE study. Thirty HIV-1 positive pregnant Rwandese women (CQ n = 20; placebo n = 10) were enrolled in a 16-week study, with the treatment group receiving a 200 mg oral dose of CQ daily. Base-line plasma viral load (pVL) measurements and CD4 counts were determined prior to delivery, and pVL, breast milk VL (bmVL) and CQ levels measured during treatment. For women receiving treatment, CQ concentration was higher in breast milk compared to plasma (over 2.5-fold), with a positive correlation between the levels in the two compartments (P \u3c 0.003). A link between high CQ concentrations in plasma and high CD4 counts (P \u3c 0.001) was observed. Surprisingly, we found a significant increase in pVL after CQ treatment in over half of the mothers (n=11; P \u3c 0.001) and with no alteration to bmVL measurements. No specific amino acid alterations in the gp120 envelope sequences could be associated with CQ administration. CQ usage is associated with a significant increase to pVL in early breastfeeding mothers from Rwanda which cautions against the use of CQ in such individuals. Our results highlight a discrepancy between CQ effects on modulating HIV-1 replication in vitro versus in vivo and indicate caution when prescribing CQ to postpartum HIV-1 untreated mothers. This discrepancy should be taken into consideration when testing CQ or HCQ treatment in COVID-19 clinical trials, especially relating to the post-partum setting

Les 25 Résolutions de Konni

Niger is the largest exporter of onions in West Africa. More than 100.000 Nigerian peasants cultivate onions. For them and all the other operators within the chain (intermediaries, tradesmen, shipping agents), the onion is an important source of income. SNV Niger, and Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation in the Netherlands, in collaboration with FCMN Niya and Agri-Bilan, initiated an action research titled “Peeling the onion”. The goal of this action-research is to identify possibilities of collective action for all the actors in the value chain of the onion. The research focusses on ‘leverages’ to induce changes which make the onion subsector in one time more competitive, inclusive and sustainable. After this first phase, we shared our results during this participative workshop in Birni Konni in the area of Tahoua. Moreover one stimulated the dialogue between the various actors within the value chain of the onion resulting in the 25 resolutions of Konni! This report is the result of this workshop and dialogues