Farthest North Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus)

On 5 August 2001, while on a cruise with tourists from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, to the Geographic North Pole, we sighted a lone polar bear (Ursus maritimus) from the Russian icebreaker Yamal at a site we believe to be the northernmost record of this species. The adult bear was seen walking slowly on the ice toward the ship about 500 meters away. The location of the ship, as determined by the ship's Global Positioning System (GPS), was 89°46.5'N, 26°21.1'E, about 13 nautical miles from the Pole. No seals were seen in the area on that day, although on an earlier date (8 August 1993), one of us (JFS) sighted a ringed seal (Phoca hispida) in the water adjacent to the Yamal upon reaching the Pole. Many other sightings of polar bears were made on the August 2001 cruise, both prior to this date and also later, as the ship reached Franz Josef Land [Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa], Russia, the next objective after the Pole. The voyage began at Longyearbyen on 1 August and ended there on 12 August 2001. ... Ice conditions in the area of the sighting on 5 August 2001 ranged from unbroken 10/10 multiyear sea ice to 8/10-9/10 broken multiyear ice. ... Winds and currents can ... be responsible for relatively rapid ice-cover changes in foraging habitats for polar bears, perhaps making it more opportunistic for them to move northward or in other directions in pursuit of prey. Whether those factors might have been instrumental in producing the conditions of our polar bear sighting only 13.5 nautical miles (15.5 statute miles/25 km) from the North Pole cannot be ascertained. Considering the water depth at the Geographic North Pole (4179 m, or 13 710'), with little likelihood of upwelling and generation of nutrients for seals and lower elements of the food chain, it is unlikely that seals and polar bears would normally venture this far north. However, Todd et al. (1992) noticed, as we did, light-brown algae frozen within some of the ice en route to the Pole, and they also mention sighting tracks of arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) in hard-packed snow at 89°11.15'N in July 1992. ..

Native and non-native listeners’ evaluation of degrees of foreign accentedness in English: a literature review

Communication in English increasingly involves non-native speakers. Such speakers can speak English with different degrees of non-native accentedness. In order to contribute to insights into the effects that these differences in accentedness can have on listeners, the current study systematically reviews experimental studies into the effects of degrees of foreign accentedness in English. It presents an overview of the L1s of the speakers, nationalities of the listeners, degrees of accent strength tested, dependent variables and outcomes in the studies reviewed. The trend that emerges from the studies included in the review indicates that stronger accents generally have more negative effects on understanding and attitudinal evaluations than weaker accents.Een colloquium over universitair taalvaardigheidsonderwijs Universiteit Leiden, 2 december 2016, the complete issue can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/1887/57204Wetensch. publicatieFaculteit der Geesteswetenschappe

Ieder zijn eigen Saïdjah en Adinda? De narratieve betrokkenheid van vwo-scholieren bij verschillende bewerkingen van Multatuli’s Max Havelaar (1860)

Contains fulltext : 250247.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)18 p

Leptin levels in SARS-CoV-2 infection related respiratory failure:A cross-sectional study and a pathophysiological framework on the role of fat tissue

Obesity is a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infected patients to develop respiratory failure. Leptin produced in visceral fat might play a role in the deterioration to mechanical ventilation. A cross sectional study was performed. The mean BMI was 31 kg/m2 (range 24.8-48.4) for the 31 SARS-CoV-2 ventilated patients and 26 kg/m2 (range 22.4-33.5) for 8 critically ill non-infected control patients. SARS-CoV-2 infected patients with a similar BMI as control patients appear to have significantly higher levels of serum leptin. The mean leptin level was 21.2 (6.0-85.2) vs 5.6 (2.4-8.2) ug/L for SARS-CoV-2 and controls respectively (p = 0.0007). With these findings we describe a clinical and biological framework that may explain these clinical observations. The ACE2 utilization by the virus leads to local pulmonary inflammation due to ACE2-ATII disbalance. This might be enhanced by an increase in leptin production induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection of visceral fat. Leptin receptors in the lungs are now more activated to enhance local pulmonary inflammation. This adds to the pre-existent chronic inflammation in obese patients. Visceral fat, lung tissue and leptin production play an interconnecting role. This insight can lead the way to further research and treatment

Reduced Tie2 in Microvascular Endothelial Cells Is Associated with Organ-Specific Adhesion Molecule Expression in Murine Health and Endotoxemia

Endothelial cells (ECs) in the microvasculature in organs are active participants in the pathophysiology of sepsis. Tyrosine protein kinase receptor Tie2 (Tek; Tunica interna Endothelial cell Kinase) is thought to play a role in their inflammatory response, yet data are inconclusive. We investigated acute endotoxemia-induced changes in the expression of Tie2 and inflammation-associated endothelial adhesion molecules E-selectin and VCAM-1 (vascular cell adhesion molecule-1) in kidneys and lungs in inducible, EC-specific Tie2 knockout mice. The extent of Tie2 knockout in healthy mice differed between microvascular beds, with low to absent expression in arterioles in kidneys and in capillaries in lungs. In kidneys, Tie2 mRNA dropped more than 70% upon challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in both genotypes, with no change in protein. In renal arterioles, tamoxifen-induced Tie2 knockout was associated with higher VCAM-1 protein expression in healthy conditions. This did not increase further upon challenge of mice with LPS, in contrast to the increased expression occurring in control mice. Also, in lungs, Tie2 mRNA levels dropped within 4 h after LPS challenge in both genotypes, while Tie2 protein levels did not change. In alveolar capillaries, where tamoxifen-induced Tie2 knockout did not affect the basal expression of either adhesion molecule, a 4-fold higher E-selectin protein expression was observed after exposure to LPS compared to controls. The here-revealed heterogeneous effects of absence of Tie2 in ECs in kidney and lung microvasculature in health and in response to acute inflammatory activation calls for further in vivo investigations into the role of Tie2 in EC behavior. </p

The contribution of hip geometry to the prediction of hip osteoarthritis

SummaryObjectiveTo determine how well measures of hip geometry can predict radiological incident hip osteoarthritis (HOA) compared to well known clinical risk factors.DesignThe study population is part of the Rotterdam Study, a prospective population-based cohort. Baseline pelvic radiographs were used to measure hip geometry by two methods: Statistical Shape Models (SSM) and predefined geometry parameters (PGPs). Incident HOA (Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) ≥ 2) was assessed in 688 participants after 6.5 years without radiographic HOA at baseline. The ability to predict HOA was quantified using the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC).ResultsComparison of the two methods showed that both contain information that is not captured by the other method. At 6.5 years follow-up 132 hips had incident HOA. Five PGPs (Wiberg angle, Neck Width (NW), Pelvic Width (PW), Hip Axis Length (HAL) and Triangular Index (TI)) and two SSM (modes 5 and 9) were significant predictors of HOA (P = 0.007). Hip geometry added 7% to the prediction obtained by clinical risk factors (AUC = 0.67 (geometry), 0.66 (gender, age, Body Mass Index (BMI)) and combining both: AUC = 0.73, respectively). Mode 12 (associated with position of the femoral head in acetabulum) and Wiberg angle were predictors of HOA in participants without radiological signs at baseline (KL = 0). Although the strength of the prediction decreased for all variables at a longer follow-up, the contribution of hip geometry was still significant (P = 0.01).ConclusionsHip geometry has a moderate ability to predict HOA in participants with and without initial signs of osteoarthritis (OA), similar to and largely independent of the predictive value of clinical risk factors

Mimo pillow : an intelligent cushion designed with maternal heart beat vibrations for comforting newborn infants

Premature infants are subject to numerous interventions ranging from a simple diaper change to surgery while residing in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). These neonates often suffer from pain, distress and discomfort during the first weeks of their lives. Although pharmacological pain treatment often is available, it cannot always be applied to relieve a neonate from pain or discomfort. This paper describes a non-pharmacological solution, called Mimo, which provides comfort through mediation of a parent's physiological features to the distressed neonate via an intelligent pillow system embedded with sensing and actuating functions. We present the design, the implementation and the evaluation of the prototype. Clinical tests at Máxima Medical Centre in the Netherlands show that among the 9 of 10 infants who showed discomfort following diaper change, a shorter recovery time to baseline Skin Conductance Analgesimeter (SCA) values could be measured when the maternal heartbeat vibration in the Mimo was switched on and in 7 of these 10 a shorter crying time was measure

Prescription of the first prosthesis and later use in children with congenital unilateral upper limb deficiency: A systematic review

Background: The prosthetic rejection rates in children with an upper limb transversal reduction deficiency are considerable. It is unclear whether the timing of the first prescription of the prosthesis contributes to the rejection rates. Objective: To reveal whether scientific evidence is available in literature to confirm the hypothesis that the first prosthesis of children with an upper limb deficiency should be prescribed before two years of age. We expect lower rejection rates and better functional outcomes in children fitted at young age. Methods: A computerized search was performed in several databases (Medline, Embase, Cinahl, Amed, Psycinfo, PiCarta and the Cochrane database). A combination of the following keywords and their synonyms was used: "prostheses, upper limb, upper extremity, arm and congenital''. Furthermore, references of conference reports, references of most relevant studies, citations of most relevant studies and related articles were checked for relevancy. Results: The search yielded 285 publications, of which four studies met the selection criteria. The methodological quality of the studies was low. All studies showed a trend of lower rejection rates in children who were provided with their first prosthesis at less than two years of age. The pooled odds ratio of two studies showed a higher rejection rate in children who were fitted over two years of age ( pooled OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.6-8.0). No scientific evidence was found concerning the relation between the age at which a prosthesis was prescribed for the first time and functional outcomes. Conclusion: In literature only little evidence was found for a relationship between the fitting of a first prosthesis in children with a congenital upper limb deficiency and rejection rates or functional outcomes. As such, clinical practice of the introduction of a prosthesis is guided by clinical experience rather than by evidence-based medicine