The Elders and Deacons of the Reformed Church of Saugatuck Extended a Call to Rev. H. Boer

The elders and deacons of the Reformed Church of Saugatuck extended a call to Rev. H. Boer. The call was signed by G. Jonkhoff, J. Ensing, John Nis, H. Takken and Harm van Spyker. The call was approved by the Classis of Holland committee consisting of Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte, Rev. Hendrik Uiterwijk, and Teunis Keppel.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1870s/1230/thumbnail.jp

The effect of high dose antibiotic impregnated cement on rate of surgical site infection after hip hemiarthroplasty for fractured neck of femur : a protocol for a double-blind quasi randomised controlled trial

Background: Mortality following hip hemiarthroplasty is in the range of 10-40% in the first year, with much attributed to post-operative complications. One such complication is surgical site infection (SSI), which at the start of this trial affected 4.68% of patients in the UK having this operation. Compared to SSI rates of elective hip surgery, at less than 1%, this figure is elevated. The aim of this quasi randomised controlled trial (RCT) is to determine if high dose antibiotic impregnated cement can reduce the SSI in patients at 12-months after hemiarthroplasty for intracapsular fractured neck of femur. Methods: 848 patients with an intracapsular fractured neck of femur requiring a hip hemiarthroplasty are been recruited into this two-centre double-blind quasi RCT. Participants were recruited before surgery and quasi randomised to standard care or intervention group. Participants, statistician and outcome assessors were blind to treatment allocation throughout the study. The intervention consisted of high dose antibiotic impregnated cement consisting of 1 gram Clindamycin and 1 gram of Gentamicin. The primary outcome is Health Protection Agency (HPA) defined deep surgical site infection at 12 months. Secondary outcomes include HPA defined superficial surgical site infection at 30 days, 30 and 90-day mortality, length of hospital stay, critical care stay, and complications. Discussion: Large randomised controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of a surgical intervention are uncommon, particularly in the speciality of orthopaedics. The results from this trial will inform evidence-based recommendations for antibiotic impregnated cement in the management of patients with a fractured neck of femur undergoing a hip hemiarthroplasty. If high dose antibiotic impregnated cement is found to be an effective intervention, implementation into clinical practice could improve long-term outcomes for patients undergoing hip hemiarthroplasty

Colored-noise thermostats \`a la carte

Recently, we have shown how a colored-noise Langevin equation can be used in the context of molecular dynamics as a tool to obtain dynamical trajectories whose properties are tailored to display desired sampling features. In the present paper, after having reviewed some analytical results for the stochastic differential equations forming the basis of our approach, we describe in detail the implementation of the generalized Langevin equation thermostat and the fitting procedure used to obtain optimal parameters. We discuss in detail the simulation of nuclear quantum effects, and demonstrate that, by carefully choosing parameters, one can successfully model strongly anharmonic solids such as neon. For the reader's convenience, a library of thermostat parameters and some demonstrative code can be downloaded from an on-line repository

GPS based daily activity patterns in European red deer and North American elk (Cervus elaphus):Indication for a weak circadian clock in ungulates

Long-term tracking using global positioning systems (GPS) is widely used to study vertebrate movement ecology, including fine-scale habitat selection as well as large-scale migrations. These data have the potential to provide much more information about the behavior and ecology of wild vertebrates: here we explore the potential of using GPS datasets to assess timing of activity in a chronobiological context. We compared two different populations of deer (Cervus elaphus), one in the Netherlands (red deer), the other in Canada (elk). GPS tracking data were used to calculate the speed of the animals as a measure for activity to deduce unbiased daily activity rhythms over prolonged periods of time. Speed proved a valid measure for activity, this being validated by comparing GPS based activity data with head movements recorded by activity sensors, and the use of GPS locations was effective for generating long term chronobiological data. Deer showed crepuscular activity rhythms with activity peaks at sunrise (the Netherlands) or after sunrise (Canada) and at the end of civil twilight at dusk. The deer in Canada were mostly diurnal while the deer in the Netherlands were mostly nocturnal. On an annual scale, Canadian deer were more active during the summer months while deer in the Netherlands were more active during winter. We suggest that these differences were mainly driven by human disturbance (on a daily scale) and local weather (on an annual scale). In both populations, the crepuscular activity peaks in the morning and evening showed a stable timing relative to dawn and dusk twilight throughout the year, but marked periods of daily a-rhythmicity occurred in the individual records. We suggest that this might indicate that (changes in) light levels around twilight elicit a direct behavioral response while the contribution of an internal circadian timing mechanism might be weak or even absent

Clinical performance and radiation dosimetry of no-carrier-added vs carrier-added 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) for the assessment of cardiac sympathetic nerve activity

Purpose We hypothesized that assessment of myocardial sympathetic activity with no-carrier-added (nca) I-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) compared to carrier-added (ca) I-123-MIBG would lead to an improvement of clinical performance without major differences in radiation dosimetry. Methods In nine healthy volunteers, 15 min and 4 h planar thoracic scintigrams and conjugate whole-body scans were performed up to 48 h following intravenous injection of 185 MBq I-123-MIBG. The subjects were given both nca and ca I-123-MIBG. Early heart/mediastinal ratios (H/M), late H/M ratios and myocardial washout were calculated. The fraction of administered activity in ten source organs was quantified from the attenuation-corrected geometric mean counts in conjugate views. Radiation-absorbed doses were estimated with OLINDA/EXM software. Results Both early and late H/M were higher for nca I-123-MIBG (ca I-123-MIBG early H/M 2.46 +/- 0.15 vs nca I-123-MIBG 2.84 +/- 0.15, p = 0.001 and ca I-123-MIBG late H/M 2.69 +/- 0.14 vs nca I-123-MIBG 3.34 +/- 0.18, p = 0.002). Myocardial washout showed a longer retention time for nca I-123-MIBG (p <0.001). The effective dose equivalent (adult male model) for nca I-123-MIBG was similar to that for ca I-123-MIBG (0.025 +/- 0.002 mSv/MBq vs 0.026 +/- 0.002 mSv/MBq, p = 0.055, respectively). Conclusion No-carrier-added I-123-MIBG yields a higher relative myocardial uptake and is associated with a higher myocardial retention. This difference between nca I-123-MIBG and ca I-123-MIBG in myocardial uptake did not result in major differences in estimated absorbed doses. Therefore, nca I-123-MIBG is to be preferred over ca I-123-MIBG for the assessment of cardiac sympathetic activit