Toezicht op menswaardige behandeling van gedetineerden in Europa : een onderzoek naar de verhouding tussen het EHRM en het CPT bij de effectuering van het folterverbod

The fight against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is of fundamental importance, which has been broadly acknowledged, and resulted in different ways to pursue the effectuation of this prohibition. The coexistence of multiple monitoring mechanisms in the same field can raise important questions concerning overlap, collision and alignment. The subject of this study relates to the coexistence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) and focuses on the relation between these bodies from an organisational, terminological and normative perspective. It concentrates on answering the question how the relationship between the ECtHR and the CPT can be described and whether the current status between these bodies contributes to an effective and efficient protection of detainees against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.LEI Universiteit LeidenDe bescherming van fundamentele rechten in een integrerend Europ

The corruptive force of AI-generated advice

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a trusted advisor in people's lives. A new concern arises if AI persuades people to break ethical rules for profit. Employing a large-scale behavioural experiment (N = 1,572), we test whether AI-generated advice can corrupt people. We further test whether transparency about AI presence, a commonly proposed policy, mitigates potential harm of AI-generated advice. Using the Natural Language Processing algorithm, GPT-2, we generated honesty-promoting and dishonesty-promoting advice. Participants read one type of advice before engaging in a task in which they could lie for profit. Testing human behaviour in interaction with actual AI outputs, we provide first behavioural insights into the role of AI as an advisor. Results reveal that AI-generated advice corrupts people, even when they know the source of the advice. In fact, AI's corrupting force is as strong as humans'.Comment: Leib & K\"obis share first authorshi

Novel MRI and PET markers of neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Gadolinium-enhancement depicts blood-brain barrier disruption associated with new inflammatory MRI lesions in multiple sclerosis (MS) and is widely used for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. However, earlier and more specific markers of inflammation are urgently needed. RECENT FINDINGS: Susceptibility-weighted images demonstrate the importance of the central vein in the formation of MS lesions. Perfusion weighted imaging techniques can show focal and diffuse low-grade inflammatory changes not visible on conventional MRI. Leptomeningeal enhancement could be part of the aetiology of subpial cortical MS lesions. Ultrasmall superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide can identify neuroinflammatory changes in addition to gadolinium enhancement and as such identify different types and phases of MS lesions. 18kD-translocator protein PET tracers identify activated microglia and an increase in TSPO uptake in both MS lesions and normal appearing brain tissue is related to disease severity and progression. A range of novel tracers for microglia activation is under development as well as radioligands that can label therapeutic drugs. SUMMARY: Novel MRI and PET techniques improve in-vivo visualization and quantification of the pleomorphic aspects of neuroinflammation, providing us with a unique insight in its pathogenesis, clinical relevance, and therapy responsiveness in MS

Health impact of nanotechnologies in food production

Geen RIVM rapportnummer in publicatieInventory study on the current use of nanotechnology in food products and advise on the most relevant safety evaluation issues. This report describes the results of this study. The report is set up in two parts. First you will find an aggregation of the results in the answer to 10 questions. In this part you will also find our suggestions for prioritizing the research that is needed. The second document is a scientific background document

A new standard nomenclature for proteins related to Apx and Shroom

Shroom is a recently-described regulator of cell shape changes in the developing nervous system. This protein is a member of a small family of related proteins that are defined by sequence similarity and in most cases by some link to the actin cytoskeleton. At present these proteins are named Shroom, APX, APXL, and KIAA1202. In light of the growing interest in this family of proteins, we propose here a new standard nomenclature

RHYTHM-AF: design of an international registry on cardioversion of atrial fibrillation and characteristics of participating centers

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation is a serious public health problem posing a considerable burden to not only patients, but the healthcare environment due to high rates of morbidity, mortality, and medical resource utilization. There are limited data on the variation in treatment practice patterns across different countries, healthcare settings and the associated health outcomes. METHODS/DESIGN RHYTHM-AF was a prospective observational multinational study of management of recent onset atrial fibrillation patients considered for cardioversion designed to collect data on international treatment patterns and short term outcomes related to cardioversion. We present data collected in 10 countries between May 2010 and June 2011. Enrollment was ongoing in Italy and Brazil at the time of data analysis. Data were collected at the time of atrial fibrillation episode in all countries (Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom), and cumulative follow-up data were collected at day 60 (±10) in all but Spain. Information on center characteristics, enrollment data, patient demographics, detail of atrial fibrillation episode, medical history, diagnostic procedures, acute treatment of atrial fibrillation, discharge information and the follow-up data on major events and rehospitalizations up to day 60 were collected. DISCUSSIN A total of 3940 patients were enrolled from 175 acute care centers. 70.5% of the centers were either academic (44%) or teaching (26%) hospitals with an overall median capacity of 510 beds. The sites were mostly specialized with anticoagulation clinics (65.9%), heart failure (75.1%) and hypertension clinics (60.1%) available. The RHYTHM-AF registry will provide insight into regional variability of antiarrhythmic and antithrombotic treatment of atrial fibrillation, the appropriateness of such treatments with respect to outcomes, and their cost-efficacy. Observations will help inform strategies to improve cardiovascular outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinical trials NCT01119716Harry JGM Crijns, Lori D Bash, François Chazelle, Jean-Yves Le Heuzey, Thorsten Lewalter, Gregory YH Lip, Aldo P Maggioni, Alfonso Martín, Piotr Ponikowski, Mårten Rosenqvist, Prashanthan Sanders, Mauricio Scanavacca, Alexandra A Bernhardt, Sreevalsa Unniachan, Hemant M Phatak and Anselm K Git

Phosphorus cycling and burial in sediments of a seasonally hypoxic marine basin

Recycling of phosphorus (P) from sediments contributes to the development of bottom-water hypoxia in many coastal systems. Here, we present results of a year-long assessment of P dynamics in sediments of a seasonally hypoxic coastal marine basin (Lake Grevelingen, the Netherlands) in 2012. Sequential phosphorus extractions (SEDEX) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) indicate that P was adsorbed to Fe-(III)-(oxyhydr)oxides when cable bacteria were active in the surface sediments in spring. With the onset of summer hypoxia, sulphide-induced dissolution of the Fe-(III)-(oxyhydr)oxides led to P release to the pore water and overlying water. The similarity in authigenic Ca-P concentrations in the sediment and suspended matter suggest that Ca-P is not formed in situ. The P burial efficiency was ≤ 32%. Hypoxia-driven sedimentary P recycling had a major impact on the water-column chemistry in the basin in 2012. Water-column monitoring data indicate up to ninefold higher surface water concentrations of phosphate in the basin in the late 1970s and a stronger hypoxia-driven seasonal P release from the sediment. The amplified release of P from the sediment in the past is attributed to the presence of a larger pool of Fe-bound P in the basin prior to the first onset of hypoxia. Given that P is not limiting, primary production in the basin has not been affected by the decadal changes in P availability and recycling over the past 40 years. The changes in P dynamics on decadal time scales wer

The role of pontine lesion location in differentiating multiple sclerosis from vascular risk factor-related small vessel disease

Background: Differentiating multiple sclerosis (MS) from vascular risk factor (VRF)-small vessel disease (SVD) can be challenging. Objective and Methods: In order to determine whether or not pontine lesion location is a useful discriminator of MS and VRF-SVD, we classified pontine lesions on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as central or peripheral in 93 MS cases without VRF, 108 MS patients with VRF and 43 non-MS cases with VRF. Results: MS without VRF were more likely to have peripheral pons lesions (31.2%, 29/93) than non-MS with VRF (0%, 0/43) (Exp(B) = 29.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) = (1.98, 448.3); p = 0.014) but there were no significant differences regarding central pons lesions between MS without VRF (5.4%, 5/93) and non-MS with VRF patients (16.3%, 7/43) (Exp(B) = 0.89; 95% CI = (0.2, 3.94); p = 0.87). The presence of peripheral pons lesions discriminated between MS and VRF-SVD with 100% (95% CI = (91.8, 100)) specificity. The proportion of peripheral pons lesions in MS with VRF (30.5%, 33/108) was similar to that seen in MS without VRF (31.2%, 29/93, p = 0.99). Central lesions occurred in similar frequency in MS with VRF (8.3%, 9/108) and non-MS with VRF (16.3%, 7/43, p = 0.15). Conclusion: Peripheral pons lesion location is a good discriminator of MS from vascular lesions