Groen van toen: van buitenplaats tot schooltuin

Grote technische ontwikkelingen en toenemende welvaart hebben in de loop der eeuwen de natuur dichter bij de mens gebracht. In deze tentoonstelling staat de gebruiker van het door de mens geschapen groen centraal. Rond drie thema’s: particulier groen, wandelen in openbaar groen en wonen in het groen, wordt de bezoeker meegenomen langs tuinen van adel en burgerij, door openbare parken, dierentuinen en schooltuinen en tenslotte door tuinsteden, villaparken en arbeiders-woonwijken. De tentoonstelling toont aan dat de Nederlandse tuin- en landschaps-architectuur altijd beïnvloed is geweest door ideeën uit Duitsland, Frankrijk en Engeland. Er worden boeken getoond van auteurs zoals Petrus Lauremberg (Horticultura, libris II, 1632), Anthoine Dezallier d'Argenville (La theorie et la pratique du jardinage, 1711) en William Robinson (The English flower garden, 1893). Hun invloed is terug te vinden in boeken, kaarten, foto’s en ontwerpen van o.a. Heinrich Witte (Tuinen, villa’s en buitenplaatsen, 1876-1878), Henri Hartogh Heys van Zouteveen (Boomen en heesters in parken en tuinen, 1908), Leonard Springer en vele anderen. De tentoongestelde documenten plaatsen de gebruikers van het groen in eigen tijd en omgeving

FutMon activiteiten in Nederland in 2009 en 2010

Dit rapport geeft een overzicht en beschrijving van de activiteiten die in 2009 en 2010 in Nederland zijn uitgevoerd in het kader van het Life+ project Future of Forest Monitoring (FutMon). FutMon is het vervolg op Forest Focus en wordt gecoördineerd door het Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute in Hamburg en de resultaten worden gebruik door ICP Forest om mogelijke effecten van luchtvervuiling op de vitaliteit van de bossen in Europa te bepalen. ICP Forest is in 1985 opgericht onder het Verdrag voor Grensoverschrijdende Luchtverontreiniging Over Lange Afstand van de UNECE

Meer hout uit het Nederlandse bos

De vraag naar hout stijgt, maar dat vertaalt zich vooralsnog niet naar een grotere oogst in de Nederlandse bossen. Deels komt dat omdat het niet past bij de doelstelling van sommige bossen. Maar deels ligt het waarschijnlijk ook aan een gebrek aan interesse bij kleine boseigenaren

Relating anatomical variations and patient features with dose-reconstruction accuracy of a 3D dose-reconstruction approach using CT scans of recently-treated children

Purpose Reconstructing 3D dose distributions for pre-1990 pediatric 2D radiotherapy plans is challenging, but key to research on late adverse effects. We studied the relation between dosimetric accuracy, anatomical variation, and other patient features of a 3D dose-reconstruction approach using CT scans of recently-treated patients, rather than phantoms. Materials and methods CT-scans of 22 Wilms’ tumor patients (age:2.5-5.3yrs; n boys/girls:11/11) treated between 2004 and 2015 were included. Two clinical plans as applied to a 4-year-old boy and girl with a left-sided Wilms’ tumor served as references. Each plan was applied to the CT scans of the other 21 patients, adjusted to correct for anatomical differences as visible in digitally-reconstructed-radiographs, and the resulting dose was calculated. Deviations in reconstructed dose, with respect to the reference dose, in organs-at-risk (spinal cord, right kidney, liver, and spleen) were characterized by the mean dose error normalized by the prescribed dose (DEmean). Deviations in organs’ location relative to a reference point (\Delta O_loc) and in organs’ shape captured by the Dice coefficient (DC) were calculated. We estimated the Pearson’s correlation between DEmean, on the one hand, and O­loc, DC, gender, age, height, and weight, on the other hand. Results Average(range) DEmean values were: spinal cord:3(0-8)%; right kidney:6(0-20)%; liver:9(0-20)%; and spleen:23(0-80)%. DC and DEmean in the right kidney were moderately negatively correlated (r2=0.41). DEmean in the liver was uncorrelated with any o

Prognostic significance of age in 5631 patients with Wilms tumour prospectively registered in International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) 93-01 and 2001

Background To enhance risk stratification for Wilms tumour (WT) in a pre-operative chemotherapy setting, we explored the prognostic significance and optimal age cutoffs in patients treated according to International Society of Paediatric Oncology Renal Tumour Study Group (SIOP-RTSG) protocols. Methods Patients(6 months-18 years) with unilateral WT were selected from prospective SIOP 93–01 and 2001 studies(1993–2016). Martingale residual analysis was used to explore optimal age cutoffs. Outcome according to age was analyzed by uni- and multivariable analysis, adjusted for sex, biopsy(yes/no), stage, histology and tumour volume at surgery. Results 5631 patients were included; median age was 3.4 years(IQR: 2–5.1). Estimated 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were 85%(95%CI 83.5–85.5) and 93%(95%CI 92.0–93.4). Martingale residual plots detected no optimal age cutoffs. Multivariable analysis showed lower EFS with increasing age(linear trend P<0.001). Using previously described age categories, EFS was lower for patients aged 2-4(HR 1.34, P = 0.02), 4-10(HR 1.83, P<0.0001) and 10–18 years(HR 1.74, P = 0.01) as compared to patients aged 6 months-2 years. OS was lower for patients 4–10 years(HR 1.67, P = 0.01) and 10–18 years(HR 1.87, P = 0.04), but not for 2–4 years(HR 1.29, P = 0.23). Higher stage, histological risk group and tumour volume were independent adverse prognostic factors. Conclusion Although optimal age cutoffs could not be identified, we demonstrated the prognostic significance of age as well as previously described cutoffs for EFS (2 and 4 years) and OS (4 years) in children with WT treated with pre-operative chemotherapy. These findings encourage the consideration of age in the design of future SIOP-RTSG protocols

Species-specific, pan-European diameter increment models based on data of 2.3 million trees

ResearchBackground: Over the last decades, many forest simulators have been developed for the forests of individual European countries. The underlying growth models are usually based on national datasets of varying size, obtained from National Forest Inventories or from long-term research plots. Many of these models include country- and location-specific predictors, such as site quality indices that may aggregate climate, soil properties and topography effects. Consequently, it is not sensible to compare such models among countries, and it is often impossible to apply models outside the region or country they were developed for. However, there is a clear need for more generically applicable but still locally accurate and climate sensitive simulators at the European scale, which requires the development of models that are applicable across the European continent. The purpose of this study is to develop tree diameter increment models that are applicable at the European scale, but still locally accurate. We compiled and used a dataset of diameter increment observations of over 2.3 million trees from 10 National Forest Inventories in Europe and a set of 99 potential explanatory variables covering forest structure, weather, climate, soil and nutrient deposition. Results: Diameter increment models are presented for 20 species/species groups. Selection of explanatory variables was done using a combination of forward and backward selection methods. The explained variance ranged from 10% to 53% depending on the species. Variables related to forest structure (basal area of the stand and relative size of the tree) contributed most to the explained variance, but environmental variables were important to account for spatial patterns. The type of environmental variables included differed greatly among species. Conclusions: The presented diameter increment models are the first of their kind that are applicable at the European scale. This is an important step towards the development of a new generation of forest development simulators that can be applied at the European scale, but that are sensitive to variations in growing conditions and applicable to a wider range of management systems than before. This allows European scale but detailed analyses concerning topics like CO2 sequestration, wood mobilisation, long term impact of management, etcinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An unbiased ranking of murine dietary models based on their proximity to human metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, encompasses steatosis and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Preclinical MASLD research is mainly performed in rodents; however, the model that best recapitulates human disease is yet to be defined. We conducted a wide-ranging retrospective review (metabolic phenotype, liver histopathology, transcriptome benchmarked against humans) of murine models (mostly male) and ranked them using an unbiased MASLD ‘human proximity score’ to define their metabolic relevance and ability to induce MASH-fibrosis. Here, we show that Western diets align closely with human MASH; high cholesterol content, extended study duration and/or genetic manipulation of disease-promoting pathways are required to intensify liver damage and accelerate significant (F2+) fibrosis development. Choline-deficient models rapidly induce MASH-fibrosis while showing relatively poor translatability. Our ranking of commonly used MASLD models, based on their proximity to human MASLD, helps with the selection of appropriate in vivo models to accelerate preclinical research

Anti-Inflammatory Role of the cAMP Effectors Epac and PKA: Implications in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Cigarette smoke-induced release of pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-8 (IL-8) from inflammatory as well as structural cells in the airways, including airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells, may contribute to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Despite the wide use of pharmacological treatment aimed at increasing intracellular levels of the endogenous suppressor cyclic AMP (cAMP), little is known about its exact mechanism of action. We report here that next to the β2-agonist fenoterol, direct and specific activation of either exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac) or protein kinase A (PKA) reduced cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-induced IL-8 mRNA expression and protein release by human ASM cells. CSE-induced IκBα-degradation and p65 nuclear translocation, processes that were primarily reversed by Epac activation. Further, CSE increased extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation, which was selectively reduced by PKA activation. CSE decreased Epac1 expression, but did not affect Epac2 and PKA expression. Importantly, Epac1 expression was also reduced in lung tissue from COPD patients. In conclusion, Epac and PKA decrease CSE-induced IL-8 release by human ASM cells via inhibition of NF-κB and ERK, respectively, pointing at these cAMP effectors as potential targets for anti-inflammatory therapy in COPD. However, cigarette smoke exposure may reduce anti-inflammatory effects of cAMP elevating agents via down-regulation of Epac1

Imaging findings in noncraniofacial childhood rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft-tissue sarcoma of childhood. This paper is focuses on imaging for diagnosis, staging, and follow-up of noncraniofacial RMS