The Early Dutch Sinologists : a study of their training in Holland and China, and their functions in the Netherlands Indies (1854-1900)

Dutch sinology began as a training course for Chinese interpreters for the colonial government of the Netherlands Indies (now Indonesia), where a large and important Chinese minority was living. This resulted in the unusual decision to study Southern Chinese dialects instead of Mandarin. In the period 1854 until 1900, in total 24 sinologists were trained, mostly beginning in Leiden. For this purpose, in 1855 J.J. Hoffmann was appointed as titular professor of Chinese and Japanese in Leiden, and G. Schlegel was made the first full professor in 1877. After studying in Leiden, they continued their practical training in Southern China, mostly in Amoy (Xiamen). Finally they were appointed on Java or other places in the Netherlands Indies as “European interpreter of Chinese.” Their functions were interpreting and translation, and advising the administrative and judicial authorities. Actually, in most places there was not enough work for them. Two interpreters temporarily fulfilled important functions in Sino-Dutch diplomacy. About one third fulfilled other administrative functions or devoted their time to scholarship, which later led to a second career in the Indies administration or at Leiden University. Next to several dictionaries, some produced important scholarly works, and many published articles in Dutch journals and newspapers about Chinese matters.Asian Studie

Repeated cervical length measurements for the verification of short cervical length

Research into fetal development and medicin

The Early Dutch Sinologists : a study of their training in Holland and China, and their functions in the Netherlands Indies (1854-1900)

Dutch sinology began as a training course for Chinese interpreters for the colonial government of the Netherlands Indies (now Indonesia), where a large and important Chinese minority was living. This resulted in the unusual decision to study Southern Chinese dialects instead of Mandarin. In the period 1854 until 1900, in total 24 sinologists were trained, mostly beginning in Leiden. For this purpose, in 1855 J.J. Hoffmann was appointed as titular professor of Chinese and Japanese in Leiden, and G. Schlegel was made the first full professor in 1877. After studying in Leiden, they continued their practical training in Southern China, mostly in Amoy (Xiamen). Finally they were appointed on Java or other places in the Netherlands Indies as “European interpreter of Chinese.” Their functions were interpreting and translation, and advising the administrative and judicial authorities. Actually, in most places there was not enough work for them. Two interpreters temporarily fulfilled important functions in Sino-Dutch diplomacy. About one third fulfilled other administrative functions or devoted their time to scholarship, which later led to a second career in the Indies administration or at Leiden University. Next to several dictionaries, some produced important scholarly works, and many published articles in Dutch journals and newspapers about Chinese matters.</div

Maternal and neonatal consequences of treated and untreated asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy: a prospective cohort study with an embedded randomised controlled trial

Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: Existing approaches for the screening and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy are based on trials that were done more than 30 years ago. In this study, we reassessed the consequences of treated and untreated asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy. METHODS: In this multicentre prospective cohort study with an embedded randomised controlled trial, we screened women (aged >/=18 years) at eight hospitals and five ultrasound centres in the Netherlands with a singleton pregnancy between 16 and 22 weeks' gestation for asymptomatic bacteriuria. Screening was done with a single dipslide and two culture media. Dipslides were judged positive when the colony concentration was at least 1x10(5) colony-forming units (CFU) per mL of a single microorganism or when two different colony types were present but one had a concentration of at least 1x10(5) CFU per mL. Asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women were eligible to participate in the randomised controlled trial comparing nitrofurantoin with placebo treatment. In this trial, participants were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either nitrofurantoin 100 mg or identical placebo tablets, and were instructed to self-administer these tablets twice daily for 5 consecutive days. Randomisation was done by a web-based application with a computer-generated list with random block sizes of two, four, or six participants rendered by an independent data manager. 1 week after the end of treatment, they provided us with a follow-up dipslide. Women, treating physicians, and researchers all remained unaware of the bacteriuria status and treatment allocation. Women who refused to participate in the randomised controlled trial did not receive any antibiotics, but their outcomes were collected for analysis in the cohort study. We compared untreated and placebo-treated asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women with asymptomatic bacteriuria-negative women and nitrofurantoin-treated asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women. The primary endpoint was a composite of pyelonephritis with or without preterm birth at less than 34 weeks, analysed by intention to treat at 6 weeks post-partum. This trial is registered with the Dutch Trial Registry, number NTR3068. FINDINGS: Between Oct 11, 2011, and June 10, 2013, we enrolled 5621 women into our screening cohort, of whom 5132 were eligible for screening. After exclusions for contaminated dipslides and patients lost to follow-up, in our final cohort of 4283 women, 248 were asymptomatic bacteriuria positive, of whom 40 were randomly assigned to nitrofurantoin and 45 to placebo for the randomised controlled trial, whereas the other 163 asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women were followed without treatment. The proportion of women with pyelonephritis, preterm birth, or both did not differ between untreated or placebo-treated asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women and asymptomatic bacteriuria-negative women (6 [2.9%] of 208 vs 77 [1.9%] of 4035; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.5, 95% CI 0.6-3.5) nor between asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women treated with nitrofurantoin versus those who were untreated or received placebo (1 [2.5%] of 40 vs 6 [2.9%] of 208; risk difference -0.4, 95% CI -3.6 to 9.4). Untreated or placebo-treated asymptomatic bacteriuria-positive women developed pyelonephritis in five [2.4%] of 208 cases, compared with 24 [0.6%] of 4035 asymptomatic bacteriuria-negative women (adjusted OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.4-11.4). INTERPRETATION: In women with an uncomplicated singleton pregnancy, asymptomatic bacteriuria is not associated with preterm birth. Asymptomatic bacteriuria showed a significant association with pyelonephritis, but the absolute risk of pyelonephritis in untreated asymptomatic bacteriuria is low. These findings question a routine screen-treat-policy for asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy. FUNDING: ZonMw (the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development)

Kinetics of oxygen uptake at the onset of exercise near or above peak oxygen uptake

INTRODUCTION: We investigated the predictive capacity of mid-trimester cervical length (CL) measurement for spontaneous and iatrogenic preterm birth. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a prospective observational cohort study in nulliparous women and low-risk multiparous women with a singleton pregnancy between 16(+0) and 21(+6) weeks of gestation. We assessed the prognostic capacity of transvaginally measured mid-trimester CL for spontaneous and iatrogenic preterm birth (<37 weeks) using likelihood ratios (LR) and receiver-operating-characteristic analysis. We calculated numbers needed to screen to prevent one preterm birth assuming different treatment effects. Main outcome measures were preterm birth <32, <34 and <37 weeks. RESULTS: We studied 11 943 women, of whom 666 (5.6%) delivered preterm: 464 (3.9%) spontaneous and 202 (1.7%) iatrogenic. Mean CL was 44.1 mm (SD 7.8 mm). In nulliparous women, the LRs for spontaneous preterm birth varied between 27 (95% CI 7.7-95) for a CL </= 20 mm, and 2.0 (95% CI 1.6-2.5) for a CL between 30 and 35 mm. For low-risk multiparous women, these LRs were 37 (95% CI 7.5-182) and 1.5 (95% CI 0.97-2.2), respectively. Using a cut-off for CL </= 30 mm, 28 (6.0%) of 464 women with spontaneous preterm birth were identified. The number needed to screen to prevent one case of preterm birth was 618 in nulliparous women and 1417 for low-risk multiparous women (40% treatment effect, cut-off 30 mm). CONCLUSION: In women at low risk of preterm birth, CL predicts spontaneous preterm birth. However, its isolated use as a screening tool has limited value due to low sensitivity