Geen coulance maar recht: de actieve raadsman bij het politieverhoor

Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Annotatie bij Europees Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens, 08-06-2021, ECLI:CE:ECHR:2021:0608JUD006159116 (EHRC-2021-0158): Dijkhuizen t. Nederland (EHRM, 61591/16) – Het aanwezigheidsrecht in hoger beroep

EHRMEHRC 2021-0158Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Annotatie bij: EHRM 8 maart 2022, nr. 41115/14, EHRC Updates 2022 (EHRC 2022-0089, Tonkov t. België – Straatsburgse duidelijkheid over de derdenwerking van Salduz-rechtspraak)

EHRMEHRC 2022-0089Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Contempt of court: Een meerwaarde voor de goede strafrechtspleging in Nederland?

Door onder meer de grote belangstelling voor strafzaken, toegenomen mondigheid van burgers en meer polarisatie in de rechtszaal, rijst de vraag of de rechter nog voldoende is toegerust om zijn taak naar behoren te vervullen. Daarbij wordt regelmatig gesuggereerd dat in Nederland behoefte bestaat aan het Angelsaksische instrument van contempt of court. In dit onderzoek is daarom in kaart gebracht wat contempt of court inhoudt, waarbij het rechtsstelsel van Engeland en Wales centraal staat. Om de genoemde suggestie te kunnen beoordelen is ook geïnventariseerd welke vergelijkbare waarborgen voor een goede strafrechtspleging reeds in Nederland voorhanden zijn. Aan de hand van een vergelijking van de bevindingen uit beide rechtsstelsels wordt geconcludeerd dat contempt of court een instrument is dat zich niet goed leent voor implementatie in de Nederlandse rechtsorde. Bovendien blijkt dat in Nederland een tamelijk adequaat stelsel van waarborgen bestaat. Waar de handhavingsmogelijkheden toch ontoereikend zijn worden enkele meer in de eigen rechtscultuur passende instrumenten voorgesteld. Hoewel deze instrumenten kunnen bijdragen aan de waarborging van een goede strafrechtspleging, is ook gebleken dat veel uitdagingen waarvoor de strafrechter zich tegenwoordig gesteld ziet, niet met een contempt-achtige bepaling kunnen worden opgelost. De bevindingen worden daarom ook in breder perspectief geplaatst.Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Advies met betrekking tot DNA-standaardafname bij een specifieke groep verdachten [22 juli 2021]: bijlage bij Kamerstukken II 2023/24, 31415, 29

Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Impact of diet and nutraceutical supplementation on inflammation in elderly people. Results from the RISTOMED study, an open-label randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Eating habits may influence the life span and the quality of ageing process by modulating inflammation. The RISTOMED project was developed to provide a personalized and balanced diet, enriched with or without nutraceutical compounds, to decrease and prevent inflammageing, oxidative stress and gut microbiota alteration in healthy elderly people. This paper focused on the effect on inflammation and metabolism markers after 56 days of RISTOMED diet alone or supplementation with three nutraceutical compounds. METHODS:A cohort of 125 healthy elderly subjects was recruited and randomized into 4 arms (Arm A, RISTOMED diet; Arm B, RISTOMED diet plus VSL#3 probiotic blend; Arm C, RISTOMED diet plus AISA d-Limonene; Arm D, RISTOMED diet plus Argan oil). Inflammatory and metabolism parameters as well as the ratio between Clostridium cluster IV and Bifidobacteria (CL/B) were collected before and after 56 days of dietary intervention, and their evolution compared among the arms. Moreover, participants were subdivided according to their baseline inflammatory parameters (erythrocytes sedimentation rate (ESR), C-Reactive Protein, fibrinogen, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alfa (TNF-α), and Interleukin 6) in two clusters with low or medium-high level of inflammation. The evolution of the measured parameters was then examined separately in each cluster. RESULTS:Overall, RISTOMED diet alone or with each nutraceutical supplementation significantly decreased ESR. RISTOMED diet supplemented with d-Limonene resulted in a decrease in fibrinogen, glucose, insulin levels and HOMA-IR. The most beneficial effects were observed in subjects with a medium-high inflammatory status who received RISTOMED diet with AISA d-Limonene supplementation. Moreover, RISTOMED diet associated with VSL#3 probiotic blend induced a decrease in the CL/B ratio. CONCLUSIONS:Overall, this study emphasizes the beneficial anti-inflammageing effect of RISTOMED diet supplemented with nutraceuticals to control the inflammatory status of elderly individuals

Bacteriophage DNA glucosylation impairs target DNA binding by type I and II but not by type V CRISPR-Cas effector complexes

Prokaryotes encode various host defense systems that provide protection against mobile genetic elements. Restriction-modification (R-M) and CRISPR-Cas systems mediate host defense by sequence specific targeting of invasive DNA. T-even bacteriophages employ covalent modifications of nucleobases to avoid binding and therefore cleavage of their DNA by restriction endonucleases. Here, we describe that DNA glucosylation of bacteriophage genomes affects interference of some but not all CRISPR-Cas systems. We show that glucosyl modification of 5-hydroxymethylated cytosines in the DNA of bacteriophage T4 interferes with type I-E and type II-A CRISPR-Cas systems by lowering the affinity of the Cascade and Cas9-crRNA complexes for their target DNA. On the contrary, the type V-A nuclease Cas12a (also known as Cpf1) is not impaired in binding and cleavage of glucosylated target DNA, likely due to a more open structural architecture of the protein. Our results suggest that CRISPR-Cas systems have contributed to the selective pressure on phages to develop more generic solutions to escape sequence specific host defense systems

Prevalence of malnutrition in, 1760 patients at hospital admission: a controlled population study of body composition

Abstractö Objective: Malnutrition, de¢ned as low or excessive body weight, is associated with increased hospital length of stay and cost of care. The purpose of this study was to determine if fat-free mass (FFM) and body fat (BF) di¡ered between patients at hospital admission in Geneva and Berlin and healthy volunteers, and if there is a di¡erence in the prevalence of low FFM (percentile Po10) and high BF (percentile P490) between patients and volunteers. Methods: In total, 1760 patients (Geneva: 525 men, 470 women; Berlin: 397 men, 368 women) were evaluated for malnutrition by BMI, serum albumin, and FFM and BF, determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and compared to 1760 healthy volunteers matched for age and height, and further compared to FFM and BF percentiles, previously determined in 5225 healthy adults. Results:The prevalence of FFM Po10 was greater in patients than controls.The prevalence of albumino35 g/l (14.9% and 11.2% in Geneva and Berlin patients, respectively) and BMIo20.0 kg/m 2 was lower than the prevalence of low FFM (31.3% and 17.3%, respectively).The prevalence of high BF in Berlin patients was three-fold the prevalence of volunteers. Twelve and twenty percent of Geneva and Berlin patients, respectively, with normal BMI had high BF, compared to 4% of volunteers. Conclusions: Geneva and Berlin patients had lower FFM and higher BF than age-and height-matched volunteers and a higher prevalence of low FFM and high BF. Serum albumin and BMI underestimated the prevalence of malnutrition in patients at hospital admission. Body composition measurements identi¢ed patients with low FFM and low or high BF reserves.