Tight glycaemic control in the intensive care unit: pitfalls in the testing of the concept

Tight glycaemic control emerged on the scene of critical care in 2001. Surprisingly, not many confirmation trials have been published so far. The randomised controlled trial by De La Rosa and colleagues is a timely and valuable attempt to repeat the landmark Leuven studies. The failure to replicate the beneficial effects of tight glycaemic control may boil down to some less obvious defaults in the set-up of the trial despite a seemingly adequate study design. The incorporation of ample power calculations and strict adherence to glucose targets are essential to fairly compare studies on tight blood glucose control. Only if these basic conditions of study design are fulfilled can the effectiveness of the therapy be assessed

A Taste of Diplomacy: Food Gifts for the Muscovite Embassy in Venice (1582)

A vital factor governing early modern diplomatic relations was the practice of hospitality. To assure that the embassy began amicably, ambassadors had to be received with generosity. The nature and extent of diplomatic hospitality differed according to the host state, but it often included the offer of housing and victuals. This critical edition of a primary source aims to shed new light on the characteristics of diplomatic hospitality by carefully examining a list of expenses drafted by the Venetian office of the Rason Vecchie. This archival document provides a detailed account of all the food that was supplied to host a Muscovite delegation that visited Venice in 1582. In the first place, the article unravels the qualities and dynamics of Venetian food gifts by contextualising and comparing the source with additional Venetian records. Furthermore, it argues that the type of foodstuffs offered, the amount of money spent on them, and the splendour of festive banquets all communicated strong symbolic and political messages. By focusing the analysis on lists of expenses, the relevance of these documents for the study of diplomatic practices is illustrated. Overviews of financial transactions might seem static and dry accounts at first sight, however, when analysed closely, they reveal a great deal about the day-to-day operation of early modern diplomacy

KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access

This poster was presented at the thirteenth Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing held on 28 and 29 November 2018 in Tromsø, Norway. It discusses the KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access, which was established in March 2018 to provide financial support for fair OA monographs (BPCs), articles (APCs) and non-profit OA initiatives. The Fund only endorses non-profit gold OA that is in line with the principles of fair OA.The poster outlines the temporary findings and achievements of the Fund (March-October 2018)

Diagnosis of Lung Cancer: What Metabolomics Can Contribute

The reprogrammed metabolism of cancer cells reflects itself in an alteration of metabolite concentrations, which in turn can be used to define a specific metabolic phenotype or fingerprint for cancer. In this contribution, a metabolism-based discrimination between lung cancer patients and healthy controls, derived from an analysis of human blood plasma by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, is described. This technique is becoming widely used in the field of metabolomics because of its ability to provide a highly informative spectrum, representing the relative metabolite concentrations. Cancer types are characterized by decreased or increased levels of specific plasma metabolites, such as glucose or lactate, compared to controls. Data analysis by multivariate statistics provides a classification model with high levels of sensitivity and specificity. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics might not only contribute to the diagnosis of lung cancer but also shows potential for treatment follow-up as well as for paving the way to a better understanding of disease-related diverting biochemical pathways

Impact of Parenteral Nutrition Versus Fasting on Hepatic Bile Acid Production and Transport in a Rabbit Model of Prolonged Critical Illness

Cholestatic liver dysfunction frequently occurs during critical illness. Administration of parenteral nutrition (PN) is thought to aggravate this. Underlying mechanisms are not clear.status: publishe

Biliary sludge and recurrent ketoacidosis: a case report

A five year old boy, weighing 14 kg with no family history of diabetes, presented in frank diabetic ketoacidosis. He recovered, but continued to have episodes of ketoacidosis. He was diagnosed to have biliary sludge, which recovered with insulin treatment