Abstract Expressionisme ten tijde van de Koude Oorlog, 1945-1960

Het Abstract Expressionisme wordt door revisionistische auteurs gezien als propagandamiddel in de handen van een imperialistische Amerikaanse overheid. Het historiografische debat over die stelling is het centrale onderdeel van deze vergelijkende literatuurstudie die in deze samenhang niet eerder is gepresenteerd. Er wordt aangetoond dat er vele dubbelzinnigheden en feitelijke onjuistheden worden gepresenteerd in vermeende 'wetenschappelijke' studies. Het eindoordeel luidt dat het Abstract Expressionisme nooit als enige als artistiek propagandamiddel is ingezet. Dit gebeurde altijd in de context van een breed scala aan schilderkunststromingen. Daarmee wilde men de diversiteit van het artistieke en culturele landschap van de Verenigde Staten naar buiten uitdragen. Gericht tegen anti-Amerikanisme en de dreiging van het totalitaire dogmatiek van het socialistischrealisme. Op die manier hoopte men de West-Europese intelligentsia voor zich te winnen en weg te houden van de linkse verleiding uit de Soviet Unie

Een mathematisch-statistische studie over de nauwkeurigheid van het organoleptisch onderzoek van boter

The quality of butter, produced by the dairies in the Netherlands, is regularly tested by experienced testers after storage for 2 weeks usually at 14_C. Odour, taste and texture are tested. Usually a score is given, running from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent). An analysis was made of the accuracy of the evaluations.Differences in and between testers in score, for tests on many or one sample were assessed by the standard deviation of the score of one, or the mean score of 2 or more judges (subjective accuracy). Deviations were normally distributed. Accuracy was expressed as the correlation coefficient (r) between the scores by one or more judges and the 'real' score (the mean score given by many judges): the objective accuracy.An extensive mathematical treatment was given to show how r depends on the number of judges. Starting from the fact that for 2 judges r = 0.80, the value for 1 judge was found to be r = 0.686 and for 3 judges 0.853. At least 3 judges were necessary. Methods were given of expressing the capability of 1 judge in terms of r. The subjective and objective accuracy of judges can differ much

The propensity of molecules to spatially align in intense light fields

The propensity of molecules to spatially align along the polarization vector of intense, pulsed light fields is related to readily-accessible parameters (molecular polarizabilities, moment of inertia, peak intensity of the light and its pulse duration). Predictions can now be made of which molecules can be spatially aligned, and under what circumstances, upon irradiation by intense light. Accounting for both enhanced ionization and hyperpolarizability, it is shown that {\it all} molecules can be aligned, even those with the smallest static polarizability, when subjected to the shortest available laser pulses (of sufficient intensity).Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to PR

Maternal hypertensive disorders in pregnancy and early childhood cardiometabolic risk factors:The Generation R Study

The objective of this study was to determine the associations between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and early childhood cardiometabolic risk factors in the offspring. Therefore, 7794 women from the Generation Rotterdam Study were included, an ongoing population-based prospective birth cohort. Women with a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy were classified as such when they were affected by pregnancy induced hypertension, pre-eclampsia or the haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count (HELLP) syndrome during pregnancy. Early childhood cardiometabolic risk factors were defined as the body mass index at the age of 2, 6, 12, 36 months and 6 years. Additionally, it included systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total fat mass, cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin and clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors at 6 years of age. Sex-specific differences in the associations between hypertensive disorders and early childhood cardiometabolic risk factors were investigated. Maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were inversely associated with childhood body mass index at 12 months (confounder model: -0.15 SD, 95% CI -0.27; -0.03) and childhood triglyceride at 6 years of age (confounder model: -0.28 SD, 95% CI -0.45; -0.10). For the association with triglycerides, this was only present in girls. Maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were not associated with childhood body mass index at 2, 6 and 36 months. No associations were observed between maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, fat mass index and cholesterol levels at 6 years of age. Our findings do not support an independent and consistent association between maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and early childhood cardiometabolic risk factors in their offspring. However, this does not rule out possible longer term effects of maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy on offspring cardiometabolic health

Irradiation of benzene molecules by ion-induced and light-induced intense fields

Benzene, with its sea of delocalized $\pi$-electrons in the valence orbitals, is identified as an example of a class of molecules that enable establishment of the correspondence between intense ion-induced and laser-light-induced fields in experiments that probe ionization dynamics in temporal regimes spanning the attosecond and picosecond ranges.Comment: 4 ps figure