‘We Learn Together’—Translanguaging within a Holistic Approach towards Multilingualism in Education

Within two multilingual education projects in the north of the Netherlands a holistic model for multilingualism in education is being tested. This is done through design-based interventions in which in- and pre-service teachers, teacher trainers and researchers co-develop and evaluate multilingual activities for different school types. Results show that through experimenting in a safe environment teachers gradually embraced their pupils’ multilingualism. This contradicts earlier findings on teachers strongly favouring monolingual instruction and viewing migrant languages as a deficit.<br/

Protein biomarkers in chronic disease : proteomics-driven discovery

For this dissertation proteomics techniques were used to find new/better biomarkers for aneurisms of the abdominal aorta (AAA), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and the quality of donor kidneys. It is shown that certain proteins in the blood are associated with AAA size and growth, and can be helpful in determining a successful surgical intervention to treat the AAA. Moreover, in the perfusion liquid of donor kidneys proteins were found that are an indication for the vital strength of the transplant and the degree of protein glycation in the cerebrospinal liquid, which can play a role in unravelling the development of MS

Cluster analysis for repeated data with dropout: Sensitivity analysis using a distal event

Degeneration of the aortic wall becomes life-threatening when the risk of rupture increases. Cluster analysis on repeated measures of the diameter of the artery revealed two subgroups of patients included in a surveillance program. These results were obtained under the assumption of missingness at random. In this article, we study the vulnerability of the cluster analysis results - the estimated trajectories and the posterior membership probabilities - by applying different missing-data models for non-ignorable dropout, as proposed by Muthen et al. (2011) to the growth of the diameter of the artery.status: publishe

Circulating biomarkers and abdominal aortic aneurysm size

BACKGROUND: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a degenerative disease of the abdominal aorta leading to progressive dilatation, intra-luminal thrombus (ILT) formation, and rupture. Understanding the natural history of AAA is essential, because different processes and, therefore, different biomarkers, could be involved at each stage of disease progression. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between systemic expression of biomarkers of inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling and aneurysm size in AAA patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: All consecutive patients admitted to the (out-) patient clinic of the surgical department of two large community centers were prospectively included. Patients were divided into three groups based on their aneurysm diameter: small (30-44 mm; n = 59), medium-sized (45-54 mm; n = 64) or large (&gt;/= 55 mm; n = 95) AAA. Linear regression modeling showed that age and serum hsCRP concentration were positively associated, whereas serum HDL and IgG concentrations were negatively associated with aneurysm size. This regression model was corrected for possible bias due to statin use and center of inclusion; and also indicated that in general men have larger aneurysms compared with women. CONCLUSIONS: Different aneurysm sizes showed different expression pattern of HDL, IgG, and hsCRP. These biomarkers may be useful in predicting AAA progression

Characterization of the perfusate proteome of human donor kidneys

BACKGROUND: Preservation of deceased donor kidneys by hypothermic machine perfusion results in superior transplant outcomes as compared with static cold storage and provides the opportunity to measure biomarkers of cellular injury in perfusate samples. Identification of biomarkers predicting early graft dysfunction so far has met with limited success. METHODS: Two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were used to explore the proteome of perfusate samples from machine-perfused human donor kidneys (N = 18) and to discover novel biomarkers of ischaemic acute kidney injury. RESULTS: Thirty-two protein spots were successfully identified, representing 19 unique proteins that were derived from renal tissue and from residual plasma in the renal microcirculation. Two unidentified protein spots were significantly up-regulated, whereas one protein spot--identified as haptoglobin--was significantly down-regulated in the perfusate of ischaemically injured kidneys from donors after cardiac death as compared with kidneys from brain-dead donors who had not suffered warm ischaemic injury. Furthermore, two protein spots were up-regulated in kidneys that never functioned after transplantation, whereas one spot was up-regulated--identified as alpha1-antitrypsin--in kidneys with delayed graft function. CONCLUSIONS: We provide the first description of the renal perfusate proteome and present preliminary evidence of differentially expressed biomarkers in human donor kidneys with different levels of acute ischaemic injury. Their diagnostic value for the selection of marginal kidneys in clinical transplantation should be determined in future studies