Wie zijn zij…?!: De representativiteit van procederende belangenorganisaties

The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance in a World of Multilevel Jurisdiction

Windtunnel model position and orientation

In this contribution the determination of the position of moving and deforming objects in windtunnels from CCD camera information is studied. An analytical approach is discussed which solves the problem directly from manipulating nonlinear distance formulae. Also a least-squares approach is given, which is most convenient to implement from a numerical point of view

Het proefproces als collectieve actie

The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance in a World of Multilevel Jurisdiction

Assessing peripheral arteries in South African black women with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Objectives. To determine the value of ankle and toe blood pressure indices and pedal pulse palpation in the assessment of peripheral arterial disease in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).Design. Cross-sectional study.Subjects. A convenience sample of 85 female subjects with type 2 DM underwent a series of peripheral vascular assessments at the diabetes clinic of a community hospital.Outcome measures. Palpation of the pedal pulses, Doppler derived ankle brachial systolic blood pressure indices, photo plethysmographic-derived toe brachial systolic blood pressure indices and antero-posterior radiographs of both feet.Results. Mean values were 1.15 (standard deviation (SD): 0.17) and 0.76 (SD: 0.17) for ankle brachial index (ABI) and toe brachial index (T'Bl) respectively. The differences between the two indices increased from 0.36 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.32 - 0.41) to 0.58 (95% CI: 0.46- 0.70) depending on whether ABI was less or greater than 1.3. The correlation coefficient for left versus right foot was 0.62 and 0.71 for ABI and TBI respectively. The relationship between ABI and TBI is non-linear with a cut point close to 1.3. Both ABI and TBI were significantly lower in subjects who had both pedal pulses absent on palpation.Conclusions. The relationship between ABI and TBI is linear, below an ABI of 1.3. but with a wide 95% prediction interval. If both pedal pulses are absent the ABI is significantly diminished compared with when both pulses are present, even though not necessarily below 0.9. 

Motives of contributing personal data for health research:(non-)participation in a Dutch biobank

BACKGROUND: Large-scale, centralized data repositories are playing a critical and unprecedented role in fostering innovative health research, leading to new opportunities as well as dilemmas for the medical sciences. Uncovering the reasons as to why citizens do or do not contribute to such repositories, for example, to population-based biobanks, is therefore crucial. We investigated and compared the views of existing participants and non-participants on contributing to large-scale, centralized health research data repositories with those of ex-participants regarding the decision to end their participation. This comparison could yield new insights into motives of participation and non-participation, in particular the behavioural change of withdrawal. METHODS: We conducted 36 in-depth interviews with ex-participants, participants, and non-participants of a three-generation, population-based biobank in the Netherlands. The interviews focused on the respondents' decision-making processes relating to their participation in a large-scale, centralized repository for health research data. RESULTS: The decision of participants and non-participants to contribute to the biobank was motivated by a desire to help others. Whereas participants perceived only benefits relating to their participation and were unconcerned about potential risks, non-participants and ex-participants raised concerns about the threat of large-scale, centralized public data repositories and public institutes, such as social exclusion or commercialization. Our analysis of ex-participants' perceptions suggests that intrapersonal characteristics, such as levels of trust in society, participation conceived as a social norm, and basic societal values account for differences between participants and non-participants. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate the fluidity of motives centring on helping others in decisions to participate in large-scale, centralized health research data repositories. Efforts to improve participation should focus on enhancing the trustworthiness of such data repositories and developing layered strategies for communication with participants and with the public. Accordingly, personalized approaches for recruiting participants and transmitting information along with appropriate regulatory frameworks are required, which have important implications for current data management and informed consent procedures