Hugo Raes : de roman als montage : een struktuuranalyse van De vadsige koningen, Een faun met kille horentjes en, Het smarán, het vikka, de ronko en al de andere kleuren van de geschiedenis

De analyse van het individuele literaire werk zal steeds het begin- en eindpunt moeten zijn van de literatuurstudie in welke gedaante dan ook: "Dit neemt echter niet weg dat het begin en einde, het alfa en omega van de literaire bedrijvigheid, het literair kunstwerk als zodanig, de literaire intentie, functie en efficientie de literair, literairesthetisch, te actualiseren en te valoriseren tekst is ... " (Rutten, 1973, p.144). Juist deze vorm van onderzoek lijkt op het ogenblik soms weI eens verloren te raken tussen de veelheid van literaire theorieen die overal opgang maken. De beoefenaars van de literaire kritiek lijken dikwijls meer begaan met het opbouwen en afbreken van theorieen dan met het literaire werk zelf. Sinds W. Bloks studie Verhaal en lezer in 1960 voor het eerst het licht zag, mag er dan op het gebied van de literatuurwetenschap in de Nederlanden en daarbuiten heel wat veranderd zijn, maar zijn uitspraak: " ... dat de romantheorie op het ogenblik het meest gebaat is met analyses van afzonderlijke werken" (1969, p.9) heeft zeker nog niets aan geldigheid ingeboet

Parenting style, the home environment, and screen time of 5-year-old children; the 'be active, eat right' study

Introduction: The global increase in childhood overweight and obesity has been ascribed partly to increases in children's screen time. Parents have a large influence on their children's screen time. Studies investigating parenting and early childhood screen time are limited. In this study, we investigated associations of parenting style and the social and physical home environment on watching TV and using computers or game consoles among 5-year-old children. Methods: This study uses baseline data concerning 5-year-old children (n = 3067) collected for the 'Be active, eat right' study. Results: Children of parents with a higher score on the parenting style dimension involvement, were more likely to spend >30 min/day on computers or game consoles. Overall, families with an authoritative or authoritarian parenting style had lower percentages of children's screen time compared to families with an indulgent or neglectful style, but no significant difference in OR was found. In families with rules about screen time, children were less likely to watch TV>2 hrs/day and more likely to spend >30 min/day on computers or game consoles. The number of TVs and computers or game consoles in the household was positively associated with screen time, and children with a TV or computer or game console in their bedroom were more likely to watch TV>2 hrs/day or spend >30 min/day on computers or game consoles. Conclusion: The magnitude of the association between parenting style and screen time of 5-year-olds was found to be relatively modest. The associations found between the social and physical environment and children's screen time are independent of parenting style. Interventions to reduce children's screen time might be most effective when they support parents specifically with introducing family rules related to screen time and prevent the presence of a TV or computer or game console in the child's room

Screening of post-mortem tissue donors for Coxiella burnetii infection after large outbreaks of Q fever in The Netherlands

BACKGROUND: After the largest outbreaks of Q fever ever recorded in history occurred in the Netherlands, concern arose that Coxiella may be transmitted via donated tissues of latent or chronically infected donors. The Dutch Health Council recently advised to screen tissue donors, donating high risk tissues, for Coxiella infection. METHODS: After validation of an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test for IgG antibodies against phase 2 of C. burnetii for use on post-mortem samples, serum samples of 1033 consecutive Dutch post-mortem tissue donors were tested for IgG antibodies against phase 2 of C. burnetii. Confirmation of reactive results was done by immunofluorescence assay (IFA). All available tissues (corneas, heart valves, skin and bone marrow) from donors with IgG reactivity were tested for presence of Coxiella DNA by PCR. Risk factors for IgG reactivity were investigated. RESULTS: After validation of the tests for use on post-mortem samples, 50/1033 donors (4.8%) screened positive for phase 2 anti-Coxiella IgG by EIA, and 31 were confirmed by IFA (3.0%). One donor showed a serological profile compatible with chronic infection. All tested tissues (25 corneas, 6 heart valves, 4 skin and 3 bone marrow) from donors with IgG reactivity tested negative for the presence of Coxiella DNA. Except for living in a postal code area with a high number of Q fever notifications, no risk factors for IgG reactivity were found. CONCLUSIONS: The strong correlation between notifications and seroprevalence confirms that the used assays are sufficiently specific for use on post-mortem samples, although one has to be aware of differences between batches. Thus, this study provides a validated method for screening tissue donors for infection with Coxiella burnetii that can be used in future outbreaks

The Terneuzen Birth Cohort: BMI Changes between 2 and 6 Years Correlate Strongest with Adult Overweight

Background: Complications of overweight amplify with age, and irreversible damage already exists in young persons. Identifying the most sensitive age interval(s) for adult overweight is relevant for primary prevention. The aim of the study was to assess the relative contribution of body mass index (BMI) changes between 0 and 18 years to adult overweight, and to identify the earliest critical growth period. Methods and Findings: Data from 762 subjects in the Terneuzen Birth Cohort with an average of 21 growth measurements per subject from birth until 18 years were used. The main outcome measure was the BMI standard deviation score (SDS) at young adulthood. For each subject BMI SDS was fitted by a piecewise linear model at eight different ages and correlated to adult BMI SDS. The age intervals in between are considered critical according to three criteria, tested by respectively Students' t-tests, multiple linear regression analyses and Pearson's correlation tests. In the age intervals 4 months(m) -1 year(y), 2-6 y, 6-10 y and 10-18 y the BMI SDS change differs between adults with and without overweight (P≤0.001). The age intervals 2-6 y and 10-18 y also meet the second criterion, implying that the BMI change during this period has a predictive value for adult BMI SDS in addition to BMI SDS at the end of the period. The largest rise in correlation between estimated BMI SDS and measured adult BMI SDS occurs during the period 2-6 y (from 0.36 to 0.63), which results in a high sensitivity (0.6) and specificity (0.8) by the age of 6 y. Conclusions/Significance: The age interval from 2 y to 6 y is the earliest and most critical growth period for adult overweight. Therefore, primary prevention of adult overweight seems most likely to be successful if targeted at this specific age interval. By identifying those with an upwards centile crossing between 2 and 6 years, the development towards adult overweight might be reversed. © 2010 De Kroon et al

Molecular epidemiology of clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from horses in Ireland

Clinical isolates (n = 63) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa obtained from various sites in 63 horses were compared using ERIC2 RAPD PCR to determine their genetic relatedness. Resulting banding patterns (n = 24 genotypes) showed a high degree of genetic heterogeneity amongst all isolates examined, indicating a relative non-clonal relationship between isolates from these patients, employing this genotyping technique. This study characterised 63 clinical isolates into 24 distinct genotypes, with the largest cluster (genotype E) accounting for 10/63 (15.9%) of the isolates. ERIC2 RAPD PCR proved to be a highly discriminatory molecular typing tool of P. aeruginosa in isolates recovered from horses. With the adoption of several controls to aid reproducibility, this technique may be useful as an alternative to PFGE, particularly in epidemiological investigations of outbreaks where speed may be a significant parameter. This is the first report of clonal heterogeneity amongst P. aeruginosa from horses and demonstrated that ERIC RAPD PCR is a rapid method for the examination of this species in horses, which may be useful in outbreak analysis

Behavioral risk factors for overweight in early childhood; the 'be active, eat right' study.

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The lifestyle-related behaviors having breakfast, drinking sweet beverages, playing outside and watching TV have been indicated to have an association with childhood overweight, but research among young children (below 6 years old) is limited. The aim of the present study was to assess the associations between these four behaviors and overweight among young children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This cross-sectional study used baseline data on 5-year-old children (n = 7505) collected for the study ‘Be active, eat right’. Age and sex-specific cut-off points for body mass index of the International Obesity Task Force were used to assess overweight/obesity. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were applied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For children whom had breakfast <7 days/week and watched TV >2 hours/day, the odds ratio (OR) for having overweight (obesity included) was, respectively, 1.49 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13-1.95), and 1.25 (95% CI: 1.03-1.51). There was a positive association between the number of risk behaviors present and the risk for having overweight. For children with 3 or all of the risk behaviors having breakfast <7 days/week, drinking sweet beverages >2 glasses/day, playing outside <1 h/day, watching TV >2 hs/day, the OR for overweight was 1.73 (95% CI: 1.11-2.71) (all models adjusted for children’s sex and sociodemographic characteristics).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Given the positive association between the number of behavioral risk factors and overweight, further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral counseling of parents of toddlers in preventing childhood overweight. In the meantime we recommend physicians to target all four behaviors for counseling during well-child visits.</p

Inequalities in energy-balance related behaviours and family environmental determinants in European children: changes and sustainability within the EPHE evaluation study

BACKGROUND: Increasing social inequalities in health across Europe are widening the gap between low and high socio-economic groups, notably in the prevalence of obesity. Public health interventions may result in differential effects across population groups. Therefore, the EPHE (EPODE for the Promotion of Health Equity) project analysed the added value of community-based programmes, based on the EPODE (Ensemble Prévenons l'Obésité Des Enfants-Together Let's Prevent Obesity) model, to reduce socio-economic inequalities in energy balance-related behaviours of children and their family-environmental related determinants in seven European communities. This study presents the changes between baseline and follow-up after the one-year interventions and their sustainability one year after. METHODS: This is a prospective study with a one school-year intervention, followed by one year of follow-up. In all, 1266 children (age 6-8 years) and their families from different socio-economic backgrounds were recruited at baseline. For 1062 children, information was available after one year (T1) and for 921 children after two years (T2). A self-reported questionnaire was completed by the parents to examine the children's energy balance-related behaviours and family- environmental determinants. Socio-economic status was defined by the educational level of the mother. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test for paired data was used to test the differences between baseline and intermediate, and between intermediate and final, measurements for each of the socio-economic status groups. RESULTS: Post-intervention effects in energy-balance related behaviours showed the following improvements among the low socio-economic status groups: increased fruit consumption (Netherlands), decreased fruit juices amount consumed (Romania) and decreased TV time on weekdays (Belgium). Whereas in only the latter case the behavioural change was accompanied with an improvement in a family-environmental determinant (monitoring the time the child watches TV), other improvements in parental rules and practices related to soft drinks/fruit juices and TV exposure were observed. A few of those effects were sustainable, notably in the case of Belgium. CONCLUSIONS: Inequalities in obesity-related behaviours could be potentially reduced when implementing community-based interventions, tailored to inequality gaps and using the EPODE methodology. Within-group changes varied widely, whereas monitoring of interventions and process evaluation are crucial to understand the observed results

Ferroelectric Thin-Film Capacitors and Piezoelectric Switches for Mobile Communication Applications

Thin-film ferroelectric capacitors have been integrated with resistors and active functions such as ESD protection into small, miniaturized modules, which enable a board space saving of up to 80%. With the optimum materials and processes, integrated capacitors with capacitance densities of up to 100 nF/mm2 for stacked capacitors combined with breakdown voltages of 90 V have been achieved. The integration of these high-density capacitors with extremely high breakdown voltage is a major accomplishment in the world of passive components and has not yet been reported for any other passive integration technology. Furthermore, thin-film tunable capacitors based on barium strontium titanate with high tuning range and high quality factor at 1 GHz have been demonstrated. Finally, piezoelectric thin films for piezoelectric switches with high switching speed have been realized

Identification of DNA methylation changes at cis-regulatory elements during early steps of HSC differentiation using tagmentation-based whole genome bisulfite sequencing

Epigenetic alterations during cellular differentiation are a key molecular mechanism which both instructs and reinforces the process of lineage commitment. Within the haematopoietic system, progressive changes in the DNA methylome of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are essential for the effective production of mature blood cells. Inhibition or loss of function of the cellular DNA methylation machinery has been shown to lead to a severe perturbation in blood production and is also an important driver of malignant transformation. HSCs constitute a very rare cell population in the bone marrow, capable of life-long self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation. The low abundance of HSCs has been a major technological barrier to the global analysis of the CpG methylation status within both HSCs and their immediate progeny, the multipotent progenitors (MPPs). Within this Extra View article, we review the current understanding of how the DNA methylome regulates normal and malignant hematopoiesis. We also discuss the current methodologies that are available for interrogating the DNA methylation status of HSCs and MPPs and describe a new data set that was generated using tagmentation-based whole genome bisulfite sequencing (TWGBS) in order to comprehensively map methylated cytosines using the limited amount of genomic DNA that can be harvested from rare cell populations. Extended analysis of this data set clearly demonstrates the added value of genome-wide sequencing of methylated cytosines and identifies novel important cis-acting regulatory regions that are dynamically remodeled during the first steps of haematopoietic differentiation