The structure and composition of Deutero-Isaiah. With special reference to the polemics against idolatry

In het eerste deel wordt de literatuur, die de laatste twintig jaren over de struktuur en kompositie van Deutero-Jesaja verschenen is, besproken. Het tweede deel bestaat uit een onderzoek naar de opbouw en de samenhang van de achtereenvolgende passages in Jes. 40-55; daarbij dienen Jes. 40:18-20, 41:17, 44:9-20 en 46:5-7 als “invalspoorten”. Deze polemieken tegen de afgodendienst, die vaak als secundair beschouwd worden, blijken zeer nauw met hun context verbonden te zijn en te fungeren als stukken, die de onvergelijkbaarheid en het unieke van Jahwe onderstrepen; als zodanig zijn zij een wezenlijk deel van het boek. ... Zie: Samenvatting

Are patients who use alternative medicine dissatisfied with orthodox medicine?

Approximately 45% of asthmatic families and 47% of non-asthmatic families had consulted an alternative-medicine practitioner at some time. The most popular form of alternative medicine was chiropractic (21.1% and 26.4%, respectively), followed by homoeopathy/naturopathy (18.8% and 12.7%, respectively), acupuncture (9.4% and 10.9%, respectively), and herbal medicine (4.7% and 6.4%, respectively), while the remainder (20.3% and 11.8% respectively) was distributed among iridology, osteopathy, hypnosis, faith healing and megavitamin therapy. More families were satisfied with orthodox medicine (87.1% and 93.6%, respectively) than with alternative medicine (84.2% and 75.1%, respectively). Crosstabulation analysis of pooled data both from asthma and from non-asthma groups showed that 76.4% were satisfied both with orthodox and with alternative medicine, and 16.4% were satisfied with orthodox, but not with alternative, medicine. In contrast, only 2.7% were dissatisfied with orthodox medicine and satisfied with alternative medicine (χ = 9.33;P < 0.01). These findings do not support the view that patients who use alternative medicine are those who are disgruntled with orthodox medicine

Parental knowledge and misconceptions about asthma: A controlled study

We interviewed the parents of 128 asthmatic children about their knowledge and misconceptions of asthma. Two-third or more gave correct responses to questions on aetiology and pathogenesis, pathophysiology, symptomatology, precipitants and outcome of asthma. A control group of parents of 110 children admitted to the hospital with minor surgical complaints performed equally well on the knowledge questions, except for four sub-questions: (1) allergy as an aetiologic factor in asthma (64.5% vs 83.6%, P = 0.002), (2) constriction of airways as a bodily change during an asthmatic attack (75.4% vs 91.3%, P = 0.004), (3) cough as a symptom of asthma (82.7% vs 99.2%, P