Personality profile of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Personality may play a role in the predisposition, the precipitation and/or the maintenance of the CFS. Thirty-six consecutively examined female patients hospitalised for a sleep workup, filled out a Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) questionnaire. A MANOVA compared the patients with a control group of females matched for age. Significant scores were obtained for dimensions such as Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Self-Directedness. However, the only subdimension of Harm Avoidance that proved significantly higher in CFS than in controls was “Fatigability,” which is likely to overlap with the core CFS symptom. All in all, the personality structure does not appear to play a major role in the CFS.Peer reviewe

Embedding ICT in Real-time Measurements for Versatile Applications in Modern Life Sciences Education

Involving undergraduates and high school students to play a more active role in science lessons has been an objective in many educational research programmes. ICT is a perfect tool to meet this goal. Particularly, in this paper the processing of experimental biochemica

Influence of Thermal-Mechanical Effects on Resistance Changes During and After Electromigration Experiments

This paper is focused on the non-linear resistance behaviours often detected by means of high resolution resistometric methods both at the very beginning of an electromigration (EM) test, and after the high stressing current inducing EM is switched off. It is shown that temperature steps, always present at the beginning or after EM, are the triggering events for different, often reversible, physical phenomena contributing to resistance changes. Precipitation-dissolution of alloyed elements is perhaps the most important one, while other mechanisms, like the combined effect of hydrostatic stress relaxation and void volume change, should cancel out. These effects, however, don't exclude a possible simultaneous effect on the resistance of accumulation/relaxation of EM damage. Experimental results are collected by means of different, complementary techniques

Vroegtijdige zorgplanning in een woonzorgcentrum. Analyse van implementatie en zorginhoud

Kwaliteitsvolle vroegtijdige zorgplanning en levenseindezorg krijgen steeds meer aandacht binnen de eerste lijn. Ook in het woonzorgcentrum (WZC) kan vroegtijdige zorgplanning waardevol zijn, indien het juist wordt gehanteerd. In dit onderzoek wordt de implementatie van vroegtijdige zorgplanning in een woonzorgcentrum nagegaan aan de hand van volgende onderzoeksvragen: welke zorgafspraken worden vroegtijdig vastgelegd? Welke ingrijpende en levenseindebeslissingen worden genomen aan het levenseinde? Is er congruentie tussen vastgelegde afspraken en uitgevoerde levenseindezorg? Uit de resultaten blijkt dat de meerderheid van de WZC-bewoners in aanraking komt met vroegtijdige zorgplanning. Toch zijn er nog hiaten binnen de initiatie, de documentatie, het procesmatige verloop en de communicatie van vroegtijdige zorgplanning.status: publishe