Breaking through the clouds:towards understanding sunburn, sun exposure and sun protection of children in the Netherlands

To change behaviour, it is important to understand the behaviour. Skin cancer, the most common type of cancer in the Netherlands, can be largely reduced by implementing adequate sun protection behaviours. This protection is particularly crucial in childhood, as children's skin is extra sensitive to sun damage. Sun protection can include applying sunscreen, putting on clothing, a hat or sunglasses, and seeking shade in a timely manner. Because very little was known in the area of sun protection for children, this study was conducted on sunburns, sun exposure, and the sun protection of children. This was done by interviewing parents and following a larger group of parents for three years in an online survey study. In addition, the effectiveness of existing sun protection interventions abroad was compared. All studies allow this dissertation to provide input for future sun protection interventions for parents and their children

PELICAN: a quality of life instrument for childhood asthma: Study Protocol of two Randomized Controlled Trials in Primary and Specialized Care in the Netherlands

BACKGROUND Asthma is one of the major chronic health problems in children in the Netherlands. The Pelican is a paediatric asthma-related quality of life instrument for children with asthma from 6-11 years old, which is suitable for clinical practice in primary and specialized care. Based on this instrument, we developed a self-management treatment to improve asthma-related quality of life. The Pelican intervention will be investigated in different health care settings. Results of intervention studies are often extrapolated to other health care settings than originally investigated. Because of differences in organization, disease severity, patient characteristics and care provision between health care settings, extrapolating research results could lead to unnecessary health costs without the desired health care achievements. Therefore, interventions have to be investigated in different health care settings when possible. This study is an example of an intervention study in different health care settings. In this article, we will present the study protocol of the Pelican study in primary and specialized care. METHOD/DESIGN This study consists of two randomized controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of the Pelican intervention in primary and specialized care. The trial in primary care is a multilevel design with 170 children with asthma in 16 general practices. All children in one general practices are allocated to the same treatment group. The trial in specialized care is a multicentre trial with 100 children with asthma. Children in one outpatient clinic are randomly allocated to the intervention or usual care group. In both trials, children will visit the care provider four times during a follow-up of nine months. This study is registered and ethically approved. DISCUSSION This article describes the study protocol of the Pelican study in different health care settings. If the Pelican intervention proves to be effective and efficient, implementation in primary and specialized care for paediatric asthma in the Netherlands will be recommended. TRIAL REGISTRATION This study is registered by clinicaltrial.gov (NCT01109745).This trial is funded by grants of the Dutch Asthma Foundation (NAF 3.4.07.043), fonds NutsOhra (0802–74), Nijmegen Centre for Evidence Based Practice (NCEBP) and Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre

EXPERTISE CLASSIFICATION: COLLABORATIVE CLASSIFICATION VS. AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION

Social classification is the process in which a community of users categorizes the resources in that community for their own use. Given enough users and categorization, this will lead to any given resource being represented by a set of labels or descriptors shared throughout the community (Mathes, 2004). Social classification has become an extremely popular way of structuring online communities in recent years. Well-known examples of such communities are the bookmarking websites Furl (http://www.furl.net/) and del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), and Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) where users can post their own photos and tag them

Platinum-Catalyzed Selective Tin-Carbon Bond Formation

In conclusion, two improved methods for the selective synthesis of monoorganotin trihalides were developed. The platinum-catalyzed Kocheshkov redistribution reaction of dialkyltin dichlorides with tin tetrachloride is the most interesting. Contrary to the other two methods described (the direct reaction of organic halides with tin(II) halides and the use of (NCN)Sn(IV)-butyl complexes as alkylating agents), this novel method works for a range of monoalkyltin trichlorides, affording high yields (up to 94%) and high selectivities (up to 96%). Moreover, the platinum catalysts used are either commercially available or easy to prepare. Since the reaction of R2SnCl2 (R = alkyl) with SnCl4 is not problematic anymore, direct conversion of R4Sn into four equivalents of RSnCl3 was also possible (for R = n-Bu, 83% isolated yield). This is a great improvement of the currently used method in which R4Sn reacts with two equivalents of SnCl4 to afford RSnCl3 in 66% yield with 33% of R2SnCl2 as side-product. Although further process optimization will be necessary, we conclude that the method has potential for industrial application, especially in the case that dialkyltin dichloride as by-product is undesirable