815 research outputs found

    Doding gevolgd door zelfdoding in Nederland

    Get PDF
    Homicide followed by the suicide of the perpetrator often leads to shock and incomprehension. It has been suggested that media reporting on such cases could lead to an imitation effect. This article describes the nature and incidence of homicide-suicide in the Netherlands in the period 1992-2014. In addition, it assesses whether a copycat-effect can be established due to media reporting. Results show that homicide-suicides occur on average nine times per year. Intimate partner homicide-suicide and child homicide-suicide are the most frequent types of homicide-suicide. Even though several temporal clusters could be observed during the period of study, there are insufficient indications to confirm a copycat-effect. This may be attributed to the heterogeneous and multifaceted nature of this phenomenon, lacking one single potentially ‘contagious’ cause.Security and Global Affair

    Mortality, Neonatal Morbidity and Two Year Follow-Up of Extremely Preterm Infants Born in the Netherlands in 2007

    Get PDF
    Contains fulltext : 108726.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Extremely preterm infants are at high risk of neonatal mortality and adverse outcome. Survival rates are slowly improving, but increased survival may come at the expense of more handicaps. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Prospective population-based cohort study of all infants born at 23 to 27 weeks of gestation in the Netherlands in 2007. 276 of 345 (80%) infants were born alive. Early neonatal death occurred in 96 (34.8%) live born infants, including 61 cases of delivery room death. 29 (10.5%) infants died during the late neonatal period. Survival rates for live born infants at 23, 24, 25 and 26 weeks of gestation were 0%, 6.7%, 57.9% and 71% respectively. 43.1% of 144 surviving infants developed severe neonatal morbidity (retinopathy of prematurity grade >/=3, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and/or severe brain injury). At two years of age 70.6% of the children had no disability, 17.6% was mild disabled and 11.8% had a moderate-to-severe disability. Severe brain injury (p = 0.028), retinopathy of prematurity grade >/=3 (p = 0.024), low gestational age (p = 0.019) and non-Dutch nationality of the mother (p = 0.004) increased the risk of disability. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: 52% of extremely preterm infants born in the Netherlands in 2007 survived. Surviving infants had less severe neonatal morbidity compared to previous studies. At two years of age less than 30% of the infants were disabled. Disability was associated with gestational age and neonatal morbidity

    The Steady State Fluctuation Relation for the Dissipation Function

    Get PDF
    We give a proof of transient fluctuation relations for the entropy production (dissipation function) in nonequilibrium systems, which is valid for most time reversible dynamics. We then consider the conditions under which a transient fluctuation relation yields a steady state fluctuation relation for driven nonequilibrium systems whose transients relax, producing a unique nonequilibrium steady state. Although the necessary and sufficient conditions for the production of a unique nonequilibrium steady state are unknown, if such a steady state exists, the generation of the steady state fluctuation relation from the transient relation is shown to be very general. It is essentially a consequence of time reversibility and of a form of decay of correlations in the dissipation, which is needed also for, e.g., the existence of transport coefficients. Because of this generality the resulting steady state fluctuation relation has the same degree of robustness as do equilibrium thermodynamic equalities. The steady state fluctuation relation for the dissipation stands in contrast with the one for the phase space compression factor, whose convergence is problematic, for systems close to equilibrium. We examine some model dynamics that have been considered previously, and show how they are described in the context of this work.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figur

    Grey matter volume alterations in CADASIL: a voxel-based morphometry study

    Get PDF
    CADASIL is a hereditary disease characterized by cerebral subcortical microangiopathy leading to early onset cerebral strokes and progressive severe cognitive impairment. Until now, only few studies have investigated the extent and localization of grey matter (GM) involvement. The purpose of our study was to evaluate GM volume alterations in CADASIL patients compared to healthy subjects. We also looked for correlations between global and regional white matter (WM) lesion load and GM volume alterations. 14 genetically proved CADASIL patients and 12 healthy subjects were enrolled in our study. Brain MRI (1.5 T) was acquired in all subjects. Optimized-voxel based morphometry method was applied for the comparison of brain volumes between CADASIL patients and controls. Global and lobar WM lesion loads were calculated for each patient and used as covariate-of-interest for regression analyses with SPM-8. Compared to controls, patients showed GM volume reductions in bilateral temporal lobes (p < 0.05; FDR-corrected). Regression analysis in the patient group revealed a correlation between total WM lesion load and temporal GM atrophy (p < 0.05; uncorrected), not between temporal lesion load and GM atrophy. Temporal GM volume reduction was demonstrated in CADASIL patients compared to controls; it was related to WM lesion load involving the whole brain but not to lobar and, specifically, temporal WM lesion load. Complex interactions between sub-cortical and cortical damage should be hypothesized

    Predicting technique survival in peritoneal dialysis patients: comparing artificial neural networks and logistic regression

    Get PDF
    Background. Early technique failure has been a major limitation on the wider adoption of peritoneal dialysis (PD). The objectives of this study were to use data from a large, multi-centre, prospective database, the United Kingdom Renal Registry (UKRR), in order to determine the ability of an artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict early PD technique failure and to compare its performance with a logistic regression (LR)-based approach

    Dealing with Food and Eggs in Mouthbrooding Cichlids: Structural and Functional Trade-Offs in Fitness Related Traits

    Get PDF
    As in any vertebrate, heads of fishes are densely packed with functions. These functions often impose conflicting mechanical demands resulting in trade-offs in the species-specific phenotype. When phenotypical traits are linked to gender-specific parental behavior, we expect sexual differences in these trade-offs. This study aims to use mouthbrooding cichlids as an example to test hypotheses on evolutionary trade-offs between intricately linked traits that affect different aspects of fitness. We focused on the oral apparatus, which is not only equipped with features used to feed and breathe, but is also used for the incubation of eggs. We used this approach to study mouthbrooding as part of an integrated functional system with diverging performance requirements and to explore gender-specific selective environments within a species.Because cichlids are morphologically very diverse, we hypothesize that the implications of the added constraint of mouthbrooding will primarily depend on the dominant mode of feeding of the studied species. To test this, we compared the trade-off for two maternal mouthbrooding cichlid species: a "suction feeder" (Haplochromis piceatus) and a "biter" (H. fischeri). The comparison of morphology and performance of both species revealed clear interspecific and intersex differences. Our observation that females have larger heads was interpreted as a possible consequence of the fact that in both the studied species mouthbrooding is done by females only. As hypothesized, the observed sexual dimorphism in head shape is inferred as being suboptimal for some aspects of the feeding performance in each of the studied species. Our comparison also demonstrated that the suction feeding species had smaller egg clutches and more elongated eggs.Our findings support the hypothesis that there is a trade-off between mouthbrooding and feeding performance in the two studied haplochromine cichlids, stressing the importance of including species-specific information at the gender level when addressing interspecific functional/morphological differences

    The bilirubin albumin ratio in the management of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants to improve neurodevelopmental outcome: A randomized controlled trial - BARTrial

    Get PDF
    Background and Objective: High bilirubin/albumin (B/A) ratios increase the risk of bilirubin neurotoxicity. The B/A ratio may be a valuable measure, in addition to the total serum bilirubin (TSB), in the management of hyperbilirubinemia. We aimed to assess whether the additional use of B/A ratios in the management of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants improved neurodevelopmental outcome. Methods: In a prospective, randomized controlled trial, 615 preterm infants of 32 weeks' gestation or less were randomly assigned to treatment based on either B/A ratio and TSB thresholds (consensus-based), whichever threshold was crossed first, or on the TSB thresholds only. The primary outcome was neurodevelopment at 18 to 24 months' corrected age as assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III by investigators unaware of treatment allocation. Secondary outcomes included complications of preterm birth and death. Results: Composite motor (100±13 vs. 101±12) and cognitive (101±12 vs. 101±11) scores did not differ between the B/A ratio and TSB groups. Demographic characteristics, maximal TSB levels, B/A ratios, and other secondary outcomes were similar. The rates of death and/or severe neurodevelopmental impairment for th

    Barriers for progress in salt reduction in the general population. An international study

    Get PDF
    Salt reduction is important for reducing hypertension and the risk of cardiovascular events, nevertheless worldwide salt intakes are above recommendations. Consequently strategies to reduce intake are required, however these require an understanding of salt intake behaviours to be effective. As limited information is available on this, an international study was conducted to derive knowledge on salt intake and associated behaviours in the general population. An online cohort was recruited consisting of a representative sample from Germany, Austria, United States of America, Hungary, India, China, South Africa, and Brazil (n=6987; aged 18-65. years; age and gender stratified). Participants completed a comprehensive web-based questionnaire on salt intake and associated behaviours. While salt reduction was seen to be healthy and important, over one third of participants were not interested in salt reduction and the majority were unaware of recommendations. Salt intake was largely underestimated and people were unaware of the main dietary sources of salt. Participants saw themselves as mainly responsible for their salt intake, but also acknowledged the roles of others. Additionally, they wanted to learn more about why salt was bad for health and what the main sources in the diet were. As such, strategies to reduce salt intake must raise interest in engaging in salt reduction through improving understanding of intake levels and dietary sources of salt. Moreover, while some aspects of salt reduction can be globally implemented, local tailoring is required to match level of interest in salt reduction. These findings provide unique insights into issues surrounding salt reduction and should be used to develop effective salt reduction strategies and/or policies. © 2013 The Authors

    Long-term quality of life and exocrine and endocrine insufficiency after pancreatic surgery: a multicenter, cross-sectional study

    Get PDF
    Background: Data regarding long-term quality of life and exocrine and endocrine insufficiency after pancreatic surgery for premalignant and benign (non-pancreatitis) disease are lacking. Methods: This cross-sectional study included patients >3 years after pancreatoduodenectomy or left pancreatectomy in six Dutch centers (2006-2016). Outcomes were measured with the EQ-5D-5L, the EORTC QLQ-C30, an exocrine and endocrine pancreatic insufficiency questionnaire, and PAID20. Results: Questionnaires were completed by 153/183 patients (response rate 84%, median follow-up 6.3 years). Surgery related complaints were reported by 72/153 patients (47%) and 13 patients (8.4%) would not undergo this procedure again. The VAS (EQ-5D-5L) was 76 +/- 17 versus 82 +/- 0.4 in the general population (p < 0.001). The mean global health status (QLQ-C30) was 78 +/- 17 versus 78 +/- 17, p = 1.000. Fatigue, insomnia, and diarrhea were clinically relevantly worse in patients. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency was reported by 62 patients (41%) with relieve of symptoms by enzyme supplementation in 48%. New-onset diabetes mellitus was present in 22 patients (14%). The median PAID20 score was 6.9/20 (IQR 2.5-17.8). Conclusion: Although generic quality of life after pancreatic resection for pre-malignant and benign disease was similar to the general population and diabetes-related distress was low, almost half suffered from a range of symptoms highlighting the need for long-term counseling.Cellular mechanisms in basic and clinical gastroenterology and hepatolog
    corecore