Managing performance design of smart homes

Smart homes are considered a vital technology in an aging society as they compensate for a shortage in care workers. However, often smart homes do not perform well. Performance management is well known in the manufacturing industry but not common in the building industry. The performance approach is the practice of thinking and working in terms of ends rather than means. It is concerned with what a building or a building product is required to do, and not with prescribing how it is to be constructed. Performance based building (PBB) includes amongst others functional briefing and performance assessments. However, an overview of tasks in PBB is lacking and the principle has not yet been applied to smart homes. Aim of this research is to contribute to performance management in the construction of health smart homes by identifying tasks and proposing a task assignment. Tasks are identified by studying the extended reporting of the Performance Based Building Network (PeBBu). In conclusion we may say that PBB of health smart homes primarily differs from traditional building in the way tasks are performed. PBB demands that the client does not design (specify how to build) but restricts himself to specifying why he wants and why he wants it. PBB also demands that the designers and contractors are selected on both price and capabilities. Besides these alterations in how tasks are performed merely two tasks are added. These are the verification of the realized design and the monitoring of performance of the building in use

Why national narratives are perpetuated: A literature review on new insights from history textbook research

National narratives have often served to mobilize the masses for war by providing myths and distorted interpretations of the past, while conversely wars were major sources for producing national narratives. Because national history is very likely to remain a central topic in history education, albeit in ways that differ from how the topic was used fifty years ago, it is important to gain a greater understanding of the underlying structures and mechanisms of these narratives in history textbooks. After outlining the historical interconnectedness of the emerging nation states and history teaching, this review article explains the complexity of the history textbook as an educational resource. Next, we identify some current problems and challenges in history textbook research. We continue by discussing promising research trends related mainly to national narratives, such as the analysis of images, the use of digital tools, and studies of the autonomy of textbook narratives and of history textbooks in relation to other media. Another recent reorientation is textbook research that uses a holistic approach. By this we mean studies that examine the history textbook as a whole: composition, periodization, visual intertextuality and chapters that do not at first glance appear to focus on national history. These studies offer new insights and explanations for the perpetuation of national narratives in history textbooks

Endoplasmic reticulum proteins are major targets of oxidative stress. Application of a novel fluorescent probe

A target for protein oxidation by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is tyrosine, which may form the age- and/or disease-related biomarkers dityrosine, chlorotyrosine and nitrotyrosine. It was already recognized that immunochemical assays should facilitate studies on the role of oxidative stress in aging and chronic disease and simplify the evaluation of therapeutic approaches. This thesis describes a contribution to the field of measuring protein oxidation by introducing and utilising a novel oxidation sensitive probe. Upon oxidation the fluorescein-labelled tyramine (hence called TyrFluo) may couple to oxidized proteins carrying a tyrosyl radical by forming a dityrosine bond. Exposure of the cells to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of either TyrFluo or (the acetylated cellmembrane permeable) acTyrFluo gave a cellular labelling characteristic for each probe (immunodetection was performed with an HRP-conjugated polyclonal antibody against the fluorescein moiety) independent of the abundance of a particular protein. In order to identify those intracellular proteins that are most susceptible to oxidation by H2O2 we have used acTyrFluo to label proteins in normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF). 2D-PAGE and subsequent Western-blotting were performed on a mixed sample of acTyrFluo-labelled and 35S-methionine-labelled proteins of NHDF. The identification of TyrFluo-labelled proteins was achieved by matching the obtained immunoblot and the autoradiogram to our reference database of the human MRC-5 fibroblasts. This revealed that the labelled proteins were associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER; i.e. BiP/GRP78, calnexin, GRP94, PDI, and GRP58/Erp57). In agreement, fluorescence microscopy showed a co-localization of the acTyrFluo-labelled proteins with the KDEL-receptor ERD2 on the ER membrane. Since H2O2 is a weak oxidant we infer that it must be converted first into a hydroxyl radical (OH.) in the ER (possibly. by a Fenton reaction using transition metal ions available in the ER) for proteins and acTyrFluo to become oxidized. In addition, by altering the anti-oxidative capacities of the cells (e.g. GSH content) the extent of protein labelling could be modulated. To investigate whether ER-related protein folding/maturation is impaired after subjecting cells to oxidative stress the maturation of a [35S]-methionine labelled model protein, the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLr), was followed in pulse-chase experiments under oxidative conditions. Under the same conditions the ratio of GSH versus GSSG was measured and related to the degree of maturation of the LDLr. The velocity of LDLr-maturation was reduced or even abolished in an H2O2-dependent manner. This impairment may result from oxidized folding proteins, sulfhydryls of LDLr, glycosylating enzymes in the ER and/or Golgi, or of eradicated vesicular transport towards the Golgi complex. However, when cells were allowed to recover after the oxidation maturation could be restored. This restoration depended protein synthesis, since blocking of translation by cycloheximide prevented restoration of maturation. In addition, the low GSH/GSSG balance could not be restored during this recovery period. This impaired maturation cannot be put on the account of the ER solely. The transport towards the Golgi complex may also be reduced dramatically, after the H2O2 treatment. The 'free radical theory of aging' describes the age-related accumulation of radical-induced damage to biomolecules and has been extended to the oxidative "garbage catastrophe theory". According to this theory, aging may derive from imperfect clearance of oxidatively damaged, relatively indigestible material, the accumulation of which further hinders cellular catabolic and anabolic functions and mainly affects postmitotic non-proliferating cells. Damage to the ER, and its subsequent impaired functionality may be involved in the process of aging. There are several phenomena that suggest its involvement. The contribution to the age-related accumulation of damaged protein as a consequence of the oxidation of ER resident proteins is discussed

Cognitive profiles in Alzheimer s disease: Recognizing its many faces

Scheltens, P. [Promotor]Flier, W.M. van der [Copromotor