The Privatisation of Safety seen from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

The discussion concerning the privatisation of safety, but also the privatisation of other tasks that have been traditionally carried out by the state authorities, has been marked by irrational arguments. A number of these arguments are set out here. After that, a more rational approach to the privatisation of social safety is proposed. In the final part of this paper an analysis is made of the academic disciplines that are involved with safety and a number of suggestions as to which disciplines would appear to be the most adequate ones to deal with this area are put forward

Assessment of the attraction flow in a fish passage

An attraction flow can be used to increase the effectivity of a fish passage. In 2004 a fish passage with a perpendicular attraction flow was built at Oudenaarde (Belgium) on the Upper Scheldt river. The design of the passage was based on scale model tests. In order to evaluate the hydraulic effectivity of the attraction flow, field measurements and new scale model tests are done. Velocities in the attraction flow and the fish passage entrance are assessed quantitatively and data of the scale model tests (1/15) are compared with the field measurements. The measured reach of the attraction flow seems to differ from results of the original scale model tests due to design modifications of the fish passage entrance. Results of the new scale model tests compare well with the data from the field measurements. Based on the results, a re-examination of the basic design rules for the attraction flow and fish pass entrances seems imperativ

Leveraging Web of Things W3C recommendations for knowledge graphs generation

Constructing a knowledge graph with mapping languages, such as RML or SPARQL-Generate, allows seamlessly integrating heterogeneous data by defining access-specific definitions for e.g., databases or files. However, such mapping languages have limited support for describing Web APIs and no support for describing data with varying velocities, as needed for e.g., streams, neither for the input data nor for the output RDF. This hampers the smooth and reproducible generation of knowledge graphs from heterogeneous data and their continuous integration for consumption since each implementation provides its own extensions. Recently, the Web of Things (WoT) Working Group released a set of recommendations to provide a machine-readable description of metadata and network-facing interfaces for Web APIs and streams. In this paper, we investigated (i) how mapping languages can be aligned with the newly specified recommendations to describe and handle heterogeneous data with varying velocities and Web APIs, and (ii) how such descriptions can be used to indicate how the generated knowledge graph should be exported. We extended RML’s Logical Source to support WoT descriptions of Web APIs and streams, and introduced RML’s Logical Target to describe the generated knowledge graph reusing the same descriptions. We implemented these extensions in the RMLMapper and RMLStreamer, and validated our approach in two use cases. Mapping languages are now able to use the same descriptions to define the input data but also the output RDF. This way, our work paves the way towards more reproducible workflows for knowledge graph generation

Dietary exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins from infancy until adulthood: A comparison between breast-feeding, toddler, and long-term exposure

Food is the major source for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dioxin accumulation in the human body. Therefore, investigating food habits from early ages until reproductive age (25 years) is important in order to assess exposure risk for the next generation. The objective of this study was to assess the PCB/dioxin exposure and the relative contribution of different foods to total exposure during preschool age. Particularly, the importance of lactational PCB/dioxin exposure vs. dietary exposure until adulthood was investigated. A cohort of 207 children was studied from birth until preschool age. Based on 3 planar PCBs and 17 2,3,7,8-substituted dibenzo-para-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) measured in breast milk, a model was developed to calculate the cumulative toxic equivalent (TEQ) intake during breast-feeding (0-1 year). In 3. 5-year-old children, daily dietary intake of planar PCB-TEQ and dioxin-TEQ was measured with a validated food questionnaire. Cumulative TEQ intake from 1 to 5 years was estimated using the PCB- and dioxin-TEQ intake measured with the food questionnaire. Cumulative TEQ intake from 6 to 25 years was estimated using national food consumption and contamination data of PCB- and dioxin-TEQ intake. In toddlers, dairy products contributed 43% to PCB-TEQ and 50% to dioxin-TEQ intake. Meat and meat products contributed 14% and 19%, respectively, and processed foods 23% and 15%, respectively. Breast-feeding for 6 months contributed to the cumulative PCB/dioxin TEQ intake until 25 years of age, 12% in boys and 14% in girls. The daily TEQ intake per kilogram body weight is 50 times higher in breast-fed infants and three times higher in toddlers than in adults. Long-term dietary exposure to PCBs and dioxins in men and women is partly due to breast-feeding (12 and 14%, respectively). After weaning, dairy products, processed foods, and meat are major contributors of PCB and dioxin accumulation until reproductive age. Instead of discouraging breast-feeding, maternal transfer of PCBs and dioxins to the next generation must be avoided by enforcement of strict regulations for PCB and dioxin discharge and by reducing consumption of animal products and processed foods in all ages

Validity of the Children’s Social Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ) in Children with Intellectual Disability: Comparing the CSBQ with ADI-R, ADOS, and Clinical DSM-IV-TR Classification

The Children’s Social Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ) was compared with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), and clinical classification in children with mild and moderate intellectual disability (ID), to investigate its criterion related validity. The contribution of the CSBQ to a classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was most specific for the subscales ‘contact’ and ‘stereotyped’, with high coherence with all three classification methods. The CSBQ may be used as a signaling, screening, or describing instrument for children with ASD and ID, as it complements other methods by adding unique information about the clinical presentation

Time to improve statin prescription guidelines in low-risk patients?

Background The challenge of the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is to identify patients who would benefit from treatment with statins. Statins are currently prescribed to many patients, even those at a low 10-year risk of CVD. These latter patients may not be eligible for statins according to current guidelines. Design This study investigated the prescription of guideline-consistent (according to guidelines) and guideline-inconsistent (not according to guidelines) lipid-lowering treatment in primary prevention in a large contemporary Dutch cohort study (Lifelines). Methods Lifelines is a large cohort study from the Netherlands. Participants were recruited between 2006 and 2013. They completed questionnaires and underwent a physical examination. Participants with previous CVD were excluded. Statins and ezetimibe were grouped as statin treatment. The Dutch guideline on cardiovascular management was used to assess eligibility for statins. Results Of 147,785 participants, 7092 (4.8%) reported statin treatment. In 4667 (66%) participants, statin treatment was inconsistent with the Dutch guideline. A total of 78% of these participants had a low 10-year predicted CVD risk. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that female sex and smoking were strongly associated with guideline-inconsistent treatment. Interestingly, 65% of the these participants had low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels above the 95(th) percentile, adjusted for age and sex, two or more major risk factors of CVD or a positive family history of premature CVD. Therefore treatment might be reasonable. Conclusions There is a large inconsistency between guideline recommendations and the prescription of statins in clinical practice in the Netherlands. This is especially true for patients with low CVD risk. Many of these patients probably had risk-increasing circumstances justifying treatment

A Polymorphism in the Splice Donor Site of ZNF419 Results in the Novel Renal Cell Carcinoma-Associated Minor Histocompatibility Antigen ZAPHIR

Nonmyeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) can induce remission in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but this graft-versus-tumor (GVT) effect is often accompanied by graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Here, we evaluated minor histocompatibility antigen (MiHA)-specific T cell responses in two patients with metastatic RCC who were treated with reduced-intensity conditioning SCT followed by donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI). One patient had stable disease and emergence of SMCY.A2-specific CD8+ T cells was observed after DLI with the potential of targeting SMCY-expressing RCC tumor cells. The second patient experienced partial regression of lung metastases from whom we isolated a MiHA-specific CTL clone with the capability of targeting RCC cell lines. Whole genome association scanning revealed that this CTL recognizes a novel HLA-B7-restricted MiHA, designated ZAPHIR, resulting from a polymorphism in the splice donor site of the ZNF419 gene. Tetramer analysis showed that emergence of ZAPHIR-specific CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood occurred in the absence of GVHD. Furthermore, the expression of ZAPHIR in solid tumor cell lines indicates the involvement of ZAPHIR-specific CD8+ T cell responses in selective GVT immunity. These findings illustrate that the ZNF419-encoded MiHA ZAPHIR is an attractive target for specific immunotherapy after allogeneic SCT