The adventure of greening the University : rol van het studentennetwerk Morgen bij kennisuitwisseling voor duurzame ontwikkeling binnen het hoger onderwijs

De Wetenschapswinkel heeft in opdracht van het studentennetwerk Morgen een onderzoeksproject uitgevoerd naar duurzame ontwikkeling binnen universiteiten en hogescholen. Het doel van het project ‘The Adventure of Greening the University’ is om ‘Morgen’ te adviseren hoe het proces van kennisuitwisseling rondom duurzame ontwikkeling binnen het hoger onderwijs te versnellen

Form and Function of Narrative Repetition in Aphasia: Clinical Implications

Clinical aphasiologists have long recognized that repetition is found in the discourse of speakers with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. Examples of repetition associated with pathology may include echolalia, perseveration, stereotypies, false starts, and recurrent digression. These types of repetition are often interpreted as signs of poor inhibition of undesired responses or poor activation of desired responses, e.g., as associated with anomia. What is typically not addressed in clinical research is the relative degree to which similar categories of performance errors are also found in the discourse productions of non-brain-injured communicators

Collisional Properties of Cold Spin-Polarized Metastable Neon Atoms

We measure the rates of elastic and inelastic two-body collisions of cold spin-polarized neon atoms in the metastable 3P2 state for 20^Ne and 22^Ne in a magnetic trap. From particle loss, we determine the loss parameter of inelastic collisions beta=6.5(18)x10^{-12} cm^3s^{-1} for 20^Ne and beta=1.2(3)x10^{-11}cm^3{s}^{-1} for 22^Ne. These losses are caused by ionizing (i.e. Penning) collisions %to more than and occur less frequently than for unpolarized atoms. This proves the suppression of Penning ionization due to spin-polarization. From cross-dimensional relaxation measurements, we obtain elastic scattering lengths of a=-180(40) a_0 for 20^Ne and a=+150(+80/-50) a_0 for 22^Ne, where a_0=0.0529 nm.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Development of social feedback processing and responses in childhood:an fMRI test-replication design in two age cohorts

This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n = 509/n = 385 and replication sample: n = 354/n = 195, 7-9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task, we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in the DLPFC when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/functional magnetic resonance imaging samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between the ages of 7 and 9 years.</p

De ontwikkeling van de beeldvorming rondom culturele diversiteit bij de Rijksoverheid in de periode 2008-2018.

De manier waarop medewerkers van de Rijksoverheid tegen culturele diversiteit aankijken, speelt een belangrijke rol in het succes van diversiteitsbeleid. In 2008 werd deze beeldvorming al eens Rijksbreed in kaart gebracht. Het hoofddoel van het huidige onderzoek was om te zien in hoeverre de beeldvorming zich in de afgelopen tien jaar heeft ontwikkeld. Daarnaast werd onderzocht of het organisatieklimaat en de leiderschapsstijl van de leidinggevende een rol spelen in de ontwikkeling van de beeldvorming. Het onderzoek werd uitgevoerd d.m.v. een digitale vragenlijst. Respondenten werd gevraagd welke voor- en nadelen van diversiteit zij ervaren op de werkvloer. Er werd een vergelijking gemaakt tussen twee willekeurige steekproeven onder Rijksambtenaren in 2008 (1617 respondenten in 7 kerndepartementen) en 2018 (2024 respondenten in 10 kerndepartementen en 4 uitvoeringsorganisaties). De resultaten laten zien dat Rijksambtenaren in 2018 positiever aankijken tegen culturele diversiteit op de werkvloer dan in 2008. Met name de voordelen voor productiviteit (de business case) worden meer erkend dan voorheen. Werknemers van de Rijksover

Transparency and (no) more in the Political Advertising Regulation

The EU has taken its first steps into a sensitive space by proposing a new Regulation on Political Advertising (RPA). Simply put, the RPA does two things, which this commentary will address in turn. First, it replaces national laws on the transparency of political advertising with a single set of rules. These provide progressively more information to citizens who see an ad, to the public through ad libraries, and to regulators and private actors who are authorised to request information. Second, the RPA tightens the GDPR’s ban on using sensitive data for targeted political advertising. It leaves member states free, however, to further regulate the use of political advertising.The RPA takes a number of important steps in political advertising law. It strengthens the transparency of the (so far largely unregulated) online political advertising environment. It expands ad libraries with information on targeting and funding. And it allows a broad range of private actors (including civil society and journalists) to request data from a broad range of companies (including ad agencies and small platforms). At the same time, the RPA not only represents the EU’s most significant effort to address concerns about political advertising’s democratic impact, but (because it fully harmonises transparency) also shapes how individuals, researchers, and national regulators can scrutinise political advertising. It is therefore important to determine whether the regulation lives up to the Commission’s hype

Positional mapping of loci in the DiGeorge critical region at chromosome 22q11 using a new marker (D22S183)

The majority of patients with DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) and velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS) and a minority of patients with non-syndromic conotruncal heart defects are hemizygous for a region of chromosome 22q11. The chromosomal region that is commonly deleted is larger than 2 Mb. It has not been possible to narrow the smallest region of overlap (SRO) of the deletions to less than ca 500 kb, which suggests that DGS/VCFS might be a contiguous gene syndrome. The saturation cloning of the SRO is being carried out, and one gene (TUPLE1) has been identified. By using a cosmid probe (M51) and fluorescence in situ hybridization, we show here that the anonymous DNA marker locus D22S183 is within the SRO, between TUPLE1 and D22S75 (probe N25). A second locus with weak homology to D22S183, recognized by cosmid M56, lies immediately outside the common SRO of the DGS and VCFS deletions, but inside the SRO of the DGS deletions. D22S183 sequences are strongly conserved in primates and weaker hybridizing signals are found in DNA of other mammalian species; no transcripts are however detected in polyA+ RNA from various adult human organs. Probe M51 allows fast reliable screening for 22q11 deletions using fluorescence in situ hybridization. A deletion was found in 11 out of 12 DGS patients and in 3 out of 7 VCFS patients. Two patients inherited the deletion from a parent with mild (atypical) symptoms