Lachen in het donker. Een onderzoek naar de betekenis van humor binnen geestelijke verzorging in de zorg

Humor is geen geëigend thema binnen geestelijke verzorging in de zorg. Om de betekenis ervan helder in beeld te krijgen is, is in dit onderzoek gebruik gemaakt van de deugd eutrapelia (Binau, 2009) en humor als midden tussen verstening en verdamping (Verhoeven, 1966). Daarnaast hebben zeven halfopen interviews met geestelijk verzorgers plaatsgevonden. Deze zijn vervolgens geanalyseerd volgens de narratieve benadering. De concepten laten zien hoe humor zich beweegt tussen twee extremen, volstrekte scepsis en volkomen ernst. Door dit spanningsveld naast de praktijk van de geestelijke verzorger te leggen, wordt duidelijk dat geestelijke verzorging gekenmerkt wordt door een hoge mate van ernst. Dit zit hem in de existentiële thematiek, de mate van ernst van de geestelijk verzorger en de beeldvorming over het beroep. Deze ernst kan – wanneer daar niet iets lichts tegenover staat – neigen naar volkomen ernst. Er is dan sprake van een disbalans. Hoewel humor een aantal gevaren kent die leiden tot terughoudendheid in het werken met humor, kan humor van betekenis zijn in het herstellen van de balans tussen ernst en lichtheid door een tegenwicht te bieden. Ook kan het een bijdrage leveren aan de zinervaring door het hanteerbaar maken van een situatie, het aandragen van een nieuw perspectief, het creëren van ruimte en ontspanning en het uitdrukking geven aan de aanvaarding van de complexe en meervoudige werkelijkheid. Tevens kan humor een instrument zijn om serieuze punten te benoemen en mensen te verbinden. Een humor-ervaring wordt daarnaast beleefd als een prettige en mooie ervaring

Alignment to natural and imposed mismatches between the senses

Does the nervous system continuously realign the senses so that objects are seen and felt in the same place? Conflicting answers to this question have been given. Research imposing a sensory mismatch has provided evidence that the nervous system realigns the senses to reduce the mismatch. Other studies have shown that when subjects point with the unseen hand to visual targets, their end points show visual-proprioceptive biases that do not disappear after episodes of visual feedback. These biases are indicative of intersensory mismatches that the nervous system does not align for. Here, we directly compare how the nervous system deals with natural and imposed mismatches. Subjects moved a hand-held cube to virtual cubes appearing at pseudorandom locations in threedimensional space. We alternated blocks in which subjects moved without visual feedback of the hand with feedback blocks in which we rendered a cube representing the hand-held cube. In feedback blocks, we rotated the visual feedback by 5° relative to the subject's head, creating an imposed mismatch between vision and proprioception on top of any natural mismatches. Realignment occurred quickly but was incomplete. We found more realignment to imposed mismatches than to natural mismatches. We propose that this difference is related to the way in which the visual information changed when subjects entered the experiment: the imposed mismatches were different from the mismatch in daily life, so alignment started from scratch, whereas the natural mismatches were not imposed by the experimenter, so subjects are likely to have entered the experiment partly aligned. © 2013 the American Physiological Society

Two variants among Haemophilus influenzae serotype b strains with distinct bcs4, hcsA and hcsB genes display differences in expression of the polysaccharide capsule

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite nearly complete vaccine coverage, a small number of fully vaccinated children in the Netherlands have experienced invasive disease caused by <it>Haemophilus influenzae </it>serotype b (Hib). This increase started in 2002, nine years after the introduction of nationwide vaccination in the Netherlands. The capsular polysaccharide of Hib is used as a conjugate vaccine to protect against Hib disease. To evaluate the possible rise of escape variants, explaining the increased number of vaccine failures we analyzed the composition of the capsular genes and the expressed polysaccharide of Dutch Hib strains collected before and after the introduction of Hib vaccination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The DNA sequences of the complete capsular gene clusters of 9 Dutch Hib strains were assessed and two variants, designated type I and type II were found. The two variants displayed considerable sequence divergence in the <it>hcsA </it>and <it>hcsB </it>genes, involved in transport of capsular polysaccharide to the cell surface. Application of <it>hcsA </it>type specific PCRs on 670 Hib strains collected from Dutch patients with invasive Hib disease showed that 5% of the strains collected before 1996 were type II. No endogenous type II Hib strains were isolated after 1995 and all type II strains were isolated from 0–4 year old, non-vaccinated children only. Analysis of a worldwide collection of Hib strains from the pre-vaccination era revealed considerable geographic differences in the distribution of the type I and type II strains with up to 73% of type II strains in the USA. NMR analysis of type I and type II capsule polysaccharides did not reveal structural differences. However, type I strains were shown to produce twice as much surface bound capsular polysaccharide.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Type II strains were only isolated during the pre-vaccination era from young, non-vaccinated individuals and displayed a lower expression of capsular polysaccharide than type I strains. The higher polysaccharide expression may have provided a selective advantage for type I strains resulting in the rapid elimination of type II from the Dutch Hib population after introduction of nationwide Hib vaccination. However, this phenomenon does not explain the increase in the number of Hib vaccine failures in the Netherlands.</p

Тренинговые услуги в украинском туризме: состояние, тенденции, проблемы

Целью данной статьи является анализ места и роли тренингов в системе туризма Украины на фоне общемировых тенденций

Risk factors for behavior problems in cats presented to an Australian companion animal behavior clinic

Behavior problems in companion animals are common reasons for relinquishment or euthanasia. Insight into the risk factors for problem behaviors will facilitate the construction of strategies for solutions. We identified risk factors for behavior problems in domestic cats whose owners contacted a companion animal behavior clinic in Brisbane, Australia. Owners of 1,556 cats reported on their cats' behavior problem, breed, sex and age, and owner's postcodes and work routine were also recorded. Risk factors were determined from proportional morbidities for the behavior problem that each cat was reported as having. Breed effects were also assessed by comparing the numbers of cats in each breed group with the breeds of registered cats in a part of the catchment area. Behavior problems in domestic cats where the owners sought professional advice were mostly (71% of all cats) related to house soiling, usually urination, and aggression, especially to familiar people. Persian and similar breeds were at reduced risk of aggression to familiar cats but increased risk of house soiling, compared to other breed groups. Overall, Persian, Siamese, Burmese, and similar breeds had more behavior problems than companion cat breeds. Older cats showed increasing tolerance of familiar people but reduced tolerance of other cats. Males were more likely to present with excessive vocalization and house soiling with urine and less likely to present with aggression between familiar cats. We conclude that cat breed, age and sex, and social advantage of the area in which the cat lives are risk factors for specific behavior problems

Population Structure of Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae in the Netherlands in the Pre-Vaccination Era Assessed by MLVA and Capsular Sequence Typing

The introduction of nationwide pneumococcal vaccination may lead to serotype replacement and the emergence of new variants that have expanded their genetic repertoire through recombination. To monitor alterations in the pneumococcal population structure, we have developed and utilized Capsular Sequence Typing (CST) in addition to Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA)