OWEZ pelagic fish, progress report and progression after T1

This report presents the current status of pelagic fish research in the Offshore Windfarm Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ) after having finalized the T0 baseline survey in 2003 and the T1 survey after construction of the wind farm in 2007. The T0 study indicated a highly dynamic pelagic fish community along the Dutch coast: species composition were found highly variable on a local scale and clear hot spots appeared abandoned when returning the next day. This picture was confirmed in the T1 survey where the species composition of the catches in the entire coastal zone were found completely different from the ones 4 years earlier. Although no clear and direct effect of the wind farm has been observed yet, the above described information tells us to look for more local effects where we should focus on underlying processes in fish community behaviour. The effects of a single windfarm seem difficult to measure but when the Dutch government allows a drastic increase in such wind farms in the North Sea, the local effect will become a regional effect and might start to influence complete fish stocks. Therefore, complementary research will be executed by studying fish behaviour in the wind farm itself

On embryo implantation

Homburg, R. [Promotor]Hompes, P.G.A. [Copromotor]Lambalk, C.B. [Copromotor

Towards a navigational logic for graphical structures

One of the main advantages of the Logic of Nested Conditions, defined by Habel and Pennemann, for reasoning about graphs, is its generality: this logic can be used in the framework of many classes of graphs and graphical structures. It is enough that the category of these structures satisfies certain basic conditions. In a previous paper [14], we extended this logic to be able to deal with graph properties including paths, but this extension was only defined for the category of untyped directed graphs. In addition it seemed difficult to talk about paths abstractly, that is, independently of the given category of graphical structures. In this paper we approach this problem. In particular, given an arbitrary category of graphical structures, we assume that for every object of this category there is an associated edge relation that can be used to define a path relation. Moreover, we consider that edges have some kind of labels and paths can be specified by associating them to a set of label sequences. Then, after the presentation of that general framework, we show how it can be applied to several classes of graphs. Moreover, we present a set of sound inference rules for reasoning in the logic.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Unraveling incomplete lupus:search for predictive markers for progression to systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a rare autoimmune disease that can be serious. There is no cure, but the disease can be slowed down with medication. The aim of this thesis is to gain more insight into the early phase of SLE. If recognized early, targeted treatment can be started in time to prevent organ damage. The researchers looked at the occurrence of early features of autoimmune diseases in the population, both for symptoms and antibodies. It shows that screening for specific autoantibodies in the population is only useful in a selected risk group, possibly on the basis of a questionnaire aimed at systemic diseases. Furthermore, research has been done on patients with features of SLE, without meeting the classification criteria, also known as incomplete SLE (iSLE). The patients were followed for a longer period of time, with the aim of distinguishing which patients have a high risk of progression to SLE. Based on this study and a literature analysis, there are several factors, namely female gender, younger age, increased IFN-type I activity, decreased complement and diversity of autoantibodies, which together suggest a higher risk of SLE. Therefore, we recommend repeat testing for antinuclear antibodies and serum complement concentrations in patients with iSLE. In the future, increased IFN-type I activity could possibly be investigated, using myxovirus resistance protein A as a surrogate marker, but these tests are not yet generally available. When changes in one or more of these factors occur, closer monitoring and considering early treatment is advised