Beeldcultuur, een drieluik.I: Deconstructie van het fenomeen culturele studies

An important process in glass manufacture is the forming of the product. The forming process takes place at high rate, involves extreme temperatures and is characterised by large deformations. The process can be modelled as a coupled thermodynamical/mechanical problem including the interaction between glass, air and equipment. In this paper a general mathematical model for glass forming is derived, which is specified for different forming processes, in particular pressing and blowing. The model should be able to correctly represent the flow of the glass and the energy exchange during the process. Various modelling aspects are discussed for each process, while several key issues, such as the motion of the plunger and the evolution of the glass-air interfaces, are examined thoroughly. Finally, some examples of process simulations for existing simulation tools are provided

The willingness of final year medical and dental students to perform bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an Asian community

Background Despite the importance of early effective chest compressions to improve the chance of survival of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victim, it is still largely unknown how willing our Malaysian population is to perform bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Aims We conducted a voluntary, anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey of a group of 164 final year medical students and 60 final year dental students to unravel their attitudes towards performing bystander CPR. Methods Using a 4-point Likert scale of “definitely yes,” “probably yes,” “probably no,” and “definitely no,” the students were asked to rate their willingness to perform bystander CPR under three categories: chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth ventilation (CC + MMV), chest compressions with mask-to-mouth ventilation (CC + PMV), and chest compressions only (CC). Under each category, the students were given ten hypothetical victim scenarios. Categorical data analysis was done using the McNemar test, chi-square test, and Fisher exact test where appropriate. For selected analysis, “definitely yes” and “probably yes” were recoded as a “positive response.” Results Generally, we found that only 51.4% of the medical and 45.5% of the dental students are willing to perform bystander CPR. When analyzed under different hypothetical scenarios, we found that, except for the scenario where the victim is their own family member, all other scenarios showed a dismally low rate of positive responses in the category of CC + MMV, but their willingness was significantly improved under the CC + PMV and CC categories. Conclusion This study shows that there are unique sociocultural factors that contribute to the reluctance of our students to perform CC + MMV. Keywords Cardiopulmonary resuscitation Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation Basic cardiac life support Asian communit

Mammographic density and epithelial histopathologic markers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We explored the association of mammographic density, a breast cancer risk factor, with hormonal and proliferation markers in benign tissue from tumor blocks of pre-and postmenopausal breast cancer cases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Breast cancer cases were recruited from a case-control study on breast density. Mammographic density was assessed on digitized prediagnostic mammograms using a computer-assisted method. For 279 participants of the original study, we obtained tumor blocks and prepared tissue microarrays (TMA), but benign tissue cores were only available for 159 women. The TMAs were immunostained for estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ), progesterone receptor (PR), HER2/neu, Ki-67, and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA). We applied general linear models to compute breast density according to marker expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A substantial proportion of the samples were in the low or no staining categories. None of the results was statistically significant, but women with PR and ERβ staining had 3.4% and 2.4% higher percent density. The respective values for Caucasians were 5.7% and 11.6% but less in Japanese women (3.5% and -1.1%). Percent density was 3.4% higher in women with any Ki-67 staining and 2.2% in those with positive PCNA staining.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study detected little evidence for an association between mammographic density and expression of steroid receptors and proliferation markers in breast tissue, but it illustrated the problems of locating tumor blocks and benign breast tissue samples for epidemiologic research. Given the suggestive findings, future studies examining estrogen effects in tissue, cell proliferation, and density in the breast may be informative.</p

Learning form Nature to improve the heat generation of iron-oxide nanoparticles for magnetic hyperthermia applications.

The performance of magnetic nanoparticles is intimately entwined with their structure, mean size and magnetic anisotropy. Besides, ensembles offer a unique way of engineering the magnetic response by modifying the strength of the dipolar interactions between particles. Here we report on an experimental and theoretical analysis of magnetic hyperthermia, a rapidly developing technique in medical research and oncology. Experimentally, we demonstrate that single-domain cubic iron oxide particles resembling bacterial magnetosomes have superior magnetic heating efficiency compared to spherical particles of similar sizes. Monte Carlo simulations at the atomic level corroborate the larger anisotropy of the cubic particles in comparison with the spherical ones, thus evidencing the beneficial role of surface anisotropy in the improved heating power. Moreover we establish a quantitative link between the particle assembling, the interactions and the heating properties. This knowledge opens new perspectives for improved hyperthermia, an alternative to conventional cancer therapies