Keep on track:Monitoring growth and development in children born preterm and full-term

Environmental factors in early life influence early development and growth, and influence long-term health. In this thesis we showed that in premature infants, the length and growth of the cerebral cortex (corpus callosum) is a good marker of brain growth and a predictor of later neurological development. An eye-tracking test (watching a video) at the age of 1 year also appeared to be a predictive factor for overall cognitive and motor development 1 year later. We also found that weight gain after preterm birth is associated with body composition in childhood. We also compared 2 methods of measuring body composition in children (DXA and ADP) and found that the results of fat mass (percentage) and fat-free mass at 3-5 years of age differ significantly between both methods, and that these differences are greater in very preterm children compared to full-term children. We present improvements to the algorithm to improve results with ADP. We also investigated sleep and found that parent-reported sleep characteristics and problems are similar between very preterm and full-term children at the age of 3 years. In the general population, we have shown that low birth weight (<2500 grams) and growth retardation during fetal life and childhood are associated with longer sleep duration and higher sleep efficiency at 10-15 years of age. Furthermore, at the same school age, greater intraday variability (fragmentation of the 24-hour activity rhythm) was associated with a higher fat mass index and higher visceral fat mass in boys

Keep on track:Monitoring growth and development in children born preterm and full-term

Environmental factors in early life influence early development and growth, and influence long-term health. In this thesis we showed that in premature infants, the length and growth of the cerebral cortex (corpus callosum) is a good marker of brain growth and a predictor of later neurological development. An eye-tracking test (watching a video) at the age of 1 year also appeared to be a predictive factor for overall cognitive and motor development 1 year later. We also found that weight gain after preterm birth is associated with body composition in childhood. We also compared 2 methods of measuring body composition in children (DXA and ADP) and found that the results of fat mass (percentage) and fat-free mass at 3-5 years of age differ significantly between both methods, and that these differences are greater in very preterm children compared to full-term children. We present improvements to the algorithm to improve results with ADP. We also investigated sleep and found that parent-reported sleep characteristics and problems are similar between very preterm and full-term children at the age of 3 years. In the general population, we have shown that low birth weight (<2500 grams) and growth retardation during fetal life and childhood are associated with longer sleep duration and higher sleep efficiency at 10-15 years of age. Furthermore, at the same school age, greater intraday variability (fragmentation of the 24-hour activity rhythm) was associated with a higher fat mass index and higher visceral fat mass in boys

Een plaatje bij een praatje of bron van onderzoek?

Historici en beeldmateriaal gaan niet samen. Dat was een van de conclusies van het themanummer ‘Fotografie en Geschiedenis. De foto als historische bron’ van Groniek uit 1991. Nu, twintig jaar later, is het tijd voor een nieuw overzicht naar het gebruik van afbeeldingen door historici. Nog steeds worden afbeeldingen vaker gebruikt als ‘plaatje bij een praatje’ en niet als bron van onderzoek, maar geleidelijk verwerft de fotografie wel degelijk een plek in de historische wetenschap. Verscheidene historische studies naar foto’s zijn verschenen en methoden voor de analyse van beeldmateriaal zijn in ontwikkeling waarbij vooral de ontwikkelingen in de geschiedenisdidactiek, museale wereld en de visual studies een belangrijke rol spelen

Who are the users of a video search system?

ABSTRACT Formulating requirements for a video search system can be a challenging task when everyone is a possible user. This paper explores the possibilities of classifying users by creating a Profile Matrix, placing users on two axes: experience and goal-directedness. This enables us to describe the characteristics of the subgroups and investigate differences between the different groups. We created Profile Matrices by classifying 850 respondents of a survey regarding a requirements study for a video search system. We conclude that the Profile Matrix indeed enables us to classify subgroups of users and describe their characteristics. The current research is limited to descriptions of subgroups and analysis of differences between these subgroups. In the future, we want to research what these differences mean with regard to the users’ performance and acceptance of a video search system and explore the use of a profile matrix for other types of search systems

Dutch Journalism in the Digital Age

With an ever-growing supply of online sources, information to produce news stories seems to be one mouse click away. But in what way do Dutch journalists actually use computer-aided research tools? This article provides an inventory of the ways journalists use digital (re)sources and explores the differences between experts and novices. We applied a combined methodological approach by conducting an ethnographic study as well as a survey. Results show that Dutch journalists use relatively few digital tools to find online information. However, journalists who can be considered experts in the field of information retrieval use a wider range of search engines and techniques, arrive quicker at the angle to their story, and are better at finding information related to this angle. This allows them to spend more time on writing their news story. Novices are more dependent on the information provided by others

Participatory design in refugee camps: Ethnographic case studies from Greece

PurposeArchitectural management and construction practices have not been widely explored in refugee camps which have been growing exponentially around the world. Previous research largely focused on the negativity surrounding living in refugee camps and mostly ignored the input of refugees. This study explores the possibilities of involving refugees in architectural design and construction decisions in the camps.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts a qualitative interpretive research approach and employs exploratory ethnographic methods. Participatory design (PD) principles are applied to design and construct community place projects in two refugee camps in Greece.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that, despite the technical and institutional challenges of employing PD approaches in refugee camps, there are observed positive impacts on the wellbeing of refugees and impacts on the hosting communities.Practical implicationsThis paper contests the negativity surrounding refugee camps and has implications on research, practice and society as well as a positive impact on NGO organisations, policy-makers and other stakeholders involved in the governance of refugee camps.Originality/valueThis paper addresses a critical issue concerning how to include refugees in the design, implementation and maintenance of refugee camps to improve their well-being and fight the feeling of “otherness” for both refugees and host communities. This study extends research on refugee camps by collaborating with refugees to improve their lives within the camps. This research contributes to architectural management and construction studies by providing practical recommendations related to PD methods in new contexts

AXES at TRECVid 2011

The AXES project participated in the interactive known-item search task (KIS) and the interactive instance search task (INS) for TRECVid 2011. We used the same system architecture and a nearly identical user interface for both the KIS and INS tasks. Both systems made use of text search on ASR, visual concept detectors, and visual similarity search. The user experiments were carried out with media professionals and media students at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, with media professionals performing the KIS task and media students participating in the INS task. This paper describes the results and findings of our experiments

Older age bipolar disorder

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Older age bipolar disorder (OABD) refers to patients with bipolar disorder aged 50 years and over. There is a paucity of evidence-based guidelines specific to OABD, but in recent years, several studies have been published on OABD. The current review synthesizes previous literature (up to January 1, 2021) as well as most recent literature on OABD (since January 1, 2021). RECENT FINDINGS: This review covers the following themes: diagnosis and specifiers, clinical course, psychosocial functioning, cognition, physical comorbidities, and pharmacotherapy. On the basis of the latest data, specific clinical recommendations are proposed for each theme. SUMMARY: OABD forms a more complex subgroup of bipolar disorder, with an increased risk of cognitive deficits, physical comorbidities, impaired psychosocial functioning, and premature death. The distinctions between BD-I and BD-II and between EOBD and LOBD do not clinically represent relevant subtypes for OABD patients. Mental healthcare professionals should treat all OABD patients with an integrative care model that takes into account cognitive and physical comorbidities and that contains elements aimed at improvement of psychosocial functioning and quality of life. Older age itself should not be a reason to withhold lithium treatment. Future research should collect data on essential data domains using validated measurement scales