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Evaluation of immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin G subclass levels in serum of antimuscle specific kinase and anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody positive myasthenia gravis patients
Get PDFDue to policy boundaries, the results and conclusions of my thesis cannot be disclosed in this paper. Instead this paper will provide background information about myasthenia gravis (MG) and the role of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies in autoimmune MG. Additionally, previous literature will be discussed to elucidate the aim and relevance of my internship project. During the internship, total IgG and IgG subclass (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4) concentrations were evaluated in serum of anti-muscle specific kinase antibody positive MG (MuSK-MG), anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody positive MG (AChR-MG) patients and compared with the total IgG and IgG subclass levels in healthy control serum
Abnormal Volumetric Alterations in the Schizophrenic Brain.
Get PDFDifferent lines of evidence support a role for the cerebellum and the hippocampus in the pathology of schizophrenia. The involvement of the cerebellum might be represented in structural deficiencies in patients with schizophrenia. The current research investigates the possibility of volumetric differences between healthy controls and patients suffering from schizophrenia.Volumetric measures were obtained from nineteen patients diagnosed with first episode psychosis, early psychosis or established schizophrenia and thirty healthy controls using a 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner. Results show a significant difference in the association patterns between Groups in the structures of interest. This indicates possible structural abnormalities in the hippocampus and cerebellum, associated with the pathology of schizophrenia
Acknowledgments
Get PDFFrom January to June 2015, eleven students from the Bachelor Programmes Arts and Culture and European Studies participated in the course Transparency in Perspective at Maastricht University. This course was organised in the context of the Maastricht University Research Based Learning Project (MaRBLe), and was supervised by Dr. Nico Randeraad. This book includes shortened versions of the original papers of the students who have participated in the course. We would like to thank the organisers of the MaRBLe project, our external advisers, and in particular Dr. Nico Randeraad, for their support throughout the entire research process
A test for a young democracy: How the RAF challenged the German Rechtsstaat
Get PDFWhen Edward Snowden revealed to which extent modern surveillance systems control the world, this provoked a massive outcry among politicians and citizens. The National Security Agency\u27s (NSA) programme, exposed by Snowden, is probably one of the biggest programmes collecting data of foreign and domestic citizens in the world. However, as terrorism has already existed before the 21st century, also counter-terrorist measures have a long tradition. The method of collecting data by using computerized systems has its beginnings in the second half of the 20th century. This new "computational security" is widely regarded as the beginning of "new surveillance" One of the countries which first made use of new surveillance methods was West-Germany, having to deal with left-wing extremism in the 1970s and 80s. It is, therefore, of particular interest to investigate to what extent Germany could cope with the new challenges and keep its democratic legitimacy as a Rechtsstaat, in particular in view of its fragility as a young and politically divided democracy. The Rechtsstaat is here defined as "a state in which the rule of law prevails". This paper examines to what extent the new surveillance and security methods, introduced by the German government against the RAF, led to a transformation of the understanding of the Rechtsstaat. To elaborate on this question, the first part touches upon the evolvement of the RAF. Furthermore, it introduces the criminologist Horst Herold, the main "hunter" of the RAF in more detail, and the creation of dragnet investigation. The second part outlines the concept of new surveillance using literature by Gary Marx and David Lyon, and examines to what extent "new surveillance" theory can be linked to the events in Germany. The third part explores the workings of the legislative and executive powers of the time by illustrating how they were threatening to undermine the Rechtsstaat in the attempt to establish security. The paper concludes by arguing that to counter the radical left-wing movement of the 1970s and the RAF, the German government implemented a number of policies and new processes, which challenged some of the basic principles of the Rechtsstaat, and thereby jeopardized the political and judicial foundations of this young democracy
Glycaemia, cognition, and type 2 diabetes
Get PDFDue to policy boundaries, the full paper cannot be shown. Instead, this paper provides anexplicatory background and a short discussion on previous literature concerning outcomesand pathophysiological theory
Stop overeating: The effect of training inhibition on eating behavior
Get PDFMore and more people in the world are getting fatter and are having trouble to lose weight. When people lack inhibitory control, they are more prone to indulge in highcaloric food. In this study, the effect of training inhibitory control on eating behavior was investigated. Expected was that inhibition training would increase inhibition ability and would lead to less food intake. To investigate the effect of training inhibitory control on eating behavior, participants were divided into three training conditions: The first group of participants had to inhibit a response for neutral stimuli and only responded to foodrelated stimuli, the second group consistently responded to neutral stimuli and inhibited a response for food-related stimuli. The third group never inhibited a response. Food intake was measured using a food diary and a taste test. The Restraint scale was used to measure restrained eating behavior, which could have influenced the results of the study. Results showed that the three groups of participants in the different training conditions did not differ significantly after the training on inhibitory control and food-intake. In conclusion, the inhibition training did not have an effect on inhibitory control neither on the food intake of the participants. A possible explanation for the lack of effect of the training could be that using non-specific food pictures and not consistently having to stop for a food item does not lead to better inhibitory control concerning food, because no association will then be learned between the stopping goal and different kinds of food
71 Physical and chemical house entry barriers to enhance odour-baited trapping for malaria control
Get PDFBackground: Odour-baited mosquito trapping is a promising new malaria intervention that lures, traps and kills mosquitoes. However, mosquitoes still bypass the trapping system and enter easily accessible African households through the open eaves. In this study, house screening and a spatial repellent were used as a physical and chemical house entry barrier to determine whether these interventions can protect people from malaria mosquitoes by decreasing mosquito house entry and simultaneously increasing odourbaited trapping efficacy. Methods: In an experimental greenhouse in Kenya, two semi-field experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, three physical house adjustment interventions were tested against using no intervention: house screening (block); odour-baited trapping (pull) and both interventions (block-pull). In the second experiment, three chemical interventions were tested against using no intervention: a cotton band around the eaves impregnated with the spatial mosquito repellant Delta-undecalactone (push); odourbaited trapping (pull) and both interventions (push-pull). The effects of interventions were evaluated by comparing mean trap catches of the odour-baited trap outside, and mean mosquito house entry. Results: In the first experiment (block-pull), the chance of a mosquito getting caught by an odour-baited trap more than doubled (OR=2.163) when complementing odour-baited trapping with house screening (P<0,001). All interventions significantly reduced mosquito house entry (p<0,001), with the strongest protective effect for the combined intervention of house screening and odour-baited trapping (OR=0.10). The interventions of the second experiment did not have a significant effect on odour-baited trap catches (p=0.584), nor mosquito house entry (p>0.172). Discussion: This study shows that house screening could be a valuable addition to odourbaited mosquito trapping for malaria control and confirmed the strong effect of house screening on mosquito house entry. In contrast to other studies, a chemical barrier of Delta-undecalactone did not improve the protection against malaria mosquitoes. However, push-pull strategies might still be a viable alternative to house screening, since the absence of an effect might have been caused by an interaction of the intervention with the experimental environment.
Effects of DNA methyltransferase inhibition on pattern separation performance in mice
Get PDFIntroduction: Schizophrenia and anxiety disorders place a great burden on the patients suffering from it and on society. The cognitive symptoms of both diseases can be caused partly by impaired pattern separation. Pattern separation is the ability to make distinct representations out of highly overlapping information. Improving pattern separation could slow down the progression of the above mentioned disorders and thus improve the quality of life of the patients. Alterations in gene expression can lead to differences in pattern separation performance. Methylation of DNA is one of the epigenetic changes controlled by DNA methyltransferases (DNMT) that can alter such gene expression levels without changing the underlying DNA sequence. In this study, the DNMT inhibitor RG108 was given to mice in order to investigate its effect on pattern separation performance. Methods: 36 male C57BL/6 mice were used. Pattern separation performance was measured using the novel Object Pattern Separation task. It consists of two trials with two identical objects. In the second trial one of the objects is replaced along a vertical axis, while the second object stays in the same position. For the assessment of pattern separation the object is replaced at increasingly distinct locations. The most suitable inter-trial interval and position were assessed and pattern separation performance was measured after an intraperitoneal injection of either saline, 0.1mg/kg RG108 or 0.3mg/kg RG108. After 48 hours mice received a saline injection and pattern separation performance was measured again to check for carry-over effects. Lastly, a 24 hour inter-trial interval was used to unravel RG108 effects on long-term memory. After the behavioral task, the mice were decapitated and the dorsal hippocampus was dissected to quantify the expression of six target genes with qPCR. Results: RG108 leads to an acute, dose-dependent increase in pattern separation. This effect vanishes after 48 hours. Furthermore, RG108 administration is not sufficient to 89 enhance pattern separation in such a way that animals can still remember the object’s location after 24 hours. Whereas BDNF4, BDNF9, GRIA1, HDAC2 and HEY1 expressions do not change after acute administration of RG108, BDNF1 expression increases and can be the underlying reason for the improvement in pattern separation. Future studies are needed to reveal the possible methylation changes and to study the effect of chronic treatment with this drug.
Predictors for HCV treatment outcome: lower limit of quantification vs. limit of detection
Get PDFIntroduction. In HCV treatment, the early on-treatment virological status is used as guideline for response guided therapy (RGT) and is the key predictor for a sustained virological response (SVR). The response to treatment (RT) is determined by HCV RNA results at week 4 and 12 of treatment. Being ‘undetectable’ at these time points, is a reliable predictor for reaching a SVR. To define an ‘undetectable’ HCV RNA, the lower limit of quantification (LOQ) and not the limit of detection (LOD) is used. This leaves a gray zone between the LOQ and the LOD, which results in a ‘detectable but no quantifiable’ (DNQ) HCV RNA to be reported as ‘undetectable’. The aim of this study is to analyse the reliability of using the LOQ at key decision time points, week 4 (Rapid viral response; RVR) and week 12 ( Early viral response; EVR) to predict treatment outcome. Methods. Retrospective analysis of the response to therapy, treatment outcome and SVR of patients treated for HCV. In the period Oct 2012 – Apr 2013, HCV RNA samples were conducted at week 4, 12, end of treatment (EOT) and 24 weeks after treatment and tested with the Ampliprep/Cobas-Taqman_HCV-test-v1.0. (Limit of detection; LOD: 15 IU/ml, Lower limit of quantification; LOQ: 43 IU/ml). Results. In total, 19 patients were treated, of which 10 relapsed and 9 cleared the virus. In both treatment outcome groups, DNQ HCV RNA statuses were observed. Treatment outcome showed no relation between having a DNQ during treatment (p=0,350) or at decision time points, 4th week (p=0,167) or 12th week (p=0,474). In contrast, a on-treatment viral status >LOQ and <LOD showed a relation with treatment outcome at week 4 (p=0,007), but not at week 12 (p=0,474). In addition, the response to therapy (RVR or EVR) showed a relation with reaching SVR (p=0,023), which was not influenced by the on-treatment viral status; DNQ. Conclusion. Reaching an ‘undetectable’ HCV RNA result at week 4 and/or week 12, is not always a guarantee of achieving SVR. In our study, being ‘detectable but not quantifiable’ at decision time point does not give a higher incidence of relapsing. The HCV RNA being ‘detectable but not quantifiable’ does not influence the predictive value of a Rapid or Early viral response. Therefore, our study suggests that no alterations in the decision-rules for HCV guidelines have to be carried out
Food supplements for type 2 diabetics
Get PDFWith more than 382 million patients being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and even more unknowingly suffering of diabetes and pre-diabetes, health burden will continue to grow. Diabetes is a chronic disease, characterized by an unbalanced glucose metabolism. Insulin resistance, inhibited insulin production and rising glucose levels are on the onset of diabetes type 2. The major complications occurring in diabetics are cardiovascular disease, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy and cognitive decline resulting in depressions and loss of memory. The pathophysiology of the complications show similarities. High glucose concentrations lead to oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction, which is amplified by the formation of advanced glycation products. Endothelial dysfunction increases a bunch of intracellular cascades resulting in the onset of inflammation, vasoconstriction, cell expansion and thrombosis. This bachelor thesis hands a solution to prevent or delay the onset of these major diabetes complications by the design of a range of food supplements, especially for diabetics. Every major complication is linked to an own food supplement. Methods. The active ingredients were chosen based on the pathophysiology of both diabetes type 2 and the complication (part 1). When the active ingredients were chosen, the excipients were discussed; a body, lubricants, moisture scavengers, firmness agents and binding agent are used to make the supplement manufacturable. To test if the excipients were added in the right amount and proportions, several tests were done. These tests include a friability test, a disintegration test and a hardness test (part 2). Results. The active ingredients include polyphenols, vitamins, plant extracts, herbs and minerals. All supplements resulted in the acceptable ranges set for every test, contain at least one health claim and are supported by scientific evidence. Discussion. When selecting the ingredients, several requirements were taken into account; every product should contain at least one related health claim and should be supported by scientific evidence, also affordability is taken into account. Based on these requirements, some ingredients have been rejected. Points of discussion of these nutritional supplements are the bioavailability and interactions of some of the ingredients, such as polyphenols. Thereby, size of the tablet and quality of the used herbal extracts are points of improvements. Conclusion. The food supplement range has reached the three most important requirements: scientific evidence, health claim and manufacturability. The range is ready for production