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Linking wettability to multiphase flow in rocks : a pore-scale investigation using 4D X-ray microtomography
No full textMetabolic pathways underlying cow's milk allergy in children : a metabolomics approach
No full textOver the last decades, food allergies (FAs) have become a growing epidemic, especially in industrialized countries. One of the first allergies to occur in early childhood is cow’s milk allergy (CMA), which is a first indication that the immune system is not developing properly. Indeed, the majority of children with CMA outgrow this allergy, but develop other atopic diseases later in life, including atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma. This phenomenon is also described as the atopic march. Despite the increasing prevalence of FAs and more specifically CMA, current diagnostic, treatment, and prevention strategies are unfortunately insufficient, thereby negatively affecting the quality of life of the patients and their caretakers. In this regard, more research is urgently needed to unravel the pathophysiology behind this disease. Therefore, the overarching aim of this Ph.D. thesis was to contribute to elucidating the metabolic disturbances that precede or accompany CMA development. This was effectuated by using untargeted ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS)- based metabolomics and/or lipidomics in an in vivo murine model, a pediatric patient cohort (n = 81) and an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion model
Leveraging comprehensive cancer systems genetic data to uncover the modus operandi of driver mutations
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Prevalence and impact of sexual violence in older adults
No full textSexual violence is increasingly recognised as an important public health problem of major societal and judicial
concern. Although research has shown that sexuality and sexual health remain important in old age, research on
sexual violence in older adults is scarce. Knowledge on the prevalence and nature of sexual violence, its mental
impact and help-seeking behaviour upon sexual victimisation in older adults remains limited. Moreover, despite
the knowledge that people with severe mental illness have an increased risk of sexual victimisation compared to
people who do not suffer from severe mental illness, the extent of sexual victimisation in old age psychiatry
patients remains unknown. In order to develop preventive measures and to provide tailored care for older
victims of sexual violence, a revision of current policies and healthcare practices regarding sexual violence seems
of the utmost importance.
Hence, the general objective of this dissertation was to contribute to a better understanding of the nature,
magnitude, mental health impact and help-seeking behaviour upon sexual victimisation in older adults in
Belgium. To this end, we conducted a mixed methods study comprising a Critical Interpretive Synthesis, a
population based-study in which we administered a survey through face-to-face interviews with 513 randomly
selected older adults across Belgium, the same questionnaire-based study in 100 old age psychiatry patients
admitted to three old age psychiatry departments across Flanders, and 15 in-depth interviews with older victims of sexual violence.
This dissertation shows that sexual victimisation appears to be common in older adults and old age psychiatry
patients in Belgium. More than 44% of older adults living in Belgium (55% of women, 29% of men) and 57%
of the old age psychiatry patients (65% of women, 42% of men) were sexually victimised during their lifetime,
respectively 8% (9% of women, 7% of men) and 7% (6% of women, 9% of men) in the past 12-months.
Nevertheless, older adults remain neglected in policies and healthcare practices on prevention of and response
to sexual violence. Moreover, sexual victimisation in older adults stays largely undetected. Despite the important
association of lifetime exposure to sexual violence with adverse mental health outcomes in old age, the vast
majority of victims never disclosed their sexual violence experiences nor sought professional help. Older victims
seem willing to discuss their sexual victimisation with healthcare workers, but expect health care workers to
initiate the conversation.
Our results highlight the importance of recognising older adults as a risk group for sexual victimisation and
indicate a need to sensitise society about positive sexuality and respect for sexual intimacy in older adults as well
as the prevention of sexual victimisation against older adults. In addition, tailored, accessible, acceptable and
affordable mental health care for older victims of sexual violence is needed. In this regard, healthcare
professionals need to be educated through training, detection tools and care procedures to initiate conversations
about sexual victimisation, to better detect signs of sexual violence, and to prevent, mitigate and respond to
sexual victimisation in older adults
Reactions to violent extremist groups : militia race determines whether low and high authoritarians have 'selective contextual blindness' to critical information that diminishes punishment
No full textObjectives: One pressing social issue involves how the ethnicity of a citizen group that commits violence influences societal reactions to these illegal acts. In an incident involving violence committed by Black or White American militia members, we examined the interactive effects between the severity of violence and participants' ideological attitudes (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism, RWA) on support for punitive reactions (i.e., arrest, surveillance of the group) directed at the militia members. We propose that high RWA participants would view Black militia members as ideological adversaries and White militia members as ideological proponents, and that this pattern would be reversed for low RWA participants (viz., White militia are adversaries, Black militia are proponents). Method: White U.S. participants completed an RWA measure and read about a Black or White militia engaging in minor or severe violence against an innocent individual. Participants reported their support for arresting the militia members (Study 1, N = 159) and perceived symbolic threat and support for surveillance of the militia (Study 2, N = 154). Results: Across both studies, among participants low and high in RWA, support for punitive reactions of ideological proponents (but not ideological adversaries) was diminished by the severity of violence (i.e., minor vs. severe). Study 2 findings showed that diminished perceived militia symbolic threat in the minor versus severe violence condition mediated the violence severity effect on support for surveillance of ideological proponents. Conclusion: Both left- and right-leaning participants displayed "selective contextual blindness"-they ignored punishment-reducing contextual information for ideological adversaries but not for ideological proponents
