99 research outputs found
Work and health in early arthritis
No full textRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation
of the joints, which may result in joint damage. Any joint may be affected, but most
commonly small joints in the hands and feet, wrists, elbows, and knees are involved. The
onset of RA increases with age, and rises substantially from the ages of 40 to 50 years
onwards. The prevalence is about 1% in the Western world, and women are two to three
times more likely to be affected than men1. Important consequences of RA are pain and
disability. Disability may range from limitations in executing a simple task to restrictions
in societal roles, including participation in paid employment
Interdisciplinary perspectives on sign language and deaf/sign community documentation and vitalization in Uganda and Cameroon
No full textSign language and deaf community research in sub-Saharan Africa, though scarce, has already illuminated considerable linguistic and cultural diversity. In the light of endangerment, this indicates that the need for documentation is urgent. The development of urban deaf communities in the region has often been tied to the establishment of deaf schools, which have mostly adopted the sign language of the founding/supporting country. Contact between African sign languages and dominant Western sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL), and the import of ideologies of Western education and religion, has lowered the perceived status of gestures and indigenous sign languages. Documentation also reveals the endangerment of rural sign communities, where sign languages are used widely and deaf people experience a sense of inclusion (for research review, see Authors, 2012). How can deaf/sign communities benefit from transnational exposure, while being able to revitalize indigenous linguistic and cultural practices? Questions of knowledge transfer and interdisciplinary anthropological/linguistic research are explored in the south-south cooperation between Uganda and Cameroon, which aims to document and vitalize an endangered rural sign language in the Extreme North of Cameroon. Whereas sign language documentation in Cameroon has only just begun, Ugandan Sign Language (USL) is well documented. Tailoring long-term deaf-led development cooperation to the needs of the community, the vitalization of USL was embedded in a broader approach of capacity building and human rights, which led to sustainable community development through the constitutional recognition of USL, the Ugandan Sign Language Dictionary, educational and employment access, training for deaf researchers, and the USL teacher and interpreter training programs and continued USL research at Kyambogo University (Author & Bergmann, 2012).
Interdisciplinary (linguistic-anthropological) researchers found evidence for a rural sign language in Cameroon’s Extreme North (Author, 2011). These deaf scholars, including a Ugandan linguist, exposed Cameroonians to the USL community’s experiences of vitalization during the World Federation of the Deaf’s human rights and capacity building training. The Extreme North sign community resisted the adoption of ASL outside the deaf school that recently imported it, and specifically asked for linguistic knowledge transfer in the development of a dictionary. The training of language consultants and the use of multiple sources of data, including corpus and ethnographic methods in an on-going ELDP project, not only lead to a dictionary and an annotated and archived data corpus, but also to an educational DVD on the Extreme North’s sign language and sign community
Clear associations between demographic and psychosocial factors and health-related quality of life in patients with early inflammatory joint complaints
No full textObjective. To identify demographic and psychosocial characteristics associated with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with early inflammatory joint complaints. Methods. In this cross-sectional study, patients had inflammatory joint complaints for less than 12 months. Data were collected on clinical characteristics, demographics, lifestyle, behavioral coping, perceived health control, and social support. HRQOL was assessed by 8 dimensions of the Medical Outcome Study Short Form-36 Health Survey. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the associations between clinical, demographic, lifestyle, and psychosocial characteristics with HRQOL. Results. In total, 359 patients were included, of which 24% were classified as RA, 34% as mono- or oligo-poly arthritis, and 42% as inflammatory joint complaints without clinical synovitis. Among all patients, the health dimensions physical function, physical role functioning, and bodily pain were most affected. The diagnostic group, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, disease duration, and comorbidity explained 4%-9% of the variance in HRQOL dimensions, whereas the combined demographic and psychosocial characteristics explained an additional 21%-29% of HRQOL. HRQOL was negatively associated with younger age, lower education, non-Dutch origin, passive behavioral coping with pain, lower perceived health control, and low social support. Passive behavioral coping with pain had the strongest association with HRQOL. Conclusion. In patients with early inflammatory joint complaints, HRQOL was associated more strongly with personal characteristics than with clinical characteristics. From the time of onset of complaints onwards, physicians should take psychosocial factors and demographics into account to obtain an optimal disease outcome
DFT-based Vibrational Spectra for THz-Spectroscopy and Defect Fingerprinting in Molecular Crystals and Solids.
No full textSpectroscopic techniques based on atomic vibrations provide a powerful tool for the
atomic scale characterization of solids. Unfortunately, the translation of their spectra into
atomistic structures tends to be an inverse-problem, as a structural model is required to
assign the observed spectral peaks. This is further complicated by the fact that the exact
position of the latter is sensitive to the precise underlying atomic structure. This results
in the need for very accurate models.
With the steady growth of computational resources, the calculation of vibrational spectra
for extended and periodic systems has become more attainable at the level of quantum
mechanical calculations. In this work, we first present the example of the THz vibrational
spectrum of lactose-monohydrate (LM), and use our results to identify the spectral lines
of the observed spectra of different phases, obtained experimentally by heating the LM
sample.1 The accompanying water loss induces two phase transitions. According to our
results, all phases, including the starting high purity commercial sample, are mixtures of
different phases. We discuss the impact of both structural—such as water content and
orientation— and methodological—such as Pulay stresses, periodic boundaries, and
supercell sizes—aspects on the calculated spectra, and show that DFT-based spectra
under periodic boundaries can be matched with experimental data.
The importance of an extended periodic system for obtaining an accurate vibrational
spectrum is also shown in studying defects in diamond. However, here, we show that the
qualitative picture of the defect character of each atom in the system is independent of
the system size, allowing for small periodic cells to determine the relevant defect atoms
at much reduced computational cost.2 Defects tend to be very localized, resulting in
atomic modes.3 Therefore, an often-used strategy for selecting the contributing atoms
considers only their relative position with regard to the defect center. Using the atomprojected
vibrational spectrum, we present a quantitative method for determining the
defect character of each atom in the system, allowing for a rational incremental
improvement of the defect spectrum. This method is then applied on several simple
defects in diamond.Author : Danny E.P. Vanpoucke
Author name needs to be updated to include middle names, and correctly linked to the uhasselt personel databas
DFT-based Vibrational Spectra for THz-Spectroscopy and Defect Fingerprinting in Molecular Crystals and Solids.
No full textSpectroscopic techniques based on atomic vibrations provide a powerful tool for the
atomic scale characterization of solids. Unfortunately, the translation of their spectra into
atomistic structures tends to be an inverse-problem, as a structural model is required to
assign the observed spectral peaks. This is further complicated by the fact that the exact
position of the latter is sensitive to the precise underlying atomic structure. This results
in the need for very accurate models.
With the steady growth of computational resources, the calculation of vibrational spectra
for extended and periodic systems has become more attainable at the level of quantum
mechanical calculations. In this work, we first present the example of the THz vibrational
spectrum of lactose-monohydrate (LM), and use our results to identify the spectral lines
of the observed spectra of different phases, obtained experimentally by heating the LM
sample.1 The accompanying water loss induces two phase transitions. According to our
results, all phases, including the starting high purity commercial sample, are mixtures of
different phases. We discuss the impact of both structural—such as water content and
orientation— and methodological—such as Pulay stresses, periodic boundaries, and
supercell sizes—aspects on the calculated spectra, and show that DFT-based spectra
under periodic boundaries can be matched with experimental data.
The importance of an extended periodic system for obtaining an accurate vibrational
spectrum is also shown in studying defects in diamond. However, here, we show that the
qualitative picture of the defect character of each atom in the system is independent of
the system size, allowing for small periodic cells to determine the relevant defect atoms
at much reduced computational cost.2 Defects tend to be very localized, resulting in
atomic modes.3 Therefore, an often-used strategy for selecting the contributing atoms
considers only their relative position with regard to the defect center. Using the atomprojected
vibrational spectrum, we present a quantitative method for determining the
defect character of each atom in the system, allowing for a rational incremental
improvement of the defect spectrum. This method is then applied on several simple
defects in diamond.Author : Danny E.P. Vanpoucke
Author name needs to be updated to include middle names, and correctly linked to the uhasselt personel databas
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