607 research outputs found
Red meat and type 2 diabetes: do methodological advancements sufficiently increase the certainty of evidence?
Full text linkDialectal position of Daan Tibetan spoken in the Naxi cultural area
Full text linkチベット語が分布する地域の南東端を占める中国雲南省迪慶藏族自治州のさ
らに南に位置する麗江市において，いくつかチベット族の村落が点在する。永
勝県大安納西族彝族郷はその1 つであり，今なお同地のチベット族はチベット
語を話していることが筆者の調査によって判明した。しかしながら長期にわた
るナシ語や漢語の影響を受け，現在では漢語への移行が進み，すでにその話者
数は激減している。
本稿の目的は大安郷のチベット語Daan 方言のカムチベット語における方言所
属を明らかにすることである。この議論は主に方言間の比較によって成立する。
地理的環境や民間伝承を考慮して，比較対象として最も近くに分布する迪慶州
の諸方言を射程に収める。具体的に比較する言語現象は2 点あり，1 つはチベッ
ト文語形式と口語形式との対応関係の分析で，もう1 つは語形式の分析である。
これらの作業を通して，Daan 方言の方言所属を考察する。
本稿の具体的な構成は，まずDaan 方言のチベット文語形式と口語形式との対
応関係を明らかにし，それによって得られた特徴と迪慶州のチベット語方言の
特徴を比較する。そしてDaan 方言に見られる特徴的な語形式を迪慶州のチベッ
ト語方言の例と比較し，考察を加える。考察の結果，Daan 方言はSems-kyi-nyila
方言群全般の特徴と近似し，特に破擦音/摩擦音の発展過程において同方言群の
Melung 下位方言群の特徴と一致することが判明した。There are several villages populated by Tibetans in Lijiang Municipal Region,
the southeastern neighbourhood of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,
where the Tibetan language is mainly spoken. The author has found that
the Tibetan inhabitants still use Tibetan in Daan village, Yongsheng County in
Lijiang, but this dialect is close to extinction because of the strong influence of
Naxi and Chinese.
This paper aims to clarify the dialectal position of the Daan dialect of Khams
Tibetan using a comparative method involving both comparison of using a
sound correspondences between spoken forms and Written Tibetan (WrT) in
multiple Tibetan dialects, and also word forms. In consideration of the geographical
situation and the folklore of the Daan Tibetans, the scope of the
dialectal comparison covers the dialects spoken in Diqing Prefecture, which
can be divided into three main groups: Sems-kyi-nyila, nJol and gTorwa. Of
those, the dialects of the Sems-kyi-nyila and nJol groups are compared with the
Daan dialect.
The main matter consists of three parts: sound correspondences between
WrT and the Daan dialect, comparison of the latter with multiple dialects of
Diqing, and comparison of several characteristic word forms. The paper concludes
that the Daan dialect is genetically close to the Sems-kyi-nyila dialect
group, especially to its Melung subgroup, based on the sound development of
the affricate / fricative series.Articledepartmental bulletin pape
Doplor Sleep: Monitoring Hospital Soundscapes for Better Sleep Hygiene
Full text linkGood sleep is conducive to the recovery process of hospital patients - and yet, in many wards, sleep duration and quality can often be suboptimal, in part due to modifiable hospital-related sounds and noises. At the neurological ward of the Reinier de Graaf hospital in Delft, the Netherlands, we developed and evaluated a prototype information exchange system to raise awareness of specific sounds as disturbing patients' sleep. The system both classifies different relevant sound events and tracks sleep quality (using a Fitbit device). This information is then visualized for patients and staff to present the influence of the soundscape on patients' sleep hygiene in a friendly and comprehensive way. We discuss the design process, including a context study and various evaluations of the technology, interface, and created affordances. Our initial findings indicate that visualizing hospital soundscapes may, indeed, support both patients and staff in their efforts towards better sleep hygiene. Design AestheticsInternet of Thing
Adrenomedullin in heart failure: pathophysiology and therapeutic application
Full text linkAdrenomedullin (ADM) is a peptide hormone first discovered in 1993 in pheochromocytoma. It is synthesized by endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells and diffuses freely between blood and interstitium. Excretion of ADM is stimulated by volume overload to maintain endothelial barrier function. Disruption of the ADM system therefore results in vascular leakage and systemic and pulmonary oedema. In addition, ADM inhibits the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. ADM is strongly elevated in patients with sepsis and in patients with acute heart failure. Since hallmarks of both conditions are vascular leakage and tissue oedema, we hypothesize that ADM plays a compensatory role and may exert protective properties against fluid overload and tissue congestion. Recently, a new immunoassay that specifically measures the biologically active ADM (bio-ADM) has been developed, and might become a biomarker for tissue congestion. As a consequence, measurement of bio-ADM might potentially be used to guide diuretic therapy in patients with heart failure. In addition, ADM might be used to guide treatment of (pulmonary) oedema or even become a target for therapy. Adrecizumab is a humanized, monoclonal, non-neutralizing ADM-binding antibody with a half-life of 15 days. Adrecizumab binds at the N-terminal epitope of ADM, leaving the C-terminal side intact to bind to its receptor. Due to its high molecular weight, the antibody adrecizumab cannot cross the endothelial barrier and consequently remains in the circulation. The observation that adrecizumab increases plasma concentrations of ADM indicates that ADM-binding by adrecizumab is able to drain ADM from the interstitium into the circulation. We therefore hypothesize that administration of adrecizumab improves vascular integrity, leading to improvement of tissue congestion and thereby may improve clinical outcomes in patients with acute decompensated heart failure. A phase II study with adrecizumab in patients with sepsis is ongoing and a phase II study on the effects of adrecizumab in patients with acute decompensated heart failure with elevated ADM is currently in preparation
Chronic low-grade inflammation in kidney transplantation:results of observational and intervention studies
Full text linkOutcomes after kidney transplantation are continuously improving. However, even after a successful transplantation, patients remain at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, infections, and premature death. An important factor associated with these risks is inflammation. In a healthy situation, inflammation helps activate immune cells and other cells, allowing pathogens to be tackled more quickly and promoting recovery. Once the danger has passed (for instance, when the pathogen has been eliminated, or the wound has healed), the body should turn off the inflammation. Inflammation is only necessary during periods of illness or recovery. Outside of these periods, inflammation mainly leads to problems and unwanted damage.Unfortunately, in kidney transplant patients, we often observe a small but continuous level of inflammation, even when there is no necessity for it. This chronic, low-grade inflammation is partly due to immunological factors (targeted against the graft) that break through the immunosuppressive medication. Other factors that contribute to inflammation also play a role in kidney transplant patients.This thesis highlights the scope of the problem of inflammation after kidney transplantation from various angles. Furthermore, it examines from different perspectives whether we can potentially address this inflammation by critically evaluating medication, nutrition, lifestyle, and supplementing iron and vitamin K. The effects of medication, nutrition, iron, and vitamin K still need further investigation. However, in my opinion, the research on lifestyle is sufficient to take action on rehabilitation after kidney transplantation: this should be included in the guidelines
Manual Control Adaptation to Variations in Short-Period Natural Frequency and Damping
No full textThis paper presents the results of a human-in-the-loop experiment performed to investigate the effects of variations in aircraft short-period mode characteristics on human operators’ manual control behavior. In the experiment, 15 participants performed a tracking task for a factorial variation in both short-period mode natural frequency (five settings) and damping ratio (three settings). The baseline aircraft dynamics were those of a Cessna Citation aircraft, as used in a number of previous experiments, and the variations in short-period dynamics were chosen to span a range of interest with respect to available handling qualities criteria and Maximum Unnoticed Added Dynamics (MUAD) envelopes. To objectively quantify the induced adaptation of manual control behavior, human operator models were fitted to the collected tracking data. In addition to these control behavior measures also subjective ratings of the noticeability of differences with respect to the baseline aircraft were collected. Overall, the results show consistent adaptation of manual control behavior to variations in both short-period parameters and a worsening of task performance with decreased short-period natural frequency and decreased damping ratio settings. In spite of inconsistencies in the subjective rating data, the overall objective adaptation of manual control dynamics correlates with the subjective noticeability ratings, as well as correspondence of the tested configurations with available MUAD envelopes
Addressing Challenges of Planning in Multimodal Transportation Nodes with Simulation Games
No full textGlobal transportation knows many different modalities – goods arrive from far away places by ship, plane, railway, or truck. Airports and seaports both represent important nodes within the global transportation network. Both show distinct characteristics, but also similarities when it comes to challenges like required flexibility, robustness, reliability and situational awareness of the stakeholders involved. In this article, we introduce two different simulation games addressing some of these challenges in two complex transportation nodes and discuss the qualitative results of user tests with the games. Within a comparative section, we show how simulation games can be used to address the challenges of multimodal transportation.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Policy Analysi
Benchmarking municipal sport policy: The design and execution of a benchmark for municipal policy-makers to evaluate the portfolio sport facilities
No full textThis thesis is focused on benchmarking municipal sport policy. Physical activity is used by the Dutch government as a policy tool to create a healthy society. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport stimulate people to adopt active life styles in order to combat the prosperity diseases: overweight, diabetes and depression. In benchmarking municipal sport policy there are the following complexities. Firstly complexities related to the governance of municipal sport policy, there are many actors involved with contradictory interests. In addition municipal sport policy is focussed within municipal boundaries and evolves on previously pursued policies. Secondly complexities related to benchmarking. Benchmarking is from origin a method developed for the industrial industry and now is also applied in the public sector, but the applicability of the method is contested. Moreover benchmarking is not straightforward and is dependent on its design, data reliability and the way of processing data. An essential actor in sport policy are the municipalities: they conduct sport policy in order to heave healthy citizens and focus their policy to a large extent on sport facilities. Currently municipalities lack insight in whether the output of the sport policy (namely the quantity, type, and location of sport facilities) leads to the desired effects (namely healthy citizens), which we define as a lack of insight in the effectiveness of the sport policy. This insight is crucial for municipalities, since it can be used in the policy evaluation to assess the performance of their policy.A method that has been proven useful for measuring and comparing of performance is benchmarking. Benchmarking is the research in which the output between organisations can be compared. However, there is a lack of literature describing how sport policy by municipalities can be compared, whereas comparison with other municipalities can provide additional insights and stimulate learning. In this study a benchmarking method for municipal sport policy aspects is developed and conducted.The benchmarking method is designed based on a benchmarking literature review. Based on the review it was established that the design of the benchmarking method consists of phases, process steps and criteria. Subsequently with the literature review a benchmarking model is designed consisting of phases, steps, and criteria directed at assessing the performance of municipal sport policy. In the benchmarking criteria common elements are: the usage of indicators, transparency in performance measurement method and self-assessment of performance. In the benchmarking models common process steps are: set objectives, define indicators, select benchmark groups, collecting data, preparing data, analyzing data, determining significant different findings and reporting findings. With the designed benchmarking model the benchmark is conducted, resulting in the following findings. The benchmarking results found no significant correlation between the dimensions, the output and the outcome of municipal sport policy. This study found that for benchmarking both the benchmarking design as the benchmarking process are crucial. Currently literature focuses on the design of the benchmarking method. This study found that the benchmarking process confronts challenges mainly related to data analytics
Marginal gains for major improvements: A user-centered cycling shoe to increase performance for elite short-course triathletes
No full textThe domain of triathlon seems promising for Cadomotus, a company specialising in helmets, bags, and shoes. Right now, they are known for high-end ice-skating equipment, but the triathlon market seems a great fit and they want to expand further there. A new triathlon specific product would solidify Cadomotus in the market as truly understanding triathletes’ desires and demands. A user-centered design process was used, meaning that athletes were involved in every crucial step. A double diamond design process was used. The results of the discovery phase were synthesised into a user-journey with 23 different design opportunities. Together with the company and users these were narrowed down to one design brief.A creative session started the developing phase. Here four different concepts were generated, prototyped and evaluated. One of them was chosen for further development in the delivery phase. The delivery phase consisted of an iterative process going from paper to high-fidelity prototypes. This concept was put through a final usage evaluation, and its insights led to the Talaria. A new triathlon specific cycling shoe.The reaction of users to the design was mostly positive. “I dare to say that I have almost mastered this element of transitioning and then directly getting into cycling, but this would work even quicker” - Sem.The Talaria addresses two concrete needs: getting in and out quicker and stop the shoe from spinning during the second transition. The quicker athletes can get in or out of shoes, the better they can perform during their race. Especially in elite short-course racing this is vital. The spinning shoes are a phenomenon where the shoe hits the ground and starts spinning, which in turn can cause the bike to ‘jump’, creating stress and a potentially unsafe situation. Design for Interactio
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