929 research outputs found
Rob and Bert in Tokyo
No full textThis essay is steeped in contradiction: it is as much an attempt at mourning, coping, and letting go as it is an exercise in remembrance, rediscovery, and reconnection. One of the many areas of international legal scholarship where Rob Cryer left his mark is his oeuvre on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). To pay tribute to, and get re-acquainted with, Rob-the-person, I re-read his 2010 article on the ‘dignified dissenter’ in Tokyo, Dutch Judge Bert Röling. In that article, Rob uses the memoranda and the opinion of Bert-the-judge to assess his conceptual and legal contributions to the IMTFE judgment. They also serve him as a vehicle to get a better grasp of the author behind the text and the values and dilemmas that shaped Röling’s positions on the IMTFE bench. What more can we learn and understand about Rob Cryer while ‘reading Rob reading Bert’? What aspects of Röling’s legacy did he choose to foreground, and what qualities did he appreciate most? How did Rob treat his character when shedding light on the more contentious elements of Röling’s work? Even if this essay fails in its therapeutic purpose, it might still add a few mosaic pieces to the collective construction of Rob’s portrait in this volume
Corrigendum: Machine learning clinical decision support for interdisciplinary multimodal chronic musculoskeletal pain treatment
No full textIn the published article, there was a mistake in the corresponding author email address for author Rob J. E. M. Smeets. The email was incorrectly displayed as “[email protected]” The correct email address is: “[email protected]” The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.</p
A review of mammalian toxicity of ZnO nanoparticles
No full textRob J Vandebriel, Wim H De JongLaboratory for Health Protection Research, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The NetherlandsAbstract: This review summarizes the literature on mammalian toxicity of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) published between 2009 and 2011. The toxic effects of ZnO NPs are due to the compound&#39;s solubility. Whether the increased intracellular [Zn2+] is due to the NPs being taken up by cells or to NP dissolution in medium is still unclear. In vivo airway exposure poses an important hazard. Inhalation or instillation of the NPs results in lung inflammation and systemic toxicity. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation likely plays an important role in the inflammatory response. The NPs do not, or only to a minimal extent, cross the skin; this also holds for sunburned skin. Intraperitoneal administration induces neurological effects. The NPs show systemic distribution; target organs are liver, spleen, lung, and kidney and, in some cases, the heart. In vitro exposure of BEAS-2B bronchial epithelial cells and A549 alveolar adenocarcinoma cells results in cytotoxicity, increased oxidative stress, increased intracellular [Ca2+], decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and interleukin (IL)-8 production. Decreased contractility of airway smooth muscle cells poses an additional hazard. In contrast to the results for BEAS-2B and A549 cells, in RKO colon carcinoma cells ZnO NPs and not Zn2+ induce cytotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction. Short-term exposure of skin cells results in apoptosis but not in an inflammatory response, while long-term exposure leads to increased ROS generation, decreased mitochondrial activity, and formation of tubular intercellular structures. Macrophages, monocytes, and dendritic cells are affected; exposure results in cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, intracellular Ca2+ flux, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and production of IL-1&beta; and chemokine CXCL9. The NPs are phagocytosed by macrophages and dissolved in lysosomes. In vitro the Comet assay and the cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus assay show genotoxicity, whereas the Ames test does not. This is, however, not confirmed by in vivo genotoxicity assays. Protein binding results in increased stability.Keywords: solubility, inflammation, reactive oxygen species, intracellular calcium, mitochondrial membrane potential, lysosome
Tactile Feedback for Artery Detection in Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery –Preliminary Results of a New Approach
No full textMinimally invasive robotic surgery (MIRS) entails
total absence of haptic feedback due to the spatial separation
of patient and surgeon. In conventional surgery, however,
palpation to detect superficial arteries by a slight pulsation is
an important, commonly applied, and security-relevant procedure.
Therefore, an ultrasound based unidirectional sensor for
MIRS was developed feeding back kinesthetic impulses to the
surgeon-sided haptic input device
A comparison of immunotoxic effects of nanomedicinal products with regulatory immunotoxicity testing requirements
No full textChristina Giannakou,1,2 Margriet VDZ Park,1 Wim H de Jong,1 Henk van Loveren,1,2 Rob J Vandebriel,1 Robert E Geertsma1 1Centre for Health Protection, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, 2Department of Toxicogenomics, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands Abstract: Nanomaterials (NMs) are attractive for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications because of their unique physicochemical and biological properties. A major application area of NMs is drug delivery. Many nanomedicinal products (NMPs) currently on the market or in clinical trials are most often based on liposomal products or polymer conjugates. NMPs can be designed to target specific tissues, eg, tumors. In virtually all cases, NMPs will eventually reach the immune system. It has been shown that most NMs end up in organs of the mononuclear phagocytic system, notably liver and spleen. Adverse immune effects, including allergy, hypersensitivity, and immunosuppression, have been reported after NMP administration. Interactions of NMPs with the immune system may therefore constitute important side effects. Currently, no regulatory documents are specifically dedicated to evaluate the immunotoxicity of NMs or NMPs. Their immunotoxicity assessment is performed based on existing guidelines for conventional substances or medicinal products. Due to the unique properties of NMPs when compared with conventional medicinal products, it is uncertain whether the currently prescribed set of tests provides sufficient information for an adequate evaluation of potential immunotoxicity of NMPs. The aim of this study was therefore, to compare the current regulatory immunotoxicity testing requirements with the accumulating knowledge on immunotoxic effects of NMPs in order to identify potential gaps in the safety assessment. This comparison showed that immunotoxic effects, such as complement activation-related pseudoallergy, myelosuppression, inflammasome activation, and hypersensitivity, are not readily detected by using current testing guidelines. Immunotoxicity of NMPs would be more accurately evaluated by an expanded testing strategy that is equipped to stratify applicable testing for the various types of NMPs. Keywords: nanomedicine, regulatory requirements, safety, testing methods, immunotoxicit
Humanoid fall avoidance using a mixture of strategies
No full textIf we are to one day rely on robots as assistive devices they should be capable of mitigating the impact of random disturbances and avoid falling. Humans are surprisingly apt at remaining on their feet when pushed; they rely on reflexes such as bending the ankles and-or the hips, or by taking a step if the magnitude of the disturbance is relatively large. This paper presents a fall avoidance scheme that is capable of applying both ankle and hip strategies on a humanoid robot. While both strategies serve the same purpose, the hip strategy can absorb larger disturbances but has a higher energy overhead and should be avoided when it is not necessary. Our system is capable of detecting at the onset of a disturbance if an ankle or hip strategy is more appropriate. The decision is taken based on a 'decision surface' that is delimited by threshold values of the robot's state variables. The control is based on the Virtual Model Control (VMC) approach. The system is tested on a simulated robot developed under Gazebo as well as on a real small-scale humanoid robot. Results show successful fall avoidance with an ability to choose the optimum fall avoidance strategy. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company.Abdallah M., 2005, P 2005 IEEE INT C RO; Azevedo C, 2004, ROBOT AUTON SYST, V47, P203, DOI 10.1016-j.robot.2004.03.013; Hemami H., 1979, J INTERDISC MODEL SI, V2; Hyon SH, 2007, IEEE INT CONF ROBOT, P2668, DOI 10.1109-ROBOT.2007.363868; Jalgha B., 2009, LECT NOTES COMPUTER, V5744; Kanamiya Y, 2010, IEEE INT CONF ROBOT, P3446, DOI 10.1109-ROBOT.2010.5509785; Koenig N., 2004, P IEEE RSJ INT C INT, P2149; Nenchev DN, 2008, ROBOTICA, V26, P643, DOI 10.1017-S0263574708004268; Pratt G., 2006, SERIES ELASTIC ACTUA; Pratt J., 2006, P IEEE INT C HUM ROB; Pratt J., 2007, P IEEE INT C HUM ROB; Pratt J, 2001, INT J ROBOT RES, V20, P129, DOI 10.1177-02783640122067309; Pratt J. E., 2000, THESIS MIT CAMBRIDGE; Stephens B., 2007, P IEEE C INT ROB SYS; Stephens B., 2007, P IEEERAS INT C HUM; Vukpbratovic B., 2007, INT J HUM ROBOT, V18, P157; Winter D. A., 1995, GAIT POSTURE, V3, P193, DOI 10.1016-0966-6362(96)82849-910
Effect and Improvement Areas for Port State Control Inspections to Decrease the Probability of Casualty
No full textThis report is the fourth part of a PhD project called "The Econometrics of Maritime Safety – Recommendations to Enhance Safety at Sea" and is based on 183,000 port state control inspections and 11,700 casualties from various data sources. Its overall objective is to provide recommendations to improve safety at sea. The fourth part looks into measuring the effect of inspections on the probability of casualty on either seriousness or casualty first event to show the differences across the regimes. It further gives a link of casualties that were found during inspections with either the seriousness of casualties and casualty first events which reveals three areas of improvement possibilities to potentially decrease the probability of a casualty – the ISM code, machinery and equipment and ship and cargo operations.maritime safety;correspondence analysis;binary logistic regression;probability of casualty;improvement;Port State Control Effectiveness;casualty first events;detention;port state control deficiences;target factor
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