105 research outputs found
Health economics of blood transfusion safety
No full textThe HIV/AIDS disaster in transfusion medicine shaped the future agendas for blood transfusion safety. More than ever before, the implementation of interventions which could improve blood transfusion safety was driven merely by availability of technology. The introduction of new expensive technologies guided by the precautionary principle created continuously rising costs of blood donation and transfusion. The monetary investments in transfusion safety could potentially have gained more health in other sectors of the health care system. Next to these opportunity costs involved, increasing costs of blood transfusion may turn alternatives to blood transfusion into a more cost-effective option.
The main objective of this thesis is to analyse the relevant parameters which determine the economic and health consequences of blood safety strategies in developed and and developing countries for various actual and potential interventions to enhance blood transfusion safety.
The void galaxy survey: a study of the loneliest galaxies in the universe
Get PDFAccording to the current picture of the universe, galaxies are not distributed randomly but rather form a weblike spatial pattern. Most galaxies agglomerate in filaments and in the deep gravitational potential wells at cluster nodes. However, most of the volume of the Universe consists of vast underdense regions, cosmic voids. Inside the voids reside a population of lonely galaxies, the void galaxies. These galaxies may retain important clues on the effects of environment on galaxy formation and evolution. In this thesis we investigated the physical properties of 60 void galaxies in a multiwavelength survey of galaxies identified in the interior of voids. The aim of this PhD thesis, in the context of the Void Galaxy Survey, was to identify the differences between the void galaxies and those living in relatively higher density environments. We found that our sample consists of mostly late-type galaxies that are smaller in size compared to galaxies of similar morphologies in high-densities. Although they have a high rate of star formation, their star formation properties are not systematically different from their peers in higher density environments. We also found interesting configurations. One of these is a system of three interacting galaxies, which is a manifestation of the formation of tenuous filamentary infrastructure in voids as a result of the hierarchical nature of the buildup of structure. Evolution in voids is also slower, for which we found an indication in that the small blue void galaxies in our sample seem to be evolving towards dwarf ellipticals
Morphology and dynamics of the cosmic web
Get PDFIn this thesis we study the properties of the Megaparsec matter distribution by means of a novel technique we developed for this purpose: the Multiscale Morphology Filter. With this tool we are able to divide the Cosmic Web into three well defined morphological and dynamical environments: clusters, filaments and walls. We study the general properties of each morphological component of the Cosmic Web as well as the properties of the haloes they contain.
We found a close relation between the Cosmic Web and the properties of haloes identified in computer simulations and galaxy surveys. The Cosmic Web plays a major role defining the propeties of haloes by means on the Megaparsec tidal field. This sets the spin orientation of the halo and the direction of matter infall. The effect can be seen in the spin and shape orientation, angular momentum, shapes and the infall of matter.
Health economics of blood transfusion safety
No full textThe HIV/AIDS disaster in transfusion medicine shaped the future agendas for blood transfusion safety. More than ever before, the implementation of interventions which could improve blood transfusion safety was driven merely by availability of technology. The introduction of new expensive technologies guided by the precautionary principle created continuously rising costs of blood donation and transfusion. The monetary investments in transfusion safety could potentially have gained more health in other sectors of the health care system. Next to these opportunity costs involved, increasing costs of blood transfusion may turn alternatives to blood transfusion into a more cost-effective option. The main objective of this thesis is to analyse the relevant parameters which determine the economic and health consequences of blood safety strategies in developed and and developing countries for various actual and potential interventions to enhance blood transfusion safety
Ontwikkeling van een meetlat voor immuuncompetentie in varkens, vleeskuikens en vleeskalveren
Get PDFHet doel van dit project is om een “meetlat” te ontwikkelen die de effecten van (voedings)interventies gericht op de verbetering van de immuuncompetentie van varkens, pluimvee en vleeskalveren kan vaststellen. Immuuncompetentie is binnen dit project gedefinieerd als het vermogen van dieren om effectieve responsen van het immuunsysteem te tonen op het moment dat de gezondheid van het dier onder druk wordt gezet. Een meetlat voor immuuncompetentie kan in de toekomst door de diervoedingssector gebruikt worden bij de ontwikkeling en evaluatie van nieuwe voerconcepten, ingrediënten en additieven gericht op de verbetering en ondersteuning van diergezondheid. Het is bekend dat de samenstelling van de voeding van jonge dieren invloed heeft op de functionele ontwikkeling van het maagdarmkanaal en op de samenstelling van de daarin aanwezige microbiota. De interacties tussen de microbiota en de weefsels van het darmkanaal (cross talk) hebben een belangrijke invloed op de ontwikkeling van immuuncompetentie. Daarom wordt in dit project gefocust op de effecten van (voedings)interventies op de microbiota, genexpressie veranderingen in darmweefsel, en morfologische en immunologische veranderen in de darm. De hier gepresenteerde meetlat voor immuuncompetentie is gebaseerd op de resultaten van onderzoek binnen het VDI programma van Feed4Foodure (projecten VDI-11; vleeskuikens, VDI-12; biggen, VDI- 13; gespeende biggen en kalveren) waarin m.b.v. model interventies de effecten van variatie in voersamenstelling op de microbiota samenstelling in het darmkanaal, de biologische responsen van darmweefsel en de zoötechnische dierprestaties zijn onderzocht. In de hier gepresenteerde meetlat worden gemeten effecten in deze studies aan elkaar gerelateerd en functioneel inzichtelijk gemaakt. Dit rapport beschrijft de ontwikkeling en totstandkoming van een eerste versie van de meetlat. Hierbij worden gemaakte keuzes, beperkingen en mogelijkheden van de meetlat bediscussieerd. Tenslotte wordt inzicht gegeven in de mogelijkheden tot verdere verfijningen en de toepasbaarheid van de meetlat
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