3,905 research outputs found
Towards future territorial governance
No full textThe book provides a comprehensive framework for analysing, comparing and promoting territorial governance in policy relevant research. It reveals in-depth considerations of the emergence, state-of-the art and evolution of the concept of territorial governance. The conclusions summed up in this final chapter are three-proged. First, we discuss the prospects for territorial governance at various administrative levels, macro-regional, national, regional and local, in Europe as a whole. Second, we draw some conclusions about how a territorial governance approach can be employed generally in Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe and in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Finally the chapter ends with some ideas about the future prospects for territorial governance researc
Cardiac function in diabetes mellitus patients: the interplay with exercise capacity and exercise intervention
No full textApproximately one in 15 adults suffer from diabetes mellitus
in Belgium, of which most suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus
(T2DM) and a minority from type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).
T2DM is characterized by elevated blood sugar levels, partly
resulting from a decreased insulin sensitivity at the target
organs (e.g. liver and skeletal muscles) and therefore lower
glucose uptake at these sites. Risk of premature death is
elevated in diabetes patients, mostly resulting from diabetes
complications. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the major
source of morbidity and mortality in diabetes patients.
In order to minimize the risk for such complications, a tight
glycaemic control is crucial. Exercise therapy exerts benefits
on glycaemic control, in addition to other health-related
benefits such as reduction in body weight. Diabetes patients
often display a lower physical fitness (exercise capacity),
which can be improved by exercise therapy.
Within study 1, we investigated the cardiac function of
adolescents suffering from T1DM, as the traditional risk
factors for CVD (e.g. smoking, hypercholesterolemia) are
generally less present in this group of patients. Despite an
adequate global cardiac function, disease duration was
negatively associated with pump function. This suggests that
diabetes directly affects cardiac function (early in life).
Within study 2, cardiac function of adult T2DM patients was
compared with healthy controls during exercise, as symptoms
of cardiac dysfunction often only occur or exaggerate when
the heart is stressed. Although pump function was preserved,
diabetes patients displayed a smaller deformation of the
cardiac muscle, which persisted during exercise. As cardiac
pump function and exercise capacity are tightly linked, study
3 aimed to investigate this in diabetes patients. A lower
exercise capacity resulted from an impaired capacity to
extract oxygen from the circulation. As the pump function was
preserved, it remains to be verified whether exercise therapy
would further improve this pump function. From literature (study 4) we known that exercise therapy can
improve cardiac function, more specifically the relaxation
phase (diastolic function), in diabetes patients. It should be
noted that this literature primarily exists of studies in which
diabetes patients already displayed anomalies in diastolic
function prior to the exercise therapy. In study 5, T2DM
patients followed a supervised exercise program (moderatecontinuous training (MCT) or a high-intensity interval training
(HIIT) program). Both training programs improved the
exercise capacity, glycaemic control and insulin sensitivity.
However, at the start of the program, patients displayed a
normal cardiac pump function and only the deformation of the
cardiac muscle was improved by exercise training. The
improved exercise capacity mainly resulted from a higher
capacity to extract oxygen from the circulation. So, exercise
therapy seems to be effective in solving the problem raised in
study 3. The HIIT program resulted in improvements on the
short term (12 weeks), although the MCT program seemed to
be equally effective on the long term (24 weeks).
This PhD project shows that diabetes negatively affects the
cardiac function, even when glucose levels are tightly
controlled and cardiac abnormalities do not yet result in
significant problems with cardiac function (studies 1-3).
Within this group of patients, exercise therapy should be
tailored towards adaptations at the peripheral level (higher
capacity to extract oxygen from the circulation). This could be
achieved by starting with a HIIT program and afterwards
following a MCT program to preserve the beneficial effects of
exercise training. Hereby we expect that the improved
exercise capacity can be preserved as well as improved insulin
sensitivity, attributing to a better cardiovascular (and
general) health in diabetes patients.In België lijdt 1 op de 15 volwassenen aan diabetes mellitus,
waarvan het grootste deel aan type 2 en een minderheid aan
type 1 diabetes mellitus (T2DM en T1DM).
Hoge bloedsuikerspiegels kenmerken T2DM, omdat er minder
suiker wordt opgenomen in weefsels zoals de spieren of de
lever, onder meer door een verminderde insulinegevoeligheid.
Diabetespatiënten hebben een verhoogd risico om vroegtijdig
te overlijden, vooral vanwege de complicaties. Hart- en
vaatziekten vormen een groot aandeel hierin.
Om het risico op dergelijke complicaties te verminderen is een
strikte controle van de suikerspiegel cruciaal.
Bewegingstherapie is hiervoor uitermate geschikt en biedt
ook andere gezondheidsvoordelen (vb. gewichtsreductie).
Daarnaast hebben diabetespatiënten vaak ook een
verminderde fitheid (inspanningscapaciteit genoemd),
hetgeen verbeterd kan worden door bewegingstherapie.
In studie 1 hebben we de hartfunctie van adolescenten met
T1DM getest. In deze groep zijn de traditionele risicofactoren
voor hart- en vaatziekten (o.a. roken en hoge cholesterol)
namelijk minder aanwezig. Ondanks een goede globale
hartfunctie werd er een negatief verband vastgesteld tussen
de ziekteduur en de pompfunctie van het hart. Dit suggereert
dat diabetes rechtstreeks een invloed kan hebben op de
hartfunctie, en dit reeds op jonge leeftijd.
In studie 2 vergeleken we de hartfunctie van volwassen
T2DM patiënten met personen zonder diabetes tijdens een
inspanning aangezien symptomen van een verstoorde
hartfunctie vaak pas optreden wanneer het hart onder stress
komt. Ondanks een goede pompfunctie werd een slechtere
vervorming van het hart vastgesteld bij de T2DM patiënten en
deze persisteerde ook tijdens de inspanning. Gezien het
verband tussen inspanningscapaciteit en hartfunctie hebben
we dit specifiek onderzocht bij T2DM patiënten in studie 3.
Een slechte inspanningscapaciteit was het resultaat van een
verminderde capaciteit om zuurstof vanuit de bloedbaan in de spieren op te nemen. Omdat de pompfunctie van het hart
normaal was rijst de vraag of bewegingstherapie deze nog
kan verbeteren.
Vanuit de literatuur (studie 4) weten we dat
bewegingstherapie de hartfunctie, en meer specifiek de
relaxatie van de hartspier, kan verbeteren bij diabetes
patiënten. Het is belangrijk te vermelden dat deze literatuur
vooral bestaat uit studies waarin diabetespatiënten reeds
problemen met de relaxatie vertoonden. In studie 5 hebben
T2DM patiënten een bewegingsprogramma gevolgd (een
matig-intensief of een hoog-intensief programma). Beide
programma’s verbeterden de inspanningscapaciteit,
suikercontrole en insulinegevoeligheid. Aan de start
vertoonden patiënten reeds een normale pompfunctie en
enkel de vervorming van het hart verbeterde nog verder. De
verbeterde inspanningscapaciteit was het resultaat van een
grotere capaciteit om zuurstof vanuit de bloedbaan in de
spieren op te nemen. Bewegingstherapie biedt dus een
oplossing voor het probleem dat we in studie 3 aantoonden.
Het hoog-intensief programma leidde sneller tot resultaten,
maar op lange termijn leidde ook het matig-intensief
programma tot verbeteringen.
Dit doctoraatsproject toont aan dat diabetes een negatieve
invloed heeft op het hart, zelfs bij een strikte controle van de
suikerspiegel en zonder dat belangrijke problemen met de
pompfunctie of relaxatie zich reeds manifesteren (studies 1-
3). Bij deze patiëntengroep zou bewegingstherapie vooral
gericht moeten zijn op het verbeteren van de capaciteit om
zuurstof op te nemen in de spieren, door bijvoorbeeld eerst
een hoog-intensief programma te volgen en daarna een
matig-intensief programma om de zo bekomen effecten te
onderhouden. We verwachten dat op deze manier de
verbeterde inspanningscapaciteit behouden blijft alsook de
insulinegevoeligheid en dit op lange termijn de
cardiovasculaire (en algemene) gezondheid van
diabetespatiënten ten goede komt
Cardiac function in diabetes mellitus patients: the interplay with exercise capacity and exercise intervention
No full textApproximately one in 15 adults suffer from diabetes mellitus
in Belgium, of which most suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus
(T2DM) and a minority from type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).
T2DM is characterized by elevated blood sugar levels, partly
resulting from a decreased insulin sensitivity at the target
organs (e.g. liver and skeletal muscles) and therefore lower
glucose uptake at these sites. Risk of premature death is
elevated in diabetes patients, mostly resulting from diabetes
complications. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the major
source of morbidity and mortality in diabetes patients.
In order to minimize the risk for such complications, a tight
glycaemic control is crucial. Exercise therapy exerts benefits
on glycaemic control, in addition to other health-related
benefits such as reduction in body weight. Diabetes patients
often display a lower physical fitness (exercise capacity),
which can be improved by exercise therapy.
Within study 1, we investigated the cardiac function of
adolescents suffering from T1DM, as the traditional risk
factors for CVD (e.g. smoking, hypercholesterolemia) are
generally less present in this group of patients. Despite an
adequate global cardiac function, disease duration was
negatively associated with pump function. This suggests that
diabetes directly affects cardiac function (early in life).
Within study 2, cardiac function of adult T2DM patients was
compared with healthy controls during exercise, as symptoms
of cardiac dysfunction often only occur or exaggerate when
the heart is stressed. Although pump function was preserved,
diabetes patients displayed a smaller deformation of the
cardiac muscle, which persisted during exercise. As cardiac
pump function and exercise capacity are tightly linked, study
3 aimed to investigate this in diabetes patients. A lower
exercise capacity resulted from an impaired capacity to
extract oxygen from the circulation. As the pump function was
preserved, it remains to be verified whether exercise therapy
would further improve this pump function. From literature (study 4) we known that exercise therapy can
improve cardiac function, more specifically the relaxation
phase (diastolic function), in diabetes patients. It should be
noted that this literature primarily exists of studies in which
diabetes patients already displayed anomalies in diastolic
function prior to the exercise therapy. In study 5, T2DM
patients followed a supervised exercise program (moderatecontinuous training (MCT) or a high-intensity interval training
(HIIT) program). Both training programs improved the
exercise capacity, glycaemic control and insulin sensitivity.
However, at the start of the program, patients displayed a
normal cardiac pump function and only the deformation of the
cardiac muscle was improved by exercise training. The
improved exercise capacity mainly resulted from a higher
capacity to extract oxygen from the circulation. So, exercise
therapy seems to be effective in solving the problem raised in
study 3. The HIIT program resulted in improvements on the
short term (12 weeks), although the MCT program seemed to
be equally effective on the long term (24 weeks).
This PhD project shows that diabetes negatively affects the
cardiac function, even when glucose levels are tightly
controlled and cardiac abnormalities do not yet result in
significant problems with cardiac function (studies 1-3).
Within this group of patients, exercise therapy should be
tailored towards adaptations at the peripheral level (higher
capacity to extract oxygen from the circulation). This could be
achieved by starting with a HIIT program and afterwards
following a MCT program to preserve the beneficial effects of
exercise training. Hereby we expect that the improved
exercise capacity can be preserved as well as improved insulin
sensitivity, attributing to a better cardiovascular (and
general) health in diabetes patients.In België lijdt 1 op de 15 volwassenen aan diabetes mellitus,
waarvan het grootste deel aan type 2 en een minderheid aan
type 1 diabetes mellitus (T2DM en T1DM).
Hoge bloedsuikerspiegels kenmerken T2DM, omdat er minder
suiker wordt opgenomen in weefsels zoals de spieren of de
lever, onder meer door een verminderde insulinegevoeligheid.
Diabetespatiënten hebben een verhoogd risico om vroegtijdig
te overlijden, vooral vanwege de complicaties. Hart- en
vaatziekten vormen een groot aandeel hierin.
Om het risico op dergelijke complicaties te verminderen is een
strikte controle van de suikerspiegel cruciaal.
Bewegingstherapie is hiervoor uitermate geschikt en biedt
ook andere gezondheidsvoordelen (vb. gewichtsreductie).
Daarnaast hebben diabetespatiënten vaak ook een
verminderde fitheid (inspanningscapaciteit genoemd),
hetgeen verbeterd kan worden door bewegingstherapie.
In studie 1 hebben we de hartfunctie van adolescenten met
T1DM getest. In deze groep zijn de traditionele risicofactoren
voor hart- en vaatziekten (o.a. roken en hoge cholesterol)
namelijk minder aanwezig. Ondanks een goede globale
hartfunctie werd er een negatief verband vastgesteld tussen
de ziekteduur en de pompfunctie van het hart. Dit suggereert
dat diabetes rechtstreeks een invloed kan hebben op de
hartfunctie, en dit reeds op jonge leeftijd.
In studie 2 vergeleken we de hartfunctie van volwassen
T2DM patiënten met personen zonder diabetes tijdens een
inspanning aangezien symptomen van een verstoorde
hartfunctie vaak pas optreden wanneer het hart onder stress
komt. Ondanks een goede pompfunctie werd een slechtere
vervorming van het hart vastgesteld bij de T2DM patiënten en
deze persisteerde ook tijdens de inspanning. Gezien het
verband tussen inspanningscapaciteit en hartfunctie hebben
we dit specifiek onderzocht bij T2DM patiënten in studie 3.
Een slechte inspanningscapaciteit was het resultaat van een
verminderde capaciteit om zuurstof vanuit de bloedbaan in de spieren op te nemen. Omdat de pompfunctie van het hart
normaal was rijst de vraag of bewegingstherapie deze nog
kan verbeteren.
Vanuit de literatuur (studie 4) weten we dat
bewegingstherapie de hartfunctie, en meer specifiek de
relaxatie van de hartspier, kan verbeteren bij diabetes
patiënten. Het is belangrijk te vermelden dat deze literatuur
vooral bestaat uit studies waarin diabetespatiënten reeds
problemen met de relaxatie vertoonden. In studie 5 hebben
T2DM patiënten een bewegingsprogramma gevolgd (een
matig-intensief of een hoog-intensief programma). Beide
programma’s verbeterden de inspanningscapaciteit,
suikercontrole en insulinegevoeligheid. Aan de start
vertoonden patiënten reeds een normale pompfunctie en
enkel de vervorming van het hart verbeterde nog verder. De
verbeterde inspanningscapaciteit was het resultaat van een
grotere capaciteit om zuurstof vanuit de bloedbaan in de
spieren op te nemen. Bewegingstherapie biedt dus een
oplossing voor het probleem dat we in studie 3 aantoonden.
Het hoog-intensief programma leidde sneller tot resultaten,
maar op lange termijn leidde ook het matig-intensief
programma tot verbeteringen.
Dit doctoraatsproject toont aan dat diabetes een negatieve
invloed heeft op het hart, zelfs bij een strikte controle van de
suikerspiegel en zonder dat belangrijke problemen met de
pompfunctie of relaxatie zich reeds manifesteren (studies 1-
3). Bij deze patiëntengroep zou bewegingstherapie vooral
gericht moeten zijn op het verbeteren van de capaciteit om
zuurstof op te nemen in de spieren, door bijvoorbeeld eerst
een hoog-intensief programma te volgen en daarna een
matig-intensief programma om de zo bekomen effecten te
onderhouden. We verwachten dat op deze manier de
verbeterde inspanningscapaciteit behouden blijft alsook de
insulinegevoeligheid en dit op lange termijn de
cardiovasculaire (en algemene) gezondheid van
diabetespatiënten ten goede komt
Alumni Authors: Lisa See \u2779
No full textAlumni Authors Series - Spring 2012. The William H. Hannon Library was happy to celebrate some of our acclaimed literary alumnus. Each author discussed their newest works and share a few stories from their days at LMU.
Lisa See (\u2779) - Ms. See was born in Paris but grew up in Los Angeles. She lived with her mother, but spent a lot of time with her father\u27s family in Chinatown. Her first book, On Gold Mountain: The One Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family (1995), tracing the journey of Lisa\u27s great-grandfather, Fong See was a national bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book. Three more award winning novels followed: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls. While collecting the details for On Gold Mountain, she developed the idea for her first novel, Flower Net (1997), which was a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and on the Los Angeles Times Best Books List for 1997. Flower Net was also nominated for an Edgar award for best first novel. This was followed by two more mystery-thrillers, The Interior (2000) and Dragon Bones (2003), which once again featured the characters of Liu Hulan and David Stark. This series inspired critics to compare Ms. See to Upton Sinclair, Dashiell Hammett, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
In addition to writing books, Ms. See was the Publishers Weekly West Coast Correspondent for thirteen years. Her articles have appeared in Vogue, Self, and More, as well as in numerous book reviews around the country. She has written the libretto for Los Angeles Opera based on On Gold Mountain, which premiered in June 2000 at the Japan American Theatre followed by the Irvine Barclay Theatre. She has recently designed a walking tour of Los Angeles\u27s Chinatown and wrote the companion guidebook for Angels Walk L.A. to celebrate the opening of Metro\u27s Chinatown Gold Line station. She also curated the inaugural exhibition - a retrospective of artist Tyrus Wong - for the grand opening of the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles. In Lisa\u27s new novel, Dreams of Joy, she continues the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl\u27s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy
The use of directives to repair embodied (mis)understandings in interactions with individuals diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia
No full textThis paper investigates caregivers’ use of directives to repair embodied engagements of individuals diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. High entitlement/low contingency (HE/LC) formats (e.g., imperatives) are consistently employed to elicit an alternative engagement in a current course of action that is treated as required for the accomplishment of an ongoing activity. In selecting directive formats, caregivers appear to orient to whether the alternative engagement is essential for the completion of an activity, how urgent or time-sensitive it is for the activity’s progressivity, and whether the current engagement is of a compulsive-type. Less essential, less urgent engagements elicit slightly mitigated formats, and compulsive-type engagements are repaired with multiple directives. The affordance of HE/LC directives in activity-focused contexts is that they explicitly identify the trouble source and often articulate the next action required for the activity’s progression. Additionally HE/LC formats expect compliance, which may minimally derail the progressivity of an activity compared to more mitigated forms. HE/LC formats in activity repair contexts reveal caregivers’ claimed rights to determine another’s actions as well as sensitivity to the activity requirements and progression. Data are in American English.Peer reviewe
Polychlorinated biphenyls in pigments: inadvertent production and environmental significance
No full textPolychlorobiphenyls are toxic, bioaccumulative, and persistent chemicals whose intentional manufacture has been banned throughout the developed world. Polychlorobiphenyls may be generated inadvertently during the production of certain pigments, including diarylides. This inadvertent production is allowed under various regulatory schemes, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act in the United States and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Generally, these regulations require polychlorobiphenyl levels in batches of pigment to be less than certain regulatory limits, usually 50 ppm. A growing body of evidence suggests that the use of pigments is dispersing polychlorobiphenyls throughout the environment. Polychlorobiphenyl congeners associated with pigments have been found throughout the United States in sediments and in surface waters at levels exceeding the prevailing water quality standards. A recent Japanese government study reported measured polychlorobiphenyl concentrations well above 50 ppm in several commercial batches of azo pigments. A strong case may thus be argued that pigment manufacturers should modify existing production processes to reduce, ideally prevent, the formation of polychlorobiphenyls, or develop new pigments that a collaboration involving environmental scientists (LR and JG) and a pigment chemist (RC), reviews the evidence for environmental contamination from inadvertent polychlorobiphenyl production in specific pigments, together with a rationalisation of the conclusions based on the reaction mechanisms involved in their manufacture. Broad measures are proposed that might address these issues, both from environmental and from chemical perspectives.Peer reviewe
From Parody to Rewriting: Margaret Mitchell’s GoneWith the Wind (1936) vs Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone (2001)
No full textWhen after many difficulties, Alice Randall published The Wind Done Gone, the question of the very nature of the novel came to the foreground, from a constitutional as well as a literary standpoint: was it a parodic re-writing of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, and as such protected by the First Amendment; or was it just a “steal” of famous characters and situations, and as such submitted to the strict laws of copyright? The analysis of the various literary devices used by the author will show the subversive nature of the hypertext, which goes beyond simple parody
Ligand Identification Scoring Algorithm (LISA)
No full textA central problem in de novo drug design is determining the binding affinity of a ligand with a receptor. A new scoring algorithm is presented that estimates the binding affinity of a protein–ligand complex given a three-dimensional structure. The method, LISA (Ligand Identification Scoring Algorithm), uses an empirical scoring function to describe the binding free energy. Interaction terms have been designed to account for van der Waals (VDW) contacts, hydrogen bonding, desolvation effects, and metal chelation to model the dissociation equilibrium constants using a linear model. Atom types have been introduced to differentiate the parameters for VDW, H-bonding interactions, and metal chelation between different atom pairs. A training set of 492 protein–ligand complexes was selected for the fitting process. Different test sets have been examined to evaluate its ability to predict experimentally measured binding affinities. By comparing with other well-known scoring functions, the results show that LISA has advantages over many existing scoring functions in simulating protein–ligand binding affinity, especially metalloprotein–ligand binding affinity. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was also used in order to demonstrate that the energy terms in LISA are well designed and do not require extra cross terms
Deliverable 1.1. Living Lab Co-Design Requirements Guiding Paper. Work Package 1: Co-design
No full textThe goal of this document is to outline the first practical steps and tasks in the Co-design process. As such, it provides guidelines for the EVOKED partners to begin the first phase of the Living Lab Process. It consists of a brief literature review of Living Labs and we show how this has informed our own working definition of a Living Lab as well as our EVOKED conceptualisations and Living Lab Principles. We provide a description of the four Co-design tasks: Needs and visions analysis, Stakeholder analysis, Context/governance analysis, and Planning of next Living Lab actions. This deliverable also includes a “living” glossary of terms used within EVOKED and references. The deliverable has been widely discussed and grounded with all EVOKED partners
Supporting school teachers: Primary teachers' conceptions of their responses to diverse sexualities
No full textTeachers experience a range of situations in the primary school context where students talk about, share ideas and use words and actions that might be described as non-heteronormative in character. This article reports on teachers’ experiences of the ways in which they respond to actions and events they see as non-heteronormative. It identifies six different ways in which teachers conceptualise their pedagogical responses to the situations they encounter: \ud
\ud
<i>(1) being nonchalant;</i> \ud
\ud
<i>(2) avoiding a response;</i> \ud
\ud
<i>(3) being uncertain;</i> \ud
\ud
<i>(4) maintaining home and school boundaries;</i> \ud
\ud
<i>(5) protecting students’ well-being, and;</i> \ud
\ud
<i>(6) embracing non-heteronormative sexualities</i>. \ud
\ud
Teachers’ responses to these events are important in that their actions may affect how students interpret and understand the world. Primary school teachers will benefit from support in knowing how to respond appropriately when faced with a scenario or situation that is non-heteronormative in character
- …
