The Healthy Supermarket Coach: effects of a nutrition peer-education intervention in Dutch supermarkets on adolescents' food purchases.

Background: Dutch adolescents predominantly purchase unhealthy snacks in supermarkets, which negatively influence their health. The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and longer-term effects of a nutrition peer-education intervention in supermarkets on food purchases and determinants of food purchase behaviour among adolescents of different education levels.

Methods: We performed a quasi-experimental study in three supermarkets (two intervention and one comparison school) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Making Sense of Recovery From First Psychosis With Antipsychotic Medication: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study.

Background And Hypothesis: Recovering from a first psychosis is a highly individual process and requires the person to make sense of their experiences. Clinicians, in turn, need to comprehend these first-person perspectives, creating a mutual sense-making dynamic. Antipsychotic medication is a substantial part of psychosis treatment.

Feasibility of preoperative and postoperative physical rehabilitation for cardiac surgery patients - a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: This study aimed to determine the feasibility of a preoperative and postoperative (in- and outpatient) physical rehabilitation program, the Heart-ROCQ-pilot program.

Methods: This cohort study included patients undergoing cardiac surgery (including coronary artery bypass graft surgery, valve surgery, aortic surgery, or combinations of these surgeries) and participated in the Heart-ROCQ-pilot program. Feasibility involved compliance and characteristics of bicycle and strength training sessions in the three rehabilitation phases.

Integrated analysis of viral blips, residual viremia, and associated factors in people with HIV: Results from a retrospective cohort study.

The etiology of viral blips is not yet fully elucidated. One of the hypotheses is that blips reflect variations in residual viremia (RV) near the detectability threshold. In this study, we evaluated whether RV is associated with viral blips and which factors are associated with RV.

Development of a health promotion action with mothers aiming to support a healthy start in life for children using Participatory Action Research.

Health inequalities arise already during the first thousand days of a child's life. Participatory action research (PAR) is a promising approach, addressing adverse contexts that impact health inequalities. This article describes the experience of mothers involved in a PAR process to develop a health promotion action that supports both children's and mothers' health.

The accuracy of cystoscopy in predicting muscle invasion in newly diagnosed bladder cancer patients.

Purpose: The prognosis of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) has not improved for three decades. Transurethral resection of the bladder tumor (TURBT) is the standard procedure for local tumor staging. TURBT has several limitations, including the spread of tumor cells.

Minimizing Aerosol Leakage from Facemasks in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Aerosol therapies with vented facemasks are considered a risk for nosocomial transmission of viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The transmission risk can be decreased by minimizing aerosol leakage and filtering the exhaled air. In this study, we determined which closed facemask designs show the least leakage.

Disruption of the gene in zebrafish reveals conserved functions in development of the craniofacial skeleton and the thyroid.

Mutations in the FOXE1 gene are implicated in cleft palate and thyroid dysgenesis in humans. To investigate whether zebrafish could provide meaningful insights into the etiology of developmental defects in humans related to FOXE1, we generated a zebrafish mutant that has a disruption in the nuclear localization signal in the foxe1 gene, thereby restraining nuclear access of the transcription factor. We characterized skeletal development and thyroidogenesis in these mutants, focusing on embryonic and larval stages.

Muscle strength trajectories and their association with postoperative health-related quality of life in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Patients with sarcopenia have a higher risk of poor recovery after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Little is known about the impact of changes in muscle strength (the primary indicator for sarcopenia) on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). This study aimed to (1) identify subgroups with different muscle strength trajectories, (2) identify differences in preoperative risk factors among trajectory group membership, and (3) explore their prognostic value on postoperative HR-QoL in patients undergoing CABG.

Dynamic fair balancing of COVID-19 patients over hospitals based on forecasts of bed occupancy.

This paper introduces mathematical models that support dynamic fair balancing of COVID-19 patients over hospitals in a region and across regions. Patient flow is captured in an infinite server queueing network. The dynamic fair balancing model within a region is a load balancing model incorporating a forecast of the bed occupancy, while across regions, it is a stochastic program taking into account scenarios of the future bed surpluses or shortages.

Content of lunchboxes of Dutch primary school children and their perceptions of alternative healthy school lunch concepts.

Objective: To investigate the content of lunchboxes of primary school children and to examine children's support and preferences for alternative healthy school lunch concepts.

Design: A cross-sectional study among Dutch children from seven primary schools. The content of the lunchboxes was assessed by photographs.

Which factors promote and prohibit successful implementation and normalization of a healthy school lunch program at primary schools in the Netherlands?

Background: A school provided healthy lunch might help to improve the nutritional quality of children's lunches. However, in the Netherlands, school lunch programs are not common. The aim of this study was to identify factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of a school lunch program at primary schools, from the viewpoint of school professionals.

Pneumococcal pericarditis in a patient with newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus: a case report.

Background: After the introduction of antibiotics, pneumococcal pericarditis has become a rare finding. However, this severe condition with high mortality and complication rates requires rapid recognition and intervention. Herein, we describe a patient that presents with this rare disease resulting in an unusual, fatal outcome.

Efficient Selective Sorting of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes Using Ultra-Narrow-Band-Gap Polymers.

Conjugated polymers with narrow band gaps are particularly useful for sorting and discriminating semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNT) due to the low charge carrier injection barrier for transport. In this paper, we report two newly synthesized narrow-band-gap conjugated polymers ( and ) based on naphthalene diimide (NDI) and thienylennevinylene (TVT) building blocks, decorated with different polar side chains that can be used for dispersing and discriminating s-SWCNT. Compared with the mid-band-gap conjugated polymer , which is composed of naphthalene diimide (NDI) and head-to-head bithiophene building blocks, the addition of a vinylene linker eliminates the steric congestion present in head-to-head bithiophene, which promotes backbone planarity, extending the π-conjugation length and narrowing the band gap.

A qualitative study on the perspectives of Turkish mothers and grandmothers in the Netherlands regarding the influence of grandmothers on health related practices in the first 1000 days of a child's life.

Background: Given the importance of the first 1000 days of a child's life in terms of laying the foundations for healthy growth and development, parents are a logical target group for supporting health-related practices with regard to young children. However, little attention is paid to the influence of the wider social community on the health and development of young children during this crucial period. This includes grandmothers, who often have a significant influence on health-related practices of their grandchildren.

Limited waiting areas in outpatient clinics: an intervention to incorporate the effect of bridging times in blueprint schedules.

Background: Distancing measures enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic impose a restriction on the number of patients simultaneously present in hospital waiting areas.

Objective: Evaluate waiting area occupancy of an intervention that designs clinic blueprint schedules, in which all appointments of the pre-COVID-19 case mix are scheduled either digitally or in person under COVID-19 distancing measures, whereby the number of in-person appointments is maximised.

Methods: Preintervention analysis and prospective assessment of intervention outcomes were used to evaluate the outcomes on waiting area occupancy and number of in-person consultations (postintervention only) using descriptive statistics, for two settings in the Rheumatology Clinic of Sint Maartenskliniek (SMK) and Medical Oncology & Haematology Outpatient Clinic of University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).

Hepatitis B virus-specific CD4 T cell responses differentiate functional cure from chronic surface antigen infection.

Background & Aims: With or without antiviral treatment, few individuals achieve sustained functional cure of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. A better definition of what mediates functional cure is essential for improving immunotherapeutic strategies. We aimed to compare HBV-specific T cell responses in patients with different degrees of viral control.

Development of mAb-based polyglutamine-dependent and polyglutamine length-independent huntingtin quantification assays with cross-site validation.

Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by an expansion of the CAG trinucleotide repeat domain in the huntingtin gene that results in expression of a mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT) containing an expanded polyglutamine tract in the amino terminus. A number of therapeutic approaches that aim to reduce mHTT expression either locally in the CNS or systemically are in clinical development. We have previously described sensitive and selective assays that measure human HTT proteins either in a polyglutamine-independent (detecting both mutant expanded and non-expanded proteins) or in a polyglutamine length-dependent manner (detecting the disease-causing polyglutamine repeats) on the electrochemiluminescence Meso Scale Discovery detection platform.

Lower Incidence of HIV-1 Blips Observed During Integrase Inhibitor-Based Combination Antiretroviral Therapy.

Background: As the nature of viral blips remains unclear, their occurrence often leads to uncertainty. This study compares blip incidence rates during treatment with different combination antiretroviral therapy anchors.

Setting: Retrospective cohort study in a tertiary hospital.

Global and Regional Tidal Volume Distribution in Spontaneously Breathing Mechanically Ventilated Children.

Background: Allowing the ventilated adult patient to breathe spontaneously may improve tidal volume (V) distribution toward the dependent lung regions, reduce shunt fraction, and decrease dead space. It has not been studied if these effects under various levels of ventilatory support also occur in children. We sought to explore the effect of level of ventilatory support on V distribution and end-expiratory lung volume (EELV) in spontaneously breathing ventilated children in the recovery phase of their acute respiratory failure.