Publications by authors named "R L Vink"

Research on infants who have allegedly succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been of variable quality over the years. Even now peer-reviewed papers are being published on cases termed 'SIDS' without autopsies having been performed, despite this being a requirement of the three major definitions for over five decades. Clearly cases used in earlier research studies could not have complied with the requirements of as-yet unpublished definitions/guidelines.

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Following ischemic stroke, substance P (SP)-mediated neurogenic inflammation is associated with profound blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction, cerebral edema, and elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). SP elicits its effects by binding the neurokinin 1 tachykinin receptor (NK1-R), with administration of an NK1-R antagonist shown to ameliorate BBB dysfunction and cerebral edema in rodent and permanent ovine stroke models. Given the importance of reperfusion in clinical stroke, this study examined the efficacy of NK1-R antagonist treatment in reducing cerebral edema and ICP in an ovine model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo).

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Traumatic brain injuries represent a leading cause of death and disability in the paediatric and adult populations. Moderate-to-severe injuries are associated with blood-brain barrier dysfunction, the development of cerebral oedema, and neuroinflammation. Antagonists of the tachykinin NK1 receptor have been proposed as potential agents for the post-injury treatment of TBI.

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We analytically study friction and dissipation of a driven bead in a 1D harmonic chain, and analyze the role of internal damping mechanism as well as chain length. Specifically, we investigate Dissipative Particle Dynamics and Langevin Dynamics, as paradigmatic examples that do and do not display translational symmetry, with distinct results: For identical parameters, the friction forces can differ by many orders of magnitude. For slow driving, a Goldstone mode traverses the entire system, resulting in friction of the driven bead that grows arbitrarily large (Langevin) or gets arbitrarily small (Dissipative Particle Dynamics) with system size.

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