The Effects of the Jump-In Whole-School Intervention on the Weight Development of Children in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Background: This study assessed the effects of the "Jump-in" whole-school intervention in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on children's weight development by comparing children exposed to the intervention and controls from 3 other large Dutch cities. Jump-in is a comprehensive intervention that aims to stimulate healthy nutrition and physical activity in children at primary schools in Amsterdam. In addition, the relationship between the intervention's implementation degree and its effectiveness was studied.

The European Court of Human Rights and the Emergence of Human Germline Genome Editing.

The field of human germline genome editing (HGGE) offers a promising reproductive potential to prevent inheritance of genetic diseases, yet also opens the door to undesirable eugenics. This stirred the debate about the acceptability of HGGE in light of human rights, particularly human dignity. The European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) use human dignity as a guiding principle.

Urban-Rural Polarisation in Times of the Corona Outbreak? The Early Demographic and Geographic Patterns of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic in the Netherlands.

The global health crisis due to the pandemic of the SARS-CoV-2 is associated with processes of urbanisation and globalisation. Globally well-connected areas with high population densities are hence expected to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19. This paper investigates the role of population density within the Netherlands, comparing hospitalisation and mortality related to COVID-19 across municipalities.

ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA): a new tool for analyzing designed metabolomics data.

Motivation: Datasets resulting from metabolomics or metabolic profiling experiments are becoming increasingly complex. Such datasets may contain underlying factors, such as time (time-resolved or longitudinal measurements), doses or combinations thereof. Currently used biostatistics methods do not take the structure of such complex datasets into account.

Poling of liquid crystals in thin films.

We examine the effect of a strong DC electric field on the molecular orientational order and the nonlinear optical response of liquid crystals in thin films. We compare the results of second-harmonic generation measurements with the predictions of two models, one assuming that the dipoles carried by the molecules have no interactions (the isotropic model), and the other assuming that the dipoles evolve in a Maier-Saupe orienting field responsible for the liquid-crystalline order (the Maier-Saupe model). In both cases, we take into account the effect of surfaces and confinement on the behavior of the molecules.

Tracking chemical kinetics in high-throughput systems.

Combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput experimentation (HTE) have revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry-but can chemists truly repeat this success in the fields of catalysis and materials science? We propose to bridge the traditional "discovery" and "optimization" stages in HTE by enabling parallel kinetic analysis of an array of chemical reactions. We present here the theoretical basis to extract concentration profiles from reaction arrays and derive the optimal criteria to follow (pseudo)first-order reactions in time in parallel systems. We use the information vector f and introduce in this context the information gain ratio, chi(r), to quantify the amount of useful information that can be obtained by measuring the extent of a specified reaction r in the array at any given time.

Dissolved organic matter, aluminium and iron interactions: precipitation induced by metal/carbon ratio, pH and competition.

To better understand the precipitation behaviour of dissolved organic matter induced by interactions with metals, a systematic titration experiment was conducted mimicking the soil solution conditions in an acidic, sandy soil. The variables of interest included the type of metal species (Al, Fe), the redox state [Fe(II), Fe(III)], the pH (3.5, 4.

Characterization of polyethylene glycols and polypropylene glycols by capillary zone electrophoresis and micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

Methods based on capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) have been developed and optimized for the separation of polyethylene glycols (PEGs) and polypropylene glycols (PPGs). To provide for charge and detectability both types of polymeric compounds were derivatized with phthalic anhydride (PhAH) or 1,2,4-benzenetricarboxylic anhydride (BTA) before the separation. Derivatization with BTA yielded more complex electropherograms, due to the occurrence of different isomeric reaction products for every PEG or PPG species.

Assembly of Encapsulated Transition Metal Catalysts.

Enforced ligand dissociation as a result of steric interactions between Zn porphyrin units and the N atoms of pyridylphosphane ligands determines the catalytic properties of the encapsulated transition metal complexes. These assemblies show increased catalytic activity in the palladium-catalyzed Heck reaction and rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation. M=transition metal catalyst.

Transition Metal Catalysis Using Functionalized Dendrimers.

Dendrimers are well-defined hyperbranched macromolecules with characteristic globular structures for the larger systems. These novel polymers have inspired many chemists to develop new materials and several applications have been explored, catalysis being one of them. The recent impressive strides in synthetic procedures increased the accessibility of functionalized dendrimers, resulting in a rapid development of dendrimer chemistry.

Formation constants of mercury(II) with some buffer/masking agents and the formation of mixed-ligand complexes.

Values are given for the formation constants of complexes of mercury(II) with some buffer/masking agents. The mixed-ligand complex formation of mercury(II)-chelates with other complexing agents has also been studied.