Academic Ceremonies February 2012

“Essays in Microeconomic Theory”

In this thesis, three problems in microeconomics are investigated within a theoretical approach: 1) The so-called roommate markets, where people with preferences over one another has to be paired into double rooms, 2) Collective decision making problem, where individuals preferences over a set of alternatives are aggregated into a social preference, 3) Ideological distances between individuals, where differences in individual preferences are analysed. In all three aforementioned problems, preferences are in the center of the methodology of the applications and the treatment of these problems.

Key words:

collectieve besluitvorming, matching theorie, speltheorie, positieve politieke economie

“Explaining Audiovisual Media Piracy in China Through The Prism of Media Control”

This thesis analyses the causes of media piracy (illegal copying and selling of films and television programmes) in China. Piracy in China is partly encouraged by two factors: the limited space for media freedom, as a result of which the legitimate offer does not meet the demand, and the structural problems of the Chinese state public service, as a result of which the country cannot unite the forces to deal with piracy in a severe way.  The US have tried to persuade China to further open their media market by means of the WTO, but so far without success. According to Creemers piracy is not ‘a bad thing’: after all, it gives the Chinese access to information they would otherwise be denied.

Key words:

media piracy, China, causes

“Protein kinase D: At the crossroad of cardiac function and metabolism”

Heart failure is one of the most common causes of death. The last few years, heart failure has been associated with metabolic changes. An example is the diabetic patient; this patient often suffers from heart problems because of too much fat absorption in the heart muscle cells. This dissertation investigates how the connection between metabolism and heart function is regulated.  A protein was found, protein kinase D (PKD), which steers other signal proteins that regulate the substrate balance (glucose/fat) in the heart.  This balance is crucial for the maintenance of an optimal heart function. Activation of this PKD protein leads to an increase of glucose absorption, and protects the heart against the development of diabetes and heart failure during the intake of too fatty food.

Key words:

heart failure, metabolism, PKD protein

”High-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays; Laboratory and clinical aspects”

An acute heart infarct is the main cause of death within cardiovascular diseases. Its diagnosis has recently improved by a new high-sensitive measuring method for heart-specific protein (troponin) in blood. Moreover, the improved precision in the low measuring range has enabled predicting the cardiac risk for the future. In heart patients and patients with terminal kidney failure troponin turns out to be predictive for the development of a heart infarct.  In endurance sportsmen training lowers the increase in troponin concentration directly after intensive exertion, and thus the risk. Each measurable troponin concentration appears therefore associated with cardiovascular diseases, and the rule is: the lower the better.

Key words:

predicting heart infarct, troponin

“The release of cardiac troponin: when, where and how”

“Cross-modal effects in the construction of perception

“Competitor recruitment: theory and practice-Based Explorations”

This dissertation deals with the reasons for, and characteristics and consequences of Competitor Recruitment (CR), i.e. poaching employee(s) from rival firms from the perspective of the hiring firm. Major conclusions are that CR often concerns individuals or teams of middle or higher managers and specialists, is done both directly or indirectly with the help of a personnel search firm, and may pay off when driven by motives, such as the need for industry-specific human capital or a fast integration process. Whether the hiring firm can finally appropriate the expected human capital value depends on the fit between the recruit and the new organizational environment, and required employee deployment practices post-hire.

Keywords:

competitor recruitment, labor poaching, employee transfers, labor mobility

“Learning to remember and to forget: Electrophysiological studies on attention-working memory interactions in typical development and ADHD”

Working memory and attention are important in many different situations of everyday life. To solve a difficult sum, for example, we must be able to remember information (the outcome of partial sums), focus on important information (the following partial sum) and ignore other information (distracting noises in the classroom). This dissertation shows that in adolescence the immaturity of these functions leads to less adequate attention and working memory performance. Brain activity (measured by ECG) shows that adolescents are not as capable of ignoring irrelevant information (and unnecessarily storing these in the memory) and retaining relevant information as adults. Also adolescents with ADHD were, similar to their peers with the same IQ, not as good at this as adults, but they did not have a greater delayed development.  Furthermore, attention problems in young children with ADHD symptoms proved to be a better predictor for the development of ADHD than impulsivity measurements.

Key words:

attention, ADHD, adolescence, ECG, development, working memory

“Estimation and Inference in Nonlinear Nonstationary Panel Data Models”

Within this PhD research the focus was on estimation and inference method for economic panel data that contains observations on multiple firms or individuals observed over multiple time periods. The studies investigate how the classical estimation method performs under the presence of nonlinear economic relationships among nonstationary economic variables. We differentiated between two types of nonlinear functions: asymptotic homogeneous functions and integrable functions. We both prove in theory and demonstrate by simulation studies that the classical nonlinear least squares estimation perform well and normal inference can be conducted. The theoretical findings in this Phd research could be used by empirical studies on economic cycles, exchange rates, investment and capital market imperfections and so on.

Key words:

economic panel data, estimation method

“Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation in Tourette Syndrome”

“A new field in radiotherapy research: Small animal image-guided precision radiotherapy”

“A fatal attraction: Macrophage recruitment to the atherosclerotic plaque”

“De democratisering van het ressentiment”

“Infection prevention in Intensive Care patients: Probiotics compared to antibiotics”

Intensive Care (IC) patients are very vulnerable, which makes them susceptible to infections. Infection prevention is therefore a necessity. Potentially pathogenic bacteria in the gastro-intestinal tract are an important source of infections. These can be tackled by administering antibiotics (this is called selective decontamination of the gastro-intestinal tract – SDD) or by probiotics (living micro-organisms with a healthy effect).  Both interventions have pros and cons. A direct comparison shows that equivalence of the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum 299/299v with regard to SDD concerning infection prevention cannot be proven. No increase in mortality risk can be shown with this probiotic.

Key words:

infection prevention in IC, SDD, probiotics

“The coagulation-inflammation Axis in Atherosclerosis”