Academic Ceremonies May 2013

“Epigenetic Dysregulation and the Pathophysiology of of Alzheimer’s Disease”

“Epigenetic Regulation in Aging and Alzheimer’s disease: A translational perspective”

“Perinatal events and altered pain sensitivity in later life”

“Organ saving treatment after chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer – MRI as a selection tool -”

Patients with locally progressed rectal cancer receive standard treatment of long-term chemo and radiotherapy (‘chemoradiotherapy’), followed by surgical removal of the rectum. In response to the chemoradiotherapy the tumour can for the greater part or even entirely disappear. For these patients, follow-up surgery might not be necessary, but only if we can reliably assess the response to the chemoradiotherapy.  This dissertation has shown that with reference to current standard imaging techniques the response assessment after chemoradiotherapy by means of new MRI techniques – diffusion weighed MRI and MRI using a new contrast agent, gadofosveset-trisodium – can be considerably improved. 

Key words:

rectal cancer, chemoradiotherapy, MRI techniques, follow-up surgery

“Rectal cancer: are we ready for a paradigm shift?”

“The detention of asylum seekers in the European Union and Australia; a comparative analysis”

This dissertation compares the laws surrounding the detention of asylum seekers in the European Union and Australia. It explores the circumstances in which the detention of an asylum seeker may occur or be prolonged, the mechanisms for the review of detention decisions, the legal standards surrounding conditions of detention as well as the alternatives to detention and proportionality. The research finds that States should not presume that asylum seekers will be treated in accordance with international human rights standards merely because of a State’s subscription to those standards and suggests that any such presumption should be able to be tested.

Key words:

law, detention, asylum seekers, human rights

“The External Dimension of the EU’s Migration Policy; Different Legal Positions of Third-Country Nationals in the EU A Comparative Perspective”

The EU has set out the objective of creating a common European migration policy to address challenges relating to the demographic change, labour market needs and irregular migration. The dissertation argues that this objective is, however, difficult to achieve under the current highly fragmented EU framework for migration law and policy. The dissertation aims to understand why certain non-EU nationals, such as Swiss nationals and EEA nationals from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, hold a privileged legal status which translates into favourable entry, employment and residence rights. For a European Union that is inclusive and treats non-EU nationals as an integral part of the EU population – especially in difficult economic times – national and European policy makers should strengthen the rights-based approach for migrants, consolidate existent rules and make such rules more coherent and transparent, for instance by introducing an EU immigration code.

Key words:

immigration, non-EUthird-country nationals, EU migration policy, mobility  

“Multiagent Learning; Dynamic Games & Applications”

“Hippocampal plasticity and corticosterone: From dendrites to behaviour”

The components involved in learning and memory are information storage, encoding and retrieval. These are modulated by experiences in the environment and intrinsic signals such as hormones and trophic factors. In turn learning and memory processes are dependent on changes in neurons (dendritic morphology, number, response) and their connectivity. Recent research has investigated neuroplasticity in the hippocampus in relation to learning and memory processes. However, within the literature we can find some paradoxical effects in hippocampal plasticity that appear to be dependent on the memory task used and the stress these tasks may elicit. The same holds true for studies on the effects of spatial learning on synaptogenesis. Therefore the aim of the present research was to determine how corticosterone affects spatial memory and hippocampal plasticity.

Key words:

hippocampal plasticity, corticosterone, learning

“Evolution of laparoscopic techniques in Bariatric surgery”

This thesis evaluates the evolution of laparoscopic techniques in bariatric surgery. Included are topics such as the technical aspects to perform laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, the various laparoscopic conversions in patients with already restrictive surgeries like laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding,  and the technical evolution from conventional multi-incision laparoscopy to single-incision laparoscopy (SIL) in bariatric surgery. Considering the high number of bariatric procedures performed annually, the request of revisional surgery is increasing as well and revisional procedures are feasible to be performed by laparoscopy, achieving the different advantages of minimally invasive surgery. For revisional bariatric surgery, the selection of the appropriate procedure for each patient is fundamental and comes from the multidisciplinary counseling between dietician, psychologist, internist and surgeon. 

Key words:

obese patients, obesity surgery, laparoscopy, technique

“Early metabolic risk in COPD”

COPD is a chronic disease of the lungs, but affects the entire body. This dissertation shows that COPD patients often have too much belly fat, too little muscular mass and tired muscles already at an early stage of the disease.  Moreover, it is shown that the unhealthy lifestyle of COPD patients is not limited to smoking cigarettes; they exercise too little and eat too many fats and too few fibres. The combination of COPD-specific factors and the unhealthy lifestyle thus strongly increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Future research will show whether a focused training and nutrition programme can decrease these risks.  

Key words:

COPD, lifestyle, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases

“A circle of improvement in bleeding management: from laboratory to clinic and back”

“Impacts of Government Incentives to R&D, Innovation and Productivity: A Microeconometric Analysis of the Québec Case”

The dissertation empirically assesses the effectiveness of direct and indirect government support to the private R&D investment of firms in Québec on their economic performances. The main results are that the level-based tax credit is less effective than the incremental R&D tax credit since it contains a deadweight loss. Firms which use public grants for R&D in conjunction with R&D tax incentives perform better in terms of R&D input additionally and productivity growth than firms that use only R&D tax incentives. Manufacturing firms in Québec that invest in innovation have a productivity that is comparable to that of OECD countries. Subsidized firms closer to the technology frontier spend more on innovation and earn more sales from product innovation than those further away.

Key words:

R&D, government incentives, public subsidies, innovation, productivity

”Investing in Early Childhood Care and Education: The Impact of Quality on Inequality”

This dissertation aims at informing policymakers about ways to invest in early childhood care and education. It adds important evidence on a number of quality characteristics (e.g. staff-per-child, share of trained / male / ethnic minority staff, and staff turnover) they may directly influence to stimulate child development. Policymakers have increasingly acknowledged early childhood investments as instruments to stimulate social mobility of children who are at risk of falling behind at school. Results of three studies on unique Dutch and Danish datasets indicate that better quality may well lead to positive outcomes. However, the new evidence is not sufficient to empirically justify the high hopes put in childcare investments and their social mobilization potential. So we cannot yet be certain that public resources are being effectively spent.

Key words:

childhood care, child development, social mobility

“The protection of non-economic interests in European competition law”

“The Relevance, Variability, and Malleability of Personality Traits”

“Radiologie in medisch onderwijs”

“Value-Based Decisions: Situational Influences and Neural Mechanisms”

In order to make complicated decisions, such as choosing between a holiday and a new car, it is necessary to find a way to compare these. This research shows that the brain computes an abstract value for each option, which allows comparison with any other option. At the same time, we observe that decisions across a wide range of situations are influenced by irrelevant context. For example, participants frequently change the amount of money they want to pay for an object. Understanding why people do this can uncover the mechanisms underlying decision making, and eventually help people make better decisions. 

Key words:

brain, neural mechanisms, decision making 

“Ambulatory Gait Analysis: Clinical application and fall risk detection”

This dissertation investigates if ‘Acceleration-based Gait Analysis’ (AGA) is suitable to describe the walking pattern of various populations. Also, the response after a perturbation during walking is closely studied. The conclusion is that AGA is reliable and sensitive to personal characteristics and health aspects. This, together with the practical advantages (ambulant, simple, fast), the objectivity and the detailed output show the added value of AGA for the clinical practice. The developed and validated trip set-up (Timed Rapid Impact Perturbation, TRIP set-up) can be used to study stability during walking and has shown that muscular power, cognition and walking speed alone have little influence on the response after a perturbation in the walking pattern.

Key words:

gait analysis, accelerometer, perturbation in walking pattern

“Body weight loss and maintenance as affected by environment and genetic predisposition”

“De kapitaalverschaffer zonder stemrecht in de BV”

On the implementation of the Act on simplification and greater flexibility of private (BV) limited companies (Wet vereenvoudiging en flexibilisering BV-recht) on 1 October 2012, Dutch law was introduced to shares without voting rights and to depositary receipts with or without the right to attend general meetings. This research is focused on the provider of capital without the right to vote. The legal position of the holder of shares without voting rights, the holder of depositary receipts with or without the right to attend general meetings, the holder of a participation certificate and the holder of shares whereby the right to vote has been transferred to the usufructuary or to the pledgee were analysed. Not only the rights of the provider of capital without voting rights were discussed, also the open standard of the corporate reasonableness and fairness regarding the provider of capital without the right to vote and his legal remedies were analysed. In this thesis recommendations for amendment or interpretation of the law were made. The pros and cons of the different legal concept without voting rights and point of interest for the use of these legal concepts in practice were put forward.

Key words:

private company law, shares without voting rights, depositary receipts with or without the right to attend general meetings

“Out of the Black Box”