Academic Ceremonies October 2014

“The Double Burden of Malnutrition: a study of food Security, physical activity and nutritional status among women and children in Narok County, Kenya”

There is a growing concern over the increasing number of overweight in sub-Saharan Africa.  Africa is still struggling with persistent food insecurity, hunger and undernutrition. Therefore the coexistence of both over and under nutrition – the Double burden of malnutrition is posing a challenge to policy makers.  This study assessed the prevalence and risk factors of malnutrition among women and children (<5yrs), assessing food insecurity, physical activity and body composition and the impact of physical activity and food insecurity on pregnancy outcomes.  Over 70% of the household were categorized as food insecure, 5.6% of the women were underweight and over 35% were overweightThe activity levels among women were mainly sedentary and light (44.5% and 48.7% respectively). There is need for physical activity programs and nutrition education to curb growing numbers of overweight.

Key words:

overweight, Africa, malnutrition 

“Skills and the employability of University Graduates”

“Clinical relevance of dialysate constituents in hemodialysis”

“De directe werking van de grondrechten van de EuropeseUnie”

Since 1 December 2009, the EU has had a written Charter of Fundamental Rights. This charter can also be invoked in the national courts; not only in lawsuits against the government (e.g. in administrative or criminal courts), but also in disputes between private parties in the civil courts. This is radical. Is the administration of justice by the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg activist on this topic? Is this a matter of EU fundamental rights expansionism? This study concludes that this is not the situation in cases against national governments. However, critical comments need to be made about the jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice in regards to private litigation. 

Key words:

Fundamental rights, European Union, Judicial activism 

“A sunny future for photovoltaic systems in the Netherlands?”

“The effectiveness of community schools: evidence from the Netherlands”

Community schools have become increasingly popular and numerous in the Netherlands. They offer an integrated set of educational and social services that is expected to favor academic achievement, in particular that of pupils with a disadvantaged socio-economic background. Using different micro-econometric techniques this dissertation explores the effects of attending a community school in the Netherlands on cognitive and social-emotional learning outcomes in primary and secondary education. The results suggest only limited effects on educational outcomes. Children’s cognitive learning outcomes, in terms of test scores in mathematics, reading, world orientation and study skills, are not improved by it. Furthermore, dropout rates are not reduced by community schooling. Teachers report no affect on motivation and behaviour of the children, but they do perform a bit better given their capabilities compared to regular school pupils.

Key words:

community schools, academic achievement, effects

“The dynamics of multiple goal management: Diary studies at work”

“Learning from preclinical patient contacts”

The beginning of the clinical rotations is a difficult time for many medical students. A possible solution is pre-clinical real patient contacts in Problem-Based Learning (PBL). In the year before the clinical rotations, students see a limited number of real patients at the outpatient clinic. This seems to ease the transition, described in this thesis, while students are still encouraged to gather both clinical knowledge and biomedical knowledge. Both kinds of knowledge are essential for developing coherent knowledge networks, which are necessary for solving patient problems and making the correct diagnosis. The students make quicker, better diagnoses and give qualitatively better explanations of patient symptoms after learning from pre-clinical patient contacts.

Key words:

clinical rotations, Problem-Based Learning, patient contact

“Maat van Alle dingen; cognitie van Mens en Mensaap”

“Application of in-silico approaches to cardiovascular Disease”

“Vulnerabilities to sexual risk behaviour or orphan and non-orphan adolescents: understanding the context in Western Kenya”

“Pak een hamer en doe mee!”

“Comparing tailored video- and text-based messages about smoking cessation in different socioeconomic groups: Reach, adherence and (cost-) effectiveness”

“Krimpen zonder kramp : over demografische transitie en regionale arbeidsmarkten”

“Le droit de refus dans l’execution du contrat de travail”

Wednesday 15 October 2014, 14.00 hours

“Climate change, technology transfer and intellectual property. Options for Action at the UNFCCC”

“Taking Corporate Codes Seriously: towards private law enforcement of voluntary corporate social responsibility codes”

Corporate codes of conduct are voluntary guidelines and policies that companies frequently develop and publish with the objective to express their commitment to protect human rights, to respect and improve fundamental workplace standards worldwide, and to respect and not pollute the natural environment. Ultimately, they aim at signalling the public that companies have the firm intention to engage in socially responsible behaviour in the future. This research focuses on these voluntary commitments with a view to what role private law can play in regulating them and, hence, in making companies adhere to what they publicly promise to do. Based on a comparative analysis of the English and German private law and an interdisciplinary socio-legal analysis of corporate codes the conclusion is drawn that these codes would need to be enforced. Legal policy recommendations on how to change the law are also given. 

Key words:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Private Law, Comparative Law, Social Theory, Codes of conduct

“Axillary lymph node involvement in breast cancer”

“Green Politics in Latin American Cities; sustainable transport Agendas”

“Mitochondria, lipotoxicity and skeletal muscle metabolism: implications for type 2 diabetes mellitus”

“The evolution of knowledge systems”

It has long been acknowledged that the roots of economic development lie in the accumulation of skills, innovations, technologies, and efficient ways of organizing economic behavior - in brief, knowledge. This thesis provides mathematical and statistical models to help understanding the dynamics and organization of knowledge systems. Theoretically, it studies how innovation and knowledge diffusion can take place in a stable, self-sustaining way. It also examines data on real-world knowledge systems, such as citations among scientific articles or the classification of technologies, and finds that knowledge systems exhibit important structural transformations as they grow, questioning their viability.

Key words:

mathematical models, knowledge diffusion, innovation

“Rights, Scarcity, and Justice. An Analytical Inquiry into the adjudication of the Welfare Aspects of Human Rights”

“Obesitaspreventie met pieken en dalen”

“Complex Practical Negotiations Based on Autonomous agents”

“The intestinal barrier function : an integrative approach to understanding gastrointestinal pathophysiology”

“Making the Invisible Visible”

The thesis includes three studies which took place at the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University. The first study finds that students of the same nationality as the grader receive higher grades when their name is visible on the exam. For students with a different nationality as the grader the name did not influence the grades. This suggests that grading bias is driven by favoritism and that objectivity in grading can be increased by making exams anonymous. The second study finds that that students with better achieving class mates receive higher grades and report better group functioning. The third study shows that low ability students are more overconfident in their academic ability than high ability students. This finding suggests that many low ability students make the wrong decision to start studying. This would explain generally high drop-out rates at universities. 

Key words:

discrimination, peer effects, overconfidence

“Multifactorial decision support systems in radiation oncology; clinical predictors and radiomics”

“Chrnic Depression; an integrative approach to the study of underlying vulnerability factors and psychological treatment”

Depression is a very common problem in the Netherlands. Although many people with depression can be helped by psychotherapy or medication, a significant number of patients are not helped by current treatments. When symptoms of depression persist for two years or longer, it is called chronic depression. This dissertation shows that current treatments for depression often fall short and the underlying vulnerability, especially of chronic depression, is insufficiently addressed. A new treatment, called schema therapy, does address the underlying vulnerability of a chronic depression. This dissertation shows that schema therapy has positive effects on reducing depression in patients with chronic depression.

Key words:

chronic depression, schema therapy, psychotherapy, neuroimaging 

“Advanced prostate cancer risk, selenium, and oxidative stress: the role of genetic variation and environment”

“Bureaucracies for development: Oxymoron or Reality?”

The quality and expertise of the civil service is essential in building the abilities countries have to solve their own problems. The scientific and comparative study of civil services across developing countries, however, lags greatly behind. This dissertation presents innovative empirical tools and evidence to capture how bureaucracies impact socio-economic outcomes, and the extent to which policy experts are victim of politicization. Two main policy fields are covered: the Millennium Development Goals and the fight against corruption. The study also illustrates how certain governance arrangements such as the functioning of Congress or the party system can improve or hinder the quality of the civil service.

Key words:

governance, development, civil service, Millennium Development Goals, anticorruption, Argentina, Brazil

“Managing Financial Risks: from an institutional to a Macro Perspective”

Consumer loans have been growing remarkably in emerging markets. It has become a crucial request for both banking practitioners and regulators to better understand the behavior of borrowers and lenders with regard to contractual terms, of which collateral usage is an important one. So far there is little empirical work on the factors that affect decisions to pledge collateral for consumer loans in emerging markets. This dissertation offers new insights in that field, based on a dataset of more than 30,000 consumer loans in Vietnam. Amongst other findings, it illustrates how banks can better set up an optimal level of business volume after, or during, a crisis.

Key words:

consumer loans, emerging markets, bank risk models

“Financial reforms and out-of-pocket payments in the Russian healthcare sector”

“The role of early peritubular capillary loss in the development of chronic kidney disease”

“Enhanced perioperative care in liver and pancreat surgery”

This research aims to improve patient care after liver or pancreas surgery. An evidence-based accelerated recovery programme (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, ERAS) was developed, implemented and evaluated; it reduces the stress reaction after such a procedure and accelerates the recovery, with no additional disadvantages. It appears that such a protocol indeed shortens the length of stay in hospital following surgery, without additional complications. However, following the protocol is more difficult when complications occur. Patients and health care providers appeared positive about such a protocol, however they found a functional recovery more important than a quick discharge from hospital. 

Key words:

accelerated recovery, liver and pancreas surgery, improving patient care, evidence-based

“Malnutrition in nursing home residents in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria”

“Preferences, Institutions, and Economic Outcomes: An empirical investigation”

Inherited differences in social trust are important for the choice of political and economic systems, as the example of Ukraine illustrates. In the West, where social trust is stronger, liberal systems are preferred. In the East, which has suffered more from political repressions during the previous centuries, regimes with strong government control are supported. Recent events demonstrate that the underlying differences in preferences can play a prominent role. People choose occupations that are aligned with their preferences. Risk-averse individuals are much less likely to become self-employed, unless they have access to information and skills that can diminish the riskiness of entrepreneurship. Change is typically accompanied by uncertainty, which implies higher (emotional) costs for risk-averse people.

Key words:

social trust, economic choices, risks attitude