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BACKGROUND: More than half of the patients suffering from a first psychotic episode withdraw from antipsychotic medication within the first year of treatment. Shared decision making could enhance the therapeutic relationship and thus adherence. AIM: To describe an online decision aid for the selection of antipsychotic medication: the Personal Antipsychotic Choice Index (www.pakwijzer.nl). METHOD: Per effect and side effect, the 15 most commonly prescribed antipsychotics in the Netherlands have been ranked on the basis of data on the magnitude of a desired effect and the chance of a side effect, based on a systematic literature study. We assigned scores to antipsychotics for each desired and undesired effect and processed these scores in an algorithm. A personal ranking of antipsychotics is calculated based on the value that patients attach to these effects. RESULTS: These desired and undesired criteria used are rated in the PACindex: effectiveness concerning psychotic, depressive and cognitive symptoms, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, drowsiness, hypersomnia, extrapyramidal symptoms, anticholinergic adverse effects, hypersalivation, nausea, dizziness, energy loss, blunted affect/less need for companionship. High level evidence was available for ranking weight gain, sexual dysfunction, menstrual disorders, extrapyramidal symptoms and effectiveness on psychotic symptoms. We used lower level evidence ranking the remaining criteria. CONCLUSION: A ready applicable online choixe index for the use of an antipsychotic agent has been developed and put into use. The PACindex could be updated when new evidence of new antipsychotics became available..

X-inactivation is a well-established dosage compensation mechanism ensuring that X-chromosomal genes are expressed at comparable levels in males and females. Skewed X-inactivation is often explained by negative selection of one of the alleles. We demonstrate that imbalanced expression of the paternal and maternal X-chromosomes is common in the general population and that the random nature of the X-inactivation mechanism can be sufficient to explain the imbalance. To this end, we analyzed blood-derived RNA and whole-genome sequencing data from 79 female children and their parents from the Genome of the Netherlands project. We calculated the median ratio of the paternal over total counts at all X-chromosomal heterozygous single-nucleotide variants with coverage ≥10. We identified two individuals where the same X-chromosome was inactivated in all cells. Imbalanced expression of the two X-chromosomes (ratios ≤0.35 or ≥0.65) was observed in nearly 50% of the population. The empirically observed skewing is explained by a theoretical model where X-inactivation takes place in an embryonic stage in which eight cells give rise to the hematopoietic compartment. Genes escaping X-inactivation are expressed from both alleles and therefore demonstrate less skewing than inactivated genes. Using this characteristic, we identified three novel escapee genes (SSR4, REPS2, and SEPT6), but did not find support for many previously reported escapee genes in blood. Our collective data suggest that skewed X-inactivation is common in the general population. This may contribute to manifestation of symptoms in carriers of recessive X-linked disorders. We recommend that X-inactivation results should not be used lightly in the interpretation of X-linked variants.

This open access book is about the perception of the independence of the judiciary in Europe. Do citizens and judges see its independence in the same way? Do judges feel that their independence is respected by the users of the courts, by the leadership of the courts and by politicians? Does the population trust the judiciary more than other public institutions, or less? How does independence of the judiciary work at the national level and at the level of the European Union? These interrelated questions are particularly relevant in times when the independence of the judiciary is under political pressure in several countries in the European Union, giving way to illiberal democracy. Revealing surveys among judges, lay judges and lawyers - in addition to regular surveys of the European Commission - provide a wealth of information to answer these questions. While the answers will not please everyone, they are of interest to a wide audience, in particular court leaders, judges, lawyers, politicians and civil servants.

This open access book is about the perception of the independence of the judiciary in Europe. Do citizens and judges see its independence in the same way? Do judges feel that their independence is respected by the users of the courts, by the leadership of the courts and by politicians? Does the population trust the judiciary more than other public institutions, or less? How does independence of the judiciary work at the national level and at the level of the European Union? These interrelated questions are particularly relevant in times when the independence of the judiciary is under political pressure in several countries in the European Union, giving way to illiberal democracy. Revealing surveys among judges, lay judges and lawyers - in addition to regular surveys of the European Commission - provide a wealth of information to answer these questions. While the answers will not please everyone, they are of interest to a wide audience, in particular court leaders, judges, lawyers, politicians and civil servants.

In the version of the article published, the surname of author Aaron Isaacs is misspelled as Issacs.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of variants associated with complex traits, but their biological interpretation often remains unclear. Most of these variants overlap with expression QTLs, indicating their potential involvement in regulation of gene expression. Here, we propose a transcriptome-wide summary statistics-based Mendelian Randomization approach (TWMR) that uses multiple SNPs as instruments and multiple gene expression traits as exposures, simultaneously. Applied to 43 human phenotypes, it uncovers 3,913 putatively causal gene–trait associations, 36% of which have no genome-wide significant SNP nearby in previous GWAS. Using independent association summary statistics, we find that the majority of these loci were missed by GWAS due to power issues. Noteworthy among these links is educational attainment-associated BSCL2, known to carry mutations leading to a Mendelian form of encephalopathy. We also find pleiotropic causal effects suggestive of mechanistic connections. TWMR better accounts for pleiotropy and has the potential to identify biological mechanisms underlying complex traits.

In this article the results are presented of the 2019 ENCJ-survey among the judges of Europe about the independence of the judiciary. This is an explosive topic in light of recent developments in countries of the Union. First, the context of the survey is discussed, then the outcomes.

In this article the results are presented of the 2019 ENCJ-survey among the judges of Europe about the independence of the judiciary. This is an explosive topic in light of recent developments in countries of the Union. First, the context of the survey is discussed, then the outcomes.

We are grateful for the contribution of Stefan Voigt, Elaine Mak, David Kosař, Samuel Spáč, Ingo Keilitz and Marco Fabri to this Special Issue. Their commentaries on the indicators for independence and accountability of the judiciary as developed for the ENCJ give many useful ideas for future development. The comments also reflect the different disciplinary backgrounds of the authors and point to the need to position the ENCJ approach within the diverse disciplines that engage in the analysis of judicial independence. It is obvious that the approaches of the commenters on the ENCJ study differ widely. In economics the approach focuses on measuring independence for inclusion as variable in econometric models about, for instance, economic growth or protection of property rights. More (de-facto) independence enhances economic performance, but how more independence is to be achieved is not addressed. From the perspective of performance management of organizations, independence is part of court performance for the clients and to some degree subservient to it. In a legal, descriptive approach, the situation in different countries is described in detail, also as a part of judicial culture. The ENCJ study only sets criteria for measuring judicial independence, and does not address performance measurement of courts and judges in general.

We are grateful for the contribution of Stefan Voigt, Elaine Mak, David Kosař, Samuel Spáč, Ingo Keilitz and Marco Fabri to this Special Issue. Their commentaries on the indicators for independence and accountability of the judiciary as developed for the ENCJ give many useful ideas for future development. The comments also reflect the different disciplinary backgrounds of the authors and point to the need to position the ENCJ approach within the diverse disciplines that engage in the analysis of judicial independence. It is obvious that the approaches of the commenters on the ENCJ study differ widely. In economics the approach focuses on measuring independence for inclusion as variable in econometric models about, for instance, economic growth or protection of property rights. More (de-facto) independence enhances economic performance, but how more independence is to be achieved is not addressed. From the perspective of performance management of organizations, independence is part of court performance for the clients and to some degree subservient to it. In a legal, descriptive approach, the situation in different countries is described in detail, also as a part of judicial culture. The ENCJ study only sets criteria for measuring judicial independence, and does not address performance measurement of courts and judges in general.

Four phases of the Corona crisis are distinguished: a first acute phase, the gradual transition to a new normal, the economic downturn and the long run. The article describes what happened in the courts in the first and in the beginning of the second phase, and what is subsequently likely to happen. In the acute phase the court buildings shut down, and adjudication came largely to a halt. The courts were late in opening up, and as a result backlogs of, in particular, criminal cases increased. The courts extended their use of digital tools (e.g. tele-hearings) that, while allowing cases to proceed, did not fully protect the rights of parties. While so far the volume of commercial cases and bankruptcies has not increased, a (rapid) increase is inevitable. Contract breach will be wide spread, and will give rise to fundamental legal issues. For economic recovery it is essential that the courts give clear and consistent guidance in these matters quickly. This requires the courts to reduce the currently long duration of civil cases, and to use the available procedures to get expeditious decisions of the Supreme Court. The courts will also need to develop their ICT-instruments rapidly to guarantee the rights of parties. After a difficult first phase, the courts now face the challenge to effectively guide society through the Corona crisis and its aftermath, and thereby play its role in the trias politica.

Introduction To know the prevalence of exposures and diseases at workplaces is crucial for the development of intervention strategies and healthcare planning. However, in many low and middle-income countries (LMIC) research is no priority. One reason is a lack of experts able to carry out sound epidemiological research at workplaces. One way of preparing such experts is through project-based training. We therefore implemented a project as training method in our blended learning Master in International Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). Methods Students start by identifying their research interest based on existing worker’s health problems. They develop a study protocol to assess working conditions and health at a self-selected workplace. After ethics approval, they carry out the project during the 2nd term of the program. In term 3, they learn to analyse and interpret data and develop a teaching intervention. In the final term, students write the master thesis in form of a scientific paper. Throughout the process, they are accompanied by a tutor. Results Since its beginning in 2012, the number of participants in the program is stable with 10–12 students/year. All of them are OSH experts with at least 2 years of experience in the field coming from eight Latin American countries. Students evaluate the project-based learning approach as positive. Of the 43 graduating students, 9 research papers were published in journals. More than half of the graduates teach students at local universities and thereby act as multipliers. Few continue to carry out research mainly due to lack of priority in their home countries. Discussion The project-based learning approach contributes to occupational health research in Latin America. The concept might be promising also for other LMIC. However, due to the individual tutoring the program is cost intensive, publication of the results challenging and work opportunities for researchers limited.

Background SNP panels that uniquely identify an individual are useful for genetic and forensic research. Previously recommended SNP panels are based on DNA profiles and mostly contain intragenic SNPs. With the increasing interest in RNA expression profiles, we aimed for establishing a SNP panel for both DNA and RNA-based genotyping. Results To determine a small set of SNPs with maximally discriminative power, genotype calls were obtained from DNA and blood-derived RNA sequencing data belonging to healthy, geographically dispersed, Dutch individuals. SNPs were selected based on different criteria like genotype call rate, minor allele frequency, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and linkage disequilibrium. A panel of 50 SNPs was sufficient to identify an individual uniquely: the probability of identity was 6.9 × 10− 20 when assuming no family relations and 1.2 × 10− 10 when accounting for the presence of full sibs. The ability of the SNP panel to uniquely identify individuals on DNA and RNA level was validated in an independent population dataset. The panel is applicable to individuals from European descent, with slightly lower power in non-Europeans. Whereas most of the genes containing the 50 SNPs are expressed in various tissues, our SNP panel needs optimization for other tissues than blood. Conclusions This first DNA/RNA SNP panel will be useful to identify sample mix-ups in biomedical research and for assigning DNA and RNA stains in crime scenes to unique individuals. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4482-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

© 2017 American Society of Human Genetics Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of genetic variants associated with blood pressure (BP), but sequence variation accounts for a small fraction of the phenotypic variance. Epigenetic changes may alter the expression of genes involved in BP regulation and explain part of the missing heritability. We therefore conducted a two-stage meta-analysis of the cross-sectional associations of systolic and diastolic BP with blood-derived genome-wide DNA methylation measured on the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip in 17,010 individuals of European, African American, and Hispanic ancestry. Of 31 discovery-stage cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides, 13 replicated after Bonferroni correction (discovery: N = 9,828, p < 1.0 × 10−7; replication: N = 7,182, p < 1.6 × 10−3). The replicated methylation sites are heritable (h2 > 30%) and independent of known BP genetic variants, explaining an additional 1.4% and 2.0% of the interindividual variation in systolic and diastolic BP, respectively. Bidirectional Mendelian randomization among up to 4,513 individuals of European ancestry from 4 cohorts suggested that methylation at cg08035323 (TAF1B-YWHAQ) influences BP, while BP influences methylation at cg00533891 (ZMIZ1), cg00574958 (CPT1A), and cg02711608 (SLC1A5). Gene expression analyses further identified six genes (TSPAN2, SLC7A11, UNC93B1, CPT1A, PTMS, and LPCAT3) with evidence of triangular associations between methylation, gene expression, and BP. Additional integrative Mendelian randomization analyses of gene expression and DNA methylation suggested that the expression of TSPAN2 is a putative mediator of association between DNA methylation at cg23999170 and BP. These findings suggest that heritable DNA methylation plays a role in regulating BP independently of previously known genetic variants.

Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many common variants associated with complex traits, low-frequency and rare variants have not been interrogated in a comprehensive manner. Imputation from dense reference panels, such as the 1000 Genomes Project (1000G), enables testing of ungenotyped variants for association. Here we present the results of imputation using a large, new population-specific panel: the Genome of The Netherlands (GoNL). We benchmarked the performance of the 1000G and GoNL reference sets by comparing imputation genotypes with ‘true’ genotypes typed on ImmunoChip in three European populations (Dutch, British, and Italian). GoNL showed significant improvement in the imputation quality for rare variants (MAF 0.05–0.5%) compared with 1000G. In Dutch samples, the mean observed Pearson correlation, r 2 , increased from 0.61 to 0.71. We also saw improved imputation accuracy for other European populations (in the British samples, r 2 improved from 0.58 to 0.65, and in the Italians from 0.43 to 0.47). A combined reference set comprising 1000G and GoNL improved the imputation of rare variants even further. The Italian samples benefitted the most from this combined reference (the mean r 2 increased from 0.47 to 0.50). We conclude that the creation of a large population-specific reference is advantageous for imputing rare variants and that a combined reference panel across multiple populations yields the best imputation results. European Journal of Human Genetics (2014) 22, 1321–1326; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.19; published online 4 June 2014

Het vreemdelingenrecht kenmerkt zich door grote pieken en dalen in het volume van het aantal zaken. In het verleden waren het procesrecht en de werkprocessen niet afgestemd op de soms zeer grote toename van het aantal zaken. Met grote achterstanden tot gevolg. De explosieve stijging van het aantal asielzoekers in 2015 was voor de Raad voor de rechtspraak aanleiding een zogenoemde stresstest te ontwikkelen: welke maatregelen kunnen gerechten en ketenpartijen nemen om te voorkomen dat een sterke toename van het aantal asielzaken niet wederom tot grote achterstanden leidt?

Het vreemdelingenrecht kenmerkt zich door grote pieken en dalen in het volume van het aantal zaken. In het verleden waren het procesrecht en de werkprocessen niet afgestemd op de soms zeer grote toename van het aantal zaken. Met grote achterstanden tot gevolg. De explosieve stijging van het aantal asielzoekers in 2015 was voor de Raad voor de rechtspraak aanleiding een zogenoemde stresstest te ontwikkelen: welke maatregelen kunnen gerechten en ketenpartijen nemen om te voorkomen dat een sterke toename van het aantal asielzaken niet wederom tot grote achterstanden leidt?

Structural variation (SV) represents a major source of differences between individual human genomes and has been linked to disease phenotypes. However, current studies on SVs have failed to provide a global view of the full spectrum of SVs and to integrate them into reference panels of genetic variation. Here, we analyzed 769 individuals from 250 Dutch families, whole genome sequenced at an average coverage of 14.5x, and provide a haplotype-resolved map of 1.9 million genome variants across 9 different variant classes, including novel forms of complex indels and retrotransposition-mediated insertions of mobile elements and processed RNAs. A large proportion of the structural variants (36%) were discovered in the size range of 21 to 100bp, a size range which remains under reported in many studies. Furthermore, we detected 4 megabases of novel sequence, extending the human pangenome with 11 new active transcripts. Finally, we show 191 known, trait-associated SNPs to be in strong linkage disequilibrium with a structural variant and demonstrate that our panel facilitates accurate imputation of SVs into unrelated individuals, which is essential for future genome-wide association studies.

De Wet op de Rechterlijke Organisatie en het daarop gebaseerde Besluit financiering rechtspraak1 normeren de financiering van de Rechtspraak. Daarin is om rechtsstatelijke redenen gekozen voor afstand van de uitvoerende macht tot de rechterlijke macht. Dit uit zich onder meer in de regel dat de kosten verbonden aan het eigenlijke rechtspreken (het primaire proces) vastgesteld moeten worden op grond van een objectieve meting van de werklast van de gerechten. De rechter bepaalt in beginsel de tijd die nodig is voor een goede en zorgvuldige behandeling van een zaak, met een prikkel tot doelmatig werken. De uitvoerende macht redeneert echter niet meer vanuit deze wettelijk verankerde norm. Steeds meer zijn generieke kortingen en begrotingsproblemen van het Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie leidend bij de financiering van de Rechtspraak. Deze praktijk is in strijd met de wet en tast de rechterlijke en institutionele onafhankelijkheid aan.

De Wet op de Rechterlijke Organisatie en het daarop gebaseerde Besluit financiering rechtspraak1 normeren de financiering van de Rechtspraak. Daarin is om rechtsstatelijke redenen gekozen voor afstand van de uitvoerende macht tot de rechterlijke macht. Dit uit zich onder meer in de regel dat de kosten verbonden aan het eigenlijke rechtspreken (het primaire proces) vastgesteld moeten worden op grond van een objectieve meting van de werklast van de gerechten. De rechter bepaalt in beginsel de tijd die nodig is voor een goede en zorgvuldige behandeling van een zaak, met een prikkel tot doelmatig werken. De uitvoerende macht redeneert echter niet meer vanuit deze wettelijk verankerde norm. Steeds meer zijn generieke kortingen en begrotingsproblemen van het Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie leidend bij de financiering van de Rechtspraak. Deze praktijk is in strijd met de wet en tast de rechterlijke en institutionele onafhankelijkheid aan.

International audience; [No abstract available]

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Variants associated with blood lipid levels may be population-specific. To identify low-frequency variants associated with this phenotype, population-specific reference panels may be used. Here we impute nine large Dutch biobanks (∼35,000 samples) with the population-specific reference panel created by the Genome of the Netherlands Project and perform association testing with blood lipid levels. We report the discovery of five novel associations at four loci (P value

The performance of new three-section master oscillator power amplifiers emitting at around 1.5 ?m has been analyzed in regard with their application as laser sources for a differential absorption lidar. The devices incorporate a modulation section that can be separately driven thus allowing the required random modulation of the laser emission. The bent design of this section together with the tilting of the output facet ensures a stable single-mode emission in the entire range of driving conditions. At the required modulation frequency (12.5 MHz) a square wave emission profile with high optical modulation amplitude and 22 dB extinction ratio is obtained.

ispartof: Tijdschrift voor Bedrijfs- en Verzekeringsgeneeskunde vol:23 issue:1 pages:9-11 status: published

Direct optical modulation of a 1.55 ?m three-section Master Oscillator Power Amplifier has been demonstrated. The temporal response, the optical spectra and the optical modulation amplitude have been analyzed as a function of the frequency and the modulating amplitude. For low modulation amplitude, no spectral broadening was observed up to 1.5 GHz. However, at 12.5 MHz an optical broadening of ~ 4 pm was observed for high modulation amplitudes. At this frequency an extinction ratio of 42 dB has been achieved. The modulation amplitude degrades for frequency values higher than 30 MHz. The device performance under modulation at 12.5 MHz is interesting for its application as laser source for CO2 detection by differential absorption LIDAR operating in the Continuous Wave Random Modulation mode.

We theoretically investigate a dynamical regime, experimentally observed in monolithically integrated master oscillator power amplifiers emitting at 1.5 7 μm, consisting in large emission wavelength jumps of the device from the Bragg wavelength to that of the gain peak. Our analysis is based on numerical simulations by means of a travelling wave model that incorporates spatial effects such as spatial hole burning and coupled-cavity effects. Thermal effects are included by considering the optical response of the quantum well active medium within the quasi-equilibrium approximation at finite temperature, with a phenomenological description of the redshift of the gain peak and the changes in the background material refractive index by means of self- and cross-heating coefficients for both sections. We find that whereas the thermally-induced index changes are the responsible of the modal jumps between consecutive modes, the carrier-induced refractive index changes are the responsible of the jumps occurring between the Bragg wavelength and the gain peak.

High power (> 0.5 W) single-mode frequency laser at 1.55 μm are nowadays key components for a large number of applications such as lidar systems, telemetry or free-space communications. For this level of power, the most suitable and available sources are solid-state lasers and fiber lasers. Semiconductor devices, which are more compact and more efficient, have still to demonstrate very high power operation to be a credible competitor. In order to obtain these levels of power with semiconductor devices, the more suitable device seems to be the Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA). Single-mode emission is generated by a Distributed Feedback laser (DFB) and the signal is then amplified with a Power Amplifier (PA). To avoid complex optical coupling and to simplify the packaging, it is possible to integrate on the same chip the laser and the amplifier. The main challenges are the fabrication of the multi-section device (at least 2 sections: one for the laser and one for the amplifier) and the reduction of the reflections. Indeed the facet and the internal reflections can create multiple cavities behavior and disturb the laser single-mode emission. In this contribution, we report the realization of a 3-section monolithic MOPA on InP.

Nowadays the interest in high power semiconductor devices is growing for applications such as telemetry, lidar system or free space communications. Indeed semiconductor devices can be an alternative to solid state lasers because they are more compact and less power consuming. These characteristics are very important for constrained and/or low power supply environment such as airplanes or satellites. Lots of work has been done in the 800-1200 nm range for integrated and free space Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) [1]-[3]. At 1.5 ?m, the only commercially available MOPA is from QPC [4]: the fibred output power is about 700 mW and the optical linewidth is 500 kHz. In this paper, we first report on the simulations we have done to determine the appropriate vertical structure and architecture for a good MOPA at 1.58 ?m (section II). Then we describe the fabrication of the devices (section III). Finally we report on the optical and electrical measurements we have done for various devices (section IV).

The TNO review Essential interventions on Workers’ Health by Primary Health Care shows those interventions in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention are necessary and feasible but not yet satisfactorily evidence-based. Necessary, because primary or community health care covers about 80% of the world population, and can reach many of the 80 to 90% of the workers worldwide without any occupational health care at all, who nevertheless are the backbone of national economies. WHO is exploring such a strategy that can only succeed when PHC is well trained, equipped, supported and motivated to do this job – which mostly is not yet reality. Feasible, because our study, assigned by WHO, reports about a variety of primary health care activities for workers’ health in different regions in the world, varying form small-scale initiatives improving daily practice during office hours to large-scale programs involving thousands of professionals and millions of workers. Structured large-scale programs involving primary and community health care started only recently in e.g. Thailand, China, the UK and Indonesia, demonstrating the pioneering phase we are in. In other countries, many small-scale activities and interventions are noted, aiming to improve activities within existing primary health care practices aimed to improve workers’ health. We found reports underlining the need to develop good policies leading to programmatic conditions needed to implement structural essential interventions successfully. Investments are needed in four connected areas: policies, infrastructure, tools and education. In several initiatives we recognized the vital support role by experts of various disciplines in occupational health and safety. Not yet satisfactorily evidence-based because the level of evidence supporting especially the quality of concrete interventions - including the effect on working conditions and on the ality of enterprise policy, and on health, safety and work ability of the workers, is mostly not high. The level of evidence is many times low and sometimes even very low. Accordingly we strongly recommend developing and funding large research and development programs to support projects and programs with existing knowledge and experiences, and to deliver more scientifically sound evaluation studies to support adequate evidence-based policies Unexplored territory Because this is quite unexplored territory, we had to start with our own conceptual analysis of the domains, relations and interactions between primary or community and occupational health care, before we could describe essential interventions on three levels of prevention. Then we had to choose for the relatively new scoping review method as an adequate method different from the systematic review approach, related to a well explored territory. This method resulted in about 800 literature hits. We first selected 200 publications, later on reduced to few dozens described in Chapter 4 as our scientific building blocks. Our main conclusions regarding the three intervention levels are: Primary prevention activities – including workplace visits - can be part of PHC interventions on workers’ health in situations where the community has a dominant industry or where agriculture is dominant and when expert support is available. Serious limitations in PHC interventions can be found in more complex activities where experts are needed such as for most risk assessments and advises regarding more complicated improvements of working conditions. Education and training in prevention and health promotion can be executed by primary health care professionals. Secondary prevention in PHC may include periodic general health examinations to detect work-related health problems and occupational diseases. Screening tests as part of a workers’ health surveillance program such as for pesticide poisoning or exposure, can be performed by PHC under the condition of guidance by experts. Tools and education are available for primary health care to detect occupational diseases in daily practice. We did not find well-designed studies showing that better tools and education result in a better detection, individual therapy or support, screening or notification of occupational diseases. Tertiary prevention may include first aid services and emergency treatment by primary health care and consultations of working patients regarding their health and work ability. In several countries the attitude and communication skills of GPs regarding work have to improve. New tools can lead to more GP knowledge on the risks for long-term sickness absence and to better advices toward patients with a chronic disease and problems at work. Employment advisors and GPs with extra training in occupational medicine obtained good results while working within primary health care.

High brightness semiconductor lasers are potential transmitters for future space lidar systems. In the framework of the European Project BRITESPACE, we propose an all-semiconductor laser source for an Integrated Path Differential Absorption lidar system for column-averaged measurements of atmospheric CO2 in future satellite missions. The complete system architecture has to be adapted to the particular emission properties of these devices using a Random Modulated Continuous Wave approach. We present the initial experimental results of the InGaAsP/InP monolithic Master Oscillator Power Amplifiers, providing the ON and OFF wavelengths close to the selected absorption line around 1572 nm.

In de periode van 2007 tot en met 2013 is een grootschalig onderzoeksprogramma uitgevoerd op het terrein van de preventieve bedrijfsgezondheidszorg (BGZ), gefinancierd door Instituut GAK met cofinanciering door universiteiten, TNO en diverse andere partners.

In het kader van de bezuinigingen is een wetsvoorstel ingediend dat de meervoudige behandeling van rechtszaken moet beperken. In dit artikel wordt een experiment beschreven dat is gebaseerd op de aanname dat rechterlijke besluitvorming niet wezenlijk afwijkt van andere besluitvormingsprocessen. Naar die processen is het nodige onderzoek gedaan en daaraan kunnen verwachtingen omtrent (de kwaliteit van) rechterlijke besluitvorming worden ontleend. Het experiment concentreert zich op de vraag of er aantoonbare verschillen in uitkomst zijn tussen enkelvoudige en meervoudige besluitvorming waar het gaat om het maken van fouten. Hoewel er ook onder de betrokken professionals en in de literatuur enige steun is voor het ook in hoger beroep enkelvoudig behandelen van zaken met een geringe complexiteit, manen de uitkomsten van dit experiment tot voorzichtigheid. Op www.njb.nl is, onder Actuele documenten (week 6), een uitgebreide (Engelstalige) methodologische verantwoording te vinden van het onderzoek waarop dit artikel is gebaseerd.

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In criminal cases judges evaluate and combine probabilistic evidence to reach verdicts. Unavoidably, errors are made, resulting in unwarranted conviction or acquittal of defendants. This paper addresses the questions (1) whether hearing cases by teams of three persons leads to less error than hearing cases alone; (2) whether deliberation leads to better decisions than mechanical aggregation of individual opinions; and (3) whether participating in deliberations improves future individual decisions. We find that having more than one judge consider cases reduces error effectively. This does not mean that it is necessary to deliberate about all cases. In simple cases many errors can be avoided by mechanical aggregation of independent opinions, and deliberation has no added value. In difficult cases discussion leads to less error. The advantage of deliberation goes beyond the case at hand: although we provide no feedback about the quality of verdicts, it improves individual decisions in subsequent cases.

Het wetsvoorstel 'verhoging griffierechten' heeft al menig pen in beweging gebracht. De auteurs van dit artikel schreven er in november 2010 al over in dit blad. Zij waarschuwden toen dat de voornemens van de regering voor dit wetsvoorstel de aanblik van de rechtspleging in ons land radicaal zouden kunnen veranderen en dat de plannen nog allerminst doordacht waren. Daarmee zwengelden zij een discussie aan die al maar verhitter raakte en die de gemoederen nu nog steeds bezighoudt. Juist nu ook weer, want de Tweede Kamer buigt zich momenteel over het wetsvoorstel. De minister heeft zijn plannen naar aanleiding van de kritieken aangepast. Maar wat te vinden van dit wetsvoorstel? Wordt de toegang tot de rechter voldoende gewaarborgd? En hebben de auteurs hun meningen bijgesteld?

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