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BACKGROUND: It is estimated that around 15-30% of patients with early stage colon cancer benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. We are currently not capable of upfront selection of patients who benefit from chemotherapy, which indicates the need for additional predictive markers for response to chemotherapy. It has been shown that the consensus molecular subtypes (CMSs), defined by RNA-profiling, have prognostic and/or predictive value. Due to postoperative timing of chemotherapy in current guidelines, tumor response to chemotherapy per CMS is not known, which makes the differentiation between the prognostic and predictive value impossible. Therefore, we propose to assess the tumor response per CMS in the neoadjuvant chemotherapy setting. This will provide us with clear data on the predictive value for chemotherapy response of the CMSs. METHODS: In this prospective, single arm, multicenter intervention study, 262 patients with resectable microsatellite stable cT3-4NxM0 colon cancer will be treated with two courses of neoadjuvant and two courses of adjuvant capecitabine and oxaliplatin. The primary endpoint is the pathological tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy per CMS. Secondary endpoints are radiological tumor response, the prognostic value of these responses for recurrence free survival and overall survival and the differences in CMS classification of the same tumor before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The study is scheduled to be performed in 8-10 Dutch hospitals. T

Video feedback at home (VFH) aims to improve the well-being of informal caregivers and persons with dementia by training the caregiver to communicate successfully. This feasibility study had 2 aims: (1) to investigate possible effects regarding VFH, caregiver self-efficacy and the burden experienced, and the frequency of challenging behavior in persons with dementia, and (2) to perform a process evaluation of barriers and facilitators regarding the use of VFH. The respondents were caregivers of home-dwelling persons with dementia participating in VHF (N = 10), a group of caregivers who declined participating in VFH (N = 18), stakeholders (N = 6), and field experts (N = 55). The assessments performed were Positive and Negative Affect Scales, Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, Sense of Competence Scale, semistructured interviews, and questionnaires. Results demonstrated that caregivers were satisfied with VFH and that various (sub)scores on questionnaires improved. Caregivers mentioned a reluctance toward being filmed and both caregivers and referrers were unfamiliar with VFH. Recommendations have been made for health-care professionals and researchers to overcome these barriers.

In the Needs in Young onset Dementia (NeedYD) study, 215 young people with dementia (started before their 65th) and their family members were studied for two years. It turned out that for this group it took longer to diagnose dementia than for older people. In 45%, before another diagnosis was made, such as psychological problems. Often, there was much distress before the diagnosis, such as family conflicts or work-related problems. Moreover, the disease insight turned out higher in young than in older persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Also behaviour problems appeared to occur less frequently in this group. The study shows that timely indication and diagnosis are important for this group and offer leads for the support of young people with dementia and their families.

In 2008 Europe introduced the CEN standards for Asphalt Concrete. The Netherlands adopted the approach of functional requirements, rather than empirical, recipe based requirement. The experiences since 2008 showed that, although this approach allows for a better, more fundamental understanding of Asphalt Concrete, the current understanding is far from complete. Especially the effect of higher percentages (60-70%) of reclaimed asphalt was surprising, since it appeared to improve all functional requirements without the typical interrelation where an increase in stiffness corresponds with a decrease in fatigue resistance. These experiences led to the initiation of a program using the Dutch road network as a living laboratory (NL-LAB). In combination with actual laboratory research on mixes used in pavement construction projects, this program aims first of all to assess the effects of mixing and compaction on functional properties. Secondly, it tries to establish the predictive quality of lab determined functional properties for field performance. This paper describes the NL-LAB program and the results for the first four projects that are analysed. Considering the variation in the results, it is clear that more results are needed to arrive at any definite conclusions. However, the available data do show that the stiffness can be determined quite well and the values found are consistent. For the resistance against fatigue the results are fairly reproducible, but the trends are not consistent over the different projects. The resistance to moisture damage appears to be predicted fairly well from the lab data, but the variation in the individual indirect tensile tests is such that that actual value of the indirect tensile strength ratio remains to be determined. Finally, the cyclic triaxial test results vary considerably over the first two projects, but they are very consistent over the second two projects. This could be related to the mixing and compaction used in the diff, Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering and Geosciences

In an ever faster changing world, innovation is a crucial tool to maintain the quality of road networks. In order to safely use innovative materials and techniques, validation procedures are needed. Because of the variable and non-standard nature of innovations, it is hard to standardize this kind of validation. Also, ensuring that innovations address the needs of road authorities can be quite a challenge. The Dutch highway authority, Rijkswaterstaat, currently uses a three tier approach to the validation of innovations. These consists of solicited innovations to address specific agency challenges and two systems to address unsolicited innovations. This paper describes the need for innovations, the most urgent topics that require solutions in the Dutch situation, the current approach towards innovation validation including examples of all three types of validation and the further developments foreseen for that system., Pavement Engineering

Het zelfherstellend vermogen, of de healingscapaciteit, van asfaltmengsels wordt in de meeste ontwerpmethoden voor wegverhardingen meegenomen. De kennis over dit zelfherstellend vermogen is gebaseerd op ervaringen en onderzoeken uit het verleden en de werkelijke mechanismen erachter zijn niet bekend. Hierdoor is het moeilijk om voor nieuwe materialen een realistische healingscapaciteit te bepalen. Een te hoge waarde leidt tot onverwachte, dure, schade aan wegen en een te lage waarde benadeelt een nieuw product. Het is, zeker met de huidige druk op grondstoffen en de daarmee samenhangende snelle veranderingen in de gebruikte materialen van groot belang de healingscapaciteit objectief te kunnen bepalen. Uit eerder onderzoek aan de TU Delft (Pronk et al, 2009) kwam naar voren dat de combinatie van de in Nederland gebruikelijk vierpuntsbuig vermoeiingsproeven met rustperioden en het partial healing model het mogelijk maakten om op een enkel proefstuk een indicatie van healing te bepalen. Dat de bepaling op een proefstuk gendaan kan worden is van belang omdat de verschillen tussen proefstukken van een mengsel in vermoeiingsonderzoek zodanig zijn dat dit de bepaling van een healingswaarde lastig maakt. In dit onderzoek wordt gekeken of de benadering met proeven en modellen voor twee volumetrisch gelijke mengsels met bitumen van verschillende hardheden (penetratie 10/20 en 70/100) de verwachte resultaten geeft. Die verwachtingen zijn gebaseerd op empirie: zachte bitumen geeft meer healing dan harde. Indien dit met deze benadering ook gevonden zou worden, kan de benadering ook op andere materialen worden toegepast. Naast het partial healing model werd ook een eenvoudiger model gebruikt om te bepalen of dit voordelen zou bieden in robuustheid. De toepassing van de modellen bleek helaas niet te werken omdat deze te gevoelig waren voor de vorm van de proefsignalen om robuuste voorspellingen te geven. Er is daarom op een meer pragmatische manier naar de data gekeken, waarbij er, Structural engineering, Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Vanwege het grote aantal variabelen dat een rol speelt bij het gedrag van asfaltverhardingen, is het cruciaal om bij het volgen van het gedrag in de tijd gedetailleerde gegevens te hebben over de samenstelling, aanlegcondities en het gedrag en verloop in eigenschappen in de tijd. Op basis van ervaringen uit het verleden, kan men lessen leren over hoe het gedrag van materialen het beste gemonitord kan worden. Puntsgewijs incidenteel of structureel meerjarig bemonsteren? Het kan tot verrassende conclusies leiden. Deze paper gaat in op de ervaring die is opgedaan met de opzet en uitvoering van het monitoren van de veroudering van de ZEBRA vakken bij het Innovatie Programma Geluid., Pavement Engineering

Vanwege het grote aantal variabelen dat een rol speelt bij het gedrag van asfaltverhardingen, is het cruciaal om bij het volgen van het gedrag in de tijd gedetailleerde gegevens te hebben over de samenstelling, aanlegcondities en het gedrag en verloop in eigenschappen in de tijd. Op basis van ervaringen uit het verleden, kan men lessen leren over hoe het gedrag van materialen het beste gemonitord kan worden. Puntsgewijs incidenteel of structureel meerjarig bemonsteren? Het kan tot verrassende conclusies leiden. Deze paper gaat in op de ervaring die is opgedaan met de opzet en uitvoering van het monitoren van de veroudering van de ZEBRA vakken bij het Innovatie Programma Geluid., Pavement Engineering

It is well known that the healing rates of asphalt courses increase with the temperature. A new method, induction heating, is used in this paper to increase the lifetime of asphalt concrete pavements. Mastic will be first made electrically conductive by the addition of conductive fibers. Then it will be heated via induction energy. This will repair the damage in the pavement, closing the cracks that could have appeared during its lifetime. Adding too much heat will melt the binder completely and the properties of the material will be lost. In the paper it is shown how this method can be repeated many times for samples that are completely broken and that the evolution of the mechanical resistance of specimens that are broken is limited. It will also be shown how the chemical properties of the bitumen do not change due to heating.

The objective of this research is to examine the induction heating of mastic through the addition of electrically conductive fillers and fibers (graphite and steel wool), and to prove that this material can be healed with induction energy. The effect of fibers content, sand–bitumen ratio and the combination of fillers and fibers on the induction heating of mastic was investigated. It was found that there is an optimum content of fibers for each sand–bitumen ratio, above which mastic cannot be heated any more. This optimum seems to coincide with the optimum electrical conductivity of the mixture shown in [1]. It was found that the maximum temperature reached within a certain time period was a function of the sand–bitumen ratio (s–b) and of the volume content of fibers. The mastic could be heated with the addition of a very low volume of conductive fibers. The fastest heating power was obtained with the mix with the maximum electrical conductivity. Gel-Permeation Chromatography (GPC) was also used to show that there is not ageing of bitumen during the heating process., Design and Construction, Civil Engineering and Geosciences

It is well known that the healing rates of asphalt courses increase with the temperature. A new method, induction heating, is used in this paper to increase the lifetime of asphalt concrete pavements. Mastic will be first made electrically conductive by the addition of conductive fibers. Then it will be heated via induction energy. This will repair the damage in the pavement, closing the cracks that could have appeared during its lifetime. Adding too much heat will melt the binder completely and the properties of the material will be lost. In the paper it is shown how this method can be repeated many times for samples that are completely broken and that the evolution of the mechanical resistance of specimens that are broken is limited. It will also be shown how the chemical properties of the bitumen do not change due to heating.

The objective of this research is to examine the induction heating of mastic through the addition of electrically conductive fillers and fibers (graphite and steel wool), and to prove that this material can be healed with induction energy. The effect of fibers content, sand–bitumen ratio and the combination of fillers and fibers on the induction heating of mastic was investigated. It was found that there is an optimum content of fibers for each sand–bitumen ratio, above which mastic cannot be heated any more. This optimum seems to coincide with the optimum electrical conductivity of the mixture shown in [1]. It was found that the maximum temperature reached within a certain time period was a function of the sand–bitumen ratio (s–b) and of the volume content of fibers. The mastic could be heated with the addition of a very low volume of conductive fibers. The fastest heating power was obtained with the mix with the maximum electrical conductivity. Gel-Permeation Chromatography (GPC) was also used to show that there is not ageing of bitumen during the heating process., Design and Construction, Civil Engineering and Geosciences