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Forensic psychiatry in Europe is a specialty primarily concerned with individuals who have either offended or present a risk of doing so, and who also suffer from a psychiatric condition. These mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) are often cared for in secure psychiatric environments or prisons. In this guidance paper we first present an overview of the field of forensic psychiatry from a European perspective. We then present a review of the literature summarising the evidence on the assessment and treatment of MDOs under the following headings: The forensic psychiatrist as expert witness, risk, treatment settings for mentally disordered offenders, and what works for MDOs. We undertook a rapid review of the literature with search terms related to: forensic psychiatry, review articles, randomised controlled trials and best practice. We searched the Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and Cochrane library databases from 2000 onwards for adult groups only. We scrutinised publications for additional relevant literature, and searched the websites of relevant professional organisations for policies, statements or guidance of interest. We present the findings of the scientific literature as well as recommendations for best practice drawing additionally from the guidance documents identified. We found that the evidence base for forensic-psychiatric practice is weak though there is some evidence to suggest that psychiatric care produces better outcomes than criminal justice detention only. Practitioners need to follow general psychiatric guidance as well as that for offenders, adapted for the complex needs of this patient group, paying particular attention to long-term detention and ethical issues.

A conceptually new class of cationic amphiphiles, Sunfish amphiphiles, designed for the delivery of genes into cells is introduced. Sunfish amphiphiles have two hydrophobic tails, connected at the 4- and the N-position to the cationic pyridinium headgroup. Two extreme morphologies visualised by backfolding and combining of both tails at one site (matching situation) or unfolding of the tails at distinct interaction sites at biological membranes will lead to considerable differences in morphological behaviour. The underlying rationale allows controlled release by using this morphological alteration of the Sunfish/helper-lipid/DNA complex (lipoplex). The often excellent transfection efficiencies are probably related to these morphological changes. In addition, the Sunfish amphiphiles possess low toxicities, resulting in high cell survival after internalisation. The underlying rationale, design, synthesis and in vitro transfection potential are discussed in detail. Moreover, some physico-chemical characteristics of the Sunfish amphiphiles have been studied. (C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2004.

Met lit. opg

Met lit. opg

A mechano-gated membrane channel protein is used as a controllable, nonselective, large, aqueous pore in sterically stabilized liposomal drug delivery systems. The channel protein is engineered first to sense the light and/or the pH under iso-osmotic conditions, and then to convert these signals into conformational changes ultimately leading to pore formation in the drug loaded liposomes. This system offers not only the target specific drug delivery but also control over the timing of the delivery.

Digital technologies are often seen as an opportunity to enable sustainable futures in agriculture and rural areas. However, this digital transformation process is not inherently good as it impacts on many aspects (e.g. economic, environmental, social, technological, institutional) and their relations. The Responsible Research and Innovation approach calls for a better understanding and anticipation of the often unknown impacts. To meet this aim we have developed a framework that allows to gain insight on the relations between the social, the cyber and the physical, i.e. a Socio-Cyber-Physical System and have described conditions for a successful digital transformation of such a system. These are design of, and creating access to digital technologies, and navigating system complexity. This framework allows for a better problematisation of digital transformation and has been illustrated through an example of digital dairy farming. It supports an enhanced understanding of moral responsibilities regarding digital transformation, fitting within the Responsible Research and Innovation approach, as well as the succinct step of understanding who is responsible or accountable for the identified (positive or negative) impacts, i.e. responsibilisation.

De Archeologische Kroniek is een uitgave van Erfgoedhuis Zuid-Holland en bestaat uit bijdragen van professionele en vrijwillige archeologen.