Examining the Effectiveness of Support for UK Wave Energy Innovation since 2000 : Lost at Sea or a New Wave of Innovation?

Almost 20 years after the UK’s first wave energy innovation programme came to an end in the 1980s, a new programme to accelerate the development of wave energy technology was launched. It was believed that wave energy could play a central role in helping to deliver a low-carbon, secure and affordable energy system, as well as provide an important boost to the UK economy through the growth of a new domestic industry. However, despite almost £200m of public funds being invested in UK wave energy innovation since 2000, wave energy technology remains some distance away from commercialisation. Consequently, this report examines the extent to which the failure to deliver a commercially viable wave energy device can be attributed to weaknesses in both government and industry’s support for wave energy innovation in the UK

Wintergroenten Nieuwsbrief April 2013

De Nederlandse consument is gewend aan een ruim assortiment groenten en fruit in de supermarkt. Tegelijkertijd is er een groeiende groep die graag regionale producten eet: groenten en fruit van dichtbij, met een lage CO2-footprint. In de winter is het regionale aanbod echter klein. Daarom is het praktijknetwerk Wintergroenten gestart. Dit is de eerste nieuwsbrief van het praktijknetwerk Wintergroenten

Self-management, self-efficacy, and secondary health conditions in people with spinal cord injury

This thesis is about self-management, confidence, and secondary health conditions of people who were recently confronted with spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injury is a relative rare condition that not only causes paralysis and sensibility defects it may also affect autonomic functions like control over bladder and bowel functioning. These changes make self-management important in preventing secondary health conditions, for instance pressure injuries, urinary tract infections, pain, but also anxiety and depressive mood, if possible. The execution of self-management by people with a spinal cord injury depends on knowledge, skills and confidence in their ability to manage their condition.The results of the seven presented studies show that confidence in their ability to manage their condition is an important factor for the occurrence of mental secondary health conditions. For the physical secondary health conditions more research necessary. Further it was found that the questionnaires, currently used to measure confidence, measure mostly personality traits and not the state aspects of confidence. While these state aspects are supposed to highly correlated with adjustment after spinal cord injury, there is a need for a sensitive state questionnaire in clinical practice. Confidence being an important aspect of adjusting after spinal cord injury, this should be emphasized during rehabilitation after spinal cord injury. This can be done by making confidence an important rehabilitation target. The whole rehabilitation team can work on this target in an interdisciplinary approach

Prenatal diagnosis for haemophilia: A nationwide survey among female carriers in the Netherlands

Carriers of haemophilia face difficult choices regarding prenatal diagnosis, but little is known about the determinants that influence their decisions. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of prenatal diagnosis and potential determinants affecting the choice for prenatal diagnosis. A nationwide survey was performed among all women who underwent carriership testing for haemophilia in the Netherlands between 1992 and 2004. Prenatal diagnosis was assessed i

Occupational exposure to gases/fumes and mineral dust affect DNA methylation levels of genes regulating expression

Many workers are daily exposed to occupational agents like gases/fumes, mineral dust or biological dust, which could induce adverse health effects. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, have been suggested to play a role. We therefore aimed to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) upon occupational exposures in never-smokers and investigated if these DMRs associated with gene expression levels. To determine the effects of occupational exposures independent of smoking, 903 never-smokers of the LifeLines cohort study were included. We performed three genome-wide methylation analyses (Illumina 450 K), one per occupational exposure being gases/fumes, mineral dust and biological dust, using robust linear regression adjusted for appropriate confounders. DMRs were identified using comb-p in Python. Results were validated in the Rotterdam Study (233 never-smokers) and methylation-expression associations were assessed using Biobank-based Integrative Omics Study data (n = 2802). Of the total 21 significant DMRs, 14 DMRs were associated with gases/fumes and 7 with mineral dust. Three of these DMRs were associated with both exposures (RPLP1 and LINC02169 (2x)) and 11 DMRs were located within transcript start sites of gene expression regulating genes. We replicated two DMRs with gases/fumes (VTRNA2-1 and GNAS) and one with mineral dust (CCDC144NL). In addition, nine gases/fumes DMRs and six mineral dust DMRs significantly associated with gene expression levels. Our data suggest that occupational exposures may induce differential methylation of gene expression regulating genes and thereby may induce adverse health effects. Given the millions of workers that are exposed daily to occupational exposures, further studies on this epigenetic mechanism and health outcomes are warranted