No agreement has been reached about the aetiology of the syndrome known as sarcoidosis, Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease, lymphogranulomatosis benigna, or non-caseating tuberculosis; and even those who hold decided opinions on this subject admit their inability to demonstrate the agent which they consider responsible. Hence any satisfactory definition of the group of cases to be included under t...

As a central problem in AI, the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP), has been a popular paradigm to cope with complex combinational problems. A CSP consists of a set of variables and a set of constraints restricting the combinations of values taken by variables. The Quantified Constraint Satisfaction Problem (QCSP) is a generalization of the CSP, where variables are existentially or universal...

The adsorbed amounts and interfacial conformations of a low-molecular-weight oligomer of a weak cationic polyelectrolyte (15-unit chain of dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, DMAEMA) on colloidal silica were examined, with the ultimate intent of providing perspective on the adsorption of high-molecular-weight weak polyelectrolytes. At all but the lowest ionic strengths or highest pHs, over the ful...

The abduction of two Frenchmen in January  in Niamey’s supposedly most secure neighbourhood has led many to question the functioning of the city’s security apparatus. This paper analyses Niamey’s security landscape, initially from an historical and then from a spatial perspective. It argues that for a comprehensive analysis of security, we must first decentre our perspective on security con...

The zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter fetus is a rare cause of bacterial meningitis. Little is known about the clinical characteristics, predisposing factors and outcome of C fetus meningitis in adults. We report cases of C fetus meningitis in a nationwide cohort study of adult bacterial meningitis patients in the Netherlands and performed a review of the literature. Two patients with C fetus men...

We thank all staff from intensive care units who responded to the initial request for topics and the final survey, and members of the nominal group (Drs Geoff Bellingan, Ruth Endacott, Chris Garrard, Cameron Howie, Andy Padkin, Saxon Ridley, Alasdair Short, Sue Sinclair, Mervyn Singer, Carl Waldmann, and David Watson, and Mrs Sue Baker). Contributors: KV administered data collection and data en...

pd The work in this thesis has been carried out under the auspices of the Beha-vioral and Cognitive Neurosciences (BCN) research school, Groningen, and has been part of the Pionier project Algorithms for Linguistic Processing, supported by grant number 220-70-001 from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Acknowledgements As with every PhD project, even though there is but...

1 Lamb SE, Marsh J, Hutton J, Nakash R, Cooke MW, on behalf of the Collaborative Ankle Support Trial (CAST Group). Mechanical supports for acute, severe ankle sprain: a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2008; 373: 575–81. 2 Jones MH, Amendola AS. Acute treatment of inversion ankle sprains: immobilization versus functional treatment. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2007; 455: 169...

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) connects the mandible or the lower jaw to the skull and regulates the movement of the jaw (see Figure 1). The TMJ is one of the most complex, delicate and highly used joints in a human body (Alomar et al., 2007). The most important functions of the TMJ are mastication and speech. Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is a generic term used for any problem concerning the...