Caring for a child with sickle cell disease poses extra demands on parents, both practically and psychologically, which may influence their quality of life. Since families of children with sickle cell disease in the Netherlands usually belong to immigrant communities with a low socio-economic status, there may be an additional strain on caregivers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate t...

RATIONALE Genetic factors are likely to influence the clinical course and pattern of sarcoidosis, a granulomatous disease of unknown origin. OBJECTIVES We tested this hypothesis for C-C chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), a molecule involved in recruitment and activation of mononuclear cells. METHODS In addition to the known CCR5 Delta 32 insertion/deletion, we evaluated a further eight single-nuc...

We consider a cooperative model of bargaining where the location of the disagreement point may be uncertain. Based on the maximin criterion, we formulate an ex ante efficiency condition and characterize the class of bargaining solutions satisfying this axiom. These solutions are generalizations of the monotone path solutions. Adding individual rationality yields a subclass of these solutions. B...

The present paper is concerned with the advantages of a digitised descriptive grammar over its traditional print version. First we discuss the process of up-conversion of the ANS material and the main advantages the E-ANS has for the editorial staff. Then from the perspective of language resources, we discuss different applications of the grammatical descriptions for both human and machine user...

1 Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Finland. [email protected]. Supported by the Academy of Finland, Grants 252083 and 256287. 2 Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Department of Computer Science University of Helsinki, Finland. [email protected] Supported by the Academy of Finland, Grant 125637. 3 Utrecht Univ...

BACKGROUND Cross cultural validity is of vital importance for international comparisons. OBJECTIVE To investigate the validity of international Dutch-English comparisons when using the Dutch translation of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC). PATIENTS AND METHODS The dimensionality, reliability, construct validity, and cross cultural equivalence of the...

BACKGROUND Dietary intakes of plant lignans have been hypothesized to be inversely associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and cancer. Earlier studies were based on a Finnish lignan database (Fineli(®)) with two lignan precursors, secoisolariciresinol (SECO) and matairesinol (MAT). More recently, a Dutch database, including SECO and MAT and the newly recognized lignan prec...

OBJECTIVE The Psoriatic Arthritis Quality of Life (PsAQoL) questionnaire is a disease- specific instrument developed to measure quality of life (QoL) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The aim of this study was to translate the measure into Dutch and to determine its psychometric properties. METHOD Translation of the original English PsAQoL into Dutch was performed by bilingual and l...

The number of native Dutch and Turkish workers receiving a permanent disability pension in the Netherlands is still rising. To assess ethnic differences in disability risk between Dutch and Turkish scaffolders, a retrospective study was conducted within a large scaffolding company. Medical files for the period 1981-2000 were used to gather information on ethnicity, age at entering service, age ...

OBJECTIVE Studies regularly show a higher incidence, prevalence and mortality of cardiovascular disease among immigrant groups from low-income countries. Despite residing in the Netherlands for over 60 years, the Moluccan-Dutch cardiovascular disease profile and health care use are still unknown. We aimed to compare (a) the clinical prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and (b) the use of healt...