ance.” He acknowledged that, in order to defend themselves against the Soviet threat as long as i t lasts, the peoples on both sides of the Atlantic must be linked together, and more specifically, he asserted that despite divergencies over the organization and functioning of the alliance itself, France and the United States would be side by side again in the event of a general war. In short, on...

War is the father of all things, Heraclitus believed. The military’s demand for better weapons and transportation, as well as tools for communication, detection and surveillance has driven technological progress during the past 150 years or so, producing countless civilian applications as a fallout. The military has invested heavily into high-energy physics, materials science, navigation system...

At a certain moment in life everyone has to make important decisions with direct implications for their future. This time has now arrived and I would like to announce that, as of 1 January 2017, I will be stepping down as Editorin-Chief of the Netherlands Heart Journal (NHJ). Formally, the appointment of an Editor-in-Chief is a matter for both the Publisher and the Netherlands Society of Cardio...

Nuclear weapons are popularly regarded as the horror of the twentieth century. Yet, many argue that they promoted peace through the cold war. To examine the effect of nuclear weapons on international politics, this essay explores how nuclear arsenals could have stopped WWII or made it all the more horrifying. This essay first explains the relevant understanding of the use of nuclear force. It t...

The Netherlands and other northern European countries have been enduring leaders in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) control across hospital and community environments. When I spoke to a Dutch colleague about their secret, I heard that some twenty-five years ago, when MRSA was starting to be seen in Europe, the microbiologists from across the country got together and in a reso...

jak2 is a tyrosine kinase that plays an important role in the signaling pathways of many hematopoietic growth factor receptors. a single acquired point mutation – v617f – in jak2 occurs in the great majority of patients with polycythemia vera (pv) and approximately half of the patients with idiopathic myelofibrosis (imf) or essential thrombocythemia (et). in contrast, the jak2-v617f mutation is...

background & aim : mother-infant separation is one of the main causes of sleep-wake states disorders in neonatal intensive care unit (nicu). the current study was conducted to investigate the effect of in-arms-holding by mothers on sleep-wake states disorders of preterm neonates. methods & materials : in a pilot study, through a semi-experimental pretest-posttest method, 35 preterm neonates wit...