Within a short period of time, the Netherlands transformed itself from a relatively tolerant country to a nation that called for cultural assimilation, tough measures and neo-patriotism. The discursive genre of 'new realism' played a crucial role in this retreat from multiculturalism, and that had a dual effect for immigrant women. Whereas formerly they were virtually ignored by both the integration and the emancipation policy, since the triumph of new realism they are in the centre of both policy lines and there is now more policy attention for their needs and interests. Yet in the public debate the culture card is drawn frequently and immigrant women are portrayed as either victims or accomplices of their oppressive cultures. Policy makers and practitioners in the field, however, succeeded in avoiding cultural stereotyping by developing cultural-sensitive measures, while naming them in culture-blind terms.
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In 2010, the definition of cachexia was jointly developed by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) Special Interest Groups (SIG) "Cachexia-anorexia in chronic wasting diseases" and "Nutrition in geriatrics". Cachexia was considered as a synonym of disease-related malnutrition (DRM) with inflammation by the ESPEN guidelines on definitions and terminology of clinical nutrition. Starting from these concepts and taking into account the available evidence the SIG "Cachexia-anorexia in chronic wasting diseases" conducted several meetings throughout 2020-2022 to discuss the similarities and differences between cachexia and DRM, the role of inflammation in DRM, and how it can be assessed. Moreover, in line with the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) framework, in the future the SIG proposes to develop a prediction score to quantify the individual and combined effect(s) of multiple muscle and fat catabolic mechanisms, reduced food intake or assimilation and inflammation, which variably contribute to the cachectic/malnourished phenotype. This DRM/cachexia risk prediction score could consider the factors related to the direct mechanisms of muscle catabolism separately from those related to the reduction of nutrient intake and assimilation. Novel perspectives in the field of DRM with inflammation and cachexia were identified and described in the report.
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Professional interventions are rarely successful when used to “normalize” the behaviour of a disruptive group of Dutch-Caribbean migrants. Surprisingly a large number of professionals have not succeeded in assimilating a relatively small group. Foucault developed a means of analysing power mechanisms, which is essential to understanding how non-conformist groups are turned into “normal” subjects. If, following Foucault, we conceive of professional interventions as power strategies, we may wonder what might undermine their effectiveness. This is part of a broader research question which asks whether Foucault’s description of normalizing power offers sufficient means to describe power strategies as reciprocal interaction. My thesis is that the concept “logics”, as used by Mol, offers tools that are a useful addition to Foucault’s theory. The ways in which Dutch professionals view problematic Dutch-Caribbean migrants and the interventions they use can be described as different logics.This enables us to recognize the similarities and frictions between different practices.
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