A critical reflection on the reconciliation process in Angola.
DOCUMENT
With ageing, there is a greater risk of dehydration. This study investigated the diuretic effect of alcoholic beverages varying in alcohol concentration in elderly men. Three alcoholic beverages (beer (AB), wine (AW), and spirits (S)) and their non-alcoholic counterparts (non-alcoholic beer (NAB), non-alcoholic wine (NAW), and water (W)) were tested in a diet-controlled randomized crossover trial. For the alcoholic beverages, alcohol intake equaled a moderate amount of 30 g. An equal volume of beverage was given for the non-alcoholic counterpart. After consumption, the urine output was collected every hour for 4 h and the total 24 h urine output was measured. AW and S resulted in a higher cumulative urine output compared to NAW and W during the first 4 h (effect size: 0.25 mL p < 0.003, effect size: 0.18 mL, p < 0.001, respectively), but not after the 24h urine collection (p > 0.40, p > 0.10). AB and NAB did not differ at any time point (effect size: -0.02 mL p > 0.70). For urine osmolality, and the sodium and potassium concentration, the findings were in line. In conclusion, only moderate amounts of stronger alcoholic beverages, such as wine and spirits, resulted in a short and small diuretic effect in elderly men.
DOCUMENT
To treat microbial infections, antibiotics are life-saving but the increasing antimicrobial resistance is a World-wide problem. Therefore, there is a great need for novel antimicrobial substances. Fruit and flower anthocyanins have been recognized as promising alternatives to traditional antibiotics. How-ever, for future application as innovative alternative antibiotics, the full potential of anthocyanins should be further investigated. The antimicrobial potential of anthocyanin mixtures against different bacterial species has been demonstrated in literature. Preliminary experiments performed by our laboratories, using grape, rose and red cabbage anthocyanins against S. aureus and E. coli confirmed the antimicrobial potential of these substances. Hundreds of different anthocyanin entities have been described. However, which of these entities hold antimicrobial effects is currently unknown. Our preliminary data show that an-thocyanins extracted from grape, rose and red cabbage contain different collections of anthocyanin entities with differential antimicrobial efficacies. Our focus is on the extraction and characterization of anthocyanins from various crop residues. Grape peels are residues in the production of wine, while red rose and tulip leaves are residues in the production of tulip bulbs and regular horticulture. The presence of high-grade substances for pharmacological purposes in these crops may provide an innovative strategy to add value to other-wise invaluable crop residues. This project will be performed by the collaborative effort of our institute together with the Medi-cal Microbiology department of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), 'Wijnstaete', a small-scale wine-producer (Lemelerveld) and Imenz Bioengineering (Groningen), a company that develops processes to improve the production of biobased chemicals from waste products. Within this project, we will focus on the antimicrobial efficacy of anthocyanin-mixtures from sources that are abundantly and locally available as a residual waste product. The project is part of a larger re-search effect to further characterize, modify and study the antimicrobial effects of specific anthocy-anin entities.
De toename en verspreiding van fake nieuws is een thema dat internationaal veel aandacht krijgt. Online informatiemanipulatie zou de verkiezingen in maar liefst 18 landen negatief beïnvloed hebben. In welke mate laten we ons beïnvloeden door desinformatie en welke strategieën helpen om weerbaarder te worden? Binnen academische kringen heerst er verdeeldheid over het effect van gemanipuleerde informatie op het gedrag. Wel heerst er consensus over het feit dat het bevorderen van digitale geletterdheid cruciaal is om de weerbaarheid tegen desinformatie te verhogen. In Nederland hebben journalistiek-educatieve organisaties DROG en het Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid afgelopen jaren een innovatief educatief aanbod voor diverse doelgroepen ontwikkeld gericht op het bevorderen van die digitale weerbaarheid. Zo is o.a. een game ontwikkeld, waarbij jongeren bewust fake nieuws maken om zo de werkingsmechanismen ervan te doorgronden. De game leunt op de inoculatie theorie (McGuire, 1961a, 1961b), die ervan uitgaat dat de toediening van het (nepnieuws)virus resulteert in meer antistoffen, en dus hogere weerbaarheid. Recent onderzoek door Roozenbeek en Van der Linden (2019) geeft bewijslast voor deze theorie en wijst op de positieve effecten van gamificatie. Gesteund door inzichten uit de gedragswetenschappen willen we in dit project nader onderzoeken welke interventies effectief zijn voor het verhogen van de digitale weerbaarheid tegen desinformatie bij jongeren tussen de 15 en 18 jaar. Deze doelgroep opgegroeid in het digitale tijdperk zou namelijk steeds meer moeite hebben om echt van nep te onderscheiden (Wineburg, S., McGrew, S., Breakstone, Joel and Ortega, T, 2016). Op basis van real life casestudies van DROG en het Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid zullen we een drietal interventie-strategieën testen bij de doelgroep jongeren (leeftijd 15 jaar tot 18) om zo meer gefundeerde inzichten te genereren over de effectiviteit van het aanbod en inzichten te genereren over het mogelijk verbeteren en aanscherpen daarvan.
On a societal scale, the ‘problem with work’ is that everyone is exhausted, job security has been replaced by ‘flex work’ and much important work had been invisibilised. While billions of people are displaced and illegalized from work, others have physical/ mental conditions caused by work. The problem with work merits scrutiny not only from medical, corporate or legal perspectives. It needs tackling without an agenda of productivity, with an open regard and embodied, intuitive research. Artistic research has this scope. It taps into knowledges that are underused/repressed, by involving the body, harnessing intuition, experience and situatedness, and activating a plurality of voices. The aim of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of what is (not) work, who we are when we perform work, and when we don’t or are not able to work. Why are certain activities or roles called work and what happens when the term is applied to activities that are not normally deemed work, but which include comparable elements? Three research questions are addressed: 1. What can be learned about work by regarding every job, or all the work, as a performance? 2. What can be learned about performance (art) by looking at it through the lens of work? 3. What are ethical practices in collaborative and participative work processes? The research is carried out through an artistic approach that contains a particular way of making, teaching and researching which is collaborative, performative and transdisciplinary. It proposes the body as a thinking apparatus, experience as a way of gathering information and doing, writing, exchanging and performing as both method and dissemination. This research aims to contribute to a better understanding of what work is in our lives. The research has social, artistic and educational targets and target groups, which are also intertwined.
