This thesis had four main objectives:Predictors of Bipolar disorder (BD): Chapters 2 and 3 explored factors contributing to Bipolar Disorder's development and progression, considering both internal... Show moreThis thesis had four main objectives:Predictors of Bipolar disorder (BD): Chapters 2 and 3 explored factors contributing to Bipolar Disorder's development and progression, considering both internal and external influences.External Stressors: Chapter 4 investigated how external stressors, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, impacted the stability of BD symptoms, highlighting the role of environmental factors.Symptom Interactions: Chapter 5 analyzed the complex interplay of mania and depressive symptoms in BD over time, enhancing our understanding of their evolution.Neurocognition and Brain Functioning: Chapter 6 reviewed long-term cognitive (dys)function and brain activity in BD patients, offering insights into the disorder's neural mechanisms.Overall, the thesis aimed to expand knowledge of BD, encompassing its predictors, the influence of external stressors, symptom dynamics, and neurocognitive aspects. This research contributes to better diagnosis and treatment strategies for individuals affected by BD. Show less
This dissertation explores the causation of mass conversions to Islam in Bolaang-Mongondow and to Protestant Christianity in Sangir-Talaud and Minahasa (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) in the eighteenth... Show moreThis dissertation explores the causation of mass conversions to Islam in Bolaang-Mongondow and to Protestant Christianity in Sangir-Talaud and Minahasa (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It demonstrates that despite deviations in particularities, the mass conversions to world religions in these regions broadly shared similar causations. It places emphasis on particular periods in the nineteenth-century when the Dutch colonial state centralized political authority and imposed census-based monetary taxation with the aim of commercializing the economy. It points to these reforms as the immediate triggers that enabled both Dutch apical rulers and especially indigenous apical rulers to weaken the authority of subaltern chiefs. It illustrates that these reforms were weaved into the religious conversion agenda of rulers as a strategy to further consolidate authority by depriving the subaltern chiefs of their functionally undifferentiated and socially embedded authority. As such, this dissertation shows that the apical rulers could expand their political and economic reach while paving the way for their claimed subjects to access prestigious religious identities, which had hitherto been exclusive to the ruling elite. Show less
The main objectives of this thesis are to obtain clinically relevant tools to evaluate quality during the introduction of new interventions in laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) (the most frequently... Show moreThe main objectives of this thesis are to obtain clinically relevant tools to evaluate quality during the introduction of new interventions in laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) (the most frequently performed advanced gynecological minimally invasive procedure) and to support clinicians to ensure surgical safety by means of process analysis. We performed a Delphi study to achieve consensus on a uniform and multidisciplinary applicable definition. Based on this definition, we described the relevance, evidence and controllability of conversion rate as a means of evaluation in LH. We performed a systematic review with cumulative analysis to evaluate the outcomes of abdominal, laparoscopic and vaginal hysterectomy (VH) in patients with a BMI ≥35kg/m2 and concluded that the feasibility of LH and VH should be considered prior to the abdominal approach to hysterectomy in these patients. Furthermore, we performed a prospective study using video observation, to assess the incidence and effect of equipment-/instrument-related surgical flow disturbances during LH and validated a questionnaire to detect potential safety hazards during the introduction of new interventions in an early stage. Finally, the Digital Operating Room Assistance (DORA) model was introduced which is a novel system for automated procedural progress monitoring that enables prediction of the remaining procedure duration. Show less
Emphasizing on the key role of polysemy in forming the lexicon is the main goal to be achieved in this dissertation. The paper suggests a qualitative evaluation of polysemy in comparing it with... Show moreEmphasizing on the key role of polysemy in forming the lexicon is the main goal to be achieved in this dissertation. The paper suggests a qualitative evaluation of polysemy in comparing it with other relations that form the lexicon. The research confirms that the polysemic links must not be modeled independently from derivation or conversion. This evaluation leads us to reveal that the boundary between polysemy and conversion is porous. The properties of analogy has been used to compare the relations. They are the links that connect lexis which form the objects of a comparison. Wolof, an Atlantic language in West-Africa, is studied. This language provides a fertile breeding ground for the explorations. A large scale of different morphological processes form the lexicon (like suffix derivation, derivations from consonant alternation and conversion by changes in nominal class morphemes). The descriptive contribution of this research is to explore the semantic fields of artifacts and emotions in Wolof lexicon. The methodology applied here is to describe both the meanings of the lexical units and the semantic links by which they are connected by a unique metalanguage. That unique metalanguage is called the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), which is applied here to Wolof. Show less
This dissertation provides a comprehensive and cross-religious analysis of representations of religious conversion in early modern English drama. An urgent topic due to the religious upheavals of... Show moreThis dissertation provides a comprehensive and cross-religious analysis of representations of religious conversion in early modern English drama. An urgent topic due to the religious upheavals of the early modern period, conversion provoked questions about a variety of religious and social issues, including divine and human agency, mystical experience, the demarcation of religious identities and the nature and possibility of religious transformation. The stage, which served an important socio-cultural role in early modern England, responded to these questions in dramatizations of conversion that investigated conditions under which it could be successful. By distinguishing between spiritual and interfaith conversion, this study demonstrates that in plays perceptions of faith in spiritual terms were increasingly replaced by an understanding of belief in terms of mutually exclusive denominational identities. Moreover, despite the great interest in interfaith conversion, and despite the importance of religious change and transformation on the stage, early modern playwrights did everything in their power to suppress conversion and the idea that the same depraved Muslim, Jewish, Catholic or pagan identities they had constructed could be shed and exchanged for a righteous (Protestant) Christian one. Show less
This is a study of the colonial ‘civilizing process’ in Dutch Formosa (Present-day Taiwan) between 1624 and 1662. Drawing inspiration from Norbert Elias, this study stresses on ‘the colonial ... Show moreThis is a study of the colonial ‘civilizing process’ in Dutch Formosa (Present-day Taiwan) between 1624 and 1662. Drawing inspiration from Norbert Elias, this study stresses on ‘the colonial “civilizing process” ’ which is applied to the inexorable process of retreat from the era of ‘Aboriginal Taiwan’ under different schemes of ‘civilization’ brought by Western and Occidental colonizers since Taiwan’s early modern history. Contrary to the Dutch East India Company’s intention of carrying out a ‘colonial mission’, local Formosan inhabitants underwent their first profound colonial ‘civilizing process’. According to this study, this process moved in accordance with Dutch understanding of civilization embedded in the grid of State, capitalism, and Christianity. The focus of this thesis is to look at the Formosan agency in perception, participation, and practice in the Dutch-Formosan colonial encounters within the context of Chinese encroachment. The thesis introduces the scope and scene, documents the Dutch island-wide expansion in Formosa, analyses the phases of political empowerment, economic exploitation, and Christian missionary in Dutch Formosa, and re-asserts the changing image of Dutch rule for the Formosans which was revealed in the nineteenth century. Show less
