This dissertation analyses the use of the Leiden anatomical collections in the nineteenth century. It investigates what happened to anatomical preparations after they were added to institutional... Show moreThis dissertation analyses the use of the Leiden anatomical collections in the nineteenth century. It investigates what happened to anatomical preparations after they were added to institutional collections. Four chapters discuss the four main audiences of the Leiden collections: students, researchers, lay visitors, and university governors. The medical audiences (students and researchers) kept using the collections throughout the nineteenth century; the non-medical audiences (visitors and governors) stopped using the collections in the second half of the century. The dissertation argues that, to understand these developments, we need to see anatomical collections as dynamic entities: intended for active, hands-on use and containing objects that, as philosopher of biology Hans-J_rg Rheinberger has put it, are made of what they represent. These properties enabled researchers and students to continuously reinterpret the preparations as medical theories and practices changed. In the new medicine, the collections were placed in a closed laboratory environment, and the reinterpretations disconnected the preparations from their past and the moral stories once attached to them. Hence, they became hard to access and use for lay visitors and university governors. Even today, old preparations linger in hospitals and laboratories, waiting for new uses __ as do newly built collections of bodily material. Show less
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is hallmarked by acquired and fluctuating weakness of voluntary muscles. In the majority of patients, weakness is caused by autoantibodies to the postsynaptic acetylcholine... Show moreMyasthenia gravis (MG) is hallmarked by acquired and fluctuating weakness of voluntary muscles. In the majority of patients, weakness is caused by autoantibodies to the postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) in the neuromuscular junction. Approximately 10% of MG patients are seronegative (SNMG). In 2001, antibodies to muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) were discovered within this group. This dissertation describes the epidemiology, clinical characteristics and immunological aspects of this new disease. In the Netherlands, MuSK MG is rare. Incidence was 0.17 per million person-years. Prevalence was 2.8 per million on January 1st 2004. Weakness was more often bulbar, and lead to frequent respiratory crises. MuSK MG was linked to the HLA-DR14-DQ5 haplotype and the disease severity was associated to antigen-specific IgG4 antibodies instead of IgG1. This is in contrast to AChR MG in which autoantibodies are mainly of the IgG1 and IgG3 subclass, and the disease is linked to HLA-B8-DR3. In SNMG patients, no antibodies to postsynaptic ErbB receptors were found. A case-report describes the transmission of MuSK autoantibodies from mother to her newborn child, causing transient weakness in the infant. A second case-report illustrates the effect of MuSK antibodies on both pre- and postsynaptic signal transmission in the neuromuscular junction. Show less
The article discusses the history of the abstracts and indexing journal originally known as 'Documentatieblad,' which was renamed to 'African Studies Abstracts (ASA)' and later to 'African Studies... Show moreThe article discusses the history of the abstracts and indexing journal originally known as 'Documentatieblad,' which was renamed to 'African Studies Abstracts (ASA)' and later to 'African Studies Abstracts Online' (ASAO), published by the African Studies Centre (ASC) in Leiden, the Netherlands since 1968. Key themes are socioeconomic and political developments, government, law and constitutional development, history, religion, anthropology, women's studies, education, and literature. Publications are in a western language. Due to increased Internet connectivity in African countries, the monthly print edition of ASAO was discontinued from March 2012 onward. The number of subscribers to the ASAO mailing list has increased from 472 in 2004 to 1681 by the end of 2012. By contrast, the number of subscribers to the printed abstracts journal never exceeded 350. Of the 260 journals systematically scanned in 2013, some 160 were wholly or partially abstracted with the remainder being indexed. Over time the abstracting of monographs became increasingly selective. There have been various initiatives over the past twenty years to further cooperation in documenting African Studies material, including 'Africa-Wide Information', 'AfricaBib' and 'ilissAfrica' of the European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS) network. Notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
With a focus on Cameroonian migrants from Pinyin and Mankon who are currently living in Cape Town and the Netherlands, this volume examines the workings of the social fabric of mobile communities.... Show moreWith a focus on Cameroonian migrants from Pinyin and Mankon who are currently living in Cape Town and the Netherlands, this volume examines the workings of the social fabric of mobile communities. It sheds light on how these communities are crafting lives for themselves in the host country and simultaneously linking up with the home country thanks to advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and road and air transport. ICTs and mobilities have complemented social relational interaction and provide migrants today with opportunities to partake in cultural practices that express their Pinyin-ness and Mankon-ness. Pinyin and Mankon migrants are still as rooted in the past as they are in the present. They were born into a community with its own sense of home, moral ethos and cultural pride but live in a context of accelerated ICTs and mobility that is fast changing the way they live their lives. Show less
