This dissertation examines how in eighteenth-century Europe, naturalists sought to study, grasp and capture the world of fish. Working on the intersection of the history of science and book history... Show moreThis dissertation examines how in eighteenth-century Europe, naturalists sought to study, grasp and capture the world of fish. Working on the intersection of the history of science and book history, this research aims to shed light on how naturalists came to present themselves as authorities in an emerging field. It does so by focussing on a set of ‘fish books’, i.e., natural historical works that describe and depict fish. The first is Francis Willughby and John Ray’s "Historia piscium" (Oxford, 1686); the second Peter Artedi’s "Ichthyologia sive opera omnia de piscibus" (Leiden, 1738), and the third Marcus Élieser Bloch’s twelve volume series "Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische" (Berlin, 1782–1795). These works are analysed alongside correspondences, manuscripts and natural historical collections. Together, these sources show that the development of the study of fish in this period can be best be understood as a process of continuous demarcation. This dissertation argues that the study of fish was subject to recurrent debates on subject, method and practitioner, and that such discussions were of both epistemological and social nature. In presenting their fish books, naturalists leveraged such discussions as to secure a place for themselves in the capricious environment of early modern natural history. Show less
Carotid atherosclerosis, a disease in which plaque builds up inside the vessel wall, is a major cause of ischemic stroke. Traditionally, atherosclerosis risk stratification is heavily based on... Show moreCarotid atherosclerosis, a disease in which plaque builds up inside the vessel wall, is a major cause of ischemic stroke. Traditionally, atherosclerosis risk stratification is heavily based on the percentage of stenosis. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that luminal stenosis may not be the only cause of symptoms but the plaque composition may be more likely to impact the disease outcome. High-resolution vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (VWMRI) is one of the most promising modalities for visualizing and evaluating carotid atherosclerotic plaque. The quantitative assessment of carotid atherosclerotic disease requires vessel wall segmentation and plaque classification, which is generally performed by manual delineations. However, manual contour tracing is labor-intensive, time-consuming and subject to inter-observer and inter-scan variability, which makes manual image analysis impractical for studies where large volume of data needs to be processed. Therefore, the main goal of this thesis is to: 1) develop approaches to automatically, robustly and reproducibly segment the carotid vessel wall and classify the atherosclerotic plaque from multi-spectral VWMRI; 2) validate the developed methods with reference standard; 3) extract the imaging biomarkers that can assist carotid artery disease evaluation. Show less
Primair cutane B-cel lymfomen (CBCL) vormen een heterogene groep van non-Hodgkin lymfomen die zich primair in de huid manifesteren zonder aanwezigheid van extracutane lokalisaties. Volgens de in... Show morePrimair cutane B-cel lymfomen (CBCL) vormen een heterogene groep van non-Hodgkin lymfomen die zich primair in de huid manifesteren zonder aanwezigheid van extracutane lokalisaties. Volgens de in Nederland toegepaste EORTC-classificatie kunnen 3 typen CBCL onderscheiden worden: het primair cutaan immunocytoom of marginale zone B-cel lymfoom, het primair cutaan follikelcentrumcel lymfoom en het primair cutaan grootcellig B-cel lymfoom van het been. De studies in dit proefschrift hebben door middel van clinicopathologisch onderzoek en verschillende moleculair biologische technieken (waaronder genexpressie analyse, array-CGH en FISH-analyse) geresulteerd in de identificatie van een aantal nieuwe diagnostische en prognostische markers en daarnaast specifieke genetische kenmerken van de verschillende typen CBCL aangetoond. Deze resultaten hebben in de eerste plaats geleid tot een betere definitie van de verschillende typen CBCL. Daarnaast hebben de resultaten van deze studies een belangrijke rol gespeeld in de totstandkoming van een nieuwe consensus classificatie voor cutane lymfomen in 2005. In deze WHO-EORTC classificatie worden de volgende 3 belangrijkste typen CBCL onderscheiden: het primair cutaan marginale zone B-cel lymfoom, het primair cutaan follikelcentrum lymfoom en het primair cutaan grootcellig B-cel lymfoom, been type. Show less
