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Organ transplantation has become increasingly successful in terms of patient survival and is currently the best treatment option for patients with organ failure. With living donor opportunities only being available for certain organs, most efforts are aimed to increase donation rates from deceased donors...

It was a hot and sunny day, like most days in the Valley of Kings, when a team of Egyptologists worked relentlessly to retrieve the mummies from their tombs. The process of mummification was reserved for royal pharaohs, who ruled the vast Egyptian empire over 4000 years ago...

Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) have been a key tool in understanding early differentiation events in development since their first isolation in 1981[1]. These cells have the remarkable ability and are pluripotent: they have the ability to differentiate into derivatives of the three germ layers that make up an embryo...

Environmental sustainability and efficient use of fossil fuels are the major drivers of combustion research. Industries manufacturing combustors are increasingly applying reactive computational fluid dynamics to attain the aforementioned objectives and for complementing costly experimental rigs...

Blood is constantly circulating through our organs and tissues inside the vascular system. Upon vascular damage, the blood vessel integrity and the blood flow is disturbed and must be restored within limited time to prevent exsanguination. The system responsible for the arrest of bleeding and the restoration of vascular integrity is known as the hemostatic system...

A central aim in this thesis is the risk prediction of Torsade de Pointes (TdP) arrhythmias. But the ultimate goal is to evaluate the role of altered ventricular activation, especially whether a chronic dyssynchronous ventricular activation pattern can have a proarrhythmic effect...

Since 1980, the worldwide prevalence of obesity has doubled, with a subsequent increase of the risk for life threatening comorbidities accompanied with a severe economic burden (2,3). In fact, 65% of the world's population live in countries where obesity kills more people than underweight...

As reported by the World Heath Organization, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally and it is predicted this will remain to increase throughout 2030 to an estimated 23,3 million patients per year. This trend is accompanied by a steep increase in healthcare costs, making it a great health and socio-economic burden...

Worldwide, life expectancy has shown a remarkable linear increase over the last two centuries [1]. However, the number of years of life spent in disability also increases and individuals from the European Union born in 2009 are expected to spend on average 25% (women) or 20% (men) of their life in poor health, i.e., experience limited or severe long-term limitation (> 6 months) in usual activity caused by ill-health (http://www.healthy-life-years.eu/) [2]...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Important risk factors for the development of CVD are unhealthy dietary habits, tobacco use and physical inactivity. Unhealthy diets may result in dyslipidemia characterized by high serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations...

Inflammatory bowel diseases are a large healthcare problem in the western world; they affect over two million citizens in Europe alone. The diseases result from inappropriate inflammatory responses to intestinal microbes in a genetically susceptible host. They comprise of two types of chronic intestinal disorders: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis...

One of the most important questions that structural engineers all over the world are dealing with is the safety of the existing structures. In the Netherlands, there are a large number of transversely prestressed bridge decks that have been built in the last century and now need to be investigated for their structural safety under the actual (increased) traffic loads, for the rest of their service life...

Faces cringed with frustration as the doctors at a university hospital in Kenya discussed the newly recommended policy of using a rapid test for malaria and only treating test-positive patients. They were reeling from the death of Lulu, a 5-year old girl. A false-negative result with the test they used had resulted in missing malaria and in Lulu's death...

Childhood asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by episodes of airflow obstruction, often in response to triggers like infections, allergens, exercise and emotions. The prevalence of childhood asthma and asthma-like symptoms has dramatically increased during the end of the last century...

A common definition for drugs of abuse is any drug taken for nonmedical reasons, usually for mind‐altering effects. Drug use can vary from the consumption of cannabinoids such as marihuana and hashish to stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines, as well as the use of opioids and hallucinogens...