Maastricht University

Emergency and disaster preparedness in the zonal hospitals in the Somali Regional State, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Hospital preparedness is essential for effective response to disasters and emergencies. Nevertheless, empirical evidence about hospital disaster preparedness is scarce in most low- and middle-income contexts, including Ethiopia. This study evaluated the degree...

Impact of LLM assistance on physician decision-making: a multi-country randomized controlled trial

Abstract Disparities in the quality of healthcare persist globally, with poor-quality care contributing significantly to preventable mortality, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. While digital technologies, including generative artificial intelligence (AI), hold pr...

PRO4RS - Developing, aligning, and implementing policies on research software for research performing organisations

Research software is essential to modern science, yet many research-performing organisations lack coherent policies to support its development, sustainability, and recognition. Despite its central role in research outcomes, research software and its personnel are often excluded f...

Learning from those who leave: intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction as determinants of employee retention

A central challenge in turnover research is that employees who exit the firm are no longer observed, leaving a blind spot regarding the factors that drive actual turnover behaviour. This study overcomes this limitation by capturing the perspectives of workers who have left their...

Effects of romosozumab on the peripheral and axial skeleton in postmenopausal women at high fracture risk: real-world evidence from DXA and HR-pQCT data

Evidence on the effects of romosozumab mainly concerns axial aBMD. In 28 postmenopausal women, we found that spine and hip aBMD (DXA) significantly increased, while volumetric BMD, microarchitecture, and strength at the radius and tibia (HR-pQCT) remained unchanged or deteriorate...

Extending the kinetic mass to higher orders in 1/mQ

A bstract Currently, the kinetic mass is defined in terms of the pole mass and operators at order $$1/{m}_{Q}^{2}$$ , which are known to N 3 LO accuracy in α s . At the same time, the Heavy Quark Expansion (HQE) for inclusive semileptonic decays is known up to and including terms...

A Minimal Compact Description of the Diversity Index Polytope

Abstract. A phylogenetic tree is an edge-weighted binary tree, with leaves labeled by a collection of species, that represents the evolutionary relationships between those species. For such a tree, a phylogenetic diversity index is a function that apportions the biodiversity of t...

Prevalence of severe functional limitations and physical therapy use in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or axial spondyloarthritis: a multicentre cross-sectional study in the Netherlands

OBJECTIVE: To inform implementation of a long-standing, personalized exercise therapy programme in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) and severe functional limitations, we estimated the prevalence of severe functional limitations and descr...

Long-timescale dynamics shape visual conscious awareness

Consciousness is mostly studied as if it were composed of independent snapshots, aggregating reports over trials and experimental contexts, disregarding any temporal aspect. However, almost nothing is known about how conscious experience spontaneously fluctuates in time. To shed...

Cross-modal processing of auditory and visual symbol representations in the temporo-parietal cortex

Numeracy and literacy are fundamental cognitive skills that rely on associating visual symbols with their spoken representations. Prior research has identified the posterior temporal-parietal cortex as a key neural region for the cross-modal transformation of these audio-visual a...

Influence of Ageing on the Pharmacology, Efficacy and Safety of Oral Targeted Therapies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Focus on Janus Kinase (JAK) Inhibitors and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate (S1P) Receptor Modulators

Older adults represent a rapidly expanding subgroup of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, yet they remain markedly under-represented in pivotal clinical trials, limiting age-specific estimates of drug benefit and harm. This review synthesises the available evidence on the...

Proteomic analysis of aqueous humor from patients with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy reveals downregulated expression of HSP60

The aim of the study is to identify proteins with differential abundance among aqueous humor (AqH) samples from patients with mild or advanced Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) compared to control subjects. Proteins were extracted from AqH samples and analyzed by liquid...

Cononsolvency‐Assisted Fabrication of Hydrogels and Microgels With Tunable Porosity, Diffusivity and Stiffness

ABSTRACT Porous materials including hydrogels offer high potential for applications requiring controlled mass transport, cell infiltration, and mechanical properties, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, or soft robotics. We report a facile method for the synthesis of hydro...

The kallikrein-kinin system modulates CD4+ T cell function and contributes to T cell migration into the brain after stroke

Abstract Ischemic stroke elicits a sustained thromboinflammatory response that critically shapes secondary brain injury. The kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) has been identified as the interface of vascular injury and inflammatory processes; however, its role in adaptive immunity re...

Morphology-Based Surgery for Chronic Pancreatitis Across Europe: Toward the Next Generation of Unified Guidelines

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use and impact of current surgical guidelines for chronic pancreatitis (CP) across Europe. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Current guidelines recommend morphology-based surgery for CP, but international studies evaluating their use and impact are lacking. METH...

Facebook as a Lifeboat: An Interview Study Exploring the Role of Facebook in Supporting Parents of Children with Rare Diseases

Parents of children with rare diseases face unique challenges due to scarce medical expertise and limited information sources. Social media, particularly Facebook, have become a vital (and sometimes the only) space for parents to access information, share experiences, and find em...

Volumetric and functional connectivity alterations of the thalamus and thalamic nuclei groups in drug-resistant focal epilepsy: A 7T MRI study

Abstract Purpose Through its global and extensive connections with multiple brain structures, the thalamus can play an important role in seizure propagation. This study investigated volumetric and functional connectivity alterations of the thalamus and more specifically the thala...

Disruptions in speech, language and social communication in lysosomal storage diseases

Communication enables social connection, autonomy and identity, making it a fundamental domain of human functioning. In lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), progressive neurological dysfunction can severely disrupt speech, language and social communication, resulting in profound is...

Efficacy of Low Dose of Dihydroquercetin (DHQ) in Two Genetic Models of Neurodegeneration: Insights from FUS[1-359]-Tg and APPswe/PS1dE9 Paradigms

Dihydroquercetin (DHQ), a powerful antioxidant and regulator of cellular metabolism, was proposed for therapy of neurodegenerative disorders. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are serious neurodegenerative disorders with oxidative stress as an overl...

Defining fever-related discomfort in children: an international Delphi consensus

Fever is one of the most common symptoms in childhood and a frequent reason for medical consultation. Current guidelines recommend treating fever only when discomfort is present. However, the concept of fever-related discomfort remains poorly defined and inconsistently applied in...