A pastor and chaplain who nurtured many interests
Peter Kranenburg's life was defined by the power and grace of Jesus Christ
“His love for Jesus permeated his life,” eulogized one of his daughters
“He listened closely to us and wouldn’t judge,” said a grandson
Peter immigrated to Canada after World War II at the age of 21
in order to attend Calvin College (now University) and Seminary
Peter served three Ontario congregations: Athens Christian Reformed Church; Springdale CRC
before returning to Ontario to pastor Strathroy East CRC; Second CRC
In 1988 Peter began serving as chaplain at Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and at Holland Christian Homes in Brampton until he retired in 1994
It gave Peter much joy to share about the love and forgiveness of Jesus
by corresponding with prisoners through Crossroads for Prisoners Canada
Peter had a beautiful singing voice and was a photographer and an accomplished artist
He loved to garden and excelled at growing vegetables and flowers of many types but had a special love for orchids
his wife of 67 years; five children and their spouses; 20 grandchildren; and 28 great-grandchildren
A former nurse and chaplain, Janet Greidanus is a freelance news correspondent and long-time writer of the In Memoriam column for The Banner
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Today’s Top News: Who’s Who in Boston Residential Real Estate 2025
Katherine Kranenburg believes that anything can be achieved with dedication
hard work and tenacity. Whether it’s a small house or a multimillion-dollar estate
Kranenburg provides clients with extraordinary service
skilled negotiation and attention to every detail
She is a seasoned Luxury Property Marketing Specialist with 16 years of experience
Having relocated both domestically and internationally
she identifies with buyers relocating to the Greater Boston area and the home sellers that seek out her local expertise
Kranenburg is very service-oriented and involved in the area she lives in
dedicating time to being part of a community she feels proud of
I believe in ethical and responsible representation.”
Kranenburg is committed to providing a white-glove
concierge-level service that revolves around people and the relationships she’s cultivated
She prides herself on using a multifaceted marketing approach to achieve clients’ goals
Kranenburg worked for an international consulting firm in the Netherlands
integrity and charity are the cornerstones of a fruitful life
“Living and working abroad opened my world to architecture
different ways of living and communicating
and required a level of respect and sensitivity to others,” she says
Kranenburg holds a bachelor’s degree and has her Seller Representation Specialist certificate
She’s also taken courses on negotiation and masterminds with top agents across a variety of markets
Her biggest professional accomplishment in the past year has been building an authentic personal brand
She believes it’s necessary for agents to stand out
because there are hundreds of Realtors out there
“you are responsible for driving your own business.”
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IPE magazine July/August 2023
By Sophie Robinson-TillettSeptember 2024 (Magazine)
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Madison Catholic Herald
Official newspaper of the Diocese of Madison
MADISON — Kris Kranenburg has recently started in her role as the new director of communications for the Diocese of Madison
She will oversee all communications for the diocese including those on websites
and other electronic and print channels and she will also collaborate with the Catholic Herald
She comes to the diocese with many years of professional experience and serving the Church
Kranenburg’s professional background includes working at several advertising agencies and consulting for businesses and non-profits
She has also taught marketing communication at the undergraduate and graduate levels including courses covering advertising
Kranenburg has also served as the coordinator for RCIA and adult faith formation at St
“I am incredibly honored and humbled to serve in this role,” said Kranenburg
“It is a blessing to have the opportunity to blend my passion for evangelization with my passion for marketing communications and I’m excited to help in whatever way I can.”
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The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation and outcomes of an Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment-program for women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth.
Forty-four women were referred, 26 met the inclusion criteria. After treatment, none of the women met the criteria for diagnosis of PTSD after on average 5 weekly sessions of EMDR- therapy. These outcomes are promising, as they were achieved in women with relatively high levels of psychiatric comorbidity (64%) and high rates of previous mental health treatment (80%).
Implementing an EMDR-treatment program for women with PTSD after childbirth in the setting of an academic hospital is feasible and effective. Key factors for success include a close collaboration between the relevant hospital departments and a thorough case conceptualization addressing the etiology of the PTSD.
Volume 12 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.797901
This article is part of the Research TopicPresent and Future of EMDR in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, volume IIView all 17 articles
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation and outcomes of an Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment-program for women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth
Methods: A prospective cohort-study with pre- and post-measurements was carried out in the setting of an academic hospital in the Netherland
Included were women who gave birth to a living child at least 4 weeks ago
or severe symptoms of PTSD combined with another psychiatric diagnosis
All received up to 8 sessions of EMDR-therapy
The posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist for DSM-5 was administered before and after treatment
Trauma history was assessed before treatment with the Life Events Checklist for the DSM-5
the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Childbirth Perception Scale
none of the women met the criteria for diagnosis of PTSD after on average 5 weekly sessions of EMDR- therapy
as they were achieved in women with relatively high levels of psychiatric comorbidity (64%) and high rates of previous mental health treatment (80%)
Conclusion: Implementing an EMDR-treatment program for women with PTSD after childbirth in the setting of an academic hospital is feasible and effective
Key factors for success include a close collaboration between the relevant hospital departments and a thorough case conceptualization addressing the etiology of the PTSD
ideas on that the first period after delivery would be too burdensome to start treatment
insecurity about the safety of EMDR-treatment during an already subsequent pregnancy
or lack of a structure for efficient referral for treatment
the aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of an EMDR-therapy program for women with PTSD following child birth and to evaluate the outcomes of such treatment
The current study was an observational prospective cohort-study with pre- and post measurements
The study was approved by the medical scientific research Ethical Committee of the Erasmus University Medical Centre and evaluated as exempt (reference number MEC-2018-1234)
Study inclusion took place from January 2019 to June 2020
All participants gave written informed consent
No external funding was obtained for this study
Women suspected of PTSD following childbirth were recruited at three different departments of the Erasmus MC
the Netherland: the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
the department of Psychiatry and the department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
All physicians from those departments could refer women suspect of PTSD following childbirth for the current study
In case of doubt or questions about referral
physicians could consult the colleagues of the Psychiatry department by email or direct phone line
As our aim was to the study the feasibility of implementing an EMDR-treatment program for women with PTSD following childbirth in clinical practice
we stayed as close as possible to real-life referral practice
all new patients referred were enrolled consecutively in this study and as such we made no exceptions
the inclusion criteria were: giving birth to a living baby at least 4 weeks ago; a current PTSD diagnosis
or actual severe PTSD-symptoms combined with another DSM-5 diagnosis; and written informed consent
Exclusion criteria were: insufficient understanding of Dutch/English language
(other) severe psychopathology that would require immediate treatment first
for example high suicidality risk or active psychosis
and EK) provided clinical lessons on PTSD following childbirth for the colleagues of the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
attention was paid to recognizing PTSD symptoms in women who recently gave birth
clinical training was given on how to discuss these symptoms and the possibilities for treatment
Education was given on how to pose the two most important questions in this respect: “Have you experienced any event during pregnancy
delivery or childbed period that you would describe as extremely stressful?” and 2
do you have nightmares about what happened
or do you avoid talking/thinking about what has happened
Are you constantly alert as if something bad is about to happen?” To further enhance the screening process on PTSD after childbirth
screening questions were incorporated in the standard Patient Related Outcome Measures (PROMs)-assessment of women in the perinatal trajectory as part of value-based healthcare
In case women answered positive on these screening questions
outcomes were discussed during the following consultation with their gynecologists and obstetricians
Healthcare providers of the departments of Psychiatry received no clinical lessons
but were actively informed about this study during regular weekly team meetings in which treatment advice for women presenting with psychiatric complaints was decided upon
Women who seemed eligible for study participation and treatment could then be referred
The department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry offers a so-called mother-child treatment program
focusing on mother-child interaction and bonding in women with perinatal psychiatric disorders
As one reason for impaired mother-child interaction is PTSD after childbirth in the mother
this department was informed about the study as well
Referred women were invited for an intake at the outpatient clinic of the Psychiatry department
Intakes were performed by a senior health care psychologist (LK) and psychiatrist specialized in the field of perinatal psychiatry (MLvdB)
PTSD was assessed by systematically addressing PTSD symptoms according to the DSM-5 criteria
a DSM-5 classification was established and questionnaires were administered (see below
If women met the inclusion criteria and gave informed consent
All questionnaires were administered at baseline
The PCL-5 was administered both before and after treatment
previous and current psychopathology and obstetric data were collected at the moment of intake or were retrieved from the already present patient hospital records
the validity of (positive) cognitions (lowest and highest score)
the subjective unit of distress (lowest and highest scores) were registered
Targets images refer to specific disturbing memory images of the traumatic event
A cognitive domain refers to the type of cognitions that make that a specific memory image still causes distress in the present
even though the event belongs to the past and even though the event may have had a good ending after all
The cognitive domains as applied in the Dutch EMDR protocol are: control
a memory image can have high load on the domain “self-evaluation”
if negative cognitions about the self are most prominent when a woman is confronted with the disturbing memory image
Session 8 consisted of an evaluation of treatment
If symptoms diminished and there was loss of diagnosis before session 8
the treatment plan was adjusted and women were offered appropriate continuation of treatment
Treatment was performed or supervised by a licensed EMDR Europe practitioner
Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics (M,SD) in IBM SPSS statistics (version 25)
To calculate pre-post differences for PCL-5 outcomes
and women were referred on average 10 months after giving birth
In most cases there was a comorbid psychiatric disorder present
Most women had received mental health treatment earlier in life
Almost all women had experienced (other) traumatic events in the past
as is shown by their scores on the LEC-5 and CTQ
There was a statistically significant difference in the PCL-5 score before (M 46.33
Respondent characteristics and main outcomes
Table 2 shows the treatment specific characteristics
Average treatment duration was 4.96 (SD 3.67) sessions
on average 3.12 (SD 2.37) “targets” were neutralized
The cognitive domain control was most common for the selected memory images
All women in our study showed a major and clinically relevant decrease in PTSD symptoms after on average 5 weekly sessions of EMDR. The average decrease was 30 points on the PCL-5, whereas a decrease of 10–20 points on this scale is already considered clinically significant (Weathers et al., 2013)
as they were achieved in women with relatively high levels of psychiatric comorbidity and high rates of previous mental health treatment
Another finding of the present study was that the cognitive domain of “control” was by far the most prevalent cognitive domain in explaining why certain memory images were still disturbing. This high prevalence of the cognitive domain “control” is in line with findings on the treatment of non-childbirth related PTSD (De Jongh and Ten Broeke, 2021)
PTSD following childbirth is comparable to “other PTSDs”
The high prevalence of the cognitive domain “control” makes sense conceptually
as pregnancy and childbirth are by definition situations where a certain unpredictably and loss of control are rather rule than exception
we started treatment with a thorough case conceptualization in collaboration with the women
women were well able to indicate which symptoms were most burdensome
how these related (or not) to previous traumatic experiences
and consequently which complaints needed treatment first
A strength of the study is that it is driven by both current literature and clinical practice
Both perspectives acknowledge the need for adequate referral-and treatment lines for women with PTSD after childbirth
our study fits within the current Zeitgeist by starting to fill a gap in literature
Our results provide a basis for future research and/or implementation of EMDR treatment programs in other hospitals
the sample we describe is unique as it is the first in its kind describing EMDR outcomes for women with postpartum PTSD and high levels of psychiatric comorbidity
such design holds the limitation of including a heterogeneous sample
Still we believe that these outcomes are valuable
these outcomes provide new insights on what to expect when starting hospital-based treatment program for women with PTSD following childbirth
Although the sample size of this study could be described as small
we believe that outcomes are convincing enough to positively answer the research question with regard to feasibility
A limitation of the current study is that a PTSD diagnosis was not made with a formal clinical interview such as the CAPS-5
which is the gold standard for making a clinical diagnosis for research purposes
although the results of this study are promising
the findings need confirmation of studies applying more advanced research design that include a control group
Future studies preferably also include outcome-measures for child outcomes and cost-effectiveness
Implementing an EMDR-therapy treatment program for women with PTSD after childbirth in the context of a large academic hospital is feasible and effective
Treatment led to clinically significant decrease of symptoms and loss of PTSD diagnosis in all cases
Results can be achieved in a short time-span
even in pregnant women and women with comorbid psychiatric disorders and/or a history of previous mental treatment
Key factors for success are a close collaboration between the relevant hospital departments and a thorough case conceptualization addressing the etiology of the PTSD after childbirth
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Medical Scientific Research Ethical Committee of the Erasmus University Medical Centre
The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study
All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations
Any product that may be evaluated in this article
or claim that may be made by its manufacturer
is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher
The authors thank all women who have participated in this study
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Knijff EM and Lambregtse-van den Berg MP (2022) Implementing an Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing Treatment-Program for Women With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After Childbirth
Copyright © 2022 Kranenburg, Bijma, Eggink, Knijff and Lambregtse-van den Berg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)
distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted
provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited
in accordance with accepted academic practice
distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms
*Correspondence: Leonieke W. Kranenburg, bC5rcmFuZW5idXJnQGVyYXNtdXNtYy5ubA==
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Our Captain has signed off on his log book for the final time
boarded the “Algoport” and has set a course for calm seas with a clear horizon
his wife of 42 years Susan; his children Sabrina (Craig) and Marc; his dear sister Joan
his brother James (Bonnie) sisters-in-law Valerie (Michael)
Raechel (Wendell) and Ann (Paul-deceased) along with their families
as well as countless friends and colleagues
He was predeceased by his parents Cyril and Muriel Kranenburg
The family would like to thank his caring and compassionate doctors of many years
In addition the wonderful team of Nurses and Staff of 4 North B Special Care Unit and the ICU during Gerry’s six week illness
There will be no visitation or services as per Gerry’s request
kindly please donate to the Canadian Diabetes Association or to The Mercy Hospital in Georgetown
Please raise a glass to celebrate “The Big Guy’s” life
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So sad to learn of Gerry’s passing………
Thank you everyone for your kind expressions of sympathy
We were shocked and saddened to learn of Gerry’s death
he was one of a kind and was always of good spirit
my children were lucky enough to meet him when they were young
they called him “Captain Cranberry!” They asked me all the time
Sincere condolences from the Zeagman’s
Will certainly miss his visits and our chats at my place of business
Hope you don’t mind Gerry but I use your saying “Keep the Faith”
When we talked it was always the way we ended our conversation
I’ll miss you my friend but I will see you again
Big hole that I can’t see anyone else quite filling
Best 3 years of my sailing career was 1st mate with Gerry on Algoport
I didn’t want to leave and I know he didn’t want to see me go
I think there’s still a bit of Crown Royal left in our cabinet for his next visit
I know that when the Algoport was lost it broke his heart but not his spirt
but she lives on in our hearts as will Gerry
Fair winds to you on your final voyage Cap’t K
Gerry will be missed by his many friends at Algoma and I will personally miss his regular phones call to the office where he updated me on how well or how poorly my soccer team was doing
We are very sorry to hear of Gerry’s passing
He was certainly one of a kind and won’t be forgotten
Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this sad time
Bob and I are so sorry to hear of Gerry’s passing
Please accept our condolences and our thoughts and prayers are with at this time
Please accept our condolences on the loss of your husband and father
May you find peace in the love of family and strength in the caring words of friends
Sincerest condolences on the loss of The Captain
May memories comfort you all in the difficult days ahead
Sabrina and Marc: We were saddened by the news of Capt
The many lengthy telephone conversations will be missed as will his “counselling” on life itself
We can only hope he is peacefully afloat in heaven with a phone at his side and a glass of good scotch in his hand
Our thoughts are with you and we wish the many fond memories of a man “larger than life” will sustain you through this difficult time
we will continue to observe his gentle reminder to “keep the faith”
Susan…please accept our sincerest condolences for your loss .Gerry was always a force to be reckoned with and will be missed
will have that drink of Crown Royal in his memory
LIke he would always say to me Keep The Faith
Susan,anything comes up and you need a hand please do not hesitate to Call
Remember the good times and cherish all your memories
He will forever be in your heart and never far for a good ‘chat’
The heavenly welcoming committee are at the ready with Hughy MacD and Brian R leading the way welcoming him in
Sorry to hear of your husband and fathers passing.May all the fond memories of him get you all through this difficult time.May he rest in peace
May you find peace and fortitude to bear your loss
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Zoe Kopp ’13 and Kate Kranenburg ’13 will work next year at Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ)
where Canada serves as president and chief executive officer
“I think his speech will serve as a great bridge for us from Dartmouth to the real world,” says Kranenburg
“I heard him speak at Dartmouth a few years ago and he was a great speaker
Kopp and Kranenburg are looking forward to Canada’s speech
but are even more eager to start work with him
“I really like the holistic perspective to youth development that they provide
from health to social services to education,” says Kranenburg
Canada has led the organization that The New York Times Magazine called “one of the biggest social experiments of our time.” Harlem Children’s Zone
is a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities to children from underprivileged areas in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood
from early childhood all the way through high school
Kopp and Kranenburg will be working as part of HCZ’s Healthy Living Initiative
which fights obesity and promotes wellness
Kopp says that Dartmouth gave her the chance to pursue her interests
which include researching the factors that contribute to obesity
while traveling on a Foreign Study Program in southern Africa
Kopp studied a possible connection between obesity and asthma
“You really have to assess the environments people are in,” says Kopp
Kopp and Kranenburg’s work for HCZ is supported through the William Jewett Tucker Foundation’s Dartmouth Partners in Community Service Post-Graduate Fellowship Program. During their time on campus, both volunteered for the Tucker Foundation’s Outdoor Leadership Experience (OLE)
teaching area middle school students outdoor skills and leading them on hiking
Kopp and Kranenburg say they will draw on the skills they learned at Dartmouth
“Dartmouth has allowed me to understand and combine my interests
which include obesity and the environment,” says Kopp
who majored in environmental studies. “Classes I’ve taken at Dartmouth have been quite eye opening.”
“Dartmouth has been an awesome place with so many resources,” says Kranenburg
“That Dartmouth and the Tucker Foundation are giving us this opportunity to work for HCZ is really
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Global energy strategist and Vice President of United States utility company Eversource Energy
Roger Kranenburg has advised Guyana against investing in refining oil and gas for resale but strongly supports the proposed Wales gas to energy plant saying that it would bring reliable and cheap power
he pointed out that while the world will always be seeking alternatives to ensure decarbonization
this being realized will be met faster by developed countries which invest heavily in this area
who worked with market intelligence company IHS Markit advising on global energy sector transformation
reasoned that “there will be a demand for oil for some time to come”
“Fossil energy is here to stay for some time
but the world is very focused on a decarbonized future and getting there as best as we can
and for society I think it’s a good thing,” he noted
He said that in the same way countries like the United States
Canada and those in Western Europe transitioned from wood
then coal and to today setting targets for lesser environmentally intensive fuel
Guyana can learn to use its revenue from the oil and gas sector and diversify its economy
“The caution I would offer is…don’t be completely dependent on oil for some time to come
definitely make the best use out of it but work to develop a diversified economy
Economies that are just dependent on resources are tough economies to run effectively
Take this gift and invest it for the future…diversify the economy
As the world drives forward [ask] ‘how do we play?’ he advised
“Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket strategy
Reality is no one knows what the strategy is going to look like… so be robust in a range of futures,” he added
From revenue generated from the oil and gas sector
the Chartered Financial Analyst who was born in Guyana advises that immediate needs should not be focused on subsidizing incomes but building systems that are catalysts for development
“One thing is that it [oil revenue] gives something to everyone and some of those things that I think of is healthcare
Build the absolute best healthcare system that everyone can get on board with
Leverage the fact that you’ve got access to the world’s knowledge through high speed telecom systems; build infrastructure like telecoms… [and] roads etcetera
Build that foundation where it’s rock solid
and it’s available to everyone; it’s not if you’re rich
And it’s a basic foundation as being part of a country
And when advisors ask governments to look to developed countries like Sweden and Finland
he said that what must be taken into account is that those countries transitioned as they maximized and monetized their resources
He said that the standard of living afforded to them today derived from revenue used as investments
Those investments trigger a domino effect as it “drives innovation
innovation drives development; development drives stability and stability provides reliability”
the energy strategist believes that setting up the gas to shore power plant was a move in the right direction to not only gradually move away from carbon intensive fuel
but to give the people of this country reliable power
“I’m a strong supporter of it [gas-to-shore] and would very much like to see Guyana move forward in that project
it could be such a prosperous future and that expense will be nominal compared to the benefits that can be derived,” he contended
The pipeline is expected to land at Crane/Nouvelle Flanders
and run to Wales on the West Bank of Demerara
where a natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plant and power plant are to be constructed
ExxonMobil is responsible for the construction of the pipeline while it is the government’s task to construct the plant
The project involves capturing associated gas produced from crude oil production operations on the Liza Phase 1 (Destiny)
Some 150 acres of land at Wales have been allocated for the project
which is expected to cut power costs by 50 per cent
The government’s power plant is expected to utilise ‘dry gas’ for electricity generation
A former advisor to the Edison Electric Institute where he led strategy
and advocacy for the electric utility industry in the areas of energy supply and taxation
Kranenburg said that using the associated gases to ensure reliable and affordable power is the way to go
“Guyana has a very bright future in leveraging what’s essentially a waste product or limited valued product
in the associated gas in those fields,” he said
In a world where power is necessary in every sphere of work and blackouts hamper development trajectory plans
Kranenburg pointed out that Guyana needs reliable power if it is to reach the development benchmarks set
has to be put into a modern grid system that can take off the generation capacity throughout the country
“Wherever there is a high population density
Build that infrastructure for the use of everyone
The reality is that for your businesses and individuals
their first preference for most people is not to spend time thinking about blackouts
you get so many benefits from it to all individuals of every socio economic background… it creates businesses and high economic activity
It is one of the highest value-added for businesses
I will find all the good things I can do with it
So where there is high population density focus on delivering that along with technology,” he said
Kranenburg says that it must also be steadfast in holding true to its plans for transition to ever cleaner forms of energy than natural gas because transitioning would not be difficult
if you’ve got a system that’s run off of gas
it actually makes it very much able to integrate renewables effectively
A renewable I find very exciting for Guyana is solar
I think it’s an extremely bright future for the country,” he said
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Synod 2023 elected the four officers who will lead delegates through a challenging
there were no women or people of color among this year's officers
The vice president of this year’s synod will be Chad Steenwyk, pastor of Central Avenue CRC in Holland, Mich. This is his third time as a synod delegate. Steenwyk chairs the leadership team of the Abide Project
a group that promotes upholding the traditional understanding of human sexuality within the CRC
A former bank vice president and loan officer
Steenwyk has served as president of the CRC Loan Fund
as a board member of Holland Christian Schools
and as a member of Classis Holland’s executive team
This is Kranenburg’s 10th time serving as a synod delegate
and he has twice served as synod’s second clerk (1999 and 2003)
He has chaired the Back to God Hour (now ReFrame Ministries) board and vice-chaired Dordt University’s board of trustees
a minister at Holland Christian Homes in Brampton
This is Bodini’s fourth time serving as a delegate to synod
and he has served on the CRC’s Judicial Code Committee
Bodini has been on the executive team of Classis Toronto as well as its ministry and race relations committees
He also served on the planning team for the Canadian National Gathering in 2016 and 2019
DeVries addressed delegates just after he and the other officers were elected: “We have difficult issues ahead of us
issues on which people disagree passionately.”
He read from Lamentations 3:24: “The Lord is my portion
therefore I will wait for him.” He encouraged delegates not to speak from unhappiness or frustration
“We’re not here to win or lose a controversy,” DeVries implored
“we’re here to follow Christ obediently.”
Synod 2023 is meeting June 9-15 at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Find daily coverage from The Banner news team at thebanner.org/synod. Visit crcna.org/synod for the synod schedule
Synod is the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church
Roxanne VanFarowe is a freelance writer who claims both Canadian and American citizenship and grew up in the Christian Reformed Church
She is a member of Blacknall Presbyterian Church in Durham
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Volume 13 - 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00105
The underlying mechanisms of paternal responses to infant signals are poorly understood
Vasopressin has previously been proposed to affect these responses
within-subject design (N = 25 expectant fathers)
we examined the effect of vasopressin administration on the use of excessive handgrip force during exposure to infant crying versus matched control sounds
while participants saw morphed images representing their own infant versus an unknown infant
AVP administration elicited more excessive force while viewing an unknown infant image compared to viewing the image representing one’s own infant
The results are discussed in light of vasopressin’s role in parenting and parental protection among human fathers
The current study investigates whether AVP affects the use of handgrip force in reaction to infant crying while exposed to images representing one’s own as well as an unknown infant in expectant fathers
Due to the association with maladaptive parenting
studying the processes underlying excessive handgrip force may help find physiological markers of parenting style in general
it is likely that there are differential physiological mechanisms at play when an aversive and highly salient stimulus such a as crying is coupled with the image of an infant that is likely versus unlikely related to the observing male
particularly in periods of changing hormone levels and reactivity
its exact role in paternal care remains largely unclear
making AVP an obvious candidate for closer examination in the context of how males respond to infant signals
particularly in periods with marked AVP sensitivity
These findings suggest an increase of sensitivity to AVP in fathers during the prenatal period
Permission for this study was obtained from the Ethics Committees of the Institute for Education and Child Studies at Leiden University and the Leiden University Medical Centre
as well as the Dutch Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects
Demographic information of the sample (N = 25)
which serve as our measures of early caregiving experiences of the fathers-to-be
Participants were exposed to infant crying and images representing either their own or an unknown infant while they were asked to squeeze a handgrip dynamometer (similar to Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2012)
the images were presented alongside text inviting the participants to imagine seeing their own or an unknown infant
A total of three cry sounds were used from two infants, one male (two sounds) and one female (one sound) recorded with a TasCam DR-05 solid state recorder with a 44.1 Khz sampling rate and 16 bit. All sounds were recorded within the first two prenatal days. Individual sounds were scaled, the intensity was normalized to the same mean intensity and sounds were edited using PRAAT software (Boersma and Weenink, 2017)
For each cry sound a neutral auditory control stimulus was created by calculating the average spectral density over the entire duration of the original sound
A continuous sound of equal duration was re-synthesized from the average spectral density and amplitude modulated by the amplitude envelope
all auditory stimuli and control stimuli were intensity matched
the neutral auditory control stimuli were identical to the original auditory stimuli in terms of duration
but lacking the emotional meaning associated with a cry sound
During the task participants were seated comfortably in front of a computer screen wearing headphones while holding a dynamometer in their dominant hand
participants were asked to squeeze the handgrip dynamometer at full and half strength while they received feedback from a monitor indicating the strength they used graphically
Once participants could reliably alternate between full and half strength (half strength being 50% of the strength used at full strength)
the actual task began in which participants received no further feedback on their performance
The task was administered using E-Prime software (version 2.0; Psychology Software Tools
United States) and hand squeeze intensities (in kg) were transferred directly from the dynamometer to AcqKnowledge software (version 4.3.1; Biopac Systems
a baseline measure of three maximum strength trials each followed by half strength trials was administered
four randomly presented conditions of three max-half trials were presented; (1) viewing a morphed image of own infant while hearing control (scrambled) sounds (Own Neutral); (2) viewing a morphed image of own infant while hearing cry sounds (Own Cry); (3) viewing a morphed image of an unknown infant while hearing control (scrambled) sounds (Other Neutral); (4) viewing a morphed image of an unknown infant while hearing cry sounds (Other Cry)
Handgrip force measures were reliable (α = 0.75 – 0.89) in all four conditions consisting of three trials each
the three trials per condition were averaged as an indicator of handgrip force in each condition
Sounds and images were presented throughout each trial lasting 12 s
Eight seconds after the beginning of each trial
participants were prompted to squeeze maximally (instructions displayed for 1 s)
participants were prompted to squeeze at half strength (instructions were displayed for 1 s)
A fixation cross was shown for 3 s between each trial
Similar to previous studies (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2012; Riem et al., 2012; Compier-de Block et al., 2015)
grip strength modulation was calculated by dividing half-strength squeeze intensity by the preceding full-strength squeeze intensity
meaning that scores of over 0.50 indicated excessive force on the half-strength squeeze attempt
We examined the effects of AVP on this ratio of handgrip strength at half force and handgrip strength at maximum force
which can be considered an implicit measurement of reactive force in response to infant signals
United States) was used to identify peak intensities for each squeeze
In order to assess possible mood induction by the preceding fMRI tasks and a potentially differential effect of hormone administration, the current emotional status of participants was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988) in between MRI and behavioral measurements
Mean handgrip force ratio’s for all conditions
calculated by the ratio between half strength and maximum strength
In order to examine the patterns in the data for the effect of AVP on the use of excessive handgrip force while listening to infant cry sounds as well as viewing one’s own and an unknown infant images
a repeated measures analysis of variance with condition (AVP versus placebo)
and familiarity (unknown versus own infant image) as factors and mean handgrip force ratio as the dependent variable was conducted
A Shapiro–Wilk test indicated that all data was normally distributed (p > 0.1 for all conditions)
Results did not show main effects of condition (AVP versus placebo
or familiarity (unknown versus own infant image
However, the two-way interaction between condition and familiarity was significant (F[1,24] = 6.27, p = 0.02, ηp2 = 0.21). We present the estimated marginal means and standard errors for this interaction in Figure 1. Compared to placebo, AVP had a differential effect on handgrip force while watching one’s own versus an unknown infant. As can be seen in Figure 1
the interaction between condition and familiarity was such that
AVP administration elicited more excessive force while viewing an unknown infant image compared to viewing one’s own infant’s image
while the reverse was true for placebo administration
under AVP there was less excessive handgrip force while viewing an image representing one’s own infant compared to while viewing an unknown infant
The interaction between condition (AVP versus placebo) and familiarity (own versus unknown infant image) on participants’ handgrip force ratio (Estimated marginal means and Standard errors)
The dashed line represents control over handgrip force in line with the instructions to first squeeze as hard as possible and then squeeze at half that strength (corresponding to a handgrip force ratio of 0.50)
Upon reviewer suggestion we also ran post hoc t-tests on the familiarity means within each condition separately
while viewing the unknown infant image participants tended to used more excessive handgrip force in the vasopressin condition (M = 0.66
SE = 0.03) compared to placebo condition (M = 0.62
while viewing one’s own infant image
there was not such a difference in handgrip force in the vasopressin condition (M = 0.63
SE = 0.03) and the placebo condition (M = 0.65
Results did not show a significant two-way interaction effect between condition and sound (F[1,24] = 0.17
nor between infant and sound (F[1,24] = 0.62
The three-way interaction between condition
and familiarity was not significant either (F[1,24] = 0.95
In a randomized controlled within-subject experiment we tested the effect of AVP administration on the use of excessive handgrip force during exposure to infant crying and images of one’s own versus an unknown infant in fathers expecting their first child
expectant fathers did not use significantly more handgrip force during infant cry sounds versus control sounds
Results indicated that AVP administration affected the use of handgrip strength differently depending on whether a morphed image representing participant’s own infant or an unknown infant was shown
fathers used more handgrip force under AVP when looking at an image representing an unknown infant than when looking at an image representing their own infant
while under placebo it was the other way around
under AVP the mean ratio of handgrip force (a proxy for control over autonomic responses) increased while viewing and unknown infant but decreased while viewing one’s own infant
These findings were independent of the accompanying sound (i.e.
AVP administration may magnify such differentiating processes
Whether the differential effect of AVP on reactions to own versus unknown infants was based on conscious or unconscious recognition of the images cannot be determined since participants were not asked to identify or rate the images
Our finding concerning the use of more excessive force while viewing an unknown versus one’s own infant image may speculatively be related to an increase in protective parenting behaviors induced by the administration of AVP
the evolutionary beneficial recognition of related offspring could result in preferential allocation of resources to their own infant rather than a unrelated infant
The presence of aversive and now increasingly salient infant crying could have prompted our expectant fathers to relatively high levels of intolerance for crying unrelated infants
Future studies can further parse out whether AVP indeed underlies mechanisms of protective aggressive responses to non-kin in expectant fathers
and real-life cry sounds are usually coupled with contextual information that may push caretakers toward protective or caretaking behavior
The absence of contextual information accompanying the cry sounds presented in the handgrip paradigm may play a role in explaining why we did not find an AVP effect on responses to cry sounds
and future research may take these individual differences into account
Another important limitation is the sample size; we were only able to detect medium to large effects
Studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to confirm and extend these findings
preferably including participants in various phases of fatherhood (e.g.
more studies including physiological measures
are needed for the accumulation of knowledge about the (neuro)biological mechanisms underlying paternal care
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of ‘the Ethics Committees of the Institute for Education and Child Studies at Leiden University and the Leiden University Medical Centre
as well as the Dutch Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects’ with written informed consent from all subjects
All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki
The protocol was approved by the ‘the Ethics Committees of the Institute for Education and Child Studies at Leiden University and the Leiden University Medical Centre
as well as the Dutch Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects.’
KA-vD wrote the manuscript with support from AvV and MB-K
JW devised the auditory stimuli and JW and AvV programmed the task
All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research and manuscript
This study was supported by a European Research Council grant (Grant No
Lisa DeBruine from The Face Research Lab based in the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow for providing images of average infants
for her valuable assistance in collecting and processing of the data
van IJzendoorn for assistance in designing and conducting the study
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00105/full#supplementary-material
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*Correspondence: Kim Alyousefi-van Dijk, ay52YW4uZGlqa0B2dS5ubA==
Metrics details
The popularity of oxytocin (OT) has grown exponentially during the past decade
and so has the number of OT trials in healthy and clinical groups
We take stock of the evidence from these studies to explore potentials and limitations of pharmacotherapeutic applications
intranasally administered OT leads to better emotion recognition and more trust in conspecifics
but the effects appear to be moderated by context (perceived threat of the ‘out-group’)
In individuals with untoward childhood experiences
positive behavioral or neurobiological effects seem lowered or absent
borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress
the effects of OT administration were tested
with doses ranging from 15 IU to more than 7000 IU
The combined effect size was d=0.32 (N=304; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18–0.47; P<0.01)
only studies on autism spectrum disorder showed a significant combined effect size (d=0.57; N=68; 95% CI: 0.15–0.99; P<0.01)
We hypothesize that for some of the other disorders
etiological factors rooted in negative childhood experiences may also have a role in the diminished effectiveness of treatment with OT
On the internet oxytocin (OT) is the most popular nonapeptide
with more than 5.7 million hits by the end of 2012
and its popularity has been growing exponentially during the past 10 years
OT is labeled the ‘love hormone’ and widely advertised as a wonder drug to enhance the individual’s social skills on the job and at home
and to cure or alleviate more serious illnesses such as depression
The number of psychopharmacological studies on OT in non-clinical groups has increased rapidly
After the initial excitement about positive effects on trust
it soon became clear that OT might be anxiolytic and facilitate prosocial behavior
and may also stimulate aggression and selfish behavior
with varying effects depending on social context
Here we review and conduct a meta-analysis of OT studies with clinical groups against the background of the scientific evidence on neural and behavioral effects of OT administration in non-clinical groups
We discuss therapeutic potentials as well as limitations of the (adjunct) use of OT in treatment
salivary OT levels were highly correlated over time
indicating impressive individual stability over the day
salivary OT levels were still 6 to 10-fold higher than those observed in the placebo condition
These findings suggest that intranasal OT may be quite effective
basic research on the neurobiological pathway of intranasal OT to pertinent parts of the brain is badly needed
The lowest cortisol reactivity to the stressor was found in the group of students who received OT instead of placebo
Participants who received either social support or OT or both also felt calmer and less anxious during the stress procedure
This successful experiment triggered a boom of studies
a revival of work carried out in the 1980s and 1990s of the last century
and stimulated activity in these parts in response to happy faces
OT also increased the proportion of gaze changes toward the eyes across negative as well as positive expressions
and this effect was mediated by enhanced coupling between the posterior amygdala and superior colliculus
OT might thus facilitate the detection of fear or happiness from subtle cues around the eyes
much more OT studies have been conducted with male than with female participants
The scarce studies on female participants show inconsistent results
Effects of oxytocin administration on face recognition
trust to in-group and trust to out-group in healthy participants: combined effect sizes (d) and 95% confidence intervals
The combined effect size for distrust to out-group is not significant
We also examined the hypothesis that OT promotes parochial altruism
suggesting that trust in out-group members may decrease after OT administration
We identified 23 empirical papers with 31 pertinent effect sizes
providing data for meta-analyses on effects on face recognition (13 effect sizes
N=317) and out-group distrust (10 effect sizes; N=505)
This first wave of experiments documents a proof of principle of the perceptual and behavioral effects of intranasal administration of an important neuropeptide involved in social–emotional relationships
It opens a myriad of possibilities to uncover the development and dynamics of emotional empathy and trust in close relationships
and to study the potential effects of OT administration in the treatment of groups with clinical problems in the socioemotional domain
we systematically review the moderating effects of context
The other half were matched with a partner they had not met before the game
OT stimulated cooperative behavior only for those participants who had had brief prior contact with their potential partners
even though they did not know with whom exactly they were matched during the game
Participants in the placebo condition preferred the low-threat allies as teammates
but participants in the OT condition more often selected the high-threat allies as teammates
Under threat of the intergroup competition
OT motivated the selection of allies with high threat potential
presumably to make their in-group appear aggressive rather than friendly
The (perceived) threat of the ‘out-group’ may thus have a crucial moderating role: OT administration appears to foster trust and cooperation with individuals that are considered part of the in-group (because they are known
or positively described); OT effects are weaker
absent or mixed when the partner is unknown; and OT increases non-cooperation when the partner is perceived as a potential threat
the perception of others as either a potential threat or a friendly conspecific may be not independent of the individual’s social and early caregiving experiences (see below)
they rated how positive or negative they thought the videotaped individual felt
Participants with high baseline social–cognitive competence performed well on the emotion recognition task in both the placebo condition and in the OT condition
but participants with low baseline social–cognitive competence performed poorly in the placebo condition and no longer fell behind their socially competent peers in the OT condition
OT improved empathic accuracy only for less socially proficient individuals
whereas when approach motivation is low (reflected in less relative left/greater relative right activity)
the finding that individuals with low scores on attachment anxiety had rosier childhood memories after OT (versus placebo)
while individuals with high scores on attachment anxiety remembered their mother as less caring and more distant after OT (versus placebo) is relevant and points to the differentiated effect of OT administration depending on personality characteristics
Developmentally related to the perception of the world as being either a friendly environment or full of threat
childhood experiences may moderate the effect of intranasal OT administration
A growing body of evidence indicates that the prosocial effects of OT administration are stronger for or even limited to individuals with a supportive family background
and they could throw the ball to the other players using the keyboard
The first part was fair play with all players receiving one-fourth of the throws
the experimenter was excluded from the game and did not receive any throws from the two unknown players
We found that participants compensated for other players’ ostracism by throwing the ball more often toward the excluded player
OT administration further increased the number of tosses toward the excluded person
but only in individuals who experienced low levels of maternal love withdrawal
The positive effects of OT on prosocial behavior toward a victim of social exclusion were thus limited to individuals with supportive family backgrounds
participants were paid 50 Euros for participation in an ERP (event-related potential) experiment
and then were asked to watch a video while the experimenter cleaned up in the other room
They were shown a 2-min UNICEF promotional film
after which a text appeared on the screen in which the participant was asked to donate money
and a money box had been positioned next to the video screen
Participants in the low love-withdrawal group donated significantly more when they had received OT rather than placebo
but for participants reporting high love-withdrawal
there was no significant difference between the OT and placebo groups in the amount of money donated to UNICEF
creating well-matched experimental and control groups
Participants were asked to squeeze the handgrip dynamometer as hard as possible and then at 50% of their maximal handgrip strength
They performed as many trials as necessary for training
with their performance displayed on a monitor to check the 50% level of each second handgrip
until they were able to modulate the force of their second squeeze to half the strength of their first squeeze
Participants were then requested to squeeze the handgrip dynamometer without receiving feedback eight times at full and half strength
the first four times listening to infant laughter
and then four times listening to infant crying
Participants’ experiences with harsh parental discipline during childhood moderated the effect of OT on the use of excessive force during exposure to infant crying: participants’ whose parents did not discipline them harshly used less excessive force in the OT condition
but for participants who were disciplined harshly there was no difference between the OT and placebo condition
it may be concluded that OT administration does not generate positive effects in individuals who as a consequence of unfavorable early caregiving experiences may have a bias towards negative interpretation of social cues
As an alternative or complementary explanation
untoward childhood experiences may interfere with the oxytonergic system on a more fundamental level
affecting neurological pathways or methylation level of the OT receptor (OXTR) gene
In that case differential effects of OT administration should also be visible in a task-free setting
salivary cortisol concentrations were measured before and after double-blind intranasal administration of placebo or OT
About half of the participants had experienced the divorce or permanent separation of their parents before the age of 13 years
with a prolonged separation from one parent as a result
cortisol decreases after intranasal OT (versus placebo) were significantly smaller than in participants without early separation experiences
reflecting decreased sensitivity to the effects of intranasal OT
These studies thus consistently indicate that positive OT effects on behavior or neurobiology are lowered or absent in individuals with negative caregiving experiences
The results on resting state connectivity and salivary cortisol levels suggest that quality of caregiving experiences moderates the effects of intranasal OT even in the absence of social stimuli
Early adversity may alter basal oxytonergic system functioning
and likely involves changes at the OT receptor level
affinity or function at the OT receptor level may be related to experience-dependent methylation of genetic areas regulating the OT system
lead to decreased sensitivity to intranasal OT
OT administration has been used in clinical trials with a wide variety of clinical groups
The promise of treating patients with these disorders with OT lies in its anxiolytic role
lowering aversive feelings against potentially disturbing signals such as negative facial expressions or cry sounds
and thus rendering patients less anxious and more at ease with a threatening social environment
Less aversion might lower the threshold for positive interactions despite initially negative social signals
The findings of these experiments are reviewed below and combined in a meta-analysis to compute the combined effect size across the experiments and to examine whether some psychopathological syndromes are more open to the influence of OT treatment than others
Although there was no significant main effect for drug
in the OT condition repetitive behaviors (in particular repeating and touching) started to decrease 1 hour after infusion
13 patients (86.7%) in the OT condition and only six patients (40%) in the placebo condition showed a decrease in repetitive behaviors
Four sentences with neutral content were read aloud with one of four emotional intonations (happy
and the participants had to determine the emotional mood expressed
Baseline comprehension and comprehension at 30
180 and 240 min over the course of the infusion was assessed
Compared with subjects who received placebo first
subjects who received OT first showed increased ability to assign accurately emotional meaning to the speech intonations after a delay of about 1 week
gender and motor cues from pictures of the eye region of faces
The younger participants (under 15 years) received 18 IU OT or placebo
The authors found improved performance on the RMET not only in the total group but also in the younger participants with the lower OT dose
The effect seemed strongest for the easier RMET items
participants did not discriminate between these three players
they threw significantly more balls to the good player compared with the bad player
Patients also reported to trust and to prefer the good player more than the bad player in the OT condition
the participants were asked to look at pictures of faces while their eye movements were being recorded
and to report the gender or the gaze direction (direct/averted) of the face
OT decreased the abnormally frequent saccade movements in the patients
and increased fixation time of the informative eye region of the faces on the pictures
OT made patients with autism more sociable by making them more aware of the social nature of interactions in a computer game
and by supporting them to overcome their reluctance to look faces in the eyes
Patients in the OT group displayed increased trust in others
fewer tendencies towards sadness and less disruptive behavior in the 2 days after intranasal administration
no significant differences between OT and placebo groups were found
12 patients received OT (24 IU per session)
each patient gave a speech in front of group members about increasingly difficult topics
OT reduced the negative mental representations of self
which are typical for SAD patients following a speech exposure task
Participants who received OT showed improvement in their rating of speech appearance
but they did not improve in their ratings of speech performance
There were no immediate or long-term improvements on SAD symptom outcome measures from exposure therapy combined with OT
heightened cortical reactions to sad faces were lowered and normalized after OT
hyperactivation of the medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex was downregulated
after which the experimenter initiated verbal social interaction by asking questions and at the same time prompting the subjects to look them in the eyes
Heart rate and cortisol were measured and mean frequency of participant eye gaze was observed in the social proximity and social interaction phases of the challenge
Eye gaze frequency increased significantly following the 24 IU dose compared with placebo
There was no effect of phase in the challenge
only salivary cortisol levels decreased following 48 IU of OT
20 IU vasopressin (n=13) or placebo (n=15)
skin conductance and lateral frontalis electromyographic responses to personal combat imagery were assessed
‘Scripts’ portraying subjects’ personal events were read to them and subjects were instructed to imagine the events the scripts portrayed
Vasopressin facilitated electromyographic responses to the personal combat imagery
but OT did not have an effect on any of the outcome assessments
but it was concluded that OT significantly lowered the intensity of recurrent thoughts about the traumatic event
Mood was elevated and feelings of anxiety reduced
in particular when patients had to identify mood of the facial expressions
reaction times decreased for the healthy controls
Accuracy of response during the RMET did not change under the influence of OT compared with placebo
creating a better basis for sensitive parenting
Twenty-five depressed mothers attending an outpatient perinatal psychiatry setting participated with their young infant
They received 24 IU intranasal OT alternating with placebo approximately 1 week apart
The outcome measures were the Five-Minute Speech Sample used to establish rates of criticism and emotional over-involvement
and the Self-Assessment Manikin for current mood
and they more often initially described their babies as difficult
They did not express more emotional overinvolvement or criticism
but they reported that the quality of their relationship with their infant was better
OT improved mothers’ perception of the relationship with their baby
though it did not make them less depressed
No evidence for an amnestic effect was found
patients showed even better performance on two subtests
Outcome measures of psychotic symptoms were the PANSS and a Paranoia Scale
Social cognitions were measured with the Brüne Theory of Mind Picture Stories Task and a Trustworthiness Task
the OT group showed a significant decline in PANSS
Averbeck and co-workers111 examined the effects of 24 IU OT on emotion recognition (happiness
disgust and anger) in 21 male schizophrenic patients who were on medication with regular antipsychotics
Both morphed and unmorphed faces were displayed and patients indicated which word represented the expressed emotion best
indicating improved emotion recognition independent of type of emotion and morphing status
All patients were on regular antipsychotic medication
A conservative estimate of the 20 IU OT effects (compared with placebo) in both polydipsic and non-polydipsic patients on correctly identified emotions amounted to zero
We suggest that their pilot study demonstrated an overall negative impact of 10 IU OT on patients’ basal deficits in emotion recognition
while 20 IU ameliorated deficits in the polydipsic but not in the non-polydipsic group
Statistical comparisons with a healthy control group complicate comparisons with OT administration studies in other clinical samples
In an early study, Den Boer and Westenberg113 tested the frequency of self-reported obsessive or compulsive behaviors (checking
cleaning) of 12 OCD patients (three males) after OT or placebo in a between-subjects design
The authors did not find a reduction of OCD symptoms after OT
and concluded that the dose of 160 IU per day for 6 weeks (7224 IU in total) might have been too low
In a subsequent pilot treatment with two OCD patients
the authors thus used a threefold higher dosage but again without any noticeable effect
no side effects of these high dosages were seen in terms of psychotic symptoms or memory disturbances
namely trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling)
Randomized controlled trials with oxytocin administration in clinical groups: effect sizes (Cohen’s d
we report 95% confidence intervals (CIs) around the point estimate of each set of effect sizes
the k right-most studies considered to be symmetrically unmatched are trimmed and their missing counterparts are imputed or ‘filled’ as mirror images of the trimmed outcomes
The trim-and-fill approach indicated no publication bias against small studies with small effects in our set of studies
only the set of four studies on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (including Prader–Willi syndrome) showed a significant combined effect of d=0.57 (N=68; 95% CI: 0.15–0.99; P<0.01) in a homogeneous set of outcomes (Q=0.13; P=0.99)
the combined effect in the remaining set of three autism spectrum disorder studies was still significant (d=0.60; P=0.016)
Patients diagnosed with other clinical syndromes did not seem to profit from OT administration
It should be noted that the number of studies per syndrome is rather small
and future experimental studies on clinical samples might change this overall somewhat disappointing picture
we conclude that there is sufficient experimental evidence to support the neural and behavioral changes caused by OT sniffs
Despite the black box of the mechanisms through which it penetrates the limbic system and reaches its receptors
it is time to take stock of the evidence from OT studies in normal and clinical groups to explore potentials and limitations of pharmacotherapeutic applications
A contextual psychoneurobiological model of oxytocin (OT) treatment: moderation by childhood experiences
The available evidence seems to indicate that OT may not be capable of easing the latter disorders’ often lifetime negative influences on the patients and their families
we should note that the database for meta-analytic work is currently modest
For none of the syndromes more than four independent studies were available
Sample sizes were small and individual studies did not always show the scientific rigor that is common in OT studies with healthy participants (for example
ranging from brain activity to symptomatic relief and social competence
More high-quality studies with clinical participants are necessary to consolidate or refute our somewhat disappointing results
at the moment the pharmacotherapeutic use of OT seems less effective in many psychiatric disorders
We hypothesize that for some of these disorders etiological factors rooted in negative childhood experiences may at the same time have a role in the diminished effectiveness of treatment with OT
individuals diagnosed with autism or related disorders seem to profit most from the (adjunct) application of OT
and their social–communicative skills might improve significantly
OT is not a generic wonder drug that promotes positive feelings
behaviors and relationships independent of context
OT may be anxiolytic and may facilitate the establishment and maintenance of (therapeutic) relationships
but adverse personal history may mitigate these potentially beneficial effects
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We were supported by awards from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) (MJBK: VICI Grant; MHvIJ: SPINOZA prize)
M J Bakermans-Kranenburg and M H van IJzendoorn: These two authors contributed equally to this work
Rommert Casimir Institute for Developmental Psychopathology
M J Bakermans-Kranenburg & M H van IJzendoorn
The authors declare no conflict of interest
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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Hans van Kranenburg is full professor of corporate strategy at Radboud University Nijmegen
He is Head of the Strategy Group at the Department of Business Administration
Professor van Krakenburg was a visiting scholar at Media Management and Transformation Center at Jönköping International Business School (Sweden)
University of Navarra (Spain) and the University of Chicago (USA)
He was Head of Business Administration and Director of Research Programme
Responsible Organisation at Nijmegen School of Management
He has published on subjects including strategic behaviour of organisations
He is also an expert in media management and economics
Professor van Kranenburg has advised companies such as publishing and chemical companies on strategic and anti-trust issues
He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Media Economics
the International Journal of Media Management and the Journal of Media Business Studies
He has published in books and international journals including the Journal of Law and Economics
International Journal of Industrial Organisation
Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation
He is co-author of the book Management and Innovation in the Media Industry (2009).His research as a visiting fellow will include authoring Innovation Policies in the European News and Media Industry: A Comparative Study
The book will explore types of media innovation policies formulated and implemented in various countries in Europe and their importance
It will help identify and evaluate how they are stimulating innovation in journalism and news media and compare the development of traditional news media markets in these countries
It aims to determine what the best practices of innovation policies are to stimulate innovation in a rapidly changing news media landscape
He also will co-author Nonmarket Strategic Management
a book which aims to explain the role and importance of nonmarket environments
It will identify and evaluate major strategic implications and issues stemming from the nonmarket setting in order to identify strategic manners to manage such influences
KINGSTON — A fraudulent contractor will spend four to eight years in state prison for leaving his customers with half-finished projects and bilking them of more than $280,000
was sentenced Tuesday on two felony counts of grand larceny
He was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims
Authorities said that Kranenburg's victims included customers of his contracting company
his landlord on Ulster Avenue and at least one woman he met on an Internet dating website
Parts of his scheme were typical of bad contractors
Authorities said Kranenburg would start a project
tell the customer he needed more money to finish
Other parts of his theft plot were more elaborate
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Povill said that Kranenburg stole roughly $150,000 from an elderly widow whom he befriended
He convinced the woman to invest in his company and take mortgages out against her home
Kranenburg got caught because one of the woman's sons discovered that her savings account had been wiped out
Povill said the earliest thefts dated back to 2001
Kranenburg had previously been convicted of grand larceny
forgery and petit larceny for a similar scheme in the late ‘90s
investigators found that Kranenburg spent the pilfered money on a boat
ATVs and a gambling habit that included heaps of lottery tickets and at least one trip to the Mohegan Sun casino
“I apologize for everyone I hurt,” Kranenburg said Tuesday in County Court
During a pre-sentencing interview with the Ulster County Probation Department
Kranenburg claimed that he wasn't guilty and that he was treated unfairly after his guilty plea
It was a flip-flop that Judge Donald Williams did not take kindly from the repeat offender
“You prey upon people who extend their trust to you,” Williams said
you are a con man and your con had caught up to you.”
share breakfast time at their Washington home on Nov
the Kranenburgs share parenting duties but say they still find that those responsibilities can be chaotic and stressful
(MUST CREDIT: Photo by Matt McClain for The Washington Post)
dress as they begin their day at their Washington home on Nov
Katherine and Roger Kranenburg share parenting duties but say they still find that those responsibilities can be chaotic and stressful
as they begin their day at their Washington home on Nov
is helped with homework by her parent Steve Majors
Majors and Leavitt share parenting responsibilities but find they still have to use “furious texting” throughout the day to stay organized
The new parenting ideal looks a lot like Katherine and Roger Kranenburg
Professionals who have achieved enough career success to earn both good money and work flexibility
energetic and even ask for extra grilled zucchini with their lunch
with deck and swimming pool nestled among leafy trees
the Kranenburg family’s mornings look like an upscale version of what more and more American parents strive for: parity in parenting
Both parents arrange their schedules to make the parent-teacher conference
Dad clicks the kids into car seats; Mom drives them to school
The Kranenburgs are a textbook example of what many of us grew up thinking would be our own parenting style
We looked back at our mother’s housework burdens and career sacrifices or our father’s disengagement with the family
We’d match with partners who would trample tired gender roles and commit to support our families 50-50 financially
Going halfsies on parenting seemed as obvious as the pants on our legs
Here’s what this model of shared parenting feels like from the inside:
She is still in her mauve bathrobe and talking over her pajama-clad daughter
who sings to a pink stuffed animal to avoid making her bed
as he pulls a Spider-Man shirt over his squirming son’s head
ignoring the beeping kitchen timer alerting him that the pasta he’s making for that night is more than ready
parents are struggling through what many of us thought would come easily: an authentic split-down-the-middle approach
For a fortunate family like the Kranenburgs
For the majority of parents who have the ability and inclination to divvy up responsibilities equally
Add money woes or work rigidity or marital conflict or a child who needs more attention
we have fathers and mothers reporting unprecedented levels of stress and resentment
Marriage historian Stephanie Coontz says American parents have higher expectations of themselves than any previous generation
do not realize how much they are up against as they try to change the child-rearing rules while living up to heightened demands
“People don’t anticipate in advance what a strain this will be.” They end up “turning on each other.”
would be “less indignation at each other and more at our society” — our familial infrastructure
the schedules of schools and offices that remain fixed in a two-parent
the 2012-2013 academic calendar includes a two-week winter break
four days devoted to parent-teacher conferences and four early dismissal days
parents employed full time are lucky if they get federal holidays and two weeks of vacation
The United States is routinely embarrassed in world rankings of family-friendly policies that support a healthy work-life balance
The latest annual Save the Children report on the “State of the World’s Mothers” ranked America at 25
Factors such as lower female political status and lower preschool enrollments pushed the United States down the list
splitting duties is increasingly difficult
father Steve Majors talked about the new demands one evening while he leaned over his younger daughter
coaxing her through three pages of homework
It was his last chore before dinner and after he had logged hours at the office
folded the laundry and supervised his daughters’ bike riding and jump rope
“Look at this; my parents never did this,” he says
waving a hand in the direction of the homework
“We were told to ‘go outside.’ I never saw my parents.” In the kitchen
his partner checks the simmering lentils and calls out a reminder that dinner will be early because he has to make the evening school meeting
“We are raising our kids differently [than our parents did]
But it means we take on all the extra burdens,” Majors says
just as many are embracing equal responsibility for the family
the parenting part of the equation has grown into an oversize octopus
“Sometimes I tell people I’m like the guy in the park juggling nine balls,” says Darrell Perry
musician and father of a preschooler and an infant
and Perry waking four hours later to feed and dress their older daughter
construct whichever elaborate hairstyle the 3-year-old had chosen that day
Goncalves handled the afternoon pick-up and evening routine
he might return to work after dinner; some nights
he might rehearse with one of the bands he plays with
with a second child and Goncalves just back to work after maternity leave
Some suggest that the burdens for parents might be eased if we demanded more from our employers
Anne-Marie Slaughter memorably made that point last summer in her Atlantic cover story “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” One of her remedies was to change “the ‘default rules’ that govern office work — the baseline expectations about when
But having a flexible schedule doesn’t mean things always go smoothly
a recent study from the University of Texas at Austin found that telecommuters work longer hours than office-dwellers
And telecommuters and those with flexible schedules are more likely to have work creep into family time
They begin the morning with expectations of what the day will hold
if Katherine gets a call from a client or if Roger needs to stay late or if one of the kids gets sick
the day will take any number of radical turns
because their jobs are “flexible.” They have friends with kids who trade off the dance commute
“We are living to the max,” Katherine Kranenburg says
adding that marital tension peaks around the issue of who has to be more flexible on any given night
Another approach is proffered by Marc and Amy Vachon
a couple who are more committed than most to the idea of shared parenting
They are the authors of “Equally Shared Parenting: Rewriting the Rules for a New Generation of Parents.”
The Vachons lead lives designed to prioritize their home life parity
live in Massachusetts and both work 32 hours a week
They do not divvy up responsibilities or keep track of who has done what
each takes ownership of all aspects of parenting their 7- and 10-year-olds on separate days
If their daughter’s friend wants to schedule a playdate on Thursday
The primary elements that keep their “dream” afloat might be considered radical
they acknowledge: lightened workloads and what Amy calls “bravery” to stand up to gender stereotypes
Which brings us to another major obstacle to changing the traditional parenting dynamics: those internalized gender stereotypes
We are “colliding with 100 years of socialization,” Coontz says
“Despite the fact that we sincerely want to share the pleasures and rewards both of work outside the home and raising a child
there’s still a sense that if somebody has to give more at home and less at work
A study published in the American Sociological Review found that mothers endure “contradictory ideological pressures” and thus feel more conflicted about their priorities and end up multi-tasking far more than their partners
recalls that after her first daughter was born
even after she returned to a grueling work schedule
She was encouraged to do so by her own mother
who believed it was the womanly responsibility to cook dinner nightly and
to make sure not to wake a sleeping father
“I got to the point where I just felt too overwhelmed,” Goncalves says
but he also didn’t want to step over boundaries
The Pew Research Center recently found that the majority of fathers today are far more hands-on than their own fathers
but they also believe it’s harder to be a father now
The New York-based nonprofit Families and Work Institute examined studies on men’s attitudes and concluded in a 2011 report called “The New Male Mystique” that “the ‘ideal’ man today is not only a good employee working long hours to be a successful breadwinner
but is also an involved and nurturing husband/partner
many men are caught between these old and new worlds and are bound to experience some conflict between work and family.”
the solution has been to reject the modern ideal
“I think feminism is one of the worst things for women
because we had totally mastered Donna Reed
home cooking and taking care of the kids thing
and then we ventured out into the workplace
and sent the message that women can do it all,” says Jaime Vargas-Benitez
She says she tried that model in her first marriage
she and her husband decided to revert to the traditional dynamic
“We made the necessary sacrifices so I could stay home
the division of labor is 90 percent me and 10 percent my husband.” It is working so well
that she looks around incredulously at others who are trying to reinvent the wheel
But reinventing the wheel is a necessity for families that need two incomes or have partners who want to be equal
And the old wheel doesn’t work for families with same-sex parents
have not had to tackle the traditional gender stereotypes
but “we have had to negotiate every single detail.”
One solution they’ve happened upon is to divide responsibilities by proclivity
a communication specialist who works full time
that means Majors oversees the mornings and he assumes the tasks of cooking and persuading two skeptical girls to taste plantains
The arrangement does not always fall into such neat boxes
and it requires “furious texting” through the day
marital conflict and reams of commentaries about whether we can “have it all” until we accept that earlier generations had it right all along
One thing all of the couples interviewed had in common was their early assumptions
Each partner thought he or she knew what “sharing” meant and expected it would come automatically
They didn’t realize they needed to define what equal meant to them and to develop a strategy to execute it
Few had asked themselves if they really wanted to divide responsibilities; if they would take a tag-team approach with one partner stepping back professionally every few years; if they wanted to expand their support network or stay closer to extended family so they’d have backup; or how they were going to field the father-in-law’s eviscerating comments
Asked “What would you have done differently?,” almost to a person
parents said they would have asked themselves these questions before their first child arrived
… Nobody tells you to have the conversation about division of labor
about how kids add an extraordinary level of work,” Majors says
A repercussion of this lack of recognition is that there is little advocacy for structural change
By the time parents realize what they’re up against
they don’t have time to mobilize for political or economic reform on the family front
They’re too busy dashing between the afternoon meeting and ballet class and bickering about who isn’t multi-tasking enough
“I think what you have to do is recognize together where society is going to push you into traditional roles,” Amy Vachon says
constantly pointing out imbalances to each other
and acknowledging when one is veering back toward traditional behavior
“We talk and keep our eyes open all the time
LLC | www.heraldextra.com | 1200 Towne Centre Blvd
Former Minister of Public Works Jules “Dickie” Kranenburg has died
who had served as the minister from 1986 to 1992 under the former PNC government
According to a statement from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure
Kranenburg served as a Chief Pilot in the Maritime Division of the Transport and Harbours Department under the Ministry of Public Works before he made his way to the Bauxite Industry Development Company (BIDCO) as head of its Shipping Department
It added that he later went on to serve as a director on the board of the Canawaima Ferry Services Inc
when it began its operations in November 1998
he continued to serve as a member of CFSI’s board
The ministry added that outside of his “stellar professional achievements,” Kranenburg was remembered by ministry staff as jovial and always willing to lend a helping hand
“The nation has truly lost a great son,” it added
Kranenburg is survived by his wife of 59 years
A wake is planned to celebrate his life on June 9th
There will be a mass remembrance at the Brickdam Cathedral on June 10th
followed by a cremation ceremony at the Memorial Gardens
President David Granger yesterday attended the funeral service of Jules Kranenburg
a former Minister of Public Works and Communications with responsibility for transport under the Desmond Hoyte administration
The service was held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Brickdam
Kranenburg died on May 29 at the age of 83 years old
A Ministry of the Presidency press release yesterday said that he was described by Minister of Foreign Affairs
Carl Greenidge as a generous and decent man
who was a representation of all that was distinctive of old Demerara and Georgetown
Home » English » Why some German students prefer to live in Kranenburg
These are three reasons German students from Radboud University choose to rent a room in Kranenburg
At Bäckerei Derks an elderly couple take a bite of an appetising plum tart
the bus to Nimwegen makes its way through the Grosse Strasse
waiters prepare for what they hope will be a busy night
where a fountain shaped like a bull’s head sprays water
The German Psychology student was originally planning to study in her home country
She only found out she was coming to Nijmegen in August
All student rooms in the city were already taken
From a fellow student she heard there was always space in Kranenburg
Panning has just come back from a visit to her parents in Munster
and parks her car on the Kranenburg market square
‘More or less three quarters of the students here have a car,” she says
The bus ride to Nijmegen takes one and a half hours
And cycling 15 kilometres to the University – one way that is – is a bit far
Via WhatsApp students with a car can indicate when they plan to drive to Campus
and arrange to meet car-poolers on the carpark opposite Bäckerei Derks
or in front of the bridal boutique on the other side of the Grosse Strasse – where most students live
the German students in Kranenburg are all alike
the more introverted students end up in Kranenburg
The cafés are for older people – students are rarely seen there
Attending a party in Nijmegen means a long ride there
and you have to arrange to spend the night with friends.’
Kranenburg’s small scale also has disadvantages
there are a hundred students immediately begging for a job,’ says Panning
The local GP has a waiting list and his closest colleague lives more than ten kilometres away
‘Not very convenient if you have a high fever.’
Foodies have little to sink their teeth into in Kranenburg
the village offers few gastronomical venues
The only falafel bar didn’t survive very long
‘Sometimes we order pizza or a kebab,’ says Miriam
And because of Kranenburg’s isolated position
it doesn’t make sense to order take-away.’
No wonder many students eventually give up on Kranenburg and move to Nijmegen
‘Last week a friend of mine moved to Kranenburg: she didn’t feel at home in Nijmegen because it’s so busy and costs a lot to park
This is something German students often complain about.’
the Dutch made up 20% of the Kranenburg population
a figure that has probably increased since then
One of Panning’s neighbours is also from the Netherlands
‘In Kranenburg they can afford houses they could never build 500 metres away.’ And yet
‘Just look at the traffic signs and the products on the shelves
This sometimes leads to frustration among German students
‘Products on sale are often immediately sold out
The Dutch come here to do their bulk shopping
from thirty pheasants to forty litres of olive oil.’ She does all her shopping on Thursday or Friday mornings – the earlier
and there’s only rotten fruit left.’
Panning is not planning to move to Nijmegen yet
and people are less closely packed together
But you should never say never: if I find a good job in Nijmegen
‘Many students who study in Nijmegen or Kleef rent rooms in Kranenburg,” says Mayor of Kranenburg Günter Steins
“We don’t know precisely how many students live here: when people register with the municipality we don’t ask them whether they are students
we don’t organise any special activities for students
but all students are more than welcome!’
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UvA PhD-student and chemist at the police laboratory Ruben Kranenburg has developed a detector to analyse drugs on the spot
The so-called powderpuck can identify 80 percent of the most common drugs within seconds
it is quiet in the forensics lab of the police station in Sloterdijk
On the windowsill are trays of plastic bags of drugs
things sometimes pile up a bit,” says Ruben Kranenburg
analytical chemist at the Forensic Investigation Service of the Amsterdam Police Department and associate professor at the UvA
“We have just had the Amsterdam Dance Event
so we still have work from October and November.”
What drugs does he find most often in the police lab
methamphetamine is not popular in the Netherlands
but is not something the nightlife crowd uses
Very addicting; it really kills people.”
who has now been working at the police lab for more than thirteen years
saw the drug world change during that time
He saw the use of cocaine increase in Amsterdam
with the advent of tablet machines via AliExpress
Designer drugs closely resemble existing drugs but are not yet included in the Opium Act's list of prohibited substances because they are chemically slightly different
with the broadening of new substances on the drug market
he saw police running into limitations in being able to test all new drugs accurately and quickly
drugs must be identified at the molecular level
while in the meantime the suspect is detained
Sometimes police investigations cannot proceed immediately because they have to wait for the laboratory results.”
Handheld equipment that can identify drugs on the spot could be a godsend for police
Commercial equipment to test explosives and later “on-scene” drugs came on the market after 9/11
But Kranenburg does question how thoroughly tested that equipment is
it is not possible to leave that entirely to free market forces
a commercial party cannot dispose of a large quantity of practical samples of drugs
Then you get a product that is just not quite fit for purpose
Suitable for initial indication and suspicion
but not completely reliable for conviction
I think the police need to work with the academy and commercial parties to get optimal detectors.”
Kranenburg did have the field samples at his disposal
and in consultation with UvA professor of forensic analytical chemistry Arian van Asten (HIMS)
he decided to investigate new techniques for "on-scene" drug analysis himself to pursue a doctorate on them
the police lab and the Amsterdam software company TIPb on the powderpuck
a device that looks like an ice hockey puck and can identify 80 percent of the most common drugs within seconds
Kranenburg places a plastic bag of powder on top of the powderpuck
A spectrum and the word “cocaine” appear on the laptop screen
the puck measures the contents of the bag," Kranenburg says
"And a spectrum then appears on the computer
The puck has its own library of prohibited substances that we have extensively validated
When a new substance appears on the market
we often come across substances such as paracetamol
As a loose substance - so not punishable - or as a cut in cocaine.”
Mixtures that are encountered a lot in drug practice are more difficult to measure
But the data model developed by TIPb proved unerringly capable of identifying these mixtures
“Only if the cocaine content is lower than 20 percent
the powderpuck sometimes no longer measures it correctly
Then the substance is still sent to the lab
There are already handheld detectors on the market such as a Raman spectrometer costing at least €20,000
“Not the kind of expensive equipment you want to put in every police car.” The powderpuck could be produced for a considerably lower amount
the powderpuck is not yet being used to replace the lab equipment at the police lab
“I myself am still somewhat cautious about that
There is no law that prescribes how much evidence you must have before you can use it in criminal cases
but we are used to using very elaborate equipment: an advanced device (a GC-MS) worth a ton to measure pure cocaine is quite a bit of overkill
And you also don’t want to end up in technical discussions in court with other scientists who don’t know the equipment yet
That is why we are now opening ourselves up to substantive discussions with
the Dutch Forensic Science Institute.”
Location: Auditorium (Old Lutheran Church)