Leiden University and the Municipality of Oegstgeest have chosen Dura Vermeer for a new housing development with plenty of affordable homes in Nieuw Rhijngeest-Zuid Dura Vermeer seeks to create a green and playful neighbourhood with welcoming public spaces as its centrepiece The new development in the Oegstgeest part of the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP) will comprise 500 new homes: 125 social rent properties 225 mid-market rental properties and 150 free-sector properties there will also be a student housing tower with 300 apartments Dura Vermeer envisages an eclectic mix of building types and styles At the heart of the design are the public spaces celebrating greenery The Binnenrijn waterway with its marina will take a leading role in the neighbourhood aptly named ‘De Werf’ (the wharf) by Dura Vermeer The assessment committee was impressed with the plan’s bold design and the imaginative use of space The focus on sustainability with more than a nod to biodiversity and a leading role for water in the shape of wadis and rain gardens also received much praise Communal spaces are an important feature of the plan In Nieuw Rhijngeest-Zuid Dura Vermeer plans to create an area that fosters a sense of community rather than living anonymous lives in their back gardens people meet one another in the public realm in the vibrant square or in one of the friendly courtyards alderman for spatial planning in Oegstgeest ‘We are working in a unique part of the village Dura Vermeer is devoting its efforts to the challenge of bringing together the Bio Science Park and Oegstgeest in a way that makes sense We are pleased to be taking this next step towards realising over 300 affordable homes in a welcoming environment that celebrates water That is a perfect match for Oegstgeest as a fantastic place to live.’ ‘Dura Vermeer was best in its class at creating a spacious green neighbourhood that ties in with the university and municipality’s plans the existing homes on the other side of the future Binnenrijn waterway in the choice of a soft colour palette and the layering of buildings and to the Bio Science Park with a more imposing and urban character I look forward to the further development and realisation of this neighbourhood with its many starter homes It will contribute enormously to the vibrant park we have in mind.’ ‘We are pleased that the Municipality of Oegstgeest and Leiden University have shown such confidence in Dura Vermeer as a partner in this development’ director of Real Estate Development at Dura Vermeer Bouw Zuid West ‘With a mixed programme and high ambitions for spatial quality and sustainability the De Werf plan is a fantastic opportunity to make eager use of our wealth of experience Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027 The buildings above are an artist’s impression from which no rights can be derived 2019 – DuPont Industrial Biosciences officially broke ground today on its new site at the Leiden Bio Science Park in Oegstgeest multidisciplinary facility will utilize the tools of modern biotechnology to make industrial processes more efficient and products more sustainable The bio-based solutions created in Leiden will have a direct impact on some of the most pressing societal issues of today: reducing food waste; reducing the environmental impacts of livestock farming and improving animal health; producing renewable fuels; and lowering environmental impacts in the textile and laundry industries Artist impression of the new DuPont Industrial Biosciences site in the Netherlands Image courtesy of Dura Vermeer and Ector Hoogstad Architecten The capacity of the new site in Oegstgeest will double the potential for growth of the current employee base with the potential of creating an additional 100 jobs at the facility The building will serve as the new EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) headquarters for DuPont Industrial Biosciences “Our Leiden scientists have been developing innovations that enable our customers to improve the efficiency and sustainability of their processes and products for many years,” said Simon Herriott Vice President & Global Business Director for Bioactives at DuPont “This new facility will enable our teams to do even more – to improve the pace of biotechnology and the speed with which we can deliver it to market academia and community we find in the Leiden Bio Science Park is ideal for our work and for keeping us globally competitive.” “Oegstgeest is pleased with DuPont establishing a site in our municipality With DuPont building this facility in the Oegstgeest part of the Leiden Bio Science Park Hilton and Avery Denison will be joined by an esteemed neighbor,” commented Jan Nieuwenhuis Alderman Economic Development and Bio Science Park of the Executive Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Oegstgeest “We are pleased to welcome such an internationally oriented science-driven and socially responsible company as DuPont into the region which undoubtedly will impact local job development.” “The design is in the service of the employees,” said Director Peter Krop of Dura Vermeer it is about creating the right inspiring and flexible working environment We are proud to be able to add DuPont to our customer list." The construction marks an important milestone in the growth of the company with the new site in Oegstgeest being an important hub for business in Europe About DowDuPont Specialty Products Division ℠ or ® are trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates +31 65-372-3450 and all trademarks and service marks denoted with ™,℠,or © are owned by affiliates of DuPont de Nemours Nationwide school closures discouraged contact with friends: the pandemic has hit the youth as much as any other generation Yet we collectively fail to recognise the non-physical toll it takes on the youth that is growing up in unforeseeable times In My Room (2021) are portraits of various Dutch girls and boys in their mid-teens The subjects allow us into their private rooms and offer us a brief but powerful glimpse into the space they have been confined to during this essential phase of their social and personal development Netherlands — Strap on 3-D glasses and watch holograms of cartoon sperm sprinting to fertilize an egg then feel the wind blast on your neck when it sneezes Walk across a bouncy rubber tongue complete with taste buds and realistic burping noises in the background This all might sound weird or flat-out gross But the makers of "Corpus," a new attraction in the Netherlands are hoping that a combination amusement park and health education museum will encourage kids to take better care of their own bodies Even before Corpus officially opened March 20 in Oegstgeest The building incorporates a 115-foot high seated human figure into its structure But the rough-hewn Corpus exterior isn't much to look at: all the detail is on the inside All the walls and halls are modeled with fiberglass to resemble the inside of a giant human body giving visitors the sensation of being shrunk down to a tiny scale like the characters of the classic science fiction film "Fantastic Voyage." Visitors begin their tour via an escalator that carries them through a wound in the giant figure's calf they see an exhibition on what happens when a wood splinter pierces the skin Then it's on to the sit-down "Uterus Theater." That's the one with the cartoon sperm race "We chose not to show sexual activity but actually just the fertilization of the egg cell by the seed cell and how that develops" into a fetus one of a raft of physicians hired as advisers on the project He said the information in Corpus is medically accurate "I think that it gives information that will give people the itch to learn more," he said the entire theater platform is lifted to the next floor with hydraulic pumps After visitors watch a video showing stomach acid dissolving them the curds' progress through a hallway-size intestinal system is charted with lights and narration visitors progress up to exhibits on the heart where they take seats around a cluster of display panels built atop model neurons which then project images onto a larger screen at the top of the domed space to give an impression of how consciousness might work The project is the dream of businessman Henri Remmers who arranged $31 million in private funding and won the endorsement of the Dutch Health Ministry there are more displays on health and diet and games — for instance one where players attempt to knock out bacteria on a big screen display by tossing bean bags at them Other machines let visitors monitor their hearts while they exercise Remmers said he hoped when people learn more about the "unique mechanism" that the human body is "then you'll have more respect for your own body and possibly treat it a little more carefully." CORPUS: A museum attraction in Oegstgeest, Netherlands, about the human body; corpus-experience.nl GETTING THERE: Located along the A44 highway between Amsterdam and The Hague Trains available from the Leiden station in Amsterdam or The Hague Central station bus 32 toward Katwijk (Transferium A44 stop) Medievalists.net Noble Steeds: Why dogs and horses were buried at an Early Medieval settlement along the Old Rhine Abstract: Excavations at the Early Medieval site of Oegstgeest have yielded the burials of three horses and three dogs In order to understand why these animals were buried and how their burials relate to the roles these animals fulfilled for the inhabitants of the settlement a zooarchaeological study of their articulated remains has been combined with a critical analysis of existing literature and previous notions about the nature of Early Medieval dog and horse burials It is argued that at the buried horses were first used as riding animals and then sacrificed to display wealth and status The buried dogs on the other hand were considered social companions and buried accordingly after they died Both the burying of dogs and sacrifice of horses fits a burial pattern specific for the North Sea coast and could indicate the presence of a local elite at the settlement of Oegstgeest with the means to keep large dogs and kill valuable riding steeds Introduction: Excavations at the Early Medieval site of Oegstgeest have yielded the burials of three dogs and three horses some of which were located near human inhumation graves and others nearby a house structure Studying these burials can lead to better insight into the roles dogs and horses fulfilled for the Early Medieval inhabitants With animal husbandry as an important part of the settlement’s subsistence strategy the majority of the animal remains found at Oegstgeest consists of consumption waste of the ‘economically important’ species cattle are underrepresented in the bulk of consumption waste and consequently The main goal of this study is to identify why dogs and horses were buried at the settlement of Oegstgeest and how their burials relate to the roles these animals fulfilled in the lives of the humans they lived among The zooarchaeological data derived from the their remains will be combined with a critical analysis of previous interpretations of Early Medieval dog and horse burials Click here to read this thesis from the University of Leiden We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval podcast and Youtube page offers news and resources about the Middle Ages We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast and remove the advertising on our platforms This will also allow our fans to get more involved in what content we do produce Member Login This website has been translated using an AI program Multitalented Carolijn Braeken - you probably know her from her book Motherhood - lived in New York with her family for a year and came back inspired. Mix her good taste, children and love for vintage together and what comes out? The Lucky Koala. A store with pre-loved and vintage children's clothing in beautiful Oegstgeest. With the option to bring your own children's clothing for sale The Lucky Koala this koala also has small selections of handmade upcycled clothing from brands such as Sissel Edelbo and Mmmokumkids and gifts for mini and mom Of course you can combine a trip to Oegstgeest with: a visit to Leiden Pre-promised Buying children's clothing is more sustainable and cheaper You just have to have the time – and talent – ​​to spend hours searching or trying to sell on Vinted The Lucky Koala takes second-hand clothing and sells it on a consignment basis Here you will find beautiful ones pre-loved and vintage items that have already passed Carolijn's selective eye there is also room for goodies from Tiny Toko (funky vintage) And Carolijn always collects nice gifts for young and old From now on we will take the Oegstgeest exit when we are in the area The Lucky Koala Generations of Leiden students and academics have done archaeological research into the early medieval history of Oegstgeest This makes this old settlement one of the best-documented sites from that era In a new book Leiden researchers take stock Stand on the roof of the Leiden University archaeology building on a clear day and to the north-west you’ll see the village of Oegstgeest a small village with around six houses once stood in the Early Middle Ages in a constant battle with the rising water a riverine settlement in the early medieval world system Frans Theuws and Jasper de Bruin show what we know so far about the settlement The book was presented to the mayor of Oegstgeest on 8 June and demonstrates the knowledge produced by years of research Much of the research was conducted by students and researchers from Leiden University It has made Oegstgeest one of the best-documented settlements from this period It soon became clear that Oegstgeest’s tiny ancestor was no sleepy backwater but was instead in contact with the big wide world The indubitable highlight of the collection is a silver bowl decorated in gold leaf with beautiful mythical creatures The bowl is made up of sections that came from near and far: the bowl itself comes from the Mediterranean its base and rings come from the Rhineland and the suspension rings follow an English tradition The people didn’t all come from the area either An excavated child proved to have come from England and a few adults weren’t from the immediate vicinity at least The archaeologists discovered all of this by studying tooth enamel because this can tell you whether someone consumed a typical regional diet Oegstgeest thus did what many an archaeological site has done: shatter your preconceived notions Because whereas this period is still sometimes referred to as the ‘the Dark Ages’ in the vernacular the site proves once again that even a small Dutch village was part of an economic system that extended over hundreds of kilometres but the citizens of Medieval Oegstgeest were in some respects citizens of the world Emeritus professor Corrie Bakels – one of the book’s authors – was also a regular visitor to the excavation in Oegstgeest She studied soil samples from the former wells ‘Among my finds were fig seeds that must have come from the Mediterranean This is also an indication that there was a lot of long-distance trade Although my seeds made less of an impression than that silver bowl!’ Generations of students have had their first experiences of fieldwork in Oegstgeest In total almost 500 first-years have helped with not only the digs but also describing Thanks to numerous theses and dissertations the secrets of the settlement have gradually been revealed Bakels: ‘It’s a fantastic example of how research and teaching can be integrated The book was presented to the mayor of Oegstgeest on 8 June and demonstrated the knowledge produced by years of research On an excavation site in Oegstgeest Leiden University archaeologists discovered a very rare silver bowl from the first half of the seventh century The bowl is decorated with gold-plated representations of animals and plants and inlaid with semi-precious stones The discovery suggests the existence of an elite with a wide international network in Oegstgeest which is 21 centimetres wide and 11 centimetres high Such gilded discoveries are extremely rare This one is exceptional because such bowls were usually made of bronze This means that we are dealing with an artefact that is unique (Until the discovery of this bowl there were no indications of the presence of a local or regional elite on the Oegstgeest settlement It may be that in this period some members of the elite lived on ‘simple’ farms.) Watch the photo series which was presumably used as a drinking vessel or washbasin is composed of a number of elements dating from different periods probably dates from the Late Roman Empire and the figures seem to indicate that the bowl originated in the Eastern Mediterranean or the Middle East The other decorations date from the first half of the seventh century and show signs of German cultural influences while the bowl’s suspension rings are characteristic of England and Scandinavia these elements symbolise the international position of the Netherlands fifteen hundred years ago This rare object was discovered a year ago on the grounds of the Leiden Bio Science Park The discovery was not announced earlier in order to allow the excavations which continued until the end of June 2014 The bowl was found while excavating the remains of a large village from the sixth and seventh century The village was located on the Rhine and intersected by a multitude of small waterways The bowl was found along one of these waterways This research was funded by Leiden University and led by Leiden archaeologist Jasper de Bruin The Province of South Holland commissioned a restoration of the bowl to the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities where it can be admired until 26 October in the context of the exhibition on the ‘Golden Middle Ages’ the bowl will be integrated into the permanent presentation on ‘Archaeology in the Netherlands’ The bowl remains the property of the Province of South Holland Archeologie (in Dutch) Up above the world so high a giant star twinkles Could an 83-year-old astronomer unravel the mystery of this megastar Arnout van Genderen takes up position at his wooden desk in the corner of the sitting room The 83-year-old astronomer takes a large sheet of squared paper and starts making small dots on it This is how he has spent many an evening in recent years he just turns down the volume on his hearing aid Obviously there were times when he wanted to give up Perhaps the mystery was simply too big and a person too small to solve it But then he saw once again this ineffably large star that was making a beating motion somewhere up in the heavens a bit like the old man’s heart beating in his chest And he knew he couldn’t give up; he had to solve the mystery of the yellow hypergiant a giant star about 600 times the size of our sun Over the past few years he has made thousands of dots on paper of this and other hypergiants each dot representing the luminosity of a particular star at a particular moment in time Plot all the dots next to one another on a sheet of squared paper and you get undulating lines of dots that give a good impression of the fluctuating luminosity of the stars but his painstaking manual labour brings a star to life on paper says Van Genderen as he sets down a tray with two cups of Darjeeling on it You get more of a sense of what is going on This is how the octogenarian has spent many an evening at his desk that looks out on the ferns in his front garden He goes to the University once or twice per week mainly to ask the ‘clever clogs’ at the IT department for help He shares an office with two colleagues who recently reached the ripe old age of 67 Why doesn’t he sit back and enjoy his retirement He is too much of a ‘born observer,’ he laughs From a young age already – growing up on a tea plantation in the Dutch East Indies – he saw the most miraculous things happening right in front of his nose Why do climbing plants always grow in the same direction around a pole And how do they know where to grow if they don’t have eyes This could preoccupy young Arnout for days Or in his own words: ‘I had a real thirst for knowledge.’ It was in a Japanese internment camp – Dutch citizens were interned during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia – that Van Genderen discovered his lifelong love: astronomy he noticed that the moon always moved with him whereas the trees behind the barbed wire fence soon disappeared from sight He got his younger sister to stand 20 metres away from him and point to the moon and did the same himself Their arms were pointing parallel in the same direction he discovered that without knowing it he had demonstrated parallax he had just carried out his first scientific experiment His bedroom was packed with sea urchins and barracudas and slimy adders and boomslangs in specimen jars After the war he carried on collecting anything he could lay his hands on He regularly dug up the skeletons of pets that had been buried in the back garden to get a better idea of their anatomy And he and his father would compete in yacht races in Jakarta Bay sea currents and cloud types and plot the best course They often won with a lead of some lengths they would always give them a tour of young Arnout’s cabinet of curiosities and they regularly brought home stuffed turtles scorpions and seahorses from the local market to pique the curiosity of their bright son ‘They left me to my own devices and didn’t judge my fervent collecting and Van Genderen had just begun a degree in astronomy at Leiden University What until then had been a reasonably footloose and fancy-free little discipline suddenly went into turbo drive Having just about recovered from the Second World War the United States and Soviet Union plunged into a dizzying space race The year 1957 also saw the Soviet Union launch the Sputnik Conquering space – the final frontier of human discovery – suddenly seemed within reach And Van Genderen was right in the midst of it all Having just about recovered from the Second World War the United States and Soviet Union plunged into a dizzying space race ‘Sometimes it was 15 degrees below zero in the dome at the Old Observatory,’ Van Genderen remembers ‘But I just put on two pairs of trousers and two jumpers and took up position at my telescopes in the roof On clear evenings I almost invariably jumped on my bike even if my housemates were sitting round drinking beer.’ He went on to earn his doctorate in photometry With the aid of telescopes he measured the amount of light energy emitted by stars in order to document the changes in their luminosity and colour Then Van Genderen was given a unique opportunity at the start of the 1970s: to move to South Africa – with his wife and daughter – to work for a few years at an observatory belonging to the Old Observatory He ‘observed like there was no tomorrow,’ he says there in that beautiful valley near Pretoria But even after exhausting nights at the telescope he still found the time to look down at the ground every now and then because his broad knowledge was still not limited to the stars alone It didn’t take long until this ‘born observer’ had appeared in a South African newspaper as the finder of the best-preserved prehistoric Bantu village in southern Africa Van Genderen has been working hard to unravel the many mysteries of the yellow hypergiants that there are two variations in the luminosity and temperature of stars a short changeable rhythm and a long irregular one And what do the two versions actually represent Then two of his colleagues discovered that the temperature of one of the yellow hypergiants fluctuated between 8,000 and 4,000 degrees Celsius presumably because of atmospheric eruptions And another colleague saw an opportunity to closely follow such an eruption and noticed that much mass disappeared into space Could there be a link between these observations and the undulating patterns that Van Genderen saw on his squared paper Van Genderen may have been the principal author of the paper but despite having reached the ripe old age of 83 he wasn’t the oldest member of the group Van Genderen ultimately calculated that all four of the yellow hypergiants pass through heat cycles lasting ten to a few dozen years the hydrogen atoms lose their electrons causing the atmosphere to become very unstable A lot of gas escapes in the process and in the space of two years the star cools to 4,000 degrees Celcius The entire process then begins once again until the star having lost a significant amount of weight Van Genderen and an international team of astronomers published the article in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the end of 2019 Van Genderen may have been the principal author of the paper but despite having reached the ripe old age of 83 he wasn’t the oldest of the bunch One of his co-authors was the 98-year-old Cees de Jager While the young Arnout was discovering astronomy in the Japanese internment camp He had gone into hiding in the vaults of Sonnenborgh during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War ‘I have seen a phenomenal amount of change in astronomy,’ Van Genderen remarks as he looks back at his long career ‘I was lucky enough to experience the exponential growth in knowledge and technology from manual observations to punch cards and from magnetic tapes to automatic typewriters and observation techniques that are more modern still In that time we humans have come to understand how we came about all with just two kilos of brain in our heads I’m seriously impressed and feel fortunate to have been part of it.’ ‘We humans have come to understand how we came about all with just two kilos of brain in our heads.’ He only has one regret: that this magnificent human brain is so often used for wrong The Big Bang and the life that emerged was a miracle but that we do not take proper care of this beautiful heritage is something he noticed while in the internment camp and in South Africa under Apartheid and it is something he continues to notice practically every day when he opens the newspaper No other animal is as cruel to its brothers and sisters as we humans – not even the snakes in jars in his Indonesian bedroom would have dared to kill one another But for humans it is the very fabric of our being ‘The contrast with our formidable brain is inexplicable.’ Van Genderen wrote the article with the help of many fellow astronomers Alex Lobel researches hypergiants and massive stars and works at the Royal Observatory of Belgium Hans Nieuwenhuijzen worked at Utrecht Observatory and has been a guest researcher at SRON since 1998 Gregory Henry is an American amateur astronomer with an automatic telescope Cees de Jager is the father of Dutch space research and a famous solar physicist Georgio Di Scala from Australia and Erwin van Ballegoij from the Netherlands are all amateur astronomers Van Genderen is also grateful for the help from his colleagues from the Leiden Observatory Computer Group Corrie Bakels would have given this year's Kroon lecture on Friday March 20 but the event was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak Her colleagues had planned to present to her the 50th edition of the Analecta journal on this festive occassion Corrie Bakels has been one of the main editors of the Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia (APL) journal for many years the 50th edition that is published this month is the 20th Analecta in which she was involved as main editor that the 50th edition was dedicated in her honor She has responded to the dedication with a video message (in Dutch) The Deep History of Human Landscape Manipulation Tilling and manuring prehistoric and early historic fields in western Europe A riverine settlement in the early medieval world system Multidisciplinary studies or the Middle Paleolithic record from Neumark-Nord (Germany) Archeologisch onderzoek langs de Rikkert in Enkhuizen American pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb will be building a new (CAR-T) cell therapy facility in the Oegstgeest part of the Leiden Bio Science Park The company will manufacture and develop CAR T-cell therapy for patients with blood cancer (leukaemia) American pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Leiden University – the owner of the land – signed a ground lease on 16 April 2021 for the site on Willem Einthovenweg where the new facility will be built The company will not only bring knowledge development and therapies to the Leiden region but will also create an expected 500 new jobs The company specialises in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy or CAR T-cell therapie This is a therapy where patients with blood cancer (leukaemia for instance) are treated with their own cells and a gene is then added that enables these T-cells to identify tumour cells The modified T-cells are then returned to the patient and they destroy the tumour cells in the blood This gene threrapy makes the patient’s white blood cells ‘tumour specific’.   BMS is one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the world The new cell therapy facility at the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP) will be its fifth such facility in the world and its first European one Its aim is to bring cell therapy closer to European patients The facility will have the latest technology and production equipment for cell therapy development thus enabling the company to increase its capacity for treating cancer patients.  BMS will spend the next few years building a new manufacturing and laboratory facility these will be the equivalent of three football pitches The new building will be situated on Willem Einthovenstraat Construction will begin later this year and the building should be completed by the end of 2024.  Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl and Vice-Chairman Martijn Ridderbos from the Executive Board of Leiden University and alderman Jan Nieuwenhuis from the municipality of Oegstgeest are pleased to welcome BMS to the LBSP  Hester Bijl: ‘With its new premises close to the LUMC and our science campus BMS will be a wonderful addition to all the innovation district has to offer in the area of Life Science & Health I look forward to fruitful collaborations with our researchers and other parties on and around the park  This will benefit both knowledge development and our health Martijn Ridderbos: ‘The new BMS facility is recognition of the LBSP as one of the most important innovative business parks in the Netherlands  Alongside a longer-term knowledge boost we also expect a boost to jobs in the region as are our partners in the region.’  Alderman Jan Nieuwenhuis from the municipality of Oegstgeest: ‘This means another important biotech company in the Oegstgeest part of the Bio Science Park and this is thanks also to the constructive collaboration with the university There is still space in the Oegstgeest part of the LBSP which is a very interesting location for innovative international companies.’ Photo above: An impression of the new BMS cell therapy facility on Willem Einthovenweg PhD research by Anneline Hinrichs at UMC Utrecht shows that in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) various types of T cells that express a surface protein called CCR9 are elevated as compared to healthy controls These findings add to a growing burden of evidence that CCR9-expressing T cells are involved in the immunopathology of pSS Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome (pSS) is a chronic autoimmune disease in which most patients have complaints of dryness of eyes and mouth The dryness arises from inflammation of the glands inhibiting production of tear fluid and saliva This inflammation is associated with autoimmunity leading to damage and functional impairment of the tear- and saliva-producing cells Research described in the thesis of Anneline Hinrichs (Department of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology and Center for Translational Immunology UMC Utrecht) shows that in the blood of patients with pSS various types of CCR9-expressing T cells are elevated as compared to healthy controls In addition to increased numbers of CCR9-expressing T cells in pSS patients these cells also display a more aggressive pro-inflammatory potential in patients In line with their B cell-stimulating capacities CCR9-expressing T cell subsets are indicated to play a role in pSS immunopathology by stimulating B cell hyperactivity and T cell-driven responses in the salivary glands of pSS patients Apart from the T cell research in pSS, in this thesis Anneline Hinrichs and colleagues also performed a pilot study to investigate various systemic autoimmune diseases such as pSS, systemic sclerosis (SSc) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) sebum was sampled from the skin using special tape after which the sebum was used to measure metabolites Metabolite ions found in the different patient groups were compared to each other as well as to those from healthy controls The biggest difference in metabolite ions was found between healthy controls and SSc patients a disease associated with skin involvement between patients with SSc and pSS the overlap in aberrant metabolite ions was high This is the first study showing the potential of a new non-invasive strategy for identifying biomarkers in various autoimmune diseases and will be studied further The province of Zuid-Holland has given eight municipalities a warning that if they do not house enough refugees with a temporary residence permit then the province will do it for them and charge them for it and Zoeterwoude were sent a letter with this message These eight municipalities are lagging when it comes to housing refugees with temporary residence permits The government decides every six months how many residency permit holders need to be given shelter They decide this number based on the number of residents in a municipality Provinces are allowed to intervene when municipalities miss their target from the government for the fourth time in a row Zuid-Holland also gave Barendrecht and Goeree-Overflakkee a last warning like this in the last few years This led to both municipalities reaching their target A spokesperson for the province said that Zuid-Holland has never had to find housing for the permit holders on the municipality costs The Hague was around 400 homes behind when it came to their target for housing for residency permit holders on January 1 Leiden still had over 50 people that they had to find accommodation for The municipalities in Zuid-Holland had to find housing for 5,600 residency permit holders but they have only been able to do so for almost 3,400 people The other residency holders are waiting in asylum seeker centers for a home Some municipalities give residency permit holders priority when allocating social housing Residency holders are also regularly housed in flexible housing or temporary living spaces in vacant buildings “The smart factory is now fully ready to fulfil its challenging task and today’s opening is the crowning glory of a huge team effort An effort which illustrates the clear mind-set to produce the new Ariane 6 engine frames in the most cost- and time-efficient way.” InnovationQuarter has been involved in the process of finding a suitable location for the new Airbus production facility “We are most happy with the expansion of Airbus,” says Niels Krol senior accountmanager (Aero)space at InnovationQuarter “It means a significant reinforcement for the space cluster in our region.” To address the challenging commercial set-up of the European Ariane 6 programme the Dutch space company Airbus chose a development and industrialisation approach that strikes a balance between heritage and the needed innovative green fields approach This led to two key decisions to optimise the logistics and the assembly line: The facility is equipped with ‘Industry 4.0’ robotisation and automation capabilities in order to be prepared for the anticipated production rates up to 24 engine frames (12 VUAB’s and 12 VITF’s) per year Key elements of the industrialisation approach are: Privacy policy We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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Changes will take effect once you reload the page. 2016 The Netherlands has hundreds of unmanned level crossings Photo: Bert Spiertz / HHA day trip to Amsterdam to catch a film and do some Christmas shopping ended up becoming a train journey Brandon Hartley will never forget It was just another perfectly normal Sunday I went up to Amsterdam to see a movie and buy a few early Christmas presents I joined a few hundred people waiting on Platform 1 at Amsterdam Central to cram themselves and all their shopping bags onto a crowded train I managed to find a seat in a second class compartment across from a woman reading a Murakami novel A group of international students were chatting in English across the aisle we rolled through Haarlem and on towards Leiden Its wheels screeched against the rails while he pumped the brakes I bounced around in my seat like I was on a ride at Efteling It sounded like a stick getting dragged across an old wooden fence The noise rolled down the train as it ground to a halt ‘We’ve hit something,’ a conductor said in Dutch over the intercom a moment later One of them only had a three minute connection to make at Leiden Centraal a family in first class gathered around an iPhone to watch a comedy sketch The rest of us just sat there staring into space uncertain of what to do this is usually what happens when normal people are suddenly catapulted into the middle of a tragic or violent situation The summer after I graduated from high school I worked at a hospital where I ran equipment back and forth between clinics and a busy emergency room I bore witness to countless families dealing with loss and pain my girlfriend and I got caught in the middle of three soccer hooligans determined to beat themselves bloody on an overstuffed bus the passengers around us simply stared at them or looked out the window like it wasn’t happening And that’s what occurred on the train after the conductor returned to the intercom and announced that the train had killed someone riding a scooter the comedy sketch was hastily shut off and we all sat in silence after the woman with the Murakami novel told the students what was going on The chorus of an old Radiohead song immediately wedged itself in my head While that song kept rolling around in my thoughts A few hours of eerie quiet broken by occasional translations for the students whenever the conductor made an announcement I tried to avoid watching emergency workers walking back and forth outside I’ll never forget the sounds of them pulling…..something out from under our carriage I don’t think anyone on that train is going to be able to erase their memories of what happened Maybe the boy I walked behind while we were evacuated onto another train His father had placed his own baseball cap over the kid’s head perhaps to prevent him from looking out of the windows The boy focused on the floor instead and counted all the candy wrappers he could find as we were ushered to a metal platform across the gap between the trains I wound up in a carriage across from two parents with their young daughter She cheerfully rambled on and on about Hello Kitty while her parents did their best to keep her distracted Collisions like this are one of the Netherlands’ largest taboos The names of the victims are never revealed to the public I don’t know and will never know why that scooter was on the tracks that night Maybe it was somebody impatiently trying to zip through the crossing to avoid waiting for the train Or perhaps that’s what they wanted their friends and loved ones to assume afterward When I got off the train at Leiden Centraal nearly three hours after I departed Amsterdam the screens on the platform were still overwhelmed with cancellation notices frustrated travellers were gathered around wooden tables slowly sipping cups of Starbucks coffee the Netherlands was considered the European leader for railway suicides ProRail was contending with an average of four suicides per week on train tracks around the country They’ve since installed fences, surveillance cameras and improved lighting in many areas in an attempt to combat the problem. The railway operator began an extensive €30 million project in 2013 to install additional protective fencing along tracks An area between Heemstede and Hillegom is now one of at least a few stretches where train drivers are required to slow down in order to prevent collisions with jumpers While recent statistics from Eurostat suggest that these incidents are currently in decline they continue as trains collide with suicidal people The impact that these incidents have on train operators and passengers is dramatic I and my fellow passengers are unlikely to forget what happened earlier this  month anytime soon If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, 113Online offers assistance in both English and Dutch It’s an independent care provider funded by the government with telephone help lines staffed day and night and an online chat service We could not provide the Dutch News service without the generous support of our readers Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day Many thanks to everyone who has donated to DutchNews.nl in recent days We could not provide this service without you Please help us making DutchNews.nl a better read by taking part in a short survey