http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/20537/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26589/ 2008-12-01T00:00:00Z This article aims at charting and elucidating key developments and cross-national variations in the coverage given to foreign and indigenous cultural products (classical and popular music, dance, film, literature, theater, television fiction, and visual arts) in American, Dutch, French, and German newspapers between 1955 and 2005. Using content analysis, it is first explored to what extent the explosive growth of international cultural traffic in the second half of the twentieth century has been accompanied by increased newspaper coverage of foreign arts and culture in the four countries under study. Second, the article examines the assumption that the degree and direction of international orientation differs among countries according to their size, the centrality of their cultural production or their production in particular cultural fields, and their cultural policy framework. Third, the article qualifies the evolving patterns of dominance in the international orientation of arts journalism in each country, in terms of countries and regions represented in arts and culture coverage. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/8633/ 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z During a 2-month period, five patients suffering from invasive infections caused by Aspergillus flavus or Aspergillus fumigatus were identified in the Hematology Department of the University Hospital Dijkzigt (Rotterdam, The Netherlands). To study the epidemiological aspects of invasive aspergillosis, strains from these patients and from the hospital environment, isolated during extensive microbiological screening, were subjected to genotyping. A novel DNA extraction technique, involving freezing, grinding, and direct lysis in guanidium isothiocyanate-containing buffers of mycelial material, was applied. DNA isolation was followed by typing by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. This showed that strains isolated from all patients infected with the same fungal species were genotypically distinct, thus providing evidence against the possibility of an ongoing, single-source nosocomial outbreak. Strains could also be differentiated from strains of geographically diverse origins. However, an A. flavus strain from one of the patients was also frequently encountered in the hospital environment. As all environmental strains were collected after this patient had been diagnosed with invasive disease, the epidemiological value of this observation could not be ascertained. Intensive investigations showed no single source of A. flavus or other aspergilli. RAPD genotyping proved that the outbreak of invasive aspergillosis in the hematology ward