Managing international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary collaboration in health and well-being capacity building: Lessons learned within the CASO higher education project

In defining successful collaborative international projects within the theory of change or logic model, focus is often on ‘outcome’ and ‘impact’. Less empirical information is available regarding the ‘input’ and ‘activities’ aspects of this model. To address this knowledge gap and to offer insight into pivotal elements for management, this study focused on the lessons learned from the development and management of the international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary collaboration Caring Society (CASO) project. A needs analysis among project members was performed using a cross-sectional questionnaire with 31 multiple-choice and 10 open-ended questions. The combined quantitative and qualitative findings resulted in seven key elements being identified: information/communication, personal capacity building, finance, organization, time, facility, and quality

The magnitude and importance of perceived health dimensions define effective tailor-made health-promoting interventions per targeted socioeconomic group

Recent insights and developments on health and society urge a critical look at the positive relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. We challenge the notions that it is sufficient to distinguish only between two groups of SES (low and high) and that only overall health is taken into account. A new grouping of SES was developed based on both income and education, resulting in six SES groups. Health was defined in terms of a new positive health concept, operationalized into six health dimensions generating a measure of total general health (TGH). Next, six socioeconomic and demographic determinants of health were included. Linear regression, T-tests and one-way ANOVA were applied to investigate the relationships in a Dutch sample. A subjective way to measure health was applied: self-rated health (SRH). As a result, four out of six dimensions of health determined TGH: bodily functions, daily functioning, quality of life, and social and societal participation. Three out of six socioeconomic and demographic determinants impacted TGH: housing situation, age, and difficulties meeting financial obligations. While this is the general picture for the entire sample, there were interesting similarities and differences between the six SES groups. The similarities lie in the positive impact of the evaluation of bodily functions and daily functioning on TGH in all SES groups. The other dimensions affected TGH in some groups, and some dimensions only in one SES group. None of the socioeconomic and demographic determinants affected TGH in all SES groups. New insights on health inequalities are provided. It is concluded, first that the well-known positive relationship between SES and health is confirmed in this study. Second, further refining the health concept into six dimensions provides more detailed insights on which dimensions impact health the most. The subjective approach applied offers more refined information to better understand which health issues really matter to people. This yields new insights to develop tailor-made interventions aimed at increasing healthy behaviour in specific societal groups

Modelling early medieval flood-induced breaching of a coversand ridge in the IJssel valley, Rhine delta, the Netherlands

Connecting geologically mapped data to numerical modelling can help in understanding river landscape evolution. This study focuses on flood-induced breaching of the coversand ridge in the IJssel valley floodplain (Rhine delta, the Netherlands). The development of the breach would explain why this river branch came into existence in early medieval times. Prior to the breaching, the coversand ridge formed a barrier for the Rhine River to discharge towards the north. A palaeoflood model was coupled to a local sediment transport model to predict sediment transport rates in two competing coversand ridge breaches. The results show that the breach at the current IJssel River location was expected to expand earlier and faster in time for various upstream discharge waves and initial breach dimensions. This provides quantitative argumentation for the IJssel river avulsion case to have been triggered by the breaching of the coversand ridge during a large palaeoflood

Modelling early medieval flood-induced breaching of a coversand ridge in the IJssel valley, Rhine delta, the Netherlands

Connecting geologically mapped data to numerical modelling can help in understanding river landscape evolution. This study focuses on flood-induced breaching of the coversand ridge in the IJssel valley floodplain (Rhine delta, the Netherlands). The development of the breach would explain why this river branch came into existence in early medieval times. Prior to the breaching, the coversand ridge formed a barrier for the Rhine River to discharge towards the north. A palaeoflood model was coupled to a local sediment transport model to predict sediment transport rates in two competing coversand ridge breaches. The results show that the breach at the current IJssel River location was expected to expand earlier and faster in time for various upstream discharge waves and initial breach dimensions. This provides quantitative argumentation for the IJssel river avulsion case to have been triggered by the breaching of the coversand ridge during a large palaeoflood

Equal force generation potential of trabecular and compact wall ventricular cardiomyocytes

Trabecular myocardium makes up most of the ventricular wall of the human embryo. A process of compaction in the fetal period presumably changes ventricular wall morphology by converting ostensibly weaker trabecular myocardium into stronger compact myocardium. Using developmental series of embryonic and fetal humans, mice and chickens, we show ventricular morphogenesis is driven by differential rates of growth of trabecular and compact layers rather than a process of compaction. In mouse, fetal cardiomyocytes are relatively weak but adult cardiomyocytes from the trabecular and compact layer show an equally large force generating capacity. In fetal and adult humans, trabecular and compact myocardium are not different in abundance of immunohistochemically detected vascular, mitochondrial and sarcomeric proteins. Similar findings are made in human excessive trabeculation, a congenital malformation. In conclusion, trabecular and compact myocardium is equally equipped for force production and their proportions are determined by differential growth rates rather than by compaction

Are EU Leading Firms Returning to Core Business? Evidence on Refocusing and Relatedness in a Period of Market Integration

This paper tests, for 108 diversified EU manufacturing leaders faced by the EU integration shock (1987–1997), if firms responded to increased competitive pressure by readjusting their industry-mix around a core of related activities. Our results show that, in spite of limited reduction in diversification, firms pursued strategies of related constrained diversification by expanding the output of industries related to the core. We also find that complementarity amongst the firm’s operations – i.e., sharing common intermediary products or common output markets – drives the refocusing. The effect is stronger for highly diversified firms. Our findings suggest that EU leaders are moving toward a more efficient use of their resources. Copyright Springer 2005European integration, firm diversification, return to core,

Immigrant migration dynamics model for The Netherlands

Return migration, Migration dynamics, Mover–stayer model, F22, J10, C41,

Economic Impact of Competition Policy: A Look Beyond Consumer Surplus

Competition authorities try to mitigate negative distortionary effects on the markets by tackling abuse of market power or cartels and by controlling mergers. This study attempts to assess the impact of these endeavours by going beyond calculations of lumpsum effects on consumer surplus. We revise the simulation of Van Sinderen and Kemp (Economist 156(4):365-385, 2008) who use a cut in income taxes as a modelling device to simulate the impact of anti cartel policies. Our approach avoids attributing effects caused purely by changes in taxation to market power and uses changes in the Lerner index as the impuls. We have updated the model to enable simulating the impact of competition policies on productivity and R&D in order to get a balanced view on the effects. We find that the re-distribution of surplus from producers to consumers supported by ACM in this new setting is likely to have a positive effect on productivity, GDP, wages and consumption, and a small positive effect on employment. This differs from the outcome of Van Sinderen and Kemp, who did not find a positive impact on productivity, due to an overestimation of the employment growth