Wind voor of wind tegen: windenergie op agrarische bedrijven

De Nederlandse overheid streeft naar een windenergievermogen op land van 4.000 MW in 2011, een verdubbeling van het huidige vermogen. Kan de agrarische sector een bijdrage leveren aan deze ambitieuze doelstelling? Om hier enig inzicht in te krijgen is in dit onderzoek gekeken naar de huidige situatie in de agrarische windenergiesector. Aan de orde komen hier structuurkenmerken, de bijdrage aan de nationale energievoorziening en bedrijfseconomische effecten op het agrarische bedrijf

Wat noemen we verbrede landbouw? Verkenning van definities en informatiebehoeften

Het ministerie van LNV wil zich inzetten om agrarische ondernemers te faciliteren in de keuze van een (nieuwe) bedrijfsstrategie. Een belangrijk aspect daarvan behelst het inzichtelijk maken van het economische belang van de verbrede landbouw. Om de discussie rond het belang van verbreding op agrarische bedrijven zuiver te kunnen voeren is een empirische onderbouwing nodig waarmee uiteindelijk de omvang, de economische bijdrage en de ontwikkeling daarvan over de jaren heen, van de verbrede landbouw bepaald kan worden. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality (LNV) actively supports agricultural entrepreneurs in determining their business strategies. Given the increasing interest from entrepreneurs for multifunctional agriculture, there is strong demand for insights into its economic relevance. At the same time, there is a need for a robust empirical framework to understand and compare all the economic issues which are relevant to multifunctional agriculture. This framework would need to consist of indicators for market size, economic contribution to business revenue and the development of multifunctional agriculture over the years. This report is concerned with defining these indicators and looks into a preliminary design of a monitoring system which could fulfil the sector's requirements for more knowledge on the economic potential of multifunctional agriculture

Hippocampal vascular reserve associated with cognitive performance and hippocampal volume

Medial temporal lobe dependent cognitive functions are highly vulnerable to hypoxia in the hippocampal region, yet little is known about the relationship between the richness of hippocampal vascular supply and cognition. Hippocampal vascularization patterns have been categorized into a mixed supply from both the posterior cerebral artery and the anterior choroidal artery or a single supply by the posterior cerebral artery only. Hippocampal arteries are small and affected by pathological changes when cerebral small vessel disease is present. We hypothesized, that hippocampal vascularization patterns may be important trait markers for vascular reserve and modulate (i) cognitive performance; (ii) structural hippocampal integrity; and (iii) the effect of cerebral small vessel disease on cognition. Using high-resolution 7 T time-of-flight angiography we manually classified hippocampal vascularization patterns in older adults with and without cerebral small vessel disease in vivo. The presence of a mixed supplied hippocampus was an advantage in several cognitive domains, including verbal list learning and global cognition. A mixed supplied hippocampus also was an advantage for verbal memory performance in cerebral small vessel disease. Voxel-based morphometry showed higher anterior hippocampal grey matter volume in mixed, compared to single supply. We discuss that a mixed hippocampal supply, as opposed to a single one, may increase the reliability of hippocampal blood supply and thereby provide a hippocampal vascular reserve that protects against cognitive impairment

Detection of Cerebral Microbleeds With Venous Connection at 7-Tesla MRI

Objective: Cerebral microbleeds (MBs) are a common finding in patients with cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and Alzheimer disease as well as in healthy elderly people, but their pathophysiology remains unclear. To investigate a possible role of veins in the development of MBs, we performed an exploratory study, assessing in vivo presence of MBs with a direct connection to a vein. Methods: 7-Tesla (7T) MRI was conducted and MBs were counted on quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). A submillimeter resolution QSM-based venogram allowed identification of MBs with a direct spatial connection to a vein. Results: A total of 51 people (mean age [SD] 70.5 [8.6] years, 37% female) participated in the study: 20 had CSVD (cerebral amyloid angiopathy [CAA] with strictly lobar MBs [n = 8], hypertensive arteriopathy [HA] with strictly deep MBs [n = 5], or mixed lobar and deep MBs [n = 7], 72.4 [6.1] years, 30% female) and 31 were healthy controls (69.4 [9.9] years, 42% female). In our cohort, we counted a total of 96 MBs with a venous connection, representing 14% of all detected MBs on 7T QSM. Most venous MBs (86%, n = 83) were observed in lobar locations and all of these were cortical. Patients with CAA showed the highest ratio of venous to total MBs (19%) (HA = 9%, mixed = 18%, controls = 5%). Conclusion: Our findings establish a link between cerebral MBs and the venous vasculature, pointing towards a possible contribution of veins to CSVD in general and to CAA in particular. Pathologic studies are needed to confirm our observations

The use of conditional and potential instability axes for severe weather forceasting

In this thesis, we used an innovative approach to severe weather forecasting using traditional forecast parameters. The maximum theta-e (potential instability) in the lowest 300 mb and the deep-layer lapse rate (conditional instability) fields are two commonly used forecast parameters for severe weather forecasting, and the ridges of these fields, or more specifically, the ridge intersections, were hypothesized to indicate regions for enhanced severe convection. In addition, the sharpness of these ridge axes may correlate to an increase in severe potential. To test this theory, a mathematical formula was devised to quantitatively assess ridge strength. Then, using theta-e, lapse rate and their respective ridge strengths as predictors, a linear discriminate analysis was performed on dependent and independent datasets from the spring of 2008. Severe probabilistic forecasts were produced using the discriminate analysis and verified using two independent methods. Skill metrics calculated for the forecasts determined there is significant positive skill of the forecast technique. As a side note, this research attempted to determine the wavelength features (meso-a to meso-B ) that recorded the highest level of skill using this method. No significant difference was noted in the different wavelength feature forecasts, possibly due to the verification method.http://archive.org/details/theuseofconditio109454800US Air Force (USAF) author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited