Nature 2000 in Nederland : juridische ruimte, natuurdoelen en beheersplanprocessen

De Natura 2000-gebieden in Nederland bevatten natuur van Europese betekenis, met een groot aantal Europees beschermde soorten en habitats. De zogenoemde staat van instandhouding van veel van deze soorten en habitats is echter ongunstig en Nederland heeft de plicht die te verbeteren. Het beschermingsregime in en rond de Natura 2000-gebieden brengt activiteiten als landbouw, recreatie en wonen regelmatig in conflict met de te beschermen natuurwaarden. Onzekerheid over de verplichtingen in en rond de Natura 2000-gebieden voedt de maatschappelijke weerstand tegen het beschermingsregime

Interplay of White Matter Hyperintensities, Cerebral Networks, and Cognitive Function in an Adult Population:Diffusion-Tensor Imaging in the Maastricht Study

Background: Lesions of cerebral small vessel disease, such as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) in individuals with cardiometabolic risk factors, interfere with the trajectories of the white matter and eventually contribute to cognitive decline. However, there is no consensus yet about the precise underlying topological mechanism. Purpose: To examine whether WMH and cognitive function are associated and whether any such association is mediated or explained by structural connectivity measures in an adult population. In addition, to investigate underlying local abnormalities in white matter by assessing the tract-specific WMH volumes and their tract-specific association with cognitive function. Materials and Methods: In the prospective type 2 diabetes-enriched population-based Maastricht Study, structural and diffusion-tensor MRI was performed (December 2013 to February 2017). Total and tract-specific WMH volumes; network measures; cognition scores; and demographic, cardiovascular, and lifestyle characteristics were determined. Multivariable linear regression and mediation analyses were used to investigate the association of WMH volume, tract-specific WMH volumes, and network measures with cognitive function. Associations were adjusted for age, sex, education, diabetes status, and cardiovascular risk factors. Results: A total of 5083 participants (mean age, 59 years +/- 9 [standard deviation]; 2592 men; 1027 with diabetes) were evaluated. Larger WMH volumes were associated with stronger local (standardized beta coefficient, 0.065; P Conclusion: White matter hyperintensity volume, local network efficiency, and information processing speed scores are interrelated, and local network properties explain lower cognitive performance due to white matter network alterations. (C) RSNA, 202

Application of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in the assessment of blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier integrity

VERHEGGEN, I.C.M., W. Freeze, J. de Jong, J. Jansen, A. Postma, M. van Boxtel, F. Verhey and W. Backes. The application of contrast-enhanced MRI in the assessment of blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier integrity. Choroid plexus epithelial cells form a barrier that enables active, bidirectional exchange between the blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), known as the blood-CSF barrier (BCSFB). Through its involvement in CSF composition, the BCSFB maintains homeostasis in the central nervous system. While the relation between bloodbrain barrier disruption, aging and neurodegeneration is extensively studied using contrast-enhanced MRI, applying this technique to investigate BCSFB disruption in age-related neurodegeneration has received little attention. This review provides an overview of the current status of contrast-enhanced MRI to assess BCSFB permeability. Post-contrast ventricular gadolinium enhancement has been used to indicate BCSFB permeability. Moreover, new techniques highly sensitive to low gadolinium concentrations in the CSF, for instance heavily T2weighted imaging with cerebrospinal fluid suppression, seem promising. Also, attempts are made at using other contrast agents, such as manganese ions or very small superparamagnetic iron oxide particles, that seem to be cleared from the brain at the choroid plexus. Advancing and applying new developments such as these could progress the assessment of BCSFB integrity.Neuro Imaging Researc

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter