Management plan for the natural resources of the EEZ of the Dutch Caribbean

On the 10th of October 2010 the governmental entity known as the Netherlands Antilles is scheduled to cease to exist. Each island will aquire a new status within the kingdom. Following the declaration of an Exclusive Fishery Zone (EFZ) in 1993, an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) has been declared in the Dutch Caribbean on the tenth of June 2010. The EEZ area concerned, is a large expanse of sea which harbours exceptional biodiversity, and represents an important natural renewable resource potential. The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and The Netherlands have, therefore, opted to draft a management plan for the EEZ. This initiative began in the year 2005 when the first conference regarding the management of the biodiversity in the EEZ was held. The consensus was that despite a fragmented Dutch Caribbean, the EEZ should always be integrally managed. In 2009 the participants of the second conference confirmed the need for common management and developed common goals, principles and a framework for the management of the Dutch Caribbean waters. Resulting from this conference a management plan was drafted, circulated to all stakeholders and discussed on the 1st of June 2010. Based on the input and feedback received, as well as subsequent correspondence, this final management plan was jointly developed

Turning data into action:Supporting humanitarian field workers with open data

In the aftermath of disasters, information is of the essence for humanitarian decision makers in the field. Their concrete information needs is highly context-influenced and often they find themselves unable to access the right information at the right time. We propose a novel ICT-based approach to address these information needs more accurately. First, we select a group of in-field decision makers and collect their concrete information needs in the disaster aftermath. We then review to what extent existing data and tools can already address these needs. We conclude that existing solutions fall short in meeting important information needs of the selected group. We describe the design of an information system prototype to address these gaps more accurately. We combine data of the International Aid Transparency Initiative and the Humanitarian Data Exchange to form the data-backend of our system. We describe our implementation approach and evaluation plan

The reciprocity of data integration in disaster risk analysis

Humanitarian organizations are increasingly challenged by the amount of data available to drive their decisions. Useful data can come from many sources, exists in different formats, and merging it into a basis for analysis and planning often exceeds organizations’ capacities and resources. At the same time, affected communities’ participation in decision making processes is often hindered by a lack of information and data literacy capacities within the communities. We describe a participatory disaster risk analysis project in the central Philippines where the community and a humanitarian NGO worked towards a joint understanding of disaster risks and coping capacities through data integration and IT-supported analysis. We present findings from workshops, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, showing the reciprocal effects of the collaborative work. While the community valued the systematically gathered and structured evidence that supported their own risk perceptions and advocacy efforts, the humanitarian NGO revisited established work practices for data collection for analysis and planning

Sensitivity to change of the Beck Depression Inventory versus the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms

Background: In a previous study which made a comparison between disorder-specific and generic instruments to assess outcome of treatments for depression, the Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II) seemed to be more sensitive to change than the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms- Self Rating (IDS-SR). Methods: A set with longitudinal data from Routine Outcome Monitoring (n=144) were analyzed with multilevel models with random intercepts. The sensitivity to change of two disorder-specific instruments, the BDI-II and the IDS-SR, were compared head to head. Results: The BDI-II was more sensitive to change when measuring treatment outcome compared to the IDS-SR. The BDI-II decreases significantly more over time than the IDS-SR: the average decrease per week for the IDS-SR is -.012 (95%CI -0.015, -0.009) and for the BDI-II it is -.017 (95%CI -0.021, -0.014). Limitations: Conclusions can only be preliminary due to a small sample size. Conclusions: Treatment outcomes measured with questionnaires may differ depending on the degree of sensitivity to change of the instruments

A Pharmacokinetic Model for Protamine Dosing After Cardiopulmonary Bypass

ObjectiveThis study investigated postoperative hemostasis of patients subjected to conventional protamine dosing compared with protamine dosing based on a pharmacokinetic (PK) model following cardiopulmonary bypass.DesignRetrospective case-control study.SettingTertiary university hospital.ParticipantsPatients undergoing elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.InterventionsIn 56 patients, protamine was dosed in a fixed ratio (CD), while 62 patients received protamine based on the PK model.Measurements and Main ResultsThere was no difference in heparin administration (414±107 mg (CD) v 403±90 mg (PK); p = 0.54), whereas protamine dosing was considerably different with a protamine-to-heparin dosing ratio of 1.1±0.3 for the CD group and 0.5±0.1 for the PK group (p<0.001). The changes in activated coagulation time (ΔACT) values (ACT after protamine minus preoperative ACT;+17±77 s v+6±15 s; p = 0.31) were equal between groups. Yet, the thromboelastometric intrinsically activated coagulation test clotting time (CT; 250±76 s v 203±44 s; p<0.001) and intrinsically activated coagulation test without the heparin effect CT (275±105 v 198±32 s; p<0.001) were prolonged in the CD group. Median packed red blood cell transfusion (0 [0–2] v 0 [0–0]), fresh frozen plasma transfusion (1 [0–2] v 0 [0–0]), and platelet concentrate transfusion (0 [0–1] v 0 [0–0]) were different between the fixed ratio and PK group, respectively (all p<0.001).ConclusionsThis study showed that patient-tailored protamine dosing based on a PK model was associated with a reduction in protamine dosing, with better hemostatic test results when compared with fixed-ratio protamine dosing

Systemic fluoroquinolone prescriptions for hospitalized children in Belgium, results of a multicenter retrospective drug utilization study

Background: Fluoroquinolones (FQ) are increasingly prescribed for children, despite being labeled for only a limited number of labeled pediatric indications. In this multicenter retrospective drug utilization study, we analyzed indications for systemic FQ prescriptions in hospitalized children and the appropriateness of the prescribed dose. Methods: Using data obtained from electronic medical files, the study included all children who received a systemic FQ prescription in two Belgian university children's hospitals between 2010 and 2013. Two authors reviewed prescribed daily doses. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze risk factors for inadequately dosing. Results262 FQ prescriptions for individual patients were included for analysis. 16.8% of these prescriptions were for labeled indications, and 35.1% were guided by bacteriological findings. Prescribed daily dose was considered to be inappropriate in 79 prescriptions (30.2%). Other FQ than ciprofloxacin accounted for 9 prescriptions (3.4%), of which 8 were correctly dosed. Underdosing represented 45 (56.9%) dosing errors. Infants and preschool children were at particular risk for dosing errors, with associated adjusted OR of 0.263 (0.097-0.701) and 0.254 (0.106-0.588) respectively. Conclusions: FQ were often prescribed off-label and not guided by bacteriological findings in our study population. Dosing errors were common, particularly in infants and preschool children. FQ prescriptions for children should be improved by specific pediatric antimicrobial stewardship teams. Furthermore, pharmacokinetic studies should optimise dosing recommendations for children

Onderzoek naar Duurzame Schelpdiervisserij (PRODUS) Eindrapport deelproject 1 c

De fluctuaties in aanbod van mosselzaad en druk op de visserij hebben er toe geleid dat de sector is gaan zoeken naar alternatieve bronnen van jonge mosselen. Sinds 2000 wordt gewerkt aan het ontwikkelen van mosselzaadinvangsystemen (MZI’s). Er is onder andere gekeken naar variatie in zaadinvang en groei van het zaad, het effect van MZI's op de bodemfauna en -structuur en op vogels en zeezoogdieren. Het artikel eindigt met enkele conclusies en aanbevelingen

Behavioural inhibition and behavioural activation system scales for children: Relationships with Eysenck's personality traits and psychopathological symptoms

This study examined the psychometric properties of an age-downward version of the Carver and White (1994) BIS/BAS scales. Normal school children (N = 284) aged 8-12 years completed the BIS/BAS scales as well as scales of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and psychopathological symptoms. Results showed that the BIS/BAS scales for children had a theoretically meaningful factor structure and satisfactory reliability. Relationships with Eysenck's personality traits of Neuroticism and Extraversion, and psychopathological symptoms were generally as expected. That is, Neuroticism was positively associated with both BIS and BAS, whereas Extraversion was negatively related to BIS but positively to BAS. Further, BIS was convincingly connected to higher levels of internalizing symptoms, whereas BAS was to a certain level related to externalizing symptoms

Global land-surface evaporation estimated from satellite-based observations

This paper outlines a new strategy to derive evaporation from satellite observations. The approach uses a variety of satellite-sensor products to estimate daily evaporation at a global scale and 0.25 degree spatial resolution. Central to this methodology is the use of the Priestley and Taylor (PT) evaporation model. The minimalistic PT equation combines a small number of inputs, the majority of which can be detected from space. This reduces the number of variables that need to be modelled. Key distinguishing features of the approach are the use of microwave-derived soil moisture, land surface temperature and vegetation density, as well as the detailed estimation of rainfall interception loss. The modelled evaporation is validated against one year of eddy covariance measurements from 43 stations. The estimated annual totals correlate well with the stations' annual cumulative evaporation (&lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;=0.80, &lt;i&gt;N&lt;/i&gt;=43) and present a low average bias (−5%). The validation of the daily time series at each individual station shows good model performance in all vegetation types and climate conditions with an average correlation coefficient of &lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: overline"&gt;R&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;=0.83, still lower than the &lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: overline"&gt;R&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;=0.90 found in the validation of the monthly time series. The first global map of annual evaporation developed through this methodology is also presented