Natural handicaps in Dutch agricultural areas : assessment of less favoured areas based on economic criteria

Smit en Brouwer (2009) hebben bodems met een landbouwkundige handicap geselecteerd aan de hand van biofysische criteria. De relevante biofysische criteria waren gerelateerd aan bodemeigenschappen: drainage, textuur, aanwezigheid van stenen en chemische eigenschappen. Textuur en aanwezigheid van stenen zijn onderverdeeld in verschillende klassen: grof materiaal, grof en middelgrof zand, zware klei, veengronden, zwel en krimpverschijnselen en het opkomen van stenen uit de ondergrond. Verzilting is de enige chemische eigenschap die relevant is voor Nederland. Naast een selectie van gebieden op grond van biofysische eigenschappen, moet ook een verfijnde selectie worden uitgevoerd. Deze verfijnde selectie is gebaseerd op de verschillen in saldo per hectare tussen gebieden met en zonder de landbouwkundige gevolgen van de biofysische eigenschappen. De belangrijkste landbouwkundige gevolgen voor de verschillende categorieën waren de gevoeligheid voor winderosie bij grof en middelgrof zand; de beperkingen van de bewerkbaarheid van de grond en de beperkingen in het bouwplan op de zware kleigronden en lagere netto productie en de onmogelijkheid om maïs te verbouwen op veengronde

Ruimte voor Rechtsvorming:een onderzoek naar adequate instrumenten voor afhandeling en rechtsvorming door de Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State

De Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State is zowel geschilbeslechter als rechtsvormer. Haar geschilbeslechtende taak ontleent de Afdeling aan het feit dat overheid en burgers royaal gebruik maken van de mogelijkheid hun geschil ter beoordeling aan haar voor te leggen. De taak van de Afdeling als rechtsvormer vloeit voort uit haar hoedanigheid van hoogste bestuursrechter. Tussen beide taken bestaat een inherente spanning. De wens om elke afzonderlijke (hoger)beroepszaak zo gedegen, snel en effectief mogelijk af te handelen, kan in strijd komen met de noodzaak om de rechtsvormende taak als hoogste bestuursrechter inhoud te geven. In dit boek is de vraag aan de orde hoe de procedure bij de Afdeling bestuursrecht-spraak zo kan worden vormgegeven, dat beide taken het volle pond krijgen. Daartoe is zowel in kaart gebracht op welke wijze de Afdeling de aan haar voorgelegde ge-schillen behandelt, als ook welke alternatieven er zijn voor de wijze waarop de afhan-deling van (met name) hogerberoepszaken op dit moment is georganiseerd. Het onderzoek biedt daarmee niet alleen een uniek beeld van de werkwijze van de Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak, maar ook een grondige inventarisatie van een mogelij-ke alternatieve vormgeving van de procedure van (hoger) beroep. Het onderzoek mondt uit in een aantal aanbevelingen die beogen te bewerkstelligen dat de ruimte voor rechtsvorming wordt vergroot, zonder dat dit ten koste gaat van een snelle en effectieve beslechting van geschillen door de Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State

The GREATS Hβ\beta+[OIII] Luminosity Function and Galaxy Properties at z∼8\mathbf{z\sim8}: Walking the Way of JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope will allow to spectroscopically study an unprecedented number of galaxies deep into the reionization era, notably by detecting [OIII] and H$\beta$ nebular emission lines. To efficiently prepare such observations, we photometrically select a large sample of galaxies at $z\sim8$ and study their rest-frame optical emission lines. Combining data from the GOODS Re-ionization Era wide-Area Treasury from Spitzer (GREATS) survey and from HST, we perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, using synthetic SEDs from a large grid of photoionization models. The deep Spitzer/IRAC data combined with our models exploring a large parameter space enables to constrain the [OIII]+H$\beta$ fluxes and equivalent widths for our sample, as well as the average physical properties of $z\sim8$ galaxies, such as the ionizing photon production efficiency with $\log(\xi_\mathrm{ion}/\mathrm{erg}^{-1}\hspace{1mm}\mathrm{Hz})\geq25.77$. We find a relatively tight correlation between the [OIII]+H$\beta$ and UV luminosity, which we use to derive for the first time the [OIII]+H$\beta$ luminosity function (LF) at $z\sim8$. The $z\sim8$ [OIII]+H$\beta$ LF is higher at all luminosities compared to lower redshift, as opposed to the UV LF, due to an increase of the [OIII]+H$\beta$ luminosity at a given UV luminosity from $z\sim3$ to $z\sim8$. Finally, using the [OIII]+H$\beta$ LF, we make predictions for JWST/NIRSpec number counts of $z\sim8$ galaxies. We find that the current wide-area extragalactic legacy fields are too shallow to use JWST at maximal efficiency for $z\sim8$ spectroscopy even at 1hr depth and JWST pre-imaging to $\gtrsim30$ mag will be required.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Effect of helium pre- or postconditioning on signal transduction kinases in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Background: The noble gas helium induces pre- and postconditioning in animals and humans. Volatile anesthetics induce cardioprotection in humans undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. We hypothesized that helium induces pre-and postconditioning in CABG-patients, affecting signaling molecules protein kinase C-epsilon (PKC-epsilon), p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK-1/2) and heat shock protein 27 (HSP-27) within cardiac tissue, and reducing postoperative troponin levels. Methods: After ethical approval and informed consent, 125 elective patients undergoing CABG surgery were randomised into this prospective, placebo controlled, investigator blinded, parallel arm single-centre study. Helium preconditioning (3 x 5 min of 70 % helium and 30 % oxygen) was applied before aortic cross clamping; postconditioning (15 min of helium) was applied before release of the aortic cross clamp. Signaling molecules were measured in right atrial appendix specimens. Troponin-T was measured at 4, 12, 24 and 48 h postoperatively. Results: Baseline characteristics of all groups were similar. Helium preconditioning did not significantly alter the primary outcome (molecular levels of kinases PKC-e and HSP-27, ratio of activated p38 MAPK or ERK 1/2). Postoperative troponin T was 11 arbitrary units [5, 31; area-under-the-curve (interquartile range)] for controls, and no statistically significant changes were observed after helium preconditioning [He-pre: 11 (6, 18)], helium postconditioning [He-post: 11 (8, 15)], helium pre-and postconditioning [He-PP: 14 (6, 20)] and after sevoflurane preconditioning [APC: 12 (8, 24), p = 0.13]. No adverse effects related to study treatment were observed in this study. Conclusions: No effect was observed of helium preconditioning, postconditioning or the combination thereof on activation of p38 MAPK, ERK 1/2 or levels of HSP27 and PKC-e in the human heart. Helium pre-and postconditioning did not affect postoperative troponin release in patients undergoing CABG surgery

Investigation of the Domain Wall Fermion Approach to Chiral Gauge Theories on the Lattice

We investigate a recent proposal to construct chiral gauge theories on the lattice using domain wall fermions. We restrict ourselves to the finite volume case, in which two domain walls are present, with modes of opposite chirality on each of them. We couple the chiral fermions on only one of the domain walls to a gauge field. In order to preserve gauge invariance, we have to add a scalar field, which gives rise to additional light mirror fermion and scalar modes. We argue that in an anomaly free model these extra modes would decouple if our model possesses a so-called strong coupling symmetric phase. However, our numerical results indicate that such a phase most probably does not exist. ---- Note: 9 Postscript figures are appended as uuencoded compressed tar file.Comment: 27p. Latex; UCSD/PTH 93-28, Wash. U. HEP/93-6

Universal deformation rings of modules over Frobenius algebras

Let $k$ be a field, and let $\Lambda$ be a finite dimensional $k$-algebra. We prove that if $\Lambda$ is a self-injective algebra, then every finitely generated $\Lambda$-module $V$ whose stable endomorphism ring is isomorphic to $k$ has a universal deformation ring $R(\Lambda,V)$ which is a complete local commutative Noetherian $k$-algebra with residue field $k$. If $\Lambda$ is also a Frobenius algebra, we show that $R(\Lambda,V)$ is stable under taking syzygies. We investigate a particular Frobenius algebra $\Lambda_0$ of dihedral type, as introduced by Erdmann, and we determine $R(\Lambda_0,V)$ for every finitely generated $\Lambda_0$-module $V$ whose stable endomorphism ring is isomorphic to $k$.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures. Some typos have been fixed, the outline of the paper has been changed to improve readabilit

Professional needs of young Emergency Medicine specialists in Africa: Results of a South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Ghana survey

IntroductionEmergency Medicine (EM) residency programmes are new to Africa and exist in only a handful of countries. There has been no follow up on faculty development needs nor training of these graduates since they completed their programmes. The African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM) aims to explore the needs of recent EM graduates with respect to the need for resources, mentorship, and teaching in order to develop a focused African faculty development intervention.MethodsAs part of the AFEM annual survey, all those who have graduated since 2012 from a Sub-Saharan African EM residency programme were approached. These included Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania, Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Ghana, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, the University of Pretoria (UP) in South Africa, the University of Witswatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa.ResultsThe 47 respondents rated themselves as most confident medical experts in knowledge, procedural skills, and communication. Overall graduates felt least equipped as scholars and managers, and requested more educational materials. They reported that the best way for AFEM to support them is through emergency care advocacy and support for their advocacy activities and that their most critical development need is for leadership development, including providing training materials.ConclusionRecent graduates report that the best ways for AFEM to help new EM graduates is to continue advocacy programmes and the development of leadership and mentorship programmes. However, there is also a demand from these graduates for educational materials, especially online

Theory of the anomalous Hall effect from the Kubo formula and the Dirac equation

A model to treat the anomalous Hall effect is developed. Based on the Kubo formalism and on the Dirac equation, this model allows the simultaneous calculation of the skew-scattering and side-jump contributions to the anomalous Hall conductivity. The continuity and the consistency with the weak-relativistic limit described by the Pauli Hamiltonian is shown. For both approaches, Dirac and Pauli, the Feynman diagrams, which lead to the skew-scattering and the side-jump contributions, are underlined. In order to illustrate this method, we apply it to a particular case: a ferromagnetic bulk compound in the limit of weak-scattering and free-electrons approximation. Explicit expressions for the anomalous Hall conductivity for both skew-scattering and side-jump mechanisms are obtained. Within this model, the recently predicted ''spin Hall effect'' appears naturally