PROJECT HALF DOUBLE: Training practitioners, working with visuals, practice reflections and small and medium-sized enterprises

Since the beginning of Project Half Double in 2015, the overall goal has been to deliver "Projects in half the time with double the impact" where projects in half the time should be understood as half the time to impact and not as half the time for project execution. The research team at Aarhus University has published three Project Half Double reports on the Half Double Methodology and the results from applying the methodology on "real life" pilot projects in order to evaluate how the overall goal mentioned above has been achieved.The aim of this report is to document some of the learnings obtained throughout the years. Four themes were selected for this report: 1) practitioner training, 2) working with visuals, 3) practice reflections, and finally 4) small and medium-sized enterprises

4,6-Bis[4-(benzyl­sulfan­yl)styr­yl]-2-(methyl­sulfan­yl)pyrimidine

The title compound, C35H30N2S3, has been synthesized by a solvent-free reaction. The mol­ecule exhibits an E,E configuration, the benzene rings and pyrimidine rings being located on the opposite sides of the C=C bonds. The centroid–centroid separation of 3.5808 (17) Å indicates the existence of π–π stacking between nearly parallel pyrimidine and benzene rings of adjacent mol­ecules

The impact of childhood cancer on parents' socio-economic situation-A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Taking care of children diagnosed with cancer may have considerable consequences on parents' socio-economic situation. Our systematic review aimed to evaluate and synthesise the evidence on the impact of childhood cancer on parents' socio-economic situation. METHODS: Systematic literature searches for articles published between January 2000 and January 2019 were performed in PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO. Findings of eligible articles were narratively synthesised and quality appraised. RESULTS: Our systematic review included 35 eligible articles. Childhood cancer had a substantial impact on parents' socio-economic situation across all studies. This impact varied largely by geographical region. We observed a high prevalence of disruptions in parental employment such as job quitting or job loss, particularly among mothers. The associated income losses further contributed to families' perceived financial burden in addition to increased cancer-related expenses. Adverse socio-economic consequences were most pronounced shortly after diagnosis, however, persisted into early survivorship for certain groups of parents. We identified families of children diagnosed with haematological cancers, younger age at diagnosis, and lower parental socio-economic position to be at particular risk for adverse socio-economic consequences. CONCLUSIONS: Following the child's cancer diagnosis, parents experience a broad range of adverse socio-economic consequences. Further effort is needed to systematically implement an assessment of financial hardship in paediatric oncology together with appropriate support services along the cancer trajectory

Effects of competitive pressure and habitat heterogeneity on niche partitioning between Arctic and boreal congeners

The rapidly changing climate in the Arctic is expected to have a major impact on the foraging ecology of seabirds, owing to changes in the distribution and abundance of their prey but also that of competitors (e.g. southerly species expanding their range into the Arctic). Species can respond to interspecific competition by segregating along different niche axes. Here, we studied spatial, temporal and habitat segregation between two closely related seabird species: common guillemot Uria aalge (a temperate species) and Brünnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia (a true Arctic species), at two sympatric sites in Iceland that differ in their total population sizes and the availability of marine habitats. We deployed GPS and temperature-depth recorders to describe foraging locations and behaviour of incubating and chick-rearing adults. We found similar evidence of spatial segregation at the two sites (i.e. independent of population sizes), although segregation in environmental space was only evident at the site with a strong habitat gradient. Unexpectedly, temporal (and, to a limited extent, vertical) segregation appeared only at the least populated site. Overall, our results show complex relationships between the levels of inferred competition and that of segregation

Data Management Plans: the Importance of Data Management in the BIG‐MAP Project[]**

Open access to research data is increasingly important for accelerating research. Grant authorities therefore request detailed plans for how data is managed in the projects they finance. We have recently developed such a plan for the EU−H2020 BIG-MAP project—a cross-disciplinary project targeting disruptive battery-material discoveries. Essential for reaching the goal is extensive sharing of research data across scales, disciplines and stakeholders, not limited to BIG-MAP and the European BATTERY 2030+ initiative but within the entire battery community. The key challenges faced in developing the data management plan for such a large and complex project were to generate an overview of the enormous amount of data that will be produced, to build an understanding of the data flow within the project and to agree on a roadmap for making all data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable). This paper describes the process we followed and how we structured the plan

CD4/CD8 Ratio and the Risk of Kaposi Sarcoma or Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in the Context of Efficiently Treated Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection: A Collaborative Analysis of 20 European Cohort Studies

BACKGROUND: A persistently low CD4/CD8 ratio has been reported to inversely correlate with the risk of non-AIDS defining cancer in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV; PLWH) efficiently treated by combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). We evaluated the impact of the CD4/CD8 ratio on the risk of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), still among the most frequent cancers in treated PLWH. METHODS: PLWH from the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research Europe (COHERE) were included if they achieved virological control (viral load ≤ 500 copies/mL) within 9 months following cART and without previous KS/LNH diagnosis. Cox models were used to identify factors associated with KS or NHL risk, in all participants and those with CD4 ≥ 500/mm3 at virological control. We analyzed the CD4/CD8 ratio, CD4 count and CD8 count as time-dependent variables, using spline transformations. RESULTS: We included 56 708 PLWH, enrolled between 2000 and 2014. At virological control, the median (interquartile range [IQR]) CD4 count, CD8 count, and CD4/CD8 ratio were 414 (296-552)/mm3, 936 (670-1304)/mm3, and 0.43 (0.28-0.65), respectively. Overall, 221 KS and 187 NHL were diagnosed 9 (2-37) and 18 (7-42) months after virological control. Low CD4/CD8 ratios were associated with KS risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.02 [95% confidence interval {CI } = 1.23-3.31]) when comparing CD4/CD8 = 0.3 to CD4/CD8 = 1) but not with NHL risk. High CD8 counts were associated with higher NHL risk (HR = 3.14 [95% CI = 1.58-6.22]) when comparing CD8 = 3000/mm3 to CD8 = 1000/mm3). Similar results with increased associations were found in PLWH with CD4 ≥ 500/mm3 at virological control (HR = 3.27 [95% CI = 1.60-6.56] for KS; HR = 5.28 [95% CI = 2.17-12.83] for NHL). CONCLUSIONS: Low CD4/CD8 ratios and high CD8 counts despite effective cART were associated with increased KS/NHL risks respectively, especially when CD4 ≥ 500/mm3

Cold comfort: Arctic seabirds find refugia from climate change and potential competition in marginal ice zones and fjords

Climate change alters species distributions by shifting their fundamental niche in space through time. Such effects may be exacerbated by increased inter-specific competition if climate alters species dominance where competitor ranges overlap. This study used census data, telemetry and stable isotopes to examine the population and foraging ecology of a pair of Arctic and temperate congeners across an extensive zone of sympatry in Iceland, where sea temperatures varied substantially. The abundance of Arctic Brünnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia declined with sea temperature. Accessibility of refugia in cold water currents or fjords helped support higher numbers and reduce rates of population decline. Competition with temperate Common guillemots Uria aalge did not affect abundance, but similarities in foraging ecology were sufficient to cause competition when resources are limiting. Continued warming is likely to lead to further declines of Brünnich’s guillemot, with implications for conservation status and ecosystem services

Water Microbiology. Bacterial Pathogens and Water

Water is essential to life, but many people do not have access to clean and safe drinking water and many die of waterborne bacterial infections. In this review a general characterization of the most important bacterial diseases transmitted through water—cholera, typhoid fever and bacillary dysentery—is presented, focusing on the biology and ecology of the causal agents and on the diseases’ characteristics and their life cycles in the environment. The importance of pathogenic Escherichia coli strains and emerging pathogens in drinking water-transmitted diseases is also briefly discussed. Microbiological water analysis is mainly based on the concept of fecal indicator bacteria. The main bacteria present in human and animal feces (focusing on their behavior in their hosts and in the environment) and the most important fecal indicator bacteria are presented and discussed (focusing on the advantages and limitations of their use as markers). Important sources of bacterial fecal pollution of environmental waters are also briefly indicated. In the last topic it is discussed which indicators of fecal pollution should be used in current drinking water microbiological analysis. It was concluded that safe drinking water for all is one of the major challenges of the 21st century and that microbiological control of drinking water should be the norm everywhere. Routine basic microbiological analysis of drinking water should be carried out by assaying the presence of Escherichia coli by culture methods. Whenever financial resources are available, fecal coliform determinations should be complemented with the quantification of enterococci. More studies are needed in order to check if ammonia is reliable for a preliminary screening for emergency fecal pollution outbreaks. Financial resources should be devoted to a better understanding of the ecology and behavior of human and animal fecal bacteria in environmental waters