Disentangling barrier effects of transport infrastructure: synthesising research for the practice of impact assessment

Transport infrastructure such as railways, motorways and arterial roads increases regional accessibility for motorised transport but simultaneously can create barriers in local street networks that can decrease accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists. Although several tools for an objective assessment of these barrier effects have been developed, their use in practice is limited; impact assessments are instead based on subjective descriptions. This article reviews the literature on barrier effects of the last 60 years and aims to offer guidance for the use of objective methods of assessment of barrier effects. The first contribution is a conceptual model for the barrier effects of transport infrastructure and their determinants. The second contribution is an overview of tools for the assessment of barrier effects. We conclude that a multi-disciplinary approach is required, supported by the conceptual model and the overview of assessment tools. Investments in transport infrastructure can then be based on broader decision support involving not only the benefits of increasing regional accessibility but also the cost of reducing local accessibility

Construtechs no Brasil : um estudo sobre empresas inovadoras e emergentes de construção civil

O presente trabalho objetivou analisar os desafios e oportunidades vivenciados por construtechs no Brasil. Para isso, foi realizado um estudo de campo com construtechs brasileiras e agentes do ecossistema. A pesquisa foi dividida em três etapas. Na primeira etapa foi realizada a seleção das construtechs e dos agentes do ecossistema. A segunda etapa consistiu na construção e aplicação do instrumento de pesquisa. Na terceira etapa foram identificados os desafios e oportunidades vivenciados por construtechs. Entre os principais resultados obtidos, destacam-se a cultura mais conservadora do mercado e a lacuna entre academia e mercado.This paper aimed to analyse the challenges and opportunities experienced by construtechs in Brazil. In this case, a field study was conducted with brazilian‘s construtechs and ecosystem agents. This research was divided into three stages. In the first stage, construtechs and ecosystem agents were selected. The second stage consisted of the construction and application of the research instruments. In the third stage, the challenges and opportunities experienced by the construtechs were identified. Among the main results obtained are the conservative culture and the gap between academy and market

Biology Education Research. Contemporary topics and directions

This volume consists of 29 original papers presented at the 12th Conference of European Researchers in Didactics of Biology (ERIDOB) organized by the University of Zaragoza in collaboration with University de Santiago de Compostela, hosted in July 2018 by the Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza, Spain. Recognizing the importance and potential of being well-trained in biology, the bi-annual Conference of ERIDOB is now a firmly established and leading forum for European and non-European researchers to discuss and reflect on research in biology education, to find new ways of ensuring continued advances in teaching and learning this discipline. Biology is a field of research in constant growth. Its advances have brought not only enormous benefits to humanity in fields from Human Biology to Ecology, but also great repercussions in our daily lives. This context makes it necessary for biology education to equip young people with the tools and resources needed to become scientifically literate, critical thinkers and social activists. Some of these concerns are highlighted in this book, whose 29 papers have been selected after having passed a double blind review process by at least one member of the ERIDOB Academic Committee together with an experienced reviewer of the ERIDOB academic community. In the introduction of this volume the keynote conference, How to gather and analyse quality evidence about successful biology classrooms, presented by María Pilar Jiménez Aleixandre, methodological issues related to classroom studies are addressed. Special attention is on qualitative research studies and on successful biology teaching and learning with a double goal: 1) debriefing the processes leading to quality research studies; 2) providing teachers with models, rather than focusing on the problems of unsuccessful teaching

Primary immunoblastic B-cell lymphoma of the sternum

AbstractJ Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1997;114:684-

Classical versus Quantum Structure of the Scattering Probability Matrix. Chaotic wave-guides

The purely classical counterpart of the Scattering Probability Matrix (SPM) $\mid S_{n,m}\mid^2$ of the quantum scattering matrix $S$ is defined for 2D quantum waveguides for an arbitrary number of propagating modes $M$. We compare the quantum and classical structures of $\mid S_{n,m}\mid^2$ for a waveguide with generic Hamiltonian chaos. It is shown that even for a moderate number of channels, knowledge of the classical structure of the SPM allows us to predict the global structure of the quantum one and, hence, understand important quantum transport properties of waveguides in terms of purely classical dynamics. It is also shown that the SPM, being an intensity measure, can give additional dynamical information to that obtained by the Poincar\`{e} maps.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Estimated incubation period distributions of mpox using cases from two international European festivals and outbreaks in a club in Berlin, May to June 2022

Background Since May 2022, an mpox outbreak affecting primarily men who have sex with men (MSM) has occurred in numerous non-endemic countries worldwide. As MSM frequently reported multiple sexual encounters in this outbreak, reliably determining the time of infection is difficult; consequently, estimation of the incubation period is challenging. Aim We aimed to provide valid and precise estimates of the incubation period distribution of mpox by using cases associated with early outbreak settings where infection likely occurred. Methods Colleagues in European countries were invited to provide information on exposure intervals and date of symptom onset for mpox cases who attended a fetish festival in Antwerp, Belgium, a gay pride festival in Gran Canaria, Spain or a particular club in Berlin, Germany, where early mpox outbreaks occurred. Cases of these outbreaks were pooled; doubly censored models using the log-normal, Weibull and Gamma distributions were fitted to estimate the incubation period distribution. Results We included data on 122 laboratory-confirmed cases from 10 European countries. Depending on the distribution used, the median incubation period ranged between 8 and 9 days, with 5th and 95th percentiles ranging from 2 to 3 and from 20 to 23 days, respectively. The shortest interval that included 50% of incubation periods spanned 8 days (4–11 days). Conclusion Current public health management of close contacts should consider that in approximately 5% of cases, the incubation period exceeds the commonly used monitoring period of 21 days

In vitro response of clinical isolates of Candida species to oxidative stress

Pathogenic species of Candida differin many aspects, including their clinical prevalence, virulence, and profile of antifungal resistance. One of the causes of thesedifferences is possibly related to the differential capacity of these species to deal with oxidative stress. In this study, we comparedclinical isolates of eight species of Candida with respect to their oxidative stress resistance in vitro, oxidative damage induction,and antioxidant enzymes. Intraspecific and interspecific variation was observed. In accord with data previously obtainedfrom laboratory isolates, the results here indicate that C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. krusei have a more effective antioxidantsystem, and that C. dubliniensis, C. famata and C. guilliermondii are highly sensitive to oxidative stress. C. parapsilosis andC. tropicalis have intermediate resistance profiles. The stronger antioxidant system of some species may enable them to causesystemic infections or to resist antifungals.(Resposta in vitro de isolados clínicos de espécies de Candida ao estresse oxidativo). Espécies patogênicas deCandida diferem em muitos aspectos, incluindo sua prevalência clínica, virulência, e perfil de resistência a antifúngicos. Umadas causas destas diferenças é possivelmente relacionada com a capacidade diferencial de estas espécies lidarem com o estresseoxidativo. Neste estudo, comparamos isolados clínicos particulares de oito espécies de Candida com respeito a sua resistênciaao estresse oxidativo in vitro, indução de dano oxidativo e enzimas antioxidantes. Foram observadas variações intraespecíficase interespecíficas. De acordo com dados previamente observados de isolados de laboratório, os resultados aqui indicam que C.albicans, C. glabrata e C. krusei possuem um sistema antioxidante mais efetivo, e que C. dubliniensis, C. famata e C. guilliermondiisão altamente sensíveis ao estresse oxidativo. C. parapsilosis e C. tropicalis possuem perfis de resistência intermediários.O sistema antioxidante mais potente de algumas espécies possivelmente habilita as mesmas a causar infecções sistêmicas ouresistir a antifúngicos

Comprehensive identification of essential Staphylococcus aureus genes using Transposon-Mediated Differential Hybridisation (TMDH).

BACKGROUND: In recent years there has been an increasing problem with Staphylococcus aureus strains that are resistant to treatment with existing antibiotics. An important starting point for the development of new antimicrobial drugs is the identification of "essential" genes that are important for bacterial survival and growth. RESULTS: We have developed a robust microarray and PCR-based method, Transposon-Mediated Differential Hybridisation (TMDH), that uses novel bioinformatics to identify transposon inserts in genome-wide libraries. Following a microarray-based screen, genes lacking transposon inserts are re-tested using a PCR and sequencing-based approach. We carried out a TMDH analysis of the S. aureus genome using a large random mariner transposon library of around a million mutants, and identified a total of 351 S. aureus genes important for survival and growth in culture. A comparison with the essential gene list experimentally derived for Bacillus subtilis highlighted interesting differences in both pathways and individual genes. CONCLUSION: We have determined the first comprehensive list of S. aureus essential genes. This should act as a useful starting point for the identification of potential targets for novel antimicrobial compounds. The TMDH methodology we have developed is generic and could be applied to identify essential genes in other bacterial pathogens.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are