Toepassing digitale communicatie systemen in en voor het groene onderwijs

Schools in Green (agricultural based) education are looking for new ways of offering education by the digital way. This is a specific issue for small educational institutes. Communication goals, resources and digital systems are put side by side. Considerations for choices to be made are discussed and recommendations are given

De Bergsche Maasveren anno 2001. Maatschappelijke betekenis en effecten van door Rijkswaterstaat voorgestelde maatregelen

Eind negentiende eeuw is in het Noorden van de provincie Noord-Brabant ten behoeve van een betere waterafvoer de Bergsche Maas gegraven. Omdat hierdoor het Land van Heusden en Altena in tweeën werd gesplitst, heeft Rijkswaterstaat ter compensatie van de nadelen een aantal veerponten in de vaart gebracht. Later zijn ook twee bruggen aangelegd. Rijkswaterstaat (directie Noord-Brabant) wil nu in het kader van bezuinigingen de pontveren afstoten. De Vereniging De Bergse Maasveren heeft aan de Wetenschapswinkel van Wageningen UR gevraagd om een onderzoek te bemiddelen dat inzicht verschaft in de maatschappelijke betekenis van de Bergsche Maasveren en mogelijke verkeerskundige, economische, duurzaamheids- en leefbaarheidseffecten van de voorgestelde maatregelen. De Vereniging De Bergse Maasveren wil het onderzoek gebruiken om bezwaren tegen het besluit van Rijkswaterstaat te onderbouwen. Het onderzoek wordt als afstudeerstudie verricht bij de Leerstoelgroep Landgebruiksplanning van Wageningen Universiteit

Duurzame mobiliteit en vrijetijdsverkeer in het metropolitane buitengebied: paradox of realiseerbaar? Op weg naar een onderzoeksagenda

Met het verder verstedelijken van ons land vervagen de traditionele grenzen tussen stad en land. Door deze ontwikkeling naar een metropolitaan landschap wordt de open ruimte tussen grote steden, het metropolitane buitengebied, steeds belangrijker voor de stedeling als ruimte om zich te bewegen en te ontspannen. Echter, de bereikbaarheid en de aantrekkelijkheid van dit landschap staat damee onder druk. Uiteindelijk komt de stedeling (met het bereiken van deze gebieden en de benodigde infrastructuur) in conflict met zijn eigen wense

People with Multiple Tattoos and/or Piercings Are Not at Increased Risk for HBV or HCV in The Netherlands

BACKGROUND: Although published results are inconsistent, it has been suggested that tattooing and piercing are risk factors for HBV and HCV infections. To examine whether tattooing and piercing do indeed increase the risk of infection, we conducted a study among people with multiple tattoos and/or piercings in The Netherlands who acquired their tattoos and piercings in The Netherlands and/or abroad. METHODS: Tattoo artists, piercers, and people with multiple tattoos and/or piercings were recruited at tattoo conventions, shops (N = 182), and a biannual survey at our STI-outpatient clinic (N = 252) in Amsterdam. Participants were interviewed and tested for anti-HBc and anti-HCV. Determinants of HBV and HCV infections were analysed using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The median number of tattoos and piercings was 5 (IQR 2-10) and 2 (IQR 2-4), respectively. Almost 40% acquired their tattoo of piercing abroad. In total, 18/434 (4.2%, 95%CI: 2.64%-6.46%) participants were anti-HBc positive and 1 was anti-HCV positive (0.2%, 95%CI: 0.01%-1.29%). Being anti-HBc positive was independently associated with older age (OR 1.68, 95%CI: 1.03-2.75 per 10 years older) and being born in an HBV-endemic country (OR 7.39, 95%CI: 2.77-19.7). Tattoo- and/or piercing-related variables, like having a tattoo or piercing in an HBV endemic country, surface percentage tattooed, number of tattoos and piercings etc., were not associated with either HBV or HCV. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence for an increased HBV/HCV seroprevalence among persons with multiple tattoos and/or piercings, which might be due to the introduction of hygiene guidelines for tattoo and piercing shops in combination with the low observed prevalence of HBV/HCV in the general population. Tattoos and/or piercings, therefore, should not be considered risk factors for HBV/HCV in the Dutch population. These findings imply the importance of implementation of hygiene guidelines in other countries

Potassium currents in the heart: functional roles in repolarization, arrhythmia and therapeutics

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Design of the FemCure study: prospective multicentre study on the transmission of genital and extra-genital Chlamydia trachomatis infections in women receiving routine care

BACKGROUND: In women, anorectal infections with Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) are about as common as genital CT, yet the anorectal site remains largely untested in routine care. Anorectal CT frequently co-occurs with genital CT and may thus often be treated co-incidentally. Nevertheless, post-treatment detection of CT at both anatomic sites has been demonstrated. It is unknown whether anorectal CT may play a role in post-treatment transmission. This study, called FemCure, in women who receive routine treatment (either azithromycin or doxycycline) aims to understand the post-treatment transmission of anorectal CT infections, i.e., from their male sexual partner(s) and from and to the genital region of the same woman. The secondary objective is to evaluate other reasons for CT detection by nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAAT) such as treatment failure, in order to inform guidelines to optimize CT control. METHODS: A multicentre prospective cohort study (FemCure) is set up in which genital and/or anorectal CT positive women (n = 400) will be recruited at three large Dutch STI clinics located in South Limburg, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The women self-collect anorectal and vaginal swabs before treatment, and at the end of weeks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Samples are tested for presence of CT-DNA (by NAAT), load (by quantitative polymerase chain reaction -PCR), viability (by culture and viability PCR) and CT type (by multilocus sequence typing). Sexual exposure is assessed by online self-administered questionnaires and by testing samples for Y chromosomal DNA. Using logistic regression models, the impact of two key factors (i.e., sexual exposure and alternate anatomic site of infection) on detection of anorectal and genital CT will be assessed. DISCUSSION: The FemCure study will provide insight in the role of anorectal chlamydia infection in maintaining the CT burden in the context of treatment, and it will provide practical recommendations to reduce avoidable transmission. Implications will improve care strategies that take account of anorectal CT. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02694497

Automatic Hotspots Detection for Intracellular Calcium Analysis in Fluorescence Microscopic Videos

In recent years, life-cell imaging techniques and their software applications have become powerful tools to investigate complex biological mechanisms such as calcium signalling. In this paper, we propose an automated framework to detect areas inside cells that show changes in their calcium concentration i.e. the regions of interests or hotspots, based on videos taken after loading living mouse cardiomyocytes with fluorescent calcium reporter dyes. The proposed system allows an objective and efficient analysis through the following four key stages: (1) Pre-processing to enhance video quality, (2) First level segmentation to detect candidate hotspots based on adaptive thresholding on the frame level, (3) Second-level segmentation to fuse and identify the best hotspots from the entire video by proposing the concept of calcium fluorescence hit-ratio, and (4) Extraction of the changes of calcium fluorescence over time per hotspot. From the extracted signals, different measurements are calculated such as maximum peak amplitude, area under the curve, peak frequency, and inter-spike interval of calcium changes. The system was tested using calcium imaging data collected from Heart muscle cells. The paper argues that the automated proposal offers biologists a tool to speed up the processing time and mitigate the consequences of inter-intra observer variability