Insights into the development of a landslide early warning system prototype in an informal settlement: the case of Bello Oriente in Medellín, Colombia

The global number of vulnerable citizens in areas of landslide risk is expected to increase due to the twin forces of climate change and growing urbanization. Self-constructed or informal settlements are frequently built in hazardous terrain such as on landslide-prone slopes. They are characterized by high dynamics of growth, simple construction methods and strong social dynamics and are exposed to unsteady political approaches. Landslide early warning systems (LEWSs) can contribute to decreasing their vulnerability, but precise, affordable and culturally integrated LEWSs need to be further developed. In this paper, we present a 4-year living-lab research project called Inform@Risk that aimed to develop a LEWS prototype in the neighborhood of Bello Oriente, located on the urban-rural border of Medellín, Colombia. Its research team is composed of landscape architects, geo-engineers, and remote sensing and geo-informatics experts. The research team collaborated with a multitude of stakeholders: civil society, private enterprises, non-governmental agencies and various branches of government. A preliminary LEWS with the last functionalities still to be developed has been designed, implemented and handed over to the government. It has entered a test and calibration phase (i.e., warning-threshold development, procedures for warning and alert dissemination through the sensor system), which is on hold due to legal constraints. Our first findings indicate that the integrative development of technical aspects of a LEWS in informal settlements can be challenging, albeit manageable, whereas the level of social and political support is beyond the control of the designer. Steady political will is needed to increase technical capacities and funding of the operation and maintenance of an increased amount of monitoring equipment. Social outreach has to be continuous in order to inform, train, maintain the trust and increase the self-help capacities of the often rapidly changing population of an informal settlement. Legal requirements for a transfer of academic research projects to municipal authorities have to be clear from the start. Satisfying replacement housing options for the case of evacuation have to be in place in order to not lose the overall acceptance of the LEWS. As political will and municipal budgets can vary, a resilient LEWS for informal settlements has to achieve sufficient social and technical redundancy to maintain basic functionality even in a reduced-governmental-support scenario

Frühe Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Ziele und Gelingensbedingungen

Im Rahmen der Schriftenreihe „Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zur Arbeit der Stiftung „Haus der kleinen Forscher“ werden regelmäßig wissenschaftliche Beiträge von renommierten Expertinnen und Experten aus dem Bereich der frühen Bildung veröffentlicht. Diese Schriftenreihe dient einem fachlichen Dialog zwischen Stiftung, Wissenschaft und Praxis, mit dem Ziel, allen Kitas, Horten und Grundschulen in Deutschland fundierte Unterstützung für ihren Bildungsauftrag zu geben. Der zwölfte Band der Schriftenreihe mit einem Geleitwort von Armin Lude fokussiert die Ziele und Gelingensbedingungen einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung für Kinder, pädagogische Fachkräfte und Leitungskräfte. Alexander Kauertz, Heike Molitor, Andrea Saffran, Susanne Schubert, Mandy Singer-Brodowski, Daniela Ulber und Johannes Verch erörtern in ihrer Expertise zentrale Zieldimensionen einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung auf der Ebene der Kinder sowie pädagogischer Fach- und Leitungskräfte. Neben einer theoretischen Fundierung identifizieren die Autorinnen und Autoren Gelingensbedingungen für eine effektive und wirkungsvolle frühe Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung in der Praxis. Sie geben zudem Empfehlungen für die Entwicklung der Stiftungsangebote und die wissenschaftliche Begleitung der Stiftungsarbeit zu BNE. Zwei weitere Kapitel beschreiben die Umsetzung der fachlichen Empfehlungen in die inhaltlichen Angebote der Stiftung „Haus der kleinen Forscher“ sowie die Evaluationsergebnisse zur Wirkung des Angebotsportfolios zu BNE. Ein Ausblick auf die zukünftige (Weiter-)Entwicklung der Stiftungsangebote zur Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung beschließt den Band. (DIPF/Orig.

Supportive Care Needs in Glioma Patients and Their Caregivers in Clinical Practice: Results of a Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: Supportive care needs in glioma patients often remain unrecognized, and optimization in assessment is required. First, we aimed at assessing the support needed using a simple structured questionnaire. Second, we investigated the psychosocial burden and support requested from caregivers.Methods: Patients were assessed at three centers during their outpatient visits. They completed the Distress Thermometer (DT; score ≥ 6 indicated significant burden in brain tumor patients), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ)-C30+BN20, and the Patients' Perspective Questionnaire (PPQ) that assessed psychosocial distress as well as support requested and received by patients for specific domains (e.g., family, doctor, and mobile care). In each subgroup, patients' caregivers were assessed simultaneously by a questionnaire developed for the study. Multivariate backward logistic regressions were performed for investigating predictors of patients' request for support.Results: Assessments were conducted for 232 patients. Most patients (82%) had a high-grade glioma and a mean age of 52 years (range 20–87). The male to female ratio was 1.25:1. According to the PPQ results, 38% (87) of the patients felt depressed; 44% (103), anxious; and 39% (91), tense/nervous. Desired support was highest from doctors (59%) and psychologists (19%). A general request for support was associated with lower global health status (p = 0.03, odds ratio (OR) = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92–0.99) according to EORTC QLQ-C30. Most of the assessed caregivers (n = 96) were life partners (64%; n = 61) who experienced higher distress than the corresponding patients (caregivers: 6.5 ± 2.5 vs. patients: 5.3 ± 2.4). When patients were on chemotherapy, caregivers indicated DT ≥ 6 significantly more frequently than patients themselves (p = 0.02).Conclusion: Our data showed that glioma patients and their caregivers were both highly burdened. The PPQ allowed us to evaluate the psychosocial support requested and perceived by patients, detect supportive care needs, and provide information at a glance. Patients in poorer clinical condition are at risk of having unmet needs. The caregivers' burden and unmet needs are not congruent with the patients' need for support. In particular, caregivers of patients on chemotherapy were more highly burdened than patients themselves

Adhesion Class GPCRs (version 2019.4) in the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology Database

Adhesion GPCRs are structurally identified on the basis of a large extracellular region, similar to the Class B GPCR, but which is linked to the 7TM region by a GPCR autoproteolysis-inducing (GAIN) domain [8] containing a GPCR proteolytic site. The N-terminus often shares structural homology with adhesive domains (e.g. cadherins, immunolobulin, lectins) facilitating inter- and matricellular interactions and leading to the term adhesion GPCR [82, 332]. Several receptors have been suggested to function as mechanosensors [254, 234, 315, 32]. The nomenclature of these receptors was revised in 2015 as recommended by NC-IUPHAR and the Adhesion GPCR Consortium [100]

Adhesion Class GPCRs in GtoPdb v.2023.1

Adhesion GPCRs are structurally identified on the basis of a large extracellular region, similar to the Class B GPCR, but which is linked to the 7TM region by a GPCR autoproteolysis-inducing (GAIN) domain [10] containing a GPCR proteolysis site (GPS). The N-terminal extracellular region often shares structural homology with adhesive domains (e.g. cadherins, immunolobulin, lectins) facilitating inter- and matricellular interactions and leading to the term adhesion GPCR [104, 418]. Several receptors have been suggested to function as mechanosensors [320, 288, 396, 38]. Cryo-EM structures of the 7-transmembrane domain of several adhesion GPCRs have been determined recently [292, 21, 403, 212, 300, 302, 431, 293]. The nomenclature of these receptors was revised in 2015 as recommended by NC-IUPHAR and the Adhesion GPCR Consortium [125]

Un/making difference through performance and mediation in contemporary Africa

This special issue of the Journal of African Cultural Studies grew out of a panel we organized at the European Conference on African Studies in Lisbon in June 2013. Our starting point was the observation of a massive revival of cultural and religious identities across the African continent, stretching from post-apartheid South Africa to Islamist groups in parts of West Africa. In the early twenty-first century, Africa appears to be witnessing a historical moment characterized by a resurgence of a politics of difference that, regardless of the heterogeneous forms in which it materializes, shares an uncanny ability to produce and sustain identities based on a politics of difference

Un/making difference through performance and mediation in contemporary Africa

This special issue of the Journal of African Cultural Studies grew out of a panel we organized at the European Conference on African Studies in Lisbon in June 2013. Our starting point was the observation of a massive revival of cultural and religious identities across the African continent, stretching from post-apartheid South Africa to Islamist groups in parts of West Africa. In the early twenty-first century, Africa appears to be witnessing a historical moment characterized by a resurgence of a politics of difference that, regardless of the heterogeneous forms in which it materializes, shares an uncanny ability to produce and sustain identities based on a politics of difference

Improving completion rates of patient-reported outcome measures in cancer clinical trials:Scoping review investigating the implications for trial designs

Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) play a crucial role in cancer clinical trials. Despite the availability of validated PRO measures (PROMs), challenges related to low completion rates and missing data remain, potentially affecting the trial results’ validity. This review explored strategies to improve and maintain high PROM completion rates in cancer clinical trials. Methodology: A scoping review was performed across Medline, Embase and Scopus and regulatory guidelines. Key recommendations were synthesized into categories such as stakeholder involvement, study design, PRO assessment, mode of assessment, participant support, and monitoring. Results: The review identified 114 recommendations from 18 papers (16 peer-reviewed articles and 2 policy documents). The recommendations included integrating comprehensive PRO information into the study protocol, enhancing patient involvement during the protocol development phase and in education, and collecting relevant PRO data at clinically meaningful time points. Electronic data collection, effective monitoring systems, and sufficient time, capacity, workforce and financial resources were highlighted. Discussion: Further research needs to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in various context and to tailor these recommendations into practical and effective strategies. This will enhance PRO completion rates and patient-centred care. However, obstacles such as patient burden, low health literacy, and conflicting recommendations may present challenges in application.</p