The Murman Coast and the Northern Dvina Delta as English and Dutch Commercial Destinations in the 16th and 17th Centuries

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Murman coast trade and the Northern Dvina trade were two clearly distinct branches of Western European commerce. The Murman coast trade involved the commerce with the regional economy of the Kola Peninsula, and the Northern Dvina trade coincided with the transit trade with the Russian interior. In the 1550s, the English established commercial relations with interior Russia via the mouth of the Northern Dvina, mainly exchanging woollen cloth and metals for north and central Russian forestry and agriculture products. In the 1570s, the Dutch followed suit, and by the second decade of the seventeenth century, they had squeezed the English almost completely out of the Russian market. The Northern Dvina trade became a major line of Dutch business, involving the transit trade with interior Russia, the exchange of the products of the north and central Russian forestry and agriculture for gold and silver money and a wide range of military stores and luxury goods. In the 1560s, the Dutch developed commercial relations with the Murman coast, exchanging locally produced exports like cod, salmon, furs and train oil for locally used imports like woollen cloth, tinware, salt, pepper, and wine. In addition, from the early 1570s, the Dutch used Kola as an alternative to the Northern Dvina mouth as a port for the transit trade with interior Russia; but they did so only until about 1585, when the tsar directed all foreign trade of interior Russia to proceed via the newly founded port of Archangel on the Northern Dvina. After that, Kola only remained an international commercial port for the local economy of the Murman coast. The Dutch continued to trade with the Murman coast on a very small scale throughout the seventeenth century, but Archangel was by far their main commercial destination in the Barents Sea area

Introduction: Man and the Barents Sea Ecosystems

The study of the interaction between man and nature demands an interdisciplinary approach. The various disciplines, however, differ greatly with regard to their methods and cultures, and these differences handicap cooperation. The Arctic Centre of the University of Groningen aims at overcoming this handicap. Founded over 25 years ago, the Centre is a platform for polar research in the Netherlands and has a long-term, multidisciplinary research program in the polar regions. As one means to bridging the gap between the disciplines, it organizes international symposia. The Ninth International Symposium of the Arctic Centre, held in Groningen, the Netherlands, in November 1992, dealt with the interaction between man and the ecosystems of the Barents Sea. Specialists of several disciplines met to discuss many relevant questions. What are the characteristics of the Barents Sea ecosystems, and how do these systems function? What natural resources are available in the area? By whom and how have they been exploited? What effects has this exploitation had on nature and society? The articles presented here are the edited versions of papers presented at the Symposium. Individually, they are hardly interdisciplinary. But they all approach the same geographical area, trying to answer the same questions from their own angles. We hope that this volume will tempt the reader to take note of problems and processes which may not have his constant attention, but which are certainly related to problems and processes which are the object of his specialization and which are part of the chain of causes and effects known as reality. We also hope that these articles will contribute to the rise of new perspectives and new, truly interdisciplinary formulations of problems

Technology as Driver for Morally Motivated Conceptual Engineering

New technologies are the source of uncertainties about the applicability of moral and morally connotated concepts. These uncertainties sometimes call for conceptual engineering, but it is not often recognized when this is the case. We take this to be a missed opportunity, as a recognition that diferent researchers are working on the same kind of project can help solve methodological questions that one is likely to encounter. In this paper, we present three case studies where philosophers of technology implicitly engage in conceptual engineering (without naming it as such). We subsequently refect on the case studies to fnd out how these illustrate conceptual engineering as an appropriate method to deal with pressing concerns in the philosophy of technology. We have two main goals. We frst want to contribute to the literature on conceptual engineering by presenting concrete examples of conceptual engineering in the philosophy of technology. This is especially relevant, because the technologies that are designed based on the conceptual work done by philosophers of technology potentially have crucial moral and social implications. Secondly, we want to make explicit what choices are made when doing this conceptual work. Making explicit that some of the implicit assumptions are, in fact, debated in the literature allows for refection on these questions. Ultimately, our hope is that conscious refection leads to an improvement of the conceptual work done

Role of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Clinical Trials in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Scoping Review

PURPOSE: To perform a scoping review on the use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in randomized trials on systemic therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) between 2010 and 2021. METHODS: First, a search on clinicaltrials.gov was performed, looking for randomized trials in mCRC. The use of PROMs was analyzed quantitatively. Subsequently, we assessed the completeness of PROM reporting based on the CONSORT PRO extension in publications related to the selected trials acquired using Embase and PubMed. RESULTS: A total of 46/176 trials were registered on clinicaltrials.gov used PROMs. All these trials used validated PROM instruments. The EORTC QLQ-C30 was most frequently used (37 times), followed by the EQ-5D (21 times) and the EORTC QLQ-CR29 (six times). A total of 56/176 registered trials were published. In 35% ( n = 20), the results of the PROMs were available. Overall, 7/20 (35%) trials documented all items of the CONSORT PRO extension and quality of reporting according to the CONSORT PRO extension was higher than in the period 2004-2012. In 3/20 (15%) of the published trials, the results of PROMs were not discussed nor included in the positioning of the new treatment compared to the reference treatment. CONCLUSION: When PROMs are used, the quality of reporting on patient-reported outcomes is improving, but this must continue in order to optimize the translation of trial results to individual patient values

Information governance in Roman finance

This paper studies the role of information as a determinant of the performance of the Roman financial system. I extend the traditional transaction cost approach by using a broader concept borrowed from organisation sciences: ‘Information Governance System’ (IGS). Information governance comprises all socially or formally instituted processes that regulate the production, circulation, valuation, storage, retrieval, and processing of information. The concept of IG system denotes how these processes are structured and which rule sets define them. I argue that the institutional framework of the Roman empire offered procedures for information governance that supported the development of a market for financial services. This public order IGS, however, required considerable knowledge and skills. As in late medieval Europe it led to the emergence of financial specialists. As such it was a positive determinant for the economic growth we see documented in the material record