554 research outputs found
Data availibility for the fisheries impact assessment of the FIMPAS project
The project Fisheries Measures in Protected Areas (FIMPAS) aims to introduce fisheries measures in the marine Natura 2000 sites within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Dutch part of the North Sea by the end of 2011. The FIMPAS project covers three such areas, the Dogger Bank and the Cleaver Bank (both to be designated for protection under the Habitats Directive) and the Frisian Front (to be designated for protection under the Birds Directive). These sites are beyond the Dutch 12 nm zone and several EU Member States fish within these areas. Therefore fisheries measures must be implemented through the Common Fisheries Policy. These marine protected areas, as well as the potential fisheries measures, are a consequence of the implementation of the European Birds and Habitats Directives and will be proposed to the European Commission by the Dutch government. The Dutch Ministry for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), together with Dutch environmental NGOs and the Dutch fishing industry, are cooperating within the FIMPAS project to develop the necessary fisheries measures to achieve the conservation objectives for the Dutch Natura 2000 sites of the North Sea. LNV has asked the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to organize the necessary scientific processes and give advice on the desired fisheries measures involving the relevant stakeholders in this process
Degradation of the charge collection efficiency of an n-type Fz silicon diode subjected to MeV proton irradiation
Groei en begrazing van mosselzaad, primaire productie en picoplankton in de Waddenzee: Technisch Rapport project Meerjarig effect- en productiemetingen aan MZI's in de Westerlijke Waddenzee, Oosterschelde en Voordelta
In het kader van het project: āMeerjarige effectmetingen aan MZIās in de Westelijke Waddenzee en de Oosterscheldeā, uitgevoerd door IMARES in opdracht van het Ministerie van LNV (thans EZ), zijn er in 2010 tot en met 2013 veldmetingen verricht bij een MZI. Centrale vraag binnen deelproject 1 betreft de mogelijke invloed van MZIās op de draagkracht van de Waddenzee en de Oosterschelde. In dit rapport worden de resultaten gepresenteerd van het onderzoek aan de MZIās in de Waddenzee
Mud dynamics in the Eems-Dollard, research phase 1: literature review mud and primary production
Disease prevention not decolonization ā a model for fecal microbiota transplantation in patients colonized with multidrug-resistant organisms
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) yields variable intestinal decolonization results for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). This study showed significant reductions in antibiotic duration, bacteremia and length of stay in 20 patients colonized/ infected with MDRO receiving FMT (compared to pre-FMT history, and a matched group not receiving FMT), despite modest decolonization rates
Fecal microbiota transplant mitigates adverse outcomes in patients colonized with multidrug-resistant organisms undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation
The gut microbiome can be adversely affected by chemotherapy and antibiotics prior to hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). This affects graft success and increases susceptibility to multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) colonization and infection. We performed an initial retrospective analysis of our use of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from healthy donors as therapy for MDRO-colonized patients with hematological malignancy. FMT was performed on eight MDRO-colonized patients pre-HCT (FMT-MDRO group), and outcomes compared with 11 MDRO colonized HCT patients from the same period. At 12 months, survival was significantly higher in the FMT-MDRO group (70% versus 36% p = 0.044). Post-HCT, fewer FMT-MDRO patients required intensive care (0% versus 46%, P = 0.045) or experienced fever (0.29 versus 0.11 days, P = 0.027). Intestinal MDRO decolonization occurred in 25% of FMT-MDRO patients versus 11% non-FMT MDRO patients. Despite the significant difference and statistically comparable patient/transplant characteristics, as the sample size was small, a matched-pair analysis to non-MDRO colonized control cohorts (2:1 matching) was performed. At 12 months, the MDRO group who did not have an FMT had significantly lower survival (36.4% versus 61.9% respectively, p=0.012), and higher non relapse mortality (NRM; 60.2% versus 16.7% respectively, p=0.009) than their paired non-colonized cohort. There was no difference in survival (70% versus 43.4%, p=0.14) or NRM (12.5% versus 31.2% respectively, p=0.24) between the FMT-MDRO group and their paired cohort. Negative outcomes, including mortality associated with MDRO colonization, may be ameliorated by pre-HCT FMT, despite lack of intestinal decolonization. Further work is needed to explore the observed benefit
Synchronous bursts on scale-free neuronal networks with attractive and repulsive coupling
This paper investigates the dependence of synchronization transitions of
bursting oscillations on the information transmission delay over scale-free
neuronal networks with attractive and repulsive coupling. It is shown that for
both types of coupling, the delay always plays a subtle role in either
promoting or impairing synchronization. In particular, depending on the
inherent oscillation period of individual neurons, regions of irregular and
regular propagating excitatory fronts appear intermittently as the delay
increases. These delay-induced synchronization transitions are manifested as
well-expressed minima in the measure for spatiotemporal synchrony. For
attractive coupling, the minima appear at every integer multiple of the average
oscillation period, while for the repulsive coupling, they appear at every odd
multiple of the half of the average oscillation period. The obtained results
are robust to the variations of the dynamics of individual neurons, the system
size, and the neuronal firing type. Hence, they can be used to characterize
attractively or repulsively coupled scale-free neuronal networks with delays.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ONE [related
work available at http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.4961 and
http://www.matjazperc.com/
Smallest detectable change in volume differs between mass flow sensor and pneumotachograph
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To assess a pulmonary function change over time the mass flow sensor and the pneumotachograph are widely used in commercially available instruments. However, the smallest detectable change for both devices has never been compared. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the smallest detectable change in vital capacity (VC) and single-breath diffusion parameters measured by mass flow sensor and or pneumotachograph.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>In 28 healthy pulmonary function technicians VC, transfer factor for carbon monoxide (DLCO) and alveolar volume (VA) was repeatedly (10Ć) measured. The smallest detectable change was calculated by 1.96 x Standard Error of Measurement Ćā2.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The mean (range) of the smallest detectable change measured by mass flow sensor and pneumotachograph respectively, were for VC (in Liter): 0.53 (0.46-0.65); 0.25 (0.17-0.36) (<it>p </it>= 0.04), DLCO (in mmol*kPa<sup>-1</sup>*min<sup>-1</sup>): 1.53 (1.26-1.7); 1.18 (0.84-1.39) (<it>p </it>= 0.07), VA (in Liter): 0.66. (0.53-0.82); 0.43 (0.34-0.53) (<it>p </it>= 0.04) and DLCO/VA (in mmol*kPa<sup>-1</sup>*min<sup>-1</sup>*L<sup>-1</sup>): 0.22 (0.19-0.28); 0.19 (0.14-0.22) (<it>p </it>= 0.79).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Smallest detectable significant change in VC and VA as measured by pneumotachograph are smaller than by mass flow sensor. Therefore, the pneumotachograph is the preferred instrument to estimate lung volume change over time in individual patients.</p
Measurement invariance in the social sciences:Historical development, methodological challenges, state of the art, and future perspectives
This review summarizes the current state of the art of statistical and (survey) methodological research on measurement (non)invariance, which is considered a core challenge for the comparative social sciences. After outlining the historical roots, conceptual details, and standard procedures for measurement invariance testing, the paper focuses in particular on the statistical developments that have been achieved in the last 10 years. These include Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, the alignment method, measurement invariance testing within the multilevel modeling framework, mixture multigroup factor analysis, the measurement invariance explorer, and the response shift-true change decomposition approach. Furthermore, the contribution of survey methodological research to the construction of invariant measurement instruments is explicitly addressed and highlighted, including the issues of design decisions, pretesting, scale adoption, and translation. The paper ends with an outlook on future research perspectives.</p
- ā¦