Experience of developing Twitter-based communities of practice in higher education

This article presents the results of a case study of the use of a microblogging tool by a university academic to increase their knowledge and experience of social media for educational purposes. The academic had the role of digital steward in a university and attempted to use microblogging (Twitter) to increase professional contacts within the framework of a community of practice. Several types of data were collected and analysed. These included the structure of the network arising from the links formed with others by microblogging, the similarity of stated interests between the academic and others in the network, and the contents of postings such as their external references. It was found that a personal network had been established, with some of the characteristics of a community of practice. The activity demonstrated the utility of social media in supporting the professional development of academic staff using technology

K2-288Bb: A Small Temperate Planet in a Low-mass Binary System Discovered by Citizen Scientists

Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.Observations from the Kepler and K2 missions have provided the astronomical community with unprecedented amounts of data to search for transiting exoplanets and other astrophysical phenomena. Here, we present K2-288, a low-mass binary system (M2.0 ± 1.0; M3.0 ± 1.0) hosting a small (R p = 1.9 R ⊕), temperate (T eq = 226 K) planet observed in K2 Campaign 4. The candidate was first identified by citizen scientists using Exoplanet Explorers hosted on the Zooniverse platform. Follow-up observations and detailed analyses validate the planet and indicate that it likely orbits the secondary star on a 31.39-day period. This orbit places K2-288Bb in or near the habitable zone of its low-mass host star. K2-288Bb resides in a system with a unique architecture, as it orbits at >0.1 au from one component in a moderate separation binary (a proj ~ 55 au), and further follow-up may provide insight into its formation and evolution. Additionally, its estimated size straddles the observed gap in the planet radius distribution. Planets of this size occur less frequently and may be in a transient phase of radius evolution. K2-288 is the third transiting planet system identified by the Exoplanet Explorers program and its discovery exemplifies the value of citizen science in the era of Kepler, K2, and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

Climate change and increased risk for the insurance sector: A global perspective and an assessment for the Netherlands.

Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. As a consequence, economic losses caused by natural catastrophes could increase significantly. This will have considerable consequences for the insurance sector. On the one hand, increased risk from weather extremes requires assessing expected changes in damage and including adequate climate change projections in risk management. On the other hand, climate change can also bring new business opportunities for insurers. This paper gives an overview of the consequences of climate change for the insurance sector and discusses several strategies to cope with and adapt to increased risks. The particular focus is on the Dutch insurance sector, as the Netherlands is extremely vulnerable to climate change, especially with regard to extreme precipitation and flooding. Current risk sharing arrangements for weather risks are examined while potential new business opportunities, adaptation strategies, and public-private partnerships are identified. © The Author(s) 2009

Implications of climate change for shipping: Ports and supply chains

Ports are an important economic actor—at local, national, and international scales—that have been identified as being vulnerable to future changes to the climate. This paper details the findings from an international review of state‐of‐the‐art knowledge concerning climate risks, and adaptation responses, for ports and their supply chains. Evidence from both academic and gray literature indicates that there has already been major damage and disruption to ports across the world from climate‐related hazards and that such impacts are projected to increase in the years and decades to come. Findings indicate that while a substantial—and growing—body of scientific evidence on coastal risks and potential adaptation options is acting as a stimulus for port authorities to explicitly consider the risks for their assets and operations, only a notable few have actually made the next step toward implementing adaptation strategies. This paper concludes by putting forward constructive recommendations for the sector and suggestions for research to address remaining knowledge gaps. It emphasizes a call for collaboration between the research and practice communities, as well as the need to engage a broad range of stakeholders in the adaptation planning process

Endogenous transport prices and trade imbalances

According to economic theory, imbalances in trade flows affect transport prices, because (some) carriers have to return without cargo from the low-demand region to the high-demand region. Therefore, transport prices in the high-demand direction have to exceed those in the low-demand direction. This implies that transport costs, and therefore trade costs, are fundamentally endogenous with respect to trade imbalances. We study the effect of an imbalance in trade flows on transport prices using micro-data on trips made by carriers in the inland waterway network in North West Europe. We find that imbalances in trade flows have substantial effects on transport prices. We estimate that a one standard deviation increase in the region's trade imbalance (the ratio of export and import cargo flows) increases the transport price per tonne of trips departing from this region by about 7%. © The Author (2010). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved

Український Футбол як важіль політики. Євро-2012 на шпальтах тижневика "Кореспондент"

In juni 2004 werd een nieuw toetsingskader, de Chemie-Toxiciteit-Toets (CTT), voor zoute baggerspecie geïntroduceerd. De CTT vervangt de Uniforme Gehalte Toets (UGT). De belangrijkste wijzigingen zijn de expliciete norm voor Tributyltin (TBT) en signaleringswaarden voor een drietal bio-assays. Op het moment van de CTT invoering bestond er geen eenduidig beeld van de economische consequenties van dit nieuwe toetsingskader. Inmiddels is er een evaluatie van de economische consequenties voor de periode 2004-2005 uitgevoerd. In navolging van deze evaluatie presenteert deze studie een retrospectieve analyse van de invoering van de CTT voor de periode 1999-2003. 2003. Hiermee zijn de resultaten van de evaluatie in een breder perspectief te plaatsen. Belangrijke vragen hierbij zijn of voor de periode 1999-2003 dezelfde trends zijn gevonden in afgekeurde havenvakken en hoeveelheden baggerspecie. Bovendien is een inschatting gegeven wat de economische gevolgen in termen van hoeveelheden afgekeurde baggerspecie zijn voor de havenbedrijven met het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam N.V. en Groningen Seaports als voorbeel