An Ecological and Economic Risk Avoidance Drought Management Decision Support System

Ecologists have long recognized the fundamental impacts of drought on rangeland structure and function. Simulation models have been developed to increase our understanding of these impacts as they relate to forage production, particularly for predictive purposes. Although the capacity of these models to accurately predict quantity and quality of forage produced under varying climatic conditions is often quite good, their ability to serve as an effective and proactive drought management decision support system is often limited. This is in large part because their complexity impedes their use by on-the-ground managers. The objective of this research was to develop a very simple and user-friendly drought management decision support system for rangeland managers in the Northern Great Plains of North America

Analysis of different preferences for the EU's regulatory options forendocrine disruptor identification criteria using argumentation theory

What criteria are most suitable to identify endocrine disrupting substances (EDSs) for regulatory purposes in the EU? The results of the European Commission's public consultation, as part of the process to establish identification criteria for EDSs, show that different regulatory options are supported. Some respondents prefer an option including hazard characterization considerations, whereas others prefer an option that avoids these considerations and introduces several hazard-identification based weight-of-evidence categories. In this study, the argumentation underlying the different preferences for identification criteria are analyzed and compared using pragma-dialectical argumentation theory (PDAT). All responses of non-anonymous, national governments that submitted a response in English (n = 17) were included. Responses of other stakeholder organizations were included if a Google News search returned an opinionated presence in the media on the subject (n = 9). Five topical themes and 21 underlying issues were identified. The themes are 1) mechanistic understanding of EDSs, 2) regulatory considerations related to the identification of EDSs, 3) consistency with existing regulatory frameworks, and 4) evaluations of specific issues related to a category approach and 5) related to including potency. We argue that two overarching (implicit) ‘advocacy coalitions’ can be discerned, that adopted contrasting positions towards the identified themes and issues. Among these ‘coalitions’, there appears to be consensus about the necessity of having ‘science-based’ criteria, though different perspectives exist as to what the most accurate mechanistic understanding of EDSs entails. To move the discussion forward, we argue that a societal dialogue would be beneficial, where EDS science and regulation are discussed as interrelated themes

A class of Poisson-Nijenhuis structures on a tangent bundle

Equipping the tangent bundle TQ of a manifold with a symplectic form coming from a regular Lagrangian L, we explore how to obtain a Poisson-Nijenhuis structure from a given type (1,1) tensor field J on Q. It is argued that the complete lift of J is not the natural candidate for a Nijenhuis tensor on TQ, but plays a crucial role in the construction of a different tensor R, which appears to be the pullback under the Legendre transform of the lift of J to co-tangent manifold of Q. We show how this tangent bundle view brings new insights and is capable also of producing all important results which are known from previous studies on the cotangent bundle, in the case that Q is equipped with a Riemannian metric. The present approach further paves the way for future generalizations.Comment: 22 page

PEMBINAAN NARAPIDANA YANG MENGALAMI GANGGUAN JIWA DI DALAM LEMBAGA PEMASYARAKATAN

PEMBINAAN NARAPIDANA YANG MENGALAMI GANGGUAN JIWADI LEMBAGA PEMASYARAKATAN Agusriadi Dahlan Ali Suhaimi ABSTRAKLembaga Pemasyarakatan sebelumnya disebut Penjara adalah tempat orang-orang yang melakukan kriminalitas dan pelanggaran hukum lainnya agar mereka dapat menyadari kesalahannya dan mempertanggungjawabkan apa yang telah mereka perbuat. Hukuman yang mereka terima sebagai balasan yang setimpal terhadap perbuatan mereka, meskipun nilai-nilai kemanusiaan beserta hak asasinya kurang diperhatikan. Lembaga Pemasyarakatan merupakan tempat yang stressfull atau menekan yang dapat berpengaruh terhadap fisik dan kejiwaan (psikologi) seseorang ditambah kecemasan yang berlebihan sehingga muncul depresi yang mengakibatkan seseorang melakukan bunuh diri. Akibat stress melahirkan depresi dan depresi biasanya akan terjadi kegoncangan kejiwaan yang luar biasa yang dapat mengakibatkan seseorang menjadi tidak waras (gila). Undang-Undang No.12/1995 tentang Lembaga Pemasyarakatan maupun Peraturan Pemerintah No. 99 Tahun 2012 tentang Perubahan Kedua Atas Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 32 Tahun 1999 tentang Syarat dan Tata Cara Pelaksanaan Hak Warga Binaan Pemasyarakatan tidak menjelaskan ketentuan terhadap narapidana yang gila di dalam lapas sebagaimana yang pernah terjadi di Lapas Kelas II-A Lambaro, Aceh Besar dan Rutan Klas I Tanjung Gusta, Medan. Selanjutnya yang bersangkutan dikirim ke Lapas Kelas Klass II-B Meulaboh tanggal 27 Januari 2014. Selama tujuh hari di Lapas Klass II-B Meulaboh Zabir bin Ilyas kemudian di titipkan di Rumah Sakit Jiwa Banda Aceh karena penyakitnya sudah mencapai stadium empat untuk mendapatkan perawatan dan penyembuhan kejiwaannya. Bagaimanakah pengaturan dan pembinaan terhadap narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan dalam Lembaga Pemasyarakatan. Kemudian bagaimanakah kepastian hukum bagi narapidana yang sedang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan, dan bagaimana status hukum bagi narapidana yang sembuh dari gangguan kejiwaan. Penelitian dan pengkajian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaturan dan pembinaan terhadap narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan dalam Lapas dan mengidentifikasi kepastian hukum bagi narapidana yang sedang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan serta mengetahui status hukum bagi narapidana yang sembuh dari gangguan kejiwaan.Metode yang digunakan adalah metode penelitian yuridis-normatif dengan menggunakan jenis penelitian deskriptis analisis dalam rangka untuk menemukan aturan hukum, prinsip-prinsip hukum, norma maupun doktrin-doktrin hukum dengan pendekatan undang-undang, kasus. Sumber data adalah data sekunder berupa bahan hukum primer, bahan hukum sekunder, dan bahan hukum tersier.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Pengaturan tentang perawatan narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan dalam Lembaga Pemasyarakatan di Indonesia belum diatur, baik dalam Undang-Undang Nomor 12 Tahun 1995 tentang Lembaga Pemasyarakatan maupun PP No. 99 Tahun 2012 tentang PP No. 99 Tahun 2012 tentang Perubahan Kedua Atas PP No.32 Tahun 1999 tentang Syarat dan Tata Cara Pelaksanaan Hak Warga Binaan Pemasyarakatan. Namun bila narapidana sakit atau gangguan kesehatan lainnya yang tidak termasuk gangguan kejiwaan ada aturan tentang perawatan medis. Adapun mengenai narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan di Lembaga Pemasyarakatan di Indonesia hingga kini belum ada kepastian hukum karena kasus seperti ini sangat langka terjadi di Indonesia. Pihak otoritas hanya menggunakan hak diskresi yang dimilikinya untuk menyelesaikan kasus tersebut sebagaimana terjadi di Lapas Porong Surabaya. Tetapi di Aceh kasus ini baru pertama kali terjadi yang dialami Zabir bin Ilyas pada tahun 2014. Pimpinan Lapas memutuskan memasukkan Zabir bin Ilyas ke Rumah Sakit Jiwa Banda Aceh. Terkait status hukum narapidana yang sembuh dari gangguan kejiwaan masih tetap sebagai tersangka (ditahan). Tidak ada keringanan hukuman apalagi sampai dibebaskan sebelum masa hukuman habis dijalankan. Hingga kini tidak ada satupun aturan yang mengatur baik secara implisit maupun ekplisit yang mengatur tentang narapidana yang sembuh dari penyakit kejiwaan (gila).Disarankan kepada Pemerintah agar merevisi Undang-Undang Nomor 12 Tahun 1995 tentang Lembaga Pemasyarakatan dan memasukkan salah satu pasal yang mengatur mengenai narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan di dalam Lembaga Pemasyarakatan. Agar terwujudnya kepastian hukum di Indonesia mengenai narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan dalam lebaga pemasyarakatan untuk membuat regulasi legal baik berupa undang-undang khusus atau melalui Peraturan Pemerintah. Kemudian disarankan agar narapidana yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan dalam Lembaga Pemasyarakatan dapat dibebaskan dan dikembalikan ke keluarganya atau dimasukkan ke rumah sakit jiwa hingga sembuh.Kata Kunci : Pembinaan, Narapidana, Gangguan Jiwa, Lembaga Pemasyarakatan.Banda Ace

Unmet Medical Needs in Ulcerative Colitis: An Expert Group Consensus

BACKGROUND The authors aimed to conduct an extensive literature review and consensus meeting to identify unmet needs in ulcerative colitis (UC) and ways to overcome them. UC is a relapsing and remitting inflammatory bowel disease with varied, and changing, incidence rates worldwide. UC has an unpredictable disease course and is associated with a high health economic burden. During 2016 and 2017, a panel of experts was convened to identify, discuss and address areas of unmet need in UC. METHODS PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were searched for relevant articles describing studies performed in patients with UC. These findings were used to generate a set of statements relating to unmet needs in UC. Consensus on these statements was then sought from a panel of 9 expert gastroenterologists using a modified Delphi review process that consisted of anonymous surveys followed by live meetings. RESULTS In 2 literature reviews, over 5,000 unique records were identified and a total of 138 articles were fully reviewed. These were used to consider 26 areas of unmet need, which were explored in 2 face-to-face meetings, in which the statements were debated and amended, resulting in consensus on 30 final statements. The unmet needs identified were categorised into 7 areas: impact of UC on patients' daily life; importance of early diagnosis and treatment; drawbacks of existing treatments; urgent need for new treatments; and disease-, practice- or patient-focused unmet needs. CONCLUSIONS These expert group meetings found a number of areas of unmet needs in UC, which is an important first step in tackling them in the future. Future research and development should be focused in these areas for the management of patients with UC

Development of Red Flags Index for Early Referral of Adults with Symptoms and Signs Suggestive of Crohn's Disease: An IOIBD Initiative

International audience; BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Diagnostic delay is frequent in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). We developed a tool to predict early diagnosis.METHODS:A systematic literature review and 12 CD specialists identified 'Red Flags', i.e. symptoms or signs suggestive of CD. A 21-item questionnaire was administered to 36 healthy subjects, 80 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (non-CD group) and 85 patients with recently diagnosed (<18 months) CD. Patients with CD were asked to recall symptoms and signs they experienced during the 12 months before diagnosis. Multiple logistic regression analyses selected and weighted independent items to construct the Red Flags index. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to assess the threshold that discriminated CD from non-CD. Association with the Red Flags index relative to this threshold was expressed as the odds ratios (OR).RESULTS:Two hundred and one subjects, CD and non-CD, answered the questionnaire. The multivariate analysis identified eight items independently associated with a diagnosis of CD. A minimum Red Flags index value of 8 was highly predictive of CD diagnosis with sensitivity and specificity bootstrap estimates of 0.94 (95% confidence interval 0.88-0.99) and 0.94 (0.90-0.97), respectively. Positive and negative likelihood ratios were 15.1 (9.3-33.6) and 0.066 (0.013-0.125), respectively. The association between CD diagnosis and a Red Flags index value of ≥8 corresponds to an OR of 290 (p < 0.0001).CONCLUSIONS:The Red Flags index using early symptoms and signs has high predictive value for the diagnosis of CD. These results need prospective validation prior to introduction into clinical practice