The Weddelll Sea and Dronning Maud Land (WSDML) Regional Working Group Virtual Science Workshop, 20-23 October, 2020.

Workshop report from the Weddell Sea and Dronning Maud Land (WSDML) Regional Working Group virtual science workshop, held 20-23 October 2020

E-commerce transactions in a virtual environment: Virtual transactions

E-commerce is a fundamental method of doing business, such that for a firm to say it is trading at all in the modern market-place it must have some element of on-line presence. Coupled with this is the explosion of the "population" of Massively Multiplayer On-line Role Playing Games and other shared virtual environments. Many suggest this will lead to a further dimension of commerce: virtual commerce. We discuss here the issues, current roadblocks and present state of an e-commerce transaction carried out completely within a virtual environment; a virtual transaction. Although technically such transactions are in a sense trivial, they raise many other issues in complex ways thus making V-transactions a highly interesting cross-disciplinary issue. We also discuss the social, ethical and regulatory implications for the virtual communities in these environments of such v-transactions, how their implementation affects the nature and management of a virtual environment, and how they represent a fundamental merging of the real and virtual worlds for the purpose of commerce. We highlight the minimal set of features a v-transaction capable virtual environment requires and suggest a model of how in the medium term they could be carried out via a methodology we call click-through, and that the developers of such environments will need to take on the multi-modal behavior of their users, as well as elements of the economic and political sciences in order to fully realize the commercial potential of the v-transaction. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Surgical quality and prospective quality control of the D2-gastrectomy for gastric cancer in the multicenter randomized LOGICA-trial

Background: Quality of gastric cancer surgery is crucial for favorable prognosis. Generally, prospective trials lack quality control measures. This study assessed surgical quality and a novel D2-lymphadenectomy photo-scoring in the LOGICA-trial. Methods: The multicenter LOGICA-trial randomized laparoscopic versus open total/distal D2-gastrectomy for resectable gastric cancer (cT1-4aN0-3M0) in 10 Dutch hospitals. During the trial, two reviewers prospectively analyzed intraoperative photographs of dissected nodal stations for quality control, and provided centers weekly feedback on their D2-lymphadenectomy, as continuous quality-enhancing incentive. After the trial, these photographs were reanalyzed to develop a photo-scoring for future trials, rating the D2-lymphadenectomy dissection quality (optimal-good-suboptimal-unevaluable). Interobserver variability was calculated (weighted kappa). Regression analyses related the photo-scoring to nodal yield, recurrence and 5-years survival. Results: Between 2015 and 2018, 212 patients underwent total/distal D2-gastrectomy (n = 122/n = 90), and 158 (75%) received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. R0-resection rate was 95%. Rate of ≥15 retrieved lymph nodes was 95%. Moderate agreement was obtained in stations 8 + 9 (κ = 0.522), 11p/11d (κ = 0.446) and 12a (κ = 0.441). Consensus was reached for discordant cases (30%). Stations 8 + 9, 11p/11d and 12a were rated ‘optimal’ in 76%, 63% and 68%. Laparoscopic photographs could be rated better than open (2% versus 12% ‘unevaluable’; 73% versus 50% ‘optimal’; p = 0.042). The photo-scoring did not show associations with nodal yield (p = 0.214), recurrence (p = 0.406) and survival (p = 0.988). Conclusions: High radicality and nodal yield demonstrated good quality of D2-gastrectomy. The prospective quality control probably contributed to this. The photo-scoring did not show good performance, but can be refined. Laparoscopic D2-gastrectomy was better suited for standardized surgical photo-evaluation than open surgery.</p

Climate Observing Systems in The Netherlands – National Activities Contributing to GCOS

Climate monitoring is a multidisciplinary and international activity. KNMI and partner institutes in the Netherlands contribute to climate monitoring and coordinate their actions based on a national implementation in accordance to the Implementation Plan of the WMO Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Here we summarize the contribution of governmental institutes and universities in the Netherlands to climate monitoring activities