Benefits of noise measures

Vermindering van omgevingsgeluid door het weg- en railverkeer in stedelijke gebieden in Nederland levert forse maatschappelijke baten op. Hierdoor worden gebieden nabij deze bronnen aantrekkelijker om te wonen en te bouwen. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van het RIVM in opdracht van het ministerie van VROM. Het RIVM inventariseerde de maatschappelijke baten van diverse geluidsmaatregelen, zoals stille banden, geluidsarm asfalt en geluidsschermen. Dit gebeurde aan de hand van Hedonic Pricing, een manier om de invloed van geluid op huizenprijzen te beoordelen. Ook is gekeken naar verschillen in grondprijzen voor gebieden die wel of niet geschikt zijn voor nieuwe woningbouw. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat voor wegverkeer stille banden en geluidsarm asfalt het meest kosteneffectief zijn. Deze maatregelen pakken het geluid aan bij de bron. Geluidsschermen zijn minder kosteneffectief. Ook langs spoorwegen zullen bronmaatregelen forse baten opleveren. De totale omvang van de te realiseren baten bedraagt circa 7 miljard euro in de vorm van waardestijging van woningen en bouwgronden. De meeste van de gebieden grenzen aan stedelijke verkeerswegen en spoorwegen. Geluidsmaatregelen kunnen ook de waarde van natuur- en stiltegebieden verhogen. Deze waardetoename wordt geschat op ruim 60 miljoen euro, op grond van een hogere betalingsbereidheid bij bezoekers voor stiltekwaliteit. Het is echter meestal niet mogelijk om deze baten kosteneffectief te realiseren. Alleen in natuurgebieden die veel bezoekers trekken, zoals bijvoorbeeld het Nationaal Park 'Dwingelderveld' in Drenthe, kunnen de baten opwegen tegen de kosten.Reduction of noise from road- and railway traffic will generate major social benefits in urban areas in the Netherlands. This will improve the environmental quality of residential areas and areas for new housing estate. This followed from an investigation carried out by the RIVM for the Dutch Ministry of Housing Spatial Planning and the Environment. In the investigation benefits from noise measures, such as silent tires, quiet pavements and noise barriers were evaluated. The method of Hedonic Pricing was used to value the effect of noise on the market value of dwellings. Also the influence of reducing noise on the market value of building lands was investigated. In general measures at the source, such as silent tires, quiet pavements or tracks , appear to be highly cost-effective. Noise barriers seem less cost effective. The results of this study indicate that the total benefits from cost-effective noise measures amounts to 7 billion euros. The bulk of these benefits is be obtained alongside urban roads and railways. In addition to the social benefits from noise measures in dense built-up urban areas, benefits may also be attained by improving noise quality in nature areas and noise abatement zones in rural parts of the Netherlands. An indication based on the 'willingness to pay' of visitors for enjoying undisturbed nature amounts to over 60 million euros for all nature areas and noise abatement zones. In general, these benefits cannot be achieved cost-effectively. However, it is possible to find some areas with relatively large numbers of visitors where noise measures could prove cost-effective. One example in the Netherlands is the 'Dwingelderveld' National Park.VROM-DGM-LM

Environmental concern areas

Veel woningen in stedelijke gebieden in Nederland ondervinden milieuproblemen. Met name de grote steden hebben last van geluidsoverlast en vervuilde lucht. Dit blijkt uit een inventarisatie van het RIVM. Dit rapport biedt een globaal overzicht van de milieuproblemen in stedelijk gebied. In opdracht van het ministerie van VROM inventariseerde het RIVM de milieubelasting in stedelijke gebieden. Hierbij werd gekeken naar luchtkwaliteit, geluid, bodem en externe veiligheid. Bij de inventarisatie is naar stedelijke postcodegebieden gekeken waarin zich woningen met een kritieke milieubelasting bevinden. Uit de inventarisatie blijkt dat veel woningen in stedelijke gebieden een overschrijding van kritische grenswaarden voor milieubelasting ondervinden. De overschrijding wordt vaak veroorzaakt door luchtvervuiling, in de vorm van hoge concentraties fijn stof en stikstofdioxide, en lawaai van weg- en railverkeer. Vooral in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht en Noord-Brabant spelen deze problemen. Deelkaarten in dit rapport geven per postcodegebied aan welke milieuproblemen zich ter plaatse voordoen en hoe ernstig deze zijn. De kaarten bieden beleidsmakers en planologen een overzicht van de gebieden die in milieutechnisch opzicht aandacht vragen.Many urban residential areas in the Netherlands experience environmental problems. Particularly within the major cities, extensive environmental damage is caused by noise and air pollution from roadway traffic. This was concluded from an inventory carried out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). This report presents an overview of urban problem areas. By order of the Ministry of Housing and Spatiol Planning, the RIVM made an inventory of environmental problems in urban regions in the Netherlands due to air pollution, noise, potential soil pollution and external safety risks. Environmental problems (exposure or exposure risks) were related to the presence of dwellings in each postal area where critical limit values are exceeded. From the inventory, it appears that the critical exposure values are exceeded at many dwellings. Exceedences are often caused by air pollution (particulate matter and nitrogen oxide) and noise from road- and railway traffic. Many of these dwellings can be found in major cities with ringways (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht ) and also in the Province of Noord-Brabant. Inventories are presented in a set of color coded maps, showing the type of environmental damage occurring and indicating the number of dwellings critically exposed in each postal area. The maps give policy makers and urban planners an overall picture of the residential areas demanding attention from an environmental point of view.VROM-DGM-LM

A brief version of the Scale of Emotional Development – Short

Background The Scale of Emotional Development – Short (SED-S) captures the level of emotional development in persons with a disorder of intellectual development (DID) with 200 items on five developmental levels. The study aims to develop a brief version of the SED-S. Methods Based on item analysis (proportions, χ2-test, Spearman's ρ and corrected item–total correlation), a brief version of the SED-S was developed in a sample of 224 adults with a DID (n1) and validated in a second independent matched sample (n2 = 223). Results Item reliability ranged per item set from Cronbach's α = 0.835 to 0.924. Weighted kappa resulted in κω = 0.743 (P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval = 0.690–0.802). Overall agreement of the brief version with the original SED-S was PO = 0.7. The brief version of the SED-S showed weaknesses in distinguishing level 2 from the adjacent levels. Conclusions The brief version of the SED-S showed good reliability and moderate to good validity results. Items of phase 2 and, to some degree, of phase 5 should be revised to further improve the psychometric properties of the scale.Peer Reviewe

Preparation of Primary and Secondary Dialkylmagnesiums by a Radical I/Mg-Exchange Reaction Using sBu(2)Mg in Toluene

The treatment of primary or secondary alkyl iodides with sBu(2)Mg in toluene (25-40 degrees C, 2-4 h) provided dialkylmagnesiums that underwent various reactions with aldehydes, ketones, acid chlorides or allylic bromides. 3-Substituted secondary cyclohexyl iodides led to all-cis-3-cyclohexylmagnesium reagents under these exchange conditions in a highly stereoconvergent manner. Enantiomerically enriched 3-silyloxy-substituted secondary alkyl iodides gave after an exchange reaction with sBu(2)Mg stereodefined dialkylmagnesiums that after quenching with various electrophiles furnished various 1,3-stereodefined products including homo-aldol products (99 % dr and 98 % ee). Mechanistic studies confirmed a radical pathway for these new iodine/magnesium-exchange reactions

Mapping global extraction of abiotic and biotic raw materials

Reducing global environmental and social impacts related to final consumption is a significant societal as well as scientific challenge, especially as production and consumption are increasingly geographically disconnected via complex supply chains. Tracing the interlinkages between consumption and production as well as related impacts in a spatially explicit way can contribute to overcoming this challenge. Currently, the spatial resolution of global models of raw material extraction, trade and consumption is limited to the national level. Thus, they fail to link specific supply chains to the actual geographical location of production and related impacts. Detailed global spatiotemporal datasets would allow tracing the heterogeneity of environmental and social conditions within producing countries. In this contribution, we present our preliminary results mapping global biotic and abiotic raw materials extraction in 5-arc-minutes (around 10 km x 10 km at the equator) grid cell level, starting from the year 2000. Our datasets will include around 60 different raw materials, covering crops, fishery, fossil energy resources, metal ores and non-metallic minerals. In the future, our database will also include spatially explicit data on environmental and social impacts related to the extraction of these raw materials. The new database, methods, and algorithms will be openly available to the research community and the wider public, supporting open and reproducible science. Our novel database will allow developing new methods to assess the interlinkages between consumption and various environmental and social impacts related to extraction on a grid cell level. It can boost the spatially explicit assessments of supply chains and consumption patterns in both developed and developing countries, which is crucial for the design of international policy instruments to achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns

Selective transport of neurotransmitters and modulators by distinct volume-regulated LRRC8 anion channels

In response to swelling, mammalian cells release chloride and organic osmolytes through VRAC volume-regulated anion channels. VRACs are heteromers of LRRC8A and other LRRC8 isoforms (B-E) which are co-expressed in HEK293 and most other cells. The spectrum of VRAC substrates and its dependence on particular LRRC8 isoforms remains largely unknown. We show that besides the osmolytes taurine and myo-inositol, LRRC8 channels transport the neurotransmitters glutamate, aspartate and GABA and the co-activator D-serine. HEK293 cells engineered to express defined subsets of LRRC8 isoforms were used to elucidate the subunit-dependence of transport. Whereas LRRC8D was crucial for the translocation of overall neutral compounds like myo-inositol, taurine and GABA and sustained the transport of positively charged lysine, flux of negatively charged aspartate was equally well supported by LRRC8E. Disruption of LRRC8B or LRRC8C failed to decrease transport rates of all investigated substrates, but their inclusion into LRRC8 heteromers influenced VRAC's substrate preference. This suggested that individual VRACs can contain three or more different LRRC8 subunits, a conclusion confirmed by sequential co-immunoprecipitations. Our work suggests a composition-dependent role of VRACs in extracellular signal transduction

Iron-Catalyzed Radical Zincations of Alkyl Iodides

We report a new iron-catalyzed I/Zn-exchange allowing to convert primary or tailored secondary alkyl iodides into the corresponding alkylzinc iodides. In the presence of a remote double bond at position 5, diastereoselective ring closures are observed. Quenching of these zinc reagents, after transmetalation to copper species (with CuCN center dot 2LiCl) or under Pd-catalysis, with typical electrophiles (allyl bromides, acid chlorides or aryl iodides) gave various polyfunctional products

No age effect in the prevalence and clinical significance of ultra-high risk symptoms and criteria for psychosis in 22q11 deletion syndrome: Confirmation of the genetically driven risk for psychosis?

BACKGROUND: The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is one of the highest known risk factors for schizophrenia. Thus, the detection of 22q11DS patients at particularly high risk of psychosis is important, yet studies on the clinical significance of the widely used ultra-high risk (UHR) criteria in 22q11DS are inconclusive. Since age was reported to moderate clinical significance of UHR symptoms in community samples, we explored whether age at presentation of UHR symptoms and criteria may explain part of this heterogeneity. METHODS: 111 patients with 22q11DS (8-30 years; 15.7±4.7) were assessed for UHR symptoms/criteria. Information on diagnoses, psychosocial functioning, and IQ were collected. RESULTS: Any UHR symptom was reported by 38.7%, any UHR criterion by 27%. No significant influence of age on the prevalence of UHR symptoms or criteria was detected. Moreover, age did not significantly modulate the association between UHR symptoms and functioning. However, significant interaction terms suggested that younger age groups were more likely to meet UHR criteria in the presence of UHR symptoms compared to the adult group. DISCUSSION: Compared to the general population, prevalence of UHR symptoms and criteria was 3.8-fold and 20.8-fold in our 22q11DS sample. Contrary to the general population, age only modulated the prevalence of UHR criteria among those with UHR symptoms, but not their prevalence per se or their clinical significance. This suggests that UHR symptoms might develop as a trait factor in terms of a genetically driven schizotypal disposition in 22q11DS, thus necessitating future studies on psychosis-risk indicators in this genetic high-risk group

Identification of the slow E3 transition 136mCs -> 136Cs with conversion electrons

We performed at ISOLDE the spectroscopy of the decay of the 8- isomer in 136Cs by and conversion-electron detection. For the first time the excitation energy of the isomer and the multipolarity of its decay have been measured. The half-life of the isomeric state was remeasured to T1/2 = 17.5(2) s. This isomer decays via a very slow 518 keV E3 transition to the ground state. In addition to this, a much weaker decay branch via a 413 keV M4 and a subsequent 105 keV E2 transition has been found. Thus we have found a new level at 105 keV with spin 4+ between the isomeric and the ground state. The results are discussed in comparison to shell model calculations.Comment: Phys. Rev. C accepted for publicatio

Psychometric properties of the Kessler psychological scales in a Swiss young‐adult community sample indicate poor suitability for community screening for mental disorders

Aim The Kessler psychological distress scales (K10 and K6) are used as screening tools to assess psychological distress related to the likely presence of a mental disorder. Thus, we studied the psychometric properties of their German versions in a Swiss community sample to evaluate their potential usefulness to screen for mental disorders or relevant mental problems in the community and, relatedly, for low threshold transdiagnostic German-speaking services. Methods The sample consisted of 829 citizens of the Swiss canton Bern of age 19–43 years. K10/K6 were validated against mini-international neuropsychiatric interview (M.I.N.I.) diagnoses, questionnaires about health status and quality of life. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to test for general discriminative ability and to select optimal cut-offs of the K10 and K6 for non-psychotic full-blown and subthreshold mental disorders. Results Cronbach's alphas were 0.81 (K10) and 0.70 (K6). ROC analyses indicated much lower optimal thresholds than earlier suggested; 10 for K10 and 6 for K6. At these thresholds, against M.I.N.I. diagnoses, Cohen's κ (≤0.173) and correspondence rates (≤58.14%) were insufficient throughout. Values were higher at the earlier suggested threshold, yet, at the cost of sensitivity that was below 0.5 in all but three, and below 0.3 in all but six cases. Conclusions For the lack of sufficient validity and sensitivity, respectively, our findings suggest that both K10 and K6 would only be of limited use in a low-threshold transdiagnostic mental health service for young adults in Switzerland and likely other German-speaking countries