Maritime transport and regional climate change impacts in large EU islands and archipelagos

Maritime transport is a vital sector for global trade and the world economy. Particularly for islands, there is also an important social dimension of this sector, since island communities strongly rely on it for a connection with the mainland and the transportation of goods and passengers. Furthermore, islands are exceptionally vulnerable to climate change, as the rising sea level and extreme events are expected to induce severe impacts. Such hazards are anticipated to also affect the operations of the maritime transport sector by affecting either the port infrastructure or ships en route. The present study is an effort to better comprehend and assess the future risk of maritime transport disruption in six European islands and archipelagos, and it aims at supporting regional to local policy and decision-making. We employ state-of-the-art regional climate datasets and the widely used impact chain approach to identify the different components that might drive such risks. Larger islands (e.g., Corsica, Cyprus and Crete) are found to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change on maritime operations. Our findings also highlight the importance of adopting a low-emission pathway, since this will keep the risk of maritime transport disruption similar to present levels or even slightly decreased for some islands because of an enhanced adaptation capacity and advantageous demographic changes.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.This work has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 776661 (SOCLIMPACT project). It was also supported by the EMME-CARE project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 856612, as well as matching co-funding by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.Peer reviewe

A review of the application of fuzzy cognitive maps in the policy decision-making life cycle

Fuzzy cognitive maps are a qualitative modeling technique that uses expert knowledge to attempt to represent the interactions between problem-specific factors aiming to simulate how these interactions alter the factors and drive the current state of a problem to a different state. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of research attempts that propose the adoption of Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) as a means to forecast the effect of a policy in a number of interesting domains, including land use, urban (re)development, and other social, political, or economic issues or to simulate the current state of affairs to pinpoint possible hotspots for creating a policy. This chapter presents an overview of these research attempts where fuzzy cognitive maps have been employed as a simulation tool in order to support decision makers in their assessment of the impact of policies and help them adopt the most suitable policy to implement

User Acceptance of Technology: Statistical Analysis of Training’s Impact on Local Government Employees’ Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease-of-Use

This article investigates how training public officials from two municipalities in Spain and Cyprus with new technologies affects three dependent variables: level of understanding of the technological innovation being introduced, its perceived usefulness, and its perceived ease-of-use. The tests to determine the impact of training were carried out by means of a self-constructed questionnaire within a repeated measure experimental design. The results demonstrate that the three variables are indeed positively affected by the training sessions to users from both municipalities. Consequently, training plays a vital role in encouraging government employees and administrators to accept, adopt and utilize e-government technologies

Dynamic monitoring of PD‐L1 and Ki67 in circulating tumor cells of metastatic non‐small cell lung cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab

Programmed cell death protein ligand‐1 (PD‐L1) expression in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors guides treatment selection. PD‐L1 expression in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may provide further information. We have explored PD‐L1 and marker of proliferation Ki‐67 (Ki67; also known as MKI67) in CTCs in longitudinal samples of 47 advanced NSCLC patients receiving pembrolizumab. A triple immunofluorescence, against cytokeratin, PD‐L1, and Ki67, was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells, at baseline, post‐first cycle, post‐third, and primary resistance (PMR). Patients displaying PMR (progression at first evaluation) were classified as progressive disease (PD) and those with clinical benefit as disease control (DC). CTCs were categorized as PD‐L1high/low/medium/negative and Ki67+ or Ki67−. CTC evaluation revealed a significant increase in the PD‐L1low CTC rate at PMR compared to baseline (2.5% at baseline vs. 36.5% at PMR), whereas a reduction in the PD‐L1high CTC rate was observed (31.5% vs. 0%, respectively). Investigation of CTC status between PD and DC patients showed that PD patients more frequently increased total and PD‐L1low CTCs after first cycle compared to DC (83% of PD vs. 37% of DC and 67% of PD vs. 8% of DC, respectively). Progression‐free survival (PFS) was longer in patients with decreased total and PD‐L1low CTCs after first cycle compared to those with increased CTCs (median PFS: not reached vs. 2 months). PD‐L1+ patients presenting a high Ki67 index (% Ki67+ CTCs > 30%) before treatment had a shorter PFS compared to those with a low Ki67 (≤ 30%), and overall survival (OS) was shorter in PD‐L1+ patients harboring Ki67+ CTCs compared to those not presenting (median OS: 11.8 months vs. 33.1 months, respectively). In sequential samples of patients with a durable benefit, a low Ki67 index was observed. Our results suggest that monitoring PD‐L1 and Ki67 expression in CTCs of NSCLC patients treated with pembrolizumab may be predictive for pembrolizumab efficacy

User Acceptance of Technology: Statistical Analysis of Training’s Impact on Local Government Employees’ Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease-of-Use

This article investigates how training public officials from two municipalities in Spain and Cyprus with new technologies affects three dependent variables: level of understanding of the technological innovation being introduced, its perceived usefulness, and its perceived ease-of-use. The tests to determine the impact of training were carried out by means of a self-constructed questionnaire within a repeated measure experimental design. The results demonstrate that the three variables are indeed positively affected by the training sessions to users from both municipalities. Consequently, training plays a vital role in encouraging government employees and administrators to accept, adopt and utilize e-government technologies.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Urban Studie