Творчі зв'язки України та Естонії на теренах історичної науки

Mobility management measures taken by firms could potentially result in more sustainable transport choices and hence reduce traffic congestion and emissions. Fringe benefits offered to employees are a means to implement those measures. This paper explores the most common commuting-related fringe benefits currently provided by employers in the Netherlands, namely telework, flextime and allowance types like public transport passes, bicycle contribution, company cars and general financial compensation. By using the Dutch National Time Use Survey (TBO) 2005/2006, interrelationships among fringe benefits and correlations between company, employee, and (home and work) location characteristics and those employee benefits could be investigated. Logistic regressions and Tobit models are used for several estimations indicating the provision and the use of fringe benefits. The results show that relationships among fringe benefits exist, mainly between telework and flextime, but also between those flexible work arrangements and some types of commuting allowance. Furthermore, numerous job, person and geographical variables affect the probability of receiving and using the fringe benefits. For example, in the non-profit and the public sector sustainable commuting benefits are more often provided, the use of fringe benefits is strongly influenced by household composition and several allowance types show a significant correlation with the number of cars in the household. Moreover, firm location, in particular firm density, is highly related to mobility management measures taken by firms

Health-related quality of life after chemotherapy with or without rituximab in primary central nervous system lymphoma patients

Background: The impact of rituximab on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in primary central nervous system lymphoma patients is not well known. We determined the impact of rituximab added to standard high-dose methotrexate-based treatment on HRQoL in patients in a large randomised trial. Patients and methods: Patients from a large phase III trial (HOVON 105/ALLG NHL 24), randomly assigned to receive standard chemotherapy with or without rituximab and followed by 30 Gy whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in patients ≤60 years, completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20 questionnaires before and during treatment, and up to 24 months of follow-up or progression. Differences between treatment arms over time in global health status, role functioning, social functioning, fatigue, and motor dysfunction were assessed. Differences ≥10 points were deemed clinically relevant. The effect of WBRT on HRQoL was analysed in irradiated patients. Results: A total of 160/175 patients eligible for the HRQoL study completed at least one questionnaire and were included. Over time, scores improved statistically significantly and were clinically relevant in both arms. Between arms, there were no differences on any scale (range: −3.8 to +4.0). Scores on all scales were improved to a clinically relevant extent at 12 and 24 months compared with baseline in both arms, except for fatigue and motor dysfunction at 12 months (−7.4 and −8.8, respectively). In irradiated patients (n = 59), scores in all preselected scales, except motor dysfunction, remained stable up to 24 months compared with shortly after WBRT, overall mean difference ranging between 0.02 and 4.570. Conclusion: Compared with baseline, treatment resulted in improved HRQoL scores. The addition of rituximab to standard chemotherapy did not impac

Participatory modelling to support group decision making processes in climate resilient urban design

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Interest in climate resilience is growing worldwide among policy makers, urban planners, citizens and scientists. Climate Resilient Urban Design (CRUD) relates to the (re-)design of urban areas in such a way that cities and citizens become less vulnerable to climate change. Weather phenomena like heat stress, droughts and floods impact the lives of city dwellers, villagers, and rural residents all over the globe. The making of policies dealing with climate resilience in urban environments is a process that inevitably involves stakeholders from various disciplines, each with their own interests, constraints and goals. Group Model Building (GMB) (Vennix, 1999) is known to facilitate the decision making processes by modelling important variables and their causal relations in a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD). This participatory group modelling process creates a shared understanding of the problem, incorporating the views of all stakeholders, and it improves the support for the final decisions taken. The GRACeFUL (Global systems Rapid Assessment tools through Constraint Functional Languages) project aims at supporting decision making in complex problems by connecting participatory processes (using GMB) to scientific evidence through novel tools. Rapid Assessment Tools typify causal factors and linkages with concrete data from other system layers and produce a set of viable and acceptable alternative solutions to be used in decision making. Simulation tools will simulate the alternative scenarios over time and visualization tools will show the results of the different CRUD solutions on maps. The case study area is a neighbourhood in the city of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. The municipality is planning to redevelop the public space in this neighbourhood taking into account climate resilience and involving different stakeholders, including citizens.Published versio

Modelling complex activity-travel scheduling decisions: procedure for the simultaneous estimation of activity generation and duration functions

Activity generation is a key factor in individual’s choices of trip frequency and trip purpose. This paper describes the results of an experiment conducted to estimate functions of several temporal factors on individuals’ propensity to schedule a given activity on a given day. The theory on which the experimental design is based states that the probability of scheduling an activity is a complex and continuous function of how long ago the activity was lastly performed, the time available for the activity and the amount of discretionary time in the activity schedule of the day considered. Aurora, an existing model of activity scheduling, assumes S-shaped utility functions for the history as well as the duration functions, whereas most time-use studies assume monotonically decreasing marginal utilities. The stated-choice experiment involves a range of flexible activities and a large sample of individuals, to measure the utility effects of a set of carefully chosen levels for the factors and test these specific assumptions. The results suggest that the amount of discretionary time has no significant impact on the scheduling decisions provided that enough time is available for the activity. The effects of other factors are as expected and show diminishing marginal utilities. We find mixed evidence for an initial phase of increasing marginal returns as assumed in an S-shaped function

Lessons from the Field. Caregivers supporting marginalized people receiving social service support from street outreach workers

Objective In this Lesson from the Field, we examine changes in the burden experienced by caregivers of persons who experience homelessness associated with lack employment, employability or education, and mental health challenges when the care recipient receives support from an outreach professional known as a social street worker (herein identified as worker). In addition, we focus on caregivers' perception of change in the quality of their relationship with the person for whom they care and whether the caregivers receive support from the worker. Background In the Netherlands, due to the transformation toward a participation society, persons living in compromised circumstances must increasingly rely on caregivers for support and shelter instead of relying on services, such as support from social community teams. Methods Workers provided by a Dutch organization covering the northwest of the Netherlands gained the consent of their clients to contact the clients' caregivers. Caregivers were invited to participate in the research and completed consent. A total of 111 caregivers of persons receiving support from workers completed surveys. Results Caregivers who had more contact with the worker worried less about the person for whom they provided care. No changes were found regarding tension between caregivers and the person for whom they cared. Most caregivers (73%) perceived positive changes in the quality of the relationship with the person for whom they provided care, and 52% received support from the worker. Conclusion Most carers did not perceive changes in their burden, but did perceived positive changes in the quality of the relationship with the person for whom they cared and received support themselves. Implications Our study underpins the need to recognize the caregiver's burden of caregivers who support marginalized people, to connect with these caregivers, and to support them

Incorporating planned activities and events in a dynamic multi-day activity agenda generator

Daily agenda formation is influenced by formal commitments, satisfaction of needs surpassing some threshold and the desire to conduct particular activities in anticipation of socially and religiously driven events such as birthdays, Christmas, etc. As part of a research program to develop a dynamic activity-based model of transport demand, this paper proposes a model to represent dynamic agenda formation, including these different underlying processes. Bayesian estimation of the model is based on data collected through a Web-based survey for a sample of approximately 300 respondents. The survey uses an extension of a 1-day activity diary where respondents are asked to recall activities in retrospect and to identify planned activities in prospect. Estimation results suggest that planned activities influence agenda formation in general, but that their significance and size depends on activity type, socio-demographics and dwelling characteristics

Individuals’ activity – travel rescheduling behaviour: experiment and model-based analysis

Rescheduling of daily activities and associated travel in response to unforeseen events such as travel delays is receiving increased attention in the context of traffic management. In this paper we describe the results of a stated adaptation experiment held among a large sample of individuals through a web-based questionnaire, to estimate parameters of such dynamic behaviour. In the experiment subjects indicated their response to a reduction in available time for a planned activity in a number of hypothetical situations. A mixed logit model was used to estimate subjective preferences for adapting in certain ways conditional upon activity attributes and socioeconomic variables. The results indicate that location and transport-mode adaptations are rare compared with duration adjustment or postponing (or cancelling) the activity, dependent on the relative size of reduced time. Socioeconomic variables and activity attributes also play a significant role.