Integriteit in de politiek-ambtelijke verhoudingen

The politics and administration of institutional chang

Anatomy of extraordinary rainfall and flash flood in a Dutch lowland catchment

On 26 August 2010 the eastern part of The Netherlands and the bordering part of Germany were struck by a series of rainfall events lasting for more than a day. Over an area of 740 km2 more than 120 mm of rainfall were observed in 24 h. This extreme event resulted in local flooding of city centres, highways and agricultural fields, and considerable financial loss. In this paper we report on the unprecedented flash flood triggered by this exceptionally heavy rainfall event in the 6.5 km2 Hupsel Brook catchment, which has been the experimental watershed employed by Wageningen University since the 1960s. This study aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics of such lowland flash floods. We present a detailed hydrometeorological analysis of this extreme event, focusing on its synoptic meteorological characteristics, its space-time rainfall dynamics as observed with rain gauges, weather radar and a microwave link, as well as the measured soil moisture, groundwater and discharge response of the catchment. At the Hupsel Brook catchment 160 mm of rainfall was observed in 24 h, corresponding to an estimated return period of well over 1000 years. As a result, discharge at the catchment outlet increased from 4.4 × 10-3 to nearly 5 m3 s-1. Within 7 h discharge rose from 5 × 10-2 to 4.5 m3 s-1. The catchment response can be divided into four phases: (1) soil moisture reservoir filling, (2) groundwater response, (3) surface depression filling and surface runoff and (4) backwater feedback. The first 35 mm of rainfall were stored in the soil without a significant increase in discharge. Relatively dry initial conditions (in comparison to those for past discharge extremes) prevented an even faster and more extreme hydrological response

The politics-administration dichotomy : a reconstruction

Er is door politicologen en bestuurskundigen al veel empirisch onderzoek verricht naar de wijze waarop politici (ministers, wethouders) en ambtenaren met elkaar omgaan. Zelden wordt echter de vraag gesteld naar het hoe en waarom van de tweedeling zelf. Wat is ten diepste het onderscheid tussen politiek en ambtelijk bestuur? Waarom hebben moderne staten deze tweedeling eigenlijk ooit ingevoerd en waarom handhaven zij haar nog steeds? Is de tweedeling in een tijd van complex netwerk-governance nog wel zinvol? Op dit soort vragen probeert mijn proefschrift een antwoord te geven. Ik betoog dat het onderscheid tussen politiek en ambtelijk bestuur vaak te veel wordt versmald (bijvoorbeeld zo: politici nemen besluiten, ambtenaren bereiden deze voor en voeren ze uit; of politici worden gekozen en ambtenaren benoemd) en pleit voor een veel bredere opvatting van het onderscheid (bijvoorbeeld als democratie/bureaucratie). Verder betoog ik dat de tweedeling in de 19e eeuw is ontstaan als constitutioneel principe, verwant aan de leer van de trias politica van Montesquieu, en als zodanig ook nu nog steeds hoogst relevant is. Haar belangrijkste doelstelling is niet om de (democratische) kwaliteit van de politiek te waarborgen, of de effectiviteit en efficiency van het bestuur, maar om de staatsmacht in zijn geheel te beperken zodat er politieke vrijheid ontstaat voor burgers.LEI Universiteit LeidenThe politics and administration of institutional chang

Erratum:Influenza as a molecular walker (Chemical Science (2020) 11 (27–36) DOI: 10.1039/c9sc05149j)

The authors regret that incorrect details were given for ref. 70 in the original article. The correct version of ref. 70 is given below as ref. 1. The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for these errors and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers.</p

Statesmanship Beyond the Modern State

The concept and ideal of statesmanship have been handed down to us from ancient to modern times, but it has a paradoxical relationship with the modern state. While terminology suggests that statesmanship presupposes the state, in fact it appears rather incongruent with modern (i.e., constitutional, democratic, and bureaucratic) statehood. Nonetheless, statesmanship continues to be promoted and new understandings, such as judicial and administrative statesmanship, have been proposed. Some hope, moreover, that statesmanship becomes more feasible again as we transfer from state government to multilevel governance. There are problems, however, with conceiving of statesmanship, either in its original or in its newer meanings, under these new conditions. Despite the enduring appeal of statesmanship, the changing role of the state in present-day governance does not mean that this ideal can be easily regained.The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

De Opleidingscommissie

Wellicht heb je term &apos;opleidingscommissie&apos; (OLC) wel eens gehoord, maar weet je eigenlijk niet wat deze commissie precies doet. Om de OLC meer bekendheid te geven onder studenten volgt een korte toelichting

The Use of Respiratory Effort Improves an ECG-Based Deep Learning Algorithm to Assess Sleep-Disordered Breathing

BACKGROUND: Sleep apnea is a prevalent sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) condition that affects a large population worldwide. Research has demonstrated the potential of using electrocardiographic (ECG) signals (heart rate and ECG-derived respiration, EDR) to detect SDB. However, EDR may be a suboptimal replacement for respiration signals.METHODS: We evaluated a previously described ECG-based deep learning algorithm in an independent dataset including 198 patients and compared performance for SDB event detection using thoracic respiratory effort versus EDR. We also evaluated the algorithm in terms of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) estimation performance, and SDB severity classification based on the estimated AHI.RESULTS: Using respiratory effort instead of EDR, we achieved an improved performance in SDB event detection (F1 score = 0.708), AHI estimation (Spearman's correlation = 0.922), and SDB severity classification (Cohen's kappa of 0.62 was obtained based on AHI).CONCLUSION: Respiratory effort is superior to EDR to assess SDB. Using respiratory effort and ECG, the previously described algorithm achieves good performance in a new dataset from an independent laboratory confirming its adequacy for this task.</p

Corticospinal beta-band synchronization entails rhythmic gain modulation

Rhythmic synchronization of neurons in the beta or gamma band occurs almost ubiquitously, and this synchronization has been linked to numerous nervous system functions. Many respective studies make the implicit assumption that neuronal synchronization affects neuronal interactions. Indeed, when neurons synchronize, their output spikes reach postsynaptic neurons together, trigger coincidence detection mechanisms, and therefore have an enhanced impact. There is ample experimental evidence demonstrating this consequence of neuronal synchronization, but beyond this, beta/gamma-band synchronization within a group of neurons might also modulate the impact of synaptic input to that synchronized group. This would constitute a separate mechanism through which synchronization affects neuronal interactions, but direct in vivo evidence for this putative mechanism is lacking. Here, we demonstrate that synchronized beta-band activity of a neuronal group modulates the efficacy of synaptic input to that group in-phase with the beta rhythm. This response modulation was not an addition of rhythmic activity onto the average response but a rhythmic modulation of multiplicative input gain. Our results demonstrate that beta-rhythmic activity of a neuronal target group multiplexes input gain along the rhythm cycle. The actual gain of an input then depends on the precision and the phase of its rhythmic synchronization to this target, providing one mechanistic explanation for why synchronization modulates interactions