Near-threshold measurement of the 4He(g,n) reaction

A near-threshold 4He(g,n) cross-section measurement has been performed at MAX-lab. Tagged photons from 23 < Eg < 42 MeV were directed toward a liquid 4He target, and neutrons were detected by time-of-flight in two liquid-scintillator arrays. Seven-point angular distributions were measured for eight photon energies. The results are compared to experimental data measured at comparable energies and Recoil-Corrected Continuum Shell Model, Resonating Group Method, and recent Hyperspherical-Harmonic Expansion calculations. The angle-integrated cross-section data is peaked at a photon energy of about 28 MeV, in disagreement with the value recommended by Calarco, Berman, and Donnelly in 1983.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, some revisions, submitted to Physics Letters

Monitoring van nationale ammoniakemissies uit de landbouw; op weg naar een verbeterde rekenmethodiek

De huidige rekenmethodiek voor het berekenen van de nationale ammoniakemissies uit landbouwkundige bronnen is aan een kritische analyse onderworpen. Aanleiding hiervoor was het grote verschil tussen de op directe wijze berekende ammoniakemissie uit deverschillende landbouwbronnen en de op indirecte wijze berekende emissie, afgeleid uit concentratiemetingen van ammoniak in lucht. De ammoniakemissies van de volgende bronnen zijn behandeld: de N-excretie van diergroepen, stal en buitenopslag van mest, mesttoediening op het land, kunstmest, beweiding en gewassen. Daarnaast is aandacht besteed aan de mestlogistiek, die van belang is voor de verdeling van geproduceerde mest over het bedrijf, binnen de regio en naar andere delen van Nederland. Aanbevelingen zijn gedaan voor de aanpassing van de huidige rekenmethodiek op de korte termijn en voor onderzoek dat na een aantal jaren moet leiden tot een structurele verbetering van de rekenmethodiek

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (F-ROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that F-ROH is significantly associated (p <0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: F-ROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44-66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of F-ROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in F-ROH is independent of all environmental confounding.Peer reviewe

Data on sex differences in one-year outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients without ST-segment elevation

Sex differences in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients are increasingly recognized. Although it has been found that post-resuscitated women are less likely to have significant coronary artery disease (CAD) than men, data on follow-up in these patients are limited. Data for this data in brief article was obtained as a part of the randomized controlled Coronary Angiography after Cardiac Arrest without ST-segment elevation (COACT) trial. The data supplements the manuscript “Sex differences in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients without ST-segment elevation: A COACT trial substudy” were it was found that women were less likely to have significant CAD including chronic total occlusions, and had worse survival when CAD was present. The dataset presented in this paper describes sex differences on interventions, implantable-cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks and hospitalizations due to heart failure during one-year follow-up in patients successfully resuscitated after OHCA. Data was derived through a telephone interview at one year with the patient or general practitioner. Patients in this randomized dataset reflects a homogenous study population, which can be valuable to further build on research regarding long-term sex differences and to further improve cardiac care

An integrated assessment of environmental, economic, social and technological parameters of source separated and conventional sanitation concepts : A contribution to sustainability analysis

Resource recovery and reuse from domestic wastewater has become an important subject for the current development of sanitation technologies and infrastructures. Different technologies are available and combined into sanitation concepts, with different performances. This study provides a methodological approach to evaluate the sustainability of these sanitation concepts with focus on resource recovery and reuse. St. Eustatius, a small tropical island in the Caribbean, was used as a case study for the evaluation. Three source separation-community-on-site and two combined sewerage island-scale concepts were selected and compared in terms of environmental (net energy use, nutrient recovery/reuse, BOD/COD, pathogens, and GHG emission, land use), economic (CAPEX and OPEX), social cultural (acceptance, required competences and education), and technological (flexibility/adaptability, reliability/continuity of service) indicators. The best performing concept, is the application of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Bed (UASB) and Trickling Filter (TF) at island level for combined domestic wastewater treatment with subsequent reuse in agriculture. Its overall average normalised score across the four categories (i.e., average of average per category) is about 15% (0.85) higher than the values of the remaining systems and with a score of 0.73 (conventional activated sludge – centralised level), 0.77 (UASB-septic tank (ST)), 0.76 (UASB-TF - community level), and 0.75 (ST - household level). The higher score of the UASB-TF at community level is mainly due to much better performance in the environmental and economic categories. In conclusion, the case study provides a methodological approach that can support urban planning and decision-making in selecting more sustainable sanitation concepts, allowing resource recovery and reuse in small island context or in other contexts

Assessment of nitrogen and phosphorus flows in agricultural and urban systems in a small island under limited data availability

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are two essential macronutrients required in agricultural production. Themajor share of this production relies on chemical fertilizer that requires energy and relies on limited resources(P). Since these nutrients are lost to the environment, there is a need to shift from this linear urban metabolismto a circularmetabolisminwhich N and P fromdomestic waste and wastewater are reused in agriculture. A firststep to facilitate a transition to more circular urban N and P management is to understand the flows of these resourcesin a coupled urban-agricultural system. For the first time this paper presents a Substance Flow Analysis(SFA) approach for the assessment of the coupled agricultural and urban systems under limited data availabilityin a small island. The developed SFA approach is used to identify intervention points that can provide N and Pstocks for agricultural production. The island of St. Eustatius, a small island in the Caribbean, was used as acase study. The model developed in this study consists of eight sub-systems: agricultural and natural lands,urban lands, crop production, animal production, market, household consumption, soakage pit and opendumplandfill. A total of 26 flows were identified and quantified for a period of one year (2013). The resultsshowed that the agricultural system is a significant source for N and P loss because of erosion/run-off andleaching. Moreover, urban sanitation systems contribute to deterioration of the island's ecosystem through Nand P losses fromdomesticwaste andwastewater by leaching and atmosphericemission. Proposed interventionsare the treatment of blackwater and greywater for the recovery of N and P. In conclusion, this study allows foridentification of potential N and P losses and proposes mitigation measures to improve nutrient managementin a small island contex

Methodiekontwikkeling voor integrale gebiedsgerichte milieustudies; vraaganalyse

Voor het gebiedsgerichte milieuonderzoek is grote behoefte aan efficiënte integrale monitoringsystemen en aan eenvoudige kennissystemen waarmee effecten van maatregelen snel kunnen worden ingeschat. Er is meer interactie nodig tussen deskundigen van kennisinstellingen met actoren uit het gebied, onder andere voor het bedenken van creatieve maatregelen. Dit blijkt uit een vraaganalyse die is uitgevoerd bij vier provincies, VROM en DLG. Om in te spelen op de behoefte aan kennisregie voor gebiedsgerichtmilieubeleid gaat een multidisciplinaire projectgroep een aanspreekpunt vormen bij DLO. Deze projectgroep zal met de vragende partijen een workshop organiseren, een overzicht maken van domein en functionaliteit van verschillende producten, de samenwerking tussen bOta- en gammaonderzoekers versterken en meewerken aan een integraal gebiedsgericht monitoringsysteem