How Dutch Institutions Enhance the Adaptive Capacity of Society

This report examines the adaptive capacity of the institutional framework of the Netherlands to cope with the impacts of climate change. Historically, institutions have evolved incrementally to deal with existing social problems. They provide norms and rules for collective action and create continuity rather than change. However, the nature of societal problems is changing as a result of the processes of globalization and development. With the progress made in the natural sciences, we are able to predict in advance, to a certain extent, the potential environmental impacts of various human actions on society, for example, climate change. This raises some key questions: Are our institutions capable of dealing with this new knowledge about future impacts and, more importantly, with the impacts themselves? Are our institutions capable of dealing with the inherent uncertainty of the predictions

IC12 Werkdocument 4 : Verslag Bijeenkomst IC12-team “Instituties voor adaptatie”, maart 2009, Academiegebouw Utrecht.

De projectgroep IC12 van Klimaat voor Ruimte onderzoekt de adaptiviteit van instituties in relatie tot klimaatverandering. Op basis van theorie is een adaptatiewiel voor de adaptiviteit van instituties ontworpen. We willen graag weten of deze herkend wordt door praktijkdenkers en bruikbaar wordt gevonden, waarbij we ons richten op de adaptiviteit van instituties in de volgende sectoren: natuur, landbouw, ruimtelijke ordening en water

Institutions for adaptation: do institutions allow society to adapt to the impacts of climate change?

Historisch gezien hebben instituties (formele en informele sociale regels en interactiepatronen) zich altijd ontwikkeld als reactie op sociale problemen, waaronder milieuproblemen. De laatste decennia worden gekenmerkt door toenemende economische ontwikkeling en globalisering, waardoor sociale problemen zich sneller ontwikkelen en onze kennis over deze problemen toeneemt. Belangrijke vraag is: in hoeverre maken instituties een tijdige en effectieve reactie vanuit de samenleving op de gevolgen van klimaatverandering mogelijk? Eerst is het Adaptatiewiel ontwikkeld als een methode om instituties te beoordelen op de mate waarin zij aanpassingen vanuit de samenlevingen bevorderen of belemmeren. Darmee is vervolgens de officiële Nederlandse institutionele context geëvalueerd in vier beleidssectoren (natuur, landbouw, water en ruimtelijke ordening). Ook is het Adaptatiewiel toegepast in vier case studies (Individuele Verantwoordelijkheid, Waterveiligheid, Bouwen in Laaggelegen Gebieden en Waddenzee

How to assess the adaptive capacity of legislation and policies

Abstract: Intuitively it is clear that institutions can both enhance and hamper the adaptive capacity of a society. But what characteristics make an institution more or less helpful for development and implementation of adaptation strategies? Based on the literature, we developed an analytical framework to assess the adaptive capacity of institutions. The Adaptive Capacity Wheel consists of six dimensions: variety, learning, autonomous ability to change, leadership, legitimacy and resources. The six dimensions were operationalised into 22 criteria and were applied to formal institutions in a content analysis. We conclude that sometimes dimensions and criteria seem to contradict each other, which is not surprising, because this reflects existing paradoxes in the governance of society. We would like to discuss the analytical instrument and its possible uses with the audience of the Amsterdam Conference

The Impact of Strategic White Matter Hyperintensity Lesion Location on Language

Objective: The impact of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on language possibly depends on lesion location through disturbance of strategic white matter tracts. We examined the impact of WMH location on language in elderly Asians. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Population-based. Participants: Eight-hundred nineteen residents of Singapore, ages (≥65 years). Measurements: Clinical, cognitive and 3T magnetic resonance imaging assessments were performed on all participants. Language was assessed using the Modified Boston Naming Test (MBNT) and Verbal Fluency (VF). Hypothesis-free region-of-interest-based (ROI) analyses based on major white matter tracts were used to determine the association between WMH location and language. Conditional dependencies between the regional WMH volumes and language were examined using Bayesian-network analysis. Results: ROI-based analyses showed that WMH located within the anterior thalamic radiation (mean difference: −0.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.22; −0.02, p = 0.019) and uncinate fasciculus (mean difference: −0.09, 95% CI: −0.18; −0.01, p = 0.022) in the left hemisphere were significantly associated with worse VF but did not survive multiple testing. Conversely, WMH volume in the left cingulum of cingulate gyrus was significantly associated with MBNT performance (mean difference: −0.09, 95% CI: −0.17; −0.02, p = 0.016). Bayesian-network analyses confirmed the left cingulum of cingulate gyrus as a direct determinant of MBNT performance. Conclusion: Our findings identify the left cingulum of cingulate gyrus as a strategic white matter tract for MBNT, suggesting that language – is sensitive to subcortical ischemic damage. Future studies on the role of sporadic ischemic lesions and vascular cognitive impairment should not only focus on total WMH volume but should also take WMH lesion location into account when addressing language

Decontamination of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence datasets based on bacterial load assessment by qPCR

Identification of unexpected taxa in 16S rRNA surveys of low-density microbiota, diluted mock communities and cultures demonstrated that a variable fraction of sequence reads originated from exogenous DNA. The sources of these contaminants are reagents used in DNA extraction, PCR, and next-generation sequencing library preparation, and human (skin, oral and respiratory) microbiota from the investigators

Generative lesion pattern decomposition of cognitive impairment after stroke

Cognitive impairment is a frequent and disabling sequela of stroke. There is however incomplete understanding of how lesion topographies in the left and right cerebral hemisphere brain interact to cause distinct cognitive deficits. We integrated machine learning and Bayesian hierarchical modelling to enable a hemisphere-aware analysis of 1080 acute ischaemic stroke patients with deep profiling ∼3 months after stroke. We show the relevance of the left hemisphere in the prediction of language and memory assessments and relevance of the right hemisphere in the prediction of visuospatial functioning. Global cognitive impairments were equally well predicted by lesion topographies from both sides. Damage to the hippocampal and occipital regions on the left was particularly informative about lost naming and memory functions, while damage to these regions on the right was linked to lost visuospatial functioning. Global cognitive impairment was predominantly linked to lesioned tissue in the supramarginal and angular gyrus, the post-central gyrus as well as the lateral occipital and opercular cortices of the left hemisphere. Hence, our analysis strategy uncovered that lesion patterns with unique hemispheric distributions are characteristic of how cognitive capacity is lost due to ischaemic brain tissue damage