Breaking boundaries for biodiversity : expanding the policy agenda to halt biodiversity loss

Our assessment from the perspective of the Netherlands, a country in the temperate zone, showed a slightly positive picture, in line with the overall results for this zone. The loss of biodiversity in the Netherlands has been slowed down, but the European target – halting the loss of biodiversity – could not be met. The picture in the Netherlands is less positive if the average low quality of the remaining Dutch biodiversity is taken into account. If the impacts on biodiversity abroad of imports into the Netherlands are also included, we conclude that the Netherlands is not succeeding in slowing down the loss of biodiversity

Ecologische effectiviteit van natuurwetgeving

De huidige natuurwetgeving, dat wil zeggen de Flora- en faunawet, de Natuurbeschermingswet 1998 en de Boswet, beschermt kwetsbare soorten, habitats en gebieden door hun behoefte aan bescherming af te wegen tegen het maatschappelijk belang van onder andere werkzaamheden en projecten. Daarmee geeft de wetgeving een afwegingskader voor de inherente spanning tussen natuur en maatschappelijk belang. Het rapport richt zich op de ecologische effectiviteit van de huidige natuurwetgeving. Het rapport concludeert dat de natuurwetgeving ecologisch effectief is, omdat de aanwezigheid van kwetsbare, beschermde soorten en gebieden wordt meegewogen in de vergunning- of ontheffingsaanvraag bij activiteiten als nieuwbouw, het slopen van gebouwen of het kappen van bomen. Nederland gaat niet op slot door de bescherming van soorten en habitats. Slechts bij een klein deel van de vergunning- en ontheffingsaanvragen kan het project of de activiteit niet doorgaan vanwege ontoelaatbare effecten

USDA Forecasts Of Crop Ending Stocks: How Well Have They Performed?

This study analyzes forecasts of U.S. ending stocks for corn, soybeans, and wheat issued by the USDA. The proposed efficiency tests focus on forecast revisions. Forecast errors are decomposed into monthly unforecastable shocks and idiosyncratic residuals. The error covariance matrix allows for heteroscedasticity and auto-correlations. Results suggest that the USDA forecasts are inefficient, providing strong evidence that the USDA is conservative in forecasting the ending stocks. Unforecastable shocks are heteroscedastic, and idiosyncratic residuals are small. Results are consistent across the three decades analyzed, but soybean forecasts are found to be considerably worse from 2005 to 2015

Learning inguinal hernia repair? A survey of current practice and of preferred methods of surgical residents

Purpose: During surgical residency, many learning methods are available to learn an inguinal hernia repair (IHR). This study aimed to investigate which learning methods are most commonly used and which are perceived as most important by surgical residents for open and endoscopic IHR. Methods: European general surgery residents were invited to participate in a 9-item web-based survey that inquired which of the learning methods were used (checking one or more of 13 options) and what their perceived importance was on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = completely not important to 5 = very important). Results: In total, 323 residents participated. The five most commonly used learning methods for open and endoscopic IHR were apprenticeship style learning in the operation room (OR) (98% and 96%, respectively), textbooks (67% and 49%, respectively), lectures (50% and 44%, respectively), video-demonstrations (53% and 66%, respectively) and journal articles (54% and 54%, respectively). The three most important learning methods for the open and endoscopic IHR were participation in the OR [5.00 (5.00–5.00) and 5.00 (5.00–5.00), respectively], video-demonstrations [4.00 (4.00–5.00) and 4.00 (4.00–5.00), respectively], and hands-on hernia courses [4.00 (4.00–5.00) and 4.00 (4.00–5.00), respectively]. Conclusion: This study demonstrated a discrepancy between learning methods that are currently used by surgical residents to learn the open and endoscopic IHR and preferred learning methods. There is a need for more emphasis on practising before entering the OR. This would support surgical residents’ training by first observing, then practising and finally performing the surgery in the OR

Evaluation of the Charm maximum residue limit beta-lactam and tetracycline test for the detection of antibiotics in ewe and goat milk

The Charm maximum residue limit P-lactam and tetracycline test (Charm MRL BLTET; Charm Sciences Inc., Lawrence, MA) is an immunoreceptor assay utilizing Rapid. One-Step Assay lateral flow technology that detects P-lactam or tetracycline drugs in raw commingled cow milk at or below European Union maximum residue levels (EU-MRL). The Charm MRL BLTET test procedure was recently modified (dilution in buffer and longer incubation) by the manufacturers to be used with raw ewe and goat milk. To assess the Charm MRL BLTET test for the detection of beta-lactams and tetracyclines in milk of small ruminants, an evaluation study was performed at Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia Animal of Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). The test specificity and detection capability (CC beta) were studied following Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. Specificity results obtained in this study were optimal for individual milk free of antimicrobials from ewes (99.2% for beta-lactams and 100% for tetracyclines) and goats (97.9% for beta-lactams and 100% for tetracyclines) along the entire lactation period regardless of whether the results were visually or instrumentally interpreted. Moreover, no positive results were obtained when a relatively high concentration of different substances belonging to antimicrobial families other than beta-lactams and tetracyclines were present in ewe and goat milk. For both types of milk, the CC beta calculated was lower or equal to EU-MRL for amoxicillin (4 mu g/kg), ampicillin (4 mu g/kg), benzylpenicillin (30 mu g/kg). The CC beta for tetracyclines was also lower than EU-MRL for chlortetracycline (ewe milk: <= 50 mu g/kg; goat milk: 75 mu g/kg), oxytetracycline (<= 50 mu g/kg), and tetracycline (<= 50 mu g/kg). Regarding the 4-epimers of these tetracyclines only 4-epioxytetracycline was detected by the Charm MRL BLTET test below EU-MRL (ewe milk: 75 mu g/kg; goat milk: <= 50 mu g/kg). Acidiol had no effect on the performance of the test. The Charm MRL BLTET test could be used routinely with adapted test procedure for the fast screening of ewe and goat milk.This work forms part of the Project AGL2009-11524 financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Madrid, Spain). The authors are grateful to Fatro S.p.A. (Bologna, Italy) and ACS Dobfar S.p.A. (Milan, Italy) for kindly providing cefacetrile and desacetylcefapirin, respectively. Moreover, the authors thank Charm Sciences, Inc. (Lawrence, MA) and especially Wilbert Kokke from Charm Sciences Inc. and Raul Gomez from Grupo Taper, S.A. (Madrid, Spain) for their support.Beltrán Martínez, MC.; Romero Rueda, T.; Althaus, RL.; Molina Pons, MP. (2013). Evaluation of the Charm maximum residue limit beta-lactam and tetracycline test for the detection of antibiotics in ewe and goat milk. Journal of Dairy Science. 96(5):2737-2745. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2012-6044S2737274596

Familial Occurrence of Multiple Sclerosis with Thyroid Disease and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Multiple sclerosis (MS) has some features which suggest it is an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases frequently occur in families, and patients and families often have more than one type of autoimmune disease. However, there are few reports of MS occurring in patients or families with other autoimmune conditions. It is difficult to make a separate diagnosis of MS in a patient who has a systemic autoimmune disease such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or Sjogren's syndrome, because these diseases can affect the nervous system directly. However, it is possible to make independent diagnoses of MS and an autoimmune disease confined to another single organ in the same patient, or diagnoses of MS and SLE (or other autoimmune diseases) in different family members. Here we describe clinically definite MS in 2 sisters, one of whom had Graves' disease, and the other of whom had a daughter with SLE and with a high titre of anti-thyroid antibodies. Other female family members over 4 generations had histories of thyroid disease, MS and Addison's disease. Available family members were HLA typed. The MS patients were positive for HLA DR2. All but one of the affected family members were related to the proband on the maternal side, and all of these affected females shared an HLA haplotype. However, this haplotype was also present in unaffected individuals. Thus HLA type alone cannot account for the familial occurrence of these disorders. We conclude that, in this family, MS, like autoimmune thyroid disease and SLE, may be an autoimmune disease developing in genetically predisposed individuals

UK clinical experience up to 52 weeks with linaclotide for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation

Background: Linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase C agonist, has been shown in clinical trials to improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C). Here we report data from a real-world study of linaclotide in the UK. Methods: This 1-year, multicentre, prospective, observational study in the UK enrolled patients aged 18 years and over initiating linaclotide for IBS-C. The primary assessment was change from baseline in IBS Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) score at 12 weeks, assessed in patients with paired baseline and 12-week data. Change from baseline in IBS-SSS score at 52 weeks was a secondary assessment. Adverse events were recorded. Results: In total, 202 patients were enrolled: 185 (91.6%) were female, median age was 44.9 years (range 18.1–77.2) and 84 (41.6%) reported baseline laxative use. Mean (standard deviation) baseline IBS-SSS score was 339 (92), with most patients (n = 129; 66.8%) classified as having severe disease (score ⩾300). In patients with paired data, there was a significant mean (95% confidence interval) decrease in IBS-SSS score from baseline to 12 weeks [−77.0 (−96.3, −57.7); p < 0.001; n = 124] and baseline to 52 weeks [−70.7 (−95.0, −46.5); p < 0.001; n = 76]. Overall, 174 adverse events were reported in 77 (38.1%) patients, most commonly diarrhoea (n = 54; 26.7%), abdominal pain (n = 21; 10.4%) and abdominal distension (n = 13; 6.4%). Conclusion: Linaclotide significantly improved IBS-SSS score at 12 and 52 weeks. These results provide insights into outcomes with linaclotide treatment over 1 year in patients with IBS-C in real-world clinical practice

The Fueling and Evolution of AGN: Internal and External Triggers

In this chapter, I review the fueling and evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) under the influence of internal and external triggers, namely intrinsic properties of host galaxies (morphological or Hubble type, color, presence of bars and other non-axisymmetric features, etc) and external factors such as environment and interactions. The most daunting challenge in fueling AGN is arguably the angular momentum problem as even matter located at a radius of a few hundred pc must lose more than 99.99 % of its specific angular momentum before it is fit for consumption by a BH. I review mass accretion rates, angular momentum requirements, the effectiveness of different fueling mechanisms, and the growth and mass density of black BHs at different epochs. I discuss connections between the nuclear and larger-scale properties of AGN, both locally and at intermediate redshifts, outlining some recent results from the GEMS and GOODS HST surveys.Comment: Invited Review Chapter to appear in LNP Volume on "AGN Physics on All Scales", Chapter 6, in press. 40 pages, 12 figures. Typo in Eq 5 correcte

Selective population of states in fission fragments from the S32+24Mg reaction

The symmetric and near-symmetric mass fission yields from the S32+24Mg reaction have been studied in a particle-particle- coincidence measurement. Evidence is presented for a selective population of states in Si28 fragments arising from the symmetric fission of the Ni56 compound nucleus. A statistical-model calculation of the expected strength to specific mutual excitations of the fission fragments is presented and compared to the experimental results. This calculation is found to describe the structures observed at high excitation energy in the fission Q-value spectra quite well. Analysis of the -ray spectra indicates, however, that a specific set of states in Si28, corresponding to a highly deformed prolate band, is populated more strongly than expected based on a purely spin-weighted, statistical decay of the compound nucleus. It is suggested that the population pattern of states in the fission fragments may reflect nuclear structure effects at the point of scission