Compensating biodiversity loss : Dutch companies’ experience with biodiversity compensation, including their supply chain : the ‘BioCom’ project

Compensation for damage to biodiversity is a relatively new topic in the business environment. Most private sector companies dealing with compensation do so because of a legal obligation. Companies are increasingly becoming aware, though, that our welfare and well-being depend on healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. Also, from a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) point of view, companies start to realize that securing continued access to natural resources is a key factor to their profitability. This inspires more and more companies to take up the challenge to start a project aiming to voluntarily compensate for biodiversity loss or damag

Visie van de Boergergroep

De BoergerGroep is een netwerk van burgers die met hart en ziel mee willen denken en mee willen praten over het platteland en hoe dat er in de toekomst uit kan zien. Zij hebben daarvoor met elkaar een visie opgesteld, die we hier gepresenteerd wordt. De BoergerGroep wil meedenken over de relatie tussen stad en platteland en welke kant het met de landbouw op moet

Profiling of a high mannose-type N-glycosylated lipase using hydrophilic interaction chromatography-mass spectrometry

Many industrial enzymes exhibit macro- and micro-heterogeneity due to co-occurring post-translational modifications. The resulting proteoforms may have different activity and stability and, therefore, the characterization of their distributions is of interest in the development and monitoring of enzyme products. Protein glycosylation may play a critical role as it can influence the expression, physical and biochemical properties of an enzyme. We report the use of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) to profile intact glycoform distributions of high mannose-type N-glycosylated proteins, using an industrially produced fungal lipase for the food industry as an example. We compared these results with conventional reversed phase LC-MS (RPLC-MS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel-electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). HILIC appeared superior in resolving lipase heterogeneity, facilitating mass assignment of N-glycoforms and sequence variants. In order to understand the glycoform selectivity provided by HILIC, fractions from the four main HILIC elution bands for lipase were taken and subjected to SDS-PAGE and bottom-up proteomic analysis. These analyses enabled the identification of the most abundant glycosylation sites present in each fraction and corroborated the capacity of HILIC to separate protein glycoforms based on the number of glycosylation sites occupied. Compared to RPLC-MS, HILIC-MS reducted the sample complexity delivered to the mass spectrometer, facilitating the assignment of the masses of glycoforms and sequence variants as well as increasing the number of glycoforms detected (69 more proteoforms, 177% increase). The HILIC-MS method required relatively short analysis time (<30 min), in which over 100 glycoforms were distinguished. We suggest that HILIC(-MS) can be a valuable tool in characterizing bioengineering processes aimed at steering protein glycoform expression as well as to check the consistency of product batche

Biodiversiteitsvoetafdruk van bedrijven

Bedrijven worden zich steeds meer bewust van hun impact op biodiversiteit ennatuurlijk kapitaal. Dat kan komen door hun impliciete afhankelijkheid van datnatuurlijk kapitaal, door kritischer wordende consumenten of door een intrinsiekebetrokkenheid van bestuurders en eigenaren van die bedrijven. Bedrijven krijgendaardoor steeds meer behoefte aan instrumenten om inzicht te krijgen in de bedrijfsimpactop biodiversiteit en om de effecten van maatregelen te meten en huneffectiviteit te beoordelen

Guidelines on uncomplicated urinary tract infections are difficult to follow: perceived barriers and suggested interventions

Contains fulltext : 88451.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are among the most common health problems seen in general practice. Evidence-based guidelines on UTI are available, but adherence to these guidelines varies widely among practitioners for reasons not well understood. The aim of this study was to identify the barriers to the implementation of a guideline on UTI perceived by Dutch general practitioners (GPs) and to explore interventions to overcome these barriers. METHODS: A focus group study, including 13 GPs working in general practices in the Netherlands, was conducted. Key recommendations on diagnosis and treatment of uncomplicated UTI were selected from the guideline. Barriers to guideline adherence and possible interventions to address these barriers were discussed. The focus group session was audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Barriers were classified according to an existing framework. RESULTS: Lack of agreement with the recommendations, unavailable and inconvenient materials (i.e. dipslides), and organisational constraints were perceived as barriers for the diagnostic recommendations. Barriers to implementing the treatment recommendations were lack of applicability and organisational constraints related to the availability of drugs in pharmacies. Suggested interventions were to provide small group education to GPs and practice staff members, to improve organisation and coordination of care in out of hour services, to improve the availability of preferred dosages of drugs, and to pilot-test guidelines regionally. CONCLUSIONS: Despite sufficient knowledge of the recommendations on UTI, attitudinal and external barriers made it difficult to follow them in practice. The care concerning UTI could be optimized if these barriers are adequately addressed in implementation strategies. The feasibility and success of these strategies could be improved by involving the target group of the guideline in selecting useful interventions to address the barriers to implementation

Functional selectivity of adenosine receptor ligands

Adenosine receptors are plasma membrane proteins that transduce an extracellular signal into the interior of the cell. Basically every mammalian cell expresses at least one of the four adenosine receptor subtypes. Recent insight in signal transduction cascades teaches us that the current classification of receptor ligands into agonists, antagonists, and inverse agonists relies very much on the experimental setup that was used. Upon activation of the receptors by the ubiquitous endogenous ligand adenosine they engage classical G protein-mediated pathways, resulting in production of second messengers and activation of kinases. Besides this well-described G protein-mediated signaling pathway, adenosine receptors activate scaffold proteins such as β-arrestins. Using innovative and sensitive experimental tools, it has been possible to detect ligands that preferentially stimulate the β-arrestin pathway over the G protein-mediated signal transduction route, or vice versa. This phenomenon is referred to as functional selectivity or biased signaling and implies that an antagonist for one pathway may be a full agonist for the other signaling route. Functional selectivity makes it necessary to redefine the functional properties of currently used adenosine receptor ligands and opens possibilities for new and more selective ligands. This review focuses on the current knowledge of functionally selective adenosine receptor ligands and on G protein-independent signaling of adenosine receptors through scaffold proteins

Letter to Robert S. Stevens from J. Van Schaick, dated 1875-12-31 (from Book of Letters to R.S.S. from 8-1875 to 1-1876)

Van Schaick & Co., Bankers and Stock BrokersThe original of this document is in the Stevens Family Papers, #1210, at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York 14853

Timespace matters - Exploring the gap between knowing about activity patterns of people and knowing how to design and plan urban areas and regions

It is important to know about peoples’ temporospatial activity patterns when making urban and regional designs and plans. Despite wide acknowledgment of this idea, knowledge about people’s activity patterns does not get full attention in day-to-day practice of urban and regional design and planning. This book makes the case that, with activity patterns of people changing nowadays, this subject deserves full attention within the domain of urban and regional design and planning. Understanding how the societal organisation of time relates to the societal organisation of space is key to answering the questions put to designers and planners about the future development of cities and urban regions. ‘Timespace matters’ contains a detailed analysis of two promising approaches of putting time in the picture of urban and regional design and planning: the use of tracking technologies such as GPS and the times-of-the-city approach developed in Italy, Germany and France. It explores the borders between the domains of social geography and of urban and regional design and planning. The book is of interest to planners and designers, researchers and educators in both geography and planning. It has been inspired by two questions that are at the heart of urban and regional design and planning (stedebouwkunde). Paraphrasing Torsten Hägerstrand, the founder of ‘time geography’: What about people in urban and regional design and planning? And, referring to the work of Kevin Lynch: What about time in urban and regional design and planning?UrbanismArchitectur