Instrumentarium Kosten Natuurbeleid (IKN) : status A

Het Instrumentarium Kosten Natuurbeleid (IKN) is een tool, bestaande uit een kostendatabase en een rekenmodel, voor de berekening van de te maken kosten voor verschillende varianten (of ‘kijkrichtingen’) van de Ecologische Hoofdstructuur (EHS) die ontwikkeld zijn voor de Natuurverkenningen. Het instrumentarium is opgezet om verschillende toekomstige situaties te kunnen vergelijken. Dit werkdocument zorgt er voor dat de kwaliteit van de berekeningen met IKN geborgd is conform ‘Status A’. Het bevat daarom een theoretische onderbouwing, een technische beschijving van het model en de kostendatabase, en een beschrijving van de werking ervan en de gebruikte gegevens

Kosten en baten van terrestrische natuur: methoden en resultaten : achtergronddocument bij Natuurverkenning 2010-2040

Dit werkdocument gaat in op de methoden en resultaten van de kosten en baten uit de atuurverkenning 2010- 2040, die met terrestrische natuur samenhangen. De kosten- en batenberekeningen worden getoond voor de vier kijkrichtingen uit de Natuurverkenning. De kostenberekeningen omvatten aankoop en inrichting, beheer en maatregelen om de verdroging en de depositie tegen te gaan. De effecten op houtproductie, biomassaproductie en koolstofvastlegging vormen de batenberekeningen. Ook zijn de secundaire kosten en baten van de kijkrichtingen voor de land- en tuinbouw geschat

Association between lipophilic beta-blockers and depression in diabetic patients on chronic dialysis

BACKGROUND: Depression is associated with lower quality of life and increased risk of mortality. The prevalence of depression in chronic dialysis patients. as well as in patients with diabetes, is more than 20%. It is debated whether use of beta-blockers increases the risk of depression. Therefore. we examined in chronic dialysis patients with and without diabetes. the association between beta-blockers and depressive symptoms.METHODS: Data were collected from the DIVERS-I study. a multicentre prospective cohort among chronic dialysis patients in the Netherlands Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). We defined depressive symptoms as a BDI-II score >= 16. The cross-sectional association at baseline between depressive symptoms and beta-blocker use in chronic dialysis patients. was studied by multivariable logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders.RESULTS: We included 684 chronic dialysis patients, of whom 43% had diabetes mellitus, and 57% used a beta-blocker of which 97% were lipophilic. After multivariable adjustment, the OR (95% CI) for depressive symptoms in patients with compared to without diabetes was 1.41 (1.00-1.98), and in beta-blocker users compared to non-users 1.12 (0.80-1.56), respectively. Dialysis patients with diabetes and beta-blocker use compared to those without diabetes and not using beta-blockers had an OR of 1.73 (1.12-2.69) for depressive symptoms. The association was stronger in dialysis patients with diabetes and lipophilic beta-blocker use with an OR of 1.77 (1.14-2.74).CONCLUSIONS: We found a possible association between lipophilic beta-blocker use and depressive symptoms in chronic dialysis patients with diabetes.Clinical epidemiolog

An assessment of Evans' unified field theory I

Evans developed a classical unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism on the background of a spacetime obeying a Riemann-Cartan geometry. This geometry can be characterized by an orthonormal coframe theta and a (metric compatible) Lorentz connection Gamma. These two potentials yield the field strengths torsion T and curvature R. Evans tried to infuse electromagnetic properties into this geometrical framework by putting the coframe theta to be proportional to four extended electromagnetic potentials A; these are assumed to encompass the conventional Maxwellian potential in a suitable limit. The viable Einstein-Cartan(-Sciama-Kibble) theory of gravity was adopted by Evans to describe the gravitational sector of his theory. Including also the results of an accompanying paper by Obukhov and the author, we show that Evans' ansatz for electromagnetism is untenable beyond repair both from a geometrical as well as from a physical point of view. As a consequence, his unified theory is obsolete.Comment: 39 pages of latex, modified because of referee report, mistakes and typos removed, partly reformulated, taken care of M.W.Evans' rebutta

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results