Succesfactoren kleine schaal

Onze maatschappij ondergaat momenteel de transitie van een op aardolie gebaseerde economie naar een biobased economy. Hiervoor worden vele nieuwe bioraffinage processen ontwikkeld. Kleine schaal bioraffinage kan voordelen hebben, niet alleen vanuit een sociaal een duurzaam oogpunt, maar ook puur economisch. Succesvolle voorbeelden zijn in dit rapport geanalyseerd en de drijfveren voor kleinschalige bioraffinage zijn verder uitgewerkt. Daarnaast is er gezocht naar een eenduidige definitie voor kleinschalige bioraffinage. Hier zijn specifieke getallen uitgekomen, maar nog geen generieke beschrijving

Multisectoral partnerships and risk information

Knowing the increasing trends in natural disasters and losses, it is imperative to take action on disaster risks to improve resilience of European societies to natural hazards. The main goal, therefore, of the ENHANCE project is to develop and analyse innovative ways to manage natural hazard risks. The key is to develop new multi-sectoral partnerships (MSPs) that aim at reducing or redistributing risk, and increase resilience of societiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A coupled agent-based model for France for simulating adaptation and migration decisions under future coastal flood risk

In this study, we couple an integrated flood damage and agent-based model (ABM) with a gravity model of internal migration and a flood risk module (DYNAMO-M) to project household adaptation and migration decisions under increasing coastal flood risk in France. We ground the agent decision rules in a framework of subjective expected utility theory. This method addresses agent's bounded rationality related to risk perception and risk aversion and simulates the impact of push, pull, and mooring factors on migration and adaptation decisions. The agents are parameterized using subnational statistics, and the model is calibrated using a household survey on adaptation uptake. Subsequently, the model simulates household adaptation and migration based on increasing coastal flood damage from 2015 until 2080. A medium population growth scenario is used to simulate future population development, and sea level rise (SLR) is assessed for different climate scenarios. The results indicate that SLR can drive migration exceeding 8000 and 10,000 coastal inhabitants for 2080 under the Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5, respectively. Although household adaptation to flood risk strongly impacts projected annual flood damage, its impact on migration decisions is small and falls within the 90% confidence interval of model runs. Projections of coastal migration under SLR are most sensitive to migration costs and coastal flood protection standards, highlighting the need for better characterization of both in modeling exercises. The modeling framework demonstrated in this study can be upscaled to the global scale and function as a platform for a more integrated assessment of SLR-induced migration

Stable long-term outcomes after cochlear implantation in subjects with TMPRSS3 associated hearing loss:a retrospective multicentre study

Background: The spiral ganglion hypothesis suggests that pathogenic variants in genes preferentially expressed in the spiral ganglion nerves (SGN), may lead to poor cochlear implant (CI) performance. It was long thought that TMPRSS3 was particularly expressed in the SGNs. However, this is not in line with recent reviews evaluating CI performance in subjects with TMPRSS3-associated sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) reporting overall beneficial outcomes. These outcomes are, however, based on variable follow-up times of, in general, 1 year or less. Therefore, we aimed to 1. evaluate long-term outcomes after CI implantation of speech recognition in quiet in subjects with TMPRSS3-associated SNHL, and 2. test the spiral ganglion hypothesis using the TMPRSS3-group. Methods: This retrospective, multicentre study evaluated long-term CI performance in a Dutch population with TMPRSS3-associated SNHL. The phoneme scores at 70 dB with CI in the TMPRSS3-group were compared to a control group of fully genotyped cochlear implant users with post-lingual SNHL without genes affecting the SGN, or severe anatomical inner ear malformations. CI-recipients with a phoneme score ≤ 70% at least 1-year post-implantation were considered poor performers and were evaluated in more detail. Results: The TMPRSS3 group consisted of 29 subjects (N = 33 ears), and the control group of 62 subjects (N = 67 ears). For the TMPRSS3-group, we found an average phoneme score of 89% after 5 years, which remained stable up to 10 years post-implantation. At both 5 and 10-year follow-up, no difference was found in speech recognition in quiet between both groups (p = 0.830 and p = 0.987, respectively). Despite these overall adequate CI outcomes, six CI recipients had a phoneme score of ≤ 70% and were considered poor performers. The latter was observed in subjects with residual hearing post-implantation or older age at implantation. Conclusion: Subjects with TMPRSS3-associated SNHL have adequate and stable long-term outcomes after cochlear implantation, equal to the performance of genotyped patient with affected genes not expressed in the SGN. These findings are not in line with the spiral ganglion hypothesis. However, more recent studies showed that TMPRSS3 is mainly expressed in the hair cells with only limited SGN expression. Therefore, we cannot confirm nor refute the spiral ganglion hypothesis.</p

A coupled agent-based model to analyse human-drought feedbacks for agropastoralists in dryland regions

Drought is a persistent hazard that impacts the environment, people's livelihoods, access to education and food security. Adaptation choices made by people can influence the propagation of this drought hazard. However, few drought models incorporate adaptive behavior and feedbacks between adaptations and drought. In this research, we present a dynamic drought adaptation modeling framework, ADOPT-AP, which combines socio-hydrological and agent-based modeling approaches. This approach is applied to agropastoral communities in dryland regions in Kenya. We couple the spatially explicit hydrological Dryland Water Partitioning (DRYP) model with a behavioral model capable of simulating different bounded rational behavioral theories (ADOPT). The results demonstrate that agropastoralists respond differently to drought due to differences in (perceptions of) their hydrological environment. Downstream communities are impacted more heavily and implement more short-term adaptation measures than upstream communities in the same catchment. Additional drivers of drought adaptation concern socio-economic factors such as wealth and distance to wells. We show that the uptake of drought adaptation influences soil moisture (positively through irrigation) and groundwater (negatively through abstraction) and, thus, the drought propagation through the hydrological cycle

Meeting the looming policy challenge of sea-level change and human migration

PRIFPRI3; ISI; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 5 Strengthening Institutions and GovernanceDSG

Solenoidal Micromagnetic Stimulation Enables Activation of Axons With Specific Orientation

Electrical stimulation of the central and peripheral nervous systems - such as deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, and epidural cortical stimulation are common therapeutic options increasingly used to treat a large variety of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Despite their remarkable success, there are limitations which if overcome, could enhance outcomes and potentially reduce common side-effects. Micromagnetic stimulation (μMS) was introduced to address some of these limitations. One of the most remarkable properties is that μMS is theoretically capable of activating neurons with specific axonal orientations. Here, we used computational electromagnetic models of the μMS coils adjacent to neuronal tissue combined with axon cable models to investigate μMS orientation-specific properties. We found a 20-fold reduction in the stimulation threshold of the preferred axonal orientation compared to the orthogonal direction. We also studied the directional specificity of μMS coils by recording the responses evoked in the inferior colliculus of rodents when a pulsed magnetic stimulus was applied to the surface of the dorsal cochlear nucleus. The results confirmed that the neuronal responses were highly sensitive to changes in the μMS coil orientation. Accordingly, our results suggest that μMS has the potential of stimulating target nuclei in the brain without affecting the surrounding white matter tracts

The impact of child soldiers on rebel groups’ fighting capacities

Several rebel groups actively recruit children to serve among their ranks. While this constitutes one of the most egregious violations of children’s rights, it remains unclear what impact recruited children have on the fighting capacities of these armed groups. The existing research suggests that, on the one hand, armed groups drafting children might also be militarily effective, since it is cheaper to provide for children, they are more obedient and aggressive than adults, and easily manipulable. On the other hand, children may negatively affect rebel groups’ fighting capacities as they are less proficient combatants than adults and often difficult to control. We add to this debate by systematically analyzing the quantitative evidence on the impact of child soldiers on rebel groups’ fighting capacities. Based on the analysis of newly compiled data on child recruitment by rebel groups between 1989 and 2010, our analyses show that children may actually increase rebel groups’ fighting capacities. That said, rebels’ ability to procure arms and the access to resources seem to be more important determinants of fighting capacity. The authors discuss these findings in light of policy implications and avenues for future research. </jats:p