2,660 research outputs found
Nautische toegankelijkheid en veiligheid van het Schelde estuarium in het kader van de langetermijnvisie
Relationship between petal abscission and programmed cell death in Prunus yedoensis and Delphinium belladonna
Depending on the species, the end of flower life span is characterized by petal wilting or by abscission of petals that are still fully turgid. Wilting at the end of petal life is due to programmed cell death (PCD). It is not known whether the abscission of turgid petals is preceded by PCD. We studied some parameters that indicate PCD: chromatin condensation, a decrease in nuclear diameter, DNA fragmentation, and DNA content per nucleus, using Prunus yedoensis and Delphiniumbelladonna which both show abscission of turgid petals at the end of floral life. No DNA degradation, no chromatin condensation, and no change in nuclear volume was observed in P. yedoensis petals, prior to abscission. In abscising D.belladonna petals, in contrast, considerable DNA degradation was found, chromatin was condensed and the nuclear volume considerably reduced. Following abscission, the nuclear area in both species drastically increased, and the chromatin became unevenly distributed. Similar chromatin changes were observed after dehydration (24 h at 60°C) of petals severed at the time of flower opening, and in dehydrated petals of Ipomoea nil and Petunia hybrida, severed at the time of flower opening. In these flowers the petal life span is terminated by wilting rather than abscission. It is concluded that the abscission of turgid petals in D. belladonna was preceded by a number of PCD indicators, whereas no such evidence for PCD was found at the time of P. yedoensis petal abscission. Dehydration of the petal cells, after abscission, was associated with a remarkable nuclear morphology which was also found in younger petals subjected to dehydration. This nuclear morphology has apparently not been described previously, for any organism
Does sustainability sell? The impact of sustainability claims on the success of national brands’ new product introductions
In the hope of benefiting from the increasing focus on sustainability in Western markets, national brands are introducing new sustainable products. We investigate the success of new sustainable products with a unique dataset combining household panel data, consumer survey data, expert panel survey data, and advertising expenditure data. We show that sustainable new product introductions achieve lower sales than their conventional counterparts. Investing in corporate social responsibility activities compensates for this negative effect and is therefore a viable strategy to boost sales of new sustainable products. Importantly, making sustainable new products clearly innovative mitigates the negative effect of a sustainability claim on new product sales, whereas price promotions aggravate the negative effect. We furthermore caution that the negative effect of sustainability may not decrease as sustainability becomes more mainstream, even if our data covers a period before the currently increased interest in sustainability
Good, better, engaged? The effect of company-initiated customer engagement behavior on shareholder value
In today’s connected world, customer engagement behaviors are very important. Many companies launch initiatives to stimulate customer engagement. However, despite evidence that customer engagement behavior also matters to share-holders, academic research on the firm value consequences of customer engagement campaigns is limited. This study is the first to investigate the value-related consequences of firm-initiated customer engagement behaviors, using shareholder evaluations of the public announcements of such initiatives. We find that companies’ customer engagement initiatives, on average, decrease market value, which is likely because the shareholders are sensitive to the risk of these initiatives backfiring.Nevertheless, initiatives that stimulate word-of-mouth are viewed less negatively than initiatives that solicit customer feedback, as are initiatives that are supported by social media. Companies that operate in a competitive environment or do not advertise much can create value by stimulating customer engagement, while companies with a strong corporate reputation are likely to not benefit from it
Sticks and carrots for reducing property-level risks from floods: an EU-US comparative perspective
In discussing legal and policy frameworks for flood risk management, the attention is often put on increasing resilience in public spaces. In terms of private properties, discussions are geared toward enhancing the adaptive capacity of future developments. This paper focuses on the instruments associated with resilience of existing privately owned residential buildings mainly from the perspective of post-flood policies and compensation regimes. The paper scrutinizes the relevant legal and policy landscapes in the United States, the European Union and two Member States – the UK and the Netherlands. The goal is to provide mutual lessons learned between the EU, its Member States, and the US and to set forth generally applicable recommendations for improving post-flood policies for existing buildings
Dealing with flood damages: will prevention, mitigation and ex-post compensation provide for a resilient triangle?
There is a wealth of literature on the design of ex-post compensation mechanisms for natural disasters. However, more research needs to be done on the manner in which these mechanisms could steer citizens toward adopting individual level preventive and protection measures in the face of flood risks. This paper provides a comparative legal analysis of the financial compensation mechanisms following floods, be it through insurance, public funds or a combination of both, with an empirical focus on Belgium, the Netherlands, England and France. Similarities and differences between the methods in which these compensation mechanisms for flood damages enhance resilience are analyzed. The comparative analysis especially focuses on the link between the recovery strategy on the one hand and prevention and mitigation strategies on the other. There is great potential within the recovery strategy for promoting preventive action, for example in terms of discouraging citizens from living in high-risk areas, or encouraging the uptake of mitigation measures, such as adaptive building. However, this large potential is yet to be realized, in part due to insufficient consideration and promotion of these connections within existing legal frameworks. Recommendations are made about how the linkages between strategies can be further improved. These recommendations relate to, amongst others, the promotion of resilient reinstatement through recovery mechanisms and the removal of legal barriers preventing the establishment of link-inducing measures
State-of-the-Art Multi-Detector CT Angiography in Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Technique, Interpretation and Future Perspectives
On the speed of convergence to stationarity of the Erlang loss system
We consider the Erlang loss system, characterized by servers, Poisson arrivals and exponential service times, and allow the arrival rate to be a function of We discuss representations and bounds for the rate of convergence to stationarity of the number of customers in the system, and display some bounds for the total variation distance between the time-dependent and stationary distributions. We also pay attention to time-dependent rates
Mucinous carcinoid of the ovary: report of a case with metastasis in the contralateral ovary after ten years
Monodermal teratomas of the ovary can take the form of carcinoid tumors of which there are several types, mucinous carcinoid being the least common. Very few cases of primary mucinous carcinoid of the ovary have been reported in the literature and the behavior of these tumors over the long term is unclear. We describe a case of primary mucinous carcinoid of the ovary in a 39-year-old woman treated with unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, where a metastasis occurred in the contralateral ovary ten years later. This case demonstrates that mucinous carcinoid of the ovary can metastasize even after a long interval, and careful follow-up of patients, particularly those treated conservatively, is appropriate
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