Europese duurzaamheidsindicatoren voor kustgebieden in Nederland: een eerste inventarisatie = European sustainability indicators for coastal zones in The Netherlands: a first inventory

The Directorate-General Water of the Dutch Ministry of Public Works and Water Management has appointed the National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management (RIKZ) and Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) to draw up an inventory of the ED sustainability indicators for its coasts. This document provides a first assessment of sustainability in our coastal zone from a common European point of view. It depicts the findings for the 27 EU sustainability indicators supported by a brief trend analysis where feasible

EurOBIS & Co

The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) is a distributed system that allows to search multiple datasets simultaneously for biogeographic information on marine organisms. This distributed system integrates individual datasets on marine organisms into one large consolidated database. EurOBIS has been developed within the MarBEF network and is the European node of OBIS. Within EurOBIS the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS) functions as the taxonomic backbone; the European Marine Gazetteer as the geographical reference list, and the Integrated Marine Information System as the inventory of relevant data and other information.The MarBEF data system is available at: http://www.marbef.org/data

Aphia for a World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)

An authoritative and global register of all marine species is urgently needed to facilitate biological data management and exchange, the integration of ecological and biodiversity data with non-biological ocean data, and to assist taxonomists in describing new species, revisions and correcting past nomenclatural confusion. The exercise of producing this list has added benefits in fostering collaboration between experts at a global scale and maintaining taxonomic expertise. Easy access to the register will allow local ecologists and biologists to use correct taxonomic names, and will encourage addition of overlooked species to the list. This will in turn stimulate a.o. biodiversity Species’(WoRMS) is the logical next step for ocean biodiversity informatics (OBI) to become an everyday and essential supporting infrastructure for the marine sciences, monitoring and environmental management. WoRMS is a standards based, quality controlled, expert validated, open-access infrastructure for research, education, and data and resource management. It builds on experience in developing the European Register of Marine Species and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System, and will collaborate with and contribute to the GBIF’s ECAT and planned Global Names Architecture, Species 2000, the Catalogue of Life, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System, the Encyclopaedia of Life, SeaLifeBase, IOC’s International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange, and related initiatives. The Aphia database, developed and maintained by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), serves as the IT platform for WoRMS. Currently, well over 100 world leading taxonomists are contributing towards this World Register WoRMS webportal and all its functionalities, such as the web-based services and the online edit tool for the taxonomic experts. For further details see http://www.marinespecies.org

Ceramic production in the Kur River Basin (Fars, Iran) during the middle to late second millennium bce: a geochemical and technological characterization.

A total of 119 middle to late second millennium bce pottery samples from six sites in the Kur River Basin (Fars, Iran) were examined to characterize these ceramics and reconstruct their manufacturing technology and the origin of the primary materials. For this, a combined study of handheld XRF and thin‐section petrography was performed. The geochemical signatures of these ceramics were defined and interpreted in their archaeological and geological framework, resulting in the determination of different production processes and clay types used for four ceramic wares (Middle Elamite, Qaleh, Shogha and Taimuran) and the identification of possible outcrops used for Shogha–Taimuran production

Palliatieve inpatients in general hospitals : a one day observational study in Belgium

Background: Hospital care plays a major role at the end-of-life. But little is known about the overall size and characteristics of the palliative inpatient population. The aim of our study was to analyse these aspects. Methods: We conducted a one-day observational study in 14 randomly selected Belgian hospitals. Patients who met the definition of palliative patients were identified as palliative. Then, information about their sociodemographic characteristics, diagnoses, prognosis, and care plan were recorded and analysed. Results: There were 2639 in-patients on the day of the study; 9.4% of them were identified as “palliative”. The mean age of the group was 72 years. The primary diagnosis was cancer in 51% of patients and the estimated life expectancy was shorter than 3 months in 33% of patients and longer than 1 year in 28% of patients. The professional caregivers expected for most of the patients (73%), that the treatment would improve patient comfort rather than prolong life. Antibiotics, transfusions, treatments specific to the pathology, and artificial nutrition were administered in 90%, 78%, 57% and 50% of the patients, respectively, but were generally given with a view to controlling the symptoms. Conclusions: This analysis presents a first national estimate of the palliative inpatient population. Our results confirm that hospitals play a major role at the end-of-life, with one out of ten inpatients identified as a “palliative” patient. These data also demonstrate the complexity of the palliative population and the substantial diversity of care that they can require