A simple spreadsheet model to incorporate seasonal growth into length-based stock assessment methods

The paper describes a method by which seasonal growth can be incorporated into length-converted catch curves and cohort analyses using a spreadsheet. The method is based on calculating the length of fish using seasonal growth parameters on a daily basis. A LOOKUP function is then used to find the age corresponding to the length

Fast deposition of carbon and silicon layers

A review with 26 refs. on plasma CVD of a-Si:H and a-C:H. [on SciFinder (R)

What Factors are Associated with Flourishing? Results from a Large Representative National Sample

Flourishing is the ultimate end-state in psychology and a key-concept in the field of positive psychology research. Flourishers are those individuals with both high levels of hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being. Although many researchers have focused on one or another of these domains, only a few have investigated the comprehensive state of flourishing. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of flourishing and its association with socio-demographics, personality traits and situational factors. This study used data from the second wave of the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 (NEMESIS-2), a national representative sample of adults in The Netherlands (n = 5303; 2010–2012). Findings were compared to having either high hedonic well-being or high eudaimonic well-being. Results showed that 37 % of the respondents were flourishers, mainly characterized by high levels of conscientiousness and extraversion and low levels of neuroticism. The situational factors of social support and positive life-events were significantly associated with flourishing when the analysis was controlled for socio-demographics and personality traits. Flourishing was most distinct from high hedonic well-being and showed parallelism with high eudaimonic well-being. More research is needed to establish a preferred flourishing instrument with validated cut-off points for flourishing and to understand the processes of situational factors that may underlie the promotion of flourishing. We recommend longitudinal designs and experience sampling studies to investigate the unique and modifiable predictors of flourishing. In addition, future research should include intervention studies that examine through which hedonic and eudaimonic pathways flourishing can be achieve

Perinatale uitkomsten in de vier grote steden en de prachtwijken in Nederland

__Doel:__ Het verband tussen woonwijk, etniciteit en ongunstige perinatale uitkomsten analyseren bij zwangeren in de 4 grootste steden (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag en Utrecht; G4) en in de rest van Nederland. __Opzet:__ Descriptief, retrospectief. __Methode:__ De perinatale uitkomst van 877.816 eenlingzwangerschappen in Nederland in de periode 2002-2006, vastgelegd in de Perinatale Registratie Nederland, werd geanalyseerd op etniciteit van de zwangere (westers of niet-westers) en op woonwijk (achterstandswijk (‘prachtwijk’) of niet) in de G4-steden en daarbuiten. Een ongunstige perinatale uitkomst was gedefinieerd als perinatale sterfte, congenitale afwijkingen, dysmaturiteit, vroeggeboorte, een apgar-score na 5 minuten < 7 en/of opname op een neonatale intensivecareunit. __Resultaten:__ Het perinatale sterftecijfer was in de G4-steden hoger dan in de rest van Nederland (11,1 versus 9,3‰; p < 0,001; 95%-BI van het verschil: 1,2-2,4‰). Hetzelfde gold voor het totaal van ongunstige perinatale uitkomsten (154,9 versus 138,9‰). In de G4-steden was de perinatale sterfte in de groep niet-westerse vrouwen hoger dan in de groep westerse vrouwen (13,2 versus 9,5‰). Het wonen in een prachtwijk gaat gepaard met een hogere perinatale sterfte dan in een niet-prachtwijk (13,5 versus 9,3‰). De relatieve risico’s van het wonen in een prachtwijk zijn groter bij westerse dan bij niet-westerse vrouwen. __Conclusie:__ Vrouwen in de G4-steden hebben een sterk verhoogde kans op een ongunstige perinatale uitkomst. Wonen in een prachtwijk vormt een nog groter risico, vooral voor westerse zwangeren. Deze bevindingen zijn van belang voor het vaststellen van nieuwe strategieën ter

Optical diagnostics for high electron density plasmas

Nowadays high electron density plasmas are, beside their fundamental interest, widely used for many applications, e.g., light sources and plasma processing. The well known examples of high electron density plasmas can be found among the class of thermal plasmas as, e.g., the Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) and the Wall Stabilized Cascaded Arc (WSCA). Usually the pressure of the plasma is high, i.e., sub atmospheric to atmospheric. Other examples are the plasmas generated in tokamaks for fusion purposes and the recently exploited plasmas for etching and deposition devices such as the Electron Cyclotron Resonance plasmas. For the plasmas mentioned, the electron density is typical in the range of 1018 to 1023 m3, and the electron velocity distribution is close to a Maxwellian velocity distribution

Aspects of the ecology of the greater bilby, Macrotis lagotis, in Queensland

AIMS: It has been suggested that in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), brain atrophy is most pronounced in the hippocampus, but this has not been investigated systematically. The present pooled analysis of three studies examined if hippocampal atrophy is more prominent than global brain atrophy in patients with T2DM relative to controls. METHODS: Data were derived from a cohort study of patients with vascular disease (SMART-Medea (T2DM=120; no T2DM=502)), and from two case-control studies (UDES1 (T2DM=61; controls=30) and UDES2 (T2DM=54; controls=53)). In SMART-Medea and UDES1, hippocampal volume was obtained by manual tracing on 1.5 Tesla (T) MRI scans. Total brain and intracranial volume (ICV) were determined by an automated segmentation method. In UDES2, hippocampal and total brain volume were determined by FreeSurfer and ICV by manual segmentation on 3 T MRI scans. RESULTS: The pooled analyses, adjusted for age and sex, showed a significant negative relation between T2DM and total brain-to-ICV ratio (standardized mean difference=-1.24%, 95% CI: -1.63; -0.86), but not between T2DM and hippocampal-to-ICV ratio (0.00%, 95% CI: -0.01; 0.00) or between T2DM and hippocampal-to-total brain volume ratio (0.01%, 95% CI: -0.01; 0.02). In patients with T2DM no associations were found between brain volume measures and HbA1c or memory. CONCLUSION: Patients with T2DM had greater brain atrophy but not hippocampal atrophy, compared to controls. These findings do not support specific vulnerability of the hippocampus in patients with T2DM

Validity of a questionnaire measuring the world health organization concept of health system responsiveness with respect to perinatal services in the Dutch obstetric care system

Background: The concept of responsiveness, introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO), addresses non-clinical aspects of health service quality that are relevant regardless of provider, country, health system or health condition. Responsiveness refers to "aspects related to the way individuals are treated and the environment in which they are treated" during health system interactions. This paper assesses the psychometric properties of a newly developed responsiveness questionnaire dedicated to evaluating maternal experiences of perinatal care services, called the Responsiveness in Perinatal and Obstetric Health Care Questionnaire (ReproQ), using the eight-domain WHO concept. Methods: The ReproQ was developed between October 2009 and February 2010 by adapting the WHO Responsiveness Questionnaire items to the perinatal care context. The psychometric properties of feasibility, construct validity, and discriminative validity were empirically assessed in a sample of Dutch women two weeks post partum. Results: A total of 171 women consented to participation. Feasibility: the interviews lasted between 20 and 40 minutes and the overall missing rate was 8%. Construct validity: mean Cronbach's alphas for the antenatal, birth and postpartum phase were: 0.73 (range 0.57-0.82), 0.84 (range 0.66-0.92), and 0.87 (range 0.62-0.95) respectively. The item-own scale correlations within all phases were considerably higher than most of the item-other scale correlations. Within the antenatal care, birth care and post partum phases, the eight factors explained 69%, 69%, and 76% of variance respectively. Discriminative validity: overall responsiveness mean sum scores were higher for women whose children were not admitted. This confirmed the hypothesis that dissatisfaction with health outcomes is transferred to their judgement on responsiveness of the perinatal services. Conclusions: The ReproQ interview-based questionnaire demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties to describe the quality of perinatal care in the Netherlands, with the potential to discriminate between different levels of quality of care. In view of the relatively small sample, further testing and research is recommended

Molecular epidemiology of seal parvovirus, 1988-2014

A novel parvovirus was discovered recently in the brain of a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) with chronic meningo-encephalitis. Phylogenetic analysis of this virus indicated that it belongs to the genus Er

Evoked Emotions Predict Food Choice

In the current study we show that non-verbal food-evoked emotion scores significantly improve food choice prediction over merely liking scores. Previous research has shown that liking measures correlate with choice. However, liking is no strong predictor for food choice in real life environments. Therefore, the focus within recent studies shifted towards using emotion-profiling methods that successfully can discriminate between products that are equally liked. However, it is unclear how well scores from emotion-profiling methods predict actual food choice and/or consumption. To test this, we proposed to decompose emotion scores into valence and arousal scores using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and apply Multinomial Logit Models (MLM) to estimate food choice using liking, valence, and arousal as possible predictors. For this analysis, we used an existing data set comprised of liking and food-evoked emotions scores from 123 participants, who rated 7 unlabeled breakfast drinks. Liking scores were measured using a 100-mm visual analogue scale, while food-evoked emotions were measured using 2 existing emotion-profiling methods: a verbal and a non-verbal method (EsSense Profile and PrEmo, respectively). After 7 days, participants were asked to choose 1 breakfast drink from the experiment to consume during breakfast in a simulated restaurant environment. Cross validation showed that we were able to correctly predict individualized food choice (1 out of 7 products) for over 50% of the participants. This number increased to nearly 80% when looking at the top 2 candidates. Model comparisons showed that evoked emotions better predict food choice than perceived liking alone. However, the strongest predictive strength was achieved by the combination of evoked emotions and liking. Furthermore we showed that non-verbal food-evoked emotion scores more accurately predict food choice than verbal food-evoked emotions scores