City Blueprints: Baseline Assessments of Sustainable Water Management in 11 Cities of the Future

The necessity of Urban Water Cycle Services (UWCS) adapting to future stresses calls for changes that take sustainability into account. Megatrends (e.g. population growth, water scarcity, pollution and climate change) pose urgent water challenges in cities. In a previous paper, a set of indicators, i.e., the City Blueprint has been developed to assess the sustainability ofUWCS (Van Leeuwen et al.,Wat Resour Manage 26:2177¿2197, 2012). In this paper this approach has been applied in 9 cities and regions in Europe (Amsterdam, Algarve, Athens, Bucharest, Hamburg, Reggio Emilia, Rotterdam, Oslo and Cities of Scotland) and in 2 African cities in Angola (Kilamba Kiaxi) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). The assessments showed that cities vary considerably with regard to the sustainability of theUWCS. This is also captured in the Blue City Index (BCI), the arithmetic mean of 24 indicators comprising the City Blueprint (Van Leeuwen et al., Wat Resour Manage 26:2177¿2197, 2012). Theoretically, the BCI has a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 10. The actual BCIs in the 11 cities studied varied from 3.31 (Kilamba Kiaxi) to 7.72 (Hamburg). The BCI was positively correlated with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person, the ambitions of the local authorities regarding the sustainability of the UWCS, the voluntary participation index (VPI) and all governance indicators according to the World Bank. The study demonstrated that the variability in sustainability among the UWCS of cities offers great opportunities for short-term and long-term improvements, provided that cities share their best practices.Van Leeuwen, CJ. (2013). City Blueprints: Baseline Assessments of Sustainable Water Management in 11 Cities of the Future. Water resources management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-013-0462-5Bai X (2007) Industrial ecology and the global impacts of cities. 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A research project conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, http://www.siemens.com/press/pool/de/events/corporate/2009-12-Cop15/European_Green_City_Index.pdf . Accessed 20 February 2011Grimm NB, Faeth SH, Golubiewski NE, Redman CL, Wu J, Bai X, Briggs JM (2008) Global change and the ecology of cities. Science 319(5864):756–760Hoekstra AY, Mekonnen MM, Chapagain AK, Mathews RE, Richter BD (2012) Global monthly water scarcity: Blue water footprints versus blue water availability. PLoS ONE 7(2):e32688. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032688IMF (2012) Gross Domestic Product (international dollars) as provided by the International Monetary Fund for 2010–2011: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita . Accessed October 2012Kaufman D, Kraay A, Mastruzzi M (2010) The worldwide governance indicators. Methodology and analytical issues. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5430. World Bank, Washington DCLange P, Driessen PJ, Sauer A, Borneman B, Burger P (2013) Governing towards sustainability – conceptualizing modes of governance. J Environ Policy Planning 15:403–425Makropoulos CK, Butler D (2010) Distributed water infrastructure for sustainable communities. Water Resour Manag 24(11):2795–2816Mekonnen MM, Hoekstra AY (2011) National water footprint accounts: the green, blue and grey water footprint of production and consumption. Volumes 1 and 2. Value of Water Research Report Series No. 50. UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the NetherlandsNorman E, Bakker K, Cook C, Dunn G, Allen D (2010) Water security: A primer. Policy report. Fostering water security in Canada Project www.watergovernance.ca Accessed 20 September 2013Philip R, Anton B, van der Steen P (2011) SWITCH training kit. Integrated urban water management in the city of the future. Module 1. Strategic planning, ICLEI, Freiburg, GermanyPrüss-Üstün A, Bos R, Gore F, Bartram J (2008) Safer water, better health: Costs, benefits and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. World Health Organization, GenevaRozos E, Makropoulos C (2013) Source to tap urban water cycle modelling. Environ Model Softw 41:139–150SIWI (2012) Stockholm International Water Institute. Statistics. http://www.siwi.org/sa/node.asp?node=159 Accessed 20 December, 2012Ugarelli R, Pachioli M, Di Federico V (2009) Planning maintenance strategies for Italian urban drainage systems applying CARE-S. In: Allegre H, do Céu Almeida M (eds) Strategic asset management of water supply and wastewater infrastructures. IWA Publishing, London, pp 471–486UN (2012) World urbanization prospects: The 2011 revision. UN, New York, USA. http://esa.un.org/unup/ . Accessed 30 November 2012UNDP (2004) Water governance for poverty reduction. 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Online leadership discourse in higher education: a digital multimodal discourse perspective

As leadership discourses in higher education are increasingly being mediated online, texts previously reserved for staff are now being made available in the public domain. As such, these texts become accessible for study, critique and evaluation. Additionally, discourses previously confined to the written domain are now increasingly multimodal. Thus, an approach is required that is capable of relating detailed, complex multimodal discourse analyses to broader sociocultural perspectives to account for the complex meaning-making practices that operate in online leadership discourses. For this purpose, a digital multimodal discourse approach is proposed and illustrated via a small-scale case study of the online leadership discourse of an Australian university. The analysis of two short video texts demonstrates how a digital multimodal discourse perspective facilitates the identification of key multimodal systems used for meaning-making in online communication, how meaning arises through combinations of semiotic choices (not individual choices), and how the results of multimodal discourse analysis using digital technology can reveal larger sociocultural patterns – in this case, divergent leadership styles and approaches as reflected in online discourse, at a time of immense change within the higher education sector

The Citation Field of Evolutionary Economics

Evolutionary economics has developed into an academic field of its own, institutionalized around, amongst others, the Journal of Evolutionary Economics (JEE). This paper analyzes the way and extent to which evolutionary economics has become an interdisciplinary journal, as its aim was: a journal that is indispensable in the exchange of expert knowledge on topics and using approaches that relate naturally with it. Analyzing citation data for the relevant academic field for the Journal of Evolutionary Economics, we use insights from scientometrics and social network analysis to find that, indeed, the JEE is a central player in this interdisciplinary field aiming mostly at understanding technological and regional dynamics. It does not, however, link firmly with the natural sciences (including biology) nor to management sciences, entrepreneurship, and organization studies. Another journal that could be perceived to have evolutionary acumen, the Journal of Economic Issues, does relate to heterodox economics journals and is relatively more involved in discussing issues of firm and industry organization. The JEE seems most keen to develop theoretical insights

Tamoxifen-associated vasculitis in a breast cancer patient

BACKGROUND: Estrogen plays a critical role in breast cancer. Thereafter, endocrine therapy is a standard of care in patients with breast carcinoma, expressing ER or PR. CASE PRESENTATION: Herein we report the case of a 53-year old patient, who developed cholestasis and vasculitis during the treatment with tamoxifen. This toxicity was reversable after the removal of the drug. Thereafter she continued adjuvant treatment for breast carcinoma with anastrazole. Since tamoxifen has been widely indicated for patients with breast carcinoma, we did a literature review, looking for other cases with this type of toxicity. CONCLUSION: This case is the third with vasculitis informed in the literature, but the first one that additionally developed cholestasis and arthritis. Although it is rare, we discuss the indication of this drug in the actual era, where aromatase inhibitors offer a better security profile

Cancer risk in DES daughters

We examined long-term risk of cancer in women exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES) in utero. A total of 12,091 DES-exposed women in the Netherlands were followed prospectively from December 1992 till June 2008. Cancer incidence was assessed through linkage with the Dutch pathology database (PALGA) and the Netherlands Cancer Registry and compared with the Dutch female population. A total of 348 medically verified cancers occurred; median age at end of follow-up was 44.0 years. No overall increased risk of cancer was found (standardized incidence ratio [SIR] = 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91, 1.13). The risk of clear cell adenocarcinoma of the vagina and cervix (CCA) was statistically significantly increased (SIR = 24.23; 95% CI = 8.89, 52.74); the elevated risk persisted above 40 years of age. The risk of melanoma diagnosed before age 40 was increased (SIR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.08, 2.26). No excess risks were found for other sites, including breast cancer. Except for an elevated risk of CCA, persisting at older ages, and an increased risk of melanoma at young ages, we found no increased risk of cancer. Longer follow-up is warranted to examine cancer risk at ages when cancer occurs more frequently

First look at the five-factor model personality facet associations with sensory processing sensitivity

status: publishe