Interactieve ontwerpmethodieken voor integrale duurzaamheid Toepassing van RIO in een aantal niet-veehouderij-gebonden cases

RIO (Reflexief Interactief Ontwerpen) bestaat uit drie hoofdonderdelen: de (systeem)analysefase, de ontwerpfase en de verankeringsfase. RIO is ontstaan in een veehouderijcontext. Die context heeft een aantal specifieke eigenschappen, die toepassing van RIO in andere sectoren niet volledig vanzelfsprekend maakt. In een drietal projecten in de tuinbouw en biobased research is onderzocht in hoeverre (onderdelen van) RIO toepasbaar zijn in deze contexten. Gemeenschappelijk kenmerk van de cases die daarbij aan de orde waren was dat een technologisch kernidee het startpunt voor het ontwerpproces vormde, met een min of meer impliciete maatschappelijke problematiek die daarachter werd voorondersteld. De drie cases zijn: grasraffinage, Teelt de Grond Uit: bloembollen en appel, Teelt de grond uit: vinicultuur en aquaponics

Endometrial scratching in women with one failed IVF/ICSI cycle-outcomes of a randomised controlled trial (SCRaTCH)

STUDY QUESTION: Does endometrial scratching in women with one failed IVF/ICSI treatment affect the chance of a live birth of the subsequent fresh IVF/ICSI cycle? SUMMARY ANSWER: In this study, 4.6% more live births were observed in the scratch group, with a likely certainty range between -0.7% and +9.9%. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Since the first suggestion that endometrial scratching might improve embryo implantation during IVF/ICSI, many clinical trials have been conducted. However, due to limitations in sample size and study quality, it remains unclear whether endometrial scratching improves IVF/ICSI outcomes. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: The SCRaTCH trial was a non-blinded randomised controlled trial in women with one unsuccessful IVF/ICSI cycle and assessed whether a single endometrial scratch using an endometrial biopsy catheter would lead to a higher live birth rate after the subsequent IVF/ICSI treatment compared to no scratch. The study took place in 8 academic and 24 general hospitals. Participants were randomised between January 2016 and July 2018 by a web-based randomisation programme. Secondary outcomes included cumulative 12-month ongoing pregnancy leading to live birth rate. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Women with one previous failed IVF/ICSI treatment and planning a second fresh IVF/ICSI treatment were eligible. In total, 933 participants out of 1065 eligibles were included (participation rate 88%). MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: After the fresh transfer, 4.6% more live births were observed in the scratch compared to control group (110/465 versus 88/461, respectively, risk ratio (RR) 1.24 [95% CI 0.96-1.59]). These data are consistent with a true difference of between -0.7% and +9.9% (95% CI), indicating that while the largest proportion of the 95% CI is positive, scratchin

Rehabilitation and outcomes after complicated vs uncomplicated mild TBI: results from the CENTER-TBI study

Background: Despite existing guidelines for managing mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), evidence-based treatments are still scarce and large-scale studies on the provision and impact of specific rehabilitation services are needed. This study aimed to describe the provision of rehabilitation to patients after complicated and uncomplicated mTBI and investigate factors associated with functional outcome, symptom burden, and TBI-specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) up to six months after injury. Methods: Patients (n = 1379) with mTBI from the Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in TBI (CENTER-TBI) study who reported whether they received rehabilitation services during the first six months post-injury and who participated in outcome assessments were included. Functional outcome was measured with the Glasgow Outcome Scale – Extended (GOSE), symptom burden with the Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ), and HRQOL with the Quality of Life after Brain Injury – Overall Scale (QOLIBRI-OS). We examined whether transition of care (TOC) pathways, receiving rehabilitation services, sociodemographic (incl. geographic), premorbid, and injury-related factors were associated with outcomes using regression models. For easy comparison, we estimated ordinal regression models for all outcomes where the scores were classified based on quantiles. Results: Overall, 43% of patients with complicated and 20% with uncomplicated mTBI reported receiving rehabilitation services, primarily in physical and cognitive domains. Patients with complicated mTBI had lower functional level, higher symptom burden, and lower HRQOL compared to uncomplicated mTBI. Rehabilitation services at three or six months and a higher number of TOC were associated with unfavorable outcomes in all models, in addition to pre-morbid psychiatric problems. Being male and having more than 13 years of education was associated with more favorable outcomes. Sustaining major trauma was associated with unfavorable GOSE outcome, whereas living in Southern and Eastern European regions was associated with lower HRQOL. Conclusions: Patients with complicated mTBI reported more unfavorable outcomes and received rehabilitation services more frequently. Receiving rehabilitation services and higher number of care transitions were indicators of injury severity and associated with unfavorable outcomes. The findings should be interpreted carefully and validated in future studies as we applied a novel analytic approach. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02210221

One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains

Amazonia's floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this may differ from surrounding forest types is still far too limited, particularly as changing inundation regimes begin to reshape floodplain tree communities and the critical ecosystem functions they underpin. Here we address this gap by taking a spatially explicit look at Amazonia-wide patterns of tree-species turnover and ecological specialization of the region's floodplain forests. We show that the majority of Amazonian tree species can inhabit floodplains, and about a sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is ecologically specialized on floodplains. The degree of specialization in floodplain communities is driven by regional flood patterns, with the most compositionally differentiated floodplain forests located centrally within the fluvial network and contingent on the most extraordinary flood magnitudes regionally. Our results provide a spatially explicit view of ecological specialization of floodplain forest communities and expose the need for whole-basin hydrological integrity to protect the Amazon's tree diversity and its function.Naturali

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Why psychologists must change the way they analyze their data: the case of psi: comment on Bem (2011).

Item does not contain fulltextDoes psi exist? D. J. Bem (2011) conducted 9 studies with over 1,000 participants in an attempt to demonstrate that future events retroactively affect people's responses. Here we discuss several limitations of Bem's experiments on psi; in particular, we show that the data analysis was partly exploratory and that one-sided p values may overstate the statistical evidence against the null hypothesis. We reanalyze Bem's data with a default Bayesian t test and show that the evidence for psi is weak to nonexistent. We argue that in order to convince a skeptical audience of a controversial claim, one needs to conduct strictly confirmatory studies and analyze the results with statistical tests that are conservative rather than liberal. We conclude that Bem's p values do not indicate evidence in favor of precognition; instead, they indicate that experimental psychologists need to change the way they conduct their experiments and analyze their data.1 maart 201

Replacement of primary chicken embryonic fibroblasts (CEF) by the DF-1 cell line for detection of avian leucosis viruses

International regulations prescribe that the absence of avian leucosis viruses (ALV) in avian live virus vaccines has to be demonstrated. Primary chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) from special SPF chicken lines are normally used for detection of ALV. The suitability of the DF-1 cell line for ALV-detection, as alternative for primary CEF, was studied in three types of experiments: (1) in titration experiments without cell passage, (2) in experiments with passages in cell cultures according to European Pharmacopoeia requirements, and (3) in experiments with commercial live avian vaccines that had been spiked with known amounts of ALV. In all tests the sensitivity of ALV-A and ALV-J detections on DF-1 cells was at least as high as on primary CEF. The sensitivity of ALV-B detection was always superior when DF-1 cells were used. ALV were detected earlier in all comparative tests when DF-1 cells were used. ALV-A, ALV-B and ALV-J all induced CPE on DF-1 cells, whereas no clear CPE was seen on CEF-cells. For reasons of sensitivity, standardisation as well as reduction of animal use, the data support the use of DF-1 cells to monitor absence of ALV in vaccine virus seed lots or finished products

Speed-accuracy response models: scoring rules based on response time and accuracy

Starting from an explicit scoring rule for time limit tasks incorporating both response time and accuracy, and a definite trade-off between speed and accuracy, a response model is derived. Since the scoring rule is interpreted as a sufficient statistic, the model belongs to the exponential family. The various marginal and conditional distributions for response accuracy and response time are derived, and it is shown how the model parameters can be estimated. The model for response accuracy is found to be the two-parameter logistic model. It is found that the time limit determines the item discrimination, and this effect is illustrated with the Amsterdam Chess Test II

Interactieve ontwerpmethodieken voor integrale duurzaamheid Toepassing van RIO in een aantal niet-veehouderij-gebonden cases

RIO (Reflexief Interactief Ontwerpen) bestaat uit drie hoofdonderdelen: de (systeem)analysefase, de ontwerpfase en de verankeringsfase. RIO is ontstaan in een veehouderijcontext. Die context heeft een aantal specifieke eigenschappen, die toepassing van RIO in andere sectoren niet volledig vanzelfsprekend maakt. In een drietal projecten in de tuinbouw en biobased research is onderzocht in hoeverre (onderdelen van) RIO toepasbaar zijn in deze contexten. Gemeenschappelijk kenmerk van de cases die daarbij aan de orde waren was dat een technologisch kernidee het startpunt voor het ontwerpproces vormde, met een min of meer impliciete maatschappelijke problematiek die daarachter werd voorondersteld. De drie cases zijn: grasraffinage, Teelt de Grond Uit: bloembollen en appel, Teelt de grond uit: vinicultuur en aquaponics