British Romanticism and the Global Climate

As a result of developments in the meteorological and geological sciences, the Romantic period saw the gradual emergence of attempts to understand the climate as a dynamic global system that could potentially be affected by human activity. This chapter examines textual responses to climate disruption cause by the Laki eruption of 1783 and the Tambora eruption of 1815. During the Laki haze, writers such as Horace Walpole, Gilbert White, and William Cowper found in Milton a powerful way of understanding the entanglements of culture and climate at a time of national and global crisis. Apocalyptic discourse continued to resonate during the Tambora crisis, as is evident in eyewitness accounts of the eruption, in the utopian predictions of John Barrow and Eleanor Anne Porden, and in the grim speculations of Byron’s ‘Darkness’. Romantic writing offers a powerful analogue for thinking about climate change in the Anthropocene

FACULTEIT ECONOMIE EN BEDRIJFSKUNDE TWEEKERKENSTRAAT 2 B-9000 GENT Price rigidity in Europe and the US: A comparative analysis using scanner data Price Rigidity in Europe and the US: A Comparative Analysis Using Scanner Data * Dirk Van den Poel ‡

Abstract This paper uses scanner data from two large retailers to offer new insights into the extent of price rigidity in Europe and the US. Recent empirical research in this field has made extensive use of monthly data to study price stickiness and to control for the impact of temporary sales. We show that the use of monthly data is potentially highly misleading. We employ scanner data in (bi)weekly frequency and highlight the importance of high frequency data in studying price rigidity. Regular prices show roughly the same degree of flexibility in Europe and the US, in line with recent empirical research, when we study monthly price series derived from our high frequency scanner data. This finding collapses, however, when the original scanner datasets in higher base frequency are examined. Regular prices are then far more flexible in the US than in Europe. This result is robust to the type of sales filter that we apply and the statistic used to capture price rigidity. JEL: C33, D4, E3, L6

Deep habits in consumption: a spatial panel analysis using scanner data

Using scanner data from a large European retailer, this paper empirically assesses deep habit formation in consumption. Deep habit formation constitutes a possible source of price stickiness and helps to mimic procyclical labour and real wage dynamics that are present in macrodata. To gauge the existence and the extent of deep habits in consumption, we estimate a dynamic time–space simultaneous model for consumption expenditure at different levels of product aggregation. This spatial panel model enables us to test for both internal and external deep habit formation at the same time. The former captures inertia or persistence in consumption and is included in the empirical specification as a time lag. The latter captures preference interdependence across households and is captured by a spatial lag. Our results show mixed evidence with respect to internal habit formation, whereas the external habit effect is almost always positive and significant

Stent-grafting of a dissected aortic arch and descending aorta after debranching of the supra-aortic vessels: case-presentation, indications, technique.

Endovascular repair of thoracic aorta pathology is emerging as the preferred treatment strategy in high risk patients. Hybrid techniques with debranching of the supra-aortic vessels extend indications for endovascular repair of the aortic arch and descending aorta. After a brief case-presentation, we describe these procedures, outline the indications and discuss the outcomes and results available in present literature

Impact of Mileage on Particle Number Emission Factors for EURO5 and EURO6 Diesel Passenger Cars

Air quality is a growing concern worldwide because of its impacts on both the environment and the human health. The road transport sector is a major contributor to this poor air quality. To reduce the emission of particulate matter, all diesel passenger cars were equipped with diesel particulate filters since the EURO5b emission standard. Unfortunately, these filters can be damaged or intentionally removed during the lifetime of a vehicle. This work presents the particle number emission factors for EURO5 and EURO6 diesel passenger cars, based on the measurements of 757 vehicles. These measurements were performed at low idle, which shows a high correlation to particle number emission factors obtained during homologation cycles or real-driving emission measurements. The results show that the average Particle Number (PN) emission factors are highly impacted by high emitters present in the fleet and that the mileage has a significant impact on the PN emission factors. Finally, the estimated PN emission factors based on low idle measurements were higher by a factor 5.6 for EURO5a, 2.5 for EURO5b and 5.5 for EURO6, compared to their respective HBEFA (Handbook Emission Factors for Road, Transport) emission factors

Vagus nerve stimulation for refractory epilepsy: A Belgian multicenter study

Introduction: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a symptomatic add-on treatment for patients with medically refractory epilepsy. It consists of continuous electrical stimulation of the left vagus nerve by means of a helical electrode and an implantable, programmable pulse generator. Currently, over 50,000 patients are treated with VNS worldwide. Aim: This uncontrolled, open-label retrospective study evaluates long-term outcome in patients treated with VNS for refractory epilepsy in seven different epilepsy centres in Belgium. Methods: For the purpose of this study, a minimum of essential inclusion criteria were defined to collect relevant data. This limited the results to basic findings with regards to efficacy on the long term. Inclusion criteria were a follow-up of at least 12 months and a documented seizure diary before implantation and at maximum follow-up. Primary outcome measures were the reduction in mean monthly seizure frequency and the percentage of patients with a seizure reduction of at least 50% (responder rate). Results: About 138 patients (67M/71F) had a mean age of 30 years (range 4-59) at time of implantation and a mean post-implantation follow-up of 44 months (range 12-120). The mean number of AEDs before implantation was 3 (range 1-5). About 117/138 patients had focal epilepsy, 21 patients had symptomatic generalised epilepsy. About 117/138 patients were older than 16 years, 21 patients were 16 or younger. At maximum follow-up, mean stimulation output current was 1.84 mA (range 0-3.25). Mean number of AEDs at maximum follow-up remained unchanged. The overall reduction in mean monthly seizure frequency was 51%. Mean seizure frequency before implantation was 41 seizures/month (SD = 61; range 1-300), mean seizure frequency after implantation at maximum follow-up was 7 seizures/month (SD = 25; range 0-120). Responder rate was 59%. 13% of patients had a seizure frequency decrease between 30% and 50%. About 28% had a seizure frequency decrease of <30%. Seizure freedom was obtained in 12/138 patients (9%). Conclusions: The long-term experience with VNS in Belgium confirms that VNS is an efficacious adjunctive antiepileptic treatment for patients with refractory epilepsy. (c) 2007 European Paediatric Neurology Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Validation of a 3D CBCT-based protocol for the follow-up of mandibular condyle remodeling

OBJECTIVES: Three-dimensional models of mandibular condyles provide a way for condylar remodeling follow-up. The overall aim was to develop and validate a user-friendly workflow for cone beam CT (CBCT)-based semi-automatic condylar registration and segmentation. METHODS: A rigid voxel-based registration (VBR) technique for registration of two post-operative CBCT-scans was tested. Two modified mandibular rami, with or without gonial angle, were investigated as the volume of interest for registration. Inter- and intraoperator reproducibility of this technique was tested on 10 mandibular rami of orthognathic patients by means of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC's) and descriptive statistics of the transformation values from the VBR. The difference in reproducibility between the two modified rami was evaluated using a paired t-test (p < 0.05). For the segmentation, eight fresh frozen cadaver heads were scanned with CBCT and micro-CT. These data were used to test the inter- and intraoperator reproducibility (ICC's) and accuracy (Bland-Altman plot) of a newly designed workflow based on semi-automated contour enhancement. RESULTS: Excellent ICC's (0.94-0.99) were obtained for the voxel-based registration technique using both modified rami. If the gonial angle was not included in the volume of interest, there was a trend of increased operator error suggested by significant higher interoperator differences in translation values (p = 0,0036). The segmentation workflow proved to be highly reproducible with excellent ICC's (0.99), low absolute mean volume differences between operators (23.19 mm3), within operators (28.93 mm3) and low surface distances between models of different operators (<0.20 mm). Regarding the accuracy, CBCT-models slightly overestimate the condylar volume compared to micro-CT. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a validated user-friendly and reproducible method of creating three-dimensional-surface models of mandibular condyles out of longitudinal CBCT-scans.status: publishe