Drinkwater innovaties voor de huishoudelijke eindgebruiker: inventarisatie van praktijkvoorbeelden

KIWA Waterresearch coördineert het Bedrijfstakonderzoek (BTO) voor de drinkwatersector. In het kader van het BTO is de onderzoekslijn Client 21 opgezet, waarbinnen verschillende klantgerelateerde kennisvragen aan bod komen. Toekomstig klantgedrag is één van die kennisvragen. Om inzicht te verkrijgen in toekomstig klantgedrag laat Kiwa Water Research het onderhavige onderzoek ‘gedragspraktijk watergebruik’ uitvoeren, waarvan dit rapport het eerste product i

Evaluation of a New Balloon Catheter for Difficult Calcified Lesions in Infrainguinal Arterial Disease: Outcome of a Multicenter Registry

The purpose of this study was to assess the technical performance and immediate procedure outcome of a new balloon catheter in the treatment of calcified lesions in infrainguinal arterial disease. Seventy-five patients with infrainguinal arterial disease were prospectively entered into the registry. The catheter (ReeKross Clearstream, Ireland) is a 5- to 6-Fr balloon catheter with a rigid shaft intended for enhanced pushability. Only technical procedural outcome was recorded. Treated calcified lesions (range: 5–30 cm), assessed angiographically, were located in the superficial femoral, popliteal, and crural arteries. In 67 patients the lesion was an occlusion. Guidewire passage occurred subintimally in 68 patients. In 24 patients a standard balloon catheter was chosen as first treatment catheter: 5 failed to cross the lesion, 8 balloons ruptured, and in 11 patients there was an inadequate dilatation result. In only one of the five patients did subsequent use of the ReeKross catheter also fail in lesion crossing. The ReeKross was successful as secondary catheter in the other 23 cases. In 50 patients the ReeKross was used as primary catheter. In total the ReeKross crossed the lesions in 74 patients. After passage and dilatation with this catheter in 73 patients (1 failed true-lumen reentry), 19 had >30% residual lesions, of which 11 were not treated and 8 were successfully stented. No ReeKross balloons ruptured. We conclude that in the treatment of difficult calcified lesions in arterial stenotic or occlusive disease, the choice of a high-pushability angioplasty catheter, with more calcification-resistant balloon characteristics, like the ReeKross, warrants consideration

Guidelines for measuring and reporting environmental parameters for experiments in greenhouses

Background: The importance of appropriate, accurate measurement and reporting of environmental parameters in plant sciences is a significant aspect of quality assurance for all researchers and their research. There is a clear need for ensuring research across the world can be compared, understood and where necessary replicated by fellow researchers. A common set of guidelines to educate, assist and encourage comparativeness is of great importance. On the other hand, the level of effort and attention to detail by an individual researcher should be commensurate with the particular research being conducted. For example, a researcher focusing on interactions of light and temperature should measure all relevant parameters and report a measurement summary that includes sufficient detail allowing for replication. Such detail may be less relevant when the impact of environmental parameters on plant growth and development is not the main research focus. However, it should be noted that the environmental experience of a plant during production can have significant impact when subsequent experiments investigate plants at a molecular, biochemical or genetic level or where species interactions are considered. Thus, researchers are encouraged to make a critical assessment of what parameters are of primary importance in their research and these parameters should be measured and reported. Content: This paper brings together a collection of parameters that the authors, as members of International Committee on Controlled Environment Guidelines (ICCEG) in consultation with members of our three parent organizations, believe constitute those which should be recorded and reported when publishing scientific data from experiments in greenhouses. It provides recommendations to end users on when, how and where these parameters should be measured along with the appropriate internationally standardized units that should be used

Travel, tourism, climate change and behavioral change: travelers’ perspectives from a developing country, Nigeria

While studies have examined people's understanding of climate change and its relationship to tourism, these focus largely on developed country populations. Much future tourism growth will come from developing countries following economic development; often countries where climate change will be strongly felt. Do tourists from developing countries have the same knowledge gaps about travel, tourism, and climate change as in the developed world? Will behavioral change policies be successful in encouraging more environmentally friendly approaches to climate change and tourism in developing countries? This paper presents findings from 20 in-depth interviews with active Nigerian tourists, analyzing their understanding of climate change, the links known, or not, between their travel and climate change, and their willingness to change their tourism patterns. Understanding of climate change was limited and there was conceptual confusion. Participants did not view their own travel as a cause of climate change and many were embedded in air travel practice. Participants were unwilling to change their tourism patterns to reduce their contribution to climate change. Significant structural barriers limit low carbon tourism travel in Nigeria (and other developing countries), including reliability, availability safety, and speed. Behavioral change will be difficult to achieve

Apparent Alkyl Transfer and Phenazine Formation via an Aryne Intermediate

Treatment of chlorotriaryl derivatives 3a and 3d or fluorotriaryl derivatives 3b and 3e with potassium diisopropylamide afforded alkyl-shifted phenazine derivatives 5a/5b, rather than the expected 9-membered triazaorthocyclophane 2a. The phenazine derivatives were isolated in 78–98% yield depending on the halogen and alkyl group present. In the absence of the halogen (chloro or fluoro), the apparent alkyl shift proceeds more slowly and cannot proceed via the intermediacy of the aryne intermediate. Mechanistic possibilities include intramolecular nucleophilic attack on an aryne intermediate leading to a zwitterionic intermediate and alkyl transfer via a 5-endo-tet process, or via a Smiles rearrangement

Reducing Asymmetries in Intergenerational Justice: Descent from Modernity or Space Industrialization?

Normally, contractual conceptions of intergenerational justice regard the responsibility held by each generation as symmetrical. This article argues that the late modern society has created an asymmetry because of its unprecendented instrumental and destructive capacity. Historically unique risks such as thermonuclear destruction, global ecological deprivation, and resource depletion all point at this asymmetry and unequal distribution of responsibility between generations. Extending one contractual device used by John Rawls in line with what Brian Barry has suggested, this article analyzes the roots of the asymmetry and presents two political strategies to end it. The first strategy resembles the traditional deep ecological programme whereas the second holds an imaginative vision of a human future in space. Both strategies seek to reduce the influence present generations exercise on the level of opportunity available to future generations. The key normative argument is that intergenerational justice requires spatial and temporal limits on political action

Stakeholders, Green Manufacturing, and Practice Performance: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Fashion Businesses

This study explores the relationship among stakeholders, green manufacturing, and practice performance in the fashion business in China and focuses on assisting companies to enhance environmental awareness and green manufacturing practices. We collect research data by developing questionnaires for various Chinese enterprises. A five-point Likert scale is adopted to enable respondents to indicate the extent to which they agree with the items. Through tests and analyses, the questionnaire is validated as reliable, the structural equation model has a good fitting degree, and hypotheses are proved true. Specifically, corporate stakeholders have a significant positive impact on green manufacturing and practice performance, and green manufacturing has a significant positive impact on practice performance in the context of Chinese fashion businesses. Moreover, corporate stakeholders can have a positive impact on practice performance through green manufacturing. We also propose some policy implications, including implementing compulsive policies and regulations and encouraging and establishing preferential policies, such as tax concessions. Moreover, enterprises should actively strive to improve green manufacturing technology and management level to ensure the smooth implementation of green manufacturing practices. To retain sustained earnings and development, green manufacturing should be the bottom line of involved firms. We also emphasize that the importance of corporate stakeholders should be promoted in consideration of enterprises’ practice performance and future development