Network analysis in the Caribbean

The Caribbean region is a cross road of international and regional containertraffic. Most of the islands in the region have also adopted ambitiousstrategies to become prime locations for container transshipment. This paperintroduces a tool that can be used to visualise and analyse the Caribbeancontainer flows. The tool is constructed on the basis of a multi-layeredgraph structure and is highly parameterized to allow for flexible selectionof flows and ports. The tool supports the assessment of the potential forthe development of logistics and transport hub through the calculation ofrelevant indicators using available information on container flows in theregion. Much of the empirical work centers on the estimation of theorigin-destination matrix of container flows in the region. The paperpresents a case study for the island of Curacao.Caribbean;container flows;hub port;network analysis

The Value of Information in Container Transport: Leveraging the Triple Bottom Line

Planning the transport of maritime containers from the sea port to final destinations while using multiple transport modes is challenged by uncertainties regarding the time the container is released for further transport or the transit time from the port to its final destination. This paper assesses the value of information in container transport in terms of multiple performance dimensions, i.e. logistics costs, reliability, security, and emissions. The analysis is done using a single period model where a decision maker allocates arriving containers to two transport modes (slow, low price, no flexible departure times, versus fast, high price, flexible departure times). We construct a frontier of Pareto optimal decisions under each of the information scenarios and show that these frontiers move in a favorable direction when the level of information progresses. Each of the Pareto frontiers help strike the balance between the aforementioned performance dimensions. The mathematical results are illustrated using two numerical examples involving barge transport and train transport

A cointegration approach to forecasting freight rates in the dry bulk shipping sector

In this paper, a vector autoregressive model is developed for a sample of ocean dry bulk freight rates. Although the series of freight rates are themselves found to be non-stationary, thus precluding the use of many modelling methodologies, ev

Network analysis in the Caribbean

The Caribbean region is a cross road of international and regional container traffic. Most of the islands in the region have also adopted ambitious strategies to become prime locations for container transshipment. This paper introduces a tool that can be used to visualise and analyse the Caribbean container flows. The tool is constructed on the basis of a multi-layered graph structure and is highly parameterized to allow for flexible selection of flows and ports. The tool supports the assessment of the potential for the development of logistics and transport hub through the calculation of relevant indicators using available information on container flows in the region. Much of the empirical work centers on the estimation of the origin-destination matrix of container flows in the region. The paper presents a case study for the island of Curacao

Positive and negative outcomes of informal caregiving at home and in institutionalised long-term care: A cross-sectional study

Background: Our ageing society is putting tremendous strain on public health and welfare programs to meet the needs of ageing individuals. Promoting informal caregiving is one way for policymakers to reduce this burden. However, caregiving may be experienced as stressful and is associated with adverse health consequences. While quite a lot of research focuses on caregiving for community-dwelling older adults, little is known about informal care in institutionalised long-term care (ILTC). Therefore, the objectives of this study were: 1) to compare characteristics of informal caregivers and care receivers and caregiver outcomes - at home and in ILTC; 2) to study the association between these characteristics and positive and negative caregiver outcomes; 3) to investigate the moderating effect of the setting (at home vs. ILTC) on these associations. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using the TOPICS-MDS DataSet. A total of 5197 Dutch dyads were included. The average age of the care receivers and caregivers was respectively 80.7 years and 63.2 years. Several sociodemographic, health-related and caregiving-related characteristics of care receiver and caregiver and two caregiver outcomes (i.e., subjective burden and care-related quality of life) were included in the analyses. Results: Caregivers in both settings experienced comparable levels of subjective burden. Caregivers at home had slightly lower care-related quality of life than caregivers in ILTC. Several care receiver characteristics (i.e., male sex, married/cohabiting, more morbidities/disability, and less self-perceived health/psychological wellbeing) and several caregiver characteristics (i.e., female sex, being younger, living together with the care receiver, more objective burden, less self-perceived health, and more support) were associated with an increase in burden and/or a decrease in care-related quality of life. Some of these associations were stronger for dyads at home compared to dyads in ILTC. Conclusions: Informal caregiving does not stop with admission to an ILTC facility. Both settings need an informal caregiving policy, which is (1) tailored to the individual characteristics of care receivers and caregivers; (2) pays attention to the identified risk groups; and (3) reduces the negative caregiver outcomes and emphasizes the positive outcomes at the same time

The Prospective Dutch Colorectal Cancer (PLCRC) cohort: real-world data facilitating research and clinical care

Real-world data (RWD) sources are important to advance clinical oncology research and evaluate treatments in daily practice. Since 2013, the Prospective Dutch Colorectal Cancer (PLCRC) cohort, linked to the Netherlands Cancer Registry, serves as an infrastructure for scientific research collecting additional patient-reported outcomes (PRO) and biospecimens. Here we report on cohort developments and investigate to what extent PLCRC reflects the “real-world”. Clinical and demographic characteristics of PLCRC participants were compared with the general Dutch CRC population (n = 74,692, Dutch-ref). To study representativeness, standardized differences between PLCRC and Dutch-ref were calculated, and logistic regression models were evaluated on their ability to distinguish cohort participants from the Dutch-ref (AU-ROC 0.5 = preferred, implying participation independent of patient characteristics). Stratified analyses by stage and time-period (2013–2016 and 2017–Aug 2019) were performed to study the evolution towards RWD. In August 2019, 5744 patients were enrolled. Enrollment increased steeply, from 129 participants (1 hospital) in 2013 to 2136 (50 of 75 Dutch hospitals) in 2018. Low AU-ROC (0.65, 95% CI: 0.64–0.65) indicates limited ability to distinguish cohort participants from the Dutch-ref. Characteristics that remained imbalanced in the period 2017–Aug’19 compared with the Dutch-ref were age (65.0 years in PLCRC, 69.3 in the Dutch-ref) and tumor stage (40% stage-III in PLCRC, 30% in the Dutch-ref). PLCRC approaches to represent the Dutch CRC population and will ultimately meet the current demand for high-quality RWD. Efforts are ongoing to improve multidisciplinary recruitment which will further enhance PLCRC’s representativeness and its contribution to a learning healthcare system

Revenues and costs of maritime shipping

The international ocean transport industry carries the majority of international trade. The reason for this is that, per ton of cargo, shipping is by far the cheapest transport option. Nevertheless, also in ocean transport, there still is considerable pressure on cost levels, and different parts of the shipping industry have seen a move towards lower costs per ton or unit of cargo. This was often accomplished by building larger and larger ships.</p

Internationale supply chains zijn te ingewikkeld

Het ontbreekt op dit moment aan goede meetmethoden om de logistieke prestatie van internationale ketens vast te leggen en zo de mogelijke risico's te kunnen analyseren. Daar is onderzoek voor nodi