Partner Selection Criteria for Participation-based Cooperation

The Dutch construction industry is under pressure. In order to answer the expectations set by society, innovations are necessary. The industry stands in need of clients and contractors who find common objectives and work in participation-based cooperation (such as partnering or alliance) in order to stimulate innovation development. On paper, public clients strive for innovative cooperation with their contractors. Yet, many clients and contractors still try to realise their conflicting objectives, which leads to difficulties in the relationship and counteract innovation. Underlying this lack of support for participation-based cooperation is the inadequate knowledge on the criteria public clients must and may set in order to select a suitable partner. This study describes and analyses the selection of a partner for participation based cooperation by a public client. Criteria for partner selection were assessed with a literature review in relation to participation-based cooperation. A hierarchical case study on five project alliances verified these criteria. The study shows that public clients have to reconsider the specification phase in the tendering process. The research indicates that certain additional criteria must be set if the selection of a partner is to succeed. In particular, criteria concerning the potential employees in the participation-based relationship are necessary. It is recognized by the Regieraad Bouw that public clients need wise applications in order to make clear decisions in the tendering process. The result of this study is a practical set of criteria, which can simplify the selection of a suitable partner and which can contribute to the support of participation-based cooperation in the Dutch construction industry

Preparing for an interdisciplinary future: A perspective from early-career researchers

Increasingly, research is moving towards more interdisciplinary endeavours. Effective collaboration between people from different disciplines is necessary to maximise the potential benefits of interdisciplinarity for future research activity. This paper analyses an approach to fostering the skills required for successful cross-disciplinary collaboration from the perspective of an interdisciplinary group of early-career researchers. Our reflection on how specially-designed encounters can help to shape future interdisciplinary research initiatives draws on the discussion of a four-day workshop, a post-event survey, and a review of other experiences. We conclude that interdisciplinary encounters are an effective means to support the development of future interdisciplinary researchers, with a major advantage of this approach being the opportunity for open communication. Depending on the organiser's aim, we distinguish between “cultivation” and “development” encounters. Among the multiple factors that produce successful interdisciplinary encounters, we found that selection of a theme, participants and location need to be tailored to the encounter's particular objectives. We recommend that funding bodies and other members of the research community should take note of the effectiveness of encounters to foster interdisciplinarity and generate space to develop more innovative and high-impact research that delivers solutions to the challenges facing humanity in the future

An ensemble neural network approach for space-time landslide predictive modelling

There is an urgent need for accurate and effective Landslide Early Warning Systems (LEWS). Most LEWS are currently based on a single temporally-aggregated measure of rainfall derived from either in-situ measurements or satellite-based rainfall estimates. Relying on a summary metric of precipitation may not capture the complexity of the rainfall signal and its dynamics in space and time in triggering landslides. Here, we present a proof-of-concept for constructing a LEWS that is based on an integrated spatio-temporal modelling framework. Our proposed methodology builds upon a recent approach that uses a daily rainfall time series instead of the traditional cumulated scalar approximation. Specifically, we partition the study area into slope units and use a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) to process a satellite-derived rainfall time series and combine the output features with a second neural network (NN) tasked with capturing the effect of terrain characteristics. To assess if our approach enhances accuracy, we applied it in Vietnam and compared it against a standard modelling approach that incorporates terrain characteristics and cumulative rainfall over 14 days. Our protocol leads to better performance in hindcasting landslides when using past rainfall estimates (CHIRPS), as compared to the standard modelling approach. While not tested here, our approach can be extended to rainfall obtained from weather forecasts, potentially leading to actual landslide forecasts

Transgressive segregation of primary and secondary metabolites in F2 hybrids between Jacobaea aquatica and J. vulgaris

Hybridization between plant species can have a number of biological consequences; interspecific hybridization has been tied to speciation events, biological invasions, and diversification at the level of genes, metabolites, and phenotypes. This study aims to provide evidence of transgressive segregation in the expression of primary and secondary metabolites in hybrids between Jacobaeavulgaris and J. aquaticus using an NMR-based metabolomic profiling approach. A number of F2 hybrid genotypes exhibited metabolomic profiles that were outside the range encompassed by parental species. Expression of a number of primary and secondary metabolites, including jacaronone analogues, chlorogenic acid, sucrose, glucose, malic acid, and two amino acids was extreme in some F2 hybrid genotypes compared to parental genotypes, and citric acid was expressed in highest concentrations in J. vulgaris. Metabolomic profiling based on NMR is a useful tool for quantifying genetically controlled differences between major primary and secondary metabolites among plant genotypes. Interspecific plant hybrids in general, and specifically hybrids between J. vulgaris and J. aquatica, will be useful for disentangling the ecological role of suites of primary and secondary metabolites in plants, because interspecific hybridization generates extreme metabolomic diversity compared to that normally observed between parental genotypes

THE EFFECT OF LABELING INTENSITY, ESTIMATED BY REAL-TIME CONFOCAL LASER SCANNING MICROSCOPY, ON FLOW CYTOMETRIC APPEARANCE AND IDENTIFICATION OF IMMUNOCHEMICALLY LABELED MARINE DINOFLAGELLATES

Two different fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) conjugates were used to analyze the effect of labeling intensity on the flow cytometric appearance of marine dinoflagellates labeled with antibodies that specifically recognized the outer cell wall. Location of the labeling was revealed by epifluorescence and real-time confocal laser scanning microscopy using an anti-rabbit IgG/FITC-conjugated secondary antiserum. Flow cytometric measurements showed that cells of Prorocentrum species labeled this way could not always be distinguished from unlabeled cells. The labeling intensity increased several times when a biotinylated anti-rabbit IgG secondary antiserum was used in combination with a streptavidin/FITC conjugate. Flow cytometry indicated that the labeling intensity had increased 50%, which resulted in an improved separation of clusters of labeled and unlabeled cells.</p

Immuno flow cytometry in marine phytoplankton research

The developments in the combination of flow cytometry and immunology as a tool to identify, count and examine marine phytoplankton cells are reviewed. The concepts of immunology and flow cytometry are described. A distinction is made between quantitative and qualitative immunofluorescence. Quantitative immunofluorescence, the identification and enumeration of phytoplankton cells, is the research area that has advanced rapidly in the past decade, and is reviewed extensively. Key steps of quantitative immunofluorescence, fixation and immunolabel intensity, are discussed in more detail. Qualitative immunofluorescence is a new, hardly explored but highly interesting development in which qualitative -physiological- variables related to e.g. nutrient limitation or primary production are measured in individual cells instead of phytoplankton populations as a whole. Several combinations of immunological probes, both for species identification and for physiological measurements, are proposed. A special case of qualitative immunofluorescence is the measurement of phytoplankton toxins in single cells from natural populations. It is anticipated that the future use of semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots as fluorophores will greatly enhance signal detection in flow cytometry, and hence in both quantitative and qualitative immunofluorescence applications