Sympatric song variant in mountain chickadees Poecile gambeli does not reduce aggression from black-capped chickadees Poecile atricapillus

When habitats overlap and species compete for resources, negative interactions frequently occur. Character displacement in the form of behavioural, social or morphological divergences between closely related species can act to reduce negative interactions and often arise in regions of geographic overlap. Mountain chickadees  Poecile gambeli have an altered song structure in regions of geographic overlap with the behaviourally dominant black capped chickadee Poecile atricapillus. Similar to European and Asian tits, altered song in mountain chickadees  may decrease aggression from black-capped chickadees. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a playback study in Prince George, BC, Canada, to examine how black-capped chickadees responded to the songs of mountain chickadees recorded in regions where the two species were either sympatric or allopatric. We used principal  component analysis (PCA) to collapse behavioural response variables into a single ‘approach’ variable and a single ‘vocalisation’ variable. We then used mixed-model analysis to determine whether there was a difference in approach or vocalisation response to the two types of mountain chickadee songs (allopatric  songs and variant sympatric songs). Black-capped chickadees responded with equal intensity to both types of mountain chickadee songs, suggesting that the variant mountain chickadee songs from regions of sympatry with black-capped chickadees do not reduce heterospecific aggression. To our knowledge, this is the only instance of a character shift unassociated with reduced aggression in the family Paridae and raises interesting questions about the selective pressures leading to the evolution of this song divergence

De betekenis van duurzaamheid in gebiedsgericht beleid

Het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving streeft in haar duurzaamheidsagenda (2006) naar meer samenhang tussen tussen people, planet en profit, zowel temporeel (nu en later) als ruimtelijk (hier en elders). Omdat het gaat om een schaarstevraagstuk betekent dit streven keuzes maken. Er bestaat echter geen algemeen afwegingskader voor duurzaamheid dat ingezet kan worden in de besluitvorming over ruimtelijke vraagstukken. Wat duurzaam is hangt af van de specifieke context. Algemene duurzaamheidsprincipes worden regionaal en lokaal uitgewerkt. In dit onderzoek wordt nagegaan hoe betrokkenen in twee gebiedsgerichte processen, de Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden en de Horstermeerpolder, betekenis toekennen aan duurzaamheid. In beide gebieden spelen complexe waterproblemen. In de Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden is die zoektocht naar duurzaamheid bottom-up ingezet en in de Horstermeerpolder top-down. In de Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden komen alle aspecten van duurzaamheid sinds medio jaren ’90 aan bod en worden keuzes tussen duurzaamheidsaspecten zoveel mogelijk gemeden. In de Horstermeerpolder daarentegen heeft de provincie al een duidelijke keuze voor ecologische duurzaamheid gemaakt. Pas recentelijk krijgen ook economie en welzijn meer aandacht. In beide gebieden staat de duurzaamheid in het gebied zelf centraal, zowel op korte als op lange termijn. Bovenregionale duurzaamheidafwegingen in het kader van de WILG (Wet Inrichting Landelijk Gebied), het grotere Westelijke Veenweidegebied en de Kaderrichtlijn Water zijn nauwelijks aan de orde. Duurzaamheidaspecten buiten Nederland worden ook nauwelijks meegewogen. Trefwoorden: duurzaamheid, duurzaamheidskapitalen, gebiedsgericht beleid, beleidsarrangement, institutionele context, besluitvorming, beleidsronde, waterbeheer, veenweide, Horstermeer, Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden

The protein puzzle : the consumption and production of meat, dairy and fish in the European Union

In het rapport 'The protein puzzle. The consumption and production of meat, dairy and fish in the European Union' brengen onderzoekers van het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL) in kaart wat de gevolgen van de productie en consumptie van dierlijke eiwitten zijn voor milieu, natuur en gezondheid. Vervolgens schetst het PBL welke opties er in Europees verband zijn om de negatieve effecten te verminderen. Met deze studie verschaft het PBL relevante feiten en cijfers ten behoeve van het debat over eiwitconsumptie, inclusief een indicatie van de onzekerheden daarbij

Modeling of the orientation dependence of scanned HgCdTe infrared detectors

Mercury cadmium telluride is important in the detection of electromagnetic radiation in the eight to twelve micron atmospheric window for infrared imaging systems. High resolution infrared imaging systems use either large (256x256 element to 1024x1024 element) staring arrays or much smaller (1-6 element) scanned arrays in which the image is optically scanned across the detectors. In scanned arrays, high resolution and sensitivity may result in the scan direction not being parallel to the detector bias current. The response of an infrared detector to uniform illumination is investigated. It is found that variations in the detector thickness result in significant changes in output voltage. Scanned detectors are modeled in five different orientations; scan parallel to bias, scan opposite to bias, scan perpendicular to bias, and two orientations of the scan diagonal to the bias. The response is analyzed for two cases: 1) the size of the scanned radiation equal to the size of the detector and 2) when the pixel width is half of the width of the detector, but of equal length. Results of the simulation show that the fastest response occurs when the scan and bias are parallel. The largest response occurs when the scan direction is diagonal to the bias, but the response time is much slower than when the bias is parallel to the scan. Therefore, a tradeoff must be made between maximum signal and speed of response. Test detectors are being fabricated and will be tested at FLIR Systems Inc., Portland, Oregon, to confirm the model predictions

Evaluating the longitudinal effect of colorectal surgery on health-related quality of life in patients with colorectal cancer.

Background and Objectives Surgery for colorectal cancer (CRC) negatively affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Addressing shortcomings in literature, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of surgery for CRC on the course of HRQoL from baseline up to 2 years after diagnosis. Methods In this prospective, population-based study patients with newly diagnosed CRC were included between 2016 and 2019. HRQoL was assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire over time both between and within subgroups of patients that underwent right-sided colonic, left-sided colonic, and rectal resection using linear mixed model analyses. Results The study included 415 patients of whom 148 patients underwent right-sided colonic (36%), 147 left-sided colonic (35%), and 120 rectal resection (29%). Overall, HRQoL scores restored to baseline level 1 year after diagnosis. Impact of surgery seems to be more prominent in patients who underwent rectal resection, as they experienced more pain and had worse role and social functioning scores 4 weeks after surgery. Finally, among patients who underwent left-sided and rectal resection, physical functioning did not return to baseline level during follow-up. Conclusion This study shows several differences (between-group and within-group) in HRQoL according to surgery type and offers perspective which patients may need additional support in the care pathway

An extension of the method of Haar for determining the asymptotic behavior of integrals of the inverse Laplace transform type

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Evalueren om te leren. Naar een evaluatiearrangement voor de vijfde nota RO

Voorwoord. Dit rapport presenteert voorstellen tot een evaluatiearrangement voor de Vijfde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening. Uitgangspunt is een arrangement te ontwikkelen dat voor alle betrokken actoren toegevoegde waarde heeft. Daarbij is enerzijds rekening gehouden met het karakter van de Vijfde Nota en het daarin vervatte sturingsmodel en anderzijds gebruik gemaakt van recente wetenschappelijke inzichten en praktijkervaringen met (nieuwe) vormen van evaluatie gericht op verantwoording, leerprocessen en andere ondersteuning van beleidsprocessen. De auteurs hopen dat met dit rapport een bijdrage levert aan het denken over en de praktijk van evaluatie van ruimtelijk beleid, op een zodanige wijze dat deze praktijken daadwerkelijk impulsen geven tot kwalitatief hoogwaardiger beleid, betere samenwerking en effectieve beleidsrealisatie. Dit rapport vormt richtinggevende input voor het organiseren van de beleidsevaluatie. De auteurs danken de leden van de begeleidingscommissie voor hun stimulerende commentaren en de mensen die we mochten interviewen voor hun inzichten en wijsheid. We hebben er dankbaar gebruik van gemaakt

Fluid management and vasopressor use during colorectal surgery: the search for the optimal balance

BackgroundAlthough it is known that excessive intraoperative fluid and vasopressor agents are detrimental for anastomotic healing, optimal anesthesiology protocols for colorectal surgery are currently lacking.ObjectiveTo scrutinize the current hemodynamic practice and vasopressor use and their relation to colorectal anastomotic leakage.DesignA secondary analysis of a previously published prospective observational study: the LekCheck study.Study settingAdult patients undergoing a colorectal resection with the creation of a primary anastomosis.Outcome measuresColorectal anastomotic leakage (CAL) within 30 days postoperatively, hospital length of stay and 30-day mortality.ResultsOf the 1548 patients, 579 (37%) received vasopressor agents during surgery. Of these, 201 were treated with solely noradrenaline, 349 were treated with phenylephrine, and 29 received ephedrine. CAL rate significantly differed between the patients receiving vasopressor agents during surgery compared to patients without (11.8% vs 6.3%, p < 0.001). CAL was significantly higher in the group receiving phenylephrine compared to noradrenaline (14.3% vs 6%, p < 0.001). Vasopressor agents were used more often in patients treated with Goal Directed Therapy (47% vs 34.6%, p < 0.001). There was a higher mortality rate in patients with vasopressors compared to the group without (2.8% vs 0.4%, p = 0.01, OR 3.8). Mortality was higher in the noradrenaline group compared to the phenylephrine and those without vasopressors (5% vs. 0.4% and 1.7%, respectively, p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, patients with intraoperative vasopressor agents had an increased risk to develop CAL (OR 2.1, CI 1.3-3.2, p = 0.001).ConclusionThe present study contributes to the evidence that intraoperative use of vasopressor agents is associated with a higher rate of CAL. This study helps to create awareness on the (necessity to) use of vasopressor agents in colorectal surgery patients in striving for successful anastomotic wound healing. Future research will be required to balance vasopressor agent dosage in view of colorectal anastomotic leakage

A Novel Compact Microwave Radiometric Sensor to Noninvasively Track Deep Tissue Thermal Profiles

Drawing from space technology to measure star temperature, we developed a noninvasive sensor to passively track thermal profiles in tissues well below the skin (\u3e5cm). Ultra-low noise amplifiers combined with ultralow-loss switches in the 1- 2GHz band produce a high sensitivity multiband microwave radiometer. Due to the complex multilayer anatomy of human head, multiple sensing bands are needed to reconstruct the temperature of deep brain tissue. This is achieved by using a digitally controlled filter bank. To study its accuracy, the sensor was calibrated and tested in a multilayer phantom model of the human head with differential scalp and brain temperatures. Results of phantom testing showed that calculated radiometric equivalent brain temperature agreed within 0.4°C of measured temperature when circulating homogenized brain phantom was lowered 10°C and returned to original temperature (37°C), while scalp was maintained constant over a 4.6-hour experiment. Feasibility of clinical monitoring was assessed in a pediatric patient during a hypothermic heart surgery. Over the 2-hour surgery, the radiometric sensor tracked within 1°C of rectal and nasopharynx temperatures, except during rapid cooldown and heatup periods when brain temperature deviated 2-4°C from slower responding core temperature surrogates. In summary, the sensor demonstrated long term stability and sensitivity sufficient for accurate monitoring of volume average brain temperatur