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Voor het aanpassen van stedelijke gebieden aan de gevolgen van klimaatverandering wordt steeds vaker gekeken naar kansen om mee te liften met gebiedsontwikkeling. Maar op welke manier kunnen de onzekere adaptatieopgaven op de zeer lange termijn worden verbonden met korte termijn beslissingen binnen een gebiedsontwikkeling? De adaptatiepadenmethode geeft inzicht in welke maatregelen effectief zijn en wanneer er overgestapt kan of moet worden naar alternatieve oplossingen., Urbanism, Architecture and The Built Environment

Voor het aanpassen van stedelijke gebieden aan de gevolgen van klimaatverandering wordt steeds vaker gekeken naar kansen om mee te liften met gebiedsontwikkeling. Dit artikel beschrijft een methode om inzicht te krijgen in effectieve maatregelen en alternatieven.

In 2007, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) made the ambitious promise to generate mutations in virtually every protein-coding gene of the mouse genome in a concerted worldwide action. Now, 5 years later, the IKMC members have developed highthroughput gene trapping and, in particular, gene-targeting pipelines and generated more than 17,400 mutant murine embryonic stem (ES) cell clones and more than 1,700 mutant mouse strains, most of them conditional. A common IKMC web portal (www.knockoutmouse.org) has been established, allowing easy access to this unparalleled biological resource. The IKMC materials considerably enhance functional gene annotation of the mammalian genome and will have a major impact on future biomedical research.

In 2007, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) made the ambitious promise to generate mutations in virtually every protein-coding gene of the mouse genome in a concerted worldwide action. Now, 5 years later, the IKMC members have developed high-throughput gene trapping and, in particular, gene-targeting pipelines and generated more than 17,400 mutant murine embryonic stem (ES) cell clones and more than 1,700 mutant mouse strains, most of them conditional. A common IKMC web portal (www.knockoutmouse.org) has been established, allowing easy access to this unparalleled biological resource. The IKMC materials considerably enhance functional gene annotation of the mammalian genome and will have a major impact on future biomedical research.

Vitale infrastructuur omvat alle infrastructuur netwerken, die essentieel zijn voor het functioneren van de maatschappij. Concreet omvat het de volgende netwerken: elektriciteitsnetwerk, (tele)communicatienetwerk, transportnetwerk, gasnetwerk en water management netwerken. Bij het nadenken over overstromingsrisico’s is het van belang ook te kijken naar deze vitale infrastructuur., Infrastructure networks are critical assets for the continuity of vital societal functions. The term critical infrastructure is commonly associated with facilities such as the electricity grid, (tele)communication, transport, gas and water management.

BACKGROUND: In recent years there has been an increasing problem with Staphylococcus aureus strains that are resistant to treatment with existing antibiotics. An important starting point for the development of new antimicrobial drugs is the identification of "essential" genes that are important for bacterial survival and growth. RESULTS: We have developed a robust microarray and PCR-based method, Transposon-Mediated Differential Hybridisation (TMDH), that uses novel bioinformatics to identify transposon inserts in genome-wide libraries. Following a microarray-based screen, genes lacking transposon inserts are re-tested using a PCR and sequencing-based approach. We carried out a TMDH analysis of the S. aureus genome using a large random mariner transposon library of around a million mutants, and identified a total of 351 S. aureus genes important for survival and growth in culture. A comparison with the essential gene list experimentally derived for Bacillus subtilis highlighted interesting differences in both pathways and individual genes. CONCLUSION: We have determined the first comprehensive list of S. aureus essential genes. This should act as a useful starting point for the identification of potential targets for novel antimicrobial compounds. The TMDH methodology we have developed is generic and could be applied to identify essential genes in other bacterial pathogens.

Share purchase plans (SPPs) are offered exclusively to a company's registered shareholders, who may purchase up to $5,000 worth of shares in a 12-month period at a discount to the market price and without any brokerage charge. They have become one of the most frequently used mechanisms for raising publicly traded equity capital in Australia, yet little is known about them from a financial markets perspective. We address this deficiency by documenting the characteristics of Australian firms that have adopted SPPs and assessing their short-term and long-term valuation implications. We find that SPPs are more likely to be issued by firms with lower levels of liquidity and relatively large numbers of shareholders. They have a negative announcement effect, which is associated with the size of the issue, the prior share-price runup, the issue-price discount, the firm's industry, and whether there is enough time for non-shareholders to buy shares in order to participate. Long-run underperformance is also found over extended periods, consistent with much of the seasoned equity offering (SEO) literature. The SPP-issuer did not perform as badly if it was in the mining industry, if it was audited by a ‘Big-N’ firm, or if the issue was underwritten. Conversely, the greater the issue discount, the worse the issuer's long-run performance. © 2008, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.

In this chapter, we address the issue of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MS) data analysis for disease biomarker discovery. We first give a general framework of MS data analysis, then focus on several key steps. After that, we show some application examples using an ovarian sera cancer dataset. Finally, we discuss the limitations of current approaches and possible future research directions.

For the weakly coupled heterotic string (WCHS) there is a well-known factor of twenty conflict between the minimum string coupling unification scale, Lambda_H ~5x10^(17) GeV, and the projected MSSM unification scale, Lambda_U ~ 2.5x10^(16) GeV, assuming an intermediate scale desert (ISD). Renormalization effects of intermediate scale MSSM-charged exotics (ISME) (endemic to quasi-realistic string models) can resolve this issue, pushing the MSSM scale up to the string scale. However, for a generic string model, this implies that the projected Lambda_U unification under ISD is accidental. If the true unification scale is 5.0x10^(17) GeV, is it possible that illusionary unification at 2.5x10^(17) GeV in the ISD scenario is not accidental? If it is not, then under what conditions would the assumption of ISME in a WCHS model imply apparent unification at Lambda_U when ISD is falsely assumed? Geidt's "optical unification" suggests that Lambda_U is not accidental, by offering a mechanism whereby a generic MSSM scale Lambda_U < Lambda_H is guaranteed. A WCHS model was constructed that offers the possibility of optical unification, depending on the availability of anomaly-cancelling flat directions meeting certain requirements. This paper reports on the systematic investigation of the optical unification properties of the set of stringent flat directions of this model. Stringent flat directions can be guaranteed to be F-flat to all finite order (or to at least a given finite order consistent with electroweak scale supersymmetry breaking) and can be viewed as the likely roots of more general flat directions. Analysis of the phenomenology of stringent flat directions gives an indication of the remaining optical unification phenomenology that must be garnered by flat directions developed from them., Comment: standard latex, 18 pages of text

Vertebral fractures in older women signal an increased risk of additional osteoporotic fractures. To identify risk factors for first vertebral fractures, we studied 5822 women greater than or equal to65 years of age who had no fracture on baseline radiographs of the spine. Several modifiable risk factors increased an older woman's risk of developing a first vertebral fracture, and women with multiple risk factors and low BMD had the highest risk. Risk factors and low BMD should be useful to help focus efforts to prevent these fractures. Introduction: Vertebral fractures are a common cause of back pain and disability and signal an increased risk of additional osteoporotic fractures in older women. Little is known about the risk factors for the first occurrence of a vertebral fracture. Materials and Methods: To identify risk factors for a first vertebral fracture, we studied 5822 women greater than or equal to65 years of age from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures who had no fracture on baseline radiographs of the spine. We measured potential risk factors and BMD of the wrist and calcaneus at baseline and BMD of the spine and hip halfway through follow-up. Fractures were assessed by standard methods from spine radiographs obtained at baseline and follow-up an average of 3.7 years later. Results and Conclusions: In multivariable analyses, older age, previous nonspine fracture, low BMD at all sites, a low body mass index (BMI), current smoking, low milk consumption during pregnancy, low levels of daily physical activity, having a fall, and regular use of aluminum-containing antacids independently increased the risk of a first vertebral fracture. Women using estrogen and those who engaged in recreational physical activity had a decreased risk. The effects of low BMI, smoking, use of estrogen and antacids, and previous fracture were partially mediated by BMD. Women in the lower third of wrist BMD with five or more risk factors had a 12-fold greater risk than women in the