Recent research has indicated an increase in the likelihood and impact of tree failure. The potential for trees to fail relates to various biomechanical and physical factors. Strikingly, there seems to be an absence of tree risk assessment methods supported by observations, despite an increasing availability of variables and parameters measured by scientists, arborists and practitioners. Current urban tree risk assessments vary due to differences in experience, training, and personal opinions of assessors. This stresses the need for a more objective method to assess the hazardousness of urban trees. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of factors that influence tree failure including stem failure, root failure and branch failure. A systematic literature review according to the PRISMA guidelines has been performed in databases, supported by backward referencing: 161 articles were reviewed revealing 142 different factors which influenced tree failure. A meta-analysis of effect sizes and p-values was executed on those factors which were associated directly with any type of tree failure. Bayes Factor was calculated to assess the likelihood that the selected factors appear in case of tree failure. Publication bias was analysed visually by funnel plots and results by regression tests. The results provide evidence that the factors Height and Stem weight positively relate to stem failure, followed by Age, DBH, DBH squared times H, and Cubed DBH (DBH3) and Tree weight. Stem weight and Tree weight were found to relate positively to root failure. For branch failure no relating factors were found. We recommend that arborists collect further data on these factors. From this review it can further be concluded that there is no commonly shared understanding, model or function available that considers all factors which can explain the different types of tree failure. This complicates risk estimations that include the failure potential of urban trees.
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The environment of the(Dutch) building industry is increasingly turbulent. There are many cges for the building industry. Innovative tendering, better marketing, openness and transparency are examples of this. A strong reduction in failure costs (estimated at between 10 and 25% of the total costs) and an increase in quality are also necessary. Lastly, the declining inflow of young people has to be mentioned. The image of the building industry is not particularly good and students prefer to choose other industries. The building industry therefore has to change and, so far, everyone agrees. Evidently both the building industry and its environment are very keen to change; the sincere will is there, and money and energy are available, but it seems that efforts are not proceeding in a very planned or coordinated manner at present. And this is causing fragmentation and, therefore, sub optimisation. How does sectoral change proceed and how is this process to be managed? That is the central question in this paper.
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Adopted on the fifteenth anniversary of resolution 1325, Security Council resolution 2242 has recognized for the first time the substantial link between climate change and the “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS) framework. Despite this landmark resolution, the intersections of environmental factors, conflict and violence against women remain largely absent from the Security Council's WPS agenda. Competition over natural resources is generally understood as a driver of conflict. The risk of insecurity and conflict are further increased by environmental degradation and climate change. It is therefore clear that the environment and natural resources must be integrated into the WPS agenda. This should necessarily include a discussion of indigenous rights to land and the gender-related dimensions of environmental factors. Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, caused by resource extraction and increasingly compounded by climatic changes. This in turn exacerbates other vulnerabilities, including sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of marginalization. This article argues, by reference to the situation in West Papua, that unfettered resource extraction not only amplifies vulnerabilities and exacerbates preexisting inequalities stemming from colonial times, it also gives rise to gendered consequences flowing from the damage wreaked on the natural environment and thus poses a danger to international peace and security. As such, the Security Council's failure to recognize the continuous struggle of women in indigenous and rural communities against extractive economies and climate change impact as a security risk forms a serious lacuna within its WPS agenda. Originally published by Oxford University Press in Global Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 3, September 2021, ksab018, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksab018
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Does policy analysis exist outside the United States, or are the arts and crafts of policy analysis across the Atlantic a weakened and disoriented branch of the real thing, as the citations above seem to suggest? If policy analysis exists outside the United States-and from our point of interest in the Netherlands in particular-did it come about through a mere transplantation of theories, institutions, and methods originally developed in the United States; or has policy analysis outside the United States an autonomous value, contribution, and evolution? The different contributions and evolutions of policy analysis for instance appear in the various and changing connotations of the word “policy analysis” in national languages. In the Netherlands, for instance, the notion beleidsanalyse-the literal translation of policy analysis-is an ambiguous and somewhat problematic concept. It was fi rst introduced in the early 1970s as a deliberate and programmatic effort to rationalize public policy making in all public policy domains. During the early 1980s, the notion attracted a rather negative connotation, due to the failure of a governmental program by that name, the so-called committee for the development of policy analysis (COBA; de Commissie voor de Ontwikkeling van BeleidsAnalyse). Many now prefer to use equivalents such as applied policy research or research based advice instead. But as I shall demonstrate in this paper, the notion beleidsanalyse is making a remarkable comeback since the turn of the century while it is being used for fi nancial and performance accountability in the public sector. Thus, starting from the observation that different countries show different connotations and evolutions of policy analysis, I will analyze in this paper the evolution of policy analysis in the Netherlands on the basis of the following questions: What are the main characteristics (features) of policy analysis in the Netherlands? What changes, if any, have occurred in policy analysis in the Netherlands since the Second World War and what triggered these changes?
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Our current smart society, where problems and frictions are smoothed out with smart, often invisible technology like AI and smart sensors, calls for designers who unravel and open the smart fabric. Societies are not malleable, and moreover, a smooth society without rough edges is neither desirable nor livable. In this paper we argue for designing friction to enhance a more nuanced debate of smart cities in which conflicting values are better expressed. Based on our experiences with the Moral Design Game, an adversarial design activity, we came to understand the value of creating tangible vessels to highlight conflict and dipartite feelings surrounding smart cities.
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Since the film of Al Gore An inconvenient truth, sustainability stands high on the national agenda of most countries. Concern for the environment is one of the main reasons in combination with opportunities to innovate. In general, innovation and entrepreneurship are important in the realm of national economies because they hold the key to the continuity and growth of companies (e.g. Hage, 1999; Cooper, 1987; Van de Ven, 2007) and economic growth within a country. It is therefore obvious that national governments are investing money to enable and improve innovation management and entrepreneurial behaviour within organizations with sustainability in mind. Policy measures are aimed at reduction of carbon dioxide emission, waste management and alternative use of energy sources and materials. In line with these measures companies are urged to integrate sustainability in their business processes and search for innovative sustainable solutions. While on a national level policy measures towards a more sustainable society are defined, enterprises - and especially small and medium sized companies - lag behind and fail in incorporating these measures appropriately in their day-to day business. As a result research for sustainability has become an important driver for innovation. Within the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CI&E) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences we have taken the initiative to develop an innovation and research program for the construction industry to help small and medium sized companies (SME's) integrate sustainability in their business processes, while simultaneously professionalizing students and lecturers. This paper is part of ongoing research among 40 companies in the region of South-Holland. The companies are mostly SME's varying from very small (6 employees) to middle-sized (more than 100). According to Rennings (2000) while innovation processes toward sustainable development have received increasing attention during the past years, theoretical and methodological approaches to analyse these processes are poorly developed. This paper describes a theoretical approach developed at our university's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which combines education and research. It is an inductive approach that departs from real-life problems encountered by companies, and is aimed at developing a model that supports companies in integrating sustainability in their business and innovation processes. We describe the experiences so far with a number of companies in the construction industry, which participate in the innovation and research program described above and the barriers they encounter. Our sustainable program is centred on four themes: cradle-to-cradle, social corporate responsibility, climateneutral construction and sustainability and customer orientation in the building process. It is an exploratory research in which students and undergraduates are involved under the supervision of a lecturer as senior researcher of this program. Through an in-depth analysis of the companies, participant observation and indepth interviews with the owners/directors of the companies, experts and prominent sustainable trendsetters, insight is gained in innovation processes towards sustainable development. Preliminary conclusions show that on a company level one of the main bottlenecks is the dilemma posed by the need for profit for the continuity of a company, while taking into account people and planet. The main bottleneck is however the inability of companies to translate policy measures into strategy and operations. This paper is set up as follows. In section 2 we give an account of European and Dutch policy measures geared at stimulating sustainability in a business context and especially the building and construction industry. In section 3 an overview is given of the economic importance and characteristics of the Dutch building and construction industry and the problems in this sector. These problems are offset against the opportunity of sustainability as a strategic option for SME's in this sector. In section 4 the innovation and research program developed at the CI&E is introduced in the context of the main research question. Following that in section 5, methodological choices are addressed and the research design is presented. We finalize this paper in section 6 with our conclusions and recommendations for further research.
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Het doel van dit onderzoek is te onderzoeken onder welke omstandigheden en onder welke condities relatief moderne modelleringstechnieken zoals support vector machines, neural networks en random forests voordelen zouden kunnen hebben in medisch-wetenschappelijk onderzoek en in de medische praktijk in vergelijking met meer traditionele modelleringstechnieken, zoals lineaire regressie, logistische regressie en Cox regressie.
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Author supplied: A manufacturing process can be described by a sequence or combination of production steps. Based on this approach a manufacturing system has been developed that is capable to produce several different products in parallel. A batch size of one unit is possible and the production is pull-driven. The manufacturing system is based on agent technology and a special so-called product agent collects information about the assembly process. This agent will be connected to the actual product and can guide the disassembly process at the end of the products life. The agent will show the inverse steps to be taken to take a product apart. This approach can be used in the agent based manufacturing process described in this paper but the concept can also be used for other manufacturing systems. The paper discusses the possibilities as well as the restrictions of the method proposed here.
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Het belang van innovatie voor economische groei en het scheppen van werkgelegenheid in het MKB wordt erkend door zowel academici als politici. Er worden daarom programma’s ontwikkeld om innovatie te stimuleren. Met deze maatregelen ontstaat de vraag te bepalen of deze initiatieven succesvol zijn en zo ja, in welke mate. In de literatuur hebben we geen indicator gevonden die ons in staat stelt de mate van innovativiteit van MKB bedrijven te bepalen voor een dergelijke interventie en daarna. De hoofdvraag van ons onderzoek was dan ook: hoe kunnen we het effect van een interventie voor het bevorderen van de innovatiekracht van MKB-bedrijven meten? Kijkend naar de definities van innovatie zoals die zijn verzameld door King & Anderson (2002) hebben we vastgesteld dat een bedrijf innovatief genoemd mag worden als het met opzeten succesvol nieuwe ideeën implementeert. Succesvol wil in dit verband zeggen: het draagt bij aan de winst en dus aan de continuïteit van het desbetreffende MKB-bedrijf. Door de verschillende (bewuste) innovaties te identificeren samen met de ondernemer en te berekenen wat de winstgevendheid is geweest van de innovaties, kunnen we de ’innovatiewinst’ van de ondernemer berekenen. Dit bedrag delen door de omzet creëert een indicator waarmee de innovativiteit van de organisatie door de tijd gemeten kan worden. Wij stellen daarom de volgende definitie van innovatiekracht voor: KIKR = [ [Winst Innovatie1+Winst Innovatie2+ ... +Winst Innovatie5] / Omzet] x 100. De ratio kan alleen met voldoende betrouwbaarheid bepaald worden door een gestructureerd interview met de directeur/ eigenaar van de het bedrijf door een gekwalificeerde gesprekspartner. De auteurs realiseren zich dat dit gesprek op zichzelf misschien een interventie is, omdat de ervaring leert dat het innovatiebewustzijn van de ondernemer er door toeneemt. Om te bepalen of dit daadwerkelijk zo is, en om te testen of de KIKR inderdaad als bruikbare maat voor innovatiekracht kan worden gebruikt is vervolgonderzoek noodzakelijk. Desalniettemin zijn de auteurs van mening dat met de KIKR de innovatiekracht van bedrijven door de tijd heen gemeten kan worden en daarmee een bruikbaar instrument is om het effect te bepalen van interventies die innovatiekracht moeten vergroten. The importance of innovation as an engine for economic growth and the creation of employment opportunities is acknowledged by both academia and politicians. This makes the need for good innovation measures crucial. In the third edition of the Oslo Manual (2005), a need for proper indicators to capture the changes in the nature and landscape of innovation is voiced. According to the manual, a considerable body of models and analytical frameworks for innovation were developed in the 1980s and 1990s. Over time, the scope of what is considered as innovation has been widened and expanded to include marketing and organizational innovation. In this paper, we focus on innovative performance as a measure of success. This is part of ongoing research in the Netherlands in The Hague region. This research is framed within an approach based on action research. We have worked with 45 SMEs in four sectors. This has formed the basis for the conceptual development of innovative performance as a new metric for the measurement of a successful innovation. In this paper, we review our findings thus far and explore the validity of innovative performance as an appropriate indicator for measuring innovation within SMEs.
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Lichamelijke zwakte is een belangrijk onderdeel van kwetsbaarheid en komt veel voor bij oudere volwassenen. Terwijl vrouwen een hogere prevalentie en een eerder begin van kwetsbaarheid kennen zijn sekseverschillen in de ontwikkeling van lichamelijke zwakte nauwelijks bestudeerd. Daarom hebben we in spieren de veranderingen onderzocht die onderscheid maken tussen fitte en zwakke ouderen voor elk geslacht afzonderlijk. Mannen (n = 28) en vrouwen (n = 26) van 75 jaar en ouder werden gegroepeerd op basis van hun fysieke prestatiecriteria. Er werd gebruik gemaakt van spierbiopten genomen uit de vastus lateralis-spier voor genexpressie- en histologisch onderzoek. Er werden paarsgewijze vergelijkingen gemaakt tussen de sterkste en de zwakste groepen voor elk geslacht afzonderlijk, en potentiële geslachts-specifieke effecten werden beoordeeld. Zwakke vrouwen toonden een hogere expressie van ontstekingsroutes, infiltratie van NOX2-immuuncellen, samen met een hogere VCAM1-expressie. Zwakke mannen werden gekenmerkt door een kleinere diameter van type 2 (snelle) spiervezels en lagere expressie van PRKN. Zwakte-geassocieerde genexpressie-veranderingen in de spieren waren verschillend van veroudering-geassocieerde genexpressie-veranderingen, wat erop wijst dat de pathofysiologie van fysieke zwakte niet noodzakelijkerwijs afhankelijk is van veroudering. We concluderen dat zwakte-geassocieerde veranderingen in de spieren sekse-specifiek zijn. Aanbevolen wordt om bij onderzoek naar kwetsbaarheid rekening te houden met sekseverschillen, omdat deze verschillen een grote impact kunnen hebben over de ontwikkeling van (farmaceutische) interventies tegen kwetsbaarheid.
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