I was somewhat surprized with the fog in Groningen upon my arrival. This is notthe fog that covers the beautiful landscapes of the northern Netherlands in theevening and in the early morning. No… It is the fog that obscures the real aspectsof the earthquake problem in the region and is crystallised in the phrase “Groningen earthquakes are different”, which I have encountered numerous times whenever I raised a question of the type “But why..?”. A sentence taken out of the quiver as the absolute technical argument which mysteriously overshadows the whole earthquake discussion.Q: Why do we not use Eurocode 8 for seismic design, instead of NPR?A: Because the Groningen earthquakes are different!Q: Why do we not monitor our structures like the rest of the world does?A: Because the Groningen earthquakes are different!Q: Why does NPR, the Dutch seismic guidelines, dictate some unusual rules?A: Because the Groningen earthquakes are different!Q: Why are the hazard levels incredibly high, even higher than most Europeanseismic countries?A: Because the Groningen earthquakes are different!and so it keeps going…This statement is very common, but on the contrary, I have not seen a single piece of research that proves it or even discusses it. In essence, it would be a difficult task to prove that the Groningen earthquakes are different. In any case it barricades a healthy technical discussion because most of the times the arguments converge to one single statement, independent of the content of the discussion. This is the reason why our first research activities were dedicated to study if the Groningen earthquakes are really different. Up until today, we have not found any major differences between the Groningen induced seismicity events and natural seismic events with similar conditions (magnitude, distance, depth, soil etc…) that would affect the structures significantly in a different way.Since my arrival in Groningen, I have been amazed to learn how differently theearthquake issue has been treated in this part of the world. There will always bedifferences among different cultures, that is understandable. I have been exposed to several earthquake engineers from different countries, and I can expect a natural variation in opinions, approaches and definitions. But the feeling in Groningen is different. I soon realized that, due to several factors, a parallel path, which I call “an augmented reality” below, was created. What I mean by an augmented reality is a view of the real-world, whose elements are augmented and modified. In our example, I refer to the engineering concepts used for solving the earthquake problem, but in an augmented and modified way. This augmented reality is covered in the fog I described above. The whole thing is made so complicated that one is often tempted to rewind the tape to the hot August days of 2012, right after the Huizinge Earthquake, and replay it to today but this time by making the correct steps. We would wake up to a different Groningen today. I was instructed to keep the text as well as the inauguration speech as simple aspossible, and preferably, as non-technical as it goes. I thus listed the most common myths and fallacies I have faced since I arrived in Groningen. In this book and in the presentation, I may seem to take a critical view. This is because I try to tell a different part of the story, without repeating things that have already been said several times before. I think this is the very reason why my research group would like to make an effort in helping to solve the problem by providing different views. This book is one of such efforts.The quote given at the beginning of this book reads “How quick are we to learn: that is, to imitate what others have done or thought before. And how slow are we to understand: that is, to see the deeper connections.” is from Frits Zernike, the Nobel winning professor from the University of Groningen, who gave his name to the campus I work at. Applying this quotation to our problem would mean that we should learn from the seismic countries by imitating them, by using the existing state-of-the-art earthquake engineering knowledge, and by forgetting the dogma of “the Groningen earthquakes are different” at least for a while. We should then pass to the next level of looking deeperinto the Groningen earthquake problem for a better understanding, and alsodiscover the potential differences.
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De italiaanse historicus Gribaudi heeft enkele generaties arbeiders in Turijn in de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw onderzocht. Hij analyseert onder andere de herkomst (terug tot het platteland) en verdere ontwikkeling van 48 families die in 1936 een huis bewonen in de arbeidersbuurt Madonna de Campagna de herkomst (terug tot het platteland). De straks te presenteren inventaris van het Sphinxarchief biedt vast en zeker mogelijkheden een soortgelijke studie te ondernemen naar de cité ouvrière van Regout in de St.Antoniusstraat om op die wijze een nieuw hoofdstuk te schrijven in de geschiedenis van haat en liefde tussen de Regouts, de Sphinx en het Boschstraatkwartier-Oost.
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The Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) is an instrument to screen, assess and monitor malnutrition and risk factors, and to triage for interventions. After having translated and culturally adapted the original PG-SGA for the Italian setting, according to International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Principles, we tested linguistic validity, i.e., perceived comprehensibility and difficulty, and content validity (relevance) of the Italian version of the PG-SGA in patients with cancer and a multidisciplinary sample of healthcare professionals (HCPs). Methods: After the translation and cultural adaptation of the original PG-SGA for the Italian setting, the patient component (i.e., PG-SGA Short Form (SF) was tested for linguistic validity (i.e., comprehensibility ad difficulty) in 120 Italian patients with cancer and 81 Italian HCPs. The full PG-SGA, i.e., patient and professional component of the PG-SGA, was tested for content validity, i.e., relevance, in 81 Italian HCPs. The data were collected by a questionnaire and evaluations were operationalized by a 4-point scale. Through item and scale indices we evaluated the comprehensibility (I–CI, S–CI), difficulty (I-DI, S-DI) and content validity (I-CVI, S-CVI). Scale indices 0.80–0.89 were considered acceptable, and scale indices ≥0.90 were considered excellent. Results: Patients perceived comprehensibility and difficulty of the PG-SGA SF (Boxes) as excellent (S–CI = 0.98, S-DI = 0.96). Professionals perceived comprehensibility of the professional component (Worksheets) as excellent (S–CI = 0.92), difficulty as acceptable (S-DI = 0.85), and content validity of the full PG-SGA as excellent (S-CVI = 0.92). Dietitians gave higher scores (indicating better scores) on comprehensibility, difficulty, and content validity of Worksheet 4 (physical exam) than the other professions. In Worksheet 4, four items were considered most difficult to complete and were considered below acceptable range. Relevance was perceived as excellent by professionals for both the patient component (S-CVI = 0.93) and the professional component (S-CVI = 0.90), resulting in S-CVI = 0.92 for the full PG-SGA. Slight textual modifications were implemented resulting in the final version of the Italian PG-SGA. Conclusions: Translation and cultural adaptation of the original PG-SGA resulted in the Italian version of the PG-SGA that maintained its original purpose and meaning and can be completed adequately and easily by patients and professionals. The Italian PG-SGA is considered relevant for screening, assessing and monitoring malnutrition and risk factors, as well as triaging for interventions by Italian HCPs.
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Kwaliteitstrajecten worden vaak beschreven in de termen waarmee Nicolaas Beets eind negentiende eeuw vertelde over een rit met de postkoets. Hij duurt lang, is zwaar en het gaat er soms heet aan toe.
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De afgelopen tijd zat ik al in zelf-verkozen afzondering. Ik wilde beter doorgronden hoe gedachten over veiligheid en onveiligheid zich door de samenleving verspreiden. Onze normale, lineaire manier van denken schiet hier namelijk tekort; om verder te komen hebben we complexiteitsdenken nodig. Dus legde ik mij de afgelopen tijd toe op het integreren van de studie van veiligheidsbeleving met complexity science. Door die bril ga je de samenleving zien als een complex adaptive system, met mechanismen en patronen die pas opvallen als je het lineaire denken loslaat. Met vooral ook de combinatorial explosion van interacties tussen de verschillende ‘agenten’ in dat systeem (mensen, organisaties) die verklaart hoe gedachten over (on)veiligheid zich veel sneller verspreiden dan we vanuit ons lineaire denken gewend zijn. Niet toevallig noemen we dat in het dagelijkse spraakgebruik het ‘viraal’ gaan van informatie: het gaat om exact hetzelfde patroon als waarmee virussen zich verspreiden. Complexiteitsdenken laat zien dat dat harder en onverbiddelijker gaat dan we geneigd zijn te denken. Dat is het eerste punt dat ons tot voorzichtigheid moet manen.
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De docenten zijn de pilot gestart met de vraag: We willen iets met taal in het nieuwe leren, maar we weten niet wat en hoe. Boven de waterlijn is de taalvaardigheid van de studenten zichtbaar. Maar onder de waterlijn, dus niet direct waarneembaar, zijn andere factoren aan het werk die van grote invloed zijn op het leerproces en de ontwikkeling van studenten. Aandacht voor taalverwerving prikkelt docenten na te denken over hun rol in het leerproces van studenten. Wellicht een kijkje onder water?
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