The necessity for humans inhabiting the 21st century to slow down and take time to carry out daily practices frames the discourse of this research note. We suggest reconceptualising tourist wellbeing through the concept of slow adventure, as a response to the cult of speed and as a vehicle for engaging in deep, immersive and more meaningful experiences during journeys in the outdoors. We suggest that slow adventure has the potential to improve people’s general health and wellbeing through mindful enjoyment and consumption of the outdoor experience and thus bring people back to a state of mental and physical equilibrium. In so doing, we argue that extending the concept to include discussions around the psychological and social aspects of slow adventure is needed.
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The 2014 EU Directive on Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) lays down obligations for the EU Member States to establish a maritime planning process, resulting in a maritime spatial plan by 2020. Consultation should be carried out with local, national and transnational stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement in MSP is complex because of the great number and diversity of maritime stakeholders and the unfamiliarity of some of these stakeholders with MSP and its potential impact. To facilitate stakeholder engagement in MSP, the 'MSP Challenge' table top strategy game was designed and played as part of several stakeholder events in different European countries. The authors study the efficacy of the game for stakeholder engagement. Background and evaluation data of nineteen game sessions with a total of 310 stakeholders with different backgrounds were collected through post-game surveys. Furthermore, the efficacy of the game for stakeholder engagement processes, organised by competent MSP authorities in Scotland and Belgium, is studied in more detail. The results show that the board game, overall, has been a very efficient and effective way of familiarising a great diversity of stakeholders with MSP and to create meaningful interaction and learning among stakeholders in formal planning processes. However, the case studies also show that contextual factors-the level of familiarity with MSP and participants' perception to sustainability-influences the efficacy of the game.
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Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a fast and reliable method for the identification of bacteria from agar media. Direct identification from positive blood cultures should decrease the time to obtaining the result. In this study, three different processing methods for the rapid direct identification of bacteria from positive blood culture bottles were compared. In total, 101 positive aerobe BacT/ALERT bottles were included in this study. Aliquots from all bottles were used for three bacterial processing methods, i.e. the commercially available Bruker's MALDI Sepsityper kit, the commercially available Molzym's MolYsis Basic5 kit and a centrifugation/washing method. In addition, the best method was used to evaluate the possibility of MALDI application after a reduced incubation time of 7 h of Staphylococcus aureus- and Escherichia coli-spiked (1,000, 100 and 10 colony-forming units [CFU]) aerobe BacT/ALERT blood cultures. Sixty-six (65%), 51 (50.5%) and 79 (78%) bottles were identified correctly at the species level when the centrifugation/washing method, MolYsis Basic 5 and Sepsityper were used, respectively. Incorrect identification was obtained in 35 (35%), 50 (49.5%) and 22 (22%) bottles, respectively. Gram-positive cocci were correctly identified in 33/52 (64%) of the cases. However, Gram-negative rods showed a correct identification in 45/47 (96%) of all bottles when the Sepsityper kit was used. Seven hours of pre-incubation of S. aureus- and E. coli-spiked aerobe BacT/ALERT blood cultures never resulted in reliable identification with MALDI-TOF MS. Sepsityper is superior for the direct identification of microorganisms from aerobe BacT/ALERT bottles. Gram-negative pathogens show better results compared to Gram-positive bacteria. Reduced incubation followed by MALDI-TOF MS did not result in faster reliable identification.
Routine neuropathology diagnostic methods are limited to histological staining techniques or directed PCR for pathogen detection and microbial cultures of brain abscesses are negative in one-third of the cases. Fortunately, due to improvements in technology, metagenomic sequencing of a conserved bacterial gene could provide an alternative diagnostic method. For histopathological work up, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue with highly degraded nucleic acids is the only material being available. Innovative amplicon-specific next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has the capability to identify pathogens based on the degraded DNA within a few hours. This approach significantly accelerates diagnostics and is particularly valuable to identify challenging pathogens. This ensures optimal treatment for the patient, minimizing unnecessary health damage. Within this project, highly conserved primers in a universal PCR will be used, followed by determining the nucleotide sequence. Based on the obtained data, it is then precisely determined which microorganism(s) is/are responsible for the infection, even in cases of co-infection with multiple pathogens. This project will focus to answer the following research question; how can a new form of rapid molecular diagnostics contribute to the identification of microbial pathogens in CNS infections? The SME partner Molecular Biology Systems B.V. (MBS) develops and sells equipment for extremely rapid execution of the commonly used PCR. In this project, the lectorate Analysis Techniques in the Life Sciences (Avans) will, in collaboration with MBS, Westerdijk Institute (WI-KNAW) and the Institute of Neuropathology (Münster, DE) establish a new molecular approach for fast diagnosis within CNS infections using this MBS technology. This enables the monitoring of infectious diseases in a fast and user-friendly manner, resulting in an improved treatment plan.
