Decisions about disaster preparedness are rarely informed by cost-benefit analyses. This paper presents an economic model to address the thorny question, 'how prepared is prepared enough?' Difficulties related to the use of cost-benefit analysis in the field of disaster management concern the tension between the large number of high-probability events that can be handled by a single emergency resp

This research note presents the major findings of the evaluation of a major power outage in the Netherlands in December 2007 concerning citizen preparation and response. Particular attention is paid to people's perception of the event and its handling.

Preparedness is the key to provide an effective response to drowning, whether it is a single person at risk of drowning through unplanned entry into water or a larger number through a disaster such as flooding. Preparedness is achieved by training and exercise. There is increased awareness that water search and rescue response needs to become more effective as worldwide flood risks grow [1]. Teams

1. Opioid- and FMRFamide (FMRFa)-ergic systems are believed to play antagonistic behavioral roles in both higher and lower animals. In our previous experiments on a snail, behavioral choice has been demonstrated to be dependent on a balance between FMRFa and enkephalins [7]. Here, we examined if the disturbance of the balance causes changes in the activity of both systems. Opiate receptor blocker

Three types of tegumental glands of Hutchinsoniella macracantha body, limb, and caudal, are described for the first time. Previously described salivary and cement glands also belong to this category. All have the same fundamental construction. They consist of 1 or 2 secretory cells opening into a short cuticular channel ending in a pore. The channel is Formed by a sheath or canal cell and an inter

Hutchinsoniella macracantha is a simultaneous hermaphrodite. The small, paired ovaries are cephalic. From each, a long oviduct runs posteriorly to the eighteenth trunk segment, where it loops forward and runs toward the sixth trunk segment. The paired, sausage-shaped testes are dorsal to the midgut in the anterior end of the abdomen. A vas deferens runs down from the anterior end of each testis to

Immunocytochemical techniques for double staining were employed to investigate the morphological basis for interactions between enkephalins and other neuroactive compounds in the behavior of the gastropod mollusc Cepaea nemoralis. Coexistence of each of the two enkephalins with FMRFamide, serotonin or GABA-like immunoreactivity was found in certain neurons in cerebral, parietal, and pedal ganglia.

.1. In hot plate experiments, the pulmonate land snail Cepaea nemoralis displays a biphasic passive/active avoidance behaviour composed of retraction and subsequent searching mediated by antagonistic muscular systems. The switch, between the behaviours, is under neuronal control.2.2. Leu- and met-enkephalin, as well as FMRFamide-antiserum, attenuated the retraction response and potentiated the sea

All thoracic limbs of Hutchinsoniella except for the ninth contain entirely of podocytes. At the periphery of the gland, each podocyte with the investing basal lamina; centrally, there is no conspicuous podocytes, either in compact glands or in a more diffuse arrangement, decapods, mysids, and isopods, and perhaps occur in other crustaceans known to filter hemolymph and to pinocytotically extract

A new Swedish construction classification system, CoClass, is now under development. CoClass has presented two alternative classifications for review, both based on the standard for construction classification ISO 12006-2:2015. One alternative also applies the IEC CD 81346-series for reference designations which includes classification tables for systems and components with function as the basis f

Environmental health studies have examined associations between context and health with individuals as statistical units. However, investigators have been unable to investigate momentary exposures, and such studies are often vulnerable to confounding from, for example, individual-level preferences. We present a Global Positioning System (GPS)-based methodology for segmenting individuals' observati

Smallholder-dominated agricultural mosaic landscapes are highlighted as model production systems that deliver both economic and ecological goods in tropical agricultural landscapes, but trade-offs underlying current land-use dynamics are poorly known. Here, using the most comprehensive quantification of land-use change and associated bundles of ecosystem functions, services and economic benefits t

For a cell to move forward it must convert chemical energy into mechanical propulsion. Force produced by actin polymerization can generate traction across the plasma membrane by transmission through integrins to their ligands. However, the role this force plays in integrin activation is unknown. Here we show that integrin activity and cytoskeletal dynamics are reciprocally linked, where actin-depe

In many social contexts, social influence seems to be inescapable: the behavior of others influences us to modify ours, and vice-versa. However, social psychology is full of examples of phenomena where individuals experience a discrepancy between their public behavior and their private opinion. This raises two central questions. First, how does an individual reason about the behavior of others and

The rising prevalences of type 2 diabetes and obesity constitute major threats to human health globally. Powerful social and economic factors influence the distribution of these diseases among and within populations. These factors act on a substrate of individual predisposition derived from the composite effects of inherited DNA variation and a range of environmental exposures experienced througho

Recent advances in cell sorting aim at the development of novel methods that are sensitive to various mechanical properties of cells. Microfluidic technologies have a great potential for cell sorting; however, the design of many micro-devices is based on theories developed for rigid spherical particles with size as a separation parameter. Clearly, most bioparticles are non-spherical and deformable

Underthrusting of Laurentia by the continental margin of Baltica during Caledonian orogeny resulted in the lateral emplacement of Iapetus Ocean-related terranes of the Upper Allochthon at least 500 km onto Baltica. The underlying Lower and Middle allochthons of the Baltoscandian margin mostly comprise Cryogenian, Ediacaran and Cambro-Silurian sedimentary successions; basement to these formations a

Allotwinning, the ordered intergrowth of two different structures may often be seen as a special case of OD-structures. The same structural ambiguity that allows for locally identical but globally different components of an allotwin may also allow the formation of an OD structure. When this is the case, the components of the allotwin often correspond to the MDO-structures of OD theory. Starting fr

The importance of the subchondral bone plate of the acetabulum when preparing the pelvis for a cemented acetabular cup during total hip arthroplasty (THA) has been investigated using finite element analysis. The effect of retaining or removing the subchondral bone plate and the use of anchoring holes are compared. Loading was applied via both hip joint contact force and the activity of up to 22 mu