SRON is the Dutch national expertise institute for scientific space research and is part of NWO. It plays an important role in delivering contributions to the national and international space-research communities. Currently one of SRON’s involvements is in the X-IFU instrument for the Athena space X-ray …

This chapter introduces the concept of sustainable development and the environmental sustainability of the freight transportation sector. The focus then turns to freight transportation terminals. Freight transportation terminals are crucial links in the supply chain. Given the growing awareness of environmental …

In one-dimensional disordered wires electronic states are localized at any energy. Correlations of the states at close positive energies and the AC conductivity \sigma(\omega) in the limit of small frequency are described by the Mott-Berezinskii theory. We revisit the instanton approach to the statistics …

Laminated composites have important applications in modern aeronautical structures due to their extraordinary mechanical and environmental behaviour. Nevertheless, aircraft composite structures are highly vulnerable to impact damage, either by low-velocity sources during maintenance or high-velocity …

Tirana is the capital of Albania. A country that was completely isolated from Europe after the Second World War, as a result of the communist regime. When the communist government was dissolved in 1991, this resulted in large-scale migration. Albanians moved abroad, but also to the capital Tirana in …

When treating cancer by radiation therapy it is always the goal to irradiate the tumour as much as possible and to spare the healthy tissue around it. For this a new type of radiation therapy called Volumetric Modulated ARC Therapy (VMAT) has been developed. During VMAT treatment the radiation machine …

Design tasks in the Canal Zone abound but the opportunities are hidden in the citizens’ unspoken wishes. The urban community nowadays is complex. Problems that occur in our environment are layered and difficult to comprehend by an individual. By turning the traditional process inside out my role as an …

The third industrial revolution, triggered by Internet communication and renewable energies, can be experienced in so-called FabLabs that empower users to ‘make almost anything’. Although this does not change the need for designers to have making and prototyping skills, there is no doubt the revolution …

The Pierre Auger group is studying ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are charged particles which permanently hit and penetrate the atmosphere of the Earth. They will at a certain moment collide with nuclei in the atmosphere, like nitrogen. The results of such an interaction are new particles, …

This thesis is an analysis of the increasing impact of strong fluctuating prices of raw materials on specific investment costs of renewable and new energies technologies. It studies the interaction between the investment cost for power plants and the real material prices