Autonomous robots require high degrees of cognitive and motoric intelligence to come into our everyday life. In non-structured environments and in the presence of uncertainties, such degrees of intelligence are not easy to obtain. Reinforcement learning algorithms have proven to be capable of solving …

Sand nourishments have been executed throughout the coastline of Walcheren for decades with the goal of improving coastal safety, widening beaches for recreation and reducing the impact of coastal erosion on dune habitats and the landscape. While the coastal engineering benefits of sand nourishments …

The following research justification report shows to which extent adding HemCell prebiotics to the current product line is financially feasible. Before coming up with a calculation model, some more background research needed to be done. Four information gaps were identified on which this research is …

Background/Objectives: Homecare staff often take over activities instead of “doing activities with” clients, thereby hampering clients from remaining active in daily life. Training and supporting staff to integrate reablement into their working practices may reduce clients' sedentary behavior and improve …

By 2050, the world population will have increased to 9 billion (Bongaarts, 2009). This increase will lead to significant growth in waste. Construction is one of the largest raw material users (Bribian et al., 2011), and this sector consumes about 40% of the energy-related CO2 emissions (Dean et al., …

Application of animal manure to soils results in the introduction of manure-derived bacteria and their antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) into soils. ResCap is a novel targeted-metagenomic approach that allows the detection of minority components of the resistome gene pool without the cost-prohibitive …

During the 2015 Gorkha earthquake of 7.8 Mw that hit Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, numerous Nepalese Pagodas suffered extensive damage while others collapsed. Risk reduction strategies implemented in the region focused on disassembling historical structures and rebuilding them with modern material without …

Currently, the amount of post-consumer textile waste is growing. Unfortunately, the European recycling infrastructure is lacking, preventing efficient recycling operations. It is still difficult to set up production lines of high-quality products with shredded textile waste fibres, yet the demand for …

Renewable energy systems are a crucial technological development needed to combat climate change. This thesis covers the design and implementation of a mathematical optimization model, which calculates the lowest cost of hydrogen for certain renewable energy system configurations. The output of the model …

BACKGROUND: Neck and shoulder complaints are common in primary care physiotherapy. These patients experience pain and disability, resulting in high societal costs due to, for example, healthcare use and work absence. Content and intensity of physiotherapy care can be matched to a patient's risk of persistent …