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This project is a discourse analysis of the local and metropolitan area, at the edge of the city, Amsterdam. It questions the forces which had the impact on its metro and local structures up until now, and tries to design a production masterplan (Land-Skap) as an invert fact of undesirable forces over new developments. The goal is to to improve the life of the local population of North Amsterdam.

The project focuses on how to combine the current corridor development and the cultural & historic assets by means of the public space network, in order to counteract the fragmentation at the local level and meanwhile benefit the local inhabitants of western fringe of Xi’an City, supplementing the governmental city model.

That less unsustainability is not equal to more sustainability is something that is not being recognized in many current strategies said to be dealing with the twin crisis of climate change and/ or resource scarcity. If sustainability is defined as a community taking care of it’s own needs and flourishing in ways important to it, that means that the community needs to learn to function independently. But what if the inhabitants of that community has no ‘we’ feeling, let alone a ‘why’ to act sustainable? This was the issue that was adressed for Deltawind int his project: a wind energy cooperation in the Dutch island of Goeree-Overflakkee. The companies’ interest was in exploring how the behavior of the islands inhabitants could be changed so that it would become a more sustainable island. Interviews, an online questionnaire and a contextmapping study were conducted. Inspired by other online developments the concept developed into an online platform for a do-good-community, both uniting and empowering the island inhabitants. The community has 4 monthly reoccuring themes: energy & environment, health, knowledge & culture and society. The concept creates a synergy between awareness, inspiration and the ability to act alone & together. Where sustainability is normally blocked out by other more pressing concerns, it is now connected to ‘caring’ and ‘doing good’ and putting it in a local context. By appealing to the strong emotional connection island inhabitants feel with their island and using the rich volunteer- & club life to battle the negative attitude that seems to inhibit cooperation. Barriers are taken down, a ‘buzz’ of positivity is created, inhabitants are reconnected to each other and possibilities are opened up. Inspiration: a pass-it-on-compliment makes visible how many people are doing good and taking care of each other. With 10 of these thank-compliments circulating around the island, the complex social structure becomes visible, showing that there actually are no ‘divisions.’ Individual behavior and attitude change: the Challenge-of-the-month adresses various ways of how people can make small contributions. Leaving a message of how you have contributed is rewarded by an receiving a special offer by a company sponsoring the Challenge. This advertisement space is for free if the company invests the money thus saved by investing it in making their business a more responsible one. Collective empowerment: a do-good-marketplace where offers and calls for help can be posted. Trades can be proposed and help asked for developig ideas. Sustainability will only be reached by putting many different solutions into place, no single concept can do this. But this particular one facilitates a mindshift in the right direction. It creates the right atmosphere for change: it puts sustainability in a framework that is relevant on a local level. The designed platform is a practical tool that empowers the community to take control and turn their ideas into actions. It showed why ‘design for sustainability’ can be thought of as ‘design for society.’

The design of a service that enables and stimulates local BOP businesses to interact on the global market. Why Businesses in informal settlements run almost 24 hours a day producing just enough to earn a living. Time is money. Goods and raw materials, manufactured by these businesses, are exported worldwide. Local Businesses seem fully integrated in the international trade system. When taking a closer look however, we find these local businesses to be disconnect to the world. Businesses cannot get out of socioeconomic isolation and highly depend on others to access market relevant information. They cannot benefit form the global market. In the mean while mobile phones, Internet and social media bridge distances and connect people all over the world. Upcoming economies and increased specialisation force the global market to expand. What In a world that is becoming smaller and a market that is continuously globalising, there is a perfect fit for a service that makes use of these new communication technologies to connect the unconnected local businesses to a prosperous global market. The service, WeTrade, is built on three components. First a mobile address identifies businesses. Second, a market information platform offers live and online market information and is accessible via mobile phone and Internet. Third a reliable, local office allows businesses to transfer money and enables worldwide transportation. How WeTrade is irresistible and triggers business owners to join trading. It is simple. Demand literally comes to the local businesses waiting to be priced. The platform is informative and allows businesses to explore the global market. Businesses strengthen in number while being member of a cooperation that shares information and responsibility. The service guides businesses trough the process and stimulates and supports them to find their way out of isolation and to be autonomic. Building and maintaining a reliable, international network will reward businesses.

This Master thesis is the result of a research project in Vietnam. The goal of this project is to design a tool that will help Vietnamese SMEs initiate collaboration (plans) that fit their situation, position, culture and desires. These partnerships could be initiated for various reasons, but will mainly be aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of company strategies and business operation. The purpose of the project is not to prescribe a strategy, but to offer them some guidance and support in the start-up phase of the collaboration development process. The result is COLLABO; a tool facilitating discussions and interaction to increase its users’ understanding and trust on several aspects regarding collaboration.

Aluminium alloys of the 7xxx series (Al-Zn-Mg-Cu) are susceptible to localized types of corrosion like pitting, intergranular corrosion and exfoliation corrosion. This represents a limitation for the application of these alloys in the aerospace components because localized corrosion might have a negative effect on safety and costs. This PhD thesis investigates the relation between electrochemical behaviour and microstructure of a number of 7xxx aluminium alloys: AA7075, AA7349 and an experimental alloy (EA1) with composition in the range of AA7449. To this aim, the experimental approach of this PhD consisted in the characterization of the microstructure of the alloys combined with the study of their electrochemical behaviour. The investigation of the microstructure focused on intermetallics and strengthening particles because these second phase particles strongly affect the corrosion behaviour of 7xxx aluminium alloys. The study of the electrochemical behaviour was approached on two different levels: macro- and micro-electrochemical characterization of the alloys. The macro-electrochemical characterization employed open circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarization measurements to study the overall corrosion behaviour of the alloys, while the micro-electrochemical characterization applied local electrochemical techniques (scanning Kelvin probe force microscope and micro-capillary cell) to study the local behaviour of the intermetallics. There are three main types of intermetallics in the 7xxx alloys investigated: - Al7Cu2Fe - (Al,Cu)6(Fe,Cu) - Mg2Si In AA7349 and EA1 the intermetallics contain small amounts of Mn and Si. The strengthening particles are Mg2Zn phase for all alloys. The intermetallics are not affected by heat treatments (solution heat treatment, aging and overaging), while the strengthening particles undergo strong changes. The strengthening particles are dissolved by solution heat treatment resulting in supersaturation of solute elements (Zn and Mg) in the matrix and in segregation of these elements at the grain boundaries. They precipitate in the matrix and at the grain boundaries during aging and overaging progressively reducing the supersaturation of the matrix and the segregation at the grain boundaries. The intermetallics are the initiation sites for localized corrosion, which takes place as local dissolution of the matrix at the location of the intermetallics and results in pitting of the alloy surface. At a later stage, the localized attack propagates as intergranular corrosion and might turn into exfoliation corrosion for microstructures particularly susceptible to the intergranular attack. The types of intermetallics in the microstructure of the alloys exhibit different micro- electrochemical behaviour. The Al7Cu2Fe and (Al,Cu)6(Fe,Cu) intermetallics have cathodic behaviour relative to the matrix (positive Volta potential difference relative to the matrix), while the Mg2Si intermetallics have anodic behaviour (negative Volta potential difference relative to the matrix). Moreover, the Al7Cu2Fe intermetallics have stronger cathodic behaviour than the (Al,Cu)6(Fe,Cu) intermetallics. The microstructural changes taking place during solution heat treatment strongly affect the electrochemical behaviour of the alloys. Solution heat treatment strongly increases the Volta potential difference between the intermetallics and the matrix (for all types of intermetallics) increasing the susceptibility to pitting. Moreover, it increases the susceptibility to intergranular and exfoliation corrosion because of the segregation of Zn and Mg at the grain boundaries. Aging and overaging decrease the Volta potential difference between the intermetallics and the matrix improving the resistance to pitting. Aging improves the susceptibility to intergranular corrosion as compared to solution heat treatment. However, the alloys aged to the peak-strength tempers are still prone to severe intergranular corrosion and exfoliation corrosion because they undergo precipitation of small strengthening particles at the grain boundaries with very small interparticle spacing. Overaging strongly improves the resistance to intergranular corrosion and eliminates the susceptibility to exfoliation corrosion because it increases the size and the interparticle spacing of the particles at the grain boundaries. The characterization using the local electrochemical techniques (scanning Kelvin probe force microscope and micro-capillary cell) showed that the micro- electrochemical behaviour of the intermetallics is different for each intermetallic. This means that some areas of the alloy surface might be very susceptible to localized attack and might be preferential sites for the initiation of localized corrosion. The local electrochemical techniques used in this PhD enable the relation of the electrochemical behaviour to the microstructure of the alloys. In particular, it was possible to establish this relationship for the intermetallics due to the lateral resolution of these techniques (in the micrometer range). This thesis has proved that the complementary use of local electrochemical techniques is very useful for the characterization of metals that are susceptible to localized types of corrosion.

If current trends are anything to go by, in future we will no longer produce all our electricity in large, central power stations. Small-scale local electricity generation will gain in importance. Sander Mertens, a post-doctoral student at TU Delft, developed the aerodynamic design of a wind turbine which is specifically suitable for built-up areas. Compact, mobile, low-noise, and vibration-free, it is the ideal alternative for use on top of high-rise office blocks, where wind speeds can easily reach twenty percent more than with the same height away from buildings. The electricity can be fed straight into the buildings power system, saving on energy transport costs and losses, and producing high feed-in yields. Prototypes have already been installed on the town hall in The Hague (designed by Richard Meier), on an apartment block in Tilburg, on an office block in Breda, and on top of the Delft ChemTech faculty building. Interest has been generated in London and Leicester in the UK, New Mexico and New York in the USA, and in France and Canada.

How can municipalities be helped in choosing their level of involvement in a local sustainable energy company? This research investigates how municipalities can be helped in choosing their level of involvement in a local sustainable energy company. It aims to know which different choices municipalities can make in deciding on their involvement in LSECs through an empirical study. This research started from the analysis that many municipalities struggle with the complexity and risks of their involvement in LSECs and the uncertainty of outcomes of these decisions on the level of municipal involvement. This main research question was answered using 4 different collection methods, a desk research, a set of interviews, participant observation and a full population questionnaire. The theory study shows us that there are four aspects on which decisions have to be made. These four aspects together determine how municipal involvement in a LSEC looks like.

The first half-year we were working in a collective (9 persons) and doing a thorough research and analysis. We took the Riberas del Bravo settlement in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez as a case study. This city has numerous problems, of which the emerging phenomenon of abandoned and deserted housing in Mexico is among its most striking. The entire settlement consists of dwellings built between 2000 and present, of which about 20% - 25% are abandoned houses. This phenomenon has various reasons and points towards a complex mesh of forces that influence the built environment. They encompass entangled dimensions of political economy and socio-economic developments, which only touch the built structure of actual housing at the very last stage. In the first weeks we were investigating the events in the history of Juárez, which lead to its formation, its growth and ultimately to the problems of today. Eventually this resulted in a timeline, historical maps and analytical maps of all the (main) factors involved. In the end of the Msc-3 period our research resulted in a common strategic proposal on the level of the city and moreover on the level of the case-study. Because of all the information we gathered and the group-strategy it resulted in, I had the possibility to create a project, which is not only architectural, but also sensitive to its environment. Aspects of my project (like setting up of an alternative economic model based on Adobe production, tackling mono-functionality and long-term solutions) are a direct result of the combined effort of the collective strategy. I think because of my intuitive way of working, I have now a project which is more dynamic (a plot which transforms over the course of 50 years, through means of various aspects), from Urban plan to the very grain of an Adobe in the wall in the common kitchen. And above all, my project is now a firm stance against the social atrocities and urban asymmetries prevalent in Juárez. It is not just a design projected on a certain spot, but on the contrary: a project, which involves local inhabitants in a refined and responsible way. The project succeeds, when inhabitants take the initiative to pick up a shovel and oppose to the dependency of the Maquiladora-system (this system is proven to be destructive for Juárez). As a result an architecture emerges, which doesn’t deny the Urban Asymmetries, but embraces them and turn them into a positive social-economic experiment. An architecture, which at the same time (among others) is a repetition of a standard unit, but succeeds in not becoming a mere monotonous and mono-functional plan, but rather a diverse and sophisticated part of the settlement. My project is part of a collective work, of several projects, which together make a difference and form a prototype for the revitalization of the city of Ciudad Juárez.

During this graduation project a sustainable activity for the C2C-Islands was researched and designed, with Ameland as main context. It was chosen to develop a C2C picnic set, because this matches the current activities (mainly outdoor) that are undertaken and possibilities that are available (local foods and excellent picnic facilities). The Pre-Design section of this report is all about the steps before the actual designing. It explains the context and goals of this specific project. For this project most of the business partners were searched and found throughout the project. The section starts with an introduction on the players involved and their relations to each other. This is followed by the problem definition, which describes the problems on sustainability, C2C, tourism and other island related problems that need to be tackled. The problem definition is followed by the actual assignment and deliverables of the project. The section ends with a description of the combined methodology; this methodology has been used throughout the project and proved to be very useful for structuring the design. It is mainly about designing roadmap based local services. The second section is about the analysis. It defines a framework for the ideas, concepts and the final design. As stated in the methodology paragraph, during the analysis phase it is important to build a strong foundation for the rest of the project. The focus of the analysis was on the environment of the picnic set, available materials, target group, market and finally the product itself. The chosen ideas from this section focused on very different aspects to be able to explore different directions, namely: small sized sets, experience sets and independency sets. The three concept directions were merged from eight different idea directions. The third section covers detailing the sets from ideas to concepts and evaluating them when they are detailed up to a sufficient level. This detailing is partially based on information from the analysis phase, but also on new information obtained. Both tourist and business partners indicated that are most interested in the small sized and experience sets, therefore, it was decided not to continue with the independency set. The sustainability evaluation indicated that both sets are very sustainable compared to the services they will replace. The fourth section describes the model building, it indicated that the experience set is too complicated for now and it was decided to solitary continue with the small sized set. This final set is detailed up to a level that it is almost completely ready for production. The sales system, which is partial about renting and partial about sales, will be explained in more detail. The fifth and final section is used to evaluate the product and process and to give recommendations for the continuation of the project. It was chosen to present the outcomes in a process report, where information is presented followed by conclusions and actions. This is done for two reasons, first of all to explain to the reader why the design turned out the way it is. Second of all it is done to give the committee and others (students) insight into the process, what went well and what went wrong.

We show how to exploit the 32/64 bit architecture of modern computers to accelerate some of the algorithms used in satisfiability solving by modifying assignments to variables in parallel on a single processor. Techniques such as random sampling demonstrate that while using bit vectors instead of Boolean values solutions to satisfiable formulae can be obtained faster. Here, we reveal that more complex algorithms, like unit propagation and detection of autarkies, can be parallelized efficiently, as well. We capitalize on the developed parallel algorithms by modifying the state-of-the-art local search Sat solver UnitWalk accordingly. Experiments show that the parallel version performs much faster than the original implementation.

In stably stratified flows vertical movement of eddies is limited by the fact that kinetic energy is converted into potential energy, leading to a buoyancy displacement scale z B . Our new mixing-length concept for turbulent transport in the stable boundary layer follows a rigid-wall analogy, in the sense that we assume that the buoyancy length scale is similar to neutral length scaling. This implies that the buoyancy length scale is: ℓ B = κ B z B , with κ B ≈ κ, the von Karman constant. With this concept it is shown that the physical relevance of the local scaling parameter z/Λ naturally appears, and that the α coefficient of the log-linear similarity functions is equal to c/κ 2, where c is a constant close to unity. The predicted value α ≈ 1/κ 2 = 6.25 lies within the range found in observational studies. Finally, it is shown that the traditionally used inverse linear interpolation between the mixing length in the neutral and buoyancy limits is inconsistent with the classical log-linear stability functions. As an alternative, a log-linear consistent interpolation method is proposed.

Non-local elasticity theories have been intensively applied to a wide range of problems in physics and applied mechanics. Most applications are based either on the integrodifferential constitutive Icm proposed by Eringen or on the gradient constitutive law developed by Aifantis and co-workers. In this work, M>e study a one-dimensional non-local elastic tensile rod using Eringen and Aifantis constitutive laws. The problem is solved by means of standard finite elements arid B-splines elements with high continuity. The results are compared with the C°° analytical solution of the problem.

An investigation into modern Nomadic ways of life. A search that taks place on boundaries; 'Place the feeling Space', 'Virtual the Realty of cyberspace' and 'Time the Duration of Space'. It is a celebration of 'local authenticity' and 'global efficiency'. Eventually it gives directions in solving the questions of how to solve the homeless nature of a Nomadic life on an architectural and urban level. What are the esseltials to feel at home?

Since the 1980s, many flagship developments appeared in de-industrialised cities: high-profile and prestigious land and property developments which play an influential and catalytic role in urban regeneration. The research focuses on the flagship development Overhoeks in Amsterdam and its effects on the adjacent neighbourhood Van der Pekbuurt. The outcomes of the research are a strategic plan and an urban design. The strategic plan aims at altering the planning process to enable mutual benefits between Overhoeks and Van der Pekbuurt. The urban design changes the current plans for Overhoeks into an inclusive design in which the local communities can benefit from the new opportunities that the flagship development brings.

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the world attention shifted towards the country. The event offer the unique opportunity to redesign the post-disaster redevelopment strategy of the informal settlement, housing the large portion of the urban poor population in the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince. This thesis aims at the formulation of a development strategy for the informal settlements in Port-au-Prince. The problems of lack of basic facilities, informal development and a lack of governmental support create the underdeveloped conditions the communities are living in. Helping to overcome these problems enables a potential development of these areas. The strategy developed provides the opportunity to empower the community in the formation of a local development vision in cooperation with other stakeholders. In the light of the local development framework, the development of single communities can be brought together, strengthening the output of the process. The development of the settlement itself focuses on the enabling of urban agriculture. The need for water, fertilizer and productive grounds offer the possibility to link the basic development (sanitation, water management, etc) together. The combined program creates links that can be implemented into the urban environment thereby structuring the settlement. The strategy has been tested in the community of Tisous, one of the many informal settlements inside Port-au-Prince. Located in the western fringe of the city, the community need to be developed. Not just to overcome the current underdeveloped state it is in, but even more so to prepare itself for future developments and disasters

The number of patent applications has been growing rapidly: in 2010 the patent application requests increased with 11% at the European Patent Office. It is important that patent examiners can efficiently compare new applications with published patents. Patent examiners review the list of relevant patents, returned by a search query, one at a time using the current tools. There is no overview of the patents and time is wasted when the best document is the last in the list. An overview of the patent collection can provide insights into which patents can be skipped and which should be read in detail. This work proposes an Organization Viewer for reviewing a collection of patents. It is based on the research prototype TouchPat which uses multi-touch interaction and displays the patents in a static 2D grid. In the Organizational Viewer, the patents can be organized manually in a spatial layout using a new multi-touch gesture set and Stacks. In addition, this work examines how automatic organization using the Local Affine Multidimensional Projection (LAMP) technique can also support the user. These new organization techniques are evaluated with twelve patent examiners at the European Patent Office using the think-aloud protocol. The results of these evaluation show that an overview is a valuable addition to the work of patent examiners and that the value of an overview for patent examiners depends on personal preferences as well as their domain of expertise. The TouchPat prototype and the evaluation transcripts give insight into the features that can improve the process of reviewing relevant patents.