Improving the return rate of a smart pillbox in a circular economy: From product redesign to comprehensive guidelines

This study explores nudging strategies to improve user abilities in order to promote the voluntary return of digital health products, with a focus on the smart pillbox. The two objectives were to create specific design recommendations for the smart pillbox and derive general design guidelines to support a circular lifecycle for future digital...

The Causes of Regional Sea-level Change: since 1993

As a result of climate change, sea level is changing all over the world at unprecedented rates. Sea-level change can have significant impacts on coastal communities, infrastructure and global economy, as most of the major cities are located near to or at the coast. Rising sea levels can lead to, for instance, more severe and more frequent...

Performance of a Phase Change Material Battery in a Transparent Building

This research evaluates the performance of a Phase Change Material (PCM) battery integrated into the climate system of a new transparent meeting center. The main research questions are: a. “Can the performance of the battery be calculated?” and b. “Can the battery reduce the heating and cooling energy demand in a significant way?” The first...

Assessing the impact of climate change on streamflow in catchments across the United States, using an easily reproducible modeling approach

In this thesis, an easily reproducible modeling approach was developed for assessing the climate change impact on streamflow. This approach was tested by using it to assess the impact of climate change on streamflow in 5 different contrasting catchments across the United States. Many studies show that climate change is expected to influence...

Coastal erosion mitigation based on artificial nourishments and sand bypassing systems: Barra-Vagueira, Portugal

Barra-Vagueira coastal stretch, located downdrift of the Aveiro Harbour, NW coast of Portugal, is anerosion hotspot, presenting,in the last 50 years,erosion rates that reached 8m/year(Santoset al.,2014).Thiscoast is subject to a very energetic wave climate, inducing a net littoral transport from North to South that reaches valuesaround 106m3...

The impact of a dedicated lane for connected and automated vehicles on the behaviour of drivers of manual vehicles

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to enhance traffic efficiency by driving at shorter time headways, and traffic safety by shorter reaction times. However, one of the main concerns regarding their deployment is the mixed traffic situation, in which CAVs and manually driven vehicles (MVs) share the same road. This study...

Mechanical Properties of Lightweight Cementitious Cellular Composites Incorporating Micro-Encapsulated Phase Change Material

This work focuses on combining digitally architected cellular structures with cementitious mortar incorporating micro-encapsulated phase change material (mPCM) to fabricated lightweight cementitious cellular composites (LCCCs). Voronoi structures with different randomness are designed for the LCCCs. Aided by the indirect 3D printing technique,...

Workforce Transition and Income Inequality in the Age of Automation

It is expected that automation and income inequality will have a major impact on the world economy in the 2020’s and beyond. A research conducted by Bain (K. Harris, Kimson, & Schwedel, 2018) claimed that the impact of the economic disruption, which could be triggered by the collision of income inequality and automation, might be more...

Policy reforms and productivity change in the judiciary system: A cost function approach applied to time series of the Dutch judiciary system between 1980 and 2016

The judiciary is constantly undergoing change in order to respond to a wide range of social developments that have brought the sector under increasing pressure. In order to deal with the constant call for enhancing budgets, different policy measures have been taken to downsize the appeal to the judiciary and to improve productivity. One of...

Hydro-morphological modelling of small, wave-dominated estuaries

Small, intermittently open or closed estuaries are characteristic of the coasts of South Africa, Australia, California, Mexico and many other areas of the world. However, modelling attention has tended to focus on big estuaries that drain large catchments and serve a wide diversity of interests e.g. agriculture, urban settlement, recreation,...

Coping with the uncertainties in the climate change adaptation of river dikes using risk-aversion economic optimization

To guarantee a safe flood defence in a changing environment, the adaptation to climate change needs to be considered in the design of river dikes. However, the large uncertainty in the projections of future climate leads to varied estimations of future flood probability. How to cope with the uncertainties in future flood probability under...