Leiden University Scholary Publications
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Separation and immersion: the changing role of the armed forces in Northwestern liberal democracies
No full textLiberal democracy is under pressure. This is partly due to the emergence of new security threats and declining social cohesion. Consequently, the role of the armed forces in society has also changed. This dissertation examines the contribution the armed forces can make to the stability of liberal democracy in Northwestern Europe. Three case studies were examined: the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland.The field of civil-military relations assumes a strict separation between the military and civilian domains in a liberal democracy and civilian control over the armed forces. This strict separation appears to be increasingly absent in the three countries studied. The historical context and the evolving threat assessment play a significant role in this. In Finland and Sweden, the armed forces play a strong role in politics and society due to the Russian threat and the total defense model developed in response, but are rarely deployed for domestic (police) tasks. In the Netherlands, the domestic role of the armed forces has actually grown since the end of the Cold War. The research shows that the field's strong emphasis on civilian control limits the effectiveness of response to emerging security threats in the gray zone between war and peace. This argues for normalizing the role of the military in politics and increasing its visibility in society. The Finnish model for "comprehensive security" could serve as a good example. At the same time, the degree of immersion in a liberal democracy cannot be unlimited; excessive militarization and civilian dependence on the military must be avoided.N/AEffective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist worl
Towards personalized migraine care: the role of sex hormones, telemedicine, and cardiovascular safety
No full textThis thesis describes advancements in the understanding and treatment of migraine through three interrelated domains: the application of telemedicine, the influence of sex hormones, and the safety of novel treatments. By examining these domains, it aims to contribute to a more personalized and effective approach to migraine care, particularly by integrating modern technology, addressing gender-specific challenges, and ensuring safety in treatment innovations.The research presented in this thesis was supported by grants of the Dutch Research Council (849200007) and the Dutch Brain Foundation (HA2017.01.05). The funding agencies had no role in the design or conduct of the studies.
Funding for publication of this thesis has been provided by the Nederlandse Hoofdpijn Vereniging (NHV) and Teva Nederland.LUMC / Geneeskund
Guardians of the gut: harnessing bioinformatics to study the gut microbiome and faecal microbiota transplantation in intestinal disorders
No full textIntestinal disorders are often related to the bacteria that live there: the gut microbiome. Gut diseases associated with the microbiome may be treated with microbiota-focused treatment such as faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). This thesis describes microbiome changes in patients with recurrent infections or ulcerative colitis who are treated with FMT. By comparing their gut bacteria to those from healthy donors or controls we find bacteria that appear associated with disease and recovery, and that FMT may reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer and infections by multidrug resistant bacteria. The thesis continues with a genomic study of the gut bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus, that is highly prevalent in humans and is associated with various diseases. This bacterium has distinct genetic variants that indicate possible disease-causing genetic differences. The results contribute to an improved understanding of interactions between humans and bacteria that can help in maintaining a healthy gut or develop new microbiota-based therapies.LUMC / Geneeskund
The circular economy and climate change: the state of national and global evidence on mitigation potential
No full textWhile global resource use and GHG emissions keep increasing, the circular economy (CE) has ascended to the forefront of global policy, business and research agendas. Through narrower, slower, and more closed material cycles, the CE aims to avoid waste and reduce virgin raw material demand, thereby potentially also mitigating energy demand and GHG emissions. We review 75 national to global studies modeling over 500 specific measures. Studies modeling narrower, slower, and more closed material cycles show a combined GHG mitigation potential of on average 17% (0–91%). When CE measures are complemented with energy efficiency and decarbonization of energy supply and industry, an average GHG mitigation potential of 50% (1–100%) is found. This indicates that the CE might have substantial mitigation potentials if combined wisely with other supply- and demand-side measures. Future research should strengthen the links between industrial ecology and economic modeling and fully implement open science principles. These improvements would pave the way toward a more robust, granular, and systemic understanding of the CE's potential and limits for climate change mitigation and sustainable resource use.Industrial Ecolog
When God is no longer visible: Rembrandt, Vondel, and the religious Crisis in the Dutch Republic
No full textMedieval and Early Modern Studie
Planten verstoppen zich niet: dat is veel makkelijker werken dan met walvissen
No full textPlanten krijgen stress van microscopisch kleine plasticdeeltjes, maar dat heeft geen grote gevolgen voor de voedselveiligheid. „Ik heb min of meer geaccepteerd dat nano- en microplastics overal in ons dagelijks leven voorkomen.”Environmental Biolog
A wolf in sheep’s clothing: a mixed-methods analysis of the far-right alt-tech social media movement
Get PDFThe far-right encultures an expansive online network and content milieu that aims to cater for its participants’ diverse needs. However, the counter-cultural activities and narratives connected to the movement triggered large tech corporations (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) to act, deplatforming their content, systems, and userbase off their ‘Big Tech’ platforms. In reaction, an alternative ecosystem of websites (Alt-Tech) was developed to maintain sociality and to continue peddling an alternative ontology. And while millions of users flock to these spaces as bastions for far-right ideologies and communications, academic attention is sparce and fixated on one-dimensional extremist patterns of the phenomena. To bring research on Alt-Tech up to the level of other extreme platforms and communities, I aim to unpack the essential social drivers – community, collectives, narratives, and ontologies – which proliferate and maintain the success of one of these platforms, Gab Social. Through an experiential and holistic investigation into the behavioural dynamics of the platform’s participants, the thesis unpacks the numerous processes mobilising, connecting, recruiting, and perpetuating these far-right environments. Told as a multi-encompassing storyline, through five published articles, capturing the different elements of the Gab Social’s success, each chapter contributes an elaborate piece to the puzzle, from (1) the rise of far-right extremism to (2) the connection making means of Neo-Nazis, (3) the utilisation of insecurity to mobilise support, (4) the construction of identity and a unified community, and (5) the emotional connection to Gab Social as a new home. These findings culminate towards an overarching theoretical contribution, decentralised sociality. The research employs a qualitative mixed-methods approach – with netnography as the baseline – to examine these phenomena thoroughly, thematically, and interpretively.Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou
De wijsheid van Mencius in beeld
No full textOnlangs verscheen een Engelstalig stripboek naar een geschrift van de Chinese filosoof Meester Meng (Mencius), die leefde van 371 tot 289 voor Christus. Paul van Els legt uit in welke context we Meester Mengs ideeën moeten begrijpen, en vraagt zich af hoe en waarom de vorm van het stripboek bijdraagt aan de leesbaarheid van deze zeer oude maar ook vermakelijke gesprekken over de deugd.Asian Studie
Luttinger liquid on a lattice
Get PDFUnderstanding interactions in quantum many-body systems remains one of the most profound and difficult challenges in condensed matter physics. While free particle systems can be solved through single-particle techniques, the introduction of interactions turns the problem essentially many-body and quickly intractable. The Hilbert space grows exponentially, and traditional approaches become useless.To deal with this, one typically turns to numerical methods by discretizing the system on a lattice. This approach generally works well for many 1D problems, including those described by Schrödinger equation. However, when it comes to massless Dirac fermions with protected chirality, the situation becomes more complicated. Any naive discretization inevitably runs into the fermion doubling problem, formalized by the Nielsen–Ninomiya theorem, which forbids a straightforward lattice realization of a single chiral mode without either breaking symmetry or introducing unphysical degrees of freedom. My thesis is motivated by this problem: the need to describe 1D interacting systems, and the difficulty of doing so numerically due to these fundamental obstacles. The main focus of this work is to develop and explore lattice-based numerical methods for strongly correlated chiral fermions in one dimension, with the Luttinger liquid as a central case study.Condensed matter physics - OU
The repercussions of recognition: imprints of T cells on the tumor microenvironment
Get PDFThis thesis delves into the ways that T cells interact with the tumor microenvironment, the types of tumors that they can be expected to see as immunologically foreign, whether such antigen-recognition detectably leads to the specific destruction of antigen-carrying cells and how to enhance T cell activity to treat cancer patients, specifically those with triple negative breast cancer.LUMC / Geneeskund