227 research outputs found
Mechanical analysis of aortic aneurysms using 3D ultrasound : towards patient-specific risk assessment
No full textStijfheid van verwijde buikslagader is mogelijke indicator voor chirurgische ingree
Insights in the market of recycled plastic, with practical value chain research
No full textThe European Union (EU) landfilled and incinerated 600 million tons of waste in 2013, which could have been recycled and returned as raw material to the economy. Resource efficiency can regain this value and bring economic, environmental and social benefits. The EU has therefore adapted the Circular Economy Package with targets to stimulate the transition to a circular economy. These targets include reusing and recycling 55% of plastic packaging waste by 2025. Member states act to achieve those targets with subsidies and funding schemes. This enables entrepreneurs to enter the market of recycled plastic with innovations to gain Schumpeterian rent. However, only approximately 50% of starting companies are still operating after 4 years. It is crucial to increase the success rate of turning new technologies into innovations in order to reach the recycling targets. Market exploration and orientation strategies can aid entrepreneurs to gain insight in the recycled plastic market. Globalized value chain research is a commonly used method, but not suitable to address the recycling industry as it is not globalized but restricted by country borders and local governance. Value chain research methodology was used, according to a handbook written by Kaplinsky & Morris from 2001, which refers to and uses globalized value chain research methodology. For the recycling industry a specific selection was made from elements mentioned in the handbook. This enabled the execution of value chain research for the not globalized recycling industry. The interview questions and topics were made based on the required data for the selected elements. This thesis focussed on the biggest market segment of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in the Netherlands. In total 149 compounders, recyclers and converters were included in a database for a selection. Of which seven companies participated, which resulted in qualitative data that gives insight into the industry and enabled answering the research question.What is required from the value chain of the plastic recycling industry to increase the use of recycled post-consumer PPW? Converters must be able to get access to regranulate with stable MFI and crystallization time characteristics in higher quantities. Compounders can initiate this with joint design projects with branding companies thereby highlighting the possibilities of their regranulate. The optimization of the product and process for their regranulate lowers the switching costs for the converter and can bring rent opportunities. It furthermore showed to increase the sales of regranulate. The compounder requests higher quantities of mono streams recycled plastic from the recycler to comply with demand for regranulate to be used for high volume consumer goods. Recyclers however, upgrade their processes to maximize output for the Dutch ‘Raamovereenkomst’, which includes a mix stream next to the mono streams. This mix stream cannot be used by the compounders to make regranulate for the converters. The recyclers claim that they can technically increase the mono streams at the expense of the mix stream, although this leads to lower profits for them. A change is therefore required in the Dutch ‘Raamovereenkomst’ to optimize for mono stream output.Management of Technology (MoT
The functional flexibility of lock design: Applied on the Meuse route
No full textIn general, an inland navigation lock has a structural lifespan of about 100 years, while in most cases this lock is not big enough anymore after 25 - 50 years. This is caused by the growing ship dimensions and/or intensities. A functional flexible lock is the solution for extending the functional lifespan. This type of lock is, with or without a few structural adjustments, capable of serving the shipping traffic for its whole structural lifespan. This design approach will be applied on the lock complex ‘Sluis Sambeek’, which is located in the Meuse route. The first part of the study is carried out on the basis of the Life Cycle Management (LCM) approach. The LCM is started with a trend forecast, from which follows that the future ship sizes are normative for the required lock dimensions. After that, three alternatives are elaborated: 1. Zero-alternative: renovation of the lock. 2. Functional flexible lock: standard lock that is built large enough at once. 3. Structural flexible lock: a relatively easy extendable navigation lock. The maximum dimensions are reached stepwise. Alternative 2 appears to be the least expensive option for ‘Sluis Sambeek’. Although alternative 3 is the most expensive option, this alternative is elaborated further, because it is the most innovative option and could be a better solution for another lock reconstruction. The structural flexibility in alternative 3 is formed by the lock chamber which exists of relatively simple replaceable sheet pile walls, and by floatable lock heads that can be replaced by wider lock heads. The construction planning and the structural lock head design are the innovative parts that are elaborated most specifically. It is concluded that it is useful to consider both the possibilities of a functional and a structural flexible lock design for ‘Sluis Sambeek’ or for another lock location.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
IJsverslag: Winter 1984-1985
No full textDe winter 1984/85 was in het algemeen streng met een bijzonder koude januarimaand, daarentegen waren de maanden november en december zacht. In deze winter kwamen twee ijsperioden voor van elk ongeveer 4 weken, waarbij in het gehele land veel ijs is opgetreden. Ook in het benedenrivierengebied is vrij veel ijs voorgekomen. In verband met het buiten gebruik stellen van een aantal stuwen ondervond de scheepvaart op de Nederrijn en Lek veel hinder van lage waterstanden. Op de Maas was hierdoor op het gedeelte Lith-Sambeek een aantal dagen de scheepvaart gehinderd.IJsversla
Natuurvriendelijke oevers stuwpand Grave
No full textRijkswaterstaat Limburg (RWS) wil zo snel mogelijk een aantal natuur(vriende)lijke oevertrajecten langs de Maas realiseren. Aanleiding hiervoor is ondermeer de kaderrichtlijn water, die stelt dat het watersysteem in 2015 op orde moet zijn. De oeverzone voldoet niet aan het ecologisch streefbeeld en bestaat over grote aaneengesloten trajecten uit bestortingen met stortsteen of zetsteen. Via het project natuur(vriende)lijke oevers wordt er een fikse bijdrage geleverd aan het behalen van deze doelstelling. ARCADIS heeft de opdracht gekregen om voor het stuwpand Grave, traject sluis Sambeek\u96Grave (Maas km 146.6 \u96 km 175.7) een gedetailleerd ontwerp (oftewel een uitvoeringsontwerp) èn een aanbesteedbaar ontwerp voor alle \u91groene\u92 oevers van een aantal kansrijke en snel realiseerbare deeltrajecten op te stellen. De ontwerpopdracht omvat tevens het zo ver mogelijk voorbereiden van de realisatie van deze deeltrajecten. De kern van de opdracht is het opstellen van een uitvoerbaar, vergunbaar en betaalbaar ontwerpplan/inrichtingplan voor natuur(vriende)lijke oevers. RWS wenst, waar dat veilig kan, het streefbeeld vrije oevererosie te bereiken. In dit verband worden deeltrajecten geselecteerd waar de ingreep \u93verwijderen oeververdediging\u94 zinvol, kansrijk en risicoarm is. Voor de tussenliggende deeltrajecten worden natuur(vriende)lijke alternatieven bedacht en toegepast. Het detailniveau van het plan is zodanig dat een aannemer de uitvoering zonder een verdere ontwerp-detailleringsslag ter hand kan nemen
Strategy Evaluation for High Quality Crowd Annotations in Cultural Heritage
No full textDigitised Cultural Heritage Objects like pictures, video and audio are hard to retrieve without metadata like annotations describing what is depicted or the events which take place. Unfortunately the creation of this metadata is quite a slow and lengthy process, especially when this needs to be done in a qualitative manner. So the question arises how we can help to improve this process by increasing the speed and quantity of these annotations without sacrificing the quality. The chosen approach is to use lay people and ask them to help us with annotating these objects. As a means to guard our quality demands we want to use a taxonomy which allows the lay people to annotate in a structured manner. In order to help lay people we’ve created a workbench which allows us to easily create different annotation strategies, which result in different ways a taxonomy is presented to a lay person. By presenting different strategies we can investigate which strategy is more likely to help a group of lay persons when this is executed on a larger scale.Information ArchitectureWeb Information SystemsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Intravascular Ultrasound and Peripheral Endovascular Interventions
No full textIn recent years the interest in minimal invasive surgery has been growing and the same trend
can be observed in vascular surgery, leading to what is commonly referred to as
lIendovascular surgery". Although the 1990s represent an era of technical revolution in
vascular surgery, it is a misunderstanding to consider endovascular treatment a recent
development. In 1947 J050 Cid dos Santos described the thrombo-endarterectomy'; this
technique was modified by Vollmar in 1964, to a semi-closed endarterectomy using ringstrippers'>
In the same year other pioneers, including Dotter and Judkins, published
prelinlinary results on what they called "angioplasty" of the femoropopliteal artery using coaxial
eatheters.3 This technique was later modified by Griintzig in 1974, who replaced the coaxial
catheters with dilatation balloons.' In the early 1990s, Volodos and Parodi introduced
the endovascular treatment of the abdominal aortic aneurysm with a device composed of a
Dacron graft and Palmaz stents.5
,6
The collaboration between interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons has been of
eminent importance for further evolution of endovascular teclmiques. Nowadays a great
variety of obstmctive and aneurysmal peripheral vascular diseases can be treated with
catheter-guided, endovascular and, therefore, less invasive techniques.
The development of these endovascular techniques prompted the need for improved vascular
imaging and better diagnostics. Since angiography displays only a "lumenogram II of the
vessel, tills prechldes qualitative evaluation of atherosclerotic plaque and quantitative
assessment of plaque and vessel. Sophisticated modalities such as colour duplex, computed
tomographic angiography and magnetic resonance imaging can be important in the pre- and
postintervention assessment of vascular disease. These techniques, however, do not always
give accurate information on the dimensions of the vessel or the extent of the disease and at
the present time cannot be used during intervention.7 Intravascular ultrasound depicts both the
vascular lumen and vascular wall: thus, information can be obtained on the atheromatous
plaque constituents and the size of the lumen, vessel wall and arterial disease
Ultrasound-based mechanical modeling of abdominal aortic aneurysms: model input and boundary conditions
No full textXylos, creating a game for the Imagine Cup 2009
No full textCreating games is always an exciting occupation. In ten months, we have created a game for the Microsoft Imagine Cup, revolved around the Millennium Development Goals. Set on a distant planet, the game was to convey the MDG message in a more subtle way than most games did, but still recognizable. The most interesting gameplay mechanic in the game was the ability to travel back in time up to a maximum of five minutes, or until the energy meter runs out. This was also the most complex mechanic, and took the most time to implement correctly. In the end however, we prevailed and delivered a great game using a great structure built using a great engine. Unfortunately, the jury of the Imagine Cup did not seem to think so, and we did not make it into the finals.Dep. Mediamatica - basiseenheid Computer GraphicsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
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