93 research outputs found
Human-AI Collaboration in Academic Writing: towards a Synergy Model and A Case to Include AI as a Co-Author
No full textAs generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini 2.5 become increasingly integrated into academic workflows, the question of their legitimacy, limitations, and potential in scholarly writing has become urgent. This paper presents a reflexive case study of a sustained collaboration between a domain expert in consciousness studies and Gemini 2.5, culminating in the co-authorship of a peer-reviewed research article. By analyzing exactly 37,440 words of recorded interactions, we identify patterns of synergy, including recursive refinement, conceptual amplification, and accelerated manuscript development. We argue that when guided by a knowledgeable human author, AI can act as a cognitive partner rather than a passive tool—amplifying scholarly creativity and improving efficiency without compromising academic rigor. The case supports a '1+1=3' synergy model for co-authorship, in which human steering and AI fluency converge to produce novel insights and polished output faster and more effectively than either could achieve alone. The findings advocate for a paradigm shift from prohibitive policies to the responsible, expert-guided integration of AI in academic research and writing, grounded in transparency and accountability, and present arguments for why the AI tool should be listed as a co-author despite current injunctions against such practice
Spin assignments in the transitional nuclei 215Po, 219Rn and 223Ra from alpha-gamma directional correlation measurements
No full textApplied Science
A multi-agent operational planning model for airport stakeholders: using capacity forecasts in winter scenarios
No full textAerospace EngineeringControl & OperationsAir Transport & Operations (ATO
Culture of strategically pooled bovine fecal samples as a method to screen herds for paratuberculosis
No full textFecal samples from 733 cows in 11 dairy herds with a low prevalence of paratuberculosis were cultured for the presence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis both individually and after combining (pooling) in groups of 5. The culture procedure was the modified Jorgensen method, which uses NaOH and oxalic acid for decontamination and modified Lowenstein-Jensen agar slants for cultivation. Pooling was performed by mixing fecal samples from 5 animals ordered by age, herein referred to as strategic pooling. Culture of individual fecal samples detected M. a. paratuberculosis infections in 43 of the 733 cows and 7 of 11 infected herds (herd sensitivity = 64%). Culture of pooled fecal samples detected M. a. paratuberculosis in 28 of 151 pooled samples representing 8 of the infected 11 herds (herd sensitivity = 73%). Feces of the 43 culture-positive cows was included in 32 pools: of these 32 pools, 26 were culture positive and 6 were culture negative. In addition to the 26 positive pools containing feces from cows that were found culture positive on individual fecal samples, another 2 pools were culture positive, although comprised of feces from cows with negative results after culture of individual fecal samples. From the total of 45 infected cows that were found (43 by individual fecal culture and an additional 2 by pooled fecal culture), individual fecal culture detected 43 of these 45 (96%), while pooled fecal culture detected 39 (87%). Culture of strategically pooled fecal samples using the modified Jorgensen method was equivalent in herd sensitivity to the culture of individual fecal samples and is significantly less expensive.LR: 20031114; PUBM: Print; JID: 9011490; ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
The Equipment Journey as a tool to design safe surgical equipment for low-and middle income countries: Electrosurgery used as an example
No full textIn low- and middle income countries there is a need for safe and affordable high quality surgical equipment. Nowadays, electrosurgical units are part of the standard equipment in operation theatres worldwide, since electrosurgery comes with many advantages such as reduced blood loss. However, the technology of electrosurgery also carries several safety risks such as alternative electrical pathways or current leakage which often have burn wounds as a result. The problem is that electrosurgical equipment was not designed with the low-resource healthcare context in mind. And as research shows many hazardous situations are frequently caused by electrosurgical equipment use in low-resource countries (Oosting, 2018). The aim of this study is to determine how the low-resource healthcare context triggers safety risks to occur. Therefore, the general technology related risks, the journey of the electrosurgical equipment in terms of activities, and the user characteristics are researched. In the user study special attention is paid to the users’ knowledge about electrosurgery. The research data was collected by conducting a literature study, and by using a qualitative case study approach. In a Kenyan national hospital fourteen surgeries were observed and semi-structured interviews were held with users of the electrosurgical equipment. The data was used to map out the electrosurgical equipment journey including all the phases and activities the equipment is involved in. Additionally, user profiles were created. The results show that the electrosurgical equipment journey contains following phases: procurement, pre-treatment, surgical treatment, post treatment, maintenance, repair and disposal. The main users of the electrosurgical equipment are the biomechanical engineering technician (BMET), the nurse, the surgical assistant, the surgeon and medical students. What is striking is that only the BMET learn about the principles of electrosurgery during his/her education. The study results reveal that the interplay of safety risks generally related to electrosurgery, contextual factors, and user characteristics trigger several safety concerns. The risks lead from the selection of too high power settings to incorrect placement of the return electrode plate, and not knowing how to react in case of an system error. The study reveals that many of those safety concerns are caused by the medical staff’s lack of knowledge about the principles and risks of electrosurgery, and by an interface design that does not consider these user characteristics and needs. On this basis, a new interface of the electrosurgical unit and additional information stickers for safe equipment use are developed during this project. The equipment journey is used to pinpoint safety concerns and related root causes which are planned to resolve. Furthermore, the journey helps to determine where the design intervention should be placed. It is recommended to further develop the design concepts in the future and test their usability with intended users. The equipment journey for discovering safety concerns appeared not only to be valuable within this project. An evaluation of the equipment journey revealed that the tool is also valuable for other designers/researchers to empathize with the low-resource healthcare setting, and to gain insights into the journey of the equipment and the related safety concerns. Future research should explore if the equipment journey is also suitable for mapping out the journey and safety concerns of other surgical equipment.Design for Interactio
Investigating uncertainty in the heating transition: A Sensitivity Analysis case study of the CEGOIA model
No full textThe Dutch heating transition involves changing the heating systems of eight million buildings to a sustainable alternative by 2050. Many heating system technologies are available, but deciding which systems are cheapest for all these buildings is a difficult question to answer. Local policymakers are increasingly making use of heating transition models that estimate the feasibility and costs of systems in municipal neighbourhoods. The applicability of these models is limited by the degree of uncertainty about the future as well as the complexity in communicating the model results to policymakers. Sensitivity Analysis (SA) is a tool with which the most influential model uncertainties can be identified, quantified and communicated. So far, limited energy transition model studies have extensively used this method. A case study of SA on the CEGOIA heating transition model was performed to fill this gap and evaluate SA’s value. CEGOIA calculates the costs of a variety of heating systems and optimizes the allocation of scarce energy carriers such as green gas and hydrogen to find the lowest societal costs. Sensitivities of eight heating system options were analysed in different archetypical neighbourhood contexts using Fractional Factorial analysis, the Method of Morris and the Sobol’ Method. Out of an initial set of 953 parameters, a subset of less than a dozen highly influential variables – consistent between neighbourhoods of different physical characteristics – was identified for each heating system option. High sensitivities indicate that changing the value of a parameter leads to a large change in total costs. These sets, therefore, describe exactly what uncertainties are crucial to evaluating what heating system is the cheapest possible solution. Variables in these sets include, but are not limited to, the price and infrastructure costs of electricity and gas, heating installation costs and insulation costs. Interviews with other heating transition model owners further illustrated that the use of systematic SA as done in this analysis is not the norm. Besides results and insights from the CEGOIA SA, further applications for SA in heating transition modelling is postulated to be able to improve the modelling process, as well as better, understand complex model dynamics. One recommendation is, therefore, to include SA as part of the toolkit for the large heating transition models currently being used in the Netherlands. The main barrier for doing so with CEGOIA is the computational time of the model, which limited the number of parameters that could be evaluated as well as the SA techniques that could be used. Still, a more systematic analysis of sensitivities in heating transition models will provide insights that ultimately aid Dutch policymakers in making robust decisions.Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM
Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal Films Based on E7
No full textPolymeric materials containing dispersed microdroplets of liquid crystal (Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals, PDLC's) can be used as displays. PDLC's are translucent due to scattering of light by the liquid crystal (LC) droplets. Using an electric field the LC-molecules align parallel to the applied field, which will cause transparency if the refractive indices of the liquid crystal and the transparent polymer matrix match each other...Applied SciencesMaterials Science and Chemical EngineeringFunctional Properties and Application
Comparing Energy Efficiency Policies affecting Technology Adoption by Households and the Role of the Intermediary: An Agent-Based Modeling study
No full textImproving energy efficiency is marked as one of the key strategies to tackle global warming. Therefore policy makers try to design policies that steer our society towards a more energy efficient way of living. An important target for policy makers is the residential sector. Households use fuel and electricity, to power all sorts of residential technologies and appliances. However, they often do not adopt the most energy efficient technologies available to them. There is no simple answer as to why households do not adopt energy efficiency sufficiently. This is because the adoption of energy efficient technologies can be described as a complex adaptive system. The decision making of households is dependent on complex attitudes, preferences, perceptions and needs. Nevertheless, policy makers try to influence the adoption decisions of households through the use of multiple policy measures. Academics have developed an interest in the potential effects of intermediary parties on the adoption of energy efficient technologies by households. We can specify an intermediary as: a party that is necessary for the adoption of energy efficient technologies, but cannot accomplish energy efficiency by itself. In this thesis project policies that include the role of the intermediary in residential technology adoption are compared to other energy efficiency policies by means of an agent-based model. Recommendations on future agent-based models on the role of the intermediary and efficiency policies are made.CHanging Energy Efficiency Technology Adoption in Households (CHEETAH)Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM
Retained placenta in Friesian mares: incidence, and potential risk factors with special emphasis on gestational length
No full textDuring the foaling seasons of 1999 and 2000, the incidence of retained placenta in 495 normal parturitions of 436 Friesian brood mares was studied. Retained placenta was defined as a failure to expel all fetal membranes within 3 h of the delivery of the foal. Furthermore, the sex of the foal, month of breeding, sire and dam's sire, age of the mare, and time of day of foaling, were studied as factors that might be associated with retained placenta in Friesian mares after normal foalings, and with gestational length. The analysis was carried out using marginal logistic regression, and mixed linear regression, respectively. The incidence of retained placenta was 54%. Mean length of gestation was 331.6 days. Colts were carried 1.5 days longer than fillies. Mares bred in July-September had a 4-day shorter gestation period (329 days) than mares bred earlier in the year. There was a mare, sire, and dam's sire effect on gestational length, and a mare effect on the occurrence of retained placenta. Mares foaling at 4 and >17 years of age, tended to have a lower incidence of retained placenta than mares foaling at 5-17 years of age. No association was found between the occurrence of retained placenta, and gestational length, sex of the foal, month of breeding, dam's sire, and time of day of foaling. It was concluded that the observed high incidence of retained placenta indicates that the Friesian breed of horses has a higher risk for retained placenta than other breeds of horses.PUBM: Print; JID: 0421510; ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
Dielectric Characterisation of Anisotropic Gels
No full textLiquid Crystal (LC) systems working on the principle of light scattering, for example Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals, are of great interest. A recently developed gel system containing a low molecular weight liquid crystal and a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) network can also be used for electrically induced scattering. The gel system can be formed by interconnecting phases of free LC-molecules and crosslinked network molecules. In order to induce isotropic light scattering a homeotropic oriented gel system was developed. The structure and the concentration of the network was found to have an effect on the resultant light scattering and optical measurements showed the existence of little domains in the gels. To study these domains dielectric measurements were used to characterise the gel system and to find more information about the domains. The presence of the domains give rise to the socalled Maxwell-Wagner effects: accumulation of charges at the interface of the domains will give an increase in the dielectric constant and this can be measured using dielectric relaxation measurements. To support the characterisation of the gel system DSC-measurements were performed, which showed the characteristic transitions of the LC and the LCP network. Using a standard cell with circular electrodes of ITO and Au dielectric measurements were performed. Electrode polarisation was observed in all samples (pure lc and gels containing 7 w/w% LCP-network), which is caused by ion conductivity in the sample. Activation energies of the observed relaxations are close to values found for ion conductivity. The model found for the observed relaxations with Boukamp Equivalent Circuits fits the model known for electrode polarisation. Maxwell-Wagner effects due to the presence of the domains were not observed. They were probably overruled by the electrode polarisation. A higher conductivity was observed after curing with a UV-source for both the pure LC and the gels. The increase in conductivity can not fully be explained by the increase of conductivity of the pure LC. ITO-electrodes caused disturbtion in the measurements and deflected results were obtained. Electrode polarisation in ionic conducting materials might be avoided using a bias during the dielectric measurements. The ions will be trapped in the sample by the electric field and the epsilon perpendicular will be measured. The observed relaxations will be due to the sample and not due to the mobility of the ions. Measurements with the gels system could give useful information about the domains as the electrode polarisation is not occurring. Further experiments should be focussed on the use of a bias during these measurements.Applied SciencesMaterials Science and Chemical EngineeringPolymers and Organic Chemistry, Technologie van Macromoleculaire Stoffe
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