In this PhD study, I aim to deepen our understanding of the influence of major mycorrhizal types, namely arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and ectomycorrhizae (EM), on the global soil carbon cycle and their potential distribution changes under future environmental shifts.

The main aim of my Ph.D. thesis is to further explore the value of using early developing zebrafish larvae (up to 5 dpf) as a model to study anxiety-like behaviour and their pharmacological modulation with drugs.

This thesis aims to test in vitro pipelines to rapidly and cost-effectively identify molecular mechanisms that drive adverse outcomes in clinical use.

In this dissertation (titled: Exploring the Synergies between Transfer in Reinforcement Learning and Procedural Content Generation) we explore how the two research fields named in the title, namely Transfer in Reinforcement Learning (TRL) and Procedural Content Generation (PCG) can synergize togethe…

This thesis focuses on protoplanetary disks: flattened structures of gas and dust around young stars in which planets are expected to form and grow.

In my research, we developed a method to distinguish knots. A knot is a mathematical depiction of the everyday knot that occurs in ropes and cords.

Promotor: H.V.J. Linnartz

The research presented in this thesis concerns one of the most important questions in software engineering of our time: how can we make sure that software is free from memory safety bugs?

In this thesis,

Promotor: Prof.dr. P. Stevenhagen, Prof.dr. K. Belabas (Univ. de Bordeaux)

Metal complexes and 2D materials like graphene were combined to produce structures that can function as sensors.

Promotor: Prof.dr. B. van de Water

This thesis describes the functional analysis of the Arabidopsis AHL15 gene.

Natural resources often stretch across borders that separate modern nation states. This can create conflict and limit opportunities for regulated consumption of their goods and services, but also provide opportunities for joint multinational efforts that exceed single country capabilities.

In this thesis, two potential therapeutic targets for diabetic nephropathy were dentified and investigated. First, we show that glomerular clusterin is upregulated in diabetic nephropathy and demonstrated that recombinant clusterin protein can protect the podocytes against oxidative stress in vitro.…

BlaC is the β-lactamase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We show that it can recover from inhibition by clavulanic acid and that phosphate helps it do so.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H Lenstra, Prof.dr. A Facchini (Padova University)

Promotores: R. Cramer, A.K. Lenstra, Co-Promotor: B.M.M. de Weger

Over the last decades, aviation safety has improved strongly. As a downside, airline pilots do not have as many opportunities to develop through experience the competencies that they need in critical situations.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. Smets. Co-promotores: B. Gravendeel, F. Pupulin

Promotor: J. Zaanen, Co-Promotor: V. Juricic

Promotor: Christoph U. Keller, Co-promotores: Matthew A. Kenworthy, Frans Snik

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel

There is concern about the threat that nanoplastics (NPs) may pose to both wildlife and humans. This thesis explores the mechanisms of toxicity of polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) in chicken embryo.

Stars like the sun are born in large molecular clouds existing from gas and dust. During the formation process, the chemical composition of the material can be altered drastically by the changing physical conditions.

The complexity of an intelligence problem determines to a great extent the certainty that can be provided by intelligence and security services.

Urbanisation is steadily increasing with estimates expecting that 68% of the global population will live in cities by 2050. To accommodate the rural to urban transition, large quantities of land are transformed from natural to urban lands.

This thesis contains results on the arithmetic and geometry of del Pezzo surfaces of degree 1.In Chapter 1 we give the necessary background, assuming the reader is familiar with algebraic geometry.

In this thesis we study the moduli space of genus g curves, and the differential forms that occur naturally on this moduli space.

This thesis is is made of three parts. The first part describes a generalization of the Chabauty's method, that can be used to determine the rational points of a curve such that s+g>r+1, where g is the genusof the curve, r is the rank of the Mordell-Weil group of the jacobian of the curve and s is…

This thesis describes how different colours of light affect various aspects of the growth and development of Arabidopsis and tomato plants⁠.

Promotor: A. Doelman, Co-promotores: P.J.A. van Heijster; A. Zagaris

In this thesis, we have used numerical approaches to study the effects of translational symmetry breaking on strange metallic systems as realised by the holographic duality⁠.

Prof.dr. P. Stevenhagen, Prof.dr. K. Belabas (Universite Bordeaux I)

In this thesis, we used genetically engineered mouse models and a variety of cell-culture based assays to identify genes and pathways that are involved in the development and treatment of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC).

Synthetic hydrogels that mimic the natural extracellular matrix in the biophysical and biochemical cues it provides to cells are in high demand, however the cell phenotypes as they are observed in vivo in numerous cases have yet to be attained.

Promotores: H.W. Lenstra, A. Lucchini

This thesis is dedicated to the exploration of the primordial dark ages: unknown physics during the earliest stages of the Universe’s expansion that have not yet been directly probed by observations. Cosmic inflation is a burst of exponential expansion of space after the “Big Bang”.

The zoo of detected exoplanets reveals both the uniqueness of our own Solar System and the complexity of planetary system formation, sparking fundamental questions about how planetary systems form and evolve.

To contribute to the body of knowledge aiming at a better coverage of ecosystem service assessment in LCA studies, this thesis dives into the challenges of incorporating existing ecosystem service methods within the impact assessment phase of the conventional LCA framework.

When a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it is torn apart by strong tidal forces in a tidal disruption event (TDE).

Promotor: J. N. Kok, Co-promotor: A. J. Knobbe

In astronomy, the interpration of observations and measurements plays a crucial role: we rely purely and fundamentally on the information that reaches us as observers. And 80% of all matter in the universe is undetectable directly.

Pulsars were first discovered in 1967 and since then the population has grown and expanded over several wavelengths.

Solar energy is used by photosynthetic organisms to drive energy required cellular processes. Is absorbed by two groups of pigments, located in the LHCs.

β-Lactamases are enzymes that can break down β-lactam substrates, such as antibiotics, preventing the use of these antibiotics for the treatment of various infectious diseases. However, some compounds, β-lactamase inhibitors, can block these enzymes allowing for possible treatments using a combination…

The physical origin of the dozens of stellar-mass binaries, the mergers of which have been detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration via gravitational waves, is still unknown.

This dissertation presents new cryptographic protocols, which can be divided into two families.

Promotor: J.W.M. Frenken

Plants, are sessile organisms, have developed strategies to adapt to changes in their environment, in part by altering their growth and development.