To improve cancer treatments, personalized medicine approaches have aimed to identify exactly which mutations are driving tumor development in a given patient and specifically target these mutations using precision therapies.

The soil ecosystem consists of the largest reservoir of biodiversity on Earth.

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”.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: Y.H. Choi

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide. The most important risk factor for developing this disease is high cholesterol levels in the blood.

In recent decades, climate change has led to more frequent and severe drought events, causing serious consequences such as increased forest mortality and significant crop yield losses. Understanding how drought affects plants, especially economically important herbaceous species, is crucial for predicting…

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics fails to explain several observed phenomena and is incomplete. In order to resolve this problem, one may extend the SM by adding new particles.

In today's volatile market environments, companies must be able to continuously innovate. In this context, innovation does not only refer to the development of new products or business models but often also affects the entire organization, which has to transform its structures, processes, and ways of…

The focus throughout this thesis will be on gathering fundamental studies of the detailed structure and composition of the electrode/electrolyte interface effect on the rate and mechanism of key electrocatalytic reactions.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H.J.M. de Groot, Prof.dr. J. Matysik (Universitaet Leipzig)

In this thesis, I targeted the orchid genus Lepanthes, one of the six genera of angiosperms that surpasses 1,000 species in the Neotropics, as a study model to investigate the evolutionary processes that promoted species diversifications.

Comparing the global warming potential (GWP) of the service provided by an iRex Digital Reader to the same service provided by an office printer using a scanning LCA.

In this thesis it is posed that the central object of preference discovery is a co-creative process in which the Other can be represented by a machine. It explores efficient methods to enhance introverted intuition using extraverted intuition's communication lines.

The majority (80%) of e-waste generated globally are recycled informally in developing countries.

Assessing the risks of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) solely on the basis of experimental assays is time-consuming, resource intensive, and constrained by ethical considerations (such as the principles of the 3Rs of animal testing). The adoption of computational toxicology in this field is a high p…

The experiments described in this thesis employ local lentiviral knockdowns in brain areas of female zebra finches followed by behavioural assays consisting of preference and Go/Nogo tasks.

The clinical potential of applying synthetic lethality to cancer treatment is famously demonstrated by the BRCA1/PARP1 paradigm: a tumor specific defect in BRCA1 – a component of the DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair pathway homologous recombination (HR) – results in a remarkable sensitivity to PARP1…

While ecosystems have concrete benefits for human society, these benefits are typically overlooked in decision-making.

Promotores: Prof.dr. P.C.W. Hogendoorn & Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink Co-promotor: Dr. B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

It is a common technique in global optimization with expensive black-box functions to learn a surrogate-model of the response function from past evaluations and use it to decide on the location of future evaluations.

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a powerful technique used to visualize the inside of cells and to study specific protein complexes. Within this thesis, I describe the use of various cryo-EM techniques to gain insight into the structural changes of the human pathogen, Vibrio cholerae, as it…

Multi-objective evolutionary computation aims to find high quality (Pareto optimal) solutions that represent the trade-off between multiple objectives.

In this thesis, a system pharmacology approach, integrating metabolomics, pharmacology and chemical biology, was applied to understand and modulate the endocannabinoid system across different model systems (cells, zebrafish, mice and humans).

Bacterial chemosensory arrays are protein assemblies that are the key structural and functional component for motile bacteria to sense their internal or environmental chemical signals.

Promotores: J. Kok, M. Chaudron (Chalmers University)

This thesis takes steps toward understanding the interaction between gas-phase and solid-state molecules in star- and planet-forming regions.

This research delves into the unique cultural approach of the Tenggerese people, an Indigenous community in East Java, Indonesia, regarding elderly care. It focuses on their traditional practices of bakti (‘filial piety’) and sayan (‘mutual aid’), deeply ingrained in the community's lifestyle and va…

I have studied the hot, diffuse gas around and between galaxies. Specifically, I have used the EAGLE numerical simulations of galaxy formation to predict the properties of this gas, and I have used those properties to predict specific observables: soft X-ray absorption and emission lines.

Learning from small data sets in machine learning is a crucial challenge, especially when dealing with data imbalances and anomaly detection. This thesis delves into the challenges and methodologies of learning from small datasets in machine learning, with a particular focus on addressing data imbalances…

How should jurisdictions, both on the national and on the supra-national level, handle the interaction between public and private law where it regards the regulation of financial markets?

This dissertation presents a new perspective on the life, work and character of the Dutch physical chemist Jacobus Henricus van ’t Hoff, first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and one of the most important and colourful scientists in Dutch history. The image of Van ’t Hoff that emerges from…

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.

Accumulation of metals in economy and environment and its associated risks, within the Netherlands and the EU.

Description of Biotic ligand models: making an inventory of available models & assessment of the variability of the predicted HC5 using the BLMs in different Dutch water types (2005 - 2007)

Promotor: G.A. Persoon, Co-promotor: H.H. de Iongh

In deep reinforcement learning, searching and learning techniques are two important components. They can be used independently and in combination to deal with different problems in AI, and have achieved impressive results in game playing and robotics. These results have inspired research into artificial…

The research described in this thesis has, using the zebrafish as a model system, shed new light on the intricate relationship between TB and DM2, in particular on the role of leptin, SHP-1 and glucocorticoids.

What happens to electrical waves that have to cross gaps in insulation material around nerves in the human body

The research in this dissertation aims to optimise blood donation processes in the framework of the Dutch national blood bank Sanquin. The primary health risk for blood donors is iron deficiency, which is evaluated based on donors' hemoglobin and ferritin levels.

What is movements and corridors of the Bornean pygmy elephant in Sebuku forest? What is the nature of human-elephant conflict in Nunukan District in time and space? What are the diets of the Bornean elephants related to crop raiding?

In this dissertation non-parametric Bayesian methods are used in the application of robotic vision.

From 16 to 18 August, 30 participants from 18 different countries gathered online to participate in the Online Summer Programme: Preventing, Detecting and Responding to Violent Extremism, organised by Leiden University’s Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) together with the International Centre for…

This thesis consists of three chapters, the first two of which concern division points of elements of the multiplicative group of a number field.

This thesis presents the first synthetic peptides ADP-ribosylated on serine, threonine, tyrosine, arginine and cysteine.

Promotor: Prof.dr. C.U. Keller, Co-promotor: Frans Snik

The first direct detection of gravitational waves opened the possibility of mapping the Universe via this new and independent messenger.

This thesis is based on five papers on several topics.

In this study the flows of PVC and its additives through the Swedish Society were followed from the cradle to the grave (from production to waste treatment).

Promotor: F. Arbab, R. De Nicola, Co-Promotor: M. Tribastone

This thesis discusses the discovery potential of Intensity Frontier experiments.