Actualisering landgebruik Deltascenario's 2023

De Deltascenario’s beschrijven mogelijke toekomstige ontwikkelingen die van belang zijn voor wateropgaven in Nederland. In opdracht van het Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu werkt Deltares aan het actualiseren van de Deltascenario’s die oorspronkelijk in 2012-2013 door diverse onderzoeksinstellingen zijn opgesteld. Dit rapport beschrijft de tweede actualisatieronde die volgt op de eerdere actualisatie uit 2017.Voor de ruimtelijke vertaling van de geactualiseerde scenario’s heeft Deltares beroep gedaan op de VU. Met behulp van het model Ruimtescanner heeft de VU in nauwe samenwerking met PBL Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving gewerkt aan het vervaardigen van:- landgebruikskaarten voor de huidige situatie (2023) en voor de vier deltascenario’s;- verhardingskaarten in het stedelijke gebied van ieder van de hierboven genoemde landgebruikskaarten.De resultaten zijn als digitale bestanden uitgeleverd aan Deltares. Dit rapport beschrijft de belangrijkste aanpassingen en aannamen in het model Ruimtescanner die speciaal voor dit project zijn doorgevoerd. Het beschrijft onder meer de scenario-specifieke instellingen en de resulterende landgebruikskaarten. Het rapport sluit af met een beknopte discussie waarin eventuele vervolgstappen worden benoemd

Exploring sustainable urbanization pathways by simulating local density change

Geographical information and decision support systems are a well established part of the spatial and environmental planning process in The Netherlands (e.g. Geertman and Stillwell, 2009). An example of a land-use model which is applied particularly widely is Land Use Scanner (e.g., Koomen and Borsboom-van Beurden, 2011). Modelling approaches like these have so far focused mainly onurban expansion or, in more recent terms, land take (European Commission, 2011). Densification, defined as the share of buildings allocated to existing built-up areas instead of locations outside the city, is often treated as a given (exogeneous). Local density change and the underlying demolition and construction of buildings are only accounted for in an aggregated form, or remain wholly implicit. This study introduces an applied model which simulates the processes of construction and demolition explicitly, and does so on a highly disaggregated level (i.e. 25 x 25 meter grid cells). Construction and demolition are functions of regional projections of population (households) and economic (jobs) (re)construction options on the other. The practical use of the model is demonstrated by applying it in a broad, integrated scenario study (PBL, 2023). It shows that explicitly simulating the underlying processes that make up the urban fabric allows us to consistently account for a wide range of societalcosts and benefits associated with urbanization, including soil sealing, flood damage and the accessibility of green space, enabling us to explore sustainable urbanization pathways indeed

Real-time myoelectric control of wrist/hand motion in Duchenne muscular dystrophy:A case study

Introduction: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that induces progressive muscular degeneration. Currently, the increase in DMD individuals' life expectancy is not being matched by an increase in quality of life. The functioning of the hand and wrist is central for performing daily activities and for providing a higher degree of independence. Active exoskeletons can assist this functioning but require the accurate decoding of the users' motor intention. These methods have, however, never been systematically analyzed in the context of DMD.Methods: This case study evaluated direct control (DC) and pattern recognition (PR), combined with an admittance model. This enabled customization of myoelectric controllers to one DMD individual and to a control population of ten healthy participants during a target-reaching task in 1- and 2- degrees of freedom (DOF). We quantified real-time myocontrol performance using target reaching times and compared the differences between the healthy individuals and the DMD individual.Results and Discussion: Our findings suggest that despite the muscle tissue degeneration, the myocontrol performance of the DMD individual was comparable to that of the healthy individuals in both DOFs and with both control approaches. It was also evident that PR control performed better for the 2-DOF tasks for both DMD and healthy participants, while DC performed better for the 1-DOF tasks. The insights gained from this study can lead to further developments for the intuitive multi-DOF myoelectric control of active hand exoskeletons for individuals with DMD

Characterization of Forearm Muscle Activation in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy via High-Density Electromyography:A Case Study on the Implications for Myoelectric Control

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that results in progressive muscular degeneration. Although medical advances increased their life expectancy, DMD individuals are still highly dependent on caregivers. Hand/wrist function is central for providing independence, and robotic exoskeletons are good candidates for effectively compensating for deteriorating functionality. Robotic hand exoskeletons require the accurate decoding of motor intention typically via surface electromyography (sEMG). Traditional low-density sEMG was used in the past to explore the muscular activations of individuals with DMD; however, it cannot provide high spatial resolution. This study characterized, for the first time, the forearm high-density (HD) electromyograms of three individuals with DMD while performing seven hand/wrist-related tasks and compared them to eight healthy individuals (all data available online). We looked into the spatial distribution of HD-sEMG patterns by using principal component analysis (PCA) and also assessed the repeatability and the amplitude distributions of muscle activity. Additionally, we used a machine learning approach to assess DMD individuals' potentials for myocontrol. Our analysis showed that although participants with DMD were able to repeat similar HD-sEMG patterns across gestures (similarly to healthy participants), a fewer number of electrodes was activated during their gestures compared to the healthy participants. Additionally, participants with DMD activated their muscles close to maximal contraction level (0.63 ± 0.23), whereas healthy participants had lower normalized activations (0.26 ± 0.2). Lastly, participants with DMD showed on average fewer PCs (3), explaining 90% of the complete gesture space than the healthy (5). However, the ability of the DMD participants to produce repeatable HD-sEMG patterns was unexpectedly comparable to that of healthy participants, and the same holds true for their offline myocontrol performance, disproving our hypothesis and suggesting a clear potential for the myocontrol of wearable exoskeletons. Our findings present evidence for the first time on how DMD leads to progressive alterations in hand/wrist motor control in DMD individuals compared to healthy. The better understanding of these alterations can lead to further developments for the intuitive and robust myoelectric control of active hand exoskeletons for individuals with DMD

Strangeness nuclear physics - 2010

Selected topics in Strangeness Nuclear Physics are reviewed: Lambda hypernuclear spectroscopy and structure, multistrangeness, and Kbar mesons in nucleiComment: Proceedings version of an Overview talk at New Frontiers in QCD 2010 (NFQCD10) - Exotic Hadron Systems and Dense Matter - Yukawa Institute, Kyoto, Feb. 2010; v2 updates Table II for double-Lambda hypernuclei and its discussion beyond the published journal versio

On the Surface Structure of Strange Superheavy Nuclei

Bound, strange, neutral superheavy nuclei, stable against strong decay, may exist. A model effective field theory calculation of the surface energy and density of such systems is carried out assuming vector meson couplings to conserved currents and scalar couplings fit to data where it exists. The non-linear relativistic mean field equations are solved assuming local baryon sources. The approach is calibrated through a successful calculation of the known nuclear surface tension.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Weak Decay of Lambda Hypernuclei

In this review we discuss the present status of strange nuclear physics, with special attention to the weak decay of Lambda hypernuclei. The models proposed for the evaluation of the Lambda decay widths are summarized and their results are compared with the data. Despite the recent intensive investigations, the main open problem remains a sound theoretical interpretation of the large experimental values of the ratio G_n/G_p. Although recent works offer a step forward in the solution of the puzzle, further efforts must be invested in order to understand the detailed dynamics of the non-mesonic decay. Even if, by means of single nucleon spectra measurements, the error bars on G_n/G_p have been considerably reduced very recently at KEK, a clean extraction of G_n/G_p is needed. What is missing at present, but planned for the next future, are measurements of 1) nucleon energy spectra in double coincidence and 2) nucleon angular correlations: such observations allow to disentangle the nucleons produced in one- and two-body induced decays and lead to a direct determination of G_n/G_p. For the asymmetric non-mesonic decay of polarized hypernuclei the situation is even more puzzling. Indeed, strong inconsistencies appear already among data. A recent experiment obtained a positive intrinsic Lambda asymmetry parameter, a_{Lambda}, for 5_{Lambda}He. This is in complete disagreement with a previous measurement, which obtained a large and negative a_{Lambda} for p-shell hypernuclei, and with theory, which predicts a negative value moderately dependent on nuclear structure effects. Also in this case, improved experiments establishing with certainty the sign and magnitude of a_{Lambda} for s- and p-shell hypernuclei will provide a guidance for a deeper understanding of hypernuclear dynamics and decay mechanisms.Comment: 129 pages, 21 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rep