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This paper introduces novel analysis procedures for the structural assessment of masonry earth retaining structures subjected to traffic loading. Given their substantial presence, particularly in transportation networks of historical cities, and the challenges posed by ageing, deterioration, and exposure to loads beyond their original design considerations, this research highlights the necessity of accounting for potential load redistribution mechanisms during their assessment. This can prevent overly conservative interventions that may not be necessary and also contravene sustainability and heritage preservation principles. Four distinct analysis procedures – 2D monotonic, 3D monotonic, 3D static moving load and 3D dynamic moving load – are developed, each progressively more refined than its predecessor in capturing potential load redistribution mechanisms in masonry earth retaining structures. These mechanisms may develop due to the dynamic loading conditions of the vehicular passage, the 3D structural configuration of retaining structures, and non-linear material behaviour. By comparing the structural capacity evaluated using the four procedures, contributions from different sources of load redistribution can be separately quantified, aiding in the reduction of conservatism inherent in less refined assessment procedures. The application of the developed procedures and consequent quantification of load redistribution is demonstrated through a case study of an existing masonry retaining structure in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. • Analysis procedures for masonry earth retaining structures under traffic loading. • 2D monotonic, 3D monotonic, 3D static and 3D dynamic moving load procedures. • Load redistribution is due to dynamic loading and 3D structural configuration. • Demonstrated application to a case study in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As appointed in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan, cities and regions in EU member countries start accompanying their circular economy strategies by monitoring frameworks, often called Circular Economy Monitors (CEM). Having the task to assess the performance towards the achievement of set targets and to steer decision-making, CEMs need to rely on a multitude of statistics and datasets. Waste statistics play an important role in circular economy monitoring as they provide insights into the remaining linear part of the economy. The collection of waste statistics is mandated by the European Commission which provides general guidelines on data collection and processing. The Netherlands has one of the most detailed waste registries among the EU countries. The country's largest metropolitan region, Amsterdam, is currently building a CEM which tracks progress over time towards the set goals, highlights which areas need improvement and estimates target feasibility. This paper uses the Amsterdam CEM as a case-study to explore how the existing system of waste registration in the Netherlands is able to support decision-making. The data is explored with the help of four queries that relate to the CEM's goals and require data mapping to be answered. The data mapping and analysis process has revealed several limitations present in the waste data collection and a number of gaps present in current circular economy research and data analysis. At the same time, the available data already supports significant insights into the status quo of the current waste system and provides opportunities for circular economy monitoring. • The paper puts forward the improvement of the European Waste Statistics Regulation. • Waste Statistics require more interoperability to support Circular Economy Transition. • The waste classification has limited utility in assessing circular economy strategies. • The Dutch National Waste Registry provides highly detailed geographical information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Wind flow in urban environments is an important factor governing the dispersion of heat and pollutants from streets, squares and buildings. This paper presents a coupled CFD modelling approach for urban wind flow and indoor natural ventilation. A specific procedure is used to efficiently and simultaneously generate the geometry and the high-resolution body-fitted grid for both the outdoor and indoor environment. This procedure allows modelling complex geometries with full control over grid quality and grid resolution, contrary to standard semi-automatic unstructured grid generation procedures. It also provides a way to easily implement various changes in the model geometry and grid for parametric studies. As a case study, a parametric analysis of natural ventilation is performed for the geometrically complex Amsterdam ArenA stadium in the Netherlands. The turbulent wind flow and temperature distribution around and inside the stadium are solved with the 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. Special attention is given to CFD solution verification and validation. It is shown that small geometrical modifications can increase the ventilation rate by up to 43%. The coupled modelling approach and grid generation procedure presented in this paper can be used similarly for future studies of wind flow and related processes in complex urban environments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The electric mobility is a promising option to create a more sustainable mobility system for the future. The introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) into society poses several important challenges, such as; new interactions, limited driving range, and recharging time, and are relatively expensive. At system level there is an even bigger challenge; the use of EVs requires an adequate charging and electric grid infrastructure, as well as dedicated solutions for vehicle charging and storage that are optimally integrated into the urban environment. In this paper the results are presented of a ‘design inclusive research’ project for the introduction of EVs into a dense urban environment. Researchers & designers from architecture, industrial design, electrical engineering, technology assessment and innovation management background were involved. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with its 48 million passenger movements per year was taken as a challenging case. The Schiphol Group has the ambition to develop its properties and business park areas in a sustainable and socially responsible way. Electric mobility is considered as one of the options for sustainable innovation. The results show that it is possible to create a multifunctional, sustainable and comfortable urban area in which the electric mobility is very well integrated. It can be stated that the sustainable urban development is becoming more feasible by the clever combination of renewable energy, electricity grid design, inductive Park & Charge and customized EV services. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Particulars of 6km long HTS AC power cable for Amsterdam project are: a cable has to fit in an annulus of 160mm, with only two cooling stations at the cable ends . Application of existing solutions for HTS cables would result in excessively high coolant pressure drop in the cable, possibly affecting public acceptance of the project. In order to solve this problem, a model cryostat was developed consisting of alternating rigid and flexible sections and hydraulic tests were conducted using sub-cooled liquid nitrogen. In the 47 m-long cryostat, containing a full-size HTS cable model, measured pressure drop amounts 11 mbar at the mass flow rate of 0.3kg/s and temperature 65K. For a 6 km-long HTS cable this gives a pressure drop below 2bar, which is acceptable. In order to achieve this result, the cryostat was manufactured from alternating straight rigid sections and corrugated flexible sections. A flexible dummy HTS cable was inserted into this cryostat and sub-cooled liquid nitrogen was circulated in the annulus between the dummy cable surface and the inner cryostat surface. In the paper details are presented of the cryostat, of the measurement setup, of the experiment and of the results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The offshore gas fields in The Netherlands provide a storage capacity of about 1 Gt, which will become available over the next few decades. Existing production facilities may be re-used for injection. Uncertainties in storage capacity, injection rates and time of availability require an analysis of the feasibility of storing CO2 at the rates currently projected for the period 2015–2050. This paper investigates the availability of storage capacity and the feasibility of injecting CO2 at the rate that current capture scenarios foresee. The cost of storage in depleted gas fields is estimated, assuming either re-use of existing installations or the construction of new platforms and wells. Unit cost of storage, non-discounted, in the range of 10 € /t CO2 is feasible for larger fields; costs for small fields are estimated to range up to 40 € /t CO2. Constructing new, dedicated facilities is not always the more expensive option, due to sometimes long hibernation times and higher operational cost of existing facilities. Two capture scenarios are used for the Rotterdam and Amsterdam areas, with captured volumes increasing to 25 Mt/yr or 40 Mt/yr. In both cases, injection rate limitations become apparent when 70–75% of the storage capacity is used, which is around 2055 and 2045, respectively. To ensure continuity of storage, alternatives for storage in offshore gas fields need to be in place by then. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In densely-populated countries and in particular in large metropolitan areas, the presence of so much human activity causes all sorts of negative externalities, for example traffic noise disturbance. These externalities call for corrective measures by the government. Economists have developed a number of procedures that provide reasonable estimates on the monetary value of some amenities and externalities. In this paper we develop a spatially-explicit hedonic pricing model for house prices in order to quantify the social cost of aircraft noise disturbance in monetary terms. While focusing on aircraft noise around Amsterdam airport in the urban fringe of the Amsterdam region, a key point in our analysis is that we account for background noise. We do this by taking multiple sources of traffic noise (i.e. road, railway and aircraft noise) into account simultaneously and by setting threshold values for all three sources of noise above which sound is generally experienced as nuisance. Based on our regression results we conclude that a higher noise level means ceteris paribus a lower house price. Air traffic has the largest price impact, followed by railway traffic and road traffic. These model outcomes can subsequently be used to estimate the marginal and total benefits of aircraft noise reduction in the studied area around Amsterdam airport. We find a marginal benefit of 1 dB noise reduction of 1459 Euro per house, leading to a total benefit of 1 dB noise reduction of 574 million Euros. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper is based on a panel discussion held at the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Europe (AIME) conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in July 2007. It had been more than 15 years since Edward Shortliffe gave a talk at AIME in which he characterized artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine as being in its “adolescence” (Shortliffe EH. The adolescence of AI in medicine: will the field come of age in the ‘90s? Artificial Intelligence in Medicine 1993;5:93–106). In this article, the discussants reflect on medical AI research during the subsequent years and characterize the maturity and influence that has been achieved to date. Participants focus on their personal areas of expertise, ranging from clinical decision-making, reasoning under uncertainty, and knowledge representation to systems integration, translational bioinformatics, and cognitive issues in both the modeling of expertise and the creation of acceptable systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article presents abstracts of various papers presented at the 12th annual meeting of European Society for Dermatological Research, held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from April 4-7, 1982. The various topics discussed at the meeting were, in vivo fate of anthralin in the skin of the hairless rat, effects of aromatic retinoid treatment on epidermal Langerhans cells in psoriasis, a new method for continuous measurement of inflammatory mediators released from epidermis and dermis, the effect of heat due to infra red irradiation on human skin prostaglandin concentrations.

To realize the goals of energy transition, becoming energy-neutral at the neighborhood level by sharing energy among clusters of heterogeneous buildings with local distributed energy resources (DERs), will play a vital role. However, uncertainties related to demand and renewable sources pose a major operational challenge to schedule the DERs. In this paper, a scenario-based mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is proposed for an energy management system (EMS) of a local energy community. The proposed EMS executes a stochastic day-ahead scheduling operation of multi-energy systems (MES). A set of scenarios are generated with the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to consider uncertainties of demand and renewable sources. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) are performed to assess the effectiveness of the proposed EMS compared to the deterministic one. The proposed method is validated by using a real-world case study of a generic Dutch university medical campus in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Two types of analysis are performed: one-day analysis and seasonal analysis. In both cases, in an average, the stochastic process outperforms the deterministic process considerably, in terms of cost, CO 2 emission, imported electricity from grid and usage of local energy resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on various public announcements on dermatology. The joint meeting of The Society for Investigative Dermatology and the European Society for Dermatological Research will be held from May 17-19, 1972 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The purpose of this meeting is to serve as a forum for the presentation of original dermatological research papers. The deadline for submission of abstracts will be November 30, 1971. The Fifth Annual Meeting of the Carmel Skin Club will be held on February 4, 1972 in California.

Abstract: This section and the papers that follow relate to to the workshop on Visualization in Computational Science which is held at the Tenth International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS2010) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This workshop brings together experts from visualization research and end-users to illustrate the state of the art and advance potential areas of common interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Society for Investigative Dermatology and the European Society for Dermatological Research are holding a joint meeting from May 17-19, 1972 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The purpose of this meeting will be to serve as a forum for the presentation of original dermatological research papers. All the presentations in the meeting are required to be in English. Also, the Aspen Conference for Dermatologists, being sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Dermatological Society will be held on July 22, 1971.

The article presents information regarding the annual meeting of European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR), to be held from May 12 to 14, 1980. The meeting is to be held at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam. Attendance at scientific sessions will be open to all members, contributors and guests. Nonmembers who wish to present a paper may submit an abstract. They will be invited to attend the meeting as either contributors or guests. Abstracts should be presented on the official form. The deadline for submission of abstracts is provided.