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The municipality of Amsterdam wants to have an emission free taxi sector by 2025. In order to reach that goal, the city has taken a number of measures which favour clean taxis above conventional taxis. One of these measures is an innovative priority privilege scheme at the Amsterdam Central Station taxi stand, which should lead to shorter waiting times and more trips for clean taxis. The municipality wants to know if the measure is effective. In this study, we present an analysis of visiting behaviour of clean and regular (diesel) taxis in order to assess the effectiveness of the privilege scheme to attract more clean taxis. As such it aims to contribute to a better understanding of the effect of the priority measure at the Amsterdam Central Station and to provide input for policy makers to introduce incentive schemes to stimulate clean taxis in cities. Analysed data covers a timespan from one year, starting October 2015 when the privilege scheme started with a call rate of 1 clean taxi to each 4 taxis called for a ride. The analysis shows the number of arriving clean taxis to shift from 1:6 to 1:4 during the observation period. Based on this analysis the municipality decided to modify the preference ratio beginning 2017. This study contributes to a better understanding of the effect of the privilege measures and provides input for policy makers introducing incentives to stimulate clean taxis in cities.

This discourse-based micro-ethnographic study scrutinizes the various forms of play that are a recurrent and salient feature of a first English (EFL) lesson in a Dutch secondary school context. In the first part of the lesson collective speaking formats associated with cultural games and routines in early L1-acquisition overwhelmingly have the floor. All-class chorusing, rhymes and chants create affordances for off-record and intermittent participation modes in peer-scaffolded speaking and whispering slots. They mediate the transition from (over)hearer to (co)speaker and allow learners to find their voice in the new language - on the basis of self-selection. Individual student voices (even disrespectful ones) are also dialogically modeled by the teacher for taskrelated ‘serious’ business in playful asides in the shared L1 metalanguage (duallanguage teaching strategies). Cued by prosodic shifts, rhythmic variation and other multimodal/semiotic behavioral features, these complex footing changes (Goffman 1979) and (re)framing practices are taken up by individual learners towards the end of the lesson. In the context of an IRF sequence that elicits formulaic phrases in the L2, they spontaneously create virtual identities and playful speaking roles for themselves. Instances of play may, however, present interpretive problems for next speakers. Since play is by definition parasitic on other templates or interactional norms, the challenge is to reflect online created ambiguities in the models we develop to articulate discourse complexity in multiparty classroom floors.

The production of renewable chemicals is gaining attention over the past few years. The natural resources from which they can be derived in a sustainable way are most abundant in sugars, cellulose and hemi cellulose. These highly functionalized molecules need to be de-functionalized in order to be feedstocks for the chemical industry. A fundamentally different approach to chemistry thus becomes necessary, since the traditionally employed oil-based chemicals normally lack functionality. This new chemical toolbox needs to be designed to guarantee the demands of future generations at a reasonable price. The surplus of functionality in sugars and glycerol consists of alcohol groups. To yield suitable renewable chemicals these natural products need to be defunctionalized by means of dehydroxylation. Here we review the possible approaches and evaluate them from a fundamental chemical aspect. The chapter closes with an outline of the research described in this thesis.

The remarkable complexity of soil and its importance to a wide range of ecosystem services presents 133 major challenges to the modeling of soil processes. Although major progress in soil models has 134 occurred in the last decades, models of soil processes remain disjointed between disciplines or 135 ecosystem services, with considerable uncertainty remaining in the quality of predictions and several 136 challenges that remain yet to be addressed. Firstly, there is a need to improve exchange of knowledge 137 and experience amongst the different disciplines in soil science and to reach out to other Earth science 138 communities. Secondly, the community needs to develop a new generation of soil models based on a 139 systemic approach comprising relevant physical, chemical, and biological processes to address critical 140 knowledge gaps in our understanding of soil processes and their interactions. Overcoming these 141 challenges will facilitate exchanges between soil modeling and climate, plant, and social science 142 modeling communities. It will allow us to contribute to preserve and improve our assessment of 143 ecosystem services and advance our understanding of climate-change feedback mechanisms, amongst 144 others, thereby facilitating and strengthening communication among scientific disciplines and society. 145 In this paper we review the role of modeling soil processes in quantifying key soil processes that shape 146 ecosystem services with focus on provisioning and regulating services. We then identify key 147 challenges in modeling soil processes including the systematic incorporation of heterogeneity and 148 uncertainty, the integration of data and models, and strategies for effective integration of knowledge 149 on physical, chemical and biological soil processes. We discuss how the soil modeling community 150 could best interface with modern modeling activities in other disciplines such as climate, ecology, and 151 plant research and how to weave novel observation and measurement techniques into soil models. We 152 propose to establish an international soil modeling consortium to coherently advance soil modeling 153 activities and foster communication with other Earth science disciplines. Such a consortium should 154 promote soil modeling platforms and data repository for model development, calibration and inter-155 comparison essential for addressing contemporary challenges.

© Soil Science Society of America 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA. All rights reserved. The remarkable complexity of soil and its importance to a wide range of ecosystem services presents major challenges to the modeling of soil processes. Although major progress in soil models has occurred in the last decades, models of soil processes remain disjointed between disciplines or ecosystem services, with considerable uncertainty remaining in the quality of predictions and several challenges that remain yet to be addressed. First, there is a need to improve exchange of knowledge and experience among the different disciplines in soil science and to reach out to other Earth science communities. Second, the community needs to develop a new generation of soil models based on a systemic approach comprising relevant physical, chemical, and biological processes to address critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of soil processes and their interactions. Overcoming these challenges will facilitate exchanges between soil modeling and climate, plant, and social science modeling communities. It will allow us to contribute to preserve and improve our assessment of ecosystem services and advance our understanding of climate-change feedback mechanisms, among others, thereby facilitating and strengthening communication among scientific disciplines and society. We review the role of modeling soil processes in quantifying key soil processes that shape ecosystem services, with a focus on provisioning and regulating services. We then identify key challenges in modeling soil processes, including the systematic incorporation of heterogeneity and uncertainty, the integration of data and models, and strategies for effective integration of knowledge on physical, chemical, and biological soil processes. We discuss how the soil modeling community could best interface with modern modeling activities in other disciplines, such as climate, ecology, and plant research, and how to weave novel observation and measurement techniques into soil models. We propose the establishment of an international soil modeling consortium to coherently advance soil modeling activities and foster communication with other Earth science disciplines. Such a consortium should promote soil modeling platforms and data repository for model development, calibration and intercomparison essential for addressing contemporary challenges. ispartof: Vadose Zone Journal vol:15 issue:5 pages:1-57 status: published

The biorefinery concept is a very powerful concept to optimise the conversion of biomass resources to value-added products with a minimum loss of energy and mass and a maximum overall value of the production chain. We here report our activities on the application of this concept to valorise the Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) shrub, a (sub)-tropical plant producing a high quality plant oil that may be converted to biodiesel in good yields. Within a research consortium of Dutch and Indonesian researchers, we are exploring high added value outlets for byproducts of the JCL plant (leaves, latex) and seed processing units (press cake). As an example, we here report fast pyrolysis experiments to convert the nut shells to fast pyrolysis oil, a promising second generation biofuel. The fast pyrolysis experiments were carried out in a continuous bench scale pyrolyser at a throughput of 2.27 kg/h at 480 degrees C and atmospheric pressure. The nut shell pyrolysis oil was obtained in 50 wt.% yield, the remainder being char (23 wt.%), gas (17 wt.%) and ash. Relevant product properties of the oil were determined and indicate that the oil is inhomogeneous in nature. (C) 2009 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

The use of local cultivated hemp and flax in building materials contributes to the transformation to the biobased economy in North West Europe. Here the growing conditions for hemp and flax are favorable and cultivation and processing expertise is available. Despite the market potential isolated initiatives were not able to overcome the numerous challenges. Currently, only a small number of stakeholders remain with hemp and flax for use in technical applications other than in textiles. The Interreg IVb-project Grow2Build enhances the efficiency and competitiveness in the production and uses of hemp and flax based materials in building and construction. Main topics of Grow2Build: 1) facilitating the interregional and transnational product chain development through informing of and collaboration with relevant stakeholders; 2) optimization of resources quality through optimization of cultivation and processing techniques; 3) improvement of the performance of biobased building materials through product innovation;4) development of the demand through information, awareness and guidance. Besides the optimization of cultivation and processing techniques and improvement of hemp and flax biobased building materials, spreading knowledge and bringing together stakeholders will increase the demand for biobased building materials. Various communication tools are developed in the project including a Centre of Excellence and a mobile exhibition. During workshops and innovation network events various stakeholders discussed the chances and challenges for the use of hemp and flax biobased products, linking demand and supply. By sharing knowledge the following bottlenecks were identified: 1) biobased building and CO2 sustainable building may conflict with traditional building practice, thinking and culture; 2) Performance of (new) biobased building materials should be distinctive and science based; 3) main stream architectural design should be aware of the possibilities of biobased materials 4) national building regulations needs harmonization with surrounding regions for promotion and exchange of innovative biobased building products; 5) lack of investors., Academic Journal of Civil Engineering, Vol 33 No 2 (2015): Special Issue - ICBBM 2015

Subsurface stormflow is thought to occur mainly in humid environments with steep terrains. However, in semi-arid areas, preferential flow through macropores can also result in a significant contribution of subsurface stormflow to catchment runoff for varying catchment conditions. Most hydrological models neglect this important subsurface preferential flow. Here, we use the process-oriented hydrological model Hillflow-3D, which includes a macropore flow approach, to simulate rainfall-runoff in the semi-arid Parapuños catchment in Spain, where macropore flow was observed in previous research. The model was extended for this study to account for sorptivity under very dry soil conditions. The results of the model simulations with and without macropore flow are compared. Both model versions give reasonable results for average rainfall situations, although the approach with the macropore concept provides slightly better results. The model results for scenarios of extreme rainfall events (>13.3mm30min-1) however show large differences between the versions with and without macropores. These model results compared with measured rainfall-runoff data show that the model with the macropore concept is better. Our conclusion is that preferential flow is important in controlling surface runoff in case of specific, high intensity rainfall events. Therefore, preferential flow processes must be included in hydrological models where we know that preferential flow occurs. Hydrological process models with a less detailed process description may fit observed average events reasonably well but can result in erroneous predictions for more extreme events.

The Netherlands Proggramme Sustainable Biomass (NPSB) was developed to g gain experience in the production and certification of susta ainable biomass, based on practical experiences. The NPSBB programme has run from 2008 to the end of 2013. A stu udy has been made with the objective to give a compilation of the overall lessons learned from the NPSB programme e (in total 40 projects and 30 assignments for additional res search) to promote the sustainable production of biomass ffoor export and local use. Key findings and results are presennted in this paper and findings discussed on (i) the availab bility of biomass resources, (ii) technologies and innovatio ons in conversion, (iii) enhancing sustainable production of f biomass for energy purposes, (iv) operationalization and us se of the sustainability criteria and (v) creating a business c case. This paper ends with overall lessons learned and key recommendations for different stakeholder groups., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 1535-1542

Dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of racemic starting material is a promising route to optically pure (S)-benzoin (2-hydroxy-1,2-di(phenyl)ethanone) and various symmetrical and unsymmetrical derivatives thereof. Here, this route was advanced towards technical scale synthesis using the basic (rac)-benzoin as model system. The reaction employed stereoselective transesterification of (S)-benzoin with lipase TL® from Pseudomonas stutzeri and racemization of (R)-benzoin with Metal-TUD-1, a metal-associated acidic meso-porous silicate, in pure organic solvent. Enzyme performance was improved by immobilization on Accurel MP1001 (yielding Acc-LipTL), and Zr-TUD-1 (Si/Zr = 25) was identified as most effective racemization catalyst. Compatibility in solvent and temperature dependency enabled performance in only one pot. DKR in toluene at 50 °C yielded conversions above 98% and an ee of >97% in only five hours. Stability of Acc-LipTL was further improved with polyethylene imine and the reaction system was then reused in five cycles, retaining a conversion of >99% and a product-ee of >98%. On a semi-preparative scale, the isolated yield of enantiopure (S)-benzoin butyrate was >98%. Thus, the system provides a good basis for synthesis of enantiopure benzoin, and potentially a broader range of aromatic α-hydroxy ketones.