BACKGROUND: T lymphocytes are orchestrators of adaptive immunity. Naïve T cells may differentiate into Th1, Th2, Th17 or iTreg phenotypes, depending on environmental co-stimulatory signals. To identify genes and pathways involved in differentiation of Jurkat T cells towards Th1 and Th2 subtypes we performed …

In this chapter it is argued that fundamental change in society is required, because environmental problems are serious and ask for a factor 10 or more shift in society, the resilience approach (as outlined in Chap. 2 ) implies change to higher resilience systems and current spatial planning is unable …

Turkey's historical focus on the European Union dates back to the Ottoman period. In this era, numerous developments clearly illustrated Turkey's focus on the EU. These developments included among others the Tanzimat, literally 'reorganisation', which implies secularization of the judicial system, and …

This paper presents the design and long-term study of BiebBeep, a large interactive touchscreen that has been developed with the aim to augment the information and social function of a library. BiebBeep displays user-generated and context-relevant content, such as information about local events and book …

Nokia is a large mobile phone company that is struggling to keep up with other players in the emerging smartphone market. The market is very competitive and the products have a short life cycle. Furthermore, a high level of innovativeness is required. In this report the Finnish mobile phone company has …

The Netherlands has two types of higher educational institutions - research university and university of applied sciences. The first one has a more theory-based approach to education, while the latter puts emphasis on applying the knowledge taught in the classroom by developing practical skills. The …

Traditional information systems for crisis response and management are centralized systems with a rigid hierarchical structure. Here we propose a decentralized system, which allows citizens to play a significant role as information source and/or as helpers during the initial stages of a crisis. In our …

Roma are a transnational nomadic population. For centuries, they have traveled around the world due to persecutions or in search of economic prosperity. Roma are a heterogeneous minority. They are not one group. There are many different groups of Roma. Nowadays, an estimated 12 million Roma live in Europe …

With this report an attempt has been made to answer the following central research question: How can Dutch policy regarding trafficking in human beings be improved to adequately and fully implement a human rights based approach as set in the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking …

This dissertation offers an insight into international refugee law and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Its intention is to reveal discrimination and difficulties of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) refugees in the European Union (EU). There is only little research done on the topic, …