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The Relational Dimension of Radicalization: Context and Tie Formation in Dutch Salafi-Jihadi Networks

Despite the widely held notion that processes of radicalization tend to happen in relation to others, systematic evidence on the social context in which actors meet and form ties is scarce. This is problematic, as without a more thorough understanding of the relational dimension of radicalization, any strategy to intervene may turn out less effective than perhaps hoped for. Based on our access to detailed police information on eleven Dutch Salafi-Jihadi networks (2001–2014; 273 actors), this article presents a descriptive analysis of the social context in which actors meet and form ties. In most networks, we observe pre-existing family and friendship ties, actors to frequent Salafi mosques and radicalizing settings, and committed actors engaged in functional roles. We also find indications for these elements to facilitate actors to form ties. It is important to note however that we also observe exceptions, both in terms of prevalence and impact of the relational factors we study. In the article, we describe our detailed empirical findings and reflect on the (differential) social context is which actors participating in Dutch Salafi-Jihadi networks meet and form ties.

Electric Aircraft Operations:

This study focuses on the feasibility of electric aircraft operations between the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. It explores the technical characteristics of two different future electric aircraft types (i.e., Alice and ES-19) and compares their operational requirements with those of three conventional types currently in operation in the region. Flight operations are investigated from the standpoint of battery performance, capacity, and consumption, while their operational viability is verified. In addition, the CO2 emissions of electric operations are calculated based on the present energy mix, revealing moderate improvements. The payload and capacity are also studied, revealing a feasible transition to the new types. The impact of the local climate is discussed for several critical components, while the required legislation for safe operations is explored. Moreover, the maintenance requirements and costs of electric aircraft are explored per component, while charging infrastructure in the hub airport of Aruba is proposed and discussed. Overall, this study offers a thorough overview of the opportunities and challenges that electric aircraft operations can offer within the context of this specific islandic topology.

Final report – Loughborough Operational Pilot

This OP was deployed in two phases, focusing on Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). Its first phase took place at a private residence in Loughborough and ran from March 2017 up to December 2017. This phase 1 is also referred to as the ‘Loughborough pilot’. The second phase took place from February 2020 until present at a comparable residence in Burton-upon-Trent, thereafter, referred to as the ‘Burton pilot’ or ‘phase 2’. Both pilots included bi-directional chargers, Electric Vehicles (EV), Battery Static Storage (BSS) and rooftop solar PhotoVoltaic panels (PV).The main goals of this pilot were to demonstrate the added value of V2H and V2G of using additional energy storage and PV in households.Challenges encountered in the project include interoperability issues, particularly in phase 1, and the unforeseen development of the homeowner selling his house, meaning a new location needed to be found. However, this challenge ultimately provided an excellent opportunity to implement lessons for interoperability and to act upon the recommendations from the intermediate analysis of the Loughborough pilot. This report is mainly focussed on phase 1 (Loughborough), and additional analysis for Burton-upon-Trent (phase 2) can be found in the appendix.

Feeling the News?

Immersive journalism (IJ) is often assumed to be inherently emotion-inducing. Through using inclusive technology, interaction possibilities and immersive narratives, the audience should ideally experience what feels like to be in a certain situation. However, for the most part we do not know to which extent and in what form IJ influences the experience of emotions. We wanted to investigate, whether, and if so, which characteristics of IJ are related to the experience of emotions, and which role the personality trait empathy tendency plays in this respect. This is important, as the evaluation of IJ often relies on the emotion-inducing assumption thereof. Four different experiments comparing one immersive journalistic characteristic (level of inclusion, interaction possibilities, immersive narratives) to the respective non-immersive counterpart were conducted. Results indicate that while the level of inclusion and interaction possibility increase the intensity of the experience, the immersive narrative influences the valence dimension of emotions. Additionally, empathy tendency is found to be a relevant moderator for these effects. Conclusions are threefold. First, the narrative form of IJ is key; second, the analysis of IJ needs to go beyond the level of inclusion; third, including emotions when assessing IJ is fundamental to understand its impact.

Climate risks for Dutch tour operators .

On functional determinants of matrix differential operators with multiple zero modes

We generalize the method of computing functional determinants with a single excluded zero eigenvalue developed by McKane and Tarlie to differential operators with multiple zero eigenvalues. We derive general formulas for such functional determinants of $r\times r$ matrix second order differential operators O with $0 < n \leqslant 2r$ linearly independent zero modes. We separately discuss the cases of the homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, when the number of zero modes cannot exceed r, and the case of twisted boundary conditions, including the periodic and anti-periodic ones, when the number of zero modes is bounded above by 2r. In all cases the determinants with excluded zero eigenvalues can be expressed only in terms of the n zero modes and other $r-n$ or $2r-n$ (depending on the boundary conditions) solutions of the homogeneous equation $O h=0$ , in the spirit of Gel'fand–Yaglom approach. In instanton calculations, the contribution of the zero modes is taken into account by introducing the so-called collective coordinates. We show that there is a remarkable cancellation of a factor (involving scalar products of zero modes) between the Jacobian of the transformation to the collective coordinates and the functional fluctuation determinant with excluded zero eigenvalues. This cancellation drastically simplifies instanton calculations when one uses our formulas.