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Vulnerability Of Charging Infrastructure, A Novel Approach For Improving Charging Station Deployment

Since the first uptake of electric vehicles, policy makers are questioning how to rollout public charging infrastructure in an efficient manner, such that user convenience balances with costs of investment. In some metropolitan areas, the first phase of rollout has been passed, meaning an optimized deployment of future charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) becomes important to improve the charging infrastructure and ensure customer satisfaction and sufficient service provision. Complex system literature shows that network vulnerability is an important metric, yet, charging infrastructure has not yet been a subject of these simulation models so far. This research, based on real-world data, provides a novel approach for improving the roll-out strategy of municipalities, by treating the charge infrastructure as a complex network of charging stations and defining vulnerability in respect to the availability of its surrounding charging stations within relevant walking distance.

Connecting past, present and future

Using the past to orientate on the present and the future can be seen as one of history’s main contributions to educating future citizens of democratic societies. This thesis defines and explores aims and methods that may support teachers and students in making meaningful connections between the past, the present and the future in history class. Measurements with the Relevance of History Measurement Scale (RHMS), which was specifically developed for the purpose of this thesis, revealed that this type of history teaching positively affects students’ views on the relevance of history. This is an important outcome, because young students in particular have difficulty seeing the benefits of studying the past. Enabling them to see the relevance of history may be an important means to stimulate their motivation and engagement, because students’ appreciation of the value of school subjects is key to their commitment in school work.

Business performance and purchase intentions in cross-border e-commerce

Cross-border e-commerce is flourishing worldwide and is particularly intriguing because it allows sellers and buyers to regularly cross national borders to distant and distinct countries via the Internet. Marketers need to understand the challenges retailers and consumers may face to develop effective marketing strategies, attract foreign consumers to retailers’ websites, and convert their visits into actual purchases. This dissertation contributes to the growing literature on cross-border e-commerce by examining how e-retailers can shape their marketing strategy to reach foreign consumers who may make a purchase and what drives consumers’ perceptions and preferences before making thatpurchase. To this end, study 1 examines how and to what extent small e-retailers can shape their marketing strategies to increase their use of digital marketing tactics and thereby improve their performance in foreign markets by comparing e-retailers originating from developed and emerging e-commerce markets. Study 2 focuses on how store values and country stereotype perceptions leadto higher trust between consumers and retailers in foreign e-stores, and how this differs for European consumers shopping at U.S. and Chinese e-stores. The thirdstudy addresses why consumers buy from foreign e-stores when they can buy domestically. It examines three different categories of determinants across generational cohorts: e-store characteristics, domain-specific values, and human values. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the drivers of small retailers’ business performance and consumers’ purchase intentions in cross-bordere-commerce while showing that neither e-retailers nor consumers should be considered uniform or generalizable.

Voorbeelden en analoog redeneren

Voorbeelden en onderwijs lijken onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Het gebruik van voorbeelden is vaak zo vanzelfsprekend, dat zelfs in didactische opleidingen niet altijd aandacht wordt besteed aan de voorwaarden voor een optimal gebruik ervan. Voorbeelden blijken echter niet automatisch tot meer kennis en beter begrip te leiden. Leren van en door voorbeelden vereist bewuste aandacht en doet een beroep op analoog redeneren. Er is veel onderzoek gedaan naar de centrale rol van analoog redeneren in leren. De hieruit voortgekomen kennis en inzichten lijken echter nog niet algemeen bekend bij docenten noch breed geïmplementeerd in het onderwijs, zo komt ook naar voren uit een verkennend onderzoek aan De Haagse Hogeschool. Dit artikel vormt een eerste aanzet om kennis en inzichten in analoog redeneren en in het effectief gebruik van voorbeelden bredere bekendheid te geven. De aanbevelingen in het artikel zijn bedoeld om docenten te inspireren en uit te dagen. Abstract. The use of examples for teaching purposes would seem an obvious choice for teachers. This might be the reason why even courses intended to instruct teachers in their future profession sometimes skip over ways to make effective use of examples. However, research has shown that the use of examples does not automatically enhance a learner’s knowledge and understanding. Learning from examples requires conscious effort and attention and calls for analogical reasoning. Although the key role played by analogical reasoning in learning has been widely investigated, an exploratory study conducted among lecturers at The Hague University of Applied Sciences showed that not that many of them were familiar with the findings of these studies nor were these findings featured in their teaching. This article is an attempt to promote the acquisition of scientific knowledge and insights into analogical reasoning and the effective use of examples. The recommendations provided here are meant to inspire and challenge teachers.

The social visuality of distant suffering

Biomimicry design thinking education

Preliminary empirical research conducted by the leading author has shown that design students using biological analogies, or models across different contexts, often misinterpreted these, intentionally or unintentionally, during design. By copying shape or form without integrating the main function of the mimicked biological model, students failed to consider the process or system directing that function when attempting to solve the design need. This article considers the first step in the development of an applicable educational model using distant analogies from nature, by means of biomimicry thinking methodology. The analysis examines results from a base-line exercise taken by students in the Minor Design with Nature during the Spring semester of Industrial Design Engineering at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in 2019, verifying that students without biomimicry training use this hollow approach automatically. This research confirms the gap between where students are at the beginning of the semester and where they need to be as expert sustainable designers when they graduate. These findings provide a starting point for future interventions in biomimicry workshops to improve systematic design thinking through structural and scientifically based iterations of analogical reasoning. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-020-09574-1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/