For twenty years, typical outdoor lifestyle sports like rafting, snowboarding and rock climbing, which used to be exclusively practised in natural environments, are being offered in controlled artificial settings. This process can be described as 'the indoorisation of outdoor sports'. With this development, questions of authenticity arise. Are these new, commercial forms still authentic lifestyle sports? And can we consider the participants in these indoorised lifestyle sports as authentic? There has been a discussion about authenticity in lifestyle sports since its worldwide popularisation and it is worth to reconsider this discussion against the background of new, commercial versions of lifestyle sports. Therefore, in this paper a qualitative analysis is offered about the consumption of a constructed authenticity in a cultural context increasingly characterized by artificialization.
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Knowledge valorisation is the transfer of knowledge from one party to another for economic benefit. The concept of valorisation is based on the underlying metaphor of KNOWLEDGE AS A THING. It is the same metaphor that makes it possible to talk about the value of knowledge. If knowledge is like a ‘thing’, then that ‘ thing’ must have a specific value. Value can be defined as the degree of usefulness or desirability of something, especially in comparison with other things, and is by definition subjective. Value is in the eye of the beholder. Any valuation method therefore needs to take into account this subjective nature by deliberately choosing the appropriate ‘standard of value’ (value to whom?) and ‘premise of value’ (value under what circumstances?). There are three ways to determine the value of something of which financial valuation is the most used. In turn financial valuation can be done using a cost approach, a market approach or an income approach. In most cases the income approach is the most appropriate. However, this approach requires a number of assumptions to be made; most of which are impossible to validate. The formulas that are used in the process can be intimidating to non-experts with the danger of disguising the inherent subjective and speculative nature of any valuation of knowledge as a ‘thing’.
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The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the experiences of safety and security management students, enrolled in an undergraduate course in the Netherlands, and present quantitative data from an online survey that aimed to explore the factors that have contributed to students’ satisfaction with, and engagement in, online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main findings suggest an interesting paradox of technology, which is worth further exploration in future research. Firstly, students with self perceived higher technological skill levels tend to reject online education more often as they see substantial shortcomings of classes in the way they are administered as compared to the vast available opportunities for real innovation. Secondly, as opposed to democratising education and allowing for custom-made, individualistic education schedules that help less-privileged students, online education can also lead to the displacement of education by income-generating activities altogether. Lastly, as much as technology allowed universities during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue with education, the transition to the environment, which is defined by highly interactive and engaging potential, may in fact be a net contributor to the feelings of social isolation, digital educational inequality and tension around commercialisation in higher education.
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In this proposal, a consortium of knowledge institutes (wo, hbo) and industry aims to carry out the chemical re/upcycling of polyamides and polyurethanes by means of an ammonolysis, a depolymerisation reaction using ammonia (NH3). The products obtained are then purified from impurities and by-products, and in the case of polyurethanes, the amines obtained are reused for resynthesis of the polymer. In the depolymerisation of polyamides, the purified amides are converted to the corresponding amines by (in situ) hydrogenation or a Hofmann rearrangement, thereby forming new sources of amine. Alternatively, the amides are hydrolysed toward the corresponding carboxylic acids and reused in the repolymerisation towards polyamides. The above cycles are particularly suitable for end-of-life plastic streams from sorting installations that are not suitable for mechanical/chemical recycling. Any loss of material is compensated for by synthesis of amines from (mixtures of) end-of-life plastics and biomass (organic waste streams) and from end-of-life polyesters (ammonolysis). The ammonia required for depolymerisation can be synthesised from green hydrogen (Haber-Bosch process).By closing carbon cycles (high carbon efficiency) and supplementing the amines needed for the chain from biomass and end-of-life plastics, a significant CO2 saving is achieved as well as reduction in material input and waste. The research will focus on a number of specific industrially relevant cases/chains and will result in economically, ecologically (including safety) and socially acceptable routes for recycling polyamides and polyurethanes. Commercialisation of the results obtained are foreseen by the companies involved (a.o. Teijin and Covestro). Furthermore, as our project will result in a wide variety of new and drop-in (di)amines from sustainable sources, it will increase the attractiveness to use these sustainable monomers for currently prepared and new polyamides and polyurethanes. Also other market applications (pharma, fine chemicals, coatings, electronics, etc.) are foreseen for the sustainable amines synthesized within our proposition.
The specific objective of HyScaling is to achieve a 25-30% cost reduction for levelized cost of hydrogen. This cost reduction will be achieved in 2030 when the HyScaling innovations have been fully implemented. HyScaling develops novel hardware (such as stacks & cell components), low-cost manufacturing processes, optimized integrated system designs and advanced operating and control strategies. In addition to the goal of accelerating implementation of hydrogen to decarbonize energy-intensive industry, HyScaling is built around industrial partners who are aiming to build a business on the HyScaling innovations. These include novel components for electrolysers (from catalysts to membranes, from electrode architectures to novel coatings) as well as electrolyser stacks and systems for different applications. For some innovations (e.g. a coating from IonBond, an electrode design from Veco) the consortium aims at starting commercialisation before the end of the program. A unique characteristic of the HyScaling program is the orientation on Use Cases. In addition to partners representing the Dutch manufacturing industry, end-users and technology providers are partner in the consortium. This enables the consortium to develop the electrolyser technology specifically for different applications. In order to be able to come to an assessment of the market for electrolysers and components, the use cases also include decentralized energy systems.Projectpartners:Nouryon, Tejin, Danieli Corus, VDL, Hauzer, VECO, lonbond, Fluor, Frames, Magneto, VONK, Borit, Delft IMP, ZEF, MTSA, SALD, Dotx control, Hydron Energy, MX, Polymers, VSL, Fraunhofer IPT, TNO, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, ISPT, FMC.
