Using fMRI, cerebral activations were studied in 24 classically-trained keyboard performers and 12 musically unskilled control subjects. Two groups of musicians were recruited: improvising (n=12) and score-dependent (non-improvising) musicians (n=12). While listening to both familiar and unfamiliar music, subjects either (covertly) appraised the presented music performance or imagined they were playing the music themselves. We hypothesized that improvising musicians would exhibit enhanced efficiency of audiomotor transformation reflected by stronger ventral premotor activation. Statistical Parametric Mapping revealed that, while virtually 'playing along' with the music, improvising musicians exhibited activation of a right-hemisphere distribution of cerebral areas including posterior-superior parietal and dorsal premotor cortex. Involvement of these right-hemisphere dorsal stream areas suggests that improvising musicians recruited an amodal spatial processing system subserving pitch-to-space transformations to facilitate their virtual motor performance. Score-dependent musicians recruited a primarily left-hemisphere pattern of motor areas together with the posterior part of the right superior temporal sulcus, suggesting a relationship between aural discrimination and symbolic representation. Activations in bilateral auditory cortex were significantly larger for improvising musicians than for score-dependent musicians, suggesting enhanced top-down effects on aural perception. Our results suggest that learning to play a music instrument primarily from notation predisposes musicians toward aural identification and discrimination, while learning by improvisation involves audio-spatial-motor transformations, not only during performance, but also perception.
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A review has been completed for a verification and validation (V&V) of the (Excel) BioGas simulator or EBS model. The EBS model calculates the environmental impact of biogas production pathways using Material and Energy Flow Analysis, time dependent dynamics, geographic information, and Life Cycle analysis. Within this article a V&V method is researched, selected and applied to validate the EBS model. Through the use of the method described within this article: mistakes in the model are resolved, the strengths and weaknesses of the model are found, and the concept of the model is tested and strengthened. The validation process does not only improve the model but also helps the modelers in widening their focus and scope. This article can, therefore, also be used in the validation process of similar models. The main result from the V&V process indicates that the EBS model is valid; however, it should be considered as an expert model and should only be used by expert users.
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As climate change accelerates, rising sea levels pose challenges for low-lying nations like the Netherlands. Floating developments (such as homes, solar parks, and pavilions) are considered the most climate adaptative solution for the future, but the effects on the environment are unknown which is holding back this floating transformation. Since public and private partners are not able to answer questions on the effect of floating urbanisation on the environment and water quality based on speculations by models without field data, permits are given only after proof that ecological & water quality will not affected (also EU warnings ‘deteriorating’ water quality (UvW 2025, EU 2025). This proposal aims to develop an innovative autonomous docking station for aquatic drones, enhancing environmental monitoring of floating structures. Only a few monitoring campaigns measured the impact of small floating structures (small structures and only basic parameters). Traditional monitoring methods rely on manual sampling and static sensors, which are costly, labour-intensive, and provide delayed results. A new study, led by Hanze with Gemeente Rotterdam, Waternet (Gemeente Amsterdam) and Indymo, will assess the impact of new large-scale floating developments with a new method. Autonomous aquatic drones improve data resolution but face operational challenges such as battery life and data retrieval. An innovating docking station will address these issues by enabling drones to recharge, offload data, and perform continuous missions without human intervention. Advanced tools—including aquatic drones, 360-degree cameras, sonar imaging, and real-time sensors—will collect high-resolution environmental data also monitoring biodiversity and bathymetry. The proposed docking station will support real-time sensor networks, allowing for spatial and temporal data collection. It will improve the (cost) efficiency and quality of long-term environmental monitoring, providing insights into water quality dynamics and underwater ecosystems in Rotterdam and Amsterdam as an international example of floating development in the battle of climate change.
Nederland heeft in het Natura 2000 Beheerplan Deltawateren richtlijnen vastgelegd voor natuurbehoud en biodiversiteit. De Nederlandse wateren en de deltagebieden maken tweederde uit van de Natura 2000 gebieden en vormen een belangrijk leefgebied voor kustbroedvogels en zijn voor trekvogels onmisbaar als rustgebied en plek om te foerageren. Om natuurbeheer effectiever te kunnen laten verlopen, is monitoring van de dynamiek van estuariene natuur in de deltabeheercyclus van groot belang. Het biedt publieke professionals mogelijkheden om systeemontwerpen en/of systeemingrepen (tijdig) aan te passen. Voor projectmonitoring wordt gebruik gemaakt van conventionele meettechnieken die veelal arbeidsintensief en dus kostbaar zijn. Doel van dit project is te onderzoeken of het monitoren van natuurherstelprojecten efficiënter kan. Kernvraag is of door de inzet van nieuwe meettechnieken meer of andersoortige data tegen lagere kosten, over grotere arealen en met betere temporele resoluties kan worden vergaard. Oftewel meer systeembegrip. Op drie locaties in de Westerschelde (Baalhoek, Knuitershoek en Perkpolder) wordt geëxperimenteerd met innovatieve meettechnieken om beter inzicht te krijgen op factoren die van invloed zijn op het functioneren van getijdenecosystemen. Data van negen kernparameters wordt ingewonnen: (1) vogelaantallen, (2) benthos als vogelvoedsel, (3) benthos als bioturbator, (4) middelgrootte schaal morfologie, (5) grootschalige morfologie, (6) korte termijn (dagelijkse) veranderingen in sedimenthoogte, (7) bodemdichtheid, (8) hydrodynamiek: stroming /golven en (9) sedimentconcentraties in water. Het activiteitenplan bestaat uit zes werkpakketten: (1)het fysiek inrichten van de meetlocaties, (2) data-acquisitie op zowel conventionele- als innovatieve wijze, (3) data-analyse door vergelijkend onderzoek, (4) het ontwikkelen van een afwegingskader voor publieke professionals, (5) een plan van doorwerking en (6) projectmanagement. Na afronding van elke meetcampagne worden data geanalyseerd en vergeleken met modellen en kennis die tot dan toe bekend is. Kennis en expertise wordt op de DeltaExpertise-site (HZ Body of Knowledge) gestructureerd en ontsloten met behulp van de Expertise Management Methodologie en de Soft Systems Methodologie.
Performance feedback is an important mechanism of adaptation in learning theories, as it provides one of the motivations for organizations to learn (Pettit, Crossan, and Vera 2017). Embedded in the behavioral theory of the firm, organizational learning from performance feedback predicts the probability for organizations to change with an emphasis on organizational aspirations, which serve as a threshold against which absolute performance is evaluated (Cyert and March 1963; Greve 2003). It postulates that performance becomes a ‘problem’, or the trigger to search for alternative procedures, strategies, products and behaviors, when performance is below that threshold. This search is known as problemistic search. Missing from this body of research, is empirically grounded understanding if the characteristics of performance feedback over time matter for the triggering function of the feedback. I explore this gap. This investigation adds temporality as a dimension of the performance feedback concept guided by a worldview of ongoing change and flux where conditions and choices are not given, but made relevant by actors and enacted upon (Tsoukas and Chia 2002). The general aim of the study is to complement the current knowledge of performance feedback as a trigger for problemistic search with an explicit process temporal approach. The main question guiding this project is how temporal patterns of performance feedback influence organizational change, which I answer in four chapters, each zooming into one sub-question.First, I focus on the temporal order of performance feedback by examining performance feedback and change sequences organizations go through. In this section time is under study and the goal is to explore how feedback patterns have evolved over time, just as the change states organizations pass through. Second, I focus on the plurality of performance feedback by investigating performance feedback from multiple aspiration levels (i.e. multiple qualitatively different metrics and multiple reference points) and how over time clusters of performance feedback sequences have evolved. Next, I look into the rate and scope of change relative to performance feedback sequences and add an element of signal strength to the feedback. In the last chapter, time is a predictor (in the sequences), and, it is under study (in the timing of responses). I focus on the timing of organizational responses in relation to performance feedback sequences of multiple metrics and reference points.In sum, all chapters are guided by the timing problem of performance feedback, meaning that performance feedback does not come ‘available’ at a single point in time. Similarly to stones with unequal weight dropped in the river, performance feedback with different strength comes available at multiple points in time and it is plausible that sometimes it is considered by decision-makers as problematic and sometimes it is not, because of the sequence it is part of. Overall, the investigation is grounded in the general principles of organizational learning from performance feedback, and the concept of time as duration, sequences and timing, with a focus on specification of when things happen. The context of the study is universities of applied sciences and hotels in The Netherlands. Project partner: Tilburg University, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Organization Studies
