ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Never before has media entertainment been so abundantly accessible to children. In this project, I propose an entirely new theoretical model to understand entertainment processing and effects. The model enables us to simultaneously investigate: (a) how and why certain types of media entertainment may influence certain children, (b) which children are particularly susceptible to positive, which to negative, and which to both positive and negative entertainment effects, and (c) how children s social environment can maximize positive and minimize negative entertainment effects on children. The project involves a longitudinal panel study among 900 Dutch families. To measure the variables in the model, we will use some well-established survey instruments and neuropsychological tests. We will also employ two less conventional methods (coded media-use diaries and experience sampling methods) that may enhance serendipity in the development of our theory-advancing insights. We will use state-of-the art data-analytic techniques (e.g., multi-level and latent-growth curve modelling) to analyse the data. Although adventurous, this transdisciplinary project, the first in its kind, has great theoretical significance. If the assumptions of my model are supported, it may lead to a fundamental re-evaluation of earlier media-effects theories and research on children. The project will also have tremendous social relevance, not only for parents, but also for programme makers, educators, and the society as a whole. After all, only if we truly understand why, how, and which children are influenced by certain types of media entertainment, are we able to adequately target prevention and intervention strategies at these children.

2 500 000 €

Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2016-08-31

Water is essential for life on our planet and is the solvent of choice for Nature to carry out her syntheses. In contrast, our methods of making complex organic molecules have taken us far away from the watery milieu of biosynthesis. Indeed, it is fair to say that most organic reactions commonly used both in academic laboratories and in industry fail in the presence of water or oxygen. At the same time of course, chemical reactors are very different from the cellular environment where Nature s synthesis is carried out. This research proposal aims to incorporate some of the key characteristic of cellular reactors, i.e. confinement, compartmentalization and interfaces, into model droplet-based reactors. The envisioned reactors will comprise of monodisperse aqueous droplets in oil carrier phases with volumes ranging from pL to nL, produced in microfluidics devices or in tubing, in very large numbers. These droplets will have precisely determined interfacial areas, which can be used for the study of so-called on water reactions, a new area of synthetic chemistry rapidly gaining in interest. Furthermore, the interfaces can be functionalized with catalytically active surfactants and by confining the droplets into ever decreasing volumes, the effect of nanoconfinement on enzymatic and other reactions can be studied. Finally, individual droplets provide a completely compartmentalized environment, suitable for the study of single enzymes in a crowded environment, but also for systematic studies into communication between compartmentalized, mutually incompatible, reaction systems. This proposal presents a radically new approach to increasing our understanding of chemical reactions in confined spaces and at interfaces and provides a technological platform for the creation of chemically linked networks with emerging complexity.

2 147 726 €

Start date: 2010-05-01, End date: 2015-04-30

Dense gas-solid flows have been the subject of intense research over the past decades, owing to its wealth of scientifically interesting phenomena, as well as to its direct relevance for innumerable industrial applications. Dense gas solid flows are notoriously complex and its phenomena difficult to predict. This finds its origin in the large separation of relevant scales: particle-particle and particle-gas interactions at the microscale (< 1 mm) dictate the phenomena that occur at the macroscale (> 1 meter), the fundamental understanding of which poses a huge challenge for both the scientific and technological community. This proposal is aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of large-scale dense gas-solid flow based on first principles, that is, based on the exchange of mass, momentum and heat at the surface of the individual solid particles, below the millimeter scale. To this end, we employ a multi-scale approach, where the gas-solid flow is described by three different models. Such an approach is by now widely recognized as the most rigorous and viable pathway to obtain a full understanding of dense-gas solid flow, and has become very topical in chemical engineering science. The unique aspect of this proposal is the scale and the comprehensiveness of the research: we want to consider, for the first time, the exchange of heat, momentum and energy, and the effects of polydispersity, heterogeneity, and domain geometries, at all three levels of modeling, and validated by one-to-one experiments. These generated insight and models will be extremely relevant for the design and scale-up of industrial equipment involving dispersed particulate flow, which is currently a fully empirical process, involving expensive and time-consuming experimentation.

2 500 000 €

Start date: 2010-03-01, End date: 2015-02-28

SHARES seeks to rethink the allocation of international responsibilities in cases where actors cooperate to pursue common international objectives, for example environmental protection and protection of human populations from mass atrocities. International cooperation may complicate attempts to determine who is responsible for what. SHARES is based on the unrecognized and unexplored fact that as the responsibility for policies is shared among more actors, the discrete responsibility of every individual actor is diminished proportionately. International cooperation paradoxically may undermine the key objectives of any scheme of responsibility : the protection of the international rule of law and the provision of remedies of injured parties. The dominant principle of individual responsibility, and the scholarship based on it, provides us neither with the concepts nor the perspectives for addressing shared responsibilities. SHARES will uncover the extent and nature of the problem of scattering of international responsibilities in cases of international cooperation and will provide fresh perspectives on how cooperation can be better matched by a corresponding system of international responsibility. It will pursue two interlocking tracks, focussing on principles and processes of international responsibility. As to principles, it will examine the possibility of holding multiple actors collectively, jointly or proportionately responsible. As to processes, SHARES will rethink how (quasi-)judicial processes may better taken into account the collective context of the international policies of states and other actors. SHARES will complement a conceptual and theoretical foundation with a thorough empirical approach, exploring through case-studies how we can improve our understanding of the principles and processes that are needed to match the unprecedented international cooperation with a proper system of shared responsibility.

2 113 949 €

Start date: 2010-05-01, End date: 2015-10-31