Rising demands for food, instigated by population growth and urbanization, are calling for advanced agricultural approaches to increase crop yields. However, the expansion of food production should not come with an unmanageable environmental cost. Plant science is therefore challenged to provide sustainable innovations for combating the detrimental effects of unfavourable …
A paradigm shift is occurring in the assessment of exposure to urban environmental stressors. Improved accuracy of personal monitors has enabled researchers to study exposure at the individual level. Monitoring stations are the primary reference point for air quality in urban environments, although there is a need to assess exposure …
Traditional methods of studying viruses are limited in their ability to detect novel pathogens, but recent advances in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) are changing that. HTS allows researchers to probe deeply into the virome of various hosts and environments, identifying known and unknown viral species. However, a targeted approach, like quantitative …
Food and eating environments play a crucial role in shaping consumers' food choices. As food decision-making shifts more into the digital environment, it is essential to understand the impact of this setting on consumer's dietary behaviours. Online platforms and mobile apps provide great opportunities for the promotion of healthier food …
Synthesized in green plants, cellulose is the most abundant natural biopolymer on the planet and is thus widely available, cheap and renewable. Furthermore, its hierarchical structure allows extraction of nanosized particles in the form of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), obtained with hydrolysis or cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), isolated through chemical, biological pretreatment …
Characterization of the indoor radio environment (RE) is a prerequisite for advances in the design and optimization of next-generation indoor wireless networks and for the construction of a digital twin of the building. The need for comprehensive and accurate indoor characterization will be evident in the future hyper-connected mixed real-virtual …
Thermal insulation materials have a strong impact on energy efficiency of buildings which are one of the main energy consumers in the EU. Thermal insulation materials are widely used and improving their properties or improving their production can therefore have a rapid impact on the efficient use of energy in …
Research and development of exoskeletons for injury prevention and assistance with everyday living has steadily increased in the last decade. With some products already available on the market, a widespread adoption of exoskeletons appears to be within close reach. However, many challenges still remain to be overcome, one of which …
One of the most commonly used metal materials for the manufacture of biomedical implants are stainless steel and titanium-based alloys. Due to the specific conditions and complex environment in the human body, different strategies have been employed to protect them and improve their functionality in vivo. In this thesis, a …
Metagenomics based on high throughput sequencing (HTS) has opened a new era of discovery and genomic characterization of viruses associated with a given host or environment. The search for novel viral sequences provides an excellent opportunity to improve early detection of pathogens, and to predict viral hosts and environmental reservoirs …