Combinatorial games are games for two competing players, moving in a turn-by-turn fashion, in which there is no chance nor hidden information⁠. Chess, checkers and the simpler tic tac toe are well-known examples of this class of games, as well as game of go⁠.

A common method to solve expensive function evaluation problem is using Bayesian Global Optimization, instead of Evolutionary Algorithms.

Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) have been detected in objects across different stages of stellar evolution.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Kuiper

Promotor: J. van der Greef, T. Hankemeier; Co-promotor: H.A. van Wietmarschen

The PID-directed shift in PIN polarity has been broadly accepted as one of the essential mechanisms for the regulation of auxin transport polarity.

Low-mass main-sequence stars like our Sun are continuous sources of outflowing hot magnetised plasma. In the case of the Sun, this is known as the solar wind, whereas for other stars they are called stellar winds.

Promotor: C.J. ten Cate, Co-promotor: H.W. Slabbekoorn

Promotor: P.G.L. Klinkhamer, Co-Promotores: K. Vrieling, P.P.J. Mulder

Solar energy harnessed by plants and algae has great potential to be converted into biofuels for future generations.

Aspergillus niger is an important industrial producer of organic acids and enzymes producing large amounts of spent fungal biomass.

This thesis studied in depth the energy use and CO2 emissions of the industrial sector in China.

Subproject of the ERC project 'Challenging the Liberal World Order from Within: The Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South'.

Several single-stranded RNA viruses make use of Xrn1-resistant RNAs in their 3’ untranslated regions of their genome RNAs in order to increase their pathogenicity.

The redox-conversion reaction of metal-disulfide and metal-thiolate complexes are important, as they may shed light on electron-transfer reactions that often occur in Nature.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Dr. M. van der Zee

Streptomyces are prolific producers of enzymes and secondary metabolites, including more than 50% of all clinical antibiotics. This makes them highly attractive for medical, biotechnological, and industrial purposes.

Actinobacteria are well known for the production of bioactive natural products, many of which have applications in the fields of human, animal and plant health. Subject of this thesis are the anthracyclines, glycosylated aromatic polyketides with potent anticancer activity.

The CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), a member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily, is widely involved in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. However, no drugs for this receptor have made it to the pharmaceutical market yet.

The explosive radiation and diversification of the advanced snakes (superfamily Colubroidea) was associated with changes in all aspects of the shared venom system. Morphological changes included the partitioning of the mixed ancestral glands into two discrete glands devoted for production of venom ormucous…

The project Multimedia Research and Documentation of African Oral Genres: Connecting Diasporas and Local Audiences (Director: D.Merolla) focuses on multimedia as technology that allows scholars to share documentation and scientific knowledge with the cultural owners of the collected oral genres.

Promotores: Wim Jiskoot; Ferry Ossendorp

Promotor: J.N. Kok, Co-promotor: M.S. Lew

Empirical Legal Studies in Leiden focust op het bouwen van een interdisciplinaire gemeenschap van rechtsgeleerden en sociale wetenschappers die samen juridische vraagstukken onderzoeken op het snijpunt van recht en gedrag, waarbij diverse soorten methoden worden gebruikt.

Stellar feedback is a crucial ingredient in the evolution of galaxies.

Promotor: P.J.J. Hooykaas, Co-Promotor: E.J. van der Zaal

Understanding how galaxies form, interact, and evolve comes largely from comparing theory predictions with observational data. Numerical simulations of galaxies provide the most accurate approach to testing the theory, as they follow the non-linear evolution of gas and dark matter in great detail and…

This thesis is about the study of hydrocarbons via infrared spectroscopy.

De meeste kinderen leren pas op de middelbare school Frans. Hoe leuk is het als ze al wat Franse woorden leren en kennismaken met de Franse cultuur op de basisschool? Dat kan via deze kennismakingslessen, gemaakt door studenten van de Universiteit Leiden.

Clinical development of drugs for central nervous system (CNS) disorders has been particularly challenging and still suffers from high attrition rates.

In this thesis,

The field of exoplanet research is rapidly advancing through the development of new technology, observing techniques, and post-processing methods.

What is the current relevance of the ethics of counterterrorism and what is the added value of ethics support within the practice of counterterrorism?

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.

It has now been well established that shocks and turbulent motions in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) generated through cluster mergers can produce large-scale synchrotron emission.

Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), one of the largest families of membrane proteins, are responsive to a diverse set of physiological endogenous ligands including hormones and neurotransmitters.

Filamentous Actinobacteria, such as Streptomyces, produce a plethora of chemically diverse bioactive metabolites that have found applications across medicine, agriculture and biotechnology.

Glycoside hydrolases (glycosidases/GHs) are widely abundant enzymes in all kingdoms of life and are important biocatalysts that catalyze the hydrolysis of glycosidic linkages in oligo/polysaccharides, glycoproteins and glycolipids with tremendous efficiency

Sewer pipes are an essential infrastructure in modern society and their proper operation is important for public health. To keep sewer pipes operational as much as possible, periodical inspections for defects are performed.

The experiments described in this thesis employ local lentiviral knockdowns in brain areas of female zebra finches followed by behavioural assays consisting of preference and Go/Nogo tasks.

Bacterial biocatalysis constitutes a sustainable alternative for high-value chemicals production by enabling the utilization of renewable feedstocks.

Ice, the solid state of water, plays an important role on our planet as well as the entire universe.Despite the fact that an individual water molecule has a very simple structure, its chemical bonding in the solid phase can be surprisingly complex.

Marine sponges are important members of reef ecosystems, as they play ecological roles that are essential for the health of the reef.

In this thesis we classify the pairs (p,G), where p is a prime number and G is a finite p-group possessing an intense automorphism, i.e. an automorphism that sends each subgroup of G to a G-conjugate, that is non-trivial and whose order is coprime to p.

This research delves into the unique cultural approach of the Tenggerese people, an Indigenous community in East Java, Indonesia, regarding elderly care. It focuses on their traditional practices of bakti (‘filial piety’) and sayan (‘mutual aid’), deeply ingrained in the community's lifestyle and va…

Atherosclerosis is the most prominent underlying pathology of cardiovascular disease and an important cause of major adverse cardiovascular events.

The invention of neural networks marks a critical milestone in the pursuit of true artificial intelligence. Despite their impressive performance on various tasks, these networks face limitations in learning efficiently as they are often trained from scratch.

Promotors: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. H. Leirs (Univ. Antwerpen)

The filamentous bacteria Streptomyces are widespread inhabitants of terrestrial soils.