NWO Vidi, recent awardees

2026

• How does Graph Structure Modulate Membership-Inference Risk for Graph Neural Networks?

  Megha Khosla

  Graph neural networks (GNNs) are widely used for tasks such as node classification and link prediction, but their use in sensitive settings raises concerns about training-data leakage. Prior work on privacy leakage in GNNs largely borrows assumptions from non-graph domains, overlooking the role of graph structure. We argue for a graph-specific analysis of privacy risk and study how graph structure affects node-level membership inference. We formalize membership inference (MI) over node-neighborh

• Breaking down ALD:Investigating pathomechanisms using hiPSC-derived CNS models

  R. Montoro Ferrer

  <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height: 115%">Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is an X-linked peroxisomal neurometabolic disorder caused by pathogenic variants in the <i>ABCD1</i> gene, resulting in impaired peroxisomal ß-oxidation and accumulation of very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFA). ALD clinical presentation is heterogeneous and unpredictable, including progressive spinal cord axonal degeneration, adrenal insufficiency, and leukodystrophy. Although VLCFA ac

• Uncertainty-aware machine learning for core-loss background subtraction in EELS

  Sònia Conesa-Boj · Delft University of Technology · NL

  Abstract Quantitative electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) critically depends on accurate background subtraction, yet standard approaches rely on deterministic parametric fits and provide no statistically rigorous uncertainty estimates. This limitation is particularly severe in the core-loss regime, where the background must be extrapolated into the ionisation-edge window, hindering reliable and automated analyses. Here, we introduce a physics-informed, uncertainty-aware machine learning fra

• Phytoglobin 1 in plant hypoxia acclimation and development: integrating oxygen sensing, nitric oxide homeostasis, and redox balance

  Elmar van der Wijk · Radboud University Nijmegen · NL

  Hypoxia is integral to the plant life cycle, occurring during both development and environmental stresses like flooding. The class I phytoglobins (PGB1s) have emerged as important regulators of plant hypoxia responses in both these contexts due to their multifaceted roles in nitric oxide (NO) and ROS homeostasis, and alternative energy generation. Physiological PGB1 expression overlaps with developmental hypoxic niches, facilitating hypoxic energy generation through the PGB1-NO cycle. Sustained

• Too honest and humble to run for office? Citizens’ personality traits, nascent ambition and recruitment’

  Marc van de Wardt

• Pupil size reflects the content of covertly attended afterimages

  Ana Vilotijević · University of Groningen · NL

  Does attention operate within afterimages? Here we show that it does, using a novel pupillometry-based paradigm. Participants fixated centrally while bright and dark peripheral stimuli were presented, and a central cue directed attention to one of them. Over time, the stimuli perceptually faded due to adaptation and were then removed, leaving strong, negative afterimages. We found that pupil size tracked the brightness of the attended stimulus both during perceptual fading, when stimuli were pre

• Extracting production fractions of $b$ hadrons from exclusive semi-leptonic decays

  Carolina Bolognani

  Ratios of production fractions of $b$ hadrons are a dominant source of uncertainty in many LHC analyses, in particular in measurements with $B_s$ mesons. The currently used value for $f_s/f_d$ is based on a combination of hadronic and semi-inclusive semi-leptonic decays, and relies in part on assumptions about the underlying decays that are hard to quantify. We propose an independent alternative method to obtain this quantity by measuring ratios of the exclusive semi-leptonic decays $\bar B_{(s)

• Bootstrapping GARCH models under dependent innovations

  Barend Spanjers · Tinbergen Institute · NL

  Abstract This study reflects on the inconsistency of the fixed-design residual bootstrap procedure for GARCH models under dependent innovations. We introduce a recursive- design residual block bootstrap procedure to accurately quantify the uncertainty around parameter estimates and the next period’s volatility. A simulation study provides evidence for the validity of the recursive-design residual block bootstrap under dependent innovations. The resulting confidence intervals are not only valid b

• Suspension cultivation of mosquito cell lines for the production of the mosquito-borne flavivirus Usutu virus in a stirred-tank bioreactor

  Dennis Kenbeek · Wageningen University & Research · NL

  Mosquito-borne pathogens are a global health burden. The realization of a scalable serum-free mosquito cell suspension cultivation method would enable the production of novel biotechnological products, including vaccines, recombinant proteins, and (modified) viruses for biological control. This study reports the adaptation of two Aedes-derived cell lines, C6/36 and U4.4, to serum-free suspension conditions using the chemically defined EX-CELL medium. Both cell lines achieved high cell concentrat

• Electrically tunable strong coupling in a hybrid-2D excitonic metasurface for optical modulation

  T.H. Hoekstra · University of Amsterdam · NL

  Atomically thin semiconductors exhibit tunable exciton resonances that can be harnessed for dynamic manipulation of visible light in ultra-compact metadevices. However, the rapid nonradiative decay and dephasing of excitons at room temperature limit current active excitonic metasurfaces to a few-percent efficiencies. Here, we leverage the combined merits of pristine 2D heterostructures and non-local dielectric metasurfaces to enhance the excitonic light-matter interaction, achieving strong and e

• Entanglement Recycling in Two-Step Port-Based Teleportation

  Piotr Kopszak · Institute of Theoretical Physics · CN

  A protocol involving the repetitive (twofold, to be precise) application of PBT protocol to the same resource is studied. The quantities characterizing the resulting protocol, so-called \textit{two-step PBT}, namely \textit{enatnglement fidelity} and \textit{success probability} are provided for two scenarios, relying on application of pretty-good measurement, i.e. deterministic and probabilistic PBT with non-EPR resource. This results show that two-step PBT is an accurate protocol, provided the

• Does heat tolerance vary with rates of oxygen production in photosymbiotic cnidarians?

  Elise M. J. Laetz · University of Groningen · NL

  Oxygen acquisition and delivery to tissues is believed to be a key factor in heat tolerance, but testing this link has been challenging owing to methodological limitations to separate processes related to oxygen acquisition and oxygen delivery. In this study, we altered tissue oxygenation by manipulating light intensity using cnidarians that host endosymbiotic algae as model species. We first verified that light intensity determines net photosynthetic rates, showing that all species produced oxy

• Enhancing plasmonic superconductivity in layered materials via dynamical Coulomb engineering

  Y. in ’t Veld · Universität Hamburg · DE

  screening as a method for precisely tailoring bosonic modes to optimize many-body properties. We show that "bosonic engineering" of plasmon modes can be used to enhance plasmon-induced superconducting critical temperatures of layered superconductors in metallic environments by up to an order of magnitude, due to the formation of interlayer hybridized plasmon modes with enhanced superconducting pairing strength. We determine optimal properties of the screening environment to maximize critical tem

• Summarizing classed region maps with a disk choreme

  Steven van den Broek · Eindhoven University of Technology · NL

  Chorematic diagrams are highly reduced schematic maps of geospatial data and processes. They can visually summarize complex situations using only a few simple shapes (choremes) placed upon a simplified base map. Due to the extreme reduction of data in chorematic diagrams, they tend to be produced manually; few automated solutions exist. In this paper we consider the algorithmic problem of summarizing classed region maps, such as choropleth or land use maps, using a chorematic diagram with a sing

• Dynamic Iodide Regeneration Enabled by Piperazine‐Tailored PCBM Interfaces for Photothermally Stable and Efficient Inverted Perovskite Photovoltaics

  Shuxia Tao · Eindhoven University of Technology · NL

  release through robust N···I halogen-bonding (XB) interactions, while simultaneously promoting I─I bond cleavage and restoration of iodide ions, consistent with theoretical insights. This coupled "iodine adsorption-dissociation" behavior, unprecedented among previously reported XB acceptors, enables dynamic self-repair of iodine vacancy defects. Consequently, inverted PSCs incorporating PCBM-PA exhibit outstanding photothermal stability, retaining over 93% of their initial efficiency after 1000

• Synchronized modulation Kelvin probe force microscopy for surface photovoltage studies in optoelectronic systems

  Rebecca Saive · University of Twente · NL

  We introduce synchronized modulation Kelvin probe force microscopy (SM-KPFM), an in-operando technique that synchronizes external stimulus modulation, such as illumination or bias, with the scanning direction of the atomic force microscope to minimize artifacts from drift, thermal effects, and probe degradation. In synchronized illumination KPFM, the sample is illuminated during retrace and dark during trace, enabling real-time comparison of surface potentials within a single raster frame. At th

• Anaerobic sulfide removal involves an intricate interplay between biomass, biosulfur, and solutes

  Annemiek ter Heijne · Wageningen University & Research · NL

  In the biodesulfurisation process harmful sulfide is converted to sulfur by sulfide oxidising bacteria (SOB), using oxygen as terminal electron acceptor. Surprisingly, in this process sulfide is already removed before oxygen is consumed. Therefore, sulfide and/or charge is being shuttled between sulfide removal and terminal electron transfer. Previously, it was thought that the bacteria themselves were the exclusive "electron shuttlers". Patterns in sulfide concentration and oxygen reduction pot

• A Novel APP p.V742L variant in a patient with ischemic small vessel disease enhances FE65 signalling

  Ronald A.M. Buijsen · Leiden University Medical Center · NL

  Pathogenic variants in the amyloid precursor protein gene (APP) have been linked to Alzheimer's disease and intracerebral haemorrhage resulting from cerebral amyloid angiopathy. In these disorders, variants are generally located within or surrounding the amyloid-beta domain of APP and mostly increase the production or aggregation properties of the toxic amyloid-beta peptide. Here, we report a novel APP p.V742L variant in the APP intracellular domain (AICD) in a patient with a clinical and neuror

• Deep behavioral phenotyping of pathogen infected mosquitoes reveals species-specific behavior changes enhancing transmission

  Felix JH Hol · Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FR

  Abstract Mosquito-borne pathogens are often proposed to alter mosquito behavior to enhance transmission, yet the prevalence, magnitude, and consequences of such effects remain unclear. Using custom high- throughput behavioral assays and deep-learning analysis, we quantified the blood-feeding behavior of more than 5,000 mosquitoes, and long-term activity patterns of more than 1,000 mosquitoes across six clinically relevant mosquito–pathogen combinations. Infection effects were highly species-spec

• Charge reversal at the Lhcb2 N-terminus impairs phosphorylation and PSI–LHCII complex formation

  Emilie Wientjes · Wageningen University & Research · NL

  State transitions balance excitation-energy distribution between Photosystem I and Photosystem II in higher plants. Stn7-mediated phosphorylation of the N-terminus of the light-harvesting complex II protein Lhcb2 plays a central role in photosynthetic state transitions. However, it remains unclear how the intrinsic charge of this region, independent of its phosphorylation status, influences state transitions and thylakoid membrane organization. Here, we introduced specific charge-altering mutati

• Optional subject indexing in spontaneous speech in Modern Persian

  Pegah Faghiri · Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FR

  Abstract This article presents a case of (non-canonical) optional subject marking observed exclusively in spontaneous speech. Persian is a pro-drop language with obligatory subject agreement marked by verbal suffixes and a set of clitic pronouns serving different functions, e.g., pronominal objects encliticized to the verb. In standard Persian, subject agreement for the 3rd person singular (3SG) is consistently realized by zero in past tenses; however, as shown in this study, in spoken language,

• Academic collaborations and movements towards successful careers in physics

  Mingrong She

  Collaboration networks evolve throughout academic careers, yet few studies systematically examine how these network dynamics relate to long-term career success and mobility. Analysing 35,708 physicists' careers spanning at least 15 years, we use time series clustering to identify ten distinct evolution patterns of network size and clustering coefficient across career years 5 to 15. We report three key results. First, authors who begin with loosely connected networks and progressively tighten the

• Isotropic 3D topological phases with broken time reversal symmetry

  Hélène Spring · Delft University of Technology · NL

  Axial vectors, such as current or magnetization, are commonly used order parameters in time-reversal symmetry breaking systems. These vectors also break isotropy in three dimensional systems, lowering the spatial symmetry. We demonstrate that it is possible to construct a three-dimensional medium with average isotropy and inversion symmetry where time-reversal symmetry is systematically broken. We devise a model of an amorphous material with scalar time-reversal symmetry breaking, implemented by

• Heat Tolerance and Its Plasticity in Freshwater and Marine Fishes Reflect Exposure to Extremes and Seasonal Variation in Habitat Temperatures

  Wilco C. E. P. Verberk · Radboud University Nijmegen · NL

  Large-scale investigations of patterns in heat tolerance often use latitude as a proxy for thermal conditions. We examined how heat tolerance of fishes and its plasticity relate to thermal extremes and seasonal fluctuations in habitat temperatures. Our dataset included over 3000 heat tolerance measurements from 500+ fish species inhabiting freshwater, marine and brackish environments. While heat tolerance varied with latitude, extremes and seasonal fluctuations in temperature better explained th

• The molecular mechanism and activity of <i>Kuenenia stuttgartiensis</i> hydrazine synthase

  Laura van Niftrik · Radboud University Nijmegen · NL

  Abstract Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria convert ammonium and nitrite into dinitrogen gas via the intermediates nitric oxide and hydrazine. To produce hydrazine, anammox bacteria harbor a biochemically unique enzyme: hydrazine synthase. Based on the hydrazine synthase crystal structure it was hypothesized that hydrazine is produced in a two-step mechanism. In this hypothesis, nitric oxide is first reduced to hydroxylamine (first half-reaction), followed by condensation of hydroxy

• We need to understand economic inequality from children’s perspectives

  Eddie Brummelman · Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences · NL

  Economic inequality is on the rise, and children will bear its burden. Yet children’s perspectives are rarely considered. We urgently need interdisciplinary research to better understand how inequality gets into children’s heads and under their skins, and to inform policies that center children’s lived experiences. Economic inequality is on the rise, and children will bear its burden. Yet children’s perspectives are rarely considered. We urgently need interdisciplinary research to better underst

• Detecting glycosyl-oxonium and glycosyl-nitrilium ions using exchange NMR to investigate solvent effects in glycosylation reactions

  Frank F. J. de Kleijne · Radboud University Nijmegen · NL

  The stereoselective synthesis of glycosidic bonds can be promoted by the addition of stereodirecting solvents. In particular, nitrile and ether based solvents are known to promote the selective production of β- or α-glycosides, respectively. Even though the application of co-solvents in glycosylation protocols is well-established, the understanding of their impact on the glycosylation mechanism as well as the reaction intermediates formed upon their addition, remains incomplete. As the exact mec

• An Earth system deep learning classifier for tipping point detection

  Madleen Grohganz · Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research · NL

  Abstract. Tipping points are thresholds at which a system, often abruptly and irreversibly, transitions from a stable state to a contrasting one. Crossing such critical boundaries poses a risk to Earth system stability and may have catastrophic consequences. This is especially relevant, as current climate change is destabilizing Earth subsystems, potentially bringing them closer to tipping points. Thus, it is important to be able to detect approaching tipping points in the Earth’s system, which

• Ocean acidification alters hypoxia sensitivity and oxyregulation in reef-building corals

  Rene M. van der Zande · University of Amsterdam · NL

  Coastal marine ecosystems are increasingly threatened by multiple stressors such as ocean acidification and deoxygenation, but how these co-occurring stressors interact is often poorly understood. This is especially true for tropical coral reefs where deoxygenation is an emerging yet understudied threat. Using hypoxia response curves combined with rigorous pH control, we show that acidification alters hypoxia sensitivity and oxyregulation of reef-building corals in a species-specific manner: thr

• Iron and nitrogen stress controls summertime biogeochemistry in the high‐latitude North Atlantic

  Willem H. van de Poll · University of Groningen · NL

  Abstract High‐latitude North Atlantic currents (60°–70°N) exhibit contrasting nutrient stoichiometries, but the spatial extent of post‐spring bloom iron (Fe) and nitrogen (N) stress on phytoplankton around Iceland remains poorly constrained. Here we pair in situ biogeochemical characteristics with 72 h Fe and N addition experiments in the East Greenland Current (EGC), Irminger Current (IC), Atlantic Current (AC), and East Icelandic Current (EIC) regions. Dissolved iron (dFe) was elevated in the