The arrival of intelligent, general-purpose robots that can learn to perform new tasks autonomously has been promised for a long time now. Deep reinforcement learning, which combines reinforcement learning with deep neural network function approximation, has the potential to enable robots to learn to perform a wide range of new tasks while requirin...
Farmlands are currently among the dominant uses of the land. When managed under low-input farming systems, farmlands are associated with diverse cultural and natural heritages around the world. Known in Europe as high nature value (HNV) farmlands, these agricultural landscapes and their associated farming systems evolved as tightly coupled socioeco...
In arid and semi-arid ecosystems, shortage of water can trigger changes in landscapes’ structures and function leading to degradation and desertification. Hydrological connectivity is a useful framework for understanding water redistribution and scaling issues associated with runoff and sediment production, since human and/or natural disturbances a...
Compost-bedded pack barns (CBP) are receiving increasing attention as a housing system for dairy cows that has potential to improve animal welfare. This article reviews current scientific knowledge about CBP with the aim of providing a comprehensive tool for producers and researchers using this housing system. In CBP, cows are provided with an open...
Reactive nitrogen (N) losses, and in particular nitrous oxide losses, from dairy grasslands on peat soils are generally high as a result of relative high soil organic matter contents, potential N mineralisation rates and shallow groundwater levels. Effects of the inclusion of the temperate forage species plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.) (PL), whic...
Intercropping is known to increase the efficiency of land use, but no meta-analysis has so far been made on the yield gain of intercropping compared to sole cropping in terms of absolute yield per unit area. Yield gain could potentially be related to a relaxation of competition, due to complementarity or facilitation, and/or to the competitive domi...
Some studies have shown that mild fractionation may result in similar or even better functional properties, than those of highly purified ingredients. This study aimed to relate the level of aqueous purification to the composition, solubility and viscosity of yellow pea fractions. A seldomly used method of cryo-planing combined with Cryo-SEM reveal...
Removal of arsenic (As) from water by co-precipitation with Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides is a widely used technique in water treatment. Nevertheless, As removal efficiency appears to be sensitive to the composition of the water matrix. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the independent and combined effects of silicate (Si), phos...
Recycling of livestock manure to agricultural land may reduce the use of synthetic fertilizer and thereby enhance the sustainability of food production. However, the effects of substitution of fertilizer by manure on crop yield, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and emissions of ammonia (NH3), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) as function of soil ...
Potato cell walls (PCW) are a low value by-product from the potato starch industry. Valorisation of PCW is hindered by its high water-binding capacity (WBC). The composition of polysaccharides and interactions between these entities, play important roles in regulating the WBC in the cell wall matrix. Here, we show that in vivo exo-truncation of RG-...
