TOXSWA simuleert het gedrag van stoffen in oppervlaktewater om blootstellingsconcentratie te berekenen voor organismen die in water of sediment leven, als onderdeel van de aquatische risicobeoordeling van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen (GBM). Het vernieuwde concept voor de beschrijving van de temperatuur in het TOXSWA model werd getest aan de hand van e...
Intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crop species simultaneously in the same field, while relay intercropping means that the growing periods of the crop species are only partially overlapping. Intercropping has advantages with respect to productivity, resource capture, build-up of soil organic matter, and pest and disease suppression. Th...
Since time began, mankind has been threatened by the combination of growing populations and diminishing resources. Present-day, this threat is very pertinent as mankind is challenged by a growing world population that is expected to exceed 10 billion in 2050, while resources diminish. Simultaneously, increase of food production should be accomplish...
Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) with a global warming potential of 28 CO2 equivalents. The livestock sector was estimated to emit 7.1 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents, which is approximately 14.5% of total global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Enteric CH4 production is the main source of GHG emissions from dairy cattle, representing 46% of the g...
This PhD thesis aimed to provide additional evidence to demonstrate the potential of an integrated testing strategy using in vitro assays with physiologically based kinetic (PBK) modeling based-reverse dosimetry to predict in vivo toxicity without animal testing. Kidney toxicity was chosen as the toxicity endpoint and aristolochic acids (AAs) were ...
Last century, Lake Taihu (China) became serious eutrophic due to excessive nutrient input. During the 1980s, the first algal blooms emerged in the lake, reaching disastrous proportions in 2007. During that year, the intake of drinking water had to be shut down and millions of people had to look for an alternative source of drinking water. This rais...
Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) offer a conceptual architecture where biological and mathematical objects can be expressed with a common, intuitive formalism. This facilitates the joint development of statistical and computational tools for quantitative analysis of biological data. Over the last few decades, procedures based on well-understoo...
Microtubule organization in cells is an important process. An example of careful microtubule organization is the mitotic spindle. The spindle is a bipolar structure with microtubules emanating from the poles at both sides. These microtubules form antiparallel overlaps in the centre of the spindle where they are bundled by bundling proteins. The ove...
Growing awareness of widespread hunger and poverty in many countries in the SSA is spurring a focus on productivity increase in smallholder farming systems. The rationale is that with current production systems many SSA countries are not keeping pace with population growth and changing of peoples’ lifestyles. To respond to this challenge the Govern...
The world population is anticipated to be around 9.1 billion in 2050 and the challenge is how to feed this huge number of people without affecting natural ecosystems. Different approaches have been proposed and closing the ‘yield gap’ on currently available agricultural lands is one of them. The concept of ‘yield gap’ is based on production ecologi...
