door ir. Geert BOEIJE Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor (Ph.D) in Applied Biological Sciences Proefschrift voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van Doctor in de Toegepaste Biologische Wetenschappen op gezag van

Cigarette smoking is growing and nicotine is considered as the most adverse agent in the cigarette smoking. Nicotine is an alkaloid and forms 90% of alkaloids of cigarette. Nicotine is accountable for creating disorders and cancers such as lung cancer, heart disease and chronic lung disease. Nicotine can be considered as an autophagy and apoptosis inducer which can either directly or indirectly...

This research explores the causes of dealer demand amplification leading to a high volume of seed returns in a typical agribusiness supply chain. Seed production occurs months in advance of grower demand, resulting in a limited supply of specific seeds. To hedge against shortages, dealers inflate orders. If demand materializes, dealers benefit from their inflationary behavior. If it does not, t...

To provide more insights into the responses of the soil seed bank and vegetation to human disturbance intensity, we selected four land use types, including: native grassland (no human disturbance), abandoned artificial grassland (light human disturbance), artificial grassland (moderate human disturbance), and farmland (severe human disturbance) in a semi-arid climate of northern China. The spec...

Seed dispersal is typically performed by a diverse array of species assemblages with different behavioral and morphological traits which determine dispersal quality (DQ, defined as the probability of recruitment of a dispersed seed). Fate of ecosystems to ongoing environmental changes is critically dependent on dispersal and mainly on DQ in novel scenarios. We assess here the DQ, thus the multi...

Cell specification requires that particular subsets of cells adopt unique expression patterns that ultimately define the fates of their descendants. In C. elegans, cell fate specification involves the combinatorial action of multiple signals that produce activation of a small number of "blastomere specification" factors. These initiate expression of gene regulatory networks that drive developme...

We study the European river Danube and the South American river Negro daily water levels. We present a fit for the Negro daily water level period and standard deviation. Unexpectedly, we discover that the river Negro and Danube are mirror rivers in the sense that the daily water levels fluctuations histograms are close to the BHP and reversed BHP, respectively.

There are many ways to avoid responsibility, for example, explaining what happens as the work of the gods, fate, society, or the system. For engineers, "technology" or "the organization" will serve this purpose quite well. We may distinguish at least nine (related) senses of "responsibility", the most important of which are: (a) responsibility-as-causation (the storm is responsible for flooding...