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The project will examine dairy cows. Cows have a longstanding bond with humans, yet compared with companion animals, we know far less about their social behaviour. The project aims at applying sociolinguistic methods targeting a multimodal and material analysis of the sounds, gaze, movements, facial expressions, touch, space, and sensorial capacities of dairy cows. As a result, the project will provide proof of principle for an animal turn in sociolinguistics, which furthers our understanding of how cows use their voices and bodies to understand and relate to each other and to humans.

In 2017, over 46,000 children in the Netherlands lived apart from their biological parents in formal care arrangements (e.g. foster families, residential stay). These children vary enormously in the out-of-home care settings they experienced. To date, we know little about this diversity and its long-term consequences for adult functioning. Which children encounter problems in adjusting to adult roles (e.g. as partner, parent, employee, and law-abiding citizen)? Moreover, we also know little about the resources they can use to counteract adult adversity. Theory suggests that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to experience adult adversity because they lack parental structure and control, economic resources, emotional attachment, or social support to develop successfully. However, empirical studies that jointly test these interlinked mechanisms are scarce. In this Veni-project I close this knowledge gap by studying out-of-home care pathways and the mechanisms by which these pathways lead to adverse outcomes concerning family formation, employment, and crime in adulthood. This Veni-project is innovative in three major aspects. First, my project is substantively innovative as it is the first examining consequences of out-of-home care using entire histories of youth care arrangements, and focusing on outcomes in crucial domains of adult functioning: family formation, employment and crime. Second, my study is theoretically innovative as I propose and test a new integrated conceptual model linking diversity in out-of-home care pathways to variation in adult outcomes, and examine under which economic, emotional and social circumstances adult adversity is exacerbated. Third, my study is methodologically innovative as I implement a longitudinal approach uniquely combining quantitative data from two sources: register data on an entire population-based birth cohort of children in out-of-home care from Statistics Netherlands, and information coded from case files of several foster care organizations for a subgroup of my birth cohort.

“Macro”-managing genes All cells in your body contain the same DNA but can specialize into different cell types by turning genes on or off. This is carefully organized by epigenetic processes to prevent disease. This research will show how a newly identified player controls gene activity by placing the biggest epigenetic mark.

Soil biotic and abiotic conditions vary greatly over space, and insight into the role soil heterogeneity plays in creating and maintaining plant diversity can be key to successful restoration of biodiversity. We aim to study how soil heterogeneity affects plant diversity and ecosystem functioning, and we will examine how soil heterogeneity can be managed via soil transplantation approaches to improve biodiversity conservation and nature restoration. We will study the effectiveness of soil transplantation for restoration and improved aboveground and belowground diversity at a restoration area of 180 hectares where soil from a restored species-rich grassland, and sods collected from a heathland have been deposited over large areas. We will also study how the spatial variability of soil biota and resources change during the process of restoration on former arable fields, in a series of restoration sites that differ in years they have been under restoration. Spatial explicit sampling designs will be used in the project and local and spatial aboveground and belowground diversity will be determined. Molecular techniques (TRFLP) will be employed to study soil microbial community heterogeneity. In greenhouse studies, ecosystem functions of soils will be studied. Recommendations will be made about optimal strategies for soil transplantation and management of soil heterogeneity in nature restoration projects. Particular emphasis will be placed on improvement of restoration success of on-going restoration projects. The results of this project will guide restoration management and provide essential information on how to make optimal use of soils in nature and biodiversity restoration.