PhD Position in Nutritional Immunology

Low grade inflammation affects a growing population in western countries, leading to an increase in immune disorders such as autoimmunity and allergies, including asthma, which affects 10% of adults in industrialized countries. Type 2 asthma cannot be cured but it can be treated with inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) as controller medication. Some asthmatics have reduced serum levels of n-3 LCPUFA, EPA and DHA, due to low intake or reduced FADS (fatty acid desaturase) enzyme activity. Furthermore, serum vitamin A and D levels are generally low in the western population, while these vitamins can promote tolerogenic immune modulation and/or barrier protection. This project aims to highlight the relevance of these nutrients in managing pulmonary inflammation and therapy guidance, using state-of-the-art human in vitro mucosal-immune cell models.

As a PhD candidate you will further develop bronchial epithelial barrier models and study their interaction with innate and adaptive immune cells, while assessing the anti-inflammatory and barrier protective effects of n-3 LCPUFA plus vitamin A/D as adjunct treatment to corticosteroids. You will present your results at national and international conferences in the fields of Nutrition, Allergy, Pulmonary disease and Pharmacology, reflecting the broad scientific scope of the project. Working across these areas makes this position challenging and highly relevant, as you will actively bridge these scientific fields! It will also allow you to highlight the strength of combining pharmaceutical and nutritional approaches, an opportunity which is often overlooked.

Within the Division of Pharmacology our research group has long-standing experience in the field of Nutritional Immunology, with established expertise of using n-3 LCPUFA for allergy prevention in vitro and in pre-clinical models.

This project is part of the European doctoral network LipidBRIGHT, offering the opportunity to collaborate in a network of academic and non-academic partners that bridge clinical with basic research on lipids in chronic inflammatory disorders.

PhD Position in Music Computing

The core aim of the project is to design explainable computational models that drive high-impact applications in Music Information Retrieval (MIR), while advancing our computational understanding of musical style: what defines it, what are its elements, how is it structured and perceived, how does it vary?

The project will build on various theories. A promising starting point is Leonard B. Meyer’s theory of musical style, which defines style as a replication of patterning. A central challenge in this approach is to identify structural elements of music as instances of patterns. What these patterns are differs culturally and historically. The body of literature on topic theory (founded by Leonard Ratner) offers a point of departure to identify such patterns and to understand the way in which these are replicated and perceived. For example, a fragment of music could allude to a ‘fanfare’, or to a ‘horn call’, to just mention two examples out of many. These kinds of patterns have many occurrences throughout music history. Can we design computational models for such topics? How do topics function in game music and film music? How are different musical styles interconnected by occurrences of topics?

We also envision to connect with current understanding of music cognition, specifically building on insights on musical memory. There is a class of modular cognitive models of music processing that include a ‘musical lexicon’ as one of the cognitive modules. This ‘musical lexicon’ determines for a given listener what musical patterns can be recognized. Understanding of this personalized music perception plays a role in user modelling for interactive music systems.

An important challenge lies in designing models that go beyond merely achieving high accuracy in classifying musical styles or genres, or in detecting specific musical patterns. The process of modelling facilitates the understanding of the patterns through a computational lens. This calls for strong expertise in computational methods, machine learning, and data modelling combined with solid knowledge of music. We particularly aim to cover a broad range of musical traditions and cultures world-wide, both contemporary and historical.

In this project you will:

• prepare data sets representing a wide range of musical styles, including both audio and symbolic formats;
• design appropriate data structures for representation of music;
• design computational detectors for various musical patterns;
• design, implement and evaluate computational models of musical style;
• apply these models in several case studies.

Furthermore, you will communicate results in academic presentations and publications, and ultimately in a PhD thesis. During the project, you will expand your academic network. A moderate percentage of the time will be spent on teaching tasks within the department, providing you with the opportunity to gain experience in teaching.

PhD “Climate Change and Cooperation in Asia, 1945 to the Present"

Around the world, climate risks facing agriculture have intensified in recent years. The capability of rural societies to adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change hinges on their capacity for cooperation. This project studies the historical roots of cooperation in rural societies faced with climate uncertainty. In the post WWII period, rural societies in Asian countries underwent a dramatic transformation. The introduction of new agricultural technologies increased crop productivity and rural incomes. At the same time, these changes reshaped economic, political, and social power in rural communities. They also exposed farmers to new forms of climate risk, contributing to variation in cooperation and conflict. Focusing on local processes during this period allows us to trace when and why cooperation breaks down or endures, and to assess the consequences for sustainable development.

Through a comparative and long run study of rural Asia, the project will investigate interactions between climate, institutions and cooperative behaviour. This will involve the collection of archival data at the household or village level to understand how local conditions and cooperative behaviour changes over time and across regions or countries. The project will analyse the drivers of cooperation through historical analysis, with additional insight from the field of social psychology that helps to understand cooperation at an individual and group level. By clarifying when cooperation succeeds or fails in historically climate-vulnerable agricultural contexts, the project offers lessons for climate adaptation in other countries around the world.

Hoofd HR faculteit Diergeneeskunde

In deze functie draag je zorg voor de strategische en tactische aansturing van HR binnen de faculteit. Je bent een gelijkwaardige en krachtige sparringpartner voor het faculteitsbestuur en management en zorgt ervoor dat HR aantoonbaar bijdraagt aan het primaire proces. Je verbindt de facultaire en universitaire ambities met de doelstellingen van jou en je team en zorgt voor samenhang tussen HR-strategie, -beleid en -uitvoering. Je stuurt een team aan van 13 HR-professionals, zodanig dat zij met plezier samenwerken en bijdragen aan de organisatie die we willen zijn. Tevens maak je deel uit van het managementteam van de Facultaire Ondersteuningsorganisatie en het Hoofden HR-overleg binnen de universiteit onder leiding van de universitaire directeur HR. De directeur HR voert de regie binnen het HR domein (directie HR en HR afdelingen).

Actuele HR-thema’s binnen de universiteit en de faculteit waar jij mee aan de slag gaat zijn onder meer:

• Verdere professionalisering van strategische personeelsplanning (SPP);
• Leiderschapsontwikkeling;
• Welzijn en sociale veiligheid, mede in relatie tot diversiteit en inclusie;
• Erkennen & Waarderen;
• Implementatie van een nieuw universitair personeelsinformatiesysteem.
• Je draagt bij aan en realiseert een HR-strategie die bijdraagt aan de facultaire ambities op het gebied van onderwijs, onderzoek en diergezondheidszorg;
• Je bent sparringpartner en adviseur van het faculteitsbestuur, met focus op organisatieontwikkeling, leiderschap en strategische personeelsvraagstukken;
• Je geeft richting en focus aan je team vanuit de strategische doelen van de faculteit en het universitaire HR-domein;
• Je draagt bij aan de universiteitsbrede HR-beleidsontwikkeling, vertegenwoordigt de faculteit in het Hoofden HR-overleg en draagt het UU beleid uit binnen de faculteit;

Apothekersassistent Practicum Farmacie

• Je bereidt de practica voor en zorgt dat alle materialen, grondstoffen en apparatuur klaarstaan.
• Je geeft samen met docenten demonstraties van geneesmiddelbereidingen en laat studenten zien hoe de apparatuur correct en veilig wordt gebruikt.
• Je begeleidt studenten (van bachelor tot master) bij het bereiden van geneesmiddelen en helpt hen op een vriendelijke en positieve manier op weg.
• Je beheert de voorraad, verzorgt de bestellingen en controleert de apparatuur, waarbij je storingen meldt en laat verhelpen.
• Je ondersteunt docenten tijdens practica en speelt proactief in op wat nodig is om een practicum soepel te laten verlopen.

Met twee collega-assistenten en het team van docenten maak je de practica tot een succes en lever je een waardevolle bijdrage aan de ontwikkeling van onze farmaciestudenten.