Matches in Ghent University Academic Bibliography for { ?s <http://schema.org/abstract> ?o. }
- 01GJFZZ3QGM5A9VWF4XQXW2NJP abstract "ABSTRACT: Electrocardiography (ECG) is the most essential physiological signal in diagnosing and managing heart diseases. The quality of the ECG signal is essential to receive accurate information and electrodes are the main components that affect the acquired signal quality. In this work, we have developed silver printed and embroidered textile electrodes to measure ECG signals from a dog and compare the results with signals collected using AG/AgCl electrodes. ECG signals were collected while the dog was in a sitting position and walking on a smooth surface and collected signals were analysed on visibility and amplitude of major peaks, HR, and R-R intervals. The ECG signals collected from the developed textile electrodes have identifiable P, QRS, and T waveforms and were comparable with signals from standard Ag/AgCl electrodes. The heart rate (HR) was 127 bpm77 for signals acquired using embroidered and Ag/AgCl electrodes and 113 bpm for the signal from silver printed electrodes. The results revealed that these textile electrodes can be used for the proposed application to avoid associated problems with crocodile clamps electrodes, especially for long-monitoring. While the dog is walking, collected signals show some distortion that would be due to unstable skin-electrode contact, showing this aspect requires further improvement. KEYWORDS: ECG; ECG electrodes; embroidered electrodes; silver-printed electrodes".
- 01GJG0HSP3W48MMQMM08P2N17A abstract "The sources of the majority of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos observed with the IceCube neutrino telescope at the South Pole are unknown. So far, only a gamma-ray blazar was compellingly associated with the emission of high-energy neutrinos. In addition, several studies suggest that the neutrino emission from the gamma-ray blazar population only accounts for a small fraction of the total astrophysical neutrino flux. In this work we probe the production of high-energy neutrinos in the cores of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), induced by accelerated cosmic rays in the accretion disk region. We present a likelihood analysis based on eight years of IceCube data, searching for a cumulative neutrino signal from three AGN samples created for this work. The neutrino emission is assumed to be proportional to the accretion disk luminosity estimated from the soft X-ray flux. Next to the observed soft X-ray flux, the objects for the three samples have been selected based on their radio emission and infrared color properties. For the largest sample in this search, an excess of high-energy neutrino events with respect to an isotropic background of atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos is found, corresponding to a post-trial significance of 2.60$\sigma$. Assuming a power-law spectrum, the best-fit spectral index is $2.03^{+0.14}_{-0.11}$, consistent with expectations from particle acceleration in astrophysical sources. If interpreted as a genuine signal with the assumptions of a proportionality of X-ray and neutrino fluxes and a model for the sub-threshold flux distribution, this observation implies that at 100 TeV, 27$\%$ - 100$\%$ of the observed neutrinos arise from particle acceleration in the core of AGN.".
- 01GJG0NM1GFV1D8ZJ357NJ8WHA abstract "While ancient metalinguistic resources such as lexica and scholia are increasingly studied in the field of ancient scholarship (Montanari 2020), they are investigated less within the historical sociolinguistics of Ancient Greek. Analysing the Atticist lexica by Phrynichus, Moeris and Aelius Dionysius, this article illustrates the historically persistent connection between social perception of and diachronic change within Ancient Greek. Although the historical relevance of Atticist prescriptivism has been observed, the evidence that these social evaluations provide for Post-Classical Greek language change is rarely assessed systematically (except for objectionable ideological reasons). I demonstrate that the Atticist lexica display metalinguistic awareness of the major morphosyntactic changes characterizing Post-Classical Greek (pace Lee 2013:286): paradigmatic (e.g. analogical levelling in verbal system of endings, voice and augment), category changes, category renewal (e.g. dual, pronouns, periphrasis), syntactic change (category expansion of ἔμελλον and τυγχάνω) and case changes (e.g. from case to prepositions).".
- 01GJG2S5H5HWJQJ4WRK0SW3JGS abstract "In this study, we introduce a critical assessment of methodological assumptions made by researchers when using correspondence tests to measure ethnic discrimination. We aim to investigate whether (1) the order in which the applications are sent out, between the test and control person, (2) the conducted matched triad tests, in comparison to matched duo tests, and (3) the timing of application within the week, have an effect on discrimination rates. For this purpose, we made use of 2.984 matched correspondence tests across Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Our findings suggest that the correspondence tests are rather robust for the variability in methodology. While these different methodological choices do affect the general invitation rates, they do not affect discrimination rates.".
- 01GJG4GNCFZQPX87HQY23EGZBY abstract "In the last decade, nutrition has gained interest in the management of canine idiopathic epilepsy (IE) based on growing scientific evidence. Diets can serve their functions through many pathways. One potential pathway includes the microbiota-gut-brain axis, which highlights the relationship between the brain and the intestines. Changing the brain’s energy source and a number of dietary sourced anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective factors appears to be the basis for improved outcomes in IE. Selecting a diet with anti-seizure effects and avoiding risks of proconvulsant mediators as well as interference with anti-seizure drugs should all be considered in canine IE. This literature review provides information about preclinical and clinical evidence, including a systematic evaluation of the level of evidence, suggested mechanism of action and interaction with anti-seizure drugs as well as pros and cons of each potential dietary adaptation in canine IE.".
- 01GJG4K3Y9MV4567KWF9VKZAPR abstract "Correlations predicting the transient behavior of latent heat thermal energy storage systems without too many computational efforts are valuable for engineering practices. This characterization of latent heat thermal energy storage systems can be done with the recently developed charging time energy fraction method. This method allows fitting a predictive model for the outlet heat transfer fluid temperature of a latent thermal storage unit as a function of the input condition. The previous application of the method neglected heat transfer to the ambient. The present paper improves the charging time energy fraction method by proposing a heat loss model to the charging time energy fraction model. A finite volume model of a high-temperature thermal battery is used to validate the proposed heat loss model. The improved charging time energy fraction method is then used to characterize a high-temperature thermal battery by calibrating a model on 36 numerical charging experiments. The charging time prediction between energy fractions of 0 and 0.96 deviates maximally 2 % from the measured charging time over all 36 calibration experiments. The deviation increases near the end of the charging process, especially for slower charging experiments. Across the 36 calibration experiments, the worst prediction has an average absolute temperature difference of 0.50 degrees C with a maximum deviation of 2.58 degrees C at the very beginning of the charging where fast transients are occurring. The calibrated model is also compared to four numerical validation experiments and four real experiments. Overall it is shown that this low computational cost model with average calculation times of 2-3 ms can accurately predict the heat transfer fluid outlet temperature of latent thermal energy storage heat exchangers.".
- 01GJGFTYKG6DAFBZ7VJX7XSZY9 abstract "Existing concrete bridges can show signs of deterioration, e.g. due to corrosion, in which case the question arises whether these bridges still have an acceptable safety level. To obtain additional information about the state of the structure, different types of information can be gathered. However, the measurements performed are often not used directly to update the estimate of the corrosion degree of the bridge and the resulting information from different measurement types is not combined. In this contribution, it is investigated how parameters of the service life models for concrete girders subjected to chloride-induced corrosion can be updated based on heterogeneous measurement data, with the focus on modal measurements and strain measurements. The posterior distributions of these parameters are generated based on Bayesian updating. These updated distributions can be used to get a more accurate estimate of the real deterioration state of the bridge. Based on this, the failure probability of the bridge and its remaining service life can be estimated more accurately.".
- 01GJGGP1RCT1P0MYDSWZRCC8YK abstract "Aging bridges in combination with an ever-growing traffic volume are a matter of concern all over the world. Consequently, the reassessment of existing bridges is gaining importance rapidly. This paper presents two bridge case studies considered within the IABSE Task Group 1.3 “Calibration of Partial Safety Factors for the Assessment of Existing Bridges”. The so-called design value method (DVM) and adjusted partial factor method (APFM), introduced in fib Bulletin 80 and both relying on a partial factor format, are considered in this paper. The objectives are (i) to illustrate how DVM and APFM can be used when specifying partial safety factors for assessment of existing bridges, and (ii) to discuss some of the assumptions that are implied by these methods. Two case studies are considered for illustration in this paper: a single span reinforced concrete slab and a 3-span continuous reinforced concrete slab.".
- 01GJGJFJ5RVKGEG6SW4XKNNKW7 abstract "Traditional design and assessment approaches usually assume that e.g. material properties and environmental influences are uniform in space. However, it is well-known that such parameters can show considerable spatial variability. Furthermore, it has been shown that such spatial variability can significantly influence structural reliability. One way to account for spatial variability is by means of random fields. However, the use of such advanced calculations has not found its way to everyday engineering practice. Therefore, a methodology is developed in order to include spatial variability in the partial factor method in a way which is consistent with the current Eurocode format for design. This is done by introducing a separate partial factor which depends on the correlation length and the variability of the parameter under consideration. As such, an easy-to-use graph is generated, which can be applied in practice for the adjustment of partial factors to take into account spatial correlation. Finally, the proposed approach is validated by means of full-probabilistic calculations.".
- 01GJGJNV4HHSES1S6B9N1F6APW abstract "Many existing bridges are reaching the end of their technical service life. To estimate the remaining lifetime of reinforced concrete structures, it is important to assess the parameters of the corrosion process (i.e. parameters governing the corrosion propagation, but also parameters of the chloride or carbonation ingress). The level of corrosion and its spatial distribution can be inferred from strain data under static loading or modal data. In addition, information from visual inspections is often available as well, although not often used to quantify the level of corrosion. In this work, it is investigated how visual inspections can supplement the strain and/or modal data and provide information on corrosion parameters. The developed framework is applied to a simply supported beam subjected to corrosion.".
- 01GJGJYSRT2T4AEBN023ESRRME abstract "Due to the timely issue of climate change, continuously rising CO2 emissions, and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves, it is imperative to focus on the development of new, CO2-neutral, and renewable sources as an alternative feedstock for base chemicals. Currently, the mixture of benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX), which originates from fossil fuels, is the main feedstock for production of nearly all aromatic chemicals [1]. Thus, to achieve a CO2-neutral economy, finding an alternative and sustainable feedstock for aromatic chemicals is paramount. The complex biopolymer lignin is the largest indigestible renewable source of aromatic compounds in nature [2]. However, lignin valorization is challenged by the development of successful depolymerization techniques that result in both high product yields and high selectivity towards functionalized aromatic chemicals [3]. Amongst numerous depolymerization strategies, mild reductive depolymerization is characterized by superior selectivity to the desired products but is currently still hindered by low yields. [4]. The use of a performant redox catalyst and reductive agent can compensate for the latter, ultimately providing a successful lignin depolymerization pathway to functionalized aromatic chemicals. This project focuses on the relationship between the catalytic properties of supported (bimetallic) nanoparticles (NPs) and the obtained product pool after mild reductive depolymerization of Soda-extracted lignin. Gaining insight into this interaction will advance the development of high yield reductive lignin depolymerization (Figure 1). Firstly, the effect of bimetallic configurations is studied by testing 5 w% bimetallic Pd nanocatalysts, in 1:1 stoichiometric ratio with Cu, Ni, Fe, Co, and Mo, at 200oC and 10 bar H2 in a 70/30 (vol%/vol%) ethanol-water mixture for 6 and 20 hours. The best performing combinations are also tested in 1:3 and 3:1 stoichiometric ratio. The results are compared with monometallic 5 w% Pd. Secondly, calcined and reduced catalysts are used to study the effect of metal oxidation state. Lastly, the synergy between NPs and support material is studied on multiple supports: γ-Alumina, active carbon, SiO2, and CeO2. 3 factors are considered for evaluating the catalytic performance: hydrogenation rate, product selectivity, and depolymerization rate. By combing both noble and base metal sites, less hydrogenation with no decrease in depolymerization rate is observed, thereby increasing the selectivity towards aromatic components. Calcination shows slight superiority in depolymerization rate while tendency for less polydispersity is detected for the reduced catalysts. Firmer conclusions are to be made once all reactions sets have been performed and analyzed with GPC, GC-MS and 2D GPC-HPLC.".
- 01GJGP151T5B8CQX2FRT0948C1 abstract "Many eyewitnesses mention the emergence of a new style of ceremonial dances performed at the Napoleonic court between 1802 and 1814. The deliberate mixing of the social classes during these occasions was considered a novelty. A significant proportion of the original musical scores for these semi-public dances has survived although they are sometimes hard to decipher. However, the importance of the choreographers involved (Pierre Gardel and Jean-Etienne Despréaux among others), suggests that the artistic standard of the works was high. This is confirmed by a link between these dances and the corps de ballet of the Paris Opéra which is apparent from other contemporary sources. By comparing eyewitness accounts with the archival sources, it becomes possible to deduce at least some of the missing choreographic details and social circumstances.".
- 01GJHN0ZYPSG7FSHR189QFB12A abstract "In this contribution to our introduction to the special issue, I look at how and to what extent 'plurisemiotic practices' have gradually been integrated as objects of study in Translation Studies. Even if every act of communication is (and has always been) a plurisemiotic act, it is clear that this dimension has long been neglected in favour of logocentric approaches. From the 'cultural turn' at the end of the 1970s onwards, the plurisemiotic has become increasingly visible, and has given rise to stimulating and sometimes very diverse research projects, with many consequences, regarding both the validity of several key notions of traductology and the very definition of the discipline. Today, the research is still in development. In addition to the unequal distribution of centres of interest (some semiotic devices have been studied more than others), two heuristic challenges persist. Is it possible to develop a univocal conceptual vocabulary? How to account for the complex and simultaneous interaction of these different semiotic devices in an analysis?".
- 01GJHN14VY1QRG54DV6A9WYRBR abstract "Over the course of less than a decade, Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing (2006), was translated into French three different times. The poetry collection of Cohen was first translated in Quebec (Livre du constant desir, 2007) and then in France (Le livre du desir, 2008). In addition, seven poems published in Book of Longing previously appeared as songs on the studio album Ten New Songs (2001). The French release of this album was accompanied by a promotional booklet, in which French translations (made by Graeme Allwright) are printed. In this article, the question is raised whether these texts can be labeled as 'retranslations' or not. The three translations will first be compared in order to determine to what extent several power mechanisms have influenced the production of these translations, namely the dynamics between centre and periphery (Paris and Quebec) and between highbrow-lowbrow cultural products (literature and music). These external factors will then be compared to a number of internal factors, i.e. a specific interpretation of Cohen's poetry that may have influenced the adopted translation strategies of the three texts under consideration.".
- 01GJHN14W46WPKY958T5D5QMD9 abstract "Since his comeback on stage in 2008, Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) has been portrayed in the surprisingly monolithic image of a singer-songwriter who broke through in the '60s and whose works have been increasingly categorised as 'classics'. In this article, I will examine his trajectory through several cultural systems, i.e. his entrance into both the French literary and musical systems in the late '60s and early '70s. This is an example of mediation brought about by both individual people and institutions in both the source and target cultures. Cohen's texts do not only migrate between geo-politically defined source and target cultures (Canada and France), but also between institutionally defined musical and literary systems within one single geo-political context (France). All his musical albums were reviewed and distributed there soon after their release and almost his entire body of literary works (novels and poetry collections) has been translated into French. Nevertheless, Cohen's reception has never been univocal, either in terms of the representation of the artist or in terms of the evaluation of his works, as this article concludes.".
- 01GJHN14W9CESBVX74NWWYVQ0W abstract "Centring on the life and work of Jean-Francois-Xavier Wurth (1800-1874), this introduction gives a brief overview of the main themes addressed in the various contributions of this special issue. As one of professor Kinker's most diligent students, the Luxemburger Wurth began writing several didactic works when he was still enrolled at the University of Liege. His first textbooks appeared during the period of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and closely observe the guidelines set out in King William I's language policy. Wurth continued to write after the Belgian Revolution but the new political situation forced him to rely on a different discourse. His historiography Histoire abregee des Liegeois (1833) is representative of the new direction he took. This work serves as the starting point of this introduction, which deals with the tradition of a local (Liege-centric) historiography, the institutional history of the two State Universities in Ghent and Liege, 'Belgian' literature in the French-speaking south, literary translation practices and exchanges between the north and the south, and the complex literary and cultural interaction that took place in what is known today as the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. Taking advantage of different disciplines and perspectives, we aim to bring the turbulent period during and just after the period of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands into sharper focus.".
- 01GJHN19RRN7AB8MKP2EXN4WY0 abstract "Immediatement apres la Premiere Guerre mondiale, plusieurs litteratures nationales europeennes se voient confrontees a un defi de taille: comment, dans cette nouvelle constellation societale, concevoir une nouvelle litterature europeenne? A partir d'une double distinction entre identite collective/partielle et identite egalitaire/hierarchique, nous etudierons d'abord les differentes modalites theoriques de ces discours de (re)construction. Celles-ci seront ensuite exemplifiees a partir d'une analyse portant sur le type et le statut de la langue a adopter dans chaque modalite individuelle. Cette etude se base sur un corpus de textes d'avant-garde belges, mais vu le caractere international de la problematique les conclusions valent egalement pour d'autres litteratures europeennes.".
- 01GJHNAZ3ZWBQF805NMFZBGHWX abstract "Using the lubrication oil in (hybrid) electric vehicles as both coolant and lubricant, thereby eliminating the need of a separate coolant circuit, can improve the overall efficiency of the cars. However, oil exhibits inferior heat transfer properties compared to conventional coolants (mainly higher viscosity, lower thermal conductivity and lower specific heat capacity). Therefore, it should be investigated whether the cooling of the drivetrain using oil is sufficiently performant. In this paper, the thermal and hydraulic performance of three oil-cooled heat sink designs (pin fin, straight fin and jet impingement) for power electronics are experimentally evaluated. It can be concluded that the straight fin heat sink exhibits the best hydraulic performance, but the pin fin heat sink has the best thermal and overall performance.".
- 01GJHRGCHQ4G3Y0H5R8C669R7P abstract "De herstructureringsrichtlijn legt de EU-lidstaten de verplichting op ervoor te zorgen dat ondernemingen bij dreigende insolventie toegang hebben tot een doeltreffend preventief herstructureringsstelsel. Hierbij hebben de lidstaten de mogelijkheid om aan tussentijdse financiering die in het kader van dit preventieve herstructureringsstelsel wordt verleend, in een navolgende insolventieprocedure een recht van voorrang toe te kennen. Na een bespreking van de voor- en nadelen van het toekennen van een recht van voorrang aan tussentijdse financiering, gaat de aandacht naar de Amerikaanse regeling van de debtor-in-possession financing, die als inspiratiebron voor de Europese wetgever diende. Vervolgens wordt nagegaan of Frankrijk, Nederland en Duitsland bij de omzetting van de herstructureringsrichtlijn een recht van voorrang aan tussentijdse financiering hebben toegekend (of zullen toekennen). Ook het Verenigd Koninkrijk komt kort aan bod, omdat daar in 2020 een belangrijke hervorming van het insolventierecht plaatsvond. Aan het einde van deze bijdrage pleiten wij ervoor dat de Belgische wetgever bij de omzetting van de herstructureringsrichtlijn een sterker recht van voorrang aan tussentijdse financiering zou toekennen.".
- 01GJHS0KRVFYX06HB2KSXCAGFH abstract "Introduction: The advent of advanced electrophysiological procedures such as 3D electro-anatomical mapping and radiofrequency ablation currently allows for diagnosis and treatment of right atrial arrhythmias in horses.1,2 In contrast, left atrial arrhythmias are scarcely studied3 due to the perilous arterial approach that is needed to access the left atrium. In small animal and human medicine, the transseptal puncture, which is performed via the femoral vein, is a commonly used technique to access the left atrium via the oval fossa in a safe and efficient way. In human medicine, the transhepatic approach has been reported as an alternative to the femoral approach, as the oval fossa is accessed from a similar direction and ensures similar catheter manipulations. Indeed, a caudal approach towards the oval fossa is favourable to position the puncture assembly into the pouchlike anatomy of the oval fossa and direct it towards the left atrium. In contrast, the majority of catheterizations in horses is performed via the jugular vein, which implies a cranial instead of a caudal access to the heart. Moreover, fluoroscopy, which is most commonly used to perform the transseptal puncture in small animals and humans, provides limited to no imaging guidance to allow catheter manipulation in horses due to the size of the equine thorax. Similarly, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging cannot be used either to provide insight into the detailed anatomy of the interatrial septum in an adult horse. Therefore, the goal of this study was to develop a transseptal puncture protocol using a transhepatic and a jugular vein approach under ultrasound guidance. Methods: All horses in the study were donated for scientific research and owner informed consent was obtained. In 17 horses, a transseptal puncture was performed under general anaesthesia: in nine horses the jugular vein approach was performed, in six horses both the jugular vein and transhepatic approach was performed, and in two horses the transhepatic approach was performed. For the jugular vein approach, a 0.035″ J-tipped or pigtail guidewire followed by 8.5F steerable sheath-dilator assembly was introduced via the right jugular vein and positioned in front of the oval fossa. For the transhepatic approach, a puncture site for transhepatic access was determined on the left or right abdominal wall by locating a clearly visible hepatic vein of at least 8mm in diameter using transthoracic ultrasound. The hepatic vein was punctured using a 9cm long 18G needle, allowing the introduction of a 0.032″ guidewire and subsequent dilator and 8.5F steerable sheath and positioning in front of the oval fossa. The 0.032″ guidewire was then exchanged for a 0.035″ J-tipped or pigtail guidewire. For both approaches, the procedure continued with positioning of the distal tip of the guidewire against the oval fossa and puncture by applying radiofrequency energy on the guidewire, after which dilator and sheath were advanced into the left atrium. The entire procedure was guided using transthoracic and intracardiac echocardiography, and continuous ECG-monitoring was performed. The horses were euthanized at the end of the procedure and lesion size and permeability were evaluated post-mortem. Results: In 13/17 horses, a successful transseptal puncture was achieved, accounting for 14/15 jugular vein approaches and 5/8 transhepatic approaches (total of 23 punctures). In four horses, the transhepatic puncture was performed on the right side, in the other four on the left side. On post-mortem evaluation, permeable lesions of 1-5 mm were visible in all horses in the oval fossa on the right atrial side and ventral to pulmonary vein ostium III on the left atrial side. The most challenging part of the procedure was the over-the-wire insertion of the dilator-sheath assembly into the left atrium due to the thickness of the equine interatrial septum and limited catheter support. In five horses, atrial fibrillation was already present before the puncture, in 12 procedures paroxysmal atrial fibrillation or paroxysmal atrial tachycardia occurred in response to the puncture and in one horse persistent atrial fibrillation developed. Procedural failure in four horses was due to inability to advance dilator-sheath assembly (N=2), termination of the procedure due to technical failure (N=1), and inability to advance the guidewire towards the heart during a transhepatic approach (N=1). Ultrasound guidance, and especially intracardiac echocardiography (Figure 1), was adequate to guide the procedure. Limitations: Although care was taken to perform the second puncture on another location in the oval fossa in the horses in which both methods were applied, it cannot be excluded that the second puncture was realised via the first puncture site. Not all procedures were performed with the same devices. Post-operative complications could not be evaluated as the horses were euthanized for reasons not related to the study. Conclusion: Both transseptal puncture techniques allowed to access the left atrium in a minimally invasive way. Further research is needed to establish in which cases which approach would be most appropriate, to investigate which devices yield the most effective results and to determine post-operative complication rate.".
- 01GJHSR22GVDHG8SCMW8Q4532M abstract "New measurement methods and equipment for correct 5G New Radio (NR) electromagnetic field (EMF) in-situ exposure assessment of instantaneous time-averaged exposure (E-avg) and maximum extrapolated field exposure (E-max) are proposed. The different options are investigated with in-situ measurements around 5G NR base stations (FR1) in different countries. The maximum electric field values satisfy the ICNIRP 2020 limit (maximum 7.7%). The difference between E-max and E-avg is <3 dB for the different measurement equipment at multiple sites in case there is only self-generated traffic. However, in a more realistic scenario, E-avg cannot be used to assess the exposure correctly due to influence of other users as the spatial distribution of user equipment (UE) influences E-avg, while E-max is not affected. However, when multiple UEs are collocated, there is no influence of the number of UEs. A broadband measurement can give a first impression of the RF-EMF exposure up to 700 m, but is not enough to assess the 5G-NR exposure.".
- 01GJHTFE84JK5J2CY6JF7W05G7 abstract "Introduction: Successful 3D mapping and radiofrequency ablation of right atrial tachycardia in horses has become a standardized procedure. Access to the left atrium currently requires a perilous retrograde arterial approach via the carotid artery, which is difficult to achieve using commercially-available catheters. Transseptal puncture (TSP) is a minimally-invasive, routine procedure for left heart catheterizations in human patients, during which the left atrium is accessed from the right atrium by puncturing the fossa ovalis (FO). Our aim was to develop a reproducible procedure to access the left atrium by TSP from a jugular vein approach. Methods: In 12 horses, admitted for euthanasia for non-cardiovascular reasons and after informed owner consent, TSP was performed under general anaesthesia. A cranial approach via the right jugular vein was performed under transthoracic and intracardiac ultrasound guidance. Puncture lesions were evaluated post-mortem. Results: In 11/12 horses, TSP was achieved and evaluated post-mortem. The general approach consisted of over-the-wire positioning of a sheath with dilator against the FO, followed by application of radiofrequency energy on the guidewire tip for FO perforation. The guidewire was advanced into the left atrium, allowing over-the-wire insertion of dilator and sheath. Intracardiac ultrasound was essential to guide TSP (Fig. 1). On post-mortem evaluation, the puncture lesions could be identified as a 2-5mm opening in the FO, located ventral to pulmonary vein ostium III. The over-the-wire insertion of dilator and sheath after guidewire advancement into the left atrium was the most challenging part of the procedure, due to the thick FO and limited catheter support due to the jugular vein approach, and failed in one horse. Conclusions: Via a jugular vein approach, TSP is feasible in horses using intracardiac ultrasound guidance. Clinical relevance: TSP provides minimally-invasive access to the left heart for procedures such as 3D mapping and ablation of left atrial arrhythmias.".
- 01GJHTFZDVGTNS36M4PHV03XGE abstract "To gain insight in the real deterioration state of reinforced concrete bridges, measurements can be performed. By application of Bayesian updating techniques, the resulting data can be used to update a model of the bridge, which should represent the real bridge as good as possible. However, constructing a bridge model for design always involves modelling assumptions and approximations. When using the approximate model in the Bayesian updating procedure, this leads to posterior distributions different from those obtained when using an exact model, possibly resulting in misleading conclusions. In this work, the influence of such a model error on the posterior distribution of the corrosion degree of an RC girder bridge with a skew angle of 7° is investigated. In design of such bridges, the skewness is often neglected. Measurement results are simulated based on the skewed model, while a straight model of the bridge is used in the Bayesian updating procedure. It is illustrated how the corrosion degree can be largely overestimated by using this straight model and how localization of damage becomes very hard. It is also illustrated how the (spatially variable) corrosion degree can be updated more accurately if the model corresponds to the actual structure.".
- 01GJHV0P29DH15RH12TF5P948K abstract "Indoor path loss models characterize the attenuation of signals between a transmitting and receiving antenna for a certain frequency and type of environment. Their use ranges from network coverage planning to joint communication and sensing applications such as localization and crowd counting. The need for this proposed geodesic path model comes forth from attempts at path loss-based localization on ships, for which the traditional models do not yield satisfactory path loss predictions. In this work, we present a novel pathfinding-based path loss model, requiring only a simple binary floor map and transmitter locations as input. The approximated propagation path is determined using geodesics, which are constrained shortest distances within path-connected spaces. However, finding geodesic paths from one distinct path-connected space to another is done through a systematic process of choosing space connector points and concatenating parts of the geodesic path. We developed an accompanying tool and present its algorithm which automatically extracts model parameters such as the number of wall crossings on the direct path as well as on the geodesic path, path distance, and direction changes on the corners along the propagation path. Moreover, we validate our model against path loss measurements conducted in two distinct indoor environments using DASH-7 sensor networks operating at 868 MHz. The results are then compared to traditional floor-map-based models. Mean absolute errors as low as 4.79 dB and a standard deviation of the model error of 3.63 dB is achieved in a ship environment, almost half the values of the next best traditional model. Improvements in an office environment are more modest with a mean absolute error of 6.16 dB and a standard deviation of 4.55 dB.".
- 01GJHWP047HYM8S02D6YYFBCT3 abstract "Most of the structures exposed to a fire do not collapse and the decisions taken in the aftermath carry significant weight in terms of cost and resilience. Previous research has mostly looked at single members’ response during fire exposure, at a deterministic level. While large uncertainties exist with respect to both the fire exposure and structural response, the probabilistic assessment of structural performance after fire has typically received little attention. This study focuses on the probabilistic evaluation of a structures’ capacity during and after fire, and residual deflections. A composite slab panel is considered for the study. The probability of failure for the slab panel under natural fire exposure is estimated as 23.8%. After fire exposure, the residual capacity of the slab panel reduced to as low as 60% of the pre-fire capacity, and large residual displacements can be expected. These observations allow to determine the re-usability and repairability of the structure and ultimately estimate the life-cycle cost of structure.".
- 01GJJ3C3NG66KJZ06KRH68W53F abstract "From the traditional organizational perspective, leadership is to influence someone or to empower someone or who has followers. By doing so, someone can translate any vision into a reality by maximizing other efforts to achieve the goal. Local leadership is all these but in any given local context. If there is no leader in a locality, then there is no one who can speak for the local community (Sanderson and Palson 1939). Many local communities face different kinds of challenges due to changes in the economy, climate, population, government policy, etc. Some people in those communities play an essential role in navigating those challenges that erupt from time to time or influence the local people to work together for the community (Zaccaro et al. 2004; Collinson 2011; Etuk et al. 2013). Local leaders who are living within the community genuinely care about helping the...".
- 01GJJ49NDV873WQWX3DXCM7YEP abstract "In strain-controlled fatigue testing, a conventional extensometer is usually used to measure the average strain between its two blades. However, the actual strain distribution in the gauge section cannot be revealed by the extensometer. To measure this distribution during strain-controlled fatigue testing of 304 stainless steel, stereo Digital Image Correlation (stereo-DIC) was used in this study. Three different geometries with two of them satisfying ASTM standard E606/E606M-12 were tested in strain-controlled fatigue testing with two representative strain amplitudes of +/- 1.0% and +/- 1.5% on a properly aligned testing machine. At both strain amplitudes, the two geometries in line with ASTM standard E606/E606M-12 exhibit evident nonuniform strain distribution under compression already from the very first cycle while the geometry proposed by the authors (not according to the ASTM standard E606/E606M-12) has better uniformity in axial strain distribution.Next, a novel fixture is designed to monitor the misalignment of the specimens in the fatigue testing. Benefiting from the novel fixture and the stereo-DIC technique, not only the deformation in the gauge section of the specimen can be captured but also the misalignment between both ends of the specimen can be extracted by post-processing. The measured misalignment has been further used as boundary conditions in simulating the mechanical response of those three geometries under cyclic loading. Numerical simulation has successfully reproduced the nonuniform strain distribution under compression, which validates the stereo-DIC measurements. It suggests that while even following the ASTM standard E606/E606M-12, uniformity in strain distribution under compression cannot be ensured and thus might render the constitutive laws calibrated from strain-controlled fatigue testing invalid, since uniform stress and strain across the gauge section of the specimens were falsely assumed.".
- 01GJJ5ZK5XTGBTMKQVZST8VMC2 abstract "IntroductionThere is growing evidence that the impact of COVID-19 crisis may be stronger for individuals with multimorbidity, frailty and lower socioeconomic status. Existing reviews focus on few, mainly short-term effects of COVID-19 illness and patients with single chronic disease. Information is also largely missing for population representative samples. Applying population-based approach, the systematic reviews will have two objectives: (1) to evaluate the aetiological roles of frailty, multimorbidity and socioeconomic status on SARS-CoV-2 infection probability, hospitalisation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation and COVID-19 related mortality among general population and (2) to investigate the prognostic roles of frailty, multimorbidity and socioeconomic characteristics on the risk of hospitalisation, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, COVID-19 mortality, functioning, quality of life, disability, mental health and work absence. Methods and analysisFor this ongoing work, four databases were searched: PubMed, Embase, WHO COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease and PsycINFO, for the period between January 2020 and April 7 2021. Peer-reviewed published literature in English and all types of population-based studies will be considered. Studies using standard tools to assess multimorbidity such as disease count, comorbidity indices or disease combinations will be retained, as well as studies with standard scales and scores for frailty or measurement of a socioeconomic gradient. Initial search included 10 139 articles, 411 for full-text reading. Results will be summarised by risk factor, objective and outcome. The feasibility of meta-analysis will be determined by the findings and will aim to better understand uncertainties of the results. Quality of studies will be assessed using standardised scales. Ethics and disseminationThe study will be based on published evidence, and it is exempt from the ethical approval. This work is part of the Population Health Information Research Infrastructure (PHIRI) project. Dissemination of the results will imply conference presentation, submission for scientific publication and PHIRI project report. PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021249444.".
- 01GJJ8STJWVBXKESM6S5RJ2PRQ abstract "Het omvormen van koolwaterstofmoleculen, zeker in de context van hedendaagse uitdagingen zoals het efficiënt gebruik van fossiele grondstoffen, de overgang naar hernieuwbare en circulaire chemicaliën, strikt milieubeleid, enz. kan worden bereikt met behulp van hydrokraken. De reactie wordt uitgevoerd in aanwezigheid van waterstof met een bifunctionele katalysator die metallische centra bevat op een zure drager. Typische voedingen bij hydrokraken zijn complexe mengsels die verzadigde alkanen en cycloalkanen bevatten samen met enkele refractaire aromaten. Hoewel veel fundamenteel onderzoek zich heeft gericht op het gedrag van zuivere modelcomponenten, brengt de verwerking van mengsels bepaalde uitdagingen met zich mee, die nog meer uitgesproken kunnen zijn bij de overgang naar hernieuwbare en/of circulaire grondstoffen. Het hoofddoel van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken en grondig begrijpen van de mengeffecten van cycloalkanen en aromaten op ideaal bifunctioneel katalytisch gedrag bij het hydrokraken van alkanen. Om een dergelijk fundamenteel inzicht te verwerven in het effect van elk koolwaterstoftype dat aanwezig kan zijn, werd het bijmengen van methylcyclohexaan en tolueen in het hydrokraken van n-octaan op systematische wijze experimenteel geanalyseerd. Het volledige begrip van mengeffecten werd verzekerd door gebruik te maken van een breed scala aan werkvoorwaarden en katalysatoren (Pt/HUSY) met verschillende hoeveelheden metallische en zure centra.".
- 01GJJ9PQN6C280K01HJH3VS5WE abstract "Exposure to chemical contaminants found in foods has been associated with diverse adverse health effects. The aim of this study was to estimate the burden of disease associated with dietary exposure to four chemicals in Denmark in 2019: lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), methylmercury (MeHg), and inorganic arsenic (i-As). We collected national food consumption and chemical food monitoring data from Danish databases, dose-response and severity data from the scientific literature, and disease incidence and population numbers from national statistics. We adopted a risk assessment approach to estimate disease burden, quantifying incidence, mortality, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) attributable to dietary exposure to the chemicals. In all models, we propagated uncertainty around the input parameters through the calculations using Monte Carlo simulation. We estimated that, among these chemicals, Pb and MeHg were responsible for the highest disease burden. MeHg led to the loss of nearly 600 healthy life years, or approximately 10 DALYs per 100,000 inhabitants. Dietary exposure to Pb was estimated to cause 383 to 1,261 DALYs, corresponding to 6.6 (lower bound) to 22 (upper bound) DALYs/100,000 per year. The foods contributing most to disease burden were fish (MeHg) and sweets, fruit, and bread and cereals (Pb). The burden attributed to dietary exposure to i-As (5 DALYs) and Cd (0.04 DALY) was substantially lower. Interpretation of estimates needs to consider all underlying uncertainties, linked with data and knowledge gaps. These estimates are useful supplements to traditional risk assessment to guide food safety interventions and inform dietary guidelines for different population groups.".
- 01GJJAQKQZ50GJFZESYZTCPZ5F abstract "Media governance has changed substantially after Russia's attack on Ukraine. A digital Iron Curtain was put up, as social media companies withdrew or were banned in Russia and Russian state sponsored news outlets were the targets of EU sanctions and deplatforming. This study analyses how 29 states, including 18 EU members, have dealt with the media governance questions related to the informational dimension of Russia’s war on Ukraine. It appears that in only one country - Finland - did large private media outlets act quickly on their own initiative after the start of the military aggression against Ukraine to suspend the distribution of Russian news channels. There are examples that some companies in Austria and Latvia took similar actions, but the scale is smaller. In five countries - Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland - the national authorities issued instructions to suspend Russian media outlets shortly after the invasion, prior to the 1 March 2022 Council Regulation 2022/350 and even before the President of the European Commission announced on 27 February 2022 the intention to implement such a measure across the EU. Given the shortness of this "time window" it would be overly formal to give too much meaning to the question "Who acted first?" - private media companies or national governments. What matters is that access to certain Russian and Belarussian media outlets was suspended within a very short period as a result of coordinated activity between national authorities and private actors. There are no reports of non-compliance with the respective state instructions. Most EU Member State responses were confined to the transposition of the sanctions imposed against Russia at the supranational level, including the ban on Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, without taking further, more wide-ranging action. The transposition of Council Regulation 2022/350 was typically accompanied by communications by the respective regulatory agencies in EU Member States to media companies and internet providers on their new duties emanating from the sanctions. Hence, the role of regulatory agencies was mostly confined to informing norm addressees of the new European legislation. The majority of non-EU states, (in our survey Albania, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Iceland, Israel, Moldova, Norway, Serbia, South Africa, and Turkey), have not imposed any sanctions at all. Outside the EU, the United Kingdom stands out: the media regulator Ofcom opened 27 investigations against RT, and the UK’s public service broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), halted all content licensing with its Russian customers. In contrast, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina chose to rely on general liability regulations for spreading disinformation and not conforming with the journalistic principles of objective information and transparency. Most governments did not propose or introduce domestic legislation aimed at regulating platforms, social media accounts or TV channels in response to the war in Ukraine. A small number of states located within geographical proximity to Russia or Belarus introduced legislative changes; for example, via amendments to existing laws, such as Estonia and Latvia; by introducing a state of emergency that extends to the control of broadcasting and social media, such as Lithuania; or by conferring additional powers on security agencies to monitor the media coverage of the war, such as Moldova. In addition, several governments asked their respective national regulators to ban or block access to Russian TV stations. For example, in Belgium, the Flemish (regional) parliament asked the government to take all possible measures against Russian disinformation, and to advocate for a stronger EU-wide framework against disinformation.... view less".
- 01GJJBQSCF42Q4EPWRD1FHJF8A abstract "Emerging infectious diseases are a major force contributing to global biodiversity declines. Amphibians are emblematic of this pattern- the last 50 years have seen global declines and extinctions in hundreds of species, making this group the most threatened Class within the animal Kingdom. One of the most recently described emerging infectious diseases contributing to these declines is Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), a chytrid fungus that has been associated with mass mortality events in a growing number of European amphibian populations over the last 10 years. Since its description in 2013, various studies have described key Bsal characteristics such as its lifecycle, suitable conditions for growth and potential species susceptibility. However, these studies focused on the type strain, isolated from the index outbreak site. The aim of this thesis was to characterize variation within the European Bsal epidemic – with a specific focus on pathogen variation, but also considering key elements of host variation that may influence epidemiological outcomes.".
- 01GJJQW2PM1QZVA5CJWMCPY8X7 abstract "PurposeIn this empirical study, we assessed the reputational consequences of a large-scale football fraud scandal by measuring fans' integrity perceptions. More specifically, we targeted inherent, personal, organizational, and procedural integrity.MethodologyWe used a cross-sectional survey distributed through a Belgian sports newspaper to reach our respondents (n = 1693), that were divided into non-football fans, average, and loyal football fans.FindingsOur results show that average football fans reported more lenient perceptions towards all four aspects of integrity, and loyal football fans were the most disillusioned with football. Additionally, we show that players, coaches, and referees were the most trusted sportspersons within football, despite being frequently involved in fraud cases.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that although the derived demand for football might not be affected by fraud scandals, the direct demand is more at risk, as is the reputation of football.Research contributionThis study adds empirically informed knowledge on the scarcely researched topic of fraud in sports, and its consequences on the reputation of sports.".
- 01GJKA63BXG68VK4W23F7MY788 abstract "Despite the fact that the United States of America (USA) took an opposite stand in the question of independence of Bangladesh, the relationship started developing since the US recognition to Bangladesh in 1972. Apart from few exceptions, most of the governments of Bangladesh under different political regimes intended to remain in good terms with the USA. However, the relationships have not always been an ascending one as Bangladesh used to remain secondary concern for US foreign policy preferences. It is after the calamitous event of 9/11 that brought South Asia into US strategic calculations. Being a Muslim majority country, Bangladesh got special significance to the USA in the context of fear from religious extremism during the post 9/11 era. Lately, the ever-increasing trend in bilateral trade, significant boost in the importance of the Indian Ocean region and the Bay of Bengal, voluminous involvement of China in both economic and military affairs of Bangladesh, the renewed relationship of the USA with India, and the complex Rohingya crisis have altogether gave rise to such a reality that the USA cannot afford to ignore the importance of Bangladesh anymore. In fact, both the systemic constraints and domestic realities along with leadership perception played decisive role in shaping the Bangladesh-USA bilateral relations throughout the past five decades. Against this backdrop, the paper considers neoclassical realist framework to explain Bangladesh-USA relations and thus attempts to signify how systemic and domestic factors influence foreign policy of states.".
- 01GJM4MWY8PWVWT2663YB65J9K abstract "Improper cycling posture is linked to a variety of spinal musculoskeletal diseases, including structural malformation of the spine and back discomfort. This paper presents a novel smart shirt integrated tri-axial gyroscope and accelerometer that can detect postural variation in terms of spinal curvature changes. To provide accurate feedback to the wearer and improve the wearer's correct movement, the garment is able to recognize trunk body posture. The gyroscope/accelerometer was placed around the upper and mid trunk of the user to record tri-axial angular velocity data. The device can also be used to help determine the trunk bending angle and monitor body postures in order to improve optimal orientation and position. The garment enables continuous measurement in the field at high sample rates (50 Hz), and the sensor has a large measurement range (16 g, 2000 degrees/s). As electronic components are non-washable, instead of encapsulating them, a detachable module was created. In this, magnets are embedded in the jersey, and allow the positioning and removal of the sensor. The test results show that the average trunk-bending angle was 21.5 degrees, and 99 percent of the observed angle fell within the standard (ranging from 8 degrees to 35 degrees). The findings demonstrate the feasibility of employing the smart shirt sensor to estimate trunk motions in the field on a regular basis.".
- 01GJM7A8XH200GXDYEV6M2TNJK abstract "Increasing numbers of research teams are investigating the feasibility of developing artificial amnion and placenta technology (AAPT), commonly referred to as "artificial womb technology". This technology, aimed at supporting ex vivo gestation, has not yet been tested in humans, but it has been stated that we are closer to clinical application than ever before as breakthroughs in animal studies demonstrate good proof of principle. With these proof-of-concept models, further dissemination of AAPT as a research modality is expected. In this review article, we consider the ethical implications of the most imminent anticipated applications for AAPT. We focus specifically on the specific ethical complications regarding the improvements this technology may offer to conventional neonatal intensive care, its potential utility in facilitating prenatal interventions, and some of the broader socio-legal implications such as the debates about abortion access and reproductive and gestational choices. We discuss translational and societal questions when it comes to designing and developing this technology, like commitments to value-sensitive design, along with an examination of the legal and moral status of the entity gestating ex utero, which will be relevant for how it ought to be treated in the context of these various applications. From these perspectives, this review identifies the ethical questions that we believe to be most pressing in the development and potential introduction of AAPT, with due attention to their manifestation as translational and legal issues.".
- 01GJM9K3XVTYZHBYSNTRDPJV9T abstract "Hypertrophic scarring (HTS) is frequently observed after deep dermal and full-thickness skin defects. Local drug delivery in HTS has been shown more effective compared to other (minimally) invasive treatments. Disadvantages being operator-dependency and non-uniform drug distribution. Moreover, injections are painful and difficult when confronted with extensive scars or HTS in children. Corticoid-embedded dissolving microneedles (CEDMN) were developed that provide painless skin penetration and direct dermal drug delivery. Hyaluronic acid-based DMN and CEDMN patches were utilized. Structural analysis was performed via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy while gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was applied to determine chain length (molar mass) and dispersity of hyaluronic acid. Mechanical properties were evaluated by compression testing. Five burn victims with HTS were included. For each individual, three comparable scars were chosen. One control scar was left untreated. Two scars were treated with either 600 or 800 mu m CEDMN patches. Patients were treated monthly for 4 months. Treatment with 800 mu m CEDMN was initiated after 8 weeks. Assessor-blinded POSAS was registered. Hydration, evaporation, color and elasticity were recorded. The physico-chemical characterization suggests that the mechanical properties enable skin penetration and adequate drug delivery. Patients experienced the therapy as painless. According to the POSAS, all scars improved over time. However, the scars that were treated with CEDMN patches improved faster and with increased increment. The 800 mu m CEDMN ensured the fastest POSAS-decrease. Hyaluronic acid-based CEDMN patches are valuable alternatives to intracicatrical injections, as they offer a painless and effective method for administering corticosteroids in HTS.".
- 01GJMD4CGVG6ATHV9WC2X3TMZD abstract "Tendon and ligament injuries are a very common problem in equine athletes, and often result in reinjury due to scar tissue repair resulting in early retirement from an athletic career or pleasure riding. The formation of scar tissue of inferior quality cannot be overcome by the current advanced therapies. Recently, promising advances have been made in the field of biological therapies by treating equine tendon injuries with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Although MSCs are a valuable option in the treatment of tendon disease, their tenogenic properties and regenerative effects could be compromised by the inflammatory environment of the acute tendon injury. To avoid these disadvantageous effects, mesenchymal stem cells can be tenogenic primed before clinical application. Nevertheless, the mechanism of action and functional properties of the tenogenic primed MSCs are still not fully understood. Therefore, the overarching aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate equine allogeneic peripheral blood-derived tenogenic primed mesenchymal stem cells (tpMSCs) as a treatment for tendon and ligament injuries in horses.".
- 01GJMD5RQBFFY1R9ZNPTZWZ4SQ abstract "Forming processes of sheet metals require knowledge of the material behaviour up to large levels of plastic deformation. To this purpose, biaxial bulge tests are often used. In present paper, a dynamic bulge test is presented. The testing principle relies on conventional split Hopkinson bar testing. Though, as opposed to existing setups, a different positioning of the bars leaves the sample fully accessible for optical measurements. The pressure imposed to a circular sample, together with the sample strain fields, allow to obtain reliable stress-strain data till significantly larger strains compared to tensile tests. The technique is illustrated by tests on an Al2024-T3 sheet. High speed camera imaging of the deforming sample combined with digital image processing is used to obtain full-field strain data. To quantitatively assess the added value of full-field strain measurements, stress-strain curves obtained with and without the strain data are compared.".
- 01GJMDQWSCPWPB7ZQRJVN66CN7 abstract "A systematic experimental investigation of the plastic anisotropy at high strain-rates of Ti6Al4V was carried out using a Split Hopkinson bar system. Dynamic tensile tests were conducted on flat specimens cut at seven ori-entations with respect to the rolling direction of the sheet. To quantify the effect of anisotropy on both the global response prior to necking as well as on the inclination of the strain localization bands that developed in the neck, both surface strains and local displacements were measured using high speed imaging in conjunction with digital image correlation. It was found that the material has a weak anisotropy in uniaxial yield stresses while it displays a strong anisotropy in Lankford coefficients; the inclinations of the bands in the neck depend on the loading orientation. Moreover, only for the rolling direction specimen, the neck contains two localization bands equally inclined to the loading axis. These observations confirm the correlations established in the theoretical study of Cazacu and Rodriguez-Martinez (2019) between the necking band angles and the variation in the uniaxial flow stresses with the loading direction. A constitutive model with yielding described with the orthotropic criterion of Cazacu and Barlat (2001) and a hardening law accounting for the strain rate effects was used to model the observed behavior. Comparison between finite element simulations, analytical calculations, and test data show that the experimental trends are captured.".
- 01GJME21NGX5PQTMB4AD73HRP0 abstract "Background: The closure of extensive burn wounds with widely expanded autologous split-thickness skin grafts (STSG) is associated with undesirable scar formation and contraction, due to the lack of dermis. Various materials for dermal replacement have been developed, either of xenogeneic, allogeneic or synthetic origin and are placed in the wound underneath a thin STSG in order to improve scar quality. In this study, a porcine wound model was used to compare several commercially available acellular dermal substitutes with an acellular dermal substitute prepared from glycerol preserved human skin: Glyaderm((R)). Methods: Antigenic components of the allografts were removed by incubation in the 0.06 M NaOH solution. In the first experiments, the dermal substitutes were applied to full thickness wounds and covered simultaneously with STSG. Controls were covered with STSG only. The wound healing response was analyzed for 8 weeks, both macroscopically and histologically. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. In the second series of experiments, Glyaderm((R)) was applied in a two-stage procedure in comparison to Integra. The STSG was placed on the dermal substitutes one week later. Results: In the first series, the inflammatory response and myofibroblast influx in Glyaderm((R)) were limited, indicating possible beneficial outcomes on final wound healing results. The survival of the STSG on the acellular dermis was lower compared to the control wounds. Second series: the take of the STSG was the same as in the controls, but additionally wound contraction was reduced. The application of Glyaderm((R)) was non-inferior to Integra. Conclusion: Glyaderm((R)) can be successfully used for the reduction of wound contraction when applied in a two-stage procedure. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons.".
- 01GJME3MAAHHE603YTKQWDW4HV abstract "Death and grief have often elicited the response of creativity, from elegies and requiems to memorial architecture. Such artistic expressions of grief form the focus of Grief, Identity, and the Arts, which brings together scholars from the disciplines of musicology, literature, sociology, film studies, social work, and museum studies. While presenting one or more case studies from a range of artistic disciplines, historical periods, or geographical areas, each chapter addresses the interdependence of grief and identity in the arts. The volume as a whole shows how artistic expressions of grief are both influenced by and contribute to constructions of religious, national, familial, social, and artistic identities.".
- 01GJMET2RCK7SWMT11A8M50NSM abstract "Although strategic planning is ubiquitous within public organizations and despite meta-analytical research showing that it impacts performance, important questions about why it does so remain unanswered. This article addresses this gap by identifying the mediators underlying the strategic planning – public service performance relationship. Multi-informant survey data from managers and citizens in 101 Flemish municipalities are analysed using PLS-SEM. The results show that strategic planning has an indirect, positive association with managers’ and citizens’ perceptions of performance via its impact on external relations. An agenda on other mediators and the potential of PLS-SEM for public management research are presented in conclusion.".
- 01GJMFNX0R2PBPD8N87JJXNG65 abstract "Structural robustness has become an important topic in the engineering community. The alternative load path (ALP) method is widely used to evaluate the resistance of building structures against progressive collapse. When a structure is subjected to a sudden column removal scenario, dynamic effects should be considered. However, direct dynamic analyses are usually time consuming and have high computational demands. Alternatively, the energy-based method (EBM) is a promising method to replace direct dynamic analyses and can significantly reduce the calculation demand in case of robustness quantification. Therefore, an EBM-based robustness quantification method is proposed in this paper. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a reinforced concrete frame is considered as a case study. The proposed EBM-based robustness quantification method is applied to calculate the robustness index. Meanwhile, direct dynamic analyses are carried out and the results are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Almost identical redundancy indexes are obtained, i.e. 1.087 and 1.093 for the proposed method and the dynamic analyses. Nevertheless, the proposed method results in a significant reduction of the computational efforts.".
- 01GJMGRNTMB2MBXJ3NMWPB16R6 abstract "To ensure the quality of produced concrete batches, it is often verified whether a specified concrete compressive strength is reached by the application of conformity control. The conformity criteria used for this purpose are related to the probability of accepting a batch, in relation to a specified quality. Batches fulfilling the conformity criteria are accepted, whereas others are rejected. In this way, the outgoing quality of the accepted concrete is higher than without the application of conformity control. This is the result of the filtering effect of conformity control and affects the probability of failure of concrete structures. Instead of only applying conformity control to the concrete compressive strength, a similar procedure could be applied to durability related variables. One example hereof is the diffusion coefficient of the concrete. When conformity criteria are defined and applied in relation to the diffusion coefficient, the result will be a filtering effect on the distribution of the diffusion coefficient. The outgoing distribution will have a lower mean value and standard deviation compared to the incoming distribution. This will influence the time-dependent reliability of reinforced concrete structures. This paper investigates the effect of conformity criteria for diffusion coefficients on the service life and failure probabilities of reinforced concrete elements. The filtering effect is investigated by a numerical study applying analytical methods and numerical integration.".
- 01GJMHK1KN2MQ5A0YTF1MH5CPN abstract "Humans are exposed to a continuous stream of sensory data, yet understand the world in terms of discrete concepts. A large body of work has focused on chunking sensory data in time, i.e. finding event boundaries, typically identified by model prediction errors. Similarly, chucking sensory data in space is the problem at hand when building spatial maps for navigation. In this work, we argue that a single mechanism underlies both, which is building a hierarchical generative model of perception and action, where chunks at a higher level are formed by segments surpassing a certain information distance at the level below. We demonstrate how this can work in the case of robot navigation, and discuss how this could relate to human cognition in general.".
- 01GJMJN1SMG5TX3NYFETZJ6S95 abstract "In order to determine the bending capacity of the slab the residual material strengths need to be determined. These are however impossible to directly measure during the post-fire assessment without damaging the slab. Because of the uncertain nature of the fire severity witnessed by the structure it is also not readily possible to assess the residual capacity based on a back-calculation of the fire exposure. The residual deformations of the structure however provide an important piece of information which is not commonly taken into account. In the current study the application of a Bayesian inversion technique is demonstrated on the theoretical case of the post-fire assessment of a simply supported concrete slab. The material strength of both the concrete and the reinforcement steel are considered as unknowns, along with the fire load consumed during the fire. The residual deflection of the slab is easy to measure and is influenced by these same parameters, allowing for inference on fire severity and material strength from the deflection measurements. The obtained results show that this procedure greatly reduces the uncertainty about the consumed fire load. The effect on the distribution of the initial material strength is moderate. The effect on the distribution of the ultimate bending capacity is significant, where the posterior variation almost halved based on a single deflection measurement.".
- 01GJMJVNCVJDT9AAQXPRJ2GW9H abstract "Due to the ever growing population of elderly people, there is a dramatic increase in fall accidents. Currently, multiple ideas exist to prevent the elderly from falling, by means of technology or individualised fall prevention training programs. Most of them are costly, difficult to implement or less used by the elderly, and they do not deliver the required results. Furthermore, the increasingly older population will also impact the workload of the medical and nursing personnel. Therefore, we propose a novel fall detection and warning system for nursing homes, relying on Bluetooth Low Energy wireless communication. This paper describes the hardware design of a fall-acceleration sensing wearable for the elderly. Moreover, the paper also focuses on a novel algorithm for real-time filtering of the measurement data as well as on a strategy to confirm the detected fall events, based on changes in the person's orientation. In addition, we compare the performance of the algorithm to a machine learning procedure using a convolutional neural network. Finally, the proposed filtering technique is validated via measurements and simulation. The results show that the proposed algorithm as well as the convolutional neural network both results in an excellent accuracy when validating on a common database.".
- 01GJMK3MNR00NTZN12DYMC7TZA abstract "In this paper, we propose a novel data-driven prediction system for Multivariate Time Series (MTS) in an industrial context, where classic relational data contain keyinformation in order to properly interpret the MTS. Particularly we focus on the accurate endpoint prediction of temperature and chemical composition at the basic oxygen furnace, which is a step in the steel production pipeline where liquid iron is refined to steel. The precise prediction of temperature is important for proper process control while reaching the target chemical composition is essential for quality control. Our deep learning methodology employs two modules followed by an aggregation block; a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) handles the MTS, while in parallel, the static data is processed by a Fully Connected Network (FCN). We enhance the CNN performance by adding two Squeeze-and-excitation (SE) blocks, which act like an attention module over the different channels. By taking the MTS data into account we improve the prediction by up to 10% relative over the models which only consider the static data. The hybrid FCN-CNN-SE architecture slightly improves the state-of-the-art MTS approaches by 2%, with less outliers on the prediction of final temperature and phosphorus concentration, while being easier to implement and more scalable to larger datasets and input space than current solutions.".
- 01GJMM29M4YC3V3QCNX5TAB4X7 abstract "Global and local multitrace formulations (MTFs) provide a flexible and efficient method for the modeling of scattering and transmission of time harmonic electromagnetic (EM) waves by composite structures. This contribution extends the domain of applicability of global MTFs to cases where penetrable domains, perfectly conducting domain, and perfectly conducting thin sheets are all part of the design. A novel and easy to implement resonance-free equation to model scattering by perfect conductors is introduced. A Calderon preconditioner designed to limit the number of iterations required for the solution of the discrete system is designed and studied. The accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency of the method are demonstrated on a representative range of examples.".
- 01GJMMR9KE5M0745M73RZMNRKN abstract "Stream-reasoning query languages such as CQELS and C-SPARQL enable query answering over RDF streams. Unfortunately, there currently is a lack of efficient RDF stream generators to feed RDF stream reasoners. State-of-the-art RDF stream generators are limited with regard to the velocity and volume of streaming data they can handle. To efficiently generate RDF streams in a scalable way, we extended the RMLStreamer to also generate RDF streams from dynamic heterogeneous data streams. This paper introduces a scalable solution that relies on a dynamic window approach to generate RDF streams with low latency and high throughput from multiple heterogeneous data streams. Our evaluation shows that our solution outperforms the state-of-the-art by achieving millisecond latency (compared to seconds that state-of-the-art solutions need), constant memory usage for all workloads, and sustainable throughput of around 70,000 records/s (compared to 10,000 records/s that state-of-the-art solutions take). This opens up the access to numerous data streams for integration with the semantic web.".
- 01GJMNNWG9ETMF9RMC6DP453PQ abstract "Caecilians are elongate, limbless and annulated amphibians that, with the exception of one aquatic family, all have an at least partly fossorial lifestyle. It has been suggested that caecilian evolution resulted in sturdy and compact skulls with fused bones and tight sutures, as an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits. However, although their cranial osteology is well described, relationships between form and function remain poorly understood. In the present study, we explored the relationship between cranial shape and in vivo burrowing forces. Using micro-computed tomography (mu CT) data, we performed 3D geometric morphometrics to explore whether cranial and mandibular shapes reflected patterns that might be associated with maximal push forces. The results highlight important differences in maximal push forces, with the aquatic Typhlonectes producing a lower force for a given size compared with other species. Despite substantial differences in head morphology across species, no relationship between overall skull shape and push force could be detected. Although a strong phylogenetic signal may partly obscure the results, our conclusions confirm previous studies using biomechanical models and suggest that differences in the degree of fossoriality do not appear to be driving the evolution of head shape.".
- 01GJMNS44XHYH8Y0RV85WPBM3H abstract "Caecilians are enigmatic limbless amphibians that, with a few exceptions, all have an at least partly burrowing lifestyle. Although it has been suggested that caecilian evolution resulted in sturdy and compact skulls as an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits, no relationship between skull shape and burrowing performance has been demonstrated to date. However, the unique dual jaw-closing mechanism and the osteological variability of their temporal region suggest a potential relationship between skull shape and feeding mechanics. Here, we explored the relationships between skull shape, head musculature and in vivo bite forces. Although there is a correlation between bite force and external head shape, no relationship between bite force and skull shape could be detected. Whereas our data suggest that muscles are the principal drivers of variation in bite force, the shape of the skull is constrailed by factors other than demands for bite force generation. However, a strong covariation between the cranium and mandible exists. Moreover, both cranium and mandible shape covary with jaw musde architecture. Caecilians show a gradient between species with a long retroarticular process associated with a large and pennate-fibered m. interhyoideus posterior and species with a short process but long and parallel-fibered jaw adductors. Our results demonstrate the complexity of the relationship between form and function of this jaw system. Further studies that focus on factors such as gape distance or jaw velocity will be needed in order to fully understand the evolution of feeding mechanics in caecilians.".
- 01GJMNTE63H15VEKJ2EPAFHZA0 abstract "In limbless fossorial vertebrates such as caecilians (Gymnophiona), head-first burrowing imposes severe constraints on the morphology and overall size of the head. As such, caecilians developed a unique jaw-closing system involving the large and well-developed m. interhyoideus posterior, which is positioned in such a way that it does not significantly increase head diameter. Caecilians also possess unique muscles among amphibians. Understanding the diversity in the architecture and size of the cranial muscles may provide insights into how a typical amphibian system was adapted for a head-first burrowing lifestyle. In this study, we use dissection and non-destructive contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography (mu CT) scanning to describe and compare the cranial musculature of 13 species of caecilians. Our results show that the general organization of the head musculature is rather constant across extant caecilians. However, the early-diverging Rhinatrema bivittatum mainly relies on the 'ancestral' amphibian jaw-closing mechanism dominated by the m. adductores mandibulae, whereas other caecilians switched to the use of the derived dual jaw-closing mechanism involving the additional recruitment of the m. interhyoideus posterior. Additionally, the aquatic Typhlonectes show a greater investment in hyoid musculature than terrestrial caecilians, which is likely related to greater demands for ventilating their large lungs, and perhaps also an increased use of suction feeding. In addition to three-dimensional interactive models, our study provides the required quantitative data to permit the generation of accurate biomechanical models allowing the testing of further functional hypotheses.".
- 01GJMNYDSNMSZM3R6EVBHDNKSK abstract "Caecilians are predominantly burrowing, elongate, limbless amphibians that have been relatively poorly studied. Although it has been suggested that the sturdy and compact skulls of caecilians are an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits, no clear relationship between skull shape and burrowing performance appears to exist. However, the external forces encountered during burrowing are transmitted by the skull to the vertebral column, and, as such, may impact vertebral shape. Additionally, the muscles that generate the burrowing forces attach onto the vertebral column and consequently may impact vertebral shape that way as well. Here, we explored the relationships between vertebral shape and maximal in vivo push forces in 13 species of caecilian amphibians. Our results show that the shape of the two most anterior vertebrae, as well as the shape of the vertebrae at 90% of the total body length, is not correlated with peak push forces. Conversely, the shape of the third vertebrae, and the vertebrae at 20% and 60% of the total body length, does show a relationship to push forces measured in vivo. Whether these relationships are indirect (external forces constraining shape variation) or direct (muscle forces constraining shape variation) remains unclear and will require quantitative studies of the axial musculature. Importantly, our data suggest that mid-body vertebrae may potentially be used as proxies to infer burrowing capacity in fossil representatives.".
- 01GJMP12J98E0AWY3K928F3AYJ abstract "Caecilians are elongate, limbless and annulated amphibians that, as far as is known, all have an at least partly fossorial lifestyle. It has been suggested that elongate limbless vertebrates show little morphological differentiation throughout the postcranial skeleton. However, relatively few studies have explored the axial skeleton in limbless tetrapods. In this study, we used mu CT data and three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to explore regional differences in vertebral shape across a broad range of caecilian species. Our results highlight substantial differences in vertebral shape along the axial skeleton, with anterior vertebrae being short and bulky, whereas posterior vertebrae are more elongated. This study shows that despite being limbless, elongate tetrapods such as caecilians still show regional heterogeneity in the shape of individual vertebrae along the vertebral column. Further studies are needed, however, to understand the possible causes and functional consequences of the observed variation in vertebral shape in caecilians.".
- 01GJMRHMG3V2562TNR91GFGB5Z abstract "Predicting the nonlinear mechanical response of short fiber reinforced composites (SFRCs) is a crucial and challenging task. In this paper, a computationally efficient multi-scale strategy is proposed to predict the anisotropic elasto-plastic behavior of SFRCs using the intrinsic mechanical behavior of the pure polymer and fibers without the requirements for reverse engineering. In doing so, different simple unit cells are first examined to find the one that can adequately describe the nonlinear mechanical response of SFRCs' representative volume elements (RVE) with aligned fibers. Considering the effects of packing configuration, fiber aspect ratio, volume fraction and material properties, the performance of different unit cells is investigated. Then, the homogenized mechanical responses of unit cells are linked to Hill's anisotropic plasticity model to correlate the mechanical response of the suggested unit cell to the continuum domain. Using the pseudo-grain approach and a numerical orientation averaging framework, the effects of fiber misalignment are taken into account. A multi-step homogenization strategy is also employed to consider the variation of fiber orientation tensor and volume fraction through the thickness. Finally, the validity and robustness of the proposed multi-scale strategy are extensively investigated based on the RVE-generated results and the available experimental observations.".
- 01GJMSN62REW89VCN37N7NP9VW abstract "Members of the bacterial genus Rickettsia were originally identified as causative agents of vector-borne diseases in mammals. However, many Rickettsia species are arthropod symbionts and close relatives of 'Candidatus Megaira', which are symbiotic associates of microeukaryotes. Here, we clarify the evolutionary relationships between these organisms by assembling 26 genomes of Rickettsia species from understudied groups, including the Torix group, and two genomes of 'Ca. Megaira' from various insects and microeukaryotes. Our analyses of the new genomes, in comparison with previously described ones, indicate that the accessory genome diversity and broad host range of Torix Rickettsia are comparable to those of all other Rickettsia combined. Therefore, the Torix clade may play unrecognized roles in invertebrate biology and physiology. We argue this clade should be given its own genus status, for which we propose the name 'Candidatus Tisiphia'. The bacterial genus Rickettsia includes vector-borne pathogens and arthropod symbionts that are close relatives of symbionts of microeukaryotes classified under the genus 'Candidatus Megaira'. Here, Davison et al. clarify the evolutionary relationships between these organisms by assembling 28 genomes of understudied species, and propose that a distinct clade known as Torix Rickettsia should be considered a separate genus.".
- 01GJMV6ERD5F90SZ4NCB15N3QJ abstract "Mutually beneficial associations are widespread in ecological networks. They are typically assembled as multispecies guilds of symbionts that compete for one or more host species. The ant Lasius flavus engages in an intriguing and obligate mutualistic association with a community of aphids that are cultivated on plant roots in its nests. The ant displays a repertoire of amicable behaviors toward the aphids, including their transport. I examined whether L. flavus preferentially carried some of the root aphids. Using a no-choice and a choice experiment, I comparatively analyzed the transport rate of 5 obligate and one loosely associated species back to the ant nest and used the transport rate of the ant larvae as a reference. All associated root aphids were carried back to the nest, but in a clear preferential hierarchy. Geoica utricularia, Forda Formicaria, and Trama rara were rapidly transported, but slower than the own larvae. Tetraneura ulmi and Geoica setulosa were collected at a moderate rate and the loosely associated Aploneura lentisci was slowly retrieved. In contrast, different species of unassociated aphids were not transported and even provoked aggressive behavior in L. flavus. This study revealed that co-occurring symbionts may induce different degrees of host attraction, which ultimately may affect the coexistence and assembly of ant-symbiont communities.".
- 01GJMW08PMZWK76BX6P2KRC6WR abstract "We investigate the effectiveness of direct and indirect modes of advocacy strategies in shaping decision-makers willingness to adopt with NPO input during the policy process. We define advocacy effectiveness as the ability to persuade decision-makers to act upon NPO input. Following the definition of Craig Jenkins (2006, p. 267) that advocacy entails “any attempt to influence the decisions of any institutional elite on behalf of a collective interest”, we present a survey experiment to all Flemish municipal councillors and members of municipal administrative management teams. We ask respondents how they would react to different advocacy approaches during the agenda-setting, formulation, and decision-making phase of the policy cycle. In this way, we want to find out 1/what effective ways of influencing policy are and 2/ in which phase of the policy process the impact is greatest. Our vignette experiment is based on advocacy campaign efforts by Flemish government-funded community NPOs focusing on representing people living in poverty. These associations are officially recognized and funded by the national and local governments and are actively encouraged to translate concerns into political claims (Verschuere & De Corte, 2015). Research interest in advocacy effectiveness is on the rise because of the infusion of NPM management strategies in participatory processes, which some fear would diminish the advocacy strength and the agency of NPOs in liberal (Mosley, 2012), corporatist (De Corte, Arys, & Roose, 2022) and social democratic welfare states (Arvidson, 2018). Previous research shows that as the cooperation between the government and NPOs becomes closer, less indirect action is taken and professionalized advocacy is preferred (Eikenberry and Kluver 2004; Jang and Feiock 2007 ; Minkoff and Powell 2006). It has also been established that if policymakers regard these forms of policy participation as more efficient, their willingness to engage with inputs from interest groups increases (Moynihan 2003; Yang and Pandey 2011). This makes these strategies theoretically more effective from the point of view of NPOs who want to influence policy. In this experiment, our independent variables in a 2x2 full factorial design deal with the strategies employed to increase advocacy effectiveness in a context in which nonprofits are expected to become increasingly efficient partners during participatory policy processes. We test how different modes of operation (direct vs indirect tactics) & representation (professional advocates vs self-advocates) affect decision-makers their willingness to engage with NPO input. We hypothesize that the use of professional advocates over training and coaching self-advocates (Mosley, 2012) and direct advocacy tactics (Onyx, et al., 2010; Verschuere & De Corte, 2015) would increase the willingness of decision-makers to use NPO input thus increasing advocacy effectiveness. We test our hypothesis in a repeated measures ANOVA model, estimating the weights assigned to the levels of the different attributes by respondents to arrive at an overall response to the vignettes. We end the presentation with a discussion of policy implications and directions for future research.".
- 01GJMXH4REZ9F03ZC0VZNCCMJV abstract "The relevance of music in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexually nonnormative (LGBTQ+) lives and identities has been extensively established and researched. Studies have focused on queer performances, fandom, night life, and other aspects of music to examine the intimate, social, and political relations between music and LGBTQ+ identities. In a time where music culture is produced, distributed, and consumed increasingly in digital spaces, relations between music and LGBTQ+ identities are meaningfully informed by these spaces. As this is a relatively recent development and offline music practices remain profoundly meaningful and relevant, the amount of research on queer digital music practices remains modest. However, a rich body of literature in the fields of popular music studies, queer studies, and new media studies provides an array of inspiring angles and perspectives to shed light on these matters, and this literature can be situated and critically linked. For over half a century, popular music studies have directed their attention to the relations between the social and the musical. Under the impulse of feminist studies, gender identities soon became a prominent focus within popular music studies, and, driven by LGBTQ+ studies, (non-normative) sexual identities soon followed. As popular music studies developed a rich theoretical basis, and feminist and queer studies evolved over the years into more intersectional and queer directions, popular music studies focusing on gender and/or sexuality gradually stepped away from their initial somewhat rigid, binary perspectives in favor of more open, dynamic, and queer perspectives. Following a similar path, early new media studies struggled to avoid simplistic, naïve, or gloomy deterministic analyses of the Internet and new media. As the field evolved, alongside the technologies that form its focus, a more nuanced, mutual, and agency-based approach emerged. Here, too, scholars have introduced queer perspectives and have applied them to research a range of LGBTQ+-related digital phenomena. Today, popular music, sexual identities, and new media have become meaningful aspects of social life, and much more remains to be explored, in particular on the intersection of these fields. A diverse array of queer fan practices, music video practices, and music streaming practices are waiting to be examined. The theory and the tools are there.".
- 01GJN41QM5Q0DT9Z8WDZ4H50T9 abstract "Scientific interest towards low frequencies and infrasound from wind turbines has renewed over the last decade as the size of wind turbines and the number of wind farms have continuously increased. However, few comprehensive studies are found assessing such noise emitted by wind turbines in response to meteorological parameters, including turbulent characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer. The current work presents a detailed long-term measurement campaign combining infrasound recordings close to wind turbines and highresolution meteorological parameters at three heights. An artificial neural network (ANN) model, developed based on the measurement data, was able to adequately predict both blade passing frequency levels and broadband infrasonic noise. The model allowed discriminating between the broadband inflow noise emitted by the wind turbines and the remaining microphone-induced wind noise under the wind-shielding dome for a wide range of atmospheric conditions. At the same time, the ANN allowed deriving physically plausible relationships between meteorological and turbulence parameters and wind turbine emitted infrasound components. Dominant predictors for the infrasound production were mean wind speed, turbulence intensity and turbulent vertical heat flux.".
- 01GJN4NTRM3MN6MTF16RTG57WK abstract "Assessing road degradation typically requires specialized hardware (such as laser profilometers) or labor-intensive visual inspection. To facilitate large-scale, timely inspection of road surfaces, opportunistic sensing is proposed: Sound and vibration measurements are obtained from vehicles that are on the road for other purposes than measuring road quality. Prior work has addressed the problem of calibration and measurement noise removal from this abundance of measurements for a small number of measurement vehicles that drive on the same roads. However, as the deployment of opportunistic monitoring progresses, the applied techniques suffer from scalability. Here, a scalable self-supervised calibration and confounder removal (SCCR) algorithm is introduced. It allows to self-calibrate even if the data collection is done in distinct geographic areas and is capable of generalizing to vehicles not encountered during the training phase. Several model design alternatives are explored. After the application of SCCR, supervised training on a small subset of roads allows to predict observations made by standardized techniques also in areas where the latter have not been performed. The approach is tested and validated with 41 cars driving on 23,000 km of roads.".
- 01GJNPJ20019GTJTBC2YXHJV54 abstract "Bacteria utilize small extracellular molecules to communicate in order to collectively coordinate their behaviors in response to the population density. Autoinducer-2 (AI-2), a universal molecule for both intra- and inter-species communication, is involved in the regulation of biofilm formation, virulence, motility, chemotaxis, and antibiotic resistance. While many studies have been devoted to understanding the biosynthesis and sensing of AI-2, very little information is available on its export. The protein TqsA from Escherichia coli, which belongs to the AI-2 exporter superfamily, has been shown to export AI-2. Here, we report the cryogenic electron microscopic structures of two AI-2 exporters (TqsA and YdiK) from E. coli at 3.35 angstrom and 2.80 angstrom resolutions, respectively. Our structures suggest that the AI-2 exporter exists as a homo-pentameric complex. In silico molecular docking and native mass spectrometry experiments were employed to demonstrate the interaction between AI-2 and TqsA, and the results highlight the functional importance of two helical hairpins in substrate binding. We propose that each monomer works as an independent functional unit utilizing an elevator-type transport mechanism.".
- 01GJNQSZBCKG5XH14MH8RTQG9Y abstract "Predicting the elasto-plastic response of short fiber reinforced polymers (SFRPs) is a challenging task due to the important effects of microstructural details (e.g. fiber interactions, orientations, volume fraction distribution, etc). The main goal of this study is to provide a straightforward framework for estimating the nonlinear response of SFRPs having complex microstructures using intrinsic physical properties of the matrix phase without using any reverse engineering. To do so, simplified 3D unit cells considering the effects of fiber interactions, are selected in order to predict the elasto-plastic response of SFRPs with aligned fibers (see Fig. 1). The effective mechanical responses of such 3D unit cells under different loading conditions are then used to calibrate the Hill plasticity model [1] to estimate anisotropic responses of SFRPs at microscopic levels. By coupling the obtained plasticity model with Pseudo-grain decomposition techniques [2, 3] as well as different orientation averaging approaches, the effects of fiber misalignments are taken into account. The numerical accuracy and computational efficiency of the employed unit cells are first studied by comparing the obtained results with those of multi-fiber RVEs with aligned fibers. Second, the validity and efficiency of the orientation averaging strategy are investigated using RVEs with randomly distributed fibers. The obtained results reveal that the proposed anisotropic Hill’s model calibrated with simple FEM unit cells largely reduces the number of required calibration tests and provides a computationally efficient framework to predict the nonlinear response of SFRPs while the effects of microstructural details are taken into account.".
- 01GJPWK51HJK5G5M3YZMZ8P70D abstract "Ben jij zo iemand die Sportmagazine verslindt? Of elke week naar Extra Time kijkt en zelfs Filip Joos onder tafel praat met voetbal-, wielren-, basket- of andere statistieken? En denk je daarom dat je na het WK eindelijk dat zwembad in je tuin kan aanleggen dankzij enkele weldoordachte gokjes op de juiste matchen? Of is de kans groter dat je je huis moet verkopen na wat sportgokjes te veel? Prof. dr. Bram Constandt (UGent) doet onderzoek naar sportgokken en voor iedereen die weleens een gokje waagt of het van plan is: kijk toch maar eens naar deze video! En nee, hij gaat niét vertellen dat je niet mag gokken...".
- 01GJPYDMS3Z0W4FEC4TQSATR6E abstract "The possible use of both radiography and ultrasonography to visualise flow dynamics in cohesive sediments, also known as fluid mud, has been assessed. Ultimately, these techniques are intended to enable the application of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) in experimental fluid dynamics using such fluid mud. This research takes into account the specific requirements arising from this objective. Those requirements are primarily penetration depth, adequate frame rate and the preference not to seed with tracer particles. The evaluation of both techniques is elaborated in detail based the properties of mud originating from the Port of Zeebrugge (Belgium). The assessment of radiography starts with a chemical element analysis of the fluid mud, the results of which are used to determine the attenuation for high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Using various research software, the maximum thickness of the mud layer could be determined as a function of the maximum recordable flow velocities for different radiation sources. However, for the flow velocities expected in nautical research experiments, these thicknesses proved insufficient. Supplemented by the results of a particle size distribution analysis, it is found that high frequency ultrasound radiation will scatter in mud. In case of a great number of scatterers, the scattered ultrasound waves will interact, eventually resulting in speckle images, which are ideally suited for tracking. These findings were confirmed in a test setup with a standard medical ultrasound scanner. The penetration depth of ultrasonography with standard medical equipment is also limited. However, since ultrasonography is based on reflection, this is less of an issue compared to radiography, for which full penetration of the mud layer is required. Ultrasonography is therefore suggested as the preferred technique for the intended application.".
- 01GJPZPFVTVDXX7YJ3D62X7NY9 abstract "Background Chronic kidney disease is associated with increased risk of frailty and accelerated immune senescence, potentially affecting the immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination. Methods Humoral and cellular responses against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 were determined in 189 COVID-naive hemodialysis patients at week 4 and 8 after vaccination with 2 doses of BNT162b2. Frailty indicators and immune senescence markers were determined at baseline to identify predictors of the immune response. Results Controlling for age, activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental ADLs, walking pace, and the clinical frailty score correlated negatively and hand grip strength positively with the humoral response. Controlling for age, the proportions of memory CD4(+) T cells, memory CD8(+) T cells, CD28(null) T cells, and CD57(+)CD8(+) T cells correlated negatively with the humoral response, whereas the proportions of memory CD4(+) T cells and CD28(null) T cells correlated negatively and the CD4/CD8 ratio positively with the cellular response. In a multivariate model, only the proportions of memory CD4(+) T cells and CD28(null) T cells independently predicted the cellular response. Conclusions Markers of immune senescence, but not frailty indicators, independently predict the cellular immune response after vaccination in hemodialysis patients, overruling the effect of chronological age.".
- 01GJPZTZ2TAGDTBJXGECAEHK91 abstract "Patients with lymphoproliferative diseases (LPD) are vulnerable to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Here, we describe and analyze the outcome of 366 adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) treated with targeted drugs and laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosed between February 2020 and January 2022. Median follow-up was 70.5 days (IQR 0-609). Most used targeted drugs were Bruton-kinase inhibitors (BKIs) (N= 201, 55%), anti-CD20 other than rituximab (N=61, 16%), BCL2 inhibitors (N=33, 9%) and lenalidomide (N=28, 8%).Only 16.2% of the patients were vaccinated with 2 or more doses of vaccine at the onset of COVID-19. Mortality was 24% (89/366) on day 30 and 36%(134/366) on the last day of follow-up. Age >75 years (p<0.001, HR 1.036), active malignancy (p<0.001, HR 2.215), severe COVID-19 (p=0.017, HR 2.270) and admission to ICU (p<0.001, HR 5.751) were risk factors for mortality at last day of follow up. There was no difference in OS rates in NHL vs CLL patients (p=0.306), nor in patients treated with or without BKIs (p=0.151). Mortality in ICU was 66% (CLL 61%, NHL 76%). Overall mortality rate decreased according to vaccination status, being 39% in unvaccinated patients, 32% and 26% in those having received one or two doses, respectively, and 20% in patients with a booster dose (p=0.245). Overall mortality rate dropped from 41% during the first semester of 2020 to 25% at the last semester of 2021. These results show increased severity and mortality from COVID-19 in LPDs patients treated with targeted drugs.".
- 01GJPZW7TSMB97VM1DWHG26FP4 abstract "Limited data are available on breakthrough COVID-19 in patients with hematologic malignancy (HM) after anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) vaccination. Adult patients with HM, >= 1 dose of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and breakthrough COVID-19 between January 2021 and March 2022 were analyzed. A total of 1548 cases were included, mainly lymphoid malignancies (1181 cases, 76%). After viral sequencing in 753 cases (49%), the Omicron variant was prevalent (517, 68.7%). Most of the patients received <= 2 vaccine doses before COVID-19 (1419, 91%), mostly mRNAbased (1377, 89%). Overall, 906 patients (59%) received COVID-19-specific treatment. After 30-day follow-up from COVID-19 diagnosis, 143 patients (9%) died. The mortality rate in patients with the Omicron variant was 7.9%, comparable to other variants, with a significantly lower 30-day mortality rate than in the prevaccine era (31%). In the univariable analysis, older age (P <.001), active HM (P <.001), and severe and critical COVID-19 (P =.007 and P <.001, respectively) were associated with mortality. Conversely, patients receiving monoclonal antibodies, even for severe or critical COVID-19, had a lower mortality rate (P <.001). In the multivariable model, older age, active disease, critical COVID-19, and 2-3 comorbidities were correlated with a higher mortality, whereas monoclonal antibody administration, alone (P <.001) or combined with antivirals (P =.009), was protective. Although mortality is significantly lower than in the prevaccination era, breakthrough COVID-19 in HM is still associated with considerable mortality. Death rate was lower in patients who received monoclonal antibodies, alone or in combination with antivirals.".
- 01GJQ1WNCZ9T0FG854QRX4NY5J abstract "Discussies over pedofilie en pedoseksualiteit zijn vaak sterk gemediatiseerd, waarbij ook pedofilie resoluut wordt geassocieerd met seksueel kindermisbruik. Doorgaans is er weinig of geen aandacht voor niet-plegende pedofielen. Zij ervaren weliswaar een aantrekking tot jonge kinderen, maar proberen die actief te onderdrukken en bewust geen pedoseksuele feiten te plegen. Met psychosociale moeilijkheden gerelateerd aan hun geaardheid kunnen ze omwille van stigma moelijker terecht bij de traditionele hulpverlening, zodat sommigen zich wenden tot online steungroepen op peerniveau.".
- 01GJQ216BJ6ZF8F0QMECE7J757 abstract "Tissue-resident alveolar and interstitial macrophages and recruited macrophages are critical players in innate immunity and maintenance of lung homeostasis. Until recently, assessing the differential functional contributions of tissue-resident versus recruited macrophages has been challenging because they share overlapping cell surface markers, making it difficult to separate them using conventional methods. This review describes how scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics can separate these subpopulations and help unravel the complexity of macrophage biology in homeostasis and disease. First, we provide a guide to identifying and distinguishing lung macrophages from other mononuclear phagocytes in humans and mice. Second, we outline emerging concepts related to the development and function of the various lung macrophages in the alveolar, perivascular, and interstitial niches. Finally, we describe how different tissue states profoundly alter their functions, including acute and chronic lung disease, cancer, and aging.".
- 01GJQ35C2FR1AGZ51TSDM55TB4 abstract "Despite the advent of sophisticated and efficient new biologics to treat inflammation in asthma, the disease persists. Even following treatment, many patients still experience the well-known symptoms of wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing. What are we missing? Here we examine the evidence that mucus plugs contribute to a substantial portion of disease, not only by physically obstructing the airways but also by perpetuating inflammation. In this way, mucus plugs may act as an immunogenic stimulus even in the absence of allergen or with the use of current therapeutics. The alterations of several parameters of mucus biology, driven by type 2 inflammation, result in sticky and tenacious sputum, which represents a potent threat, first due to the difficulties in expectoration and second by acting as a platform for viral, bacterial, or fungal colonization that allows exacerbations. Therefore, in this way, mucus plugs are an overlooked but critical feature of asthmatic airway disease.".
- 01GJQ39GR23RD47VM1ZYX99R9W abstract "Book cover Digitalization and the Future of Financial Services pp 85–101Cite as International Financial Markets in the Digital Era Michael Frömmel Chapter First Online: 21 September 2022 116 Accesses Part of the Contributions to Finance and Accounting book series (CFA) Abstract Financial markets have changed their face substantially with the digital era. Floor trading has to a large extent been replaced by electronic trading platforms. This led to a substantial increase in trading speed bringing the trade execution time down from minutes to milliseconds. At the same time, we observe an increase in liquidity and transparency, whereas the impact on price quality and financial stability is more ambiguous. Particularly high-frequency trading is suspected to have a negative effect in this respect. Recently we observed eroding profits from high-frequency trading and a declining market share. Turning to the foreign exchange market it has also undergone substantial changes due to digitalization. While it was dominated by bilateral telephone trades and voice brokers, it has to a large extent moved to the electronic trading platforms by Reuters and EBS. While this first applied to the interbank market, the customer market has more recently been affected and most of the enormous increase in trading volume during the last decades took place there. Particularly the introduction of electronic communication networks had a huge impact. Nevertheless, their share is currently declining due to increased demand by customers for a centralized marketplace.".
- 01GJQ3JQ8ZY54K5MBDV6TZFBEY abstract "The field of speaker detection is relatively well researched. Multiple solutions focusing solely on audio or video, or a combination of both exist. On the audio side, a popular feature representation are mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, which are a sparse representation of the audio signal. On the video side, mostly pixel intensities are used, which is not sparse at all. In this paper, we take a look at a sparse video feature representation, namely facial landmarks. We first evaluate what selection of landmarks conveys the most information. Afterwards we propose several neural network architectures trained for audio-visual speaker detection. A comparison both on computational performance and accuracy is shown between the original architecture and architectures utilizing facial landmarks. For the evaluation, we introduce a new dataset to better understand the differences between the pixel and landmark features. The landmark features achieve similar accuracies for a forward oriented head position. There is a small reduction in performance for non-ideal head positions and in the case of occlusions. There is however a significant computational benefit, as there is a complexity reduction of orders two or three of magnitude due to the decreased feature dimensionality. When considering embedded devices, this is a big upside. This way we hope to provide insight and interest in a novel type of active speaker identification models.".
- 01GJQ68AQEP9V8ZRWQJZQ0BN37 abstract "This article presents a novel method to accurately simulate electromagnetic scattering at homogeneous polygonal cylinders with arbitrary material properties. A single source equivalence approach is invoked, allowing to substitute the background medium for the inner material of the scatterer, provided an equivalent surface current density is introduced. We construct the pertinent differential surface admittance operator by means of the Fokas method, establishing a map between the known Dirichlet boundary values and their unknown Neumann counterparts. However, to allow for lossy materials, we extend the Fokas method to complex wavenumbers. The novel formalism, employing pulse-shaped local basis functions, natively supports combined magnetic and dielectric contrast, accurately captures the skin effect, and is conveniently integrated in traditional boundary integral equation formulations. The correctness and versatility of our technique are verified for various examples by means of analytical validation and through comparison with a Poggio-Miller-Chan-Harrington-Wu-Tsai approach, a volume integral equation method and a commercial solver.".
- 01GJQ6NYMS7R4H3K719CPPQRFQ abstract "This article argues that the transition between the early and late Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt in the 1380s was partially caused by political developments in the Northwest Caucasus. The transition from "Turkish" to "Circassian" mamluk dominance was facilitated by the rise of new princely elites in the Northwest Caucasus during the bulqaq civil wars in the Ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde) (1359-1381). These new elites justified their rule through their access to the wider Mediterranean world and its material products. With the end of the bulqaq, these princes lost access to the imperial centres of the Ulus of Jochi, important sources of these prestige goods. In order to maintain their position in the Mediterranean market, they increasingly raided, enslaved and sold other Northwest Caucasians, which led to a rise in the number of Circassian slaves becoming available in Egypt and Italy.".
- 01GJQ6ZG1FBM4682Y8W7GS2K1B abstract "This article offers an impetus to the study of pub interiors in (East) Flanders during the interwar period through the approach of assize files, in particular through a close reading of the interior photographs and floor plans contained therein. Despite the morbid character of this unusual type of source, it offers a rare insight into the use of space, utilities, interior decoration and loose furnishings for a diversity of ‘ordinary’ pubs in (East) Flanders. The case study can thus illuminate the potential of court records for such and similar historical interior research. Despite the small sample of ten cafés in East Flanders, mapped and pictured in the 1930s, some initial conclusions can be drawn. The small to medium-sized pubs studied were predominantly housed in corner buildings or terraced houses, designed or adapted for that function. They were closely interconnected with the private rooms of the pub tenants, who used the same entrance, kitchen, corridor and toilet – the latter always accessible via the courtyard. With the exception of a newly built café, most of the buildings were older. Hand pumps and coal stoves suggest that connections to running water and gas were not available everywhere. Electricity was available and white-glass art deco lampshades were evidently popular in cafés. Without exception, there were tiled floors, from plain grey to colourful imitation mosaic tiles. The partitioned and wallpapered walls were colourful, quite daring and predominantly dark, especially with dark wood panelling in which benches were often incorporated – an older custom that was not renounced even by modernists in the 1930s. Narrow, rectangular, dark-wood tables without tablecloths lined the walls. The surrounding chairs offer a nice sample of various types of chairs for cafés, mostly of Belgian manufacture, including many models in bent wood. These were still recommended for modernist cafés in the 1930s. A sitting area with wicker chairs around a barrel table also proved popular. The invariably dark wooden bars were frequently equipped with a tap, railing and glass cabinet, and behind them were wall shelves, mirrors, enamelled advertising boards, framed photographs and posters. Entertainment was provided by pool tables, an early pinball, playing cards and musical instruments. The photos emphasise the continuity of the brown pubs, which have a long tradition in Belgium, but also contain ‘modern’ elements that made them pleasant places to be.".
- 01GJQA2EEAB7R437K7KRYHJHWC abstract "Photonic add-drop filters are crucial components for the implementation of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in fiber-optic communication systems. The recent progress in photonic integration has shown the potential to integrate photonic add-drop filters alongside high-performance photonic building blocks on a chip to construct compact and complex photonic-integrated circuits for WDM. Typically, implementations are based on micro-ring resonators with integrated heaters or free carrier dispersion-based modulators to adjust the filter wavelength. However, heaters suffer from high power consumption, and free carriers result in optical absorption losses, limiting the scalability toward very-large-scale circuits. We demonstrate the design, simulation, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a compact add-drop filter based on a vertically movable, MEMS-actuated ring resonator. The MEMS-actuated add-drop filter is implemented in IMEC’s iSiPP50G silicon photonics platform and realized using a short post-processing flow to safely release the suspended MEMS structures in a wafer-level compatible process. The filter exhibits a through port linewidth of ∼1 nm (124.37 GHz) at 1557.1 nm, and it retains a port extinction of 20 dB and a port isolation of >50 dB under 27 V of actuation voltage. The combination of low-power consumption and a compact footprint demonstrates the suitability for very-large-scale integration in photonic circuits.".
- 01GJQCRA0KBSZQ1E1WR52S5K01 abstract "Respiratory infections occur throughout life but how this shapes the lung immune system through time is unclear. Wack and colleagues show that a previous influenza infection recruits monocytes to the lung, which then assume an alveolar macrophage-like phenotype and mediate long-term antibacterial protection.".
- 01GJQCRAQE1W6R15NA2RAPX3Q0 abstract "Acute exacerbations (AE) of asthma, remain one of the biggest concerns for patients living with asthma. As such, identifying the causes, the molecular mechanisms involved and new therapeutic interventions to prevent AE is a high priority. Immunity to intestinal helminths involves the reactivation of type-2 immune responses leading to smooth muscle contraction and mucus hypersecretion-physiological processes very similar to acute exacerbations in the airways following allergen exposure. In this study, we employed a murine model of intestinal helminth infection, using Heligmosomoides polygyrus, to identify miRNAs during active expulsion, as a system for the identification of miRNAs that may contribute to AE in the airways. Concomitant with type-2 immunity and expulsion of H. polygyrus, we identified miR-99a-5p, miR-148a-3p and miR-155-5p that were differentially regulated. Systemic inhibition of these miRNAs, alone or in combination, had minimal impact on expulsion of H. polygyrus, but inhibition of miR-99a-5p or miR-155-5p significantly reduced house dust mite (HDM)-driven acute inflammation, modelling human acute exacerbations. Immunological, pathological and transcriptional analysis identified that miR-155-5p or miR-99a-5p contribute significantly to HDM-driven AE and that transient inhibition of these miRNAs may provide relief from allergen-driven AE, without compromising anti-helminth immunity in the gut.".
- 01GJQDBH49EZX7HSVDZEZP7NP2 abstract "Genome editing simplifies the generation of new animal models for congenital disorders. However, the detailed and unbiased phenotypic assessment of altered embryonic development remains a challenge. Here, we explore how deep learning (U-Net) can automate segmentation tasks in various imaging modalities, and we quantify phenotypes of altered renal, neural and craniofacial development in Xenopus embryos in comparison with normal variability. We demonstrate the utility of this approach in embryos with polycystic kidneys (pkd1 and pkd2) and craniofacial dysmorphia (six1). We highlight how in toto light-sheet microscopy facilitates accurate reconstruction of brain and craniofacial structures within X. tropicalis embryos upon dyrk1a and six1 loss of function or treatment with retinoic acid inhibitors. These tools increase the sensitivity and throughput of evaluating developmental malformations caused by chemical or genetic disruption. Furthermore, we provide a library of pre-trained networks and detailed instructions for applying deep learning to the reader's own datasets. We demonstrate the versatility, precision and scalability of deep neural network phenotyping on embryonic disease models. By combining light-sheet microscopy and deep learning, we provide a framework for higher-throughput characterization of embryonic model organisms.".
- 01GJQDNNQDMV8QSF4Y3RSB5V21 abstract "Background: About 40 disease genes have been described to date for isolated congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract (CAKUT), the most common cause of childhood chronic kidney disease. However, these genes account for only 20% of cases. ARHGEF6, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that is implicated in such biologic processes as cell migration and focal adhesion, acts downstream of integrin linked kinase (ILK) and parvin proteins. A genetic variant of ILK that causes murine renal agenesis abrogates the interaction of ILK with a murine focal adhesion protein encoded by Parva, leading to CAKUT in mice with this variant. Methods: To identify novel genes that, when mutated, result in CAKUT, we performed exome sequencing in an international cohort of 1265 families with CAKUT. We also assessed the effects in vitro of wild-type and mutant ARHGEF6 proteins, as well as the effects of Arhgef6 deficiency in mouse and frog models. Results: We detected six different hemizygous variants in the gene ARHGEF6 (which is located on the X chromosome in humans) in eight individuals from six families with CAKUT. In kidney cells, overexpression of wild-type ARHGEF6—but not proband-derived mutant ARHGEF6— increased active levels of CDC42/RAC1, induced lamellipodia formation, and stimulated PARVAdependent cell spreading. ARHGEF6 mutant proteins showed loss of interaction with PARVA. Three-dimensional MDCK cell cultures expressing ARHGEF6 mutant proteins exhibited reduced lumen formation and polarity defects. Arhgef6 deficiency in mouse and frog models recapitulated features of human CAKUT. Conclusions: Deleterious variants in ARHGEF6 may cause dysregulation of integrin-parvinRAC1/CDC42 signaling, thereby leading to X-linked CAKUT.".
- 01GJQEMP9E6DQGZFZV1SRF7ZFA abstract "We have recently identified lens epithelium-derived growth factor (LEDGF/p75, also known as PSIP1) as a component of the homologous recombination DNA repair machinery. Through its Pro-Trp-Trp-Pro (PWWP) domain, LEDGF/p75 binds to histone marks associated with active transcription and promotes DNA end resection by recruiting DNA endonuclease retinoblastoma-binding protein 8 (RBBP8/CtIP) to broken DNA ends. Here we show that the structurally related PWWP domain-containing protein, hepatoma-derived growth factor-related protein 2 (HDGFRP2), serves a similar function in homologous recombination repair. Its depletion compromises the survival of human U2OS osteosarcoma and HeLa cervix carcinoma cells and impairs the DNA damage-induced phosphorylation of replication protein A2 (RPA2) and the recruitment of DNA endonuclease RBBP8/CtIP to DNA double strand breaks. In contrast to LEDGF/p75, HDGFRP2 binds preferentially to histone marks characteristic for transcriptionally silent chromatin. Accordingly, HDGFRP2 is found in complex with the heterochromatin-binding chromobox homologue 1 (CBX1) and Pogo transposable element with ZNF domain (POGZ). Supporting the functionality of this complex, POGZ-depleted cells show a similar defect in DNA damage-induced RPA2 phosphorylation as HDGFRP2-depleted cells. These data suggest that HDGFRP2, possibly in complex with POGZ, recruits homologous recombination repair machinery to damaged silent genes or to active genes silenced upon DNA damage.".
- 01GJQF60W6F07AX9FA7Q57NZGY abstract "Apoptotic bodies (ApoBDs), which are large extracellular vesicles exclusively released by apoptotic cells, possess therapeutically exploitable properties including biomolecule loadability and transferability. However, current limited understanding of ApoBD biology has hindered its exploration for clinical use. Particularly, as ApoBD-accompanying cargoes (e.g., nucleic acids and proteins) have major influence on their functionality, further insights into the mechanism of biomolecule sorting into ApoBDs are critical to unleash their therapeutic potential. Previous studies suggested pannexin 1 (PANX1) channel, a negative regulator of ApoBD biogenesis, can modify synaptic vesicle contents. We also reported that trovafloxacin (a PANX1 inhibitor) increases proportion of ApoBDs containing DNA. Therefore, we sought to define the role of PANX1 in regulating the sorting of nuclear content into ApoBDs. Here, using flow cytometry and label-free quantitative proteomic analyses, we showed that targeting PANX1 activity during apoptosis, via either pharmacological inhibition or genetic disruption, resulted in enrichment of both DNA and nuclear proteins in ApoBDs that were unexpectedly smaller in size. Our data suggest that PANX1, besides being a key regulator of ApoBD formation, also functions as a negative regulator of nuclear content packaging and modulator of ApoBD size. Together, our findings provide further insights into ApoBD biology and form a novel conceptual framework for ApoBD-based therapies through pharmacologically manipulating ApoBD contents.".
- 01GJQFWVB7MJ4XWJ78SPWBSH7B abstract "Although it has been several years since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) began applying throughout the European Union (EU), many organisations still hesitate to conduct a data protection impact assessment (DPIA). In light of this, Van Bael & Bellis’ data protection team has compiled a list of questions that clients frequently ask, to clarify the concept itself and the benefits which a DPIA can bring to projects involving personal data.".
- 01GJQGEJ52P94SMJSHZ7B7WH98 abstract "As epitomised in the works of Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, and Daniel Libeskind, the ‘new museum’ of art claims its own architectural typology. With asymmetrical silhouettes, gallery spaces that eschew the much derided ‘white cube’, and cleverly conceived circulation systems, the new museum has been heralded as revolutionising the display of art. Yet its function extends beyond the display and conservation of art. The new art museum is conceived as a multifaceted cultural centre – a public forum – where art and culture are democratised, and families, scholars, students, tourists, and teachers come together. At the same time, the new museum competes with other entertainment venues on a commercial level. As a cultural factory replete with an ambitious programme of temporary exhibitions, media facilities, restaurants, and shops, the new museum emphasises consumption as much as it does contemplation. In fact, the array of non-artrelated diversions contained in the new museum is often more important to the institution’s success than the art itself.".
- 01GJQGQ8GETQF62NBNCMWA82JM abstract "Originally developed in the ecological circles of the 1970s that pursued critical alternatives to the modernist worldview, the concept of 'resilience' has pervaded 21st-century thought, from psychology to political theory, and from planning to architecture. But in most of its current guises, it has been used in positivist and future-oriented frames of thinking that limit it to an aspired benchmark for managing crises and withstanding catastrophic events. This Special Collection of Architectural Histories is an attempt to recuperate the overlooked potential of 'resilience' by asking whether and how its introduction in architectural history can transform current disciplinary practices. In their articles, the contributing authors revisit buildings that have been reused and transformed to withstand change over the centuries. Adopting the long-term perspective of 'resilience', they examine these physical objects as carriers of multiple layers of interventions, leading them to re-evaluate the intentions of architects and users and to reconsider the place of these buildings in architectural history. In most cases, 'resilience' offers a novel historiographical perspective that unveils long-standing conceptual schemata, from periodizations to methodological tropes, which still condition the historians' interpretation of the past. In the final instance, 'resilience' illuminates the deep-seated modernist dichotomy between 'innovation' and 'tradition' in architectural history. In keeping with its origins in the late 20th-century, the concept offers a significant alternative to 21st-century architectural historians' established views on modernity that are still embedded in their thought and practice.".
- 01GJQGVCJHFDVNMXVRHETNM3VV abstract "The Professione di Architetto in Renaissance Italy shows how Renaissance Italian architects used the concept of the professione di architetto as a way to affirm and delineate the character of their occupation. Drawing inspiration from antiquarian models and taking advantage of the humanist ethos, these architects equated “profession” with manual and theoretical expertise, social authority, and the fulfillment of artistic, civic, and moral ideals. Elizabeth Merrill places the origins of architectural professionalism in early modern Italy—rather than in the nineteenth-century movements frequently cited by social historians—and describes the theoretical context for the architect's professional rise. Positioning themselves alongside university-educated professors, architects of Renaissance Italy crafted didactic treatises about their work and created academies for its instruction, foreshadowing a long history of architectural discourse that continues to this day.".
- 01GJQH4D6N7S1S5NQSRF9AZ1G2 abstract "In fifteenth-century Italy, the architect’s role lacked definition. The classical conception of the architect — the distinguished professional lauded by Vitruvius and Cicero, as theoretically versed as he was technically skilled — had faded in the medieval period. Even the term ‘architectus’, with its powerful connotations of creation and authorship, had fallen out of use (Kostof 1977: 60–61). Furthermore, there was no standard of training or apprenticeship for the architect. Depending on the context, the engineer, carpenter, patron, or building administrator might be considered the building’s architect (Hollingsworth 1984: 385–410). On the role of the architect in the Italian Renaissance and the development of an architectural profession, see Ackerman 1991, Ettlinger 1977, and Wilkinson 1977. But beginning around 1400, numerous artists, scholars, and patrons began to express the need for an established architectural profession.".
- 01GJQH9NZ0DAQ53W2B50HQDKXM abstract "In Renaissance Europe, the role of the architect was unfixed. Unlike painting, sculpture, and metalwork, where there were organized systems of apprenticeship, for the architect there was no established curriculum of training or standard mode of practice. Every one of the period’s leading architects – individuals like Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Donato Bramante, and Michelangelo Buonarroti – assumed a different role, both in relation to his patrons and in the technical and design work he undertook. As reflected in contemporary commentaries and municipal records, the appellation “architetto” was inconsistently used to refer to a range of individuals involved with the building process – from patrons to construction administrators to material suppliers – even when they were not necessarily involved in building design. Beginning in the fifteenth-century, learned practitioners became increasingly vocal about the need to elevate the status of architecture. Spurred by the rediscovery of Vitruvius’ recondite De Architectura, architecture was recast an intellectual endeavor, requiring science, math, and innate talent (ingegno), and as such, was said to belong within the realm of the liberal arts (artes liberales). Distinct from the anonymous master masons and building supervisors of the medieval period, the Renaissance architect was to assume the position as authorial, supremely learned master in the art of building. This new conception of the architect was articulated in a series of architectural treatises – those of Leon Battista Alberti, Antonio Averlino “Filarete,” Francesco di Giorgio, and Andrea Palladio, among others – which taking various forms, sought to structure the modern profession.".
- 01GJQHXABWM8D1WS4Q596A7HM9 abstract "The Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala was central to the development of architecture and infrastructure in early modern Siena. A major landowner and patron, the hospital institution oversaw the construction of a wide range of buildings throughout the commune, and also played a crucial role in the perpetuation of a distinctly Sienese corpus of technical knowledge. Archival records attest to the presence of the Spedale’s building workshop, which contributed workers, materials and expertise to both the institution’s projects, as well as those involving Siena’s infrastructure and defenses. Several fifteenth-century model books trace the technical tradition spearheaded by the Scala. Assembled by individual practitioners, the books bolstered a collective memory, delineating the ideas and structures that made Siena a place.".
- 01GJQJDVG7AKM45DYT1TWH1KN9 abstract "Genomic imprinting promotes differential expression of parental alleles in the endosperm of flowering plants, and is regulated by epigenetic modification such as DNA methylation and histone tail modifications in chromatin. After fertilization, the endosperm develops through a syncytial stage before it cellularizes and becomes a nutrient source for the growing embryo. Both in early and late endosperm development regional compartmentalization has been shown, and different transcriptional domains suggest divergent spatial and temporal regional functions. The analysis of the role of parent-of-origin allelic expression in the endosperm as a whole and also investigation of domain specific functions has been hampered by the availability of the tissue for high-throughput transcriptome analyses and contamination from surrounding tissue. Here we have used Fluorescence-Activated Nuclear Sorting (FANS) of nuclear targeted eGFP fluorescent genetic markers to capture parental specific allelic expression from different developmental stages and specific endosperm domains. This RNASeq approach allows us to successfully identify differential genomic imprinting with temporal and spatial resolution. In a systematic approach we report temporal regulation of imprinted genes in the endosperm as well as region specific imprinting in endosperm domains. Our data identifies loci that are spatially differentially imprinted in one domain of the endosperm while biparentally expressed in other domains. This suggests that regulation of genomic imprinting is dynamic and challenges the canonical mechanisms for genomic imprinting.".
- 01GJQJJQ1E953XJVFF6B2DERF4 abstract "Based on the study of five small-scale Italian architectural manuscripts, dated between 1470 and 1520, this article uses the practitioners’ drawings to examine early modern artistic education, and the means by which architectural knowledge was systematized, developed, shared, and retrieved. To this end, the paper consider the books’ contents in terms of differing divisions of architectural knowledge and modes of visualization. The function of the manuscripts’ drawings—which include generic models, building diagrams, design “recipes,” and exercises in architectural invenzione—varied significantly depending on context, and although no single image served as a “working” plan, all were in some way immediately useful to the practitioner. The drawings may thus be understood as records of architectural practice, and as such, relate to the codification of design-based knowledge and the evolving language of early modern architectural representation.".
- 01GJQM7ASW6Q9YJR12ZFZK4E97 abstract "Since the recent clinical approval of siRNA-based drugs and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, the potential of RNA therapeutics for patient healthcare has become widely accepted. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are currently the most advanced nanocarriers for RNA packaging and delivery. Nevertheless, the intracellular delivery efficiency of state-of-the-art LNPs remains relatively low and safety and immunogenicity concerns with synthetic lipid components persist, altogether rationalizing the exploration of alternative LNP compositions. In addition, there is an interest in exploiting LNP technology for simultaneous encapsulation of small molecule drugs and RNA in a single nanocarrier. Here, we describe how well-known tricyclic cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs) can be repurposed as both structural and functional components of lipid-based NPs for mRNA formulation, further referred to as CADosomes. We demonstrate that selected CADs, such as tricyclic antidepressants and antihista-mines, self-assemble with the widely-used helper lipid DOPE to form cationic lipid vesicles for subsequent mRNA complexation and delivery, without the need for prior lipophilic derivatization. Selected CADosomes enabled efficient mRNA delivery in various in vitro cell models, including easy-to-transfect cancer cells (e.g. human cervical carcinoma HeLa cell line) as well as hard-to-transfect primary cells (e.g. primary bovine corneal epithelial cells), outperforming commercially available cationic liposomes and state-of-the-art LNPs. In addition, using the antidepressant nortriptyline as a model compound, we show that CADs can maintain their pharma-cological activity upon CADosome incorporation. Furthermore, in vivo proof-of-concept was obtained, demon-strating CADosome-mediated mRNA delivery in the corneal epithelial cells of rabbit eyes, which could pave the way for future applications in ophthalmology. Based on our results, the co-formulation of CADs, helper lipids and mRNA into lipid-based nanocarriers is proposed as a versatile and straightforward approach for the rational development of drug combination therapies.".
- 01GJQNNBACS8NN66F46D6DW0TQ abstract "Glutamine synthetase (GS) activity is conserved from prokaryotes to humans, where the ATP-dependent production of glutamine from glutamate and ammonia is essential for neurotransmission and ammonia detoxification. Here, we show that mammalian GS uses glutamate and methylamine to produce a methylated glutamine analog, N-5-methylglutamine. Untargeted metabolomics revealed that liver-specific GS deletion and its pharmacological inhibition in mice suppress hepatic and circulating levels of N-5-methylglutamine. This alternative activity of GS was confirmed in human recombinant enzyme and cells, where a pathogenic mutation in the active site (R324C) promoted the synthesis of N-5-methylglutamine over glutamine. N-5-Methylglutamine is detected in the circulation, and its levels are sustained by the microbiome, as demonstrated by using germ-free mice. Finally, we show that urine levels of N-5-methylglutamine correlate with tumor burden and GS expression in a beta-catenin-driven model of liver cancer, highlighting the translational potential of this uncharacterized metabolite.".
- 01GJRFP7AG6WWQQ12860BQD70H abstract "This article starts from our experiences as two Western women of Black mixed-race background, undertaking fieldwork among unaccompanied young men on the move in Europe. We add to scholarship on ethnographic accounts of encounters. We do this by reflecting on how our positionality affected the research process along often taken-for-granted social categories and markers of sameness and difference, as they related to our fieldwork and the space created between us and participants. We analyse the ways in which power is infused along multiple intersecting axes such as gender and race, and is imbued with movement in that space, helping people to feel, among other things, safe and unsafe, located and dislocated, and visible and invisible. We find that the social positions and positioning that emerged were tied into vulnerabilities related to gender and age, legal status, dimensions of race, class, and specific histories and imaginaries. We also show how performativity, shifting boundaries, and othering came into play and shaped bordering practices and a sense of belonging.".
- 01GJSKZNSD3CX03KS8VRNDJ3KC abstract "This volume highlights the complex relations between empathy, individualizing and groupish moral intuitions, (anticipated) moral emotions, and moral judgment. It is rooted in the notion that human moral systems were not immune to evolutionary processes and thus shaped by biological and cultural evolutionary forces (e.g. natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, sexual selection, cultural mutation, ecological selection pressures, etc.). This edition proposes a conceptual model of both distal and proximal variables to integrate insights from Moral Foundations Theory with theorizing on commitment strategies by linking empathy and moral intuitions to moral emotions (guilt, anger, disgust), and moral judgment in the context of distinct moral violations. The proposed model is tested using data from a convenience sample of young adults in Belgium, who responded to written hypothetical scenarios in a large-scale online survey. This volume is ideal for moral theory researchers in criminology, psychology, and related disciplines".
- 01GJSRSAVXA910RCD4K9J5727P abstract "The IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics (CBI) series encourages a broad understanding of Business Informatics research, and intends to promote its many different facets, theoretical foundations and experiential body of knowledge. In doing so, the CBI series has proven to be a fertile ground for research with high impact, and a hub for multidisciplinary research with contributions from Management Science, Organization Science, Economics, Information Systems, Computer Science, and Informatics.".
- 01GJSVWVYBDX8YK7QYYK27HGN2 abstract "To develop siloxane-containing vitrimers with fast dynamic characteristics, different mechanistic pathways have been investigated using a range of catalysts. In particular, one siloxane exchange pathway has been found to show a fast dynamic behavior in a useful temperature range (180-220 degrees C) for its application in vitrimers. The mechanism is found to involve 1,5,7-triazabicyclo [4.4.0] dec-5-ene (TBD) as an organic catalyst in the presence of hydroxyl groups. Using this new mechanistic approach, vitrimers with ultrafast stress-relaxation characteristics (relaxation times below 10 s) have been prepared with a readily available epoxy resin and siloxane-amine hardener. Subsequently, the low viscosity siloxane-containing vitrimer resin enabled the preparation of glass fiber-reinforced vitrimer composites using an industrially relevant vacuum-assisted resin infusion technique. The resulting composite was successfully thermoformed into a new shape, which makes it possible to envision a second life for such highly engineered materials.".