Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Monitoring of cutting and processing quality on a forage harvester’" "Wouter Saeys" "Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS)" "In the agricultural sector, innovative methods are continuously developed to optimize agricultural processes with the ultimate purpose to obtain, in a sustainable way, a higher (quality of) yield from the same land. Agricultural vehicles should therefore be controlled in an optimal manner: machine settings are often suboptimal. A better processing of crops is realizable if real-time monitoring can be used for analysing the effect of the machine settings and for adjusting these setting to the crops or the land that is being harvested at a specific time. Nowadays, for this reasons, all kinds of sensors are being used to provide feedback of the condition of the crop and the machines. The goal of this thesis is the development of a performant vision system that is able to monitor the working conditions of a forage harvester, by analysing the crop flow in corn. This analysis provides feedback on the working conditions of the forage harvester." "Integrated process monitoring and control of active pharmaceutical ingredients production via tensor based data driven modeling methods. iMPC4API" "Jan Van Impe" "Sustainable Chemical Process Technology, Ghent and Aalst Technology Campuses" "General purposeThe ultimate goal of this project is to develop an advanced data driven modeling methodology for full scale plant-wide API production processes. The constructed models are intended for advanced monitoring and control of the processes, which are understood as integrated systems formed by multiple heterogeneous subsystems. Therefore the key aspect is learning the relationships between process variables along the process units and from them to product quality attributes and output parameters. This project will bring Janssen Pharmaceutica towards a cyber-physical API production process where models founded on machine-learning techniques allow monitoring the processes with uncertainty quantification, to enforce quality risk management strategies and in a subsequent step carry out control and optimization of the production processes.Concrete objectives and criteria(i) Developing a novel strategy for exploiting multirate data. The industry has adopted data driven methods for process monitoring, process safety and quality control [9]. However, many practical applications have been restricted to models based on online process data sampled at high frequency (e.g., pressures and temperatures), neglecting the multirate nature of most of the processes and the measurements [10]. Exploiting multirate data guarantees capturing important information from the underlying system that otherwise would be omitted. Hence, the first objective of this research project will be investigating wavelet analysis as a promising method for multirate data pretreatment. In the pharmaceutical industry, this is a key aspect since it enables incorporating information from PAT tools and other infrequent measurements with a high information content.(ii) Developing a modeling methodology for plant-wide multivariate data. The development of multivariate statistical process monitoring (MSPM) strategies has been boosted by the advances in data gathering and computing technologies [11]. In the last two decades it has been a productive research area with a strong interest from the process industry [12]. However, at the current state-of-the-art there are still many challenges to be addressed to develop learning (data driven) methods, particularly for batch processes, which provide models that sufficiently approximate integrated processes, give accurate predictions and enable controllability. Therefore the second objective of this research project aims to develop tensor based data driven modelling methods as these offer advantageous characteristics that can be exploited for modelling integrated plant-wide API processes. Additionally, these methods will allow to investigate the advantage of incorporating available process knowledge in the training process.(iii) Investigate uncertainty propagation in the models to develop a decision support tool. One of the main challenges of the pharmaceutical industry is the highly demanding quality conditions that need to be fulfilled to produce drugs that comply with quality standards (FDA, EMEA). Therefore deploying models and methods requires additional efforts to ensure validity and reliability of the obtained results before basing critical production decisions on them. The third objective will be to investigate methods that provide reliable quantification of the uncertainty propagated through the developed models. Then based on the most appropriated method the best models are selected to develop a multi-agent decision support tool for online monitoring of the Invokana API production process with uncertainty quantification and to support the implementation of quality risk management strategies to the production.(iv) Developing adaptable control and optimization strategies. The transformation of the production systems into CPS is a key element in the expected technological progress as part of the ongoing 4th wave of industrial revolution (the so-called Industry 4.0) [13]. Aiming to direct the innovation at Janssen’s Geel site towards this technological prospect, the final objective of this project intends to exploit the constructed data driven models and tools to provide the Invokana API production process with features of a CPPS. Two aspects in the field of process engineering will be investigated to bring the intended novelty and allow the integration with future developments. These are: controllability and optimization of the integrated plant wide API production process to allow the intervention of the computational part into the physical side, and model adaptability approaches to guarantee robustness and sustained validity of the system, while reducing model maintenance costs.Valorization potentialThe accomplishment of these objectives will result in significant economic gains for Janssen Pharmaceutica by: (i) reducing offspec production, (ii) supporting the application of quality risk management strategies and (iii) favoring simultaneously the quality and the non-quality output parameters. An increase in any in-house knowledge at the Geel site will also help cement Janssen Pharmaceutica’s position as Johnson & Johnson’s leading production/launch site for small APIs. These factors provide Janssen Pharmaceutica an economic benefit, but also imply a positive socio-economic impact on Flanders by a guaranteed employment and turnover." "On the use of a combined numerical/experimental approach for dynamic health monitoring of mechatronic systems." "Wim Desmet" "Production Engineering, Machine Design and Automation (PMA) Section" "Rotating components and rotating machinery play a key role in the dynamics of several mechatronic system.In the current state-of-the-use, rotating machinery fault detection, diagnosis and identification are usually based on vibration measurements. Unfortunately, In many practical situations, it is not possible to measure directly those system quantities that are more sensitive to the investigated fault, due to lack of space or dedicated sensors. A Virtual Sensing approach will be applied to be able to detect undesired and unexpectedforces acting on a rotating system, opening the path for more advanced monitoring strategies.The basic concept behind the several strategies that have been developed is to infuse knowledge to the available measurements through a dedicated modelling technique, allowing to extract more information from the experimental data.The developed methodology will be both numerically and experimentally validated on academic simple and complex cases." "Near-infrared spectroscopy in the neonatal intensive care unit: can it change treatment decisions?" "Gunnar Naulaers" "Woman and Child, ESAT - STADIUS, Stadius Centre for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics" "I. Introduction and backgroundIn this proposal for PhD project we present clinical studies in different patient groups to assess cerebral oxygenation as measured with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Near-infrared spectroscopy has evolved from a purely research instrument to a monitor that is increasingly introduced into the clinical environment and especially in the neonatal intensive care unit. It has mainly been used for the measurement of the cerebral oxygenation and circulation and it increasingly becomes a monitor that helps the clinician in understanding the effect of different pathologies and treatments on the cerebral oxygenation. Our research team headed by Prof. Dr. Gunnar Naulaers has extensive experience in NIRS measurements in newborns. Cooperation with the Utrecht group headed by Prof. Dr. Frank Van Bel contributes in clinical insight and possibilities of this monitor since 5 years. A long existing cooperation (since 1999) with Prof. Dr. Ir. Sabine Van Huffel, ESAT/SCD & IBBT, Future Health department,  Dept. of Electrical  Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, leaded to advanced signal analysis of NIRS parameters. NIRS in the neonatology departmentNear Infrared Spectroscopy was introduced by Jöbsis in 1977 as a safe and non-invasive technique to monitor cerebral oxygenation and hemodynamics in humans (1). The use in neonates to measure cerebral oxygenation was first reported by Brazy (2). Since then near-infrared spectroscopy started to become more popular for research in neonates, however it remained a difficult task to acquire stable measurements.It was the introduction of spatially resolved spectroscopy by Matcher (3) that made it possible to measure absolute values of cerebral oxygenation. Because this method is less movement-sensitive, easier to use and reporting absolute values it leaded to commercial monitors that are increasingly used in cardiac surgery and also in neonatal intensive care units.rScO2 and TOIRegional cerebral oxygen saturation (rScO2) or Tissue Oxygenation Index (TOI) can be determined using spacially resolved spectroscopy and reflects the regional tissue oxygenation which is determined by  the oxygen saturation in the venous (70-80%), capillary (5%) and arterial (20-25%) blood.Reference values for newborns in the first days of life are reported  and possible pittfalls are described. (4, 5). cFTOECerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction or cFTOE is calculated from the rScO2 and pulse oximetry-measured arterial saturation (SaO2). It reflects the amount of oxygen extracted by brain tissue form the vascular pool compartment and thus the balance between cerebral oxygen delivery and the cerebral oxygen consumption (6). Cerebral autoregulationAutoregulation can be measured by looking at the correlation between the NIRS monitored cerebral oxygenation and the blood pressure(7). Static cerebral autoregulation refers to the relation between cerebral blood flow (CBF) and mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) in a long time interval, while dynamic cerebral autoregulation refers to how the autoregulative mechanism behaves during the first 10 seconds after a change in MABP is presented (8). At the moment this work is in collaboration with the group of Professor Van Huffel. Impaired autoregulation can lead to increased or decreased CBF which has been  known as a risk factor for intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH)  and periventricular leucomalacia (PVL) (9). II. General hypothesis and specific aims of the projectWe will focus on three frequent  clinical conditions in neonatology where measurement and analysis of NIRS monitored cerebral oxygenation patterns can make a difference in treatment decisions in the future neonatology department. Specific hypotheses and research questions of the different clinical conditions will be presented in each relevant chapter." "Effectiveness of feedback and need-supportive coaching on physical activity among working adults: Validation of a multisensory activity device and evaluation of an intervention" "Johan Lefevre" "Physical Activity, Sports & Health Research Group" "The current physical activity (PA) recommendations advise adults toperform moderate-intensity aerobic PA for a minimum of 30 minutes five days a week or vigorous-intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 20 minutes three days a week. Despite many evidence supporting PA for the prevention and management of several health problems such as metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer, 41% of the Belgian population does not take part in these recommended levels of exercise. Even though they are well aware of the health benefits, sometimes they are unable to take action or change their behavior and to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The PA recommendations can be difficult to achieve, especially because physically inactive people are often unaware of their own inactivity. Unlike dichotomous behaviors such as smoking, PAis complex and multi-dimensional which makes it difficult to assess. Itis identified by frequency, duration, intensity and type, takes place in a variety of different domains and can consist of both incidental as habitual activities over a 24-hour period. Evidence to date suggests that48 to 61% of adults of the currently insufficiently active population overestimate their own level of PA. Despite being at greatest risk of health problems, those who fail to recognize their inactivity are unlikely to perceive a need to change and may be less susceptible to health promotion strategies. Therefore inventing simple, easy to implement methods which help to provide awareness of the own PA level and motivation to increase PA should be investigated. Many intervention studies have been performed in the past, trying to increase the PA levels of inactive adults. While most of these studies report moderate success by achievingshort-term improvements, recent reviews show that effect sizes are generally small and longer-term gains are difficult to achieve. However, it is indicated that measurement of the activity behavior and feedback on the activity behavior and/or behavioral outcome may help to increase bothawareness of health behavior and intentions to change that behavior. Interest in monitoring individual PA levels is rising as the benefits of PA are being increasingly emphasized. Researchers are looking for innovative measurement technologies that are accurate, reliable, practical and affordable. Pedometers have been used in numerous research interventions aimed at increasing levels of PA. They provide immediate feedback on levels of PA and in this way acts both as a motivator and a monitorof activity. For motivational purposes, a step counter may suffice, andthese are more feasible from a cost standpoint. However, if PA energy expenditure (EE) is desired outcome variable, more sophisticated accelerometer-based devices have some advantages. The SenseWear Armband (SWA) (BodyMedia, Inc. Pittsburgh, PA) is a PA monitor that is worn onthe upper arm and receives information from different sensors includinga near-body ambient temperature sensor, a skin temperature sensor, a galvanic skin sensor, a heat flux sensor and an accelerometer to estimate EE. The innovation of integrating physiological measurements with accelerometry may enhance EE prediction, particularly in low-intensity activities and during activities with limited body movements (e.g., resistance exercises). The SWA has been validated as an accurate measure of both minute-by-minute as well as average EE for low-to-moderate intensity activities. Because new recommendation of PA states the involvement of higherintensity exercise bouts, it is important to accurately assess the validity of the SWA during vigorous and very vigorous intensities. Recently a new algorithm was developed aiming to further improve estimationof EE during free-living activities. To our knowledge, previous validation studies do not include different speeds ranging from moderate to very vigorous intensity in one single exercise trial. Furthermore, no studyhas ever validated the new SWA algorithm. In addition, the validity of the SWA in different ambient temperature conditions relative to a reference method has never been tested. Measuring the EE of people exercising in various temperatures at different intensities can be interesting to objectively and unobtrusively determine the exercise load. These gaps in the literature were the starting point of the methodological chapter of the doctoral study.  The first paper of our methodological chapter examined the ability of the new SWA algorithm to accurately assess EE at different speeds ranging from moderate to very vigorous intensity through comparison with the golden standard of indirect calorimetry (IC)(paper 1). The results indicated that SWA underestimated EE ranging from 0.93 ± 1.21 kcal/min (p" "Nitrogen fertilization in ornamental plant production based on in-season demands through proximal sensing and soil modelling" "Marie-Christine Van Labeke, Hilde Vandendriessche" "Division of Crop Biotechnics" "The ornamental plant production sector produces high quality products, but faces challenges in times of increasing environmental constraints.Growth patterns and nitrogen uptake dynamics of five ornamental crops were determined during three growing seasons (2016-2018). This resulted in nitrogen uptake quantities sufficient for optimum plant quality.Open field production of herbaceous and woody ornamentals is characterized by a very broad range of species and cultivars, differing in growth dynamics, biomass accumulation as well as cultivation method. The Flemish ornamental plant sector produces high-value plants but faces plenty of challenges to maintain this high quality in times of increasing environmental constraints. For open field production, Flanders imposes nitrogen fertilization standards in order to comply with the European Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC). To keep ornamental plant growers competitive on the national and international markets and to comply with these environmental restrictions, the sector needs a differentiated nitrogen (N) recommendation system, based on in-season demands. Indeed, high quantities of residual nitrate can be measured in the soil profile after the growing season, which is partly due to fertilizer gifts that all too often exceed the crop demand. In periods of high precipitation, this nitrate is susceptible to leaching through the soil profile, which subsequently leads to ground and surface water contamination.Limited information was available about the nitrogen requirements of open field ornamental plants, despite this being an essential input variable of fertilizer recommendation systems. Therefore, N uptake dynamics of five ornamental plants species was assessed during three growing seasons (2016-2018). This was done through regular measuring and sampling on trial fields with different fertilization levels and nurseries where business-as-usual practices were applied. Chrysanthemum morifolium (potted chrysanthemum, cultivars ‘Maya’ and ‘Orlando’), Acer pseudoplatanus (sycamore, deciduous tree, forest seedling production), Ligustrum ovalifolium (Korean privet, semi-evergreen shrub), Prunus laurocerasus ‘Rotundifolia’ (cherry laurel, evergreen shrub) and Tilia cordata (small-leaved lime, deciduous avenue tree) were selected as representative for the open field ornamental plant production. This resulted in N uptake ranges that may be considered as adequate for a good plant quality. Because different plant ages and management practices were considered, we repeatedly demonstrated that N uptake was influenced more by age, planting density, transplanting of perennials, etc. than by the species itself. Furthermore, gathering data over a period of three growing seasons revealed that the N uptake is strongly affected by year-to-year varying climatic conditions, stressing the importance of multi-year nitrogen uptake datasets.These findings highlight the importance of split-applications and in-season determination of plant N demand and soil N supply. With regard to the latter, based on our results, we would propose a soil analysis early in July and early in August for the woody ornamentals (A. pseudoplatanus, L. ovalifolium, P. laurocerasus ‘Rotundifolia’ and T. cordata) and C. morifolium, respectively. To determine in-season N status of the plants on the other hand, the potential of proximal leaf and canopy sensors was explored in this thesis. To date, these techniques are underexploited for (woody) ornamentals, yet they offer countless opportunities to support N fertilization.At leaf level, we found that epidermal polyphenolic compounds measured with the Dualex sensor were highly correlated with foliar N% in C. morifolium. For the woody species, chlorophyll measured with both a SPAD meter and a Dualex sensor were a reliable proxy for foliar N%, but only when the leaf mass per area was considered. These results prove that proximal leaf sensors can be valuable decision-support tools to assess the in-season nitrogen status of both C. morifolium and different woody ornamental species. Nevertheless, some caution is recommended when different plant species are used, especially if leaf characteristics differ (e.g. presence of a wax layer). A relative approach, where a saturation index was calculated using a nitrogen-rich reference field, was considered to improve the usability because there are no absolute reference values available for an optimal (foliar) N% for the many different species and cultivars grown in nurseries.At canopy level, the GreenSeeker was used for three consecutive growing seasons on the one hand. This widely used sensor measures red and infrared light reflected by the plant canopy and subsequently calculates the NDVI, a vegetation index related with photosynthetically active biomass. The obtained correlations between NDVI and biomass and N uptake were generally high, but species-specific. Furthermore, we also encountered saturation problems when the canopy closed. It was concluded that NDVI measurements can be useful to identify the need for additional fertilization and potential in-field variability, but do not serve as a proxy for plant N%. Here as well, a relative approach can help to rule out other parameters except an N deficiency, as long as the reference plot is representative for the rest of the field and a threshold value for action can be set.On the other hand, the potential of a novel hyperspectral spectroradiometer was assessed in 2018. This device measures reflectance continuously in the visual and near infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum (340-820 nm) and allows the comparison of multiple vegetation indices or the exploitation of multiple wavelengths through multivariate statistics. Although other vegetation indices besides NDVI were highly correlated with biomass and N uptake (especially for C. morifolium), mainly partial least squared regression (PLRS) was considered promising to provide site-specific diagnostics of crop performance. Here, for plant N% as well, high correlations were obtained on species-level. For both C. morifolium as for the woody ornamental species, end-of-season specific difficulties, including flower bud initiation and the relocation of N towards perennial storage organs (roots/stem), interfered with the correlation; however, as additional fertilization is often unfavorable around that period, these dates could be excluded during further research. More data confirming the robustness of the correlations are needed to develop a decision support system based on the prediction models.Because plant growth is generally determined by interactions with the soil in a bottom-up manner, an important chapter in this thesis is devoted to soil N release, with emphasis on the influence of mechanical weed control and the opportunities of catch crops. For the case of avenue tree production, characterized by a low planting density, a low N uptake and repeated mechanical weed control, a field experiment was set up at two nurseries. During three growing seasons following the application of farmyard manure, soil mineral N was monitored by means of regular soil sampling. At one of the nurseries, we showed that at least 30% of the applied N was released in the second year. Partly due to the heterogeneity of animal manure, results were not always significant or consistent over time, nevertheless, the N release tended to continue the second year after application at the other nursery as well.Attempts were made to validate the results obtained by the field experiment through a model-based approach in order to be able to quantify nitrogen release and leaching. As both processes strongly depend on water availability and flow, a soil water balance was used to simulate daily water movement. Furthermore, the mineralization speed of the soil and the farmyard manure were calculated through an incubation experiment in laboratory conditions, however, due the inhomogeneous nature of the manure (and perhaps other unknown interactions), results could not be translated into field conditions. Therefore, the model approach needed more fine-tuning than expected. Nevertheless, the nitrogen balance models were useful as an exploratory tool to quantify N release and leaching after management practices for the first time.At both nurseries, there was a considerable mismatch between nitrogen fertilization and uptake by the trees, which could have been almost entirely covered by the N release after soil cultivation (if its timing would be synchronized with plant demand). N release succeeding a soil disturbance event was depending on time of the year, number of events and model decisions, but resulted in an additional N release of minimum 109 kg N ha-1 during the three experimental years at both fields. Average estimated N release after soil disturbance varied between 8 and 71 kg N ha-1; the more soil cultivation events were carried out, the less N tended to be released each time. In-field differences in nitrate content could be mostly attributed to the different weed control management, which shows that its impact should not be neglected. For example, an autumn rotovation of the soil following chemical weed control resulted in an exceptionally high amount of residual nitrogen and a doubling of modelled nitrate leaching during winter (± 108 NO3--N ha-1 compared with ± 54 kg NO3--N ha-1 in the other years). Lastly, we were able to associate catch crops, even when sown late, with a reduced N leaching of 33.5% on average. We therefore suggest delaying the control period for obligatory residual soil sampling for perennial crop growers in Flanders. Based on our results, we would recommend advancing the first soil cultivation, and thus (cold hardy) catch crop incorporation, to increase N availability at the start of the growing season instead of applying a mineral fertilizer." "Spatio-temporal modelling of the epidemiology of nephropathia epidemica and Lyme borrelosis" "Pol Coppin" "Division of Crop Biotechnics" "The incidence of vector-borne diseases can be understood as the output of a complex interplay among three components: the vector/host, the pathogen and the environment. The environmental factors that determine disease risk are those affecting the habitat conditions for vectors/hosts, the presence and prevalence of pathogens and the human exposure to pathogens. Monitoring these factors is a major task in epidemiology that, giventhe complexity of the underlying mechanisms, often demands interdisciplinary approaches.Nephropathia epidemica (NE) and Lyme borreliosis (LB) are vector-borne diseases for which awareness has increased in Western Europe as remarkable outbreaks for both diseases have been reported in recent years. NE is caused by the Puumala virus (PUUV) hosted by the bank vole Myodes glareolus. Humans get in contact with the virus by inhalation of aerosolized dry excreta. LB is caused by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi that can be harbored by rodents (like Myodes glareolus), birds, reptiles, amongst other. This pathogen reaches humans by means of bites of the tick Ixodes ricinus.The life cycle and demography of these vector/hosts organisms is tightly related to the physical characteristics andthe dynamics of the vegetative systems supporting their populations. The spatial attributes (location, size, adjacency to urban centres) of these vegetated areas is also an important determinant of the spatial spread of the diseases.The framework of this research was an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at assessing the potential use of methods anddatasets from geomatics engineering in modelling the epidemiology of NEand LB. The prominent role of vegetative systems in NE and LB suggests that considering the spatial spread of vegetative systems and monitoringvegetation processes in time can support NE and LB epidemiologic modelling. In this regard, spaceborne remote sensing of vegetation is particularly interesting as it delivers georeferenced datasets on vegetation-related phenomena at regular time steps.This dissertation is organized in seven chapters. The introductory chapter gives a general description of NE and LB, the organisms involved in the transmission of the pathogens and the determinants of disease risk. It offers also some considerations on the computation of disease risk and basic principles on the use of remote sensing to study vegetation-related phenomena.Chapter 2 is based on evidences on the role of vegetation phenology in the demography of rodents. In this Chapter, phenology metrics of forested areasin southern Belgium were derived from time series of vegetation indicescomputed from remotely sensed reflectance values. These metrics were contrasted to reported NE occurrences in the neighboring areas. The focus in this chapter is broad-leaved forest patches located in the part of the country with the highest incidence values. The obtained results verified correspondence between the trend in seasonal indicators of vegetationactivity as derived fromremote sensing observations and the reported NE number of cases in the studied area.Chapter 3 was based on the known fact that humidity is a major factor in tick ecology. This chapter presents an analysis of time series of two remotely sensed indices with sensitivity to vegetation greenness and moisture as explanatory variables of LB incidence. The study was conducted in two high incidence areas (northern and southern Belgium) where landscape conditions are different and evaluates the performance of two moisture-sensitive vegetation indices. These vegetation indices rely on the sensitivity of the short-wave infrared region to humidity. The difference between the two indices was the utilized specific wavelength range on the short-wave infrared region.The results suggested thatconducting multiresolution analysis on time series of moisture sensitive vegetation indices can reveal seasonal or annual patterns that may have impacted disease incidence. Moreover, the resulted also showed that the performance of the two evaluated indicesdiffered in function of characteristics of the vegetated areas.Chapter 4 highlights the connection between NE and LB disease risk and land cover classes and landscape features. In this Chapter, tree-structured regression was implemented to investigate the associations between the spatial spread of NE and LB and landscape attributes. The studied was based on the CORINE land cover map and assessed the impact of different sampling settings in the derived associations.Chapter 5 proposedan adaptation of one of the most commonly used spatial interaction models: the gravity model. This spatial interaction model has been applied in different fields where the response variable is a function of the attraction (or an analogous measure) between two bodies. For our application, the tested hypothesis was that distance between vegetated and urban areas in combination with the size of the areas could model disease risk by means of a gravity model analysis.Given the existence of occupational risk in the diseases under study, an indicator of exposure through the conduction of outdoor labor activity was used as well. The results were satisfactory and show the suitability of both land cover maps andspaceborne datasets to derive information on vegetated areas for implementing the model.Chapter 6 focused on the identification of seasonal indicators of vegetation conditions as potential predictors to be used in spatio-temporaldisease risk models. Based on the results of Chapters 2 and 3, a number of annual indicators of vegetation activity were derived; additionally, the notion of Growing Degree Days (GDD) was applied to obtain seasonal GDD values. By means of multivariate analysis, the set of more suited indicators was chosen for northern and southern Belgium. The results showed that the best set of indicators was obtained whenindicators based solely on meteorologic datasets (GDD) were combined with indi-cators obtained from remote sensing signals. Finally, general conclusions, main constraints as well as perspective for further research are summarized in Chapter 7." "The offender’s experience of punitiveness : a descriptive phenomenological study" "Ivo Aertsen" "Leuven Institute of Criminology" "Imposing a penal sanction generally implies the intentional infliction of suffering or pain on a person convicted of committing criminal offenses. On the one hand, this added suffering is being legitimized by penal goals, whether or not they are being made explicit, on the other hand this practice is being legitimized by respecting the principles of fair sentencing, such as proportionality and equality. When determining the punishment and the amount of punishment, one usually supposes that the suffering they intentionally inflict corresponds to the suffering that is effectively experienced by the punished. However, various studies show that this line of reasoning does not hold true and that the personal and social reality of being punished often differs from the objective intention (for example Crouch, 1993; Durnescu, 2011; Hayes, 2015, 2018b, 2018a; Kolber, 2009, 2012; van Ginneken & Hayes, 2017).While most research concerning the subjective experience of punishment focuses on charting the experienced suffering (the 'pains') of punished persons or the perceived severity of punishment, this study tries to map the perceived punitive character, more particular those elements that are being considered as the punitive components of the punishment by the one who is being punished. Using the descriptive phenomenological method developed by Dr. Amedeo Giorgi (1997, 2009, 2012), information is collected in a very inductive (intuitive) way about the experienced punitive character of various punishments, including imprisonment, (autonomous) electronic supervision and the community service order. The interviews with 14 (ex-) punished respondents are carefully analyzed according to the descriptive phenomenological method.The results show a great amount of variety when it comes to the experienced punitive character. Nonetheless, some common elements amongst all or most respondents were found, which led to the identification of three ‘structures’ that try to capture the essence of ‘being punished’ (without aiming at generalization). For the respondents, regardless of the sentence they were undergoing, 'being punished' means first of all feeling limited in freedom, which could be an experienced loss of time, money, physical freedom, freedom of action, autonomy and/or personal agency. The nature and the intensity of the experienced restriction of freedom depended on the sentence and personal and contextual characteristics of the offender. Secondly, ‘being punished’ meant for most of the respondents experiencing a negative emotion as a result of the criminal intervention (which one cannot control). Some of the respondents had a punishment experience as a result of feeling subjected to power or control, of being scared or insecure concerning their release from prison, of having the idea that their relatives were being punished as well, or as a result of experiencing stigma. Finally, respondents felt punished when they were experiencing a sense of injustice regarding the execution of the sentence and / or the consequences of the sentence. Most respondents indicated that they considered their sentence as a ‘logical’ and ‘deserved’ consequence of their actions. Despite their acceptance of guilt, of their sentence, they also experienced a certain injustice which, for them, increased the severity of their punishment or was experienced as an (additional) punitive element. They experienced an injustice concerning the criminal proceedings, certain final decisions, the sentencing process, the execution of the sentence or certain unintentional consequences of their sentence. In addition to the identification of these three ‘structures’ that formed the essence of ‘being punished’ for the participating respondents, the study provided some insights that could at least give rise to further investigation. It turned out that whenever the respondents felt punished, they experienced a certain suffering, a certain pain, as a result of the criminal intervention. In other words, the experienced suffering seems to be a condition for being able to speak of a punitive experience, but not every experienced suffering constitutes a punitive experience. It is therefore possible to reflect on the extent to which the experienced suffering should be taken into account when estimating the severity of the punishment. In addition, several respondents spontaneously expressed their opinion on the severity of the punishment they experienced. The degree of freedom restriction experienced by them was not always consistent with the ‘punishment hierarchy’ used in the penal code. For example, imprisonment was not always perceived as the most severe punishment and, for some respondents, preference was given to the prison sanction over electronic monitoring, an autonomous community service (‘work penalty’) or a fine. Electronic monitoring was perceived by some respondents as the most severe punishment, as they felt more restricted in their freedom when undergoing this punishment than when serving a prison sentence. This finding is in line with earlier research findings in this regard (including Vanhaelemeesch, 2015). In addition, some respondents found the work penalty to be experienced as a ‘punishment’, but to provide a rather positive experience, in the sense that this punishment appears to respect or even promote the autonomy or agency of the punished.Finally, based on the research results, we can state that many respondents feel punished as a result of an experienced suffering that falls outside the intention of the criminal justice system. Ignoring this ‘unintentional’ suffering can be detrimental to a just and fair criminal justice system. In order to limit as much as possible the 'harmful' suffering, in particular that experienced (unintentional) suffering that is counterproductive for good reintegration and rehabilitation (De Vos & Gilbert, 2017), it might be an option to expand the ‘damage limitation principle’, so that the principle focuses not only on avoiding 'detention damage' during the execution of a prison sentence, but more generally on avoiding 'punishment damage', both in the sentencing and execution phase." "Middleware for Mobile Crowd Sensing Applications" "Danny Hughes" "Informatics Section" "Mobile crowd sensing applications offer an innovative approach to realise people-centric and environmental-centric sensing applications in scenarios such as smart buildings, traffic and road condition monitoring, or e-healthcare. These applications involve large numbers of participants using heterogeneous mobile devices. These devices differ in terms of hardware (e.g. on-board sensors available), software (e.g. operating system), and external connectivity (e.g. WiFi, 3G, and online social networks).Participants may serve as opportunistic sensors and flexible actuators, while also accessing local sensing services. Nonetheless, contemporary mobile crowd sensing platforms provide poor consideration of user dynamism, which includes: mobility across networks, mobility across devices, and context-awareness. In addition, when focusing on the devices, all deployment and development efforts are closely related to the platforms supported. However, a cross-platform approach featuring flexibility (modularity, reusability and reconfigurability) is not still provided by state of the art platforms. In addition, application success relies on the number of participants, so an efficient user recruitment mechanism is also demanded.Due to their wide availability, online social networks realise a platform and device independent communication channel with participants (70% of participants replied in the first four hours since receiving a query) meanwhile increasing device reachability (by roughly 67% according to one of the performed studies). Furthermore, online social networks also provide an efficient recruitment medium due to their large user base.The contributions of this thesis are: (a) an abstraction of the user as a first-class software component (User Component), (b) a consistent communication and addressing abstraction that maps to multiple communication channels (User Binding) and (c) a modular, reconfigurable and secure runtime for web browsers with zero installed software base (ExNihilo). The User Component allows developers to reconfigure and monitor the user using regular software tools, and hence, provides a mechanism to deal with mobility between contexts. The User Binding supports selective communication with the user or with a device through multiple networks, including online social networks, and hence dealing with mobility between networks and devices.These contributions are validated through two prototypes which implement real-world applications. In the context of the SmartOffice use-case, the prototype @migo relies on the User Component and the User Binding contributions, and increases participation by 8% and availability by 24% without critically impacting battery lifetime. In the context of the SmartTeaching use-case, the prototype ExNihilo involved up to 47 regular off-the-shelf devices and improves distribution, heterogeneity, flexibility and security support within mobile crowd sensing applications.Based on these results, we believe that a middleware incorporating the User Component, the User Binding and ExNihilo enables worldwide, massive and fast release of mobile crowd sensing applications by reducing development, deployment and management efforts. In addition, the middleware provides seamless communication and coordination between humans and smart devices to support innovative applications. Finally, exploring additional mechanisms to extend middleware's applicability (e.g. quality of service aware applications) and functionality (e.g. flexible authorisation schemas) in such a dynamic environment is encouraged." "On the long-term footprint of pediatric critical illness and how this is affected by acute macronutrient restriction" "Greet Van den Berghe" "Laboratory of Intensive Care Medicine" "Children are admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) when they acutely need vital organ support to avoid imminent death. Although most of the children need intensive care for only a few days and most of them seemingly recover well from the acute insult, many of them are confronted with long-term consequences after critical illness as observed years after hospital discharge. This legacy, which remains largely unexplained, broadly affects neurocognitive development, but also growth and quality of life of the children, independently of pre-existing illnesses or conditions.Previous research has shown that the long-term adverse outcome after critical illness is modifiable by changing certain conditions during the acute PICU management. Our group previously performed the large multicenter PEPaNIC randomized controlled trial (RCT), which included 1440 critically ill children, and demonstrated that withholding supplemental parenteral nutrition during the first week in PICU (late-PN), and thus accepting a macronutrient deficit, was clinically superior to initiating supplemental PN within the first 24 hours of admission (early-PN). Late-PN accelerated recovery and decreased the risk of acquiring a new infection during PICU admission. Interestingly, also in the longer-term 2 years after inclusion, late-PN was shown to improve and even normalize several neurocognitive outcomes, in particular the executive function of inhibitory control, as compared with early-PN. Whether impairments in physical and neurocognitive domains observed at 2-years follow-up persist or disappear, or whether other problems may emerge in relation to the randomized intervention remained unclear. The acute phase of critical illness is also hallmarked by several neuroendocrine changes, possibly influenced by the macronutrient deficit caused by late-PN, which could affect development and growth of the children in the long term. This PhD thesis first documented the changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in the acute phase of pediatric critical illness, and assessed the impact of accepting a macronutrient deficit with late-PN hereon. It also investigated the long-term effects of pediatric critical illness and an early macronutrient deficit on neurocognitive development, growth and physical functioning 4 years after PICU admission. The final objective of this thesis was to assess the de-implementation of early-PN in PICUs worldwide.In the first part of this PhD project, we confirmed the presence of non-thyroidal illness (NTI) upon PICU admission, with low serum concentrations of TSH, T4 and T3, and elevated rT3 serum concentrations. The severity of NTI upon admission was independently associated with worse intensive care outcomes. NTI is also known to occur with fasting. Consistent with the mimicking of a fasting response, the macronutrient deficit in patients from the late-PN group resulted in a worsening of NTI over the first few days in PICU as compared with early-PN patients. Interestingly, in a statistical mediation analysis, the peripheral inactivation of thyroid hormone, which was further accentuated by late-PN, contributed to the outcome benefit of late-PN and thus appeared to be a beneficial response to critical illness. In contrast, the central component of NTI attributable to suppressed TSH and evidenced by the decrease in T4, counteracted the late-PN outcome benefit and appeared to be a maladaptive response. Whether treating the central component of NTI with TRH infusion in the PICU improves outcome of critically ill children requires further investigation in adequately powered RCTs.In the second part, the changes in the HPA axis during the acute phase of pediatric critical illness were documented. In contrast with critically ill adults, cortisol levels in critically ill children were only briefly elevated upon PICU admission and became normal thereafter, despite low binding-proteins and persistently suppressed cortisol metabolism. As ACTH was normal upon admission and decreased quickly thereafter, cortisol availability was not driven by increased ACTH. On day 3 of admission, high cortisol and low ACTH levels independently predicted poor outcome. Also, treatment with corticosteroids in the PICU further suppressed ACTH and was independently associated with poor outcomes. These findings suggest that exogenously increasing cortisol availability during the acute phase of critical illness in children might be inappropriate, and that future studies on corticosteroid treatment should plan safety analyses, as harm may be possible.In the third part of this PhD project, we presented the results of the 4-year follow-up study of the PEPaNIC RCT, which investigated the effect of late-PN versus early-PN on anthropometrics, health status, parent- or caregiver-reported executive functions and emotional/behavioral problems, and clinical tests for intelligence, visual-motor integration, alertness, motor coordination and memory. Four years after inclusion, these children scored worse for almost every developmental domain as compared with matched healthy children. However, part of the impairment, more specifically the parent- or caregiver-reported internalizing, externalizing and total emotional/behavioral problems, could be prevented in patients  from the  late-PN group who did not receive supplemental PN in the first week of PICU admission. The emotional/behavioral problems thus attributable to the use of early-PN were found to be at least partially mediated by adversely altered DNA-methylation by early-PN during PICU stay. Hence, the avoidance of early-PN induced alterations in DNA-methylation status during PICU stay could be a biological mediator of the protection against emotional/behavioral problems 4 years later as observed with late-PN. Taken together, these findings provide strong further support in favor of the de-implementation of administering PN during the first week in PICU.In the last part, the de-implementation of early PN was assessed in PICUs worldwide, by analyzing the results of a survey that was distributed one year after publication of the PEPaNIC RCT. The survey was completed by respondents of 81 different PICUs in 39 countries. At the time of the survey, two-thirds of the respondents was aware of the PEPaNIC study results, of whom 12% already did not initiate supplemental PN in the first week in their PICU. Another 12% started de-implementing early-PN after reading the PEPaNIC RCT paper, and 40% partially de-implemented early-PN by postponing the initiation of PN (though still initiated prior to day 8 in PICU) and/or providing decreased amounts of PN. Barriers for not de-implementing early-PN were concerns about the efficacy and (long-term) safety of late-PN, and waiting for updated international guidelines. In the meantime, recently published guidelines, the work presented in this PhD thesis as well as other research performed by our group, could already provide reassuring answers to the concerns practitioners had who did not de-implement early-PN. In the future, frequent careful monitoring of the nutritional practices in PICUs worldwide should be continued, in order to find strategies to accelerate de-implementation of ineffective, unproven or harmful healthcare.In conclusion, in this PhD thesis, we showed that the peripheral inactivation of thyroid hormone during pediatric critical illness, which is further accentuated by accepting a macronutrient deficit in the first week in the PICU, might be a beneficial response, whereas the central component of NTI might be maladaptive. This implies that future research should focus on treatment of the central component to improve outcome. Next, we showed that systemic cortisol availability is elevated only transiently in critically ill children and is not driven by elevated ACTH. As low ACTH and high cortisol, as well as corticosteroid treatment, predicted poor outcome, exogenously increasing cortisol availability during the acute phase might be inappropriate. We further showed that children experience a severe legacy in multiple domains of their physical and neurocognitive development 4 years after critical illness. Whether the disturbances in the HPT or HPA axis may contribute remains to be investigated. However, part of this legacy, more specifically the emotional and behavioral problems, can be prevented by withholding of supplemental parenteral nutrition in the first week in the PICU. Prevention of altered DNA methylation was found to be a potential biological mediator hereof. These findings can provide reassuring answers to some of the concerns raised by the respondents of the survey who did not de-implement early-PN in their PICU."